Method for suspending transmission and reception of text messages and phone calls

• US 8,989,820 B2
• Filed: 06/14/2012
• Issued: 03/24/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 11/10/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: IPCOMM LLC
• Original Assignee: IPCOMM LLC
• Inventors: Czaja, Stanislaw, Stawski, Ilona, Afsar, Muhammad, Yi, Byung K.
• Primary Examiner(s): Alam, Fayyaz
• Application Number:
  US13/523,693
• Publication Number:
  US 20120252420A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,013 Days
• Field of Search: 455/552.1, 455/456.1, 455/550.1, 455/569.1, 455/569.2
• US Class Current: 455/569.2
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 48/04 based on user or terminal location or mobility data, e.g. moving direction, speed

Abstract

The present invention relates to the field of wireless communication and specifically the use of a cell-phone to monitor safe driving by suspending transmission or reception of text messages and/or phone calls by the driver of the moving motor vehicle not equipped with the hands-free equipment, or complete suspension of such communication to the operator of a train while the train is in motion, unless such transmissions are related to emergency services and where the determination of the vehicle operator status as well as operation terms-and-conditions may be obtained by including such info in the vehicle QR code or NFC or Bluetooth or other PAN transceivers combined with the interaction of the cell-phone based application.

Claims

1. A safe driving compliance system for suspending communication between a cellular network and a smart-phone of a driver of a vehicle, or communication originated/terminated by a passenger of the vehicle but continued by the smart-phone of the driver while the vehicle is in motion comprising:

a smart-phone based safe driving compliance application;

a quick response code (QR-code) assigned and attached to the vehicle;

the QR-code containing terms and conditions for operating the vehicle; and

wherein the smart-phone based safe driving compliance application is configured to scan said QR-code and to confirm driver acceptance of the terms and conditions for operating the vehicle through the smart-phone user interface (UI);

said safe driving compliance application is further configured to establish communication with;

the driver identification unit located inside the vehicle; and

with the vehicle hands-free equipment;

and to monitor the vehicle velocity measured by the smart-phone channel estimation function, and to monitor the hands-free communications equipment in the vehicle; and

wherein said safe driving compliance application suspends all incoming and outgoing communication between the smart-phone of the driver of the vehicle and the cellular network based on the acceptance of the terms and conditions, when the vehicle is in motion and the smart-phone of the driver is not communicating through the vehicle hands-free communication equipment.

2. The safe driving compliance system of claim 1, wherein said safe driving application is configured to detect an accident by observing the instantaneous changes in acceleration vectors of the smart-phone accelerometer.

3. The safe driving compliance system of claim 1, wherein the verification of the vehicle velocity is obtained through the smart-phone channel estimation function.

4. A method for obtaining a vehicle related information by a safe driving compliance application stored on a smart-phone comprising:

embedding the vehicle related information into a QR-code;

attaching said QR-code to the vehicle; and

scanning said information into the safe driving compliance application of the smart-phone, and wherein said information contains;

type of the vehicle including at least one of an automobile, a fleet vehicle, a train;

the vehicle hands-free capabilities;

the vehicle near field communications (NFC) capabilities;

the vehicle terms-of-use;

contact information of recipients of the vehicle terms-of-use violations;

and promotional materials.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein the vehicle terms-of-use embedded in the QR-code contains pre-coded information among others comprise of:

references to the insurance contract;

vehicle operating restrictions; and

reference to the applicable laws restricting communication while actively operating the vehicle.

6. The safe driving compliance system of claim 5, wherein upon detection of an accident the safe drive compliance application sends an SMS message informing the selected recipients and collects all of the following information:

vehicle speed at the time of the accident, location of the accident, intensity of the shock, the driver and the vehicle hands-free equipment status, then stores said information in the smart-phone memory.

7. The method of claim 4, wherein after scanning information contained in the QR-code, the safe driving application establishes communication with the NFC device to verify the status of the driver, and with the Bluetooth device to establish hands-free functionality, then sends status of said connection to the cellular network.

8. The method of claim 4, wherein information embedded in the QR-code and information processed by the safe driving application is used to determine driving violations including:

vehicle operating conditions;

attempts to make calls or send SMS while actively driving a vehicle, or by attempting to continue communication originated/terminated by passenger of the vehicle; and

to send SMS message informing the recipients identified in the QR-code and to store time and location of said violation in the safe driving application memory.

9. The method of claim 4, wherein the promotional materials embedded in the QR-code are presented to the driver of the vehicle only when the vehicle is not in motion or when the recipient is not actively involved in operation of the vehicle.

10. A safe driving compliance system for supervising of safe driving, comprising:

a safe driving compliance application stored on a smart-phone consisting a plurality of parameters associated with and corresponding to a vehicle and included into a QR-code attached to the vehicle; and

wherein the plurality of the parameters include all of the following;

type of the vehicle including at least one of an automobile, a fleet vehicle, a train;

the vehicle hands-free communication equipment capability;

the vehicle near field communication (NFC) capability;

the vehicle terms-of-use;

emergency and insurance company contact list containing plurality of recipients of violation or accident reports; and

wherein said parameters in conjunction with the vehicle speed information are used by the safe driving compliance application to suspend all incoming and outgoing communication between the smart-phone of a driver of the vehicle and cellular network when the vehicle is in motion and the smart-phone of the driver is not communicating through the vehicle hands-free communication equipment.

11. A non-transitory computer accessible memory medium for storing program instruction of a safe driving compliance application system, wherein the program instructions performs all of the following:

obtaining information related to a vehicle by scanning a QR-code attached to the vehicle;

establishing communication between driver identification unit installed inside the vehicle and a near field communication (NFC) transceiver of a smart-phone of a driver of the vehicle;

establishing communication between the vehicle hands-free equipment and the smart-phone Bluetooth transceiver;

obtaining the vehicle velocity by analyzing output of the smart-phone channel estimation function;

detecting occurrence of an accident by analyzing instantaneous change in acceleration vector measured by the smart-phone accelerometer;

suspending, based on the information, communication originated or terminated by the smart-phone of the driver of the vehicle, or originated or terminated by a passenger of the vehicle but continued by the driver while the vehicle is in motion, based on the vehicle velocity and the acceleration vector, and said communication is not conducted using the vehicle hands-free communication equipment;

and sending report of violation or an accident, based on the vehicle velocity and the acceleration vector, to recipients of the violation reports in a SMS messages.