Apparatus and method for a cellular freeway emergency telephone
Contents
1. BSY TRANS PWR and OFF LAT are each provided as inputs to an encoder 114 The output of encoder 114 is coupled to a data bus 116 as parallel 8 bit word described in more detail in connec tion with FIG 8 The remaining portions of the cir cuitry of FIG 7 will be described below Turning to FIG 8 the encoded word in data bus 116 which is diagrammatically shown throughout the cir cuitry as appropriate is coupled to inputs B0 B7 of microprocessor 118 which is the operational pro grammed microprocessor of controller 42 Micro processor 118 in the illustrated embodiment is a Motor ola 6805 CMOS device which is characterized by very low power consumption Microprocessor 118 is clocked by a conventional external crystal controlled clocking circuit generally denoted by reference nu meral 119 The program for microprocessor 118 is stored within an external EPROM memory 120 Mem ory 120 is accessed by microprocessor 118 through terminals B0 B7 and A8 A12 which provide a thirteen bit access word Terminals B0 B7 are used during the first half cycle of processor 118 as the lower eight bits of the address and during the second half cycle as a data input output Therefore during the memory fetch the lower eight bits of the address are coupled through data bus 116 to a bit latch 122 under the control of the ad dress strobe signal from terminal AS of processor 118 Thereafter all thirteen bits of the address are coupled to address bus 122. 639 914 1 1987 Winters 4 219 698 8 1980 Birilli et al 4 675 863 6 1987 Paneth et al 4 338 493 7 1982 Stenhuis et al 4 724 538 2 1988 319 59 4 347 501 8 1982 Akerberg 340 539 4 788 711 11 1988 Nasco Jr 379 59 5 377 256 Sheet 1 of 10 27 1994 _ U S Patent 405532044 2 STINGON 320035 9 SINUNOY 9NilVal3dO 9 ld SUINI WOM1 01 NOLVIS 1904915 NOLVIS 1404915 YOLNGILSIO JIOA gl SYNNAL Gia NOLLVOINAANOD U S Patent Dec 27 1994 Sheet 2 of 10 5 377 256 U S Patent Dec 27 1994 Sheet 3 of 10 5 377 256 Sheet 4 of 10 5 377 256 Dec 27 1994 U S Patent AH 440 12 SNval LI 3574 109 z 48 01 135 96 02 4V8 0 19 99 ISNIS 86 M 13 M01 D as as 09 i AS D 86 AS AGH G 6 7 U S Patent Dec 27 1994 Sheet 5 of 10 5 377 256 5 a gt 5 U S Patent Dec 27 1994 Sheet 6 of 10 5 377 256 ADDRESS BUS 45V 146 144 y 150 124 412 m M87 DR OFF H C DWN LO BAT TRANS PWR OFF BAT 116 1 0 BUS 138 PBI FIG 7 Sheet 7 of 10 5 377 256 Dec 27 1994 U S
3. average roadside emergency calls Standard 30 is coupled to a ground anchor 36 to embed it into the site Ground anchor 36 and standard 30 are coupled together by break plate 38 seen in FIG 2 so that if a vehicle collides with standard 30 break plate 38 will bend retain standard 30 to the ground anchor 36 and allow standard 30 to be folded over instead of being snapped over the hood and thrust through the windshield of the oncoming vehicle Standard 30 is generally U shaped so that the coupling antenna and power lines between housing 28 and solar array 34 antenna 2 are laid in the U shaped channel of standard 30 and can be covered or weather sealed by protective plate 35 The entire unit therefore comprises a sealed and weatherproof assem bly The three watt cellular transceiver enclosed within main housing 28 is a conventional Motorola cellular transceiver sold under the trademark DYNA TAK 2000 The details of operation of the transceiver are only implicitly included in this description and will not be expressly discussed except to the extent necessary for a fully illustrated description Further details of the transceiver of the illustrated embodiment can be found in the published user s manual entitled DYNA T A C Cellular Mobile Telephone 800 MHz Transceiver available from Motorola Technical Writing Services at 1301 E Algonquin Rd Schaumburg Ill 60196 which is expressly incorporated herein by reference Although details of th
4. busy and latch 86 is cleared at its clear terminal CD by the signal CL BSY clear busy The means for originating various status signals now having been described the primary status signal namely the lifting of the handset off its hook switch can be considered Conventional telephone hook switch 100 in FIG 5 senses the lifting of handset 40 One terminal of the switch 100 is coupled to ground and the remain ing terminal is coupled to a debounce NAND gate Jatch generally denoted by reference numeral 102 The output of latch 102 is the status signal OFF LAT off latch which is also used as a clocking signal for clocked latch 106 The input D of latch 106 is coupled to the 5 volt power supply so that upon receipt of a clock pulse OFF LAT output Q of latch 106 the sig nal OFF HK off hook goes high Latch 106 is cleared at its clear terminal CD by a signal CL OFF HK clear off hook Thus once the handset has been taken off hook the circuitry will be able to remember that this has occurred even if placed back on hook until Latch 106 is cleared by program control through CL OFF 5 15 20 25 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 10 HK This allows the program to recognize that a call was attempted and to enter a call ready status for a predetermined time regardless of the actual hook condi tion Turn now to FIG 7 The various status signals de Scribed in connection with FIGS 5 and 6 OFF HK DWN LO BAT
5. circuit which can be easily removed from a modular pin connector and a new board inserted for easy field ser vice The controller comprises the logic and circuitry necessary to control the entire operation of call box 10 Turning to FIG 4 a diagrammatic depiction of the elements within call box 10 is shown Cellular call box controller 42 serves as the central unit to which solar array 34 battery 46 and any additional call box switches or input output functions 48 are coupled Similarly cellular transceiver 44 is coupled to controller 42 and antenna 32 in turn is coupled to cellular transceiver 44 Before describing the circuitry of controller 42 con sider first the functions which controller 42 performs Included among but not limited to these functions are 1 controlling operation sequences for user friendly adaptation 2 automatically powering the transceiver when handset 40 is lifted 3 automatically dialing the preprogrammed number or alternatively any one of a plurality of numbers corresponding to one of a corresponding plurality of activated switches or buttons not shown in the FIGS 4 automatically powering down after a preset pre programmed time period or after hang up of hand set 40 5 controlling and adjusting necessary voltage level changes in audio and logic circuits 25 30 35 45 50 55 65 8 6 controlling and regulating all timing functions to integrate the various portions of
6. differential amplifier 206 at a 5 377 256 15 continual maximum The output of push pull amplifier 208 is in turn resistively coupled through audio capaci tor 212 to the receiver or ear piece terminals 214 in hand set 40 Solar array 34 is also coupled to battery 46 through controller 42 by means of a shunt regulator The regula tor is conventional and thus is not further shown in the Figures Coupling through the shunt regulator prevents overcharging of battery 46 and thereby eliminates the potential of any damage due to overvoltages or over charging The circuitry now having been generally described in connection with FIGS 4 9 turn to the flow diagram of FIG 12 which illustrates the basic operation of control ler 42 Upon power up as indicted by step 201 a master reset signal is generated to program control at step 203 to reset all chips within the circuit This step generates any logic reset signals required by the microprocessors 118 or 166 or any other logic circuitry In addition during this step the transceiver may execute any initial protocol operations For example in the case of the Motorola transceiver of the illustrated embodiment the best ground station or forward control channel is se lected Service is then established between the selected forward control channel and the call box The trans ceiver or microprocessor 118 then dials a prepro grammed telephone number and sends identifying codes which establish the ca
7. from the receiver VCO phase locked loop This is com prised of a dual modulus prescaler a programmable PLL IC a charge pump loop filter and receiver VCO hybrid This loop is controlled by a channel select line from the logic circuitry which serially loads the channel select data into the programmable PLL IC One output of the receiver VCO goes through a frequency tripler and is fed to the injector doubler hybrid used in the first mixer of the RF receive circuitry The other output from the receive VCO is coupled to a frequency dou bler on the exciter board and serves as the input signal to the sidestep mixer Further details and schematics of all the above cir can be found in the Motorola User s manual referenced above The transceiver signals which are referenced most often in the disclosure of the illustrated embodiment are 5 377 256 7 the handset signals The handset includes cradle mi croprocessor which provides an interface between the microprocessor of the handset and the microprocessor of the transceiver logic unit Digital communication is effectuated through the digital signals C DATA T DATA and R DATA Data carried by the bus conven tion include keypad and fluorescent display information for the handset display information for the cradle con trol indicator board and other various control signals and commands between the control unit and transceiver logic unit Only the more relevant of these signals wi
