Systems and methods for charging electric vehicles utilizing a touch-sensitive interface

• US 10,819,135 B2
• Filed: 12/20/2017
• Issued: 10/27/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 07/11/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Charge Fusion Technologies, LLC
• Original Assignee: Charge Fusion Technologies, LLC
• Inventors: Ambroziak, Jeffrey R., Fincham, Carson C. K.
• Primary Examiner(s): Borissov, Igor N
• Application Number:
  US15/848,017
• Publication Number:
  US 20180131221A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,042 Days
• Field of Search: 705 735
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2200/26 Rail vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2210/40 DC to AC converters
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2240/72 Charging station selection relying on external data
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2240/80 Time limits
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2250/10 by alarm
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2250/16 by display
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2260/52 drive range estimation, e.g. of estimation of available travel distance
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2260/54 Energy consumption estimation
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2260/58 Departure time prediction
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2270/32 of electricity
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 3/12 Recording operating variables ; Monitoring of operating variables
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 53/126 Methods for pairing a vehicle and a charging station, e.g. establishing a one-to-one relation between a wireless power transmitter and a wireless power receiver
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 53/14 Conductive energy transfer
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 53/305 Communication interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 53/64 Optimising energy costs, e.g. responding to electricity rates
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 53/65 involving identification of vehicles or their battery types
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 53/665 Methods related to measuring, billing or payment
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 55/00 Arrangements for supplying energy stored within a vehicle to a power network, i.e. vehicle-to-grid [V2G] arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 8/003 Converting light into electric energy, e.g. by using photo-voltaic systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0283 Price estimation or determination
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/04 : Billing or invoicing
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/06 : Energy or water supply
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 7/1446 : in response to parameters of a vehicle
• CPC Class Codes: Y02E 60/00 : Enabling technologies; Technologies with a potential or indirect contribution to GHG emissions mitigation
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 10/70 : Energy storage systems for electromobility, e.g. batteries
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 10/7072 : Electromobility specific charging systems or methods for batteries, ultracapacitors, supercapacitors or double-layer capacitors
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 10/72 : Electric energy management in electromobility
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 10/92 : Energy efficient charging or discharging systems for batteries, ultracapacitors, supercapacitors or double-layer capacitors specially adapted for vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 90/12 : Electric charging stations
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 90/14 : Plug-in electric vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 90/16 : Information or communication technologies improving the operation of electric vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 90/167 : Systems integrating technologies related to power network operation and communication or information technologies for supporting the interoperability of electric or hybrid vehicles, i.e. smartgrids as interface for battery charging of electric vehicles [EV] or hybrid vehicles [HEV]
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 10/126 : the energy generation units being or involving electric vehicles [EV] or hybrid vehicles [HEV], i.e. power aggregation of EV or HEV, vehicle to grid arrangements [V2G]
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 30/14 : Details associated with the interoperability, e.g. vehicle recognition, authentication, identification or billing
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 50/12 : Billing, invoicing, buying or selling transactions or other related activities, e.g. cost or usage evaluation
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 50/14 : Marketing, i.e. market research and analysis, surveying, promotions, advertising, buyer profiling, customer management or rewards

Abstract

Systems and methods for charging electric vehicles and for quantitative and qualitative load balancing of electrical demand are provided.

Claims

1. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium storing instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to:

retrieve from a memory storage device one or more electric charge parameters describing one or more electric charge parameters of an electric vehicle;

display via a user interface of a mobile device at least one of the one or more electric charge parameters wherein the user interface is adapted to display the one or more electric charge parameters as a vehicle charge indicator element comprising a first portion indicative of an amount of charge residing in a battery of the electric vehicle and a second portion indicative of an uncharged capacity of the battery of the electric vehicle and wherein the vehicle charge indicator element further comprises a slider by which an amount of charge may be specified;

receive an amount of charge specified by the slider;

commence charging of the electric vehicle in accordance with the received amount of charge;

display via the user interface a visual indicia for selecting a mode of operation of the electric vehicle the selected mode of operation operating to determine and maintain an interior temperature of the electric vehicle suitable for a pet located within the electric vehicle;

receive an indication of an activation of the selected mode of operation of the electric vehicle; and

operate a climate control mechanism of the electric vehicle while the vehicle is in a parked state and in accordance with the selected mode of operation for a duration of time until the amount of charge residing in the battery reaches a predetermined level.

2. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the mobile device comprises a Smartphone.

3. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the amount of charge is displayed as a distance of travel.

4. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the user interface is adapted to display a webpage.

5. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the user interface is adapted to enable a selection of a future time at which charging of the electric vehicle is to be performed wherein the selection is stored on the memory storage device.

6. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the electric vehicle is charged, at least in part, via inductive charging.

7. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the mobile device comprises a touch screen display of the electric vehicle.

15. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the instructions, when executed by the processor, further cause the processor to:

display a status indicative of an ability of the electric vehicle to maintain the interior temperature in accordance with the selected mode of operation.

8. A method comprising:

requesting via an application operating on a mobile device one or more electric charge parameters of an electric vehicle stored in a memory storage device via a user interface forming a part of the mobile device;

receiving the one or more requested electric charge parameters;

displaying the received one or more requested electric charge parameters via the user interface wherein the user interface is adapted to display the one or more requested electric charge parameters as a vehicle charge indicator element comprising a first portion indicative of an amount of charge residing in a battery of the electric vehicle and a second portion indicative of an uncharged capacity of the battery of the electric vehicle and wherein the vehicle charge indicator element further comprises a slider by which an amount of charge may be specified;

receiving, via the slider, an indication of a desired amount of charge for the battery of the electric vehicle;

commencing, in response the receiving of the indication of a desired amount of charge via the slider, a charging of the electric vehicle;

receiving a selection of a mode of operation of the electric vehicle that is defined by a stored temperature at which the A/C is to be set to maintain the interior of the electric vehicle while the vehicle remains in a parked state;

displaying via the user interface an indication of a status of a selected mode of operation of the electric vehicle the selected mode of operation operating to maintain an interior temperature of the electric vehicle suitable for a pet located within the electric vehicle;

operating an A/C mechanism of the electric vehicle in accordance with the selected mode of operation for a duration of time until it is determined that the selected mode of operation cannot be maintained by the amount of charge residing in the battery for more than a threshold amount of time.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the mobile device comprises a Smartphone.

10. The method of claim 8, further comprising utilizing the user interface to change a value of at least one of the one or more displayed electric charge parameters.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising transmitting at least one of the changed values to the memory storage device.

12. The method of claim 8, further comprising receiving an alert indicating that at least one of the electric charge parameters stored on the memory device cannot be satisfied by a charge schedule for the electric vehicle.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising, in response to receiving the alert, utilizing the user interface to change a value of at least one of the one or more displayed electric charge parameters.

16. The method of claim 8, wherein the displayed status is indicative of an ability of the electric vehicle to maintain the interior temperature in accordance with the selected mode of operation.

14. A method comprising:

requesting one or more electric charge parameters of an electric vehicle stored in a memory storage device via a touch-sensitive user interface adapted to display a webpage;

receiving the one or more requested electric charge parameters;

displaying the received one or more requested electric charge parameters via the user interface wherein the user interface is adapted to display the one or more electric charge parameters as a vehicle charge indicator element comprising a first portion indicative of an amount of charge residing in a battery of the electric vehicle and a second portion indicative of an uncharged capacity of the battery of the electric vehicle;

receiving an amount of charge specified by the slider and commencing charging of the electric vehicle in accordance with the received amount of charge;

display via the user interface a visual indicia for selecting a mode of operation of the electric vehicle the selected mode of operation operating to maintain an interior temperature of the electric vehicle suitable for a pet located within the electric vehicle; and

receiving, via the user interface, an indication of an activation of the selected mode of operation of the electronic vehicle and operating a climate control mechanism of the electric vehicle in accordance with the selected mode of operation, wherein the mode of operation defines (i) a stored temperature at which to maintain the interior of the electric vehicle and (ii) a minimum battery charge level required to maintain the stored temperature for a threshold amount of time.