Method and system for automated and manual data capture configuration

• US 20130110344A1
• Filed: 10/27/2011
• Published: 05/02/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 10/27/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Snap-On Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Snap-On Incorporated
• Inventors: Merg, Patrick S., O'Mahony, Brendan J., Brozovich, R. Steven
• Granted Patent: US 8,930,064 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/31.4
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/008 communicating information to a remotely located station transmission systems for measured values G08C
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/0808 Diagnosing performance data testing of vehicles G01M17/00; testing of electrical installation on vehicles G01R31/005
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/0825 using optical means
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/085 using electronic data carriers

Abstract

A client and server are operable within a community of clients for transferring vehicle diagnostic data captured from vehicles. The server includes a central library for storing captured vehicle data (CVD) prior to receiving client requests for CVD from the central library to compare to CVD within a client'"'"'s local library. The client request may include vehicle identification data and client settings so that the CVD provided to the client is from another client configured to the same client settings and from a type of vehicle that matches a vehicle-type identified by the vehicle identification data. Alert requests transmitted by a client or server can be received by a client or a remote alert device to provide notice that another client has requested CVD. CVD can be associated with data tags that reduce the burden in locating the CVD and include data relating to the capture of the CVD.

Claims

1. A client system for vehicle diagnostics, the client system comprising:

a non-transitory computer-readable medium;

program instructions stored at the non-transitory computer-readable medium and executable by at least one processor to;

(i) receive, via a client/vehicle interface, vehicle data storable in the non-transitory computer-readable medium as first captured vehicle data for a vehicle;

(ii) associate a first set of one or more data tags with the first captured vehicle data; and

(iii) cause a network interface to transmit a requested-data message to a vehicle-diagnostic server for storage in a network-based vehicle-diagnostics database that provides captured vehicle data collected from a community of client systems, wherein the requested-data message comprises the first captured vehicle data for the vehicle and the first set of one or more associated data tags.

2. The client system of claim 1, further comprising:

program instructions stored at the non-transitory computer-readable medium and executable by at least one processor to;

generate a data-request message, wherein the data-request message comprises the first set of one or more data tags that are associated with the first captured vehicle data;

cause the network interface to transmit the data-request message to the vehicle-diagnostic server; and

receive a requested-data message from the vehicle-diagnostic server, wherein the requested-data message comprises second captured vehicle data stored at the network-based vehicle-diagnostics database.

3. The client system of claim 1, further comprising:

other captured vehicle data stored at the non-transitory computer-readable medium; and

program instructions stored on the non-transitory computer-readable medium and executable by at least one processor to determine whether a portion of the other captured vehicle data comprises captured vehicle data associated with a set of data tags that match the first set of one or more data tags, and if so, then present the portion of the other captured vehicle data via a user interface of the client system for comparison to the first captured vehicle data, but if not, then generate a data-request message that comprises the first set of one or more data tags and cause the network interface to transmit the data-request message to the vehicle-diagnostic server.

4. The client system of claim 1, further comprising

program instructions stored on the non-transitory computer-readable medium and executable by at least one processor to:

receive, via the network interface, a data-request message transmitted from the vehicle-diagnostic server, wherein the data-request message indicates a vehicle-type identifier and one or more settings for the client system;

detect that the client system is connected to a vehicle matching the vehicle-type identifier and responsively;

(i) configure the client system according to the one or more settings;

(ii) receive, via the client/vehicle interface, vehicle data storable in the non-transitory computer-readable medium as second captured vehicle data for the vehicle matching the vehicle-type identifier;

(iii) associate a second set of one or more data tags with the second captured vehicle data; and

(iv) cause the network interface to transmit a requested-data message to the vehicle-diagnostic server for storage in the network-based vehicle-diagnostics database that provides captured vehicle data collected from the community of client systems, wherein the requested-data message comprises the second captured vehicle data for the vehicle and the second set of one or more associated data tags.

5. The client system of claim 1, wherein the first captured vehicle data comprises vehicle data that is displayable on a display of the client system as a waveform.

6. The client system of claim 1, wherein a data tag of the first set of one or more data tags comprises (i) a vehicle identification number (VIN), (ii) a client setting for auto-configuring the client system, (iii) a history diagnostic trouble code set in the vehicle, (iv) a currently-pending diagnostic trouble code set in the vehicle, (v) a vehicle operating parameter of the vehicle, (vi) mode $06 diagnostic data, (vii) a user-defined data tag, (viii) an identifier of the captured vehicle data, or (ix) a vehicle-type identifier.

7. The client system of claim 1,

wherein the network interface is operable to receive a request alert;

the client system further comprising program instructions stored at the non-transitory computer-readable medium and executable by at least one processor to;

cause a user interface of the client system to present the request alert, wherein the request alert identifies a particular vehicle-type and a vehicle data type to be captured from a vehicle of the particular vehicle-type.

