Ford Global Technolgoies, LLC

John Edward Huber

Scott Andrew Amman

Ranjani Rangarajan

Joshua R Wheeler

Leah N Busch

Michael Musa Azzouz

Ari Garo Caliskan

Gintaras Vincent Puskorius

David Anthony Wagner

Francois Charette

Xiaoming Chen

Yuksel Gur

Satish Ganti

Parameswararao Pothuraju

Brigitte Frances Mora Richardson

Sunil K Kasaragod

An Ji

Erick Michael Lavoie

Ali Hassani

Vishal Vinayak Nageshkar

Sangram Laxman Tamhankar

Srinath Vijayakumar

Chaitanya Nimmagadda

Jeffery Wallace

Patrick Maloney

Siddharthan Selvasekar

Janice Lisa Tardiff

Cindy Sofia Barrera-Martinez

Alex Perkins

Jeffrey A Wallace

Nikhitha Bekkanti

Allan Miramonti

Marla Johnston

Ari Garo Callskan

An article, such as a vehicle seat, includes a one-piece vehicle head restraint structure that defines a frame and a plurality of receptacles. There are metallic resonators disposed in the receptacles. Polymeric dampers line the receptacles and circumscribe the metallic resonators.

Vehicle head restraint with tuned damper

A headrest assembly includes a headrest bun having an interior portion. A support armature includes a portion thereof disposed within the interior portion of the headrest bun. A support member includes a lattice matrix comprised of a plurality of interconnected links. The support member is supported within the interior portion of the headrest bun by the support armature. A receptacle is operably coupled to the lattice matrix of the support member within the interior portion of the headrest bun and includes an interior cavity. A weighted insert is removeably received within the interior cavity of the receptacle.

Headrest assembly

Detecting and isolating competing speech for voice controlled systems are provided herein. An example method includes isolating a voice command from a plurality of competing voice sound signals received internally or externally to a vehicle, wherein at least a portion of the plurality of competing voice sound signals are received using a sensor coupled with a window of the vehicle, and processing the voice command by the voice command system.

Detecting and isolating competing speech for voice controlled systems

Method and apparatus are disclosed for accelerometer-based external sound monitoring for voice controlled autonomous parking. An example vehicle includes a body control module, an infotainment head unit, and an autonomy unit. The example body control module communicatively couples to a mobile device. The example infotainment head unit communicatively couples to an accelerometer mounted on a window of the vehicle. The example autonomy unit autonomously parks the vehicle in response to a first key word detected by the accelerometer when (i) a button is activated on the infotainment head unit and (ii) a message from the mobile device is being periodically received.

Accelerometer-based external sound monitoring for voice controlled autonomous parking

Method and apparatus are disclosed for monitoring of vehicle window vibrations for voice-command recognition. An example vehicle includes a window, an outer layer, a vibration sensor coupled to the window to detect audio vibrations, an audio actuator coupled to the outer layer to vibrate the outer layer, and a controller. The controller is to detect a voice command from a user via the vibration sensor, identify an audio response based upon the voice command, and emit the audio response to the user via the audio actuator.

Monitoring of vehicle window vibrations for voice-command recognition

Method and apparatus are disclosed for speech recognition for vehicle voice commands. An example vehicle includes a microphone to collect a signal including a voice command, memory, and a controller. The controller is configured to determine an initial identification by feeding the signal into a first automatic speech recognition (ASR) engine and determine habits by feeding user history into a habits engine. The controller also is configured to identify the voice command by feeding the signal, the initial identification, and the habits into a second ASR engine. The controller also is configured to perform a vehicle function based on the voice command.

Speech recognition for vehicle voice commands

Method and apparatus are disclosed for accelerometer-based external sound monitoring for position aware autonomous parking. An example vehicle includes accelerometers mounted on windows of the vehicle, a computing platform communicatively coupled to the accelerometers, and an autonomy unit. The computing platform receives, via the accelerometers, signals indicative of a stop command associated with a voice. Additionally, the computing platform validates the stop command when the voice either is authorized or originates from within an emergency zone. The autonomy unit prevents autonomous motion of the vehicle in response to receiving the validated stop command.

Accelerometer-based external sound monitoring for position aware autonomous parking

Method and apparatus are disclosed for accelerometer-based external sound monitoring during low speed maneuvers. An example vehicle includes accelerometers affixed to windows of the vehicle, speakers located inside the vehicle, and an infotainment head unit. Each of the speakers is uniquely associated with one of the accelerometers. The infotainment head unit, when a speed of the vehicle satisfies a threshold, selects a zone corresponding to a direction of travel of the vehicle. Additionally, the infotainment head unit plays signals captured by the accelerometers associated with the selected zone on the corresponding speakers.

Accelerometer-based external sound monitoring during low speed maneuvers

A processor of a vehicle speech recognition system recognizes speech via domain-specific language and acoustic models. The processor further, in response to the acoustic model having a confidence score for recognized speech falling within a predetermined range defined relative to a confidence score for the domain-specific language model, recognizes speech via the acoustic model only.

Acoustic and domain based speech recognition for vehicles

An automatic speech recognition system for a vehicle includes a controller configured to select an acoustic model from a library of acoustic models based on ambient noise in a cabin of the vehicle and operating parameters of the vehicle. The controller is further configured to apply the selected acoustic model to noisy speech to improve recognition of the speech.

Vehicle having dynamic acoustic model switching to improve noisy speech recognition

Method and apparatus are disclosed for determining and accounting for distortions to an audio signal due to the geometric properties of the interior cabin of a vehicle. An example vehicle includes a microphone, a seat having a plurality of seat positions, and a processor. The processor is configured to determine a first seat position corresponding to a point in time at which an audio signal is received, determine a cabin impulse response corresponding to the first seat position, and determine a filtered audio signal based on the cabin impulse response and the audio signal.

Systems and methods for removing vehicle geometry noise in hands-free audio

Voice control is extended outside of an automotive vehicle by an access system associated with a door and window. An accelerometer is mounted on the window to generate a vibration signal. A passive entry system generates an unlock standby signal when an authorized user carrying a wireless fob is detected proximate the door. A voice recognizer in the vehicle is activated by the standby signal to scan the vibration signal for a spoken command for opening the door. A door actuator is activated by the voice recognizer when the command is detected.

Automotive powered door activation using accelerometer

A system includes a head and torso simulation (HATS) system configured to play back pre-recorded audio commands while simulating a driver head location as an output location. The system also includes a vehicle speaker system and a processor configured to engage a vehicle heating, ventilation and air-conditioning (HVAC) system. The processor is also configured to play back audio commands through the HATS system while playing back pre-recorded vehicle environment noises through the speaker system. The processor is further configured to determine if the audio command, recorded by a vehicle microphone, is recognizable in the presence of the environment noises and HVAC noises. Also, the processor is configured to repeat the engagement, playback of commands and noises, and determination, recording the results of the determination for each command in a set of commands.

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Novi, MI, United States of America

John Edward Huber