METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR MAKING DATA AVAILABLE IN A MOTOR VEHICLE

• US 20150239347A1
• Filed: 08/19/2013
• Published: 08/27/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 09/28/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Audi AG (Volkswagen AG)
• Original Assignee: Audi AG (Volkswagen AG)
• Inventors: Oldewurtel, Frank
• Granted Patent: US 10,442,294 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 35/00 Instruments specially adapted for vehicles; Arrangement of instruments in or on vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9558 Details of hyperlinks; Management of linked annotations
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04817 using icons graphical or visual programming using iconic symbols G06F8/34
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0482 Interaction with lists of selectable items, e.g. menus
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04842 Selection of displayed objects or displayed text elements G06F3/0482 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/00 Administration; Management

Abstract

A method makes data available in a motor vehicle. A user query is entered using an input device of the motor vehicle. A plurality of sources are searched for data corresponding to the user query, and the search result associated with the found data is displayed by a display device of the motor vehicle. Respective applications of the motor vehicle are assigned to the search results by a data processing device. The applications are designed to reflect the data formats associated with the search results. Only these applications are displayed by the display device. A corresponding system makes the data available in the motor vehicle.

Claims

1-9. -9. (canceled)

10. A method for providing data in an automobile, comprising:

capturing a user query by an input device of the automobile;

searching a plurality of sources for data corresponding to the user query, the plurality of sources being searched to produce search results associated with the user query;

assigning the search results to at least one appropriate application of the automobile, the automobile having a plurality of available applications, the at least one appropriate application being a subset of the available applications such that at least one available application is not appropriate for the search results, the search results being assigned by a data processing device;

displaying activation information for only the at least one appropriate application;

receiving a user input regarding a selected appropriate application; and

displaying the search results with search result data formatted according to the selected appropriate application.

11. The method as claimed in claim 10, wherein

the user query is sent to a vehicle-external data processing unit that searches the plurality of sources for the data corresponding to the user query and transmits the search results to the automobile before the search results are displayed by the display device.

12. The method as claimed in claim 10, wherein

a check is performed to determine which of the available applications can be operated based on a current driving situation, and

only those available applications which can be operated are included in the at least one appropriate application.

13. The method as claimed in claim 12, wherein

a stationary application not available when the automobile is being driven, and

the stationary application is not presented to the user as an available application if the automobile is in motion.

14. The method as claimed in claim 10, wherein

the data processing device searches for data corresponding to the user query, and

the searching is performed on vehicle-external and/or vehicle-internal sources.

15. The method as claimed in claim 10, wherein

the data processing device searches for data corresponding to the user query, and

the searching is performed on both at least one vehicle-external source and at least one vehicle-internal source.

16. The method as claimed in claim 10, wherein

the search results are provided in the form of source-specific addresses at which respective data fitting the user query can be retrieved.

17. The method as claimed in claim 10, wherein

the sources are searched using source-specific search queries.

18. The method as claimed in claim 10, wherein

the data processing device is external to the automobile, and

communication between the automobile and the data processing device is effected via a mobile radio link.

19. The method as claimed in claim 10, wherein

the sources are vehicle-external sources that are external to the automobile, and

communication between the data processing device and the vehicle-external sources is effected via a broadband connection.

20. The method as claimed in claim 10, wherein

each available application is associated with an icon for display on the display device,

the display device displays only the icons associated with the at least one appropriate application, and

selection of one icon opens a respective application.

21. The method as claimed in claim 20, wherein each icon is displayed with information identifying the respective application.

22. The method as claimed in claim 20, wherein the selected appropriate application is selected by the user tapping the associated icon on the display device.

23. The method as claimed in claim 20, wherein the user query is displayed together with the icons associated with the at least one appropriate application.

24. The method as claimed in claim 10, wherein

the search results are associated with respective hyperlinks,

the selected appropriate application presents a list of the search results, and

selecting one search result activates the respective hyperlink.

25. The method as claimed in claim 10, wherein

the search results are assigned to at least two appropriate applications, and

the user selects as the selected appropriate application, one of the at least two appropriate applications for displaying the search results.

26. The method as claimed in claim 10, wherein

the automobile has first and second available applications,

first and second user queries are captured to respectively produce first and second search results,

for the first search results, activation information for the first available application is displayed and activation information for the second available application is not displayed, and

for the second search results, activation information for the second available application is displayed and activation for the first available application is not displayed.

27. A system to provide data in an automobile, comprising:

an input device of the automobile, to capture a user query;

a data processing device to;

search a plurality of sources for data corresponding to the user query, the plurality of sources being searched to produce search results associated with the user query; and

assign the search results to at least one appropriate application of the automobile, the automobile having a plurality of available applications, the at least one appropriate application being a subset of the available applications such that at least one available application is not appropriate for the search results; and

a display device of the automobile, connected to the data processing device to;

display activation information for only the at least one appropriate application; and

display the search results with search result data formatted according to a selected appropriate application.