Internet-based system for monitoring vehicles
First Claim
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1. A method for monitoring a vehicle with a vehicle computer device located in the vehicle, comprising:
- (a) acquiring, by a vehicle computer device connected to an engine control unit (ECU) of a vehicle via an OBD or OBD-II connector, vehicle data comprising numerical diagnostic data or location-based data associated with the vehicle;
(b) processing, by the vehicle computer device connected to the ECU of the vehicle via the OBD or OBD-II connector, the vehicle data according to a mathematical algorithm to generate derived diagnostic or location information that is at least in part derived from the acquired vehicle data, and wherein the derived diagnostic information has a meaning distinct from the acquired vehicle data;
(c) formatting, by the vehicle computer device connected to the ECU of the vehicle via the OBD or OBD-II connector, the derived diagnostic or location information for display on an application running on a host computer device, wherein the application can provide an interface for presenting information associated with the vehicle, wherein the interface includes at least one of an icon and or a data field associated with derived diagnostic information indicative of the vehicle'"'"'s emissions performance, of the vehicle;
and(d) wirelessly transmitting, by a cellular modem included in the vehicle computer device connected to the ECU of the vehicle via the OBD or OBD-II connector and via an internet, the derived diagnostic information in a communication to the host computer device,the derived diagnostic information for a first diagnostic problem to be diagnosed being monitored and wirelessly transmitted at a first temporal interval or mileage interval set based on the first diagnostic problem to be diagnosed, andthe derived diagnostic information for a second diagnostic problem to be diagnosed being monitored and wirelessly transmitted at a second temporal interval or mileage interval set based on the second diagnostic problem to be diagnosed,the first temporal interval or mileage interval being simultaneous with and different than the second temporal interval or mileage interval.
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Abstract
The invention provides a method for monitoring a vehicle that features the steps of: 1) generating a data packet including vehicle data retrieved from the vehicle using a wireless appliance; 2) transmitting the data packet over an airlink with the wireless appliance so that the data packet passes through a network and to a host computer system; 3) processing the data packet with the host computer system to generate a set of data; and 4) displaying the set of data on a web page hosted on the internet.
254 Citations
21 Claims
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1. A method for monitoring a vehicle with a vehicle computer device located in the vehicle, comprising:
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(a) acquiring, by a vehicle computer device connected to an engine control unit (ECU) of a vehicle via an OBD or OBD-II connector, vehicle data comprising numerical diagnostic data or location-based data associated with the vehicle; (b) processing, by the vehicle computer device connected to the ECU of the vehicle via the OBD or OBD-II connector, the vehicle data according to a mathematical algorithm to generate derived diagnostic or location information that is at least in part derived from the acquired vehicle data, and wherein the derived diagnostic information has a meaning distinct from the acquired vehicle data; (c) formatting, by the vehicle computer device connected to the ECU of the vehicle via the OBD or OBD-II connector, the derived diagnostic or location information for display on an application running on a host computer device, wherein the application can provide an interface for presenting information associated with the vehicle, wherein the interface includes at least one of an icon and or a data field associated with derived diagnostic information indicative of the vehicle'"'"'s emissions performance, of the vehicle;
and(d) wirelessly transmitting, by a cellular modem included in the vehicle computer device connected to the ECU of the vehicle via the OBD or OBD-II connector and via an internet, the derived diagnostic information in a communication to the host computer device, the derived diagnostic information for a first diagnostic problem to be diagnosed being monitored and wirelessly transmitted at a first temporal interval or mileage interval set based on the first diagnostic problem to be diagnosed, and the derived diagnostic information for a second diagnostic problem to be diagnosed being monitored and wirelessly transmitted at a second temporal interval or mileage interval set based on the second diagnostic problem to be diagnosed, the first temporal interval or mileage interval being simultaneous with and different than the second temporal interval or mileage interval. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5)
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6. A vehicle computer device, located in a vehicle, configured to perform a method, the method comprising:
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a cellular modem; a connector that connects to an OBD or OBD-II connector of a vehicle; and a processor to; (a) acquiringacquire vehicle data comprising numerical diagnostic data or location-based data associated with the vehicle via the OBD or OBD-II connector of the vehicle; (b) processingprocess the vehicle data according to a mathematical algorithm to generate derived diagnostic or location information that is at least in part derived from the acquired vehicle data, and wherein the derived diagnostic information has a meaning distinct from the acquired vehicle data; (c) formattingformat the derived diagnostic or location information for display on an application running on a host computer device, wherein the application can provide an interface for presenting information associated with the vehicle, wherein the interface includes at least one of an icon and or a data field associated with derived diagnostic information indicative of the vehicle'"'"'s emissions performance, of the vehicle;
and(d) wirelessly transmitting transmit, using the cellular modem, the derived diagnostic information in a communication via an internet to the host computer device, the derived diagnostic information for a first diagnostic problem to be diagnosed being monitored and wirelessly transmitted at a first temporal interval or mileage interval set based on the first diagnostic problem to be diagnosed, and the derived diagnostic information for a second diagnostic problem to be diagnosed being monitored and wirelessly transmitted at a second temporal interval or mileage interval set based on the second diagnostic problem to be diagnosed, the first temporal interval or mileage interval being simultaneous with and different than the second temporal interval or mileage interval. - View Dependent Claims (7, 8, 9, 10)
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11. A graphical user interface running on a host computer device for displaying derived diagnostic or location information corresponding to a vehicle wherein the derived diagnostic or location information displayed by the graphical user interface includes diagnostic or location information wirelessly transmitted by, a vehicle computer device coupled to the vehicle to acquire diagnostic and location vehicle data generated thereby, and wherein the vehicle computer device processes the diagnostic or location vehicle data according to a mathematical algorithm, and wherein the information comprises at least one of vehicle status reports and vehicle service recommendations to generate the derived information so that it has a meaning distinct from the acquired diagnostic and location vehicle data,
wherein the graphical user interface includes at least one of an icon and data field associated with derived information indicative of the vehicle'"'"'s emissions.
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15. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions, the instructions comprising:
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one or more instructions that, when executed by one or more processors of a vehicle computer device connected to an engine control unit (ECU) of a vehicle via an OBD or OBD-II connector, cause the one or more processors to; acquire vehicle data comprising numerical diagnostic data associated with the vehicle via the OBD or OBD-II connector of the vehicle; process the vehicle data according to a mathematical algorithm to generate derived diagnostic information that is at least in part derived from the vehicle data, and wherein the derived diagnostic information has a meaning distinct from the vehicle data; format the derived diagnostic information for display on an application running on a host computer device, wherein the application can provide an interface for presenting information associated with the vehicle, wherein the interface includes at least one of an icon or a data field associated with derived diagnostic information indicative of emissions performance of the vehicle; and wirelessly transmit, using a cellular modem included in the vehicle computer device, the derived diagnostic information in a communication via an internet to the host computer device, the derived diagnostic information for a first diagnostic problem to be diagnosed being monitored and wirelessly transmitted at a first temporal interval or mileage interval set based on the first diagnostic problem to be diagnosed, and the derived diagnostic information for a second diagnostic problem to be diagnosed being monitored and wirelessly transmitted at a second temporal interval or mileage interval set based on the second diagnostic problem to be diagnosed, the first temporal interval or mileage interval being simultaneous with and different than the second temporal interval or mileage interval. - View Dependent Claims (16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21)
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Specification