Connecting Touch Screen Phones in a Vehicle

• US 20130106750A1
• Filed: 10/26/2012
• Published: 05/02/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 10/28/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Honda Motor Co., Ltd. (Honda Motor Company)
• Original Assignee: Honda Motor Co., Ltd. (Honda Motor Company)
• Inventors: Kurosawa, Fuminobu
• Granted Patent: US 9,116,563 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/173
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/041 Digitisers, e.g. for touch screens or touch pads, characterised by the transducing means
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1454 involving copying of the display data of a local workstation or window to a remote workstation or window so that an actual copy of the data is displayed simultaneously on two or more displays, e.g. teledisplay
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/452 Remote windowing, e.g. X-Window System, desktop virtualisation protocols for virtual reality H04L67/131
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2370/10 Use of a protocol of communication by packets in interfaces along the display data pipeline
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2370/12 Use of DVI or HDMI protocol in interfaces along the display data pipeline
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2370/16 Use of wireless transmission of display information

Abstract

A system and method for connection management between a consumer device and a vehicle. The connection management is performed automatically using a computing device, e.g., an application executing on a smartphone. The system and method configure the vehicle and consumer device in a manner that the screen display of the consumer device is mirrored on a touch panel of the in-vehicle computer system and the consumer device is controlled remotely by the user using the touch panel of the in-vehicle computer system.

Claims

1. A method of communication between a mobile communication device and a vehicle, the method comprising:

coupling the mobile communication device to an in-vehicle head unit, the mobile communication device having a touch screen and the in-vehicle head unit having a touch panel;

mirroring the display of the mobile communication device on the touch panel of the in-vehicle head unit;

receiving a touch command from the touch panel of the in-vehicle head unit;

mapping the received touch command to a touch event on the mobile communication device;

transmitting the mapped touch event to the mobile communication device;

receiving display updates due to the touch event from the mobile communication device; and

updating the display on the touch panel of the in-vehicle head unit based on the received display update.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the mobile communication device is coupled to the in-vehicle head unit via at least one of communication interface:

USB, HDMI, VGA, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the touch command received from the touch panel of the in-vehicle head unit is at least one of:

drag, scroll, flick, swipe, slide, tap, double tap and other multi-touch gestures.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein mapping the received touch command to a touch event on the mobile communication device comprises:

transforming a coordinate of the touch command on the touch panel of the in-vehicle head unit to another coordinate on the touch screen of the mobile communication device based on the display resolution of the touch panel of the in-vehicle head unit and the touch screen of the mobile communication device.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein mapping the received touch command to a touch event on the mobile communication device further comprises:

determining touch event parameters including touch phase, gesture type, tap count, and timestamp.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the method further comprises:

maintaining a setting configuration at the in-vehicle head unit;

verifying that the mobile communication device is coupled to the in-vehicle head unit via a communication interface specified by setting configuration, and an device identifier of the communication device matches one stored in the setting configuration; and

verifying that an identifier of an app to be launched matches one in a list of qualified apps stored by the setting configuration.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the method further comprises:

launching a connection management application at the in-vehicle head unit based on verified communication interface and matching device identifiers; and

launching an qualified app from the touch panel of the in-vehicle head unit based on matching app identifiers.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein the identifier of the mobile communication device includes a device identifier, an IMEI, and a serial number.

9. A system for communication between a mobile communication device and a vehicle, comprising:

a vehicle;

a mobile communication device, coupled the to an in-vehicle head unit, the mobile communication device having a touch screen and the in-vehicle head unit having a touch panel; and

a connections manager, wherein the connections manager performs a method comprising;

mirroring the display of the mobile communication device on the touch panel of the in-vehicle head unit;

receiving a touch command from the touch panel of the in-vehicle head unit;

mapping the received touch command to a touch event on the mobile communication device;

transmitting the mapped touch event to the mobile communication device;

receiving display updates due to the touch event from the mobile communication device; and

updating the display on the touch panel of the in-vehicle head unit based on the received display update.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the mobile communication device is coupled to the in-vehicle head unit via at least one of communication interface:

USB, HDMI, VGA, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth.

11. The system of claim 9, wherein the touch command received from the touch panel of the in-vehicle head unit is at least one of:

drag, scroll, flick, swipe, slide, tap, double tap and other multi-touch gestures.

12. The system of claim 9, wherein mapping the received touch command to a touch event on the mobile communication device comprises:

transforming a coordinate of the touch command on the touch panel of the in-vehicle head unit to another coordinate on the touch screen of the mobile communication device based on the display resolution of the touch panel of the in-vehicle head unit and the touch screen of the mobile communication device.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein mapping the received touch command to a touch event on the mobile communication device further comprises:

determining touch event parameters including touch phase, gesture type, tap count, and timestamp.

14. The system of claim 9, wherein the method further comprises:

maintaining a setting configuration at the in-vehicle head unit;

verifying that the mobile communication device is coupled to the in-vehicle head unit via a communication interface specified by setting configuration, and an device identifier of the communication device matches one stored in the setting configuration; and

verifying that an identifier of an app to be launched matches one in a list of qualified apps stored by the setting configuration.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the method further comprises:

launching a connection management application at the in-vehicle head unit based on verified communication interface and matching device identifiers; and

launching an qualified app from the touch panel of the in-vehicle head unit based on matching app identifiers.

16. The system of claim 14, wherein the identifier of the mobile communication device includes a device identifier, an IMEI, and a serial number.

17. A computer-readable storage medium storing computer-executable program instructions for communication between a mobile communication device and a vehicle, the instructions when executed cause the at least one processor to perform a method comprising:

coupling the mobile communication device to an in-vehicle head unit, the mobile communication device having a touch screen and the in-vehicle head unit having a touch panel;

mirroring the display of the mobile communication device on the touch panel of the in-vehicle head unit;

receiving a touch command from the touch panel of the in-vehicle head unit;

mapping the received touch command to a touch event on the mobile communication device;

transmitting the mapped touch event to the mobile communication device;

receiving display updates due to the touch event from the mobile communication device; and

updating the display on the touch panel of the in-vehicle head unit based on the received display update.

18. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 17, wherein the mobile communication device is coupled to the in-vehicle head unit via at least one of communication interface:

USB, HDMI, VGA, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth.

19. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 17, wherein the touch command received from the touch panel of the in-vehicle head unit is at least one of:

drag, scroll, flick, swipe, slide, tap, double tap and other multi-touch gestures.

20. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 17, wherein mapping the received touch command to a touch event on the mobile communication device comprises:

transforming a coordinate of the touch command on the touch panel of the in-vehicle head unit to another coordinate on the touch screen of the mobile communication device based on the display resolution of the touch panel of the in-vehicle head unit and the touch screen of the mobile communication device.

22. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 17, wherein the method further comprises:

maintaining a setting configuration at the in-vehicle head unit;

verifying that the mobile communication device is coupled to the in-vehicle head unit via a communication interface specified by setting configuration, and an device identifier of the communication device matches one stored in the setting configuration; and

verifying that an identifier of an app to be launched matches one in a list of qualified apps stored by the setting configuration.

23. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 22, wherein the method further comprises:

launching a connection management application at the in-vehicle head unit based on verified communication interface and matching device identifiers; and

launching an qualified app from the touch panel of the in-vehicle head unit based on matching app identifiers.

24. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 22, wherein the identifier of the mobile communication device includes a device identifier, an IMEI, and a serial number

21. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 21, wherein mapping the received touch command to a touch event on the mobile communication device further comprises:

determining touch event parameters including touch phase, gesture type, tap count, and timestamp.