Advanced notification system and method utilizing a distinctive telephone ring
DCFirst Claim
1. An advance notification method for notifying a user of an impending arrival of a vehicle at a vehicle stop, comprising the steps of:
- (a) monitoring travel of said vehicle; and
(b) initiating a telephone call to a user telephone before said vehicle reaches said vehicle stop to thereby indicate impending arrival of said vehicle at said vehicle stop, wherein said telephone call originates from a base station remotely located with respect to said vehicle and wherein said user telephone exhibits a distinctive sound that is different than at least one other sound that is capable of being exhibited by said user telephone; and
(c) upon establishing communication between said base station and said user telephone, providing a report regarding travel status of said vehicle from said base station to said user telephone.
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Accused Products
Abstract
An advance notification system (10) and method notifies passengers of the impending arrival of a transportation vehicle, for example, a school bus (19), at a particular vehicle stop. The system (10) generally includes an on-board vehicle control unit (VCU) (12) for each vehicle (19) and a base station control unit (BSCU) (14) for making telephone calls to passengers in order to inform the passengers when the vehicle (19) is a certain predefined time period and/or distance away from the vehicle stop. Significantly, the telephone call to advise of the impending arrival preferably exhibits a distinctive ring so that the call recipient need not answer the telephone in order to receive the message. The VCU (12) compares elapsed time and/or travelled distance to the programmed scheduled time and/or travelled distance to determine if the vehicle (19) is on schedule. If the vehicle (19) is behind or ahead of schedule, the VCU (12) calls the BSCU (14), which then adjusts its calling schedule accordingly.
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Citations
18 Claims
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1. An advance notification method for notifying a user of an impending arrival of a vehicle at a vehicle stop, comprising the steps of:
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(a) monitoring travel of said vehicle; and
(b) initiating a telephone call to a user telephone before said vehicle reaches said vehicle stop to thereby indicate impending arrival of said vehicle at said vehicle stop, wherein said telephone call originates from a base station remotely located with respect to said vehicle and wherein said user telephone exhibits a distinctive sound that is different than at least one other sound that is capable of being exhibited by said user telephone; and
(c) upon establishing communication between said base station and said user telephone, providing a report regarding travel status of said vehicle from said base station to said user telephone. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
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10. An advance notification system for notifying a user of an impending arrival of a vehicle at a vehicle stop, comprising:
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first means for monitoring travel of said vehicle;
second means for initiating a telephone call to a user telephone before said vehicle reaches said vehicle stop to thereby indicate impending arrival of said vehicle at said vehicle stop, wherein said second means is remotely located with respect to said vehicle and wherein said user telephone exhibits a distinctive sound that is different than at least one other sound that is capable of being exhibited by said user telephone interface; and
third means for causing a report to be communicated to said user telephone, the report having information regarding travel status of said vehicle. - View Dependent Claims (11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18)
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Specification