Alternative authorization for telematics

• US 8,630,747 B2
• Filed: 05/14/2012
• Issued: 01/14/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 05/14/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: T-Mobile Innovations LLC (Deutsche Telekom AG)
• Original Assignee: Sprint Communications Company LP (Deutsche Telekom AG)
• Inventors: Burcham, Robert H., Delker, Jason R., Katzer, Robin D.
• Primary Examiner(s): Black, Thomas
• Assistant Examiner(s): PAYNE, ROBERT T
• Application Number:
  US13/471,107
• Publication Number:
  US 20130304281A1
• Time in Patent Office: 610 Days
• Field of Search: 701/2, 701/1, 701/104, 701/209, 701/31.4, 726/6, 713/151, 704/270.1, 704/201
• US Class Current: 701/2
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/10 Protecting distributed programs or content, e.g. vending or licensing of copyrighted material protection in video systems or pay television H04N7/16 ; Digital rights management [DRM]

Abstract

A system for alternative authorization for telematics in a vehicle is disclosed. The system comprises a telematics unit residing in the vehicle, a radio transceiver, and a digital rights management application executing on the telematics unit. The radio transceiver couples the telematics unit with a wireless service provider. The digital rights management application receives a remote operation request, maps the remote operation request to vehicle specific instructions contained in the digital rights management application, and executes the vehicle specific instructions on the telematics unit.

Claims

1. A method for authorizing a request utilizing telematics in a vehicle, comprising:

receiving, by a digital rights management application executing on a telematics unit residing in the vehicle, a remote operation request, wherein the remote operation request comprises one or more abstracted remote operation commands, and wherein the one or more abstracted remote operation commands are abstracted commands that request a high-level function to be performed for the vehicle;

translating, by the digital rights management application, the one or more abstracted remote operation commands in the remote operation request to vehicle specific instructions contained in the digital rights management application, wherein the vehicle specific instructions comprise one or more individual functions specific to the vehicle; and

executing, by the digital rights management application, the vehicle specific instructions on the telematics unit, wherein the digital rights management application executes the receiving, the translating, and the executing in a Java runtime environment.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the remote operation request is encoded using digital rights management.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the remote operation request is decoded by the digital rights management application, and wherein the digital rights management application determines if the remote operation request is authorized to execute remote commands on the telematics unit.

4. A system for authorizing a request utilizing telematics in a vehicle, comprising:

a telematics unit residing in the vehicle;

a radio transceiver, wherein the radio transceiver couples the telematics unit with a wireless service provider;

a digital rights management application executing on the telematics unit, wherein the digital rights management application receives a remote operation request that comprises one or more abstracted remote operation commands, translates the one or more abstracted remote operation commands in the remote operation request to vehicle specific instructions contained in the digital rights management application, and executes the vehicle specific instructions on the telematics unit,

wherein the one or more abstracted remote operation commands are abstracted commands that request a high-level function to be performed for the vehicle, and wherein the vehicle specific instructions comprise one or more individual functions specific to the vehicle.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the telematics unit implements a Java virtual machine and the digital rights management application is a Java application executing the receives, the translates, and the executes steps in the Java virtual machine.

6. The system of claim 4, wherein the radio transceiver provides a wireless communication link to the wireless service provider according to one or more of a code division multiple access (CDMA) wireless protocol, a global system for mobile communications (GSM) wireless protocol, a long term evolution (LTE) wireless protocol, a worldwide interoperability for microwave access (WiMAX) wireless protocol, or another wireless protocol.

7. The system of claim 4, wherein the vehicle specific instructions comprise at least one of a lock/unlock vehicle request, a start/stop vehicle request, and a lights on/off vehicle request.

8. The system of claim 4, wherein the digital rights management application decodes the remote operation request and determines if the request is authorized to execute remote operations on the telematics unit.

9. The system of claim 4, further comprising a merchant transaction server coupled to the wireless service provider network, wherein the merchant transaction server comprises a digital rights management application.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the telematics unit receives a notification to update the digital rights management application on the telematics unit from the merchant transaction server based on changes to the digital rights management application on the merchant transaction server.

11. The system of claim 4, wherein the remote operation request is received from a remote operations server, and wherein the remote operation request is encoded using digital rights management by the remote operations server.

12. A method for authorizing a request utilizing telematics in a vehicle, comprising:

coupling a mobile electronic device to a telematics unit residing in the vehicle over a Bluetooth wireless connection;

sending, by an application executing on the mobile electronic device, a remote operation request to the telematics unit, wherein the remote operation request comprises one or more abstracted remote operation commands, wherein the one or more abstracted remote operation commands are abstracted commands that request a high-level function to be performed for the vehicle, and wherein the one or more abstracted remote operation commands do not provide vehicle specific instructions for performing the high-level function;

receiving, by a digital rights management application executing on the telematics unit, the remote operation request;

translating, by the digital rights management application, the one or more abstracted remote operation commands in the remote operation request to vehicle specific instructions contained in the digital rights management application, wherein the vehicle specific instructions comprise one or more individual functions specific to the vehicle; and

executing, by the digital rights management application, the vehicle specific instructions on the telematics unit.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising entering, by the telematics unit, a low power mode to conserve battery when the vehicle is not running.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the low power mode comprises defined states which determine a frequency with which the telematics unit checks for connectivity.

15. The method of claim 12, further comprising using, by the telematics unit, the Bluetooth wireless connection to link to a wireless service provider network via the mobile electronic device.

16. The method of claim 12, wherein the application executing on the mobile electronic device sends the remote operation request via a wireless service provider network when a Bluetooth wireless connection to the telematics unit is not present.

17. The method of claim 12, wherein the mobile electronic device comprises a digital rights management application, and wherein the remote operation request is encoded using digital rights management by the digital rights management application on the mobile electronic device.

18. The method of claim 12, wherein the digital rights management application on the telematics unit decodes the remote operation request, and wherein the digital rights management application on the telematics unit determines if the mobile electronic device is authorized to execute remote operations on the telematics unit.

19. The method of claim 17, further comprising receiving, by the mobile electronic device, a notification to update the digital rights management application on the mobile device from a merchant transaction server based on changes to a digital rights management application on the merchant transaction server.

20. The method of claim 12, wherein the digital rights management application executes the receiving, the translating, and the executing in a Java runtime environment.