SYSTEM AND METHOD TO DETECT HIDDEN MATERIALS USING AN ANDROID MOBILE TELEPHONE

• US 20140355384A1
• Filed: 06/03/2013
• Published: 12/04/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 06/04/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Abion Inc.
• Original Assignee: Abion Inc.
• Inventors: Workman, Michael George
• Granted Patent: US 9,417,119 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 367/93
• CPC Class Codes: G01H 1/00 Measuring characteristics of vibrations in solids by using direct conduction to the detector G01H9/00, G01H11/00 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 90/167 Systems integrating technologies related to power network operation and communication or information technologies for supporting the interoperability of electric or hybrid vehicles, i.e. smartgrids as interface for battery charging of electric vehicles [EV] or hybrid vehicles [HEV]
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 30/12 Remote or cooperative charging

Abstract

A system and method using an Android cellular telephone to detect hidden materials, or contraband, in an automobile by measuring vibration. The mathematical formula frequency of vibration uses the mass M which affects the vibration. As mass of solid surface changes, so does the vibration. If difference in the vibration is detected between the inspected vehicle and empty vehicle that is the baseline, it may indicate hidden materials or contraband. The Android mobile cellular telephone contains components needed to implement this system and method. An accelerometer. A vibrator. A touch screen display. A computer operating system, Android, that runs Android Java software. SQLite, a computer database. A computer network connection to the internet using a wireless network. A GPS sensor to provide the latitude and longitude location of the phone during testing The phone also provides an electrical power source using the phone battery, or wall outlet electricity.

Claims

1. A method for detecting hidden materials or contraband using an android mobile telephone that applies vibration to the surface of a vehicle and measures the resulting surface vibration of that surface and compares with the known surface vibration of a vehicle free of hidden or contraband materials to determine if hidden or contraband materials are present in the vehicle, comprising:

a. providing a display that allows the user to select the manufacturer/make of a vehicle from a list of known vehicle manufacturer/make.

b. providing a memory that allows a series of characters that is the selected manufacturer/make to be stored by the android phone.

c. providing a display that allows the user to select the color of a vehicle from a list of common vehicle colors.

d. providing a memory that allows a series of characters that is the selected color to be stored by the android phone.

e. providing a display that allows the user to designate the type of vehicle.

f. providing a memory that allows a series of characters that is the designated type of vehicle to be stored by the android phone.

g. providing a display that allows the user to designate the part of vehicle to be examined.

h. providing a memory that allows a series of characters that is the designated part of the vehicle to be stored by the android phone.

i. providing a display that displays the manufacturer/make, color, type, and part of the vehicle previously selected and designated.

j. providing a display that allows the user to click a button to cause the android phone to vibrate to apply that vibration to the surface of an vehicle and measure the resulting average vibration using android phone accelerometer to get the test vibration.

k. providing a memory to store the average vibration measured by the android phone accelerometer.

l. providing a memory to store the baseline vibration measurement, the vibration measurement of the surface of a vehicle that contains no hidden materials or contraband that applies to the manufacturer, type, and part of the vehicle.

m. providing a memory to store the simple baseline vibration measurement, the vibration measurement of the surface of a vehicle that contains no hidden materials or contraband that applies only to the type and part of the vehicle.

n. providing a means to compare the vibration measurement of the surface of a vehicle, the test vibration, to the baseline vibration measurement of a vehicle that contains no hidden materials or no contraband to identify a difference between the test vibration and the baseline vibration measurement to determine if hidden or contraband materials are present.

o. providing a memory to store the results of the comparison between the test vibration and the baseline vibration of the surface of a vehicle.

p. providing a means to compare the vibration measurement of the surface of a vehicle, the test vibration, to the simple baseline vibration measurement of a vehicle that contains no hidden materials or no contraband to identify a difference between the test vibration and the simple baseline vibration measurement to determine if hidden or contraband materials are present.

q. providing a memory to store the results of the comparison between the test vibration and the simple baseline vibration of the surface of a vehicle.

r. providing a display to enter the tolerance value of vibration variance that occurs during vibration testing.

s. providing a memory to store the tolerance value of vibration variance.

t. providing a display to enter the key id unique identifier number.

u. providing a memory to store the key id unique identifier number.

2. A method for reporting to a central computer server through a wireless network the descriptive information of a vehicle and the results of testing the vehicle to determine the presence of hidden or contraband material comprising:

a. providing the means to report to the central computer server the key id, vehicle manufacturer/make, vehicle color, vehicle type, vehicle part tested, date and time of test, and pass or fail results of testing to determine presence of hidden or contraband materials within the vehicle.

b. providing the means to report to the central computer server the latitude and longitude coordinates of the vehicle tested using the android phone gps also known as android phone global positioning system.

3. A method for receiving from a central computer server through a wireless network the known baseline and simple baseline vibration measurements for vehicles to be used in testing vehicles for the presence of hidden or contraband materials comprising:

a. providing the means to obtain from the central computer server the baseline vibration values that apply to a vehicle manufacturer/make, type, and part.

b. providing the means to obtain from the central computer server the simple baseline vibration values that apply to a vehicle type and part.