MXPA99002043A - Asset location system - Google Patents

Abstract

An asset location system includes a pager (12), a control processor (16), a GPS receiver (20) and a cell phone (14). During normal operation, the equipment on board the tracked asset is in a low power or sleep mode. Upon receiving a location quare from a call center (200), a signal to control processor is powered up. If location information is to be obtained from a particular asset, a GPS receiver obtains latitude and longitude information. This latitude and longitude information is put in a transmittable form by a modem (18). A cellular telephone module then transmits this information to a remote monitoring or response center (100). If desired, data reporting on asset condition may also be sent to remote monitoring or response center along with the location information.

Description

ASSET LOCALIZATION SYSTEM This application claims the benefit of the United States' provisional patent application Series No. 60 / 026,408 filed on September 20, 1996.

Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a communication system; more particularly, the present invention relates to a voiceless communication system for determining the location of an asset such as a tractor trailer, a container, a construction equipment, trucks P & D, service vehicles, au -to • .bu_s_.e-_ • s * __, ___. Ve -__ h.-._; íc • _u • _-l_o__s _.- f-_i.n - .. an --c__iado_s __ /, __, lo.s ... c-.u..a-_le.Js - p * 'ued_e__n. be seized, etc.

Background The location of any particular transportable or mobile asset in an array of transportable or mobile dispersed assets is extremely important to its owner or to the entity responsible for the control and maintenance of the assets. Many asset tracking systems use a sophisticated communications regime in which the asset automatically or periodically reports its location at regular intervals to a central location. Such systems typically have high energy requirements and can not be used effectively in remote areas or situations where the asset must remain unattended for long periods of time.

Therefore, there is a need in the art of a reliable low energy communication system which provides the location of a transportable or mobile asset when required.

Synthesis A lower energy system for reliably reporting the location of a transportable or mobile asset a response or surveillance center includes a voceador, or control or signal processor, a GPS receiver and a cellular telephone.

Specifically, when the need arises to determine the location of a particular mobile asset or mobile asset, a wide-area call-center call is made by a call center to all localized call ers and all goods or assets whose location is tracked by e system of the present invention. A speaker mounted on the wire passes the incoming call to the control or signal processor. If the incoming call is electronically matched to a particular channel, the control or signal processor activates the co-located GPS receiver. The GPS-co-located receiver then provides a signal containing information that describes the physical location of the property to a modem. In addition, the condition of the property or the status information can be provided to the modem. The location and / or operational status information is then transmitted from the moderately via a cell phone to a response or surveillance center. Once the data transmission is complete, the system returns to its lowest strength or sleep mode.

Brief description of the Drawing Figure A better understanding of the location system of a good of the present invention can be had with reference to the figure of the drawing wherein: Figure 1 is a schematic illustration of the operation of the present invention.

Description of Modalities The location system of a good of the present invention spends most of its time in a sleep or low energy mode. In this sleep mode or low energy mode, the location system of a good or asset 10 draws little current from a current source such as a battery, a photovoltaic cell (not shown). When a particular good or mobile or transportable activity is to be located, the system of location of the good on board said asset is awakened or activated When the localization system of good 10 is activated, it sends data of physical location back to a response center or surveillance 100 remote.

As shown in Figure 1, the system d location of a good 10 of the present invention includes or voceador 12 which is mounted on the good to be located. When a speaker 12 is used in the preferred mode, those with ordinary skill in the art will understand that other means of signal reception can also be used.

A cell phone module 14 is provided for communication with the remote monitoring or response center 100. Information such as GPS location data and / or condition status of the good to be sent by the mode of cell phone 14 is delivered to modem 18. E modem 18 conditions the condition data of the digital GPS location and / or location so that these can be sent over the cellular wireless data transmission communications link. Even when a cell phone communication link is used in the preferred embodiment, it will be understood that other types of data transmission means may also be used. The GPS receiver 20 provides data representative of the location of information from the signals received from the orbiting GPS satellites (not shown through the co-located antenna 22.

