Single wire, infrared, randomly reflected, vehicular multiplexing system
First Claim
1. A multiplexing system for a vehicle controlling various vehicular electrical function loads, such as lights, window motors, seat motors and door locks, comprising:
- at least one optical energy, control, central transmitter and a multiple number of optical energy, remote, slave receivers capable of communicating with at least said control transmitter, said receivers being located and spaced around in various, spaced parts of the interior of the vehicle, there being at least one electrical function load associated with each receiver and controlled by the multiplexing system, at least some of the receivers being located out of a direct, line-of-sight with the transmitter with which it communicates, said control transmitter including optical energy means for having the information between said control transmitter and said receivers being transmitted by optical energy traveling in a random, scattered, diffused manner randomly reflected off the interior surfaces of the interior of the vehicle a multiple number of times as it travels between said receivers and the transmitter with which each communicates and by which electronically intelligible information is transmitted;
a central control module located in the vehicle having said control transmitter associated therewith; and
a series of remote modules, at least one module associated with each of said receivers associated with each of the function loads.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A vehicular, infrared, multiplexing system controlling various vehicular or automotive electrical function loads, such as, for example, lights, window motors, seat motors, door locks, engine start and the like, wherein control and sensing signals are transmitted within the interior of the vehicle by randomly reflected, infrared radiation or similar optical energy carrying electronically intelligible information. The infrared system does not require or rely on direct, light-of-sight or controlled reflection or a continuous optical circuit, but instead relies on randomly reflected, scattered, diffused, infrared radiation reflected from various interior surfaces of the vehicle, including, for example, practically all interior surfaces, such as the windshield, side and rear windows, seats, headliner, instrument panel, rear window, door trim panels, etc. One or more central transmitter/receivers are included in the vehicle'"'"'s interior, including the instrument panel using the windshield, the rear of the center console using the headliner, and/or in the rear package deck using the rear window. A serial, multiplex transmission with half-duplex, serial data bi-directionally format is used, including a sync code alerting the load devices of transmission start, a unique vehicle code (e.g., the VIN), the central control unit'"'"'s MUX command, the central unit'"'"'s cyclic redundancy error checking code, remote unit address, remote'"'"'s MUX response, and remote'"'"'s cyclic rendundancy code. Because all system information is transmitted by infrared, only one wire, used for twelve volt DC power, is required to each of the load units, with the vehicular chassis serving as ground return.
70 Citations
18 Claims
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1. A multiplexing system for a vehicle controlling various vehicular electrical function loads, such as lights, window motors, seat motors and door locks, comprising:
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at least one optical energy, control, central transmitter and a multiple number of optical energy, remote, slave receivers capable of communicating with at least said control transmitter, said receivers being located and spaced around in various, spaced parts of the interior of the vehicle, there being at least one electrical function load associated with each receiver and controlled by the multiplexing system, at least some of the receivers being located out of a direct, line-of-sight with the transmitter with which it communicates, said control transmitter including optical energy means for having the information between said control transmitter and said receivers being transmitted by optical energy traveling in a random, scattered, diffused manner randomly reflected off the interior surfaces of the interior of the vehicle a multiple number of times as it travels between said receivers and the transmitter with which each communicates and by which electronically intelligible information is transmitted; a central control module located in the vehicle having said control transmitter associated therewith; and a series of remote modules, at least one module associated with each of said receivers associated with each of the function loads. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12)
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13. A method of controlling in a vehicle various vehicular electrical function loads, such as lights, window motors, seat motors and door locks, with a vehicular multiplexing system, comprising the following steps:
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(a) providing at least one optical energy, control transmitter and a multiple number of remote, slave, optical energy receivers capable of communicating with said control transmitter located and spaced around in various parts of the interior of the vehicle, said transmitter being associated with a control module and said receivers being associated with remote modules, at least some of said remote receivers being out of a direct, line-of-sight with the transmitter with which it communicates, there being at least one electrical function load associated with at least one remote receiver controlled by the multiplexing system; and (b) transmitting electronically intelligible information between said control transmitter and said remote receivers by transmitting optical energy traveling in a random, scattered, diffuse manner randomly reflected off of the interior surfaces of the interior of the vehicle as it travels to said remote receivers from said transmitter in communicating the information to said receivers. - View Dependent Claims (14, 15, 16, 17, 18)
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Specification