SMART PHONE APP-BASED VIN DECODING AND SYMPTOMATIC DIAGNOSTIC SYSTEM AND METHOD
First Claim
1. A system for providing vehicle specific diagnostics for a vehicle using a smart phone, the system comprising:
- a vehicle decoder disposable in communication with the smart phone and configured to determine vehicle characteristic information based on vehicle identification information received from the smart phone, the vehicle characteristic information including the vehicle year, make and model;
a diagnostic database having diagnostic solutions matched with symptomatic data, the diagnostic database being organized according to vehicle characteristic information; and
a computer readable medium downloadable onto the smart phone for configuring the smart phone to;
display a symptomatic question sequence for the user;
store symptomatic data received from the user; and
communicate the symptomatic data to the diagnostic database;
the diagnostic database being configured to match symptomatic data received from the smart phone with a diagnostic solution corresponding to the vehicle characteristic information of the vehicle.
2 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A system and method of diagnosing a vehicle using a smart phone to collect symptomatic data from the user/driver. The symptomatic data is received by the user in response to symptomatic questions displayed on the user'"'"'s smart phone. The symptomatic questions are generated in response to deriving vehicle characteristic information (i.e., year, make, model, engine) from vehicle identification information (i.e., the vehicle identification number (VIN) or license plate information). In this regard, vehicle-specific symptomatic questions may be presented to the user so as to ask pertinent questions based on a history of diagnoses of vehicles sharing similar vehicle characteristics.
72 Citations
30 Claims
-
1. A system for providing vehicle specific diagnostics for a vehicle using a smart phone, the system comprising:
-
a vehicle decoder disposable in communication with the smart phone and configured to determine vehicle characteristic information based on vehicle identification information received from the smart phone, the vehicle characteristic information including the vehicle year, make and model; a diagnostic database having diagnostic solutions matched with symptomatic data, the diagnostic database being organized according to vehicle characteristic information; and a computer readable medium downloadable onto the smart phone for configuring the smart phone to; display a symptomatic question sequence for the user; store symptomatic data received from the user; and communicate the symptomatic data to the diagnostic database; the diagnostic database being configured to match symptomatic data received from the smart phone with a diagnostic solution corresponding to the vehicle characteristic information of the vehicle. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21)
-
-
22. A system for providing vehicle specific diagnostics for a vehicle using a smart phone, the vehicle having vehicle characteristic information, including the vehicle year, make and model, the system comprising:
-
a diagnostic database in communication with the smart phone, the diagnostic database having diagnostic solutions matched with symptomatic data, the diagnostic database being organized according to vehicle characteristic information; and a computer readable medium downloadable onto the smart phone for configuring the smart phone to; display a symptomatic question sequence for the user, the symptomatic question sequence being associated with the vehicle characteristic information; store symptomatic data received from the user; and communicate the symptomatic data to the diagnostic database; the diagnostic database being configured to match symptomatic data received from the smart phone with a diagnostic solution corresponding to the vehicle characteristic information of the vehicle. - View Dependent Claims (23)
-
-
24. A computer readable medium downloadable onto a smart phone for providing vehicle specific diagnostics, the computer readable medium comprising:
-
a vehicle decoder configured to determine vehicle characteristic information based on vehicle identification information received by the smart phone, the vehicle characteristic information including the vehicle year, make and model; a diagnostic database having diagnostic solutions matched with symptomatic data, the diagnostic database being organized according to vehicle characteristic information; and a display module configured to display a symptomatic question sequence for the user, the symptomatic question sequence being associated with the vehicle characteristic information; the diagnostic database being configured to match symptomatic data received from the smart phone with a diagnostic solution corresponding to the vehicle characteristic information of the vehicle.
-
-
25. A method of diagnosing a vehicle using a smart phone, the method comprising the steps of:
-
receiving vehicle identification information from a smart phone; determining vehicle characteristic information from the vehicle identification information, the vehicle characteristic information including year, make, and model of the vehicle; generating a symptomatic question sequence associated with the vehicle characteristic information; receiving symptomatic data from the user, wherein the symptomatic data corresponds to the symptomatic questions sequence; communicating the symptomatic data to a diagnostic database having diagnostic solutions matched with symptomatic data, the diagnostic database being organized according to vehicle characteristic information; and matching the symptomatic data with diagnostic solutions corresponding to vehicle characteristic information of the vehicle. - View Dependent Claims (26, 27, 28, 29, 30)
-
Specification