Use of smartphones, pocket size computers, tablets or other mobile
Contents
1. 14 The computerized vehicle subject of claim 3 whereas the removable computing device will replace the vehicles key by the use of secured once defined secure pairing password pattern gesture pre set code face or voice recognition tech nologies or fingerprint or eye scan for start and each mobile computing device can be set to be used with different vehicles and each vehicle can be set to work with different computing devices of different drivers 15 The computerized vehicle subject of claim 3 whereas optional auxiliary displays and input devices are employed for driver or other passengers 16 The computerized vehicle subject of claim 3 whereas using antitheft internet based application software both vehicle and computing device can be remotely locked and or located on the map 17 The computerized vehicle subject of claim 3 whereas the computing device has an interactive operator s manual application software and after pairing with each car gets the vehicles information including make model production year from a built in chip and download the related manual files from a database on the internet to be available offline for the driver at any time 18 The computerized vehicle subject of claim 3 whereas a mobile computing device can be authorized to drive the car for a limited time or can be unauthorized by the owner after a period of time in case of lending the car to someone for a limited time US 2013 0103236 Al2. battery etc 3 The computerized vehicle Subject of the claim 2 whereas the removable computing device employs different application software in order to get feedback from the vehicle US 2013 0103236 Al sensors and subsystems through the intermediate module process the related data and monitor control or even simulate some or all of the software based subsystems of the vehicle like traction control system brakes management system engine management system hybrid or electric cars control unit steering system management system lights manage ment system auto pilot system for ground and non ground vehicles accident avoidance system sound system including music player radio internet radio player and e book reading application software AC or climate control management sys tem driver assistance systems active and passive safety sys tems monitoring and diagnosis system vehicle s GPS navi gation system cruise control red light running warning system red light running avoidance system speed limit vio lation warning and avoidance system stop sign violation warning and avoidance system speech and gesture recogni tion system On board black box DVR interactive user manual system parking assistant system Tire pressure moni toring system games consoles lane warning transmission monitoring and control internet based applications for com puterized vehicles odometer gauges etc 4 The computerized vehicle Subject of c
3. 01 subsystems and accessories 4 interface 2 Multi touch pad or other input devices 6 Optional External touch screen s 5 Communication module 10 Removable computing device smartphone tablet mobile computer Wired or wireless Intermediate module 3 Optional basic Emergency processing Unit 11 Patent Application Publication Apr 25 2013 US 2013 0103236 Al Removable computing device smartphone tablet mobile computer 1 Wired or wireless interface 2 Multi touch pad or other input devices 6 accessories 9 Intermediate module 3 Optional External touch screen s 5 Sensors vehicle Sub Communication systems 8 module 10 Optional basic Emergency processing Unit 11 FIG 1 US 2013 0103236 Al USE OF SMARTPHONES POCKET SIZE COMPUTERS TABLETS OR OTHER MOBILE PERSONAL COMPUTERS AS THE MAIN COMPUTER OF COMPUTERIZED VEHICLES BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 0001 1 Field of Invention 0002 This invention is in the field of the computer man agement of vehicles 0003 2 Description of the Related Art 0004 Today we use so many products those have similar components and software Mobile phones GPS navigation systems laptops and desktop computers all have processors displays and input devices ex Keyboard touch pad et
4. 19 The computerized vehicle subject of claim 3 whereas the said vehicle has at least one independent auxiliary built in microprocessor for the subsystem s not covered by the removable computing device processor decided by the vehicle manufacturer for reasons like safety reliability etc 20 The computerized vehicle subject of claim 3 whereas the vehicle can be turned on with a traditional key in case of emergency and work only as a basic car without features provided by the removable computing device 21 The computerized vehicle subject of claim 3 with parking meter application software whereas the said appli cation software can arrange online payments and can be set to do timely payments until a specific time or unless it detects that the computing device has been paired with the vehicle the vehicle has been turned on and moved out of the parking and also automatically arranges the refund of the extra money paid if the vehicle moves out of the parking early 22 The computerized vehicle subject of claim 3 whereas the used computing device has a drive mode that activates a processing management software in order to give the high est processing priority to the processes related to vehicle drive systems and use the additional available processing capacity for other activities and application software and prevents unnecessary and unauthorized applications from working a ee ee ee Apr 25 2013