8. inputs of encoder 114 and used as a condi tional signal to generate the eight bit status words cou pled from encoder 114 to data bus 116 The output PB7 of microprocessor 166 to be de scribed below is similarly coupled to input output bus 138 to an inverter generally denoted by reference nu meral 152 Output 154 from inverter 152 is the inverted signal IN USE which is used to signify that call has been placed or is in process Thus IN USE similarly can be used as a conditional signal in decoder 114 to prevent inappropriate transmission of a status word to data bus 116 Encoder 114 is also coupled to the two highest ad dress bits A11 and A12 from address bus 124 through a series of logic gates generally denoted by reference numeral 144 More particularly A12 is inverted by inverter 146 and coupled together with address signal 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 60 65 12 A11 to the inputs of NAND gate 148 The output of NAND gate 148 is logically combined in OR gate 150 with the output of NAND gate 128 the inverted signal DS R The output of OR gate 150 in turn is coupled to the inverted output enable terminal OE of encoder 114 Therefore the output word from encoder 114 is coupled to data bus 116 according to the logic provided by gates 144 This logic prevents the placement of a status word on data bus 116 at the same time that the program is being read from memory 120 Turn now to FIG 9 wherein signals A0
9. plurality of status subcir cuits for monitoring corresponding selective parameters of the controller and a circuit for interrogating the 3 plurality of status subcircuits for operationally respond ing to the parameters as monitored by the status subcir cuits The plurality of the subcircuits comprise at least a subcircuit for monitoring a user request for emergency transmission battery condition presence of a communi cation transmitted to and from the call box physical integrity of the call box The call box further comprises a circuit for selec tively communicating the corresponding plurality of parameters of the call box to an off site recipient The call box still further comprises a circuit for re ceiving information generated off site and a circuit for initiating an operation of the call box in response to the received off site information The controller comprises a circuit for conserving power from the battery when an emergency communi cation is not desired and a circuit for adjusting audio gain for audio information transmitted and received by the call box The invention can still further be characterized as a method in an emergency roadside call box where the call box is battery powered and coupled through a radi otelecommunication link to a cellular telecommunica tion system and communication applications processor The method comprises the steps of reading a plurality of call box status parameters Next follows
10. the assembly 7 controlling and regulating the recharging rates from solar array 34 8 controlling all power for the entire assembly de picted in FIG 4 in a manner designed for the most efficient conservation and use of power 9 interfacing to transceiver 44 and 10 providing necessary logic and interface for op tional controller functions and future enhance ments such as slow scan video or specialized data links Controller 42 is built around a microprocessor 118 described in connection with FIG 8 A number of sig nals indicative of the status of call box 10 are coupled to a data bus 116 as described in FIG 7 to which micro processor 118 is coupled and are generated by a plural ity of status circuits described in FIGS 5 and 6 Micro processor 118 generates a number of discrete control signals through a decoder 130 FIG 8 for the control of these status circuits and control signals which are utilized in a decoder tree in FIG 9 to provide key pad and other cellular control signals to cellular telephone transceiver 44 Input and output to cellular telephone transceiver 44 is completely effectuated by the keypad signals shown coupled to the input output bus in FIG 9 and by the digital signals C DATA T DATA and DATA described below in connection with microprocessors 118 and 166 Cellular telephone transceiver 44 commu nicates with microprocessor 118 through a second or interfacing microprocessor 166 described in F
11. the step of selectively performing a remedial routine in response to the step of reading the plurality of status parameters dependent upon the condition of each corresponding parameter Thereafter follows the step of selectively entering an emergency call routine wherein a cellular telecommunication transceiver witbin the call box is powered up and bidirectional voice communication is established through the cellular telecommunication system to the communication applications processor By virtue of this method remotely powered emergency call boxes in radio telecommunication with he commu nication applications processor are operationally main tained The invention can still further be characterized as an apparatus in combination with a cellular radiotelephone generating information compatible with the cellular radiotelephone in a solar powered emergency call box The invention comprises a first circuit for determining a plurality of status conditions relating to the emergency call box a second circuit for controlling power usage of the emergency call box to minimize power usage and a third circuit for processing the status conditions deter mined the first circuit and responsive to at least the status conditions controlling the second circuit The third circuit also selectively bidirectionally generates and receives cellular radiotelephone compatible signals under programmable control The third circuit is cou pled to the first and second ci
12. to each of these numerals two signals will need to be generated in order to command transceiver 44 namely the row and column designations corresponding to key pad numbers 0 3 In particular numeral 0 is located in the second column and fourth row Therefore the first two outputs of analog switch 164 correspond to column 2 row 4 and will be activated in response to activation of one of the inputs to analog switch 164 such as E0 The pairs of outputs corresponding to numerals 1 2 and 3 are similarly activated In the same manner the outputs of analog switch 162 correspond to the row and column pairs corresponding to key pad numerals 4 7 Analog switch 160 similarly includes as its outputs key pad numerals 8 and 9 and The outputs of analog switch 158 are peculiar to radiotelephones which comprise fifth row The fifth row on a radio telephone corre sponds in the second column to the signal END and in third column to the signal SND Included as discrete signals are the control signals volume VOL and power PWR which are also referenced in FIG 9 as the input output signals on bus 138 as VOL CONT and ON OFF respectively Each of the row and column signals from switches 158 164 are active low and are appropriately buffered and coupled through diodes and resistors according to conventional principles as illus trated in FIG 9 to I O bus 138 By this means micro processor 118 can arbitrarily manipulate and control radiotelephone tra
13. 0 55 60 65 18 transceiver to send a stored emergency number to the cellular network and response means for receiving data signals from the communication processor means and initiating action at the call box in response to the received data signals 10 The roadside call box of claim 9 which further comprises sensor means for monitoring a plurality of status con ditions relating to the call box and deriving status information therefrom and reporting means for sending data messages containing the derived status information to the communica tion processor means 11 The roadside call box of claim 10 wherein the sensor means includes means for sensing the out put voltage of the battery means 12 The roadside call box of claim 10 wherein the sensor means includes means for sensing a plural ity of alarm conditions relating to the physical integrity of the call box 13 A roadside call box for reporting emergencies to a communication processor means comprising a stationary cellular transceiver capable of bidirec tional voice and data communications with a cellu lar radiotelephone network battery means for powering the transceiver a controller coupled to the transceiver to operate the call box under program control the controller comprising actuation means operable in response to a user s manual input to initiate an emergency call to the communication processor means by causing the transceiver to send a store
