Method of providing automatic connection service for taxis using communication network

• US 20040177109A1
• Filed: 12/08/2003
• Published: 09/09/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 06/18/2001
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Jae-Wook Lee
• Original Assignee: Jae-Wook Lee
• Inventors: Lee, Jae-Wook
• Application Number:
  US10/479,956
• Publication Number:
  US 20040177109A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/201
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/202 Dispatching vehicles on the basis of a location, e.g. taxi dispatching

Abstract

Disclosed herein is the present invention relates generally to a method of providing an automatic connection service for taxis using a communication network, and more particularly to a method of providing an automatic connection service for taxis using a communication network, in which a client can call a taxi using his mobile phone through a communication network without the client personally ascertaining his position and informing a taxi call service provider his position, a central control office ascertains a client'"'"'s position and transmits information of an available taxi closest to the client'"'"'s position to the client by the client accessing the central control office of the taxi call service provider, and the client selects and calls the available taxi, thus enabling the client automatically connect to a selectable taxi.

Claims

1. A method of providing an automatic connection service for taxis using a communication network comprising the steps of:

a client who desires to use a taxi accessing a central control office through his own mobile communication terminal;

the central control office tracking the location of the client by running its internal client location tracking database installed therein to ascertain the location information of the client;

the central control office storing an ascertained client information;

the central control office ascertaining service states of taxis under the control of the central control office, selecting an available taxi closest to the location of the client, and transmitting the location information of the client to a car navigation system of the selected available taxi;

the car navigation system of the available taxi that received the location information of the client from the central control office displaying map information in which the location information of the client is indicated on a display device of the car navigation system;

a driver of the available taxi checking the location of the client, determining whether he can reach the location of the client by considering current travel conditions such as the current state of his taxi, and informing the central control office of the determination result;

if receiving an approval signal, which indicates that it is possible to reach the location of the client, from the available taxi, the central control office calculating an optimal route to the location of the client, and tracking, ascertaining and storing a predicted arrival time and taxi information to identify the available taxi which the client has called, such as the color and number of the available taxi, extracting a phone number of the client from the stored client information, and transmitting taxi information of the available taxi to the client terminal; and

the available taxi that received the client information from the central control office moving to the location of the client.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the step of accessing the central control office is performed by an operator of the central control office receiving the location of the client through a voice communication function of a wire and wireless terminal and inputting the location of the client to a system of central control office.

3. The method according to claim 1, further comprising the step of the central control office transmitting a communication message to the client terminal through which the client accesses to inform the client of the reception of a call signal after tracking, ascertaining and storing the call signal, and extracting the phone number of the client from the stored client information after the step of the central control office storing an ascertained client information, and before the step of the central control office ascertaining service states of taxis under the control of the central control office, selecting an available taxi closest to the location of the client, and transmitting the location information of the client to a car navigation system of the selected available taxi.

4. The method according to claim 1, further comprising the steps of:

if the available taxi closest to the location of the client receives the location information of the client from the central control office but can not accept the client, the available taxi transmitting a disapproval signal, which indicates that it is impossible to reach the location of the client, to the central control office;

the central control office that received the disapproval signal ascertaining service states of taxis under the control of the central control office, selecting an available taxi closest to the location of the client, and transmitting client information such as an appearance of the client along with the location information of the client and map information in which the location information of the client is indicated to the car navigation system of the selected available taxi; and

proceeding to the step of the car navigation system of the available taxi displaying map information;

wherein the driver of the available taxi checks the location of the client, determines whether he can reach the location of the client by considering current travel conditions such as the current state of his taxi, and informs the central control office of the determination result,.

