Incident alert and information gathering method and system

• US 20070150140A1
• Filed: 12/28/2005
• Published: 06/28/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 12/28/2005
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Motorola, Inc. (Motorola Solutions, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Motorola, Inc. (Motorola Solutions, Inc.)
• Inventors: Seymour, Shafer
• Application Number:
  US11/319,694
• Publication Number:
  US 20070150140A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/35
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/008 communicating information to a remotely located station transmission systems for measured values G08C
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/085 using electronic data carriers

Abstract

An apparatus, a system and a method of collecting vehicle data for use in incident investigations, including: a vehicle data recorder for recording vehicle parameters such as geographic location, speed, azimuth of motion, acceleration, brake pedal pressure and similar parameters: a means for detecting incidents such as an accident, and sending an incident message to a incident monitoring station, which then transmits a broadcast message. Other vehicles within communication range of the incident monitoring station each respond to the broadcast message with a report message including a unique identifier. When an incident occurs, a portion of the data stored prior to, and at the time of, the incident is saved for future retrieval. The incident message may be reported to a central site or other authority so that emergency response can be provided.

Claims

1. A data recorder for use in a vehicle, the data recorder comprising;

a processor;

a storage medium, an incident detector, and a communication device, each coupled to the processor;

wherein the storage medium comprises a first portion and a second portion, and at least the second portion is a non-volatile memory, data collected from a sensor being stored in the first portion; and

data stored in the first portion being copied to the second portion when an event occurs, the event being one of an incident detector output representing an incident or a communication device output representing the receipt of a broadcast message.

2. The data recorder of claim 1, wherein an incident message is transmitted by the communications device in response to the incident or a vehicle report message is transmitted in response to the receipt of the broadcast message.

3. The data recorder of claim 2, wherein the incident message comprises a unique vehicle identification and, optionally, a vehicle location.

4. The data recorder of claim 2, wherein the vehicle report message comprises a unique vehicle identification and, optionally, a vehicle location.

5. The data recorder of claim 4, wherein the vehicle report message is not transmitted unless the vehicle is within a specified distance of a location contained in the incident message.

6. The data recorder of claim 1, wherein an incident comprises at least one of the following:

air bag deployment, acceleration measured beyond a first threshold, deceleration measured beyond a second threshold, the vehicle being overturned, or evasive maneuvering of the vehicle.

7. The data recorder of claim 1, wherein the data stored in the second portion of the storage medium is retained for a predetermined period of time, retained until deleted by authorized personnel, or retained indefinitely.

8. The data recorder of claim 1, wherein the broadcast message is characterized by data modulated on a carrier wave by an incident monitoring station.

9. The data recorder of claim 1, wherein the incident message is characterized by data modulated on a carrier wave by the communications device.

10. The data recorder of claim 1, wherein the sensor comprises at least one of a vehicle navigation system, a global positioning system receiver, an accelerometer, an air bag deployment sensor, an inclinometer or a gyroscope.

11. The data recorder of claim 1, wherein the incident detector comprises at least one sensor.

12. The data recorder of claim 1, wherein the sensor is shared with other vehicle systems.

13. The data recorder of claim 1, wherein the communication device comprises a radio transmitter and a radio receiver.

14. An incident monitoring station, comprising:

a processor;

a storage medium and a communication device, each coupled to the processor; and

wherein the communication device receives an incident message from a data recorder in a first vehicle, and

wherein the processor, upon receipt of the incident message, causes the communication device to transmit a broadcast message, and

wherein the processor stores the incident message and a response to the broadcast message in the storage medium.

15. The incident monitoring station of claim 14, wherein the incident message comprises vehicle identification data unique to the first vehicle.

16. The incident monitoring station of claim 14, wherein the processor further causes a report of the incident message to be sent to another entity.

17. The incident monitoring station of claim 14, wherein a broadcast request message received from another entity causes the broadcast message to be transmitted by the communication device.

18. The incident reporting station of claim 14, wherein the broadcast message comprises location data and distance data, the distance data defining a distance from a location defined by the location data, and the data recorder installed in a second vehicle positioned within the distance from the location transmits a vehicle report message in response to the broadcast message.

19. The incident reporting station of claim 14, wherein the response to the broadcast message is a vehicle report message comprising at least vehicle identification data unique to the second vehicle.

20. The incident reporting station of claim 19, wherein the unique vehicle identification data is a vehicle identification number (VIN) for the second vehicle.