System And Method For Improved Vehicle Safety Through Enhanced Situation Awareness Of A Driver Of A Vehicle

• US 20110210867A1
• Filed: 11/12/2009
• Published: 09/01/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 11/13/2008
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Aser Rich Limited
• Original Assignee: Aser Rich Limited
• Inventors: Benedikt, Shmuel Zalman
• Application Number:
  US13/128,971
• Publication Number:
  US 20110210867A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 340/905
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2050/143 Alarm means
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2540/043 Identity of occupants
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2540/24 Drug level, e.g. alcohol
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2552/05 Type of road, e.g. motorways, local streets, paved or unpaved roads
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2555/20 Ambient conditions, e.g. wind or rain
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2555/60 Traffic rules, e.g. speed limits or right of way
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2556/10 Historical data
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2556/50 of positioning data, e.g. GPS [Global Positioning System] data
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/01 Detecting movement of traffic to be counted or controlled G08G1/07 - G08G1/14 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096716 where the received information does not generate an automatic action on the vehicle control
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096725 where the received information generates an automatic action on the vehicle control
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096741 where the source of the transmitted information selects which information to transmit to each vehicle
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096775 where the origin of the information is a central station
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/205 Indicating the location of the monitored vehicles as destination, e.g. accidents, stolen, rental

Abstract

The present invention provides a situation awareness system of a driver of a vehicle in a multi-vehicle environment, said system comprising: a. a remote central server communicatively connected to a vehicle, comprising: i. a server computer comprising a CPU, a memory, and an operating system; ii. a wireless server transceiver; iii. databases within said server computer; iv. server applications within said server computer; b. a vehicle subsystem installed in a vehicle with a driver, comprising: i. an vehicle computer having a CPU, a memory, and an operating system; ii. sensors; iii. vehicle databases; iv. a vehicle transducer to interrogate external environmental responders about the state of the environment; v. a wireless vehicle transceiver; vi. vehicle applications within said vehicle computer; vii. a situation assessment application,

Claims

1-42. -42. (canceled)

43. A situation awareness system of a driver of a vehicle in a multi-vehicle environment, said system comprising:

a. at least one remote central server communicatively connected to said at least one vehicle, said server comprising;

i. a server computer comprising a CPU, a memory, and an operating system;

ii. at least one wireless server transceiver;

iii. a plurality of databases within said server computer; and

,

iv. a plurality of applications within said server computer adapted to manage said plurality of server databases and to control said wireless server transceiver;

b. at least one vehicle subsystem installed in a vehicle with a driver, said subsystem comprising;

i. an vehicle computer having a CPU, a memory, and an operating system;

ii. a plurality of sensors adapted to collect information about the state of said vehicle, to identify said driver, and to collect information about the state of said driver;

iii. a plurality of databases within said vehicle computer;

iv. at least one vehicle transducer to interrogate external environmental responders about the state of the environment;

v. a wireless vehicle transceiver adapted to communicate with said at least one remote central server;

vi. a plurality of vehicle applications within said vehicle computer adapted to manage said plurality of vehicle databases and to control said wireless vehicle transceiver; and

,

vii. a situation assessment application adapted to collect and analyze the collected information from said plurality of sensors, said databases of said remote central server, and said plurality of databases, and to register said analyzed information into data structures;

wherein said situation assessment application is based on at least one situation assessment mathematical function;

wherein said vehicle subsystem further comprises a user interface warning device which is adapted to present said data structures in a user friendly manner, and thereby to enhance the situation awareness of said driver.

44. The situation awareness system of claim 43, wherein said wireless server transceiver is adapted to establish and maintain wireless communication between said remote central server and (a) said at least one vehicle, (b) other at least one remote server, and (c) external authorities.

45. The situation awareness system of claim 44, wherein said situation assessment mathematical function is adapted to assess the situation by using the statistics of accidents received from said external authorities;

said statistics is registered in said server databases and said vehicle databases.

