Communications: electrical – Land vehicle alarms or indicators – Of burglary or unauthorized use
Reexamination Certificate
2000-03-13
2001-05-15
Pope, Daryl (Department: 2632)
Communications: electrical
Land vehicle alarms or indicators
Of burglary or unauthorized use
Reexamination Certificate
active
06232874
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to imposition or restrictions on or control of use, or inappropriate use, of a vehicle by a vehicle operator, in a manner that minimizes the possibility of evasion by a (restricted) operator.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Certain vehicle operators (“restricted operators” or “ROs”) have their vehicle use privileges restricted from time to time. These vehicle use restrictions may arise because of one or more recent convictions of the operator for driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs, because of recent physical, mental or emotional impairment or the advanced age of the operator, or because of other similar reasons. Other restrictions may be applied to any driver of a vehicle that transports hazardous materials or that school children or groups of persons with special health or safety problems. Under appropriate circumstances, a court or other regulatory agency will often allow the restricted operator to use his/her vehicle only for transportation between the driver's residence and the driver's place of work, physician/pharmacy office or similar destination, and only in restricted time intervals. One problem here is how to monitor the restricted operator's use of the vehicle to confirm that the vehicle is being used only within a permitted corridor and/or only within a permitted time interval, when used by that person.
In other applications, access to a vehicle may be restricted to a limited set of vehicle operators. Use of a personalized and unspoofable method of providing access, which goes beyond mere possession of an ignition key, may be desirable. For example, limiting access to a specified vehicle in a fleet of vehicles may be desired, such as access to a particular rental vehicle by an identified person who has rented that vehicle.
Several workers have disclosed methods for tracking the location of a person as that person moves around within a confinement region. One solution of the site confine tracking problem contemplated by some of these previous workers is to bind a GPS antenna/receiver and a cellular or other signal transmitter to the site confinee's body (1) to confine the site confinee to the confinement site during normal times by GPS-assisted location monitoring, and (2) to reprogram the boundary of the confinement site (stored in memory) to include the designated site and a narrow corridor or path between the confinement site and the designated site, within a selected time interval, to allow the site corfinee to move to the designated site and back to the confinement site, again using GPS signals to monitor the confinee's present location.
This approach, although straightforward, does not by itself provide tracking of vehicle location (only) during the times the restricted operator uses the vehicle and does not prevent the restricted operator from spoofing the system to cause the system to conclude that the vehicle is within a permitted corridor, when in fact the vehicle is elsewhere. Further, it may be desired to restrict use of a vehicle to a selected region, whether or not the vehicle is operated by an RO.
Receipt and analysis of a biometric sample supplied by a person to verify the asserted identity of that person is disclosed in several U.S. Patents. These patents usually contemplate determination of that person's identity once and at a fixed place of receipt of the sample.
What is needed is an integrated location determination system and control system with anti-spoofing capability, for automatically distinguishing between a restricted operator, seated behind the driver's wheel of a vehicle, and some other driver, for determining the present vehicle location, and for comparing the present vehicle location with a permitted vehicle travel corridor and with a permitted time interval for vehicle travel. Preferably, the permitted time interval(s) and permitted vehicle corridor(s) should be flexible and should be capable of being changed by an authorized monitoring agency or person. Preferably, the monitoring system should include antispoofing mechanisms that make it difficult, if not impossible, for the restricted operator to operate a designated vehicle, or any vehicle, without activating a vehicle location reporting unit that is carried by the vehicle. In another mode of operation, the system should preferably allow operation of the vehicle to be restricted to a selected region, irrespective of who operates the vehicle.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
These needs are met by the invention, which provides a system, method and associated apparatus that monitors and discretionarily reports the location of a designated vehicle, whenever the restricted operator (“RO”) is seated behind the driver's wheel of and operates this vehicle. In one embodiment, each person who is seated behind the driver's wheel must present a sample of a biometric indicium (thumbprint, fingerprint, handprint, facial scan, retinal scan, blood sample scan, etc.), which is compared with corresponding biometric indicia stored in a database. In some embodiments, the vehicle operator is required to present another sample of the biometric indicium at unpredictable times while the vehicle is operated. Alternatively, a token with encoded information concerning the driver must be presented.
From a comparison of the stored driver identification indicia and the biometric sample or token presented by the vehicle operator, the control system assigns the driver to one of five categories: (1) a restricted operator (RO); (2) an identified and authorized operator who is not an RO; (3) an unidentified operator; (4) an operator whose identification indicium (presented) is too degraded to permit determination of the operator's identity; and (5) an operator who has failed to present a sample of the requested identification indicium. Different driving restrictions are imposed, depending upon the category to which the operator belongs.
If the operator is determined to be an RO, the location determination (LD) system determines the present time and present vehicle location and/or speed and compares these with the permitted time intervals and permitted travel corridor(s) and speeds for travel. If a mismatch is found, one or more of 12 Control Actions can be taken, or some other restriction can be imposed that is consistent with the vehicle use restrictions imposed on the RO.
Where the person driving the vehicle is an unrestricted operator but operation of the vehicle is restricted to a selected time interval or geographic region, or the vehicle speed or another attribute is restricted, an LD system attached to or carried on or in the vehicle compares the present time, vehicle present location or speed with the permitted time interval, region or speed range. The vehicle can be brought to a graceful stop if the present time or vehicle location is not within a permitted time interval or region; or the vehicle speed can be promptly brought back to its permitted range. Alternatively, the LD system compares the vehicle speed or other vehicle attribute with a permitted range for that attribute; operation of the vehicle is restricted so that the vehicle attribute is always within the permitted range. If the LD system does not receive signals sufficient to determine vehicle location or speed, one or more of the 12 Control Actions, set forth in the following, can be taken by the system.
REFERENCES:
patent: 5686765 (1997-11-01), Washington
Pope Daryl
Trimble Navigation Limited
Wagner , Murabito & Hao LLP
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