Vehicle communication terminal

• US 20090015468A1
• Filed: 07/07/2008
• Published: 01/15/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 07/12/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: DENSO Corporation
• Original Assignee: DENSO Corporation
• Inventors: Shintai, Tatsuya
• Granted Patent: US 7,843,384 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 342/357.310
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 25/102 a signal being sent to a remote location, e.g. a radio signal being transmitted to a police station, a security company or the owner

Abstract

A vehicle communication terminal stops a currently-operating GPS engine when a vehicle is put into a parking condition, memorizes a station number transmitted from a base station that serves as a waiting station, starts the stopped GPS engine when a currently-received station number and plural station numbers memorized after parking do not match, and transmits an emergency report signal including positional information derived from GPS measurement by the GPS engine, pre-registered vehicle information and the like through a communication network to a center terminal or a user terminal for suppressing vehicle battery capacity loss while timely performing an emergency report in case of vehicle theft.

Claims

1. A communication terminal for use in a vehicle comprising:

a GPS unit capable of determining a position by using a Global Positioning System with a supply of power from a battery in the vehicle;

a communication unit capable of communicating wirelessly with a communication network through a station; and

a control unit capable of controlling operation of the GPS unit, wherein

the communication unit stops, by using the control unit, the operation of the GPS unit that is in operation at a time of parking of the vehicle, and stores a station number received from the station that serves as a waiting station when the vehicle is put in a parking condition, and

the communication unit starts, by using the control unit, the operation of the GPS unit that has been stopped when the stored station number at the time of parking and a currently received station number do not match with each other, and sends position information derived from the GPS unit through measurement by the Global Positioning System to the communication network.

2. The communication terminal of claim 1, wherein

the communication unit stores plural number of respectively different station numbers, and

the communication unit sends, to the communication network, the position information derived from the GPS unit by starting the operation of the GPS unit under control of the control unit when the currently received station number does not match any one of the plural number of respectively different station numbers that are stored at the time of parking of the vehicle.

3. The communication terminal of claim 1, wherein

the communication unit stops the GPS unit under control of the control unit after sending, to the communication network, the position information derived from the GPS unit that has been stopping and is caused to operate by the control unit due to a determination that the currently received station number does not match the stored station number at the time of the parking of the vehicle.

4. The communication terminal of claim 3, wherein

the communication unit loosens a wake-up condition of the GPS unit for a second wake-up in comparison to the wake-up condition for a first wake-up after re-stopping of the GPS unit, and

the communication unit starts the GPS unit based on the loosened wake-up condition when the loosened wake-up condition is fulfilled.

5. The communication terminal of claim 1, wherein

the communication unit continues the operation of the GPS unit without stopping under control of the control unit to send at regular intervals, to the communication network, the position information derived from the GPS unit, when the GPS unit sends the position information to the communication network after being started by the control unit due to a determination that a currently received station number does not match the station number stored at the time of parking of the vehicle.