Method and device for producing a display and control environment of a human/machine interface

• US 6,775,598 B2
• Filed: 08/08/2002
• Issued: 08/10/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 08/08/2002
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Volkswagen AG
• Original Assignee: Volkswagen AG
• Inventors: Bergmann, Carsten, Oberschachtsiek, Andre
• Primary Examiner(s): Zanelli, Michael J.
• Application Number:
  US10/214,604
• Publication Number:
  US 20040030460A1
• Time in Patent Office: 733 Days
• Field of Search: 701/1, 701/36, 704/203, 700/83, 345/717, 345/718, 345/771, 345/866
• US Class Current: 701/1
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 2360/143 Touch sensitive instrument input devices
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 35/00 Instruments specially adapted for vehicles; Arrangement of instruments in or on vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 35/10 Input arrangements, i.e. from user to vehicle, associated with vehicle functions or specially adapted therefor
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 37/00 Dashboards as road-vehicle superstructure sub-units B62D25/14

Abstract

A method is for producing a display and control environment of a human-machine interface having connected devices and/or applications, the human-machine interface having directly or indirectly assigned to it a processing unit. A device is for producing a display and control environment of a human-machine interface corresponding to connected devices and/or applications, the human-machine interface including at least one input device and at least one output device, and includes a processing device and/or is connected to a processing device. Stored generic data of the display and/or control environment of the human-machine interface are retrieved and/or transmitted automatically to the processing unit as a function of defined parameters. Furthermore, stored data, e.g., functional data, of the connected devices and/or applications are retrieved or transmitted. In one further step, the retrieved or transmitted data are linked in the processing unit, and, in dependence upon the linkage, display and/or control structures are generated on the human-machine interface.

Claims

1. A method for producing a display and control environment of a human-machine interface having one of connected devices, connectible devices and applications, a processing device assigned to the human-machine interface one of directly and indirectly, comprising the steps of:

from stored generic data of at least one of the display and control environment of the human-machine interface, at least one of retrieving a portion of the stored generic data by the processing device unit and transmitting the portion of the stored generic data into the processing device as a function of defined parameters;

at least one of retrieving stored data of at least one of the connected devices, the connectible devices and the applications by the processing device and transmitting stored data of at least one of the connected devices, the connectible devices and the applications to the processing device;

linking the one of the retrieved and transmitted portion of the stored generic data of the at least one of the display and the control environment of the human-machine interface to the at least one of the retrieved and the transmitted data of the at least one of the connected devices, the connectible devices and the applications in the processing device; and

generating at least one of display and control structures on the human-machine interface as a function of the linking step.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the stored data includes functional data.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the portion of the stored generic data of the at least one of the display and the control environment of the human-machine interface include at least one of environment-specific, device-specific and customer-specific data and at least one of functional and functional group-dependent data, the method further comprising the step of combining the at least one of the environment-specific, device-specific and customer-specific data with the at least one of the functional and functional group-dependent data as a function of the defined parameters in the processing device.

4. The method according to claim 3, wherein the at least one of the environment-specific, the device-specific and the customer-specific data includes data regarding an appearance.

5. The method according to claim 4, wherein the data regarding the appearance includes data regarding a color and a form of display images and components thereof.

6. The method according to claim 4, wherein the at least one of the functional and the functional group-dependent data includes data regarding a structural design of display images.

7. The method according to claim 6, wherein the data regarding the structural design of display images includes data regarding at least one of a number and a configuration of the display images, components thereof and linkages thereof.

8. The method according to claim 3, further comprising the steps of:

at least one of retrieving and transmitting the at least one of the functional and the functional group-dependent data;

at least one of retrieving and transmitting the at least one of the environment-specific, the device-specific and the customer-specific data corresponding to at least one of the retrieved at least one of the functional and the functional group-dependent data and as a function of defined parameters;

at least one of retrieving and transmitting the data of the at least one of the connected devices, the connectible devices and the applications;

linking the at least one of the retrieved and the transmitted data; and

generating at least one of display and control structures on the human-machine interface as a function of the linking step.

9. The method according to claim 3, wherein the human-machine interface is configured to be installed in a motor vehicle, and wherein the at least one of the environment-specific, the device-specific and the customer-specific data include vehicle-specific parameters.

10. The method according to claim 9, wherein the at least one of the functional and the functional group-dependent data include data relating to at least one of an appearance and at least one function of at least one program-controlled display for each of a plurality of vehicles.

11. The method according to claim 10, wherein the data relating to at least one of the appearance and at least one function includes an applet.

