IDENTIFYING AND LOCALIZING A VEHICLE OCCUPANT BY CORRELATING HAND GESTURE AND SEATBELT MOTION

• US 20170240066A1
• Filed: 02/23/2016
• Published: 08/24/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 02/23/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Inventors: Wang, Yu, Li, Zhiyun, Zheng, Pei
• Granted Patent: US 10,040,372 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: B60N 2/002 Seats provided with an occupancy detection means mounted therein or thereon detection means responsive to presence or absence of children B60N2/266
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 16/037 for occupant comfort , e.g. for automatic adjustment of appliances according to personal settings, e.g. seats, mirrors, steering wheel
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 22/48 Control systems, alarms, or interlock systems, for the correct application of the belt or harness
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/52 specially adapted for the location of the user terminal

Abstract

A method, system, and vehicle for locating an occupant within the vehicle. The method includes receiving motion data of a seatbelt for a seat in the vehicle and receiving motion data of a wearable device of the occupant. The method also includes comparing the seatbelt motion data with the wearable device motion data from a same period of time and identifying that the occupant is located at the seat in the vehicle based on a result of the comparison. The method may also include associating the occupant with the vehicle based on location information of the vehicle and location information of the wearable device of the occupant. Additionally, the method may include identifying personalization options for the occupant at the seat based on a user profile of the occupant in response to identifying that the occupant is located at the seat.

Claims

1. A system for locating an occupant within a vehicle, the system comprising:

a communication interface configured to;

receive motion data of a seatbelt for a seat in the vehicle,

receive motion data of a wearable device of the occupant; and

at least one processor configured to;

compare the seatbelt motion data with the wearable device motion data from a same period of time; and

identify that the occupant is located at the seat in the vehicle based on a result of the comparison.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one processor is configured to identify personalization options for the occupant at the seat based on a user profile of the occupant in response to identification that the occupant is located at the seat.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one processor is configured to associate the occupant with the vehicle based on location information of the vehicle and location information of the wearable device of the occupant.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein;

the at least one communication interface is configured to receive, from the vehicle, a notification that the seat in the vehicle is occupied; and

the at least one processor is configured to identify wearable device motion data for any occupant associated with the vehicle in response to receipt of the notification.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one processor is configured to identify a pair of correlated wearable device and seatbelt motion patterns from among a plurality of wearable device motion patterns and seatbelt motion patterns for a plurality of occupants of the vehicle.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein:

the seatbelt motion data and the wearable device motion data comprise acceleration data; and

the at least one processor is configured to compare an acceleration pattern of the seatbelt with an acceleration pattern of the wearable device.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the system is located in one of the vehicle and a server for a cloud computing system.

8. A vehicle for locating an occupant, the vehicle comprising:

one or more seats;

one or more seatbelts for the one or more seats, respectively;

a communication interface configured to;

receive motion data of one of the seatbelts,

send the seatbelt motion data to a server for comparison with motion data of a wearable device of the occupant of the vehicle from a same period of time, and

receive information indicating that the occupant is located at a seat of the one seatbelt;

at least one processor configured to identify personalization options for the occupant at the seat based on a user profile of the occupant in response to identification that the occupant is located at the seat.

9. The vehicle of claim 8, wherein the at least one communication interface is configured to send, to the server, location information for associating occupant with the vehicle based on location.

10. The vehicle of claim 8, further comprising:

one or more seat sensors,

wherein the at least one processor is configured to identify that the seat is occupied based on an output of the one or more seat sensors, and

the at least one communication interface is configured to send, to the server, a notification that the seat in the vehicle is occupied.

11. The vehicle of claim 8, wherein the one seatbelt comprises:

a buckle including one or more motion sensors configured to sense a motion pattern of the one seatbelt to generate the seatbelt motion data, and

a transceiver configured to transmit the seatbelt motion data to the communication interface.

12. The vehicle of claim 11, wherein the one or more motion sensors comprise at least one of an accelerometer, a gyroscope, and a magnetic field sensor.

13. The vehicle of claim 8, further comprising:

at least one display and at least one speaker associated with the seat,

wherein the processor configured to provide the personalization options for the occupant at the seat via the at least one display and the at least one speaker.

14. A method for locating an occupant within a vehicle, the method comprising:

receiving motion data of a seatbelt for a seat in the vehicle;

receiving motion data of a wearable device of the occupant;

comparing the seatbelt motion data with the wearable device motion data from a same period of time; and

identifying that the occupant is located at the seat in the vehicle based on a result of the comparison.

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising identifying personalization options for the occupant at the seat based on a user profile of the occupant in response to identifying that the occupant is located at the seat.

16. The method of claim 14, further comprising associating the occupant with the vehicle based on location information of the vehicle and location information of the wearable device of the occupant.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

receiving, from the vehicle, a notification that the seat in the vehicle is occupied,

wherein receiving the motion data of the wearable device of the occupant comprises identifying wearable device motion data for any occupant associated with the vehicle in response to receipt of the notification.

18. The method of claim 14, wherein identifying that the occupant is located at the seat in the vehicle comprises identifying a pair of correlated wearable device and seatbelt motion patterns from among a plurality of wearable device motion patterns and seatbelt motion patterns for a plurality of occupants of the vehicle.

19. The method of claim 14, wherein:

the seatbelt motion data and the wearable device motion data comprise acceleration data; and

the comparison includes comparing an acceleration pattern of the seatbelt with an acceleration pattern of the wearable device.

20. The method of claim 14, wherein the method is performed by at least one of the vehicle and a server for a cloud computing system.