Mechanism to monitor vehicle miles traveled

• US 9,037,412 B2
• Filed: 11/15/2013
• Issued: 05/19/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 11/16/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Thomas Dominik Schwanhauser
• Original Assignee: Thomas Dominik Schwanhauser
• Inventors: Schwanhuser, Thomas Dominik
• Primary Examiner(s): Algahaim, Helal A
• Assistant Examiner(s): PATEL, SHARDUL D
• Application Number:
  US14/081,236
• Publication Number:
  US 20140142850A1
• Time in Patent Office: 550 Days
• Field of Search: 701/537, 701/35, 701/32.5, 701/2, 701/29.1, 360/73.01
• US Class Current: 701/537
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 22/00 Measuring distance traversed on the ground by vehicles, persons, animals or other moving solid bodies, e.g. using odometers, using pedometers
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/008 communicating information to a remotely located station transmission systems for measured values G08C
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/085 using electronic data carriers

Abstract

A device for checking the running performance of a motor vehicle, which can have at least the following components: a system for measuring a distance of a motor vehicle which is integrated in a motor vehicle, a vehicle communication system for wireless data transmission, where the system is identifiable by a unique identification number of the motor vehicle, and data may be transmitted from the vehicle to a receiver, a stationary database system for storing and providing data, which is equipped with a receiver that allows communication with the in-vehicle communication system, and an interface which allows stationary and mobile communication terminal system.

Claims

1. An appliance to control the actual miles traveled by a vehicle, comprising:

a system that measures the distance traveled of a vehicle captured by an odometer, which is integrated into the vehicle;

a mobile communication system for wireless transmission, which is integrated into the vehicle and which is identifiable by a unique identification number and can transmit data from the vehicle to a recipient;

a stationary database system equipped with a retrieval interface to facilitate communication with the communication system integrated in the vehicle and performing storage and retrieval of the data;

an interface that enables the stationary and mobile communication system to store and retrieve vehicle-specific data from and to the stationary database system when the identification number associated to a specific vehicle is provided; and

a storage sub-system into saves distance travel data at at least one of configurable time and distance intervals,

wherein the communication system can access the storage sub-system to measure the distance traveled, retain said distance travel data from the vehicle in a memory storage when the communication system cannot communicate with the stationary database, and transmit the retained data when communication is restored.

2. The appliance according claim 1, wherein the communication system uses cellular mobile telephony technology.

3. The appliance according to claim 1, wherein the communication system allows an encrypted transmission and uniquely authenticates itself.

4. The appliance according to claim 3, wherein the communication system implements the encrypted data transmission with an AES and that the secure authentication is implemented with a challenge-response-mechanism using RSA.

5. The appliance according to claim 1, wherein the stationary database system communicates with the communication system and establishes an encrypted connection to the communication system and to ensure its identity by authentication.

6. The appliance according to claim 1, wherein the stationary database system holds for each communication system, an individual record, which is related to the unique identification number of the vehicle and which is used to store the data of the communication system.

7. The appliance according to claim 1, wherein the communication system transmits the captured travel data to the database system at at least one of configured time and distance traveled intervals.

8. The appliance according to claim 1, wherein the system prohibits a later change to the saved travel data and ensures the integrity of the data with a checksum.

9. The appliance according to claim 1, wherein the stationary database system makes the travel data of the vehicle available via an interface to a computer network when the identification number is provided.

10. The appliance according to claim 1, wherein the stationary database system displays the data associated to a communication system with a graphical interface and that it can authenticate itself against its users.

11. The appliance according to claim 1, wherein the database signs the travel data associated to a specific identification number in a legally complaint way.

12. Usage of an appliance according to claim 1 as a system to monitor vehicle miles traveled.