12. The method according to claim 9, wherein the data of at least one of the connected devices, the connectible devices and the applications include data relating to functions of the at least one of the connected devices, the connectible devices and the applications, at least one function corresponding to one program-controlled display.

13. The method according to claim 10, further comprising the steps of:

at least one of retrieving and transmitting at least necessary data that represents the at least one of the appearance and the function of at least one program-controlled display;

at least one of retrieving and transmitting at least of the vehicle-specific parameters of the at least one of the environment-specific, the device-specific and the customer-specific data at least one of corresponding to the data of the at least one program-controlled display and as a function of defined parameters;

at least one of retrieving and transmitting at least the data of the at least one of the connected devices, the connectible devices and the applications corresponding to the at least one program-controlled display; and

generating at least one of displays and control structures on the human-machine interface having at least one program-controlled display corresponding to the at least one of the retrieved and transmitted data.

14. The method according to claim 1, further comprising the step of storing at least one part of the data in a central device of a data communications network, the at least one part of the data at least one of retrieved by the processing device via a communications connection that is configured to be established and automatically transmitted to the processing device.

15. The method according to claim 14, wherein the at least one part of the data includes functional data of the at least one of the connected devices, the connectible devices and the applications to be one of displayed and controlled.

16. The method according to claim 1, further comprising the step of storing at least one part of the portion of the generic data of the at least one of the display and the control environment of the human-machine interface in a central device of a data communications network, the at least one part of the portion of the generic data at least one of retrieved by the processing device via a communications connection that is configured to be established and transmitted to the processing device.

17. The method according to claim 1, further comprising the step of updating at least one of the generic data of at least one of the display and the control environment of the human-machine interface and the data of the at least one of the connected devices and the applications, wherein at least one of the portion of the generic data of at least one of the display and the control environment of the human-machine interface and the data of the at least one of the connected devices and the applications are at least one of retrievable, and retrieved and transmitted in at least one of defined time periods and in dependence upon defined events.

18. A device for producing at least one of a display and a control environment of a human-machine interface corresponding to at least one of connected devices, connectible devices and applications, the human-machine interface including at least one control device and at least one output device, and the human-machine at least one of connected to a processing device and including the processing device, comprising:

at least one memory device assigned to the processing device configured to store generic data of the at least one of the display and the control environment of the human-machine interface and functional data of the at least one of the the connected devices, the connectible devices and the applications, the processing device configured so that a portion of stored generic data of the at least one of the display and the control environment of the human-machine interface is at least one of retrievable, retrieved, automatically transmissible and automatically transmitted as a function of defined parameters and so that stored functional data of the at least one of the connected devices, the connectible devices and the applications are at least one of retrievable, retrieved, automatically transmissible and automatically transmitted, the at least one of the retrievable, retrieved, automatically transmissible and automatically transmitted portion of generic data of the at least one of the display and the control environment of the human-machine interface at least one of linkable and linked to the at least one of the retrievable, retrieved, automatically transmissible, and automatically transmitted data of the at least one of the connected devices and the applications, the processing device configured so that the at least one of the display and the control structures are at least one of generatable and generated on the human-machine interface in dependence upon the linkage.

19. The device according to claim 18, wherein the generic data include at least one of environment-specific, device-specific and customer-specific data and at least one of functional and functional group-dependent data of the at least one of connectible devices and the applications, and the processing device is configured so that after the at least one of the retrieval and the transmission of data of the at least one of the environment-specific, the device-specific and the customer-specific data and of data of the at least one of the functional and the functional group-dependent data, these data are at least one of combinable and combined in the processing device as a function of defined parameters.

20. The device according to claim 19, wherein at least one of the environment-specific, the device-specific and the customer-specific data includes data relating to an appearance.

21. The device according to claim 20, wherein the data relating to the appearance include data relating to a color and a form of display images and components thereof.

22. The device according to claim 19, wherein the at least one of the functional and the functional group-dependent data includes data relating to a structural design of display images.

23. The device according to claim 22, wherein the data relating to the structural design of display images includes data relating to at least one of a number and a configuration of the display images, components thereof and linkages thereof.

