Notification System For Reporting Status of a Vehicle and Anticipated Arrival Times.

• US 20130307707A1
• Filed: 05/16/2013
• Published: 11/21/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 05/16/2012
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Bus Tracker LLC
• Original Assignee: Bus Tracker LLC
• Inventors: Creech, Neal
• Application Number:
  US13/895,429
• Publication Number:
  US 20130307707A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 340/994
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/047 Optimisation of routes or paths, e.g. travelling salesman problem
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0631 Resource planning, allocation, distributing or scheduling for enterprises or organisations
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/067 Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/127 to a central station ; Indicators in a central station
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/023 using mutual or relative location information between multiple location based services [LBS] targets or of distance thresholds
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/42 for mass transport vehicles, e.g. buses, trains or aircraft

Abstract

Generally, the present invention automatically monitors the travel of vehicles in response to requests from users at remote locations. In this regard, a user at a remote location submits a vehicle indicator (such as a bus number, for example) and a location indicator (such as a bus stop number, for example) to a data manager at a vehicle tracking system. The data manager automatically retrieves travel data and location data based on the vehicle indicator and the location indicator. The travel data indicates the current location of the vehicle identified by the vehicle value, and the location data represents a location along the vehicle'"'"'s route of travel. The data manager then compares the travel data and the location data in order to determine whether the vehicle is a predetermined proximity from the location represented by the location data. When the vehicle is a predetermined proximity from the location identified by the location data (i.e., arrival of the vehicle at the location is imminent), the data manager automatically transmits a notification message to the user at the remote location.

Claims

1. A system for automatically reporting the arrival of a mass transit vehicle comprising:

a mass transit vehicle with a vehicle control unit that can transmit a signal to a vehicle manager that monitors the location of the mass transit vehicle and calculates the mass transit vehicle'"'"'s arrival time to a user defined stop; and

,

when the calculated arrival time by the vehicle control unit to a user defined stop is equal to a user'"'"'s defined notice interval are equal, the vehicle control unit sends a message to the user notifying the user of the mass transit vehicle'"'"'s pending arrival.