Patent Abstract:
A method of showing approval or disapproval of an item overheard on an audio system. The method includes sending an item via radio waves to an audio system, listening to the item on the audio system and activating a button to indicate approval or disapproval of the item.

Full Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     1. Field of the Invention 
     The present invention relates to the field systems and methods that allow for two-way telematics applications, where the term telematics refers to the transfer of data to and from a moving vehicle. 
     2. Discussion of Related Art 
     It is well known in the art to implement one-way broadcasting media. An example of such one-way broadcasting media is the one-way system employed by Sirius Satellite Radio of New York, N.Y. 
     One embodiment of a known one-way broadcasting media is the system  100  shown in  FIG. 1 . In the system  100 , two or more satellites (not shown) are positioned in orbit about the Earth so that their antennae can receive and send communication signals  102  and  104 . The two or more satellites form part of the satellite-air interface  106 . The satellite-air interface  106  also includes terrestrial gap-fillers and intermediate transmitters required to augment the coverage of the digital signal  104  to the customer. The satellite-air interface  106  is connected to a ground station  108  that is connected to a number of information sources, such as schematically represented by the blocks  110 ,  112  labeled General Information, blocks  114 ,  116  labeled Internet, block  118  labeled Services, block  120  labeled Web Access and block  122  labeled Profile Databases. As explained below, the information sources in combination with the ground station  108  and the satellite-air interface  106  allow customers to receive SDARS (satellite digital audio radio system) broadcasts, initiate and/or cancel their subscription, conduct billing, and modify customer profiles. 
     For example, a customer having an appropriate radio receiver  124 , receives one-way communication signals  104  from the satellites of the satellite-air interface  106 . The radio receiver  124  includes an antenna and SDARS receiver (not shown) similar to elements  214  and  216  of  FIG. 3  described below. Preferably, the radio receiver  124  will be installed in a vehicle and will be connected to a radio tuner inserted in the console of the vehicle. The radio tuner preferably will have buttons that will allow the user in the vehicle to select either AM, FM or satellite radio. The tuner allows the user to select as many as one hundred different channels of programming available from the satellite radio. In the case of the user selecting satellite radio, the radio receiver  124  checks the signal  104  to see if the user is a subscriber to the satellite radio package. This is possible because the radio receiver  124  has a unique electronic serial number (ESN) assigned to at the time of manufacture. The programs heard on a satellite radio channel will be audio in nature and preferably include music and audio text that identifies the music being heard. The programs may also include audio advertisements. The music, audio text and advertisements are gathered from the storage areas labeled as General Content in boxes  110 ,  112  shown in  FIG. 1 . The digital signal  104  is one-way in nature in that data flows from the satellite-air interface to the radio receiver  124  and not vice versa. Thus, the user/customer is unable to interact with the system  100  via the satellite interface  106 . Instead, the customer would need to renew, initiate and/or cancel his or her radio satellite service by gaining access to the system  100  via an intranet site  114 , an Internet site  116 , a web site  120  or via contacting a services department  118  via telephone. The customer may also conduct billing and modify his or her personal profile through any of these access points as well. 
     Regarding the customer&#39;s personal profile, the system  100  can include a profile database  122  that contains information regarding each of its customers. The information can include the name, address, billing history of a customer and subscription status of customer. 
     One disadvantage of the above-described system is that it does not have a back-channel to allow interaction by the user/customer to the infrastructure of the system  100  via the satellite-air interface. This forces the customer to gain access to the system  100  outside the vehicle which can be inconvenient. In addition, many telematics services will not be available to a user/customer of system  100  without the use of a back-channel. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     One aspect of the present invention regards a method of showing approval or disapproval of an item overheard on an audio system. The method includes sending an item via radio waves to an audio system, listening to the item on the audio system and activating a button to indicate approval or disapproval of the item. 
     A second aspect of the invention regards a method of unlocking a vehicle with a radio receiver that has a unique alpha-numeric identification name associated therewith. The method includes sending a first signal to a satellite digital audio radio system indicating that a vehicle with a receiver with a unique alpha-numeric identification name is locked, sending a radio signal from the satellite digital audio radio system to the receiver of the vehicle, wherein the radio signal is unique to the unique alpha-numeric identification name and unlocking the vehicle upon receipt of the radio signal by the receiver of the vehicle. 
