GB2354869A

GB2354869A - Vehicle registration number record and display device

Info

Publication number: GB2354869A
Application number: GB9913875A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Susan Ellen Elks; Alan Elks
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1999-06-16
Filing date: 1999-06-16
Publication date: 2001-04-04
Anticipated expiration: 2019-06-16
Also published as: GB9913875D0; GB2354869B

Abstract

An electronic record and playback for vehicle registration numbers, comprises a keyboard 4 for entering numbers and letters corresponding to the registration number of the vehicle, a memory for storing the registration number so entered, a clock for recording the date and time when the entry was made, and a display 3 for displaying the registration number on demand along with the date and time when the entry was made.

Description

2354869 "Vehicle RegistrgtiOu Number Record and Display Device" This

invention relates to a device for storing and retrieving vehicle registration numbers.

When vehicle registration numbers are required to be taken, such as immediately following a hit and run accident or where a driver is seen to be acting suspiciously without necessarily breaking the law, the potential witness normally has to find something to write with, something to write on and, if possible, find something by which the time and date of the event can be ascertained. Where the witness is a driver all this is usually impractical unless the vehicle is stationary and, even then, the inconvenience caused can make the witness decide not to bother about doing anything at all. Similarly, because not all drivers acting suspiciously or not all vehicles parked in suspicious circumstances are necessarily connected with illegal activity, or potential illegal activity, the general tendency of the public is only to take down vehicle registration details in the most compelling circumstances where a clear offence has been committed with the intention of reporting the incident to the police so that, by definition, a large proportion of potentially valuable information relating to vehicle registration details is never actually recorded.

For these reasons, police appeals for witnesses after accidents or other incidents involving vehicles are commonplace and unless a witness statement can be independently

2 corroborated by another witness it is often difficult to convict an offender who may have secured an alibi or could otherwise cast doubt upon the accuracy of the witness.

The present invention is derived from the realisation that there exists a need for a simple and effective way for, in particular, vehicle drivers or front seat passengers to record vehicle registration numbers with little inconvenience but high accuracy in terms of matching the number with the time and date of the incident for subsequent use in legal proceedings.

According to the invention there is provided an electronic record and playback device for vehicle registration numbers, the device comprising or including a keyboard for entering numbers and letters corresponding to the registration number of a vehicle, a memory for storing the registration number so entered, a clock for recording the date and time when the entry was made, and a display for displaying the registration number on demand along with the date and time when the entry was made.

Conveniently, the device also includes means to enter additional data such as location, make and type of vehicle, colour and so on. In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the device is capable of storing a large number of vehicle registration numbers, such as 99, and has a memory that cannot be erased by the user of the device but only by the device itself so that after the 99th registration number is entered the device overwrites the first such entry, and so on.

3 The keyboard may include playback functions to playback and display all registration numbers stored in the memory in sequence along with the date and time of each entry so that where an incident is reported in, for example, a police appeal for witnesses it is simply necessary for the user of the device to scroll back to. see if a vehicle registration number corresponding to the one being investigated is present in the memory.

The device may also conveniently include a data download function so that the information can be stored centrally, for example in a police database, to enable cross checking of dates and times for vehicle registration numbers and hence the vehicles themselves.

It will be understood that because the device in accordance with the invention can be made of a comparatively small size, such as that of a pocket calculator, it can be readily affixed to convenient parts of the inside of a vehicle so as to encourage a potential user of the device to use it much more frequently than otherwise would be the case for the purpose of recording vehicle registration numbers along with dates and times and without the need for the driver to otherwise stop the vehicle, write down the required information and store it away, such as on a scrap of paper. This obviates the need for a writing instrument, the paper itself and storage thereof after the message has been written and it also obviates the need for ascertaining the correct time and date. Accordingly, if the device is in widespread use it is anticipated that a very large store of 4 potentially useftil information will be generated which can easily be retrieved for subsequent use in police investigations and legal proceedings so that, in turn, the tendency of drivers at large to generally ignore the possibility of their registration number being recorded may be considerably lessened, thereby affecting-the behaviour patterns of drivers who would otherwise drive e.g. too fast or aggressively with little or no regard for other road users.

The invention will now be described, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:

Figure I is a schematic view of the device according to this embodiment showing the keyboard and the display, and Figure 2 is a block diagram of the circuitry between the keyboard and the display.

Referring firstly to Figure I the electronic record and playback device for vehicle registration numbers comprises a generally flat plastics housing I of size similar to that of an ordinary pocket electronic calculator. The housing has a clear plastics upper window 2 behind which is a liquid crystal display 3 displaying, in this embodiment, four fields of information, as is explained below. A keyboard shown generally at 4 is disposed below the display 3 and contains a full set of numbers and the complete roman alphabet as well as function buttons at the lower end thereof The function buttons reading from left to right are firstly to make adjustments to the time, secondly to scroll backwards, thirdly to scroll forwards and fourthly to enter commands into the device.

The fields of information displayed by the liquid crystal display 3 are, starting from. the upper left hand side and moving clockwise, the record number of the entry being made, followed by the entry itselt corresponding to a vehicle registration number, followed by the date and finally the time that the entry was made. In this embodiment of the invention, once the entry has been made it cannot be erased by a user of the device and whilst the entry remains in the memory of the device it will always be associated with the date and time that the entry was made.

