In-car status notification system

• US 10,643,445 B2
• Filed: 12/21/2018
• Issued: 05/05/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 02/09/2018
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha (Toyota Motor Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha (Toyota Motor Corporation)
• Inventors: Nagatomi, Keiko, Toyama, Noritaka, Kobayashi, Atsuko, Ito, Keisuke
• Primary Examiner(s): Rushing, Mark S
• Application Number:
  US16/229,780
• Publication Number:
  US 20190251818A1
• Time in Patent Office: 501 Days
• Field of Search: 3404255
• 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: G08B 21/0205 Specific application combined with child monitoring using a transmitter-receiver system
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 21/22 responsive to presence or absence of persons
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 21/24 Reminder alarms, e.g. anti-loss alarms
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 25/005 Alarm destination chosen according to a hierarchy of available destinations, e.g. if hospital does not answer send to police station
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/20 Monitoring the location of vehicles belonging to a group, e.g. fleet of vehicles, countable or determined number of vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/40 for vehicles, e.g. vehicle-to-pedestrians [V2P]

Abstract

An in-car status notification system that detects that a situation requiring attention has arisen in which a child is alone inside an automobile by using at least one of a plurality of sensors or a camera; detects positional information of the automobile; and in cases in which the situation requiring attention has been detected, sends notification of the automobile positional information and situation requiring attention detected information indicating a child is alone in the automobile to at least a pre-set first mobile phone and a pre-set second mobile phone.

Claims

1. An in-car status notification system, comprising:

a memory, and a processor that is configured to;

detect that a situation requiring attention has arisen in which a child is alone inside an automobile by using at least one of a plurality of sensors or a camera;

detect positional information of the automobile;

in cases in which the situation requiring attention has been detected, send notification of the automobile positional information and situation requiring attention detected information indicating a child is alone in the automobile to at least a pre-set first mobile phone and a pre-set second mobile phone;

send notification of the automobile positional information and the situation requiring attention detected information to the first mobile phone, in cases in which the situation requiring attention has not been resolved after a first predetermined period of time from when the situation requiring attention was detected;

send notification of the automobile positional information and the situation requiring attention detected information to the second mobile phone, in cases in which the situation requiring attention has not been resolved after a second predetermined period of time from when notification of the automobile positional information and the situation requiring attention detected information was sent to the first mobile phone;

send notification of the automobile positional information and the situation requiring attention detected information to a predetermined organization, in cases in which the situation requiring attention has not been resolved after a third predetermined period of time from when notification of the automobile positional information and the situation requiring attention detected information was sent to the second mobile phone; and

in a case in which the notification has been sent to the predetermined organization, record the notification to the predetermined organization, and shorten the first to the third predetermined periods of time in cases in which there is a record of a previous notification to the predetermined organization in a case in which the situation requiring attention is detected.

2. The in-car status notification system of claim 1, wherein the processor is further configured to:

detect the automobile being stationary; and

in cases in which the automobile being stationary has been detected and the situation requiring attention has been detected, send notification of the situation requiring attention detected information and the automobile positional information to the first mobile phone and to the second mobile phone.

3. The in-car status notification system of claim 1, wherein the processor is configured to:

in cases in which the situation requiring attention has been resolved after sending notification of the automobile positional information and the situation requiring attention detected information to the first mobile phone and the second mobile phone, send notification of resolution of the situation requiring attention to at least a mobile phone not contributing to resolution of the situation requiring attention, from among the first mobile phone and the second mobile phone.

4. The in-car status notification system of claim 1, wherein the processor is configured to:

in a case in which the notification has been sent to the predetermined organization, record the notification to the predetermined organization, and in cases in which there is a record of a previous notification to the predetermined organization in a case in which the situation requiring attention is detected, send notification of the automobile positional information and the situation requiring attention detected information to the first mobile phone and to the predetermined organization after the first predetermined period of time elapses.

5. The in-car status notification system of claim 1, wherein the processor is configured to:

detect an in-car temperature by using a vehicle temperature sensor; and

shorten the first to the third predetermined periods of time in cases in which the in-car temperature lies outside a predetermined temperature range in a case in which the situation requiring attention is detected.

6. The in-car status notification system of claim 1, further comprising an emergency button inside the vehicle cabin,

wherein the processor is configured to:

in cases in which pressing of the emergency button has been detected, send notification of the automobile positional information and the situation requiring attention detected information to the first mobile phone and the second mobile phone immediately after the situation requiring attention is confirmed.

