Building profiles associated with vehicle users

Abstract

Methods and systems for a complete vehicle ecosystem are provided. Specifically, systems that when taken alone, or together, provide an individual or group of individuals with an intuitive and comfortable vehicular environment. The present disclosure includes a system to create, modify, and maintain profiles associated with users. The user profiles are generated based on selectively collecting data associated with the users. Although each user profile may include settings, preferences, habits, and content associated with an individual user and/or vehicle, some user profiles may represent multiple users. These user profiles can change a configuration of a vehicle to match settings for a user, such as a driver and/or passenger. The configurations may also include the recognition of a unique set of gestures for a user. Further, the user profiles can be transferred from vehicle-to-vehicle and/or user-to-user.

1 . A method, comprising:
 at a processor associated with a vehicle, receiving a signal from at least one sensor in the vehicle;   based on the signal, identifying a user;   receiving information from and associated with the user;   determining whether at least some of the received information qualifies as user profile data; and   storing, based at least partially on determining that the at least some of the received information qualifies as user profile data, the user profile data in a profile data memory associated with the vehicle and associated with the user.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the information associated with the user includes input received at a device associated with a vehicle. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the user profile data includes at least one of vehicle settings, user preferences, user speech, data input at a device associated with a vehicle, and stored information. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein determining whether at least some of the received information qualifies as user profile data further comprises:
 referring to rules stored in a memory, wherein the rules include matching information corresponding to user profile data;   determining, based at least partially on the rules, whether a match exists between the received information and the matching information corresponding to user profile data; and   indicating, when the match exists, that the received information qualifies as user profile data.   
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 receiving a request to access the user profile data associated with the user from the profile data memory;   determining whether the request is made by an authorized source; and   providing access to the user profile data stored in the profile data memory when the request is made by the authorized source.   
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 receiving modifying information associated with the user;   modifying the user profile data in the profile data memory associated with the user to include the modifying information associated with the user; and   storing the modified user profile data in the profile data memory associated with the user.   
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 6 , wherein modifying the user profile data includes at least one of overwriting data, deleting data, and adding data. 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein prior to storing the user profile data the method further comprises:
 determining at least one category associated with information in the user profile data; and   selecting, based at least partially on the determined at least one category, a specific data field in the profile data memory for storing the user profile data, wherein the specific data field corresponds to the determined at least one category.   
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 recognizing the user via facial recognition; and   retrieving, from the profile data memory and based on the facial recognition, information in the user profile data associated with the user.   
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 9 , further comprising:
 configuring at least one setting of the vehicle based on the information retrieved from the profile data memory.   
     
     
         11 . A non-transitory computer readable medium having instructions stored thereon that, when executed by a processor associated with a vehicle, perform a method comprising:
 receiving a signal from at least one sensor in the vehicle;   based on the signal, identifying a user;   receiving information from and associated with the user;   determining whether at least some of the received information qualifies as user profile data; and   storing, based at least partially on determining that the at least some of the received information qualifies as user profile data, the user profile data in a profile data memory associated with the vehicle and associated with the user.   
     
     
         12 . The non-transitory computer readable medium of  claim 11 , wherein the information associated with the user includes input received at a device associated with a vehicle. 
     
     
         13 . The non-transitory computer readable medium of  claim 11 , wherein the user profile data includes at least one of vehicle settings, user preferences, user speech, data input at a device associated with a vehicle, and stored information. 
     
     
         14 . The non-transitory computer readable medium of  claim 11 , wherein determining whether at least some of the received information qualifies as user profile data further comprises:
 referring to rules stored in a memory, wherein the rules include matching information corresponding to user profile data;   determining, based at least partially on the rules, whether a match exists between the received information and the matching information corresponding to user profile data; and   indicating, when the match exists, that the received information qualifies as user profile data.   
     
     
         15 . The non-transitory computer readable medium of  claim 11 , wherein the method further comprises:
 receiving a request to access the user profile data associated with the user from the profile data memory;   determining whether the request is made by an authorized source; and   providing access to the user profile data stored in the profile data memory when the request is made by the authorized source.   
     
     
         16 . The non-transitory computer readable medium of  claim 11 , wherein the method further comprises:
 receiving modifying information associated with the user;   modifying the user profile data in the profile data memory associated with the user to include the modifying information associated with the user, wherein modifying the user profile data includes at least one of overwriting data, deleting data, and adding data; and   storing the modified user profile data in the profile data memory associated with the user.   
     
     
         17 . The non-transitory computer readable medium of  claim 11 , wherein prior to storing the user profile data the method further comprises:
 determining at least one category associated with information in the user profile data; and   selecting, based at least partially on the determined at least one category, a specific data field in the profile data memory for storing the user profile data, wherein the specific data field corresponds to the determined at least one category.   
     
     
         18 . The non-transitory computer readable medium of  claim 11 , wherein the method further comprises:
 recognizing the user via facial recognition;   retrieving, from the profile data memory and based on the facial recognition, information in the user profile data associated with the user; and   configuring at least one setting of the vehicle based on the information retrieved from the profile data memory.   
     
     
         19 . A user profile system associated with a vehicle, comprising:
 a sensor within the vehicle;   a profile data memory associated with the vehicle;   a processor associated with the vehicle and in communication with the sensor and the memory, the processor executing a profile identification module that:   receives a signal from the sensor;   identifies a user based on the signal from the sensor;   receives information from and associated with a users;   determines whether at least some of the received information qualifies as user profile data; and   stores, based at least partially on determining that the at least some of the received information qualifies as user profile data, the user profile data in a profile data memory associated with the user.   
     
     
         20 . The user profile system of  claim 19 , wherein the information associated with the user includes input received at a device associated with a vehicle, and wherein the profile identification module is further configured to receive modifying information associated with the user, modify the user profile data in the profile data memory associated with the user to include the modifying information associated with the user, and store the modified user profile data in the profile data memory associated with the user.