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:
Apr. 20, 1999
Filed:
Apr. 02, 1997
Yoshikazu Itoh, Tokyo, JP;
K.K. Video Research, Tokyo, JP;
Abstract
A monitoring apparatus for the use status of a car radio is disclosed. In addition to the function of identifying a radio station to which the car radio is tuned at any given time, the present apparatus is capable of identifying the individual actually in the driver's seat listening to that radio station, and of measuring the idle time during which the car radio could have been turned ON but actually was not. Also, the present apparatus has a rechargeable battery dedicated thereto, thereby to avoid overloading the vehicle-mounted storage battery used also for engine starter. Moreover, the present apparatus comprises a device for generating an excessive discharge alarm signal when the excessively discharged state of the rechargeable battery is detected. Furthermore, the present apparatus employs the radio station identification based on the detection of local oscillation frequency picked up at the tuner portion, which is in one to one correspondence with a radio station broadcast frequency.