CN111325915A

CN111325915A - User device, electronic device, method, and storage medium for controlling an object

Info

Publication number: CN111325915A
Application number: CN201811530077.4A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 崔焘; 任伟
Original assignee: Sony Corp
Current assignee: Sony Corp
Priority date: 2018-12-14
Filing date: 2018-12-14
Publication date: 2020-06-23

Abstract

The present disclosure relates to a user device, an electronic device, a method and a storage medium for controlling an object. In one embodiment, the processing circuitry of the user equipment is configured to: obtaining a first identification of a first object; and sending a first message to the electronic device for managing the items to request enablement of the first item and the at least one additional item, wherein the first message includes a first identification of the first item and a quantity or identification of the at least one additional item.

Description

User device, electronic device, method, and storage medium for controlling an object

Technical Field

The present disclosure relates to information technology, and in particular, to user equipment, electronic equipment, methods, and storage media for controlling an item.

Background

It is becoming increasingly common to use user equipment to control items. As a typical example, a user may conveniently control vehicles such as bicycles, cars, and aircraft through a user device. For example, the user may rent the vehicles to their operators via the user devices to obtain usage rights for the vehicles. This not only reduces the cost to the user to purchase and maintain a private vehicle, but also enables the vehicle operator to conveniently serve more users. The user device may also present the user with navigation information associated with the destination while the user is maneuvering the vehicle.

Existing control schemes between user equipment and artifacts often require a one-to-one correspondence between the user equipment and the artifacts. Taking a vehicle as an example, when there is a need for using multiple vehicles by multiple associated users, the users are often required to use multiple user devices as many as the number of the vehicles, and the user devices are also required to have the ability to control the vehicles. When such requirements are not met, the multiple users may have to forego using the vehicles in order to maintain consistent action. Even if the above requirements are met, the navigation information (e.g., planned navigation paths) separately provided by the plurality of user devices to the respective users may differ from each other, which is disadvantageous for the plurality of users to keep consistent actions while using the vehicle. Furthermore, it is dangerous for the user to pay attention to the user device while maneuvering the vehicle.

Disclosure of Invention

One aspect of the disclosure relates to a user equipment comprising processing circuitry configured to: obtaining a first identification of a first vehicle; and sending a first message to an electronic device for managing vehicles to request enablement of the first vehicle and at least one additional vehicle, wherein the first message includes a first identification of the first vehicle and a quantity or identification of the at least one additional vehicle.

Another aspect of the disclosure relates to an electronic device for managing a vehicle, comprising processing circuitry configured to: a first message is received from a user device, where the first message includes a first identification of a first vehicle to be enabled by the user device and a number or identification of at least one additional vehicle to be enabled by the user device.

Another aspect of the present disclosure relates to a vehicle for being enabled by a user device as described above and managed by an electronic device as described above, the vehicle comprising a vehicle-side electronic device comprising: processing circuitry mounted on and associated with the vehicle; a navigation device mounted on a vehicle; wherein the processing circuitry is configured to visually present the navigation indication or navigation information by the navigation device.

Another aspect of the present disclosure relates to a method for controlling an article, including by a user equipment: obtaining a first identification of a first object; and sending a first message to the electronic device for managing the items to request enablement of the first item and the at least one additional item, wherein the first message includes a first identification of the first item and a quantity or identification of the at least one additional item.

Another aspect of the disclosure relates to a method for controlling an object, comprising, by an electronic device: a first message is received from a user device, wherein the first message includes a first identification of a first item to be enabled by the user device and a quantity or identification of at least one additional item to be enabled by the user device.

Another aspect of the present disclosure relates to a computer-readable storage medium storing one or more instructions that, when executed by one or more processors of an electronic device, cause the electronic device to perform any of the methods as described above.

Another aspect of the present disclosure relates to an apparatus for controlling an object, comprising means for performing any one of the methods as described above.

Another aspect of the disclosure relates to a user equipment comprising processing circuitry configured to: obtaining a first identification of a first object; and sending a first message to the electronic device for managing the items to request enablement of the first item and the at least one additional item, wherein the first message includes a first identification of the first item and a quantity or identification of the at least one additional item.

Another aspect of the disclosure relates to an electronic device for managing objects, comprising processing circuitry configured to: a first message is received from a user device, wherein the first message includes a first identification of a first item to be enabled by the user device and a quantity or identification of at least one additional item to be enabled by the user device.

Another aspect of the present disclosure relates to an article for enabling by a user device of the present disclosure and for management by an electronic device of the present disclosure.

The above summary of the solution is provided only to provide a basic understanding of various aspects of the subject matter described herein. Accordingly, the technical features in the above schemes are merely examples and should not be construed as limiting the scope or spirit of the subject matter described herein in any way. Other features, aspects, and advantages of the subject matter described herein will become apparent from the following detailed description, which, when taken in conjunction with the drawings.

Drawings

A better understanding of the present disclosure may be obtained when the following detailed description of the embodiments is considered in conjunction with the following drawings. The same or similar reference numbers are used throughout the drawings to refer to the same or like parts and operations. Wherein:

FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary system for controlling an item, according to an embodiment.

FIG. 2 illustrates an exemplary article according to an embodiment.

Fig. 3 illustrates an exemplary user equipment according to an embodiment.

FIG. 4 illustrates an exemplary electronic device for managing a vehicle, according to an embodiment.

Fig. 5 to 7 show a navigation device according to an embodiment.

Fig. 8 is a signaling flow diagram for enabling a vehicle by a user equipment according to an embodiment.

Fig. 9 is a signaling flow diagram for navigating a vehicle by a user equipment according to an embodiment.

Fig. 10A and 10B illustrate an example method for controlling an item, according to an embodiment.

Detailed Description

Specific examples of various aspects of the apparatus and methods according to the present disclosure are described below. These examples are described merely to add context and aid in the understanding of the described embodiments. It will thus be apparent to one skilled in the art that the embodiments described below may be practiced without some or all of the specific details. In other instances, well-known operations have not been described in detail so as not to unnecessarily obscure the described embodiments. Other applications are possible, and aspects of the present disclosure are not limited to these specific examples.

System for controlling an object

Fig. 1 illustrates an example system 100 for controlling an item according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. The system 100 may include a user device 110, an electronic device 120 for managing artifacts, and an artifact 130. User device 110, electronic device 120, and item 130 may be separate entities from each other.

According to some embodiments of the present disclosure, user device 110 may include any computing device having communication functionality. For example, the user device 110 may be a portable handheld device (e.g., a smartphone, a tablet computer, a personal computer, a laptop, a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), etc.), a wearable device (such as a smart watch, a smart bracelet, a smart headset, smart glasses, etc.), an Augmented Reality (AR) device, or a Virtual Reality (VR) device, among others. According to some embodiments of the present disclosure, user equipment 110 may support various applications. For example, the user device 110 may support applications associated with the electronic device 120 and/or the item 130, and/or positioning and navigation applications. According to some embodiments of the present disclosure, user device 110 may communicate with various external devices or networks using various communication protocols. For example, user device 110 may be in communication with electronic device 120 and/or item 130.

It should be noted that although only one user device 110 is shown in the exemplary system 100 in fig. 1, any number of user devices 110 may be supported and these user devices 110 may be of the same or different types. An example embodiment of user equipment 110 will be described in more detail later in connection with fig. 3.

According to some embodiments of the present disclosure, the electronic device 120 for managing items may be any computing device having communication capabilities to manage one or more items 130. The electronic device 120 may be a general purpose or special purpose computing device, a server, a workstation, etc. For example, the electronic device 120 may include one or more general purpose computers, special purpose server computers, server farms, server clusters, or any other suitable arrangement and/or combination. Alternatively, the electronic device 120 may comprise a portable handheld device (e.g., a smartphone, a tablet computer, a personal computer, a laptop computer, a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), etc.). According to some embodiments of the present disclosure, the electronic device 120 may support various applications. For example, the electronic device 120 may support applications associated with the item 130 and/or the user device 110, and/or various navigation applications. According to some embodiments of the present disclosure, the electronic device 120 may communicate with various external devices or networks using various communication protocols. For example, electronic device 120 may communicate with user device 110 and/or item 130.

It should be noted that although only one electronic device 120 is shown in the exemplary system 100 of fig. 1, any number of electronic devices 120 may be supported. Electronic device 120 may comprise a single computing device, or electronic device 120 may comprise multiple computing devices arranged geographically apart, and these computing devices may be of the same or different types, and together comprise a distributed computing network. An example embodiment of the electronic device 120 will be described in more detail later in connection with fig. 4.

According to some embodiments of the present disclosure, the item 130 may be any type of entity. The item 130 may include an item-side electronic device (not shown). The item-side electronic device may allow the item 130 to communicate with the user device 110 and/or the electronic device 120, thereby enabling management of the item 130 by the user device 110 and the electronic device 120. One typical example of an item 130 is a vehicle 130.

It should be noted that although only one item 130 is shown in the exemplary system 100 of FIG. 1, any number of items 130 may be supported, and the items 130 may be of the same or different types. In an embodiment, each item 130 may have an identification associated therewith, such that the user device 110 and the electronic device 210 are able to identify the respective item 130 by the identification. An example embodiment of article 130 will be described in more detail below in conjunction with FIG. 2.

