Wireless diagnostic system for characterizing a vehicle's exhaust emissions
DCFirst Claim
1. A method for characterizing a vehicle'"'"'s emissions, comprising the steps of:
- generating data representative of the vehicle'"'"'s emissions with at least one sensor disposed within the vehicle;
transferring the data to a data collector/router comprising a wireless transmitter configured to transmit data over a wireless communications network;
transmitting data representing the vehicle'"'"'s emissions with the wireless transmitter over the wireless communications network and then to a host computer system;
at the host computer system, analyzing the data representing the vehicle'"'"'s emissions; and
at the host computer system, comparing the analyzed data to at least one predetermined value to characterize the vehicle'"'"'s emissions.
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Abstract
The invention features a method and apparatus for remotely characterizing a vehicle'"'"'s emissions performance. The method features the steps of: i) generating data representative of the vehicle'"'"'s emissions performance with at least one microcontroller disposed within the vehicle; ii) transferring the data through an OBD, OBD-II or equivalent electrical connector to a data collector/router that includes a microprocessor and an electrically connected wireless transmitter; iii) transmitting a data packet representing the data with the wireless transmitter over an airlink to a wireless communications system and then to a host computer; and iv) analyzing the data packet with the host computer to characterize the vehicle'"'"'s emissions performance.
301 Citations
32 Claims
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1. A method for characterizing a vehicle'"'"'s emissions, comprising the steps of:
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generating data representative of the vehicle'"'"'s emissions with at least one sensor disposed within the vehicle;
transferring the data to a data collector/router comprising a wireless transmitter configured to transmit data over a wireless communications network;
transmitting data representing the vehicle'"'"'s emissions with the wireless transmitter over the wireless communications network and then to a host computer system;
at the host computer system, analyzing the data representing the vehicle'"'"'s emissions; and
at the host computer system, comparing the analyzed data to at least one predetermined value to characterize the vehicle'"'"'s emissions. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19)
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20. A system for characterizing a vehicle'"'"'s emissions comprising:
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a microprocessor configured to process data generated by at least one sensor disposed in the vehicle to generate data representative of the vehicle'"'"'s emissions; and
a wireless transmitter in electrical contact with the microprocessor and configured to receive the data representative of the vehicle'"'"'s emissions and transmit it over a wireless communications network to a host computer system, the host computer system configured to receive the data from the network, analyze the data with an algorithm and compare the analyzed data to one or more predetermined values to characterize the vehicle'"'"'s emissions. - View Dependent Claims (21, 22, 23)
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24. A system for characterizing emissions from a plurality of vehicles, each of which includes a wireless device for communicating information about the vehicle to a central location, said system comprising:
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a gateway system that receives emission related data from the plurality of wireless devices located in the plurality of vehicles, said emission-related data representative of emissions generated by each of said plurality of vehicles; and
an Internet-based system that communicates with the gateway system to receive the emission-related data from the gateway system, the internet-based system comprising;
a database system that electronically stores the emission-related data from said plurality of vehicles;
an application system that analyzes the emission-related data to characterize the emissions of each of the plurality of vehicles; and
an interface system that enables users to remotely access over the Internet the analyzed data for the plurality of vehicles. - View Dependent Claims (25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31)
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32. A method for characterizing emissions from a plurality of vehicles, each of which includes a wireless device for communicating information about the vehicle to a central location, said method comprising:
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receiving emission-related data from the plurality of wireless devices located in the plurality of vehicles, said emission-related data representative of emissions generated by each of said plurality of vehicles; and
electronically storing in a database the emission-related data received from the plurality of vehicles;
analyzing the emission-related data to characterize the emissions of each of the plurality of vehicles; and
providing users remote access over the Internet to the analyzed data for the plurality of vehicles.
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Specification