Time-based disablement of equipment
DCFirst Claim
Patent Images
1. A method of enabling and disabling a vehicle in response to payments being timely made, comprising the steps:
- a) computing a payment due deadline;
b) generating a reference code which corresponds to said deadline;
c) providing said reference code to a comparator;
d) receiving, via a keypad at the vehicle, an additional code;
e) passing said additional code to said comparator;
f) comparing said additional code with said reference code;
g) disabling said vehicle if agreement between said additional code and said reference code is not detected prior to said payment due deadline;
h) enabling said vehicle if agreement between said additional code and said reference code is detected, wherein said disabling step disables a system which supports causing ignition in an engine of said vehicle, said system includes only components not dedicated to directly causing a spark to initiate combustion; and
generating a next reference code which corresponds to the next payment due deadline if an agreement is found between said additional code and said reference code.
11 Assignments
Litigations
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A disabling module in communication with a control module operates to disable or partially disable equipment in response to the failure of a user to complete a specific task, such as make a loan or lease payment. When a user makes a payment on an outstanding loan, usually a loan related to specific equipment, such as a motorized vehicle, a control module is notified of the payment. The control module causes the equipment to be enabled or disabled in accordance with payment receipt.
154 Citations
45 Claims
-
1. A method of enabling and disabling a vehicle in response to payments being timely made, comprising the steps:
-
a) computing a payment due deadline; b) generating a reference code which corresponds to said deadline; c) providing said reference code to a comparator; d) receiving, via a keypad at the vehicle, an additional code; e) passing said additional code to said comparator; f) comparing said additional code with said reference code; g) disabling said vehicle if agreement between said additional code and said reference code is not detected prior to said payment due deadline; h) enabling said vehicle if agreement between said additional code and said reference code is detected, wherein said disabling step disables a system which supports causing ignition in an engine of said vehicle, said system includes only components not dedicated to directly causing a spark to initiate combustion; and generating a next reference code which corresponds to the next payment due deadline if an agreement is found between said additional code and said reference code. - View Dependent Claims (2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11)
-
-
3. A method of enabling and disabling equipment in response to payments being timely made, comprising the steps:
-
a) computing a payment due deadline; b) generating a reference code which corresponds to said deadline; c) providing said reference code to a comparator; d) receiving, via a keypad at the equipment, an additional code; e) passing said additional code to said comparator; f) comparing said additional code with said reference code; g) disabling said equipment if agreement between said additional code and said reference code is not detected prior to said payment due deadline; and h) enabling said equipment if agreement between said additional code and said reference code is detected, wherein said computing of a payment due deadline further comprises computing a payment deadline in agreement with terms of a loan formula having parameters selected from the group consisting of;
total number of payments, payment period, grace period, start date, and combinations thereof, and wherein said computing a payment due deadline step is performed in an initialization process where a host computing apparatus is connected to a client computing apparatus, the host computing apparatus providing the client computing apparatus with a database including a plurality of payment due deadline data elements.
-
-
12. A system for enabling and disabling a vehicle in response to timely payments being made comprising:
-
a disabling module connected to said vehicle; a control module in communication with said disabling module; a keypad at the vehicle; and means for periodically receiving a code corresponding to a payment deadline and transmitting said code to said control module, wherein said disabling module is connected to, and disables, a system which supports causing ignition in an engine of said vehicle, said system includes only components not dedicated to directly causing a spark to initiate combustion. - View Dependent Claims (13)
-
-
14. A method for enabling and disabling a vehicle comprising the steps of:
-
computing at least one deadline; generating a first code for each at least one deadline; receiving, via a keypad at the vehicle, a second code; comparing said first code with said second code; disabling said vehicle if said comparing step determines that said first code and said second code are not in agreement prior to said at least one deadline; and enabling said vehicle if said comparing step determines that said first code and said second code are in agreement, wherein said disabling step disables a system which supports causing ignition in an engine of said vehicle, said system includes only components not dedicated to directly causing a spark to initiate combustion. - View Dependent Claims (15, 16, 17)
-
-
18. A method for enabling and disabling equipment comprising the steps of:
-
computing at least one deadline; generating a first code for each at least one deadline; receiving, via a keypad at the equipment, a second code; comparing said first code with said second code; disabling said equipment if said comparing step determines that said first code and said second code are not in agreement prior to said at least one deadline; and enabling said equipment if said comparing step determines that said first code and said second code are in agreement, wherein each first code is unique.
