WO2015173826A1

WO2015173826A1 - A system and method for receiving information about a vehicle

Info

Publication number: WO2015173826A1
Application number: PCT/IL2015/050516
Authority: WO
Inventors: Eitan CHEN
Original assignee: Chen Eitan
Priority date: 2014-05-15
Filing date: 2015-05-14
Publication date: 2015-11-19
Also published as: IL232659A0

Abstract

The present invention relates to a method for receiving information about vehicles, comprising the steps of: a) providing a server adapted to retrieve information about vehicles from data stored in a database associated with said server; b) upon receiving a license ID of a specific vehicle as an input, via a User Interface (UI) adapted to interact with the server, searching for a vehicle associated with said license ID in said database; c) upon finding a vehicle associate with the license ID, analyzing the properties of the vehicle associated with the license ID for retrieving information associated with the vehicle from the database and/or from one or more external sources that allow access to the server; and d) sending the retrieved information to be displayed on the UI.

Description

A SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR RECEIVING INFORMATION ABOUT A

VEHICLE

Field of the Invention

The field of the invention generally relates to the field of information system through smartphone and PC applications. More specifically, the invention relates to a system and method for receiving information about a vehicle.

Background of the Invention

Receiving information about a vehicle is not always a simple task. In many cases a user has to achieve the phone number of the driver or of the owner of the vehicle and to contact the driver/owner of the vehicle. If the car is not of a private person, for example a rented car or a car that belongs to a group of motor vehicles owned or leased by a business (i.e., a vehicle fleet), receiving information about the vehicle is even more complicated as the driver on the one hand does not have all the details of the car and on the other hand the rent company /leasing company representative does not always knows what vehicle exactly it is. Moreover if a user would like, for example, to receive information about a car in order to buy it, information about encumbrance or attachment of the vehicle is necessary, and the user has to contact authorities such as the department of transportation, and look for this information. This is a cumbersome process which takes time.

US Patent Application No. 2012/0116661 discloses a system and method for correlation of vehicle and drivers and it helps to contact the driver. However it does not refer to the case where the car is a leasing car and not of a private owner and it does not relate to receiving information about a vehicle.

It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a system and method for receiving information about a vehicle without the need to contact directly with the driver or the owner of the vehicle. Summary of the Invention

The present invention relates to a method for receiving information about vehicles, comprising the steps of:

a. providing a server adapted to retrieve information about vehicles from data stored in a database associated with said server; b. upon receiving a license ID of a specific vehicle as an input, via a User Interface (UI) adapted to interact with said server, searching for a vehicle associated with said license ID in said database;

c. upon finding a vehicle associate with said license ID, analyzing the properties of the vehicle associated with said license ID for retrieving information associated with said vehicle from said database and/or from one or more external sources that allow access to said server;

d. sending the retrieved information to be displayed on the UI.

According to an embodiment of the invention, the method further comprises searching for information about alternative vehicles with properties similar to the analyzed properties of the vehicle associated with the license ID and providing a list of said alternative vehicles.

According to an embodiment of the invention, the method further comprises allowing users to update and add information about a vehicle stored in the database.

According to an embodiment of the invention, the method further comprises allowing users to report information about a vehicle stored in the database.

According to an embodiment of the invention, the UI is part of a dedicated application resides on a user terminal device, in particular mobile device. Alternatively, the UI is part of a website dedicated to interact with the server.

In another aspect, the present invention relates to a system for receiving information about vehicles, comprising:

a) at least one processor; and

b) a memory comprising computer-readable instructions which when executed by the at least one processor causes the processor to execute an information service that retrieves information about vehicles from data stored in a database associated with a server that runs said service, wherein the information service:

i. receives a license ID of a specific vehicle as an input via a User Interface (UI) adapted to interact with said server; ii. searches for a vehicle associated with said license ID in said database;

iii. analyzes the properties of the vehicle associated with said license ID for retrieving information associated with said vehicle from said database and/or from one or more external sources that allow access to said server; and iv. sends the retrieved information to be displayed on the UI.

