VEHICLE TELEMATICS COMMUNICATION FOR PROVIDING HANDS-FREE WIRELESS COMMUNICATION

• US 20120231821A1
• Filed: 03/08/2011
• Published: 09/13/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 03/08/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: General Motors LLC (General Motors Company)
• Original Assignee: General Motors LLC (General Motors Company)
• Inventors: Swanson, Steven
• Granted Patent: US 9,420,431 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/466
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/6075 adapted for handsfree use in a vehicle H04M1/6058 takes precedence; arrangements for holding telephones in a vehicle B60R11/0241
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2201/40 using speech recognition speech recognition per se G10L15/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/12 Messaging; Mailboxes; Announcements
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/14 Short messaging services, e.g. short message services [SMS] or unstructured supplementary service data [USSD]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/48 for in-vehicle communication

Abstract

A system and method for providing a vehicle occupant with hands-free usage of text messaging services over a mobile phone via a vehicle telematics unit. The method enables a vehicle occupant to send and receive communication messages such as text messages in a hands-free manner. For sending text messages, a spoken communication message is received from the occupant at the vehicle and sent to a call center for conversion to a text message using a speech to text server. The converted text message is then sent to the mobile phone for texting to the intended recipient. Received text messages can be sent from the mobile phone to the telematics unit, converted to speech and played audibly to the occupant in the vehicle.

Claims

1. A method of using a vehicle telematics unit to provide a vehicle occupant with hands-free usage of text messaging services over a mobile communication device, comprising the steps of:

(a) receiving a communication message at a vehicle telematics unit;

(b) sending the received communication message to a call center from the vehicle telematics unit;

(c) converting the communication message to a text message at the call center; and

(d) sending the text message from the call center to an intended recipient via a mobile communication device.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein step (a) comprises the step of receiving the communication message at the telematics unit as speech received from a vehicle occupant via a vehicle user interface.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein step (a) further comprises receiving an input from the occupant indicating that hands-free text messaging is desired, and further including receiving from the occupant an identification of the intended recipient via speech input to the vehicle user interface.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the text message comprises text only or text and multimedia content.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein step (d) further comprises sending the text message from the call center to the vehicle via the telematics unit, then from the vehicle to the mobile communication device, and then from the mobile communication device to the intended recipient.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising the steps of receiving an identification of the intended recipient via a vehicle user interface and sending the identification to the mobile communication device, wherein step (d) further comprises sending the text message from the mobile communication device to the intended recipient using the identification received via the vehicle user interface.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein step (a) further comprises the step of receiving the communication message from the mobile communication device as speech that was initially received by the mobile communication device and then sent wirelessly from the mobile communication device to the vehicle telematics unit.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the mobile communication device is a mobile phone located remotely from the vehicle, and wherein step (d) further comprises sending the text message directly from the call center to the mobile phone and then sending the text message from the mobile phone to the intended recipient.

9. A vehicle telematics unit for providing a vehicle occupant with hands-free usage of text messaging services over a mobile communication device, wherein the telematics unit is wired into vehicle electronics located onboard the vehicle and includes a processor and memory programmed with computer readable instructions that are executed by the processor to carry out the steps of:

(a) receiving a spoken communication message via a microphone located onboard the vehicle;

(b) sending the received communication message to a call center from the vehicle;

(c) receiving a text message back from the call center containing a textual representation of the spoken communication message; and

(d) sending the text message to a mobile communication device for communication on to an intended recipient.

10. A vehicle telematics unit as defined in claim 9, wherein the telematics unit includes computer readable instructions that are executed by the processor to obtain from an occupant of the vehicle both the spoken communication message and an identification of the intended recipient.

11. A vehicle telematics unit as defined in claim 10, wherein the telematics unit includes computer readable instructions that are executed by the processor to send the identification of the intended recipient to the mobile communication device.

12. A vehicle telematics unit as defined in claim 9, wherein the telematics unit includes computer readable instructions that are executed by the processor to receive an incoming text message from the mobile communication device, convert the incoming text message to an audio message, and play the audio message in the vehicle.

13. A vehicle telematics unit as defined in claim 12, wherein the telematics unit includes computer readable instructions that are executed by the processor to alert an occupant of the vehicle of the incoming text message via a vehicle user interface prior to playing the audio message in the vehicle.

14. A method of using a vehicle telematics unit to provide a vehicle occupant with hands-free usage of text messaging services over a mobile communication device, comprising the steps of:

(a) receiving a communication message at a mobile communication device located inside the vehicle;

(b) transferring the communication message to the vehicle; and

(c) presenting the communication message to an occupant of the vehicle via a vehicle user interface.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the communication message comprises text only or text and multimedia content.

16. The method of claim 14, further comprising, prior to step (b), the step of pairing the mobile communication device to the vehicle using a Bluetooth connection.

17. The method of claim 14, wherein step (c) comprises displaying at least a portion of the message on a visual display within the vehicle.

18. The method of claim 14, wherein the communication message is a text message and wherein step (c) further comprises converting the text message to an audio message and playing the audio message in the vehicle.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the method further comprises, after step (b) and prior to step (c), the steps of sending the text message to a call center via a vehicle telematics unit, converting the text message to the audio message at the call center, and sending the audio message from the call center to the vehicle via the vehicle telematics unit.

20. The method of claim 18, wherein the method further comprises, after step (b) and prior to step (c), the steps of sending the text message to a call center via a vehicle telematics unit, converting the text message to the audio message at the call center, and playing the audio message from the call center to the vehicle occupant via the vehicle user interface.