SMART MODEM DEVICE FOR VEHICULAR AND ROADSIDE APPLICATIONS

• US 20080157943A1
• Filed: 03/11/2008
• Published: 07/03/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 02/25/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Concaten Inc.
• Original Assignee: Iwapi Incorporated
• Inventors: Groeneweg, Kevin K., Rennie, Christopher J.
• Granted Patent: US 7,714,705 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 340/426.16
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/017 identifying vehicles G08G1/015, G08G1/054 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/20 Monitoring the location of vehicles belonging to a group, e.g. fleet of vehicles, countable or determined number of vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/125 involving control of end-device applications over a network

Abstract

The present invention is directed generally to a smart modem device for vehicular and roadside applications for remote data collection and transmission to a central data collection and processing facility. The modem includes a number of sets of connection managers and monitors for performing specified tasks with respect to connections with various networks. Each set of connection managers and monitors is different and corresponds to a selected card type and/or network service.

Claims

1-21. -21. (canceled)

22. A system, comprising:

a plurality of modems in a plurality of maintenance vehicles, each maintenance vehicle also comprising a respective satellite location unit to provide a current maintenance vehicle location;

a server operable to communicate wirelessly with the modems in each of the maintenance vehicles;

obtain, for each maintenance vehicle, the current maintenance vehicle location, at least one of weather conditions and road conditions, and at least one of maintenance vehicle blade setting and a mixture and amount of material being applied to a selected road surface; and

provide, to each maintenance vehicle, at least one of instructions and alarms to at least one of the maintenance vehicle operator and an automated component in the maintenance vehicle; and

at least one database operable to store, for each maintenance vehicle, respective information collected by the server.

23. The system of claim 22, wherein the maintenance vehicles are snowplows, wherein each maintenance vehicle is identified in the at least one database by a unique device and vehicle name pairing, and wherein the at least one database comprises a plurality of databases corresponding to differing governmental entities.

24. The system of claim 22, wherein the maintenance vehicles are snowplows and wherein the respective information comprises, for each maintenance vehicle, the current maintenance vehicle location, weather conditions, road conditions, a maintenance vehicle blade setting, and a mixture and amount of material being applied to a selected road surface.

25. The system of claim 22, wherein the maintenance vehicles are snowplows, wherein each maintenance vehicle comprises a camera, and wherein the at least one of weather conditions and road conditions is in the form of a series of video images captured by the camera.

26. The system of claim 22, wherein the server is operable to generate, from the information, a map depicting a plurality of a current physical location of each maintenance vehicle and providing, for each maintenance vehicle, a current and/or historic direction of travel, if any, of each maintenance vehicle, a working or nonworking status of each maintenance vehicle, and a timestamp of a last information update.

27. The system of claim 26, wherein the map comprises an icon representing each maintenance vehicle and a color and/or shape of the corresponding icon indicates a state of the maintenance vehicle.

28. The system of claim 26, wherein each maintenance vehicle comprises a combination regulator and/or sequencer to provide key on/off functionality with delayed power-on to provide extended minimal voltage drain upon start and delayed power-off to provide extended session status with restart and/or orderly shut-down of the modem and whatever functionality is then active.

29. The system of claim 26, wherein each maintenance vehicle comprises a user interface providing the respective operator with options to control maintenance vehicle operations, provide data input regarding a state of the maintenance vehicle, and provide at least one of environmental conditions and messages for transmission to the server.

30. The system of claim 26, wherein each modem comprises a filter operable to remove duplicated information and send only information that has changed since a prior transmission and/or information outside of set or calculated parameters.

31. The system of claim 26, wherein each modem comprises a filter operable to transmit automatically a first type of information and periodically a second type of information, wherein the second, but not the first, type of information is transmitted only in response to a selected trigger event and/or only if the first type of information has changed since a prior transmission and/or is outside of set or calculated parameters.

51. The system of claim 22, wherein the server is operable to:

receive at least one of the vehicle location, at least one of weather and road conditions, and at least one of blade setting and mixture and amount of material being applied to a selected road surface;

determine, from the at least one of the vehicle location, at least one of weather and road conditions, and at least one of blade setting and mixture and amount of material being applied to a selected road surface, a set of instructions; and

provide the set of instructions to an operator of first maintenance vehicle, wherein the set of instructions comprises at least one of a new blade setting and a mixture and amount of material to be applied to a selected road surface.

52. The system of claim 51, wherein the at least one of the vehicle location, at least one of weather and road conditions, and at least one of blade setting and mixture and amount of material being applied to a selected road surface is received from the first maintenance vehicle.

32. A maintenance vehicle, comprising:

(a) a satellite location unit to obtain a current physical location of the maintenance vehicle;

(b) a blade;

(c) a spreader to spread a selected deicing and/or friction-enhancing material;

(d) a user interface to provide an operator with options to control maintenance vehicle operations, provide data input regarding a state of the maintenance vehicle, provide at least one of environmental conditions and messages for transmission to a server, and receive messages from the server; and

(e) a modem, in wireless communication with the server, to transmit, to the server, a current and/or recorded physical location of the maintenance vehicle, selected options enabled by the operator, data input and/or recorded regarding a state of the maintenance vehicle, and the at least one of environmental conditions and messages and receive messages from the server.

33. The maintenance vehicle of claim 32, wherein the maintenance vehicles are snowplows, wherein the maintenance vehicle comprises a camera, wherein the camera provides images depicting at least one of weather conditions and road conditions, and wherein the images are transmitted, by the modem, to the server.