Brief Description of the Drawings

Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram of the method of the invention;

- Figs. 2a-2f show exemplary screen layouts of an application that implements the method of the invention for a user who wants to receive information about a car; and

Figs. 2g-2j schematically show exemplary screen layouts of an application that implements the method of the invention for a user who wants to sell a car. Detailed Description of Preferred Embodiments

Through the description the term "vehicle fleet" indicates groups of motor vehicles owned or leased by a business, government agency or other organization rather than by an individual or family. Typical examples are vehicles operated by car rental companies, taxicab companies, public utilities, public bus companies, and police departments.

The present invention relates to a system and method for receiving information about a vehicle such as a car. The invention is also relevant for buying and selling purposes and have the advantage of publishing and providing information about vehicles while they are still in use, and still "moving on the road", so that, for example a user who wishes to buy a car can receive information about any car he sees on the roads and doesn't necessarily have to go to a car selling. Another major advantage on the side of the seller is the case of leasing company or a vehicle fleet, in the fact that the sale of the car can start before a car is brought to a car yard and "disappears" among all other parking cars.

The system of the present invention also enables to update information about a specific vehicle if necessary (e.g., for privacy reasons, only the owner of a specific vehicle registered to the system may update the information about that vehicle), to add a remark or to report about a specific vehicle (e.g., this can be done by any user).

An owner of a vehicle subscribes to the system of the invention so that any person, who wishes to receive information about the vehicle, can receive all information available, and a person, who wants to receive information about a vehicle that belongs to a vehicle fleet, may search (via a smartphone application program of the present invention) for the car by providing the car's identification or license ID (e.g., as appear on the car's registration plate), and in return that person may get all the information available about that car. The car's identification can be t

Figs. 2a-2j schematically show an example for using the system of the present invention through a dedicated apphcation that resides on a mobile device such as a smartphone (e.g., an iPhone). In case a person drives in the road and in the middle of the way he notices a car he might be interested to buy. In some embodiments, in order to use an information service provided by the system of the present invention, the person may subscribe first to the service via the application as schematically shown in Fig. 2a, although it is not mandatory. In order to receive information about the car, the person (i.e., the user) needs to provide the car's identification such as the license plate number of the car (i.e., license ID) as an identification input to the system of the present invention, as indicated by numeral 21 in Fig. 2b. In return, the system retrieves available information about the car from at least one source (e.g., internal database and/or external sources) and display it via the application as shown in Fig. 2c, including information about encumbrance or attachment of that car, without the need to contact directly the owner/driver of the car. The system also allows to watch pictures of the desirable car (if available) as shown in Fig. 2d. After the user receives all the information about the car and the contact details (e.g., of the seller, owner or other contact person) via the application, the user can contact the seller of the car as can be seen in Fig. 2e or the user may provide his/her contact information (e.g., email and/or telephone number) in order to allow the seller to contact him/her.

According to an embodiment of the invention, the system allows the user to add notes and remarks about a reviewed car through the application. The notes can be privately associated with a reviewed profile of a car. For example, a subscribed user, which is interested to add some notes about a currently reviewed car, can insert notes through a private profile section in the application (See Fig. 2f). In the user's private profile, the user can see all the previous searches he performed and the cars he reviewed. In a car selhng stage, a user, which wants to sell a car, needs to insert the required details about that car, such as license plate number (i.e., license ID), model, color, year, etc. (Fig. 2g - 2h), and optionally to upload one or more photos of the car (Fig. 2i). Upon completing the car selling stage, a confirmation message is displayed as shown in Fig. 2j.

The system of the invention can also be used in a case where a user wants to update details or report about a car - such as inappropriate behavior or driving violation performed by the driver of a car registered to the system. For example, in a case where a person drives in the road and in the middle of the way he notices a car that is driving dangerously. The person can, for example, report about the dangerous car through the smartphone application of the invention or the person can watch the profile of said car and find out about the car, if it has history of dangerous driving or accidents (e.g., by retrieving information from external source or online government sources). In a case where the car is a leasing car or belongs to fleet vehicles, and not of a private owner, a person that wants to get information about the car, can reach the information through the application of the present invention in contrast to a case where the person contacts the driver of the car, which probably don't know the history of the car, or in contrary, contact the leasing company which may provide information about similar cars, but do not always have the necessary information immediately about a specific car.