Managed article

Fig. 2 illustrates an exemplary article 230 according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. Exemplary item 230 may be an example of item 130 in fig. 1. Exemplary items 230 may include item-side electronic devices that may be mounted on the items 230 and associated with the items 230. As shown in fig. 2, the item-side electronic device may include, for example, a communication unit 231, a memory 232, an input/output (I/O) interface 233, a processing circuit 234, and a positioning unit 235. The item 230 may also include an identification unit 236, with the item 230 also being associated with the identification unit 236.

Communication unit 231 may be operative to receive one or more radio signals from user equipment (e.g., user equipment 110) and/or electronic equipment (e.g., electronic equipment 120) for managing the article, may perform processing such as frequency down conversion, analog-to-digital conversion on the received radio signals, and may provide information derived from the radio signals to other portions of article 230 (e.g., processing circuitry 234 or memory 232). The communication unit 231 may also be used to transmit one or more radio signals from the item 230 to a user device (e.g., user device 110) and/or an electronic device for managing the item (e.g., electronic device 120), and may perform processing such as digital-to-analog conversion, frequency up-conversion, or the like on the radio signals prior to transmission. The information transmitted by the communication unit 231 may come from other parts of the article 230 (e.g. the processing circuitry 234 or the memory 232). The radio signal received or transmitted by the communication unit 231 may include various information or data. In the embodiment of the present disclosure, the communication unit 231 may be implemented as a communication interface component such as an antenna device, a radio frequency circuit, and a partial baseband processing circuit, for example. The communication unit 231 is depicted with a dashed line, since it may also be located within the processing circuit 234 or outside the item 230. The meaning of the figure applies equally to other units or components.

According to some embodiments of the present disclosure, the communication unit 231 may include a first communication subunit (not shown) for communicating with a user equipment and a second communication subunit (not shown) for communicating with an electronic device managing the item. The first communication subunit may communicate using a different protocol than the second communication subunit. According to some embodiments of the present disclosure, the first communication subunit may communicate with the user device using a short-range communication technology (e.g. bluetooth) or a near field communication technology (NFC). The second communication subunit may communicate with the electronic device for managing the object using the unlicensed frequency band. In some embodiments, unlicensed band communications may also support the wireless charging functionality of the device 230. For example, a base station or any electronic device may convert electrical energy to radio frequencies and then directionally project the energy to nearby items. Unlicensed band communications may also support periodic advertisement push, and the like. According to further embodiments of the present disclosure, the second communication subunit may communicate with an electronic device for managing a vehicle using the licensed frequency band.

The memory 232 may store information generated by the processing circuit 234, information received from other devices via the communication unit 231, information received via the I/O interface 233, programs, machine code and data, etc. for operation of the article 230. The memory 232 is depicted with dashed lines, since it may also be located within the processing circuitry 234 or outside the article 230. The memory 232 may be volatile memory and/or non-volatile memory. For example, memory 232 may include, but is not limited to, Random Access Memory (RAM), Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM), Static Random Access Memory (SRAM), Read Only Memory (ROM), and flash memory.

I/O interface 233 may be any component capable of inputting information to artifact 230 and/or outputting information from artifact 230. The information may be in the form of one or more of light, electricity, sound, heat, and the like. Input interfaces in I/O interface 233 may include, but are not limited to, three-dimensional (3D) mice, joysticks or pointers, game pads and graphics tablets, and audio/video devices such as speakers, digital cameras, digital camcorders, portable media players, webcams, image scanners, fingerprint scanners, barcode readers, 3D scanners, 3D printers, laser rangefinders, and eye gaze tracking devices. Output interfaces in I/O interface 233 can include, but are not limited to, various display devices such as monitors, printers, speakers, headphones, plotters, voice output devices, and the like, that visually convey text, graphics, and audio/video information. In an embodiment of the present disclosure, various messages (e.g., text messages, numerical messages, etc.) may be received through I/O interface 233 and stored in memory 232. In some embodiments, the artifact 230 may be input with navigation information via the I/O interface 233 and output the navigation information in an appropriate manner via the I/O interface 233.

The processing circuitry 234 may be configured to perform various operations, such as controlling information interaction with the user device 110 and the electronic device 120. For example, upon receiving an instruction from the electronic device 120, the processing circuit 234 may enable the item 230 so that the user device 110 may begin using the item 230. For example, the processing circuitry 234 may indicate to the user that the item 230 has been enabled in an appropriate form, such as sound, light, or the like. In an embodiment, the processing circuit 234 may control receiving navigation information from the user device 110 or the electronic device 120 and presenting the navigation information in an appropriate form. In addition, processing circuitry 234 may control scrambling of communications with user equipment 110 and/or multiple items to improve security and privacy of communications.

The locating unit 235 may be any suitable device capable of providing location information of the item 230. The positioning unit 235 may be, for example, a GPS device, an AGPS device, or a GLONASS device. The identification unit 236 may be any suitable mechanism or unit that identifies the item 230. Exemplary identification cells 236 may include bar codes, two-dimensional codes, alphanumeric strings, graphical identity tags, and the like. The identification unit 236 may be visually rendered on the item 230 or may be embedded in the item 230 (or an electronic device thereof) for reading by the user device 110. For example, the identification may be a radio frequency tag for reading by a radio frequency identification unit. In an embodiment, the electronic device 120 may manage the item 230 using the location information provided by the location unit 235 and the identification information carried by the identification unit 236. For example, electronic device 120 may maintain and manage information for a plurality of items in any suitable data structure (e.g., a table).

In embodiments of the present disclosure, the item 230 may be used by the user device 110 (or a user thereof) and managed by the electronic device 120. It should be understood that the item 230 may have various forms. One typical example of an item 230 is a vehicle. For example, the object 230 may be any one of a bicycle, an electric bicycle, a scooter, an automobile, and an aircraft. When the item 230 is any vehicle, the item-side electronic device may be referred to as a vehicle-side electronic device. Further, the item 230 may be a charging device (e.g., for charging the user device 110 or other device), a gaming device (e.g., for user gaming of the user device 110), and so forth. Although the embodiments are described below primarily with reference to vehicles, the corresponding operations or processes may be equally applicable to other forms of articles.

It is noted that although one or more components of article 230 are described above with respect to fig. 2, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that article 230 may have any additional other components or may implement the described functionality without some of the components described above. Further, one or more components of the item 230 may be combined into one component, or divided into more sub-components.

User equipment

Fig. 3 illustrates an exemplary user device 310 according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. Exemplary user device 310 may be an example of user device 110 in fig. 1. As shown in fig. 3, user device 310 may include, for example, a communication unit 311, a memory 312, an input/output (I/O) interface 313, and processing circuitry 314.

The communication unit 311 may be used to receive one or more radio signals from a vehicle (e.g., the vehicle 130, and in particular, a vehicle-side electronic device) and/or an electronic device for managing the vehicle (e.g., the electronic device 120), may also perform processing such as down-conversion, analog-to-digital conversion, etc. on the received radio signals, and may provide information obtained from the radio signals to other portions of the user device 310 (e.g., the processing circuitry 314 or the memory 312). The communication unit 311 may also be used to transmit one or more radio signals from the user device 310 to a vehicle (e.g., vehicle 130) and/or an electronic device for managing the vehicle (e.g., electronic device 120), and may perform processing such as digital-to-analog conversion, up-conversion, or the like on the radio signals prior to transmission. The information transmitted by the communication unit 311 may come from other parts of the user equipment 310, such as the processing circuitry 314 or the memory 312. The radio signal received or transmitted by the communication unit 311 may include various information or data. In the embodiment of the present disclosure, the communication unit 311 may be implemented as a communication interface component such as an antenna device, a radio frequency circuit, and a partial baseband processing circuit, for example. The communication unit 311 is depicted with dashed lines, since it may also be located within the processing circuitry 314 or outside the user equipment 310.

According to some embodiments of the present disclosure, the communication unit 311 may include a first communication subunit (not shown) for communicating with a vehicle and a second communication subunit (not shown) for communicating with an electronic device that manages the vehicle. The first communication subunit may communicate using a different protocol than the second communication subunit. According to some embodiments of the present disclosure, the first communication subunit may communicate with the vehicle using a short-range communication technology (e.g., bluetooth) or a near field communication technology (NFC). The second communication subunit may communicate with the electronic device for managing the vehicle using the unlicensed frequency band. Using the unlicensed band for communication allows the user device 310 to dispense with sim authentication, allowing the user device to be implemented as a sim-less device (such as a smart wearable device, AR glasses, etc.). In addition, the unlicensed band communication may also support wireless charging functions of the user equipment 310, and periodic advertisement push, and the like. According to further embodiments of the present disclosure, the second communication subunit may communicate with an electronic device for managing a vehicle using the licensed frequency band.

The memory 312 of the user device 310 may store information generated by the processing circuit 314, information received from other devices via the communication unit 311, information received via the I/O interface, programs, machine code and data, etc. for operation of the user device 310. The memory 312 is depicted with dashed lines because it may also be located within the processing circuitry 314 or external to the user equipment 310. The memory 312 may be volatile memory and/or non-volatile memory. For example, memory 312 may include, but is not limited to, Random Access Memory (RAM), Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM), Static Random Access Memory (SRAM), Read Only Memory (ROM), and flash memory.