46. The situation awareness system of claim 43, further comprising a plurality of external environmental responders removably attached to specific objects in said environment, wherein said responders are adapted to respond to an interrogating signal generated by said vehicle transducer and to provide information regarding said objects wherein said objects are selected from a group consisting of:

standard road components, traffic signs, traffic lights, landscape features, components in the road geometry, borders of lanes, temporal vehicles, or any combination thereof, and further wherein said situation assessment application is adapted to detect the distance between at least two vehicles in said multi-vehicle environment by using means selected from a group consisting of;

said geographical server database, said trip information server database, said environmental server database, said at least one proximity sensor, or any combination thereof.

47. The situation awareness system of claim 43, wherein said plurality of server and vehicle databases are selected from a group consisting of:

(a) an environmental database adapted to store objects and features that could influence on the driving behavior of said driver, (b) a geographical database adapted to store map records, (c) accidents database adapted to store the location of past accidents and the number of accidents in said location, (d) a trip information database adapted to store the trip history of said vehicle and said driver, and (e) a driver-specific history database to store the profile of each said driver of said vehicle, and wherein said environmental server database comprises information selected from a group consisting of;

outstanding road events, predetermined speed limits, temporary speed limits, traffic conditions, different types of traffic signs, traffic lights, bridges, exit and entry ramps, blocked lanes, separation lines between lanes, borders of lanes, works on the road, unexpected obstacles on the road, weather-related conditions, temperature limits of said vehicle or any combination thereof.

48. The situation awareness system of claim 47, wherein said driver-specific history database comprises information selected from a group consisting of:

negative driving-related behavior of said vehicle and said driver, past records of said vehicle and said driver, medical history and current condition of said driver, or any combination thereof, and wherein said trip information database comprises information selected from a group consisting of;

time-continuous location records of said vehicle, time-continuous records of information received from said plurality of sensors, or any combination thereof.

49. The situation awareness system of claim 47, wherein said plurality of databases are able to be synchronized with databases related to authorities selected from a group consisting of:

police, fire services, municipal, health, first aid, road infrastructure companies, military, or any combination thereof.

50. The situation awareness system of claim 47, wherein said environmental database comprises the geographical location of information selected from a group consisting of:

outstanding road events, predetermined speed limits, temporary speed limits, traffic conditions, different types of traffic signs, traffic lights, bridges, exit and entry ramps, blocked lanes, separation lines between lanes, borders of lanes, works on the road, unexpected obstacles on the road, weather-related conditions, or any combination thereof and further wherein said information regarding said objects received from said responders is compared to the data in said environmental database, and in case of detection of previously unknown information regarding said objects, said unknown information is registered in said environmental database, and further wherein said trip information database comprises information selected from a group consisting of;

time-continuous location records of said vehicle, time-continuous records of information received from said plurality of sensors, or any combination thereof.

51. The situation awareness system of claim 47, wherein said driver-specific history database comprises information selected from a group consisting of:

negative driving-related behavior of said vehicle or said driver, past records of said vehicle or said driver, medical history and current condition of said driver, or any combination thereof.

52. The situation awareness system of claim 47, wherein said central server and said vehicle subsystem further comprise a synchronization application adapted to synchronize said databases in a predetermined time interval, according to a predetermined radius around said vehicle, or according to a specific important event, such that at least one of the following operations is performed:

(a) said environmental databases are synchronized, (b) said geographical databases are synchronized, (c) said accidents databases are synchronized with said accidents server database, (d) said trip information vehicle database is synchronized with said trip information server database, (e) said driver-specific history vehicle database is synchronized with said driver-specific history server database.

53. The situation awareness system of claim 43, wherein said plurality of sensors is selected from a group consisting of:

driver identification sensor, at least one speed sensor, at least one proximity sensor, sensors of air pressure in the wheels, at least one air-bag activation sensor, at least one sensor to detect presence of alcohol in the air of said vehicle, sensors to verify that both hands are one the steering wheel of said vehicle, at least one temperature sensor, at least one video camera, at least one pressure sensor within at least one seat of said vehicle to detect presence of a passenger, sensors to notify regarding a periodical vehicle of said vehicle, belt sensors, fuel sensor, water/oil sensor, at least one sensor to analyze the air in said vehicle to detect a sleepy and/or a drunk driver and wherein said vehicle subsystem is further adapted to register said collected information from said plurality of sensors in said trip information vehicle database.

