Method and Apparatus for Vehicular Social Networking

• US 20140214933A1
• Filed: 01/28/2013
• Published: 07/31/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 01/28/2013
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Ford Global Technologies, LLC (Ford Motor Company)
• Original Assignee: Ford Global Technologies, LLC (Ford Motor Company)
• Inventors: Liu, Yimin, MacNeille, Perry Robinson, Gusikhin, Oleg Yurievitch
• Application Number:
  US13/751,391
• Publication Number:
  US 20140214933A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/204
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/21 for social networking applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/44 for communication between vehicles and infrastructures, e.g. vehicle-to-cloud [V2C] or vehicle-to-home [V2H]

Abstract

A system includes a processor configured to communicate with a remote server to receive a list of friends who are currently driving their respective vehicles. The processor is also configured to display the list of friends in a selectable manner. The processor is further configured to receive selection of one or more friends from the list and send data to the remote server to be shared with the one or more selected friends.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

a processor configured to;

communicate with a remote server to receive a list of friends who are currently driving their respective vehicles;

display the list of friends in a selectable manner;

receive selection of one or more friends from the list; and

send data to the remote server to be shared with the one or more selected friends.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the list is touch-selectable.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the data includes video data.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the data includes audio data.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the processor is further configured to open a wireless enabled chat session with the selected friends, using the server to transmit data between parties.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the data includes a driver destination.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the data includes a current vehicle location.

20. The storage medium of claim 5, wherein the data includes a driver destination.

8. A computer-implemented method comprising:

communicating with a remote server to receive a list of friends who are currently driving their respective vehicles;

displaying the list of friends in a selectable manner;

receiving selection of one or more friends from the list; and

sending data to the remote server to be shared with the one or more selected friends.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the list is touch-selectable.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein the data includes video data.

11. The method of claim 8, wherein the data includes audio data.

12. The method of claim 8, further comprising opening a wireless enabled chat session with the selected friends, using the server to transmit data between parties.

13. The method of claim 8, wherein the data includes a driver destination.

14. The method of claim 8, wherein the data includes a current vehicle location.

15. A computer readable storage medium storing instructions that, when executed by a processor of a vehicle computing system, cause the processor to perform a method comprising:

communicating with a remote server to receive a list of friends who are currently driving their respective vehicles;

displaying the list of friends in a selectable manner;

receiving selection of one or more friends from the list; and

sending data to the remote server to be shared with the one or more selected friends.

16. The storage medium of claim 15, wherein the list is touch-selectable.

17. The storage medium of claim 15, wherein the data includes video data.

18. The storage medium of claim 15, wherein the data includes audio data.

19. The storage medium of claim 15, wherein the method further includes opening a wireless enabled chat session with the selected friends, using the server to transmit data between parties.