System and method for sharing preset radio stations using a wireless network

• US 9,893,825 B1
• Filed: 12/20/2016
• Issued: 02/13/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 12/20/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ford Global Technologies, LLC (Ford Motor Company)
• Original Assignee: Ford Global Technologies, LLC (Ford Motor Company)
• Inventors: Rao, Jayanthi, Neubecker, Cynthia M., Mitra, Pramita, Hoellerbauer, Jakob Nikolaus
• Primary Examiner(s): Trinh, Tan H
• Application Number:
  US15/385,768
• Time in Patent Office: 420 Days
• Field of Search: 455 411, 455 412, 455 305, 455 306, 4555692, 4555561, 455 99, 455297, 455 111, 455345, 4554042, 455408, 455132, 455230, 4554563, 4551851, 4551861, 4551791, 701102, 701 1, 701200, 701211, 701201, 709223, 709214, 709205, 709228, 709201, 709203, 726 1, 705 64, 705 21, 705 17, 381 15, 725100, 725 81
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/165 Management of the audio stream, e.g. setting of volume, audio stream path
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 20/62 for transportation systems, e.g. in vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/47 for recognising genres
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/44 for communication between vehicles and infrastructures, e.g. vehicle-to-cloud [V2C] or vehicle-to-home [V2H]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/46 for vehicle-to-vehicle communication [V2V]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/80 Services using short range communication, e.g. near-field communication [NFC], radio-frequency identification [RFID] or low energy communication

Abstract

Embodiments provide a vehicle comprising a wireless transceiver for transmitting a request for radio presets to a plurality of vehicles within a predetermined proximity of the vehicle; a processor for generating a list of local radio stations based on radio presets information received by the wireless transceiver and a user preference for prioritizing the stations; and an audio system for playing audio received from a selected one of the local radio stations. Embodiments also include a method in a vehicle comprising sending, via a wireless transceiver, a request for radio presets to a plurality of vehicles within a predetermined proximity of the vehicle; generating, using a processor, a list of local radio stations based on radio presets information received by the wireless transceiver and a user preference for prioritizing the stations; and playing, via an audio system, audio received from a selected one of the local radio stations.

Claims

1. A vehicle, comprising:

a wireless transceiver for requesting radio presets from a plurality of vehicles within a predetermined proximity of the vehicle;

a processor for generating a list of local radio stations based on radio presets information received by the wireless transceiver and user preference for prioritizing the stations based on popularity of each station among the plurality of vehicles; and

an audio system for playing audio received from a selected one of the stations.

2. The vehicle of claim 1, further comprising:

a radio receiver for wirelessly receiving audio broadcast by the selected local radio station, the radio receiver being operatively coupled to the audio system and the processor.

3. The vehicle of claim 2, wherein:

the radio receiver is further configured to detect a low signal strength for at least one of the local radio stations in response to the vehicle traveling out of a broadcast range of the at least one local radio station; and

the wireless transceiver is further configured to, in response to said detection, send a new request for radio presets information to a second plurality of vehicles within the predetermined proximity of the vehicle.

4. The vehicle of claim 1, further comprising:

a user interface for presenting the list of local radio stations to a user of the vehicle and receiving a user input indicating selection of the selected local radio station, the user interface being operatively coupled to the processor.

5. The vehicle of claim 1, further comprising a memory operatively coupled to the processor and configured to store a plurality of preset radio stations.

6. The vehicle of claim 5, wherein the local radio stations are stored in the memory in place of the plurality of preset radio stations.

7. The vehicle of claim 5, wherein:

the radio presets information received by the wireless transceiver includes radio frequency band and genre information associated with each local radio station; and

the user preference further includes prioritizing the list of local radio stations based on genre information associated with the stored preset radio stations and the genre information associated with the local radio stations.

8. The vehicle of claim 1, further comprising a memory for temporarily storing the list of local radio stations.

9. The vehicle of claim 1, wherein the wireless transceiver is further configured to transmit a request to roadside infrastructure within the predetermined proximity of the vehicle.

10. The vehicle of claim 1, wherein the wireless transceiver transmits a request using dedicated short range communication (DSRC) technology.

11. A method in a vehicle, comprising:

requesting, via a wireless transceiver, radio presets from a plurality of vehicles within predetermined proximity of the vehicle;

generating, using a processor, a list of local radio stations based on radio presets information received by the wireless transceiver and user preference for prioritizing the stations based on station popularity among the plurality of vehicles; and

playing, via an audio system, audio received from a selected one of the stations.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising wirelessly receiving, via a radio receiver, audio broadcast by the selected local radio station.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

detecting, by the radio receiver, a low signal strength for at least one of the local radio stations in response to the vehicle traveling out of a broadcast range for the at least one local radio station; and

sending, via the wireless transceiver, a new request for radio presets information to a second plurality of vehicles within the predetermined proximity of the vehicle.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein:

the radio presets information includes radio frequency band and genre information associated with each local radio station; and

the user preference further includes prioritizing the list of local radio stations based on genre information associated with a plurality of preset radio stations stored in a memory of the vehicle and the genre information associated with the local radio stations.

15. The method of claim 11, further comprising storing the local radio stations in place of a plurality of preset radio stations stored in a memory of the vehicle.

16. The method of claim 11, further comprising temporarily storing the list of local radio stations in a memory of the vehicle.

17. The method of claim 11, further comprising sending, via the wireless transceiver, a request for radio presets to roadside infrastructure within the predetermined proximity of the vehicle.

18. The method of claim 11, wherein the wireless transceiver sends a request using dedicated short range communication (DSRC) technology.

19. A vehicle, comprising:

a wireless transceiver for requesting radio presets from a plurality of vehicles within a predetermined proximity of the vehicle;

a processor for generating a list of local radio stations based on radio presets information received by the wireless transceiver and a user preference for prioritizing the stations based on a popularity of each station among the plurality of vehicles; and

a radio receiver for detecting a low signal strength for at least one of the local radio stations in response to the vehicle traveling out of a broadcast range of the at least one local radio station,

wherein in response to said detection, the wireless transceiver sends a new request for radio presets information to a second plurality of vehicles within the predetermined proximity of the vehicle.

20. The vehicle of claim 19, further comprising an audio system for playing audio received from a selected one of the local radio stations, wherein the radio receiver wirelessly receives audio broadcast by the selected one of the local radio stations.