Vivek DharmadhikariCloud CarBot
A Cloud CarBot is platform that connects your car to people and thing using cloud and natural language.
In this digital era, we communicate with our friends/family verbally or in written format by using tools such as Instant Messengers (IM) e.g. WhatsApp, social media e.g. Twitter etc. to send text messages. The spoken and written communication is labelled as natural language. Now imagine using natural language over your preferred communication tools to interact with your car. That is Cloud CarBot.
Cloud CarBot allows you to interact with your car using IMs or social Media in natural language.
Cloud CarBot turns your car into something that you can talk as if you are talking to your friend.
For example, Here is how a conversation between you and car using Cloud CarBot using Instant Messenger will look like
You) Where are you?
Car) Near Sunnyvale Community Center in California.
You) When was the last oil change done?
Car) Jan 10 2013
You) what is the engine status?
Car) Engine status is good.
You) what is the current speed?
Car) 70 MP/h
You) Hey Roll up and down windows
Car) yes sir
You) lock the door
Car) done.
You) start the heater
Car) done.
You) Hey, honk horn
Car) honking
You) how are you feeling?
Car) I am feeling good though running low on gas.
You) Good Morning
Car) Good Morning
You) tell me a joke
Car) how does NASA organize their company parties? They planet.
You) Why is the engine light on?
Car) The engine light is on because engine coolant is low.
Thus cloud CarBot convert car into a talkative car that responds to your questions, carry out commands that you ask, notify you of important things and be a source of fun. Cloud CarBot is targeted to be used by all kinds of users: household, individual technician, Garage/Body Shoppers, Fleet Management Company.
Some of the use cases of Cloud CarBot are listed below
1) Car Health Check.
Every time you start the car, you ask the car to provide its short health status. The car will respond back with health summary.
2) Remote Assistance
If your car break down, you contact your dealer/technician and provide them your car id which is same id that you will use in IMs/Social Media. The dealer/technician will than talk to your car to figure out problem. Thus whomever you chose to will have access to troubleshoot your car.
3) Car health Log
You can ask the car detailed health report which can be stored for offline analysis.
4) Read and erase Engine Light fault code
If your engine light turns on, you ask the car to read corresponding fault code in easy to understand format. You can also ask the car to erase the fault code.
5) Real time data from car
You can ask the car to get real time data such as
Current speed
Current odometer
Current fule level
Current MPG
Current Tire Pressure
Current fluid level : break, coolant
6) Remote Software upgrade
Say the Car manufacture has fixed the SW and needs to be upgraded. You can give your car id to your technician/dealer, they will than do SW upgrade remotely.
7) Activate Car components
You can ask the car to turn on/off the components of interest e.g. window, trunk, horn
8) Geolocation
Let your loved ones know where you are.
Instead of calling loved ones and asking them where they are or your loved one calling you back and telling you where they are, why not ask the car where it is. The car would respond back with its current location. To do so, your family member simply add your car as their friend and ask the car where it is. This permit distraction less driving and safety.
9) Geolocation for cars/fleet
One can use geolocation when working with multiple cars. Almost every household has two cars and fleet companies of course has lots of car. For a family with multiple car ,they would simply add all the cars as friends and use group chat feature to talk cars simultaneously. This is similar to way we talk to our friend/family using IM or Social Media. Now a mom who is at home and want to know where Alice and Bob are while they are driving, she would talk to Alice and Bob's car to know their current where about. No need to call every driver to know where they are.
The same concept can be extended to cars managed by fleet companies.
So Cloud Carbot is
1) Completely open source(both HW and SW).
2) Novel because it turns your car into a member of your family to which you can talk as if it is a human being.
3) Novel because you can control/monitor your car in real time.
4) Novel because it use existing communication tools such as WhatsApp, iChat to talk to your car.
5) Novel because you can use natural language (either text or voice) to talk to your car.
6) Novel because you can use group chat feature to track and talk to multiple cars.
7) Novel because it promotes use of standardize interface to car regardless of its manufacture.