Wearable motion-signaling bag

• US 9,521,732 B1
• Filed: 10/20/2014
• Issued: 12/13/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 10/20/2014
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Girling Kelly Design Group LLC
• Original Assignee: Girling Kelly Design Group LLC
• Inventors: Spofford, Tucker Jensen, Collette, Benoit Francois, Kelly, Gavin Morris, Baker, Sam, Alto, Nicholas James, Girling, Robert Marcus
• Primary Examiner(s): Chang, Daniel D
• Application Number:
  US14/519,055
• Time in Patent Office: 785 Days
• Field of Search: 315/294, 315131-133, 315/153
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: A45C 13/24 Devices for sound-producing, piercing, gas-discharging, or the like
• CPC Class Codes: A45C 15/00 Purses, bags, luggage or other receptacles covered by groups A45C1/00 - A45C11/00, combined with other objects or articles A45C1/08, A45C3/14, A45C11/321, A45C13/28 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A45C 15/06 with illuminating devices
• CPC Class Codes: A45F 2003/003 combined with other objects; specially adapted for carrying specific objects
• CPC Class Codes: A45F 3/04 Sacks or packs carried on the body by means of two straps passing over the two shoulders
• CPC Class Codes: B60Q 1/2615 mounted on the vehicle body, e.g. with magnets
• CPC Class Codes: B60Q 1/2673 on parts worn by the driver, e.g. clothes, gloves or bags, specially adapted to provide auxiliary vehicle signalling
• CPC Class Codes: B60Q 1/34 for indicating change of drive direction B60Q1/22 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: B60Q 2900/30 Lamps commanded by wireless transmissions
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/34 Route searching; Route guidance
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3626 Details of the output of route guidance instructions traffic control systems for road vehicles involving transmission of navigation instructions to the vehicle G08G1/0968
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/166 for active traffic, e.g. moving vehicles, pedestrians, bikes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/125 involving control of end-device applications over a network
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/027 using movement velocity, acceleration information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/38 for collecting sensor information
• CPC Class Codes: H05B 47/115 by determining the presence or movement of objects or living beings
• CPC Class Codes: H05B 47/19 via wireless transmission
• CPC Class Codes: H05B 47/1965 using handheld communication devices
• CPC Class Codes: Y02B 20/40 Control techniques providing energy savings, e.g. smart controller or presence detection

Abstract

A wearable motion-signaling bag is provided. The bag includes a housing, one or more straps connected to the housing and shaped to be worn by a user; one or more motion sensors; one or more lights contacting at least one surface of the housing; one or more controls configured to be activated by the user; and a microcontroller operable to execute under programmable control and interfaced to one or more of the sensors, the controls, and the lights, the microcontroller configured to provide signals regarding the motion of the user through the lights based on sensed data from the motion sensors and commands from the capacitive controls. The bag can receive commands from a user device and provide the signals based on the commands.

Claims

1. A wearable motion-signaling bag, comprising:

a housing;

one or more straps connected to the housing and shaped to be worn by a user;

one or more lights contacting at least one surface of the housing;

one or more controls configured to be activated by the user;

a microcontroller operable to execute under programmable control and interfaced to one or more motion sensors, the controls, and the lights, the microcontroller configured to provide signals regarding motion of the user through the lights based on sensed data from the one or more motion sensors and commands given by the controls when activated; and

the one or more motion sensors, wherein at least one of;

the sensors comprise at least one of a compass and a gyroscope and are configured to sense a completion of a turn by a user and the microcontroller turns off a signal for the turn upon the completion being sensed; and

the sensors comprise an accelerometer configured to sense a speed of the user and a brightness of one or more of the signals varies based on the speed.

2. The wearable motion-signaling bag according to claim 1, wherein the controls are capacitive controls and each of capacitive controls is at least one of comprised on the straps and comprised within the straps.

3. The wearable motion-signaling bag according to claim 1, wherein the signals comprise animated signals.

4. The wearable motion-signaling bag according to claim 3, wherein the animated signals comprise one or more of a left turn signal comprising an arrow pointing left along an external surface of a distal side of the housing, a right turn signal comprising an arrow pointing right along the external surface of the distal surface of the housing, a brake signal comprising a rectangle provided above the left and the right arrows and another rectangle provided simultaneously with the rectangle below the left and the right arrows, a hazard light comprising the left turn signal and the right turn signals, and a safety light comprising a moving light pattern provided by the lights providing the right turn signal, the left turn signal, and the brake signal.