The I/O interface 313 of the user device 310 may be any component capable of inputting information to the electronic device 310 and/or outputting information from the electronic device 310. The information may be in the form of one or more of light, electricity, sound, heat, and the like. Input interfaces in the I/O interface 313 may include, but are not limited to, three-dimensional (3D) mice, joysticks or pointers, game pads and graphics tablets, and audio/video devices such as speakers, digital cameras, digital camcorders, portable media players, webcams, image scanners, fingerprint scanners, barcode readers, 3D scanners, 3D printers, laser rangefinders, and eye gaze tracking devices. Output interfaces in I/O interface 313 can include, but are not limited to, various display devices such as monitors, printers, speakers, headphones, plotters, voice output devices, and the like that visually convey text, graphics, and audio/video information. In an embodiment of the present disclosure, various messages (e.g., text messages, numeric messages, etc.) may be received through the I/O interface 313 and stored in the memory 312.

The processing circuitry 314 of the user device 310 may be configured to perform the following operations: obtaining a first identification of a first vehicle; and sending a first message to an electronic device for managing vehicles to request enablement of the first vehicle and at least one additional vehicle, wherein the first message includes a first identification of the first vehicle and a quantity or identification of the at least one additional vehicle. According to some embodiments of the present disclosure, the processing circuitry may include various means for performing the above operations, for example, the processing circuitry may include an identification acquisition unit 315 and a message generation unit 316.

In accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure, the identification acquisition unit 315 in the processing circuitry 314 may be configured to obtain an identification of one or more vehicles. According to some embodiments of the present disclosure, the identity acquisition unit 315 may obtain the identity of the vehicle by invoking an I/O interface of the user device 310. For example, the identification acquisition unit 315 may invoke a camera or scanning device to capture or scan indicia (barcodes, two-dimensional codes, alphanumeric strings, graphical identity tags, etc.) associated with the vehicle and determine the identification of the vehicle from the captured/scanned indicia. According to further embodiments of the present disclosure, the identity acquisition unit 315 may invoke a display device of the user equipment 310 to request the user to input information associated with the vehicle, and receive the information input by the user through an input device. The identification acquisition unit 315 may obtain the identification of the vehicle based on the information input by the user. For example, a user may enter an alphanumeric code associated with a vehicle. Alternatively, the user may select a desired vehicle from a list or map including a plurality of vehicles displayed on the user device 310, and the identification acquisition unit 315 may determine the identification of the vehicle based on such selection by the user. According to still further embodiments of the present disclosure, the identity acquisition unit 315 may comprise a radio frequency identification unit, which may be configured to obtain the identity of the vehicle by identifying a radio frequency tag associated with the vehicle. The one or more identifications of the one or more vehicles obtained by the identification acquisition unit 315 may be transmitted to a message generation unit 316 in the processing circuit 314.

In accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure, the message generation unit 316 in the processing circuit 314 may be configured to generate the first message based on the identification of the vehicle and/or the specified number of at least one additional vehicle. The identity of the vehicle may be received from the identity acquisition unit 315. The number of additional vehicles may be specified by user input of the user device 310. For example, in response to receiving the first identification of the first vehicle and the number of at least one additional vehicle input by the user from the identification acquisition unit 315, the message generation unit 316 can generate a first message that can include the first identification of the first vehicle and the number of at least one additional vehicle. Alternatively, the number of at least one additional vehicle may not be required to be specified. For example, in response to receiving the identifications of the plurality of vehicles from the identification acquisition unit 315, the message generation unit 316 can select one of the plurality of vehicles as the first vehicle (e.g., select the one corresponding to the last obtained identification) and determine the other vehicles as at least one additional vehicle based on one or more identifications. Accordingly, the message generation unit 316 can generate a first message that can include the first identification of the specified first vehicle and the identification of the determined at least one additional vehicle. The first message generated by the message generation unit 316 can be transmitted to the communication unit 311 (e.g., the second communication sub-unit) for transmission to the electronic device for managing the vehicle.

The above configuration of the user device 310 enables multiple vehicles with a single request by a single user device 310. In this case, when a plurality of users each have a need to use the vehicle, the plurality of vehicles may be enabled for use by a first user thereof through the user device of the user, thereby eliminating the need for each user to separately enable a respective vehicle. This allows other users than the first user to avoid using their user equipment, thereby achieving savings in user equipment power consumption and communication tariffs. The other users than the first user may not even have any user equipment. Such a configuration, such as user device 310, may be advantageous when the multiple users are associated with each other (e.g., have the same origin and destination), or when there are limited-capability users (e.g., children, elderly people, foreigners, do not have user devices) among the multiple users. The plurality of vehicles enabled by the user device 310 may be associated with each other, forming a vehicle group. The user of the user device 310 may itself only use the first vehicle in the vehicle group, but the user device 310 may act as a representative of the vehicle group to communicate with the electronic device managing the vehicle group and to share information (e.g., navigation information) between the various vehicles of the vehicle group. This allows other users to remain free from handling any user devices while using the vehicle, thereby ensuring user safety.

According to some embodiments of the present disclosure, the processing circuit 314 of the user device 310 may be further configured to receive information of the at least one additional vehicle from the electronic device for managing vehicles, which information may include at least one of an identification or a location of the at least one additional vehicle. Preferably, based on the received locations or identifications, the processing circuit 314 may control the display device of the user device 310 to display a map and to display the location of at least one additional vehicle on the displayed map relative to the location of the first vehicle to facilitate the user finding the additional vehicles from the departure of the first vehicle.

According to some embodiments of the present disclosure, the processing circuit 314 may be further configured to receive cost information from an electronic device for managing vehicles, which may include costs corresponding to the first vehicle and the at least one additional vehicle. The processing circuitry 314 may be configured to control the user device 310 to display the received cost information to the user (e.g., via the I/O interface 313) for viewing, confirmation, or payment by the user. In this manner, all of the user's vehicle usage fees may be paid by a single user device 310, thereby avoiding the payment capability requirements for multiple user devices in a multi-party payment approach.

According to some embodiments of the present disclosure, the processing circuit 314 may be further configured to generate and transmit a confirmation message to an electronic device for managing vehicles in response to receiving information of additional vehicles and/or in response to receiving the cost information. The confirmation message may be generated by the message generation unit 316 based on the confirmation of the user and then transmitted to the communication unit 311 for transmission. One example form of user confirmation may be the user completing a payment.

The processing circuit 314 may also be configured to provide navigation information processing functionality according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. In particular, the processing circuit 314 may be configured to transmit destination information to an electronic device for managing vehicles, receive navigation information associated with a destination from the electronic device, and transmit the navigation information to a first vehicle. This may be achieved, for example, by a navigation information processing unit 317 in the processing circuit 314. According to some embodiments of the present disclosure, the navigation information processing unit 317 may receive destination information from a user input, transmit the destination information to an electronic device for managing vehicles through the communication unit 311, and forward navigation information received from the electronic device to a first vehicle. The navigation information returned by the electronic device for managing a vehicle may include map information, path planning information, navigation instructions, or a combination thereof. The navigation device on the first vehicle may visually present navigation instructions to the user based on the received navigation information. In this way, the user may not have to take out the user device 310 and view the display of the user device 310, but only need to focus on the navigation instructions displayed by the navigation means on the first vehicle. This can reduce the distraction of the user during the operation of the vehicle, thereby ensuring user safety. Further, the amount of information received from the electronic device for managing the vehicle may be large, or its complexity may exceed the processing capability of the vehicle-side electronic device on the first vehicle. Therefore, the navigation information processing unit 317 can also preprocess these navigation information. For example, a navigation instruction may be determined based on the navigation information and sent only to the first vehicle. The navigation indication may for example comprise only a turn indication. This will greatly reduce the amount of data transferred and the processing burden on the vehicle-side electronic device.

According to some embodiments of the disclosure, the processing circuit 314 may be further configured to send a second message to the electronic device for managing vehicles instructing the electronic device to send navigation information to the first vehicle if the power level of the user device 310 is below the threshold. At the same time, the processing circuit 314 may stop receiving the navigation information from the electronic device. In particular, the second message may be generated by the message generation unit 316 in response to determining that the power level of the user device 310 is below the threshold, and transmitted to the communication unit 311 for transmission to the electronic device for managing the vehicle. In response to the second message being transmitted, the navigation information processing unit 317 may stop receiving and forwarding the navigation information, thereby reducing power consumption. In this way, the usage time of the user device 310 may be extended as much as possible while ensuring that the first vehicle is navigated, so that the user device 310 may be used for more critical functions such as phone calls.

