Patent ID: 7116218

Claim:
A detection/communication apparatus to be installed on a vehicle having a plurality of tires, said apparatus comprising: tire state detectors which are provided on the respective tires and each of which detects a state of a corresponding one of said tires; local transceivers which are provided on the respective tires and which transmit tire data sets relating to the respective tires, each of said tire data sets including at least one tire-state data element representative of the detected state of a corresponding one of said tires; a central receiver which is provided on a body of the vehicle and which receives said tire data sets transmitted by said local transceivers; a particular-signal transmitter which is provided on the body of the vehicle and which transmits a particular-signal; and data-transmission modifiers which are provided on the respective tires, each of said data-transmission modifiers being operable depending upon a state of reception of said particular-signal by a corresponding one of said local transceivers, to modify transmission of a corresponding one of said tire data sets by said corresponding one of said local transceivers, wherein each data-transmission modifier includes at least one of a transmission restrictor, a data-element content changer, a data-amount changer and a transmission-interval changer.