Vehicle on-board unit and mobile device linkage system

• US 9,020,566 B2
• Filed: 10/29/2012
• Issued: 04/28/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 11/30/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Honda Access Corp. (Honda Motor Company)
• Original Assignee: Honda Access Corp. (Honda Motor Company)
• Inventors: Takikawa, Keiichi
• Primary Examiner(s): Maung, Nay A
• Assistant Examiner(s): Rivero, Alejandro
• Application Number:
  US13/662,614
• Publication Number:
  US 20130137489A1
• Time in Patent Office: 911 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 455/566
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/48 for in-vehicle communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/50 Service provisioning or reconfiguring

Abstract

A system to link a mobile device with a vehicle on-board unit includes an interface section that allows communication between the mobile device and the on-board unit, a linkage determining section that, on the basis of information obtained by the interface section, determines whether or not the mobile device and the on-board unit are linked together, a vehicle travel determining section that determines whether or not the vehicle is in motion, an application start control section that starts a launcher application provided on the mobile device, the launcher application being configured to restrict use of a registered application of the mobile device while the vehicle is in motion, and an illumination control section that causes a screen of a display section of the mobile device turn off when the launcher application is started.

Claims

1. A vehicle on-board unit and mobile device linkage system, comprising:

an on-board unit installed in a vehicle;

a mobile device having a display section;

an interface section that allows communication between the mobile device and the on-board unit;

a linkage determining section that, on the basis of information obtained by the interface section, determines whether or not the mobile device and the on-board unit are linked together and generates a connection signal indicative of completion of an external display connection;

a vehicle travel determining section that determines whether or not the vehicle is in motion;

an application start control section that starts a launcher application provided on the mobile device, and generates a start signal indicative of the start-up of the launcher application, the launcher application being configured to restrict use of a registered application provided on the mobile device while the vehicle is in motion; and

an illumination control section that turns off a screen of the display section of the mobile device, depending on presence of the connection signal and the start signal delivered by the application start control section to the illumination control section when the launcher application is started.

2. The vehicle on-board unit and mobile device linkage system according to claim 1, wherein the vehicle travel determining section uses information from a parking brake of the vehicle in order to determine whether or not the vehicle is in motion.

3. The vehicle on-board unit and mobile device linkage system according to claim 1, wherein the launcher application is an application capable of recognizing a voice-activation command from a driver of the vehicle.

4. The vehicle on-board unit and mobile device linkage system according to claim 1, wherein the illumination control section operates to turn off the screen of the display section of the mobile device when the launcher application is started under conditions that a linkage between the mobile device and the on-board unit has been determined by the linkage determining section and the vehicle is in a moving state has been determined by the vehicle travel determining section.