According to some embodiments of the disclosure, the processing circuit 314 may be further configured to receive a third message from the electronic device for managing vehicles, the third message may indicate that a mutual distance between the first vehicle and a second vehicle of the at least one additional vehicle is greater than a threshold. This means that the second vehicle may be out of line or ahead with respect to the first vehicle. For vehicles other than the first vehicle in the group of vehicles, the users of those vehicles are likely to be associated with (e.g., have the same path as) the user of the first vehicle, and thus they may preferably navigate by following the first vehicle. However, when the second vehicle is either out of line or in advance relative to the first vehicle, it may be difficult for the user of the second vehicle to re-rely on the first vehicle for navigation. In response to receiving the third message, the navigation information processing unit 317 of the processing circuit 314 may be configured to additionally send navigation information to the second vehicle based on the mutual distance being greater than the threshold. This may be accomplished when the second vehicle is still within range of the short-range communication supported by the user device 310 (e.g., when the mutual distance between the first vehicle and the second vehicle indicated by the third message is less than the range of the short-range communication). When the second vehicle has gone outside the range of short-range communications that the user device 310 is capable of supporting, a fourth message may be generated by the message generation unit 316, which may be communicated to the communication unit 311 for transmission to the electronic device for managing the vehicle. The fourth message may instruct the electronic device to send the navigation information to the second vehicle. In this way, it may be ensured that each vehicle that is either falling behind or leading can still automatically obtain navigation information when one or more of the additional vehicles fall behind or lead relative to the first vehicle.

According to some embodiments of the disclosure, the processing circuit 314 may be further configured to communicate with the first vehicle and/or the at least one additional vehicle using the scrambling sequence. In particular, the processing circuit 314 may use one or more scrambling sequences to encrypt/decrypt communications between the user device 310 and the electronic device for managing vehicles and the first vehicle and/or the at least one additional vehicle. The scrambling code sequence may take various suitable forms, such as a pseudo-random code. The use of scrambling sequences can ensure the privacy and security of any communication associated with a group of vehicles. According to some embodiments of the disclosure, the scrambling sequence used may be associated with the identity of the vehicle. For example, the scrambling code sequence may be a string derived by the identity acquisition unit 315 based on at least a portion of the identity of the vehicle. More specifically, the identity acquisition unit 315 may determine the scrambling sequence based on the first identity of the first vehicle, or may determine one or more scrambling sequences, each of which may be specific to a respective one of the vehicles, based on the first identity of the first vehicle and a set of identities of at least one additional vehicle. According to further embodiments of the present disclosure, the scrambling sequence may be received from the electronic device in response to sending the first message to the management vehicle. In this case, the same scrambling sequence may be used for each vehicle in the group of vehicles.

It is noted that although one or more components of the user device 310 are described above with respect to fig. 3, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that the user device 310 may have any additional other components or may implement the described functionality without some of the components described above. Further, one or more components of the user device 310 may be combined into one component, or divided into more sub-components.

Electronic device for managing a vehicle

Fig. 4 illustrates an example electronic device 420 for managing a vehicle, according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. As shown in fig. 4, exemplary electronic device 420 may be an example of electronic device 120 in fig. 1. As shown in fig. 4, electronic device 420 may include, for example, a communication unit 421, a memory 422, and processing circuitry 423.

The communication unit 421 may be used to receive one or more radio signals from a vehicle (e.g., the vehicle 130, and in particular, a vehicle-side electronic device) and/or a user device (e.g., the user device 110, 310), may also perform processing such as down-conversion, analog-to-digital conversion, etc. on the received radio signals, and may provide information obtained from the radio signals to other portions of the electronic device 420 (e.g., the processing circuitry 424 or the memory 422). The communication unit 421 may also be used to transmit one or more radio signals from the electronic device 420 to a vehicle (e.g., vehicle 130, 230) and/or a user device (e.g., user device 110, 310), and may perform processing such as digital-to-analog conversion, frequency up-conversion, etc. on the radio signals prior to transmission. Information transmitted by the communication unit 421 may come from other parts of the electronic device 420, such as the processing circuitry 424 or the memory 422. The radio signals received or transmitted by the communication unit 421 may include various information or data. In the embodiment of the present disclosure, the communication unit 421 may be implemented as a communication interface component such as an antenna device, a radio frequency circuit, and a partial baseband processing circuit, for example. The communication unit 421 is depicted with dashed lines since it may also be located within the processing circuit 424 or outside the electronic device 420.

According to some embodiments of the present disclosure, the communication unit 421 may include a first communication subunit (not shown) for communicating with a vehicle and a second communication subunit (not shown) for communicating with a user equipment. The first communication subunit may communicate using the same or a different protocol than the second communication subunit. According to some embodiments of the present disclosure, one or both of the first communication subunit and the second communication subunit may communicate using a licensed frequency band. According to further embodiments of the present disclosure, the first communication subunit and the second communication subunit may communicate with the vehicle and the user equipment using the unlicensed frequency band. Using the unlicensed band for communication allows the user device to be implemented as a sim-less device (such as a smart wearable device, AR glasses, etc.) without sim authentication. Additionally, unlicensed band communication may also support wireless charging of vehicles by electronic device 420, e.g., electronic device 420 may convert electrical energy to wireless frequencies and then directionally project the energy to energy receivers on nearby vehicles. The electronic device 420 can also periodically push advertisements, news, and social media information, etc. to the vehicle using the unlicensed frequency band.

The memory 422 of the electronic device 420 may store information generated by the processing circuit 424, information received from other devices through the communication unit 421, information received through the I/O interface, programs for operation of the electronic device 420, machine code, data, and the like. The memory 422 is depicted with dashed lines because it may also be located within the processing circuit 424 or external to the electronic device 420. The memory 422 may be volatile memory and/or non-volatile memory. For example, memory 422 may include, but is not limited to, Random Access Memory (RAM), Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM), Static Random Access Memory (SRAM), Read Only Memory (ROM), and flash memory.

The processing circuitry 423 of the electronic device 420 may be configured to perform the following operations: a first message is received from a user device, where the first message includes a first identification of a first vehicle to be enabled by the user device and a number or identification of at least one additional vehicle to be enabled by the user device. The user equipment referred to herein may be, for example, any of the user equipment described in connection with fig. 3. The processing circuit 423 may receive the first message from the user equipment, for example, through the communication unit 421.

The above configuration of the electronic device 420 allows the operator of the vehicle to enable multiple vehicles based on a single request of a single user device, thereby providing multiple vehicles available to multiple users. This expands the available scenarios for these vehicles. In addition, the operator of the vehicle can manage a vehicle group consisting of the plurality of vehicles by interacting with only a single user device through the electronic device 420, without the electronic device 420 needing to interact with the user device of each user using the vehicle separately. This may reduce the load on the electronic device 420, which may be particularly advantageous in times (e.g., early or late peak) or areas where there are a large number of concurrent requests.

According to some embodiments of the disclosure, the processing circuitry 423 of the electronic device for managing a vehicle 420 may be further configured to: in response to receiving the first message from the user device, a location of the first vehicle is determined based on the first identification, and at least one additional vehicle is determined based on the location of the first vehicle. For example, the processing circuit 423 may initiate a query to a database that maintains a relationship between the identity of the vehicle and the location based on the first identity of the first vehicle included in the first message, thereby obtaining the location of the first vehicle. In accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure, when the first message further includes an identification of at least one additional vehicle, the processing circuit 423 may determine the location of the at least one additional vehicle based on the identification of the at least one additional vehicle in a similar manner. According to further embodiments of the present disclosure, when the first message does not include the additional vehicle but includes the number of at least one additional vehicle K, the processing circuit 423 may also initiate an additional query to the database based on the number of at least one additional vehicle K and the determined location of the first vehicle. The database may return K additional vehicles near the location of the first vehicle to the processing circuit 423 as a result of the additional query. Alternatively, the database may return more than K optional additional vehicles from which K additional vehicles are determined by the processing circuit 423. The database used in these steps may be part of electronic device 420 or a separate database that is accessible by electronic device 420.

According to some embodiments of the disclosure, the processing circuitry 423 may be further configured to: after determining the at least one additional vehicle, information of the determined at least one additional vehicle, which may include at least one of an identification or a location of the at least one additional vehicle, is transmitted to the user device. As described above, the user device may present information of the at least one additional vehicle to the user to facilitate the user finding the vehicles.

According to some embodiments of the disclosure, the processing circuitry 423 may be further configured to: sending cost information to the user device, the cost information including costs corresponding to the first vehicle and the at least one additional vehicle. The cost information may be determined by processing circuitry 423 based on, for example, one or more of the respective types of vehicles, rates, travel distances, hours of use, or may consist of one or more of such information.

According to some embodiments of the disclosure, the processing circuit 423 may be further configured to send an enabling message to the first vehicle and the at least one additional vehicle (e.g., in response to receiving a confirmation message from the user device to the vehicle) to enable the user to use the vehicles. The enabling message may instruct the first vehicle and the at least one additional vehicle to switch to an enabled state. For example, the enabling message may cause locks on the vehicles to open, brake the vehicles to release, power the vehicles on, and so forth. The enablement message may also instruct the vehicle to prompt the user with a particular sound, vibration, or light.

In accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure, the processing circuit 423 may be further configured to transmit, in response to receiving the first message from the user equipment, a scrambling sequence to the user equipment, the first vehicle, and the at least one additional vehicle for use in the communication by the user equipment, the first vehicle, and the at least one additional vehicle. According to some embodiments of the disclosure, the scrambling sequence used may be associated with the identity of the vehicle. For example, the scrambling sequence may be a string derived from at least a portion of the identity of the vehicle. The processing circuit 423 may determine the scrambling sequence based on one or more of the first identification of the first vehicle and/or one or more identifications of the at least one additional vehicle. By using the scrambling sequence for encryption in the communication, security and privacy of the communication associated with the vehicle group can be ensured.

