Method for smartphone-based accident detection

• US 10,137,889 B2
• Filed: 10/09/2017
• Issued: 11/27/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 08/20/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Zendrive, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Zendrive, Inc.
• Inventors: Pal, Jayanta, Islam, Bipul, Choudhury, Romit Roy, Risbood, Pankaj, Matus, Jonathan, Verma, Vishal
• Primary Examiner(s): Swarthout, Brent
• Application Number:
  US15/727,972
• Publication Number:
  US 20180033220A1
• Time in Patent Office: 414 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 2325/205 Mobile phones
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 25/24 using electronic identifiers containing a code not memorised by the user
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 40/10 related to vehicle motion
• CPC Class Codes: G06N 7/01 Probabilistic graphical models, e.g. probabilistic networks
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/08 Insurance
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/10 Terrestrial scenes scenes under surveillance with static cameras G06V20/52; scenes perceived from the exterior of a vehicle G06V20/56; scenes perceived from the interior of a vehicle G06V20/59
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/56 exterior to a vehicle by using sensors mounted on the vehicle
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/597 Recognising the driver's state or behaviour, e.g. attention or drowsiness
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/15 Biometric patterns based on physiological signals, e.g. heartbeat, blood flow
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/008 communicating information to a remotely located station transmission systems for measured values G08C
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/02 Registering or indicating driving, working, idle, or waiting time only apparatus forming part of taximeters G07B13/00
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/0808 Diagnosing performance data testing of vehicles G01M17/00; testing of electrical installation on vehicles G01R31/005
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/0866 the electronic data carrier being a digital video recorder in combination with video camera
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 25/00 Alarm systems in which the location of the alarm condition is signalled to a central station, e.g. fire or police telegraphic systems
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 25/001 Alarm cancelling procedures or alarm forwarding decisions, e.g. based on absence of alarm confirmation
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 25/006 Alarm destination chosen according to type of event, e.g. in case of fire phone the fire service, in case of medical emergency phone the ambulance
• 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 1/012 from other sources than vehicle or roadside beacons, e.g. mobile networks
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/0129 for creating historical data or processing based on historical data
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72421 with automatic activation of emergency service functions, e.g. upon sensing an alarm
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72454 : according to context-related or environment-related conditions
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2250/12 : including a sensor for measuring a physical value, e.g. temperature or motion telephones including GPS signal receivers H04M2250/10
• 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 4/40 : for vehicles, e.g. vehicle-to-pedestrians [V2P]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/00 : Devices specially adapted for wireless communication networks, e.g. terminals, base stations or access point devices

Abstract

A method and system for detecting an accident of a vehicle, the method including: receiving a movement dataset collected at least at one of a location sensor and a motion sensor arranged within the vehicle, during a time period of movement of the vehicle, extracting a set of movement features associated with at least one of a position, a velocity, and an acceleration characterizing the movement of the vehicle during the time period, detecting a vehicular accident event from processing the set of movement features with an accident detection model, and in response to detecting the vehicular accident event, automatically initiating an accident response action.

Claims

1. A system for determining a vehicular accident associated with first user and a vehicle, the system comprising:

a first application executing on a first device associated with the first user, wherein the first application is operable to collect a first movement dataset sampled from at least one of a first motion sensor and a first location sensor of the first device;

an accident detection processing system operable to;

receive a traffic dataset describing traffic conditions proximal a vehicle location, wherein the vehicle location is extracted from the first movement dataset, wherein the traffic conditions comprise a traffic level, a traffic law, and accident data;

retrieve an accident detection model; and

determine a vehicular accident event in substantially real-time with the accident detection model, the traffic dataset, and the first movement dataset, and based on the traffic level exceeding a traffic level threshold.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the accident detection processing system is operable to:

extract a vehicle motion characteristic from the first movement dataset, wherein the vehicle motion characteristic describes movement of the vehicle; and

detect satisfaction of a threshold condition based on the vehicle motion characteristic and the traffic dataset, wherein retrieval of the accident detection model and determination of the vehicular accident event are in response to detection of the satisfaction of the threshold condition.

3. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

a second application executing on a second device associated with a second user, wherein the second application is operable to collect a second movement dataset sampled from at least one of a second motion sensor and a second location sensor of the second device while the second device is proximal the first device,

wherein the accident detection processing system is operable to determine the vehicular accident event with the accident detection model, the traffic dataset, the first movement dataset, and the second movement dataset.

4. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

a set of supplementary applications executing on a set of supplementary devices associated with a plurality of users and a plurality of vehicles, wherein the set of supplementary applications is operable to collect a set of supplementary movement datasets sampled at sensors of the set of supplementary devices during driving sessions associated with the plurality of vehicles,

wherein the accident detection model comprises an accident detection machine learning model, and

wherein the accident detection processing system is operable to;

train the accident detection machine learning model based on the set of supplementary movement datasets; and

determine the vehicular accident event with the accident detection machine learning model, the traffic dataset, and the first movement dataset.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the accident detection processing system is operable to:

collect a set of supplementary traffic datasets associated with locations of the plurality of vehicles during the driving sessions; and

train the accident detection machine learning model based on the set of supplementary movement datasets and the set of supplementary traffic datasets.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the accident detection processing system is operable to:

in response to determination of the vehicular accident event, initiate an accident response action associated with the vehicular accident.

7. The system of claim 6, further comprising:

a second application executing on a second device associated with a second user, wherein the accident response action comprises transmission of an accident-related communication to the second device through the second application.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the second user is associated with an emergency service, and wherein the accident-related communication comprises location data indicating an accident location of the vehicular accident.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the first device comprises the vehicle, wherein the first application is executing on the vehicle, and wherein the accident detection processing system comprises a remote server system operable to receive the first movement dataset from the vehicle, and to determine the vehicular accident event.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the first device comprises a mobile computing device, wherein the first application is executing on the mobile computing device, wherein the accident detection processing system comprises the first application, and wherein the first application executing on the mobile computing device is operable to determine the vehicular accident event with the accident detection model, the traffic dataset, and the first movement dataset.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the mobile computing device comprises a microphone, wherein the first application is operable to collect an audio dataset sampled at the microphone and comprising audio emitted by the vehicle during a time period associated with the first movement dataset, and wherein the accident detection processing system is operable to determine the vehicular accident event with the accident detection model, the audio dataset, the traffic dataset, and the first movement dataset.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the accident detection processing system is operable to transmit at least one of the extracted vehicle location and audio from the audio dataset to an emergency service in response to determination of the vehicular accident event.

13. A method for determining a vehicular accident associated with a user and a vehicle, the method comprising:

collecting a movement dataset corresponding to at least one of a location sensor and a motion sensor of a mobile computing device proximal the vehicle;

extracting a vehicle motion characteristic from the movement dataset, wherein the vehicle motion characteristic describes movement of the vehicle;

receiving a traffic dataset describing traffic conditions proximal a vehicle location, wherein the vehicle location is extracted from the movement dataset, wherein the traffic conditions comprise a traffic level, a traffic law, and accident data;

determining a vehicular accident event in substantially real-time based on an accident detection model, the vehicle motion characteristic, the traffic dataset, and the traffic level exceeding a traffic level threshold; and

after determining the vehicular accident event, facilitating an accident response action associated with the vehicular accident.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein facilitating the accident response action comprises facilitating the accident response action based on the traffic dataset.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein the movement dataset is collected during a time period, wherein the method further comprises collecting a biosignal dataset sampled at a biosignal detector proximal the user during the time period, and wherein determining the vehicular accident event comprises determining the vehicular accident event based on the accident detection model, the vehicle motion characteristic, and the biosignal dataset.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the mobile computing device comprises the biosignal detector, and wherein facilitating the accident response action comprises facilitating the accident response action based on the biosignal dataset.

17. The method of claim 13, wherein the vehicle motion characteristic comprises a vehicle speed characteristic, and wherein the method further comprises:

in response to the vehicle speed characteristic exceeding a vehicle speed threshold, monitoring for the vehicular accident event using the accident detection model.

18. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

determining an accident severity score associated with the vehicular accident, based on the vehicle motion characteristic, wherein facilitating the accident response action comprises selecting a personalized accident response action for the user from a set of potential accident response actions based on the accident severity score.

19. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

collecting a camera dataset captured at a camera proximal the vehicle during a time period associated with the vehicular accident; and

determining a vehicular accident cause for the vehicular accident based on the camera dataset, wherein facilitating the accident response action comprises facilitating the accident response action based on the vehicular accident cause.

20. The method of claim 13, wherein determining the vehicular accident event comprises determining accident-related information describing the vehicular accident, and wherein facilitating the accident response action comprises transmitting the accident-related information to a third party, in response to a request from the third party, for performance of the accident response action by the third party.