General Motors Patent Applications

METHOD OF CONTROLLING DIALING MODES IN A VEHICLE

Granted: October 13, 2011
Application Number: 20110250933
A dialing mode of a telematics unit in a vehicle is controlled by monitoring for dialing digits from a vehicle occupant, determining whether the type of dialing digits are continuous dialing digits or discrete dialing digits, establishing a continuous mode for receiving continuous dialing digits or a discrete mode for receiving discrete dialing digits based on the determination, and if the type of dialing digits changes, switching the established mode.

METHOD FOR REACTIVATING A THEN-CURRENTLY DEACTIVATED MOBILE UNIT

Granted: October 13, 2011
Application Number: 20110250877
A method for reactivating a then-currently deactivated mobile unit involves submitting a request to a call center to reactivate the mobile unit and, upon receiving the request, submitting another request to a cellular service provider from the call center, where such other request includes a request to broadcast a message having a mobile unit identifier and a reactivation protocol contained therein. The method further involves broadcasting the message from the cellular service provider…

AUTHENTICATING A SHORT MESSAGE SERVICE (SMS) MESSAGE

Granted: October 6, 2011
Application Number: 20110244830
A vehicle telematics unit or other electronic hardware in a vehicle authenticates an incoming SMS message and provides additional security features above and beyond those inherent to the SMS protocol. A call center uses a mathematical function to derive a security code, and then sends an SMS message to the vehicle. The telematics unit can utilize the transmitted information to authenticate the sender of the SMS message and/or its contents. One group of suitable mathematical functions…

Method of Detecting the Opening of Closed Roads

Granted: September 22, 2011
Application Number: 20110231087
The described principles provide a method and system for identifying a potentially closed road based on reroute requests, and of accommodating the potential road closure while continuing to test the road status periodically via routing decisions and rerouting requests. While the optimal route assumes that the potentially closed road is open, a replacement route is defined assuming that the potentially closed road is closed. A fraction of users are sent along the optimal route, and if a…

MODEM SIGNALING USING SPEECH COMPONENTS OVER A VOICE CHANNEL OF A WIRELESS COMMUNICATION SYSTEM

Granted: September 8, 2011
Application Number: 20110217957
A system and method of communicating with a modem via a voice channel of a wireless communication system. The method carried out by the system includes the steps of (a) establishing a voice channel connection between a vehicle telematics unit and call center via a wireless cellular network, (b) generating a modem signaling carrier comprising a single frequency tone together with a speech component, (c) sending the modem signaling carrier over the voice channel connection using an EVRC-B…

MULTIPLE NEAR FIELD COMMUNICATION TAGS IN A PAIRING DOMAIN

Granted: September 1, 2011
Application Number: 20110210820
A system and method for simply and securely pairing multiple Bluetooth or other wireless electronic devices in a network. Multiple Near Field Communication (NFC) read-only tags are places in a vehicle or other defined space, such that users of NFC-enabled electronic devices can pass their device near one of the NFC tags, which then transfers encryption key data to the user's device, allowing that device to be automatically joined to a small, secure wireless network. Various embodiments…

SIMPLIFIED VEHICLE BLUETOOTH PAIRING EMPLOYING NEAR FIELD COMMUNICATION TAGS

Granted: September 1, 2011
Application Number: 20110210830
A system and method for simply and securely pairing Bluetooth devices in a vehicle. A Near Field Communication (NFC) read-only tag is placed in the vehicle such that a user can pass an NFC-enabled Bluetooth device near the tag, which then transfers encryption key data for the vehicle's Bluetooth device to the user's Bluetooth device. Various embodiments are disclosed for initiating the pairing process with the vehicle's Bluetooth device, which ordinarily remains in a silent mode for…

SIMPLIFIED DEVICE PAIRING EMPLOYING NEAR FIELD COMMUNICATION TAGS

Granted: September 1, 2011
Application Number: 20110210831
A system and method for simply and securely pairing two Bluetooth devices. A Near Field Communication (NFC) read-only tag is placed in a first Bluetooth device such that a user of a second Bluetooth device can pass the second device near the tag, which then transfers encryption key data for the first Bluetooth device to the second Bluetooth device. An algorithm is employed for initiating the pairing process with the first Bluetooth device, which can ordinarily remain in a silent mode for…

Outbound Call Correction for Non-Telematic Mobile Directory Number Dialed by Telematic Operator

Granted: September 1, 2011
Application Number: 20110212713
The described principles provide a method and system for enabling a telematic operator to determine that an outbound call has been placed to a non-telematic mobile directory number by the telematic operator in error. In one aspect, the invention allows the telematic operator to create an identification of all non-telematic MDN's stored by the wireless carrier which the telematic operator continues to believe are active and are associated with a pending transaction. Improved…

NOTIFICATION METHOD AND SYSTEM

Granted: August 25, 2011
Application Number: 20110207439
A notification method involves creating a template via a web server interface, where the template includes a statement having at least one tag, and triggering a transmission of raw data from a mobile communications device to the web server interface. The method further involves completing the template via the web server interface using the raw data transmitted to the mobile communications device. The template is completed by substituting the tag(s) with an alphanumeric expression deduced…

