FORM 2
THE PATENTS ACT, 1970
(39 of 1970)
&
THE PATENTS RULES, 2003
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION
(See section 10, rule 13)
1. Title of the Invention:
“A TURN INDICATION CONTROLLER AND A METHOD FOR CONTROLLING TURN INDICATORS OF A VEHICLE”
2. APPLICANT (S) -
(a) Name : MINDA CORPORATION LIMITED
(b) Nationality : Indian
(c)Address : E-5/2, Chakan Industrial Area, Phase-III, M.I.D.C,
Nanekarwadi, Tal: Khed, Dist. Pune - 410501, Maharashtra, India
The following specification particularly describes the invention and the manner in which it is to be performed.

Field of Invention
The present invention relates to providing an automatic turn indication control in a vehicle.
Background of the Invention
Turn indicator is a very important safety feature in vehicles. It alerts the driver of a vehicle that another vehicle is trying to change lane or make a turn and therefore, reduces the possibility of accidents. The driver is required manually operated turn indicators before taking turn. However, many times it has been observed that driver forgets to give a flash indication while changing a lane or taking a turn which can prove to be hazardous.
Also, manual indicators when turned on, do not turn off automatically unless the wheels are turned through a threshold value of angular displacement. Due to this, even when the driver gives a flash-indication while changing the lane, the flash continuously keeps of blinking unless it is manually turned-off. This creates a confusion for other drivers in same or other lanes. Thus, there is a challenge in timely operating the turn indicators for providing a safe environment while driving the vehicle.
The information disclosed in this background of the disclosure section is only for enhancement of understanding of the general background of the invention and should not be taken as an acknowledgement or any form of suggestion that this information forms the prior art already known to a person skilled in the art.
Objects of the Invention
An object of the present invention is to facilitate a safe lane changing maneuver of a vehicle by overcoming the limitations of manual turn indicators.
Another object of this invention is to improve driver’s experience while using the automatic turn indication controller system.
Summary of the Invention
The present disclosure overcomes one or more shortcomings of the prior art and provides additional advantages discussed throughout the present disclosure. Additional features and

advantages are realized through the techniques of the present disclosure. Other embodiments and aspects of the disclosure are described in detail herein and are considered a part of the claimed disclosure.
In one non-limiting embodiment of the present disclosure, a turn indication controller for controlling turn indicators of a vehicle is disclosed. The turn indication controller comprises a control unit coupled with a memory that stores processor-executable instructions. The control unit, upon executing the processor-executable instructions, is configured to receive sensor data comprising linear change data and angular change data associated with the vehicle. The linear change data indicates a change in a linear displacement value from a current linear value of the vehicle. Whereas, the angular change data indicates a change in an angular displacement value from a current angular value of the vehicle. The control unit further analyzes the linear change data and the angular change data with linear threshold data and angular threshold data prestored in the memory of the turn indication controller and switches ON at least one of the turn indicators when the linear change data and the angular change data goes beyond the linear threshold data and the angular threshold data respectively for a predefined time period during which the vehicle continues to move according to the linear change data and the angular change data.
In one non-limiting embodiment of the present disclosure, a method for controlling turn indicators of a vehicle is disclosed. The method comprises providing a control unit coupled with a memory storing processor-executable instructions. The method comprises a step of receiving sensor data comprising linear change data and angular change data associated with the vehicle. The linear change data indicates a change in a linear displacement value from a current linear value of the vehicle. Whereas, the angular change data indicates a change in an angular displacement value from a current angular value of the vehicle. The method further comprises a step of analyzing the linear change data and the angular change data with linear threshold data and angular threshold data prestored in the memory of the turn indication controller. Further, the method comprises a step of switching ON at least one of the turn indicators when the linear change data and the angular change data goes beyond the linear threshold data and the angular

threshold data respectively for a predefined time period during which the vehicle continues to move according to the linear change data and the angular change data.
The foregoing summary is illustrative only and is not intended to be in any way limiting. In addition to the illustrative aspects, embodiments, and features described above, further aspects, embodiments, and features will become apparent by reference to the drawings and the following detailed description.
Brief Description of the Drawings
The embodiments of the disclosure itself, as well as a preferred mode of use, further objectives and advantages thereof, will best be understood by reference to the following detailed description of an illustrative embodiment when read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. One or more embodiments are now described, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:
Figure 1 shows an exemplary environment 100 for controlling turn indicators of a vehicle in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure
Figure 2 shows block diagram 200 illustrating a turn indication controller system, in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure; and
Figure 3 shows a method 300 for controlling turn indicators of a vehicle, in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure.
The figures depict embodiments of the disclosure for purposes of illustration only. One skilled in the art will readily recognize from the following description that alternative embodiments of the structures and methods illustrated herein may be employed without departing from the principles of the disclosure described herein.
Detailed description
The foregoing has broadly outlined the features and technical advantages of the present disclosure in order that the detailed description of the disclosure that follows may be better

