Patent ID: 8793049

Claim:
A vehicle diagnostic and communication system for a vehicle service facility, comprising: a data communication network configured for installation within the vehicle service facility; a wireless access point coupled to the data communication network configured for installation within the vehicle service facility; and first and second vehicle diagnostic tools for use in the vehicle service facility, wherein each of the first and second vehicle diagnostic tools comprises: (a) an interface configured to obtain diagnostic data from a vehicle in the vehicle service facility; (b) at least one audio transducer configured for audible input and output; (c) a vocoder configured to encode audio signals coming from the at least one audio transducer and to decode received encoded audio signals for the at least one audio transducer; (d) a wireless packet data transceiver, configured for wireless packet data communication, with the wireless access point, of data relating to operation of the interface and two-way wireless packet data communication of the encoded audio signals; (e) a processor configured to control operations of the vehicle diagnostic tool including communications via the wireless packet data transceiver; (f) a memory; (g) programming stored in the memory for execution by the processor, wherein the programming includes: at least one vehicle diagnostic application to configure the processor to control operation of the interface to obtain diagnostic data from the vehicle and to cause the processor to perform diagnostic functions of the respective vehicle diagnostic tool including data processing on the data obtained from the interface to help identify a vehicle problem or to propose a remedial action and to control the communication of data relating to at least one of the diagnostic functions via the wireless packet data transceiver; and a voice communication application to configure the processor to control the vocoder and the wireless packet data transceiver for wireless packet data communication of the encoded audio signals, for two-way voice communication for a user of the respective vehicle diagnostic tool; and (h) a housing separate from the vehicle, enclosing the interface, processor, memory, at least one audio transducer, vocoder and wireless packet data transceiver, for configuring the respective tool for operation in the vehicle service facility in accord with the at least one vehicle diagnostic application and the voice communication application, wherein each of the first and second vehicle diagnostic tools is configured to enable communication with other vehicle diagnostic tools used in the vehicle service facility over the data communication network of the vehicle service facility, so as to enable a user of one vehicle diagnostic tool to communicate with a user of another vehicle diagnostic tool in the vehicle service facility.