54. The situation awareness system of claim 47, further comprising a GPS navigation system, wherein situation assessment application is further adapted to collect and analyze the collected information from said GPS navigation system;

further wherein said GPS navigation system is adapted to be synchronized with said geographical database.

55. The situation awareness system of claim 43, wherein said vehicle subsystem is adapted to be at least partially activated and deactivated by external authorities selected from a group consisting of:

police, fire services first aid, or any combination thereof.

56. The situation awareness system of claim 43, further comprising an automatic vehicle control system adapted to limit and to reduce the speed of said vehicle in an emergency case which is detected by said situation assessment application, wherein said state of vehicle is automatically changed according to said emergency case and further wherein said automatic vehicle control system is adapted to limit and to reduce the speed of said vehicle when the speed of said vehicle, measured by said speed sensor, is over the speed limit registered in said environmental database and further wherein said automatic vehicle control system is adapted to limit and to reduce the speed of said vehicle when said vehicle is located in an area with a number of past accidents which is higher than a predetermined accidents threshold, according to the registered past accidents in said accidents database.

57. The situation awareness system of claim 43, wherein said applications within said server computer further comprise an emergency condition assessment application adapted to detect emergency conditions of said vehicle by analyzing said trip information database and wherein said situation assessment application is further adapted to calculate the risk of by-passing other vehicles.

58. The situation awareness system of claim 43, wherein said plurality of applications within said server computer further comprises a driver assessment application adapted to:

(a) assess the behavior of said driver or said vehicle on the road by analyzing said plurality of databases (b) inform said driver of said vehicle in case of a negative behavior on the road (c) inform the police in case of negative behavior of said vehicle or of said driver on the road.

59. The situation awareness system of claim 43, further comprising an automatic accident reporting system adapted to detect that an accident has occurred with said vehicle by analyzing said databases and to report said authorities regarding accident events of said vehicle, said automatic accident reporting system further adapted to report details regarding said accident.

60. A method for enhancement of situation awareness of a driver of a vehicle in a multi-vehicle environment, said method comprising:

i. obtaining a situation awareness system comprising a vehicle subsystem and a remote central server;

ii. identifying the driver of said vehicle;

iii. collecting information by a plurality of sensors, said information is about the state of said vehicle and about the state of said driver, and storing said information in databases in said vehicle and said server;

iv. synchronizing the databases in a predetermined time interval by a synchronization application, according to a predetermined radius around the vehicle, or according to a specific important and urgent event,

v. managing said plurality of server databases and said plurality of databases and controlling said wireless server transceiver and said wireless vehicle transceiver by said server applications and said vehicle applications;

vi. interrogating external environmental responders about the state of the environment and registering the received information from said responders in said databases;

vii. analyzing the collected information received from said plurality of sensors, in said databases and registering the analyzed information into data structures, wherein said step of analyzing is by a situation assessment application based on at least one situation assessment mathematical function;

viii. presenting said data structures in a user friendly manner by a user interface warning device within said vehicle subsystem, and thereby enhancing said situation awareness of said driver.

61. The method for enhancement of situation awareness of claim 60, further comprising a step of establishing and maintaining wireless communication by said wireless server transceiver between said remote central server and (a) said at least one vehicle, (b) other at least one remote server, and (c) external authorities.

62. The method for enhancement of situation awareness of claim 60, further comprising a step of synchronizing said plurality of databases with databases related to authorities selected from a group consisting of:

police, fire services, municipal, health, first aid, road infrastructure companies, military, or any combination thereof and further comprising a step of synchronizing said GPS navigation system with a database selected from a group consisting of;

said geographical database, said geographical database, or any combination thereof.