Clandestine missing vehicle location reporting using cellular channels

Claim 1

Apparatus for determining and reporting the present location of a missing vehicle, the apparatus comprising: a location determination (LD) unit, including an LD signal antenna and LD receiver/processor, positioned on a vehicle to receive LD signals from at least three distinguishable LD signal sources and to process these LD signals so that the processed signals can be used to determine the present location of the LD antenna; a cellular phone unit positioned on the vehicle and comprising: a cellular phone transceiver and antenna that receive incoming cellular signals at a signal port on an incoming cellular channel and that transmit outgoing cellular signals from the signal port on an outgoing cellular channel at a selected frequency to a central station that is spaced apart from the cellular phone transceiver, that receive incoming cellular signals from the central station and that issue these signals as electronic signals at the signal port, and that can generate and issue an audibly perceptible or visually perceptible incoming call signal that indicates when the transceiver and antenna are receiving an incoming cellular signal intended for that transceiver, where the cellular phone transceiver and antenna are capable of receiving and responding to an LD interrogation signal from the central station that requests information on the present location of the LD antenna; and a cellular phone handset, having an on-hook state and an off-hook state, that receives electronic signals from the cellular phone signal port and converts these electronic signals to audio signals and that, in its off-hook state, receives and converts audio signals to electronic signals and delivers these electronic signals to the cellular signal port; and a controller, positioned on the vehicle, connected to and selectively controlling and acting as an interface between the LD unit and the cellular phone unit, for passing signals between the LD unit and the cellular phone unit, wherein (i) when the cellular phone unit receives an incoming cellular call, the controller causes the cellular phone unit to delay issuance of an incoming call signal for a selected initial time interval of length Δtd; (ii) when the cellular phone unit receives an LD interrogation signal during an initial time interval of length Δtd as part of the incoming cellular call, the controller causes the cellular phone unit not to issue an incoming cellular phone call signal indicating receipt of an incoming phone call, causes the LD unit to provide the cellular phone unit with information on the present location of the LD antenna, and causes the cellular phone transceiver and antenna to transmit this LD unit present location information to the central station; and (iii) when the cellular phone unit does not receive an LD interrogation signal during an initial time interval of length Δtd as part of the incoming cellular call, the controller causes the cellular phone unit to operate as a normal cellular phone and to issue an incoming cellular phone call signal that is perceptible by an occupant of the vehicle.