5. The method according to claim 1, further comprising the steps of:

the client that received the predicted arrival time of the available taxi and the taxi information of the available taxi from the central control office carrying out the step of confirming his intention of using the available taxi by determining whether the client uses the available taxi;

if the client accepts the available taxi, transmitting an approval signal to the central control office through the client terminal; and

the central control office that received the approval signal transmitting a movement command signal to command the available taxi, which answered that it was possible to reach the location of the client, to move to the location of the client;

after the central control office calculating an optimal route to the location of the client, and tracking, ascertaining and storing a predicted arrival time and taxi information to identify the available taxi which the client has called, such as the color and number of the available taxi, extracting a phone number of the client from the stored client information, and transmitting taxi information of the available taxi to the client terminal if receiving an approval signal, which indicates that it is possible to reach the location of the client, from the available taxi, and before the step of the available taxi moving to the location of the client.

6. The method according to claim 1, wherein traffic information displayed on a map provided by the central control office, or traffic information generated by the car navigation system installed in the available taxi and displayed on a map of the taxi, is displayed in conjunction with the location of the available taxi which moves to the location of the client, or accepts the client therein and moves to the destination of the client.

7. A method of providing an automatic connection service for taxis using a communication network comprising the steps of:

a client who desires to use a taxi accessing a central control office through his own mobile communication terminal;

the central control office tracking the location of the client by running its internal client location tracking database installed therein to ascertain the location information of the client;

the central control office storing an ascertained client information;

if the location of the client is ascertained, the central control office ascertaining service states of taxis under the control of the central control office, and searching for an available taxi within a certain search radius;

the central control office transmitting a map page on which the location information of the searched available taxi within the certain search radius is displayed and taxi information of the available taxi within the certain search radius such as the type and number of the available taxi to the client terminal;

the client that received the location information of the available taxi from the central control office selecting the available taxi displayed in the client terminal;

the client transmitting the taxi information of the selected available taxi to the central control office;

the central control office transmitting the location information of the client to the available taxi selected by the client; and

a driver of the available taxi that received the location information of the client moving to the location of the client.

8. The method according to claim 7, further comprising the steps of:

the driver of the available taxi that received the location information of the client determining whether he can reach the location of the client by considering current travel conditions and informing the central control office of the determination result;

the central control office that received an approval signal, which indicates that it is possible to reach the location of the client, calculating an optimal route to the location of the client, transmitting a predicted arrival time and taxi information, such as the number of the available taxi, to allow the available taxi selected by the client to be identified, to the client, and confirming the intention of the client to use the available taxi;

the client transmitting an approval signal to the central control office and the central control office transmitting a movement command signal to command the available taxi; and

the available taxi that received the movement command signal moving to the location of the client;

after the step of the central control office transmitting the location information of the client to the available taxi selected by the client.

9. The method according to claim 7, wherein traffic information displayed on a map provided by the central control office, or traffic information generated by the car navigation system installed in the available taxi and displayed on a map of the taxi, is displayed in conjunction with the location of the available taxi which moves to the location of the client, or accepts the client therein and moves to the destination of the client.

10. A method of providing an automatic connection service for taxis using a communication network comprising the steps of:

a client who desires to use a taxi accessing a central control office by executing an Internet Web browser through his own mobile communication terminal;

if receiving a call signal of the client, the central control office transmitting a page to allow the client to determine whether he requires the central control office to search for an available taxi within a certain search radius from the current location of the client or a search radius desired by the client;

the client entering his own request conditions to the page transmitted from the central control office and transmitting the entered request conditions to the central control office;

if the client requires the central control office to search for an available taxi within the certain search radius from the current location of the client, the central control office tracking the location of the client by running its internal client location tracking database installed therein to ascertain the location information of the client;

the central control office storing an ascertained client information;

the central control office ascertaining service states of taxis under the control of the central control office and searching for an available taxi within the certain search radius from the current location of the client;

if an available taxi exists within the certain search radius from the current location of the client as the search result, the central control office transmitting a map page on which the location information of the available taxi within the certain search radius is displayed and taxi information of the available taxi within the certain search radius to the client terminal;

the client that received the location information of the available taxi from the central control office selecting the available taxi displayed in the client terminal and transmitting the taxi information of the selected available taxi to the central control office;

the central control office transmitting the location information of the client to the available taxi selected by the client; and

the available taxi moving to the location of the client.

11. The method according to claim 10 further comprising the steps of:

a driver of the available taxi that received the location information of the client determining whether he can reach the location of the client by considering current travel conditions and informing the central control office of the determination result;

the central control office that received an approval signal, which indicates that it is possible to reach the location of the client, calculating an optimal route to the location of the client, transmitting a predicted arrival time and taxi information, such as the number of the available taxi, to allow the available taxi selected by the client to be identified, to the client, and confirming the intention of the client to use the available taxi; and

the client transmitting an approval signal to the central control office and the central control office transmitting a movement command signal to command the available taxi;

after the step of the central control office transmitting the location information of the client to the available taxi selected by the client, and before the step of the available taxi moving to the location of the client.

12. The method according to claim 10, wherein traffic information displayed on a map provided by the central control office, or traffic information generated by the car navigation system installed in the available taxi and displayed on a map of the taxi, is displayed in conjunction with the location of the available taxi which moves to the location of the client, or accepts the client therein and moves to the destination of the client.

13. The method according to claim 10, further comprising the steps of:

if no available taxi exists within the certain search radius from the current location of the client, the central control office searching for an available taxi within a next stage search radius larger than the certain search radius from the current location of the client;

transmitting a guide text to inform the client that no available taxi exists within the certain search radius, a page to inform the client that an available taxi exists when the central control office extends the certain search radius and searches for the available taxi within the extended search radius, and a page to allow the client to determine whether the client accepts the searched available taxi to the client terminal; and

if the client selects the searched available taxi within the search radius extended by the operator of the central control office, the client terminal transmitting a selection signal to the central control office;

after the step of the central control office ascertaining service states of taxis under the control of the central control office and searching for an available taxi within the certain search radius from the current location of the client, and before the step of the central control office transmitting the location information of the client to the available taxi selected by the client.

14. A method of providing an automatic connection service for taxis using a communication network comprising the steps of:

a client who desires to use a taxi accessing a central control office by executing an Internet Web browser through his own mobile communication terminal;

if receiving a call signal of the client, the central control office transmitting a page to allow the client to determine whether he requires the central control office to search for an available taxi within a certain search radius from the current location of the client or a search radius desired by the client;

the client entering his own request conditions to the page transmitted from the central control office and transmitting the entered request conditions to the central control office;

if the client requires the central control office to search for taxis within the desired search radius, the central control office searching for an available taxi within the desired search radius;

if an available taxi exists within the desired search radius as the search result, transmitting a map page on which the location information of the available taxi within the desired search radius is displayed and taxi information of the available taxi within the desired search radius, such as the type of the available taxi, the number of the available taxi and the like, to the client terminal;

the client that received the location information of the available taxi from the central control office selecting the available taxi displayed in the client terminal and transmitting taxi information of the selected available taxi to the central control office;

the central control office that received taxi information of the available taxi tracking the location of the client by running its internal client location tracking database installed therein to ascertain the location information of the client;

the central control office storing an ascertained client information;

the central center transmitting the location information of the client to the available taxi selected by the client; and

the available taxi moving to the location of the client.

15. The method according to claim 14, further comprising the steps of:

the driver of the available taxi that received the location information of the client determining whether he can reach the location of the client by considering current travel conditions and informing the central control office of the determination result;

the central control office that received an approval signal, which indicates that it is possible to reach the location of the client, calculating an optimal route to the location of the client, transmitting a predicted arrival time and taxi information to allow the available taxi selected by the client to be identified, to the client, and confirming the intention of the client to use the available taxi; and

if the client transmits the approval signal to the central control office, the central control office transmitting a movement command signal to command the available taxi;

after the step of the central center transmitting the location information of the client to the available taxi selected by the client, and before the step of the available taxi moving to the location of the client.

16. The method according to claim 14, wherein traffic information displayed on a map provided by the central control office, or traffic information generated by the car navigation system installed in the available taxi and displayed on a map of the taxi, is displayed in conjunction with the location of the available taxi which moves to the location of the client, or accepts the client therein and moves to the destination of the client.