Port Initiated Number Gateway

Granted: August 25, 2011
Application Number: 20110207463
The described method and system enables a telematic operator to determine a connectivity standing of devices requiring a port change from one wireless carrier to another. In particular, a modem initiates a call to each affected mobile directory number (MDN) and verifies connectivity to the correct vehicle using a telematic authentication encrypted key with appropriate verification of the stored MIN, electronic serial number (ESN), and station ID (STID). The list of verified devices of…

METHOD OF POSTING A VOICE RELATED MESSAGE ON A REMOTELY ACCESSIBLE NETWORKING PAGE

Granted: August 25, 2011
Application Number: 20110206191
A method of posting a voice related message on a remotely accessible networking page includes receiving, at a data center, a voice connection from a communications device. An account on the remotely accessible networking page that is associated with the voice connection is identified at the data center. A voice post is generated during or from the voice connection. Via the data center, the voice post is associated with the remotely accessible networking page so that the voice post is…

IN-VEHICLE TIRE GAUGE SYSTEM AND METHODS

Granted: August 18, 2011
Application Number: 20110202229
In-vehicle tire gauge system and methods are disclosed herein. The in-vehicle tire gauge system includes a user activated system operatively positioned in a vehicle. The user activated system includes at least one of preset voice prompts or audible tones for guiding a tire pressure check routine, a monitoring system for detecting a tire filling event, and a module for converting tire pressure data into audible feedback. At least one tire pressure monitoring sensor is operatively…

Rate Center Translation

Granted: August 11, 2011
Application Number: 20110196805
The described system and apparatus facilitate the identification, on a per rate center (Npa Nxx) basis, of a best carrier rate center for a wireless subscriber, and also allow detection of errors in a provider's local inventory or in performance reference data. In one aspect, carrier performance data is combined with updated available inventory data via a SIT environment to create a correlated array of rate centers relative to service record and orderable carrier rate center inventory.…

METHOD OF UPDATING A ROAMING LIST IN A MOBILE DEVICE

Granted: August 4, 2011
Application Number: 20110189991
A method of updating a roaming list in a mobile device is disclosed herein. The method involves detecting an occurrence of an event via a processor at a back-end system, generating a trigger in response to the detecting of the occurrence of the event, and recognizing, by the processor, the trigger as a roaming list update trigger. The method further includes identifying the mobile device, via the processor, as requiring a roaming list update based on the recognizing of the roaming list…

MULTI-STAGE NON-SEQUENTIAL DOWNSHIFT CONTROL FOR AN AUTOMATIC TRANSMISSION

Granted: July 28, 2011
Application Number: 20110184611
An improved downshift control for an automatic transmission optimized for sequential shifting achieves a non-sequential fifth gear to third gear downshift by reducing the main pressure of the transmission hydraulic control system, allowing a offgoing clutch to slip, disengaging the offgoing clutch, using torque reduction to control engine speed, engaging the oncoming clutch, increasing the main pressure of the transmission hydraulic control system and using torque reduction to…

SATELLITE RADIO FILE BROADCAST METHOD

Granted: July 14, 2011
Application Number: 20110171900
A method and system for distributing files to remote receiving units such as passenger vehicles. The method includes the steps of (a) creating a file broadcast schedule that identifies a plurality of files and that includes scheduling information indicating when the files will be transmitted, (b) sending the file broadcast schedule to a number of remote receiving units via wireless transmission, (c) analyzing the file broadcast schedule at one or more of the remote receiving units by…

ARRANGEMENT AND METHOD FOR MOUNTING A MICROPHONE TO AN INTERIOR SURFACE OF A VEHICLE

Granted: July 7, 2011
Application Number: 20110164759
An arrangement for mounting a microphone to a surface in a passenger compartment of a vehicle includes, but is not limited to, a housing having an opening. The housing is configured to be mounted to the surface. A directional wideband microphone is mounted within the housing and positioned to partition the housing into a first chamber and a second chamber. The directional wideband microphone has an acoustic axis that extends through the first chamber. The housing and the directional…

VEHICLE MAINTENANCE EVENT REPORTING SYSTEM

Granted: July 7, 2011
Application Number: 20110166739
A vehicle maintenance event reporting system and method that utilizes a vehicle email notification system in which triggers are used to initiate the generation and transmission of email messages that provide diverse types of dynamic vehicle information to the owner or other authorized subscriber. The email notifications are triggered by different events, some of which are independent of the vehicle (e.g., a monthly trigger), and others of which occur at the vehicle, such as a mileage or…

METHOD OF RECOGNIZING SPEECH

Granted: July 7, 2011
Application Number: 20110166858
A method for recognizing speech involves presenting an utterance to a speech recognition system and determining, via the speech recognition system, that the utterance contains a particular expression, where the particular expression is capable of being associated with at least two different meanings. The method further involves splitting the utterance into a plurality of speech frames, where each frame is assigned a predetermined time segment and a frame number, and indexing the…