Method and system for operating mobile applications in a vehicle

• US 10,163,273 B2
• Filed: 09/28/2010
• Issued: 12/25/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 09/28/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ford Global Technologies, LLC (Ford Motor Company)
• Original Assignee: Ford Global Technologies, LLC (Ford Motor Company)
• Inventors: Boll, David P., Santori, Nello Joseph, Alexander, Thomas Richard, Ross, Joseph N.
• Primary Examiner(s): Abad, Jackie Zuniga
• Application Number:
  US12/891,993
• Publication Number:
  US 20120079002A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,010 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/452 Remote windowing, e.g. X-Window System, desktop virtualisation protocols for virtual reality H04L67/131
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/008 communicating information to a remotely located station transmission systems for measured values G08C

Abstract

In various embodiments, a user interacts with remotely executing mobile applications from a vehicle. The vehicle may include at least one computer that includes a human machine interface (HMI) for control by the user. The mobile applications may be executing on an application server that is remote from the vehicle and communicating with the at least one computer. Further, the mobile applications may be configured to receive inputs from and transmit outputs to the at least one computer. An HMI application executing on the at least one computer may enable the provisioning of one or more services of the HMI to the mobile applications so that inputs and/or outputs to the mobile applications may be exchanged. Vehicle-based operation of the mobile applications from the at least one computer via the HMI may thus be enabled.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

a vehicle-installed computer including a human machine interface (HMI) and HMI gateway application;

a remote application server, storing application profiles for each of a plurality of vehicles defining applications accessible to each of a plurality of vehicles, in communication with the vehicle-installed computer, and configured to execute the applications;

an HMI application executing on the computer, wherein the vehicle installed computer is configured to;

receive, at the HMI gateway application, input requests from the mobile applications executing remotely;

receive input to the HMI; and

transfer the input to the HMI gateway application; and

via the HMI gateway application, enable operation of the mobile applications based on the received input.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein the HMI is selected from the group consisting of a microphone, one or more sets of vehicle speakers, one or more in-vehicle buttons, and one or more in-vehicle displays.

3. The system of claim 1 wherein the HMI is selected from the group consisting of an audio channel on a nomadic device, one or more BLUETOOTH profiles, and speech recognition.

4. The system of claim 1 wherein the application profiles are associated with a mobile identification number, a vehicle identification number, or both.