Calendar sharing for the vehicle environment using a connected cell phone

• US 8,825,362 B2
• Filed: 01/27/2011
• Issued: 09/02/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 01/27/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Honda Motor Co., Ltd. (Honda Motor Company)
• Original Assignee: Honda Motor Co., Ltd. (Honda Motor Company)
• Inventors: Kirsch, David M.
• Primary Examiner(s): Cheung, Mary
• Assistant Examiner(s): BUTLER, RODNEY ALLEN
• Application Number:
  US13/015,204
• Publication Number:
  US 20120197523A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,314 Days
• Field of Search: 701/202, 701/24, 701/25, 701/33, 701/36, 701/430, 705/7.18, 705/7.24, 705 713- 726, 708/112, 709/248, 715/963
• US Class Current: 701/202
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/362 received from an external device or application, e.g. PDA, mobile phone or calendar application
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/00 Administration; Management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/109 Time management, e.g. calendars, reminders, meetings or time accounting
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/6083 by interfacing with the vehicle audio system
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/6091 including a wireless interface
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72451 according to schedules, e.g. using calendar applications

Abstract

A mobile device communicates with an in-vehicle system to provide a network-based calendar and related features for viewing and/or editing within a vehicle. The mobile device executes a specialized application that retrieves calendar data from one or more calendar sources in a native calendar format, and converts the calendar data to a customized vehicle format designed specifically for convenient transfer and viewing within the vehicle. The user may record spoken voice notes that can be processed to automatically create new calendar entries. An alert feature schedules visual and/or audio alerts to notify the user in advance of scheduled calendar events. When a scheduled calendar event time is reached, the in-vehicle system may automatically place a call to an event invitee or generating a route to an event destination.

Claims

1. A system for managing an electronic calendar within a vehicle environment, the system comprising:

a short-range communication device for receiving calendar data comprising a plurality of calendar entries from a mobile device via a short-range communication protocol, characterizing a first set of the calendar entries as being scheduled calendar events responsive to each of the first set of calendar entries specifying a non-zero time window, and characterizing a second set of the calendar entries as being calendar notifications responsive to each of the second set of calendar entries being associated with a particular date without specifying a non-zero time window;

an in-vehicle computing system to generate a user interface for displaying the calendar data, the user interface comprising an events window for displaying a representation of the scheduled calendar events, and a notifications window for displaying a representation of the calendar notifications, the notifications window in a separate portion of the user interface than the events window, the notifications window displaying a limited number of notifications and a first indicator that when selected causes the user interface to display additional notifications, and the events window displaying a limited number of events and a second indicator that when selected causes the user interface to display additional events; and

an in-vehicle display for displaying the user interface showing the received calendar data.

2. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing instructions executable by a processor, the instructions when executed cause the processor to perform steps including:

receiving first calendar data from a first calendar source the first calendar source storing the first calendar data in a first native calendar format specific to the first calendar source;

receiving second calendar data from a second calendar source the second calendar source storing the second calendar data in a second native calendar format specific to the second calendar source, the second native calendar format different than the first native calendar format;

identifying and removing duplicate calendar entries that appear in both the first calendar data and the second calendar data to generate non-duplicate calendar data;

filtering the non-duplicate calendar data to remove at least one of hyperlinks, special characters, and attachments;

processing the non-duplicate calendar data to characterize a first set of calendar entries as being scheduled calendar events responsive to each of the first set of calendar entries specifying a non-zero time window, and to characterize a second set of calendar entries as being calendar notifications responsive to each of the second set of calendar entries being associated with a particular date without specifying a non-zero time window; and

converting the non-duplicate calendar data to generate converted calendar data in a vehicle calendar format suitable for transfer to an in-vehicle system, the converted calendar data indicating whether each entry corresponds to an scheduled calendar event or a calendar notification; and

transferring, using a short-range communication protocol, the converted calendar data from the mobile device to the in-vehicle system.

3. A method for providing an electronic calendar for display within a vehicle, the method comprising:

receiving, by a mobile device, first calendar data from a first calendar source the first calendar source storing the first calendar data in a first native calendar format specific to the first calendar source;

receiving, by the mobile device, second calendar data from a second calendar source the second calendar source storing the second calendar data in a second native calendar format specific to the second calendar source, the second native calendar format different than the first native calendar format;

identifying and removing duplicate calendar entries that appear in both the first calendar data and the second calendar data to generate non-duplicate calendar data;

filtering the non-duplicate calendar data to remove at least one of hyperlinks, special characters, and attachments;

processing the non-duplicate calendar data to characterize a first set of calendar entries as being scheduled calendar events responsive to each of the first set of calendar entries specifying a non-zero time window, and to characterize a second set of calendar entries as being calendar notifications responsive to each of the second set of calendar entries being associated with a particular date without specifying a non-zero time window; and

converting the non-duplicate calendar data to generate converted calendar data in a vehicle calendar format suitable for transfer to an in-vehicle system, the converted calendar data indicating whether each entry corresponds to an scheduled calendar event or a calendar notification; and

transferring, using a short-range communication protocol, the converted calendar data from the mobile device to the in-vehicle system.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the first calendar source comprises a first network-based calendar server and the second calendar source comprises a second network-based calendar server.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein the first calendar source comprises a first network-based calendar server and the second calendar source comprises a calendar application executable by the mobile device.

6. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

scaling the non-duplicate calendar data to extract calendar entries falling within a predefined time range, the predefined time range smaller than a time range of the non-duplicate calendar data generated from first calendar data in the first native calendar format and the second calendar data in the second native calendar format.

7. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

receiving, from the in-vehicle system, updated calendar data reflecting a change to a calendar entry made using the in-vehicle system, the updated calendar data in the vehicle calendar format;

converting the updated calendar data in the vehicle calendar format to the first native calendar format; and

providing the updated calendar data to the first calendar source in the first native calendar format.

8. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

detecting a refresh trigger event; and

responsive to the detecting the refresh trigger event, requesting a refresh of the first calendar data from the first calendar source.

9. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

receiving a voice note from the in-vehicle system, the voice note comprising an audio recording of spoken words;

obtaining dictated text comprising a speech-to-text conversion of the spoken words;

creating a new calendar entry scheduling an event described in the dictated text; and

transferring the new calendar entry to the in-vehicle system.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein detecting the refresh trigger event comprises receiving a signal from the in-vehicle system indicating vehicle ignition.

11. The method of claim 8, wherein detecting the refresh trigger event comprises detecting that a predefined time period has elapsed since a last refresh.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein obtaining the dictated text comprises:

uploading the voice note to a voice note server for processing; and

receiving the dictated text from the voice note server.

13. A method for managing an electronic calendar within a vehicle environment, the method comprising:

receiving, by an in-vehicle computing system, calendar data comprising a plurality of calendar entries, the calendar data received from a mobile device via a short-range communication protocol;

processing the calendar entries to characterize a first set of calendar entries as being scheduled calendar events responsive to each of the first set of calendar entries specifying a non-zero time window, and to characterize a second set of calendar entries as being calendar notifications responsive to each of the second set of calendar entries being associated with a particular date without specifying a non-zero time window;

generating, by the in-vehicle computing system, a user interface for displaying the calendar entries, the user interface comprising an events window for displaying a representation of the scheduled calendar events, and a notifications window for displaying a representation of the calendar notifications, the notifications window in a separate portion of the user interface than the events window, the notifications window displaying a limited number of notifications and a first indicator that when selected causes the user interface to display additional notifications, and the events window displaying a limited number of events and a second indicator that when selected causes the user interface to display additional events; and

displaying the user interface using an in-vehicle display device of the in-vehicle computing system.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

correlating the calendar entries with contacts entries to locate potential matches between metadata of the calendar entries and metadata of the contacts entries; and

responsive to reaching a scheduled time for a calendar entry, initiating an action using the potential matches.

15. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

storing to an alert database one more scheduled calendar alerts, each calendar alert associated with a calendar entry and comprising a scheduled alert time;

determining when a current time matches the scheduled alert time;

responsive to the current time matching the scheduled alert time, triggering an alert.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein initiating the action comprises:

displaying a list of contact entries that include a contact name matching at least a portion of an event invitee in the calendar entry or a contact address matching at least a portion of the event location in the calendar entry.

17. The method of claim 14, wherein initiating the action comprises:

displaying a list of point of interest that match at least a portion of an event location in the calendar entry; and

responsive to a receiving a selection of one of the list of points of interest, generating a navigation route to an address associated with the selected point of interest.

18. The method of claim 15, wherein triggering the alert comprises at least one of:

displaying a visual message on the vehicle display; and

activating an audible alert.

19. The method of claim 15, further comprising:

receiving a snooze request for the triggered alert;

updating the alert time by adding a predefined snooze time to the alert time; and

storing the updated alert time to the alert database.

20. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

responsive to a receiving a selection of one of the list of contact entries, placing a telephone call using a telephone number associated with the selected contact entry.

21. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

responsive to a receiving a selection of one of the list of contact entries, generating a navigation route to an address associated with the selected contact entry.