Disablement of user device functionality

• US 8,994,492 B2
• Filed: 04/23/2012
• Issued: 03/31/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 04/21/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Konnected Universe LLC
• Original Assignee: Konnected Universe LLC
• Inventors: Farhan, Fariborz M, Amini, Afshin, Firoozbakhsh, Babak
• Primary Examiner(s): ALAM, MIRZA F
• Application Number:
  US13/454,055
• Publication Number:
  US 20120268235A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,072 Days
• Field of Search: 340/3.1, 340/439, 340/670, 340/10.1, 340/466, 340/568.1, 340/10.4, 340/539.13, 340/10.33, 340/686.1, 340/429, 340/500, 455/41, 455/456, 455/39, 455/457, 455/456.1, 455/41.3, 455/238.1, 455/67.11, 455/68, 455/26.1, 235/375
• US Class Current: 340/3.1
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 23/0278 Qualitative, e.g. if-then rules; Fuzzy logic; Lookup tables; Symptomatic search; FMEA
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 9/02 electric

Abstract

The use of user equipment, or distracting features thereof are restricted or prohibited to improve vehicle operation safety. The presence of user equipment within the operator'"'"'s or driver'"'"'s operational area is detected. The distracting features are then restricted either immediately or based on other conditions such as vehicle speed, motion, engine state, etc. When the conditions have been eliminated and/or the user equipment is vacated from the operator'"'"'s operational area, the restrictions can be removed or removed after a threshold period of time.

Claims

1. A method for restricting a functionality of user equipment that exists within a particular zone within a vehicle, the method comprising:

a processing unit configured to perform actions of;

determining that a location of the user equipment is physically within a particular zone of a plurality of zones, each of the plurality of zones being defined to exist at least partially within a vehicle, wherein at least one of the plurality of zones is within a driver'"'"'s region of interest and at least one of the plurality of zones is outside of the driver'"'"'s region of interest, wherein one or more tags are positioned with each tag being associated with one of the plurality of zones and a reader is physically coupled to the user equipment and, the reader receiving one or more transmissions from one or more of the tags and applying signal analysis to the received transmissions to determine a physical proximity of the user equipment relative to the one or more tags associated with the received transmissions thus identifying the location of the user equipment as within a particular zone;

identifying one or more conditions with regards to a state of the vehicle;

determining restrictions on the user equipment based at least in part on the identified one or more conditions of the vehicle and the particular zone in which the user equipment is located; and

imposing the restrictions on a functionality of the user equipment while the conditions exist and while the user equipment remains within the particular zone.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the reader is an RFID reader and the one or more tags are RFID tags with passive transmitters and, the action of determining the location of the user equipment further comprises the action of causing an actuation signal to be transmitted to actuate the one or more RFID tags to transmit a response signal and such transmitted response signals are the received transmissions.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the action of determining that a location of the user equipment is physically within a particular zone of a plurality of zones further comprises the actions of:

applying signal analysis relative to one or more characteristics of the received transmissions to determine if the user equipment is within a particular zone of the plurality of zones; and

wherein the action of determining restrictions on the user equipment comprises determining one set of restrictions if the user equipment is within a first zone and determining another set of restrictions if the user equipment is within a second zone within the vehicle.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the action of the processing unit identifying one or more conditions further comprises:

the processing unit detecting a speed of the vehicle; and

if the vehicle speed exceeds a particular threshold, identifying a condition of a moving vehicle.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the processing unit interfaces to an accelerometer and the action of the processing unit detecting a speed of the vehicle further comprises receiving a signal from the accelerometer indicating movement.

7. The method claim 5, wherein the processing unit interfaces to an on-board data system of the vehicle and, the action of detecting a speed of the vehicle further comprises receiving signals from the on-board data system indicating that the vehicle is moving.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the action of imposing the restrictions on a functionality of the user equipment further comprises:

sending a signal to the user equipment to notify the user equipment to invoke restrictions at the user equipment.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the user equipment operates in conjunction with a service provider and, the action of imposing the restrictions on a functionality of the user equipment further comprises:

the processing unit sending a signal to a service provider of the user equipment to invoke the restrictions of the user equipment; and

the service provider restricting a functionality of the user equipment at a service provider equipment.

