VEHICLE TO VEHICLE CHATTING AND COMMUNICATION SYSTEM

• US 20110121991A1
• Filed: 11/24/2010
• Published: 05/26/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 11/25/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Appy Risk Technologies Limited (Trak Global Group Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Ridetones, Inc.
• Inventors: Basir, Otman A.
• Granted Patent: US 9,978,272 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 340/902
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/0962 having an indicator mounted inside the vehicle, e.g. giving voice messages
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096716 where the received information does not generate an automatic action on the vehicle control
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096741 where the source of the transmitted information selects which information to transmit to each vehicle
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096791 where the origin of the information is another vehicle
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/20 Monitoring the location of vehicles belonging to a group, e.g. fleet of vehicles, countable or determined number of vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 13/00 Speech synthesis; Text to speech systems
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/26 Speech to text systems G10L15/08 takes precedence

Abstract

A vehicle communication system includes a plurality of user accounts, each user account corresponding to a user. A server is programmed to receive communication invitations from inviting vehicles, and is programmed to transmit the communication invitations to invitee vehicles to facilitate inter-vehicle communication.

Claims

1. A method for communicating including the steps of:

receiving speech containing a recipient license plate number of a recipient vehicle;

converting the speech to text to discern the recipient license plate number;

associating the recipient license plate number with an electronic device; and

directing a communication to the electronic device in the recipient vehicle based upon the recipient license plate number.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the electronic device is a user mobile device.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the electronic device is a control unit in the recipient vehicle.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein the control unit communicates with a mobile device associated with a user.

5. The method of claim 1 further including the steps of:

receiving a speech communication;

converting the speech communication to a text communication; and

transmitting the text communication to the recipient vehicle.

6. The method of claim 5 further including the step of converting the text communication back to speech communication and playing the speech communication in the recipient vehicle.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the communication is a voice communication provided to the recipient vehicle via a server.

8. The method of claim 1 further including the step of logging the communication.

9. The method of claim 1 further including the step of storing the recipient license plate number on the electronic device, wherein the electronic device is installed on the recipient vehicle.

10. The method of claim 1 further including the steps of:

storing a plurality of user profiles, each having at least one associated license plate number and each having an associated electronic device.

11. The method of claim 10 wherein at least one of the user profiles has a plurality of license plate numbers associated therewith.

12. The method of claim 1 further including the steps of determining a geographical location of the recipient vehicle and directing the communication to the electronic device based upon the geographical location of the recipient vehicle.

13. The method of claim 1 further including the step of prioritizing the communication in the recipient vehicle relative to at least one other communication or notification.

14. The method of claim 13 wherein the at least one other communication or notification is an email.

15. The method of claim 13 wherein the at least one other communication or notification is a navigation instruction.

16. The method of claim 1 wherein the communication is an invitation to communicate, the method further including the steps of receiving an acceptance of the invitation to communicate and initiating a communication session with the electronic device in the recipient vehicle.

17. A method for communicating including the steps of:

a) identifying a presence of a user in a vehicle having a license plate number by identifying a presence of an electronic device associated with the user;

b) associating the user with the license plate number based upon said step b);

c) receiving a communication directed to the license plate number; and

d) directing the communication to the user based upon the user'"'"'s association with the license plate number.

18. The method of claim 17 wherein the electronic device is a mobile phone.

19. The method of claim 17 further including the steps of:

receiving a speech communication;

converting the speech communication to a text communication; and

transmitting the text communication to the user.

20. The method of claim 19 further including the step of converting the text communication back to speech communication and playing the speech communication to the user.

21. The method of claim 17 wherein the communication is a voice communication provided to the user via a server.

22. A method for communicating including the steps of:

receiving a speech communication from a first user;

converting the speech communication to a text communication;

transmitting the text communication to a second user; and

converting the text communication to speech and playing the speech for the second user.

23. The method of claim 22 further including the step of prioritizing the text communication to the second user relative to at least one other communication or notification.

24. The method of claim 23 wherein the at least one other communication or notification is an email.

25. The method of claim 23 wherein the at least one other communication or notification is a navigation instruction.