When Drivers Talk, Cars Listen: Visteon Showcases New Safety-Related Technology
22 October 1997
When Drivers Talk, Cars Listen: Visteon Showcases New Safety-Related Technology
DEARBORN, Mich., Oct. 22 -- Visteon Automotive Systems is
putting safety first with breakthrough technology that lets drivers avoid the
distractions of dialing car phones or mapping route locations -- by using
simple voice commands.
With Visteon's Voice Activated Control System, drivers can talk to their
cars to set key controls without having to turn their attention from the road.
Visteon is introducing this first-of-its kind technology simultaneously at
the Tokyo Motor Show and the World Congress on Intelligent Transport Systems
in Berlin.
This breakthrough voice technology can be used in conjunction with a
vehicle's on-board navigation system for finding the best route to a specified
destination. Future applications include an in-vehicle Web browser through
which drivers can request weather and road conditions or stock reports, for
example, and receive the information just as they asked for it -- verbally.
" Our voice-activation technology allows drivers to do what they're
supposed to do -- drive," says Charlie Szuluk, president, Visteon. "They can
keep their hands on the wheel and their eyes on the road while using their
voice to control virtually anything in the interior of the car."
No more fumbling with complicated manual controls or going through the
cumbersome process of pre-programming, which is necessary in today's available
voice-activated systems. With the Visteon system, drivers simply press one
button -- conveniently located on the steering wheel -- to get the vehicle's
"ear" and start talking.
* "Phone dial 1234567." And it does.
* "CD play disk 3, track 7." And it does.
* "Climate Control, set temperature 72 degrees." And it does.
The voice system is "speaker independent," meaning it performs over a
range of voices and languages, with the ability to adapt to language dialects.
It also understands continuous and natural patterns of speech without the need
to be trained to one voice.
Visteon's Voice Activated Control System anticipates the growing concern
over the use of car phones due to the rising number of traffic mishaps caused
by distracted drivers.
"Our engineers understand the danger in having too many controls spread
across the instrument panel, which require drivers to look over and reach
down," Szuluk says. "With this technology, Visteon can become the driver's
co-pilot."
The technology uses a unique signal processing system to filter out
unrelated sounds in case of a noisy environment.
Furthermore, the multifunction display confirms verbal commands for key
controls, including the navigation system, by talking back to the driver.
Should a driver become nostalgic for the feel of his or her hand on the
radio's tuner knob, the system allows the option of controlling functions
manually.
Visteon's Electronic Systems Division is among the leaders in the
automotive industry in the development of voice-activation technology.
In 1992, the first Visteon application of the technology was introduced:
voice-activated cellular phones trained by the driver to assign a "name" tag
to a phone number.
Since then, a team of Visteon engineers has continued to advance the
system in preparation for its next production application.
Visteon's new voice activation system is scheduled to appear in a
production vehicle in 1999.
Visteon, an enterprise of Ford Motor Company , has 78,000
employees located in 74 plants, including 29 joint venture facilities, and 30
sales offices, engineering and technical centers in 19 countries around the
world.
SOURCE Visteon Automotive Systems