Application of the invoke facility service to restrict invocation of compound wireless mobile communication services: division 2—vehicular safety measures

• US 9,282,180 B2
• Filed: 11/04/2013
• Issued: 03/08/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 02/16/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Thaddeus John Kobylarz
• Original Assignee: Thaddeus John Kobylarz
• Inventors: Kobylarz, Thaddeus John
• Primary Examiner(s): Agosta, Steve D
• Application Number:
  US13/998,464
• Publication Number:
  US 20150304481A1
• Time in Patent Office: 855 Days
• Field of Search: 455/414.1, 455418-420, 455/466, 455/550.1, 455/556.2, 455/569.2, 379/93.23, 379/93.24, 705/39
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72463 to restrict the functionality of the device
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/00 Services specially adapted for wireless communication networks; Facilities therefor
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/027 using movement velocity, acceleration information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/50 Service provisioning or reconfiguring
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/245 from a network towards a terminal

Abstract

This invention provides a mechanism for restricting invocation of wireless mobile terminal (Smartphone) apps whose execution creates a vehicular driving hazard. Events that cause such hazards are included. An event example is “being a vehicle'"'"'s driver” and attempting to do the app of texting. Events to restrict an app invocation are also included. These include remote restrictions, such as parents remotely turning off the texting app of their children driving an automobile. Spatial parameters, such as driving on high speed and/or heavy traffic roads, also represent restricting events. Events are inserted within an Invoke facility service'"'"'s Boolean expression by the builder of an Invoke facility service. The Boolean expression determines whether the invocation of its related app takes place.

Claims

1. A process, residing in the memory of a Smartphone or cellular phone, that is used to invoke a compound wireless mobile communication service also known as a Smartphone app or its diminutive app, by using a Boolean expression of events, which when a combination of events that either occur or events that do not occur result in a “

True”

evaluation of the Boolean expression, the aforementioned compound wireless mobile communication service will commence its execution, where the Boolean expression is contained within a service termed Invoke facility service;

such that the builder of an Invoke facility service associated the said Invoke facility service with the aforementioned compound wireless mobile communication service;

wherein the contained Boolean expression is built with events interconnected by the logical connectives of “

And”

, “

Or”

, “

Not”

, “

If X, Then Y”

, “

And Then”

;

such that the negation operation “

Not”

establishes a contradictory event, signifying that an event and its contradictory event are both considered to be events, where if the event did not occur (is “

False”

), then its contradictory event did occur (is “

True”

) and conversely; and

such that “

And Then”

is a conjunctive connective, meaning it has the same logical operation as “

And”

;

whereas, “

And Then”

includes a sequential implication for testing the occurrence of events;

as illustrated in the partial Boolean expression “

PrecedingExpression And Then FollowingExpression”

, for which “

PrecedingExpression” and

“

FollowingExpression”

are both logic expressions each containing one or more events, wherein the events within “

PrecedingExpression”

are tested for occurrences prior to testing occurrences of the events within “

FollowingExpression”

;

where both logic expressions contain events or their contradictory events that are observable when tested by the wireless mobile terminal;

such that events observed by or linked to the Smartphone or cellular telephone, are of the following types or their contradictions to enhance vehicular safety by denying the invocation (“

False”

Boolean expression evaluation) of an app that may distract a vehicle'"'"'s driver;

a) a wireless mobile terminal moving beyond a specified threshold speed, as can be determined via a GPS measurement differential of known time duration or a communication link to the vehicle'"'"'s speedometer;

b) a wireless mobile terminal detected to be in proximity of the vehicle driver'"'"'s seat, as can be determined using a Bluetooth or other radio wave position detection via a high directivity antenna;

c) a voice actuated wireless mobile terminal Compound Wireless Service app that detects the voice of the vehicle'"'"'s driver, as can be determined by means of a high directivity microphone for a wireless mobile terminal or voice recognition of a driver'"'"'s recording issuing the command to actuate the Compound Wireless Service app;

d) a distracting app execution disapproval by an outside source communication denial, as can be performed by a service provider or law enforcement that remotely sets a parameter state to restrict invocation of the distracting app;

e) a wireless mobile terminal is in a restricted area, as can be determined when on a spatially defined roadway by means of a GPS measurement or by means of a service provider'"'"'s location service;

f) a wireless mobile terminal is in a particular vehicle, as can be determined when the particular vehicle possesses a Bluetooth or other radio wave generator that signals an invocation restriction of one or more distracting apps;

g) the driver'"'"'s seat of a vehicle is occupied and the vehicle'"'"'s engine is running, as can be determined via a pressure transducer that senses weight on the seat and communicates with the wireless mobile terminal to restrict one or more distracting apps;

h) temporal events of a vehicle travelling during time periods of heavy traffic or during time periods requiring attentive driving;

wherein safety enhancing Boolean expressions include;

a) not being able to send a text message while in a moving vehicle, that may be expressed as {SendTextMessage And Then (Not VehiclelsMoving)};

