Parental control over vehicle features and child alert system

• US 9,545,930 B2
• Filed: 08/20/2015
• Issued: 01/17/2017
• 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): Tarcza, Thomas
• Assistant Examiner(s): Dunn, Alex C
• Application Number:
  US14/831,696
• Publication Number:
  US 20160059865A1
• Time in Patent Office: 516 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: B60Q 1/52 for indicating emergencies
• 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: B60R 25/1004 Alarm systems characterised by the type of sensor, e.g. current sensing means using door lock sensors B60R25/1001
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/26 specially adapted for navigation in a road network
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3484 Personalized, e.g. from learned user behaviour or user-defined profiles
• 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 21/31 User authentication
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/32 using biometric data, e.g. fingerprints, iris scans or voiceprints
• 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 3/0488 using a touch-screen or digitiser, e.g. input of commands through traced gestures
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/00 Administration; Management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/02 Reservations, e.g. for tickets, services or events
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/20 Administration of product repair or maintenance
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/00 Commerce
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/012 Providing warranty services
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0265 Vehicular advertisement
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0633 Lists, e.g. purchase orders, compilation or processing
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0639 : Item locations
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0645 : Rental transactions; Leasing transactions
• 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 13/19647 : Systems specially adapted for intrusion detection in or around a vehicle
• 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: G08B 29/188 : Data fusion; cooperative systems, e.g. voting among different detectors
• 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: H04L 67/10 : in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 : specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks
• 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 12/069 : using certificates or pre-shared keys
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/08 : Access security
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/68 : Gesture-dependent or behaviour-dependent
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/34 : Reselection control
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/12 : Messaging; Mailboxes; Announcements
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/21 : for social networking applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/40 : for vehicles, e.g. vehicle-to-pedestrians [V2P]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/60 : Subscription-based services using application servers or record carriers, e.g. SIM application toolkits
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 48/04 : based on user or terminal location or mobility data, e.g. moving direction, speed
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/005 : Moving wireless networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/18 : Self-organising networks, e.g. ad-hoc networks or sensor networks

Abstract

A system to access one or more user profiles that govern one or more vehicle functions. The system cooperates with a processor and verification module which are adapted to verify, using one or more of biometric information, gesture recognition, facial recognition and device identification information, that a user has authority to access the one or more user profiles, where the one or more profiles are stored in one or more of a vehicle, a cloud and a communications device. An edit module is further provided and adapted to allow the user to make one or more edits to the one or more user profiles.

Claims

1. A parental control system for a vehicle comprising:

a processor programmed to execute;

an identification module adapted to identify a user associated with the vehicle;

a parental control module adapted to determine whether the user is subject to parental control based on the user identification and information stored in a user profile, the parent control module adapted to activate a parental control mode of the vehicle in response to determining that the user is subject to the parental control, the parental control mode limiting one or more vehicle functions based on one or more rules including whether the user is a driver or a passenger of the vehicle; and

a context module adapted to determine a context associated with the user based on the information in the user profile, a location of the vehicle, and a time, wherein the parental control module is further adapted to control a function of the vehicle based on the determined context;

wherein the context associated with the user corresponds to an approaching curfew for the user, the curfew stored in the user profile; and

wherein communications are established with one or more remote devices including a communication device associated with the user, and wherein the communications are configured to be sent at least to the communication device associated with the user and alert the user of the approaching curfew and provide travel guidance to the user for arriving home before the curfew.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein vehicle reporting is activated.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein one or more rules based functions are enabled or disabled, wherein the one or more rules based functions include at least one vehicle operational function.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein real-time communications are also established with the vehicle.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein global context awareness is enabled and communications are established with one or more smart systems.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the parental control mode is activated based on a facial recognition of the user and a profile associated with the vehicle.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the communications are real-time audio or video communications that are established between the vehicle and a communications device or a computing device.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more vehicle functions are limited based on a determined context of one or more of the vehicle and one or more passengers, and wherein information from a local or remote breathalyzer is used as input to determine whether to limit the one or more vehicle functions.

9. A parental control method for a vehicle comprising:

identifying, by a processor, a user associated with the vehicle;

determining, by the processor, whether the user is subject to parental control based on the user identification and information stored in a user profile;

activating, by the processor, a parental control mode of the vehicle in response to determining that the user is subject to the parental control, the parental control mode limiting one or more vehicle functions based on one or more rules including whether the user is a driver or a passenger of the vehicle;

determining, by the processor, a context associated with the user based on the information in the user profile, a location of the vehicle, and a time; and

controlling, by the processor, a function of the vehicle based on the determined context;

wherein the context associated with the user corresponds to an approaching curfew for the user, the curfew stored in the user profile; and

wherein communications are established with one or more remote devices including a communication device associated with the user, and wherein the communications are configured to be sent at least to the communication device associated with the user and alert the user of the approaching curfew and provide travel guidance to the user for arriving home before the curfew.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein vehicle reporting is activated.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein one or more rules based functions are enabled or disabled, wherein the one or more rules based functions include at least one vehicle operational function.

12. The method of claim 9, wherein real-time communications are also established with the vehicle.

13. The method of claim 9, wherein global context awareness is enabled and communications are established with one or more smart systems.

14. The method of claim 9, wherein the parental control module is activated based on a facial recognition of the user and a profile associated with the vehicle.

15. The method of claim 9, wherein the communications are real-time audio or video communications that are established between the vehicle and a communications device or a computing device.

16. The method of claim 9, wherein the one or more vehicle functions are limited based on a determined context of one or more of the vehicle and one or more passengers, and

wherein information from a local or remote breathalyzer is used as input to determine whether to limit the one or more vehicle functions.