Methods and Systems to Customize a Vehicle Computing System Based on an Electronic Calendar

• US 20170041356A1
• Filed: 08/06/2015
• Published: 02/09/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 08/06/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ford Global Technologies, LLC (Ford Motor Company)
• Original Assignee: Ford Global Technologies, LLC (Ford Motor Company)
• Inventors: NELSON, Thomas, NASRALLAH, Hussein F., APCZYNSKI, Thomas E., HATTON, David Anthony
• Granted Patent: US 11,044,283 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/403 Arrangements for multi-party communication, e.g. for conferences data switching systems for conference H04L12/18; arrangements for connecting several subscribers to a common circuit, i.e. affording conference facilities H04M3/56; television conferencing systems H04N7/15
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/2072 Schedules, e.g. personal calendars
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/567 Multimedia conference systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/142 Constructional details of the terminal equipment, e.g. arrangements of the camera and the display
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/147 Communication arrangements, e.g. identifying the communication as a video-communication, intermediate storage of the signals selecting H04Q
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/15 Conference systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/40 for vehicles, e.g. vehicle-to-pedestrians [V2P]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/80 Services using short range communication, e.g. near-field communication [NFC], radio-frequency identification [RFID] or low energy communication

Abstract

A vehicle system includes a processor programmed to output a shared screen for a meeting at a vehicle display configured to output infotainment settings. The processor is in communication with the vehicle display and a nomadic device. The processor is programmed to parse a calendar associated with the nomadic device for a meeting within a predefined or selected time window or period. The processor is further programmed to identify login information for the meeting, establish a communication link for the meeting based on the identified login information, and output a shared screen for the meeting at the display based on the vehicle being in a predefined state.

Claims

1. A vehicle system comprising:

a display configured to output infotainment settings; and

a processor in communication with the display and a nomadic device and programmed to,

parse a calendar associated with the nomadic device for a meeting starting within a time window;

identify login information for the meeting; and

in response to the vehicle being in a predefined state, output at the display a shared screen for the meeting based on the login information.

2. The vehicle system of claim 1, wherein the processor is further programmed to output one or more meeting options based on the login information to the display.

3. The vehicle system of claim 2, wherein the one or more meeting options are at least one of a call-in to meeting selection, a start shared screen conference selection, a delay meeting reminder selection, and a dismiss meeting selection.

4. The vehicle system of claim 3, wherein the processor is further programmed to, in response to received input for the start shared screen conference selection, output the shared screen at the display based on the predefined state of the vehicle.

5. The vehicle system of claim 3, wherein the delay meeting reminder selection removes the one or more meeting options from the display for a predefined amount of time.

6. The vehicle system of claim 5, wherein the predefined state is at least one of a park state for a transmission and a wheel speed value approximately equal to zero.

7. The vehicle system of claim 1, wherein the time window corresponds to a set amount of time.

8. The vehicle system of claim 1, wherein the time window corresponds to a moving window based on a predetermined time from a current time.

9. The vehicle system of claim 1, wherein the display is a human machine interface display for an infotainment system.

10. The vehicle system of claim 1, wherein the login information includes at least one of a phone number, access code, hyperlink, and attendee ID.

11. The vehicle system of claim 10, wherein the hyperlink enables a communication link between a remote computer controlled by a meeting attendee and the processor.

12. The vehicle system of claim 11, wherein the shared screen provides content received from the remote computer.

13. The vehicle system of claim 1, wherein the calendar is stored at the nomadic device or a server.

14. A vehicle conference call method comprising:

recognizing, via a vehicle system, an occupant based on a nomadic device;

parsing calendar data associated with the occupant for a meeting starting within a predefined time window and associated meeting login information;

presenting a prompt via a vehicle display for authorization of a communication link for the meeting; and

if authorization is received, automatically transmitting the login information using the communication link.

15. The vehicle conference call method of claim 14, further comprising:

establishing, via the vehicle system, communication with a remote server associated with the calendar data; and

receiving the calendar data associated with the occupant from the remote server.

16. The vehicle conference call method of claim 14, wherein presenting a prompt comprises outputting to the vehicle display one or more meeting options based on the login information.

17. The vehicle conference call method of claim 16, wherein the one or more meeting options are at least one of a call-in to meeting selection, a start shared screen conference selection, a delay meeting reminder selection, and a dismiss meeting selection.

18. The vehicle conference call method of claim 14, wherein the meeting login information includes at least one of a phone number, access code, hyperlink, and attendee ID.

19. A computer-program product embodied in a non-transitory computer readable medium having stored instructions for programming a vehicle processor, comprising instructions for:

parsing a linked nomadic device calendar for a meeting starting within a selected time period;

identifying login information for the meeting;

establishing a communication link for the meeting based on the identified login information; and

in response to a predefined vehicle state, outputting a shared screen for the meeting at a display.

20. The computer-program product of claim 19, the non-transitory computer readable medium further comprising instructions for:

establishing communication with a remote server; and

retrieving the calendar from the remote server.