Vehicle-mounted emergency report device

• US 9,616,835 B2
• Filed: 03/05/2014
• Issued: 04/11/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 03/21/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: DENSO Corporation
• Original Assignee: DENSO Corporation
• Inventors: Koya, Hidetaka
• Primary Examiner(s): MULLEN, THOMAS J
• Application Number:
  US14/778,015
• Publication Number:
  US 20160144816A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,133 Days
• Field of Search: 340436, 340455, 34063611, 34063615, 34063619
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 2021/0027 Post collision measures, e.g. notifying emergency services
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 2021/01088 wireless
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 21/00 Arrangements or fittings on vehicles for protecting or preventing injuries to occupants or pedestrians in case of accidents or other traffic risks safety belts or body harnesses in vehicles B60R22/00; seats constructed to protect the occupant from the effect of abnormal g-forces, e.g. crash or safety seats, B60N2/42; energy-absorbing arrangements for hand wheels for steering vehicles B62D1/11; energy-absorbing arrangements for vehicle steering columns B62D1/19
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 19/00 Alarms responsive to two or more different undesired or abnormal conditions, e.g. burglary and fire, abnormal temperature and abnormal rate of flow
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 21/182 Level alarms, e.g. alarms responsive to variables exceeding a threshold
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 25/016 Personal emergency signalling and security systems emergency non-personal manually actuated alarm activators G08B25/12
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 25/10 using wireless transmission systems G08B25/009 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 25/14 Central alarm receiver or annunciator arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72454 according to context-related or environment-related conditions

Abstract

A vehicle-mounted emergency report device having a function of transmitting an emergency report signal to a center device via a communication network when a vehicle has been determined to collide, includes a backup battery supplying an operating power when electric power supplied from a vehicle battery decreases, and a voltage detection unit detecting a voltage of the backup battery. Also, the vehicle-mounted emergency report device has a first determination unit determining whether the voltage detected is lower than a battery exhaustion warning threshold, a second determination unit determining whether a second order differential coefficient calculated by differentiating a battery voltage function twice by time is negative, and a warning unit refraining from warning when the voltage detected is lower than the threshold and the coefficient is not negative, and warning when the coefficient is negative. Thus, decrease of a discharge performance of the backup battery can be detected accurately.

Claims

1. A vehicle-mounted emergency report device mounted in a vehicle that has a function of transmitting an emergency report signal to a center device via a communication network and is configured to operate using electric power supplied from a vehicle battery as operating power, the vehicle-mounted emergency report device comprising:

a backup battery supplying the operating power to operate the vehicle-mounted emergency report device when the electric power supplied from the vehicle battery decreases;

a voltage detection unit detecting a voltage of the backup battery;

a first determination unit determining whether the voltage detected by the voltage detection unit is lower than a battery exhaustion warning threshold;

a second determination unit determining whether a second order differential coefficient calculated by differentiating a battery voltage function of the backup battery twice by time is negative; and

a warning unit;

refraining from warning of battery exhaustion when the voltage detected is lower than the battery exhaustion warning threshold and the second order differential coefficient is not negative; and

warning of the battery exhaustion when the voltage detected is lower than the battery exhaustion warning threshold and the second order differential coefficient is negative.

2. The vehicle-mounted emergency report device according to claim 1, comprising:

a calculation unit calculating an estimated time until the backup battery becomes inoperative when the voltage detected is lower than the battery exhaustion warning threshold and the second order differential coefficient is negative; and

a load decreasing unit decreasing a load when the estimated time is less than a setup value.

3. The vehicle-mounted emergency report device according to claim 2, wherein

a voice call is available between an occupant in the vehicle and the center device;

and

the load decreasing unit decreases the load by decreasing a volume of the voice call or finishes the voice call.

4. The vehicle-mounted emergency report device according to claim 1, wherein the backup battery includes a rechargeable battery charged with the electric power supplied from the vehicle battery.

5. The vehicle-mounted emergency report device according to claim 4, wherein the rechargeable battery includes a lithium ion battery or a nickel-hydrogen battery.