Patent ID: 7230530

Claim:
A vehicle safety system for notifying a caregiver whether a child is seated in a car seat during unattended time intervals, said vehicle safety system comprising: means for determining a location of a child such that a care giver can know whether a child is seated in the car seat, said child location determining means comprising a sound wave emitting module nested therein; means for determining a location of the care giver such that said vehicle safety system can know whether the care giver has traveled a predetermined distance away from the car seat; wherein said child location determining means and said care giver location determining means cooperate for sending an alert signal to the care giver when a plurality of predetermined parameters are detected, said care giver location determining means comprising a housing suitably sized and shaped to fitting on a key ring, a speaker electrically coupled to said processor, an internal power supply source electrically coupled to said speaker and said processor, a processor, and a memory electrically coupled to said processor, said memory including software instructions for causing said system to perform the steps of: generating and transmitting a first control signal to said child location determining means when at least one of said predetermined parameters is detected, said at least one predetermined parameters being detected when the care giver toggles the vehicle from a first operating mode to a second operating mode while the child is seated in the car seat, and generating and transmitting a second control signal to said child location determining means when said at least one predetermined parameters are no longer detected; wherein said care giver location determining means comprises a receiver in active wireless communication with said sound wave emitting module when the care giver is located within said predetermined distance from said child location determining means, said first and second control signals being responsive to said care giver location determining means when the care giver moves a distance greater than said predetermined distance from said child location determining means such that the care giver is audibly reminded of the presence of the child during operating conditions.