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...When G.G. Hubbard learned of his future son-in-law's invention, he called it "only a toy." His daughter was engaged to a young man named Alexander Graham Bell.
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| Number | Title | Issue Date |
| 7778941 | Position recognition device and position recognition method, and accounting processor and accounting processing method A position recognition device for deciding a zone where a moving object takes a position. The device comprises: a travel distance decider for deciding whether or not the moving object has traveled a predetermined distance corresponding to the detection error of the ... | 08/17/2010 |
| 7363126 | Core area territory planning for optimizing driver familiarity and route flexibility Route planning methods for use by a package delivery service provider are disclosed that satisfy a stochastic daily demand while taking advantage of drivers' route familiarity over time. A model for estimating the value of driver familiarity is disclosed along with ... | 04/22/2008 |
| 7355527 | System and method for parking infraction detection The invention relates to a system and method for detecting parking infractions. It comprises computing one or more measurements associated with a stationary object found at a first location; classifying the stationary object as being representative of a vehicle park... | 04/08/2008 |
| 7239228 | Apparatus for mediating communication between controller and transponders of many moving objects and method for controlling the same Disclosed are a communication mediation apparatus and a method for controlling the same for performing communication mediation while reducing a communication miss rate caused by collision of data. A performance of a moving object recognition system unavoidably varie... | 07/03/2007 |
| 7200569 | Intelligent apparatus, system and method for financial data computation and analysis This disclosure relates to a program controlled apparatus, system and method for identifying taxable financial transactions, collecting data based on the transactions and calculating any sales and/or use taxes due on the transactions. The apparatus comprises a first... | 04/03/2007 |
| 7156723 | Method and apparatus for non-interrupted grinding of railroad crossing and main line track A system for the grinding of unencumbered and encumbered sections of rail includes a locomotive that pulls a first and a second grinding module. The first grinding module is movable between a first and a second position. In the first position, the first grinding mod... | 01/02/2007 |
| 7155321 | System, method and computer program product for remote vehicle diagnostics, monitoring, configuring and reprogramming A remote vehicle diagnostics, monitoring, configuration and reprogramming tool is provided. The system includes a fleet of vehicles equipped with wireless mobile communications means that enable fleet managers to remotely diagnose, monitor and reprogram vehicles in ... | 12/26/2006 |
| 7130826 | Method and apparatus for conducting coinless transactions A method and apparatus are disclosed for facilitating coinless transactions by rounding a fractional transaction cost up or down to a whole-unit amount. A fractional transaction cost is rounded up or down to a whole-unit amount based on a generated random number tha... | 10/31/2006 |
| 7127413 | Charge processing device charge processing system and charge processing card A system for charge processing tolls and the like. A vehicle mounted device detects the position of a vehicle 32 using GPS, and transmits position information via a wireless channel to a central station. The central station performs charge processing (calcula... | 10/24/2006 |
| 7124118 | Transit best fare system and method A mass transit system of a transit authority automatically determines and applies the lowest possible transit fare to a patron's account, thereby releasing the patron from decisions leading to the most cost effective fare instrument for his or her transit pattern. A... | 10/17/2006 |
| 7117075 | Driver activity and vehicle operation logging and reporting A method for logging and reporting driver activity and vehicle operation includes identifying a driver of a vehicle, recording operating data with an on-board recorder that is hard-wired to an engine control module, coupled to a mileage sensing system, and linked to... | 10/03/2006 |
| 7092803 | Remote monitoring, configuring, programming and diagnostic system and method for vehicles and vehicle components A system and method for monitoring, configuring, programming and/or diagnosing operation of at least one vehicle includes an on-board unit disposed on the vehicle to send and receive data corresponding to at least one vehicle operating characteristic, a plurality of... | 08/15/2006 |
| 7085745 | Method and apparatus for identifying, managing, and controlling communications A method and apparatus for sorting, prioritizing, identifying, managing, and otherwise controlling (collectively, “controlling”) a communication. A frank may be used to associate a value and a class with a communication. The communication may be associated with ... | 08/01/2006 |
| 7051924 | Value holding system, value holding method, value holding program, and transaction system A value holding system includes a receiving unit that receives an instruction to add or remove a value relating to a payment, a judging unit that judges whether the instruction is identical to a previously received instruction, and a rejecting unit that rejects the ... | 05/30/2006 |
| 7007011 | Method for representing the vertical component of road geometry and computing grade or slope A geographic database represents roads including an altitudinal component of the geometry of the roads. The altitudinal component of the geometry of roads is represented using data that indicate straight line segments and vertical curves, in particular parabolic ver... | 02/28/2006 |
| 6959282 | Charging device for transferring information relating to the collection of a toll on a moving body A toll collection arrangement based on the position and travel of a vehicle. A charging area is defined with a buffer area surrounding it. Charges are made when a vehicle enters the charging area for the first time from the buffer area. Later excursions from the cha... | 10/25/2005 |
| 6922156 | Vehicle trip determination system and method A method for determining a vehicle trip on a roadway includes providing a plurality of vehicle detections from a plurality of gateways, determining a maximum travel time between corresponding pairs of the plurality of gateways, correlating corresponding pairs of the... | 07/26/2005 |
| 6882290 | Method and system for dynamically personalizing transportation in a vehicle A method for dynamically personalizing transportation in a vehicle comprises the steps of providing a vehicle including a messaging device for displaying messages, providing a central dispatch system for managing passenger allocation to the vehicle, receiving passen... | 04/19/2005 |
