FORM -2
THE PATENTS ACT, 1970
(39 of 1970)
&
THE PATENTS RULES, 2003
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION
(See Section 10; rule 13)
A SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR VEHICLE TRACKING
TATA CONSULTANCY SERVICES LTD.,
an Indian Company of Nirmal Building, 9th floor, Nariman Point, Mumbai 400 021, Maharashtra, India
The following specification particularly describes the invention and the manner in which it is to be Derformed.

Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of telecommunications and transportation.
In particular, this invention relates to the field of vehicle tracking.
Definitions of terms used in the specification
• Halt / stop: The halt / stops are the predefined stops or resting points the public transportation vehicle is expected to find on a particular route.
• Operator: The operator is any person handling the portable device for sending the messages to the base station, ex- Conductor, Driver, any passenger of the bus, or any person near the bus or remotely located to the bus.
• Cellular Infrastructure: Cellular Infrastructure means the entire hardware, software and the services of a cellular network which are needed for the communication, ex- BTS, MSC, VLR,HLR , antennas, different protocols, GPRS, SMS, IVRS, voice calls etc.
• Query message: The message generated at the users mobile phone containing the query for requesting particular information
• Update message: The message generated at the portable device for updating the database maintained at the base station.
• Dedicated sources: Dedicated sources means any means by which particular information can be gathered.

Background of the invention (Prior Art)
With the use of advances in telecommunication and transportation variety of systems and technologies have been used so far which include radio location systems, inertial measurement systems (IMS), and Global Positioning Systems (GPS) and the like. Some of these systems track vehicles and communicate information using different infrastructures which involve complexity and cost, while on the other hand use of some of these systems are limited to the range of vehicle and location of sensors.
The vehicle tracking systems have huge scope in fleet management wherein a central administrator remotely monitors the status of vehicles and information is made available to the users. Typical applications include bus schedule control, police car dispatching, and emergency car dispatching and the like.
Some of the systems disclosed in the prior art are mentioned below:
United States Patent 6,006,159 discloses a GPS based Public Transit Vehicle Arrival Information System. A vehicle is provided with a Global Positioning System (GPS) unit to determine its location on its route. The vehicle also possesses a Passenger Load Sensor System (PLSS) to determine the load in the vehicle.
Also United States Patent 6789013 uses a GPS unit on board for a vehicle which is to be tracked. Along with its position the GPS unit also queries for its speed and direction which can help in determining the estimated time of arrival at any stop.

Also United States Patent 7,196,621 discloses a Tracking system using a tracker tag consisting of global positioning system with any entity to be tracked. Further the location information of the asset is accessible to the subscriber anywhere in the world through the internet.
United States patent 2006/0292984 considers RFID based Vehicle tracking system which uses stationary RFID transponders at predefined stops at which vehicle halts and an onboard vehicle RFID transceiver to keep track of the current vehicle position. This can be helpful in estimating when the bus will arrive on a particular stop.
A mobile station based Children School Bus Tracking System is considered in United States patent application 20071002440. A query for a cell phone using a short message indicating bus identification number can be sent by parents. The Bus carries a mobile station which is in continuous communication with the base station BS and when the Bus comes within certain radius of the mobile phone which has sent a query, a message is communicated from the BS to the mobile phone which has sent the query. This alerts the arrival of the Bus to the parent.
Thus according to the prior art, to update information about current location of any vehicle requires building of additional infrastructures like GPS and RFID transceiver units for location identification. This makes the implementation expensive as well hard and time consuming to deploy. Therefore, there was felt a need for a economical system with less complexities.

Objects of the invention
It is an object of this invention to provide a cost effective system and method to track vehicles on route.
It is another object of this invention to provide a user friendly system to track vehicles on route.
It is yet another object of this invention to update the current location of a vehicle without using any complex infrastructures like GPS and RPID. The invention discloses more effective way of updating vehicle's current location in which a operator can participate in updating the current location of the vehicle providing the input on a portable communicating device which is inturn updated to the Base station.
It is still another object of this invention to provide the information of a vehicle location to the users located any where within the cellular coverage.
One more object of this invention to provide the information of the vehicle location to the users on the internet using GPRS.
Yet another object of the invention is to provide the information of the vehicle location on the stops for users not having access to both portable device/mobile phone and internet.

