US 4,288,689 A · Automatic vehicle identification system and method

Abstract

An automatic vehicle identification system for use in identifying and routing vehicles, such as railway cars or other vehicles which routinely travel a given track or path. A passive electronic device or electrical circuit is employed to intersect an energy field and respond thereto by generating a code in accordance with energy received and converted to coded electrical signals. Connected to the passive device is a short wave transmitter for transmitting signals generated by the electrical device when so energized. The electrical device may also comprise a plurality of different induction coils or antenna which serve to modify an energy field in a given manner, which modification may be detected by short wave sensing and converted to a coded electrical signal which is employed to identify the vehicle. In another form, a coded array of antenna or induction coils, is provided which modify energy fields generated at check points or scanning locations along a trackway or roadway, wherein such energy field modifications are sensed at each such scanning location, resulting in the generation of an electrical code at each location and identification of the vehicle.

Claims14

Dependent claims

A method of identifying a moving object such as a travelling vehicle comprising:

disposing on said object an electrical circuit means defined by a plurality of circuit elements capable of modulating a short wave receiver in a specific manner including the generation of a code which generated code is unique to said object,
moving said object past a detection station containing a source of radio frequency energy, a short wave receiving means and a code detection means connected to said receiving means, detecting said object as it moves past said detection station and generating a control signal upon effecting such object detection and applying said control signal to effect the energization of said short wave receiving means, said code detection means and said source of radio frequency energy to cause said source to generate a radio frequency field and applying energy from said field to said electrical circuit means on said object whereby said detection means detects the code defined by said plurality of circuit elements of said electrical circuit means,
generating signals on the output of said detection means, which signals define information representative of such code, and
identifying said objects as it moves past said detection station by applying said code signals to activate a transducing means operable to effect such object identification.

1 more element

A system for automatically identifying objects comprising in combination with a plurality of objects to be identified and a transport means for guiding and driving said objects in a plurality of fixed paths, a plurality of object identifying stations disposed at different locations along said fixed path, a plurality of electrical circuits including at least one circuit secured to each object to be identified with each object containing circuit being differently coded from the other circuits and wherein each of said circuits include short wave radiation field modifying means, a short wave radiation field generating means at each of said object identification stations and operable to generate a field of short wave radiation which field is intersected by at least one electrical circuit supported by each object as it passes the identification station wherein the electrical circuit, upon passing through a radiation field, is operable to modulate said radiation field, short wave receiving means at each of said identification stations for receiving radiation modulated by the radiation field modulation means of each object as it passes said station and detecting the variations in the short wave radiation field so modulated and generating coded electrical signals defined by the modification to said radio frequency radiation field, and receiving means for said coded electrical signals including a transducing means responsive to said coded electrical signals for transducing the received information to another form.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Automatic vehicle identification system and method

Life of this patent

Automatic vehicle identification system and method

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims14