Driver, vehicle, and operational analysis

• US 9,315,195 B2
• Filed: 03/14/2014
• Issued: 04/19/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 10/20/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Geoforce Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Cartasite Incorporated (Geoforce Incorporated)
• Inventors: Armitage, David L., Kushnir, Gregory Froim, Mason, Mark Alvin
• Primary Examiner(s): Swarthout, Brent
• Application Number:
  US14/213,090
• Publication Number:
  US 20140199662A1
• Time in Patent Office: 767 Days
• Field of Search: 340/439, 340/575, 340/576, 340/461, 340/438, 340/425.5, 701/33.4, 701/29.3, 701/123, 434/65, 705/7.38
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 2360/174 Economic driving
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 2370/174 Economic driving
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 35/00 Instruments specially adapted for vehicles; Arrangement of instruments in or on vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 35/28 characterised by the type of the output information, e.g. video entertainment or vehicle dynamics information; characterised by the purpose of the output information, e.g. for attracting the attention of the driver
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2520/10 Longitudinal speed
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2520/105 Longitudinal acceleration
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2540/221 Physiology, e.g. weight, heartbeat, health or special needs
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 40/09 Driving style or behaviour
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06398 Performance of employee with respect to a job function
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/008 communicating information to a remotely located station transmission systems for measured values G08C
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/0816 Indicating performance data, e.g. occurrence of a malfunction
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/085 using electronic data carriers
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 19/167 Control of land vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 10/84 Data processing systems or methods, management, administration

Abstract

Disclosed are methods, systems, and software for operation a driver analysis system which includes receiving vehicle operation data corresponding to operation of vehicles by drivers from vehicle monitoring system, processing at least a portion of the vehicle operation data to determine driving performance of at least one driver, generating a driving report which identifies the driving performance of at least one driver, and presenting the driving report, where the driving report includes a driving score and/or eye movement index.

Claims

1. A method of operating a driver analysis system, the method comprising:

receiving vehicle operation data from one or more monitoring systems, corresponding to operation of one or more vehicles operated by one or more drivers by the driver analysis system;

generating a driving report which identifies the driving performance of a target driver; and

presenting the driving report for viewing by one or more entities,

wherein the vehicle operation data comprises an indication of eye movement index of the target driver,

wherein the performance of the target driver is compared to a best, worst, and average of other of the one or more other drivers.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the eye movement index is based at least in part on one or more of characteristics of the target driver, information associated with the location, and information associated with eye movement of the target driver.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the driver analysis system received data from other databases, and the driving report is based at least in part on the data form other databases.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the vehicle operation data is received at a communication interface in the driver analysis system from the one or more monitoring systems located generally adjacent the one or more vehicles.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the one or more monitoring systems comprise an imaging device capable of determining eye movement of the one or more drivers.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein the one or more monitoring systems comprises at least one of an accelerometer, GPS functionality, flash memory, a processor, a real-time operating system, satellite communication capabilities, cellular communication capabilities, near field communication, and Bluetooth-type communication capabilities.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more monitoring systems are powered from the OBD port of the vehicle, and at least a portion of the vehicle operation data is gathered from a source other than from the OBD port of the one or more vehicles.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the driving report comprises a safety score generally representing a level of safety of the driving performance of the target driver.

9. A driver analysis system comprising:

a communication interface configured to receive vehicle operation data corresponding to operation of a one or more of vehicles operated by one or more drivers;

an imaging device configured to determine eye movement of the one or more drivers;

a processing system configured to process at least a portion of the vehicle operation data or the eye movement to determine driving performance of the one or more drivers, and generate a driving score which generally identifies the driving performance of the one or more drivers, wherein the processing system is further capable of presenting the driving performance for the one or more drivers, and wherein the performance of the target driver is compared to a best, worst, and average of other of the one or more other drivers.

10. The driver analysis system of claim 9, wherein the processing system is further configured to determine a eye movement index based at least in part on the determined eye movement of the one or more drivers.

11. The driver analysis system of claim 9, further comprising a plurality of monitoring systems located generally adjacent the plurality of vehicles wherein the communication interface is capable of receiving the vehicle operation data from the plurality of monitoring systems.

12. The driver analysis system of claim 11, wherein each of the plurality of monitoring systems is powered from an on board diagnostic port on each of the plurality of vehicles and gathers at least a portion of the vehicle operation data from a source other than the OBD port.

13. The driver analysis system of claim 12, wherein the source other than the OBD port comprises at least one of an accelerometer, GPS functionality, flash memory, a processor, a real-time operating system, satellite communication capabilities, cellular communication capabilities, near field communication capability, and Bluetooth-type communication capabilities.

14. A non-transitory computer readable medium having stored thereon program instructions executable by a computing device that, when executed by the computing device, direct the computing device to:

receive vehicle operation data corresponding to operation of one or more vehicles operated by one or more drivers;

generate a driving report which identifies the driving performance of a target driver; and

presenting the driving report for viewing by one or more entities, wherein the vehicle operation data comprises an indication of eye movement index of the one or more drivers, and wherein the performance of the target driver is compared to a best, worst, and average of other of the one or more other drivers.

15. The computer readable medium of claim 14, wherein the eye movement index is based at least in part on one or more of characteristics of the target driver, information associated with the location, and information associated with eye movement of the target driver.

16. The computer readable medium of claim 15, wherein the processor is further capable of receiving eye movement data from an imaging device associated with one or more of the one or more vehicles.

17. The computer readable medium of claim 14, wherein the vehicle operation data is received at a communication interface in the driver analysis system from one or more monitoring systems located generally adjacent the one or more vehicles.

18. The computer readable medium of claim 14, wherein each of the plurality of monitoring systems is powered from an on board diagnostic port on each of the plurality of vehicles and comprises at least one of an accelerometer, GPS functionality, flash memory, a processor, a real-time operating system, satellite communication capabilities, cellular communication capabilities, near field communication, and Bluetooth-type communication capabilities.