Pedestrian alerts for mobile devices

• US 10,089,862 B2
• Filed: 10/26/2016
• Issued: 10/02/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 10/26/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Singh, Parmjeet, Mummidi, Lakshmi Narayana
• Primary Examiner(s): Fan, Hongmin
• Application Number:
  US15/334,826
• Publication Number:
  US 20180114435A1
• Time in Patent Office: 706 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/1686 the I/O peripheral being an integrated camera
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/1694 the I/O peripheral being a single or a set of motion sensors for pointer control or gesture input obtained by sensing movements of the portable computer
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/011 Arrangements for interaction with the human body, e.g. for user immersion in virtual reality blind teaching G09B21/00
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/013 Eye tracking input arrangements G06F3/015 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/016 Input arrangements with force or tactile feedback as computer generated output to the user
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0481 based on specific properties of the displayed interaction object or a metaphor-based environment, e.g. interaction with desktop elements like windows or icons, or assisted by a cursor's changing behaviour or appearance
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04883 for inputting data by handwriting, e.g. gesture or text
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/167 Audio in a user interface, e.g. using voice commands for navigating, audio feedback
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/005 including pedestrian guidance indicator

Abstract

A pedestrian alert system supported on a mobile device such as a smartphone, tablet computer, or a wearable computing device which is employed by a user to engage in various activities, is configured to provide visual, auditory, or haptic alerts when the system uses location sensing and map data to determine the user'"'"'s proximity to a pedestrian street crossing. The alert attracts the user'"'"'s attention by having the user perform an explicit action to dismiss the alert before being able to continue with the activities on the device. Operations are suspended for applications rendering content on the device display (e.g., a touch screen), user inputs are disabled, and the display may be blurred, dimmed, obscured, or otherwise deactivated. The pedestrian alert system can take a snapshot of application state prior to suspension so that the applications can gracefully resume operations without disruption once the alert is manually or automatically dismissed.

Claims

1. A method for alerting a user of a mobile device that includes a display screen, comprising:

tracking a location of the mobile device relative to a pedestrian street crossing identified from mapping data;

based on the tracking, determining that the user is approaching the pedestrian street crossing;

rendering an alert to the user regarding the pedestrian street crossing, the alert being active over a time interval;

identifying one or more GUI (graphical user interface) applications among a plurality of applications executing on the mobile device, the GUI applications rendering content on the display screen;

dimming, freezing, or obscuring the content rendered by the GUI applications on the display screen;

determining that the user has completed traversing the pedestrian street crossing; and

re-activating the display screen such that the user can continue interaction with the GUI applications without loss of state when the user completes traversing the pedestrian street crossing.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

determining whether the user is viewing the display screen; and

suspending execution of the GUI applications to limit user interaction with the GUI applications using the display screen during at least a portion of the time interval in which the alert is active.

3. The method of claim 2 further comprising:

taking a snapshot of each state associated with the suspended GUI applications;

storing the snapshots of each state; and

persisting the stored states during a time interval in which GUI applications are suspended.

4. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

receiving a user input dismissing the alert; and

resuming the execution of the GUI applications upon the dismissing.

5. The method of claim 1 in which the rendering of the alert further comprises:

calculating a time until the user reaches the pedestrian street crossing based on the tracking; and

displaying a countdown using the calculated time.

6. The method of claim 1 in which the rendering an alert to the user further comprises:

receiving information regarding characteristics of the pedestrian street crossing; and

controlling user interactivity with the alert based on the received information.

7. The method of claim 6 in which the controlled user interactivity includes whether or not the alert is dismissable by the user.

8. The method of claim 1 in which the alert comprises one of visual alert shown on the display screen, auditory alert played through an audio endpoint, or a haptic alert generated by one or more actuators disposed in the mobile device.

9. A mobile device, comprising:

one or more processors;

a sensor package configured to provide sensor data to the one or more processors;

a display screen enabled for touch-based input from a mobile device user; and

one or more hardware-based computer-readable storage devices storing a pedestrian alert system comprising instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the mobile device to;

determine from the sensor data that a pedestrian is proximate to a pedestrian street crossing;

determine from the sensor data whether the pedestrian is looking at the display screen;

display an alert about the pedestrian street crossing on the display screen; and

except for the displayed alert, limit user interactivity with the display screen.

10. The mobile device of claim 9 in which the pedestrian alert system further comprises instructions that cause the one or more processors to display the alert in a window shown on the display screen, the window showing a countdown until the user interactivity becomes limited.

11. The mobile device of claim 10 in which the pedestrian alert system further comprises instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the device to:

receive an accident rate associated with the pedestrian street crossing; and

disable user controls to close the window or dismiss the alert if the accident rate is greater than a predetermined threshold.

12. The mobile device of claim 11 in which the pedestrian alert system further comprises instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the device to:

store a state associated with one or more GUI applications providing respective displays on the display screen;

determine from sensor data and mapping data whether the pedestrian has completed traversal of the pedestrian street crossing;

automatically dismiss the window upon the completed traversal of the pedestrian street crossing; and

re-activate the display screen using the stored state to enable the pedestrian to continue interaction with the GUI applications.

13. The mobile device of claim 12 in which the pedestrian alert system further comprises instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the device to:

determine from sensor data and mapping data that the user has completed traversing the pedestrian street crossing; and

re-activate the display screen such that the pedestrian can continue interaction with the GUI applications without loss of state when the pedestrian completes traversing the pedestrian street crossing.

14. The mobile device of claim 9 in which the pedestrian is associated with a profile having different types, and user interactivity with the display screen is selectively controlled by type.

15. The mobile device of claim 9 in which the pedestrian alert system further comprises instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the device to:

receive input from the user dismissing the alert; and

responsively to the dismissing, re-activate the display screen such that the pedestrian can continue interaction with the GUI applications without loss of state.

16. The mobile device of claim 9 in which the pedestrian alert system further comprises instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the device to:

continue to execute background or non-visual tasks of one or more applications when user interactivity with the display screen is limited.

17. One or more hardware-based computer-readable storage devices storing computer-executable instructions for:

receiving a request for data associated with a pedestrian street crossing, the data including characteristics of an area proximate to the pedestrian street crossing, the characteristics describing one or more of vehicular traffic, physical attributes, or accident history;

retrieving data for the pedestrian street crossing responsively to the request;

comparing the data for the pedestrian crossing with one or more predetermined criteria;

sending a signal to a mobile device to control user interaction with a pedestrian alert rendered on the mobile device responsively to the comparing,

wherein the pedestrian alert warns a pedestrian user of the mobile device of a pedestrian street crossing and control of user interactivity with the mobile device is based on the pedestrian user'"'"'s proximity to the pedestrian street crossing.

18. The one or more hardware-based computer-readable storage devices of claim 17 further storing computer-executable instructions for:

disabling user controls associated with the pedestrian alert when the data is indicative of a high accident rate at the identified pedestrian street crossing relative to the one or more predetermined criteria; and

enabling the user controls associated with the pedestrian alert when the data is indicative of a low accident rate at the identified pedestrian street crossing relative to the one or more predetermined criteria.