As been described in ELSHEEMY the present invention provides a system that utilizes radio signals and cellular network technologies along with GPS technology. The system consists of a number of electronic units, each one of these units performs a number of programmed functions to achieve a preferred overall operation of the system.
Some of these units include: THE POLICE VEHICLE UNIT, THE ORDINARY VEHICLE UNIT “VEHICLE UNIT”, and RFID TAGS.
The Vehicle Unit
This unit uses a long range radio frequency transceiver module, preferably (1-2 mile) range, and a short range radio frequency transceiver module, preferably (0.1-0.2 mile range), along with a cellular-network circuit board, antenna, a thermal module and a GPS (Global Positioning System) receiver module. The circuit board is considered the brain component of the unit, it runs the entire system of the unit, the circuit board consist of a few computer chips. There are both digital-to-analog and analog-to-digital conversion computer chips within the circuit board. They convert audio signals going out from analog to digital, and then they convert the audio signals from digital back into analog.
The flash memory and ROM components of the unit circuit board serve as a storage location for the unit. They store the vehicle identification number “VIN” code, cellphone codes, the GPS digital map application, the GPS readings; “coordinates, speed, heading and date/time”, the RFID tag readings “tag code (ID) and date/time”, as well as the entire operating system.
The microprocessor is in charge of dealing with all the tasks that are to be performed by the unit. It also focuses on the unit's control signals (to and from the base station) and command options. It helps to interconnect all of the terminal display main functions.
The liquid crystal display (LCD) or the like, is a terminal display and connected to the unit through a Universal Serial Bus (USB) cable and comprises a number of Light Emitting Diode (LED) indicators, microphone, speaker, a camera and a number of buttons.
The vehicle unit is configured in a manner to disturb the vehicle “engine control unit” when the vehicle unit is being removed or tampered with. In another embodiment, the vehicle unit is integrated with the engine control unit to be more difficult to be removed.
The Police Unit
This unit comprises similar electronic components as the vehicle unit, but its terminal display is a touch screen interface and capable of displaying colored pictures. The police unit can communicate with the vehicle unit via the long range or the short range radio frequency, also the police unit can communicate with the vehicle unit via the cellular network.
Furthermore, the police unit stores the “control operating system” which is responsible for all the control commands needed to manipulate the vehicle unit. The police unit also stores the vehicle model, type and class category application.
RFID Tags
Radio-frequency identification (RFID) active/semi active tags use a very short range preferably (2 to 6 meter) radio frequency to communicate with the vehicle unit over its short range frequency transceiver.
The Vehicle Model, Type and Class Category Application Auto manufacturers worldwide produce variety of vehicles, which come in different sizes and body shapes each year, therefore each vehicle is defined by its make, model, body shape, year of built and its identification number.
All of these characteristics may be summarized in a unique code, which is called VEHICLE IDENTIFICATION NUMBER code (VIN).
A VIN code, is a unique code including a serial number, used by the automotive industry to identify individual motor vehicles, as defined in ISO 3833.
The vehicle descriptor section of the VIN code is used to identify the vehicle type, the model and the body style. While, vehicle identifier section of the VIN is used to identify the individual vehicle.
The present invention creates the vehicle type/model file by reading the VIN to determine the make and model of the vehicle and by having a set of pictures taken from different angles for each vehicle model and store them in a file, the vehicles in the file are arranged in a list of categories, each category contains the vehicles that share the same body shape and size. The pictures in this file can take any desired color to resemble the color of a target vehicle. The vehicle type/model file could be updated and uploaded into the police unit on predetermined dates.
Cellular Communication Codes
CELL-PHONE CODES: All cell phones have special codes associated with them. These codes are used to identify the phone. But in the present invention these codes will be transmitted from the police unit to the vehicle unit to give the vehicle unit a temporary ability to connect to the cellular network. Each one of the police vehicles is assigned a number of sets of “Cell-phone Codes or SIM card data” to enable the police vehicle unit to lend the vehicle unit the necessary codes that are required for cellular communication.
Electronic Serial Number (ESN): a unique 32-bit number programmed into the phone when it is manufactured. Mobile Identification Number (MIN): a 10-digit number derived from any phone's number. System Identification Code (SID): a unique 15-bit number that is assigned to each carrier by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).
When someone powers up his cellphone, his cellphone looks for the System Identification Code (SID), on the cellphone control channel. And when the cellphone receives the SID, the phone compares it to the SID programmed into the phone. If the SIDs match, the phone knows that the cell it is communicating with is part of its home system.
