Vehicular occupancy assessment

• US 10,052,972 B2
• Filed: 03/26/2013
• Issued: 08/21/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 03/26/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Tahoe Research Limited (f/k/a Learndale Limited) (Vector Capital Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Inventors: Raffa, Giuseppe, Wan, Chieh-Yih, Sharma, Sangita R., Nachman, Lama, Graumann, David L.
• Primary Examiner(s): Charioui, Mohamed
• Assistant Examiner(s): Delozier, Jeremy
• Application Number:
  US13/850,900
• Publication Number:
  US 20140297220A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,974 Days
• CPC Class Codes: B60N 2/002 Seats provided with an occupancy detection means mounted therein or thereon detection means responsive to presence or absence of children B60N2/266
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 16/037 for occupant comfort , e.g. for automatic adjustment of appliances according to personal settings, e.g. seats, mirrors, steering wheel
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 9/28 the pass enabling tracking or indicating presence

Abstract

Systems, devices, and techniques are provided for occupancy assessment of a vehicle. For one or more occupants of the vehicle, the occupancy assessment establishes position and/or identity for some or all of the occupant(s).

Claims

1. An apparatus for device identification and mapping in an enclosure, comprising:

one or more sensors associated with the enclosure;

an antenna configured to receive a wireless signal from a first device of a plurality of devices, wherein the wireless signal is associated with a signal strength;

at least one memory having computer-executable instructions and information objects stored thereon; and

at least one processor functionally coupled to the antenna and the at least one memory and configured, by the computer-executable instructions and the information objects, to;

collect, by the at least one processor, data from the one or more sensors associated with the enclosure, wherein the data is indicative of a presence of a first occupant of one or more occupants of the enclosure;

determine, by the at least one processor and based on the data collected from the one or more sensors, a location of the first occupant;

determine, by the at least one processor and based on the signal strength and the location of the first occupant, a location of the first device;

generate, by the at least one processor, a data structure representing a mapping of the location of the first occupant and the location of the first device;

associate, by the at least one processor and based on the data structure, the first occupant with the first device;

assign, by the at least one processor and based on identification information, a first identity to the first occupant, wherein the identification information is indicative of a first end-user being associated with the first device;

receive, by the at least one processor, confirmation information from the first device, wherein the confirmation information is indicative of an accuracy of the assigned first identity; and

generate, by the at least one processor and based on the assigned first identity, content for presentation to the first end-user.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to receive at least a portion of the identification information from the first device.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the data structure is a first data structure, and the at least one processor is further configured to generate a second data structure indicative of a specific arrangement of the one or more occupants within the enclosure or identities of the one or more occupants within the enclosure.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to register the first device prior to determining the location of the first device, wherein the registering permits communicating wirelessly between the apparatus and the first device.

5. The apparatus of claim 4, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to receive, from the first device, the location of the first device and at least one positioning metric, wherein the at least one positioning metric is indicative of a likelihood that the first device is positioned at a specific occupant location.

6. The apparatus of claim 4, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to transmit information indicative of the location of the first occupant to the first device.

7. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to ascertain a number of seats within the enclosure that are occupied based on pressure sensor information indicative of at least one seat within the enclosure being occupied, wherein the pressure sensor information is measured by the one or more sensors.

8. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to access imaging information indicative of at least two seats within the enclosure being occupied, wherein the imaging information is measured by the one or more sensors.

9. At least one computer-readable non-transitory storage medium having instructions for device identification and mapping in an enclosure encoded thereon that, in response to execution, cause at least one computing device to perform operations comprising:

collecting data from one or more sensors associated with the enclosure, wherein the data is indicative of a presence of a first occupant of one or more occupants of the enclosure;

determining, based on the data collected from the one or more sensors, a location of the first occupant;

determining, based on a signal strength and the location of the first occupant, a location of a first device of a plurality of devices, wherein the signal strength is associated with a wireless signal received by an antenna, wherein the wireless signal is received from the first device;

generating a data structure representing a mapping of the location of the first occupant and the location of the first device;

associating, based on the data structure, the first occupant with the first device;

assigning, based on identification information, a first identity to the first occupant, wherein the identification information is indicative of a first end-user being associated with the first device;

receiving confirmation information from the first device, wherein the confirmation information is indicative of an accuracy of the assigned first identity; and

generating, based on the assigned first identity, content for presentation to the first end-user.

10. The at least one computer-readable non-transitory storage medium of claim 9, wherein the assigning comprises receiving at least a portion of the identification information from the first device.

11. The at least one computer-readable non-transitory storage medium of claim 9, wherein the data structure is a first data structure, and wherein the operations further comprise generating a second data structure indicative of a specific arrangement of the one or more occupants within the enclosure or identities of the one or more occupants within the enclosure.

12. The at least one computer-readable non-transitory storage medium of claim 9, the operations further comprising registering the first device prior to determining the location of the first device, wherein the registering permits communicating wirelessly between a computing platform and the first device.

13. The at least one computer-readable non-transitory storage medium of claim 12, the operations further comprising receiving, from the first device, the location of the first device and at least one positioning metric, wherein the at least one positioning metric is indicative of a likelihood that first device is positioned at a specific occupant location.

14. The at least one computer-readable non-transitory storage medium of claim 12, wherein generating the location of the first device comprises transmitting information indicative the location of the first occupant to the first device.

15. The at least one computer-readable non-transitory storage medium of claim 9, wherein determining the location of the first occupant comprises ascertaining a number of seats within the enclosure that are occupied.