Early notification of driving status to a mobile device

• US 10,149,116 B1
• Filed: 01/27/2017
• Issued: 12/04/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 01/27/2017
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Allstate Insurance Company (Allstate Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Allstate Insurance Company (Allstate Corporation)
• Inventors: Kerr, Neil, McCullough, William, Murtagh, Suzi
• Primary Examiner(s): Phuong, Dai A
• Application Number:
  US15/417,512
• Time in Patent Office: 676 Days
• Field of Search: 455567-5692, 4555759
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/02 using automatic reactions or user delegation, e.g. automatic replies or chatbot-generated messages
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/4594 Address books, i.e. directories containing contact information about correspondents telephone directories in user terminals H04M1/27453
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/2745 using static electronic memories, e.g. chips
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/27475 using interactive graphical means or pictorial representations
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/7243 with interactive means for internal management of messages
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72454 according to context-related or environment-related conditions
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/12 Messaging; Mailboxes; Announcements
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/16 Communication-related supplementary services, e.g. call-transfer or call-hold
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/40 for vehicles, e.g. vehicle-to-pedestrians [V2P]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/44 for communication between vehicles and infrastructures, e.g. vehicle-to-cloud [V2C] or vehicle-to-home [V2H]

Abstract

Applications, systems, and methods, configured to automatically detect whether a vehicle containing a mobile device of a driver is being driven and automatically notify selected friends and family of the driving status of the vehicle so that the friends and family may opt not to send a message or other distraction to the driver.

Claims

1. A mobile device comprising;

a native address book stored in a memory of the mobile device; and

a software application stored in the memory that, when executed by a processor of the mobile device, causes the mobile device to;

receive a notification of the driving status of a vehicle from another mobile device;

search the native address book for a contact associated with the another mobile device; and

transform data records in the native address book with the driving status of the contact associated with the another mobile device by inserting an unicode character in the data records of the native address book;

wherein the transforming of data records in the native address book transforms a third party application to display on a screen of the mobile device, the driving status alongside a contact name of the contact when the third party application is subsequently executed;

wherein display of the driving status is unbeknownst to the third party application.

2. The mobile device as claimed in claim 1, wherein after installation of the software application onto a mobile device, the application requests permission to allow access to notification services in the mobile device.

3. The mobile device as claimed in claim 2, wherein the software application requests selection of at least one contact having a mobile device, transmits a request for permission to send notifications, and receives granted permissions for the at least one contact.

4. The mobile device as claimed in claim 3, wherein the software application automatically transmits a notification of the driving status of the mobile device if present in a vehicle to mobile devices of the contact having granted permission.

5. The mobile device as claimed in claim 1 wherein the driving status is detected using at least one of GPS, accelerometer, compass, and gyroscope.

6. The mobile device as claimed in claim 1 wherein the software application is further configured to receive a notification of a change in driving status of the vehicle from the another mobile device and transform the data records in the native address book with the change of driving status of the contact associated with the another mobile device.

7. The mobile device as claimed in claim 1 wherein the software application transforms the data records of the native address book by inserting a Unicode in code identifying the contact associated with the another mobile device.

8. The mobile device as claimed in claim 7 wherein the transformed data records in the native address book causes a third party application to display on the screen an icon associated with the Unicode.

9. The mobile device as claimed in claim 1 wherein the search of the native address book occurs by identifying the unique identifier associated with the sender'"'"'s mobile device, searching the native address book for the unique identifier;

and if the search locates the unique identifier, transforming the data records in the native address book by inserting a Unicode in code identifying the contact associated with the unique identifier.

10. A system comprising:

a vehicle;

a server computer comprising hardware including a processor and memory;

a first mobile device positioned inside of the vehicle, the mobile device configured to automatically detect indicators of driving status of the vehicle and then transmit the indicators to a server,

a second mobile device, wherein the second mobile device includes contact information of the first mobile device in a native address book; and

wherein the server computer is configured to;

based on the indicators of driving status received from the first mobile device, determine the driving status of the first mobile device;

create a VoIP notification; and

transmit the VoIP notification to at least the second mobile device; and

wherein the second mobile device is configured to;

receive the VoIP notification;

wake up an application installed on the second mobile device that is in a suspended mode, in response to receiving the VoIP notification; and

transform data records in the native address book with the driving status;

and wherein the transformed data records in the native address book causes a third party application executing on the second mobile device to display the driving the status alongside the contact name when the third party application is subsequently executed, wherein display of the driving status is unbeknownst to the third party application.

11. The system as claimed in claim 10, wherein the first mobile device requests permission to allow access to notification services in the second mobile device.

12. The system as claimed in claim 10, wherein the first mobile device automatically transmits indicators of driving status to the server.

13. The system as claimed in claim 10, wherein the system detects the driving indicators using at least one of GPS, accelerometer, compass, and gyroscope.

14. The system as claimed in claim 10, wherein the data records of the native address book is transformed with a change of driving status by inserting a Unicode in code identifying the contact associated with the first mobile device.

15. The system as claimed in claim 14, wherein the transformed data records in the native address book causes a third party application to display on the screen of the second mobile device an icon associated with the Unicode.

16. The system as claimed in claim 14, wherein the server is further configured to transmit the notification to a third mobile device, wherein the third mobile device is configured to:

transform the data records in the native address book in the third mobile device with the driving status; and

wherein the transformed data records in the native address book in the third mobile device causes a third party application executing on the third mobile device to display the driving the status alongside the contact name when the third party application is subsequently executed.

17. The system as claimed in claim 16, wherein the data records of the native address book in the third mobile device is transformed with a change of driving status by inserting a Unicode in code identifying the contact associated with the first mobile device.

18. The system as claimed in claim 17, wherein the transformed data records in the native address book in the third mobile device causes a third party application to display on the screen of the third mobile device an icon associated with the Unicode.

19. The system as claimed in claim 10, wherein the transformed data records in the native address book is updated by identifying a unique identifier associated with the sender of the first mobile device, searching the native address book for the unique identifier;

and if the search locates the unique identifier, transforming the data records in the native address book by inserting a Unicode in code identifying the contact associated with the unique identifier.

20. A method for automatically detecting a driving status of a person comprising:

requesting permission of the person to allow access to location, motion, and notification services in a mobile device of the person;

requesting the person to select contacts;

requesting permission from the selected contacts to connect to an application by sending a request to a mobile device corresponding to the selected contacts;

automatically detecting driving indicators of the person;

automatically transmitting the driving indicators to a server to determine if the person is driving; and

automatically notifying the driving status of the person to mobile devices of connected contacts by

searching the native address books of the connected contacts for a contact associated with the person; and

transforming data records in the native address books with the driving status of the contact associated with the person by inserting an unicode character in the data records of the native address books;

wherein the transforming of data records in the native address books transform a third party application to display on a screen of the mobile devices, the driving status alongside a contact name of the contact when the third party application is subsequently executed;

wherein display of the driving status is unbeknownst to the third party application.