NFC-enabled systems, methods and devices for wireless vehicle communication

• US 10,104,525 B1
• Filed: 07/24/2017
• Issued: 10/16/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 07/24/2017
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: GM Global Technology Operations LLC (General Motors Company)
• Original Assignee: GM Global Technology Operations LLC (General Motors Company)
• Inventors: Kaiser, Craig, Grimm, Donald K., Talty, Timothy J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Liao, Hsin-Chun
• Application Number:
  US15/658,182
• Time in Patent Office: 449 Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 5/72 for local intradevice communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/025 for remote control or remote monitoring of applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/141 Setup of application sessions admission control or resource allocation in data switching networks H04L47/70
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/48 for in-vehicle communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/80 Services using short range communication, e.g. near-field communication [NFC], radio-frequency identification [RFID] or low energy communication

Abstract

Disclosed are NFC-enabled communication systems for provisioning wireless vehicle communication, control logic for operating such systems, and motor vehicles equipped with an onboard NFC-enabled device for short-range communication with one or more off-board NFC-enabled devices. A disclosed method for provisioning data exchange between an onboard electronic device of a motor vehicle and an off-board electronic device includes detecting if NFC-enabled components of the onboard and off-board electronic devices are within a predetermined proximity of each other and, if the components are within proximity, establishing a wireless communications session between the devices. After establishing the wireless communications session, determining whether or not to grant the off-board electronic device access to an NFC tag in the NFC-enabled component of the onboard electronic device. If access to the NFC tag is granted, a message data packet is transmitted from the off-board electronic device to the onboard electronic device or a personal computing device.

Claims

1. A method for provisioning data exchange between an onboard electronic device of a motor vehicle and an off-board electronic device external to the motor vehicle, the onboard and off-board electronic devices each including a respective Near Field Communication (NFC) enabled component, the method comprising:

detecting if the NFC-enabled components of the onboard and the off-board electronic devices are within a predetermined proximity of each other;

if the NFC-enabled components of the onboard and off-board electronic devices are within the predetermined proximity of each other, establishing a wireless communications session between the NFC-enabled components of the onboard and off-board electronic devices;

after establishing the wireless communications session, determining, via a vehicle controller of the motor vehicle, whether or not to grant the off-board electronic device access to an NFC tag in the NFC-enabled component of the onboard electronic device, the NFC tag including a unique web Uniform Resource Locator (URL) assigned to the motor vehicle;

responsive to a determination to grant the off-board electronic device access to the NFC tag, transmitting the unique web URL from the NFC tag to the NFC-enabled component of the off-board electronic device via the wireless communications session; and

communicating a message data packet, with a data payload comprising content received from the off-board electronic device via a webpage associated with the unique web URL, to the onboard electronic device or to a computing device of an owner or occupant of the vehicle.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the webpage associated with the unique web URL includes a web application with one or more tools operable by a user of the off-board electronic device to send an audio file, video file, picture, encrypted data, and/or money to the owner or occupant of the vehicle.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein transmitting the unique web URL includes contemporaneously transmitting an embedded command with instructions for the off-board electronic device to automatically open the unique web URL in a web browser application on the off-board electronic device.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein transmitting the unique web URL includes contemporaneously transmitting a prompt to a user of the off-board electronic device to open the unique web URL in a web browser application on the off-board electronic device.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the webpage associated with the unique web URL includes a web application with a text box operable for entering and sending a message in the message data packet.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the NFC-enabled component of the off-board electronic device includes an NFC-interfacing property with active and inactive states, the NFC-interfacing property being operable through a TagTech object, an NfcA object, an NfcB object, an NfcF object, an IsoDep object, and/or an Ndef object, and wherein establishing the wireless communications session is further in response to the NFC-interfacing property being active.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the data payload of the message data packet includes a message file from a user of the off-board electronic device, and wherein communicating the message data packet includes the vehicle controller commanding a wireless communications human machine interface (HMI) of the motor vehicle to output the message file to an occupant of the motor vehicle.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the data payload of the message data packet includes a message file from a user of the off-board electronic device, and wherein communicating the message data packet includes transmitting the message file to a smartphone of a user of the motor vehicle.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein the off-board electronic device includes a dedicated software application with a search module operable to search for nearby NFC tags, and wherein establishing the wireless communications session is further in response to a prompt from the search module to interact with the NFC tag of the onboard electronic device.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the NFC tag includes a read-write lock operable to restrict access to the NFC tag, and wherein determining whether or not to grant the off-board electronic device access to the NFC tag includes transmitting a prompt to a user of the off-board electronic device to enter an authorization code to deactivate the read-write lock.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the NFC tag includes a read-write lock operable to restrict access to the NFC tag, and wherein determining whether or not to grant the off-board electronic device access to the NFC tag includes automatically reading from the off-board electronic device an authorization code to deactivate the read-write lock.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the off-board electronic device includes a dedicated software application with a read-write module operable to read a message stored by the NFC tag, clear one or more messages stored by the NFC tag, and write a message for storage by the NFC tag.

13. A motor vehicle comprising:

a vehicle body;

an onboard electronic device attached to the vehicle body, the onboard electronic device including an NFC-enabled component with an NFC tag, the NFC-enabled component of the onboard electronic device being configured to detect and establish a wireless communication session with an NFC-enabled component of an off-board electronic device that is within a predetermined proximity of the NFC-enabled component of the onboard electronic device; and

a vehicle controller communicatively connected to the onboard electronic device, the vehicle controller being programmed to;

determine, after the wireless communications session is established, whether or not to grant the off-board electronic device access to data stored by the NFC tag in the NFC-enabled component of the onboard electronic device, the NFC tag including a unique web Uniform Resource Locator (URL) assigned to the motor vehicle;

responsive to a determination to grant the off-board electronic device access to the NFC tag, transmit the unique web URL from the NFC tag to the NFC-enabled component of the off-board electronic device via the wireless communications session; and

transmit to a user of the motor vehicle a message data packet with a data payload comprising content received from the off-board electronic device via a webpage associated with the unique web URL.

14. The motor vehicle of claim 13, wherein the webpage associated with the unique web URL includes a web application with one or more tools operable by a user of the off-board electronic device to send an audio file, video file, picture, encrypted data, and/or money to the owner or occupant of the vehicle.

15. The motor vehicle of claim 13, wherein transmitting the unique web URL includes contemporaneously transmitting an embedded command to automatically open the unique web URL in a web browser application on the off-board electronic device.

16. The motor vehicle of claim 13, wherein transmitting the unique web URL includes contemporaneously transmitting a prompt to a user of the off-board electronic device to open the unique web URL in a web browser application on the off-board electronic device.

17. The motor vehicle of claim 13, wherein the web page associated with the unique web URL includes a web application with a text box operable for entering and sending a message in the message data packet.

18. The motor vehicle of claim 13, wherein the data payload of the message data packet includes a message file from a user of the off-board electronic device, and wherein transmitting the message data packet includes the vehicle controller being further programmed to command a wireless communications human machine interface (HMI) of the motor vehicle to output the message file to an occupant of the motor vehicle.

19. The motor vehicle of claim 13, wherein the NFC tag includes a read-write lock operable to restrict access to the NFC tag, and wherein determining whether or not to grant the off-board electronic device access to the NFC tag includes transmitting a prompt to a user of the off-board electronic device to enter an authorization code to deactivate the read-write lock.

20. The motor vehicle of claim 13, wherein the NFC tag includes a read-write lock operable to restrict access to the NFC tag, and wherein determining whether or not to grant the off-board electronic device access to the NFC tag includes automatically reading from the off-board electronic device an authorization code to deactivate the read-write lock.