Pedestrian alerts for mobile devices
First Claim
1. A method for alerting a user of a mobile device the includes a display screen, comprising:
- tracking a location of the mobile device relative to a pedestrian street crossing identified from mapping data;
based on the tracking, determining that the user is approaching the pedestrian street crossing;
rendering an alert to the user regarding the pedestrian street crossing, the alert being active over a time interval;
identifying one or more GUI (graphical user interface) applications among a plurality of applications executing on the mobile device, the GUI applications rendering content on the display screen; and
dimming, freezing, or obscuring the content rendered by the GUI applications on the display screen.
1 Assignment
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Accused Products
Abstract
A pedestrian alert system supported on a mobile device such as a smartphone, tablet computer, or a wearable computing device which is employed by a user to engage in various activities, is configured to provide visual, auditory, or haptic alerts when the system uses location sensing and map data to determine the user'"'"'s proximity to a pedestrian street crossing. The alert attracts the user'"'"'s attention by having the user perform an explicit action to dismiss the alert before being able to continue with the activities on the device. Operations are suspended for applications rendering content on the device display (e.g., a touch screen), user inputs are disabled, and the display may be blurred, dimmed, obscured, or otherwise deactivated. The pedestrian alert system can take a snapshot of application state prior to suspension so that the applications can gracefully resume operations without disruption once the alert is manually or automatically dismissed.
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Citations
20 Claims
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1. A method for alerting a user of a mobile device the includes a display screen, comprising:
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tracking a location of the mobile device relative to a pedestrian street crossing identified from mapping data; based on the tracking, determining that the user is approaching the pedestrian street crossing; rendering an alert to the user regarding the pedestrian street crossing, the alert being active over a time interval; identifying one or more GUI (graphical user interface) applications among a plurality of applications executing on the mobile device, the GUI applications rendering content on the display screen; and dimming, freezing, or obscuring the content rendered by the GUI applications on the display screen. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
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11. A mobile device, comprising:
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one or more processors; a sensor package configured to provide sensor data to the one or more processors; a display screen enabled for touch-based input from a mobile device user; and one or more hardware-based computer-readable storage devices storing a pedestrian alert system comprising instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the mobile device to; determine from the sensor data that a pedestrian is proximate to a pedestrian street crossing; determine from the sensor data whether the pedestrian is looking at the display screen; display an alert about the pedestrian street crossing on the display screen; and except for the displayed alert, limit user interactivity with the display screen. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18)
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19. One or more hardware-based computer-readable storage devices storing computer-executable instructions for:
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receiving a request for data associated with a pedestrian street crossing, the data including characteristics of an area proximate to the pedestrian street crossing, the characteristics describing one or more of vehicular traffic, physical attributes, or accident history; retrieving data for the pedestrian street crossing responsively to the request; comparing the data for the pedestrian crossing with one or more predetermined criteria; sending a signal to a mobile device to control user interaction with a pedestrian alert rendered on the mobile device responsively to the comparing, wherein the pedestrian alert warns a pedestrian user of the mobile device of a pedestrian street crossing and control of user interactivity with the mobile device is based on the pedestrian user'"'"'s proximity to the pedestrian street crossing. - View Dependent Claims (20)
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Specification