5. The wearable motion-signaling bag according to claim 1, wherein the surface comprises at least one of an external surface of the distal side of the housing and an internal surface of the distal side of the house.

6. The wearable motion-signaling bag according to claim 5, wherein the lights comprise a strip of LED lights removably attached to the internal surface of the distal side of the housing.

7. The wearable motion-signaling bag according to claim 1,

a wireless transceiver interfaced to the microcontroller and configured to receive commands to signal the user'"'"'s upcoming movements from a user device,

wherein the microcontroller is further configured to provide the signals based on the commands.

8. The wearable motion-signaling bag according to claim 7, further comprising:

one or more additional lights interfaced to the microcontroller and comprised on the straps, wherein the microcontroller provides one or more of the signals to the user regarding the user'"'"'s movements based on the control commands and the user device commands.

9. The wearable motion-signaling bag according to claim 1, further comprising:

a power supply configured to power the microcontroller, the lights, the wireless transceiver, the sensors, and the controls; and

an inductive charging coil configured to receive energy from a second inductive coil and to recharge the power supply with the energy.

10. The wearable motion-signaling bag according to claim 9, further comprising a cavity formed in the housing shaped to receive a member comprising the second inductive coil.

11. A system for in-route motion signaling, comprising:

a user device, comprising;

a processor configured to execute code, comprising;

a command module configured to generate one or more commands to signal a movement of a user;

a wireless transceiver interfaced to the processor and configured to transmit the commands; and

a motion-signaling object wearable by the user, comprising;

one or more lights;

a wireless transceiver configured to receive the commands from the user device wireless transceiver;

one or more controls configured to be activated by the user;

a microcontroller operable to execute under programmable control and interfaced to the controls, the wireless transceiver, one or more motion sensors, and the lights, the microcontroller configured to provide signals regarding the motion of the user through the lights based on sensed data from the one or more motion sensors, one or more of commands given by the capacitive controls when activated, and the commands from the user device; and

the one or more motion sensors, wherein at least one of;

the sensors comprise at least one of a compass and a gyroscope and are configured to sense a completion of a turn by a user and the microcontroller turns off a signal for the turn upon the completion being sensed; and

the sensors comprise an accelerometer configured to sense a speed of the user and a brightness of one or more of the signals varies based on the speed.

12. The system according to claim 11, wherein the microcontroller identifies a conflict between one or more of the commands from the controls and the user device commands, and provides the signals only based on the conflicting control commands.

13. The system according to claim 11, further comprising:

a memory coupled to the processor and configured to store data regarding a route of the user;

a mobile application executed by the processor, comprising;

a location module configured to track a location of the user device; and

a turn module configured to determine one or more upcoming turns based on the route data and the tracked location; and

a command module configured to generate the user device commands based on the upcoming turns.

14. The system according to claim 13, wherein one of the capacitive control commands comprise a command to stop the execution of the mobile application, the object wireless transceiver transmits the stop command to the user device wireless transceiver, and the processor stops the execution of the mobile application upon receipt of the stop command.

15. The system according to claim 11, further comprising:

a receipt module configured to receive user input comprising a color of the signals provided by the lights; and

a transmission module configured to transmit via the user device wireless transceiver the color to the object wireless transceiver,

wherein the signals provided by the lights are of the transmitted color.

16. A wearable motion-signaling object, comprising:

one or more lights;

one or more controls configured to be activated by a user;

a microcontroller operable to execute under programmable control and interfaced to one or more motion sensors, the controls, and the lights, the microcontroller configured to provide signals regarding motion of the user through the lights based on sensed data from the one or more motion sensors and commands given by the controls when the controls are activated; and

the one or more motion sensors configured to sense a motion of the user, wherein at least one of;

the sensors comprise at least one of a compass and a gyroscope and are configured to sense a completion of a turn by a user and the microcontroller turns off a signal for the turn upon the completion being sensed; and

the sensors comprise an accelerometer configured to sense a speed of the user and a brightness of one or more of the signals varies based on the speed.