IN-VEHICLE TELEMATICS UPGRADES

• US 20150278150A1
• Filed: 03/28/2014
• Published: 10/01/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 03/28/2014
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Ford Global Technologies, LLC (Ford Motor Company)
• Original Assignee: Ford Global Technologies, LLC (Ford Motor Company)
• Inventors: Bellanca, Louis Vincent, DeCia, Nunzio, Cunningham, Stephen Michael
• Application Number:
  US14/228,761
• Publication Number:
  US 20150278150A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 2370/12 Input devices or input features
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 2370/15 Output devices or features thereof
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 35/10 Input arrangements, i.e. from user to vehicle, associated with vehicle functions or specially adapted therefor
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 35/20 Output arrangements, i.e. from vehicle to user, associated with vehicle functions or specially adapted therefor
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 16/0207 Wire harnesses
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 16/03 for supply of electrical power to vehicle subsystems or for circuit arrangements for charging batteries H02J7/00
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 13/4221 being an input/output bus, e.g. ISA bus, EISA bus, PCI bus, SCSI bus
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 30/20 Design optimisation, verification or simulation optimisation, verification or simulation of circuit designs G06F30/30
• CPC Class Codes: H03G 5/165 Equalizers; Volume or gain control in limited frequency bands
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 2499/13 Acoustic transducers and sound field adaptation in vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 5/02 Spatial or constructional arrangements of loudspeakers

Abstract

A system may include in-vehicle telematics adapter including a telematics unit configured to implement telematics functions for use within a vehicle, and a vehicle bus emulator connected to a vehicle bus input of the telematics unit configured to provide a simulated vehicle bus to allow the telematics unit to function outside of integration with the vehicle. A method may include receiving, by a vehicle bus emulator having a simulated vehicle bus output connected to a vehicle bus input of a telematics unit, a control notification indicative of user input from a user interface control; and generating a human-machine interface (HMI) control event message specifying the user input to the user interface control via the simulated vehicle bus output.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

an in-vehicle telematics adapter including

a telematics unit configured to implement vehicle telematics functions, and

a vehicle bus emulator having a simulated vehicle bus output connected to a telematics unit vehicle bus input, the vehicle bus emulator configured to provide simulated vehicle bus messages to the telematics unit to allow the telematics unit to perform the telematics functions, as if the telematics unit were vehicle-integrated, outside of integration with a vehicle.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the in-vehicle telematics adapter further comprises a harness connected to a power module configured to receive power from the vehicle, and further configured to provide the power via harness connection to the telematics unit and to the vehicle bus emulator.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the in-vehicle telematics adapter further comprises an audio output module connected to at least one audio output of the telematics unit and configured to provide a mix of the at least one audio output to an audio output of the adapter.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the at least one audio output includes a monaural audio output for providing telematics unit prompts and a stereo audio output for providing media content, and wherein the audio output module is further configured to independently adjust a level of the monaural audio output and a level of the stereo audio output to provide a mix of the monaural audio output and the stereo audio output in the audio output of the adapter.

5. The system of claim 3, wherein the at least one audio output includes a first audio output and a second audio output, and wherein the audio output module is further configured to apply a first equalization to the first audio output and a second equalization, different from the first equalization, to the second audio output.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the vehicle bus is a controller area network (CAN), and wherein the vehicle bus emulator is configured to simulate CAN messages provided to the telematics unit via the CAN bus.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the vehicle bus emulator is further configured to emulate power signaling expected by the telematics unit on the vehicle bus, including at least one of key-on signaling to activate the telematics unit and key-off signaling to deactivate the telematics unit.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the vehicle bus emulator is further configured to emulate user interaction with a human-machine interface (HMI) of the telematics unit by providing at least one vehicle bus HMI event via the simulated vehicle bus output.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the vehicle bus emulator is further configured to emulate at least one human-machine interface (HMI) navigation event to navigate the telematics unit to a user interface menu in which a predetermined telematics feature is available to be requested by a user.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the vehicle bus emulator is further configured to receive a control notification from a user interface control module indicative of user input from a user interface control, and generate a human-machine interface (HMI) control event message specifying the user input to the user interface control via the simulated vehicle bus output.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the user interface control is a push-to-talk user interface button, and the human-machine interface (HMI) control event message specifies that the push-to-talk user interface button was pressed by the user.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein the in-vehicle telematics adapter further comprises a universal serial bus (USB) module including a USB port connected to a USB input to the telematics unit, supporting user connection of at least one of a USB flash drive or a portable music player to the telematics unit.

13. A method comprising:

receiving, by a vehicle bus emulator having a simulated vehicle bus output connected to a vehicle bus input of a telematics unit, a control notification indicative of user input from a user interface control; and

generating a human-machine interface (HMI) control event message specifying the user input to the user interface control via the simulated vehicle bus output.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

emulating, by a vehicle bus emulator, power signaling expected by the telematics unit on the vehicle bus, including at least one of key-on signaling to activate the telematics unit and key-off signaling to deactivate the telematics unit.

15. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

emulating, by a vehicle bus emulator, at least one human-machine interface (HMI) navigation event to navigate the telematics unit to a user interface menu in which a telematics feature is available to be requested by a user.

16. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

receiving at least one audio output from the telematics unit; and

provide a mix of the at least one audio output to an audio output of an adapter including the vehicle bus emulator, telematics unit, and audio output.

17. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

receiving an audio input from an audio capture device; and

providing the audio input to an audio input of the telematics unit.

18. A non-transitory computer-readable medium including instructions configured to be executed by a processor of a vehicle bus emulator having a simulated vehicle bus output connected to a vehicle bus input of a telematics unit, to cause the vehicle bus emulator to:

receive a control notification indicative of user input from a user interface control; and

generate a human-machine interface (HMI) control event message specifying the user input to the user interface control via the simulated vehicle bus output.

19. The medium of claim 18, further including instructions configured to be executed by the processor to cause the vehicle bus emulator to emulate power signaling expected by the telematics unit on the vehicle bus, including at least one of key-on signaling to activate the telematics unit and key-off signaling to deactivate the telematics unit.

20. The computer-readable medium of claim 18, further including instructions configured to be executed by the processor to cause the vehicle bus emulator to emulate at least one human-machine interface (HMI) navigation event to navigate the telematics unit to a user interface menu in which a telematics feature is available to be requested by a user.