Patent ID: 7990257

Claim:
A tire localization system for locating the position of a tire of a vehicle, the system comprising: a plurality of tire pressure monitoring system (TPMS) wheel modules of a vehicle TPMS, each TPMS wheel module being attached to one of the wheels or a tire thereof, respectively, each TPMS wheel module comprising a radio frequency identification (RFID) reader; and a plurality of RFID tags, each RFID tag being associated with and storing wheel position information of one of the wheels, and each RFID tag being positioned externally of its associated wheel; wherein each of the RFID readers is arranged, upon activation, to interrogate its associated RFID tag, and wherein the associated RFID tag is arranged, upon interrogation, to transmit its stored position information to the RFID reader for transmission by the TPMS wheel module to a central control unit, wherein each TPMS wheel module is arranged to sense a change in a parameter of its respective wheel or tire; and the system is arranged such that the respective RFID reader is activated by the TPMS wheel module in response to the sensed change, and wherein at least one of the TPMS wheel modules further comprises an accelerometer that is arranged to determine an angular position of the at least one wheel with respect to a field of gravity, in response to a sensed change in a parameter of its respective wheel or tire, such that an appropriate time for transmitting the position information from the respective RFID tag to the RFID reader is determinable.