Abstract:
Aspects of the disclosure describe a method and system for the delivery and notification of user requested radio content. Aspects include a radio unit that is physically integrated with and is part of a telematics unit and receives user requested content data from a radio control center over a wireless network. The radio unit processes the user requested content data using a user request application. Further, the user requested data includes the scheduled times for one or more items of user requested content. The user request application orders the scheduled times for the one or more items of user requested content chronologically and displays the one or more items of user requested content data on the user display accordingly.

Description:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
       [0001]    The present invention relates generally to delivering, and/or notifying a user of, user requested radio content, and in particular to a method and system for the delivery and notification of user requested program content using broadcast channels. 
       BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
       [0002]    Many vehicles have or are modified to include telematics devices, and a number of services are available through such telematics devices. Telematics services include, but are not limited to turn-by-turn directions and other navigation-related services provided in conjunction with the GPS based chipsets and components, airbag deployment notification and other emergency or roadside assistance-related services provided in connection with various crash and or collision sensor interface modules and sensors located throughout the vehicle. Increasingly, telematics services also include “infotainment-related” services where music radio content, Web pages, movies, television programs, videogames and/or other content is downloaded to the telematics unit. For example, one service may be music content may be downloaded content for current or later playback. 
         [0003]    However, current systems for providing user requested content fall short of customer expectations, especially when the requested content is radio content. The presently disclosed principles advance the state of the art in this and other regards. 
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
       [0004]    Aspects of the disclosure describe a method and system for the delivery and notification of user requested radio content. Aspects include a radio unit that is part of a telematics unit and that receives user requested content data from a radio control center over a wireless network. The radio unit processes the user requested content data using a user request application. Further, the user requested data includes the scheduled times for one or more user requested content. The user request application orders the scheduled times for the one or more user requested content chronologically and displays the one or more user requested content data on the user display accordingly. 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWINGS 
         [0005]      FIG. 1  is a schematic view of an example communication system within which the disclosed system may be implemented; 
           [0006]      FIG. 2  is a schematic view of an exemplary system architecture in keeping with the disclosed principles; 
           [0007]      FIGS. 3-4  are flow diagrams that illustrate an exemplary aspect of a method for the delivery and notification of user requested radio content; 
           [0008]      FIG. 5  illustrates a radio unit that is part of an exemplary system and method for delivery and notification of user requested radio content; 
           [0009]      FIG. 6  shows an exemplary user display in accordance with an aspect of the disclosure; and 
           [0010]      FIG. 7  is further flow diagram illustrating an aspect of a method for the delivery and notification of user requested radio content. 
       
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
       [0011]    Before describing the invention in detail, an exemplary environment in which the invention may operate will be described. It will be appreciated that the described environment is for purposes of illustration only, and does not imply any limitation regarding the use of other environments to practice the invention. 
         [0012]    With reference to  FIG. 1  there is shown an example of a communication system  100  that may be used with the present method and generally includes a vehicle  102 , a wireless carrier system  104 , a land network  106  and a call center  108 . It should be appreciated that the overall architecture, setup and operation, as well as the individual components of a system such as that shown here are generally known in the art. Thus, the following paragraphs simply provide a brief overview of one such exemplary information system  100 ; however, other systems not shown here could employ the present method as well. 
         [0013]    Vehicle  102  is preferably a mobile vehicle such as a motorcycle, car, truck, recreational vehicle (RV), boat, plane, etc., and is equipped with suitable hardware and software that enables it to communicate over system  100 . Some of the vehicle hardware  110  is shown generally in  FIG. 1  including a telematics unit  114 , a microphone  116 , a speaker  118  and buttons and/or controls  120  connected to the telematics unit  114 . Operatively coupled to the telematics unit  114  is a network connection or vehicle bus  122 . Examples of suitable network connections include a controller area network (CAN), a media oriented system transfer (MOST), a local interconnection network (LIN), an Ethernet, and other appropriate connections such as those that conform with known ISO, SAE, and IEEE standards and specifications, to name a few. 