The double signal or control process 1 determines whether the location question of the call center 200 is for a particular asset. If the location question refers to a particular asset, then the control signal processor 16 on that particular property wakes up or activates the GPS receiver 20 which in turn generates a location signal for the transmission by the cell phone module 14 the remote monitoring or response center 100.

Operation When a particular asset or a class of active assets is to be located, a call is called to a spokesperson through a call center 200. The service being called may be local or encompass the entire country.

The voceador call consists of an alpha-numeric or numeric message that is sent to all the voceadore located on the goods within the system. That fixed vocers to a predetermined category of goods carrying a matched code in the memory of the signal or control processor 16 will respond to the call of the outgoing loudspeaker. Each well-located loudspeaker 12 detects the incoming numerical or alpha numeric message and awakens the processor of control or associated signal 16. The control or signal processor 16 analyzes the incoming numerical message determines whether or not the message refers to the particular good on which the location system is attached. Generally, this is achieved by matching the numeric or received alpha numeric message with the numeric or alpha numeric sequence resident in the memory of the signal or control processor 16. If there is no match, the signal or control processor 16 returns. to sleep or back to its low energy mode. If the alpha numerical or numeric message refers to the particular good to which the location system of property 10 is fixed, then the. signal or control processor 16 awakens or activates the GPS receiver 20 to obtain the data representing the location of the good which is attached to the GPS receiver 20. Since this will most likely be a cold start for the GPS receiver 20, it will be required a few moments for the GPS receiver 20 to acquire the data from the GPS satellites in orbit and convert these data signals into usable information.

After the GPS location is acquired by the GPS receiver 20, the modem 18 of the cell phone module 14 is activated and a call is placed to the appropriate surveillance center 100. To ensure an adequate or secure communication link with the center of response monitoring 10 a proprietary communication protocol can be used. When the communication link is established between the cell phone 14 and the remote surveillance response center 100, the location information data and / or the status data of the bie are transmitted to the remote monitoring or response center 100 In the remote surveillance response center 100, l information describing the location of the property can be displayed on a map or retransmitted to another location as latitude and longitude data. After the remote answering or surveillance center 100 has received the transmitted information, the communication link and the active location system 1 returns back to sleep or returns to the low power operation mode.

If a location information can not be acquired by the GPS receiver 20 within a preset time period after the reception of the call, then the on-board system places a cell phone call to the remote response center 100 to report the call. This call also tells the remote monitoring or monitoring center 100 that the unit is still functional even if the conditions conspire to prevent a fixed GPS location from being carried out.

If the location system of the present invention is connected to a large battery then there is no need for a photovoltaic cell to generate electricity for the location system of the good 10 if the battery is charged regularly. However, with a photovoltaic cell, the location system of the good 10 can operate without any external source of energy as long as the sun falls on the photovoltaic cell for a nominal amount of time each day. A drip charge can also be provided for photovoltaic activated systems where sunlight is not available on a regular basis.

In order to reduce costs, not all cell phones in the location system of goods 10 of the present invention can be cloned to each other, but only one would be activated in order to reduce costs. any time In this way, you will only find a monthly cell phone charge.

Although the property locating system of the present invention has been described with reference to the preferred embodiment, it will be understood by those of ordinary skill in the art that numerous other embodiments of the present invention will be apparent to those with ordinary skill in the art. art once they have knowledge of the previous description. Such other modalities will fall within the scope and meaning of the appended claims.

Claims (19)

1 R E I V I N D I C A C I O N S

1. A system for reporting the location of a mobile or transportable asset or asset to a response center said system comprises: means for receiving a numerical alpha-numeric signal, said means for receiving a digital signal is fixed to the transportable or movable good; a signal processor essentially co-located with said means "for receiving a digital or numerical signal, said signal processor is activated by a signal received from said means for receiving a digital signal; means for providing a representative signal of the physical location that is essentially co-located with said signal processor, said means for providing a signal representative of the physical location being activated only by a predetermined signal received d said signal processor; said means for providing a representative signal of the physical location being constructed arranged to provide a signal representative of the physical location of the movable or transportable asset; and 1 means for transmitting a data signal essentially co-localized with said means for providing a signal representative of the physical location, said means for transmitting a data signal being constructed arranged to transmit the location information data received from said means for provide a representative signal from the physical location to the response center.

