Systems and Methods for Selectively Disabling One or More Features of a Mobile Access Device and/or a Vehicle Associated with the Mobile Access Device

• US 20110295458A1
• Filed: 05/28/2010
• Published: 12/01/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 05/28/2010
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Verizon Communications Inc.
• Original Assignee: Verizon Communications Inc.
• Inventors: Halsey-Fenderson, Nicole Ma Ellen
• Application Number:
  US12/789,624
• Publication Number:
  US 20110295458A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/29
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 28/10 responsive to conditions relating to the vehicle
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/40 Correcting position, velocity or attitude
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 13/00 Speech synthesis; Text to speech systems
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/26 Speech to text systems G10L15/08 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/021 Services related to particular areas, e.g. point of interest [POI] services, venue services or geofences
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/48 for in-vehicle communication

Abstract

An exemplary method includes a vehicle operation safety system detecting an operating parameter of a vehicle, detecting that a mobile access device is located within a predefined vicinity of the vehicle, and disabling one or more features of the mobile access device in response to the detecting of the operating parameter of the vehicle and the detecting that the mobile access device is located within the predefined vicinity of the vehicle. Corresponding methods and systems are also disclosed.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

detecting, by a vehicle operation safety system, an operating parameter of a vehicle;

detecting, by the vehicle operation safety system, that a mobile access device is located within a predefined vicinity of the vehicle; and

disabling, by the vehicle operation safety system, one or more features of the mobile access device in response to the detecting of the operating parameter of the vehicle and the detecting that the mobile access device is located within the predefined vicinity of the vehicle.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the detecting of the operating parameter of the vehicle comprises detecting that a transmission of the vehicle is in gear.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the detecting of the operating parameter of the vehicle comprises detecting movement of the vehicle.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the detecting that the mobile access device is within the predefined vicinity of the vehicle comprises detecting, by the vehicle operation safety system, a Bluetooth signal transmitted between the mobile access device and the vehicle.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more features of the mobile access device that are disabled comprise a text-messaging feature of the mobile access device.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

detecting, by the vehicle operation safety system, an incoming text message; and

transmitting, by the vehicle operation safety system, an automated response to a sender of the text message, the automated response indicating that a user of the mobile access device is unavailable.

7. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

detecting, by the vehicle operation safety system, an enabling of a hands-free texting feature of the mobile access device; and

re-enabling, by the vehicle operation safety system, the text-messaging feature of the mobile access device in response to the enabling of the hands-free texting feature of the mobile access device.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the hands-free texting feature comprises at least one of a speech-to-text feature and a text-to-speech feature of the mobile access device.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more features of the mobile access device that are disabled comprise a calling feature of the mobile access device.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

detecting, by the vehicle operation safety system, an enabling of a hands-free calling feature of the mobile access device; and

re-enabling, by the vehicle operation safety system, the calling feature of the mobile access device in response to the enabling of the hands-free calling feature of the mobile access device.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the detecting of the enabling of the hands-free calling feature of the mobile access device comprises detecting a docking of the mobile access device in a docking station associated with the vehicle.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the detecting that the mobile access device is located within the predefined vicinity of the vehicle comprises:

detecting, by the vehicle operation safety system, a physical location of the vehicle;

detecting, by the vehicle operation safety system, a physical location of the mobile access device; and

determining, by the vehicle operation safety system, that the physical location of the mobile access device is within the predefined vicinity of the physical location of the vehicle.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the detecting of the physical location of the vehicle comprises detecting a global positioning satellite (“

GPS”

) position of the vehicle and the detecting of the physical location of the mobile access device comprises detecting a GPS position of the mobile access device.

14. The method of claim 1, embodied as computer-executable instructions on at least one non-transitory computer-readable medium.

15. A method comprising:

detecting, by a vehicle operation safety system, that a mobile access device is located within a predefined vicinity of a vehicle;

disabling, by the vehicle operation safety system, one or more features of the vehicle in response to the detecting that the mobile access device is located within the predefined vicinity;

detecting, by the vehicle operation safety system, an establishment of a physical communication link between the mobile access device and the vehicle; and

re-enabling, by the vehicle operation safety system, at least one of the one or more features of the vehicle in response to the establishment of the physical communication link.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the establishment of the physical communication link comprises a docking of the mobile access device into a docking station associated with the vehicle.

17. The method of claim 15, further comprising:

detecting, by the vehicle operation safety system, an operating parameter of the vehicle after the establishment of the physical communication link between the mobile access device and the vehicle; and

disabling, by the vehicle operation safety system, one or more features of the mobile access device in response to the detecting of the operating parameter of the vehicle.

18. The method of claim 15, further comprising enabling, by the vehicle operation safety system, a hands-free calling feature of the mobile access device in response to the establishment of the physical communication link.

19. The method of claim 15, wherein the disabling of the one or more features of the vehicle comprises disabling an ignition of the vehicle.

20. A system comprising:

an operating parameter detection facility configured to detect an operating parameter of a vehicle;

a vicinity detection facility communicatively coupled to the operating parameter facility and configured to detect that a mobile access device is located within a predefined vicinity of the vehicle; and

a feature disablement facility communicatively coupled to the vicinity detection facility and the operating parameter detection facility and configured to disable one or more features of the mobile access device in response to a detection, by the operating parameter detection facility, of the operating parameter of the vehicle and a detection, by the vicinity detection facility, that the mobile access device is located within the predefined vicinity of the vehicle.

21. The system of claim 20, wherein the feature disablement facility is further configured to selectively re-enable at least one of the one or more features of the mobile access device in response to a detection that a hands-free feature of the mobile access device has been enabled.