Communications: electrical – Vehicle position indication
Reexamination Certificate
1999-06-11
2001-08-28
Swarthout, Brent A. (Department: 2632)
Communications: electrical
Vehicle position indication
C340S539230, C342S457000, C701S300000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06281811
ABSTRACT:
PROSECUTION HISTORY
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates systems for personal location and communication, and more specifically, to systems providing means for a person to locate himself in areas such as parks, malls, business districts, or the like, and to further locate resources of interest within that area.
2. Description Relative to the Prior Art
Modern society provides a variety of extended areas with a multiplicity of resources. Examples of these are theme parks, Malls, business districts, college campuses, museums, and shopping areas are a few examples. In such areas, visitors must identify and locate resources of interest to them.
In a shopping mall, for example, visitors often have specific products of interest in mind, either to purchase, or to examine. Malls assist shoppers in locating stores selling these products by providing maps at various locations within the mall. These maps are helpful, but do not generally give very much detail about the products sold within the store, except in a very general way.
Museums often augment maps of exhibits with audio programs which can be purchased in the form of audio tape players, including headsets or earphones so that the program is heard only by a single user, who can regulate the program to fit his/her needs.
The present invention further develops the concepts of location and information to provide interaction between the visitor and the resources, enabling the visitor to more easily locate the resources desired, but to retrieve specific information of interest regarding the resource.
As an example, the visitor to a shopping mall may not only want to know what shoe stores are present within the mall, but what kind of shoes they have, what price ranges are available, etc. In the case of theme parks, the visitor may be informed of the location of a ride, as well as the waiting time at the particular ride.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is the general object of this invention to provide a system for assisting persons at shopping malls, theme parks, and the like to locate specific areas of interest, and to receive information regarding these specific areas of interest. It is a further general object of this invention to provide such a system which is lightweight, unobtrusive to carry and use, and easy to use. It is a specific object of this invention to provide such a system by means of infra-red locating systems, in conjunction with radio-frequency communication systems, operating through a computer system.
According to one aspect of the invention, a personal location and communication system is intended for locating a person within an area containing resources, for communicating the person's specific interests to the system, and for communicating information regarding the resources related to said interests to the person. The system includes computation means to store a database of interests, of resources related to said interests, and of the geographic locations of said resources. It further includes means for geographically locating the person to an accuracy of several feet; designation means for communication a specific interest from the person to the system, computation means for storing said specific interest and person's location, distance-determination computation means to determine distances from the person to each resource related to said specific interest, and directions allowing the person to reach each resource. In addition, it includes transmission means for communicating to the person. These transmission means further includes, for each resource related to said specific interest, the resource location, characteristics of the resource related to the specific interest, and the direction for reaching the resource.
According to a second aspect of the invention, the means for locating the person further includes a multiplicity of point-to-point sensors, one of which is located in proximity to each resource, and a point-to-point emitter attached to the person.
According to a third aspect of the invention, the emitters are infra-red emitters, and the sensors are infra-red sensors.
According to a fourth aspect of the invention, the emitter further includes means for generating and emitting a unique code uniquely identifying the person within the area, and the sensors further comprise means for sensing said unique code.
According to a fifth aspect of the invention, the transmission and reception means for communication further include radio-frequency means.
According to a sixth aspect of the invention, the means for communication further includes unique identification means for identifying the person for whom the communication is intended, and from whom the communication originates.
According to a seventh aspect of the invention, the means for designation further includes microphone means, voice recognition means, keyword means, and computation means.
According to a eighth aspect of the invention, the distance-determination means further comprises a history database including, for each person, a multiplicity of records, each of which further includes a time and date, and the location of the person at that time and date.
According to a ninth aspect of the invention, the distance-determination means further includes extrapolation means to determine the current position of the person based on the history database.
REFERENCES:
patent: 5014206 (1991-05-01), Scribner et al.
patent: 5579535 (1996-11-01), Orlen et al.
patent: 5948040 (1999-09-01), DeLorme et al.
patent: 6064323 (2000-05-01), Ishii et al.
patent: 6091956 (2000-07-01), Hollenberg
Swarthout Brent A.
White Mark P.
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