14. 4 The address inputs A0 A 10 of memory 120 are thus coupled to address bus 124 and memory 120 enabled by address bits A11 and A12 through NAND gate 126 and strobed by the output of NAND gate 128 Memory 120 is selectively strobed in a read or write cycle according to software control through the read write terminal inverted R W and data strobe terminal DS of microprocessor 118 which are provided as the inputs to NAND gate 128 Upon power up and reset the internal address register of microprocessor 118 is set at the highest address of 2K EPROM memory 120 The program is stored in two kilobytes of memory Thus A12 and All are provided as the inputs to NAND gate 126 whose output is coupled to the inverted chip enable terminal CE Thus the two highest address bits serve as an address enable The control and timing of microprocessor 118 with respect to memory 120 is conventional and will not be further detailed beyond that just outlined At any rate memory 120 is appropriately strobed and stored information is then read from outputs Q0 Q7 onto data bus 116 The signals data strobe DS and the read write signal R W from microprocessor 118 are similarly coupled to the inputs of NAND gate 128 whose output then serves as an output enable signal coupled to the inverted out put enable terminal of EPROM memory 120 Thus data from memory 120 as well as encoder 114 is appropri ately made available to microprocessor 118 over data bus 116 Output
15. A4 gener ated on control bus 132 by microprocessor 118 are con verted into row and column key pad signals which can be understood by transceiver 44 The signal A4 on con trol bus 132 corresponding to the output from terminal PA4 of microprocessor 118 is an enable signal used to enable decoder 154 Decoder 154 is driven by the con trol signals A2 and A3 corresponding respectively to terminals PA2 3 of microprocessor 118 The output of decoder 154 are intermediate inverted decoding signals EA and EB These signals are output in parallel to a second stage of two decoders 156 which have as addi tional inputs control bus signals A0 and A1 correspond ing respectively to terminals PA0 1 of microprocessor 118 Ultimately the five control bits A0 A4 will be converted into twelve key pad signals corresponding to the twelve buttons on a telephone key pad correspond ing to digits 0 9 and and two additional related radiotelephone signals ON OFF and volume control VOL CONT Thus bits 0 represent sixteen possi ble combinations with a four bit word which is decoded in two stages in decoders 154 and 156 and coupled as sixteen discrete output signals to the inputs of analog Switches 158 164 The A4 bit either disables all sixteen outposts or enables the one of sixteen outputs as desig nated by the 0 bits Consider for example analog switch 164 The four inputs to analog switch 164 corre spond to the key pad numerals 0 3 With respect
16. BAT low battery which is utilized in subsequent circuitry as described below Whenever LO BAT is true a pre determined low battery voltage or state of battery dis charged is indicated The clock input CP of latch 60 is provided with a signal SET LO BAT set low battery Latch 60 is cleared by a signal CL LO BAT clear low battery coupled to the clear terminal CD of latch 60 Consider now the circuitry in FIG 5 which monitors the physical condition of call box 10 namely whether 5 371 256 9 standard 30 is down on the ground A mercury tilt switch 62 is coupled between the five volt supply and ground an is normally closed However should the pole be struck or otherwise tilted switch 62 will open as shown in FIG 5 When switch 62 opens a high or true signal will be coupled to the set terminal SD of clocked latch 64 whose output Q is the signal DWN down representing that the pole is down The clock input CP is the signal SET DWN set down and latch 64 is cleared at its clear terminal CD by the signal CL DWN clear down Turn now to the circuitry in FIG 5 used to monitor the status of the rf transmitter When transceiver 44 is turned on 9 volts are applied to node 72 This in turns on transistor 74 whose output is coupled through in verter 76 to provide the signal inverted TRANS PWR transmitter power indicative that the transmitter is powered up Again TRANS PWR is used in circuitry to be described b
17. Consider now the remaining output terminals of mi croprocessor 166 The outputs PCO PC2 correspond to columns 3 through column 1 of the key pad respec tively outputs PAO PA4 corresponding to rows 1 5 of the key pad respectively and signals PB1 or SVC ser vice and PB7 or IN USE described above can be selec tively generated and coupled to input output bus 138 is a GAIN ADJ signal described below in connec tion with FIG 11 used to adjust audio signal strengths in the voice channel PC3 is coupled to a push button switch which can be manually operated by the call box user to step up the audio strength of the received voice communication Turn now to FIG 11 wherein the circuitry illustra tive of audio processing is illustrated The microphone input of hand set 40 is coupled across terminals 180 The audio signal for the caller is thereby coupled through coupling capacitor 182 to an audio amplifier generally referenced by numeral 184 The output of audio ampli fier 184 is coupled through coupling capacitor 186 and provided as an output at node 188 as the transmitted audio TX AUDIO ON OFF is a toggle signal on I O bus 138 as de scribed in FIG 7 and is similarly coupled through limit ing resistor 190 to node 188 to override the transmitted audio signal according to microprocessor 166 to cause the transceiver to be turned on or off Thus grounding the on off line at I O bus 138 causes the transceiver power to be turned on if i
18. IG 10 Both microprocessors 118 and 166 control the transmit and receive audio level control circuitry shown in FIG 11 The overall operation of microprocessor 118 is sum marized by the flow chart of FIG 12 Turn now to FIG 5 wherein the operation of these functions can be provided by the circuitry illustrated FIGS 5 7 are schematics of several circuits which are controllably used to sense a number of status conditions of call box 10 For example the charged condition of battery 46 the physical integrity of call box 10 the presence of information on the communication channel the status of handset 40 and the condition of the trans mitter are all monitored and selectively reported by means of the circuitry which will now be described in connection with the following Figures Consider first the battery condition circuit depicted in FIG 5 Battery 46 is coupled to node 50 A conven tional voltage regulator generally denoted by reference numeral 52 converts the 13 volts D C to 5 volts for use throughout the logic circuitry as indicated The battery voltage at node 50 is monitored by a conventional zener diode 54 If the voltage is sufficient transistor 56 whose input is coupled to the anode of diode 54 will be biased on and its output coupled through two inverters collec tively denoted by reference numeral 58 to the set input terminal SD of a clocked latch 60 The output Q of latch 60 is provided with the signal inverted LO
19. Letters Patent is hereby corrected as shown below Column 11 line 7 delete EB and insert EB Column 11 line 10 delete SET B and insert SET BSY Column 11 line 33 insert a space after transmit Column 11 line 35 delete INT CONT and insert IN CONT Column 11 line 49 insert after service Column 11 line 59 insert a space after signal Column 11 line 59 delete IN USE and insert IN USE Column 11 line 60 delete IN USE and insert IN USE Column 12 line 4 delete DS R and insert DS R Column 13 line 18 delete O and insert OR UNITED STATES PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE CERTIFICATE OF CORRECTION Page 3 of 3 PATENT NO 5 377 256 DATED December 27 1994 INVENTOR S Philip G Franklin et al It is certified that error appears in the above indentified patent and that said Letters Patent is hereby corrected as shown below Column 13 line 61 insert after state Column 13 line 65 delete no and insert to Column 14 line 17 delete IN USE and insert IN USE Column 14 line 55 delete 196 and insert 198 Column 15 line 32 delete do and insert does and Column 16 line 50 delete share and insert shared Signed and Sealed this Ninth Day of May 1995 BRUCE LEHMAN Attesting Officer Commissioner of Patents and Trademarks
