Appeal No. 2001-2020
Application No. 09/271,232
1. For use in conjunction with a GPS satellite system and a two way satellite
communication system, an object locating system comprising:
a mobile unit physically connected to the object to be located, said mobile unit comprising
a satellite communication transceiver capable of receiving and transmitting encoded
signals,
decoding means associated with said satellite communication transceiver for
decoding a unique signal associated with said mobile unit and for generating an activation signal
upon receipt of said unique signal,
a GPS receiver,
means for activating said GPS receiver in response to said activation signal so that said GPS
receiver generates a current position signal representative of the position of said mobile unit, and
means for connecting said current position signal as an input signal to said satellite
communication transceiver so that said satellite communication transceiver transmits said position
signal, wherein said connecting means comprises means for storing a position signal, means for
comparing the current position signal with a previously stored position signal, means for generating
a difference signal representative thereof and for connecting said current position signal as an input
signal to said satellite communication transceiver only when said difference signal exceeds a preset
threshold, and means for storing the current position signal as said previously stored position signal,
and
a base station comprising
means for selectively transmitting said unique signal to said communications satellite,
means for receiving said position signal from said satellite communication transceiver, and
means for creating a display representative of the location of said mobile unit.
The references relied on by the examiner are:
Kojima et al. (Kojima) 5,754,136 May 19, 1998
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