         [0014]    The telematics unit  114  is an onboard device that provides a variety of services through its communication with the call center  108 , and generally includes an electronic processing device  128  one or more types of electronic memory  130 , a cellular chipset/component  124 , a wireless modem  126 , a dual antenna  160  and a navigation unit containing a GPS chipset/component  132 . In one example, the wireless modem  126  is comprised of a computer program and/or set of software routines executing within processing device  128 . 
         [0015]    The telematics unit  114  provides too many services to list them all, but several examples include: turn-by-turn directions and other navigation-related services provided in conjunction with the GPS based chipset/component  132 ; airbag deployment notification and other emergency or roadside assistance-related services provided in connection with various accident and or collision sensor interface modules  156  and sensors  158  located throughout the vehicle. Infotainment-related services where music, Web pages, movies, television programs, video games and/or other content is downloaded by an infotainment center  136  operatively connected to the telematics unit  114  via vehicle bus  122  and audio bus  112 . In one example, downloaded content is stored for current or later playback. 
         [0016]    Again, the above-listed services are by no means an exhaustive list of all the capabilities of telematics unit  114 , as should be appreciated by those skilled in the art, but are simply an illustration of some of the services that the telematics unit is capable of offering. It is anticipated that telematics unit  114  include a number of known components in addition to those listed above. 
         [0017]    Vehicle communications preferably use radio transmissions to establish a voice channel with wireless carrier system  104  so that both voice and data transmissions can be sent and received over the voice channel. Vehicle communications are enabled via the cellular chipset/component  124  for voice communications and a wireless modem  126  for data transmission. In order to enable successful data transmission over the voice channel, wireless modem  126  applies some type of encoding or modulation to convert the digital data so that it can communicate through a vocoder or speech codec incorporated in the cellular chipset/component  124 . Any suitable encoding or modulation technique that provides an acceptable data rate and bit error can be used with the present method. Dual mode antenna  160  services the GPS chipset/component and the cellular chipset/component. 
         [0018]    Microphone  116  provides the driver or other vehicle occupant with a means for inputting verbal or other auditory commands, and can be equipped with an embedded voice processing unit utilizing a human/machine interface (HMI) technology known in the art. Conversely, speaker  118  provides verbal output to the vehicle occupants and can be either a stand-alone speaker specifically dedicated for use with the telematics unit  114  or can be part of a vehicle audio component  154 . In either event, microphone  116  and speaker  118  enable vehicle hardware  110  and call center  108  to communicate with the occupants through audible speech. The vehicle hardware also includes one or more buttons or controls  120  for enabling a vehicle occupant to activate or engage one or more of the vehicle hardware components  110 . For example, one of the buttons  120  can be an electronic push button used to initiate voice communication with call center  108  (whether it be a live advisor  148  or an automated call response system). In another example, one of the buttons  120  can be used to initiate emergency services. 
         [0019]    The audio component  154  is operatively connected to the vehicle bus  122  and the audio bus  112 . The audio component  154  receives analog information, rendering it as sound, via the audio bus  112 . Digital information is received via the vehicle bus  122 . The audio component  154  provides AM and FM radio, CD, DVD, and multimedia functionality independent of the infotainment center  136 . Audio component  154  may contain a speaker system, or may utilize speaker  118  via arbitration on vehicle bus  122  and/or audio bus  112 . 
         [0020]    The vehicle accident and/or collision detection sensor interface  156  are operatively connected to the vehicle bus  122 . The accident sensors  158  provide information to the telematics unit via the accident and/or collision detection sensor interface  156  regarding the severity of a vehicle collision, such as the angle of impact and the amount of force sustained. 
         [0021]    Vehicle sensors  162 , connected to various sensor interface modules  134  are operatively connected to the vehicle bus  122 . Example vehicle sensors include but are not limited to gyroscopes, accelerometers, magnetometers, emission detection and/or control sensors, and the like. Example sensor interface modules  134  include power train control, climate control, and body control, to name but a few. 
