Patent Application Number: 2005217624
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| Summary / Description | A system for tracking objects using GPS and then transmitting that position information via radio signal to a base receiver, and more particularly, a rugged, solar-powered, self-contained system utilizing GPS, cell phone control channel data transmission technology, and the Internet to deliver the object's position to the end user. |
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| Type of Prior Art | Issued Patents - US |
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| Country | United States of America |
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| Patent/Application # | 6,339,397 |
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| Kind Code | United States (US) - United STATES Patent - A |
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| Patentee Name | Lat-Lon, LLC |
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| Relevant Pages, Columns, or Lines | all |
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| URL | http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/... |
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| Filing Date | June 1, 2000 |
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| Additional Information | See also www.lat-lon.com for product info (e.g., brochure) |
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| Notes | See also www.lat-lon.com for product info (e.g., brochure) |
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Excerpt A portable self-contained tracking unit includes an enclosure attached to a mounting plate, with a hollow interior cavity housing a GPS receiver, a microprocessor and a transmitter. The GPS receiver will receive tracking data and the microprocessor will process the tracking data into a data packet. The transmitter transmits the data packet to a remote receiving station, for transmission to a central database. Photoelectric cells are mounted on the enclosure to recharge batteries which provide power to the electrical components of the tracking unit. The enclosure is designed with a pair of vertically oriented side panels which are generally orthogonally oriented so that the solar panels mounted on the side panels will maintain a favorable solar incidence angle during a wide range of orientations. The transmitter is a cellular telephone with an antenna mounted within the enclosure but spaced a distance from the metal mounting plate and electrical components approximately one-quarter wavelength of the operating frequency of the transmitter. The enclosure is formed of a radio frequency and optically transparent material, so that the antenna and the solar panels may be housed within the hollow interior cavity of the enclosure. In the method of the invention, tracking data is periodically transmitted via cellular phone to a cellular service provider, thence to a data service bureau which sends the data over the Internet to the database of a central server computer. The central server computer will decode the information and provide an interface and value added products such as maps and reports for customers via a web page on the Internet. |
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Claims
A rail car tracking system (10) comprising: rail car location equipment (12) mounted to a rail car (22), the equipment (12) including a transmitter (26) for transmitting rail car location data to a remote receiver (21) and further including an electronically readable tag (33) attached to the rail car (22) for identifying the rail car (22) to a wayside tag reader (36); and locomotive communication equipment (42) mounted in a locomotive (38) and adapted for communication with the rail car location equipment (12) when the rail car (22) and locomotive (38) are coupled into a common train, the locomotive communication equipment (42) being operative to identify the coupled rail car (22) and including a transmitter (48) for transmitting data to the remote receiver (21), the data including rail car data so that the required data transmission from the rail car transmission equipment (26) is reduced.
| Relevance | The prior art technology provides "high and low priority alarm alerts, maps showing asset location, direction and speed of travel, expected arrival times to user identified locations, as well as standard and custom text reports" (see for example, col. 6, lines 10-23) |
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United States