understood. It should be appreciated by those skilled in the art that the conception and specific embodiment disclosed may be readily utilized as a basis for modifying or designing other structures for carrying out the same purposes of the present disclosure.
The novel features which are believed to be characteristic of the disclosure, both as to its organization and method of operation, together with further objects and advantages will be better understood from the following description when considered in connection with the accompanying figures. It is to be expressly understood, however, that each of the figures is provided for the purpose of illustration and description only and is not intended as a definition of the limits of the present disclosure.
Disclosed herein is a turn indication controller for controlling turn indicators of a vehicle to facilitate a safe lane changing maneuver of a vehicle by overcoming the limitations of manual turn indicators. The turn indication controller may be implemented in various types of vehicles including, but not limited to, two-wheeler, three-wheeler, four-wheeler, or in any other type of transport vehicles.
Many time it happens that the driver forgets to turn ON the indicators before changing the lane. Specially, when the driver is new in driving, this situation is usually seen. This situation may become dangerous or raises lot of concerns over road safety. The present disclosure aims to address this issue by providing automatic turning ON and OFF of the turn indicators by understanding the driver’s intention. To achieve this objective, the present disclosure discloses the turn indication controller which is capable of receiving and analyzing sensor data for determining the intention of the driver for changing the lane. The sensor data may be related to linear and angular displacement of the vehicle. When it is determined that the received sensor data is going beyond a threshold, then the controller understands that drivers wants to change the lane, and therefore the turn indicator has to be switched ON beforehand. Once the driver changes the lane, the controller also automatically switches OFF the turn indicators. The switching ON and OFF the turn indicators happens based on the movement of the vehicle in linear and angular direction. For example, if the both linear and angular data change for the vehicle for some predefined time period like 7 seconds or 10 seconds, the controller understands that the driver actually wants to change the lane. Thus, depending upon the direction of the movement, the controller controls the operation of the turn indicators.

Figure 1 shows an exemplary environment 100 for controlling turn indicators of a vehicle in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure. It must be understood to a person skilled in art that the present invention may also be implemented in various environments, other than as shown in Fig. 1. Further, it may be also understood to the skilled person that, the present invention may be implemented in various types of vehicles including, but not limited to, two-wheeler, three-wheeler, four-wheeler, or in any transport vehicle.
The turn indication controller 101 is employed in a vehicle 100a as an example. From figure 1, it can be observed that the vehicle 100a attempts to change lane from current lane B to lane C on its right. As discussed earlier, the driver of the vehicle 100a may forget to give an indication for the lane change. This may result to be hazardous since vehicle 100b is already moving forward in lane C. The present disclosure addresses this issue by implementing the turn indication controller 101 into the vehicle 100a that automatically turn ON the flash indication (turn indicators) as soon as the driver of the vehicle 100a attempts to change the lane.
In the example shown in figure 1, the dotted curve lines show the direction of the movement of the vehicle 100a in which the lane change attempt is made i.e., from lane B to lane C. In figure 1, the lane change example is shown in a straight road. However, it may be understood to the skilled person that, the driver may also attempt to change the lane where in the road in not straight as shown in figure 1. The road may be curve also. Based on the structure of the road, the turn indication controller 101 may perform its analysis. For example, for the straight road, the weightage of the linear movement of the vehicle may be more than the angular movement of the vehicle. Hence, while analyzing the sensor data (linear change data and angular change data), the turn indication controller 101 may give more weightage to the linear change data than the angular change data. Similarly, when the driver attempts to change the lane in the curve road, then the angular change data is given more weightage than the linear change data of the vehicle. The detail explanation of the working of the turn indication controller 101 is provided in the upcoming paragraphs of the specification.
Figure 2 shows a block diagram illustrating the turn indication controller 101 for controlling the turn indicators of a vehicle, in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure. The turn indication controller 102 may comprise a control unit 204 coupled to a memory 202. The

