CONTROL AND SYSTEM NOTIFICATIONS USING REMOTE ACCESS

• US 20090069954A1
• Filed: 09/12/2007
• Published: 03/12/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 09/12/2007
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Earthsearch Communications, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Earthsearch Communications, Inc.
• Inventors: ALADESUYI, Kayode
• Application Number:
  US11/854,305
• Publication Number:
  US 20090069954A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/2
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 25/33 of global position, e.g. by providing GPS coordinates
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2555/20 Ambient conditions, e.g. wind or rain
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2556/50 of positioning data, e.g. GPS [Global Positioning System] data

Abstract

The present system provides a method to allow vehicle users to locate, monitor, and control their vehicle and receive notifications of constraint violations by using a hand-held device and/or internet web browser. Such constraints may be customized by vehicle or group of vehicles, over the air or by a user using a host. In the case of constraint notifications, the vehicle device receives and processes vehicle data and constraint data and sends this information to the host. In the case of vehicle location, monitoring and/or control, the host receives the solicitation and sends an instruction to the vehicle device, the vehicle device will receive and process the instruction and interact with the vehicle accordingly.

Claims

1. A system for implementing remote communications with a vehicle, the system including a user apparatus and a host, the user apparatus comprising:

a communication interface configured to communicate with the host over a network and to receive a computer code section from the host;

a memory configured to store the received computer code section; and

a controller configured to install the stored computer code section, the controller being further configured to initialize an activation function in which a user is prompted for identification information to begin at least one of monitoring, controlling, or receiving constraint violations of the vehicle.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the network comprises at least one of a GSM/GPRS network, a SMS/GPRS network, or a GSM/WAP network.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the identification information comprises a telephone number from which the vehicle is monitored or controlled.

4. The system of claim 1, the host comprising:

a gateway configured to communicate with the user apparatus and a vehicle communicator that is affixed to the vehicle;

a mapper configured to monitor geospatial attributes of the vehicle communicator; and

a database configured to store a user profile and geospatial data associated with the geospatial attributes of the vehicle communicator.

5. The system of claim 4, the host further comprising:

a network interface configured to communicate with a terminal through said gateway over said network;

a user apparatus interface configured to communicate with the user apparatus through said gateway over said network; and

a setup interface configured to enable the user to configure the user apparatus based on the user profile stored in the database.

6. The system of claim 5, the vehicle communicator comprising:

a vehicle communicator location determiner configured to receive a plurality of information signals to determine a physical location of the vehicle communicator; and

a network transceiver configured to communicate with the gateway over the network.

7. A method for remotely managing a vehicle by monitoring, controlling, or receiving notification of constraint violations of the vehicle using vehicle managing code downloaded from a host, the method comprising:

receiving a target vehicle identifier for a target vehicle to be managed and a user terminal identifier associated with a user terminal from which the target vehicle will be managed;

sending the target vehicle identifier and the user terminal identifier to the host, which queries a database for a status information that corresponds to the target vehicle identifier;

receiving the status information from the host at the user terminal; and

displaying the status information on the user terminal.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the user terminal comprises a mobile telephone and the user terminal identifier comprises a telephone number associated with the mobile telephone.

9. The method of claim 7, further comprising sending a disable engine command to the host, wherein the host forwards the disable engine command to the target vehicle.

10. The method of claim 7, wherein the status information comprises a constraint violation, the constraint violation being at least one of:

a speed violation by the target vehicle;

an out of zone violation of the target vehicle;

an alcohol concentration violation in the target vehicle;

a vehicle occupancy violation in the target vehicle; and

a vehicle load violation for the target vehicle.

11. The method of claim 7, wherein the status information comprises at least one of:

a topographical map of the region in which the target vehicle is located;

a speed of travel of the target vehicle;

a direction of travel of the target vehicle; and

an engine status of the target vehicle.

12. A program for remotely managing a vehicle by monitoring, controlling, or receiving notification of constraint violations of the vehicle, the program being recorded on a computer readable medium, the computer readable medium comprising:

a target vehicle identifier code section that causes, when executed, a target vehicle identifier to be received;

a user terminal identifier receiving code section that causes, when executed, a user terminal identifier to be received, the user terminal identifier being associated with a user terminal from which the target vehicle will be managed;

a target information code section that causes, when executed, the sending of the target vehicle identifier and the user terminal identifier to a host, the host being configured to query a database for a status information that corresponds to the target vehicle identifier;

a status information code section that causes, when executed, the status information to be received from the host at the user terminal; and

a display code section that causes, when executed, the status information to be displayed on said user terminal.

13. The computer readable medium of claim 12, wherein the user terminal comprises a mobile telephone and the user terminal identifier comprises a telephone number associated with the mobile telephone.

14. The computer readable medium of claim 13, further comprising:

a disable engine command section that causes, when executed, sending a disable engine command to the host, the host being further configured to forward the disable engine command to the target vehicle.

15. The computer readable medium of claim 13, wherein the status information comprises a constraint violation, the constraint violation being at least one of:

a speed violation by the target vehicle;

an out of zone violation of the target vehicle;

an alcohol concentration violation in the target vehicle;

a vehicle occupancy violation in the target vehicle; and

a vehicle load violation for the target vehicle.

16. The computer readable medium of claim 13, wherein the status information comprises at least one of:

a topographical map of the region in which the target vehicle is located;

a speed of travel of the target vehicle;

a direction of travel of the target vehicle; and

an engine status of the target vehicle.

17. The computer readable medium of claim 13, further comprising a GPRS network communication code section that causes, when executed, the mobile telephone to communicate with the host over a GPRS network.

18. The computer readable medium of claim 12, the computer readable medium further comprising:

a network communication code section that causes, when executed, the user terminal to communicate with the host over a network;

a download code section that causes, when executed, a vehicle management code section to be downloaded to the user terminal from the host over the network, the vehicle management code section comprising;

a profile code section that causes, when executed, a profile editing interface to be established on the user terminal, the profile editing interface being configured to receive instructions to edit a user profile, and further configured to display a profile status,

a view vehicle code section that causes, when executed, a view vehicle editing interface to be established on the user terminal, the view vehicle editing interface being configured to receive instructions to edit a target vehicle and to display a status of the target vehicle, and

a view action code section that causes, when executed, a view action editing interface to be established on the user terminal, the view action editing interface being configured to receive instructions to edit an action and to display a status of the action; and

an install code section that causes, when executed, the downloaded management code section to be installed to said user terminal.

19. The computer readable medium of claim 18, wherein the network comprises at least one of a GSM/GPRS network, an SMS/GPRS network, or a GSM/WAP network.

20. The computer readable medium of claim 19, wherein the status information is received by the host from the target vehicle over said network.