8. The client system of claim 1,

wherein the network interface is operable to receive a first request alert;

the client system further comprising program instructions stored at the non-transitory computer-readable medium and executable by at least one processor to;

cause the network interface to transmit a second request alert to at least one remote alert device predefined as an alert device to receive request alerts from the client system, wherein the first request alert and the second request alert identify a particular vehicle-type and a vehicle data type to be captured from a vehicle of the particular vehicle-type.

9. A server system for vehicle diagnostics, the server system comprising:

a non-transitory computer-readable medium;

program instructions stored on the non-transitory computer-readable medium and executable by at least one processor to;

(i) receive, via a network interface, requested-data messages from vehicle-diagnostic client systems, wherein each requested-data message comprises captured vehicle data and a set of one or more associated data tags;

(ii) maintain a network-based vehicle-diagnostics database, wherein the captured vehicle data from the requested-data messages are categorized in the vehicle-diagnostics database based on the respectively associated data tags;

(iii) receive a first data-request message from a first vehicle-diagnostic client system, wherein the first data-request message comprises a first set of one or more data tags;

(iv) generate a first requested-data message that comprises first captured vehicle data that is based on second captured vehicle data stored at the network-based vehicle-diagnostics database and that is associated with a second set of data tags that matches the first set of one or more data tags; and

(v) cause the network interface to transmit the first requested-data message to the first vehicle-diagnostic client system.

10. The server system of claim 9, further comprising:

program instructions stored at the non-transitory computer-readable medium and executable by at least one processor to;

determine, upon receipt of the first data-request message, that the network-based vehicle-diagnostics database does not comprise captured vehicle data associated with a set of data tags that matches the first set of one or more data tags;

responsively generate a second data-request message, wherein the second data-request message indicates one or more settings for automatic configuration of a second vehicle-diagnostic client system that receives the second data-request message to capture vehicle data requested by the second data-request message; and

cause the network interface to transmit the second data-request message to the second vehicle-diagnostic client system.

11. The server system of claim 10, further comprising:

program instructions stored at the non-transitory computer-readable medium and executable by at least one processor to;

receive another requested-data message from the second vehicle-diagnostic client system, wherein the another requested-data message comprises captured vehicle data to be stored as the second captured vehicle data and a set of data tags to be stored as the second set of data tags, wherein the second captured vehicle data was captured by the second vehicle-diagnostic client system while configured with the one or more settings indicated in the second data-request message; and

store the second captured vehicle data and the second set of data tags that match the first set of one or more data tags in the network-based vehicle diagnostic database.

12. A method comprising:

a vehicle-diagnostic client system determining vehicle information that indicates a given vehicle is a particular vehicle-type;

the vehicle-diagnostic client system transmitting a status message destined for a vehicle-diagnostic server, the status message comprising the vehicle information determined by the vehicle-diagnostic client system;

the vehicle-diagnostic client system receiving a data-request message, the data-request message comprising a first set of data tags including client setting tags for configuring the vehicle-diagnostic client system to capture first vehicle data from the given vehicle;

the vehicle-diagnostic client system configuring client settings of the vehicle-diagnostic client system to match client settings identified by the client setting tags and then capturing the first vehicle data while configured with the client setting that match the client settings identified by the client setting tags;

the vehicle-diagnostic client system associating a second set of data tags with the captured first vehicle data, wherein the second set of data tags include client tags that indicate how the vehicle-diagnostic client system was configured while capturing the first vehicle data; and

the vehicle-diagnostic client system transmitting a requested-data message addressed to the vehicle-diagnostic server, wherein the requested-data message comprises the captured first vehicle data and the second set of data tags.

13. The method of claim 12,

wherein the first set of data tags and the second set of data tags each comprise a common data request identifier,

wherein the first set of data tags comprises a first set of vehicle operating parameter tags that indicate preferred vehicle operating parameters for, operating the given vehicle while the vehicle-diagnostic client system captures the first vehicle data from the given vehicle, and

wherein the second set of data tags comprises a second set of vehicle operating parameter tags that indicate operating conditions of the given vehicle while the vehicle-diagnostic client system captured the first vehicle data.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein determining the vehicle information that indicates the given vehicle is a particular vehicle-type comprises the vehicle-diagnostic client system determining at least a portion of the vehicle information from vehicle information the vehicle-diagnostic client system receives from the given vehicle via a client/vehicle interface.

15. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

the vehicle-diagnostic client system storing the captured first vehicle data and the second set of data tags at a data storage device of the vehicle-diagnostic client system;

subsequent to storing the captured first vehicle data at the data storage device of the vehicle-diagnostic client system, the vehicle-diagnostic client system capturing second vehicle data from a second given vehicle and retrieving the first captured vehicle data from the data storage device of the vehicle-diagnostic client system; and

the vehicle-diagnostic client system visually presenting the first captured vehicle data via a display device of the vehicle-diagnostic client system.

16. The method of claim 15, further comprising:

the vehicle-diagnostic client system simultaneously visually presenting the captured first vehicle data and the captured second vehicle data via the display device of the vehicle-diagnostic client system.

17. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

the vehicle-diagnostic client system repeatedly transmitting status messages destined for a vehicle-diagnostic server to provide notice that the vehicle-diagnostic client system is an active client within a community of client systems.

18. The method of claim 12, wherein the second set of data tags further include data tags that identify operating parameters of the given vehicle while the vehicle-diagnostic system captured the first vehicle data.

19. A method comprising:

a vehicle-diagnostic server receiving a status message, wherein the status message comprises a source identifier associated with a first vehicle-diagnostic client system and comprises a vehicle identifier that identifies a particular vehicle-type of a given vehicle;

the vehicle-diagnostic server receiving a first data-request message, wherein the first data-request message comprises a source identifier associated with a second vehicle-diagnostic client system and comprises client setting tags for configuring a vehicle-diagnostic client system and vehicle identifier tags that identifies the particular vehicle-type;

the vehicle-diagnostic server transmitting a second data-request message, wherein the second data-request message comprises a destination identifier associated with the first vehicle-diagnostic client system and comprises the client setting tags for configuring a vehicle-diagnostic client system and the vehicle identifier tags that identifies the particular vehicle-type;

the vehicle-diagnostic server receiving a first requested-data message, wherein the first requested-data message comprises a source identifier associated with the first vehicle-diagnostic client system and comprises vehicle data that the first vehicle-diagnostic client system captured from the given vehicle while configured to client setting represented by the client setting tags; and

the vehicle-diagnostic server transmitting a second requested-data message, wherein the second requested-data message comprises a destination identifier associated with the second vehicle-diagnostic client system and comprises the vehicle data that the first vehicle-diagnostic client system captured from the given vehicle while configured to client setting represented by the client setting tags.

20. The method of claim 19, further comprising:

the vehicle-diagnostic server modifying a client register in response to receiving the status message, wherein modifying the client register includes modifying the register to indicate that a vehicle of the particular vehicle-type is accessible via the first vehicle-diagnostic client system;

the vehicle-diagnostic server searching the client register in response to receiving the first data-request message, wherein searching the client register includes searching to identify any vehicle-diagnostic client system that has access to a vehicle of the particular vehicle-type; and

the vehicle-diagnostic server generating the second data-request message in response to the vehicle-diagnostic server identifying that the particular vehicle-type is accessible via the first vehicle-diagnostic client system.

21. A method comprising:

a server receiving new captured vehicle data that a client captured from a vehicle and one or more new data tags associated with the new captured vehicle data;

the server searching a library of captured vehicle data to determine whether the library contains a category of captured vehicle data that is associated with one or more data tags that match the one or more new data tags; and

if the server determines that the library does not contain a category of captured vehicle data that is associated with one or more data tags that match the one or more new data tags, then the server generating a new category of captured vehicle data within the library and associating the new captured vehicle data with the new category of captured vehicle data, otherwise, if the server determines that the library already contains a category of captured vehicle data that is associated with one or more data tags that match the one or more new data tags, then the server associating the new captured vehicle data with the category of captured vehicle data already contained within the library.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein associating the new captured vehicle data with the new category of captured vehicle data comprises storing the new captured vehicle data within a portion of a non-transitory data storage device that is associated with the new category of captured vehicle data.

23. The method of claim 21, further comprising:

the server executing computer-readable program instructions stored at a non-transitory computer-readable medium to generate statistical data based on captured vehicle data associated with the category of captured vehicle data that is associated with the new captured vehicle data.

24. The method of claim 23,

wherein the statistical data comprises a statistical representation of captured vehicle data contained within the category of captured vehicle data that is associated with the new captured vehicle data,

the method further comprising:

the server comparing the new captured vehicle data to the statistical representation of the captured vehicle data so as to determine a diagnostic procedure for execution at the vehicle from which the new captured vehicle data was captured.

25. The method of claim 24,

wherein the statistical representation of the captured vehicle data comprises data for generating first and second waveforms displayable on a display device,

wherein the first waveform represents a statistical maximum range for the captured vehicle data contained within the category of captured vehicle data that is associated with the new captured vehicle data, and

wherein the second waveform represents a statistical minimum range for the captured vehicle data contained within the category of captured vehicle data that is associated with the new captured vehicle data.