Abstract:
A temperature control system that automatically operates the cooling/heating ventilation system of a motor vehicle occupied by persons or animals when temperatures sensed therein go beyond predetermined threshold.

Description:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS  
       [0001]     A Provisional Patent Application covering the invention herein was filed Jul. 14, 2005 as Ser. No. 60/698,766. 
     
    
     STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH OR DEVELOPMENT  
       [0002]     Research and development of this invention and Application have not been federally sponsored, and no rights are given under any Federal program.  
       REFERENCE TO A MICROFICHE APPENDIX  
       [0003]     Not applicable  
       BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
       [0004]     1. Field of the Invention  
         [0005]     This invention relates to protection of occupants of unattended motor vehicles as temperatures within rise or fall beyond acceptable limits.  
         [0006]     2. Description of the Related Art  
         [0007]     As will be understood, in recent years there has been an alarming increase in the number of infants, young children and animals dying from heat exposure while occupying unattended motor vehicles. Criminally prosecuting those adults responsible for leaving these children or animals unattended has not proven to be an effective deterrent. Defending such prosecutions on the grounds that the vehicle was only left unattended for a few minutes has not been very persuasive to a jury or judge, and no matter how much “hand-wringing” there may be, the child or animal continues beyond resuscitation. State and Local Governments which enact legislation banning the practice of leaving such an occupied vehicle unattended serve to highlight the problem, yet the only response that seems to have been brought is the operator&#39;s lowering of the vehicle&#39;s windows somewhat so as to hopefully allow ambient cooler air to waft in when away.  
         [0008]     In an attempt to deal with the dangerous situations that such heat exposure could bring to the young child or animal occupant, many shopping centers and indoor malls have taken to the practice of having security patrols just drive around their parking lots and garages in an attempt to detect such conditions before yielding to disastrous results, and to somehow locate the vehicle owning shopper. The security and police patrols generally leaving of informational pamphlets under a shopper&#39;s windshield wipers as to the consequences of a temperature increase in closed vehicles is somewhat helpful, as is the reporting to store personnel by other shoppers of their seeing a young child or animal left within a parked vehicle.  
         [0009]     Nevertheless, and unfortunately so, many of these young children and animals continue to die each year from heat exposure because of human error, mistake, accident and momentary forgetfulness when leaving the vehicle unattended to carry out some minor chore or task.  
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
       [0010]     As will become clear from the following description, the present invention recognizes this type of human error—no matter how innocent or accidental it may be—but acts to eliminate it from producing the heart-wrenching calamity which might inevitably follow. As will be seen, the invention describes an automatic temperature control system for these unattended vehicles for activation when a vehicle&#39;s occupant is unable by himself/herself or itself to take corrective action.  
         [0011]     In accordance with the invention, an auxiliary motor is employed as part of a supplemental cooling system where temperatures increasingly rise to dangerous levels in the closed vehicles, or an auxiliary heating system for use where the internal temperatures fall to dangerously low levels. An auxiliary battery is included to operate either or both auxiliary arrangements, powered by solar panels or strips built into the vehicle—as along either its front or rear dashboards, its windows, or its various panels.  
         [0012]     Recognizing that an increased temperature generally lowers as the hours advance during the day, and that a decreased temperature in colder climates tends to rise with time during the night, the solar energization and the battery construction of the invention are selected such that the battery charge need only be sufficient to last some eight hours or so—before automatically recharging again with recurring sunlight. Obviously, within such time frame, the adult would generally be expected to return to the vehicle in any event—with the belief that recognizing the temperature conditions inside the closed vehicle would then lead to the manual temperature regulation of the air conditioning or heat otherwise controlled automatically by the invention. Thus, depending upon the parameters selected and designed, an automatic cooling of the inside could be had once a predetermined increased threshold temperature is reached; conversely, a controlled heating can be initiated once the inside temperature of the vehicle falls to a certain amount. Continued cooling, on the one hand, or heating, on the other hand, would then last and be powered by the solar panels continuously as long as there was sunlight. If sunlight is not sufficient, then the charged batteries would take over until sunlight returns to power the motor and then recharge the battery.  
         [0013]     The present invention, furthermore, affords a manner of determining whether an infant, young child or animal is present within the vehicle left unattended. A first preferred way is to condition the energization of the auxiliary cooling or heating system through the use of detecting a closed seatbelt being worn. If the seatbelt is closed, apparently it is being worn by someone in the vehicle, who needs to then be protected should the internal temperatures of the vehicle rise or fall to these predetermined threshold. Effective in situations where an infant is in the vehicle (as where the seatbelt secures a child seat), or in the case of younger children strapped in who fall asleep, the invention also recognizes that certain older children are able to disconnect the seatbelt when the vehicle is not in motion and they are just sitting inside—and, certainly, most family pets are not seatbelted when being driven about. In these latter situations, the detection apparatus for actuating the cooling, or heating, auxiliary cycle is accomplished through a motion detector since, at some time or another, either the older child or animal is going to wake and stir or move about. Such motion detection then, again, triggers the corrective action automatically once the threshold temperature is reached.  
         [0014]     Operating in these manners, therefore, obviates the possible problem with an alternative proposed solution of employing a “weight” type of sensor as a conditioning factor for the temperature control which, could become energized simply by the weight of one&#39;s briefcase being put on the seat, or a shopping bag filled with groceries, instead of by the weight of a child or animal on a seat. 
     
