Method and system for transmitting an emergency call

• US 8,498,610 B2
• Filed: 04/25/2008
• Issued: 07/30/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 12/06/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Continental Teves AG & Co. OHG (Continental AG)
• Original Assignee: Continental Teves AG & Co. OHG (Continental AG)
• Inventors: Sthlin, Ulrich
• Primary Examiner(s): Zewdu, Meless N
• Assistant Examiner(s): Chang, Jean
• Application Number:
  US12/746,032
• Publication Number:
  US 20110124311A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,922 Days
• Field of Search: 455/404.2, 455/456.1, 455/466, 340/429, 340/436, 342/357.31
• US Class Current: 455/404.2
• 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: H04L 67/52 specially adapted for the location of the user terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/20 Services signaling; Auxiliary data signalling, i.e. transmitting data via a non-traffic channel
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/90 Services for handling of emergency or hazardous situations, e.g. earthquake and tsunami warning systems [ETWS]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/50 for emergency connections

Abstract

A method and a system for transmitting an emergency call from a vehicle in an accident to an emergency call center, including:

• (a) an automatic accident monitoring unit in the vehicle with a sensor system for detecting an accident of the vehicle,
• (b) a vehicle navigation unit for determining the associated geographic accident coordinates (x,y) of the vehicle, wherein electronic means for generating an emergency call in text form, including at least the accident coordinates (x,y) determined for the vehicle, which includes the official license number of the vehicle for the purpose of dataset identification, and
• (c) a mobile radio unit for transmitting the text form of the emergency call for the reception for the emergency call center.

Claims

1. A method of transmitting an emergency call from a vehicle involved in an accident to an emergency call center, comprising the steps of:

detecting an accident of the vehicle via a sensor system of an automatic accident monitoring unit in the vehicle,

determining associated geographic accident coordinates (x,y) of the vehicle by a vehicle navigation unit,

generating an emergency call in text form, comprising text of the accident coordinates (x,y) determined for the vehicle and text of an official license number of the vehicle configured as a prefix to the emergency call, and transmitting the text form of the emergency call via mobile radio channel to the emergency call center, wherein the emergency call transmitted in text form is sent to the emergency call center in a man-readable standardized data format, and the official license number is used as identification key for a database in the emergency call center so as to facilitate rescue actions.

2. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the emergency call transmitted in the text form is sent by SMS to the emergency call center.

3. The method as claimed in claim 1,

wherein the text form of the emergency call is converted into voice information by the emergency call center itself or an immediately preceding central unit, in order to forward the emergency call containing the license number of the vehicle to a responsible rescue coordination center or a rescue vehicle by voice channel.

4. The method as claimed in claim 1,

wherein a cartographic accident position comprising an address specification is allocated to the geographic accident coordinates (x,y) of the vehicle by a digital map.

5. The method as claimed in claim 4,

wherein the cartographic accident position is obtained in the vehicle by utilizing an on-board vehicle navigation unit.

6. The method as claimed in claim 1,

wherein the vehicle or keeper-specific supplementary information is appended to the emergency call by using information from a central information database allocated to the emergency call center.

7. A system for transmitting an emergency call from a vehicle involved in an accident to an emergency call center, comprising:

an automatic accident monitoring unit in the vehicle with a sensor system for detecting an accident of the vehicle,

a vehicle navigation unit for determining an associated geographic accident coordinates (x,y) of the vehicle,

electronic means for generating an emergency call in text form, comprising text of at least the accident coordinates (x,y) determined for the vehicle, which comprises text of an official license number of the vehicle configured as a prefix to the emergency call, and

a mobile radio unit for transmitting the text form of the emergency call to the emergency call center, wherein the emergency call transmitted in text form is sent to the emergency call center in a man-readable standardized data format, and the official license number is used as identification key for a database in the emergency call center so as to facilitate rescue actions.

8. The system as claimed in claim 7,

wherein the prefix also comprises a country code (D) of the vehicle.

9. The system as claimed in claim 7,

wherein the vehicle or keeper-specific supplementary information is selected from a group consisting of vehicle type, licensed number of persons and vehicle color.

10. A non-transitory computer-readable medium on which a computer program product is stored which, when executed instructs a computer processor to perform the following steps:

generate an emergency call in text form, comprising text of at least an accident coordinates (x,y) determined for a vehicle, including text of an official license number of the vehicle configured as a prefix to the emergency call, and

transmit the text form of the emergency call via mobile radio channel to the emergency call center, wherein the emergency call transmitted in text form is sent to the emergency call center in a man-readable standardized data format, and the official license number is used as identification key for a database in the emergency call center so as to facilitate rescue actions.

11. An electronic device on board a vehicle for transmitting an emergency call, comprising a vehicle navigation unit, a mobile radio unit and an accident monitoring unit with a computer-readable medium as claimed in claim 10.