         [0022]    Wireless carrier system  104  is preferably a cellular telephone system or any other suitable wireless system that transmits signals between the vehicle hardware  110  and land network  106 . According to an example, wireless carrier system  104  includes one or more cell towers  138 , base stations and/or mobile switching centers (MSCs)  140 , as well as any other networking components required to connect the wireless system  104  with land network  106 . A component in the mobile switching center may include a remote data server  180 . As appreciated by those skilled in the art, various cell tower/base station/MSC arrangements are possible and could be used with wireless system  104 . For example, a base station and a cell tower could be co-located at the same site or they could be remotely located, and a single base station could be coupled to various cell towers or various base stations could be coupled with a single MSC, to but a few of the possible arrangements. Preferably, a speech codec or vocoder is incorporated in one or more of the base stations, but depending on the particular architecture of the wireless network, it could be incorporated within a Mobile Switching Center or some other network components as well. 
         [0023]    Land network  106  can be a conventional land-based telecommunications network that is connected to one or more landline telephones and connects wireless carrier network  104  to call center  108 . For example, land network  106  can include a public switched telephone network (PSTN) and/or an Internet protocol (IP) network, as is appreciated by those skilled in the art. Of course, one or more segments of the land network  106  can be implemented in the form of a standard wired network, a fiber or other optical network, a cable network, other wireless networks such as wireless local networks (WLANs) or networks providing broadband wireless access (BWA), or any combination thereof. 
         [0024]    Call Center (OCC)  108  is designed to provide the vehicle hardware  110  with a number of different system back-end functions and, according to the example shown here, generally includes one or more switches  142 , servers  144 , databases  146 , live advisors  148 , as well as a variety of other telecommunication and computer equipment  150  that is known to those skilled in the art. These various call center components are preferably coupled to one another via a network connection or bus  152 , such as the one previously described in connection with the vehicle hardware  110 . Switch  142 , which can be a private branch exchange (PBX) switch, routes incoming signals so that voice transmissions are usually sent to either the live advisor  148  or an automated response system, and data transmissions are passed on to a modem or other piece of equipment  150  for demodulation and further signal processing. The modem  150  preferably includes an encoder, as previously explained, and can be connected to various devices such as a server  144  and database  146 . For example, database  146  could be designed to store subscriber profile records, subscriber behavioral patterns, or any other pertinent subscriber information. Although the illustrated example has been described as it would be used in conjunction with a manned call center  108 , it will be appreciated that the call center  108  can be any central or remote facility, manned or unmanned, mobile or fixed, to or from which it is desirable to exchange voice and data. 
         [0025]      FIG. 2  is a schematic view of an example system architecture in keeping with the disclosed principles. The vehicle  102  may be installed with a telematics unit  114 . A telematics unit user, which may be a vehicle driver, may request radio content from a radio service provider (e.g., local radio station, national radio station, satellite radio provider, etc.). The telematics unit  114  includes a radio unit  220 , a user request application  215 , and a user interface  225 . The radio unit may receive radio signals that contain content and programming including, but not limited to, music, news, sports, talk shows, and other radio content. In addition, the radio unit may include user controls to select radio content from different radio frequencies or radio broadcast channels. Details of the radio unit  220  will be discussed when describing  FIG. 5 . The user interface  225  allows a user to request radio content from the radio content provider. The user request application  215  receives the user request data from the user interface  225  and sends the user request data to a radio control center  210  across a wireless network  205 . The user request data may be the title of the radio content or program or a keyword in the title. The user request application  215  may send the user request data in different data formats that may include, but are not limited to, a Short Message Service (SMS) message, text message, multi-media message, voice message, image message, or instant message. The user request application  215  may be implemented in hardware and software. 
