Radar sensing and emergency response vehicle detection

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9524597-B2
Application number	US-201414253078-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 15, 2014
Priority date	Mar 14, 2012
Publication date	Dec 20, 2016
Grant date	Dec 20, 2016

Abstract

A system for vehicle to another party communications that includes a vehicle personality module adapted to create a vehicle personality and a communications system that utilizes the created vehicle personality for one or more communications instead of a user's profile. The one or more communications are associated with one or more of an identifier and an icon representing the vehicle personality, with this identifier and/or icon sent with at least one communication and displayable to the recipient of the communication.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A vehicle alert system comprising:
a vehicle control including a processor, a memory, and an input/output module;
an alert module including computer-executable instructions executed by said processor and communicating with said vehicle control to detect a presence of an emergency vehicle;
at least one sensor providing an input to said input/output module to detect the presence of the emergency vehicle, said sensor including an image capture device that detects the presence of the emergency vehicle;
a communications device remote from said alert module and said at least one sensor to alert a driver about the presence of the emergency vehicle; and
wherein the emergency vehicle transmits at least one of information about the emergency vehicle's intended travel route or an emergency vehicle presence signal and said alert module generates a corresponding alert.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein a travel path of the emergency vehicle is displayed on a vehicle navigation system.

3. The system of claim 1 , wherein the communications device is a user's communication device.

4. The system of claim 1 , wherein the communications device is a user's smartphone.

5. The system of claim 1 , wherein the alert is one or more of audible, visual and mechanical.

6. The system of claim 1 , wherein the alert is displayed in a heads-up display of the vehicle.

7. A vehicle alert method comprising:
providing a vehicle control including a processor, a memory, and an input/output module;
providing an alert module including computer-executable instructions executed by said processor and communicating with said vehicle control to detect a presence of an emergency vehicle;
providing at least one sensor that generates an input to said input/output module to detect the presence of the emergency vehicle, said sensor including an image capture device that detects the presence of the emergency vehicle;
providing a communications device remote from said alert module and said at least one sensor to alert a driver about the presence of the emergency vehicle;
detecting a presence of the emergency vehicle;
wherein the emergency vehicle transmits at least one of information about the emergency vehicle's intended travel route or an emergency vehicle presence signal and said alert module generates a corresponding alert; and
alerting a driver about the presence of the emergency vehicle by said corresponding alert.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein a travel path of the emergency vehicle is displayed on a vehicle navigation system.

9. The method of claim 7 , wherein the communications device is a user's communication device.

10. The method of claim 7 , wherein the communications device is a user's smartphone.

11. The method of claim 7 , wherein the alert is one or more of audible, visual and mechanical.

12. The method of claim 7 , wherein the alert is displayed in a heads-up display of the vehicle.

Assignees

• Autoconnect Holdings Llc

Inventors

• Ricci Christopher P

Classifications

• H04W12/06

  Authentication · CPC title

• G08B29/188

  Data fusion; cooperative systems, e.g. voting among different detectors · CPC title

• A61B7/04

  Electric stethoscopes · CPC title

• G01C21/362

  received from an external device or application, e.g. PDA, mobile phone or calendar application · CPC title

• G08B21/0205

  Specific application combined with child monitoring using a transmitter-receiver system · CPC title