METHODS AND SYSTEMS FOR AUTOMATICALLY PAIRING A PERSONAL ELECTRONIC DEVICE ON A TRANSPORTATION VEHICLE

• US 20180049250A1
• Filed: 08/10/2016
• Published: 02/15/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 08/10/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Panasonic Avionics Corporation (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Panasonic Avionics Corporation (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Perng, Bruce, Khabrani, Gurmukh, Law, Mark, Perng, Chin
• Granted Patent: US 10,362,609 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: B64D 11/0015 Arrangements for entertainment or communications, e.g. radio, television
• CPC Class Codes: B64D 11/00155 Individual entertainment or communication system remote controls therefor, located in or connected to seat components, e.g. to seat back or arm rest
• 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 67/125 involving control of end-device applications over a network
• 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: H04W 4/48 for in-vehicle communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/10 Connection setup

Abstract

Methods and systems for a transportation vehicle are provided. For example, one method includes requesting a network connection by an electronic device to a network on a transportation vehicle; transmitting passenger information by the electronic device to a transportation vehicle computing device, after the network connection is established; verifying passenger information by the transportation vehicle computing device; requesting confirmation of passenger information by the transportation vehicle computing device; and enabling communication from the electronic device to a system of the transportation vehicle for managing one or more seat control functions.

Claims

1. A machine implemented method, comprising:

requesting a network connection by an electronic device to a network on a transportation vehicle;

transmitting passenger information by the electronic device to a transportation vehicle computing device, after the network connection is established;

verifying passenger information by the transportation vehicle computing device;

requesting confirmation of passenger information by the transportation vehicle computing device; and

enabling communication from the electronic device to a system of the transportation vehicle for managing one or more seat control functions.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the transportation vehicle is an aircraft, the electronic device is a personal electronic device (PED), the system is an inflight entertainment system, and the network connection is a wireless connection.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the system comprises an inflight entertainment system including a plurality of seat devices, and the passenger information identifies a passenger for associating the PED with one of the seat devices in the plurality.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the transportation vehicle computing device comprises an onboard management system that stores passenger manifest data and compares the passenger information with the passenger manifest data.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising receiving confirmation of a passenger seat number by the onboard management system.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the network connection is a wireless connection.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the transportation vehicle is one of a train, a bus, a ship and a recreation vehicle.

8. A machine implemented method, comprising:

accepting a wireless network connection from an electronic device to a network of an aircraft;

receiving passenger information from the electronic device by an onboard management system of the aircraft;

verifying passenger information against a passenger manifest data stored by the onboard management system;

sending a request to the electronic device for confirmation of a passenger seat location; and

after successful confirmation of the passenger seat location, accepting communications from the electronic device by the onboard management system for controlling one or more functions associated with the passenger seat location.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the seat location comprises a seat number.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the one or more functions of a seat device interfacing with the onboard management system via a wired network connection.

11. The method of claim 8, wherein the onboard management system is an inflight entertainment system comprising a plurality of seat devices.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the electronic device is paired with one of the seat devices of the plurality and operates as a remote control for controlling an attribute of the inflight entertainment system.

13. The method of claim 8, wherein the electronic device operates as a remote control for controlling another feature available at a passenger seat location, including at least one of activating a reading light and activating a flight attendant call light.

14. A system for a transportation vehicle for use with a passenger having a personal electronic device, the system comprising:

a network and a computing device in communication with the network, the computing device including a memory containing a machine readable medium storing passenger manifest data and machine executable code, and a processor module coupled to the memory in which the processor module is configured to execute the machine executable code to;

accept a request from the personal electronic device for connection to the network;

receive passenger information from the personal electronic device after the request is accepted;

verify the passenger information against the passenger manifest data;

communicate a request for confirmation of a passenger seat location to the personal electronic device after verifying the passenger information; and

after successful confirmation of the passenger seat location, accepting communications from the personal electronic device for controlling one or more functions associated with the passenger seat location.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the transportation vehicle is an aircraft, and the connection is a wireless connection to the network.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the passenger information identifies a passenger for associating the personal electronic device with a seat device comprising at least a portion of the inflight entertainment system.

17. The system of claim 15, wherein the transportation vehicle computing device comprises an onboard management system.

18. The system of claim 16, wherein the seat device and personal electronic device each include a display, and the request for confirmation of a passenger seat location is shown on one of the display of the seat device and the personal electronic device.

19. The system of claim 14, wherein the computing device comprises a server in an inflight entertainment system.

20. The system of claim 14, wherein the transportation vehicle is one of a train, a bus, a ship and a recreation vehicle.