UPDATING A VEHICLE HEAD UNIT WITH CONTENT FROM A WIRELESS DEVICE

• US 20150319551A1
• Filed: 05/01/2014
• Published: 11/05/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 05/01/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: GM Global Technology Operations LLC (General Motors Company)
• Original Assignee: GM Global Technology Operations LLC (General Motors Company)
• Inventors: Grost, Timothy J., Hansen, Cody R., Juzswik, Karen
• Granted Patent: US 9,560,470 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 1/3822 specially adapted for use in vehicles H04B1/3827 takes precedence
• 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: H04L 67/34 involving the movement of software or configuration parameters network booting or remote initial program loading [RIPL] G06F9/4416
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/568 Storing data temporarily at an intermediate stage, e.g. caching
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/2757 by data transmission, e.g. downloading
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/6091 including a wireless interface
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72412 using two-way short-range wireless interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/60 Subscription-based services using application servers or record carriers, e.g. SIM application toolkits

Abstract

A communications system and method of operating a vehicle multi-tainment unit (VMU) within that communications system is disclosed. The method includes the steps of: (a) establishing a connection between the VMU and a mobile device; (b) retrieving from a cache associated with the VMU user data previously provided by the mobile device; (c) prior to receiving current user data from the mobile device, receiving via the connection recently-used user data from the mobile device; (d) comparing the previously-provided user data and the received recently-used data; and (e) updating the previously-provided user data based on the comparison.

Claims

1. A method of operating a vehicle multi-tainment unit (VMU), comprising the steps of:

(a) establishing a connection between the VMU and a mobile device;

(b) retrieving from a cache associated with the VMU user data previously provided by the mobile device;

(c) prior to receiving current user data from the mobile device, receiving via the connection recently-used user data from the mobile device;

(d) comparing the previously-provided user data and the received recently-used user data; and

(e) updating the previously-provided user data based on the comparison.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the connection between the VMU and the mobile device is either wired or via short range wireless communication (SRWC).

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the previously-provided user data includes at least one of:

a previously-provided contact list having a plurality of contacts or a previously-provided media list having a plurality of media units.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the recently-used user data includes at least one recently-used contact unit accessed by the mobile device or at least one recently-used media unit accessed by the mobile device.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the recently-used contact unit is associated with a recently-called list stored in the mobile device.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein the recently-used media unit is associated with at least one of:

a recently-added media unit, a recently-purchased media unit, or a recently-played media unit.

7. The method of claim 4, wherein the recently-used media unit includes an audio file, a visual file, or an audio-visual file.

8. The method of claim 4, wherein step (d) further comprises:

determining whether the at least one recently-used contact unit is located in the previously-provided user data,

wherein step (e) further comprises;

when the at least one recently-used contact unit is not located in the previously-provided user data, adding the at least one recently-used contact unit to the cache.

9. The method of claim 4, wherein step (d) further comprises:

determining whether the at least one recently-used media unit it is located in the previously-provided user data,

wherein step (e) further comprises;

when the at least one recently-used media unit is not located in the previously-provided user data, adding the at least one recently-used media unit to the cache.

10. The method of claim 4, wherein step (d) further comprises:

(f) after updating the previously-provided user data with the recently-used user data, receiving via the connection the current user data from the mobile device; and

then

(g) updating the previously-provided user data with the current user data.

11. A method of operating a vehicle multi-tainment unit (VMU), comprising the steps of:

(a) establishing a connection between the VMU and a mobile device;

(b) retrieving from a cache associated with the VMU user data previously provided by the mobile device;

(c) prior to receiving an entire up-to-date user database from the mobile device, receiving via the connection a recently-used sub-database of the up-to-date user database from the mobile device;

(d) comparing the previously-provided user data and the received recently-used sub-database; and

(e) updating the previously-provided user data based on the comparison.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the recently-used sub-database includes at least one recently-used contact unit accessed by the mobile device or at least one recently-used media unit accessed by the mobile device

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the recently-used contact unit is associated with a recently-called list stored in the mobile device.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein the recently-used media unit is associated with at least one of:

a recently-added media unit, a recently-purchased media unit, or a recently-played media unit.

15. The method of claim 12, wherein the recently-used media unit includes an audio file, a visual file, or an audio-visual file.

16. The method of claim 12, wherein step (d) further comprises:

determining whether the at least one recently-used contact unit is located in the previously-provided user data,

wherein step (e) further comprises;

when the at least one recently-used contact unit is not located in the previously-provided user data, adding the at least one recently-used contact unit to the cache.

17. The method of claim 12, wherein step (d) further comprises:

determining whether the at least one recently-used media unit it is located in the previously-provided user data,

wherein step (e) further comprises;

when the at least one recently-used media unit is not located in the previously-provided user data, adding the at least one recently-used media unit to the cache.

18. The method of claim 12, wherein step (d) further comprises:

(f) after updating the previously-provided user data with the recently-used sub-database, receiving via the connection the up-to-date user database from the mobile device; and

then

(g) updating the previously-provided user data with the up-to-date user database.