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING  
       [0015]     These and other features of the present invention will be more clearly understood from a consideration of the following description, taken in connection with the single figure of the drawing, in which:  
         [0016]      FIG. 1  illustrates a block diagram helpful in an understanding of the invention to effectuate this temperature control in an unattended motor vehicle.  
     
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION  
       [0017]     In  FIG. 1 , the separate electric motor (either for cooling the inside of the motor vehicle in hot weather or in heating the inside during cold weather) is shown at  10 , with its separate, auxiliary battery  12  energized by one or more solar panels or strips  14  about the motor vehicle. The construction for the battery  12  may be such as to hold some eight hours of charge, sufficient to operate the motor  10 , on the assumption that the human operator of the vehicle would return in that length of time, or in recognizing, for example, that by that time lapse, heated temperatures would tend to cool as the sun goes down or cold temperatures would tend to heat up as the sun rises.  
         [0018]     Sensing apparatus is shown at  16  as being coupled with the battery  12  and the motor  10  to actuate the motor  10  once a threshold of temperature is reached upon command of a detector which senses the motion of an occupant in the vehicle (a child or animal), or one which senses a closed seatbelt connection for a young child or infant strapped in a seat. In accordance with the invention, the sensing apparatus  16  is one which can never be disabled; in this way, as long as the battery  12  is adequately energized, or there is sufficient sunlight, any motion or seatbelt connection sensed in the vehicle will actuate the motor  10  once the ambient conditions in the vehicle adjust to exceed the predetermined threshold—for example, 85°-90° F. for cooling, or 30-35° F. for heating. In other words, once the operator of the motor vehicle leaves, whether the ignition is turned OFF or ON, the sensing apparatus  16  will take over when the applicable threshold is reached, to automatically control the internal temperature of the vehicle within its cab compartment.  
         [0019]     The present invention also recognizes that a further control could be implemented to appropriately and automatically “cool” or “heat” the vehicle when left unattended, even if the vehicle is left totally unoccupied; a manual switch  30  accomplishes this, activated by the vehicle&#39;s operator upon leaving. Such activation controls the sensing apparatus  16  to actuate the appropriate motor  10  whether or not a motion movement or seatbelt buckling-in connection is sensed. Shutting off this manual switch  30 , however, has no effect upon the actuation of the motor  10  once either or both detectors come into play.  
         [0020]     As will be apparent, while the invention as so far described operates to automatically protect the child or animal occupant in the presence of somewhat extreme temperature conditions, further protections can be implemented by having the sensing apparatus  16  also condition the motor  10  to provide various “alerts”—either visual or audible to “flash” or “sound”—as a further warning to those in the vicinity of the vehicle that a child or animal is at risk within the vehicle&#39;s confines. These visual and/or audible “alerts” are shown at  18  in  FIG. 1 .  
         [0021]     Such apparatus, while particularly useful in taking away from the vehicle&#39;s operator the possibility of making a mistake when getting out of the vehicle, also affords a similar protection where the operator himself/herself may become disabled when still within the vehicle; although disabled inside, the motion detection sensor or the seatbelt connection sensor would continue to provide the benefits of keeping the temperature within controlled limits until an “alert” is observed, or someone comes upon the scene.  
         [0022]     As will be appreciated, any electronic design for the sensing apparatus and for the controls of the motors employed could be had, and any appropriate design of the solar operated battery could follow. All that is required is a recognition that this degree of automatic control can be had based on a confluence recognizing the presence of some person or animal to be protected in the vehicle, and an exceeding of a predetermined temperature threshold, whatever it may be desired to be set at. So, for example, a similar motion detector could be installed in the trunk of the vehicle, along with a like ventilation system, auxiliary motor &amp; battery, to automatically control the temperature there should a child, for example, accidentally become locked inside while playing.  
         [0023]     And, as will be understood, while a human&#39;s forgetfulness when leaving the vehicle unattended may never be overcome, the mechanical nature of the invention&#39;s applicability will be seen to continue on unimpeded regardless.  
         [0024]     (One further feature of the invention will also be appreciated in that the separate electric motor  10 , once activated by the sensing apparatus  16 , can be connected so as to controllably start the vehicle&#39;s own air conditioning or heating system as illustrated in  FIG. 1 , akin to a remote control type of starter. The air conditioner pump is shown at  20  for the cooling portion of the ventilation system, while the coil for the heating portion of the system is shown  22 .)  
         [0025]     While there have been described what are considered to be preferred embodiments of the present invention, it will be readily appreciated that modifications can be made by those skilled in the art without departing from the scope of the teachings herein. For at least such reason, therefore, resort should be had to the claims appended hereto for a true understanding of the scope of the invention.