System for controlling a vehicle computer using a mobile telephone

• US 9,736,679 B2
• Filed: 09/18/2013
• Issued: 08/15/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 09/20/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Continental Automotive GmbH (Continental AG)
• Original Assignee: Continental Automotive GmbH (Continental AG)
• Inventors: Fliege, Ingmar
• Primary Examiner(s): NEFF, MICHAEL R
• Application Number:
  US14/429,685
• Publication Number:
  US 20150245198A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,427 Days
• Field of Search: 455420
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 2360/573 Mobile devices controlling vehicle functions
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 2360/589 Wireless data transfers
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 2360/595 Data transfer involving internal databases
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 35/10 Input arrangements, i.e. from user to vehicle, associated with vehicle functions or specially adapted therefor
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 35/80 Arrangements for controlling instruments
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 35/85 Arrangements for transferring vehicle- or driver-related data
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 16/023 for transmission of signals between vehicle parts or subsystems
• CPC Class Codes: G08C 17/02 using a radio link
• CPC Class Codes: G08C 2201/93 Remote control using other portable devices, e.g. mobile phone, PDA, laptop
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/6091 including a wireless interface
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72415 for remote control of appliances
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/22 Processing or transfer of terminal data, e.g. status or physical capabilities

Abstract

A vehicle computer has a vehicle display and a vehicle input device, and a mobile telephone has a mobile telephone display and a mobile telephone input device. A method for controlling the vehicle computer using the mobile telephone has the following steps: an application is run on the mobile telephone; a control command for the vehicle is entered into the application by a user using the mobile telephone input device; a software library, which can be used by multiple applications, is operated by the application; the mobile telephone is connected to the vehicle computer via a local network connection using the software library, a software interface for the software library being implemented in the vehicle computer; the control command is transmitted to the software interface; and the control command is carried out by the vehicle computer.

Claims

1. A method for controlling a vehicle computer (12) of a vehicle (14) using a mobile telephone (16), the vehicle computer (12) having a vehicle display (18) and a vehicle input device (20), and the mobile telephone (16) having a mobile telephone display (26) and a mobile telephone input device (28), the method comprising:

executing an application (46) on the mobile telephone (16);

assembling user elements by the application (46) for a graphical user interface of the application (46);

inputting, by a user, a control command for the vehicle (14) into the application (46) with the mobile telephone input device (28);

executing, by the application (46), a software library (40) usable by a plurality of applications;

connecting a software interface (42), for the software library (40), in the vehicle computer (12) to the mobile telephone (16) via a local network connection (30);

sending the control command to the software interface (42);

executing the control command by the vehicle computer (12);

retrieving design data from the vehicle computer (12) for the graphic representation of the user elements used by the mobile telephone application (46) by the software library (40) via the local network connection (30); and

generating a graphical user interface based on the design data supplied by the vehicle computer by the application (46).

2. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

controlling an application (44) in the vehicle computer (12) with the control command by the software interface (42).

3. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

accessing, through the software interface (42), a vehicle bus system (22) used by the vehicle computer (12); and

controlling an electronic device (24) in the vehicle (14) connected to the vehicle bus system (22) with the control command.

4. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

retrieving diagnostic data from an electronic device (24) of the vehicle (14) via the software interface (42);

sending the diagnostic data from the software interface (42) to the software library (40) via the local network connection (30); and

providing the diagnostic data by the software library (40) for the application (46).

5. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

sending compiled user elements to the software interface (42) of the vehicle computer (12) through the software library (40); and

displaying a graphical user interface of the application (46) on the vehicle display (18) with the assembled user elements, user elements being represented by the design data of the vehicle computer (12).

6. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

inputting user commands on the vehicle input device (20) by a user;

sending the user commands from the software interface (42) to the software library (40) via the local network connection (30); and

transmitting the user commands to the mobile telephone application (46) through the software library (40).

7. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing a computer program for controlling a vehicle (14), which, when executed on processors of a mobile telephone (16) and of a vehicle computer (12), carries out the steps of the method as claimed in claim 1.