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Event-activated reporting of vehicle location

  • US 5,311,197 A
  • Filed: 02/01/1993
  • Issued: 05/10/1994
  • Est. Priority Date: 02/01/1993
  • Status: Expired
First Claim
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1. Apparatus for notifying others that a vehicle accident or other abnormal situation has occurred and of the location of the vehicle, the apparatus comprising:

  • a distance measuring system (DMS) signal antenna and receiver/processor and an activatable transmitter, attached to a vehicle to be monitored, that receives and processes DMS signals from one or more DMS signal broadcasters to determine the location of the antenna and, when the transmitter is activated, to communicate this information to another person or facility that is spaced apart from the receiver/processor;

    vehicle condition sensing means, attached to the vehicle, for sensing the occurrence of at least one of a selected group of abnormal situations at the vehicle, the sensing means being electronically connected to the transmitter so that, when one or more of the selected group of abnormal events or conditions occurs at the vehicle, the sensing means activates the transmitter and communicates the location of the vehicle, at approximately the time the abnormal situation occurs;

    an operations sensor for sensing the value of a vehicle operating parameter at a sequence of times; and

    a temporary information storage memory, connected to the vehicle condition sensing means, that receives and holds the vehicle operating parameter values sensed by the operations sensor, for a time interval of selected length Δ

    ts after each such value is received, and that holds these values for a time interval of length greater than Δ

    ts as soon as a vehicle abnormal situation occurs.

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