Vehicular, hands-free telephone system
First Claim
1. A hands-free telephone system for a vehicle comprising:
- a cell phone located in the vehicle, the cell phone being operable for enabling an operator to make a cell phone call with a phone external to the vehicle; and
a vehicle appliance integrated into the vehicle, the vehicle appliance having a controller, a communications module, memory, and a voice synthesizer;
the communications module being operable for wirelessly communicating with the cell phone to detect when the cell phone receives an incoming call from an external phone having a telephone number and to receive the telephone number of the external phone from the cell phone;
the memory being operable for storing a list of names and associated telephone numbers;
the controller being operable for accessing the memory to locate a name stored in the memory corresponding to the telephone number of the external phone;
the voice synthesizer being operable for outputting the name corresponding to the telephone number of the external phone over a vehicle speaker for the operator to hear.
4 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A hands-free, telephone system for a vehicle includes a vehicle appliance configured to read over vehicle speakers and display on a vehicle radio display a voice tag associated with a call incoming to a cell phone paired with the appliance for an operator to hear and view. The appliance uses text-to-speech (TTS) to transfer phonebook entries from the cell phone to memory of the appliance. The appliance uses TTS to read and display text messages incoming to the cell phone for the operator to hear and view. The appliance initiates connecting and disconnecting of the cell phone with the appliance in response to voice commands of the operator. The appliance wirelessly communicates vehicle diagnostic information to another device. The appliance controls vehicle functions in accordance with voice commands of the operator. The appliance receives music files from a device and plays the music files in accordance with operator voice commands.
130 Citations
20 Claims
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1. A hands-free telephone system for a vehicle comprising:
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a cell phone located in the vehicle, the cell phone being operable for enabling an operator to make a cell phone call with a phone external to the vehicle; and
a vehicle appliance integrated into the vehicle, the vehicle appliance having a controller, a communications module, memory, and a voice synthesizer;
the communications module being operable for wirelessly communicating with the cell phone to detect when the cell phone receives an incoming call from an external phone having a telephone number and to receive the telephone number of the external phone from the cell phone;
the memory being operable for storing a list of names and associated telephone numbers;
the controller being operable for accessing the memory to locate a name stored in the memory corresponding to the telephone number of the external phone;
the voice synthesizer being operable for outputting the name corresponding to the telephone number of the external phone over a vehicle speaker for the operator to hear. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)
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9. A hands-free telephone system for a vehicle comprising:
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a Bluetooth™
enabled cell phone located in the vehicle, the cell phone storing a phonebook having entries, each entry including a name text and an associated telephone number; and
a vehicle appliance integrated into the vehicle, the vehicle appliance having a Bluetooth™
enabled communications module, memory, a text-to-speech (TTS) module, and a voice synthesizer;
the communications module being operable for wirelessly communicating with the cell phone to receive a selected phonebook entry from the cell phone;
the TTS module being operable for converting the name text of the selected phonebook entry into a voice tag for play by the voice synthesizer over a vehicle speaker for the operator to hear;
the memory being operable for storing the converted voice tag and the associated telephone number of the selected phonebook in a phonebook for access by the voice synthesizer. - View Dependent Claims (10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16)
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17. A hands-free telephone system for a vehicle comprising:
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a Bluetooth™
enabled device; and
a vehicle appliance integrated into the vehicle, the vehicle appliance having a controller, a Bluetooth™
enabled communications module, and memory;
the controller being operable with vehicle components for generating vehicle diagnostic information;
the memory being operable for storing the vehicle diagnostic information;
the communications module being operable for wirelessly communicating the vehicle diagnostic information to the device. - View Dependent Claims (18, 19, 20)
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Specification