CALENDAR SHARING FOR THE VEHICLE ENVIRONMENT USING A CONNECTED CELL PHONE

• US 20120197523A1
• Filed: 01/27/2011
• Published: 08/02/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 01/27/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Honda Motor Co., Ltd. (Honda Motor Company)
• Original Assignee: Honda Motor Co., Ltd. (Honda Motor Company)
• Inventors: Kirsch, David M.
• Granted Patent: US 8,825,362 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/426
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/362 received from an external device or application, e.g. PDA, mobile phone or calendar application
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/00 Administration; Management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/109 Time management, e.g. calendars, reminders, meetings or time accounting
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/6083 by interfacing with the vehicle audio system
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/6091 including a wireless interface
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72451 according to schedules, e.g. using calendar applications

Abstract

A mobile device communicates with an in-vehicle system to provide a network-based calendar and related features for viewing and/or editing within a vehicle. The mobile device executes a specialized application that retrieves calendar data from one or more calendar sources in a native calendar format, and converts the calendar data to a customized vehicle format designed specifically for convenient transfer and viewing within the vehicle. The user may record spoken voice notes that can be processed to automatically create new calendar entries. An alert feature schedules visual and/or audio alerts to notify the user in advance of scheduled calendar events. When a scheduled calendar event time is reached, the in-vehicle system may automatically place a call to an event invitee or generating a route to an event destination.

Claims

1. A method for providing an electronic calendar for display within a vehicle, the method comprising:

receiving, by a mobile device, first calendar data from a first calendar source the first calendar source storing the first calendar data in a first native calendar format specific to the first calendar source;

converting the first calendar data formatted in the first native calendar format to a vehicle calendar format suitable for transfer to an in-vehicle system; and

transferring, using a short-range communication protocol, the converted calendar data from the mobile device to the in-vehicle system.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving, by the mobile device, calendar data from a second calendar source the second calendar source storing the calendar data in a second native calendar format specific to the second calendar source, the second native calendar format different than the first native calendar format;

converting the second calendar data formatted in the second native calendar format to the vehicle calendar format suitable for transfer to the in-vehicle system; and

aggregating the first and second calendar data to remove duplicate calendar entries.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the first calendar source comprises a first network-based calendar server and the second calendar source comprises a second network-based calendar server.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the first calendar source comprises a first network-based calendar server and the second calendar source comprises a calendar application executable by the mobile device.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

scaling the first calendar data to extract calendar entries falling within a predefined time range, the predefined time range smaller than a time range of the first calendar data received in the first native calendar format.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising;

filtering the first calendar data to remove at least one of hyperlinks, special characters, and attachments from calendar entries.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving, from the in-vehicle system, updated calendar data reflecting a change to a calendar entry made using the in-vehicle system, the updated calendar data in the vehicle calendar format;

converting the updated calendar data in the vehicle calendar format to the first native calendar format; and

providing the updated calendar data to the first calendar source in the first native calendar format.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

detecting a refresh trigger event; and

responsive to the detecting the refresh trigger event, requesting a refresh of the first calendar data from the first calendar source.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein detecting the refresh trigger event comprises receiving a signal from the in-vehicle system indicating vehicle ignition.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein detecting the refresh trigger event comprises detecting that a predefined time period has elapsed since a last refresh.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a voice note from the in-vehicle system, the voice note comprising an audio recording of spoken words;

obtaining dictated text comprising a speech-to-text conversion of the spoken words;

creating a new calendar entry scheduling an event described in the dictated text; and

transferring the new calendar entry to the in-vehicle system.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein obtaining the dictated text comprises:

uploading the voice note to a voice note server for processing; and

receiving the dictated text from the voice note server.

13. A computer-readable storage medium storing instructions executable by a processor, the instructions when executed cause the processor to perform steps including:

receiving first calendar data from a first calendar source the first calendar source storing the first calendar data in a first native calendar format specific to the first calendar source;

converting the first calendar data formatted in the first native calendar format to a vehicle calendar format suitable for transfer to an in-vehicle system; and

transferring, using a short-range communication protocol, the converted calendar data from the mobile device to the in-vehicle system.

14. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein the instruction when executed further cause the processor to perform steps including:

receiving calendar data from a second calendar source the second calendar source storing the calendar data in a second native calendar format specific to the second calendar source, the second native calendar format different than the first native calendar format;

converting the second calendar data formatted in the second native calendar format to the vehicle calendar format suitable for transfer to the in-vehicle system; and

aggregating the first and second calendar data to remove duplicate calendar entries.

15. A method for managing an electronic calendar within a vehicle environment, the method comprising:

receiving, by an in-vehicle computing system, calendar data comprising a plurality of calendar entries, the calendar data received from a mobile device via a short-range communication protocol;

generating a user interface for displaying the calendar data, the user interface comprising an events window for displaying a representation of scheduled calendar events, and a notifications window for displaying a representation of calendar notifications; and

outputting the user interface to a in-vehicle display.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the calendar events comprise calendar entries having a non-zero time period and wherein the calendar notifications comprise calendar entries without a non-zero time period.

17. The method of claim 15, wherein the user interface further comprises:

a more events function that when selected by a user updates the user interface to display additional events scheduled before or after the scheduled calendar events in the events window;

18. The method of claim 15, wherein the user interface further comprises:

a more notifications function that when selected by a user updates the user interface to display additional notifications scheduled before or after the scheduled calendar notifications in the notifications window.

19. The method of claim 15, further comprising:

correlating the calendar entries with contacts entries to locate potential matches between metadata of the calendar entries and metadata of the contacts entries; and

responsive to reaching a scheduled time for a calendar entry, initiating an action using the potential matches.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein initiating the action comprises:

displaying a list of contact entries that include a contact name matching at least a portion of an event invitee in the calendar entry or a contact address matching at least a portion of the event location in the calendar entry.

21. The method of claim 20, further comprising:

responsive to a receiving a selection of one of the list of contact entries, placing a telephone call using a telephone number associated with the selected contact entry.

22. The method of claim 20, further comprising:

responsive to a receiving a selection of one of the list of contact entries, generating a navigation route to an address associated with the selected contact entry.

23. The method of claim 19, wherein initiating the action comprises:

displaying a list of point of interest that match at least a portion of an event location in the calendar entry; and

responsive to a receiving a selection of one of the list of points of interest, generating a navigation route to an address associated with the selected point of interest.

24. The method of claim 15, further comprising:

storing to an alert database one more scheduled calendar alerts, each calendar alert associated with a calendar entry and comprising a scheduled alert time;

determining when a current time matches the scheduled alert time;

responsive to the current time matching the scheduled alert time, triggering an alert.

25. The method of claim 24, wherein triggering the alert comprises at least one of:

displaying a visual message on the vehicle display; and

activating and audible alert.

26. The method of claim 24, further comprising:

receiving a snooze request for the triggered alert;

updating the alert time by adding a predefined snooze time to the alert time; and

storing the updated alert time to the alert database.

27. A system for managing an electronic calendar within a vehicle environment, the system comprising:

a short-range communication device for receiving calendar data comprising a plurality of calendar entries from a mobile device via a short-range communication protocol; and

an in-vehicle display for displaying a user interface showing the received calendar data, the user interface comprising an events window displaying a representation of scheduled calendar events, and a notifications window displaying a representation of calendar notifications.