Integrated system and method for car pooling using smart cards, gps, gprs, active poster and near field communication devices

Abstract

A method, integrated system and in-vehicle Active Poster for processing mobile touch transactions including carpooling transactions. The integration includes a near field contactless or swipe smart card or other portable identification device which may be standalone, affixed to, or part of a mobile or hand held portable wireless communication device, a touch sensitive Active Poster also with swipe or near field contactless communication capability and also incorporating or in communication with GPS or other vehicle location services capability for the vehicle, a car pool management or other service provider's system and application and a host computer with networking capability.

Description

1. CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS[0001]This application is a Continuation in Part (CIP) of U.S. Non-Provisional Patent Application Ser.. No. 12 / 705,696, filed on Feb. 15, 2010, which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety for all purposes.2. FIELD OF INVENTION[0002]The Present invention relates to a method and integrated system for efficient management of car pooling using Smart Cards, GPS, GPRS, near field communication devices, and active poster technology. More particularly, disclosed is a method and integrated system of car pooling which provides a simple and practical solution which facilitates and encourages car owners to share their cars with other car owners, thereby resulting in fewer numbers of cars on the city roads.3. DEFINITIONS, ABBREVIATIONS AND ACRONYMS[0003]Active Poster: A ‘touch-n-display unit’ that enables mobile subscribers with CL SIMs or other types of RFID units in their handsets or (in the case of standalone RFID units) carried separate...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0068]The present invention provides a simple and practicable method to facilitate and encourage car owners to share their cars with other car owners, thereby resulting in fewer numbers of cars plying city roads. As commonly experienced by any road user, private cars are causing traffic congestion by inefficiently using the limited road space—the cars are typically carrying only one to two commuters against a capacity of 5 or more (a low 20 to 40% capacity utilization). The present invention however treats the available spare capacity in cars as an opportunity to provide a transport solution—whereby 3-4 motorists, instead of traveling in separate cars, accommodate themselves in one car, especially during peak hours. In other words, the invention aims to increase the capacity utilization (also called load factor) of cars to 60-80% and in the process take at least 50% cars off the road. The present invention integrates various technologies thereby incorporating a new methodology for car pooling using GPS, GPRS, Active Poster technology, smart card technology, a software application and near field communication devices, which working together allow the Car Pool Administration team to:

Problems solved by technology

As commonly experienced by any road user, private cars are causing traffic congestion by inefficiently using the limited road space—the cars are typically carrying only one to two commuters against a capacity of 5 or more (a low 20 to 40% capacity utilization).

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