Method and system for responding to digital vehicle requests

• US 8,055,308 B2
• Filed: 09/30/2003
• Issued: 11/08/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 09/30/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: General Motors LLC (General Motors Company)
• Original Assignee: General Motors LLC (General Motors Company)
• Inventors: Mazzara, William E. Jr.
• Primary Examiner(s): PHUONG, DAI
• Application Number:
  US10/675,349
• Publication Number:
  US 20050070260A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,961 Days
• Field of Search: 455/423, 455/414.2, 455/563, 455/456.1, 701/29, 701/36
• US Class Current: 455/569.2
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0265 Vehicular advertisement
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0266 based on the position of the vehicle
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/01 Detecting movement of traffic to be counted or controlled G08G1/07 - G08G1/14 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/487 Arrangements for providing information services, e.g. recorded voice services or time announcements

Abstract

The invention provides a method and system for responding to digital vehicle requests. After a telematics unit receives a voice query and converts the voice query to a compressed digital signal, the signal is transmitted to a call center node. The signal is then parsed at the call center node to determine an inquiry. The call center node may then formulate at least one response to the inquiry and transmit the at least one formulated response in a digital format over the wireless network to the telematics unit. The at least one formulated response is then translated to an analog format at the telematics unit.

Claims

1. A method for responding to digital vehicle requests, the method comprising:

receiving a voice query at a telematics unit in a vehicle;

converting the voice query to a digital signal;

transmitting the digital signal from the telematics unit to a computer-end recipient at a call center node in communication with an information database, wherein the digital signal is sent to the computer-end recipient at the call center node via a digital packet data protocol over a wireless network;

extracting a computer-readable command from the digital signal;

executing the extracted computer-readable command at the call center node;

accessing the information database based on the computer-readable command;

formulating at least one response to the computer-readable command using the computer-end recipient;

transmitting the at least one formulated response via the digital packet data protocol over the wireless network to the telematics unit, wherein the digital signal transmitted to the computer-end recipient and the formulated response are each compressed at different compression ratios based on whether the digital signal or formulated response is audibly played in a vehicle, and wherein when the at least one formulated response is to be audibly played in the vehicle the digital signal is compressed using a compression ratio that is at least twice the compression ratio used to compress the at least one formulated response; and

translating the at least one formulated response to an analog format for playback in the vehicle.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

optimizing the telematics unit for transmission of the voice query to a computer call center node.

3. The method of claim 2 further comprising:

filtering the received voice query before converting it to the digital signal.

4. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

transmitting the signal to the call center using a cellular packet data connection.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein transmitting the at least one formulated response via the digital packet data protocol over the wireless network to the telematics unit comprises:

transmitting the at least one formulated response in a digital streaming audio format.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein transmitting information via the wireless network further comprises transmitting information via an Internet protocol.

7. A method for responding to digital vehicle requests, comprising the steps of:

receiving a voice query at a telematics unit in a vehicle;

converting the voice query to a digital signal;

compressing the digital signal at a particular compression ratio that is established for transmitting voice queries that are not audibly reproduced;

transmitting the digital signal from the telematics unit to a remote computer-end recipient via a digital cellular packet data protocol;

parsing the digital signal using the computer-end recipient to determine an inquiry;

formulating at least one response to the inquiry;

compressing the at least one response at a compression ratio that is established for audible playback in the vehicle, which is two or more times less than the particular compression ratio;

receiving a transmission of the at least one formulated response at the telematics unit via the digital cellular packet data protocol; and

presenting the at least one formulated response.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the digital cellular packet data protocol is the digital cellular 3G packet data protocol.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein the step of transmitting the digital signal to a remote computer-end recipient via a digital cellular packet data protocol, further comprises transmitting the digital signal via a digital streaming audio format.

10. The method of claim 7, wherein the digital signal is compressed with a compression ratio at least twice the compression ratio used to compress the at least one response.

11. The method of claim 7, wherein the parsing step and formulating step are automated by the computer-end recipient.

12. The method of claim 7, wherein the presenting step further comprises converting the at least one formulated response to an analog signal and playing the signal as audio through at least one speaker in the vehicle.