Car-finder method and aparatus

• US 20090309759A1
• Filed: 06/13/2008
• Published: 12/17/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 06/13/2008
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Darin Scot Williams
• Original Assignee: Darin Scot Williams
• Inventors: Williams, Darin Scot
• Application Number:
  US12/157,889
• Publication Number:
  US 20090309759A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 340/932.200
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/20 Instruments for performing navigational calculations G01C21/24, G01C21/26 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3605 Destination input or retrieval
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/14 indicating individual free spaces in parking areas

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.

Claims

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.

2. The device of claim 1, or car-finder, wherein the car-finder functionality is implemented at least partially via software enhancement to a GPS-capable cell-phone 402,

whereby said cell-phone, which is normally carried by said user with its power turned on, provides car-finder functionality,

whereby said user need not carry or supplement said vehicle with any additional device to perform the car-finder function,

whereby said user need not take any specific action to capture the location of the vehicle,

and whereby the user is able to determine the position of the vehicle after determining that it 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.

3. The device of claim 1 wherein the first, or position sensing, means utilizes external transmitting geo-location references 704,

whereby the device utilizes position sensing systems such as GPS, Magellan, or LORAN.

4. The device of claim 3 further comprising at least one supplemental measurement device selected from the set consisting of differential position sensor, inertial sensor, orientation sensor, and flux compass 302-110,

whereby the fidelity of the position velocity data is enhanced and the accuracy of the park/walk position determination is improved.

5. The device of claim 1 further comprising:

(a) means for said user to select from among candidate parking locations 320,

(b) means for guiding said user from the current position to the selected parking location via sensory cues that nominally change as the user moves 322.

6. The device of claim 1 wherein at least one component of claim 1 (a)-(f) is implemented at least partially via communications with some external system 502,

whereby device functions may be enabled or augmented by the external systems,

and whereby the car-finder function may be controlled via those systems.

7. The device of claim 6 further comprising a seventh means for superimposing candidate parking locations on graphics of the current location, derived at least partially from an external system 326,

whereby parking locations are superimposed over a reference such as a map or aerial photo to provide an additional frame of reference for said user.

8. The device of claim 6 wherein said first means for position sensing comprises:

(a) a user-device transmitter 712 providing signals configured to be received by a one or more external receivers 714, from which received signals the location of the transmitter is determined,

whereby the car-finder device operates with cell-tower based or other comparable geo-location systems.

9. A method for finding a parked vehicle from which the user has previously exited, comprising the following steps:

(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.

10. The method of claim 9 further comprising:

(a) carrying a device nominally with the user that enables sensing of the user position 202.

11. The method of claim 9 further comprising:

(a) overlaying graphics defining references for the current location 610 over a display of at least one parking location,

whereby the user may be aided with map or over-head images to provide a spatial reference.

12. The method of claim 9 further comprising:

(a) providing means for said user to select 608 from among multiple possible parking locations 606,

(b) guiding said user to the selected location as said user moves.

13. The method of claim 12 further comprising:

(1) providing audible prompts to direct the user to the selected parking location 614.

14. A system for finding a parked vehicle from which the user has previously exited, comprising the following:

(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.

15. The system of claim 14 wherein said first means of position sensing comprises a sensor nominally carried by said user 202.

16. The system of claim 14 wherein said first mean of position sensing comprises:

(a) a transmitter nominally carried by the user 712,

(b) at least one external receiver 714 configured to utilize the received signals to determine the user location.

17. The system of claim 14 further comprising at least one supplemental measurement device nominally carried by the user and selected from the set consisting of differential position sensor, altimeter, inertial sensor, orientation sensor, and flux compass 302-110,

whereby the fidelity of the position velocity data is enhanced and the accuracy of the park/walk position determination is improved.

18. The system of claim 14 further comprising:

(a) an input device configured to allow said user to select from among at least one candidate parking locations 320,

(b) means for guiding said user from the current position to the selected parking location via sensory cues that nominally change as the user moves 322.

19. The system of claim 18 wherein said means for guiding comprises a display, nominally carried by said user, that provides an indication of the relative position of the parking location relative to the current position what is nominally updated as said user moves.

20. The system of claim 18 further comprising a display configured to overlay graphics of the current area 326,

whereby parking locations are superimposed over a reference such as a map or aerial photo to provide an additional frame of reference for said user.