2. The system as claimed in clause 1, characterized in that said means for receiving a digital or alpha numeric signal is a voceador.

.3. ..... The system such .y..como. it is claimed. in I clause! _, characterized in that said means for transmitting a data signal is a cell phone module.

4. The system as claimed in clause 1, characterized in that said signal processor further includes means for equalizing said received signal with a predetermined signal.

5. The system as claimed in clause 4, characterized in that it includes means for actuating said means for providing a signal representative of the physical location and said means for transmitting a signal d 1 data when the received signal equal said predetermined signal.

6. The system as claimed in clause 1, characterized in that it includes means for perceiving a condition or state of the movable or transportable asset to provide data describing said condition of the moving or transportable good to said signal processor for transmission to the response center by said means for transmitting a data signal.

7. The system as claimed in clause 1, characterized in that the normal operation of said system is in a sleep or low force mode.

8. The system as claimed in clause 7, characterized in that it includes means for restoring said system to a low energy mode or to sleep after the transmission of a signal with said means for transmitting a data signal.

9. The system as claimed in clause 1, characterized in that said means for providing a signal representative of the physical location is a GPS receiver.

10. The system as claimed in clause 1, further characterized in that it includes a photovoltaic cell to provide electrical power to the other of the components in the system.

11. A method to locate a particular asset in an asset arrangement, said method comprises the steps of: initiate a call of a spokesperson for a center d calls to the arrangement of goods; receive the call of a spokesperson for a call located on a property; activate a signal or control processor to receive the call from the speaker; comparing said speaker call with a predetermined speaker call stored within said signal or control processor; activating a GPS receiver if said call to the calling party matches the predetermined call of the stored call within said signal or control processor; 1 obtain location data of said GPS receiver; transmitting said location data to a modem; Y transmitting said location data from the modem to a response or surveillance center by means of a cellular phone.

12. The method as claimed in clause 11, characterized in that said signal control processor is placed in a sleep or low energy mode, if said call of vocerer not equal to said predetermined call voicing stored within the processor of control signal.

13. The method as claimed in clause 11, characterized in that a communication protocol is established to establish a communication link between said cell phone and said response or monitoring center before the location data is transmitted.

14. The method as claimed in clause 11, characterized in that said signal or control processor, said GPS receiver, said modem and said cellular telephone are placed in a sleep or low energy mode after the transmission of the location data to said monitoring or response center.

15. The method as claimed in clause 11, characterized in that the state data of the condition of the good are transmitted together with the data d location to said monitoring response center.

16. The method as claimed in clause 11, characterized in that only a cell phone and said goods arrangement is activated at any time

17. The method as claimed in clause 11, further characterized in that it includes the step d reporting to the monitoring response center that the location data is not available if the location data of the GPS receiver is not obtained.

18. The method as claimed in clause 11, further characterized in that it includes the step d displaying the location of the good on a map.

19. The method as claimed in clause 11, further characterized in that it includes the step d retransmitting said location data from said monitoring response center to another location. 1 R E S U M E A system for locating an asset or a bie includes a voceador, a processor of control, a receiver GPS a cell phone. During normal operation, the board equipment of the tracked object is in a sleep or low energy mode. Upon receiving a location question from the call center, a control or signal processor is activated. If the location information is to be obtained from a particular road, a GPS receiver obtains the latitude longitude information. This latitude and longitude information is put in a form transmissible by a modem. A cell phone mode then transmits this information to a remote response or surveillance center. If desired, the data • reporting a condition of the property can also be sent to the remote response monitoring center together with the location information.