     A third aspect of the present invention regards a method of performing location specific applications that includes sending a first signal to a satellite digital audio radio system from a vehicle requesting the performance of a location-specific application, sending information to the satellite digital audio radio system from the vehicle that represents a location of the vehicle at the time of sending the first signal. The method further includes determining the location of the vehicle and sending to the vehicle an answer to the location specific application based on the determining the location of the vehicle. 
     The first aspect of the present invention provides the advantage of providing customer feedback regarding various products and allowing advertisers and programmers to fine tune their advertisements and programming, respectively. 
     The second aspect of the present invention provides an easy and secure way for a driver to unlock his or her vehicle when the keys are accidentally left in the vehicle. 
     The third aspect of the present invention provides an improved way of determining a location specific application. 
     The present invention, together with attendant objects and advantages, will be best understood with reference to the detailed description below in connection with the attached drawings. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         FIG. 1  schematically illustrates a known one way broadcasting media; 
         FIG. 2  schematically shows an embodiment of a two way telematics application according to the present invention; 
         FIG. 3  schematically shows an embodiment of hardware to be used with the two way telematics application of  FIG. 2  according to the present invention; and 
         FIG. 4  shows a flow chart that shows a mode of communication flow in the two way telematics application of  FIG. 2  according to the present invention. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
     Referring to the drawings,  FIGS. 2-3  show an embodiment of a system  200  that allows for two-way telematics applications. The system  200  adapts the one-way broadcasting system  100  of  FIG. 1  and adds appropriate hardware, software, and services to support two-way telematics applications. Comparing systems  100  and  200  reveals several differences. One difference is that a device transformation system  202  is added. The device transformation system  202  formats telematics applications to support varying hardware platforms that are out in the field. The device transformation system  202  may be modified such that it can support multiple client-side hardware. For example, telematics applications that are originally designed to be presented on a PC-radio platform with a display could be formatted by the device transformation system  202  to optimize the display so that a telematics service could be rendered on a single line “British-flag” radio. An example of such a PC-radio platform is the platform that includes a color reconfigurable display made and sold under the trade name of ICES (Information Communication Entertainment and Safety) by Visteon of Dearborn, Mich. It is not expected that the differences between different hardware would be very great (e.g. you wouldn&#39;t need a unique one for each radio type, model, feature). Instead, there would be some general categories of devices such as monochrome, color, image-capable, text-only, etc so that the device transformation system  202  can operate on a wide range of hardware devices. 
     Another difference between system  200  and system  100  is that system  200  further includes a back channel infrastructure  204  that supports two-way communication back from the telematics interface device  210  that is contained within the dashed lines of  FIG. 3 . The back channel infrastructure  204  could either be a unique wireless interface owned by the service company or a leveraged existing service. For example, the back channel infrastructure  204  could be accomplished through the use of existing services such as the service sold by Bell South Wireless under the trade name RAM Mobile Data Service or through CDPD (Cellular Digital Pack Data) within a cellular phone service. In operation, the back channel infrastructure may take data that has come from the client and route it to the profile database  122  to confirm the customer&#39;s data request against his currently enabled services. 
     A third difference between the system  200  and the system  100  is that the system  200  includes a terrestrial air interface  208  that represents the actual air interface between the mobile client and the infrastructure  209 . It is expected that this communication link will be highly asymmetrical in that the amount of data moving from the client to the back-channel  204  and to the infrastructure  209  will be very small and represent the requests for telematics services and/or applications. This is consistent with current Internet data flow from the user&#39;s perspective. Although the terrestrial air interface  208  is indicated as terrestrial, it is not limited to terrestrial-only and could be realized via a satellite back channel, should one be a viable solution. 
     A fourth difference between systems  100  and  200  is that the receiver  124  is modified so as to be a telematics interface device  210  which includes a telematics user control  250 , an antenna  214  and an SDARS receiver  216 . As shown in  FIG. 3 , the SDARS receiver  216  is connected with a receiver device partitioning system  212  that allows the customer to both receive data and broadcast information while interacting with the infrastructure to request specific data. 
