Java telematics emulator

• US 7,127,386 B2
• Filed: 03/22/2002
• Issued: 10/24/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 03/22/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Oracle America, Inc. (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Sun Microsystems Incorporated (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: Decristo, Dianna L., Razavi, Behfar, Kelly, Lisa M., McWalter, William F., Mocek, Darryl J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Shah, Kamini
• Assistant Examiner(s): LUU, CUONG V
• Application Number:
  US10/104,294
• Publication Number:
  US 20030182099A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,677 Days
• Field of Search: 701 1-302, 455 1-899, 707/102, 707/100, 705/1, 719/328, 700 1-306
• US Class Current: 703/23
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/455 Emulation; Interpretation; Software simulation, e.g. virtualisation or emulation of application or operating system execution engines

Abstract

A system for emulating a telematics client is provided. The system includes a workstation in communication with a display screen. A software stack configured to be executed by the workstation to implement functionality for a telematics client is included. The software stack imitates a configuration of an in-vehicle telematics stack of a telematics control unit (TCU). The software stack includes a service gateway for loading an emulator. A user interface (UI) manager configured to communicate with the loaded emulator is included with the software stack. The UI manager enables a presentation of TCU user interface without accessing the TCU. Methods to emulate a user interface and loading an emulator on a workstation are also provided.

Claims

1. A system for emulating a telematics client, comprising:

a workstation in communication with a display screen;

a software stack configured to be executed by the workstation to implement functionality for a telematics client, the software stack imitating a configuration of an in-vehicle telematics stack of a telematics control unit (TCU), the software stack further including;

a service gateway for loading an emulator;

a user interface (UD manager configured to communicate with the loaded emulator, wherein the UI manager enables a presentation of a TCU user interface without accessing the TCU.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the software stack includes a user interface manager, the user interface manager including all functionality of an imitated user interface manager and additional functionality enabling a display screen associated with the imitated user interface manager to be displayed on the display screen.

3. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

a communication framework enabling communication between layers of the software stack.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein, the functionality for the telematics client is provided by client applications.

5. The system of claim 4 wherein the client application is a carlet and the client application is executed on the TCU of a vehicle, the carlet configured to render control and interfacing with a component of the vehicle.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the emulator is provided by one of downloading from a network and retrieving from a storage medium.

7. The system of claim 1, further including:

a Java provisioning server in communication with the telematics client.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the presentation of the TCU user interface includes a carlet browser, the carlet browser providing a list of carlets.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein control buttons are provided for navigating the carlet browser.

10. A method for emulating a telematics control unit (TCU) user interface, comprising:

obtaining an emulator of a TCU;

defining a client application configured to run on the emulator;

executing the client application on the emulator to evaluate a presentation of the client application; and

providing a workstation configured to output an emulation of a TCU user interface.

11. The method of claim 10, further including:

deploying the client application in a TCU installed in a vehicle such that the presentation of the deployed client application is the same as the presentation on the emulator.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein a software stack of the TCU is emulated on a personal computer running a target platform and the client application is a carlet.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the target platform is one of Windows™

and Solaris™

operating systems.

14. A method for loading an emulator on a workstation configured to provide an emulation of a telematics control unit (TCU) user interface, comprising:

launching a service gateway;

specifying an archive file defining an emulator for an in-vehicle telematics system;

executing the archive file to enable a display of a TCU user interface; and

reading a vehicle description file to define features of the TCU user interface.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the vehicle description file is an extensible markup language (XML) file.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein each of the features is defined in a Java class file which is enclosed in a Java Archive file.

17. The method of claim 14, wherein the archive file is a Java Archive file defining an emulator.

18. The method of claim 14, wherein the method operation of executing the archive file to enable a display of a TCU user interface further includes:

enabling an emulator configured to provide a carlet browser defining a list of carlets, the carlets being Java applications having access.

19. The method of claim 18, further including:

navigating through the list of carlets and invoking a sub-carlet.