Classifications

• • G—PHYSICS
  • G06—COMPUTING; CALCULATING OR COUNTING
  • G06Q—INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY [ICT] SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES; SYSTEMS OR METHODS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
  • G06Q10/00—Administration; Management
  • G06Q10/06—Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• • G—PHYSICS
  • G07—CHECKING-DEVICES
  • G07B—TICKET-ISSUING APPARATUS; FARE-REGISTERING APPARATUS; FRANKING APPARATUS
  • G07B13/00—Taximeters
• • G—PHYSICS
  • G08—SIGNALLING
  • G08G—TRAFFIC CONTROL SYSTEMS
  • G08G1/00—Traffic control systems for road vehicles
  • G08G1/20—Monitoring the location of vehicles belonging to a group, e.g. fleet of vehicles, countable or determined number of vehicles
  • G08G1/202—Dispatching vehicles on the basis of a location, e.g. taxi dispatching

Definitions

• the present invention relates to a method and a system for booking a taxi in individual boxes enabling location and identification! of a calling customer.
• the arrival of cellular radio communication systems of the GSM type for example also does not make it possible to solve this problem because the user provided with a GSM portable station generally does not have at his disposal the telephone number of the company of taxi, and even assuming that he has it, another difficulty which can also be offered to him, is that of being unable to report the place where he is.
• the object of the invention is to overcome the aforementioned drawbacks.
• the subject of the invention is a method of booking a taxi by means of an individual electronic locator unit allowing the location and identification of a calling customer, characterized in that it consists in: calling a central management station by via a mobile telephone of a radio cellular telephone network carried by the calling customer, to report to the central management station the geographical position of the calling customer and his identity by coupling the individual identification unit to the mobile telephone, the geographical coordinates being supplied by a satellite radionavigation receiver integrated into the locator unit,
• the invention also relates to a taxi reservation system, as well as an electronic locator unit for implementing the aforementioned method.
• the method and the system according to the invention have the advantage that they allow a taxi reservation to be made very quickly regardless of the location of the caller inside a cell of a cellular network and whatever whatever the instant of the day the call takes place without the user needing to know the telephone number of the taxi station called. They also have the advantage that they allow the taxi station and the taxi to identify the place where the caller is located very quickly and precisely, thanks to the satellite radio navigation receiver integrated in the electric case. They are also very effective in providing assistance to people who have disappeared in the mountains, for example, in this case it is enough for the person requesting assistance to enter the emergency center code so that it automatically knows the geographical position of the person in distress.
• Figure 1 a diagram to illustrate the composition of a taxi reservation system according to the invention.
• Figure 2 the different steps of the method according to the invention put in the form of a flowchart.
• Figure 3 a perspective view showing a locator unit according to the invention acoustically coupled to a mobile phone of a cellular radio network.
• FIG. 4 an embodiment of a locator housing according to the invention.
• FIGS. 5 and 6 two examples of formatting of messages exchanged between the central management station and the locator unit according to the invention.
• the system according to the invention is adapted to equip a fleet with a determined number of taxis referenced from
• each of the taxis being provided with radio transmission means enabling it to communicate by radio with a central management station 2 and mobile telephones 3 of a cellular radiocommunication network receiving information from electronic locator boxes 4.
• the mobile phones 3 as well as the electronic locator boxes 4 are made available to users of the taxi network, each user 5 having a mobile phone 3 and an electronic locator box 4.
• a radio navigation receiver for example, of the type known under the English abbreviation GPS of "Global Positioning System", receiving information from a cluster of satellites traveling 6a to 6d allowing it by a triangulation calculation to determine the position of the calling on the Earth's geoide.
• each calling person in order to call a taxi, each calling person must put his locator unit 4 with his mobile telephone 3, for example, through a physical, acoustic or infrared link, to allow the transfer of location and identity data from the customer calling from the locator unit 4 in the mobile telephone 3.
• the reservation process is carried out according to the steps referenced from 7 to 13 on the flowchart in Figure 2.
• the process starts in step 7 by a call from the customer who dials on the keyboard of his mobile phone a number identifying a taxi service in the cellular communication network.
• a central management station 2 invites the customer in step 8 by a synthetic voice to couple, acoustically or optically or possibly by a physical link, the locator unit 4 with the mobile phone 3 to allow on the one hand, the transfer in step 9 of the geographic location data calculated by the radio navigation receiver integrated into the locator unit 4 to the central management station by means of the mobile telephone 3 and on the other hand, the identification caller's memory stored inside the case.
• the central management station 2 performs in step 10, an identification of the most suitable taxi to transmit to it in step 11 the location parameters of the calling client that it received in step 9 of the mobile telephone 3.
• the central management station transmits to the calling client the taxi identification parameters as well as a waiting time.
