Vehicle state detection

• US 8,527,140 B2
• Filed: 02/10/2010
• Issued: 09/03/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 02/10/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Atos, LLC
• Original Assignee: Roy Schwartz, Zarick Schwartz
• Inventors: Schwartz, Roy, Schwartz, Zarick
• Primary Examiner(s): Severson, Jeremy R
• Application Number:
  US12/703,761
• Publication Number:
  US 20100204877A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,301 Days
• Field of Search: 701/33.2, 701/33.3, 701500-512, 340/539.13, 340/429
• US Class Current: 701/33.3
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 25/00 Fittings or systems for preventing or indicating unauthorised use or theft of vehicles locks for vehicles E05B77/00-E05B85/00
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 17/00 Digital computing or data processing equipment or methods, specially adapted for specific functions information retrieval, database structures or file system structures therefor G06F16/00
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/085 using electronic data carriers

Abstract

This application describes the detection of the state of a vehicle and various actions to be performed based on the detected state. The detection of the state is done by a portable device, carried by the user, which uses onboard sensors to receive operations indicators, and uses rules in a predetermined criteria to determine the operational state of the vehicle. Various methods are described for detecting the states of the vehicle and applications based upon it.

Claims

1. A method of performing one or more actions on a portable device carried by an individual, comprising:

monitoring at least one operation indicator continuously and transparently to the individual, wherein the at least one operation indicator is created by an on-board component of the portable device when the portable device is located inside a vehicle;

detecting when the at least one operation indicator meets one or more predetermined criteria;

determining one or more operational states of the vehicle based on the one or more predetermined criteria;

determining the one or more actions based on the one or more operational states of the vehicle;

performing the one or more actions on the portable device;

determining the one or more actions based on at least one change in the operational state of the vehicle occurs; and

wherein the at least one change in the operational state comprise at least one of the following;

a change from a vehicle is moving state to a vehicle movement is lingering state;

a change from a vehicle engine is on state to an engine is off state;

a change from a vehicle is moving state to a vehicle is stationary state;

a change from a vehicle speed is below a predetermined speed limit state to a vehicle speed is above the predetermined limit;

a change from a vehicle is stationary state to a vehicle is moving state;

a change from an engine is off state to an engine is on state; and

a change from an engine is off state to a vehicle is moving state.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the speed limit value is determined based on the vehicle location or based on a preconfigured fixed value.

3. A method of performing one or more actions on a portable device carried by an individual, comprising:

monitoring at least one operation indicator continuously and transparently to the individual, wherein the at least one operation indicator is created by an on-board component of theportable device when the portable device is located inside a vehicle;

detecting when the at least one operation indicator meets one or more predetermined criteria;

determining one or more operational states of the vehicle based on the one or more predetermined criteria;

determining the one or more actions based on the one or more operational states of the vehicle;

performing the one or more actions on the portable device; and

wherein the performing the one or more actions further comprises;

recording at least one geographic position of the vehicle when the operational state of the vehicle is changed at least to an engine is off state; and

directing the individual upon his request using the portable device to the at least one geographic position.

4. A method of performing one or more actions on a portable device carried by an individual, comprising:

monitoring at least one operation indicator continuously and transparently to the individual, wherein the at least one operation indicator is created by an on-board component of the portable device when the portable device is located inside a vehicle;

detecting when the at least one operation indicator meets one or more predetermined criteria;

determining one or more operational states of the vehicle based on the one or more predetermined criteria;

determining the one or more actions based on the one or more operational states of the vehicle;

performing the one or more actions on the portable device; and

wherein the performing the one or more actions further comprises;

notifying members of a group that the individual belongs to that the vehicle is leaving a parking spot and a new parking spot is available when the operational state of the vehicle is changed to at least vehicle is moving state.

5. A method of performing one or more actions on a portable device carried by an individual, comprising:

monitoring at least one operation indicator continuously and transparently to the individual, wherein the at least one operation indicator is created by an on-board component of the portable device when the portable device is located inside a vehicle;

detecting when the at least one operation indicator meets one or more predetermined criteria;

determining one or more operational states of the vehicle based on the one or more predetermined criteria;

determining the one or more actions based on the one or more operational states of the vehicle;

performing the one or more actions on the portable device; and

wherein the determining the one or more actions further comprises;

determining a location of the individual; and

determining the one or more actions based on the one or more operational states of the vehicle and the location of the individual.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein the determining the location of the individual further comprises:

recording a first geographic location when the operational state of the vehicle is changed to at least an engine is off state;

recording at least one current geographic location sampled at the predetermined time period;

comparing the at least one current geographic location to the first geographic location;

setting the location of the individual to the individual is in an outside of the vehicle location, when a distance between the at least one current and the first geographic locations exceeds a predetermined threshold.