Summary of the invention
The present invention envisages a system for tracking public transportation vehicles to determine the distance of the public transportation vehicle from a designated halt / stop, the system comprising:
• a base station comprising:
a) a database handling means containing vehicle's route identification numbers and the corresponding halt / stop identification numbers and the distance between each halt / stop on a route;
b) reception means adapted to receive a message containing said vehicle's route identification number, and halt / stop identification number;
c) processing means cooperating with said reception means and adapted to compute the time required by the vehicle to arrive at a subsequent halt / stop from a current location;
d) transmission means adapted to transmit said location and said computed time;

• at least one portable device adapted to accept operator's commands and formulate a message and further adapted to transmit said message to said base station each time the vehicle reaches a halt / stop; and
• information display means adapted to receive and display said transmitted location and time for passengers.

Typically, the reception means is further adapted to receive the current traffic updates.
Typically, the reception means is selected from a group consisting of mobile phones, laptops, computers, and cellular modems with a display.
Typically, the halt / stop identification number (halt id) inside the message is the subsequent previous or the current halt / stop for the vehicle.
Typically, the message can be selected from a group consisting of text message, voice call, interactive voice response system and multimedia messages.
Preferably, the processing means includes extraction means adapted to extract the distance between the received halt / stop and the subsequent halt / stop from said database.
Typically, the portable device communicates with said base station using the existing cellular infrastructure.
Typically, the portable device is a device selected from a group consisting of mobile phones, laptops, computers, and cellular modems coupled with controlling circuitry and any combinations thereof.
Typically, the portable device accepts operator commands through means selected from a group consisting of keyboards, keypads, touch screens, microphones with voice recognition function and any combinations thereof.

Preferably, the portable device is with the operator in the vehicle.
Preferably, the portable device is mounted on the vehicle's dash board. Preferably, the portable device is with the operator closely located from the bus.
Preferably, the portable device is remotely located from the vehicle.
Typically, the transmission means communicates with said information displaying means using existing cellular infrastructure.
Typically, the information displaying means can be selected from a group consisting of computer display monitors, mobile phone displays, LCDs, LED Displays and combinations thereof.
Typically, the speaker and audio circuitry can be used in addition to the said display means for visually challenged people.
In accordance with the present invention there is provided a method for tracking public transportation vehicles to determine the distance of a vehicle from a designated alighting point, the method comprising the following steps:
• creating database containing a route identification numbers, the corresponding alighting point identification numbers and the distance between each alighting point on that route;
• sending a message containing a vehicle code, route identification number, and the halt / stop identification number from a portable device each time the vehicle halts at subsequent halt / stop.

• receiving said message at a base station;
• extracting the distance of the subsequent halt / stop from said database based on the halt / stop identification number and the route identification number specified in said message;
• computing the time required by the vehicle to reach the subsequent alighting point halt / stop ;
• transmitting said computed time and distance; and
• displaying said computed time using the information displaying means.
In accordance with the present invention, the step of creating the database includes the steps of storing all the route identification numbers (route ids), all the vehicle codes arranged according to the routes they travel, the pre calculated distance between all the halt / stops.
Typically the step of sending the message includes preparing the message in the desired format and sending the message using any service of cellular network which includes GPRS, MMS, SMS, IVRS and any combinations thereof.
Typically, the step of receiving the message includes the step of receiving the message using any service provided by the cellular network which includes GPRS, MMS, SMS, IVRS.
Preferably, the step of computing the time includes the step of calculating the time based on the extracted distance and the real time traffic updates.

Typically, the step of displaying the computed time includes displaying the computed time on information displaying means including computer display monitors, mobile phone displays, LCDs, LED Displays and any combinations thereof.
In accordance with the present invention, the method further comprises the step of receiving the user requests for a particular halt / stop and the vehicle code and further providing the estimated time required by the said vehicle to arrive at the said halt / stop.
In accordance with the present invention, the method further comprises the step of receiving the user requests for a starting and ending halt / stop and providing the information about the vehicle codes corresponding to all the vehicles between the said halts / stops, and the estimated time of the vehicles arriving the said starting halt / stop , to the user.
Brief Description of the Accompanying Drawings
The invention will now be described in accordance with the accompanying drawings, in which:
Figure 1 illustrates an overview of the system for vehicle tracking, in accordance with the present invention; and
Figure 2 is a flowchart showing the steps for tracking a vehicle in accordance with the present invention.