         [0026]    The radio control center  210 , which is part of the radio content provider, receives the user request data from the user request application  215  across the wireless network  205 . The user request data may be stored in an electronic database  235 . A software application  232 , running on a server  230 , analyzes the user request data in conjunction with user request data from other users. 
         [0027]    It will be appreciated that the software application discussed herein is implemented in the form of computer-executable instructions recorded on a computer-readable medium, wherein the recorded instructions are executed by a computing device such as the telematics unit. Media that are readable by a computer include both tangible and intangible media. Examples of the former include magnetic discs, optical discs, flash memory, RAM, ROM, tapes, cards, etc. Examples of the latter include acoustic signals, electrical signals, AM and FM waves, etc. As used in the appended claims, the term “computer-readable medium” denotes only tangible media that are readable by a computer unless otherwise specifically noted in the claim. 
         [0028]    Details of the software application&#39;s operation will be discussed hereinafter with reference to  FIG. 4 . After performing the prescribed analysis, the software application  232  may send to the user the scheduled time and broadcast channel of the user requested content across the wireless network  205 . The user request application  215  may receive this data from the software application  232  running the server  230  residing on the radio content provider&#39;s premises. The user request application processes this data and provides information to the radio unit  220  pertaining to the scheduling of the user requested content to display to the user. 
         [0029]      FIG. 3  is a flow diagram that illustrates an exemplary aspect of a method for the delivery and notification of user requested radio content. At step  310 , the user requests radio content using the user interface of the telematics unit. The user request data may be processed by a user request application as shown in  FIG. 2 . The processing may include formatting the data in a certain format to send over a wireless network. These data formats may include, but are not limited to, an SMS message, text message, multi-media message, voice message, image message, and instant message. At step  320 , the user request data is sent to a radio control center that is part of a radio content provider (e.g. local radio station, national radio station, satellite radio provider, etc.). At step  330 , the radio control center receives the user request data and stores it in a database. A software application, running on a server in the radio control center, analyzes the user request data at step  340 . Details of this analysis will be discussed when describing  FIG. 4 . At step  350 , the software application, implemented on a radio control center server, sends radio content information to the user across the wireless network. This radio content information includes the scheduling information and the broadcast channel for the requested radio content. At step  360 , a radio unit receives the requested content information from the radio control center. At step  370 , the radio unit sets a timer and tuner based on the received information and may show the timer and radio content information on a user display. 
         [0030]      FIG. 4  is further flow diagram that illustrates an aspect of a method for the delivery and notification of user requested radio content. At step  410 , the radio control center receives user request data from a plurality of users. At step  420 , the software application analyzes each user request in connection with the other user requests. This may include categorizing the user requests based on content type. It may also include counting the number of user requests for a particular radio program. For example, the radio control center may receive and count user requests for a particular song, a football game, and a talk show. At step  430 , the software application prioritizes content using several different factors. One factor may be to categorize user requested content into broad categories such as scheduled content and unscheduled content. Scheduled content is radio programming that is already produced and scheduled to be broadcasted by the radio content provider. Examples of scheduled radio content may be sports, news, and talk shows. Unscheduled content is programming that is not scheduled to broadcast by the radio content provider such as a particular song or piece of music. 
         [0031]    A radio control center may prioritize scheduled content and unscheduled content in different ways. When receiving user request data for scheduled content, the software application may search and then access the scheduled time and broadcast channel of the scheduled program from a database. It may then send it to each user that requests the particular program. Conversely, when receiving user request data for unscheduled content, such as a particular song, the software application may count the number of requests for the particular song within a time period (e.g. one hour, half hour, etc.) by different users. If the number exceeds a predetermined threshold, then the radio control center may decide to broadcast that song within a certain time period (half hour, one hour, etc.) on a particular broadcast channel. This user-driven content provides a benefit to the radio content provider. Instead of taking the time and expense to schedule particular songs on different broadcast channels, the radio provider utilizes the user request data to schedule the broadcasting of the songs. Further, the radio content provider can designate user request broadcast channels for each genre of music (rock, classical, country, jazz, etc.) that provide added cost savings based on the analysis and prioritization of user requests by the software application. At step  440 , the radio control center sends the scheduled time and broadcast channel information to the user. 
