Patent ID: 8386962

Claim:
A method of displaying a visual representation of an internal component of a vehicle, comprising: retrieving historical data for the vehicle, the historical data describing at least one of a use history and a maintenance history of the vehicle; receiving a view request from a user interface, the view request identifying a component of the vehicle, wherein the component comprises a mechanical device of a subsystem of the vehicle and the subsystem is for an automobile; retrieving model data from a model database, the model data identifying a plurality of models of the component of the vehicle, each of the plurality of models having one or more model triggers and including a visual representation of the component of the vehicle, the model triggers characterizing a level of at least one of wear and damage of the component of the vehicle; evaluating each of the model triggers using the historical data, wherein each of the model triggers includes one or more logical statements concerning the historical data for the one of the plurality of models of the component, which if the one or more logical statements concerning the historical data for the one of the plurality of models of the component is satisfied, then a likely condition of the mechanical device of the subsystem of the vehicle is displayed on the user interface; when the model trigger for one of the plurality of models of the component of the device is satisfied whereby the one or more logical statements of the model trigger concerning the historical data for the one of the plurality of models of the component is satisfied, displaying the visual representation of the component of the one of the plurality of models using the user interface, wherein the visual representation of the component on the user interface comprises the mechanical device of the subsystem of the vehicle, wherein the visual representation of the component further includes a transparent layer of the subsystem over the component to illustrate the component relative to the subsystem of the vehicle, wherein the user interface is configured to include an interactive exploration of an inner working of at least one of the subsystem and the mechanical device of the subsystem of the vehicle, wherein the interactive exploration includes one or more alternative visual representations of the inner working of the at least one of the subsystem and the mechanical device of the subsystem of the vehicle; and displaying a list of available maintenance activities for the component of the vehicle using the user interface, wherein the list is based on the satisfaction of the one or more logical statements concerning the historical data for the one of the plurality of models of the component.