MOBILE LOCK WITH RETRACTABLE CABLE

• US 20140000322A1
• Filed: 06/26/2013
• Published: 01/02/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 07/02/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Mobiloc, LLC
• Original Assignee: Donald S. Williams
• Inventors: WILLIAMS, Donald S.
• Granted Patent: US 8,854,207 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 70/18
• CPC Class Codes: B62H 5/00 Appliances preventing or indicating unauthorised use or theft of cycles; Locks integral with cycles fittings for preventing or indicating use or theft of vehicles in general B60R; general features of locks E05B
• CPC Class Codes: B62H 5/003 using chains or cables chain or cable locks per se E05B67/003; with alarm E05B45/005
• CPC Class Codes: E05B 39/005 Locks with means for tracking the location of locked items, e.g. freight containers
• CPC Class Codes: E05B 71/00 Locks specially adapted for bicycles, other than padlocks locks integral with holders for parking or storing bicycles B62H3/00; locks integral with cycles B62H5/00
• CPC Class Codes: E05B 73/0011 with retraction of the flexible element for storage E05B73/0029 takes precedence; for padlocks E05B67/006
• CPC Class Codes: Y10T 70/409 Shackles

Abstract

A mobile lock with a retractable cable. The mobile lock is an integral component of a mobile device (e.g., bicycle, scooter, stroller, etc.) or attachable thereto and includes retractable cable that is wrapped around a stationary object (e.g., tree, bike rack, etc.). The retractable cable reconnects to a lock component on a body component of the mobile lock to prevent theft of the mobile. The mobile lock is always available for locking the mobile device. The mobile lock also includes an integral wireless locator system that can precisely locate the mobile device in real-time if stolen. The wireless locator system also automatically send messages (e.g., e-mail, text, instant messages, voice, etc.) and make automatic posts to social networking sites (e.g., FACEBOOK, TWITTER, etc.) and social shopping sites (CRAIG'"'"'S LIST, E-BAY, etc.) that the mobile device has been stolen.

Claims

1. A mobile lock comprising:

a body component with a retractable cable;

one end of the retractable cable including a cable lock end component that is insertable into and removable from a cable attaching component and a second end of the retractable cable attached to a cable retraction component that retracts the retractable cable into the body component when not in use;

one end of the cable lock end component including a tamper resistant component to prevent tampering at a connection between the cable lock end component and the cable attaching component and a second end of the cable lock end component including an engaging portion to securely engage the cable lock end component into the cable attaching component;

the cable attaching component integral to the body component for securely engaging the second end of the cable lock end component of the retractable cable when the retractable cable is being used to secure a mobile device to a solid object;

a cable unlocking component for unlocking the second end of cable lock end component from the cable lock component;

an attachment component connected to the body component for attaching the mobile lock to the mobile device;

a location component inside the body component with a circuit configured for providing real-time physical location information of the mobile device and for securely and wirelessly communicating with a communications network via a wireless interface, the location component including at least;

a non-transitory memory, a baseband transceiver or an ultra-wideband transceiver, a wireless Radio Frequency (RF) antenna, a processor, a security interface, an internal power source, an accelerometer and a Global Positioning System (GPS) location chip set.

2. The mobile lock of claim 1 wherein the body component comprises a metal, plastic, or composite material.

3. The mobile lock of claim 2 wherein a metal body component includes stamped, cast or forged metals, including, hardened steel, stainless steel or other metals.

4. The mobile lock of claim 2 wherein a plastic body component includes an injection molded, rotation molded, blow-molded, extruded, pultruded or pullwound plastic body component.

5. The mobile lock of claim 4 wherein a molded plastic body component includes thermoplastics comprising Polyethylene, Polyvinyl chloride, Polypropylene, Polyethylene terephthalate, Polymethyl methacrylate, or Polycarbonate thermoplastics.

6. The mobile lock of claim 4 wherein an extruded, pultruded or pullwound plastic body component includes Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC), Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene (ABS), High Impact Polypropylene (HIP), Polypropylene, High-Density Polyethylene (HDPE), Polycarbonate, Polyethylene Terephthalate Glycol (PETG), Nylon Fiber reinforced Polypropylene, or Fiber Reinforced Plystyrene plastics.

7. The mobile lock of claim 2 wherein the composite materials include Fiber-reinforced polymers (FRP) including thermoplastic composites, short fiber thermoplastics, long fiber thermoplastics or long fiber-reinforced thermoplastics.

8. The mobile lock of claim 1 wherein the retractable cable includes a hardened component comprising a braided cable, wire rope or chain covered with a plastic or rubber or composite material coating or a cut resistant coating comprising a resistant plastic, and wherein the coating or cut resistant coating on the retractable cable includes one or more integral metal or optical wires used to detect tampering with the retractable cable.