5. US 20130103236A1 as United States a2 Patent Application Publication o Pub No US 2013 0103236 A1 MEHRGAN 43 Pub Date Apr 25 2013 54 USE OF SMARTPHONES POCKET SIZE G06 50 30 2012 01 COMPUTERS TABLETS OR OTHER MOBILE G05D 13 00 2006 01 PERSONAL COMPUTERS AS THE MAIN G05D 3 00 2006 01 COMPUTER OF COMPUTERIZED B60Q 1 00 2006 01 VEHICLES BOOT 7 00 2006 01 G05D 1 00 2006 01 75 Inventor BEHRANG MEHRGAN RANCHO 52 U S Cl SANTA MARGARITA CA US USPC 701 22 701 33 2 701 82 701 41 701 23 73 Assignee BEHRANG MEHRGAN RANCHO oe eas ee AEA REN SANTA MARGARITA CA US i 21 Appl No 13 602 245 57 ABSTRACT 22 Filed Sep 3 2012 Related U S Application Data This invention features a solution to use a pocket size pc 60 Provisional application No 61 530 957 filed on Sep smartphone or tablet or any other type of mobile personal 3 2011 provisional application No 61 531 301 filed computer a8 the main su mputer of a vehicle in the highly on Sep 6 2011 computerized future vehicles By connecting the smartphone tablet etc to the car interface the phone tablet etc will Publication Classification become the brain of the machine and acts as a vehicle com puter system By the use of the car manufacturer application 51 Int Cl software or use of 3 party application software It can be GO06F 19 00 2011 01 programmed for controlling replacing many of the vehicle B60W 20 00 2006
6. audible warnings through the vehicle displays lights and sound system 8 The computerized vehicle subject to claim 7 having ared light running avoidance system whereas in case of predicting the red light running the computing device prevents cruising activates the brakes and prevents the vehicle from entering the intersection by stopping it smoothly before entering the intersection or reduces the speed to a safe level to make a right turn and does not stop the car if it predicts that the driver is making a right turn considering the data obtained from the signal lights steering system position and orientation of the car and camera images analysis 9 The red light avoidance system subject of claim 9 whereas the system can be turned off intentionally by the driver for an unlimited time or temporarily by a single gesture touch of the input devices in case that the driver feels that the system has made the wrong prediction Apr 25 2013 10 The computerized vehicle subject of claim 3 with a speed limit violation avoidance system which uses the GPS navigation system and internet based resources to detect the legal speed and odometer information in order to detecting the violation and makes audible and visual alarms and can control the brakes and cruise system in order to keep the speed in legal level unless the driver turns the features partly or completely off intentionally for an unlimited period or tem porarily 11 The comp
7. c The idea of using a smartphone to replace all the above mentioned devices was recently employed by Motorola The Motorola Atrix smartphone can be called the first prototype It s a smartphone But when a laptop is needed this mobile phone can be connected to a Laptop dock which is actually a package including display keyboard touch pad speakers battery and USB hub but without a processor By connecting the smartphone the package will actually become a laptop Even since the first marketed package does not work as good as a laptop but the idea will grow in the future to build better packages 0005 Many of the above mentioned components can be seen on a vehicle computer too On the computerized vehicles Navigation systems are mainly being used in the new vehicles as an expensive option Also the use of different microprocessors ECU units and even computers on the vehicles is becoming more common Vehicles with integrated computers are already in the market mainly in the form of luxury cars But the current integrated computers are nor mally very expensive due to high production costs The inte grated computers have to be able to work at extremely high and extremely low temperatures Because the working tem perature can reach to very low or high levels especially when the vehicle is parked outdoor They can be subjected to con siderable shocks when driving and should still work safely in tough conditions All of these condit
8. e the smartphone needs no external antenna for the Internet radio 0028 For the emergency situations like when the phone is lost stolen or broken a key a traditional key or a card key can still start the vehicle The independent microprocessors can work and the vehicle can be designed in a way to perform as a basic car with no computerized features An optional emergency processing unit 11 is shown to perform some basic operations in offline mode Design of the system operation in offline mode is not an object of this invention 1 A computerized vehicle whereas the main computer of the vehicle is not a built in device and is a removable mobile computing device like a smartphone a tablet computer or a pocket size or mobile computer connected to the vehicle electric system through a wired or wireless interface and an intermediate module which translates the computing device data to the proper signals and electrical outputs for the vehicle subsystems and the subsystem s feedbacks to data in order to be understandable for the computing device 2 The computerized vehicle Subject of claim 1 where as the removable computing device has all or some of the fea tures of modern smartphones and mobile computers like a built in GPS navigation system digital compass internet connectivity Bluetooth connection wifi connection built in camera multi touch screen and gesture recognition accel erometer memory processor Operating system
9. ferent brands of smartphones tablets etc on the same vehicle The interface s should also be able to connect external display and input devices Motorola atrix has done it by connecting micro USB and HDMI ports at the same time Similar solution can be used for this application too 0025 Incase of employing the external auxiliary display 5 on the vehicle the phone by itself can be used as the multi touch enabled touch pad too Use of a multi touch enabled touch pad 6 is explained as another invention under applica tion Ser No 61 529 271 where a multi touch enabled touch pad will enable the driver to make over 20 commands by multi touch gestures when keeping the eyes on the road and without distraction 0026 The intermediate module receives the system feed backs from the sensors 7 the vehicles sub systems 8 and accessories 9 and sends the required signals to the sub systems 8 and accessories 9 The vehicle s independent microprocessors are considered as built in parts of the sub systems and have not been shown as independent units The sequence of control between main computer and independent microprocessors can vary from vehicle to vehicle and depends on the manufacturer 0027 The communication module 10 includes modules for communications like modems and antennas for example antenna for radio because in case of using a smartphone as the radio of the system it normally needs an external antenna for FM radio At the meantim