According to some embodiments of the disclosure, the processing circuit 423 may be further configured to receive destination information from the user equipment; and sending navigation information associated with the destination to the user device. In particular, the processing circuit 423 may generate navigation information based on the received destination information and/or the determined information of the vehicle (e.g., the location of the first vehicle), which may include map information, route planning information, navigation instructions, or a combination thereof. The processing circuit 423 may communicate the generated navigation information to the communication unit 421 for transmission to the user equipment.

According to some embodiments of the disclosure, the processing circuit 423 may be further configured to switch the recipient of the navigation information according to a state of the user equipment. For example, the processing circuitry 423 may be configured to: receiving a second message from the user equipment, wherein the second message is sent when the power of the user equipment is lower than a threshold value; and in response to receiving the second message, ceasing to send the navigation information to the user device and sending the navigation information to the first vehicle. In this way, communications of the electronic device 420 with the user device may be reduced to help reduce power consumption of the user device. At the same time, the first vehicle can still be navigated. Alternatively or additionally, the processing circuit 423 may also actively monitor a performance indicator communicated with the user device and switch the recipient of the navigation information from the user device to the first vehicle when the performance indicator falls below a threshold.

According to some embodiments of the present disclosure, the processing circuit 423 may be further configured to increase/decrease the recipient of the navigation information based on a distance between the first vehicle and another vehicle of the at least one additional vehicle. For example, the processing circuit 423 may be configured to determine a mutual distance between the first vehicle and a second vehicle of the at least one additional vehicle based on their respective locations. Where the mutual distance is greater than the threshold, the processing circuit 423 may send a third message to a user device (e.g., the user device 310) associated with the user of the first vehicle indicating that the mutual distance between the two vehicles is greater than the threshold. As described above, in response to receiving the third message, the user device may send the navigation information received from the electronic device 420 to the second vehicle. The user device may send a fourth message to the electronic device 420 when the mutual distance between the first vehicle and the second vehicle is greater than the range of short-range communication that the user device is capable of supporting. In response to receiving the fourth message from the user device, the electronic device 420 may itself send the navigation information to the second vehicle. In an alternative embodiment, the processing circuit 423 may itself send the navigation information directly to the second vehicle in the event that the mutual distance is greater than the threshold value. In this way, it can be ensured that the second vehicle can still automatically obtain navigation information when the second vehicle is out of line or ahead with respect to the first vehicle. Additionally, the user device or electronic device 420 may stop sending navigation information to the second vehicle when detecting that the mutual distance between the two vehicles returns to a state less than the threshold value.

According to some embodiments of the present disclosure, the processing circuit 423 may be further configured to transmit information proximate to respective locations to respective vehicles and/or user devices based on the respective locations of the respective vehicles in the group of vehicles, which may include, for example, advertising, news, and social media information. For example, a user of a vehicle may be prompted for locations (businesses/attractions) of possible interest near the respective location, road condition information, and various other customized advertisements. This information may be communicated to the user by the navigation device of the user equipment/vehicle.

According to some embodiments of the present disclosure, the processing circuit 423 may also be configured to control wireless charging of one or more vehicles. For example, when a low battery associated with a vehicle located in proximity to the electronic device 420 is detected, the processing circuitry 423 may control the electronic device 420 to convert the electrical energy to a wireless frequency (e.g., an unlicensed band frequency) and then directionally project the energy to an energy receiver on the vehicle.

It is noted that although one or more components of the electronic device 420 for managing a vehicle are described above with respect to fig. 4, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that the electronic device 420 may have any additional other components or may implement the described functionality without some of the components described above. Further, one or more components of the electronic device 420 may be combined into one component or divided into more sub-components.

Navigation device for a vehicle

Fig. 5-7 illustrate navigation devices according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. These navigation devices may be mounted on the vehicle as part of the vehicle-side electronic equipment for visually presenting navigation information or navigation instructions to a user of the vehicle.

Fig. 5 shows a schematic diagram of a navigation device 500 according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. As shown in fig. 5, the navigation device 500 may include a plurality of sets of light emitting

devices

541, 542, 543. Each group of light emitting devices includes a single light emitting unit or a plurality of light emitting units (e.g., LED lamps). According to embodiments of the present disclosure, each set of light emitting devices may correspond to a navigation instruction. For example, the light-emitting

devices

541, 542, and 543 may correspond to navigation instructions "go straight", "turn left", and "turn right", respectively. Optionally, the navigation device 500 may further comprise a set of light emitting devices 544 corresponding to the navigation indication "back". The navigation device 500 may be installed at a front side of a direction manipulation mechanism of a vehicle so that a user manipulating the vehicle can easily see without being distracted too much. The respective sets of light emitting

devices

541, 542, 543, 544 of the navigation device 500 may be separately arranged at different positions to enhance navigation instruction. For example, the light emitting device 542 indicating "turn left" may be disposed on the left side of the direction manipulation mechanism of the vehicle, the light emitting device 543 indicating "turn right" may be disposed on the right side of the direction manipulation mechanism of the vehicle, and the

light emitting devices

541, 544 indicating "straight" or "back" may be disposed in the direct-view direction of the direction manipulation mechanism. As one example, when mounted on a bicycle, light emitting

devices

542, 543 may be mounted adjacent to the left and right handlebars, respectively. In addition, the

light emitting devices

541, 542, 543, and 544 may emit light beams with different colors to enhance the navigation instruction. One or more of the

light emitting devices

541, 542, 543, 544 (e.g., the light emitting devices associated with a turn) may blink at regular intervals to highlight a corresponding navigation indication.

According to some embodiments of the present disclosure, the groups of light emitting devices of the navigation device 500 may be lit in response to a control signal from a vehicle-side electronic device (e.g., electronic device 120, 420). The vehicle-side electronic device may generate the control signal based on navigation information or navigation instructions received from a user device (e.g., user device 110, 310) and/or an electronic device for managing the vehicle (e.g., electronic device 120, 420) and send it to the navigation apparatus 500, or to a corresponding set of light emitting apparatuses in the navigation apparatus 500.

Fig. 6 shows a schematic view of another navigation device 600 according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. The navigation device 600 may comprise a projector 651 and a projection screen 652, so the navigation device 600 may also be referred to as a projection system. The navigation device 600 may be installed at a front side of a direction manipulation mechanism of a vehicle so that a user manipulating the vehicle can easily see the navigation device 600 without being distracted too much. For example, the projection screen 652 may be positioned in front of the user, while the projector 651 may be positioned in a location that facilitates front or side projection onto the projection screen 652. As one example, when mounted on a bicycle, the projection screen 652 may be mounted near a front side surface of the basket, while the projector 651 may be mounted opposite on the bicycle tap.

According to some embodiments of the present disclosure, the projector 651 of the navigation apparatus 600 may be used to project navigation information or navigation instructions from a user device (e.g., user device 110, 310) and/or an electronic device (e.g., electronic device 120, 420) used to manage a vehicle onto the navigation screen 652, thereby visually presenting the navigation information or navigation instructions to the user. For example, the projector 651 may project map information, route planning information, navigation instructions, or a combination thereof onto the navigation screen 652. The projector 651 may project navigation information only when the vehicle is required to turn, while projecting other information pushed by the electronic device managing the vehicle (e.g., electronic devices 120, 420) such as advertisements, news, etc. when the vehicle is traveling straight. Additionally or alternatively, the projector 651 may also project information such as advertisements when the vehicle is stopped or at rest, thereby providing additional revenue to the vehicle operator.

According to some embodiments of the present disclosure, a solar panel may also be mounted to one side of the projection screen of the navigation device 600 to provide power to one or more components of the vehicle.

Fig. 7 shows a schematic block diagram of a navigation device 700 according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. The navigation apparatus 700 may also be an augmented display (AR) device or a Virtual Reality (VR) device. For example, when the user wears AR glasses or VR headset, the navigation device 700 may project navigation instructions to the AR glasses or VR headset worn by the user. According to some embodiments of the present disclosure, the navigation device 700 may be added to the navigation device 600. In presenting navigation information, simple turn indications may be projected by the navigation device 700 to the AR glasses/VR headset, while relatively complex information, such as map information, may be presented by the navigation device 600 (projection system). According to some embodiments of the present disclosure, the navigation device 700 may be configured to also present advertisements, news, and social media information.

According to some embodiments of the present disclosure, each of the

navigation devices

500, 600, 700 may be powered by a battery of the vehicle, or may be integrated with a power generation device. For example, as described above, the projection screen of the navigation device 600 may be integrated with a solar panel, so that the navigation device 600 itself may be powered.

Enabling a vehicle by a user device

Fig. 8 is a signaling flow diagram 800 for enabling a vehicle by a user equipment in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure. Shown in fig. 8 is a user device 810, an electronic device 820 for managing vehicles, a first vehicle 830, and one or more additional vehicles 830A-830N. The user equipment 810 may be any of the user equipment 110, 310 described above. The electronic device 820 may be any of the electronic devices 120, 420 for managing a vehicle described above. Each of the first vehicle 830 and the one or more additional vehicles 830A-830N may be any of the vehicles 130, 230 described above. It is noted that optional steps are illustrated in fig. 8 using dashed arrows and blocks.

