Vehicle having pet bowl communication

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11897334-B2
Application number	US-202016952160-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 19, 2020
Priority date	Nov 19, 2020
Publication date	Feb 13, 2024
Grant date	Feb 13, 2024

Abstract

A vehicle is provided that includes a vehicle body, a plurality of RF signal receivers located at a plurality of locations within the vehicle, a portable pet bowl configured to be transported in the vehicle body, the pet bowl including a container for holding content such as water, an RF signal transmitter located on the pet bowl for transmitting an RF signal, and a controller for processing the RF signal received by each of the plurality of RF signal receivers and determining a location of the pet bowl based on the received RF signals.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A vehicle comprising:
a vehicle body;
a plurality of RF signal receivers located at a plurality of locations within the vehicle;
a pet bowl configured to be transported in the vehicle body;
an RF signal transmitter located on the pet bowl for transmitting an RF signal;
a controller for processing the RF signal received by each of the plurality of RF signal receivers and determining a location of the pet bowl based on the received RF signals; and
an RF signal transmitter located on a pet for transmitting another RF signal, wherein the controller determines a location of the pet based on the another RF signal received by each of the plurality of RF signal receivers.

2. The vehicle of claim 1 , wherein the pet bowl further comprises one or more sensors for sensing one or more characteristics of the pet bowl, wherein the controller receives the one or more sensed characteristics and generates an output signal.

3. The vehicle of claim 2 , wherein the one or more sensors comprises a sensed level of content in the pet bowl.

4. The vehicle of claim 3 , wherein the content comprises water.

5. The vehicle of claim 2 , wherein the one or more sensors senses a temperature of the content in the pet bowl.

6. The vehicle of claim 1 , wherein the controller processes an amplitude of the RF signal received from each of the plurality of the RF signal receivers and performs triangulation to determine the location of the pet bowl.

7. The vehicle of claim 1 , wherein the RF signal transmitter comprises a low energy wireless RF signal.

8. The vehicle of claim 1 further comprising a human machine interface, wherein the controller outputs the location of the pet bowl on the human machine interface.

9. The vehicle of claim 8 , wherein the human machine interface comprises a display.

10. A vehicle comprising:
a vehicle body;
a plurality of RF signal receivers located at a plurality of locations within the vehicle;
a portable pet bowl configured to be transported in the vehicle body, the pet bowl including a container for holding water;
an RF signal transmitter located on the pet bowl for transmitting an RF signal;
a controller for processing the RF signal received by each of the plurality of RF signal receivers and determining a location of the pet bowl based on the received RF signals, wherein the controller generates an output based on the location of the pet bowl; and
an RF signal transmitter located on a pet, wherein the controller determines a location of the pet based on the RF signal received by each of the plurality of RF signal receivers.

11. The vehicle of claim 10 , wherein the pet bowl further comprises one or more sensors for sensing one or more characteristics of the pet bowl, wherein the controller receives the one or more sensed characteristics and generates an output signal.

12. The vehicle of claim 11 , wherein the one or more sensors comprises a sensed level of the water in the pet bowl.

13. The vehicle of claim 11 , wherein the one or more sensors senses a temperature of the water in the pet bowl.

14. The vehicle of claim 10 , wherein the controller processes the RF signal received from each of the plurality of the RF signal receivers and performs triangulation to determine the location of the pet bowl.

15. The vehicle of claim 10 , wherein the RF signal transmitter comprises a low energy wireless RF signal.

16. The vehicle of claim 10 further comprising a human machine interface, wherein the controller outputs the output signal on the human machine interface.

17. The vehicle of claim 16 , wherein the human machine interface comprises a display.

Assignees

• Ford Global Tech Llc

Inventors

• Salter Stuart C
• Huebner Annette Lynn
• Kimball Marguerite Lynn
• Berry Hussein
• Van Wiemeersch John Robert
• Buttolo Pietro

Classifications

• H04W4/80 Primary

  Services using short range communication, e.g. near-field communication [NFC], radio-frequency identification [RFID] or low energy communication · CPC title

• B60K35/60

  Instruments characterised by their location or relative disposition in or on vehicles (arrangements of lighting devices on dashboards B60Q3/10) · CPC title

• B60K35/80

  Arrangements for controlling instruments · CPC title

• B60K35/22

  Display screens · CPC title

• B60K35/00 Primary

  Instruments specially adapted for vehicles; Arrangement of instruments in or on vehicles · CPC title