Methods and systems for locating contacts

• US 9,291,467 B2
• Filed: 06/29/2012
• Issued: 03/22/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 06/29/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Harman International Industries Incorporated (Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Harman International Industries Incorporated (Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.)
• Inventors: Mani, Manjunath, Sreenivasan, Santhosh
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen, John Q
• Assistant Examiner(s): Sood, Anshul
• Application Number:
  US13/537,871
• Publication Number:
  US 20140005944A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,362 Days
• Field of Search: 701/206, 701/411, 701/422, 701/442, 701/482, 701/537, 455/456.1, 455/456.2
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/343 Calculating itineraries, i.e. routes leading from a starting point to a series of categorical destinations using a global route restraint, round trips, touristic trips travelling salesman problem G06Q10/04; optimisation of routes G06Q10/047
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/362 received from an external device or application, e.g. PDA, mobile phone or calendar application
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• 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 4/024 Guidance services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services

Abstract

Various embodiments relate to determining a location of a contact. A request may be transmitted from a vehicle computer to locate one or more contacts remote from a vehicle. A response to the request transmitted from a communication device of the one or more contacts may be received at the vehicle computer. The location of the one or more contacts may be determined. Instructions to navigate to the location may be received at the vehicle computer and a route may be calculated based on the one or more contacts'"'"' location. A status of the response to the request to locate may be output.

Claims

1. A system for determining a location of a contact, the system comprising:

an in-vehicle infotainment (IVI) unit comprising one or more in-vehicle interfaces for receiving and transmitting information and configured to;

receive input at the IVI identifying one or more contacts remote from the IVI unit to locate;

transmit a first request to locate the one or more contacts remote from the IVI unit without making a voice call to the one or more contacts, the one or more contacts associated with a first remote communication device;

if unsuccessful at receiving a response after transmission of the first locate request to the first remote communication device of the one or more contacts, automatically transmit a second request from the IVI unit to a second remote communication device of the one or more contacts to locate the one or more contacts;

upon successful transmission of the locate request, receive at the IVI unit a response to the locate request transmitted from the first or second remote communication device of the one or more contacts;

if the response is to share a location,

receive the location of the one or more contacts; and

input location information to a navigation module of the IVI unit for calculating a route to the one or more contacts'"'"' location if instructions to navigate to the location are also received; and

output information relevant to a status of the response to the request to locate if the response is to not share the location or if instructions to navigate are not received.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein the first and second remote communication devices of the one or more contacts are at least one of a mobile phone or a vehicle-based embedded phone.

3. The system of claim 1 wherein the response is automatically transmitted from the communication device based on an identity of a requester.

4. The system of claim 1 wherein the IVI unit is further configured to output a request to navigate to the location for receiving instructions to navigate to the location.

5. The system of claim 1 wherein, if instructions to navigate to the location are not received, the information relevant to the status is the location of the one or more contacts.

6. The system of claim 5 wherein the location of the one or more contact is output as an address, partial address, point of interest, location on a street, a highway location, or a cross street.

7. The system of claim 1 wherein the response to not share the location is based on a user input rejection of the request.

8. The system of claim 1 wherein the response to not share the location is due to an expiration of a timeout period for response by the one or more contacts to the request to locate.

9. The system of claim 1 wherein the first remote communication device is a default remote communication device for determining the location of the one or more contacts.

10. The system of claim 9 wherein the default remote communication device is an embedded communication device in a vehicle.

11. The system of claim 1 wherein the transmitted request includes a phone number of an embedded device in a vehicle of the one or more contacts.

12. The system of claim 1 wherein the IVI is configured to detect a second remote communication device of the one or more contacts, wherein the second request is transmitted upon detecting the second remote communication device.

