The following prior art issued U.S. patents are examples of prior art fuel flow measuring systems for various types of vehicles:                U.S. Pat. No. 6,275,231—Obradovich (2001)        U.S. Pat. No. 6,195,604—Moore et al (2001)        U.S. Pat. No. 6,151,549—Andrews et al (2000)        U.S. Pat. No. 4,400,779—Kosuge et al (1983)        U.S. Pat. No. 4,296,472—Sarkis (1981)        U.S. Pat. No. 4,218,744—Pratt et al (1980)        U.S. Pat. No. 4,050,295—Harvey (1977)        U.S. Pat. No. 3,908,451—Walker et al (1975)        
Walker et al., Harvey, Pratt et al., Sarkis and Kosuge et al. are representative of prior art dealing with various fuel flow measuring systems. None of these patents discloses a system that interfaces with a vehicle GPS signal receiver, although the Pratt et al. patent uses a Flow Scan model 201 transducer.
Andrews et al, Moore et al and Obradovich disclose systems that utilize both fuel transducers/sensors and GPS signal receivers. Andrews et al discloses a truck fuel control system that adjusts fuel flow on the basis of the truck's elevation, as determined by the GPS signal receiver. Moore et al discloses a tractor monitoring system, which incorporates a GPS signal receiver for plotting a yield map showing the amount of grain harvested in a given area. Obradovich discloses a management system for an automobile, which includes a GPS signal receiver for an associated navigation system.
There are also fuel flow monitoring systems for aircraft that generate fuel flow data for input to an existing GPS “fuel page” display. For example, fuel flow computer and display systems are available from Insight Instrument Corporation, from JP Instruments, Inc. and from Shadin, Inc. However such prior systems include a transducer mounted in the engine compartment and a separate cabin panel mounted computer and display. The separately installed computer/display requires programming upon installation to accommodate the proportionality or “K” factor of the particular installed transducer and, of course, requires its own panel space—even though the same fuel flow data may be passed on to the GPS receiver for display there as well.
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USPTO Backgrounds