Panasonic Intellectual Property Corporation of America

Panasonic Intellectual Property Management Co., Ltd.

Jtekt Corporation

Panasonic Corporation

Sovereign Peak Ventures, LLC

Panasonic Intellectual Property Corportion of America

Yoshihiro Kojima

Yoichi Ikeda

Masaki Yamauchi

Tomonari Takahashi

Kumi Harada

Ryuji Inoue

Toru Tanigawa

Akira Ishikawa

Philippe Rene Morin

Masaki Tada

Nobuyuki Nakano

David Kryze

Yue Fei

Gantetsu Matsui

Hiroyasu Imoto

Toshiya Naka

Provided is a method for use by a driving assistance apparatus that assists a transition from an autonomous driving mode in which a vehicle is driven under autonomous control to a manual driving mode in which the vehicle is driven by a driver. The method includes: detecting an activity by the driver; detecting conditions of the driver; and determining a take-over request method which is a method of presenting, in the vehicle, a take-over request that informs the driver that the autonomous driving mode is going to be cancelled, the determining being based on at least the detected activity by the driver and the detected conditions.

Driving assistance apparatus and driving assistance method

Included are a speech recognition result obtainer that obtains a speech recognition result, which is text data obtained by speech recognition processing, a priority obtainer that obtains priority corresponding to each of a plurality of tasks that are each identified by a plurality of dialog processing based on the speech recognition result; and a dialog processing controller that causes a plurality of devices to perform the distributed execution of the plurality of dialog processing mutually different from each other. The dialog processing controller provides, based on the priority, control information in accordance with a task identified by the distributed execution to an executer that operates based on the control information.

Information processing device and information processing method

A housing includes a case made of a resin material and having an open side, and a cover that covers the open side of the case. Screw holes that are open toward the cover are formed in a side wall of the case. Through holes are formed in the cover at positions facing the respective screw holes. The cover is fastened to the case by screwing cover bolts into the respective screw holes through the respective through holes. Insertion holes are formed to extend through the side wall in an assembly direction of the cover with respect to the case. The housing is attached to an attachment target made of a metal material, by screwing attachment bolts into respective attachment holes in the attachment target through the respective insertion holes. The attachment bolts are formed to press the cover against the side wall when inserted in the respective attachment holes.

Control device

An apparatus assesses an arousal level of a driver of a vehicle. The apparatus includes a processor and a memory storing a computer program, which when executed by the processor, causes the processor to perform operations. The operations include acquiring personal data of the driver, which are detected by one or more sensors when the vehicle is traveling. The operations also include developing, by machine learning with the acquired personal data, a model for estimating an arousal level to personalize the model to the driver, and determining the arousal level of the driver based on the personalized model.

System and method for assessing arousal level of driver of vehicle that can select manual driving mode or automated driving mode

Methods, systems, and media for managing a plurality of target devices are provided. A voice command is received by an input associated with a first target device. The voice command includes first voice information and indicates an operation instruction. The first voice information includes identification information. The first target device is specified by referencing a database in which the identification information and a device ID of the first target device are associated. It is determined whether the voice command includes second voice information that identifies a second target device as an operation object for the operation instruction. When the second voice information is not included, the first target device is caused to execute the operation instruction. When the second voice information is included, a control command is transmitted to the second target device for causing the second target device to execute the operation instruction.

Device control method, device management system, and voice input apparatus

An apparatus is provided for assessing arousal level of a driver of a vehicle. The apparatus includes a processor and a memory storing a computer program, which when executed by the processor, causes the processor to perform operations. The operations include (A) acquiring driving mode information that indicates when a driving mode of the vehicle is in a first mode, in which travel control of the vehicle is performed by the driver, or in a second mode, in which at least a part of the travel control of the vehicle is automatically performed. The operations also include (B) determining whether the driving mode of the vehicle is in the first mode or the second mode, (C) executing first steps when the driving mode is determined as being the first mode, and (D) executing second steps when the driving mode is determined as being the second mode.

An electronic control device includes a heating element, a circuit substrate, a heat radiation plate, and a heat radiation material. Connection terminals of the heating element are fixed to wiring patterns on a circuit principal surface of the circuit substrate with solder. Through holes are provided in the circuit substrate at portions spaced away from the distal ends of the connection terminals of the heating element by a distance equal to or smaller than a thickness of the circuit substrate. The heat radiation material applied between a circuit principal surface of the circuit substrate and the heat radiation plate is exposed to the circuit principal surface via the through holes. The heat radiation material exposed to the circuit principal surface covers the distal ends of the connection terminals fixed with the solder.

Electronic control device

An arousal level assessment system includes at least one first sensor, at least one second sensor, and a processor. The processor acquires driving mode information and assesses which of a manual driving mode or an automated driving mode is selected based on the driving mode information. In a case where the manual driving mode is selected, the processor acquires driving information via the at least one first sensor, acquires physiological information of the driver via the at least one second sensor, and assesses arousal level based on the driving information and the physiological information. In a case where the automated driving mode is selected, the processor acquires the physiological information via the at least one second sensor and assesses the arousal level based on the physiological information without referring to the driving information.

An electronic circuit unit is provided that allows the increase in the size thereof to be suppressed. An electronic circuit unitincludes a board, a housing, and a cover. A board mount portion is disposed in the closest position to an outer edge of the housing, except for peripheral walls of the housing. An outer edge of the board is placed on the board mount portion of the housing, and a peripheral portion of the cover is placed on the outer edge of the board. Screws are inserted into screw holes of the housing; spaces defined by recess portions of the boardand the peripheral walls; and screw holes of the cover. Then, the outer edge of the board is sandwiched between the board mount portion of the housing and the peripheral portion of the cover.

Electronic circuit unit

An information input device including: an indicator detection unit; a pointer position setting unit which sets a position of a pointer to be displayed on a display screen; a storage unit which obtains and stores time-sequenced positional information which indicates the set position; a first passage detection unit which detects that the pointer has passed through a first specific region which is a predetermined region on the display screen, using the time-sequenced positional information; and a direction obtainment unit which obtains a direction in which the pointer has passed through the first specific region if it is detected that the pointer has passed through the first specific region; and a first image modifying unit which modifies a displayed image, depending on the obtained direction.

Information input device and information display method

A method is provided that includes receiving, from a voice input apparatus associated with a first target device among a plurality of target devices, instruction information that includes first voice information indicating an operation instruction for any target device, and recognizing the operation instruction from the first voice information included in the received instruction information. The method also includes specifying the first target device by referencing a first database, and determining whether second voice information indicating an operation object for the operation instruction is included in the instruction information. The method further includes transmitting, (i) when the second voice information is not included in the instruction information, a first control command for executing the recognized operation instruction to the first target device, and (ii) when the second voice information is included in the instruction information, the first control command to a second target device associated with the operation object.

A method in a device management system for managing a plurality of target devices is provided. The method comprises: receiving, from a voice input apparatus associated with a first target device among the plurality of target devices, instruction information that includes first voice information indicating an operation instruction for any target device among the plurality of target devices; recognizing the operation instruction from the first voice information; determining whether or not second voice information indicating a second target device among the plurality of target devices is included in the instruction information; and transmitting, (i) if the second voice information is not included in the instruction information, a control command for executing the recognized operation instruction to the first target device, or, (ii) if the second voice information is included in the instruction information, the control command to the second target device.

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Hyogo, Japan

Yoshihiro Kojima