Vehicle emergency reporting device

• US 6,690,302 B1
• Filed: 01/08/2002
• Issued: 02/10/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 07/26/2000
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Mitsubishi Denki Kabushiki Kaisha (Mitsubishi Electric Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Mitsubishi Denki Kabushiki Kaisha (Mitsubishi Electric Corporation)
• Inventors: Inomata, Jin
• Primary Examiner(s): PHAM, TOAN NGOC
• Application Number:
  US10/030,229
• Time in Patent Office: 763 Days
• Field of Search: 340/989, 340/988, 340/993, 340/426.19, 340/426.2, 340/426.28, 340/5.72, 701/2, 701/207
• US Class Current: 340/989
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 2021/0027 Post collision measures, e.g. notifying emergency services
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 25/016 Personal emergency signalling and security systems emergency non-personal manually actuated alarm activators G08B25/12
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/205 Indicating the location of the monitored vehicles as destination, e.g. accidents, stolen, rental

Abstract

An emergency reporting apparatus for a vehicle that reports an accident to a predetermined receiving center, where the apparatus necessarily exists in the vehicle when an accident happens, makes it possible to report an emergency without requiring the passenger to perform a troublesome operation such as the connection to a predetermined part when he/she gets into the vehicle, and allows medical support to be provided without delay by specifying each occupant. The apparatus includes a vehicle-mounted terminal that detects when an accident happened to the vehicle and performs short distance communication in a non-contact manner to send information concerning the accident, and a portable terminal, that is a mobile telephone, includes a keyless entry control for unlocking or locking a door of the vehicle and performs short distance communication with the vehicle-mounted terminal in the non-contact manner, and transmits the accident information to a report receiving center.

Claims

1. An emergency reporting apparatus for a vehicle comprising:

a vehicle-mounted terminal that is mounted on the vehicle, includes an accident detecting means for detecting an accident happened to the vehicle and a communicating means for sending information concerning the accident when said accident detecting means detects the accident, and sends the accident information; and

a portable terminal that is a mobile telephone, includes a door open/close control means for unlocking or locking a door of the vehicle and a communicating means for communicating with the communicating means of said vehicle-mounted terminal, and transmits the accident information sent from said vehicle-mounted terminal to a preset transmission destination.

2. An emergency reporting apparatus for a vehicle according to claim 1, wherein the door open/close control means of said portable terminal includes a communicating means and unlocks or locks the vehicle door by operating a door unlocking/locking means mounted on the vehicle.

3. An emergency reporting apparatus for a vehicle according to claim 1, wherein the door open/close control means of said portable terminal sends a door unlocking signal or a door locking signal to the vehicle-mounted terminal via the communicating means provided in the portable terminal in order to unlock or lock the vehicle door by operating a door unlocking/locking means mounted on the vehicle via the vehicle-mounted terminal.

4. An emergency reporting apparatus for a vehicle according to claim 1, wherein said portable terminal includes a position detecting means and transmits the accident information, to which positional information has been added by said transmitting means, to the preset transmission destination.

5. An emergency reporting apparatus for a vehicle according to claim 1, wherein when detecting a shortage of remaining charge in a battery, said portable terminal informs the vehicle-mounted terminal of the shortage of the remaining charge in the battery using said communicating means, and said vehicle-mounted terminal notifies a user of the shortage of the remaining charge in the battery using an information notifying means mounted on the vehicle.

6. An emergency reporting apparatus for a vehicle according to claim 1, wherein said vehicle-mounted terminal communicates with said portable terminal using said communicating means at predetermined time intervals and, when the communication becomes impossible, notifies a user that it becomes impossible to transmit an emergency report, the notification being made using an information notifying means mounted on the vehicle.

7. An emergency reporting apparatus for a vehicle according to claim 1, wherein said portable terminal includes a door unlocking button for unlocking the vehicle door and a door locking button for locking the vehicle door.

8. An emergency reporting apparatus for a vehicle according to claim 1, wherein said portable terminal includes a door unlocking/locking button for unlocking and locking the vehicle door.

9. An emergency reporting apparatus for a vehicle according to claim 8, wherein said vehicle-mounted terminal stores personal identification information that concerns each occupant other than a driver and is inputted when the occupant gets into the vehicle and, when an accident happens, transmits a number of people riding in the vehicle and the personal identification information concerning each occupant to the transmission destination via said portable terminal.

10. An emergency reporting apparatus for a vehicle according to claim 1, wherein said portable terminal includes a door unlocking and conversation starting off hook button for unlocking the vehicle door and starting a telephone conversation and a door locking and conversation ending on hook button for locking the vehicle door and ending the telephone conversation.

11. An emergency reporting apparatus for a vehicle according to claim 1, wherein said portable terminal includes an information notifying means,

said vehicle-mounted terminal informs said portable terminal whether the door is in an unlocked state or a locked state using said communicating means, and

said portable terminal notifies a user of whether the door is in an unlocked state or a locked state using said information notifying means.

12. An emergency reporting apparatus for a vehicle according to claim 1, wherein said vehicle-mounted terminal prestores identification information identifying a person and controls one of unlocking and locking of the door, ignition of an engine, and start of the vehicle by comparing the identification information with information sent from said portable terminal via the communicating means.

13. An emergency reporting apparatus for a vehicle according to claim 1, wherein said portable terminal includes a person identifying means for identifying a person and, when an accident happens, transmits identification information concerning the person to the transmission destination.