Car-finder method and aparatus
First Claim
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1. A device for finding a parked vehicle from which the user has previously exited, comprising:
- (a) first means 202 for sensing at least a relative geo-location of said device,(b) second means 206 for determining the velocity at these locations,(c) third means 210 for identifying transitions from driving to walking, or candidate parking locations, based at least partially upon these velocities,(d) a memory 212 configured to record at least the position of one such candidate parking location,(e) fourth output means 214 configured to indicate the position of at least one candidate parking location.
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Abstract
One of the persistent irritations of daily life is forgetting where you parked your car. In small lot, this is merely annoying. When there are multiple lots a mile or more apart, and it is impractical to park in the same spot every time, finding one'"'"'s car can become a major waste of time. The car-finder overcomes these difficulties by using an existing GPS-enabled (or otherwise location sensing) device, such as a cell phone, automatically identifying recent parking locations used by the user, allowing the user to select among them, and guiding the user to the parked vehicle.
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Citations
20 Claims
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1. A device for finding a parked vehicle from which the user has previously exited, comprising:
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(a) first means 202 for sensing at least a relative geo-location of said device, (b) second means 206 for determining the velocity at these locations, (c) third means 210 for identifying transitions from driving to walking, or candidate parking locations, based at least partially upon these velocities, (d) a memory 212 configured to record at least the position of one such candidate parking location, (e) fourth output means 214 configured to indicate the position of at least one candidate parking location. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)
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9. A method for finding a parked vehicle from which the user has previously exited, comprising the following steps:
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(a) automatically monitoring the nominal spatial position and velocity of said user 102, (b) based at least partially upon said position and velocity, identifying the location of one or more transitions from driving to walking 104, (c) indicating to said user the position of said location, or parking place 108, whereby places where a vehicle was exited to travel on foot, that is, parking locations, are identified, whereby said user need not take any specific action to capture the parking location, and whereby the user is able to retrieve the parking location after determining that the vehicle has been misplaced, even when it may have been misplaced over an area beyond the practical limits of visual or auditory cues from the vehicle. - View Dependent Claims (10, 11, 12, 13)
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14. A system for finding a parked vehicle from which the user has previously exited, comprising the following:
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(a) first means 202 for sensing at least a relative geo-location of said user, (b) second means 206 for determining the velocity at these locations, (c) third means 210 for identifying transitions from driving to walking, or candidate parking locations, based at least partially upon these velocities, (d) a memory 212 configured to record at least the position of one such candidate parking location, (e) fourth output means 214 configured to indicate the position of at least one candidate parking location. - View Dependent Claims (15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20)
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Specification