System, method and apparatus for mobile fob or key bridge, versatile smart key, and smart device interface

A method of controlling a set of features associated with a target vehicle, the method comprising the steps of:

• providing a Bridge disposed in a target vehicle;
• wirelessly pairing the Bridge with a hand-held smart device and operated by a user for controlling the set of features associated with the target vehicle;
• communicating, via a vehicle communications interface associated with the Bridge, with one or more vehicle communications systems;
• performing, via a transceiver associated with the Bridge, ranging operations in cooperation with the wirelessly-paired hand-held smart device;
• processing, by the Bridge, BLE operations and communications with BLE-enabled functions of the wirelessly-paired hand-held smart device;
• performing, by the Bridge, vehicle-specific operations in connection with the transceiver or the BLE-enabled functions or both the transceiver and the BLE-enabled functions;
• storing, by one or more memory components associated with the Bridge, data and/or instructions related to one or more of pairing, behavior selecting, behaviors, bootloading, or calibrating processes;
• selecting, via a mobile application running on the hand-held smart device, a pairing process for pairing the Bridge with the target vehicle;
• entering via the mobile application one or both of a) data representing a make model and year (MMY) of the target vehicle, and b) a VIN (vehicle identification number) of the target vehicle;
• communicatively coupling the Bridge with a vehicle communications system based in part on the MMY or VIN data;
• and
• following prompts presented on the mobile application to communicate with the vehicle communications system to send commands and respond to security access challenges.

A method of controlling a set of features associated with a target vehicle, the method comprising the steps of:

• providing a Bridge disposed in the target vehicle;
• wirelessly pairing the Bridge with a hand-held smart device and operated by a user for controlling a set of features associated with the target vehicle;
• communicating, via a vehicle communications interface associated with the Bridge, with one or more vehicle communications systems;
• performing, via a transceiver associated with the Bridge, ranging operations in cooperation with the wirelessly-paired hand-held smart device;
• processing, by the Bridge, BLE operations and communications with BLE-enabled functions of the wirelessly-paired hand-held smart device;
• performing, by the Bridge, vehicle-specific operations in connection with the transceiver or the BLE-enabled functions or both the transceiver and the BLE-enabled functions;
• storing, by one or more memory components associated with the Bridge, data and/or instructions related to one or more of pairing, behavior selecting, behaviors, bootloading, or calibrating processes;
• prompting, by mobile application operating on the hand-held smart device, a user to position the wirelessly-paired hand-held smart device to a set of defined locations in and around the target vehicle;
• at each defined location, generating a signal representing location data and communicating the location data to the Bridge;
• and
• generating, by an algorithm associated with the mobile application, a set of location vectors;
• and creating and storing a calibration profile for allowing the Bridge to locate the hand-held smart device in a three-dimensional space associated with the target vehicle.