34. The maintenance vehicle of claim 32, wherein the maintenance vehicles are snowplows and wherein the maintenance vehicle comprises a combination regulator and/or sequencer to provide key on/off functionality with delayed power-on to provide extended minimal voltage drain upon start and delayed power-off to provide extended session status with restart and/or orderly shut-down of the modem and whatever functionality is then active.

35. The maintenance vehicle of claim 32, wherein the maintenance vehicles are snowplows, wherein the modem comprises a filter operable to transmit automatically a first type of information and periodically a second type of information, wherein the second, but not the first, type of information is transmitted only in response to a selected trigger event and/or only if the second type of information has changed since a prior transmission and/or is outside of set or calculated parameters.

36. A maintenance vehicle, comprising:

(a) a satellite location unit to obtain a current physical location of the maintenance vehicle;

(b) a user interface to collect mobile information

(c) a modem to transmit the collected mobile information to a selected destination; and

(d) a combination regulator and sequencer to provide key on/off functionality with delayed power-on to provide extended minimal voltage drain upon start and delayed power-off to provide extended session status with restart and/or orderly shut-down of the modem and whatever functionality is then active.

37. The maintenance vehicle of claim 36, wherein the maintenance vehicles is a snowplow and further comprising:

(e) a blade; and

(f) a spreader to spread a selected deicing and/or friction enhancing material, wherein the collected mobile information comprises options to control maintenance vehicle operations, data input regarding a state of the maintenance vehicle, and at least one of environmental conditions and messages for transmission to the selected destination, and wherein the user interface is operable to present to the operator messages received by the modem from the selected destination.

38. The maintenance vehicle of claim 36, wherein the maintenance vehicle is a snowplow and further comprising:

(e) a camera, wherein the camera provides images depicting at least one of weather conditions and road conditions, and wherein the images are transmitted, by the modem, to the selected destination.

39. The maintenance vehicle of claim 36, wherein the modem comprises a filter operable to transmit automatically a first type of information and periodically a second type of information, wherein the second, but not the first, type of information is transmitted only in response to a selected trigger event and/or only if the second type of information has changed since a prior transmission and/or is outside of set or calculated parameters.

40. A method, comprising:

(a) receiving from a plurality of maintenance vehicles a plurality of sets of collected information, wherein each of the plurality of sets of collected information comprise a respective current and/or recorded maintenance vehicle location, at least one of weather conditions and road conditions in an area of the respective maintenance vehicle, and at least one of maintenance vehicle blade setting of the respective maintenance vehicle and a mixture and amount of material being applied by the respective maintenance vehicle to a selected road surface;

(b) performing a selected set of data processing functions on the sets of collected information to produce processed data, the data processing functions comprising a plurality of identifying temporal trends, identifying temporal differences, generating alarms, preparing reports, logging events, and generating instructions to maintenance vehicle operators; and

(c) storing the processed data in a database, wherein at least some of the processed data is stored in connection with a unique identifier of a respective maintenance vehicle providing at least some of the processed data.

41. The method of claim 40, wherein the unique identifier is a unique device and vehicle name pairing and wherein the database comprises a plurality of sets of processed data corresponding to differing governmental entities.

42. The method of claim 40, wherein the maintenance vehicles are snowplows and wherein each set of collected information comprises, for a corresponding maintenance vehicle, the current maintenance vehicle location, weather conditions, road conditions, a maintenance vehicle blade setting;

and a mixture and amount of material being applied to a selected road surface.

43. The method of claim 40, wherein the maintenance vehicles are snowplows, wherein each maintenance vehicle comprises a camera and wherein the at least one of weather conditions and road conditions is in the form of a series of video images captured by the camera.

44. The method of claim 40, further comprising:

(d) generating, from the collected information, a map depicting a plurality of a current and/or recorded physical location of each maintenance vehicle and providing, for each maintenance vehicle, a current and/or historic direction of travel, if any, of each maintenance vehicle, a working or nonworking status of each maintenance vehicle, and a timestamp of a last information update.

45. The method of claim 44, wherein the map comprises an icon representing each maintenance vehicle and a color and/or shape of the corresponding icon indicates a state of the maintenance vehicle.

46. The method of claim 40, further comprising:

providing, by a combination regulator and/or sequencer to provide key on/off functionality with delayed power-on to provide extended minimal voltage drain upon start and delayed power-off to provide extended session status with restart and/or orderly shut-down of the modem and whatever functionality is then active.

47. The method of claim 40, wherein each maintenance vehicle comprises a user interface providing the respective operator with options to control maintenance vehicle operations, provide data input regarding a state of the maintenance vehicle, and provide the at least one of environmental conditions and messages for transmission to a server.

48. The method of claim 40, wherein each maintenance vehicle comprises a modem and wherein each modem comprises a filter operable to remove duplicated collected information and send only collected information that has changed since a prior transmission and/or collected information outside of determined parameters.

49. The method of claim 40, wherein each maintenance vehicle comprises a modem and wherein each modem comprises a filter operable to transmit automatically a first type of information and periodically a second type of information, wherein the second, but not the first, type of information is transmitted only in response to a selected trigger event and/or only if the second type of information has changed since a prior transmission and/or is outside of determined parameters.

50. A computer readable medium comprising processor-executable instructions operable to perform the steps of claim 40.