1. A system for operating a vehicle towing a trailer comprising:
a camera mounted on the vehicle or the trailer that captures an image of a frontal surface of the trailer;
a surface estimate component that receives an image from the camera and generates an estimated area of the frontal surface of the trailer;
a cross reference component that retrieves correlated information related to the trailer based on the estimated area; and
a vehicle control interface component that transmits the correlated information to an on-board vehicle control unit, to modify the operation of the vehicle according to the correlated information.
2. The system of claim 1, wherein the surface estimate component comprises an edge detection component that detects boundaries of luminosity change in the image.
3. The system of claim 1, further comprising:
a proximity sensor that estimates distance to the trailer, the proximity sensor being used in conjunction with the surface estimate component to generate the estimated area of the frontal surface of the trailer.
4. The system of claim 1, wherein the proximity sensor comprises an acoustic proximity sensor.
5. The system of claim 1, wherein the cross reference component comprises a trailer specification database that maintains the correlated information of trailer specifications.
6. The system of claim 1, wherein the on-board vehicle control unit comprises a receiving component for receiving and processing the correlated information so as to modify drive train control functions performed by the vehicle control unit.
7. The system of claim 1, wherein:
the surface estimate component receives an image from the camera and generates an estimated shape of the frontal surface of the trailer; and,
the cross reference component also retrieves correlated information related to the trailer based on the estimated shape.
8. The system of claim 1, further comprising:
a type recognition component that generates a trailer identification based on the estimated area of the frontal surface of the trailer.
9. A method of operating a vehicle towing a trailer comprising the steps of:
(A) capturing an image of a frontal surface of the trailer;
(B) estimating an area and shape of the frontal surface of the trailer from the captured image;
(C) identifying a type of trailer from the estimated area and shape of the frontal surface of the trailer;
(D) retrieving correlated information related to the trailer based on the type of trailer identified;
(E) transmitting the correlated information to an on-board vehicle control unit; and
(F) modifying the operation of the vehicle according to the correlated information.
10. The method of claim 9, wherein step (A) comprises the step of:
capturing the image with a camera mounted on the vehicle.
11. The method of claim 9, wherein step (B) comprises the step of:
detecting the edges of the frontal surface of the trailer by detecting boundaries of luminosity change in the image.
12. The method of claim 9, wherein step (B) comprises the step of:
estimating distance to the trailer.
13. The method of claim 9, wherein step (C) comprises the step of:
referencing area and shape of frontal surfaces of a plurality of trailer types retained in a trailer type database.
14. The method of claim 9, wherein step (D) comprises the step of:
referencing trailer specifications associated with the identified trailer type retained in a trailer specification database.
15. The method of claim 14, wherein the step of, referencing trailer specifications associated with the identified trailer type retained in a trailer specification database, comprises the step of:
referencing correlated information comprising at least one of empty trailer weight, trailer weight capacity, center of gravity, and aerodynamic drag as a function of vehicle speed.
16. The method of claim 9, wherein step (F) comprises the step of:
modifying drive train control functions performed by the vehicle control unit.
17. The method of claim 16, wherein the step of, modifying drive train control functions performed by the vehicle control unit, comprises the step of:
modifying at least one of automatic transmission timing, active suspension and brake controls for sway dampening, engine power vs. fuel consumption adjustments, and cruise control feedback gains.
18. The method of claim 9, wherein:
step (B) comprises the step of: estimating a shape of the frontal surface of the trailer from the captured image; and,
step (C) comprises the step of: identifying a type of trailer from the shape of the frontal surface of the trailer;
19. The method of claim 9 wherein prior to steps (E) and (F) the method comprises the step of:
retrieving correlated information related to the trailer based on the type of trailer identified.
20. A system of operating a vehicle towing a trailer comprising:
means for capturing an image of a frontal surface of the trailer;
means for estimating an area and shape of the frontal surface of the trailer from the captured image;
means for identifying a type of trailer from the estimated area and shape of the frontal surface of the trailer;
means for retrieving correlated information related to the trailer based on the type of trailer identified;
means for transmitting the correlated information to an on-board vehicle control unit; and
means for modifying the operation of the vehicle according to the correlated information.
The claims below are in addition to those above.
All refrences to claim(s) which appear below refer to the numbering after this setence.
1. A system for defining at least one visual-display characteristic of at least one user-interface control, the system comprising:
a dialog template that specifies at least one style selector for the at least one user-interface control, wherein the style selector includes at least one of: (1) a tag name, and (2) a tag name and a class attribute;
a transformation module that extracts the at least one style selector from the dialog template;
a style sheet that defines at least one visual-display-characteristic value that is applicable to the at least one user-interface control and that is associated with the at least one style selector;
a style sheet-parsing engine that uses the at least one style selector to retrieve the at least one visual-display-characteristic value from the style sheet; and
a user-interface-control-drawing module that draws the at least one user-interface control in accordance with the at least one visual-display-characteristic value retrieved by the style sheet-parsing engine.
2. The system of claim 1, wherein the dialog template specifies a location within a displayed user-interface page of the at least one user-interface control.
3. The system of claim 2, wherein the user-interface page is at least one of an HTML page and a platform-specific user-interface display page.
4. The system of claim 1, wherein the style sheet defines the at least one visual-display-characteristic value in accordance with syntax and semantics that are substantially equivalent to Cascading-Style-Sheet syntax and Cascading-Style-Sheet semantics, respectively.
5. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one visual-display-characteristic value includes a value for at least one visual-display characteristic selected from the group consisting of: foreground color, background color, borders, font, font properties other than font family, and background image.
6. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one visual-display-characteristic value overrides at least one inherited visual-display-characteristic.
7. The system of claim 6, wherein the at least one inherited visual-display-characteristic is defined at a level that is less specific than the at least one visual-display-characteristic value.
8. The system of claim 6, wherein the less-specific level is selected from the group consisting of: application-wide, area-specific, and control-specific.
9. The system of claim 1, wherein the style sheet-parsing engine retrieves from the style sheet and caches at least one visual-display-characteristic value for at least one additional user-interface control.
10. The system of claim 1, wherein the style sheet-parsing engine retrieves the at least one visual-display-characteristic value from a pre-compiled binary form of the style sheet.
11. At least one computer-readable medium containing computer-readable instructions for defining at least one visual-display characteristic for at least one user-interface control, wherein, when executed, the computer-executable instructions perform steps comprising:
specifying, in a dialog template, at least one style selector for the at least one user-interface control, wherein the style selector includes at least one of: (1) a tag name, and (2) a tag name and a class attribute;
extracting the at least one style selector from the dialog template; defining, in a style sheet, at least one visual-display-characteristic value that is applicable to the at least one user-interface control and that is associated with the at least one style selector;
using the at least one style selector to retrieve the at least one visual-display-characteristic value from the style sheet; and
drawing the at least one user-interface control in accordance with the at least one visual-display-characteristic value retrieved from the style sheet.
12. The at least one computer-readable medium of claim 11, wherein the dialog template specifies a location within a displayed user-interface page of the at least one user-interface control.
13. The at least one computer-readable medium of claim 12, wherein the user-interface page is at least one of an HTML page and a platform-specific user-interface display page.
14. The at least one computer-readable medium of claim 11, wherein the style sheet defines the at least one visual-display-characteristic value in accordance with syntax and semantics that are substantially equivalent to Cascading-Style-Sheet syntax and Cascading-Style-Sheet semantics.
15. The at least one computer-readable medium of claim 11, wherein the at least one visual-display-characteristic value includes a value for at least one visual-display characteristic selected from the group consisting of: foreground color, background color, borders, font, font properties other than font family, and background image.
16. The at least one computer-readable medium of claim 11, wherein the at least one visual-display-characteristic value overrides at least one inherited visual-display-characteristic.
17. The at least one computer-readable medium of claim 16, wherein the at least one inherited visual-display-characteristic is defined at a level that is less specific than the at least one visual-display-characteristic value.
18. The at least one computer-readable medium of claim 17, wherein the less-specific level is selected from the group consisting of: application-wide, area-specific, and control-specific.
19. The at least one computer-readable medium of claim 11, containing computer-readable instructions that, when executed, perform steps comprising: retrieving from the style sheet and caching at least one visual-display-characteristic value for at least one additional user-interface control.
20. The at least one computer-readable medium of claim 19, wherein the step of retrieving the at least one visual-display-characteristic value further comprises retrieving the at least one visual-display-characteristic value from a pre-compiled binary form of the style sheet.
21. The at least one computer-readable medium of claim 11, wherein the step of retrieving the at least one visual-display-characteristic value further comprises retrieving the at least one visual-display-characteristic value from a pre-compiled binary form of the style sheet.
22. A method of defining at least one visual-display characteristic for at least one user-interface control, the system comprising:
specifying, in a dialog template, at least one style selector for the at least one user-interface control;
extracting the at least one style selector from the dialog template; defining, in a style sheet, at least one visual-display-characteristic value that is applicable to the at least one user-interface control and that is associated with the at least one style selector;
using the at least one style selector to retrieve the at least one visual-display-characteristic value from the style sheet; and
drawing the at least one user-interface control in accordance with the at least one visual-display-characteristic value retrieved from the style sheet.
23. The method of claim 22, wherein the dialog template specifies a location within a displayed user-interface page of the at least one user-interface control.
24. The method of claim 23, wherein the user-interface page is at least one of an HTML page and a platform-specific user-interface display page.
25. The method of claim 22, wherein the style sheet defines the at least one visual-display-characteristic value in accordance with syntax and semantics that are substantially equivalent to Cascading-Style-Sheet syntax and Cascading-Style-Sheet semantics.
26. The method of claim 22, wherein the at least one visual-display-characteristic value includes a value for at least one visual-display characteristic selected from the group consisting of: foreground color, background color, borders, font, font properties other than font family, and background image.
27. The method of claim 22, wherein the at least one visual-display-characteristic value overrides at least one inherited visual-display-characteristic.
28. The method of claim 27, wherein the at least one inherited visual-display-characteristic is defined at a level that is less specific than the at least one visual-display-characteristic value.
29. The method of claim 28, wherein the less-specific level is selected from the group consisting of: application-wide, area-specific, and control-specific.
30. The method of claim 22, further comprising: retrieving from the style sheet and caching at least one visual-display-characteristic value for at least one additional user-interface control.
31. The method of claim 22, wherein the step of retrieving the at least one visual-display-characteristic value further comprises retrieving the at least one visual-display-characteristic value from a pre-compiled binary form of the style sheet.