control unit 204 may comprise a processor 203 capable of executing the instructions stored in the memory 202. Further, the memory 202 may also store linear threshold data and angular threshold data which may be computed beforehand. The linear threshold data and the angular threshold data may provide a reference value to the turn indication controller 101 while determining the lane change of the vehicle.
In this section, how the turn indication controller 102 is implemented and how the various components interact with each other is described in detail. According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, a sensor 201 may sense the linear and angular displacement of the vehicle i.e., linear change data and angular change data and send it to the control unit 204 of the vehicle 100a. The sensor 201 may include, but not limited to, a three-dimensional micro-electro¬mechanical system (3-D MEMS). It may be understood to the skilled person that the sensor 201 may be part of the turn indication controller 101 also and not an independent entity as shown in figure 1.
When the vehicle 100a starts moving, the sensor 201 continuously monitors the linear and angular movement of the vehicle 100a and determines the linear change data and the angular change data. The linear change data indicates a change in a linear displacement value from a current linear value of the vehicle 100a. Whereas, the angular change data indicates a change in an angular displacement value from a current angular value of the vehicle. That is, while driving the driver may move the vehicle 100a in left or right direction and may also turn the steering which may cause a linear and angular displacement of the vehicle 100a. Now, not every such linear and angular movement of the vehicle 100a means that the driver wishes to change the lane. This is because, sometimes such linear and angular movement may be sensed by simple driving pattern of the driver or for avoiding any potholes or obstructions or for any other driving reason.
Thus, to determine the actual real intention of the driver when he/she wishes to change the lane, the control unit 204 may analyze the linear change data and the angular change data with the linear threshold data and angular threshold data prestored in the memory 202. For example, for the straight road, the linear threshold data may be 100mm and the angular threshold data may be 30º angle. Similarly, for the curve road, the linear threshold data may be 80mm and angular threshold data may be 50º angle. It may be observed that, the values of the linear threshold data

and the angular threshold data varies depending upon the shape of the road. The reason being, when the driver attempts to change the lane on the straight road as compared to the curve road, the linear displacement would be more, and the angular displacement would be less and vice-versa.
Keeping this logic, the control unit 204 performs the analysis of the vehicle movement to determine whether it is casual movement, or the driver really wants to change the lane. Considering the straight road condition, if the linear change data is determined as 105mm and the angular change data is determined as 35º, then the control unit 204 understands that the driver may want to change the lane. However, such linear and angular change data may be sensed for a very few seconds like 1 or 2 seconds. In this scenario, the control unit 204 may consider this movement as a casual movement and not for changing the lane, since the time period for linear and angular change was very less. Hence, along with the threshold data, the control unit 204 may also take into consideration the time data or time period during which the linear and angular movement is detected.
That is, if the same values of the above discussed linear change data (105mm) and angular change data (35º) is detected for let’s say 10 seconds, then the control unit 204 consider this as an actual lane change scenario. If the lane change scenario is determined, the control unit 204 may first determine the direction associated with the linear change data and the angular change data. That is, whether the driver wants to change the lane in left or right direction. As example shown in figure 1 shows that the driver wants to change the lane from B to C i.e., to the right direction. Once the direction is determined, the control unit 204 may switch ON the corresponding turn indicator automatically and even before the driver actually changes the lane. This gives the proper and timely indication to the peer drivers regarding the changing of the lane. This also helps the driver to concentrate on the driving rather than turning ON and OFF the turn indicators, thereby providing safety and convenience to the drivers.
Now, once the lane is changed, the control unit may set a new current linear value and a new current angular value for the vehicle 100a. For the example shown in figure 1, the new current linear value and the new current angular value may be now based on the new lane position i.e.,

lane C. Once the vehicle completely moves into the new lane, the control unit 204 may also turn OFF the turn indicators automatically. Figure 2 shows the connection of the control unit 204 with left indicator 205 and a right indicator 206. Thus, the controlling of the turn indicators does not have to depend upon the discretion of the driver of the vehicle.
Figure 3 depicts a flowchart of an exemplary method for controlling the turn indicators of a vehicle in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure.
As illustrated in Figure 3, the method 300 includes one or more blocks illustrating a method of controlling the turn indicators of a vehicle. The method 300 may be described in the general context of computer executable instructions. Generally, computer executable instructions can include routines, programs, objects, components, data structures, procedures, modules, and functions, which perform specific functions or implement specific abstract data types.
The order in which the method 300 is described is not intended to be construed as a limitation, and any number of the described method blocks can be combined in any order to implement the method. Additionally, individual blocks may be deleted from the methods without departing from the spirit and scope of the subject matter described herein.
At block 301, the method 300 may include receiving sensor data from the 3D MEMS sensor 201. The sensor data may comprise linear change data and angular change data associated with the vehicle 100a. The linear change data indicates a change in a linear displacement value from a current linear value of the vehicle. Whereas, the angular change data indicates a change in an angular displacement value from a current angular value of the vehicle.
At block 302, the method 300 may include analyzing and comparing the linear change data and the angular change data with linear threshold data and angular threshold data which may prestored in the memory 202 of the turn indication controller 101.
At block 303, the method 300 may include determining whether the sensor data received by the sensor 201 is greater than the threshold data stored in the memory 202. If the result of the determination is NO, then method goes to the steps of analyzing and comparing of block 302. However, if the result of the determination is YES, the method 300 moves to block 304.