20. Patent mia y al 1 108 07 1 4v8 01 LIS NMG 12 135 ASE D ASH 135 MH 250 V 353358 5 Q 811 377 256 5 Sheet 8 of 10 Dec 27 1994 U S Patent S S 6 Old RSN lt 5 sna 0 1 Sheet 9 of 10 5 377 256 Dec 27 1994 U S Patent Hr 8 8 sng o ACH o 2 o VIVO OL Ald U S Patent Dec 27 1994 Sheet 10 of 10 5 377 256 188 TX AUDIO I SR I N 2 5 5 gt A v eo O T 5 377 256 1 APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR CELLULAR FREEWAY EMERGENCY TELEPHONE This application is a continuation of applicant s appli cation Ser No 07 415 491 filed Sep 28 1989 for Ap paratus and Method for Cellular Emergency Freeway Telephone Service now abandoned which itself is a continuation identically titled application Ser No 07 255 754 filed Oct 11 1988 now abandoned which is a continuation of identically titled application Ser No 06 801 410 filed Nov 25 1985 issued as U S Pat No 4 788 711 and reissued as U S Pat No Re 34 496 BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1 Field of the Invention The invention relates to the field of cellular telephone equipment and in particular to solar powered telephone call boxes using a cellular te
21. United States Patent Franklin et al US005377256A Patent Number 45 Date of Patent 5 377 256 Dec 27 1994 54 APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR CELLULAR FREEWAY EMERGENCY TELEPHONE i 75 Inventors Philip G Franklin Scott Ward both of La Habra George R Mabry Hesperia all of Calif Cellular Communications Corporation Irvine Calif 21 Appl No 186 099 22 Filed Jan 25 1994 73 Assignee Related U S Application Data 63 Continuation of Ser No 415 491 Sep 28 1989 aban doned which is a continuation of Ser No 255 754 Oct 11 1988 abandoned which is a continuation of Ser No 801 410 Nov 25 1985 Pat No 4 788 711 51 H04M 11 00 52 WS CI iir 379 59 379 63 379 45 455 33 1 58 Field of Search 379 59 56 60 45 379 58 63 38 39 40 42 48 340 287 291 455 33 1 56 References Cited U S PATENT DOCUMENTS 3 207 849 9 1965 Andrews 3 441 858 4 1969 Graham 3 549 810 12 1970 Driscoll et al 3 582 557 6 1971 Friberg et al List continued on next page FOREIGN PATENT DOCUMENTS 59 44133 12 1984 Japan 60 84031 5 1985 Japan 2144305A 7 1984 United Kingdom OTHER PUBLICATIONS Cranston T K et al Characteristics of Motorist Aid Communications System IEEE Transactions on Ve hicular Technology vol VT 19 No 1 Feb 1970 DeNigris et al Enhanced 911 Emergency Calling with a Plus Bel
22. box 10 Thus every twenty four hours or on any other arbitrary schedule each call box will call the central processing center identify itself and report its current status or or even a past log of activity Many modifications or alterations may be made by those having ordinary skill in the art without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention For example the operational routine described at FIG 10 is illustra tive only and any other means could be arbitrarily pro grammed into execution It is to be expressly under stood that a different cellular transceiver such as an OKI model UM 1043B manufactured by OKI Electric Industries Co LtD of Atlanta Ga could be easily substituted for the illustrated Motorola transceiver with appropriate modifications to accommodate the substitu tion according to well know design principles Furthermore it should be noted in connection with the circuit diagrams of FIGS 4 9 that call box 10 incor porates a digital address bus data bus control bus and I O bus Therefore it is entirely within the scope of the art that such generalized bus structures can be em ployed with other digital circuitry to expand the opera tional capacities of call box 10 For example a slow scan video circuit can be appropriately coupled to the buses if desired to provide visual information of traffic condi tions at selected points In addition a data telemetry input subcircuit can similarly be coupled to the bus
23. d emergency number to the cellular network identification means for generating a data message containing the identity of the call box and caus ing the transceiver to send the data message to the communication processor means via the cel lular network and response means for interpreting other data mes sages received by the transceiver from the com munication processor means and initiating ap propriate action at the call box in response to said other data messages 14 The roadside call box of claim 13 wherein the response means includes means for controlling at least one parameter of call box operation in re sponse to data messages received from the commu nications processor means 15 The roadside call box of claim 13 wherein the response means includes means for controlling audio gain within the call box in response to data messages received from the communication pro cessor means 16 The roadside call box of claim 13 wherein the controller further comprises sensor means for maintaining a plurality of status conditions relating to the call box and deriving status information therefrom and reporting means for sending data messages containing the derived status information to the communica tion processor means 17 The roadside call box of claim 16 wherein the response means includes means for performing at least one routine to remedy an unsatisfactory status condition in response to data messages received from t
24. d to the radio via a transmit audio hybrid on the audio logic board This hybrid comprises a buffer and a 300 Hz to 3 kHz bandpass filter The output from the bandpass filter of the transmit audio hybrid is fed to a 2 1 compressor comprised of one half of a single IC compander located on the audio logic board The compander dynamically condenses the audio signal which is expanded 1 2 by the cell site controller to the original dynamic range The output of the compressor is fed back into the trans mit audio hybrid which contains circuitry for preem phasis limiting filtering audio muting and a summing amplifier to combine the transmit audio signal with data supervisory audio tones and other control signals before outputting the signal to the synthesizer digital board The transmit audio signal is coupled to the mod ulation input of a sidestep VCO on the synthesizer board The output of the VCO a modulated 30 MHz signal is coupled to a buffer whose output is coupled to one input of a sidestep mixer The injection input on the mixer is provided with a signal which is an output fre quency doubled from the receive VCO The output of the mixer is a modulated RF signal The RF signal is then coupled through a 3 pole filter and amplifier be fore being coupled to a RF power amplifier The frequency synthesizer comprises a receiver synthesizer digital board and an exciter board The operating frequencies in the radio are all derived
25. e transceiver are incidental to the invention a general description is provided here for 5 10 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 6 completeness of explanation First consider the receive circuitry of the transceiver In the transceiver discussed in the illustrated embodiment radio signals in a prede termined range are selected by a 6 pole bandpass filter The modulated receive signal is then passed to a pream plifier A 3 pole filter which further bandpass filters the receive signal is coupled to the output of the preampli fier A first mixer is coupled to the 3 pole filter An injection signal is generated by a receiver synthesizer and mixes with the receive signal to provide a first IF signal The IF signal is then coupled to an IF board The IF signal 45 Mhz is coupled to a buffer amplifier whose output is coupled to a 2 pole crystal filter which passes the signal on to a second buffer amplifier The output of this buffer amplifier is coupled to a second 2 pole filter The output of the second 2 pole filter is coupled to a circuit which includes a second mixer an IF amplifier a receiver signal strength indicator and a FM detector second conversion and detection is executed in this circuit and its output is an audio signal which is coupled to an audio logic board On the audi o logic board the audio receive signal is conditioned in a conventional manner An audio signal from the handset is couple
26. elow as a status signal indicative of the operation of call box 10 Consider now the circuitry in FIG 5 used to selec tively power up the rf transmitter which as a primary power user is normally off A signal RLY ON relay on generated by means described below is applied to a Darlington pair generally denoted by reference nu meral 94 to selectively energize a relay 96 When relay 96 is energized in response to RLY ON the 13 volts of power at node 50 is coupled through contacts 98 to a plurality of power terminals IGN SENSE BAT PLUS BAT PLUS TRANSCEIVER POWER utilized else where in the circuitry as an operative means of power ing up transceiver 44 These power voltages are particu lar to the Motorola transceiver assumed in the illus trated embodiment and are thus not further discussed here Turning your attention to the circuitry of FIG 6 consider now the status of the operation of handset 40 The audio portion of the signal from handset 40 is cou pled through capacitor 78 to a peak to peak detector generally denoted by reference numeral 80 The output of peak to peak detector 80 is coupled through a buffer generally denoted by reference numeral 82 to the set input SD of clocked latch 86 The output Q of latch 86 is the signal BSY busy which indicates that infor mation conversation or at least an audio signal of some sort is being provided to handset 40 The clock input CP of latch 86 is the signal SET BSY set
