System and method for distraction mitigation

• US 9,674,337 B2
• Filed: 03/07/2014
• Issued: 06/06/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 03/07/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Blackberry Limited
• Original Assignee: 2236008 Ontario Inc. (Blackberry Limited)
• Inventors: James, Alexandre, Rigley, Mark John, Vincent, Robert
• Primary Examiner(s): Shen, Qun
• Application Number:
  US14/200,902
• Publication Number:
  US 20150256669A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,187 Days
• Field of Search: 455418
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/6075 adapted for handsfree use in a vehicle H04M1/6058 takes precedence; arrangements for holding telephones in a vehicle B60R11/0241
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72463 to restrict the functionality of the device
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/724631 by limiting the access to the user interface, e.g. locking a touch-screen or a keypad
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/42 for mass transport vehicles, e.g. buses, trains or aircraft
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 48/04 based on user or terminal location or mobility data, e.g. moving direction, speed

Abstract

A system and method for distraction mitigation wherein a location of a mobile device within one of one or more zones in a vehicle may be determined and the behavior of the mobile device and/or in-vehicle systems, with which the mobile device interacts, may be modified based on the determined location. In one example, the location of a smartphone may be determined to be within the area (a.k.a. zone) of an automobile cabin associated with a driver of the automobile and the smartphone user interface may be locked to prevent direct operation of the smartphone by the driver while still allowing indirect operation via, for example, a Bluetooth connection to an automobile infotainment system.

Claims

1. A method for distraction mitigation comprising:

receiving one or more signals containing location information associated with one or more emitters, wherein the one or more emitters are located within a vehicle;

determining under instructions from a microprocessor a location of a mobile device within the vehicle in response to receiving the one or more signals associated with the location information associated with the one or more emitters;

receiving a signal containing zone information defining one or more zones of a plurality of zones in the vehicle;

determining at the mobile device if the mobile device is located within the one or more zones of the plurality of zones in the vehicle in response to receiving the signal generated in the vehicle containing the zone information; and

modifying the behavior of the mobile device under instructions from the microprocessor in response to the one or more zones, that the mobile device is determined to be in;

where the location information and the zone information .s are added to an audio signal and the location information and the zone information are masked in response to a time and frequency based psychoacoustic model that is utilized to determine where within the audio signal the location information and the zone information are added to the audio signal.

2. The method for distraction mitigation of claim 1, where the location information and the zone information is contained in a common signal.

3. The method for distraction mitigation of claim 1, further comprising transmitting an identifier of the occupied zone and mobile device identification information to an in-vehicle system.

4. The method for distraction mitigation of claim 1, where the behavior of the mobile device is modified to mitigate distraction of an operator of the vehicle.

5. The method for distraction mitigation of claim 1, where modifying the operation of the mobile device includes any of:

disabling one or more applications, disabling one or more features within any of one or more applications, blocking one or more functions of the mobile device, locking the mobile device, disabling one or more modes of the mobile device user interface, and displaying a warning message.

6. The method for distraction mitigation of claim 1, where the zone information includes one or more of:

a zone identifier, a zone boundary definition, a zone type, and zone restrictions.

7. The method for distraction mitigation of claim 6, where the zone type includes any of:

a class having pre-defined privileges or restrictions, and a role having associated privileges or restrictions.

8. A system for distraction mitigation comprising:

a first receiver to receive one or more signals, each respective one of the one or more signals containing emitter location information associated with a respective emitter of one or more emitters, wherein the one or more emitters are located within a vehicle and the emitter location information includes a location within the vehicle of the respective emitter that transmitted the signal;

a second receiver to receive a signal containing zone information defining one or more zones of a plurality of zones within the vehicle;

a location unit to determine a location of the mobile device within the vehicle responsive to the received location information;

a zone determining unit to determine if the mobile device is located within any of the one or more zones of the plurality of zones responsive to the received zone information and the determined location of the mobile device; and

a distraction controller to modify the behavior of the mobile device;

where each of the one or more signals containing the emitter location information including the location of a respective emitter, and the signal containing zone information, are made up of structured noise.

9. The system for distraction mitigation of claim 8, further comprising a transmitter to transmit an identifier of an occupied zone, that the mobile device is determined to be located in, to an in-vehicle system.

10. The system for distraction mitigation of claim 8, where the first and second receivers are adapted to receive any of:

an audio signal, a radio frequency signal and an ultrasonic signal.

11. The system for distraction mitigation of claim 8, where the location unit determines the location of the mobile device using any of:

triangulation, trilateration, ranging and multilateration.

12. The system for distraction mitigation of claim 8, where the behavior of the mobile device is modified to mitigate distraction of an operator of the vehicle.

13. The system for distraction mitigation of claim 8, where modifying the behavior of the mobile device includes any of:

disabling one or more applications,

disabling one or more features within any of one or more applications, blocking one or more functions of the mobile device, locking the mobile device, disabling one or more modes of the mobile device user interface, and displaying a warning message.

14. A method for distraction mitigation comprising:

emitting one or more signals containing location information associated with one or more emitters receivable by a mobile device, wherein the one or more emitters are located within a vehicle;

emitting a signal containing zone information defining one or more zones in the vehicle receivable by the mobile device;

receiving from the mobile device an identifier that identifies a zone, of the one or more zones, that the mobile device is located within; and

modifying the behavior of one or more in-vehicle systems other than the mobile device in response to the zone that the mobile device is located within;

where the location and the zone information content is added to an audio signal and is masked in response to a time and frequency based psychoacoustic masking model that is utilized to determine where within the audio signal the location and the zone information is added to the audio signal.

15. The method for distraction mitigation of claim 14, where the location information and the zone information may be contained in a common signal.

16. The method for distraction mitigation of claim 14, where the identifier of the occupied zone is a location of the mobile device from which the occupied zone can be determined.

17. The method for distraction mitigation of claim 14, where the behavior of the in-vehicle system is modified to mitigate distraction of an operator of the vehicle.

18. The method for distraction mitigation of claim 14, where modifying the behavior of the in-vehicle system includes any of:

disabling one or more applications, disabling one or more features within any of one or more applications, blocking one or more functions of the in-vehicle system, locking the in-vehicle system, disabling one or more modes of the in-vehicle system user interface, displaying a warning message, modifying interactions with the mobile device and configuring the in-vehicle system in accordance with user preferences associated with the mobile device.

19. The method for distraction mitigation of claim 14, where the zone information includes one or more of:

a zone identifier, a zone boundary definition, a zone type, and zone restrictions.

20. The method for distraction mitigation of claim 19, where the zone type includes any of:

a class having pre-defined privileges or restrictions, and a role having associated privileges or restrictions.

21. A system for distraction mitigation comprising:

a location information source to provide location information from which a location in a vehicle can be determined;

a zone information source to provide zone information defining one or more zones in the vehicle;

a plurality of first emitters located within the vehicle to emit one or more signals in response to a time and frequency based masking model that is utilized to determine the position of the location information within the emitted signal;

a second emitter located within the vehicle to emit a second signal in response to the time and frequency based masking model that is utilized to determine the position of the zone information within the second emitted signal;

a receiver to receive an identifier of an occupied zone, of the one or more zones, for a mobile device within the vehicle determined from the emitted location information and emitted zone information at the mobile device; and

a distraction controller to modify the behavior of one or more in-vehicle systems wirelessly linked to the mobile device and responsive to the occupied zone.

22. The system for distraction mitigation of claim 21, where the second emitter comprises one or more of the plurality of first emitters.

23. The system for distraction mitigation of claim 21, where the behavior of the one or more in-vehicle systems is modified to mitigate distraction of an operator of the vehicle.

24. The system for distraction mitigation of claim 21, where modifying the behavior of the one or more in-vehicle systems includes any of:

disabling one or more applications, disabling one or more features within any of one or more applications, blocking one or more functions of the in-vehicle system, locking the in-vehicle system, disabling one or more modes of the in-vehicle system user interface, displaying a warning message, modifying interactions with the mobile device and configuring the in-vehicle system in accordance with user preferences associated with the mobile device.