Detailed Description
This invention envisages a system for tracking of vehicles to determine distance of a vehicle from any halt /stop. Particularly, the present invention envisages a system for tracking of vehicles using portable devices including cell phones, mobile phones, Personal desktop assist (PDA) and the like.
The present invention suggests the use of existing cellular infrastructure in order to track and update the current location of the vehicle each time the vehicle reaches the predefined halt /stop. The invention also accepts queries of the passengers requesting information about a particular vehicle, its routes, and the time to reach a desired halt / stop.
Referring to the accompanying drawings, FIGURE 1 shows an overview of the system as envisaged by the present invention which includes:
> a base station (BS) 100 which is the central control of the system. The base station 100 accepts the location data from the vehicles as well as queries enquiring about a particular vehicle from the passengers mobile phones and replies the queries using the existing cellular infrastructure. The queries and the location data are received by the BS 100 in the form of messages, typically, Short Messaging Service (SMS). Thus, the BS 100 does not require use of any tracking mechanisms like General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) or Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) making the system less complex and economical.
The BS 100 includes the following components

■ a Database Handling means 102 which maintains a database having different fields including route identification numbers of the vehicles, the corresponding halt / stop identification numbers, and pre calculated distances between all the halts / stops;
■ reception means 104 mainly used for receiving messages sent by the Portable Device 110 provided in the vehicles or with the passengers. The reception means 104 performs the functions of reception of an update message from a portable device, containing information about the current location of the vehicle or the query message initiated from the portable device with any passenger wanting the information about the vehicle. In addition it also receives current traffic updates provided by dedicated sources. After reception of the update message the reception means forwards it to the database handling means for updation of the database; and
■ processing means 106 cooperating with the database handling means 102, reception means 104, which performs the function of extraction of required information from the message received by the reception means; further depending upon the type of message performs the functions including:
• format interpretation of the received message to the database suitable format for instance "UPD 21 36" is interpreted as UPD for Update, Route Identification number as 27 and Halt identification number as 36;

• updating the database, maintained with the database handling means for instance updating the received information from the vehicle;
• extracting the information from the database as requested in the query message for instance extracting the time required by the vehicle to reach next stop from the related field in the database; and
• processing the extracted information, for instance computing the estimated time required by a vehicle to reach a particular halt from the current location by referring to the distance and time value stored in the related fields of the database and taking into consideration the current traffic updates, of the route the vehicle is traversing.
■ transmission means 108 mainly used for transmitting the query reply message to the portable device from which the query was initiated and also performs the function of periodically updating the information display units located at all the predefined halts / stops on a route.
a portable device 110 which is available with the vehicle, performing the function of sending the messages to the base station. The message from the portable device 110 includes the route id, current halt / stop of the vehicle. The portable device 110 can be operated by the conductor of the vehicle or by any other passenger commuting in the same vehicle or is adapted to be fixed on the driver's panel / dash board so as to be operated by the driver in absence of the conductor or can be with a operator outside the vehicle but in the

vicinity of the vehicle, for instance portable device can be a mobile phone in the hands of a person waiting for the vehicle a particular halt / stop and observing an another vehicle stopping or halting at the same point. The portable device 110 can be selected from the group of devices including mobile phones, laptops, computers, and cellular modems coupled with controlling circuitry and any combinations thereof. The portable device 110 in different situations can take inputs from different inputting mediums for instance if portable device is a computer then keyboard can be the inputting device, if portable device 110 is a mobile or cellular modems with controlling circuitry, then keypads can be the inputting device and it is evident to that the use of touch screens or voice inputs from a microphone can replace any of the aforesaid inputting device. The inputs can be conveniently chosen, so as to reduce the overhead on the person operating (operator) the portable device 110 while performing the routine duties. For instance, a conductor or Driver, as the case may be, of the bus at their start of the journey communicate a message indicating start of journey along with route id from their accessible portable device to the base station. On receiving this, the base station inturn communicates all on-route stop/halt names on the mobile phone. This also informs the server and processing means that a particular Bus has started its journey and its data base should be subsequently maintained. The information of the current stop as soon as the Bus reaches any stop is subsequently inputted by the conductor or driver using the more convenient means. The current halt of the bus can be inputted on the portable device using a touch screen display on the portable device to select the current halt from the available list of Bus stops appearing on screen of the portable device. This is communicated by the prescribed communicating means to the BS. Yet another way for inputting the current location of the bus on the portable