Fig. 1 schematically describes a method of receiving information about a vehicle, according to an embodiment of the present invention. First, at step 1, a user login to the system via a dedicated application that is adapted to run on a mobile device 14 or on a Personal Computer, or via dedicated website. If the user is a person who wishes to publish information about a vehicle, for example a private car owner, or a leasing company representative, then step 2 is applied, and the user inserts the information about the vehicle with the license ID. In step 3, the system publishes the vehicle with the license ID. All the information is stored in a database 13 via a server 12 of the system.

If the user is a person who wishes to receive information about a vehicle, then step 4 is applied, and the user provides the license ID to the system via the application in one of three possible options:

The first option, in step 5, is to type the license ID as an input. In this case, the system receives the license ID as a textual input and recognizes it immediately with no further analyses.

- The second option, in step 6, is a visual option, where the user takes a photo of the vehicle's registration plate and provides the photo as an input.

- The third option, in step 7, is a vocal option, where the user records/provides a sound that says the license ID of the vehicle (for example, the user records himself saying the number/characters that appear on the registration plate of the vehicle).

If the user chooses the visual option of step 6, the next step is step 8, where an image recognition system is activated to recognize the vehicle license ID (e.g., by using known automatic number plate recognition methods). In case the user chooses the vocal option of step 7, then step 9 is applied and a sound recognition scan audio system is activated to recognize the vehicle license ID (e.g., by using speech-to-text methods). After the license ID was recognized, the system runs a search, which looks for all available information about the vehicle by using the license ID in step 10, the data and the search results are processed in the server 12, and are stored in the data base 13. The results are transferred to the user that looks for information about a vehicle.

In an embodiment of the invention, the system analyses the data of the vehicle, and provides other vehicles with similar data which may be relevant for the user. For example, in case a user is interested in buying a car, the system analyzes the information about the specific car that the user inserted as an input and searches for vehicles with similar or better properties. The properties can be the car model, the year of manufacture, the color of the car, mileage, special accessories, etc. The results are presented to the user as a recommendation to the user to explore other vehicle profiles.

In an embodiment of the invention, the system is connected to external sources, such as data bases associated with formal authorities, as the minister of transportation, and retrieves information about the vehicle, such as charges and encumbrance or attachment of the vehicle. This way the system of the invention provides to the user comprehensive information at once and saves the user time, efforts and the need to look for information in different sources. Of course some of the information may be available for some practical fee.

While some embodiments of the invention have been described by way of illustration, it will be apparent that the invention can be carried out with many modifications variations and adaptations, and with the use of numerous equivalents or alternative solutions that are within the scope of persons skilled in the art, without departing from the spirit of the invention or exceeding the scope of the claims.

Claims

1. A method for receiving information about vehicles, comprising the steps of:

a) providing a server adapted to retrieve information about vehicles from data stored in a database associated with said server; b) upon receiving a license ID of a specific vehicle as an input, via a User Interface (UI) adapted to interact with said server, searching for a vehicle associated with said license ID in said database;

c) upon finding a vehicle associate with said license ID, analyzing the properties of the vehicle associated with said license ID for retrieving information associated with said vehicle from said database and/or from one or more external sources that allow access to said server; and

d) sending the retrieved information to be displayed on the UI.

2. A method according to claim 1, further comprising searching for information about alternative vehicles with properties similar to the analyzed properties of the vehicle associated with the license ID and providing a list of said alternative vehicles.

3. A method according to claim 1, further comprising the step of allowing users to update and add information about a vehicle stored in the database.

4. A method according to claim 1, further comprising the step of allowing users to report information about a vehicle stored in the database.

5. A method according to claim 1, wherein the UI is part of a dedicated application resides on a user terminal device, in particular mobile device.

6. A method according to claim 1, wherein the UI is part of a website dedicated to interact with the server.

7. A system for receiving information about vehicles, comprising:

a) at least one processor; and

b) a memory comprising computer-readable instructions which when executed by the at least one processor causes the processor to execute an information service that retrieves information about vehicles from data stored in a database associated with a server that runs said service, wherein the information service: i. receives a license ID of a specific vehicle as an input via a User Interface (UI) adapted to interact with said server; ii. searches for a vehicle associated with said license ID in said database;