Methods and Systems for Providing Open Access to Vehicle Data

• US 20080306645A1
• Filed: 06/05/2007
• Published: 12/11/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 06/05/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Snap-On Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Snap-On Incorporated
• Inventors: Trsar, Dale A., Dewhurst, Chris J.
• Granted Patent: US 8,918,245 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/29
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/008 communicating information to a remotely located station transmission systems for measured values G08C
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/0808 Diagnosing performance data testing of vehicles G01M17/00; testing of electrical installation on vehicles G01R31/005
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/125 involving control of end-device applications over a network

Abstract

A method for providing open access to vehicle data is disclosed From a vehicle under service, the method receives vehicle-diagnostic data in a manufacturer-specified format at a vehicle-service tool, and converts the vehicle data in the manufacturer-specified format into vehicle data in an open format.

Claims

1. A method for providing open access to vehicle data, the method comprising:

from a vehicle under service, receiving vehicle-diagnostic data in a manufacturer-specified format at a vehicle-service tool; and

converting the vehicle-diagnostic data in the manufacturer-specified format into vehicle data in an open format.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the open format comprises a non-proprietary format.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the open format comprises a markup-language format.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the markup-language format is selected from the group consisting of an Extensible Markup Language (XML) format, a Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) format, a Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML) format, and an Extensible Hypertext Markup Language (XHTML) format.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein the vehicle data in the markup-language format comprises a plurality of tags and a structure to cooperatively describe the vehicle data.

6. The method of claim 3, wherein converting the vehicle-diagnostic data in the manufacturer-specified format into the vehicle data in the markup-language format comprises:

extracting the vehicle data from the vehicle-diagnostic data in the manufacturer-specified format;

associating the vehicle data to corresponding tags; and

writing the vehicle data and corresponding tags to a markup-language data file.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the open format comprises a metadata format.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the metadata format comprises a Resource Description Framework (RDF) format.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein converting the vehicle-diagnostic data in the manufacturer-specified format into vehicle data in the open format comprises the vehicle-service tool converting the vehicle-diagnostic data in the manufacturer-specified format into the vehicle data in the open format.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising transmitting, from the vehicle-service tool, the vehicle-diagnostic data in the manufacturer-specified format to a remote processor, and wherein converting the vehicle-diagnostic data in the manufacturer-specified format into vehicle data in the open format comprises the remote processor converting the vehicle-diagnostic data in the manufacturer-specified format into the vehicle data in the open format.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein converting the vehicle-diagnostic data in the manufacturer-specified format into vehicle data in the open format comprises automatically converting the vehicle-diagnostic data in the manufacturer-specified format into the vehicle data in the open format in response to receiving the vehicle-diagnostic data in the manufacturer-specified format.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein converting the vehicle-diagnostic data in the manufacturer-specified format into vehicle data in the open format occurs in response to receiving from a user interface an instruction to convert the vehicle-diagnostic data in the manufacturer-specified format into the vehicle data in the open format.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein converting the vehicle-diagnostic data in the manufacturer-specified format into vehicle data in the open format comprises:

on the vehicle-service tool, converting the vehicle-diagnostic data in the manufacturer-specified format into vehicle-diagnostic data in a closed format, wherein the vehicle-diagnostic data in the closed format is readable by a particular application on the vehicle-service tool; and

converting the vehicle-diagnostic data in the closed format into the vehicle data in the open format.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein converting the vehicle-diagnostic data in the closed format into the vehicle data in the open format comprises the vehicle-service tool converting the vehicle-diagnostic data in the closed format into the vehicle data in the open format.

15. The method of claim 13, further comprising transmitting the vehicle-diagnostic data in the closed format to a remote processor, and wherein converting the vehicle-diagnostic data in the closed format into the vehicle data in the open format comprises the remote processor converting the vehicle-diagnostic data in the closed format into the vehicle data in the open format.

16. The method of claim 13, wherein converting the vehicle-diagnostic data in the closed format into the vehicle data in the open format comprises automatically converting the vehicle-diagnostic data in the closed format into the vehicle data in the open format in response to converting the vehicle-diagnostic data in the manufacturer-specified format into the vehicle-diagnostic data in the closed format.

