Data processing: vehicles – navigation – and relative location – Navigation – Employing position determining equipment
Reexamination Certificate
2001-03-16
2002-11-19
Cuchlinski, Jr., William A. (Department: 3661)
Data processing: vehicles, navigation, and relative location
Navigation
Employing position determining equipment
C701S214000, C701S216000, C455S427000, C455S456500, C342S450000, C342S378000, C342S357490
Reexamination Certificate
active
06484096
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The invention generally relates to monitoring a vehicle using an in-vehicle navigation and communication system.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
The ability to monitor in real time the location of a vehicle has many applications. For example, a stolen vehicle can be easily recovered if it is equipped with a device that reports its location. As another example, a police squad car or an ambulance can be directed to crime scene or an accident easily without requiring the driver to provide constant updates of his or her position to the dispatcher. The location of a moving vehicle can be obtained based on position information from the global positioning system (GPS) satellites. However, receiving GPS positioning information requires that the receiver is has unobstructed line-of-sight view to a GPS satellite. Such a view may not be available when the vehicle's view to the satellite is unobstructed by surrounding tall buildings. Accordingly, a system which can overcome this problem to report adequately accurate positioning information is valuable in a vehicle monitoring system operating in a city.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention provides a positioning unit (“mobile unit”), which includes a GPS receiver for positioning the moving vehicle. Furthermore, the mobile unit is equipped with a wireless communication capability, including internet access, using a cellular telephony communication protocol, such as GSM, CDPD, and CDMA. Where surrounding buildings obstruct the GPS receiver, the mobile unit uses a “dead reckoning” (DR) technique to provide positioning information. In one embodiment, a gyroscope and a digital compass are provided in the mobile unit to provide this DR capability.
The present invention can be used in conjunction with a vehicle monitoring system linked to a wide area network. In one embodiment, a monitoring station in the vehicle monitoring system communicates with the mobile unit over a wireless communication link. Such a vehicle monitoring system can hierarchically structured, so that local monitoring stations (“base stations”) can be provided to cover different vicinities in the service area of the vehicle monitoring system. These local monitoring stations are coordinated by a central monitoring station.
According to the present invention, a mobile unit which communicates with a control center of a vehicle monitoring system includes: (a) an interface to a GPS receiver for receiving from the GPS receiver a first set of position information; (b) an interface to a dead reckoning device for receiving from the dead reckoning device a second set of position information; (c) a signal processing unit selecting between the first and second sets of position information; (d) a communication interface for communicating with the control center; and (e) a control unit that controls the signal processing unit and the communication interface. In that embodiment, the control unit retrieves from the signal processing unit the selected set of position information and provides the selected set of position information to the control center over the communication interface. The control unit further includes a storage device for accumulating said selected position information. In typical operation, when the GPS receiver has unobstructed access to a GPS satellite, the mobile unit selects the GPS position information over the position information from the dead reckoning device. In one embodiment, the dead reckoning device receives signals from a digital compass.
In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, the GPS receiver interfaced to the mobile unit includes a novel antenna cable that is designed to prevent unauthorized tempering of the GPS receiver. In one embodiment, the antenna cable includes: (a) a first conductor for providing a DC voltage to a first terminal of the antenna; (b) a second conductor for providing a ground reference to a second terminal of the antenna; and (c) a third conductor having a first end coupled to the second conductor to form a ground loop and a second end that can be made available for connection to a continuity sensing circuit. In one implementation, the third conductor has less than 2.5 ohms of impedance as seen from said second end. When the continuity sensing circuit detects an open circuit in the ground loop (e.g., the antenna cable is cut to prevent reception of GPS signals), an alarm signal is raised. The mobile unit can report the alarm condition to the control center, which can then take appropriate measures.
The present invention provides, in a vehicle monitoring system, a method for reporting position data from a mobile unit in a data packet. In that method, the mobile unit first receives from the control center a request to send a specified number of positions over a specified time interval. In response, the mobile unit acquires the number of positions from a positioning device (e.g., GPS) in the mobile unit over the specified interval, while accumulating the acquired positions in a storage device. The mobile station reports the accumulated positions in the data packet whenever the unreported acquired positions would require a report reaching a predetermined data size. Typically, the predetermined data size represents filling up the full length of data packet as much as possible. One embodiment uses an SMS data packet in a GSM/PSC communication system. Under SMS, data packet positions are reported in text mode or data mode. In addition to requesting multiple positions, the control center can also request for a single position, which is reported immediately.
The present invention has applications in transportation administration, in-road entertainment, road guidance, and theft prevention.
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Tsoi Leo S. C.
Wong Carlos C. H.
Angeli Michael de
Cuchlinski Jr. William A.
Satellite Devices Limited
To Tuan C
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