27. er means and means for providing electrical power to the cellu lar transceiver means and the controller means a remotely located communication processor means 5 including means for causing said controller means to vary said controllable parameters of said cellular transceiver means and thereby initiate action at the call box and a cellular system mobile telephone switching means 10 for transmitting and receiving said data signals and said voice signals between said cellular transceiver means and the remotely located communication processor means 2 The combination of claim 1 wherein said controller means can also vary the said controlla ble parameters in a predetermined way 3 The combination of claim 1 wherein said remotely located communication processor means causes said controller means to vary said controllable parameters of said cellular transceiver means by transmitting data signals to the controller means via the cellular system mobile telephone switching means and the cellular transceiver means 4 The combination of claim 1 wherein said means for providing electrical power is a re chargeable battery means powered by a solar cell 5 A roadside call box for reporting emergencies to a communication processor means comprising a stationary cellular transceiver capable of bidirec tional communication with a cellular radiotele phone network means for powering the transceiver actuation means coupled to the t
28. es of call box 10 to allow for example for the transmission of digital medical data by paramedical emergency teams who may be attending an accident victim near the site of a call box Such emergency medical data could be radio telemetered from the accident site to the nearest call box which would then retransmit to the nearest hospital without the necessity of lifting hand set 40 off the hook or other direct wire coupling to the call box The call box could similarly be time share with environ mental sensing and reporting systems Virtually any device which could benefit from a remote communica tions device could be easily combined and accommo dated by the open bus structure of the invention The adaptability of the invention is even further enhanced when it is realized that interactive digital and voice communications is facilitated through call box 10 Therefore the illustrated embodiment must be under stood as being provided only for the purposes of exam ple and clarity and not as a limitation of the invention as defined in the following claims I claim 1 In an emergency call box system using cellular telephone technology the combination comprising a fixed location call box means comprising a cellular transceiver means for transmitting and receiving data signals and or voice signals ac cording to controllable parameters 5 377 256 17 controller means for varying the controllable pa rameters of said cellular transceiv
29. he communication processor means 5 377 256 19 18 The roadside call box of claim 13 wherein a television camera is coupled to the controller for transmission of television signals to the communi cation processor means 19 The roadside call box of claim 18 wherein the response means includes means for controlling the television camera in response to data messages received from the communication processor means 20 A fixed roadside call box comprising transceiver means for communicating with a cellular mobile radiotelephone system to call an emergency number programmable controller means electrically con nected to said transceiver means including first means responsive to a user for initiating an audio link to a central station corresponding to the emer gency number second means for selectively send ing the location of the call box to said central sta tion and third means for receiving data signals from said central station and initiating action at the call box in response to the received data signals and rechargeable energy means for providing power to said call box 21 An emergency roadside call box comprising cellular transceiver means for establishing communi cations with a communication processor means via a cellular mobile radiotelephone system controller means coupled to the cellular transceiver means for determining under program control the operation of the roadside call box and battery means cou
30. l Laboratories Record Mar 1980 Fichout J et al New Services for the 1500 sub scriber Connection System Communication and Transmission No 2 pp 25 38 1985 Janttl K Emergency Telephone System SOS J12 Ericcson Review No 3 1982 Komura M et al Subscriber Radio Telephone System for Rural Areas Japanese Telecommunications Re view vol 18 No 2 pp 91 100 Apr 1976 Kuchel J Rural Radio Telephones with Solar Power Supply date unknown pp 91 96 Sanchez A G Design of a Multiple Access Radio System for Rural Telephony Telecommunication Journal vol 50 XI pp 615 621 1983 Vlamincky L ATEA Police Call System The Au tomatic Electric Technical Journal vol 4 No 1 Dec 1954 Primary Examiner James L Dwyer Assistant Examiner Ahmad Matar Attorney Agent or Firm Nilsson Wurst amp Green 57 ABSTRACT A self contained cellular emergency roadside call box is disclosed without the use of external telephone lines The call box is solar powered with battery storage and comprises a controller coupled to a cellular transceiver The controller is also coupled to a solar array and bat tery which is recharged through the controller The call box communicates through a radio telephone link estab lished by cellular transceiver to a cellular telecommuni cation system The cellular telecommunication system includes a call site controller and mobile
31. l establish bus direction and will expect to receive a message on the R DATA line The message then displayed on R DATA includes a source address field destination field and data field When the request for service is answered by the transceiver processor 166 will read the R DATA line and the destination address field of the 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 incoming message Processor 166 will place a first bit of 60 R DATA on the line at the start of a data state During communication initiated by the transceiver the first data bit will appear on the R DATA line after the bus goes from the reset state to the data state The remaining data will appear on the R DATA line during the idle state no data state transition period The last data bit of the message will be held on the R DATA line a few micro seconds after the T DATA and C DATA Hines have 65 14 returned to the reset state to allow the bit to be read by the control unit During a communication initiated by processor 166 processor 166 will hold the first data bit on the R DATA line until T DATA and C DATA lines enter a data state at which time another bit is sent At the occurrence of each idle state processor 166 will read the R DATA line through gate 176 and compare it with what is being sent If there is a conflict processor 166 will stop sending and vacate the bus Processor 166 will request service again when the bus returns to the idle state
32. lephone system to radiotele phonically communicate from a plurality of fixed road side sites 2 Description of the Prior Art Emergency roadside call boxes have become increas ingly important and productive elements in providing roadside security and emergency assistance in the met ropolitan areas in the United States and throughout the world Originally such roadside emergency call boxes were hardwired to conventional telephone land lines However the installation of such telephone land lines substantially escalates the installation and maintenance costs of such emergency roadside telephone boxes In order to overcome this limitation the prior art devised emergency telephone call boxes which use a radio transmission link for communications Cannalty et al Emergency Communications System U S Pat No 3 939 417 and Wisniewski Emergency Calling Sys tem U S Pat No 3 492 581 show such systems Power for these call boxes is provided by a recharge able battery included within their housings However such prior art battery operated systems either required the units to be coupled to a source of electrical power for trickle charging or required the periodic replace ment or recharging of the battery packs through mobile roadside service Again although savings were realized in installation costs by using battery powered units the maintenance or service costs of such systems often pro hibited their use Furthermore in
