Systems and Methods For Transit Industry Vehicle Hardware-Agnostic Communication

• US 20140188305A1
• Filed: 12/27/2012
• Published: 07/03/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 12/27/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Trapeze Software Inc.
• Original Assignee: Trapeze Software Inc.
• Inventors: WIEDNER, David
• Granted Patent: US 9,424,692 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/2
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/008 communicating information to a remotely located station transmission systems for measured values G08C

Abstract

Systems and methods for hardware-agnostic communication between one or more mobile data terminals and one or more vehicle logic units, where a vehicle logic unit can communicate with one or more inputs from a transit industry vehicle and create an abstraction interface capable of being processed by multiple mobile data terminal hardware platforms—meaning that each vehicle logic unit can communicate with multiple mobile data terminals, and each mobile data terminal can communicate with multiple vehicle logic units.

Claims

1. A method for hardware-agnostic communication between one or more mobile data terminals (MDT) used for monitoring and controlling one or more TIV inputs or outputs (TIVIO) of transit industry vehicles, and one or more vehicle logic units (VLU) located on transit industry vehicles (TIV), that are capable of communicating with one or more TIVIO, comprising:

requesting, by an MDT application executed by a processor on a first MDT, communication with a first VLU on a first TIV;

accepting, by a VLU application executed by a processor on the first VLU, the request to communicate from the first MDT;

providing, by the VLU application executed by a processor on the first VLU, a first abstraction interface to the first MDT;

processing, by the MDT application executed by a processor on the first MDT, the provided abstraction interface; and

monitoring, by the MDT application executed by a processor on the first MDT, the first TIV.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the abstraction interface comprises an XML file having one or more components, each component representative of one of one or more TIVIO of the first TIV.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the processing further comprises:

receiving the XML file;

determining the first VLU'"'"'s components; and

adjusting an application on the first MDT, responsive to the results of determining.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein the adjusting further comprises:

adding, to a monitoring screen of the application, a user interface element for each one or more TIVIO that can be monitored by the first MDT;

inserting, on a controlling screen of the application, a user interface element for each one or more TIVIO that can be controlled by the first MDT.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein the accepting further comprises granting an access level to the first MDT and wherein the one or more components that can be monitored and the one or more components that can be controlled are based on the access level granted.

6. The method of claim 2 wherein the providing further comprises:

polling the TIV for TIVIO on the TIV;

inserting a component into the XML file for each TIVIO on the TIV; and

obtaining one or more TIVIO values for each component having at least one value.

7. The method of claim 2, further comprising selecting a first MDT from one or more MDT hardware platforms, such hardware platforms comprising Blackberry™

, Android™

or iPhone™

smartphones and Windows™ and

iOS™

computing devices.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein the requesting, processing and monitoring are done by a first MDT and the accepting and providing are done by a first VLU.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein the requesting, processing and monitoring are done concurrently by a first MDT and a second MDT communicating with a first VLU, and the accepting and providing are done by the first VLU.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein the requesting, processing and monitoring are done by a first MDT communicating with a first VLU and a second VLU, and the accepting and providing are both done by the first VLU and the second VLU.

15. The method of claim 2 wherein processing the one or more abstraction interfaces further comprises:

receiving the XML file;

determining the first VLU'"'"'s components; and

adjusting the MDT application, responsive to the results of determining.

8. A method for hardware-agnostic communication between one or more mobile data terminals (MDT) used for monitoring and controlling one or more TIV inputs or outputs (TIVIO) of transit industry vehicles, and one or more vehicle logic units (VLU) located on transit industry vehicles (TIV), that are capable of communicating with one or more TIVIO, comprising:

requesting, by an MDT application executed by a processor on an MDT, communication with a VLU on a TIV;

accepting, by a VLU application executed by a processor on the VLU, the request to communicate from the MDT;

providing, by the VLU application executed by a processor on the VLU, an abstraction interface to the MDT;

processing, by the MDT application executed by a processor on the MDT, the provided abstraction interface; and

monitoring, by the MDT application executed by a processor on the MDT, the TIV.

12. A system for hardware-agnostic communication between one or more mobile data terminals (MDT) used for monitoring and controlling one or more TIV inputs or outputs (TIVIO) of transit industry vehicles (TIV), and one or more vehicle logic units (VLU) located on TIVs, that are capable of communicating with one or more TIVIO, comprising:

a vehicle logic unit (VLU), further comprising;

one or more TIVIO jacks connected to one or more TIVIO;

a VLU application, configured to poll the TIV for its one or more TIVIO and TIVIO values for each polled TIVIO and create an abstraction interface for communicating the TIVIO and TIVIO values to one or more MDTs upon receiving a communication request.

13. The system of claim 12, further comprising:

one or more MDTs, further comprising;

an MDT application, configured to request communication with one or more VLUs, receive one or more abstraction interfaces from the one or more VLUs, processing the one or more abstraction interfaces, and monitoring the one or more TIVs.

14. The system of claim 12 wherein the abstraction interface comprises an XML file having one or more components, each component representative of one of one or more TIVIO of the first TIV.