device is to provide a voice based input system where application recognizes the stop name or location announced by the conductor or driver for the passengers on board and map it to the correct stop name. Since the route and the stops of the public transport are fixed, still one more way is to program the portable device such that a single 'next stop arrived' button click should select the next stop in the list and hence obtain the current halt of the Bus to be communicated to the base station.
> information displaying means 112 provided with all the predefined halts or stops of the vehicle to receive the periodic update message from the base station containing the information about the vehicles arriving the halt and the estimated time required for the vehicles to reach the halt or stop. The information displaying means 112 located at the predefined halts or stops comprises reception unit, speaker and audio circuitry for visually challenged and display which includes computer display monitors, mobile phone displays, LCDs, LED Displays, and any combinations thereof.
The system proposed by the invention envisages the use of existing cellular infrastructure and the message initiated by the portable device 110 or the BS 100 can be transmitted using any service provided by the cellular network which includes: SMS, GPRS, voice call, IVRS, and any combinations thereof.
Another aspect of the present invention is to provide the information about the vehicle on the cell phone of the person seeking it. For this purpose the person who seeks the information or the user has to generate a query message in the predefined format and send, it through his mobile phone to the BS 100; the BS 100 after receiving the message sends it to the processing means 106

which interprets it into the actual database query and extracts the requested information from the database, processes it and sends it to the same mobile number from which the message was initiated.
Different types of queries are acceptable by the system which includes:
• query generated by users mobile phone, asking for time required by a particular vehicle to reach the next halt or stop, the query message comprises route id, and the halt / stop on which the user wishes to board and the BS 100 responds with the current location and the estimated time required by the vehicle to reach the queried halt / stop ;
• query generated by users mobile phone, asking for the vehicles running between boarding halt / stop (where the user wants to board ) and the alighting halt / stop (where the user wants to alight the vehicle) and the estimated time required by all the vehicles to reach the boarding stop, in case user is not aware of the route id, the message corresponding to this query contains halt / stop id of the boarding point and the halt / stop id of the alighting point, the then responds with the route id corresponding to the queried halts / stops and estimated time taken by the next vehicle to reach that halt / stop; and
• query generated by users mobile phone, asking for all the halts / stop on a particular route, the message comprises the route id, and the system responds with all the halts / stops falling in the queries stop.
In accordance with the present invention, there is provided a method for tracking vehicles to determine the distance of a vehicle from a designated alighting point as seen in FIGURE 2, the method comprises the following
steps:

• creating database containing a route identification numbers, the corresponding alighting point identification numbers and the distance between each alighting point on that route, 1000a and 1000b;
• sending a message containing a vehicle code, route identification number, and the halt / stop identification number from a portable device each time the vehicle halts at subsequent halt / stop, 1002;
• receiving the message at a base station, 1004;
• extracting the distance of the subsequent halt / stop from the database based on the halt / stop identification number and the route identification number specified in the message, 1006;
• computing the time required by the vehicle to reach the subsequent alighting point halt / stop, 1008;
• transmitting the computed time and distance, 1010; and
• displaying the computed time using the information displaying means, 1012.
Technical Advances
• The present invention provides a cost efficient system to track public transport vehicles on route as compared to the existing Global Positioning System (GPS) and Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) based bus tracking systems as the information is obtained by human assistance.
• The present invention provides a user friendly system to track public transport vehicles on route.

• The present invention provides a time efficient and easy system to track
public transportation vehicles.
% The present invention provides a system to track the current location of public transport vehicle without using any complex infrastructure like GPS and RFID system.
• The present invention provides a system to provide information of the
vehicle location, to the users located any where within the cellular
coverage.
% The present invention provides a system to provide information of the vehicle location to the users on the internet using GPRS.
While considerable emphasis has been placed herein on the components and component parts of the preferred embodiments, it will be appreciated that many embodiments can be made and that many changes can be made in the preferred embodiments without departing from the principles of the invention. These and other changes in the preferred embodiment as well as other embodiments of the invention will be apparent to those skilled in the art from the disclosure herein, whereby it is to be distinctly understood that the foregoing descriptive matter is to be interpreted merely as illustrative of the invention and not as a limitation.

