Method and apparatus for vehicular item tracking

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10134261-B1
Application number	US-201715801819-A
Country	US
Kind code	B1
Filing date	Nov 2, 2017
Priority date	Nov 2, 2017
Publication date	Nov 20, 2018
Grant date	Nov 20, 2018

Abstract

A vehicle comprising includes lights and a controller. The controller, responsive to reception of signals indicative of an opening and closing of a door of the vehicle, the vehicle being within boundaries of a predetermined locale, and an item being within the vehicle, blinks the lights.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A vehicle comprising:
lights;
a controller configured to, responsive to reception of signals indicative of an opening and closing of a door of the vehicle, the vehicle being within boundaries of a predetermined locale, and an item being within the vehicle, blink the lights; and
an inductive charge coil, wherein the signals indicative of the item being within the vehicle are based on a nomadic device being inductively coupled with the charge coil.

2. The vehicle of claim 1 , wherein the controller is further configured to, responsive to reception of signals indicative of an opening and closing of a door of the vehicle, the vehicle being within boundaries of a predetermined locale, and an article being within the vehicle, blink the lights.

3. The vehicle of claim 2 , wherein the signals indicative of the item being within the vehicle are at frequencies distinct from the signals indicative of the article being within the vehicle.

4. The vehicle of claim 2 , wherein the signals indicative of the item being within the vehicle are ultra-high frequencies and the signals indicative of the article being within the vehicle are low frequencies.

5. The vehicle of claim 1 , wherein the predetermined locale is a home, store, or a workplace.

6. The vehicle of claim 5 , wherein the item is a wallet, nomadic device, or identification badge.

7. The vehicle of claim 1 , wherein the controller is further configured to, responsive to reception of the signals, transmit a wireless message to a nomadic device.

8. The vehicle of claim 7 , wherein the transmission of the wireless message is further responsive to signals indicative of a weather forecast.

9. The vehicle of claim 1 , wherein the lights are headlights, exterior turn signals, or back-up lights.

10. The vehicle of claim 9 , wherein the lights are interior ambient lights configured to illuminate at a set color, and blinking the lights includes activating the interior ambient lights at a color different than the set color.

11. A computer-implemented method comprising:
activating, by a controller, a horn of a vehicle responsive to reception of signals indicative of an opening and closing of a door of the vehicle, the vehicle being within boundaries of a predetermined locale, and an item being within the vehicle; and
transmitting, by the controller, a wireless message to a nomadic device responsive to reception of the signals indicative of the opening and closing of a door of the vehicle, and reception of signals indicative of a weather forecast.

12. The method of claim 11 further comprising transmitting a wireless message to a nomadic device responsive to reception of the signals.

13. The method of claim 11 further comprising activating the horn responsive to reception of signals indicative of an opening and closing of a door of the vehicle, the vehicle being within boundaries of a predetermined locale, and an article being within the vehicle.

14. The method of claim 13 , wherein the signals indicative of the article being within the vehicle are at frequencies distinct from signals indicative of the item being within the vehicle.

15. A vehicle comprising:
a chime;
passenger compartment lights; and
a controller configured to, responsive to reception of signals indicative of a key-on request for the vehicle, the vehicle being within boundaries of a predetermined locale, an item not being within the vehicle, and an article not being within the vehicle, blink the lights,
wherein the signals indicative of the article not being within the vehicle are low frequency signals and the signals indicative of the item not being within the vehicle are ultra-high frequency signals.

16. The vehicle of claim 15 , wherein the controller is further configured to, responsive to reception of signals indicative of a key-on request for a vehicle, the vehicle being within boundaries of a predetermined locale, and the item not being within the vehicle, output an audible message.

Assignees

• Ford Global Tech Llc

Inventors

• Nolan John
• Jones Ryan
• Diederich Ii Marcellus Benedict
• Weiss Adam

Classifications

• B60Q1/50

  for indicating other intentions or conditions, e.g. request for waiting or overtaking · CPC title

• G08B21/24 Primary

  Reminder alarms, e.g. anti-loss alarms · CPC title

• G08B21/0275

  Electronic Article Surveillance [EAS] tag technology used for parent or child unit, e.g. same transmission technology, magnetic tag, RF tag, RFID · CPC title

• G08B21/0277

  Communication between units on a local network, e.g. Bluetooth®, piconet, Zigbee®, Wireless Personal Area Networks [WPAN] · CPC title

• B60Q3/80

  Circuits; Control arrangements (for dashboards B60Q3/16; for mass transit vehicles B60Q3/47) · CPC title