AUTOMATIC WIRELESS DEVICE DATA MAINTENANCE

• US 20120158658A1
• Filed: 12/20/2010
• Published: 06/21/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 12/20/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ford Global Technologies, LLC (Ford Motor Company)
• Original Assignee: Ford Global Technologies, LLC (Ford Motor Company)
• Inventors: Wilkerson, Brian Y.
• Granted Patent: US 8,738,574 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/638
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/27 Replication, distribution or synchronisation of data between databases or within a distributed database system; Distributed database system architectures therefor
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/273 Asynchronous replication or reconciliation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/197 Version control for software G06F8/71
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/48 Message addressing, e.g. address format or anonymous messages, aliases
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/52 for supporting social networking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/58 Message adaptation for wireless communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/04 specially adapted for terminals or networks with limited capabilities; specially adapted for terminal portability
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1095 Replication or mirroring of data, e.g. scheduling or transport for data synchronisation between network nodes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42178 by downloading data to substation equipment
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/21 for social networking applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/50 Service provisioning or reconfiguring

Abstract

A computer-implemented method includes downloading data elements from a wireless device. The method includes determining whether a user account exists in storage and determining whether the user account currently has stored data elements of the same type as the downloaded data elements associated therewith. The method further includes comparing the downloaded data elements to the stored data elements. This method also includes storing any downloaded data elements not currently existing in the data elements associated with the user account and not in conflict with data elements associated with the user account. The method further includes resolving conflicts between downloaded data elements and currently existing data elements, to establish which of the conflicting elements is representative of a proper version of the element. Finally, the method includes storing the proper version of the element resulting from each conflict resolution.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method comprising:

downloading a plurality of data elements from a wireless device to a connected vehicle computing system (VCS);

determining, via the VCS, whether a user account, corresponding to the wireless device, exists in storage;

determining, via the VCS, whether the user account currently has stored data elements of the same type as the downloaded data elements associated therewith;

contingent on whether the user account has stored data elements associated therewith, comparing, via the VCS, the downloaded data elements to the stored data elements;

storing any downloaded data elements not currently existing in the data elements associated with the user account and not in conflict with data elements associated with the user account;

resolving conflicts, via the VCS, between downloaded data elements and currently existing data elements, to establish which of the conflicting elements is representative of a proper version of the element; and

storing the proper version of the element resulting from each conflict resolution.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of data elements includes phone contact names and numbers.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of data elements includes email contact names and email addresses.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the storage is local storage in a vehicle in which the VCS is included.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the storage is remote storage on a remote network with which the VCS is operable to communicate.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the resolving conflicts further comprises asking the user which version of conflicting elements is the proper version.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the resolving conflicts further comprises determining which version of conflicting elements is a more recently entered version and designating the more recently entered version as the proper version.

8. A method for populating a wireless device with data comprising:

connecting to a wireless device from a vehicle computing system (VCS);

determining, via the VCS, if a set of data elements on the wireless device is below a certain size threshold;

determining, via the VCS, if a user account corresponds to a user of the wireless device;

determining, via the VCS, if the user account has one or more data elements of a certain type for which it was determined that the data elements on the wireless device were below the threshold; and

automatically uploading, from the VCS to the wireless device, the data elements of the certain type.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the determining includes determining that no data elements of the certain type exist on the wireless device.

10. A computer-implemented method for replacing an invalid data element, comprising:

determining, via a vehicle computing system (VCS) that a data element is invalid;

accessing one or more social networking sites, through the VCS, associated with a user account corresponding to a wireless device containing the invalid data element;

for each social networking site accessed through the VCS, determining whether or not a data type corresponding to the invalid data element is available for a party corresponding to the invalid data element;

if the data type is available, comparing a data element stored on the social networking site under the data type with the invalid data element;

if the data element stored on the social networking site differs from the invalid data element, replacing the invalid data element stored on at least one of a local storage or the wireless device with the data element stored on the social networking site.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the data element is a phone number, and the determining that a data element is invalid further comprises receiving an invalid number response from an attempt to dial the phone number from the VCS.

12. The method of claim 10, further comprising ceasing the accessing after it is determined that the data element stored on the social networking site differs from the invalid data element.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein the determining that a data element is invalid includes querying a user as to the validity of a data element and receiving a response that the element is invalid.

14. The method of claim 10, wherein the data element is an email address and the determining that a data element is invalid includes sending an email to the email address and receiving a response that the email could not be delivered.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the sending an email includes sending an email from an account associated with a vehicle in which the VCS is included.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein the sending an email includes accessing an email account corresponding to the user account and sending an email from the accessed email account.

17. A computer-implemented method for replacing an invalid data element, comprising:

determining, via a vehicle computing system (VCS) that a data element is invalid;

determining whether an email address is associated with the invalid data element;

for one or more email addresses associated with invalid data elements, sending a request email to the email address associated with the respective invalid data element, the request email including a request for an update of the data element;

receiving a response to the request email, the response including a valid response element to the request for an update of the data element; and

replacing the invalid data element with the valid response element.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the invalid data element is stored on a wireless device in communication with the VCS, and wherein the replacing includes uploading the valid response element to the wireless device to replace the invalid data element.

19. The method of claim 17, further including:

if the response to the email request indicates that the email request was undeliverable, accessing one or more social networking sites, through the VCS, associated with a user account corresponding to a wireless device containing the invalid data element;

for each social networking site accessed through the VCS, determining whether or not a data type corresponding to the invalid data element is available for a party corresponding to the invalid data element;

if the data type is available, comparing a data element stored on the social networking site under the data type with the invalid data element;

if the data element stored on the social networking site differs from the invalid data element, replacing the invalid data element stored on at least one of a local storage or the wireless device with the data element stored on the social networking site.