     An embodiment of the telematics user control  250  and the receiver device partitioning system  212  is shown in  FIG. 3 . This diagram represents the physical hardware that must be implemented within the customer&#39;s mobile vehicle to enable the telematics features described in this application. As shown in  FIG. 3 , a satellite service delivers data at 2.3 GHz to an antenna  214  of the telematics interface device  210 . The data is then delivered to an SDARS receiver or down link processor  216  that decodes noted that there are many well-known embodiments for the down link processor  216 . The down link processor  216  generates left and right audio output signals  218  for use in the audio system  240  of the telematics user control  250 . The signal  218  can be either analog or digital. The down link processor  216  receives command and control signals  220  and  222  from the receiver device partitioning system  212  and the telematics user control  250  of the telematics interface device  210 , respectively. In addition, the down link processor  216  generates an output signal  224  that includes raw data stream (˜4 Mbps) which also contains the additional telematics data which must be processed separately by the receiver device partitioning system  212  to provide this data to the user. As describe above, the down link processor  216  provides the primary SDARS functionality to the user in a one-way manner. 
     The receiver device partitioning system  212  extracts the telematics-specific data from the ˜4 Mbps bit stream of output signal  224 . The functionality of receiver device partitioning system  212  is broken down into two sub-function systems: a data channel decoder  226  and a data service decoder  228 . The data channel decoder  226  conducts channel decoding on the data channels. The reasoning behind this is that data, being far more sensitive to errors that can corrupt the final result, must be encoded (and therefore decoded) with a much more powerful scheme than audio signals. A combination of channel-decoding and forward error correction optimizes the quality of the transfer of data while reducing the overhead. 
     The data services decoder  228  takes the raw, decoded telematics data and converts it to a format that is functionally usable for the telematics user control  250 . For example, if the raw data represents an image for display, the data services decoder  228  applies the appropriate source decoding algorithms to take the data and presents it to the telematics user control  250  in an image file format for display. 
     As shown in  FIG. 3 , the data services decoder  228  generates a signal  230  that is delivered to a data cache  232  in the telematics user control  250 . The data cache  232  receives the signal  230  in a streaming mode (or in the background while using another function). The telematics user control  250  also includes a web-access system  234 , such as a micro-browser or a wireless application protocol feature, to engage the telematics options described below. The telematics user control  250  can also include a global positioning system  236  for location specific requests, and a voice activation system  238  to improve the interface between the customer and the service. The telematics user control  250  further includes the back-channel infrastructure  204  that supports two-way communication back from the telematics interface device  210 . 
     The telematics user control  250  represents the telematics-enabled device in the vehicle with which a customer interacts. At the lowest level, this could be a radio or a remote human machine interface bezel providing buttons and display. The telematics user control  250  can provide both classical audio functionality (radio controls, volume control, channel choice, presets) and new telematics-enabled functions. Examples of products that could accomplish this include the products made and sold by Visteon of Dearborn, Mich. under the trade names of ICES mentioned previously or VNR, also known as Visteon Navigation Radio. These products provide the two critical functions, reconfigurable displays and buttons, and a communication back-channel. 
     With the above described architecture in mind, an example of the communication flow starting from a customer request for a telematics application to final delivery is shown in  FIG. 4 . In this example, the customer activates the SDARS system  200  by turning on the power of the telematics interface device  210  by turning on telematics user control  250  per step  300 . Next, the customer requests a particular telematics application per step  302  by selecting the telematics application that is displayed on a menu of the telematics user control  250  of the interface device  210 . Selection is accomplished by using buttons, mouse ball, pen or other well-known selection devices. After the particular telematics application is selected, data is sent via the back-channel infrastructure  204  to the information sources  110 ,  112 ,  114 ,  116 ,  118 ,  120  and  122  described previously per step  304 . The data from the back-channel infrastructure  204  is sent to the profile database  122  that confirms whether or not the customer&#39;s service subscription is up-to-date per step  306 . Assuming that the profile database  122  confirms that the customer is currently a subscriber, then the data request by the customer is serviced by the services information source  118 , the Intranet information source  114  and the Internet information source  116  per step  308 , depending on the telematics application selected by the customer. After the information sources  114 ,  116  and  118  are contacted and the desired data is retrieved, that data is encoded with the customer&#39;s unique ESN (electronic serial number) by the profile database  122  per step  310 . Next, the encoded data is sent to the device transformation system  202  per step  312  which formats the encoded data for use with the customer&#39;s telematics interface device  210 . Per step  314 , the formatted and encoded data is then transmitted over the satellite-air interface  106  to the antenna  214  of the telematics interface device  210 . The data is then delivered to the down link processor  216  that decodes the data and passes the data bit stream of output signal  224  to the receiver device partitioning system  212  per step  316 . The data channel decoder  226  of the receiver device partitioning (RDP) system  212  then decodes the data channel of output signal  224  per step  318 . Next, the data service decoder  228  decodes the data service per step  320 . The data is then stored in the data cache  232  per step  322  and then the data is sent from the data cache  232  to the display of the telematics interface device  210  per step  324 . 
     With the above process of  FIG. 4  in mind, there are at least three telematics applications that could be implemented via the architecture of system  200 . In one telematics application, the display  242  of the telematics user control  250  of the interface device  210  can include a “Buy Button”  244 . In operation, a customer listens to an SDARS audio source. If the customer desires to purchase a song or album that he or she is presently listening to on the SDARS audio source, then the customer activates the “Buy Button”  244 . Activation of the “Buy Button” will result in a signal  245  being generated in back-channel  204  that is sent to antenna  246  and to infrastructure  209 . The signal  245  initiates a sales transaction and will derive credit card information and shipping information from the customer profile database  122  and results in the customer placing a purchase order for that particular song or album. In an alternative embodiment, pressing the “Buy Button” can result in formatted version of the song or album, such as MP3, being sent to the customer or a third party designated by the customer. The “Buy Button”  244  also can be used to purchase a product being promoted in an advertisement that is being currently heard by the SDARS audio source  240 . In an alternative embodiment, the “Buy Button”  244  can be altered so that activating the button allows the customer to show his or her approval or disapproval of a song or album being currently listened to on the SDARS audio source  240  to improve programming content. Note that in each of the embodiments described above, activation of the “Buy Button” results in data flowing from the back-channel  204  to a radio tower  246  or the like which in turn sends the data to the infrastructure  209  of the system  200 . The data is then sent to the services system  118  where the ordering of the song or album or the approval/disapproval vote is processed. The data could also be sent to the profile database  122  that records the order or vote. 
     A second possible telematics application that could be implemented via system  200  is to allow a customer access to his or her car when locked out of the car. This application takes advantage of the fact that each SDAR receiver  216  has a unique alpha-numeric name assigned to it known as an ESN (Electronic Serial Number) and so it is possible to access them separately. If the customer is locked out of his or her car, then the customer can use a touch-tone phone or a web interface to gain access to the SDARS infrastructure  209  by entering or providing a customer alpha-numeric name or identification number that indicates that the customer is currently enrolled for the system  200 . Once the customer gains access to the system  200 , he or she informs the system  200  that he or she is locked out of his or her vehicle. Next, the system  200 , via a person or automatic answering system, will inform the customer that the request is being processed and that the vehicle will be unlocked within a certain period of time. The system  200  then sends a door-unlock command that is unique to the ESN of the SDAR receiver  216  of the locked vehicle to the telematics interface device  210  via satellite-air interface  106  which then passes the command to the customer&#39;s vehicle&#39;s multiplex network (not shown). Note that if the customer does not gain access to infrastructure  209  within a certain time period, dependent on specific vehicle shutdown and wake-up capabilities, then it will not be possible to unlock the vehicle via the telematics interface device  210 . 
     A third possible telematics application is to allow the customer in his or her vehicle to perform location specific service applications. Two examples of location specific service applications are determining where the nearest gas station with respect to the vehicle is located or determining where the nearest traffic accident or traffic light failure is located with respect to the vehicle. In this embodiment, the global positioning system  236  allows the customer to request information regarding the nearest one of a certain type of commercial/public enterprise or event, such as the nearest gas station, post office, traffic light failure or traffic accident. The request and the global positioning information are then sent in a combined signal or separate signals via the back channel  204  to the infrastructure  209  via terrestrial antenna  246 . Since the data sent to the infrastructure  209  includes both the request and the global positioning system location of the vehicle from the global positioning system  236 , the infrastructure  209  interrogates its global position databases located at the general content  110 ,  112  or internet  116  databases and sends a location-specific answer to the telematics interface device  210  via satellite-air interface  106 . Based on the location-specific answer, the customer can send another request to the infrastructure  209  via the back-channel  204  as to the most direct or best route to reach the location of the nearest commercial/public enterprise or the best route to avoid the location of the nearest event based on the vehicle&#39;s present position. The system  200  then sends an answer via the satellite-air interface  106 . 
     The foregoing description is provided to illustrate the invention, and is not to be construed as a limitation. Numerous additions, substitutions and other changes can be made to the invention without departing from its scope as set forth in the appended claims.

Technology Classification (CPC): 7