9. The mobile lock of claim 1 wherein the cable attaching component and cable unlocking component include a mechanical lock or an electrical lock.

10. The mobile lock of claim 9 wherein the mechanical lock accepts a mechanical device to lock and unlock the mechanical lock and the electrical lock accepts an electrical signal to lock and unlock the electrical lock, wherein the electrical lock includes a wireless interface.

11. The mobile lock of claim 1 wherein the cable retraction component includes a mechanical spring or an electrical motor.

12. The mobile lock of claim 1 wherein a wireless interface on the location component or the cable unlocking component includes a wireless interface for:

a Wireless Personal Area Network (WPAN), Radio Frequency (RF), IEEE 802.11a, 802.11b, 802.11g, 802.11n, 802.15.4 (ZigBee), 802.16a, 802.16g, Wireless Fidelity (WiFi), Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX), High Performance Radio Metropolitan Area Network (HIPERMAN) RF Home, Bluetooth, Infrared (IrDA), Radio Frequency Identifier (RFID), Global Positioning System (GPS), Near Field Communications (NFC), Machine-to-Machine (M2M) communications, Internet Protocol (IP), Voice over IP (VoIP), Transmission Control Protocol (TCP)/IP, User Datagram Protocol (UDP)/IP, Short Message Service (SMS) or Instant Message (IM) wireless communications protocol signal.

13. The mobile lock of claim 1 wherein a wireless interface on the location component includes a wireless interface for:

a wireless cellular telephone network, a wireless Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN), a Packet Cellular Network (PCN), Global System for Mobile Communications, (GSM), Generic Packet Radio Services (GPRS), Personal Communications Services network (PCS), a Cellular Digital Packet Data (CDPD), Wireless Application Protocol (WAP), or a Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB) wireless network.

14. The mobile lock of claim 1 wherein the location component securely communicates with the communications network with a Wireless Encryption Protocol (WEP), Wireless-Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA), Robust Security Network (RSN), Advanced Encryption Standard (AES), Data Encryption Standard (DES), Triple Data Encryption Standard (3DES), Secure Hash Algorithm (SHA), Message Digest-5 (MD-5), Electronic Code Book (ECB), Diffie and Hellman (DH), HyperText Transport Protocol Secure, (HTTPs), Secure Sockets Layer (SSL), or Transport Layer Security (TLS) method.

15. The mobile lock of claim 1 wherein the wireless communications network includes a plurality of target network devices each with one or more processors and a application for receiving location information from the location component of the mobile lock.

16. The mobile lock of claim 15 the plurality of applications on the plurality of target network devices including access via the communications network to a plurality of television sites, Internet television sites, search engine sites, social networking sites, social shopping sites, law enforcement sites or emergency information sites.

17. The mobile lock of claim 15 wherein the plurality of target network devices include computers, mobile phones, portable game playing devices, smart phones and tablet computers.

18. The mobile lock of claim 1 wherein the location component receives an emergency wireless signal from an application on a target network device with one or more processors via the wireless communications network to indicate the mobile device including the mobile lock has been stolen and wherein the location component on the mobile lock automatically and periodically broadcasts a wireless signal that indicates the mobile device has been stolen allowing the mobile device to be tracked in real-time by law enforcement or emergency services personal.

19. The mobile lock of claim 1 wherein the location component of the mobile lock automatically sends via the communications network one or more different types of messages to a plurality of target network devices, the one or more different types of messages including electronic mail (e-mail) messages, short message service (SMS) messages, instant messages (IM) or voice messages indicating the mobile device has been stolen.

20. The mobile lock of claim 18 wherein the location component automatically posts electronic information about the mobile device indicating the mobile device has been stolen to a plurality of different sites on the communications network including:

television sites, Internet television sites, search engine sites, social networking sites, social shopping sites, law enforcement sites or emergency information sites.

21. The mobile lock of claim 1 wherein the location component is configured for assisting preventing the mobile device from entering a restricted geographical area that has been saved in non-transitory storage on the location component, for tracking in real-time on a graphical map a current physical location and a route traveled to the current physical location or provide time, distance or calories burned information to an application on a target network device via the communications network for health and fitness activities completed on the mobile device including the mobile lock.

22. The mobile lock of claim 1 wherein the mobile device includes:

bicycles, motorcycles, scooters, mopeds, baby carriages, baby strollers, sports equipment, construction equipment or personal mobile items.

23. The mobile lock of claim 1 wherein the communications network includes a cloud communications network and a plurality of cloud applications for mobile device location comprising:

a cloud computing Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), including a cloud software infrastructure service for mobile device location, a cloud Platform as a Service (PaaS) including a cloud software platform service for mobile device location and a Specific cloud software service as a Service (SaaS) including a specific cloud software service for mobile device location for the mobile lock.