Data processing: vehicles – navigation – and relative location – Vehicle control – guidance – operation – or indication
Reexamination Certificate
1998-08-05
2001-02-06
Cuchlinski, Jr., William A. (Department: 3661)
Data processing: vehicles, navigation, and relative location
Vehicle control, guidance, operation, or indication
C345S215000, C345S215000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06185484
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to control of components within a motor vehicle utilizing an on-board computer network; and more particularly to a process for sequentially executing a plurality of motor vehicle programs on the computer network.
Computer systems are finding greater application in motor vehicles, for engine control, dashboard displays and passenger comfort systems for example. This applies not only to passenger automobiles, but also to trucks such as long haul semi-trailer trucks. Computer systems allow monitoring and display of the functional performance of the truck, as well as vehicle tracking, guidance and logging of information required by governmental authorities. It is desirable to integrate all of these functions into one on-board computer. That integration allows the driver to select among available features and have the relevant information presented on a common display device within the truck cab.
Although it is possible to enable all of the software programs for these features to execute simultaneously on the computer, such simultaneous execution requires a relatively high speed, sophisticated microcomputer and other components. Thus such simultaneous execution significantly increases the cost of the computer system and it is always desirable to minimize the cost of any system. Therefore, it is preferable to enable the motor vehicle computer system to load and execute only the application program that implements the specific function selected by the driver. Similarly it is desirable to load only the interface routines which are required by that application program. In other words, a particular application program may not require access to certain network components and thus the interface routines for those components do not have to be loaded for execution. For example if the driver selects the application to monitor engine performance, that application does not require access to an external communication device, such as a cellular telephone, used to exchange data between the truck and a dispatch facility of the trucking company.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
A general object of the present invention is to provide an economical computer system for monitoring vehicle operation and providing information to the driver.
Another object is to provide such a computer system which only loads and executes the specific software objects that are required to implement the functions selected by the driver.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a technique by which each application program identifies the support software object which are requires for execution.
These and other objectives are satisfied by storing a plurality of application programs which implement motor vehicle management functions and storing a plurality of hardware support objects for interfacing the application program to the data input devices and data output devices of the motor vehicle.
The operator of the motor vehicle selects a desired function to be performed by the driver information system which selection produces a designation of the application program which implements that function. Data is read from the selected application program which designation one or more of hardware support objects that are required by the selected application program. Those designated hardware support objects then are retrieved from storage for execution by the motor vehicle management computer system along with the selected application program.
The preferred embodiment of the present invention also stores validation codes in each application program and hardware support object. A list of the validation codes which correspond to specific application programs and hardware support objects that are authorized to be executed by the particular motor vehicle management computer system also are stored in a list. When a given application program or hardware support object is designated for execution, it is allowed to be executed only if its validation code is on the stored list. This prevents incompatible software from being executed which could adversely affect the operation of the motor vehicle.
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Beaulieu Yonel
Cuchlinski Jr. William A.
Eaton Corporation
Haas George E.
Quarles & Brady
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