10. icles including ground vehicles and also boats and crafts BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEW OF THE DRAWING 0023 nents FIG 1 Shows the schematic view of the compo DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 0024 There is technically no difference in the working concept of a system with built in computer and the structure of a system with a removable smartphone tablet etc 1 as the main computer The only difference is that since system ana logue feedbacks are not recognizable for the removable com puting device 1 smartphone tablet mobile computer etc and the data produced by the removable processing device 1 is not understandable for the car components an intermediate module 2 should be employed to translate the system feed back to data and the removable processing device s data to the proper signals The intermediate module 2 should include Analogue to digital converters digital to analogue converters Apr 25 2013 Signal conditioners communication chips and high level digital outputs ifrequired a processor etc The intermediate module also needs a power source 4 Then there is an interface 3 required to connect the intermediate module to the remov able processing device This interface can be both in the form of wired or wireless connection Wired connection also pro vides the possibility of charging the removable processing device 1 Use of a globally accepted interface will make it possible to use dif
11. ions increase the costs of a reliable on board computer Furthermore since the annual production is normally very low production costs can t be lowered 0006 In the other hand best selling mobile phones are being produced in million of unites IMS research expects the annual production of smartphones to reach to 1 billion units by 2016 which is higher than the number of the cars ever sold worldwide So cost prices of smart phones are lower than any other computer specially produced for vehicles Mobile phones have no problem with the indoor shocks of a mass produced car Also working temperature range is acceptable for this application and temperature will not cause important problems since the phone will be used inside the car and is not likely to be left in the car for a very long time when the car is parked especially because the driver should disconnect it from the interface for shutting the system down and actually the key should not be left inside the car Tablets have more and less the same structure of the smartphones 0007 So since the smartphones and tablets are becoming more advanced and powerful day by day and considering the much more powerful devices are yet to come in the future smartphones and tablets look very attractive cheap and fea sible solutions to replace the vehicles main computers and Apr 25 2013 also some of the expensive parts Like navigation system and music and radio player Especially because
12. laim 3 whereas the display of the removable computing device displays all the system information and replacing odometer and various gauges and also displays the navigation system maps 5 The computerized vehicle Subject of claim 3 whereas the built in and attachable input devices of the removable com puting devices for example multi touch screen microphone camera and Bluetooth touchpad can lead to elimination of nearly all the handles and switches of the vehicle by meant of touch multi touch gestures hand and face gestures and voice recognition 6 The computerized vehicle Subject of claim 3 whereas The computing device is also capable of storing all the cus tomized user settings as user profiles including adjustments made on the driver s seat mirrors climate control system driving modes like sport comfort economy springs stiffness control and apply the chosen profile to the vehicle s that one driver drives 7 The computerized vehicle having a red light running alert system whereas an application software uses the navi gation system information in order to predict the next in rout intersections connects to the police department using the internet connection of the device gets the current status and live timing information of the next red lights and considering the car location orientation current speed driver behavior and predicted speed predicts if the vehicle is about to run the red light and makes visual and or
13. most of the people already pay for the smartphones and tablets and with this solution they don t need to pay again for the expensive integrated car computers 0008 There have been efforts for using a cell phone for controlling a vehicle Nearly in all the cases the cell phone acts as a remote control not a processing unit and the vehicle has its own built in computer or processor The main differ ence of this invention is that the smartpone tablet or other mobile computer can work as the main computer of the vehicle or in some cases the auxiliary processing unit for the sub systems and not just as a remote control 0009 Patent 2010 7725129 B2 5 2010 cell phone based vehicle published by Oliver David Grunhold 455 556 1 isa clear example of using a cell phone to control a vehicle as a remote control when the vehicle has its own central process ing module and a GPS 0010 Patent 2010 0075655 A1 3 2010 published by Jamie C howarter 455 420 provides methods for controlling vehicle systems from a cell phone and again the cell phone acts as a remote control system BRIEF SUMMERY OF THE INVENTION 0011 This invention features a solution to use a pocket size pc smartphone or tablet or any other type of mobile personal computer as the main computer of a computerized vehicle in the highly computerized future vehicles By con necting the smartphone tablet etc to the car interface the phone tablet etc will become the brain of
