SAFETY EVENT ALERT SYSTEM AND METHOD

• US 20150116114A1
• Filed: 10/29/2013
• Published: 04/30/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 10/29/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Trimble Inc.
• Original Assignee: Trimble Navigation Limited (Trimble Inc.)
• Inventors: Boyles, Randy
• Granted Patent: US 10,665,085 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 340/539.17
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 25/00 Alarm systems in which the location of the alarm condition is signalled to a central station, e.g. fire or police telegraphic systems
• 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

Abstract

Systems and methods are directed to recording data at a plurality of in-service vehicles operating within a plurality of predetermined regions for which users of a plurality of mobile devices are responsible, analyzing, at the vehicles, the recorded data for violation of one of a plurality of predetermined safety parameters by the vehicles, and transmitting, to a central server, data associated with a safety parameter violation by a vehicle in violation of one of the predetermined safety parameters. A safety event alert is generated at the central server for the vehicle in violation in response to receiving the transmitted data, and the safety event alert is communicated from the central office to a mobile device authorized by the central office to receive the safety event alert for the predetermined region within which the violation occurred.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

recording data at a plurality of in-service vehicles operating within a plurality of predetermined regions for which users of a plurality of mobile devices are responsible;

analyzing, at the vehicles, the recorded data for violation of one of a plurality of predetermined safety parameters by the vehicles;

transmitting, to a central server, data associated with a safety parameter violation by a vehicle in violation of one of the predetermined safety parameters;

generating a safety event alert at the central server for the vehicle in violation in response to receiving the transmitted data; and

communicating the safety event alert from the central office to a mobile device authorized by the central office to receive the safety event alert for the predetermined region within which the violation occurred.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein communicating the safety event alert comprises:

determining, at the central server, which mobile device or devices are associated with the predetermined region within which the violation occurred.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the method is implemented in substantially real-time.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

authorizing one or more mobile devices for receiving safety event alerts associated with particular predetermined regions at the central server prior to the central server communicating safety event alerts to the one or more mobile devices.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the safety event alert comprises a summary of the vehicle violation developed from the transmitted data received at the central server.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the safety event alert comprises a summary of the vehicle violation developed from vehicle data indicative of driver behavior.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

transmitting a request from the authorized mobile device to the central server for additional information about the vehicle violation.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

transmitting from the central server to the authorized mobile device one or more of vehicle data, driver data, and geographical mapping data about the vehicle violation in response to the transmitted request.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

transmitting from the authorized mobile device to the central server one or more of notes, action items, and calendar reminders generated by the authorized mobile device in response to the safety event alert.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

transmitting from the authorized mobile device to the central server an instruction to dispatch a communication to the vehicle in violation perceivable by a driver of the vehicle in violation.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

transmitting from the authorized mobile device to the central server an instruction to dispatch a communication about the vehicle violation to one or more remote electronic devices.

12. A system, comprising:

an onboard computing device configured for use at a vehicle operable within a plurality of predetermined regions for which users of a plurality of mobile devices are responsible, the onboard computing device comprising;

a wireless transceiver; and

a processor configured to;

receive vehicle data from a vehicle computer system;

analyze the received vehicle data for violation of one of a plurality of predetermined safety parameters by the vehicle; and

transmit data associated with a safety parameter violation by the vehicle via the wireless transceiver; and

a central server configured to;

generate a safety event alert in response to receiving the data transmitted by the vehicle; and

communicate the safety event alert to one or more mobile devices authorized by the central office to receive the safety event alert for the predetermined region within which the violation occurred.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the safety event alert conforms to a Short Message Service (SMS) protocol.

14. The system of claim 12, wherein the safety event alert conforms to a Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) protocol.

15. The system of claim 12, wherein predetermined safety parameters comprise at least sudden acceleration, sudden deceleration, and rollover stability.

16. The system of claim 12, wherein:

the processor comprises or is coupled to an event detector;

the event detector is configured to record received vehicle data for a predetermined period of time before and after a safety parameter violation; and

the processor is configured to transmit the recorded data associated with the safety parameter violation to the central server via the wireless transceiver.

17. The system of claim 12, wherein the central server is configured to communicate additional information about the safety parameter violation to the one or more authorized mobile devices in response to a request generated by the one or more authorized mobile devices.

18. The system of claim 12, wherein the central server is configured to transmit a message generated by one of the authorized mobile devices to the onboard computing device of the vehicle in violation of the predetermined safety parameter.

19. The system of claim 12, wherein the central server is configured to communicate information about the safety parameter violation to one or more remote electronic devices in response to a request by the one or more authorized mobile devices.

20. A system, comprising:

a plurality of onboard computing devices configured for use at a plurality of vehicles operable within a plurality of predetermined regions for which users of a plurality of mobile devices are responsible, each of the onboard computing devices comprising;

a wireless transceiver; and

a processor configured to;

receive vehicle data from a vehicle computer system;

analyze the received vehicle data for violation of one of a plurality of predetermined safety parameters by the vehicle; and

transmit data associated with a safety parameter violation by the vehicle via the wireless transceiver; and

a central server configured to;

communicate with each of the onboard computing devices;

receive data associated with the safety parameter violation transmitted by the onboard computing devices;

generate a safety event alert associated with each violating vehicle in response to the received data;

determine which of the mobile devices are authorized to receive the safety event alerts based on the predetermined regions within which the violations occurred; and

communicate the safety event alerts to the one or more authorized mobile devices.