The field of the invention relates to vehicle documentation organizers/visors and systems, particularly organizers/visors and systems that include components, integral or connectable to automobile components, and preferably automobile components located on, near, or close to the driver's side of a vehicle. The overall mission of each invention disclosed herein is to promote driver safety and organization of essential documentation when a person is behind the wheel of the automobile. In so doing, the goals of the inventors firmly stand in support of the Community, Police, Paramedics, and Fire Fighters and strive to work in harmony to keeps all vehicle passengers safe and alive.
It is common knowledge in the United States and in many places abroad that traffic stops cause angst for both police officers who stop a vehicle as well as the drivers and passengers in a vehicle. Traffic stops occur when a driver is detained by police to either (1) investigate whether an occupant in the vehicle has committed a crime or is about to commit a crime, (2) issue a citation for a traffic offense, or (3) make an arrest. From the police officer's perspective, a traffic stop is one of the most dangerous tasks an officer must perform because the officer never knows how the driver may respond. Accordingly, during traffic stops, officers are trained to remain on guard at all times.
During a traffic stop, a critical encounter occurs when the officer asks the driver for documentation and the driver looks for the requested documentation. In the United States, such documentation typically includes a driver's license, an insurance card, and registration for the vehicle. The driver may keep these documents in various places inside the car. Often, for example, vehicle registration is kept in the glove compartment, while a driver's license is kept inside of a wallet. During this critical encounter, a police officer is trained to remain cautious of the driver's actions. In contrast, occupants of the vehicle may or may not know that they should be conscious of their movements during this critical encounter, and not move in a way that could be perceived as threatening to the police officer.
In addition to the documentation required for traffic stops, a need also exists for various types of personnel to have access to documentation contained in a vehicle. For example, after a collision, emergency personnel may need to find documentation for the driver vehicle. Other types of personnel who may need access to documentation include, but are not limited to, fire fighters, medical personnel (e.g. paramedics), and travel/vehicles services (e.g. AAA).
Accordingly, there is a need for vehicle documentation organizers/visors and systems that keep documentation typically requested by a police officer in an easily accessible location in plain view of the police officer. The invention, as disclosed and claimed, fulfills this need and provides related advantages as further described herein.
Described herein are vehicle documentation organizers/visors and systems. One embodiment of the invention is configured as a vehicle documentation system. In this embodiment, the vehicle documentation system includes an instruction card, having indicia disposed thereon; a vehicle documentation organizer/visor, including one or more compartments for insertion of documentation; and a computer-readable code, disposed on one of the instruction card or the a vehicle documentation organizer/visor, the computer-readable code including a portion attachable to a vehicle, with the computer-readable code being scannable and associated with a database. Information from the database may be contained in mobile application, having one or more user interfaces. Additional embodiments of the invention are described in more detail below.
The accompanying drawings are included to provide a further understanding of the present disclosure and are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification, illustrate embodiments of the present disclosure, and together with the description serve to explain the principles of the present disclosure. In the drawings:
The following description should be read with reference to the drawings, wherein like reference numerals indicate like elements throughout the several views. The drawings, which are not necessarily to scale, are not intended to limit the scope of the claimed invention. The detailed description and drawings illustrate exemplary embodiments of the invention, as described and claimed. Those skilled in the art will recognize that the various elements described and/or shown may be arranged in various combinations and configurations without departing from the scope of the disclosure.
All numerical values herein are assumed to be modified by the term “about.” The disclosure of numerical ranges by endpoints includes all numbers subsumed within that range (e.g., 1 to 5 includes 1, 1.5, 2, 2.75, 3, 3.80, 4, and 5).
As used in this specification and the appended claims, the singular indefinite articles “a”, “an,” and the definite article “the” should be considered to include or otherwise cover both single and plural referents unless the content clearly dictates otherwise. In other words, these articles are applicable to one or more referents. As used in this specification and the appended claims, the term “or” is generally employed to include or otherwise cover “and/or” unless the content clearly dictates otherwise.
References in the specification to “an embodiment,” “embodiments,” “such embodiments,” etc., indicate that the embodiment described may include a particular feature, structure, or characteristic, but every embodiment may not necessarily include the particular feature, structure, or characteristic. Moreover, such phrases do not necessarily refer to the same embodiment. Further, any particular feature, structure, or characteristic described in connection with a particular embodiment is intended to be applied, incorporated or substituted into other embodiments, whether or not explicitly described, unless clearly stated to the contrary.
Turning in detail to the drawings,
Mounted to the ceiling 114 is a visor mount 122, which is coupled to a traffic stop documentation organizer/visor 10. Coupled to the visor mount 122 and the organizer/visor 10 is an elongated mounting bar 11. With respect to the embodiments described herein, the organizer/visor 10 includes a plurality of layers. One exemplary embodiment includes a base layer 12 and layers 14a, 14b. 14c, 16 (shown in
The base layer 12 preferably is manufactured from an opaque or partially opaque material. Preferred materials include, but are not limited to plastic materials such as vinyl, and particularly polyvinyl chloride (PVC) materials, leather, suede, leather-like materials. One such material is sold under the brand name ALCANTARA® and is manufactured and marketed by Alcantara SpA. The listing of such materials, however, should not be construed as limiting. Components of the organizers, visors, and systems disclosed herein may include any material suitable for the overall purpose as a documentation holder, visor, or system.
Layers 14a, 14b, 14c are coupled to the base layer 12 such that compartments 18a, 18b, 18c (shown in
The vehicle documentation organizer system includes a mobile application (e.g. for use on a computer, smartphone, or tablet) capable of connection to a computerized device such as a mobile device (i.e. mobile phone, tablet, handheld device) and/or a computer. The mobile application, via the computerized device, is configured to transmit and receive information from various databases that are accessible to various types of personnel. Such personnel includes those persons associated with various types of entities, including, but not limited to law enforcement, fire prevention, medical, travel and vehicle services (e.g. towing companies, AAA, travel agencies, etc.) and emergency services. The system can include various types of element disclosed in patent applications, describing mobile applications. For example, the methods and systems disclosed in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/299,127, titled, “Linked Methods and Systems,” invented by Tony F. Rodriguez, and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/081,257, titled, Virtual document organizer system and method, invented by Jeffrey Mankoff each of which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
The application can further be configured to provide motor vehicle assistance via tools that are integrated to the application and accessible via the computerized device. Such tools, for example, include access to insurance policies and claim information, digital Identification (ID) cards and accident support, among other types of services.
The application can further be configured to include various types of media, in the form of images and video, for example.
The method of the vehicle documentation organizer system includes the steps of:
As will be understood by one skilled in the art, for any and all purposes, such as in terms of providing a written description, all ranges disclosed in this disclosure also encompass any and all possible subranges and combinations of subranges thereof. Any listed range can be easily recognized as sufficiently describing and enabling the same range being broken down into at least equal halves, thirds, quarters, fifths, tenths, etc. As a non-limiting example, each range discussed in this disclosure can be readily broken down into a lower third, middle third and upper third, etc. Finally, as will be understood by one skilled in the art, a range includes each individual member.
From the foregoing, it will be appreciated that various embodiments of the present disclosure have been described for purposes of illustration, and that various modifications may be made without departing from the scope and spirit of the present disclosure. Accordingly, the various embodiments disclosed are not intended to be limiting, with the true scope and spirit being indicated by the following claims.
This application claims priority to U.S. Application Nos. 62/309,934, filed Mar. 17, 2016 and 62/432,053, filed Dec. 9, 2016. The entirety of each aforementioned application is incorporated herein by reference.