We Claim:
I. A system for tracking public transportation vehicles to determine the distance of the public transportation vehicle from a designated halt / stop, said system comprising:
• a base station comprising:
a) a database handling means containing vehicle's route identification numbers and the corresponding halt / stop identification numbers and the distance between each halt / stop on a route;
b) reception means adapted to receive a message containing said vehicle's route identification number, and halt / stop identification number;
c) processing means cooperating with said reception means and adapted to compute the time required by the vehicle to arrive at a subsequent halt / stop from a current location;
d) transmission means adapted to transmit said location and said computed time;

• at least one portable device adapted to accept operator's commands and formulate a message and further adapted to transmit said message to said base station each time the vehicle reaches a halt / stop; and
• information display means adapted to receive and display said transmitted location and time for passengers.

2. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein said reception means is further adapted to receive the current traffic updates.
3. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein said reception means is selected from a group consisting of mobile phones, laptops, computers, and cellular modems with a display.
4. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the halt / stop identification number (halt id) inside the message is the subsequent previous or the current halt / stop for the vehicle.
5. A system as claimed in claim 1, wherein said message can be selected from a group consisting of text message, voice call, interactive voice response system and multimedia messages.
6. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein said processing means includes extraction means adapted to extract the distance between the received halt/stop and the subsequent halt / stop from said database.
7. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein said portable device communicates with said base station using the existing cellular infrastructure.
8. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein said portable device is a device selected from a group consisting of mobile phones, laptops, computers, and cellular modems coupled with controlling circuitry and any combinations thereof.

9. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein said portable device accepts operator commands through means selected from a group consisting of keyboards, keypads, touch screens, microphones with voice recognition function and any combinations thereof.
10.A system as claimed in claim 1, wherein said portable device is with the operator in the vehicle.
11.A system as claimed in claim 1, wherein said portable device is mounted on the vehicle's dash board.
12. A system as claimed in claim 1, wherein said portable device is remotely located from the vehicle.
13.The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein said transmission means communicates with said information displaying means using existing cellular infrastructure.
14.The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein said information displaying means can be selected from a group consisting of computer display monitors, mobile phone displays, LCDs, LED Displays and combinations thereof.
15. system as claimed in claim 1, wherein speaker and audio circuitry can be used in addition to the said display means for visually challenged people.

16.A method for tracking public transportation vehicles to determine the distance of a vehicle from a designated alighting point, said method comprising the following steps:
• creating database containing a route identification numbers, the corresponding alighting point identification numbers and the distance between each alighting point on that route;
• sending a message containing a vehicle code, route identification number, and the halt / stop identification number from a portable device each time the vehicle halts at subsequent halt / stop.
• receiving said message at a base station;
• extracting the distance of the subsequent halt / stop from said database based on the halt / stop identification number and the route identification number specified in said message;
• computing the time required by the vehicle to reach the subsequent alighting point halt / stop ;
• transmitting said computed time and distance; and
• displaying said computed time using the information displaying means.
17. A method as claimed in claim 13, wherein the step of creating the database includes the steps of storing all the route identification numbers (route ids), all the vehicle codes arranged according to the routes they travel, the pre calculated distance between all the halt / stops.

18. A method as claimed in claim 13, wherein the step of sending the message includes preparing the message in the desired format and sending the message using any service of cellular network which includes GPRS, MMS, SMS, IVRS and any combinations thereof.
19.A method as claimed in claim 13, wherein the step of receiving the message includes the step of receiving the message using any service provided by the cellular network which includes GPRS, MMS, SMS, IVRS.
20. A method as claimed in claim 13, wherein the step of computing the time includes the step of calculating the time based on the extracted distance and the real time traffic updates.
21.A method as claimed in claim 13, wherein the step of displaying the computed time includes displaying the computed time on information displaying means including computer display monitors, mobile phone displays, LCDs, LED Displays and any combinations thereof.
22.A method as claimed in claim 13, wherein the method further comprises the step of receiving the user requests for a particular halt / stop and the vehicle code and further providing the estimated time required by the said vehicle to arrive at the said halt / stop.
23.A method as claimed in claim 13, wherein the method further comprises the step of receiving the user requests for a starting and ending halt / stop

and providing the information about the vehicle codes corresponding to al] the vehicles between the said halts / stops, and the estimated time of the vehicles arriving the said starting halt / stop , to the user.