22. The method of claim 1, wherein the action of identifying one or more conditions further comprises the action of detecting a speed of the vehicle by:

(a) calculating an effective motion force, a gravitational force and an intrinsic force at a first point in time;

(b) calculating a high frequency energy at the first point in time;

(c) calculating a speed of the vehicle at the first point in time;

(d) if a gravitation angle changes, adjusting a gravitational acceleration vector;

(e) calculating a direction of motion and a direction of gravitational force;

(f) if the speed of the vehicle indicates the vehicle is not moving, continue at action (a), otherwise calculate the speed at this next point in time and continue at action (d).

24. The method of claim 1, wherein the reader is an RFID reader and the one or more tags are RFID tags with active transmitters and, the action of determining that a location of the user equipment is physically within a particular zone of a plurality of zones further comprises receiving transmitted signals from the one or more RFID tags.

26. The method of claim 1, wherein the action of applying signal analysis to the received transmissions to determine the physical proximity of the user equipment relative to the one or more tags associated with the received transmissions further comprises analyzing a time diversity of the received transmissions.

3. A method for restricting a functionality of user equipment that exists within a particular zone within a vehicle, the method comprising:

a processing unit configured to perform actions of;

determining that a user equipment is physically within a particular zone of a plurality of zones that are defined to exist at least partially within a vehicle, wherein at least one of the plurality of zones is within a driver'"'"'s region of interest and at least one of the plurality of zones is outside of the driver'"'"'s region of interest, wherein one or more readers are positioned within each of the plurality of zones and one or more tags are physically coupled to the user equipment and, the one or more readers receiving one or more transmissions from the one or more tags and applying signal analysis to the received transmissions to determine a physical proximity of the user equipment relative to the one or more readers to determine a particular zone in which the user equipment is located;

identifying one or more conditions with regards to a state of the vehicle;

determining restrictions on the user equipment based at least in part on the identified conditions of the vehicle and the particular zone in which the user equipment is located; and

imposing the restrictions on a functionality of the user equipment while the conditions exist and while the user equipment remains within the particular zone.

21. The method of claim 3, wherein the one or more tags are RFID tags with passive transmitters and the one or more readers are RFID readers and, the action of determining that the user equipment is physically within a particular zone further comprises the action of causing an actuation signal to be sent to actuate the one or more RFID tags to transmit one or more response signals and such response signals are the received transmissions.

25. The method of claim 3, wherein the one or more tags are RFID tags with active transmitters and the one or more readers are RFID readers and, the action of determining that a location of the user equipment is physically within a particular zone of a plurality of zones further comprises the action of receiving signals from the one or more RFID tags.

10. A device for restricting a functionality of user equipment that is physically located and operating within a particular zone within a vehicle, the device comprising:

a processing unit that includes;

an interface to one or more sensors for detecting vehicle operating conditions;

a reader for receiving signal transmissions from one or more tags and for performing signal analysis of the received signals to determine when the user equipment is moved into and out of a particular zone of one of a plurality of zones within the vehicle, wherein at least one zone of the plurality of zones is a driver'"'"'s region of interest and at least one zone of the plurality of zones is outside of the driver'"'"'s region of interest, wherein the reader is physically connected to the user equipment; and

a controller interface for providing signals to invoke particular restrictions in a functionality of the user equipment wherein the particular restrictions are selected based on the particular zone in which the user equipment is located and the detected operating conditions and, providing signal to invoke different restrictions on the functionality of the user equipment if the detected operating conditions change or the user equipment is moved into a different zone of the plurality of zones.

11. The device of claim 10, wherein the interface to one or more sensors includes an interface to an accelerometer for detecting movement of the vehicle.

