VEHICLE DATA ACQUISITION FOR TRANSPORTATION MANAGEMENT

• US 20140046570A1
• Filed: 12/28/2012
• Published: 02/13/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 08/10/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: XRS Corporation (Solera Holdings Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: XRS Corporation (Solera Holdings Incorporated)
• Inventors: Mohn, Charles, Sekula, Christopher A., Kakumanu, Sarat, Tuttle, Odell R., Fuglewicz, Daniel P., Anderson, Peter S., Martin, Thomas J. Jr.
• Granted Patent: US 9,020,733 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/99
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 17/00 Digital computing or data processing equipment or methods, specially adapted for specific functions information retrieval, database structures or file system structures therefor G06F16/00
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0484 for the control of specific functions or operations, e.g. selecting or manipulating an object, an image or a displayed text element, setting a parameter value or selecting a range
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0631 Resource planning, allocation, distributing or scheduling for enterprises or organisations
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0639 Performance analysis of employees; Performance analysis of enterprise or organisation operations
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/018 Certifying business or products
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/00 Registering or indicating the working of vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/0858 wherein the data carrier is removable
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 7/00 Details or accessories common to the registering or indicating apparatus of groups G07C3/00 and G07C5/00
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/00 Traffic control systems for road vehicles arrangement of road signs or traffic signals E01F9/00 ; automatic vehicle control B62D
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/20 Monitoring the location of vehicles belonging to a group, e.g. fleet of vehicles, countable or determined number of vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 19/167 Control of land vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 5/00 Electrically-operated educational appliances working with questions and answers G09B7/00; simulators G09B9/00; advertising or displaying in general G09F
• 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 4/80 Services using short range communication, e.g. near-field communication [NFC], radio-frequency identification [RFID] or low energy communication

Abstract

A data acquisition device includes a wired module configured to provide a wired connection to a vehicle for gathering vehicle data from the vehicle during operation of the vehicle. The data acquisition device is configured to be mounted inside the vehicle. The data acquisition device further includes short-range wireless communication module configured to wirelessly send the vehicle data in real-time to a portable wireless data transfer and display device in close proximity to the data acquisition device during operation of the vehicle.

Claims

1. A data acquisition device comprising:

a wired module configured to provide a wired connection to a vehicle for gathering vehicle data from the vehicle during operation of the vehicle,

wherein the data acquisition device is configured to be mounted inside the vehicle; and

a short-range wireless communication module configured to wirelessly send the vehicle data in real-time to a portable wireless data transfer and display device in close proximity to the data acquisition device during operation of the vehicle.

2. The device of claim 1, wherein wirelessly sending the vehicle data in real-time to a portable wireless data transfer and display device in close proximity to the data acquisition device during operation of the vehicle comprising:

maintaining an active communication channel between the data acquisition device and the portable wireless data transfer and display device during the gathering of the vehicle data; and

pushing the vehicle data over the active communication channel less than one second after receiving the vehicle data via the wired connection to the vehicle.

3. The device of claim 1, wherein the short-range wireless communication module is a Bluetooth wireless communication module.

4. The device of claim 1, wherein the data acquisition device is configured for real-time recording of safety events data via an accident data recorder.

5. The device of claim 1, wherein the data acquisition device is configured for computation of tax algorithms depending on location of the vehicle via a computation module.

6. The device of claim 1, wherein the device utilizes Society of Automobile Engineer'"'"'s J1939 Fault Codes.

7. The device of claim 1, wherein the device is configured for wirelessly receiving and downloading updates from a portable wireless data transfer and display device via the short-range wireless network.

8. The device of claim 1, further comprising a module configured to receive an input of safety settings.

9. The device of claim 1, wherein the data acquisition device communicates two-ways with the portable wireless data transfer and display device such that the portable wireless data transfer and display device is wirelessly sent at least the vehicle data from the data acquisition device and the data acquisition device wirelessly receives at least driver identification information from the portable wireless display unit.

10. The device of claim 1, further comprising a connector to mate with an engine control module of the vehicle,

wherein the data acquisition device is configured to store vehicle data in response to signals from the engine control module via the memory.

11. The device of claim 10, wherein the device is configured to simultaneously communicate via multiple protocols of at least one engine control module.

12. The device of claim 1, further comprising at least one accelerometer configured to detect movements of the vehicle.

13. The device of claim 1, further comprising a GPS receiver device configured to receive location signals from GPS satellites.

14. The device of claim 1, further comprising a connection port configured to removably receive a data cable of a remote computer device.

15. The device of claim 14, wherein the data connection port of the device comprises a USB connection port arranged along a housing of the data acquisition device.

17. The device of claim 1,

wherein the means for gathering vehicle data comprises a connector to mate with an engine control module of the vehicle,

wherein the means for gathering vehicle data is configured to store vehicle data in response to signals from the engine control module via the memory.

18. The device of claim 17, wherein the means for gathering vehicle data is configured to simultaneously communicate via multiple protocols of at least one engine control module.

19. The device of claim 1, further comprising at least one accelerometer configured to detect movements of the vehicle.

20. The device of claim 1, further comprising a GPS receiver device configured to receive location signals from GPS satellites.

16. A device comprising:

a means for gathering vehicle data from the vehicle during operation of the vehicle; and

a means for wirelessly sending the vehicle data in real-time to a portable wireless data transfer and display device during operation of the vehicle.