System and method for providing vehicle context information

• US 20040093155A1
• Filed: 10/29/2003
• Published: 05/13/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 11/12/2002
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Ford Motor Company
• Original Assignee: Ford Motor Company
• Inventors: Simonds, Craig John, Yester, John Loring, Prasad, Krishnaswamy Venkatesh
• Application Number:
  US10/696,597
• Publication Number:
  US 20040093155A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/200
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 16/0231 Circuits relating to the driving or the functioning of the vehicle monitoring tyres B60C23/00; indicating overspeed B60K31/00; for dash boards B60K37/00, B60Q3/10; for indicating emergencies B60Q1/52; brake control systems B60T; registering or indicating the working of vehicles G07C5/00; measuring distance G01C, e.g. combinations of speed and distance G01C23/00; engine indicators G01L; measuring speed or acceleration G01P
• 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

Abstract

An infotainment system is provided which efficiently manages and provides for the availability of information onboard a vehicle. The infotainment system includes an infogas agent for acquiring information from an external source. The infotainment system further includes a context-based delivery system for delivering context-based information. The context-based information includes a vehicle context advisor for monitoring and storing information relative to vehicle devices and services available on the vehicle. The context advisor further includes a personalization context advisor for monitoring and storing personalization information made available to devices and services onboard the vehicle. The context advisor further includes an environmental context advisor for monitoring and storing environmental information made available to devices and services onboard the vehicle.

Claims

1. A system for providing vehicle context information for onboard vehicle devices, said system comprising:

a monitor for monitoring a plurality of onboard vehicle devices and receiving context information;

an identifier for identifying context information related to each of the plurality of monitored onboard vehicle devices;

a data storage device having memory for storing vehicle context information for the plurality of onboard vehicle devices; and

an application programming interface for communicating the data storage device with a requesting device onboard the vehicle, wherein the application programming interface downloads the vehicle context information to the requesting device.

2. The system as defined in claim 1, wherein the vehicle context information comprises address pointers that indicate the source of the vehicle context information.

3. The system as defined in claim 1, wherein the data storage device comprises a look-up table.

4. The system as defined in claim 1, wherein the application programming interface comprises an agent for downloading the vehicle context information to the requesting device.

5. The system as defined in claim 1, wherein the vehicle context information comprises status and function information of the plurality of monitored onboard vehicle devices.

6. The system as defined in claim 1, wherein the monitor receives the vehicle context information from a vehicle onboard diagnostic device and a personal device.

7. The system as defined in claim 1, wherein the interface comprises a wireless interface.

8. The system as defined in claim 1, wherein the requesting device communicates with a service.

9. The system as defined in claim 8, wherein the service is off-board the vehicle.

10. The system as defined in claim 1, wherein the requesting device comprises a portable requesting device.

11. The system as defined in claim 1, wherein the vehicle context information comprises vehicle centric information.

12. A method of providing vehicle context information for use with onboard vehicle devices, said method comprising the steps of:

sensing the presence of each of a plurality of onboard vehicle devices;

identifying status and function of each of the plurality of onboard vehicle devices;

storing in memory the status and information available from each of the plurality of onboard vehicle devices;

communicating with an onboard requesting vehicle device; and

downloading at least some of the stored vehicle context information to the requesting vehicle device.

13. The method as defined in claim 12, wherein the step of storing the vehicle context information comprises storing in memory address pointers indicative of the source of the vehicle context information.

14. The method as defined in claim 12, wherein the step of identifying vehicle context information comprises identifying status and function of each of the plurality of monitored onboard vehicle device.

15. The method as defined in claim 12, wherein the requesting device further communicates with a service.

16. The method as defined in claim 15, wherein the service is off-board the vehicle.

17. The method as defined in claim 12, wherein the step of monitoring a plurality of onboard vehicle devices comprises monitoring vehicle control devices and user portable devices.

18. The method as defined in claim 12 further comprising the step of determining how to access the vehicle context information from one or more sources.

19. The method as defined in claim 12, wherein the step of communicating with the onboard vehicle requesting device comprises wireless communication.