| 6826473 | PDA with integrated navigation functions and expense reporting Systems, devices and methods are provided to integrate navigation data, such as GPS navigation data, with Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) expense reporting functions to flexibly, accurately and efficiently determine travel distances for expense reports. One aspect ... | 11/30/2004 |
| 6686834 | Taxi meter having discriminating means for eliminating erroneous inputs A taxi meter system mounted on a taxicab for accurately computing a fare for a taxicab trip as function of time and distance is disclosed. The system provides discrimination means that eliminate the contribution to the fare that may otherwise be created b... | 02/03/2004 |
| 6493676 | System and method for charging for vehicle parking A system and method for charging for vehicle parking is provided. The parking system includes a plurality of mobile parking units, each of the mobile parking units having an unique identification for installation in a vehicle and a parking control center ... | 12/10/2002 |
| 6430496 | Fully automated vehicle dispatching, monitoring and billing A system for controlling vehicles to provide transportation services without need for human intervention. A database stores records each documenting needed transportation services. Processing circuitry (which may be one or several networked computers) rev... | 08/06/2002 |
| 6405106 | Enhanced vehicle controls through information transfer via a wireless communication system A vehicle control system method and apparatus including a mobile application service provider communicating over a wireless communication network, a mobile station communicating with the mobile application service provider over the wireless communications... | 06/11/2002 |
| 6398110 | Method of providing services for users and a service processing system for the same A service processing system includes an IC card possessed by a passenger and at least one automatic ticket inspection machine installed in each station of a traffic facility. The card includes a storage for keeping therein a stored value assigned as an eq... | 06/04/2002 |
| 6386447 | Smart card with card in vehicle warning A so-called "smart card" system is provided with controls which ensure that a request for change in status of a vehicle is not inconsistent with the presence or lack thereof of an appropriate card in the vehicle. As an example, prior to stopping ignition ... | 05/14/2002 |
| 6377890 | Navigator Route guiding information is displayed on the basis of set information and positional data when set information and positional data are set by a keyboard or are transmitted from a sensor BOX 12.... | 04/23/2002 |
| 6360169 | System for determining and tracking changes in location A handheld locator device is prompted to determine and store a first, Home location, and to determine a Return location, and to visually display the relative positions of the Home and Return locations. An input device, for example having one or more push ... | 03/19/2002 |
| 6259988 | Real-time mission adaptable route planner A hybrid of grid-based and graph-based search computations, together with provision of a sparse search technique effectively limited to high-probability candidate nodes provides accommodation of path constraints in an optimization search problem in substa... | 07/10/2001 |
| 6122591 | Taxi trip meter system with indication of fare and distance violations A taxi trip meter system includes a taximeter and a location sensor connected to a computer loaded with street information and driver evaluation software. In a first embodiment, the estimated shortest route and distance between the starting and ending poi... | 09/19/2000 |
| 5970481 | Method and apparatus for determining tax of a vehicle An apparatus for determining a tax for a vehicle (20) includes a positioning device (80) operable to determine a plurality of vehicle positions along a route traveled by the vehicle (20). A memory (102) stores geographic information defining a plurality o... | 10/19/1999 |
| 5897626 | Taximeter penalty device A taximeter penalty device includes a cabin temperature sensor connected to a micro-controller of a taximeter through a time delay. When the cabin temperature of the taxi is within a preset range, the fare is based on a normal rate. When the temperature i... | 04/27/1999 |
| 5864831 | Device for determining road tolls A device, for determining road tolls having a road storage unit in which, in addition to a road network, parameters are electronically stored which represent a proportional toll due for each route section of the road network. A device for determining the ... | 01/26/1999 |
| 5729458 | Cost zones A cost zone about an origin on an digital map includes the area on the map that can be traveled to, from the origin, which has a cost of travel less than a predetermined cost. The cost can be measured in distance, time of travel, ease of turning, tolls; e... | 03/17/1998 |
| 5721678 | Arrangement for a use billing system A use billing system with an arrangement for identifying distances traveled by a moving object within a system of traveled distances or for identifying fixed geographical zones entered by the object. In order to provide a billing arrangement which is univ... | 02/24/1998 |
| 5694322 | Method and apparatus for determining tax of a vehicle An apparatus for determining a tax for a vehicle (20) includes a positioning device (80) operable to determine a plurality of vehicle positions along a route traveled by the vehicle (20). A memory (102) stores geographic information defining a plurality o... | 12/02/1997 |
| 5675494 | Vehicle-mounted unit for an automatic toll collection system that prevents double toll charging After a vehicle-mounted unit determines that a vehicle has entered a toll chargeable area, if communication is determined to be allowable through a flag, communication operations are performed and after finishing communication operations, the flag is set ... | 10/07/1997 |
| 5646387 | Taximeter A taximeter is disclosed which comprises a housing having a front side, an electronic computer, data memories, a buffer battery, a display arrangement, one of pushbuttons and keys for providing functional control and for calling up contents of at least on... | 07/08/1997 |
| 5629856 | Process and device for avoiding fraud on a taxi equipped with a taximeter or on a truck equipped with a chronotachograph An electronic device, placed in an impregnable envelope and electrically connected between an electronic sensor and a taximeter or chronotachograph, tests at least one of the internal characteristics of the active dipole present between two output wires o... | 05/13/1997 |
| 5604676 | System and method for coordinating personal transportation Door-to-door transportation is provided in a nearly on-demand manner by employing a set of multipassenger vehicles, e.g., vans, whose routes are continuously updated. The position of each multipassenger vehicle, as well as the traffic conditions along the... | 02/18/1997 |
| 5319613 | Method and arrangement for verification of tariff defining points in time in a taximeter A method of verification, in a taximeter or a travel distance counter, of tariff defining points in time which are dependent upon a real time clock, includes accelerating to a maximum relevant chronological continuous switching of the taximeter or the tra... | 06/07/1994 |
