Telecommunications – Radiotelephone system – Emergency or alarm communication
Reexamination Certificate
1999-03-26
2001-11-27
Trost, William (Department: 2683)
Telecommunications
Radiotelephone system
Emergency or alarm communication
C455S099000, C340S436000, C340S438000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06324393
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to the field of emergency radio transmitters and more particularly to emergency transmitters that are automatically activated in case of an accident.
Air and ground transport vehicles frequently have accidents in remote areas. Often the occurrence of the accident is not known and the location may be hidden from view. When such incidents happen, and the proper agencies notified, search and rescue teams may be mobilized. Often the teams must first search over wide areas in order to locate the damaged vehicle and its occupants. This search and rescue process takes considerable time and as a result the chances of saving lives are greatly reduced.
Of course two way microwave radios or cellular phones may fulfill the function of accident notification but only if the persons involved in the accident possess such devices and are sufficiently alert and knowledgeable to provide required location information, and the vehicle is not in a location that precludes line-of-sight communication. This presupposes the ability for signals from the devices reaching a suitable receiver or repeater station in order to alert a known rescue function, which must then have sufficient information to search in close proximity to the accident location. While they may or may not be suitable, two way radios and cell phones, and cell phone systems such as GM's “On-Star” or Ford's “Rescu”, are expensive and inefficient ways of accomplishing the goal of remote accident notification. For example the Mayday Operational Test Report
1
supported by Federal Highway Funding shows only 80% data connection rate using cell phones.
1
Castle Rock Consultants, October 1997, p. 30, Table 51
What is needed to help save lives, is an emergency locating transmitter that is automatically activated in case of an accident and that generates a rescue signal that is broadcast to multiple rescue resources with an infallible assurance of a rescue result. Development of a system which can broadcast such a locating signal in case of an accident even without the need of a live voice to send a message relative to the identification and location of the vehicle represents a great improvement in the field of transportation safety communication and satisfies a long felt need of security agencies and the traveling public.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention, Auto Locating Emergency Rescue Transmitter (ALERT), is an automatic, impact or manually initiated, emergency signal generator that broadcasts a radio frequency (rf) signal for guiding rescuers to the location of a distressed automobile, aircraft or other vehicle that may also be outside of anyone's cognizance. Manual initiation is included in order to test the invention and to provide an alternate means for initiation in an emergency in case the impact is insufficient for initiation or the impact initiation does not work for some reason. The preferred embodiment includes an additional amplifier/modulator with a pre-recorded voice and tone-coded message that may be installed in or provided as an adjunct to the vehicle's existing radio. To use this embodiment, rescuers may determine the location of the distressed vehicle by standard rf signal tracking techniques.
However, using recently available technologies, an enhanced alternate embodiment provides map grid co-ordinates to rescuers via a link to the Global Positioning Satellite (GPS) System. In either embodiment activation of the system is accomplished via an inertia switch in the vehicle, which, in later model automobiles is already present to activate the air bag. This switch may be linked to the ALERT system in parallel and thus redundant to the inertia switch, that can also be manually initiated, which is included in ALERT.
The main objectives of the preferred embodiment of the present invention are: 1) automatic, redundant activation when an accident occurs; 2) manual activation for test and alternate initiation purposes; 3)automatic generation of a distress signal upon activation that is redundant and assured; 4) communication equipment that operates at sufficiently low AM frequency to assure reception that will be received by all radios operating at any AM frequency within several miles; 5) communication equipment that is added to or built in to existing radio equipment carried in the vehicle; 6) provision of a wide range of frequency reception AM band, interference type trace signal; and 7) provision of periodic, repeating pre-recorded rescue plea and vehicle identification information. It is the additional objectives of the alternate and more costly embodiment of the present invention to provide: 8) map co-ordinate information via the GPS system.
An appreciation of the other aims and objectives of the present invention and an understanding of it may be achieved by referring to following description of the preferred embodiments of the ALERT system.
REFERENCES:
patent: Re. 35920 (1998-10-01), Sorden et al.
patent: 4630289 (1986-12-01), Wren
patent: 4777658 (1988-10-01), Wren
patent: 4888595 (1989-12-01), Friedman
patent: 5193215 (1993-03-01), Olmer
patent: 5554993 (1996-09-01), Brickell
patent: 5705980 (1998-01-01), Shapiro
patent: 5729205 (1998-03-01), Kwon
patent: 5898369 (1999-04-01), Godwin
patent: 5905461 (1999-05-01), Neher
patent: 5914675 (1999-06-01), Tognazzini
patent: 5982322 (1999-11-01), Bickley et al.
Townsley Norton R.
Tran Congvan
Trost William
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