As shown in fig. 8, at step S801, the user device 810 may obtain a first identification of a first vehicle 830. As described previously, the user equipment 810 may obtain the first identity through the identity acquisition unit (e.g., 315). For example, the first identification may be obtained by the identification acquisition unit photographing or scanning a mark (barcode, two-dimensional code, alphanumeric string, graphical identity tag, etc.) associated with the first vehicle 830. Alternatively or additionally, the identity acquisition unit may obtain the first identity by identifying a radio frequency tag associated with the first vehicle 830. In addition, the identification acquisition unit may request the user to input information associated with the first vehicle 830 and obtain the first identification of the first vehicle 830 based on the information. For example, the user may enter an alphanumeric code for the first vehicle 830. Alternatively, the user may select a desired vehicle as the first vehicle 830 from a list or map including a plurality of vehicles displayed on a display of the user device 810, and the identification acquisition unit may determine the first identification based on the selection of the user.

At step S802, the user device 810 may send a first message to the electronic device 820 requesting enablement of the first vehicle 830 and the at least one additional vehicle. The first message may include a first identification of the first vehicle and a number or identification of the at least one additional vehicle. According to some embodiments of the present disclosure, the number of at least one additional vehicle, K, may be specified by a user associated with the user device 810. According to some embodiments of the present disclosure, the identity of the at least one additional vehicle may be obtained by the identity acquisition unit of the user device 810 in a similar manner to the first identity. For example, the identification acquisition unit may photograph or scan a tag associated with the at least one additional vehicle, or identify a radio frequency tag associated with the at least one additional vehicle, or may request a user to input information associated with the at least one additional vehicle and determine a respective identification of the at least one additional vehicle based on the information.

In response to receiving the first message from the user device 810, the electronic device 820 may determine a location of the first vehicle 830 based on the first identification in step S803, and may determine at least one additional vehicle based on the location of the first vehicle in step S804. For example, the electronic device 820 can initiate a query to a database that maintains relationships between the identities of vehicles and locations based on the first identity to obtain the location of the first vehicle 830. According to some embodiments of the present disclosure, when the first message further includes an identification of at least one additional vehicle, the electronic device 820 may determine a location of the at least one additional vehicle based on the identification of the at least one additional vehicle in a similar manner. According to further embodiments of the present disclosure, when the first message does not include the identification of the additional vehicle but includes the number of at least one additional vehicle K, the electronic device 820 may also initiate an additional query to the database based on the number of at least one additional vehicle K and the determined location of the first vehicle 830. The database may return K additional vehicles 830A-830N near the location of the first vehicle 830 to the electronic device 820 as a result of the additional query. Alternatively, the database may return more than K optional additional vehicles and the K additional vehicles 830A-830N determined therefrom by the electronic device 820. The database used in these steps may be part of electronic device 820 or a separate database accessible by electronic device 820.

Optionally, in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure, after determining the location of the first vehicle and the at least one additional vehicle, the electronic device 820 may send information of the at least one additional vehicle to the user device 810 in step S805, which may include at least one of an identification or a location of the at least one additional vehicle determined by the electronic device 820. Since one or more of the at least one additional vehicle may not be located near the first vehicle 830, the user device 810 may display the location of the at least one additional vehicle relative to the location of the first vehicle 830 on a map displayed by the display device based on the received locations to facilitate the user finding the additional vehicles from the departure of the first vehicle 830.

Optionally, according to some embodiments of the present disclosure, the electronic device 820 may send the fee information to the user device 810 in step S806. The cost information may include costs corresponding to the first vehicle and the at least one additional vehicle. The cost information may be determined based on or comprised of one or more of the respective types of vehicles, rates, travel distances, time of use, for example.

Optionally, in response to receiving information of the additional vehicle from the electronic device 820 and/or in response to receiving the cost information from the electronic device 820, the user device 810 may send a confirmation message to the electronic device 820 in step S807, which may indicate that the user associated with the user device 810 has confirmed the information of the additional vehicle or accepted the received cost information, according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. In this way, all users' vehicle usage fees can be paid by the user of a single user device.

Optionally, according to some embodiments of the present disclosure, the electronic device 820 may also send an enabling message to the first vehicle 830 and the determined at least one additional vehicle 830A-830N in step S808, thereby enabling the user to use these vehicles. For example, in response to receiving the enabling message, the first vehicle 830 and the at least one additional vehicle 830A-830N may switch to an enabled state. Locks on these vehicles may be enabled to unlock, brakes on the vehicles may be released, the vehicles may be powered up, and so on. In response to switching to the enabled state, one or more of the first vehicle 830 and the at least one additional vehicle 830A-830N may be prompted to the user by way of sound, vibration, or light.

Optionally, communications between the user device 810, the electronic device 820, and the vehicles 830, 830A-830N may be encrypted/decrypted using one or more scrambling sequences, in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure. According to some embodiments of the disclosure, the scrambling sequence used may be associated with the identity of the vehicle. For example, the scrambling sequence may be a string derived from at least a portion of the identity of the vehicle. A scrambling code sequence may be determined in step S801 by the user equipment 810 based on the first identity of the first vehicle 830; alternatively, the scrambling code sequence may be determined by the user equipment 810 based on the first identification of the first vehicle 830 and the set of identifications of the at least one additional vehicle 830A-830N.

According to some embodiments of the present disclosure, the same scrambling sequence may be used for the first vehicle 830 and the at least one additional vehicle 830A-830N. For example, in response to receiving the first message from the user device 810, the electronic device 820 may broadcast the same scrambling sequence to the user device 810 and each of the first vehicle 830 and the at least one additional vehicle 830A-830N in step S811, such that the user device 810 and devices on those vehicles (e.g., vehicle-side electronic devices) may encrypt/decrypt the transmitted/received data using the scrambling sequence in step S812. In accordance with further embodiments of the present disclosure, for each of the first vehicle 830 and the at least one additional vehicle 830A-830N, a scrambling sequence specific to that vehicle (e.g., a scrambling sequence derived from the identity of that vehicle) may be used. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the scrambling code sequence may take various suitable forms, such as a pseudo-random code.

It should be noted that although the various steps of the signaling flow diagram 800 are depicted in fig. 8 with particular numbering, this does not imply that the steps must be performed sequentially in the order depicted. It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that one or more of these steps may be omitted, performed without other steps, performed in parallel, or the order may be interchanged without departing from the scope of the disclosure.

Navigating a vehicle through a user device

Fig. 9 is a signaling flow diagram 900 for navigating a vehicle by a user equipment in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure. Shown in fig. 9 are a user device 910, an electronic device 920 for managing a vehicle, a first vehicle 930, and a second vehicle 930A. The user equipment 910 may be any of the user equipment 110, 310, 810 described above. The electronic device 820 may be any of the electronic devices 120, 420, 820 for managing a vehicle described above. Each of the first vehicle 930 and the second vehicle 930A may be any of the vehicles 130, 230 described above, and the first vehicle 930 may be an example of the first vehicle 830 as shown in fig. 8, and the second vehicle may be an example of any of the at least one additional vehicle 830A-830N as shown in fig. 8. It is noted that optional steps are illustrated in fig. 9 using dashed arrows and blocks.

As shown in fig. 9, in order to navigate, the user device 910 may transmit destination information to the electronic device 920 in step S901. The destination information may be input, for example, by a user associated with the user device 910.

In response to receiving the destination information from the user device 910, the electronic device 920 may determine navigation information associated with the destination based on the destination information at step S902. The navigation information may include map information, path plan information, navigation instructions, or a combination thereof.

In step S903, the electronic device 920 may transmit the determined navigation information to the user equipment 910. In step S904, the user device 910 may forward the received navigation information to the first vehicle 930. To reduce the amount of data transmitted and the processing burden on the vehicle-side electronic device, the user device 910 may pre-process the received navigation information. For example, the navigation instructions may be determined based on the navigation information and forwarded to the first vehicle 930 only. The navigation indication may for example comprise only a turn indication.

In step S905, in response to receiving the navigation information from the user device 910, the first vehicle 930 may present the received navigation indication or navigation information to the user. For example, navigation instructions or navigation information may be presented to the user by navigation means (such as 500 to 700 described above) on the vehicle-side electronic device. Since the navigation device is located on the vehicle, the user may not have to take the user equipment 910 and view the display of the user equipment 910, but only need to focus on the navigation instructions displayed by the navigation device on the vehicle. This can reduce the distraction of the user during the operation of the vehicle, and thus can increase the safety factor. Further, since the first user of the first vehicle 930 and the second user of the second vehicle 930A are likely to be associated users acting in concert, the second user of the second vehicle 930A may follow the first vehicle 930 for travel. This further reduces the requirements on the second user, i.e., the second user can use the second vehicle 930A without having to use any electronic device or apparatus to obtain navigation information, while ensuring the navigation capabilities of the second user.

Optionally, according to some embodiments of the present disclosure, in case the user device 910 may lose communication capability (e.g., the power level of the user device 910 is below a threshold, or the network condition is below a threshold), the user device 910 may send a second message to the electronic device 920 in step S911, and the second message may instruct the electronic device 920 to send the navigation information directly to the first vehicle 930 without further forwarding through the user device 910. In response to transmitting the second message, the user equipment 910 may stop receiving the navigation information from the electronic device 920 in step S912, thereby reducing power consumption. In response to receiving the second message from the user device 910, the electronic device 920 can send the navigation information directly to the first vehicle 930. Similar to step S905, the first vehicle 930 can visually present navigation information or navigation instructions from the electronic device 920 in step S914.

Optionally, in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure, the electronic device 920 may determine whether to send navigation information to the second vehicle 930A as well based on the locations of the first vehicle 930 and the second vehicle 930A. This is advantageous in the event that the second vehicle 930A is out of line or ahead with respect to the first vehicle 930. For example, the electronic device 920 may determine the mutual distance between the first vehicle 930 and the second vehicle 930A based on their respective locations in step S921. In case the mutual distance is larger than the threshold value, the electronic device 920 may send a third message to the user device 910 in step S922, the third message indicating that the mutual distance between the first vehicle 930 and the second vehicle 930A is larger than the threshold value. In response to receiving the third message, the user equipment 910 may send the navigation information to the second vehicle 930A in step S923. As an alternative, the user device 910 may send a fourth message to the electronic device 920 instructing the navigation information to be sent by the electronic device 920 directly to the second vehicle 930A at step S925. As another alternative, the electronic device 920 may send the navigation information directly to the second vehicle 930A without informing the user device 910 via the third message in response to determining that the mutual distance between the first vehicle 930 and the second vehicle 930A is greater than the threshold. In response to receiving the navigation information from the user device 910 or the electronic device 920, the second vehicle 930A may visually present the navigation information or navigation instructions in step S926, enabling a second user of the second vehicle 930A to automatically obtain the navigation information if the second user is out of line or ahead with respect to the first vehicle 930 and still not require the second user to use any user device with navigation capabilities.

Alternatively, according to some embodiments of the present disclosure, the electronic device 920 may send information about the vicinity of the respective location of each of the first vehicle 930 and the second vehicle 930A to the vehicle based on the respective location, as shown in step S931. The transmitted information includes advertisements, news, and social media information, among others. For example, the user of the vehicle may be prompted for a consumer location near the corresponding location, or for road condition information. This information may be communicated to the user by the navigation device of the vehicle.

In accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure, a scrambling sequence (e.g., the scrambling sequence described with respect to fig. 8) may be used in one or more of the steps described in fig. 9 to encrypt/decrypt communications between the user device 910, the electronic device 920, and the various vehicles.

It should be noted that although the various steps of signaling flow diagram 900 are depicted in fig. 9 with particular numbering, this does not imply that the steps must be performed sequentially in the order depicted. It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that one or more of these steps may be omitted, performed without other steps, performed in parallel, or the order may be interchanged without departing from the scope of the disclosure.

Exemplary method

FIG. 10A illustrates an example method for controlling an item, according to an embodiment. As shown in fig. 10A, the method 1000 may include obtaining a first identification of a first item (block 1005). The method 1000 may also include sending a first message to an electronic device for managing the items requesting enablement of the first item and the at least one additional item, wherein the first message includes a first identification of the first item and a quantity or identification of the at least one additional item (block 1010). The method may be performed, for example, by the user device 110, 310, and detailed example operations of the method may be described below with reference to the description above regarding the operation and functionality of the user device 110, 310.

In one embodiment, method 1000 may include receiving information from the electronic device of the at least one additional item, the information including at least one of an identification or a location of the at least one additional item.

In one embodiment, the method 1000 may include receiving cost information from the electronic device, the cost information including a cost corresponding to the first item and the at least one additional item.

In one embodiment, method 1000 may include sending destination information to the electronic device; receiving, from the electronic device, navigation information associated with the destination; and sending the navigation information to the first object.

In one embodiment, the method 1000 may include sending a second message to the electronic device instructing the electronic device to send the navigation information to the first item if the power level of the user device is below a threshold; and ceasing to receive the navigation information from the electronic device.

In one embodiment, the method 1000 may include receiving a third message from the electronic device indicating that a mutual distance between the first and second items is greater than a threshold, the processing circuit further configured to, based on the mutual distance being greater than the threshold: sending the navigation information to the second object; or sending a fourth message to the electronic device, wherein the fourth message instructs the electronic device to send the navigation information to the second object.

In one embodiment, the method 1000 may include using a scrambling sequence to communicate with the first item and/or the at least one additional item, wherein the scrambling sequence is associated with an identification of the item or the scrambling sequence is received from the electronic device in response to sending the first message to the electronic device.

In one embodiment, each article comprises at least one of: bicycle, electric bicycle, scooter, car, aircraft.

In one embodiment, the user device communicates with the electronic device using an unlicensed frequency band, and communicates with items using short-range communication technology or near-field communication technology.

FIG. 10B illustrates an example method for controlling an item, according to an embodiment. As shown in FIG. 10B, the method 1050 may include receiving a first message from a user device, wherein the first message includes a first identification of a first item to be enabled by the user device and a quantity or identification of at least one additional item to be enabled by the user device. The method may be performed, for example, by an electronic device for managing an item, and detailed example operations of the method may be described below with reference to the description above regarding the operation and functionality of the electronic device 120, 420.

In one embodiment, method 1050 may include determining a location of the first item based on the first identification; and determining the at least one additional item based on the location of the first item.

In one embodiment, method 1050 may include sending information of the at least one additional item to the user device, the information including at least one of an identity or a location of the at least one additional item.

In one embodiment, the method 1050 may include sending cost information to the user device, the cost information including a cost corresponding to the first item and the at least one additional item.

In one embodiment, method 1050 may include receiving destination information from the user device; and sending navigation information associated with the destination to the user device.

In one embodiment, method 1050 may include receiving a second message from the user device, the second message transmitted if the power level of the user device is below a threshold; and stopping sending the navigation information to the user equipment and continuing sending the navigation information to the first object.

In one embodiment, method 1050 may include determining a mutual distance between the first and second objects based on their respective locations; and sending a third message to the user equipment when the mutual distance is larger than a threshold value, wherein the third message indicates that the mutual distance is larger than the threshold value.

In one embodiment, the method 1050 may include receiving a fourth message from the user device in response to sending the third message to the user device, the fourth message instructing the electronic device to send the navigation information to the second item; and sending the navigation information to the second object.

In one embodiment, method 1050 may include determining a mutual distance between the first and second objects based on their respective locations; and sending the navigation information to the second object when the mutual distance is larger than a threshold value.

In one embodiment, method 1050 may include, in response to receiving the first message, transmitting a scrambling sequence to the user equipment, the first item, and at least one additional item for use in communication by the user equipment, the first item, and the at least one additional item.

In one embodiment, method 1050 may include sending information about the proximity of the respective location to each item based on the respective location of the item, the information including advertising, news, and social media information.

In one embodiment, the electronic device communicates with at least one of the user equipment or items using an unlicensed frequency band.

Aspects of the present disclosure may take the form of an entirely hardware embodiment, an entirely software embodiment (including firmware, resident software, micro-code, etc.) or an embodiment combining software and hardware aspects all of which may be referred to herein generally as a "circuit," module "or" system. Any combination of one or more computer-readable storage media may be used. The computer readable storage medium may be a computer readable signal medium or a computer readable storage medium.

A computer readable storage medium may be, for example, but not limited to, an electronic, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic, infrared, or semiconductor system, apparatus, or device, or any suitable combination of the foregoing. More specific examples (a non-exhaustive list) of the computer readable storage medium would include the following: an electrical connection having one or more wires, a portable computer diskette, a hard disk, a Random Access Memory (RAM), a read-only memory (ROM), an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM or flash memory), an optical fiber, a portable compact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM), an optical storage device, a magnetic storage device, or any suitable combination of the foregoing. In the context of this document, a computer readable storage medium may be any tangible medium that can contain, or store a program for use by or in connection with an instruction execution system, apparatus, or device.

The present disclosure, in various embodiments, configurations, and aspects, includes components, methods, processes, systems and/or apparatus substantially as depicted and described herein, including various embodiments, subcombinations, and subsets thereof. Those of skill in the art will understand how to make and use the systems and methods disclosed herein after understanding the present disclosure. In various embodiments, configurations, and aspects, the disclosure includes providing apparatuses and processes in the absence of items not depicted and/or described herein or in various embodiments, configurations, or aspects hereof, including in the absence of items that may have been used in previous apparatuses or processes, e.g., for improving performance, achieving ease and/or reducing cost of implementation.

The aspects of the present disclosure may be implemented by the following example manner.

Clause 1, a user equipment comprising processing circuitry configured to:

obtaining a first identification of a first vehicle; and

a first message is sent to an electronic device for managing vehicles to request enablement of a first vehicle and at least one additional vehicle, wherein the first message includes a first identification of the first vehicle and a quantity or identification of the at least one additional vehicle.

Clause 2, the user equipment of clause 1, wherein the processing circuit is further configured to:

receiving information from the electronic device of the at least one additional vehicle, the information including at least one of an identification or a location of the at least one additional vehicle.

Clause 3, the user equipment of clause 1, wherein the processing circuit is further configured to:

receiving cost information from the electronic device, the cost information including costs corresponding to the first vehicle and the at least one additional vehicle.