12. The device of claim 10, wherein the interface to one or more sensors includes an interface to an on-board data system of the vehicle.

13. The device of claim 10, wherein the interface to one or more sensors includes an interface to a global position system device for detecting vehicle movement.

14. The device of claim 10, wherein the reader comprises an RFID reader that is configured to send out an actuating signal to cause the one or more tags, wherein the tags are RFID tags, to transmit a response signal, the processing unit further performs signal analysis of one or more received response signals by detecting any transmissions from RFID tags and identifying a source and a location of the RFID tag by analyzing one or more characteristics of the response signals.

15. The device of claim 10, wherein the controller interface is configured to send signals to the user equipment to notify the user equipment to invoke the restrictions.

16. The device of claim 10, wherein the device includes BLUETOOTH technology and the reader receive and analyze BLUETOOTH signals from the user equipment to identify if the user equipment is within or proximate to the vehicle and if the user equipment is within one of a plurality of zones within the vehicle and, the controller interface sends signals to invoke one set of restrictions if the user equipment is within or proximate to the vehicle and to invoke additional restrictions if the user equipment is within a particular zone.

17. The device of claim 16, wherein the user equipment is a cellular telephone and the controller interface sends signals to the user equipment to invoke restrictions on the ability to receive and respond to text messages.

18. The device of claim 16, wherein the user equipment operates in conjunction with a service provider and, the controller interface is configured to send signals to the service provider, the signals requesting the service provider to invoke the restrictions on the user equipment.

19. The device of claim 10, wherein the user equipment is a cellular telephone and the controller interface sends signals to a cellular service provider to request the cellular service provider to prevent sending text messages to the cellular telephone.

20. A method for restricting a functionality of a multi-function cellular telephone that physically exists within a defined zone of a plurality of zones that exist within a vehicle, the method comprising:

a processing unit that is external to a cellular telephone and operating independently from the cellular telephone performing actions of;

detecting that the cellular telephone is within one of a plurality of zones that are defined to exist at least partially within a vehicle, wherein at least one zone is a driver'"'"'s region of interest within the vehicle and at least one other zone is outside of the driver'"'"'s region of interest but still within the vehicle;

identifying one or more conditions with regards to an operational state of the vehicle;

imposing restrictions on a functionality of the cellular telephone based at least in part on the identified conditions of the vehicle and a particular zone in which the cellular telephone is located;

maintaining the restrictions on the functionality of the cellular telephone while the conditions continue to exist and the cellular telephone remains within the particular zone; and

imposing a different set of restrictions on the functionality of the cellular telephone if the conditions of the vehicle change or the cellular telephone is moved out of the particular zone;

wherein the processing unit imposes the restrictions on the cellular telephone by sending signals to a cellular service provider for the cellular telephone to request the cellular service provider to prevent particular functions from operating on the cellular telephone.

23. A device for imposing first restrictions on operational functionality of user equipment that is located within a particular zone within a vehicle and imposing second restrictions when the user equipment is moved to a different zone within a vehicle, the device comprising:

a processing unit that includes;

a sensor interface to one or more sensors that provides signals indicating one or more operating conditions of a vehicle;

a reader interface to one or more readers for reading received signals, each reader being located within a zone of a plurality of zones that are within the vehicle and being configured to receive signal transmissions from at least one tag that is physically coupled to the user equipment such that the at least one tag and the user equipment are always co-located;

an analyzer configured to perform signal analysis of the received signals to determine when the user equipment is moved into and out of a zone of the plurality of zones, wherein at least one zone of the plurality of zones is a driver'"'"'s region of interest and at least one zone of the plurality of zones is outside of the driver'"'"'s region of interest;

a transmission device interface wherein the processing unit actuate the at least one tag to cause the at least one tag to transmit a signal; and

a controller interface for providing signals to invoke first or second restrictions in a functionality of the user equipment wherein the first or second restrictions are selected based on the particular zone in which the user equipment is located and the one or more operating conditions of the vehicle.