METHOD FOR UPDATING AN ELECTRONIC CALENDAR IN A VEHICLE

• US 20120029964A1
• Filed: 07/30/2010
• Published: 02/02/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 07/30/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: General Motors LLC (General Motors Company)
• Original Assignee: General Motors LLC (General Motors Company)
• Inventors: Tengler, Steven C., Schwinke, Steven P.
• Granted Patent: US 8,626,553 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/7.19
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/1095 Meeting or appointment
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/535 Tracking the activity of the user network monitoring arrangements H04L43/00; recording of computer activity G06F11/34
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/62 Establishing a time schedule for servicing the requests

Abstract

A method for updating an electronic calendar in a vehicle involves uploading an appointment to the electronic calendar, where the appointment includes a description of an event, a time block for the event, and a travel time preceding the time block. An alert is set in a telematics unit of the vehicle, where the alert notifies a vehicle occupant of the appointment. The alert is configured to be activated in response to a trigger. At a time subsequent to the time block of the event, one of i) a memo is uploaded to the electronic calendar indicating that the alert was activated, or ii) another memo is uploaded to the electronic calendar indicating that the alert was not activated.

Claims

1. A method for updating an electronic calendar in a vehicle, comprising:

uploading an appointment to the electronic calendar, the appointment including a description of an event, a time block for the event, and a travel time preceding the time block;

setting an alert in a telematics unit of the vehicle, the alert notifying a vehicle occupant of the appointment, wherein the alert is configured to be activated in response to a trigger; and

at a time subsequent to the time block of the event, the method further comprises one of;

i) uploading a memo to the electronic calendar indicating that the alert was activated;

or

ii) uploading an other memo to the electronic calendar indicating that the alert was not activated.

2. The method as defined in claim 1 wherein prior to uploading the appointment to the electronic calendar, the method further comprises:

accessing the electronic calendar via a remotely accessible page; and

scheduling the appointment by one of selecting or inputting, via the remotely accessible page, the event description, the time block for the event, and the travel time preceding the time block.

3. The method as defined in claim 1 wherein the appointment is uploaded to the electronic calendar as a data upload, and wherein the setting of the alert is accomplished by:

converting the data upload of the appointment into a voice upload; and

generating the alert as a voice alert, the voice alert including i) a voice notification of the appointment, and ii) at least the event description portion of the appointment from the voice upload.

4. The method as defined in claim 3, further comprising activating the voice alert in response to the trigger, the activating including outputting the voice alert via a vehicle audio system.

5. The method as defined in claim 1 wherein i) the alert has not been activated, and ii) a then-current time is a predefined amount of time after an end of the time block, and wherein the method further comprises:

disabling the alert via the telematics unit; and

automatically uploading the other memo to the electronic calendar indicating that the event did not occur and that the alert has been deactivated.

6. The method as defined in claim 1 wherein the trigger is a geographic boundary constructed around a location at which the event is to occur, and wherein the alert is automatically activated when the vehicle enters the geographic boundary.

7. The method as defined in claim 1, further comprising authorizing a person other than the vehicle occupant to access the electronic calendar via a remotely accessible page, the authorization enabling the person to i) view the appointment, the memo, the other memo, or combinations thereof, ii) edit the appointment, the memo, the other memo, or combinations thereof, or iii) create a new appointment.

8. The method as defined in claim 1, further comprising responding to at least one of the memo or the other memo by at least one of i) posting an audio message to the electronic calendar, ii) posting a data message to the electronic calendar, or iii) sending an SMS message to an other person authorized to access the electronic calendar, and posting, by the other person via a remotely accessible page, the SMS message to the electronic calendar.

9. A method of managing a vehicle fleet, comprising:

generating an electronic calendar for each vehicle in the fleet, the generating including uploading at least one appointment onto the electronic calendar, wherein the appointment includes an event description, a time block for the event, and a travel time preceding the time block;

setting an alert in a telematics unit for each vehicle in the fleet, the alert being configured to notify a vehicle occupant of the appointment and configured to be activated in response to a trigger;

at a time subsequent to the time block of the event, one of;

i) uploading a memo to the electronic calendar indicating that the alert was activated;

or

ii) uploading an other memo to the electronic calendar indicating that the alert was not activated; and

via a processor, reviewing the memo or the other memo to determine whether each of the vehicles in the fleet conformed to a schedule defined in its respective electronic calendar.

10. The method as defined in claim 9, further comprising updating the electronic calendar by editing the appointment, editing the memo, editing the other memo, creating a new appointment, or combinations thereof.

11. The method as defined in claim 9, further comprising accessing, via a fleet manager using the processor, the electronic calendar to review the appointment, the memo, the other memo, or combinations thereof.

12. A system for updating an electronic calendar in a vehicle, comprising:

a remotely accessible page configured to enable an authorized person to upload an appointment to the electronic calendar, the appointment including a description of an event, a time block for the event, and a travel time preceding the time block;

a telematics unit operatively disposed in the vehicle, the telematics unit configured to i) have set therein an alert for notifying a vehicle occupant of the appointment, and ii) activate the alert in response to a trigger; and

a processor operatively associated with the telematics unit, the processor configured to;

i) automatically upload a memo onto the electronic calendar indicating that the alert was activated;

or

ii) automatically upload an other memo onto the electronic calendar indicating that the alert was not activated.

13. The system as defined in claim 12 wherein the remotely accessible page is configured to upload the appointment to the electronic calendar as a data upload, and wherein the system further comprises a text-to-speech engine operatively associated with the telematics unit, the text-to-speech engine configured to convert the data upload into a voice upload.

14. The system as defined in claim 13 wherein the telematics unit is configured to generate the alert as a voice alert, and wherein the voice alert includes i) a voice notification of the appointment, and ii) at least the event description of the appointment from the voice upload.

15. The system as defined in claim 14, further comprising an audio component operatively disposed in the vehicle and operatively connected to the telematics unit, the audio component configured to output the voice alert to the vehicle occupant upon activation of the voice alert in response to the trigger.

16. The system as defined in claim 12 wherein the trigger is a geographic boundary constructed around a location at which the event is to occur, and wherein the alert is automatically activated when the vehicle enters the geographic boundary.

17. The system as defined in claim 12, further comprising means for responding to at least one of the memo or the other memo.