• the process ends in step 13 with a request for transmission of a favorable opinion from the client who can decide at step 14 not to follow up, in particular if he finds that the waiting time is too long. Once the client has given his agreement, the taxi can go to the place indicated to him by the central management station.
• each locator unit 4 is provided with a smart card reader 15, a call button 16 and an LCD display screen 17.
• the unit integrates as shown in FIG. 4 an architecture with microprocessor composed of a GPS-type satellite location module 18, an acoustic modem link 19 for the transfer, for example by means of a modulation of a low frequency signal with two phase states, of location data and of identification towards the microphone of the mobile telephone, and possibly a memory module 20 of the SIM micromodule type as used in the mobile telephones of the GSM system for memorizing parameters specific to the caller allowing his authentication.
• the parameters are provided for example, by the introduction of a smart card containing a confidential code into the smart card reader or better by recognition of the customer's fingerprint according to adequate means comprising for example reading means fingerprints left on a touch screen not shown. All the elements
• microprocessor 21 is suitably programmed to carry out the data exchanges between the locator unit 4 and the central management station 2.
• a example of data formatting to perform these exchanges is shown in Figures 5 and 6.
• the message sent by the locator unit 4 comprises three main zones', one first zone Z1 and a second zone Z2 each coded with a binary word of 22 bits respectively give the longitude E / and the latitude N / S expressed in degrees, minutes and seconds of the position of the calling client and a third zone Z3 coded for example on 32 bits corresponding to the authentication code of the calling client stored in the memory module 20.
• the bits contained in the zone Zl serve as address pointer to a longitude table 23 contained in a memory of the data processing system of the central management station 2.
• the bits of the zone Z2 serve as the address pointer of a word M1 inside the table 23 selected by the bits of the zone Zl.
• the word Ml identifies the street and the number of the street which is closest to the position of the calling customer. Possibly the data processing system of the central station will be able to calculate the distance which separates in the street the calling customer from the number indicated by the word Ml. In the event that the longitude and latitude data calculated by the satellite location module 18 are expressed in grade, the formatting of the location message in FIG. 5 must be modified accordingly. In FIG.
• the message which is sent by the central management station to the locator unit 4 to allow the customer to identify the taxi sent to him by the central management station has 5 zones referenced from Z4 to Z8 defining respectively the make of the vehicle, its model, its color and possibly its license plate number, the waiting time, and a message inviting for example the calling customer to give confirmation that he agrees to wait for the taxi. ;
• each locator unit additionally incorporates a short-range radio frequency communication module referenced 24 in FIG. 4, making it possible to establish a connection radio to the PTT type "y tal alky" with a similar communication module installed in each taxi.
• This provision allows a taxi when he has difficulty finding his client, to establish a dialogue with him. ;
• a proximity link of the "talky walky” type can, according to a more elaborate option, be selective by carrying out a digital transmission of the speech. It consists in transmitting by the central management station, a code number identical to a code number already stored in the memory module 20 of the locator unit towards the taxi responsible for carrying out the race, and in encrypting speech by this number of code which makes speech exchanged for other locator boxes and taxis located nearby unintelligible. In this case, we can also use a code provided by a random code generator.
• the locator unit can be used by the customer to interrogate a multimedia computer of the taxi by transmitting by a modem ensuring an infrared link 23 all the necessary data; when connecting with their email or website or even specialized services.
• This data can be written to the memory module 20 or to a SIM card.
• Each localized box 4 can include an optical link to allow the client, or the person called, to enter into communication with the Internet.
• the selection of an email address is then carried out by successive presses on a key 24 of the selection box, each of them corresponding to an email address or a preprogrammed website.
• this selection each press on a key causes the display of a number or an alphanumeric character on the display screen representative of a site or a pre-programmed email address.

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• Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
• General Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
• Business, Economics & Management (AREA)
• Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
• Strategic Management (AREA)
• Economics (AREA)
• Human Resources & Organizations (AREA)
• Entrepreneurship & Innovation (AREA)
• Game Theory and Decision Science (AREA)
• Educational Administration (AREA)
• Development Economics (AREA)
• Marketing (AREA)
• Operations Research (AREA)
• Quality & Reliability (AREA)
• Tourism & Hospitality (AREA)
• General Business, Economics & Management (AREA)
• Theoretical Computer Science (AREA)
• Traffic Control Systems (AREA)
• Mobile Radio Communication Systems (AREA)

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• 2001
  • 2001-05-10 FR FR0106191A patent/FR2824657B1/fr not_active Expired - Fee Related
• 2002
  • 2002-05-10 EP EP02738236A patent/EP1506536A1/de not_active Withdrawn
  • 2002-05-10 WO PCT/FR2002/001592 patent/WO2002091330A1/fr not_active Application Discontinuation

Non-Patent Citations (1)

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