Automatic identification of vehicle location

• US 9,080,878 B2
• Filed: 02/21/2013
• Issued: 07/14/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 02/21/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Skinder, Jason A., Lemay, Stephen O., Moore, Bradford A., Pylappan, Seejo K., Blumenberg, Christopher, van Os, Marcel, Varoglu, Devrim
• Primary Examiner(s): Swarthout, Brent
• Application Number:
  US13/773,481
• Publication Number:
  US 20140232569A1
• Time in Patent Office: 873 Days
• Field of Search: 340/932.2, 340/991, 340/988, 705/14.1, 705/32, 705/13, 342/357.2, 342/457
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/16 by integrating acceleration or speed, i.e. inertial navigation
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/20 Instruments for performing navigational calculations G01C21/24, G01C21/26 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/005 including pedestrian guidance indicator
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/137 the indicator being in the form of a map
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/14 indicating individual free spaces in parking areas
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/144 on portable or mobile units, e.g. personal digital assistant [PDA]

Abstract

A mobile computing device can be used to locate a vehicle parking location. In particular, the mobile device can automatically identify when a vehicle in which the mobile device is located has entered into a parked state. The mobile device can determine that the vehicle is in a parked state by analyzing one or more parameters that indicate a parked state or a transit state. The location of the mobile device at a time corresponding to when the vehicle is identified as being parked can be associated with an identifier for the current parking location.

Claims

1. A method of identifying a location of a vehicle, the method comprising:

establishing, with a mobile device, a communication connection with at least one system of the vehicle;

detecting, with the mobile device, a disconnection of the communication connection;

responsive to detecting the disconnection, calculating a confidence score based at least in part on sensor data measured from one or more sensors of the mobile device;

responsive to determining that the confidence score exceeds a threshold, determining that the vehicle is in a parked state;

responsive to determining that the vehicle is in a parked state, determining a location of the mobile device; and

associating the determined location with the location of the vehicle.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the communication connection is a short-range wireless connection.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the communication connection is a wired connection.

4. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

responsive to detecting the disconnection, determining the location of the mobile device.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein location of the mobile device is determined using a global positioning system (GPS).

6. The method of claim 4, wherein location of the mobile device is determined using one or more of WiFi, cellular, or time of flight location technologies.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein calculating the confidence score includes analyzing one or more parameters to weigh the sensor data.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the one or more parameters include a current speed measured by the mobile device.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein the one or more parameters include a current speed measured by the vehicle.

10. The method of claim 7, wherein the one or more parameters include a motion pattern measured by the mobile device.

11. The method of claim 7, wherein the one or more parameters include navigation data.

12. A computer readable storage medium having program code stored thereon, the program code including instructions that, when executed by a processor in a mobile device, cause the processor to execute a method comprising:

establishing, with a mobile device, a communication connection with at least one system of the vehicle;

detecting, with the mobile device, a disconnection of the communication connection;

responsive to detecting the disconnection, calculating a confidence score based at least in part on sensor data measured from one or more sensors of the mobile device;

responsive to determining that the confidence score exceeds a threshold, determining that the vehicle is in a parked state;

responsive to determining the vehicle is in a parked state, determining a location of the mobile device; and

associating the determined location with the location of the vehicle.

13. A method of identifying a location of a parked vehicle, the method comprising:

obtaining, with an electronic device, one or more sensor parameters from a sensor on a mobile device;

detecting, with the mobile device, a disconnection of a communication connection between the mobile device and the vehicle;

responsive to detecting the disconnection, calculating, with the electronic device, a confidence score based on the one or more sensor parameters;

identifying, with the electronic device, the vehicle as being in a parked state based on the confidence score exceeding a threshold;

determining a location of the vehicle at a first time corresponding to when the vehicle is identified as being parked; and

associating the determined location with the location of the vehicle when the vehicle is identified to be in the parked state.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the electronic device is the mobile device, wherein the obtaining includes obtaining a plurality of sensor parameters from one or more sensors of the mobile device, and wherein the calculating includes weighing the plurality of sensor parameters and calculating the confidence score based on the weighted sensor parameters.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein the electronic device is a server in communication with the mobile device.

16. The method of claim 13, wherein the communication connection is a short-range wireless connection between the mobile device and a vehicle system, or a wired connection between the mobile device and a vehicle system.

17. The method of claim 14, wherein the one or more sensor parameters include the location of the mobile device or the location of the mobile device relative to a location of the vehicle.

18. The method of claim 14, wherein the one or more sensor parameters include the measured speed at which the mobile device is traveling.

19. The method of claim 14, wherein the location of the mobile device is determined using distance and bearing data from a known location.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the known location is a last known location.

21. The method of claim 19, wherein the known location is a next known location after the determination that the vehicle is in a parked state.

22. The method of claim 14, wherein the identifying the vehicle as being in a parked state based on the confidence score exceeding the threshold and the associating the location of the mobile device with a parking location identifier when it is determined that the vehicle is in the parked state occur automatically without interaction of a user.

23. The method of claim 14 further comprising:

disassociating the determined location with the location of the vehicle when it is determined that the vehicle is no longer in the parked state.

24. A computer readable storage medium having program code stored thereon, the program code including instructions that, when executed by a processor in a mobile device, cause the processor to execute a method comprising:

automatically obtaining, with an electronic device, one or more sensor parameters from a sensor on a mobile device;

detecting, with the mobile device, a disconnection of a communication connection between the mobile device and a vehicle;

responsive to detecting the disconnection, calculating, with the electronic device, a confidence score based on the one or more sensor parameters;

identifying, with the electronic device, the vehicle as being in a parked state based on the confidence score exceeding a threshold;

determining a location of the mobile device at a first time corresponding to when the vehicle is identified as being parked; and

associating the location of the mobile device with a parking location identifier when the vehicle is identified to be in the parked state.