Interface for wireless data transmission in a motor vehicle, and computer program product

• US 9,560,387 B2
• Filed: 03/28/2012
• Issued: 01/31/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 04/26/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Continental Automotive GmbH (Continental AG)
• Original Assignee: Continental Automotive GmbH (Continental AG)
• Inventors: Wenzel, Katrin, Barowski, Peter, Cieler, Stephan, Freitag, Carmen, Leimbach, Jrgen, Meier-Arendt, Guido, Niemeyer, Alexander
• Primary Examiner(s): Goodarzi, Nasser
• Assistant Examiner(s): Ocak, Adil
• Application Number:
  US14/114,082
• Publication Number:
  US 20140082676A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,770 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 2360/11 Instrument graphical user interfaces or menu aspects
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 2360/195 Blocking or enabling display functions
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 2360/589 Wireless data transfers
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 2370/11 Graphical user interfaces or menu aspects
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 2370/12 Input devices or input features
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 2370/195 Blocking or enabling display functions
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 2370/52 Control of displays
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 2370/589 Wireless
• 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 35/29 Instruments characterised by the way in which information is handled, e.g. showing information on plural displays or prioritising information according to driving conditions
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 35/81 for controlling displays
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 35/85 Arrangements for transferring vehicle- or driver-related data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/1643 the display being associated to a digitizer, e.g. laptops that can be used as penpads details related to the relative motion of the display enclosure with respect to the body enclosure, e.g. to move between laptop and tablet PC configuration G06F1/1615
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/1694 the I/O peripheral being a single or a set of motion sensors for pointer control or gesture input obtained by sensing movements of the portable computer
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/017 Gesture based interaction, e.g. based on a set of recognized hand gestures interaction based on gestures traced on a digitiser G06F3/04883
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1454 involving copying of the display data of a local workstation or window to a remote workstation or window so that an actual copy of the data is displayed simultaneously on two or more displays, e.g. teledisplay
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2370/16 Use of wireless transmission of display information
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2380/10 Automotive applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/214 Specialised server platform, e.g. server located in an airplane, hotel, hospital arrangements specially adapted for local area broadcast systems H04H20/61

Abstract

An interface for data transmission in a motor vehicle between a mobile data device (6) having a computation unit and an information display (4) in the motor vehicle is provided. The mobile data device (6) and the central information display (4) can be connected to one another by wireless communication, and the screen content of the mobile data device (6) can be presented on the information display (4). Provision is made for the computation unit of the mobile data device (6) to be set up to use the wireless communication to actuate the information display (4) in the motor vehicle by video signals, and for the computation unit of the information display (4) to be set up to present the video signals received from the mobile data device (6).

Claims

1. A system for data transmission in a motor vehicle, the system comprising:

a communication unit (17) of the motor vehicle configured to facilitate wireless communication in the motor vehicle;

a mobile data appliance (6) having a display (7) and a computation unit (16); and

one or more information displays (4) in the motor vehicle, the one or more information displays (4) having a computation unit (15), the mobile data appliance (6) and the one or more information displays (4) each being configured to cooperate with one another to provide an interface therebetween,

wherein the mobile data appliance (6) and the one or more information displays (4) are each configured so as to be wirelessly connectable to one another such that the screen content of the mobile data appliance (6) is presentable on the one or more information displays (4),

wherein the computation unit (16) of the mobile data appliance (6) is configured to use the wireless communication to actuate the one or more information displays (4) in the motor vehicle by transmitting video signals corresponding to the screen content of the mobile data appliance (6) to the one or more information displays (4),

wherein the computation unit (15) of the one or more information displays (4) is configured to present for display the video signals received from the mobile data appliance (6), and

wherein the computation unit (16) of the mobile data appliance (6) is configured to display on the mobile data appliance a reduced area (11) that presents the actual screen content of the display (7) of the mobile data appliance and a frame (12) surrounding the reduced area (11), and to display within the surrounding frame (12) one or more display items (13), each of the one or more display items (13) corresponding to at least a respective one of the one or more information displays (4), and to initiate the wireless communication to actuate at least one of the one or more information displays (4) in the motor vehicle by transmitting the video signals corresponding to the screen content of the mobile data appliance (6) to the one or more information displays (4) corresponding to the one or more display items (13) in the frame (12) in the event of a directional movement of the entire mobile data appliance (6) in the direction of the one or more display items (13) corresponding to the one or more information displays (4) of the vehicle, the directional movement of the entire mobile data appliance that initiates the wireless transmission;

