Intermittent driving system

• US 7,759,818 B2
• Filed: 02/15/2008
• Issued: 07/20/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 02/21/2007
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Renesas Electronics Corporation
• Original Assignee: NEC Electronics Corporation (Renesas Electronics Corporation)
• Inventors: Fuchigami, Takashi
• Primary Examiner(s): Deberadinis; Robert L.
• Application Number:
  US12/071,122
• Publication Number:
  US 20080197701A1
• Time in Patent Office: 886 Days
• Field of Search: 307/9.1, 307/10.2
• US Class Current: 307/10.2
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 25/04 operating on the propulsion system, e.g. engine or drive motor
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 25/1018 Alarm systems characterised by features related to the general power supply
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 25/102 a signal being sent to a remote location, e.g. a radio signal being transmitted to a police station, a security company or the owner
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 25/104 characterised by the type of theft warning signal, e.g. visual or audible signals with special characteristics
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 25/20 Means to switch the anti-theft system on or off
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 25/24 using electronic identifiers containing a code not memorised by the user

Abstract

An intermittent driving system includes a control target circuit to determine and notify a switching timing of ON/OFF of a power supply, and a control circuit to send a power supply ON signal for turning on the power supply or a power supply OFF signal for turning off the power supply of the control target circuit based on the switching timing decided by the control target circuit. The control target circuit is an in-vehicle monitoring circuit including a monitoring camera to monitor a in-vehicle and the control target circuit determines the switching timing based on a monitoring result of the monitoring camera.

Claims

1. An intermittent driving system, comprising:

a first control target circuit detecting a first security situation of a vehicle;

a second control target circuit detecting a second security situation of said vehicle at a first interval time and outputting a first request signal for changing said first interval time to a second interval time to turn on said second control target circuit, said first request signal being determined by the second control target circuit in response to a result of said first security situation detected and a result of said second security situation detected; and

a control circuit sending a power supply ON signal for turning on a power supply or a power supply OFF signal for turning off of the power supply of the second control target circuit based on the first request signal from the second control target circuit.

2. The intermittent driving system according to claim 1, wherein said second control target circuit outputs a second request signal for activating said first control target circuit in response to a result of the detected second security situation and said control circuit sends a power supply ON signal for turning on the power supply of the first control target circuit in response to the second request signal from the second control target circuit.

3. The intermittent driving system according to claim 2, wherein the second control target circuit outputs an ID indicating the first control target circuit with the second request signal, and said control circuit activates the first control target circuit based on the ID.

4. The intermittent driving system according to claim 1, wherein said control circuit has an information of a plurality of IDs corresponding to a plurality of said interval times and the second control target circuit outputs said ID corresponding to the second interval time as said first request signal.

5. The intermittent driving system according to claim 1, wherein the second control target circuit includes a door lock control circuit to control opening and closing a door based on a door lock signal or a door unlock signal.

6. The intermittent driving system according to claim 5, wherein upon detection by an in-vehicle monitoring circuit that there is abnormality in the vehicle based on an image taken by a monitoring camera, the in-vehicle monitoring circuit outputs said second request signal for activating said first control target circuit to said control circuit.

7. The intermittent driving system according to claim 6, wherein said first control target circuit includes an immobilizer to determine whether or not identifying information of a key corresponds to identifying information of a vehicle.

8. The intermittent driving system according to claim 7, wherein said first control target circuit further includes said door lock control circuit and/or said immobilizer.

9. The intermittent driving system according to claim 5, when an in-vehicle monitoring circuit detects that there is abnormality in the vehicle based on an image taken by a monitoring camera and receives the detected said first security situation from the first control target circuit, the in-vehicle monitoring circuit determines to change said first interval time to said second interval time for turning on said second control target circuit, the second interval time being shorter than the first interval time.

10. The intermittent driving system according to claim 9, wherein said first control target circuit further includes said door lock control circuit and/or an immobilizer.

11. The intermittent driving system according to claim 10, wherein said door lock control circuit unlocks the door based on a determination of whether the door is locked and outputs said second request signal for activating said immobilizer to said control circuit.

12. The intermittent driving system according to claim 5, wherein an in-vehicle monitoring circuit determines that a case where a person is detected in the vehicle is abnormal and a case where a person is not detected in the vehicle is normal while the vehicle is stopped and a door is locked.

13. The intermittent driving system according to claim 12, wherein said first control target circuit further includes said door lock control circuit and/or an immobilizer.

14. An intermittent driving system, comprising:

an in-vehicle monitoring circuit which detects a situation in a vehicle with a monitoring camera;

a door lock control circuit which detects whether a door is locked; and

a control circuit which activates the door lock control circuit when an abnormal situation is detected, to check a record that the door was unlocked.