PROVIDING WIRELESS MOBILE DEVICE INFORMATION TO A CALL CENTER

• US 20110294466A1
• Filed: 05/28/2010
• Published: 12/01/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 05/28/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: General Motors LLC (General Motors Company)
• Original Assignee: General Motors LLC (General Motors Company)
• Inventors: Tang, Jin, Madhavan, Sethu K., Yi, Ki Hak, MacDonald, Andrew J.
• Granted Patent: US 8,948,727 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/411
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/08 Access security
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/44 for communication between vehicles and infrastructures, e.g. vehicle-to-cloud [V2C] or vehicle-to-home [V2H]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/80 Services using short range communication, e.g. near-field communication [NFC], radio-frequency identification [RFID] or low energy communication

Abstract

A method and system for providing wireless mobile device information from a vehicle to a call center. The method includes the steps of (a) detecting the presence of a personal mobile device at the vehicle, (b) receiving at a vehicle interface module a mobile device identifier from the personal mobile device, and (c) sending the mobile device identifier from the vehicle interface module to a call center via the mobile device. The mobile device identifier received at the call center can be used for various purposes such as to provide a callback number in the event of a dropped call, or to validate that services are authorize for the vehicle.

Claims

1. A method of providing wireless mobile device information from a vehicle for use by a call center in providing services at the vehicle, comprising the steps of:

(a) detecting the presence of a personal mobile device at the vehicle;

(b) receiving at a vehicle interface module a mobile device identifier from the personal mobile device;

(c) sending at least the mobile device identifier from the vehicle interface module to a call center via the mobile device; and

(d) validating that the mobile device identifier is authorized to receive call center services for the vehicle.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the mobile device is a mobile phone.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein steps (a) and (b) comprise pairing the mobile phone to the vehicle interface module using a Bluetooth connection.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein step (c) comprises sending the mobile device identifier via a data session.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the data session is a packetized data connection established between the vehicle interface module and the call center via the mobile device.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein the data session comprises a data connection established over a voice channel of a wireless communication network.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein step (c) comprises sending the mobile device identifier via the data session using a modem.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein step (c) comprises sending the mobile device identifier using or dual-tone multi-frequency (DTMF) tones.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein step (d) further comprises the steps of:

determining that the identifier is already stored at the call center in association with the vehicle, and then validating the identifier and identifying it as the current identifier to use in placing calls from the call center to the vehicle.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising the step of replacing a previously stored identifier that is different than the current identifier with the current identifier.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein the identifier comprises a telephone number for the mobile device.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the method further comprises the step of placing a call from the call center to the mobile device using the telephone number, and communicating with an occupant of the vehicle over the call via the vehicle interface module and the mobile device.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein step (c) further comprises sending to the call center a vehicle identifier that uniquely identifies the vehicle along with the mobile device identifier.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein step (d) further comprises validating the mobile device identifier using the vehicle identifier.

15. A method of providing wireless mobile device information from a vehicle for use by a call center in providing services at the vehicle, comprising the steps of:

(a) detecting the presence of a personal mobile device at the vehicle;

(b) receiving at a vehicle interface module a mobile device identifier from the personal mobile device; and

(c) sending the mobile device identifier and a unique vehicle identifier from the vehicle interface module to a call center via the mobile device.

16. The method of claim 15, further comprising the step of authorizing services using the mobile device identifier received at the call center.

17. The method of claim 15, further comprising the step of placing a call from the call center to the mobile device using the mobile device identifier, and communicating with an occupant of the vehicle over the call via the vehicle interface module and the mobile device.

18. A method of providing wireless mobile device information from a vehicle for use by a call center in providing services at the vehicle, comprising the steps of:

(a) upon operation of the vehicle by an operator, detecting one or more wirelessly accessible mobile devices at the vehicle;

(b) determining if more than one wirelessly accessible mobile device is present and, if so, selecting the mobile device having highest priority from a priority list and, if not, selecting the single wirelessly accessible mobile device;

(c) pairing the selected mobile device with a vehicle interface module via a Bluetooth connection;

(d) obtaining via the Bluetooth connection a phone number used to call the mobile device;

(e) receiving at a call center a call from the mobile device;

(f) sending the phone number from the vehicle interface module to the call center over the call via the mobile device; and

(g) subsequently using the phone number to provide vehicle services from the call center via the mobile device.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein step (g) further comprises the step of authorizing services using the phone number received at the call center.

20. The method of claim 18, wherein step (g) further comprises the step of placing a call from the call center to the mobile device using the phone number, and communicating with an occupant of the vehicle over the call via the vehicle interface module and the mobile device.