Method and system for broadcasting data messages to a vehicle

• US 20060068700A1
• Filed: 09/20/2005
• Published: 03/30/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 09/22/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Honda Motor Co., Ltd. (Honda Motor Company)
• Original Assignee: Honda Motor Co., Ltd. (Honda Motor Company)
• Inventors: Habaguchi, Masayuki, Ohno, Tsuneo
• Granted Patent: US 7,643,788 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/7
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 20/02 Arrangements for relaying broadcast information
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 20/57 for mobile receivers
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 20/72 of terrestrial networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 20/74 of satellite networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 20/86 Arrangements characterised by the broadcast information itself
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 2201/70 characterised in that receivers can be addressed
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/37 for identifying segments of broadcast information, e.g. scenes or extracting programme ID

Abstract

The invention provides systems and methods for targeting broadcast messages to particular vehicles or classes of vehicles. In one embodiment, the system comprises an information center for creating and sending a broadcast data message, and a relay section that receives the broadcast data message and relays the message to a plurality of vehicles. The information center typically comprises a one-to-many communication system for sending the message from one source to a plurality of receivers, such as a satellite radio network or the like. The message can be deleted or modified in response to commands received by the receiver.

Claims

1. A system for communicating information to one or more vehicles from a remote location, comprising:

an information center for generating and sending at least one broadcast data message comprising a header and a payload section, the payload section comprising at least one message portion and at least one filter code section, the at least one filter code section comprising coded criteria that specify characteristics of intended recipients of the at least one message portion; and

a relay section that receives the broadcast data message sent from the information center and relays the broadcast data message to the vehicles;

wherein the information center comprises a one-to-many communication system for sending information from the information center to a plurality of vehicles.

2. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein:

a first filter code section specifies the characteristics of intended recipients of a first message portion; and

the payload section of the broadcast data message further comprises a second filter code section specifying the characteristics of intended recipients of a second message portion.

3. The system as recited in claim 2, wherein the broadcast data message comprises a plurality of one-to-one portions, with each one-to-one portion being directed to an individual vehicle and comprising at least one filter code section and at least one one message portion.

4. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein the at least one broadcast data message further comprises a cyclic redundancy code.

5. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein the at least one message portion is directed to a class of vehicles defined by a first filter code section, the first filter code section specifying the characteristics of intended recipients of the at least one message portion.

6. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein the information center comprises:

at least one server having a broadcast data message generator application executing thereon; and

a database in communication with the at least one server, the database having information about the vehicles;

wherein the message generator application performs the functions of;

generating a message;

converting the generated message into the broadcast data message;

determining the timing for sending the broadcast data message to the relay section; and

transmitting the broadcast data message to the relay section.

7. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein the one-to-many communication system transmits the broadcast data message over a satellite radio network.

8. The system as recited in claim 7, wherein satellite radio network comprises one or more broadcast towers, one or more satellite servers, and one or more satellites.

9. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein the one-to-many communication system transmits the broadcast data message over a high bandwidth GPRS/1XRTT channel of a wireless communication network.

10. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein the one-to-many communication system transmits the broadcast data message over a low bandwidth channel of a wireless communication network.

11. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein the broadcast data message comprises region-specific information.

12. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein the broadcast data message comprises vehicle recall information.

13. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein the characteristics of intended recipients of the at least one message portion comprises vehicle make, model, and year.

14. A system in a vehicle for receiving a broadcast data message from a remotely located information center, the broadcast data message comprising a message portion and a filter code section, the filter code section comprising coded criteria that specify characteristics of intended recipients of the message portion, comprising:

a receiver for receiving the broadcast data message, the receiver comprising a filter processing section that reads the filter code section of the broadcast data message to determine whether the vehicle is an intended recipient the message portion, the receiver recovering the message portion if the vehicle is an intended recipient; and

a display that receives and displays the recovered message portions from the receiver for a vehicle occupant.

15. The system as recited in claim 14, wherein the receiver further comprises a memory storage medium.

16. The system as recited in claim 14, further comprising a voice output device that receives the recovered message from the receiver and transmits a corresponding audio message to the vehicle occupant.

17. A method for creating and broadcasting a multi-packet broadcast data message to a plurality of vehicles, comprising:

receiving a first data packet directed to a first vehicle having a first identity characteristic, and receiving a second data packet directed to a second vehicle having a second identity characteristic;

assigning a first data serial number to the first data packet, and assigning a second data serial number to the second data packet;

generating a first filter code section based on the first identity characteristic, and generating a second filter code section based on the second identity characteristic;

concatenating the first filter code, the first data serial number, and the first data packet to generate a first one-to-one portion, and concatenating the second filter code, the second data serial number, and the second data packet to generate a second one-to-one portion;

concatenating the first and second one-to-one portions to generate a multi-packet payload section;

concatenating the multi-packet payload section with a header to generate the multi-packet broadcast data message; and

broadcasting the multi-packet broadcast data message to the plurality of vehicles via a one-to-many communication system.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising the step of concatenating the multi-packet payload section with a cyclic redundancy code.

19. The method of claim 17, wherein the first identity characteristic comprises a first vehicle identification number.

20. The method of claim 17, wherein the second identity characteristic comprises a second vehicle identification number.

21. The method of claim 17, wherein the step of broadcasting the multi-packet broadcast data message comprises transmitting the broadcast data message over a satellite radio network.

22. A method for creating and broadcasting a single-packet broadcast data message to at least one vehicle, comprising:

receiving a data packet directed to the at least one vehicle having a characteristic;

generating a filter code section based on the characteristic;

concatenating the data packet and the filter code to generate a broadcast data portion;

concatenating the broadcast data portion with a header to generate the single-packet broadcast data message; and

broadcasting the single-packet broadcast data message to the at least one vehicle via a one-to-many communication system.

23. The method of claim 22, further comprising the step of concatenating the broadcast data portion with a cyclic redundancy code to generate the single-packet broadcast data message.

24. The method of claim 22, wherein the characteristic comprises a vehicle identification number.

25. The method of claim 22, wherein the characteristic comprises vehicle make, model, and year.

26. The method of claim 22, wherein the characteristic comprises vehicle mileage.

27. The method of claim 22, wherein the one-to-many communication system transmits the broadcast data message over a satellite radio network.

28. A system in a vehicle for receiving a broadcast data message from a remotely located information center, the broadcast data message comprising a message portion, a filter code section, and a unique identifier, the filter code section comprising coded criteria that specify characteristics of intended recipients of the message portion, the system comprising:

a receiver for receiving the broadcast data message, the receiver comprising a filter processing section that reads the filter code section of the broadcast data message to determine whether the vehicle is an intended recipient the message portion;

wherein, if the receiver determines that the vehicle is an intended recipient, the receiver recovers the message portion, stores the recovered message portion into a mail box, and stores the unique identifier into an identifier list; and

wherein the recovered message portion is deleted from the mail box in response to a delete command that is received by the receiver, the delete command being specific for the recovered message portion that is associated with the unique identifier.

29. The system as recited in claim 28, wherein the delete command is inputted via a user interface device by the user, the user interface device transmitting the delete command to the receiver.

30. The system as recited in claim 28, further comprising a display unit that receives and displays the recovered message portion.

31. The system as recited in claim 28, further comprising a voice output device that receives the recovered message portion and transmits a corresponding audio message.