14. out the system including fuel consumption graphs and error codes those can be stored or printed later or even be sent to the manufac turer or service center through the internet 0018 The smartphone tablet etc will also replace the vehicles key in a highly secured way ex Use of password pattern gesture pre set code or even face or voice recognition technologies for start If the required devices are available on the smartphone tablet etc also fingerprint scan or eye scan methods can be used for starting the vehicle 0019 If required An optional big auxiliary multi touch enabled screen can be used as the main or secondary display of the system and also as the input device 0020 The same pocket size pe can replace the passengers dedicated built in computers through the built in monitors and keyboards provided for each seat for Internet access entertainment gaming and office works Since gaming can slow down the smartphone tablet etc and make safety con cerns the system can be arranged to accept more than one removable processing unit in order to improve its processing capabilities 0021 Byconnecting a smartphone to the vehicle interface It can also be used as a phone whether as a handset by the vehicles sound system or by a Bluetooth headset In case of wireless connection of the smartphone to the vehicle the smartphone can also work independently as a phone 0022 This invention can be used for every type of veh
15. the machine 0012 By the vehicle manufacturer software or use of 3 party application software It can be programmed for control ling replacing many of the vehicle subsystems and accesso ries including display traction control system brakes man agement system engine management system hybrid and electric cars control unit steering system management lights management auto pilot system accident avoidance system sound system smartphone tablet etc can become the main music and radio internet radio player e book reading device AC or climate control internet connection for the passengers driver assistance systems safety systems monitoring and diagnosis system vehicle s GPS navigation system cruise control red light running warning and avoidance system speed limit violation avoidance system stop sign violation avoidance system speech and gesture recognition system On board black box DVR interactive user manual system parking assistant system monitoring system for tire pressure pressure an water temperature games consoles lane warning system transmission monitoring and control internet based application software for computerized vehicles etc 0013 This invention can be used for some or all of the subsystems according to the vehicle producer s needs and safety concerns Even in the highly computerized vehicles there is a main on board computer and then there are many independent microprocessors in order to con
16. trol the indepen dent sub systems for example passive safety systems Manufacturer may decide to keep the original microproces sors of many of the above mentioned systems The main object of this invention is to replace the main computer not all the microprocessors But replacing all the micro processors is possible 0014 Itcan display all the system information and replac ing odometer and various other gauges and also will display the navigation system maps US 2013 0103236 Al 0015 The multi touch capability of the screen can lead to elimination of nearly all the handles and switches by making commands using various touch gestures 0016 The device is also capable of storing all the custom ized user profiles including adjustments made on the driver s seat mirrors climate control system driving modes like sport comfort economy springs stiffness control special vehicles ex Vehicles with hydro pneumatic suspension etc Storing the user profiles on the phone is helpful when the driver intends to drive another vehicle because as soon as sitting in the new vehicle and connecting the smartphone tablet etc after authorization all the profile details can be applied on the new vehicle Also if multiple drivers use the same vehicle drivers will use their own phones So each driver can have multiple user profiles 0017 by access to the vehicle s sensors the smartphone tablet etc can provide accurate statistics ab
17. uterized vehicle subject of claim 3 with a stop sign running avoidance system whereas an application soft ware uses the GPS navigation system maps and internet resources in order to detect the in rout stop signs and predicts if the vehicle speed is going to be too high to be stopped before the stop sign and makes audible and visual alarms and can control the brakes and cruise system in order to avoid stop sign running unless the driver turns the feature partly or completely off intentionally for an unlimited time or tempo rarily 12 The computerized vehicle subject of claim 3 with black box car DVR feature whereas the removable computing device can record the system behavior as a black box and using the mobile computer built in camera or cameras can record the surrounding events up to a specific memory capac ity to be rewritten continuously and using the device s built in accelerometer in order to detect accidents and save the cap tured videos for a specific period of time before and after the crash and also take a few high quality photos just after the crash 13 The computerized vehicle subject of claim 3 whereas the computing device by access to the vehicle s sensors can provide accurate statistics about the system like fuel con sumption and performance graphs and error codes those can be stored or printed later or even be sent to the manufacturer or service center through the internet for diagnosis and trouble shooting
Download Pdf Manuals
Related Search