Along with the SID, the phone also transmits a registration request, and the Mobile Telephone Switching Office (MTSO) keeps track of the phone's location in a database. This way, the MTSO knows which cell he is in when it wants to call his phone. Therefore, the records of where his cellphone is located give a pretty good idea of where he is. The cellphone carrier, for example (AT&T) stores these records in a database and this may raise serious privacy concern issues if a third party such as National Security Agency (NSA), or other authority agency gets hold of these records without a search warrant. Normally the cellphone carriers charge the cellphone owner monthly fees for the subscribed service.
Presently many vehicles' location registration systems utilize the cellular network technology to keep the vehicles' location continually recorded in a database, for monitoring, security purposes and traffic related matters. These systems require a permanent cellular subscribed service, which is very costly process when it deals with millions of vehicles, in addition to the violation of the vehicles' owners privacy.
The present invention creates an alternative method for, remotely, selectively and temporarily logging a motor vehicle to solve a specific matter, without compromising the privacy concerns of the innocent drivers. Also without the need for making them continually connected to the cellular network or paying for subscribed service.
The police vehicle unit communicates with the vehicle unit via a set of control commands to force it to execute a selected function or application.
The Police LCD Unit Interfaces
The police liquid crystal display (LCD) or the like, is a touch screen terminal display, it is connected to the police unit through a USB cable and comprises a number of LED indicators, microphone, speaker, a camera and a number of buttons. The display processor and software are responsible to interpret input from the touch-screen as commands. The police officer can access the control commands by either the touch screen input or by voice.
Voice recognition software designed to place each phoneme in a context based on the other phonemes in the software, which immediately picks up or registers from the police officer. The software program accomplishes this by running the phonemes through a statistical model based on mathematical computations called algorithms, and by comparing the phonemes with a library of command words, phrases and sentences it has stored. The voice recognition program then outputs the officer's words as text or executes the appropriate command. This way the police officer can comfortably use the police unit and focuses on driving his vehicle with a lot of concentration while driving in high speed. Thus, to achieve a high efficiency of the present invention.
The Vehicle LCD Unit
This terminal display may be either touch-screen or non touch-screen, its main job is to display the alert messages that transmitted by the police unit, or traffic logging unit, or in some cases to display alert messages related to the digital map. In some other embodiments the touch-screen display may be used for customized applications or programs such as some applications come with the cell phones.
Missing Person Search and Crime-Fighting Method
Many kids and loved ones go missing every year, and this may cause a huge pain and severe long lasting psychological trauma for the parents, family members and friends. People go missing for a number of reasons, an old person with the Alzheimer's disease may wander around or get lost without the ability to contact his family or his care giver. Some of the teenagers runaway from their families is often a common problem. Children and adults may go missing when they become victims of a foul play.
Generally when a loved one goes missing, panic occurs, and his family's mind is in turmoil, his family accounts—in as much detail as possible where the person was and what he was doing before he went missing. This may urge calling friends, family members or going to places that the person frequents, and finally filing a missing person report with the local police.
Furthermore, robbery or burglary is a serious crime when a perpetrator commits an offense, usually that offense will be theft. Generally the perpetrator or perpetrators use a getaway car to escape the crime scene after committing the offense. There are some known ways the police use to fight bank robbery crimes, such as hiding a GPS device with cash stolen by the robbery suspect, and tracking him down then arresting him. Also banks may use RFID tags hidden with the cash to assist in tracking the stolen cash, which may lead to the arrest of a suspect robber.
RFID are used for the purposes of automatically identifying and tracking tags attached to objects, such as personal possessions, clothing, cash, . . . etc. The tags contain electronically stored information. Some types of very short range (a few meters) active/semi active tags have an on-board tiny battery and periodically transmit their identification signal.
The present invention utilizes the RFID technology to allow the very short range (few meters) read-only active/semi active RFID tags to be logged in the vehicle unit at a real-time, to make a real connection between the missing person or the stolen object that carries the RFID tag and a vehicle or vehicles to assist in a quick and efficient tracking, also to use this connection as an evidence in criminal cases.
Generally, when an RFID tag passes through the field of the scanning antenna, it detects the activation signal from the antenna. That “wakes up” the RFID chip, and it transmits the information on its microchip to be picked up by the scanning antenna of the tag reader “interrogator”.
Whereas, RFID active/semi active tag of the present invention uses a very short range preferably (2 to 6 meter) radio frequency to communicate with the vehicle unit over its short range frequency transceiver. The tag will automatically and periodically transmit its identification signal once every one or few minutes to protect its on-board battery from wearing out in a short time, the user can remove the on-board battery every time the tag is not in use. Additionally, in another embodiment of the RFID tag, the tag will start periodically transmit its identification signal every time the user activates it by pressing on a button integrated in it, and when the vehicle unit comes in the range of the tag signal, it will store the tag ID (code) in real-time status. Therefore, the vehicle unit is programmed to create a tag report which contains the tag ID, the VIN code of the vehicle, and a brief location of the vehicle associated with the date/time in which the tag was logged in the vehicle.