Accident notification system for vehicle

• US 20030212475A1
• Filed: 05/09/2002
• Published: 11/13/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 05/29/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Folio Co., Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Unirec Company Limited
• Inventors: Yamagishi, Junichi
• Granted Patent: US 6,732,020 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/1
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 2021/0027 Post collision measures, e.g. notifying emergency services
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/205 Indicating the location of the monitored vehicles as destination, e.g. accidents, stolen, rental

Abstract

An accident notification system for a vehicle is provided with a damage predicting means (CL1) which detects that a vehicle occupant has been damaged due to an accident of a vehicle, a vehicle position detecting means (CL2) which detects the position of the vehicle, and a mobile communication terminal (CL3) which receives a signal predicting a damage of the vehicle occupant from the damage predicting means to generate a calling from the vehicle to a call center (CL4). The call center performs a notification to a related organ (CL5) on the basis of the calling and obtains prediction information that the vehicle occupant has been damage from the damage predicting means and vehicle position information detected by the vehicle position detecting means. Accordingly, even when there is not any person who notifies a related organ of an accident, emergent cleaning-up after accident and treatment for a damaged vehicle occupant can be made.

Claims

1. An accident notification system for a vehicle comprising:

damage predicting means which predicts that a vehicle occupant has been damaged due to an accident of a vehicle;

vehicle position detecting means which detects the position of the vehicle; and

a mobile communication terminal which receives a signal indicating that the damage predicting means has predicted the damage of the vehicle occupant to generate a calling to a call center from the vehicle side,

wherein the call center performs a notification to a related organ on the basis of the calling and the related organ obtains prediction information that the vehicle occupant has been damaged from the damage predicting means and vehicle position information detected by the vehicle position detecting means on the basis of the calling.

2. An accident notification for a vehicle according to claim 1, wherein

the call center is provided with a user database where personal information has been registered in advance and a map database where map information has been stored,

registered personal information and position of the vehicle are retrieved from the user database and the map database on the basis of the calling from the mobile communication terminal, and the prediction information where the retrieved person has been damaged, the personal information about the retrieved person and the vehicle position information about the retrieved position of the vehicle are notified to the related organ.

3. An accident notification system for a vehicle according to claim 1, wherein the damage predicting means is provided with an acceleration sensor which detects an acceleration due to a collision of the vehicle, and

the damage predicting means predicts that the vehicle occupant has been damaged when the detected acceleration exceeds a reference acceleration which has been stored in advance.

4. An accident notification system for a vehicle according to claim 2, wherein the damage predicting means is provided with an acceleration sensor which detects an acceleration due to a collision of the vehicle, and

the damage predicting means predicts that the vehicle occupant has been damaged when the detected acceleration exceeds a reference acceleration which has been stored in advance.

5. An accident notification system for a vehicle according to claim 1, wherein the vehicle is provided with an extendable antenna which allows a calling of the mobile communication terminal, and a distal end of the antenna is attached to a float which is releasably supported to the vehicle, where, when the vehicle has been sunk in water, the float comes up to a water surface and the distal end of the antenna is exposed on the water surface.

6. An accident notification system for a vehicle according to claim 2, wherein the vehicle is provided with an extendable antenna which allows a calling of the mobile communication terminal, and a distal end of the antenna is attached to a float which is releasably supported to the vehicle, where, when the vehicle has been sunk in water, the float comes up to a water surface and the distal end of the antenna is exposed on the water surface.