ASSOCIATING EXTERNAL DEVICES TO VEHICLES AND USAGE OF SAID ASSOCIATION

• US 20180027387A1
• Filed: 08/15/2017
• Published: 01/25/2018
• 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 10,911,913 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• 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

1-13. -13. (canceled)

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. (canceled)

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. (canceled)

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.