Vehicle Monitoring Devices, Vehicle Monitoring Management Devices, and Vehicle Monitoring Systems

• US 20160275799A1
• Filed: 07/10/2015
• Published: 09/22/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 03/20/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ken Smith
• Original Assignee: Automap, LLC
• Inventors: Smith, Michael
• Granted Patent: US 10,109,201 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/02 Banking, e.g. interest calculation or account maintenance credit or loans G06Q40/03
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/10 using counting means or digital clocks
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/207 with respect to certain areas, e.g. forbidden or allowed areas with possible alerting when inside or outside boundaries

Abstract

Vehicle monitoring devices, vehicle monitoring management devices, and vehicle monitoring systems are described. According to one aspect, a vehicle monitoring device includes first circuitry configured to communicate with a vehicle being monitored and to receive information regarding the vehicle at a plurality of moments in time, second circuitry coupled with the first circuitry and configured to generate a plurality of messages, wherein individual ones of the messages include the information regarding the vehicle which was received at one of the plurality of moments in time and timing data which is indicative of timing of the vehicle data according to an independent timing protocol which is utilized by the vehicle monitoring device and another device which is remote from the vehicle monitoring device, and wherein the first circuity is configured to communicate the plurality of messages externally of the vehicle monitoring device.

Claims

1. A vehicle monitoring device comprising:

first circuitry configured to communicate with circuitry of a vehicle being monitored and to receive information regarding the vehicle at a plurality of moments in time;

second circuitry coupled with the first circuitry and configured to generate a plurality of messages, wherein individual ones of the messages include the information regarding the vehicle which was received at one of the plurality of moments in time and timing data which is indicative of timing of the vehicle data according to an independent timing protocol which is utilized by the vehicle monitoring device and another device which is remote from the vehicle monitoring device; and

wherein the first circuity is configured to communicate the plurality of messages externally of the vehicle monitoring device.

2. The device of claim 1 wherein the timing data of the messages is a plurality of different values of a timing variable.

3. The device of claim 2 wherein the second circuitry is configured to determine a first value of the timing variable after the first circuitry communicates with the vehicle.

4. The device of claim 2 wherein the second circuitry is configured to determine a first value of the timing variable as a result of the first circuitry communicating with the vehicle.

5. The device of claim 2 wherein the second circuitry is configured to increment the value of the timing variable a plurality of times to generate the timing data, and wherein the messages include the different values of the timing variable which correspond to the timing of the reception of the information regarding the vehicle at respective ones of the moments in time.

6. The device of claim 5 wherein the second circuitry is configured to increment the value of the timing variable the plurality of times by a known amount in accordance with a known period.

7. The device of claim 5 wherein the second circuitry is configured to randomly generate a first value of the timing variable.

8. The device of claim 7 wherein the second circuitry is configured to randomly generate the first value of the timing variable.

9. The device of claim 5 wherein the second circuitry is configured to encrypt the values of the timing variable within the messages before the communicating of the messages.

10. The device of claim 9 wherein the second circuitry is configured to encrypt the values of the timing variable using an identifier of the first circuitry in one embodiment.

11. The device of claim 1 wherein the first circuitry is configured to continuously communicate the plurality of messages.

12. The device of claim 1 wherein the timing data is used to determine a period of time which has passed since a reference moment in time.

13. The device of claim 1 wherein the second circuitry is configured to generate the timing data without use of any communications external of the vehicle monitoring device.

14. The device of claim 1 wherein the timing data is independent of calendar data.

15. A vehicle monitoring management device comprising:

communications circuitry configured to receive a message which includes information regarding a vehicle being monitored, first timing data which is indicative of timing of the information regarding the vehicle being monitored, and second timing data which is independent of the first timing data; and

processing circuitry coupled with the communications circuitry and configured to process the first timing data and the second timing data to determine whether the information regarding the vehicle being monitored is valid and to generate an alert with respect to the vehicle being monitored as a result of a determination that the information regarding the vehicle is not valid.

16. The device of claim 15 wherein the processing circuitry is configured to compare the first and second timing data to process the timing data and to generate the alert as a result of the comparison of the first and second timing data being different by at least a specified amount of time.

17. The device of claim 15 wherein the second timing data is indicative of timing of the message.

18. The device of claim 17 wherein the second timing data comprises a timestamp corresponding to a day and time of a calendar based timing system, and the first timing data is indicative of a passage of time from a reference moment in time which is independent of the calendar based timing system.

19. The device of claim 18 wherein the processing circuitry is configured to establish the reference moment in time as a result of the communications circuitry receiving a first message regarding the vehicle being monitored.

20. The device of claim 18 wherein the processing circuitry is configured to compare a period of time between the timestamp and another timestamp of a previous message which included information regarding the vehicle being monitored with the passage of time indicated by the first timing data to determine whether the information regarding the vehicle being monitored is valid.

21. The device of claim 15 wherein the first timing data is a value of a timing variable which is continuously incremented a known amount at a rate by a device which communicates with the vehicle being monitored.

22. The device of claim 21 wherein the processing circuitry is configured to calculate the passage of time using the value of the timing variable and an initial value of the timing variable.

23. The device of claim 15 wherein the first timing data is generated by a device which communicates with the vehicle being monitored, and the second timing data is generated by a device which communicates with the communications circuitry.

24. The device of claim 15 wherein the processing circuitry is configured to generate another alert with respect to the vehicle being monitored as a result of not receiving a message which includes information regarding the vehicle being monitored within a specified amount of time.

25. A vehicle monitoring system comprising:

a vehicle monitoring device configured to communicate with circuitry of a vehicle being monitored, to receive information regarding the vehicle at a plurality of moments in time, and to output a plurality of messages externally of the vehicle monitoring device;

wherein the messages individually include the information regarding the vehicle which was received at one of the plurality of moments in time and first timing data which is indicative of timing of the information regarding the vehicle which is contained with the individual message; and

a management device configured to receive the first timing data of the messages and to process the first timing data with respect to second timing data which is independent of the first timing data, and to generate an alert with respect to the vehicle as a result of the processing of the first and second timing data.

26. The system of claim 25 wherein the management device is configured to generate the second timing data.

27. The system of claim 26 wherein the second timing data corresponds to timing of receipt of the first timing data within the management device.

28. The system of claim 25 wherein the first timing data synchronizes the vehicle monitoring device and the management device in time.

29. The system of claim 25 further comprising an intermediary device configured to receive the first messages and to output a plurality of second messages which individually include the information regarding the vehicle contained within one of the first messages and the first timing data contained within the one of the first messages, and wherein the management device is configured to receive the second messages.

30. The system of claim 29 wherein the intermediary device is configured to include the second timing data in the second messages.

31. The system of claim 25 wherein the second timing data comprises a timestamp corresponding to a day and time of a calendar based timing system, and the first timing data is indicative of a passage of time from a reference moment in time which is independent of the calendar based timing system.

32. The system of claim 31 wherein the reference moment in time is determined using an initial one of the messages which was received by the management device from the vehicle monitoring device.

33. The system of claim 25 wherein the management device is configured to receive and store the information regarding the vehicle within a respective record for the vehicle being monitored.