AUTOMATICALLY COMMUNICATING REMINDER MESSAGES TO A TELEMATICS-EQUIPPED VEHICLE

• US 20090134991A1
• Filed: 11/26/2007
• Published: 05/28/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 11/26/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: General Motors LLC (General Motors Company)
• Original Assignee: General Motors Corporation (Motors Liquidation Co. GUC Trust)
• Inventors: Shuart, Kristen M.
• Granted Patent: US 8,988,210 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 340/457
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1895 for short real-time information, e.g. alarms, notifications, alerts, updates
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/214 using selective forwarding
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/58 Message adaptation for wireless communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/51 Discovery or management thereof, e.g. service location protocol [SLP] or web services

Abstract

A method of automatically communicating reminder messages to a telematics-equipped vehicle includes the following steps: (a) establishing a reminder message and defining playback instructions for playing the reminder message; (b) generating a trigger based on the defined playback instructions; (c) setting the trigger; (d) monitoring for the occurrence of one or more conditions that satisfy the trigger; and (e) determining that the one or more conditions have occurred and, if so, then; (f) accessing the reminder message associated with the trigger; and (g) communicating the reminder message.

Claims

1. A method of automatically communicating reminder messages at a telematics-equipped vehicle, comprising the steps of:

(a) establishing a reminder message and defining playback instructions for playing the reminder message;

(b) generating a trigger based on the defined playback instructions;

(c) setting the trigger;

(d) monitoring for occurrence of one or more conditions that satisfy the trigger; and

(e) determining whether the one or more conditions have occurred and, if so, then;

(f) accessing the reminder message associated with the trigger; and

(g) communicating the reminder message.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the establishing step comprises using at least one of an Internet web site, a telephone, or a vehicle telematics unit to establish the reminder message.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the establishing step further comprises creating a reminder message by entering text.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the communicating the reminder message includes converting the text reminder message to a voice message and playing the voice message in the vehicle.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the establishing step further comprises selecting from among a plurality of predefined messages.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the communicating the reminder message includes playing a voice message in the vehicle.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the communicating the reminder message includes displaying a text message in the vehicle.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the establishing step includes manually entering text using a computing device.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the establishing step includes speaking words using a telephone.

10. An in-vehicle reminder system for automatically communicating reminder messages at a telematics-equipped vehicle, comprising:

a vehicle having a telematics unit;

a call center capable of wireless communication with the vehicle telematics unit via a wireless communication system; and

a computer configured to provide a website having at least one web page that enables a user to enter a reminder message and specify one or more conditions under which the reminder message will be presented at the vehicle;

wherein said call center generates a trigger based on the one or more conditions and uploads the trigger to the vehicle via its telematics unit; and

wherein said vehicle is operable upon occurrence of the trigger to access the reminder message and present the reminder message within the vehicle.

11. An in-vehicle reminder system as defined in claim 10, wherein said web page is configured to receive the reminder message as inputted text and wherein, upon occurrence of the trigger, the reminder message is played in the vehicle using text-to-speech conversion of the inputted text.

12. An in-vehicle reminder system as defined in claim 11, wherein the inputted text is supplied to the vehicle and the text-to-speech conversion is carried out at the vehicle.

13. An in-vehicle reminder system as defined in claim 10, wherein the web page includes a predefined list of reminder messages for selection by the user.

14. An in-vehicle reminder system as defined in claim 13, wherein each of the predefined reminder messages is associated with a pre-recorded message that is played back with the trigger occurs.