SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR UPDATING INFORMATION IN ELECTRONIC CALENDARS

• US 20110144980A1
• Filed: 06/10/2010
• Published: 06/16/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 12/11/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: General Motors LLC (General Motors Company)
• Original Assignee: General Motors LLC (General Motors Company)
• Inventors: Rysenga, Jeffrey P.
• Granted Patent: US 8,868,427 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 704/201
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/109 Time management, e.g. calendars, reminders, meetings or time accounting
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/26 Speech to text systems G10L15/08 takes precedence

Abstract

Systems and methods for updating electronic calendar information. Speech is received from a user at a vehicle telematics unit (VTU), wherein the speech is representative of information related to a particular vehicle trip. The received speech is recorded in the VTU as a voice memo, and data associated with the voice memo is communicated from the VTU to a computer running a calendaring application. The data is associated with a field of the calendaring application, and stored in association with the calendaring application field.

Claims

1. A method of updating electronic calendar information, comprising the steps of:

(a) receiving, from a user at a vehicle telematics unit (VTU), speech representative of information related to a particular vehicle trip;

(b) recording the received speech in the VTU as a voice memo;

(c) communicating data associated with the voice memo from the VTU to a computer running a calendaring application;

(d) associating the data with a field of the calendaring application; and

(e) storing the data in association with the calendaring application field.

2. A method as defined in claim 1, further comprising the step of (f) providing an indication of the presence of the data in the calendaring application field.

3. A method as defined in claim 2, wherein the indication includes a visible indicator.

4. A method as defined in claim 3, wherein the calendaring application field is a calendar date and the visible indicator is a graphical icon displayed in the calendar date field and linked to an audio file associated with the voice memo.

5. A method as defined in claim 1, wherein step (d) is carried out based on at least one horologic parameter associated with step (b).

6. A method as defined in claim 5, wherein the calendaring application identifies a date associated with the voice memo, and then associates the date with a corresponding date field of the calendaring application.

7. A method as defined in claim 1, wherein the information includes an indication of whether the particular vehicle trip was a business or personal vehicle trip.

8. A method as defined in claim 1, wherein the information includes an indication of an attribute of the particular vehicle trip including at least one of a personal contact, a business contact, an appointment topic, an event topic, meeting information, sales information, product information, or personal information.

9. A method as defined in claim 1, further comprising the step of converting the voice memo to text data via a speech-to-text unit in operative communication with the in-vehicle telematics unit, wherein said text data is communicated during step (c), which is carried out during a vehicle data upload, and wherein step (d) is carried out based on content in said text data.

10. A method as defined in claim 1, wherein said step (c) includes communicating the voice memo to a speech-to-text unit at a call center in selective communication with the VTU, and further comprising the step of converting the voice memo to text data via the speech-to-text unit, and wherein step (d) is carried out based on content in said text data.

11. A method as defined in claim 1, wherein the data includes at least one of an audio file of the voice memo, header data in an audio file of the voice memo, a log file associated with an audio file, a speech-to-text data file created from the voice memo.

12. A method as defined in claim 1, wherein said step (d) is carried out by comparing content of the voice memo with content of data stored in association with the calendaring application.

13. A method as defined in claim 12, wherein the content includes a contact name in the voice memo with a name stored in a contact field in the calendaring application.

14. A computer-readable medium comprising instructions executable by a vehicle telematics system to cause the system to perform a method according to claim 1.

15. A vehicle telematics system comprising:

a microphone to receive user speech representative of information related to a particular vehicle trip;

a recorder to record the user speech as a voice memo;

a vehicle telematics unit (VTU) in communication with the recorder to transmit data associated with the voice memo from the VTU; and

a computer in communication with the VTU to receive the data transmitted by the VTU, to host a calendaring application that associates the data with a field of the calendaring application, and to store the data in association with the calendaring application field.

16. A vehicle telematics system as defined in claim 15, further comprising a speech-to-text converter in selective communication with the VTU to convert the voice memo to text data, wherein said text data is transmitted by the VTU during a vehicle data upload, and wherein the data is associated with the calendaring application field based on content in said text data.

17. A vehicle telematics system as defined in claim 15, further comprising a speech-to-text converter at a call center in selective communication with the VTU to convert the voice memo to text data, wherein said data is associated with the calendaring application field based on content in said text data