Clause 4, the user equipment of clause 1, wherein the processing circuit is further configured to:

transmitting destination information to the electronic device;

receiving, from the electronic device, navigation information associated with the destination;

sending the navigation information to the first vehicle.

Clause 5, the user equipment of clause 4, wherein the processing circuit is further configured to:

sending a second message to the electronic device, the second message instructing the electronic device to send the navigation information to a first vehicle, if the power of the user device is lower than a threshold; and

ceasing to receive the navigation information from the electronic device.

Clause 6, the user device of clause 4, wherein the processing circuit is further configured to receive a third message from the electronic device indicating that a mutual distance between the first vehicle and the second vehicle is greater than a threshold, the processing circuit being further configured to, based on the mutual distance being greater than the threshold:

sending the navigation information to the second vehicle; or

Sending a fourth message to the electronic device, the fourth message instructing the electronic device to send the navigation information to the second vehicle.

Clause 7, the user equipment of any of clauses 1-6, wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to:

using a scrambling sequence to communicate with the first vehicle and/or the at least one additional vehicle, wherein the scrambling sequence is associated with an identity of a vehicle or the scrambling sequence is received from the electronic device in response to sending the first message to the electronic device.

Clause 8, the user equipment of any of clauses 1-6, wherein each vehicle comprises at least one of: bicycle, electric bicycle, scooter, car, aircraft.

Clause 9, the user device of any of clauses 1-6, wherein the user device communicates with the electronic device using an unlicensed frequency band, communicates with vehicles using a short-range communication technique or a near-field communication technique.

Clause 10, an electronic device for managing a vehicle, comprising processing circuitry configured to:

receiving a first message from a user device, wherein the first message includes a first identification of a first vehicle to be enabled by the user device and a number or identification of at least one additional vehicle to be enabled by the user device.

Clause 11, the electronic device of clause 10, wherein the processing circuit is further configured to:

determining a location of the first vehicle based on the first identification; and

determining the at least one additional vehicle based on the location of the first vehicle.

Clause 12, the electronic device of clause 11, wherein the processing circuit is further configured to:

sending information of the at least one additional vehicle to the user device, the information including at least one of an identification or a location of the at least one additional vehicle.

Clause 13, the electronic device of clause 12, wherein the processing circuit is further configured to:

sending cost information to the user device, the cost information including costs corresponding to the first vehicle and the at least one additional vehicle.

Clause 14, the electronic device of clause 11, wherein the processing circuit is further configured to:

receiving destination information from the user equipment; and

sending navigation information associated with the destination to the user device.

Clause 15, the electronic device of clause 14, wherein the processing circuit is further configured to:

receiving a second message from the user equipment, wherein the second message is sent when the power of the user equipment is lower than a threshold value; and

ceasing transmission of the navigation information to the user device and continuing transmission of the navigation information to the first vehicle.

Clause 16, the electronic device of clause 11, wherein the processing circuit is further configured to:

determining a mutual distance between the first vehicle and a second vehicle based on their respective positions;

and sending a third message to the user equipment when the mutual distance is larger than a threshold value, wherein the third message indicates that the mutual distance is larger than the threshold value.

Clause 17, the electronic device of clause 16, wherein the processing circuit is further configured to:

in response to sending the third message to the user device, receiving a fourth message from the user device, the fourth message instructing the electronic device to send the navigation information to a second vehicle; and

sending the navigation information to the second vehicle.

Clause 18, the electronic device of clause 11, wherein the processing circuit is further configured to:

sending the navigation information to the second vehicle if the mutual distance is greater than a threshold.

Clause 19, the electronic device of any of clauses 10-18, wherein the processing circuit is further configured to:

in response to receiving the first message, transmitting a scrambling sequence to the user equipment, the first vehicle, and at least one additional vehicle for use in communication by the user equipment, the first vehicle, and the at least one additional vehicle.

Clause 20, the electronic device of any of clauses 10-18, wherein each vehicle comprises at least one of: bicycle, electric bicycle, scooter, car, aircraft.

Clause 21, the electronic device of any of clauses 10-18, wherein the processing circuit is further configured to:

information about the vicinity of the respective location is sent to each vehicle based on the respective location of each vehicle, the information including advertising, news, and social media information.

Clause 22, the electronic device of any of clauses 10-18, wherein the electronic device communicates with at least one of the user device or the vehicles using an unlicensed frequency band.

Clause 23, a vehicle for being enabled by the user device of any of clauses 1-9 and managed by the electronic device of any of clauses 10-22, the vehicle comprising a vehicle-side electronic device comprising:

processing circuitry mounted on and associated with the vehicle;

a navigation device mounted on the vehicle;

wherein the processing circuitry is configured to visually present navigation instructions or navigation information through the navigation device.

Clause 24, the vehicle of clause 23, wherein the navigation device comprises a plurality of sets of light emitting devices, each of the plurality of sets of light emitting devices corresponding to a navigation instruction.

Clause 25, the vehicle of clause 23, wherein the navigation device comprises a projector and a projection screen, the projector configured to project the navigation instructions or navigation information on the projection screen.

Clause 26, the vehicle of clause 23, wherein the navigation apparatus comprises an AR or VR device configured to present the navigation information, advertisements, news, and social media information.

Clause 27, the vehicle of clause 23, wherein the processing circuit is configured to receive the navigation information from the electronic device, the user device, or another vehicle.

Clause 28, the vehicle of clause 23, wherein the processing circuit is further configured to:

using the scrambling sequence to communicate with the user equipment and/or at least one additional vehicle, wherein the scrambling sequence is associated with an identity of a vehicle or the scrambling sequence is received from the electronic device.

The vehicle of clause 29, the clause 23, wherein the processing circuit is further configured to receive wireless power from a base station operating in an unlicensed frequency band to charge the vehicle.

Clause 30, the vehicle of any one of clauses 23-29, wherein the vehicle comprises at least one of: bicycle, electric bicycle, scooter, car, aircraft.

Clause 31, the vehicle of any one of clauses 23-29, wherein the vehicle communicates with the user device using a short-range communication technique or a near-field communication technique, and communicates with the electronic device using an unlicensed frequency band.

Clause 32, a method for controlling an article, comprising, by a user device:

obtaining a first identification of a first object; and

a first message is sent to an electronic device for managing items requesting enablement of a first item and at least one additional item, wherein the first message includes a first identification of the first item and a quantity or identification of the at least one additional item.

Clause 33, a method for controlling an article, comprising, by an electronic device:

receiving a first message from a user device, wherein the first message includes a first identification of a first item to be enabled by the user device and a quantity or identification of at least one additional item to be enabled by the user device.

Clause 34, the method of clause 33, further comprising, by the electronic device:

determining a location of the first object based on the first identification; and

determining the at least one additional item based on the location of the first item.

Clause 35, a computer-readable storage medium storing one or more instructions that, when executed by one or more processors of an electronic device, cause the electronic device to perform the method of any of clauses 32-34.

Clause 36, an apparatus for controlling an article, comprising means for performing the method of any of clauses 32-34.

Clause 37, a user equipment comprising processing circuitry configured to:

obtaining a first identification of a first object; and

Clause 38, an electronic device for managing objects, comprising processing circuitry configured to:

Clause 39, an article for enablement by a user device as recited in clause 37 and for management by an electronic device as recited in clause 38.

Moreover, although the description of the present disclosure has included description of one or more embodiments, configurations, or aspects, certain variations and modifications, other variations, combinations, and modifications are within the scope of the disclosure, e.g., as may be within the skill and knowledge of those in the art, after understanding the present disclosure. The present disclosure is intended to obtain rights which include alternative embodiments, configurations, or aspects to the extent permitted, including alternate, interchangeable and/or equivalent structures, functions, ranges or steps to those claimed, whether or not such alternate, interchangeable and/or equivalent structures, functions, ranges or steps are specifically set forth herein. Nothing herein is intended to publicly dedicate any patentable technical solution.

Claims

1. A user equipment comprising processing circuitry configured to:

obtaining a first identification of a first vehicle; and

2. The user equipment of claim 1, wherein the processing circuit is further configured to:

3. The user equipment of claim 1, wherein the processing circuit is further configured to:

4. The user equipment of claim 1, wherein the processing circuit is further configured to:

transmitting destination information to the electronic device;

sending the navigation information to the first vehicle.

5. The user equipment of claim 4, wherein the processing circuit is further configured to:

ceasing to receive the navigation information from the electronic device.

6. The user device of claim 4, wherein the processing circuit is further configured to receive a third message from the electronic device indicating that a mutual distance between the first vehicle and the second vehicle is greater than a threshold, the processing circuit being further configured to, based on the mutual distance being greater than the threshold:

sending the navigation information to the second vehicle; or

7. The user equipment of any of claims 1-6, wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to:

8. The user equipment of any one of claims 1 to 6, wherein each vehicle comprises at least one of: bicycle, electric bicycle, scooter, car, aircraft.

9. The user device of any of claims 1-6, wherein the user device communicates with the electronic device using an unlicensed frequency band, communicates with vehicles using a short-range communication technique or a near-field communication technique.

10. An electronic device for managing a vehicle, comprising processing circuitry configured to: