VEHICLE IDENTIFICATION SYSTEM

• US 20110106800A1
• Filed: 01/07/2011
• Published: 05/05/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 09/07/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Omnitracs LLC (Solera Holdings Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Inventors: ESPINOSA de los MONTEROS, Alfonso, Bacom, Nashina Asaria, Mehta, Sapna P., Volpi, David P., Farmer, Jeffery Charles, Contour, Michael Joseph, Bergman, Philippe
• Granted Patent: US 8,868,099 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/736
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/08 Logistics, e.g. warehousing, loading or distribution; Inventory or stock management
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/008 communicating information to a remotely located station transmission systems for measured values G08C
• 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

Abstract

The specification and drawing figures describe and show a vehicle identification system that includes a programmable application for database management of a plurality of customer-specific vehicle descriptors. The vehicle identification system also includes a mobile computing platform in a mobile satellite communications system adapted to operatively associate the customer-specific vehicle descriptors with a vehicle.

Claims

1. A method of including a customer-specific vehicle descriptor across a mobile communications system, comprising:

receiving a request to add a vehicle nickname specified by a customer of the mobile communications system, wherein the vehicle nickname is associated specifically with a vehicle;

by a programmable application for managing a plurality of customer-specific vehicle descriptors including one or more vehicle nicknames operatively connected to the mobile computing platform via a network management computer, assigning the vehicle nickname to the vehicle in response to the request, wherein the vehicle nickname is different from a vehicle identification number (VIN) of the vehicle; and

providing the vehicle nickname to a mobile computing platform mounted in the vehicle via the mobile communications system, wherein the mobile communications system identifies the vehicle based on the vehicle nickname independent of the VIN.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising communicating with the vehicle via a customer dispatch computer across the mobile communication system.

3. The method of claim 2 further comprising processing a variety of input and output data within the mobile communications system via a network management computer, wherein the network management computer is operatively connected to the customer dispatcher computer.

4. The method of claim 3 further comprising communicating with the customer dispatcher computer across the mobile communications system via a mobile application server included in the mobile computing platform.

5. The method of claim 4 further comprising detecting reconnection between a power cable and the mobile application server via a power cable disconnect detect circuit of the mobile computing platform operatively connected to the mobile application server.

6. In a mobile communications system, an apparatus for assigning a customer-specific vehicle descriptor to a vehicle, comprising:

a means for receiving a request to add a vehicle nickname specified by a customer; and

a means, coupled to the means for receiving, for managing a database including a plurality of customer-specific vehicle descriptors including one or more vehicle nicknames and for associating the vehicle nickname specifically with the vehicle, wherein

the vehicle nickname is different from a vehicle identification number (VIN) of the vehicle; and

the mobile communications system identifies the vehicle based on the vehicle nickname independent of the VIN.

7. The apparatus of claim 6 further comprising means for communicating with the vehicle across the mobile communication system.

8. The apparatus of claim 6 further comprising means for processing a variety of input and output data within the mobile communications system.

9. The apparatus of claim 6 further comprising means for detecting reconnection between a power cable and a mobile application server.

10. A non-transitory storage media comprising program instructions which are computer-executable to implement assigning of a customer-specific vehicle descriptor to a vehicle in a mobile communications system, and which when executed perform the steps of:

receiving a request to add a vehicle nickname specified by a customer; and

managing a database including a plurality of customer-specific vehicle descriptors including one or more vehicle nicknames and for associating the vehicle nickname specifically with the vehicle, wherein

the vehicle nickname is different from a vehicle identification number (VIN) of the vehicle; and

the mobile communications system identifies the vehicle based on the vehicle nickname independent of the VIN.

11. The non-transitory storage media of claim 10 wherein the program instructions further perform the step of communicating with the vehicle across the mobile communications system via a customer dispatcher computer.

12. A method of including a customer-specific vehicle descriptor across a mobile communications system, comprising:

transmitting a request to add a vehicle nickname specified by a customer of the mobile communications system, wherein the vehicle nickname is associated specifically with a vehicle; and

coupling to a programmable application for managing a plurality of customer-specific vehicle descriptors including one or more vehicle nicknames operatively connected to the mobile computing platform via a network management computer, wherein the programmable application assigns the vehicle nickname to the vehicle in response to the request and the vehicle nickname is different from a vehicle identification number (VIN) of the vehicle; and

wherein the mobile communications system provides the vehicle nickname to a mobile computing platform mounted in the vehicle and wherein the mobile communications system identifies the vehicle based on the vehicle nickname independent of the VIN.

13. The method of claim 12 further comprising communicating with the vehicle via a customer dispatch computer across the mobile communication system.

14. The method of claim 13 further comprising processing a variety of input and output data within the mobile communications system via a network management computer, wherein the network management computer is operatively connected to the customer dispatcher computer.

15. The method of claim 14 further comprising communicating with the customer dispatcher computer across the mobile communications system via a mobile application server included in the mobile computing platform.

16. The method of claim 15 further comprising detecting reconnection between a power cable and the mobile application server via a power cable disconnect detect circuit of the mobile computing platform operatively connected to the mobile application server.

17. In a mobile communications system, an apparatus for assigning a customer-specific vehicle descriptor to a vehicle, comprising:

a means for transmitting a request to add a vehicle nickname specified by a customer; and

a means for coupling to a means for managing a database including a plurality of customer-specific vehicle descriptors including one or more vehicle nicknames and for associating the vehicle nickname specifically with the vehicle, wherein

the vehicle nickname is different from a vehicle identification number (VIN) of the vehicle; and

the mobile communications system identifies the vehicle based on the vehicle nickname independent of the VIN.

18. The apparatus of claim 17 further comprising means for communicating with the vehicle across the mobile communication system.

19. The apparatus of claim 17 further comprising means for processing a variety of input and output data within the mobile communications system.

20. The apparatus of claim 17 further comprising means for detecting reconnection between a power cable and a mobile application server.

21. A non-transitory storage media comprising program instructions which are computer-executable to implement assigning of a customer-specific vehicle descriptor to a vehicle in a mobile communications system, and which when executed perform the steps of:

transmitting a request to add a vehicle nickname specified by a customer; and

coupling to a programmable application for managing a database including a plurality of customer-specific vehicle descriptors including one or more vehicle nicknames and for associating the vehicle nickname specifically with the vehicle, wherein

the vehicle nickname is different from a vehicle identification number (VIN) of the vehicle; and

the mobile communications system identifies the vehicle based on the vehicle nickname independent of the VIN.

22. The non-transitory storage media of claim 21 wherein the program instructions further perform the step of communicating with the vehicle across the mobile communications system via a customer dispatcher computer.