Claims
- 1. A vehicle computer system comprising:
a housing of a size suitable to be mounted in a vehicle dashboard; a computer mounted within the housing; an open platform operating system executing on the computer; and multiple vehicle-related applications executing on the operating system to control operation of components in the vehicle.
- 2. A vehicle computer system as recited in claim 1 wherein the housing has a form factor of a single DIN.
- 3. A vehicle computer system as recited in claim 1 wherein the vehicle-related applications are selected from a group comprising a navigational application, a communications application, a vehicle security application, and a vehicle diagnostics application.
- 4. A vehicle computer system as recited in claim 1 further comprising one or more non-vehicle-related applications executing on the operating system.
- 5. A vehicle computer system as recited in claim 4 wherein the non-vehicle-related applications are selected from a group comprising an entertainment application, a word processing application, a spreadsheet application, a database application, and an appointment/schedule application.
- 6. A vehicle computer system as recited in claim 1 further comprising a storage drive to load individual applications from a storage medium onto the computer.
- 7. A vehicle computer system as recited in claim 1 further comprising an Internet wireless link to download individual applications to the computer.
- 8. A computer network system for an automobile, comprising:
a network; at least one client computing device connected to the network; and the vehicle computer as recited in claim 1 connected to the network to serve content to the client computing device.
- 9. A vehicle computer system comprising:
a support module having a bus; a computer module connected to the bus, the computer module having a processor; a faceplate module connected to the bus; multiple applications stored on the computer module and executed by the processor.
- 10. A vehicle computer system as recited in claim 9 wherein the applications comprise vehicle-related applications.
- 11. A vehicle computer system as recited in claim 9 wherein the applications comprise both vehicle-related applications and non-vehicle-related applications.
- 12. A vehicle computer system as recited in claim 9 further comprising a multitasking operating system stored and executed on the computer module.
- 13. A vehicle computer system as recited in claim 9 wherein the applications are selected from a group comprising a navigational application, an entertainment application, a communications application, a vehicle security application, a vehicle diagnostics application, a word processing application, a spreadsheet application, a database application, and an appointment/schedule application.
- 14. A vehicle computer system as recited in claim 9 wherein the support module has a form factor of a single DIN.
- 15. A computer network system for an automobile, comprising:
a network; at least one client computing device connected to the network; and the vehicle computer as recited in claim 9 connected to the network to serve content to the client computing device.
- 16. A vehicle computer system comprising:
a computer; an open platform operating system executing on the computer; and multiple applications executing on the operating system, the multiple applications including at least one vehicle-related application and at least one non-vehicle related application.
- 17. A vehicle computer system as recited in claim 16 further comprising a storage drive to load individual applications from a storage medium onto the computer.
- 18. A vehicle computer system as recited in claim 16 further comprising an Internet wireless link to download individual applications to the computer.
- 19. A vehicle computer system as recited in claim 16 wherein the applications are selected from a group comprising a navigational application, an entertainment application, a communications application, a vehicle security application, a vehicle diagnostics application, a word processing application, a spreadsheet application, a database application, and an appointment/schedule application.
- 20. A computer network system for an automobile, comprising:
a network; at least one client computing device connected to the network; and the vehicle computer as recited in claim 16 connected to the network to serve content to the client computing device.
REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
1. This is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/668,781, filed Jun. 24, 1996, which is a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/564,586, filed Nov. 29, 1995, which issued as U.S. Pat. No. 5,794,164, on Aug. 11, 1998.
Continuations (2)
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Number |
Date |
Country |
Parent |
09394360 |
Sep 1999 |
US |
Child |
09736531 |
Dec 2000 |
US |
Parent |
08668781 |
Jun 1996 |
US |
Child |
09394360 |
Sep 1999 |
US |
Continuation in Parts (1)
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Number |
Date |
Country |
Parent |
08564586 |
Nov 1995 |
US |
Child |
08668781 |
Jun 1996 |
US |