Device and method for automatically monitoring tire pressure in a vehicle and method for displaying information about vehicle tire inflation

1. A method for monitoring tire pressure in a tire of a vehicle, the method comprising:

storing, in a memory, empirically determined families of characteristics that describe temperature in the tire as a function of a series of parameters, wherein the series of parameters comprise: environmental conditions outside the vehicle; driving conditions; and material properties of the tire;

receiving, at an engine control unit, input variables comprising: a current actual value of tire pressure in the tire, and values for each of the series of the parameters;

accessing, at the engine control unit, the empirically determined families of characteristics from the memory; and

indirectly determining, at the engine control unit, an actual temperature in the tire from the values for each of the series of parameters based on the empirically determined families of characteristics that are accessed from memory.

2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the step of indirectly determining comprises:

indirectly determining, at the engine control unit without using an input from a temperature sensor disposed in the tire, the actual temperature in the tire from the values for each of the series of parameters based on the empirically determined families of characteristics accessed from the memory.

3. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the environmental conditions outside the vehicle comprise:

an outside temperature, and wherein a value of the outside temperature is obtained from a temperature sensor that is external to the tire.

4. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the material parameters comprise at least one of:

tire size; and

tire type.

5. The method according to claim 3 , wherein the environmental conditions further comprise:

weather data obtained from at least one of a rain sensor or a sun sensor.

6. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the driving conditions comprise at least one of:

a speed profile for the vehicle;

an acceleration profile for the vehicle; and

a steering profile for the vehicle.

7. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the series of parameters further comprise:

a weight load of the vehicle.

8. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the driving conditions further comprise:

a time elapsed since the vehicle was last driven.

9. A device for automatically monitoring a tire pressure in a vehicle, comprising:

a memory configured to store empirically determined families of characteristics that describe temperature in the tire as a function of a series of parameters, wherein the series of parameters comprise: environmental conditions outside the vehicle; driving conditions; and material properties of the tire;

a sensor configured to determine the tire pressure;

an engine control unit configured to:

access the empirically determined families of characteristics from the memory;

receive input variables comprising: a current actual value of the tire pressure from the sensor, and values for each of the series of the parameters; and

determine an actual temperature in the tire from the values for each of the series of parameters based on the empirically determined families of characteristics that are accessed from the memory.

10. The device according to claim 9 , wherein the engine control unit is configured to indirectly determine, without using an input from a temperature sensor disposed in the tire, the actual temperature in the tire from the values for each of the series of parameters based on the empirically determined families of characteristics accessed from the memory.

11. The device according to claim 9 , wherein the environmental conditions outside the vehicle comprise:

an outside temperature.

12. The device according to claim 9 , wherein the material parameters comprise:

tire size; and

tire type.

13. A non-transitory computer readable medium embodying a computer program product for programming an engine control unit of a vehicle to perform a method, the method comprising:

monitoring tire pressure, wherein monitoring tire pressure comprises:

receiving, at the engine control unit, input variables comprising: a current actual value of tire pressure in a tire of the vehicle, and values for each of a series of parameters comprising environmental conditions outside the vehicle, driving conditions, and material properties of the tire;

accessing, at the engine control unit, empirically determined families of characteristics stored in a memory, wherein empirically determined families of characteristics describe temperature in the tire as a function of the series of parameters; and

indirectly determining, at the engine control unit based on the values for each of the series of parameters and the empirically determined families of characteristics accessed from the memory an actual temperature in the tire.

14. The method according to claim 13 , wherein the driving conditions comprise at least one of:

a speed profile for the vehicle obtained from a speed sensor that senses the speed of the tire;

an acceleration profile for the vehicle; and

a steering profile for the vehicle.

15. The method according to claim 13 , wherein the series of parameters further comprise:

a weight load of the vehicle.