(a) being established by acceleration sensors (18) arranged in the mobile data appliance (6), and

(b) being in the direction of the respective display item (13) that corresponds to a respective information display (4) of the vehicle.

2. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the computation unit (16) of the mobile data appliance (6) is configured to initiate the wireless communication for transmitting the video signals by a touch interface of the mobile data appliance (6).

3. The system as claimed in claim 2, wherein the computation unit (15) of the one or more information displays (4) is configured to present for display the video signals transmitted by the mobile data appliance (6) when the wireless communication for transmitting the video signals is initiated.

4. The system as claimed in claim 2, wherein the display (7) of the mobile data appliance (6) is a touch display, and wherein the computation unit (16) of the mobile data appliance (6) is configured to initiate the wireless communication in the event of a directional movement on the touch display (7) of the mobile data appliance (6) in the direction of the one or more information displays (4) of the vehicle.

5. The system as claimed in claim 4, wherein the computation unit (16) of the mobile data appliance (6) is configured to capture direction, speed, acceleration and/or duration of the movement and to initiate the wireless communication for transmitting the video signals when threshold values and/or a combination of various values for the direction, acceleration and/or duration of the movement is/are exceeded.

6. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the computation unit (16) of the mobile data appliance (6) is configured to capture direction, speed, acceleration and/or duration of the movement and to initiate the wireless communication for transmitting the video signals when threshold values and/or a combination of various values for the direction, acceleration and/or duration of the movement is/are exceeded.

7. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the computation unit (16) of the mobile data appliance (6) is configured to recognize connection to a wireless communication system of a motor vehicle and, in response to recognition of the connection, to present on the display (7) of the mobile data appliance (6) the frame (12) defining the display area (11), arranged in a central area, on which the image content of the mobile data appliance (6) is displayed, and to present, in the frame (12) that surrounds the display area (11), the information displays (13) that are available for wireless communication of the video signals.

8. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the computation unit of the one or more information displays (4) and/or a computation unit (19) of the communication unit (17) of the motor vehicle is/are configured to use the wireless communication to transmit, when the mobile data appliance (6) registers on the wireless communication system of the motor vehicle, a self-executing application program to the computation unit (16) of a mobile data appliance (6), which program is configured to set up the computation unit (16) of the mobile data appliance (6).

9. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the communication unit (17) has a computation unit (19), the communication unit (17) being configured to control a transmitter and a receiver in the wireless communication system, and the computation unit (19) of the communication unit (17) being configured to ascertain the position of the mobile data appliance (6) in the motor vehicle based on reception field strength of signals received from the mobile data appliance (6).

10. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein data signals are transmitted in addition to the video signals.

11. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing a computer program for setting up the computation unit (16) of the mobile data appliance (6) to actuate the one or more information displays (4) in a motor vehicle by video signals, using wireless communication by a wireless communication system of the motor vehicle, using the system as claimed in claim 1, and for setting up the computation unit (15) of the one or more information displays (4) to present for display the video signals received from the mobile data appliance (6), using the system as claimed in claim 1.

12. The non-transitory computer-readable medium as claimed in claim 11, wherein the computation unit (16) of the mobile data appliance (6) is configured as a master and the computation unit (15) of the one or more information displays (4) is configured as a slave.

13. The non-transitory computer-readable medium as claimed in claim 11, wherein the stored computer program sets up the computation unit (16) of the mobile data appliance (6) as a piece of self-executing application software and is transmitted to the computation unit (16) of the mobile data appliance (6) via the wireless communication system of the motor vehicle.