The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Feb. 02, 1999
Filed:
Jan. 11, 1996
Joseph M Denny, Fairport, NY (US);
General Railway Signal Corporation, Rochester, NY (US);
Abstract
There is provided a vehicle tracking and monitoring system for monitoring railway cars within a defined radius of a receiver for wireless communication. The system comprises a transmitter on-board each railway car, a receiver at a wayside station, and a central database at a remote location. The transmitter includes an RF circuit, an I/O circuit and a microcontroller for autonomously and spontaneously transmitting vehicle signals on a cyclic basis to the receiver. The transmitter periodically transmits railway car information and/or cargo status information to the receiver within a predetermined time interval, for example, every 15 minutes. In addition, the transmitted information is communicated from the wayside station to the central database over a longer time interval, fore example, every 24 hours. Accordingly, the central database develops a record of transit vehicle information based on the transmitted information for each transit vehicle in the defined radius of the receiver.