33. ll be discussed below Logic gates are provided in con junction with the bus signals to gate either timing infor mation or data depending on the state of a control line INT SELECT The handset processor uses this cir cuitry to determine if the information on the T DATA line is actual data or merely a timing pulse C DATA and T DATA or C DATA and R DATA the choice depending on the direction of information flow will be logical complements during data transmission When they are not so related they will signify timing informa tion i e the reset or idle states Communications with these signals is on a three wire bidirectional bus Data is communicated in n address then data serial word for mat At the beginning of communication the bus direc tion is established During message transmission each data state is followed by an idle state with a reset state entered after the last data bit of the message Further details of the bus protocol are described in the Motorola User s manual referenced above Keypad data is communicated from the handset via column and row signals which are then used with an internal look up table to identify the keypad button which was pushed Handset 40 is diagrammatically depicted in FIG 2 No further detailed discussion of the transceiver will be undertaken except to such extent as such details affect the operation of the cellular call box controller also included in housing 28 The controller is a single board
34. ll box s identity These numbers and codes are verified and then communications is se lectively established on a reverse channel when appro priate All this is protocol which is normally handled by the cellular transceiver and ground station and do not strictly affect the operation of the invention as de scribed here Thereafter the outputs of each of the status chips are set to zero or initialized at step 205 This corresponds to the generation of various set signals shown as the output of decoder 130 and as described in connection with the latches of FIG 8 Having cleared and set each of the status latches processor 118 then enters a self test program to test the contents of memory 120 at step 207 Each self test pro gram is checked a predetermined plurality of times at step 209 The test is repeated until it successfully passes or timeout occurs Upon successful self testing of mem ory 120 processor 118 will then read the various status signals as step 211 as described in connection with FIG 8 Should the pole down signal DWN for example be active as determined at step 213 processor 118 will then enter a specialized down routine at step 215 to take whatever appropriate remedial action or reporting as is desired in the case that the call box has been run over or otherwise down on the ground After the down routine is completed or there its pole down situation processor 118 then determines at step 216 whether the battery level i
35. mulus and for initiating action at the call box in response to information re ceived over the cellular radiotelephone subsys tem and battery coupled to the controller for providing power to the controller and to the cellular trans ceiver UNITED STATES PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE CERTIFICATE OF CORRECTION f PATENTNO 5 377 256 Page 1 of 3 DATED December 27 1994 INVENTOR S Philip Franklin et al It is certified that error appears in the above indentified patent and that said Letters Patent is hereby corrected as shown below Title page item 54 The word Service should be inserted after Telephone in the title on the first page of the patent Column 1 line 2 insert Service after Telephone in the title Column 1 line 9 insert of after continuation Column 2 line 32 insert a after whether Column 4 line 37 delete co and insert to Column 4 line 1 delete including Column 9 line 14 insert turn before turns Column 9 line 29 delete BAT PLUS and insert BAT PULSE Column 9 line 30 delete BAT PLUS and insert BAT PULSE Column 10 line 57 delete R W and insert R W UNITED STATES PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE CERTIFICATE OF CORRECTION PATENTNO 5 377 256 Page 2 of 3 DATED December 27 1994 INVENTOR S Philip Franklin et al it is certified that error appears in the above indentified patent and that said
36. n and its various embodiments may be better understood by now turning to the following de scription DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT Before considering the detailed circuitry in the cellu lar call box and its method of operation first generally consider the environment in which the call box is used and how it is utilized during normal operation Turn now to FIG 1 When an emergency occurs along a roadside the affected user will locate the near est emergency call box generally denoted by reference numeral 10 The user will lift the handset which will cause call box 10 to automatically dial a prepro grammed number co the freeway emergency telephone system control center The call is transmitted via a radio link to a local cell site transceiver 12 over a selected one of 21 channels according to which channel is the stron gest cellular channel available This selection of com munication channels by transceiver 12 and mobile tele phone switching office 14 is well known in the art of cellular communications and will not be further de scribed Local cell site transceiver 12 is connected with a mobile telephone switching office 14 by wireline trunks Mobile telephone switching office 14 which is an automatic terminal then provides call box identity confirmation and predialed access to the control center which includes a communications applications proces sor generally denoted by reference numeral 16 Mobile telephone
37. nsceiver 44 Turning now to FIG 10 a microprocessor 166 run crystal controlled clock 168 allows signals receive by 5 377 256 13 transceiver 44 to place signals of the input output bus 138 Microprocessor 166 interfaces the circuitry and buses described above with the unique signals used by transceiver 44 and to that extent is transceiver depen dent The signals return data DATA complemen tary data C DATA and true data T DATA are signals specific to the Motorola transceiver 44 and are digital signals which are transmitted between transceiver 44 and the controller Each of these signals is coupled through appropriate logic circuits to input ports of the microprocessor 166 For example T DATA an input signal to microproces sor 166 is coupled through an exclusive OR gate 170 acting as a buffer since one input is held low The output of gate 170 which is T DATA is also coupled to input port PB4 of microprocessor 166 C DATA and buffered T DATA output from gate 170 are provided as the inputs to exclusive O gate 172 The output of gate 172 is thus true whenever T DATA or C DATA are true but if in an idle state they both go true the output is false Thus the output of gate 172 is true whenever data is being transmitted on the three wire bus and is false when the bus is in the idle state or reset state The out put of gate 172 is provided as an input in turn to exclu sive OR gate 174 whose other input is coupled to an inter
38. ntroller The controller still further comprises a circuit for adjusting the volume of transmitted and received audio information The controller has a timing mechanization included within its digital circuitry The timer provides he capa bility to measure predetermined elapsed time periods The timer mechanism is used in the following ways 1 To limit each call to a maximum duration e g 10 minutes 2 To terminate a call if there is no conversation for a predetermined period of time e g one minute and 3 To cause each call box to automatically initiate a call and to report its operational stats on a periodic basis e g once every 24 hours In the event that the telephone handset is left off the hook the automatic time out will terminate the call and will thus save battery power Should this occur the call box is automatically reactivated and another emergency call is placed should the hook switch be operated to the on hook status followed by an off hook status Stated in yet another way the invention is an emer gency roadside call box comprising a controller a cel lular transceiver coupled to and controlled by the con troller a battery for powering the controller coupled to the controller and transceiver and a solar array coupled to the controller for recharging the battery By reason of this combination of elements an emergency roadside call box can be installed and maintained at low cost The controller comprises a
