Communications: electrical – Land vehicle alarms or indicators – Of burglary or unauthorized use
Reexamination Certificate
2001-01-12
2001-10-16
Hofsass, Jeffery (Department: 2632)
Communications: electrical
Land vehicle alarms or indicators
Of burglary or unauthorized use
C340S428000, C340S439000, C340S635000, C340S636210, C340S933000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06304171
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an emergency call system with a battery switching function in which various functions such as protection of vehicle-members, prevention of the occurrence of vehicle-theft and a function for informing a legal user or a prescribed administrative agency of a present state of a vehicle when the vehicle is stolen are correctly operated in severe circumstances.
2. Description of Related Art
For example, to protect members of a vehicle when an accident of the vehicle happens, a member protecting apparatus, in which air bags are operated according to the detection of the vehicle accident, is known as a prior art. Also, to prevent the occurrence of vehicle-theft when an illegal user tries to start the operation of an engine by inserting a key into a vehicle, a vehicle-theft preventing apparatus is known as another prior art. In this vehicle-theft preventing apparatus, a password of a legal key registered in advance is compared with that of the key possessed by the illegal user. In cases where a comparison result indicates that the operation of the engine is started by using an illegal key, it is judged that the vehicle is about to be stolen. Therefore, an alarm is rang by the operation of the vehicle-theft preventing apparatus, or the operation of the engine is automatically stopped by the operation of the vehicle-theft preventing apparatus while turning a lamp on and off.
The member protecting apparatus and/or the vehicle-theft preventing apparatus are arranged in the vehicle and are operated by receiving a prescribed voltage of an electric power supplied from a battery. This battery is arranged in the vehicle to apply the prescribed voltage to the member protecting apparatus and the vehicle-theft preventing apparatus, and the apparatuses are stably operated.
However, in cases where the prescribed voltage of the battery, which is put in severe circumstances is lowered to a value lower than a pre-set voltage, there is a problem that each of the member protecting apparatus and the vehicle-theft preventing apparatus cannot be correctly operated.
Also, in cases where an electric power supply line, which is required to operate the member protecting apparatus in vehicle collision, is cut off, there is another problem that each air bag is not correctly operated.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention is provided to solve the above problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide an emergency call system with a battery switching function which is always and correctly operable even though the emergency call system is put in severe circumstances.
An emergency call system with the battery switching function according to the present invention comprises an auxiliary battery; an external input interface unit for inputting a switch signal supplied from an outside to control an operation of the emergency call system; a vehicle interface unit for inputting control signals such as a vehicle speed pulse indicating a running speed of a vehicle, a signal indicating a state of an accessory switch and an air bag detecting signal through a sensor and the accessory switch arranged in the vehicle; and an arithmetic calculation control unit, which is connected with the vehicle interface unit, the auxiliary battery and the external input interface unit, for controlling operations of the vehicle interface unit, the auxiliary battery and the external input interface unit composing the emergency call system. A battery voltage supplied from a battery arranged in the vehicle, an ACC voltage generated and supplied during a driving operation of an engine and a voltage of the auxiliary battery are always monitored by the arithmetic calculation control unit. In a first case where the battery voltage and the ACC voltage are equal to or more than a prescribed value during the driving operation of the engine in case of no emergency, the arithmetic calculation control unit switches to the battery voltage and the ACC voltage to make the emergency call system be operated. In a second case where the battery voltage is equal to or more than a prescribed value during an operation stopping of the engine in case of no emergency, the arithmetic calculation control unit switches to the battery voltage to make the emergency call system be operated. In the other cases, the arithmetic calculation control unit makes the emergency call system be operated by using the auxiliary battery.
An emergency call system with the battery switching function according to the present invention further comprises a change-over switch arranged between the battery and the auxiliary battery, and the auxiliary battery is a secondary battery. In the first case where the battery voltage and the ACC voltage are equal to or more than a prescribed value during the driving operation of the engine in case of no emergency and in cases where the arithmetic calculation control unit switches to the battery voltage and the ACC voltage to make the emergency call system be operated, the arithmetic calculation control unit makes the change-over switch be set to “on” to charge the auxiliary battery with the battery voltage.
An emergency call system with the battery switching function according to the present invention further comprises a displaying unit for displaying a state of the emergency call system, and the auxiliary battery is a primary battery. In cases where a voltage of the primary battery is lowered to a value lower than a pre-set value, the arithmetic calculation control unit makes the displaying unit display a message indicating the switching of the primary battery.
An emergency call system with the battery switching function according to the present invention further comprises a GPS reception and gyro sensor unit for detecting a current position of the vehicle; and a data transmitting unit for outputting information indicating a current position of the vehicle to a help center of an outside or a portable telephone of an owner of the vehicle and inputting and outputting a control signal output from the help center or the portable telephone of the owner of the vehicle.
REFERENCES:
patent: 5002840 (1991-03-01), Klebenow et al.
patent: 5204610 (1993-04-01), Pierson et al.
patent: 5272386 (1993-12-01), Kephart
patent: 5549984 (1996-08-01), Dougherty
patent: 8-192723 (1996-07-01), None
Hofsass Jeffery
Mitsubishi Denki & Kabushiki Kaisha
Nguyen Hung
Sughrue Mion Zinn Macpeak & Seas, PLLC
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