ASSOCIATING EXTERNAL DEVICES TO VEHICLES AND USAGE OF SAID ASSOCIATION

• US 20160174049A1
• Filed: 07/24/2014
• Published: 06/16/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 07/26/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Anagog Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Anagog Ltd.
• Inventors: LEVY, Gil, AIZENBUD, Yaron
• Granted Patent: US 9,801,027 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 18/251 of input or preprocessed data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2218/12 Classification; Matching
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/59 inside of a vehicle, e.g. relating to seat occupancy, driver state or inner lighting conditions
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 2201/10 Recognition assisted with metadata
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/0112 from the vehicle, e.g. floating car data [FCD]
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/123 indicating the position of vehicles, e.g. scheduled vehicles; Managing passenger vehicles circulating according to a fixed timetable, e.g. buses, trains, tramstransmission of navigation instructions to vehicles G08G1/0968
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/027 using movement velocity, acceleration information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/40 for vehicles, e.g. vehicle-to-pedestrians [V2P]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/42 for mass transport vehicles, e.g. buses, trains or aircraft
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/80 Services using short range communication, e.g. near-field communication [NFC], radio-frequency identification [RFID] or low energy communication

Abstract

Methods, apparatuses and products for associating external devices to vehicles and usage of said association. One method obtains information from one or more mobile devices that are connected to the external device. The information is used to determine that the external device is associated with a vehicle, whereby another mobile device is enabled to determine that it is being located on the vehicle based on the mobile device being connected to the external device. Another method obtains an indication that a mobile device is connected to an external device. A database is accessed to retrieve an associated of the external device with a vehicle, whereby it is deduced that the mobile device is located in or on the vehicle. In response to the deduction, a predetermined action may be performed.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

obtaining information from a plurality of mobile devices, wherein the information is gathered by sensors of the plurality of mobile devices, while the plurality of the mobile devices are connected to an external device; and

determining, based on the information, that the external device is associated with a vehicle, wherein said determining is performed by a processor;

whereby enabling a mobile device to determine that the mobile device is located on the vehicle, based on the mobile device being connected to the external device.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the vehicle is a public vehicle.

3. The method of claim 2 further comprises:

storing the association between the external device and the public vehicle in a database, wherein the database is accessible to the mobile device; and

wherein the mobile device is configured to access the database to determine that the mobile device is located on the public vehicle, based on the mobile device being connected to the external device.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the information comprises a first physical datum gathered by a first mobile device while the first mobile device is connected to the external device and a second physical datum gathered by a second mobile device while the second mobile device is connected to the external device;

wherein said determining comprises identifying a correlation over time between the first physical datum and the second physical datum.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein, for each point in time, the first and second physical datum comprise at least one of:

a location of a mobile device at a point in time;

a speed of a mobile device at a point in time;

a direction of a mobile device at a point in time;

an acceleration of a mobile device at a point in time;

an altitude of a mobile device at a point in time;

a light measurement measured by a mobile device at a point in time; and

a sound measurement measured by a mobile device at a point in time.

6. The method of claim 2, wherein the information comprises a positional data of one mobile device of the plurality of mobile devices in various points in time;

wherein said determining comprises identifying a correlation over time between the positional data of the one mobile device and a path of the public vehicle, wherein the path is obtained from a database.

7. The method of claim 2, wherein the information comprises a speed of one mobile device of the plurality of mobile devices in at least one point in time;

wherein said determining comprises determining that the speed of the one mobile device is greater than a predefined speed threshold;

wherein the predefined speed threshold is associated with a speed of the public vehicle.

8. The method of claim 2, wherein the information comprises positional data of one mobile device of the plurality of mobile devices in various points in time;

wherein said determining comprises determining a movement patternon the positional data in the various points in time;

wherein the movement pattern is associated with the mobile device being located in or on the public vehicle.

9. The method of claim 2,

wherein the information is indicative of a position and speed of one mobile device of the plurality of mobile devices in various points in time;

wherein said method further comprises;

obtaining traffic information pertaining to the position of the one mobile device in the various points in time;

wherein said determining comprises identifying a contradiction between the traffic information and the speed of the one mobile device.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the information comprises user interaction information indicating interactions by a user of one mobile device with the one mobile device;

wherein said determining comprises identifying that the user interaction information is indicative of the user being on or in the vehicle.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein said identifying that the user interaction is indicative of the user being on or in the vehicle comprises utilizing a classifier, wherein the classifier is trained by training data.

12. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the information comprises mobility information of the plurality of mobile devices at various points in time, wherein said determining comprises:

calculating a total driving time of the external device, wherein said calculating is based on the mobility information ;

calculating a total connection time between the plurality of mobile devices and the external device;

comparing a ratio between the total driving time and the total connection time with a predefined threshold.

13. The computer-implemented method of claim 12, wherein the mobility information is computed based on information gathered by accelerometers of the plurality of mobile device.

14. A method comprising:

obtaining an indication that a mobile device is connected to an external device;

accessing a database to retrieve an association of the external device with a vehicle, wherein the database retains associations between external devices and vehicles, whereby deducing that the mobile device is located in or on the vehicle based on the indication; and

in response to deducing that the mobile device is located in or on the vehicle, performing a predetermined action, wherein said performing the predetermined action is performed by a processor.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the mobile device executing an application having a first User Interface (UI), wherein said performing the predetermined action comprises:

changing the first UI to second UI, wherein the second UI is associated with the vehicle.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein the vehicle is a public vehicle, wherein said performing the predetermined action comprises:

logging a user of the mobile device on to a social network, wherein the social network is associated with the public vehicle.

17. The method of claim 14 further comprises:

determining, based on the vehicle, an estimated destination of a user of the mobile device; and

wherein the predetermined action is associated with the estimated destination.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein said performing the predetermined action comprises:

serving one or more content items to the mobile device, wherein the one or more content items are associated with the estimated destination.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the one or more content items comprise a content item indicating an estimated arrival time of the vehicle to the estimated destination.

20. The method of claim 17 further comprises:

estimating, based on information gathered by the mobile device, that a user of the mobile device is sleeping;

wherein said performing the predetermined action comprises;

determining that the vehicle is nearby the estimated destination; and

in response to said determining that the vehicle is nearby the estimated destination, issuing a notification.

21. The method of claim 14 further comprises:

obtaining information gathered from a plurality of mobile devices, wherein the plurality of mobile devices comprise the mobile device;

wherein said performing the predetermined action comprises filtering the information based on deduced association of the plurality of mobile devices with one or more vehicles thereby providing filtered information; and

analyzing, by a processor, the filtered information gathered from the plurality of mobile devices.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein the filtered information is information gathered from mobile devices not associated with public vehicles, wherein said analyzing comprises analyzing the filtered information to calculate parking occupancy.

23. The method of claim 21, wherein the filtered information is information gathered from mobile devices not associated with public vehicles, wherein said analyzing comprises analyzing the filtered information to calculate traffic information.

24. The method of claim 21, wherein the filtered information is information gathered from mobile devices associated with a public vehicle, wherein said analyzing comprises analyzing the filtered information to determine locations of the public vehicle without a use of a positioning device constantly affixed to the public vehicle.

25. A computerized apparatus having a processor, the processor being adapted to perform the steps of:

obtaining information from a plurality of mobile devices, wherein the information is gathered by sensors of the plurality of mobile devices, while the plurality of the mobile devices are connected to an external device; and

determining, based on the information, that the external device is associated with a vehicle;

whereby enabling a mobile device to determine that the mobile device is located on the vehicle, based on the mobile device being connected to the external device.

26. A computerized apparatus having a processor, the processor being adapted to perform the steps of:

obtaining an indication that a mobile device is connected to an external device;

accessing a database to retrieve an association of the external device with a vehicle, wherein the database retains associations between external devices and vehicles, whereby deducing that the mobile device is located in or on the vehicle based on the indication; and

in response to deducing that the mobile device is located in or on the vehicle, performing a predetermined action.

27. A computer program product comprising a computer readable storage medium retaining program instructions, which program instructions when read by a processor, cause the processor to perform a method comprising:

obtaining information from a plurality of mobile devices, wherein the information is gathered by sensors of the plurality of mobile devices, while the plurality of the mobile devices are connected to an external device; and

determining, based on the information, that the external device is associated with a vehicle;

whereby enabling a mobile device to determine that the mobile device is located on the vehicle, based on the mobile device being connected to the external device.

28. A computer program product comprising a computer readable storage medium retaining program instructions, which program instructions when read by a processor, cause the processor to perform a method comprising:

obtaining an indication that a mobile device is connected to an external device;

accessing a database to retrieve an association of the external device with a vehicle, wherein the database retains associations between external devices and vehicles, whereby deducing that the mobile device is located in or on the vehicle based on the indication; and

in response to deducing that the mobile device is located in or on the vehicle, performing a predetermined action.