-
-
19. A method for enabling and disabling equipment comprising the steps of:
-
computing at least one deadline; generating a first code for each at least one deadline; receiving a second code; comparing said first code with said second code; disabling said equipment if said comparing step determines that said first code and said second code are not in agreement prior to said at least one deadline; and enabling said equipment if said comparing step determines that said first code and said second code are in agreement, wherein said receiving step receives said second code from a portable device.
-
-
20. A system for enabling and disabling a vehicle comprising:
-
a disabling module connected to said vehicle; a control module in communication with said disabling module; and means for periodically receiving a code and transmitting said code to said control module, wherein said means for periodically receiving a code and transmitting said code is a keypad at the vehicle, wherein said disabling module disables said vehicle when said code is not in agreement with a reference code before a predetermined time exceeds a predetermined deadline, wherein said disabling module is connected to, and disables, a system which supports causing ignition in an engine of said vehicle, said system includes only components not dedicated to directly causing a spark to initiate combustion, and wherein the reference code is based on a payment due date. - View Dependent Claims (21, 22, 23, 24)
-
-
25. A method for improving timely payments by controlling the state of operability of a vehicle, the method comprising:
-
generating a code, the code being associated with a payment due deadline; receiving a code from a keypad at the vehicle; processing the code received from the keypad; permitting operation of the vehicle if the processing of the code received from the keypad results in verification of the code received from the keypad prior to the expiration of the payment due deadline, wherein if the processing does not result in verification of the code received from the keypad, the vehicle is at least partially disabled, wherein partial disablement includes disabling a system which supports causing ignition in an engine of the vehicle, the system including only components not dedicated to directly causing a spark to initiate combustion. - View Dependent Claims (26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32)
-
-
33. A method for improving timely payments by controlling the state of operability of a vehicle, the method comprising:
-
generating a code, the code being associated with a payment due deadline; receiving a code from a keypad at the vehicle; verifying the code received from the keypad; permitting operation of the vehicle if the code received from the keypad is verified prior to the expiration of the payment due deadline, wherein if the code received from the keypad is not verified, the vehicle is at least partially disabled, wherein partial disablement includes disabling a system which supports causing ignition in an engine of the vehicle, the system including only components not dedicated to directly causing a spark to initiate combustion. - View Dependent Claims (34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40)
-
-
41. A method of enabling and disabling a vehicle in response to payments being timely made, comprising:
-
a) computing a payment due deadline; b) generating a reference code which corresponds to said deadline; c) providing said reference code to a comparator; d) receiving, via a keypad at the vehicle, an additional code; e) passing said additional code to said comparator; f) comparing said additional code with said reference code; g) disabling said vehicle if agreement between said additional code and said reference code is not detected prior to said payment due deadline; and h) enabling said vehicle if agreement between said additional code and said reference code is detected, wherein said disabling step disables a system which supports causing ignition in an engine of said vehicle, said system includes only components not dedicated to directly causing a spark to initiate combustion, and wherein said computing of a payment due deadline further comprises computing a payment deadline in agreement with terms of a loan formula having parameters selected from the group consisting of;
total number of payments, payment period, grace period, start date, and combinations thereof, and wherein said computing a payment due deadline step is performed after an initialization process of a device which controls enabling and disabling of the vehicle;i) generating a next reference code which corresponds to the next payment due deadline if an agreement is found between the additional code and the reference code. - View Dependent Claims (42, 43, 44)
-
-
45. A method of enabling and disabling equipment in response to payments being timely made, comprising the steps:
-
a) computing a payment due deadline; b) generating a reference code which corresponds to said deadline; c) providing said reference code to a comparator; d) receiving, via a keypad at the equipment, an additional code; e) passing said additional code to said comparator; f) comparing said additional code with said reference code; g) disabling said equipment if agreement between said additional code and said reference code is not detected prior to said payment due deadline; and h) enabling said equipment if agreement between said additional code and said reference code is detected, wherein said disabling step disables a system which supports causing ignition in an engine of said vehicle, said system includes only components not dedicated to directly causing a spark to initiate combustion, wherein said computing of a payment due deadline further comprises computing a payment deadline in agreement with terms of a loan formula having parameters selected from the group consisting of;
total number of payments, payment period, grace period, start date, and combinations thereof.wherein said computing a payment due deadline step is performed in an initialization process where a host computing apparatus is connected to a client computing apparatus, the host computing apparatus providing the client computing apparatus with a database including a plurality of payment due deadline data elements and reference codes, and wherein said method repeats steps a–
h using each of the plurality of payment due deadline data elements and reference codes.
-
Specification