Method and apparatus for device detection and detection management within a vehicle

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11089467-B2
Application number	US-201816175900-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 31, 2018
Priority date	Oct 31, 2018
Publication date	Aug 10, 2021
Grant date	Aug 10, 2021

Abstract

A vehicle system is provided. The vehicle system may include a processor configured to detect a wireless device based on a received device signal when a vehicle is at an origin location, add the detected device to a tracking list, register a trigger event away from the origin location, and, responsive to detection of the trigger event, attempt to detect devices on the tracking list. The processor may be further configured to report, to a vehicle occupant, all devices on the tracking list not detected by the attempt. The received device signal may be from a radio-frequency identification sensor. The received device signal may transfer to the processor via Wi-Fi. The received device signal may transfer to the processor via BLUETOOTH. The trigger event may be a vehicle start-up.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A system for a vehicle comprising:
a processor configured to:
responsive to verifying the vehicle is located at a predefined original location via a vehicle positioning controller, activate an active device scan to detect a first wireless device based on a received device signal;
add the first wireless device to a tracking list;
activate a passive device scan to detect a presence of a second wireless device which is powered off and undetectable by the active device scan;
add the second device to the tracking list;
responsive to detecting a third device in a time frame defined as a period of time after the vehicle drives away from the original location but before the vehicle parks, add the third device to the tracking list;
responsive to detection of a predefined trigger event, verify a vehicle location via the vehicle positioning controller;
responsive to verifying the vehicle location being away from the original location, attempt to detect devices on the tracking list;
responsive to failing to detect one or more devices on the tracking list, add the one or more devices to a missing device list;
notify a vehicle occupant of the one or more devices in the missing device list to a vehicle user.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the passive device scan is performed using a radio-frequency identification sensor.

3. The system of claim 1 , wherein the received device signal of the active device scan transfers to the processor via Wi-Fi.

4. The system of claim 1 , wherein the received device signal of the active device scan transfers to the processor via BLUETOOTH.

5. The system of claim 1 , wherein the trigger event is the vehicle has parked at least once after leaving the original location.

6. The system of claim 1 , wherein the trigger event is an open or close of a vehicle door.

7. The system of claim 1 , wherein the tracking list includes at least one device not detected during the detecting at the origin location, but being detected at previous times, at the origin location, more than a predefined threshold number of times.

8. The system of claim 1 , wherein the tracking list includes at least one device not detected during the detecting at the origin location but designated by the vehicle occupant as being present through manual input.

9. A method for a vehicle, comprising:
responsive to verifying the vehicle is located at a predefined original location via a vehicle positioning controller, activating an active device scan to detect a first wireless device based on a received device signal;
adding the first wireless device to a tracking list;
responsive to a user input indicative of a trigger event, registering the trigger event;
responsive to detecting the trigger event, verify a vehicle location via the vehicle positioning controller;
responsive to verifying the vehicle location being away from the original location, attempting to communicate with all devices on the tracking list via vehicle wireless communication;
reporting, to a vehicle occupant, all devices on the tracking list for which communication was unavailable via the vehicle wireless communication; and
responsive to detecting a third device in a time frame after the vehicle drives away from the original location before the vehicle parks, adding the third device to the tracking list,
wherein the tracking list includes at least one device not detected during the detecting at the origin location, but detected at previous times, at the origin location, more than a predefined threshold number of times.

10. The method of claim 9 , wherein the wireless communication is via Wi-Fi.

11. The method of claim 9 , wherein the wireless communication is via BLUETOOTH.

12. The method of claim 9 , wherein the detected trigger event is a vehicle state change component and a vehicle location component.

13. The method of claim 12 , wherein the vehicle location component includes a vehicle location other than a predefined origin location.

14. The method of claim 13 , wherein different devices on the tracking list have different origin locations associated therewith, and wherein the vehicle location component for detecting a given device is the predefined origin location associated with a respective device.

15. The method of claim 12 , wherein the trigger event is a vehicle start-up as the vehicle state change component.

16. The method of claim 9 , further comprising:
activating a passive device scan to detect a presence of a second wireless device which is powered off and undetectable by the active device scan; and
adding the second device to the tracking list.

17. The method of claim 16 , wherein the wireless communication is via radio-frequency identification.

18. The method of claim 9 , wherein the tracking list includes at least one device not detected during the detecting at the origin location, but being detected at previous times, at the origin location, more than a predefined threshold number of times.

Assignees

• Ford Global Tech Llc

Inventors

• Affeldt Matthew

Classifications

• H04W8/005 Primary

  Discovery of network devices, e.g. terminals · CPC title

• H04W4/02

  Services making use of location information · CPC title

• H04W4/024

  Guidance services · CPC title

• H04W4/48

  for in-vehicle communication · CPC title

• H04W4/80

  Services using short range communication, e.g. near-field communication [NFC], radio-frequency identification [RFID] or low energy communication · CPC title