IN-VEHICLE ACCESS APPLICATION

• US 20170272905A1
• Filed: 06/01/2017
• Published: 09/21/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 11/04/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Kelvan Howard, Martin Enriquez
• Original Assignee: Martin Enriquez
• Inventors: Enriquez, Martin, Howard, Kelvan
• Granted Patent: US 10,212,543 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3461 Preferred or disfavoured areas, e.g. dangerous zones, toll or emission zones, intersections, manoeuvre types, segments such as motorways, toll roads, ferries
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/085 involving remote charge determination or related payment systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/40145 Biometric identity checks
• CPC Class Codes: G07B 15/02 taking into account a variable factor such as distance or time, e.g. for passenger transport, parking systems or car rental systems G07B15/06 takes precedence; taximeters G07B13/00; parking meters per se G07F17/24; car rental systems per se G07B15/00
• CPC Class Codes: G07B 15/063 using wireless information transmission between the vehicle and a fixed station identification of vehicles G08G
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/017 identifying vehicles G08G1/015, G08G1/054 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/207 with respect to certain areas, e.g. forbidden or allowed areas with possible alerting when inside or outside boundaries
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/08 for authentication of entities cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for entity authentication H04L9/32
• 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 67/141 Setup of application sessions admission control or resource allocation in data switching networks H04L47/70
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/52 specially adapted for the location of the user terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/53 using third party service providers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/18 Multiprotocol handlers, e.g. single devices capable of handling multiple protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/28 Timers or timing mechanisms used in protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/062 Pre-authentication
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/065 Continuous authentication
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/068 using credential vaults, e.g. password manager applications or one time password [OTP] applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/069 using certificates or pre-shared keys
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/021 Services related to particular areas, e.g. point of interest [POI] services, venue services or geofences
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/023 using mutual or relative location information between multiple location based services [LBS] targets or of distance thresholds
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/44 : for communication between vehicles and infrastructures, e.g. vehicle-to-cloud [V2C] or vehicle-to-home [V2H]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/48 : for in-vehicle communication
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/0254 : detecting a user operation or a tactile contact or a motion of the device
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/02 : Selection of wireless resources by user or terminal
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/70 : in wireless communication networks

Abstract

An in-vehicle access application may have different modes of operation. The different modes of operation may allow the in-vehicle access application to interact with different access devices, or interact differently with an access device. When a vehicle is determined to be in a stopped position, a first mode of operation of the in-vehicle access application can be activated. When a vehicle is determined to be moving, a second mode of operation of the in-vehicle access application can be activated.

Claims

1. A computing system comprising:

a processor;

a non-transitory computer readable medium coupled to the processor and storing a set of computer executable instructions, which when executed by the processor, causes the computing system to;

receive a vehicle status signal of a vehicle;

determine, based on a first state of the vehicle status signal at a first point in time, that the vehicle is in a stopped position;

responsive to determining that the vehicle is in the stopped position, activate a proximity function of the computing system that detects an access device in proximity to the vehicle, and establishes a wireless communication channel between the computing system and the access device;

determine, based on a second state of the vehicle status signal at a second point in time, that the vehicle is moving; and

responsive to determining that the vehicle is moving, activate a tolling function of the computing system.

2. The computing system of claim 1, wherein the tolling function includes:

identifying a toll road within a predetermined distance of the vehicle based on the location of the vehicle;

determining that the vehicle is approaching the toll road; and

transmitting account credentials to a remote tolling server to obtain permission for the vehicle to access the toll road prior to arrival of the vehicle at the toll road.

3. The computing system of claim 1, wherein the tolling function includes:

identifying a toll station within a predetermined distance of the vehicle based on the location of the vehicle;

determining a transponder frequency of the toll station;

prior to arrival of the vehicle at the toll station, tuning a frequency of a tunable transponder integrated as part of the vehicle to match the determined transponder frequency of the toll station; and

transmitting account credentials or verification information to the toll station using the determined transponder frequency when the toll station is in proximity to the vehicle.

4. The computing system of claim 3, wherein the tolling function includes determining a protocol message format associated with the toll station, and the account credentials or the verification information are transmitted to the toll station using the determined protocol message format.

5. The computing system of claim 1, wherein the proximity function includes initiating a timer to record a duration of time that the vehicle is in the stopped position.

6. The in computing system of claim 5, wherein power to the timer is maintained when the vehicle is turned off.

7. The in computing system of claim 1, wherein the proximity function includes receiving transaction information from the access device via the wireless communication channel, and transmitting account credentials to the access device.

8. The computing system of claim 7, wherein the proximity function includes requesting entry of authentication information before transmitting account credentials to the access device.

9. The computing system of claim 1, wherein the vehicle is determined to be in the stopped position when the vehicle status signal indicates that the vehicle has been motionless for over a threshold amount of time, or when the vehicle status signal indicates that a transmission mode of the vehicle is in park.

10. The computing system of claim 1, wherein the vehicle is determined to be in motion when the vehicle status signal indicates that the vehicle has reached a predetermined minimum speed, or when the vehicle status signal indicates that a transmission mode of the vehicle is in drive.

11. A method comprising:

receiving, by a computing system, a vehicle status signal of a vehicle;

determining, by the computing system based on a first state of the vehicle status signal at a first point in time, that the vehicle is in a stopped position;

responsive to determining that the vehicle is in the stopped position, activating a proximity function of the computing system that detects an access device in proximity to the vehicle, and establishes a wireless communication channel between the computing system and the access device;

determining, based on a second state of the vehicle status signal at a second point in time, that the vehicle is moving; and

responsive to determining that the vehicle is moving, activating a tolling function of the computing system.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the tolling function includes:

identifying a toll road within a predetermined distance of the vehicle based on the location of the vehicle;

determining that the vehicle is approaching the toll road; and

transmitting account credentials to a remote tolling server to obtain permission for the vehicle to access the toll road prior to arrival of the vehicle at the toll road.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein the tolling function includes:

identifying a toll station within a predetermined distance of the vehicle based on the location of the vehicle;

determining a transponder frequency of the toll station;

prior to arrival of the vehicle at the toll station, tuning a frequency of a tunable transponder integrated as part of the vehicle to match the determined transponder frequency of the toll station; and

transmitting account credentials or verification information to the toll station using the determined transponder frequency when the toll station is in proximity to the vehicle.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the tolling function includes determining a protocol message format associated with the toll station, and the account credentials or the verification information are transmitted to the toll station using the determined protocol message format.

15. The method of claim 11, wherein the proximity function includes initiating a timer to record a duration of time that the vehicle is in the stopped position.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein power to the timer is maintained when the vehicle is turned off.

17. The method of claim 11, wherein the proximity function includes receiving transaction information from the access device via the wireless communication channel, and transmitting account credentials to the access device.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the proximity function includes requesting entry of authentication information before transmitting account credentials to the access device.

19. The method of claim 11, wherein the vehicle is determined to be in the stopped position when the vehicle status signal indicates that the vehicle has been motionless for over a threshold amount of time, or when the vehicle status signal indicates that a transmission mode of the vehicle is in park.

20. The method of claim 11, wherein the vehicle is determined to be in motion when the vehicle status signal indicates that the vehicle has reached a predetermined minimum speed, or when the vehicle status signal indicates that a transmission mode of the vehicle is in drive.