IN-VEHICLE ACCESS OF MOBILE DEVICE FUNCTIONS

• US 20140277937A1
• Filed: 03/15/2013
• Published: 09/18/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 03/15/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Audi AG (Volkswagen AG), Volkswagen AG
• Original Assignee: Audi AG (Volkswagen AG), Volkswagen AG
• Inventors: BECKMANN, Mark, SCHOLZ, Lars, BARTSCH, Patrick
• Granted Patent: US 9,348,555 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/36
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 7/00 Methods or arrangements for processing data by operating upon the order or content of the data handled logic circuits H03K19/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/025 for remote control or remote monitoring of applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/40 for vehicles, e.g. vehicle-to-pedestrians [V2P]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/50 Service provisioning or reconfiguring

Abstract

In-vehicle access of mobile device functions is provided wherein a vehicle is coupled to the mobile device, and obtains a list of apps installed thereon. A user manipulates vehicle controls to operate a select app and the vehicle modifies its display based on the app.

Claims

1. A system for in-vehicle access of mobile device functions, comprising:

an in-vehicle user control operative to control a function of an in-vehicle head unit (HU);

the HU, which includes;

a graphical display device;

a transceiver operative to communicate with a mobile user equipment (UE) communication terminal;

a tangible processing unit (processor);

a non-transitory data storage device (memory) in data communication with the processor, on which is stored computer code which, when executed on the processor, implements;

a MirrorLink™

protocol stack (stack) operative to establish a communication session between the HU and the UE;

a browser application (browser) operative to receive hypertext markup language version 5 (HTML5) code and to generate and present on the display a graphical user interface (GUI) based on the received HTML5 code;

at least one cascading style sheet (CSS) that works in cooperation with the received HTML5 code to provide a characteristic look to the generated GUI; and

instructions which cause the HU to;

send a request to the UE via the transceiver for app data including at least one of HTML5 code and JavaScript (JS) code;

receive the requested app data via the transceiver; and

present on the display, via the browser application, a GUI generated using the received app data and the CSS; and

means for integrating the MirrorLink protocol stack with the browser application, including means for providing to the HU a list of apps installed on the UE, means for launching a select one of the apps, means for launching the browser on the HU, and means for launching a web server on the UE.

2. The system of claim 1, further comprising at least one JavaScript (JS) that works in cooperation with the received HTML5 code to provide a characteristic feel to the generated GUI.

3. The system of claim 1, further comprising computer code stored in the memory that implements a delegation server.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the delegation server requests from the UE a resource sought by an app running on the processor.

5. A system for in-vehicle access of mobile device functions, comprising:

an in-vehicle user control operative to control a function of the vehicle;

an in-vehicle graphical display device;

an in-vehicle transceiver operative to communicate with a mobile user equipment (UE) communication terminal;

an in-vehicle tangible processing unit (processor);

an in-vehicle non-transitory data storage device (memory) in data communication with the processor, on which is stored computer code which, when executed on the processor, implements;

a protocol stack (stack) operative to establish a communication session between the vehicle and the UE;

a browser application operative to receive user interface code and to generate and present on the display a graphical user interface (GUI) based at least in part on the received code; and

instructions which cause the vehicle to;

discover the presence of the UE;

request and receive a list of apps installed on the UE;

provide user interface code of a select app to the browser, generate a GUI based at least in part on the provided user interface code, and present the GUI on the display; and

responsive to a manipulation of the user control, cause the app to perform an operation.

6. The system of claim 5, further comprising instructions stored in the memory that cause the vehicle to:

update the GUI presented on the display responsive to the performed app operation.

7. The system of claim 5, further comprising a head unit (HU) that includes the graphical display device, the transceiver, the processor, and the memory.

8. The system of claim 5, wherein the stack is compliant with the MirrorLink™

standard.

9. The system of claim 5, wherein the browser source code includes Chromium™

source code.

10. The system of claim 5, further comprising at least one cascading style sheet (CSS) stored in the memory and operative to cause the browser to present the GUI using predefined GUI elements that provide a characteristic look.

11. The system of claim 5, wherein the user interface data includes HTML5 compliant code.

12. The system of claim 5, wherein the user interface data includes JavaScript code (JS).

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the JS causes the GUI to operate using predefined functionality that provides a characteristic feel.

14. The system of claim 5, wherein the vehicle uses Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) in the discovering of the presence of the UE.

15. The system of claim 5, further comprising computer code stored in the memory that implements a delegation server.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the delegation server requests from the UE a resource sought by an app running on the processor.

17. A vehicle that accesses functions of a proximate mobile device, comprising:

a user control operative to control a function of the vehicle;

a graphical display device;

a transceiver operative to communicate with a mobile user equipment (UE) communication terminal;

a tangible processing unit (processor);

a non-transitory data storage device (memory) in data communication with the processor, on which is stored computer code which, when executed on the processor, implements;

a protocol stack (stack) operative to establish a communication session between the vehicle and the UE;

a browser application operative to receive user interface code and to generate and present on the display a graphical user interface (GUI) based at least in part on the received code; and

instructions which cause the vehicle to;

discover the presence of the UE;

request and receive a list of apps installed on the UE;

provide user interface code of a select app to the browser, generate a GUI based at least in part on the provided user interface code, and present the GUI on the display; and

responsive to a manipulation of the user control, cause the app to perform an operation.

18. A method for in-vehicle accessing of mobile device functions, comprising:

communicatively coupling a vehicle to a UE via a transceiver of the vehicle;

obtaining by the vehicle a list of apps installed on the UE;

storing the list in a memory of the vehicle;

presenting the list in a GUI on a display of the vehicle;

launching a browser application on a processor of the vehicle;

launching a web server on the UE;

responsive to a manipulation of a user control of the vehicle, launching a select one of the apps;

receiving app data by the browser, including HTML5 and JS code;

accessing at least one CSS stored in the memory of the vehicle;

presenting on the display a GUI generated by the browser based at least in part on the received HTML5 and the accessed CSS; and

executing the received JS code to implement at least one function of the select app.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the communicatively coupling step includes establishing a communicative connection between the vehicle and the UE in accordance with the MirrorLink™

standard.

20. The method of claim 18, wherein the app data received by the browser was previously obtained by the vehicle from the UE, and further includes at least one CSS obtained from the UE.

21. The method of claim 18 wherein the app runs on the vehicle processor, further comprising:

launching a delegation server on the vehicle processor; and

sending by the delegation server to the UE a request for a resource sought by the app.

22. The method of claim 21, further comprising obtaining access by the vehicle to the requested resource via the UE.