24. The device according to claim 19, wherein the processing device is configured so that the data of the at least one of the functional and the functional group-dependent data are at least one of retrievable, retrieved, automatically transmissible and automatically transmitted to the processing device;

and

wherein the data of the at least one of the environment-specific, the device-specific and the customer-specific data and the data of the at least one of the connected devices and the applications, are at least one of retrievable, retrieved, transmissible and transmitted at least one of in accordance with the at least one of the retrieved and transmitted at least one of functional and functional group-specific data and as a function of defined parameters; and

wherein the at least one of the retrieved and the transmitted data are at least one of linkable and linked with one another; and

wherein the at least one of the display and the control structures of the human-machine interface are at least one of generatable and generated in dependence upon the linkage.

25. The device according to claim 19, wherein the device is configured to be installed in a motor vehicle, the at least one of the environment-defined, the device-defined and the customer-defined data include vehicle-defined parameters.

26. The device according to claim 25, wherein the at least one of the functional and the functional group-dependent data include data relating to at least one of an appearance and at least one function of at least one program-controlled display for each of a plurality of vehicles.

27. The device according to claim 26, wherein the data relating to the at least one of the appearance and the at least one function includes an applet.

28. The device according to claim 25, wherein the data of the at least one of the connected devices, the connectible devices and the applications include data relating to functions of the at least one of the connected devices, the connectible devices and the applications, at least one function corresponding to a program-controlled display.

29. The device according to claim 27, wherein the processing device is configured so that the data, which represent the at least one of the appearance and the function of at least one program-controlled display, are at least one of retrievable, retrieved, automatically transmissible and automatically transmitted;

at least the vehicle-defined parameters of the at least one of the environment-defined, device-defined and customer-defined data are at least one of retrievable, retrieved, automatically transmissible and automatically transmitted in accordance with the data of the at least one program-controlled display and as a function of defined parameters;

data of the at least one of the connected devices and the applications are at least one of retrievable, retrieved, automatically transmissible and automatically transmitted in accordance with the program-controlled display; and

in accordance with the at least one of the retrieved and transmitted data, at least one of displays, display structures and control structures are at least one of generatable and generated on the human-machine interface using at least one program-controlled display.

30. The device according to claim 18, wherein at least one part of the functional data of the at least one of the connected devices and the applications are stored in a central device of a data communications network and are at least one of retrievable and automatically transmissible by the processing device via a communications connection that is configured to be established.

31. The device according to claim 18, wherein at least one part of the portion of the generic data is stored in a central device of a data communications network and is at least one of retrievable and automatically transmissible by the processing device via a communications connection that is configured to be established.

32. The device according to claim 18, wherein the processing device is configured so that at least one of the portion of the stored generic data of the at least one of the display and control environment and the stored data of the at least one of the device and the applications to be at least one of displayed and controlled are configured to be updated, the data at least one of retrievable, retrieved, automatically transmissible and automatically transmitted in at least one of defined time intervals and in dependence upon defined events.

33. The device according to claim 18, wherein a control device of a connected device is configured so that the control device is arranged to perform at least partial tasks of the processing device.

34. A computer-readable storage medium storing a set of instructions, the set of instructions capable of being executed by a processor arrangement to implement a method for producing a display and control environment of a human-machine interface having one of connected devices and applications, a processing device assigned to the human-machine interface one of directly and indirectly, the method including the steps of:

from stored generic data of at least one of the display and the control environment of the human-machine interface, at least one of retrieving a portion of the stored generic data by the processing device unit and transmitting the portion of the stored generic data into the processing device as a function of defined parameters;

at least one of retrieving stored data of at least one of the connected devices and the applications by the processing device and transmitting stored data of at least one of the connected devices and the applications to the processing device;

linking the one of the retrieved and transmitted portion of the stored generic data of the at least one of the display and the control environment of the human-machine interface to the at least one of the retrieved and the transmitted data of the at least one of the connected devices and the applications in the processing device; and

generating at least one of display and control structures on the human-machine interface as a function of the linking step.

35. A method for producing a display and control environment of a human-machine interface comprising the steps of:

retrieving a portion of a stored generic interface data as a function of defined parameters;

retrieving a stored data of at least one of a connected device and an application;

linking the retrieved portion of the stored generic interface data to the retrieved stored data; and

generating at least one of display and control structures on the human-machine interface as a function of the linking step.

36. A device for producing a display and control environment of a human-machine interface comprising:

at least one memory device configured to store generic interface data and data of at least one of a connected device and an application; and

a processing device coupled to the at least one memory device and configured to retrieve a portion of the stored generic interface data as a function of defined parameters, to retrieve the data of the at least one of a connected device and an application, the retrieved portion of the stored generic interface data linkable to the retrieved data of the at least one of a connected device and an application, and to generate at least one of display and control structures on the human-machine interface in dependence upon the linkage.