In-vehicle component user interface

Abstract

A system may include an in-vehicle component, including a first control set to configure the component, configured to identify a device associated with a user approach to the component; and send an interaction request to the device to cause the device to display a user interface for the component including a second control set to configure the component, the second control set including at least one function unavailable in the first control set. A personal device may receive, from an in-vehicle component including a first control set to configure the component, a user interface definition descriptive of a second control set to configure the component; and receive, from the component, a request to display a user interface for the component including the second control set to configure the component, the second control set including at least one function unavailable in the first control set.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A system comprising:
 an in-vehicle component, including a first control set to configure the component, configured to
 identify a device associated with a user approach to the component; and 
 send an interaction request to the device to cause the device to display a user interface for the component including a second control set to configure the component, the second control set including at least one function unavailable in the first control set. 
   
     
     
         2 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the second control set is a superset of the first control set. 
     
     
         3 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the in-vehicle component includes a proximity sensor, and the device associated with the user approach to the component is detected according to an increasing wireless signal intensity of the device detected according to the proximity sensor. 
     
     
         4 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the in-vehicle component includes a proximity sensor, and the device associated with the user approach to the component is detected according to an increasing wireless signal intensity of a wearable device paired to the device detected according to the proximity sensor. 
     
     
         5 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the in-vehicle component includes a sensor configured to identify the user approach despite no increasing wireless signal intensity from the device. 
     
     
         6 . The system of  claim 5 , wherein the sensor is one of a touch sensor and a proximity sensor. 
     
     
         7 . The system of  claim 5 , wherein the in-vehicle component is further configured to, responsive to the user approach with no increasing wireless signal intensity:
 receive wireless signal intensity information for in-vehicle devices from other proximity sensors of the vehicle; and   identify the device from the one of the in-vehicle devices as the one of the in-vehicle devices having a highest wireless signal strength at the in-vehicle component compared to the wireless signal strength for the identified device at the other proximity sensors of the vehicle.   
     
     
         8 . A system comprising:
 a personal device, configured to
 receive, from an in-vehicle component including a first control set to configure the component, a user interface definition descriptive of a second control set to configure the component; and 
 receive, from the component, a request to display a user interface for the component including the second control set to configure the component, the second control set including at least one function unavailable in the first control set. 
   
     
     
         9 . The system of  claim 8 , wherein the personal device is further configured to:
 display the user interface;   receive a user interaction to the user interface requesting a function from the second control set; and   send a request to the component to perform the function from the second control set.   
     
     
         10 . The system of  claim 9 , wherein the personal device is further configured to:
 receive, from a second in-vehicle component including a first control set to configure the second component, a second user interface definition descriptive of a second control set to configure the second component; and   aggregate the user interface definition and the second user interface definition to combine, in the user interface, functions in common between the user interface definition and the second user interface definition.   
     
     
         11 . The system of  claim 8 , wherein the personal device is further configured to request the user interface definition descriptive of the second control set from the in-vehicle component, responsive to connection of the personal device to the in-vehicle component. 
     
     
         12 . The system of  claim 8 , wherein the personal device is further configured to receive the request to display the user interface for the component responsive to at least one of: (i) a user approach to the component detected, by the component, according to an increasing wireless signal intensity of the device, and (ii) a user approach to the component detected, by the component, according to an increasing wireless signal intensity of a wearable device paired to the device; and (iii) a user approach to one of a touch sensor and a proximity sensor of the component, despite no increasing wireless signal intensity from the device or the wearable device detected by the component. 
     
     
         13 . The system of  claim 8 , wherein the user interface definition is encoded using at least one of: (i) hypertext markup language (HTML), (ii) extensible markup language (XML), (iii) JavaScript Object Notation (JSON), and (iV) view and viewgroup user interface definitions. 
     
     
         14 . The system of  claim 8 , wherein the user interface definition includes at least two of: (i) attributes descriptive of available control functions, (ii) names for presentation of attributes of the functions in the user interface, (iii) allowed ranges of values for the attributes, (iv) layout information descriptive of grouping and ordering of the control functions, and (v) suggested controls to use to display the control functions in the user interface. 
     
     
         15 . A computer-implemented method comprising:
 receiving, by a personal device from an in-vehicle component including a first control set to configure the component, a user interface definition descriptive of a second control set to configure the component; and   receiving, from the component, a request to display a user interface for the component including the second control set to configure the component, the second control set including at least one function unavailable in the first control set.   
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 15 , further comprising:
 displaying the user interface;   receiving a user interaction to the user interface requesting a function from the second control set; and   sending a request to the component to perform the function from the second control set.   
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 15 , further comprising:
 receiving, from a second in-vehicle component including a first control set to configure the second component, a second user interface definition descriptive of a second control set to configure the second component; and   aggregating the user interface definition and the second user interface definition to combine, in the user interface, functions in common between the user interface definition and the second user interface definition.   
     
     
         18 . The method of  claim 15 , further comprising requesting the user interface definition descriptive of the second control set from the in-vehicle component, responsive to connection of the personal device to the in-vehicle component.