Turning now to Figure 2, there is shown a block diagram of the circuitry between the keyboard 4 and display 3. The device is battery powered and when a battery is inserted a 4 Nffh internal timing oscillator starts up, ready to generate a clock signal for the central processing unit (CPU). At the same time, a real-time clock generator, which is governed by a 32.786 N1Hz watch crystal so that accurate time can be maintained, starts to generate real time tick signals used by the CPU to keep time and date.

A power-up sequencer checks battery voltage and when it comes within the correct range a short initialisation period is begun during which an inactivity timer is re- set to send a wake-up signal to the CPU. After the initialisation period the CPU clock is enabled and the CPU uses control and address busses to obtain programme data from a read only memory (ROM) programme memory. The programme tells the CPU to 6 display a message, flashing on and off, using the control buss to send the message from the ROM down the data buss to the display while awaiting entry of a recogni sable time and date. This message may be anything but would typically be "enter correct time and date" when the device is first activated or when the battery is changed.-and thereafter with the time and date set real time data such as a vehicle registration number can be entered as shown in Figure 1.

The CPU processes any key data signals from the keyboard and once it has identified a recognisable time and date, using the control and address busses, it sends the 10 result to a random access memory (RAM) via a data buss.

An inactivity timer monitors the output of an "any key press" detector so that when any key on the keyboard 4 is pressed the CPU is activated and the display 3 enabled. If a key on the keyboard 4 is not pressed within a given time, for example 20 seconds, the inactivity timer sends a sleep signal to the CPU which then switches off the display 3 and goes into an energy-save mode, only listening for a wake up signal from the inactivity timer when a key is pressed and also processing signals from the real-time clock generator to update time and date memory in the RAM.

The first keystroke on the keyboard 4 is therefore always ignored by the CPU but subsequent keystrokes are processed in line with the device specification, such as being able to record up to 99 entries which are timed and dated before the I 00th entry 7 overwrites the first entry, the 10 1 st entry overwrites the second entry, and so on.

When the programme in the CPU is running it interprets the keystrokes-and sends appropriately entered data to the RAM using control, address and. data busses, or it retrieves data from the RAM and sends it to a display driver using the control and data busses. The real time tick signal always takes priority and the CPU pauses to update the time and date memory location in the RAM although it will be understood that this only takes microseconds to achieve and would not normally be noticed by a user of the device.

The display driver provides the necessary voltage level generation to interface directly with the liquid crystal display in a conventional manner.

As an optional feature of this embodiment of the invention, where the power up sequencer detects that the battery voltage is below the required level it disables the inactivity timer and keeps the CPU awake, sending it a battery low signal so that the CPU can send a flashing message to the display 3, such as "change the batteries". Although when any key is pressed it will override the flashing message nevertheless if the inactivity timer has not received a key pressed signal after, say, 20 seconds, the flashing "change the batteries" message will be redisplayed continuously until the battery voltage returns to normal or, more likely, a new battery is inserted.

8 operation of the device is commenced by touching any key whereafter the display 3 will automatically display the next record number in sequence, together with the time and date. The only information missing from the display 3 is then a vehicle registration number and hence it is simply necessary to insert a number and.press "enter" whereafter that entry is then permanently recorded and the next record number is displayed on the screen along with the time and the date. If the keyboard 4 is then not touched for 20 seconds, in this embodiment, the device goes to sleep mode until a key is pressed.

To review the last entry it is simply necessary to press "entei" and for earlier or later entries the arrows provide a scrolling function corresponding to their direction.

It will be understood that in the embodiment described only four fields of information are displayed, three being controlled solely by the CPU, the record number, the time and the date, and the fourth being controlled by direct input from a user of the device corresponding to a vehicle registration number. However, it will be appreciated that additional fields of information may be provided for input by the user and in particular location, type of vehicle, colour and other items of useful information may be insertable by the user of the device. Similarly, it will also be understood that although this embodiment of the device is shown as an individual item of apparatus similar to an electronic calculator in size and shape, nevertheless the invention could form part of an integral record and display means fitted as original equipment to a vehicle with 9 information that may be simply recalled on a display screen, printed in hard copy, or even down loaded onto a computer disk or similar to provide a permanent record of all entries made.

Claims

_10CLAIMS

An electronic record and playback device for vehicle registration numbers, the device comprising a keyboard for entering numbers and letters corresponding to the registration number of a vehicle, a memory for storing the registration number so entered, a clock for recording the date and time when the entry was made, and a display for displaying the registration number on demand along with the date and time when the entry was made.
2. A device as claimed in claim 1, further including means to enter additional data, such as location, make and type of vehicle, colour.
3. A device as claimed in claim 1 or claim 2, wherein the device is capable of storing a plurality of vehicle registration numbers, such as 99, and has a memory that cannot be erased by the user of the device but only by the device itself so that after the last number is entered the device overrides the first such entry, and so on.
4. A device as claimed in any one of claims I to 3, wherein the keyboard includes playback functions to playback and display all registration numbers stored in the memory in sequence along with the date and time of each entry.
5. A device as claimed in any one of the proceeding claims, further including a data download function so that the information can be stored, for example in a police database, centrally to enable cross-checking of dates and times for vehicle -11registration numbers and hence the vehicles themselves.
6. An electronic record and playback device for vehicle registration numbers, substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to the accompanying drawings.