39. nverter 134 whose output 136 is a signal RLY ON used to power Darlington pair 94 in FIG 5 in order to power up transceiver 44 PB7 and are each pulled high through a resistor in the case where the lines float so that decoder 130 and the transceiver power up relay are affirmatively maintained disabled unless clearly pulled active low by an appropriate output on each of these lines The outputs of of microprocessor 118 are the signals return data transmit R DATA T receive data receive R DATA R true data receive T DATA R and inverted interrupt control INT CONT which are specific input and output control signals used to provide necessary control functions for transceiver 44 Coupling directly to the input output ports PB0 PB3 of microprocessor 118 gives the microprocessor the ability to directly respond to and to manipulate a trans ceiver if desired However in the present embodiment these control ports are not specifically used for the Motorola transceiver illustrated Returning to FIG 7 output PB1 of microprocessor 166 to be described below is also coupled to an input output bus 138 1 is coupled from input output bus 138 to an inverter generally denoted by reference nu meral 140 The inverted PB1 signal is applied to node 142 as the signal SVC service indicating that the transceiver has established radiotelephone contact with a ground station The signal SVC is then coupled to one of the
40. pled to and controlled by master processor 24 for mass data storage Turn now specifically to call box 10 as shown in FIG 2 in front elevational view and in FIG 3 in side eleva tional view Call box 10 is a completely self contained unit requiring no connection with external power lines or telephone cables Box 10 is solar powered is de signed for use with a cellular telephone system and is characterized by low cost installation with quick repair or replacement As shown in FIGS 2 and 3 call box 10 comprises a housing 28 mounted on a road standard 30 Housing 28 includes the call box controller radio transceiver and battery described and shown diagrammatically in the following FIGS The three watt radio transceiver is coupled to a conventional collinear antenna 32 with 3 dB of isotropic gain mounted on the top of standard 30 Also mounted with antenna 32 is a solar panel 34 Solar panel 34 as described below is coupled to circuitry within man housing 28 and is used to recharge the batter included within the housing In particular solar array 34 is made of thirty four matched silicon solar cells with peak power rated at 10 5 watts The panel is glass lami nated and held in a metal frame to protect it from dirt moisture impact Approximately 2 2 watt hours per day is generated on the average by the solar panel 34 which is equivalent to the amount of power for 45 minutes of constant air time generally estimated to be equal four to five
41. pled to said controller means for providing power to the cellular transceiver means and to the controller means the controller means comprising 10 20 25 30 35 45 50 55 65 20 means for transmitting an emergency call to a pre programmed telephone number in response to a predetermined user initiated stimulus means for transmitting identifying information to the communication processor means which identifying information identifies the roadside call box to the communication processor means means for receiving data signals from the commu nications processor means and initiating action at the call box in response to the received data signals and means for enabling bidirectional voice communica tions over the cellular mobile radiotelephone system between the call box and the communica tion processor means 22 An emergency roadside call box as defined in claim 21 wherein the predetermined user initiated stim ulus is the lifting of a handset included with the roadside call box 23 A system for providing emergency call box ser vice the system comprising at least one emergency call box operable to enable radio communication with a cellular radiotele phone subsystem wherein the call box comprises a cellular transceiver 4 a controller coupled to the cellular transceiver for initiating an emergency call by the cellular trans ceiver to a predetermined number in response to a user initiated sti
42. r processing data received in part from the plurality of emergency call boxes The communications applications processor communicates through the cellu lar telecommunications subsystem with selected ones of the plurality of emergency call boxes By reason of this combination of elements the plurality of emergency call boxes can be installed and maintained at low cost and are capable of arbitrarily programmable interactive operations The system further comprises interoffice local tele phone exchanges coupled to the communication appli cations processor wherein communication between the plurality of emergency call boxes can be selectively coupled to the local telephone exchanges under control of the communication applications processor The controller comprises a plurality of status subcir cuits Each status subcircuit monitors a predetermined status parameter of the corresponding call box The system further comprises a circuit for selectively communicating the predetermined parameters as moni tored by the plurality of status subcircuits to the com munication applications processor The parameters monitored by the status subcircuits include battery power level and the physical condition of the corre sponding call box indicative in part of whether call box has been struck The controller further comprises a circuit for receiv ing and processing information from the communica tion applications processor to initiate operations in the co
43. ransceiver to initiate an emergency call to the communication processor means by causing the transceiver to send a stored emergency number to the cellular network in re sponse to a user s manual input and response means coupled to the transceiver for receiv ing data signals from the communication processor means and initiating action at the call box in re sponse to the received signals 6 The roadside call box of claim 5 wherein the actuation means operates in response to a single manual input to cause the transceiver to send the stored emergency number 7 The roadside call box of claim 5 wherein the actuation means includes means for triggering repertory dialing of the stored emergency number 8 The roadside call box of claim 5 wherein the means for powering the transceiver comprises battery means and solar cell means for recharging the battery means 9 A roadside call box for reporting emergencies to a communication processor means comprising a stationary cellular transceiver capable of bidirec tional voice and data communications with a cellu lar radiotelephone network rechargeable battery means for powering the trans ceiver and a controller coupled to the transceiver to operate the call box under program control the controller comprising actuation means operable in response to a user s manual input to initiate an emergency call to the communication processor means by causing the 20 25 35 45 5
44. rcuit and to the cellular radiotelephone The invention is best understood in the context of an illustrative example as shown in the following drawings wherein like elements are referenced by like numerals BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG 1 is a block diagram of a system in which the call box incorporating the invention is included FIG 2 is a front elevational depiction of the call box as installed at a roadside site FIG 3 is a side elevational view of the call box of FIG 1 5 377 256 5 10 15 20 25 30 45 50 55 60 65 4 FIG 4 is a block diagram of including the controller in the call box and its associated system elements FIG 5 is a schematic diagram of status subcircuits included in the controller FIG 6 is a schematic diagram of another status sub circuit FIG 7 is a schematic diagram of a circuit to read the status data FIG 8 is schematic diagram of a programmable microprocessor incorporated in the controller FIG 9 is a schematic diagram of decoder circuit used to communicate between the microprocessors on the controller FIG 10 is a schematic diagram of a circuit for cou pling signals between the transceiver and one of the microprocessors on the controller FIG 11 is a schematic diagram of an audio level adjust circuit which can be controlled by a remote central processor FIG 12 is a flow diagram illustrating the operation of the controller The inventio
45. rupt port PB3 of microprocessor 166 The output of gate 174 is coupled to the inverted interrupted termi nal INT of microprocessor 166 This terminal will be active whenever data is being received from the trans ceiver PB3 port acts as an internal acknowledgement signal The output of gate 172 will be low when the data link is idle and will be high when it is busy Therefore when PB3 is high the inverted interrupt INT will go active low when data comes in This will cause an inter rupt to be executed in microprocessor 166 to enable it to receive data Finally R DATA is similarly coupled to the output of transistor 178 Transistor 178 is in turn driven by output which is the data output from microproces sor 166 to transceiver 44 An input of exclusive OR gate 176 is also coupled to the output of transistor 178 and gate 176 acts as a buffer Therefore the output of buffer gate 176 is the signal R DATA which is applied to input port PB2 for the purposes of timing Consider briefly the timing protocol used on the three wire bus Normally the bus is in a reset state i e CDATA and T DATA are both false When either one changes microprocessor 166 will be interrupted The message appearing on the T DATA line contains a bus direction field destination address field and data field When microprocessor 166 initiates communication DATA data will go low indicating a request from pro cessor 166 A logic unit in the transceiver wil