b) not invoking a voice command by a vehicle'"'"'s driver, unless the vehicle is not moving, that may be expressed as {AppVoiceCommand And Then ((Not Driver Voice) Or (Not VehicleMoving))} c) not invoking a voice command in a vehicle unless the vehicle'"'"'s engine is not running or the mobile communication terminal is in the vehicle'"'"'s cradle and either the vehicle is not moving or the voice command was not spoken by the driver, that may be expressed as {AppVoiceCommand And Then ((Not EngineRunning) Or (InCradle And ((Not VehicleMoving) Or (Not DriverVoice))))} d) not invoking a voice command in a vehicle unless the vehicle'"'"'s engine is not running or the vehicle is not moving or the voice command was not spoken by the driver, that may be expressed as {AppVoiceCommand And Then ((Not EngineRunning) Or (Not VehicleMoving) Or (Not DriverVoice))} e) not invoking a manufacturer'"'"'s default app in a vehicle unless the vehicle'"'"'s engine is not running or the vehicle is not moving or the driver is not in possession of the smartphone, that may be expressed as {ManufacturerDefault And Then ((Not EngineRunning) Or (Not VehicleMoving) Or (Not DriverHasSmartphone))} f) not invoking a voice command in a vehicle unless the vehicle'"'"'s engine is not running, that may be expressed as {AppVoiceCommand And Then (Not EngineRunning)} g) not invoking a manufacturer'"'"'s default app in a vehicle unless the vehicle'"'"'s engine is not running, that may be expressed as {ManufacturerDefault And Then (Not EngineRunning)} h) not invoking a voice command in a vehicle unless the vehicle is not moving, that may be expressed as {AppVoiceCommand And Then (Not VehicleMoving)} i) not invoking a manufacturer'"'"'s default app in a vehicle unless the vehicle is not moving, that may be expressed as {ManufacturerDefault And Then (Not VehicleMoving)};

whereby an Invoke facility service consists of the parameters;

     1) {OptionalEventExpression} which is a Boolean expression containing assertions of recognized events that are to control the invocation of an associated Smartphone app or wireless mobile terminal app;

     2) (OptionalEventDurationList) which is a list of triples;

where each triple designates an event name, its value of “

Sustained”

or “

Momentary”

, and the testing repetition interval for a “

Sustained”

event or a null entry for a “

Momentary”

event;

     3) (OptionalObservationRepetitionInterval) which is a parameter pair that specifies the time interval between successive evaluations of the {OptionalEventExpression} truth value and the time interval to reset all event test values to an “

Untested”

flag;

     4) (OptionalPasswordPair) which is a parameter pair intended to provide password protection of a Smartphone app or wireless mobile terminal app that contains a password name and a password value;

     5) (OptionalDisableQuadruple) which is a quadruple of entries consisting of the name of maximum permitted number of failed password attempts, the value of maximum permitted number of failed password attempts, the name of amount of time the Smartphone app or wireless mobile terminal app will be disabled if the number of failed attempts reaches the maximum, and the value of the amount of time the Smartphone app or wireless mobile terminal app will be disabled if the number of failed attempts reaches the maximum;

     6) OptionalEnablingSwitch which is a parameter to either enable or disable the Smartphone app or wireless mobile terminal app invocation;

     7) (OptionalInitialConditionsAssignmentList) which is a list of pairs that consist of builder selected Smartphone app or wireless mobile terminal app parameter names and their initial values when the Smartphone app or wireless mobile terminal app begins its execution;

     8) (OptionalLinkedCWSList) which is a list of pairs that indicate the names of potentially linked Smartphone apps or wireless mobile terminal apps and their addresses for the purpose of having an invoked Smartphone app or wireless mobile terminal app receive data from a linked Smartphone app or wireless mobile terminal app;

     9) (OptionalLinkedCWSPasswords) which is a list of pairs that associate potentially linked Smartphone apps or wireless mobile terminal apps with passwords for those potentially linked Smartphone apps or wireless mobile terminal apps having password protection;

     10) (OptionalLinkedCWSData) which is a list of pairs;

where the first member of a pair is a linked Smartphone app or wireless mobile terminal app name and the second member is a list of pairs that associate named constants and variables with memory locations into which a linked Smartphone app or wireless mobile terminal app will enter values;

     11) (OptionalNotifications) which is a n-tuple to provide notification concerning the operation of the Invoke facility service after the Boolean expression was evaluated as “

True”

;

     12) (OptionalEventFailureNotification) which is a n-tuple to provide a notification when an event test path results in a “

False”

evaluation of a Smartphone app'"'"'s or wireless mobile terminal app'"'"'s Invoke facility service Boolean expression;

     13) (OptionalEventPathData) which is a parameter consisting of set of triples and a set of pairs that represent the potential event test paths, in the form of an inverted, binary, directed tree, to evaluate the Smartphone app'"'"'s or wireless mobile terminal app'"'"'s Boolean expression;

     14) {OptionalEventFailureNotificationSchema} which is a set of pairs, of the form (event test path label, notification) or (event test path label, notification pointer), that provides the failure notification parameter value to be identified in the (OptionalEventFailureNotification) output for its associated Smartphone app or wireless mobile terminal app.

2. The process of claim 1, wherein further improvements include the use of an interactive graphical compiler that conducts dialog with the builder of an Invoke facility service to assist the construction of a Boolean expression of events and assistance for the other parameter assignments of an Invoke facility service by graphically presenting queries and providing guidance for successive Invoke facility service parameter entries.