13. A computer-implemented method of determining a location of one or more contacts, the computer-implemented method comprising:

receiving input at a vehicle computer identifying one or more contacts remote from a vehicle to locate;

transmitting over a vehicle network one or more messages based on the input to a communication module in the vehicle to transmit a first request to share a location of the one or more contacts for output on a first remote communication device of the identified one or more contacts;

if the first request fails, automatically transmitting a second request to share a location of the identified one or more contacts for output on a second remote communication device of the identified one or more contacts, wherein the first or second request is transmitted regardless of an ongoing communication with the identified one or more contacts;

receiving via the in-vehicle communication module a response to the first or second request;

transmitting over the vehicle network the response from the in-vehicle communication module to the vehicle computer;

from the response, determining at the vehicle computer that a location of the one or more identified contacts is shared in response to the first or second request;

determining the location of the one or more identified contacts at the vehicle computer; and

outputting the location of the one or more identified contacts.

14. The computer-implemented method of claim 13 further comprising outputting one or more messages at the vehicle computer requesting instructions for navigating to the location.

15. The computer-implemented method of claim 14 further comprising calculating a route to the one or more contacts'"'"' location based on the location of the one or more contacts in response to receiving instructions to navigate to the location.

16. The computer-implemented method of claim 13 wherein the input identifying the one or more contacts is a name or a phone number of the one or more contacts.

17. The computer-implemented method of claim 13 further comprising determining that the first request failed,

wherein determining that the first request failed comprises:

transmitting a first connection request via the in-vehicle communication module to the first remote communication device of the one or more identified contacts;

determining that a connection cannot be established with the first communication device of the identified one or more contacts;

wherein transmitting the second request comprises;

transmitting a second connection request via the in-vehicle communication module to the second remote communication device of the identified one or more contacts,

wherein the request to share the location is transmitted once the second connection is established.

18. The computer-implemented method of claim 17 wherein the first and second remote communication devices of the one or more identified contacts are at least one of a mobile phone or a vehicle-based embedded phone.

19. The computer-implemented method of claim 13 wherein the request to share a location is received on the communication device of the identified one or more contacts as a text message.

20. The computer-implemented method of claim 13 wherein determining the location of the one or more contacts includes determining that the contact is in a moving vehicle.

21. The computer-implemented method of claim 20 wherein, based on determining that the contact is in a moving vehicle, the location of the one or more contacts is determined as a general vicinity or area.

22. A non-transitory computer program product embodied on a non-transitory computer readable medium for determining a location of one or more contacts, the computer program product having computer-readable instructions for:

receiving input defining a request to locate one or more contacts remote from a vehicle;

based on the request and without making a voice call to the one or more contacts, transmitting one or more first messages via a vehicle computer to one or more first communication devices of the one or more contacts requesting instructions from the one or more contacts to share a location;

determining that the transmission of the one or more first messages was not completed;

identifying a second remote communication device of the one or more contacts,

based on determining that the transmission was not completed, automatically transmitting one or more second messages via the vehicle computer to one or more identified second communication devices of the one or more contacts requesting instructions from the one or more contacts to share a location;

receiving instructions with respect to sharing the location of the one or more contacts;

based on the instructions, determining a location of the one or more contacts;

outputting at the vehicle computer one or more requests for instructions to navigate to the location of the one or more contacts;

receiving user instructions at the vehicle computer to navigate to the location of the one or more contacts; and

transmitting computer instructions for calculating and outputting a route based on the location.

23. The non-transitory computer program product of claim 22, wherein the location is determined for multiple contacts, the computer program product further comprising instructions for receiving a route schedule for routing to each of the locations of the multiple contacts, wherein the computer instructions for calculating and outputting the route are transmitted according to the route schedule.

24. The non-transitory computer program product of claim 23 wherein the route schedule is based on proximity to the location of at least one of the multiple contacts.

25. The non-transitory computer program product of claim 23 further comprising instructions for confirming the location of at least one of the multiple contacts before moving to another location according to the route schedule.

26. The non-transitory computer program product of claim 22 further comprising instructions for determining that the one or more contacts is moving, wherein the instructions for calculating the route are instructions for calculating the route to the one or more contacts based on proximity to the vehicle.

27. The non-transitory computer program product of claim 22 further comprising instructions for:

determining that the route to the location of the one or more contacts is not navigable by vehicle only; and

outputting one or more messages at a vehicle computer based on the determination.