7. The method of claim 5 wherein the determining the location of the individual comprises:

setting the location of the individual to the individual is in an outside of the vehicle location when a position of the portable device shows off a road location.

8. The method of claim 5 wherein the performing the one or more actions comprises:

storing a geographic position of the portable device when the one or more operational states of the vehicle have changed to engine is off state and the location of the individual has changed to an individual is outside of the vehicle;

directing the individual upon his request using the portable device to the geographic position.

9. The method of claim 5 wherein the performing the one or more actions comprises:

recording a first geographic positions of the vehicle when the one or more operational states of the vehicle have changed to a vehicle movement is lingering state;

recording at least one subsequent geographic position of the portable device at predetermined sampling periods until the location of the individual is changed to the individual is in an outside of the vehicle location;

directing the individual upon his request using the portable device through the at least one subsequent geographic position to the first geographic position.

10. A method of performing one or more actions on a portable device carried by an individual, comprising:

monitoring at least one operation indicator continuously and transparently to the individual, wherein the at least one operation indicator is created by an on-board component of the portable device when the portable device is located inside a vehicle;

detecting when the at least one operation indicator meets one or more predetermined criteria;

determining one or more operational states of the vehicle based on the one or more predetermined criteria;

determining the one or more actions based on the one or more operational states of the vehicle;

performing the one or more actions on the portable device; and

wherein the determining the one or more actions further comprises;

detecting when one or more predetermined applications are invoked via the portable device; and

determining the one or more actions based on the one or more operational states of the vehicle and the one or more predetermined applications.

11. The method of claim 10 wherein the one or more predetermined applications comprise at least one of the following:

at least one gaming application;

at least one text entering application;

at least one application for making voice calls;

at least one application for receiving voice calls;

at least one invocation application wherein this the at least one invocation application is an application that invokes other programs; and

at least one application for making data connections.

12. The method of claim 10 further comprises:

determining a type of the vehicle;

determining the one or more actions based on the one or more operational states of the vehicle and the one or more predetermined applications and the type of the vehicle.

13. The method of claim 10 further comprises:

associating a profile of the individual with the one or more predetermined applications and the one or more actions that should be performed for the one or more predetermined applications.

14. The method of claim 10 wherein the one or more actions comprise at least one of the following:

not allowing to perform the one or more predetermined applications when the one or more operational states of the vehicle is a vehicle is moving state;

informing a third party via a network that the one or more predetermined applications are invoked and asking for confirmation to allow to perform the one or more predetermined applications;

not allowing to perform the one or more predetermined applications when the one or more operational states of the vehicle is a vehicle is moving and the individual is a driver;

not allowing to perform the one or more predetermined applications when the one or more operational states of the vehicle is a vehicle is stopped at the light; and

controlling the one or more predetermined applications.

15. A method of performing one or more actions on a portable device carried by an individual, comprising:

monitoring at least one operation indicator continuously and transparently to the individual, wherein the at least one operation indicator is created by an on-board component of the portable device when the portable device is located inside a vehicle;

detecting when the at least one operation indicator meets one or more predetermined criteria;

determining one or more operational states of the vehicle based on the one or more predetermined criteria;

determining the one or more actions based on the one or more operational states of the vehicle;

performing the one or more actions on the portable device; and

wherein the determining the one or more operational states of the vehicle further comprises;

determining a position of the portable device;

determining the one or more operational states of the vehicle based on the one or more predetermined criteria and the position of the portable device.

16. The method of claim 15 further comprises:

determining the one or more operational states of the vehicle when the vehicle is moving and the individual is a driver based on the position of the portable device that indicates that the vehicle is turning the corner and the one or more predetermined criteria.

17. The method of claim 15 further comprises:

detecting locations of all reference devices that exist in the vehicle;

obtaining a measurement of a location of the individual in reference to a particular reference device;

determining the one or more operational states of the vehicle when the vehicle is moving and the individual is a driver based on the location of the individual in reference to the particular reference device and the one or more predetermined criteria.

18. A method of determining a movement and location status using an accelerometer located on a portable device comprising:

generating acceleration sequences by measuring accelerations of the vehicle at predetermined sampling periods in one or more directions using the accelerometer;

detecting when the acceleration sequences meet a predetermined pattern recognition criteria, wherein the predetermined pattern recognition criteria include at least one markov model generated for variety of the one or more operational states of the vehicle;

determining the one or more operational states based on the predetermined selected pattern recognition criteria.