7. The in-car status notification system of claim 6, wherein the processor is configured to:

in cases in which pressing of the emergency button has been detected, send notification of the automobile positional information and the situation requiring attention detected information to a predetermined organization immediately after the situation requiring attention is confirmed.

8. An in-car status notification method comprising:

by a processor, detecting that a situation requiring attention has arisen in which a child is alone inside an automobile by using at least one of a plurality of sensors or a camera;

detecting positional information of the automobile;

in cases in which the situation requiring attention has been detected, sending notification of the automobile positional information and situation requiring attention detected information indicating a child is alone in the automobile to at least a pre-set first mobile phone and a pre-set second mobile phone,

wherein the processor is configured to;

send notification of the automobile positional information and the situation requiring attention detected information to the first mobile phone, in cases in which the situation requiring attention has not been resolved after a first predetermined period of time from when the situation requiring attention was detected;

send notification of the automobile positional information and the situation requiring attention detected information to the second mobile phone, in cases in which the situation requiring attention has not been resolved after a second predetermined period of time from when notification of the automobile positional information and the situation requiring attention detected information was sent to the first mobile phone;

send notification of the automobile positional information and the situation requiring attention detected information to a predetermined organization, in cases in which the situation requiring attention has not been resolved after a third predetermined period of time from when notification of the automobile positional information and the situation requiring attention detected information was sent to the second mobile phone;

record the notification to the predetermined organization, in a case in which the notification has been sent to the predetermined organization; and

shorten the first to the third predetermined periods of time in cases in which there is a record of a previous notification to the predetermined organization in a case in which the situation requiring attention is detected.

9. The in-car status notification method of claim 8, further comprising:

by the processor, detecting the automobile being stationary; and

in cases in which the automobile being stationary has been detected and the situation requiring attention has been detected, sending notification of the situation requiring attention detected information and the automobile positional information to the first mobile phone and to the second mobile phone.

10. A non-transitory storage medium storing a program that is executable by a computer to perform an in-car status notification process, the in-car status notification process comprising:

detecting a situation requiring attention in which a child is alone inside an automobile by using at least one of a plurality of sensors or a camera;

detecting positional information of the automobile;

in cases in which the situation requiring attention has been detected, sending notification of the automobile positional information and situation requiring attention detected information indicating a child is alone in the automobile to at least a pre-set first mobile phone and a pre-set second mobile phone,

wherein the processor is configured to;

send notification of the automobile positional information and the situation requiring attention detected information to the first mobile phone, in cases in which the situation requiring attention has not been resolved after a first predetermined period of time from when the situation requiring attention was detected;

send notification of the automobile positional information and the situation requiring attention detected information to the second mobile phone, in cases in which the situation requiring attention has not been resolved after a second predetermined period of time from when notification of the automobile positional information and the situation requiring attention detected information was sent to the first mobile phone;

send notification of the automobile positional information and the situation requiring attention detected information to a predetermined organization, in cases in which the situation requiring attention has not been resolved after a third predetermined period of time from when notification of the automobile positional information and the situation requiring attention detected information was sent to the second mobile phone;

record the notification to the predetermined organization, in a case in which the notification has been sent to the predetermined organization; and

shorten the first to the third predetermined periods of time in cases in which there is a record of a previous notification to the predetermined organization in a case in which the situation requiring attention is detected.

11. The non-transitory storage medium of claim 10, wherein the in-car status notification process further comprises:

detecting the automobile being stationary; and

in cases in which the automobile being stationary has been detected and the situation requiring attention has been detected, sending notification of the situation requiring attention detected information and the automobile positional information to the first mobile phone and to the second mobile phone.

12. An in-car status notification system, comprising:

a memory, and a processor that is configured to;

detect that a situation requiring attention has arisen in which a child is alone inside an automobile by using at least one of a plurality of sensors or a camera;

detect positional information of the automobile;

in cases in which the situation requiring attention has been detected, send notification of the automobile positional information and situation requiring attention detected information indicating a child is alone in the automobile to at least a pre-set mobile phone in which the situation requiring attention has not been resolved after a first predetermined period of time from when the situation requiring attention was detected; and

send notification of the automobile positional information and the situation requiring attention detected information to a predetermined organization, in cases in which the situation requiring attention has not been resolved after a second predetermined period of time from when notification of the automobile positional information and the situation requiring attention detected information was sent to the first mobile phone; and

in a case in which the notification has been sent to the predetermined organization, record the notification to the predetermined organization, and shorten the first and second predetermined periods of time in cases in which there is a record of a previous notification to the predetermined organization in a case in which the situation requiring attention is detected.