Radar sensing and emergency response vehicle detection

• US 9,412,273 B2
• Filed: 11/17/2014
• Issued: 08/09/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 03/14/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: AutoConnect Holdings LLC
• Original Assignee: AutoConnect Holdings LLC
• Inventors: Ricci, Christopher P.
• Primary Examiner(s): MCNALLY, KERRI L
• Application Number:
  US14/543,535
• Publication Number:
  US 20150061895A1
• Time in Patent Office: 631 Days
• Field of Search: 340/902
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 28/00 Safety devices for propulsion-unit control, specially adapted for, or arranged in, vehicles, e.g. preventing fuel supply or ignition in the event of potentially dangerous conditions for electrically-propelled vehicles B60L3/00; road vehicle drive control systems for purposes not related to the control of a particular sub-unit B60W30/00; drive control systems specially adapted for autonomous road vehicles B60W60/00
• CPC Class Codes: B60Q 9/00 Arrangement or adaptation of signal devices not provided for in one of main groups B60Q1/00 - B60Q7/00 , e.g. haptic signalling
• CPC Class Codes: B60Q 9/008 for anti-collision purposes
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 16/037 for occupant comfort , e.g. for automatic adjustment of appliances according to personal settings, e.g. seats, mirrors, steering wheel
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 16/0373 Voice control in general G10L
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 25/00 Fittings or systems for preventing or indicating unauthorised use or theft of vehicles locks for vehicles E05B77/00-E05B85/00
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2050/0075 Automatic parameter input, automatic initialising or calibrating means
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2540/18 Steering angle
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2540/20 Direction indicator values
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2556/45 External transmission of data to or from the vehicle
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 40/09 Driving style or behaviour
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 50/08 Interaction between the driver and the control system
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 50/14 Means for informing the driver, warning the driver or prompting a driver intervention
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/26 specially adapted for navigation in a road network
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/25 Integrating or interfacing systems involving database management systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/583 using metadata automatically derived from the content
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/00 Security arrangements for protecting computers, components thereof, programs or data against unauthorised activity
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/017 Gesture based interaction, e.g. based on a set of recognized hand gestures interaction based on gestures traced on a digitiser G06F3/04883
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04883 for inputting data by handwriting, e.g. gesture or text
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/20 : Administration of product repair or maintenance
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/012 : Providing warranty services
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0265 : Vehicular advertisement
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0639 : Item locations
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/40 : Business processes related to the transportation industry shipping G06Q10/083
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/59 : inside of a vehicle, e.g. relating to seat occupancy, driver state or inner lighting conditions
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/15 : Biometric patterns based on physiological signals, e.g. heartbeat, blood flow
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/166 : using acquisition arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/168 : Feature extraction; Face representation
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/28 : Recognition of hand or arm movements, e.g. recognition of deaf sign language static hand signs G06V40/113
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 21/06 : indicating a condition of sleep, e.g. anti-dozing alarms
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 25/016 : Personal emergency signalling and security systems emergency non-personal manually actuated alarm activators G08B25/12
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/0965 : responding to signals from another vehicle, e.g. emergency vehicle
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096725 : where the received information generates an automatic action on the vehicle control
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096741 : where the source of the transmitted information selects which information to transmit to each vehicle
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096775 : where the origin of the information is a central station
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/41422 : located in transportation means, e.g. personal vehicle arrangements specially adapted for transportation systems in broadcast systems H04H20/62
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/181 : for receiving images from a plurality of remote sources
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/40 : for vehicles, e.g. vehicle-to-pedestrians [V2P]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/90 : Services for handling of emergency or hazardous situations, e.g. earthquake and tsunami warning systems [ETWS]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/11 : Allocation or use of connection identifiers

Abstract

Methods and systems for a complete vehicle ecosystem are provided. Specifically, systems that when taken alone, or together, provide an individual or group of individuals with an intuitive and comfortable vehicular environment. The present disclosure includes a system that detects emergency signals and presents alerts to devices of a vehicle to notify vehicle users of the emergency signals. Further, the methods and systems provide a presentation approach to continue to alert a user and even control a vehicle when an acceptable response to a first alert, or series of alerts, is not received from the user.

Claims

1. An emergency vehicle alert system, comprising:

an alert module of a vehicle configured to detect a signal emitted by at least one emergency signaling entity, wherein the alert module is configured to analyze the detected signal for signal information and identify the detected signal as an emergency signal when the signal information of the detected signal includes information corresponding to at least one emergency; and

a communication device associated with the vehicle and configured to present an alert to notify a user of the vehicle of the at least one emergency; and

wherein analyzing the detected signal for signal information further comprises;

determining characteristics of the detected signal over time, and comparing the determined characteristics of the detected signal to one or more signal profiles stored in memory, wherein each signal profile of the one or more signal profiles is associated with at least one of a signal source and emergency event type.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the alert includes at least one alert type comprising one or more of a visual, acoustic, and haptic notification.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the signal emitted by the at least one emergency signaling entity is a return signal in response to a radar signal sent by the vehicle.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein presenting the alert to the communication device associated with the vehicle is based at least partially on user preferences stored in memory and associated with the user.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the signal emitted by the at least one emergency signaling entity is a wireless communication signal, and wherein analyzing the detected signal for signal information further comprises:

analyzing the wireless communication signal for signal information included in a payload of a packet associated with the wireless communication signal.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the wireless communication signal includes at least one of vehicle control instructions, location information of the emergency vehicle relative to the vehicle, destination information of the emergency vehicle, and an estimated time of arrival of the emergency vehicle.