46. s PA0 PA7 and 7 are input output ports of microprocessor 118 which in the present em bodiment are used only as output terminals which are selectively accessed through a program control Con sider now the various outputs provided at these termi 5 377 256 11 nals PAS PA7 and PBS PB7 are coupled to the inputs of decoder 130 The signals at the outputs of PA5 PA7 correspond respectively to two encoded bits designated as AOA and and an inverted enable signal EA Similarly signals PB5 PB7 include respectively two encoded bits AOB and A1B together with an inverted enable signal EB These data bits and their respective enable signals are thus coded according to conventional means into a plurality of control signals as illustrated in FIG 6 For example the signals CL OFF HK SET B CL BSY SET DWN CL DWN SET LO BAT and CL LO BAT which were described in connection with various status latches of FIG 4 are generated by micro processor 118 in combination with decoder 130 The various latches are thus clocked and cleared at the ap propriate times under software control as the status of call box 10 is queried Outputs 0 4 of microprocessor 118 are cou pled to a control bus 132 to respectively generate con trol signals A0 A4 whose use will be better described in connection with FIG 10 in relation to the manipulation of transceiver 44 The output of PB1 of microprocessor 118 which is active low is coupled to an i
47. s low If the power is low it enters a power subroutine at step 218 and per forms any remedial action necessary in response to low battery such as unconditionally disabling the trans ceiver 44 Again after execution of the low power routine or if the power is adequate microprocessor 118 will then inquire at step 220 whether an emergency call is being placed If an emergency caller is placing a call by lifting hand set 40 off the hook an emergency call routine is entered at step 222 wherein transceiver 44 is powered up a predetermined phone number is dialed or transmitted together with specific identifying informa tion uniquely identifying call box 10 After the call is 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 65 16 completed the processing again returns to step 210 where the status is reread If at step 220 an emergency call is not being placed an inquiry will be made at step 224 as to whether or not a predetermined time interval has passed In the illus trated embodiment call box 10 incorporates a twenty four hour flag If twenty four hour interval has not expired since step 224 was last queried the processing will return to step 211 If on the other hand twenty four hours have elapsed since the last query at step 224 a call report status routine is entered at step 226 At step 226 microprocessor 118 will enter a predetermined subpro gram to telephone the central processing unit regarding the status of call
48. switching office 14 can also connect call box 10 to a conventional telephone switching exchange 15 in response to commands from the control center so that three party telephone conference calls can be provided or the call from call box 10 simply handed off to another telephone station The incoming calls will be uniquely identified with a specific emergency call box The identification will then be used to access a data base and all information corre sponding to that call box will be retrieved in the appli cations processor 16 An automatic call distributor 18 will connect the incoming call to an available operator at a communications applications processor CAP sup port station 20 A human operator answers the call and the communication which to this point has been digital will be followed by voice communication Specific call box information will be displayed on the screen in re 5 377 256 5 sponse to an automatic call distributor processor 22 coupled with a master processor 24 which causes spe cific information to be brought up from the data base to the appropriate support station 20 Such information includes the location of the call box nearest access roads local terrain and appropriate local emergency numbers Support station 20 and master processor 24 interactively communicate so that all subsequent ac tions which are undertaken by the operator can be logged for archival management and planning use Archival discs 26 are cou
49. t is off or to be turned off if it is on Similarly audio volume control or a gain adjust sig nal GAIN ADJ is provided from I O bus 138 through signal PA7 of microprocessor 166 This is a gain adjust signal coupled through transistors 190 and 192 thereby biasing node 194 at the input side of audio capacitor 182 to a point appropriate with the desired audio gain Thus the remote central controller can advise call box 10 to turn up the microphone volume as needed through the manipulation of the T and C DATA signals coupled to microprocessor 166 which then appropriately generates the gain adjust signal PA7 Similarly the received audio from the remote central operator is coupled to terminal 196 A gain the received audio signal is coupled through an audio capacitor 196 into an audio amplifier generally denoted as reference numeral 200 The feedback of audio amplifier 200 in turn is controlled through the transistor 202 by means of the gain adjust signal GAIN ADJ acting through the output transistor 190 Therefore the received audio gain coupled to input 204 of differential amplifier 206 can be remotely operator adjusted through gain adjust signal GAIN ADJ The output of differential amplifier 206 in turn is coupled to the input of a push pull ampli fier generally denoted by reference numeral 208 The output of push pull amplifier 208 is coupled as the op posing input to differential amplifier 206 thereby main taining the output 210 of
50. telephone switching terminal Each call box comprises a plurality of status subcircuits for monitoring conditions such as battery condition and transmitter status The call box communication and the status are processed by a micro processor which generates appropriate commands re quired by the cellular transceiver Information can be transmitted bidirectionally between each of the call boxes and the communication applications processor An interactive flow of information is exchanged with the call box and the functional condition is monitored 23 Claims 10 Drawing Sheets 5 377 256 Page 2 U S PATENT DOCUMENTS 4 371 751 2 1983 Hilligoss Jr et al 3 622 999 11 1971 Getz Jr et al 4 406 995 9 1983 3 694 579 9 1972 McMurray 4 415 770 11 1983 Kaietal 3 800 089 3 1974 Reddick 4 417 100 11 1983 Carlson etal 3 844 840 10 1974 Bender 4 444 661 11 1983 Karlstrom 3 939 417 2 1976 et 340 505 4 451 699 5 1984 Gruenberg 3 986 119 10 1976 Hemmer Jr et al 4 465 904 8 1984 Gottsegen et al 4 040 013 8 1977 Carlson 340 164 4 467 142 8 1984 Rupp et al 4 092 600 5 1978 Zimmermann et al 4 511 887 4 1985 Fiore 4 117 404 9 1978 Marshall 4 538 138 8 1985 Harvey et al 340 521 4 131 849 12 1978 Freeburg et al 4 557 182 3 1986 Millsap et al 4 176 254 11 1979 Tuttle et al 379 45 4
51. the past radiotelephone communica tions within geographic areas were realized using a process based on a single transmitter and antenna This method of communication limits the number of calls that can be placed in a geographic area and limits the size of the area that can be covered with a given amount of equipment However with the recent advent of cel lular telephone technology these limitations which were characteristic of the prior art single transmitter systems no longer exist Therefore what is needed is a design and method of using a radio linked emergency call box which is adapt able to cellular telephone technology and which is char acterized by low installation and service costs BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The invention is a system for providing an emergency call box service comprising a plurality of emergency call boxes wherein each call box further comprises a controller a cellular transceiver coupled to the control ler a battery coupled to the controller for providing 10 15 20 25 30 35 45 55 60 65 2 power to the controller and transceiver and a solar array for generating power coupled to the controller for recharging the battery Also included in the system is a cellular telecommunications subsystem in radi otelecommunication with each of the plurality of emer gency call boxes A communication applications pro cessor is coupled to the cellular telecommunications subsystem fo
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