Modular vehicle HMI

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12517632-B2
Application number	US-202318471826-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 21, 2023
Priority date	Sep 21, 2023
Publication date	Jan 6, 2026
Grant date	Jan 6, 2026

Abstract

A physical toggle button located in a cabin of a vehicle receives input indicating a change in state of the physical toggle button from a first mode in which a plurality of functions of smart home devices are set to a first state to a second mode in which the plurality of functions of the smart home devices are set to a second state. Using a telematics control module of the vehicle, a state change request is sent indicating the change in state to a cloud service maintaining a function mapping including information for setting the plurality of functions between the first state and the second state.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A vehicle system for providing a human-machine interface (HMI), comprising:
a physical toggle button having a light and located in a cabin of a vehicle, the physical toggle button configured to select between a first mode in which a plurality of functions of smart home devices are set to a first state, and a second mode in which the plurality of functions of the smart home devices are set to a second state; a telematics control module of the vehicle; and an HMI display system of the vehicle, in communication with the physical toggle button, configured to
receive, via the physical toggle button, input indicating a change in state of the physical toggle button from the first mode to the second mode,
send, using the telematics control module, a state change request indicating the change in state to a cloud service maintaining a function mapping including information for setting the plurality of functions between the first state and the second state,
deactivate the light responsive to sending the state change request to the cloud service,
receive, using the telematics control module, a state change result from the cloud service indicating whether the state change is completed, and
reactivate the light responsive to the state change result indicating that the change in state was completed.

2 . The vehicle system of claim 1 , wherein the HMI display system is further configured to:
receive, via the physical toggle button, second input indicating a second change in the state of the physical toggle button from the second mode to the first mode; send, using the telematics control module, a second state change request indicating the second change in state to the cloud service; deactivate the light responsive to sending the second state change request to the cloud service; receive, using the telematics control module, a second state change result from the cloud service indicating whether the second state change is completed; and reactivate the light responsive to the second state change result indicating that the second change in state was completed.

3 . The vehicle system of claim 1 , wherein the physical toggle button is mounted outboard of a steering wheel.

4 . The vehicle system of claim 1 , wherein the physical toggle button is mounted one of below a center stack screen, on a center console, on a header above a windshield.

5 . The vehicle system of claim 1 , wherein the physical toggle button is a modular programmable widget attached to a dock within the cabin of the vehicle.

6 . The vehicle system of claim 1 , wherein the first mode is an away mode and the second mode is a home mode, and the function mapping indicates a set of items that correspond to the different actions to be automatically performed when transitioning to the home mode.

7 . The vehicle system of claim 1 , wherein the first mode is a home mode and the second mode is an away mode, and the function mapping indicates a set of items that correspond to the different actions to be automatically performed when transitioning to the away mode.

8 . The vehicle system of claim 1 , wherein the function mapping indicates network addresses of the smart home devices, and account/login details of the smart home devices, such that the cloud server communicates with the smart home devices using the addresses and account/login details to implement the identified actions.

9 . A method for providing a human-machine interface (HMI), comprising:
receiving, via a physical toggle button located in a cabin of a vehicle, input indicating a change in state of the physical toggle button from a first mode in which a plurality of functions of smart home devices are set to a first state to a second mode in which the plurality of functions of the smart home devices are set to a second state; and sending, using a telematics control module of the vehicle, a state change request indicating the change in state to a cloud service maintaining a function mapping including information for setting the plurality of functions between the first state and the second state; deactivating a light of the physical toggle button responsive to sending the state change request to the cloud service; receiving, using the telematics control module, a state change result from the cloud service indicating whether the state change is completed; and reactivating the light responsive the state change result indicating that the second change in state was completed.

10 . The method of claim 9 , further comprising:
receiving, via the physical toggle button, second input indicating a second change in the state of the physical toggle button from the second mode to the first mode; sending, using the telematics control module, a second state change request indicating the second change in state to the cloud service; deactivating the light of the physical toggle button responsive to sending the second state change request to the cloud service; receiving, using the telematics control module, a second state change result from the cloud service indicating whether the second state change is completed; and reactivating the light responsive the second state change result indicating that the change in state was completed.

11 . A method for providing a human-machine interface (HMI), comprising:
connecting a telematics control module of a vehicle to a wireless network; discovering the smart home devices that are connected to the wireless network; displaying, to a configurable display of the vehicle, a listing of the discovered smart home devices; receiving, as input to the configurable display, a function mapping of functions to be performed by the smart home devices when changing between a first mode in which a plurality of functions of smart home devices are set to a first state to a second mode in which the plurality of functions of the smart home devices are set to a second state; sending the function mapping to the cloud service for storage using the telematics control module; receiving, via a physical toggle button located in a cabin of a vehicle, input indicating a change in state of the physical toggle button from the first mode to the second mode; and sending, using a telematics control module of the vehicle, a state change request indicating the change in state to the cloud service to cause the cloud service to update the plurality of functions from the first state to the second state.

12 . A non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising instructions for providing a human-machine interface (HMI) that, when executed by an HMI display system of a vehicle, cause the vehicle to perform operations including to:
receive, via a physical toggle button located in a cabin of a vehicle, input indicating a change in state of the physical toggle button from a first mode in which a plurality of functions of smart home devices are set to a first state to a second mode in which the plurality of functions of the smart home devices are set to a second state; send, using a telematics control module of the vehicle, a state change request indicating the change in state to a cloud service maintaining a function mapping including information for setting the plurality of functions between the first state and the second state; deactivate a light of the physical toggle button responsive to sending the state change request to the cloud service; receive, using the telematics control module, a state change result from the cloud service indicating whether the state change is completed; and reactivate the light responsive to receiving the state change result indicating that the change in state was completed.

Assignees

• Ford Global Tech Llc

Inventors

• Harmon Michael John
• Dizon Rowell
• Yang Justin
• Zercoe Bradford
• Shi Eryu
• Smith Daniel
• Patton Shane

Classifications

• B60K2360/345

  Illumination of controls · CPC title

• B60K2360/128

  Axially displaceable input devices for instruments · CPC title

• B60K35/10 Primary

  Input arrangements, i.e. from user to vehicle, associated with vehicle functions or specially adapted therefor · CPC title

• G06F3/02

  Input arrangements using manually operated switches, e.g. using keyboards or dials · CPC title

• H04L2012/2841

  Wireless · CPC title