Data processing: vehicles – navigation – and relative location – Navigation – Employing position determining equipment
Reexamination Certificate
2000-12-27
2004-05-25
Cuchlinski, Jr., William A. (Department: 3661)
Data processing: vehicles, navigation, and relative location
Navigation
Employing position determining equipment
C701S207000, C701S208000, C340S990000, C340S992000, C340S995190
Reexamination Certificate
active
06741933
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to hardware and software to verify, monitor and document vehicle travel activities for tax deductible or reimbursable mileage.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Business operators, law enforcement, private detectives, parents and many other vehicle owners have reason to record the travel history, stop points, time-at-stop, mileage, speed history, and other related activities of individual vehicles. Tax-deductible mileage recorded and reported automatically lends itself to both an accurate and efficient method of verification and record keeping. Computerized data gathering and reporting for a fleet of vehicles would lend itself to time and efficiency savings. For example, a company owned vehicle(s) used by an employee(s) for business and personal use would have some percentage of mileage that is tax deductible. The employee(s) would have to keep detailed records of each activity in order to categorize company versus personal usage. Manual time estimates, error, and trustworthiness can all be issues. The present invention provides a method for vehicle owners to know where their vehicles have been, showing total travel routes, rates of speed, concise mileage reports, stop times to the minute, tax deductible mileage for business use, etc. using today's GPS (Global Positioning System) technology.
The Global Positioning System or “GPS” was developed by the U.S. Department of Defense as a worldwide navigation and positioning resource for both military and civilian use. It is based on a constellation of 24 satellites orbiting the earth over 20,000 km in altitude. These satellites act as reference points from which receivers on the ground “triangulate” their position.
By measuring the travel time of signals transmitted from the satellites, a GPS receiver can determine its distance from each satellite. By having distance measurements from four or more different satellites and some advanced mathematical equations known as a “Kalman filter”, the receiver can calculate its latitude, longitude, altitude, speed and course traveled.
To make GPS even more accurate, some additional techniques have been developed. These techniques are known as Differential GPS or “DGPS”. This method of DGPS yields position measurements good to a couple of meters.
Differential GPS works by canceling out some of the natural and man-made errors found within normal GPS measurements. These include clock errors within the satellites, and the delays induced by their travel through the earth's atmosphere. These errors are resolved by introducing differential corrections from a ground based reference station that calculates the corrections needed for the induced errors.
Use of GPS technology is a basis of gathering data for positioning, stops, travel speed, distance between coordinates etc.
The present invention provides integrated software and hardware apparatus to verify approved stops, actual mileage, routes, inventory usage, speed of vehicle recording, and other informational data. The software can be provided for local or wide area networking using client and server computer platforms.
In order to best view the advantages of the present invention a summary of the most relevant prior art follows below.
SUMMARY OF THE PRIOR ART
U.S. Pat. No. 6,141,610 (2000) to Rothert, et al. discloses a vehicle operation method and apparatus for monitoring usage and condition of a vehicle including mileage, gas used, collision damage, area of operation, time of usage.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,141,609 (2000) to Herdeg, et al. discloses a method of collecting a vehicle itinerary determining the length of travel, time of travel, and the routing as in a trip journal and determining who drove the vehicle.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,572,528 (1996) to Shuen discloses a method to provide continuous, transparent communication between a mobile node and primary, secondary or tertiary networks.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,694,322 (1997) to Westerlage, et al. discloses a method for determining tax of a vehicle. It includes a positioning device operable to determine a plurality of vehicle positions along a route traveled by the vehicle. A memory stores geographic information defining a plurality of taxing regions through which the route of the vehicle passes. The object being to determine the tax for the vehicle in at least one taxing region through which the route of the vehicle passes.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,748,148 (1998) to Heiser, et al. discloses a positional information storage and retrieval system and method. It consists of a plurality of receiver/transmitter units and a processor unit. Coordinate information of receiver/transmitter units is received by the positional information unit and used to determining the positional information according to triangulation or other techniques embodied within the positional detection unit. Algorithms embodied within the processor unit generate, update and control access to a database of information relating to locations of the subjects within the operational environment over time.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,905,461 (1999) to Neher discloses a method utilizing a global positioning and tracking system for locating one of a person and item of property.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,144,916 (2000) to Wood, Jr., et al. discloses a method and apparatus for a base station or interrogator station to monitor the itinerary of one or more vehicles or other movable assets.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,138,072 (2000) to Nagai discloses a navigation device for use in a vehicle which is capable of determining and displaying a current position of the vehicle on a road map indicated on a display screen via Internet communication means.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,072,429 (2000) to Crothall, et al. discloses an integrated position determination system and radio transceiver.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,088,650 (2000) to Schipper, et al. discloses a vehicle location system for monitoring location, speed, and odometer of a vehicle.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,087,965 (2000) to Murphy discloses a calibration means for a vehicle mileage meter or taximeter.
What is needed is a method to integrate collected vehicle mileage, speed, stop, route and time information with software and networking that provides detailed documentation on all vehicle activities including use for tax deductible mileage and/or for reimbursement for vehicle use.
The present invention meets these needs and can provide a color-coded speed history map and driver data entry records for inventory control.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The main aspect of the present invention is to provide integrated software and apparatus for the collection and reporting of data concerning mileage and vehicle use for tax purposes.
Another aspect of the present invention is to verify and document actual mileage, stops, and/or routes driven for use as documentation for tax-deductible mileage and/or for reimbursement of vehicle use.
Another aspect of the present invention is to provide mobile units with a processor, storage, wireless modem, serial communications, GPS connectivity, remote data entry, and software to allow wireless and direct PC connectivity to base units. Such mobile units have unique identifiers.
Another aspect of the present invention is to provide colorized mapping data to show routes taken, speed indicia while in route and stops in route.
Another aspect of the present invention is to provide reports for tax and information purposes to show vehicle activity such as stops, stop times, routes, speeds, taxable mileage, miscellaneous mileage, etc., and be able to construct such reports in a variety of ways (by driver, by vehicle, by group, by date, etc.).
Another aspect of the present invention is to provide less expensive mobile units to communicate and store data via GPS and to connect directly to a base unit or PC for data transfer.
Other aspects of this invention will appear from the following description and appended claims, reference being made to the accompanying drawings forming a part of this specification wherein like reference characters designate corresponding parts in the several views.
Hardware setups will g
Advanced Tracking Technologies, Inc.
Broadhead Brian J
Cuchlinski Jr. William A.
Martin Rick
Patent Law Offices of Rick Martin P.C.
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