17. The method of claim 13, wherein converting the vehicle-diagnostic data in the closed format into vehicle data in the open format occurs in response to receiving from a user interface an instruction to convert the vehicle-diagnostic data in the closed format into the vehicle data in the open format.

18. The method of claim 13, wherein the open format comprises a markup-language format, and wherein converting the vehicle-diagnostic data in the closed format into the vehicle data in the markup-language format comprises:

extracting the vehicle data from the vehicle-diagnostic data in the closed format;

associating the vehicle data to corresponding tags;

writing the vehicle data and corresponding tags to a markup-language data file.

19. The method of claim 1, further comprising transmitting the vehicle data in the open format to a remote device.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the remote device is communicatively coupled to a communication network.

21. The method of claim 1, wherein the vehicle data in the open format comprises a plurality of parameters, the method further comprising:

determining a correlation between a first parameter and a second parameter in the plurality of parameters; and

displaying a representation of the correlation between the first parameter and the second parameter.

22. The method of claim 1, wherein the vehicle data in the open format comprises a plurality of parameters, the method further comprising:

formulating a new parameter based on a first parameter and a second parameter in the plurality of parameters; and

providing an indication of the new parameter.

23. A system for providing open access to vehicle data, wherein the system comprises a vehicle-service tool, and wherein the vehicle-service tool:

receives, from a vehicle under service, vehicle-diagnostic data in a manufacturer-specified format; and

converts the vehicle-diagnostic data in the manufacturer-specified format into vehicle data in an open format.

24. The system of claim 23, wherein the vehicle-service tool:

converts the vehicle-diagnostic data in the manufacturer-specified format into vehicle-diagnostic data in a closed format, wherein the vehicle-diagnostic data in the closed format is readable by a particular application on the vehicle-service tool; and

converts the vehicle-diagnostic data in the closed format into the vehicle data in the open format.

25. The system of claim 23, wherein the system further includes a remote device, and wherein vehicle-service tool transmits the vehicle data in the open format to the remote device.

26. The system of claim 25, wherein the vehicle data in the open format comprises a plurality of parameters, wherein the remote device comprises a user interface, and wherein the remote device:

determines a correlation between a first parameters and a second parameter in the plurality of parameters; and

causes the user interface to display a representation of the correlation between the first parameter and the second parameter.

27. The system of claim 23, wherein the vehicle data in the open format comprises a plurality of parameters, wherein the remote device comprises a user interface, and wherein the remote device:

formulates a new parameter based on a first parameter and a second parameter in the plurality of parameters; and

causes the user interface to provide an indication of the new parameter.

28. A system for providing open access to vehicle data, the system comprising:

a vehicle interface to receive, from a vehicle under service, vehicle-diagnostic data in a manufacturer-specified format;

a processor; and

data storage comprising instructions executable by the processor to convert the vehicle-diagnostic data in the manufacturer-specified format into vehicle data in an open format.

29. The system of claim 28, wherein the instructions to convert the vehicle-diagnostic data in the manufacturer-specified format into vehicle data in an open format comprise instructions to:

convert the vehicle-diagnostic data in the manufacturer-specified format into vehicle-diagnostic data in a closed format, wherein the vehicle-diagnostic data in the closed format is readable by the processor of the vehicle-service tool; and

convert the vehicle-diagnostic data in the closed format into the vehicle data in the open format.

30. The method of claim 28, wherein the vehicle data in the open format comprises a plurality of parameters, and wherein the system further includes a user interface, the data storage further including instructions to:

determine a correlation between a first parameter and a second parameter in the plurality of parameters; and

cause the user interface to display a representation of the correlation between the first parameter and the second parameter.

31. The method of claim 28, wherein the vehicle data in the open format comprises a plurality of parameters, wherein the system further includes a user interface, the data storage further including instructions to:

formulate a new parameter based on a first parameter and a second parameter in the plurality of parameters; and

cause the user interface to provide an indication of the new parameter.