G.P.S. management system

• US 7,366,608 B2
• Filed: 07/06/2005
• Issued: 04/29/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 12/29/1999
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: At&T Delaware Intellectual Property, Inc. (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Ingman, R. T. Mitchell, Hamrick, Marvin R.
• Primary Examiner(s): To, Tuan C
• Application Number:
  US11/175,526
• Publication Number:
  US 20050246097A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,028 Days
• Field of Search: 701/213, 701/33, 701/35, 340/426, 340/991, 340/992, 340/993, 342/357
• US Class Current: 701/213
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/16 Anti-theft; Abduction
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/0036 of measured values, i.e. measurement on mobile and position calculation on base station
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 7/00 Methods or arrangements for processing data by operating upon the order or content of the data handled logic circuits H03K19/00
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/008 communicating information to a remotely located station transmission systems for measured values G08C
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 25/001 Alarm cancelling procedures or alarm forwarding decisions, e.g. based on absence of alarm confirmation
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 25/002 Generating a prealarm to the central station
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 25/005 Alarm destination chosen according to a hierarchy of available destinations, e.g. if hospital does not answer send to police station
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 25/006 Alarm destination chosen according to type of event, e.g. in case of fire phone the fire service, in case of medical emergency phone the ambulance
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 25/016 Personal emergency signalling and security systems emergency non-personal manually actuated alarm activators G08B25/12
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/205 Indicating the location of the monitored vehicles as destination, e.g. accidents, stolen, rental
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services
• 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 64/00 Locating users or terminals or network equipment for network management purposes, e.g. mobility management
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/00 Connection management
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/50 for emergency connections
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 128/903 Radio telemetry
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 128/904 Telephone telemetry

Abstract

A management system using Global Positioning System receivers for tracking remote units from a central office and quickly and conveniently determining if those remote units have varied from a set of predetermined parameters of operation. The system also includes provisions that allows information to be sent from the remote units to the central office and vice versa. The system also has safety features that promote the rapid dispatch of law enforcement personnel when requests for emergency assistance have been made from the remote units.

Claims

1. A method for exception reporting in a vehicle management system, comprising:

determining data corresponding to the number of times a vehicle revisits a service center by receiving data corresponding to the vehicle location and noting a revisit if the vehicle location is within a predetermined proximity of the service center corresponding to a revisit to the service center;

determining whether the data corresponding to the number of revisits is outside a range of acceptable values;

if the data corresponding to the number of revisits is outside the range of acceptable values, noting an exception;

determining the duration that the vehicle location is within the predetermined proximity to the service center; and

noting a revisit only whenever the duration is at least a predetermined minimum duration,

so as to avoid noting of permissible visits having a duration less than the predetermined minimum.

2. A vehicle monitoring system for determining whether a vehicle has revisited a service center, comprising:

a receiver for receiving vehicle location information;

a processor in communication with the receiver,

the processor programmed to perform a comparison of the vehicle location information relative to the service center and to determine whether the vehicle is within a predetermined proximity of the service center corresponding to a revisit to the service center;

the processor programmed to note an exception if the number of times the vehicle is determined to have revisited the service center exceeds a range of acceptable values; and

the processor programmed to determine the duration that the vehicle is within the predetermined proximity to the service center, and to determine a revisit only when the duration is at least a predetermined minimum duration,

so as to avoid noting an exception based on a revisit having a duration less than the predetermined minimum.

3. A computer program product readable by a computing apparatus and encoding instructions for exception reporting in a vehicle management system, the instructions comprising:

determining data corresponding to the number of times a vehicle revisits a service center by receiving data corresponding to the vehicle location and noting a revisit if the vehicle location data is within a predetermined proximity of the service center corresponding to a revisit to the service center;

determining whether the data corresponding to the number of revisits is outside a range of acceptable values and, if the data corresponding to the number of revisits is outside a range of acceptable values, noting an exception;

determining the duration that the vehicle location remain within the predetermined proximity to the service center; and

noting a revisit only whenever the duration is at least a predetermined minimum duration,

so as to avoid noting permissible visits having a duration less than the predetermined minimum.