Car finder by cell phone

• US 8,237,591 B2
• Filed: 11/30/2011
• Issued: 08/07/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 09/24/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Denso International America Incorporated (DENSO Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Denso International America Incorporated (DENSO Corporation)
• Inventors: Holcomb, Stephen, McBride, Justin, Wakamatsu, Toshihiro, Sakashita, Akira, Sasaki, Minoru
• Primary Examiner(s): Lu, Shirley
• Application Number:
  US13/307,179
• Publication Number:
  US 20120077475A1
• Time in Patent Office: 251 Days
• Field of Search: 340/5.7, 340/990, 340/93, 340/2.2, 702/208
• US Class Current: 340/990
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/005 including pedestrian guidance indicator
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/0969 having a display in the form of a map
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/205 Indicating the location of the monitored vehicles as destination, e.g. accidents, stolen, rental
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2201/38 Displays
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2201/40 using speech recognition speech recognition per se G10L15/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/1016 Telecontrol
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2242/30 Determination of the location of a subscriber
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42348 Location-based services which utilize the location information of a target
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/493 Interactive information services, e.g. directory enquiries ; Arrangements therefor, e.g. interactive voice response [IVR] systems or voice portals

Abstract

A system for locating a vehicle may include a hand-held device and a communication device on-board the vehicle. The hand-held device may include a screen, and may be adapted to import a map and display a present location of the hand-held device on the map. The communication device on-board the vehicle may be adapted to communicate a present location of the vehicle to the hand-held device. The hand-held device may be capable of displaying the location of the vehicle and the location of the hand-held device on the map at the same time.

Claims

1. A system for locating a vehicle comprising:

a server;

a communication device on-board the vehicle configured to communicate a present location of the vehicle to the server;

a hand-held device having a screen, the hand-held device configured to import a map and to determine a present location of the hand-held device;

wherein the hand-held device is configured to communicate with the server to obtain the present location of the vehicle without communicating directly with the communication device onboard the vehicle;

the hand-held device is configured to display both the present location of the vehicle and the present location of the hand-held device on the map;

the hand-held device includes a user input device displayed on the screen and operable to send a signal to the server to actuate at least one of a horn and a light of the vehicle; and

the user input device is configured to activate when the present location of the hand-held device is within a specified distance from the present location of the vehicle.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the hand-held device is configured to prompt the communication device to determine and communicate the present location of the vehicle to the server.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the hand-held device is configured to determine an updated location of the hand-held device and update the map to indicate the updated location of the hand-held device.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the hand-held device is configured to intermittently update the map to track movement of the hand-held device relative to the vehicle.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the map includes a first icon associated with the location of the hand-held device and a second icon associated with the location of the vehicle.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the map includes a satellite image of the locations of the vehicle and hand-held device.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the hand-held device is a mobile phone.

8. A system for locating a vehicle comprising:

a server;

a first global positioning device in remote communication with the server, the first global positioning device being configured to determine a present location of the vehicle and communicate the present location of the vehicle to the server; and

a hand-held device including a processor, a screen configured to display a map, and a second global positioning device integrated therein;

wherein

the second global positioning device is configured to determine a present location of the hand-held device;

the hand-held device is configured to communicate with the server to obtain the present location of the vehicle without communicating directly with the first global positioning device;

the hand-held device is configured to display both the present location of the vehicle and the present location of the hand-held device on the map;

the hand-held device includes a user input device displayed on the screen and operable to send a signal to the server to actuate at least one of a horn and a light of the vehicle; and

the user input device is configured to activate when the present location of the hand-held device is within a specified distance from the present location of the vehicle.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the second global positioning device is configured to determine an updated location of the hand-held device and the hand-held device is adapted to update the map to indicate the updated location of the hand-held device.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the hand-held device is configured to intermittently update the map to track movement of the hand-held device relative to the vehicle.

11. The system of claim 8, wherein the map includes a first icon associated with the location of the hand-held device and a second icon associated with the location of the vehicle.

12. The system of claim 8, wherein the hand-held device is a mobile phone.

13. The system of claim 8, wherein the hand-held device is an iPhone®

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