At block 304, the method 300 may include determining direction of displacement of the vehicle 100a before turning on at least one of the turn indicators for a predefined time period.
At block 305, the method 300 may include switching ON of the turn indicators after determining the direction of the vehicle displacement.
At block 306, the method 300 may include setting of a new current linear value and a new current angular value when the vehicle changes a lane after the switching ON of at least one of the turn indicators.
The terms "including", "comprising", “having” and variations thereof mean "including but not limited to", unless expressly specified otherwise.
The enumerated listing of items does not imply that any or all of the items are mutually exclusive, unless expressly specified otherwise.
The terms "a", "an" and "the" mean "one or more", unless expressly specified otherwise.
A description of an embodiment with several components in communication with each other does not imply that all such components are required. On the contrary, a variety of optional components are described to illustrate the wide variety of possible embodiments of the invention.
When a single device or article is described herein, it will be readily apparent that more than one device/article (whether or not they cooperate) may be used in place of a single device/article. Similarly, where more than one device or article is described herein (whether or not they cooperate), it will be readily apparent that a single device/article may be used in place of the more than one device or article or a different number of devices/articles may be used instead of the shown number of devices or programs. The functionality and/or the features of a device may be alternatively embodied by one or more other devices which are not explicitly described as having such functionality/features. Thus, other embodiments of the invention need not include the device itself.
Finally, the language used in the specification has been principally selected for readability and instructional purposes, and it may not have been selected to delineate or circumscribe the inventive subject matter. It is therefore intended that the scope of the invention be limited not by

this detailed description, but rather by any claims that issue on an application based here on. Accordingly, the embodiments of the present invention are intended to be illustrative, but not limiting, of the scope of the invention, which is set forth in the following claims.
While various aspects and embodiments have been disclosed herein, other aspects and embodiments will be apparent to those skilled in the art. The various aspects and embodiments disclosed herein are for purposes of illustration and are not intended to be limiting, with the true scope and spirit being indicated by the following claims.

We claim:
1. A turn indication controller (101) for controlling turn indicators of a vehicle, the turn
indication controller (101) comprises:
a control unit (204) coupled with a memory (202) storing processor-executable instructions;
wherein the control unit (204), upon executing the processor-executable instructions, is configured to:
receive sensor data comprising linear change data and angular change data associated with the vehicle, wherein the linear change data indicates a change in a linear displacement value from a current linear value of the vehicle, and wherein the angular change data indicates a change in an angular displacement value from a current angular value of the vehicle;
analyze the linear change data and the angular change data with linear threshold data and angular threshold data prestored in the memory (202) of the turn indication controller (101); and
switch ON at least one of the turn indicators when the linear change data and the angular change data goes beyond the linear threshold data and the angular threshold data respectively for a predefine time period during which the vehicle continues to move according to the linear change data and the angular change data.
2. The turn indication controller (101) as claimed in claim 1, wherein the sensor data is sensed by a sensor comprising a three-dimensional micro-electro-mechanical system (3-D MEMS).
3. The turn indication controller (101) as claimed in claim 1, wherein the control unit (204) is further configured to determine a direction associated with the linear change data and the angular change data before switching ON the at least one of the turn indicators.
4. The turn indication controller (101) as claimed in claim 1, wherein the control unit (204) is configured to set a new current linear value and a new current angular value when the vehicle changes a lane after the switching ON of the at least one of the turn indicators.
5. The method for controlling turn indicators of a vehicle, the method comprising:
providing a control unit (204) coupled with a memory (202) storing processor-executable
instructions, and wherein the method comprising:
receiving, by a control unit (204), sensor data comprising linear change data and angular change data associated with the vehicle, wherein the linear change data indicates a change in a linear displacement value from a current linear value of the vehicle, and wherein the angular change data indicates a change in an angular displacement value from a current angular value of the vehicle;

analyzing, by the control unit (204), the linear change data and the angular change data with linear threshold data and angular threshold data prestored in the memory (202) of a turn indication controller (101); and
switching ON, by the control unit (204), at least one of the turn indicators when the linear change data and the angular change data goes beyond the linear threshold data and the angular threshold data respectively for a predefine time period during which the vehicle continues to move according to the linear change data and the angular change data.
6. The method as claimed in claim, 5, wherein the sensor data is sensed by a sensor comprising a three-dimensional micro-electro-mechanical system (3-D MEMS).
7. The method as claimed in claim 5, further comprising determining a direction associated with the linear change data and the angular change data before switching ON the at least one of the turn indicators.
8. The method as claimed in claim 5, further comprising setting a new current linear value and a new current angular value when the vehicle changes a lane after the switching ON of the at least one of the turn indicators.