7. The system of claim 2, further comprising:

determining whether the user of the vehicle has acknowledged the alert presented to the communication device, wherein determining whether the user of the vehicle has acknowledged the alert presented to the communication device further comprises;

detecting an input provided by the user in response to the alert being presented;

determining whether the input provided by the user corresponds to a required acknowledgment of the alert as defined by rules stored in memory;

providing an affirmative output that the user has acknowledged the alert when the input provided by the user corresponds to the required acknowledgment of the alert; and

providing a negative output that the user has failed to acknowledge the alert when the input provided by the user fails to correspond to the required acknowledgment of the alert;

presenting, when it is determined that the user of the vehicle has failed to acknowledge the alert presented to the communication device, a subsequent alert to the communication device associated with the vehicle, wherein the subsequent alert includes a modification to at least one of the alert type, an intensity associated with the alert type, and a number of the alert types presented to the communication device.

8. The system of claim 7, further comprising:

a controller configured to control a feature of the vehicle, wherein the feature of the vehicle includes at least one of a navigation feature, a media subsystem, an engine control, a steering control, and a gear transmission control.

9. An emergency vehicle alert method comprising:

detecting, by an alert module of a vehicle, an acoustic signal generated by an emergency signaling entity;

analyzing characteristics of the acoustic signal, wherein the characteristics include signal information associated with the acoustic signal over a period of time;

comparing the characteristics of the acoustic signal with characteristics of one or more stored signal profiles, wherein each of the one or more stored signal profiles is associated with a specific emergency definition;

determining whether a match exists between the characteristics of the acoustic signal and the characteristics of one or more stored signal profiles;

presenting, when the match exists, an alert to a communication device of the vehicle to notify a user of the vehicle about the acoustic signal, wherein the presentation of the alert includes at least one of playing a sound corresponding to the acoustic signal detected, providing information about the acoustic signal detected, and providing the specific emergency definition associated with the matching signal profile

determining whether the user of the vehicle acknowledged the alert presented to the communication device, wherein the determining step comprises;

(i) detecting an input provided by the user in response to the alert being presented;

(ii) providing an affirmative output that the user acknowledged the alert when the input provided by the user corresponds to a required acknowledgment of the alert; and

(iii) providing a negative output that the user failed to acknowledge the alert when the input provided by the user fails to correspond to the required acknowledgment of the alert and presenting a subsequent alert to the communication device.

10. An emergency vehicle alert method, comprising:

detecting, by an alert module of a vehicle, a signal emitted by at least one emergency signaling entity;

analyzing the detected signal for signal information;

identifying the detected signal as an emergency signal when the signal information of the detected signal includes information corresponding to at least one emergency; and

presenting an alert to a communication device associated with the vehicle, wherein the alert is configured to notify a user of the vehicle about the at least one emergency; and

wherein analyzing the detected signal for signal information further comprises;

determining characteristics of the detected signal over time, and comparing the determined characteristics of the detected signal to one or more signal profiles stored in memory wherein each signal profile of the one or more signal profiles is associated with at least one of a signal source and emergency event type.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the alert includes at least one alert type comprising one or more of a visual, acoustic, and haptic notification.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein the signal emitted by the at least one emergency signaling entity is a return signal in response to a radar signal sent by the vehicle.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein presenting the alert to the communication device associated with the vehicle is based at least partially on user preferences stored in memory and associated with the user.

14. The method of claim 10, wherein the signal emitted by the at least one emergency signaling entity is a wireless communication signal, and wherein analyzing the detected signal for signal information further comprises:

analyzing the wireless communication signal for signal information included in a payload of a packet associated with the wireless communication signal.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the wireless communication signal includes at least one of vehicle control instructions, location information of the emergency vehicle relative to the vehicle, destination information of the emergency vehicle, and an estimated time of arrival of the emergency vehicle.

16. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

determining whether the user of the vehicle has acknowledged the alert presented to the communication device; and

presenting, when it is determined that the user of the vehicle has failed to acknowledge the alert presented to the communication device, a subsequent alert to the communication device associated with the vehicle, wherein the subsequent alert includes a modification to at least one of the alert type, an intensity associated with the alert type, and a number of the alert types presented to the communication device.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein determining whether the user of the vehicle has acknowledged the alert presented to the communication device further comprises:

detecting an input provided by the user in response to the alert being presented;

determining whether the input provided by the user corresponds to a required acknowledgment of the alert as defined by rules stored in memory;

providing an affirmative output that the user has acknowledged the alert when the input provided by the user corresponds to the required acknowledgment of the alert; and

providing a negative output that the user has failed to acknowledge the alert when the input provided by the user fails to correspond to the required acknowledgment of the alert.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the input provided by the user fails to correspond to the required acknowledgment of the alert, the method further comprising:

controlling a feature of the vehicle, wherein the feature of the vehicle includes at least one of a navigation feature, a media subsystem, an engine control, a steering control, and a gear transmission control.