Trimble Navigation Limited

At Road, Inc.

Other

David B Mleczko

Rodric C Fan

Kulbir S Sandhu

Carey B Fan

Alfred Heikal Tadros

Roderic C Fan

Kulbir S Saudhu

Hai Ping Jin

Kenny Nguyen

Vehicle maintenance-related services are provided from a server over a wide area network, such as the Internet. Under one method, a server that is accessible over the wide area network through a wireless communication link is provided. Then, in a vehicle, an apparatus is provided to collect, over a data bus in the vehicle, data relating to an operation of the vehicle. The data received from the data bus is then communicated to the server over the wireless communication link. Based on the data received at the server, the maintenance-related services is then initiated. The operation data of the vehicle can be collected from various subsystems of the vehicle, such as a brake sub-system, an engine sub-system and various sensors located at various subsystems of the vehicle. Under one mode of operation, the data collected from these subsystems are reported to the server at pre-determined time intervals. In one embodiment, the apparatus of the invention includes a positioning apparatus for determining a location of said vehicle from received ranging signals. Such signals can be received from a global position system (GPS) or a ranging system based on triangulation, such as those used in cellular telephone systems.

Mobile control apparatus

A method and system whereby two mobile units can locate each other is presented. A user connects an interface device, such as a personal digital assistance (PDA), a wireless phone, a laptop, or a pager, to a mobile unit. The mobile unit regularly obtains its location through a location-determining technology (e.g., GPS) and sends the location to a service provider computer. The service provider computer maintains a database of the current location of all the mobile units, and provides the location of mobile units to each of the mobile units. The mobile unit communicates with the service provider wirelessly through a communication network and a data network, for example the Internet. A user of the mobile unit can send messages to other users with a location stamp, which indicates the location of the message sender's mobile unit. In addition, a user can send a request to be notified when a target mobile unit reaches a reference point. The reference point may be defined relative to the location of the requester. Alternatively, the reference point may be an address or a landmark. Upon receiving the request, the service provider computer tracks the distance between the target mobile unit and the reference point, and sends a notification to the requester when the target mobile unit reaches the reference point.

Method and system for a plurality of mobile units to locate one another

A method and a system using the Global Positioning System (GPS) to detect and report vehicle accidents are presented. GPS, which is currently used primarily for vehicle positioning, can be combined with wireless technology to automatically report accidents to third parties. A mobile unit placed or installed in a vehicle receives code sequences from the GPS satellites, converts the code sequences to positional information, and transmits the positional information to a server. The server derives the acceleration of the mobile unit from the positional information and compares the acceleration with a threshold value. In one embodiment, a microprocessor included in the mobile unit derives the acceleration and compares the acceleration with a threshold value. The threshold value represents acceleration that can be achieved only with an external force such as a collision. If the acceleration exceeds the threshold value, the server or the microprocessor automatically sends notification to third parties through the data network.

Method and system for detecting vehicle collision using global positioning system

A method for reducing master antenna tracking errors in a multiplexing GPS receiver resulting in a differential phase measurement scheme which is insensitive to the master antenna tracking loop errors is disclosed. The master antenna tracking loop error at a given update K is subtracted from a phase measurement associated with a slave antenna signal at update K. The method comprises the determination of interpolation coefficients by which the master antenna tracking loop errors are weighted in order to minimize each of the slave antenna differential measurements.

Differential phase measurement scheme for a multiplexing GPS attitude

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San Jose, CA, United States of America

David B Mleczko