         [0032]      FIG. 5  illustrates a radio unit  220  that is part of an exemplary system and method for delivery and notification of user requested radio content. The illustrated radio unit  220  comprises a radio receiver  510 , a user display  520  and an audio unit  530 . The radio receiver  510  can be tuned to a radio frequency to receive radio signals that carry radio content. The audio unit  530  (e.g., speakers) allows the user to listen to the radio content. A user display  520  receives information from the user request application  215  pertaining to the user requested content and displays it to the user. This includes the scheduled time and the broadcast channel for the requested radio content. 
         [0033]      FIG. 6  illustrates an exemplary user display in accordance with one aspect of the disclosed principles. The user display  520  may show user requested content information on a display screen  610 . The exemplary display screen  610  shows the title of the requested radio program, the time remaining until the broadcast of the radio program, and the broadcast channel for the radio program. The exemplary display screen  610  shows radio content information for three programs. A first program  620  is a song request called “Jump!” and the radio content provider will broadcast the song in twelve minutes and thirty-one seconds on broadcast channel  325 . A second program  630  is a college football game that will be broadcast in two hours forty-eight minutes and seventeen seconds on channel  330 . A third program  640  is a car talk show that will be broadcast in one hour and twenty-four minutes and fifty-one seconds on channel  335 . 
         [0034]      FIG. 7  is another flow diagram that illustrates an exemplary aspect of a method for the delivery and notification of user requested radio content. At step  710 , the telematics unit may receive the requested content information from the radio control center. This may implemented by the user request application. At step  720 , the user request application processes the requested content information. This may include prioritizing the display of information for different programs based on the scheduled time of each program&#39;s broadcast. For example, processing a second program&#39;s information may show that it will be broadcast before a first program. Thus, the user request application processes and sends the information pertaining to the second program to a user display before sending the information pertaining to the first program. At step  730 , the user request application sends the requested content information to a user display, as part of the radio or telematics unit, to be shown to the user. 
         [0035]    All references, including publications, patent applications, and patents, cited herein are hereby incorporated by reference to the same extent as if each reference were individually and specifically indicated to be incorporated by reference and were set forth in its entirety herein. 
         [0036]    The use of the terms “a” and “an” and “the” and similar referents in the context of describing the invention (especially in the context of the following claims) are to be construed to cover both the singular and the plural, unless otherwise indicated herein or clearly contradicted by context. The terms “comprising,” “having,” “including,” and “containing” are to be construed as open-ended terms (i.e., meaning “including, but not limited to,”) unless otherwise noted. Recitation of ranges of values herein are merely intended to serve as a shorthand method of referring individually to each separate value falling within the range, unless otherwise indicated herein, and each separate value is incorporated into the specification as if it were individually recited herein. All methods described herein can be performed in any suitable order unless otherwise indicated herein or otherwise clearly contradicted by context. The use of any and all examples, or exemplary language (e.g., “such as”) provided herein, is intended merely to better illuminate the invention and does not pose a limitation on the scope of the invention unless otherwise claimed. No language in the specification should be construed as indicating any non-claimed element as essential to the practice of the invention. 
         [0037]    Certain implementations are described herein, including the best mode known to the inventors for carrying out the invention. Variations of those implementations may become apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art upon reading the foregoing description. The inventors expect skilled artisans to employ such variations as appropriate, and the inventors intend for the invention to be practiced otherwise than as specifically described herein. Accordingly, this invention includes all modifications and equivalents of the subject matter recited in the claims appended hereto as permitted by applicable law. Moreover, any combination of the above-described elements in all possible variations thereof is encompassed by the invention unless otherwise indicated herein or otherwise clearly contradicted by context.