System and method for determining a driver in a telematic application

• US 10,154,382 B2
• Filed: 01/09/2017
• Issued: 12/11/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 03/12/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Zendrive, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Zendrive, Inc.
• Inventors: Matus, Jonathan
• Primary Examiner(s): Troost, Aaron L
• Assistant Examiner(s): Schneider, Paula L
• Application Number:
  US15/401,761
• Publication Number:
  US 20170142556A1
• Time in Patent Office: 701 Days
• Field of Search: 701447
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/008 communicating information to a remotely located station transmission systems for measured values G08C
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 25/48 specially adapted for particular use
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2209/50 using a mobile data collecting device, e.g. walk by or drive by
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 9/00 Arrangements in telecontrol or telemetry systems for selectively calling a substation from a main station, in which substation desired apparatus is selected for applying a control signal thereto or for obtaining measured values therefrom
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/027 using movement velocity, acceleration information
• 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]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/10 Connection setup
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/04 adapted for relaying to or from another terminal or user

Abstract

A system and method for a telematic application on a mobile electronic device that can include detecting, in the telematic application, vehicular travel; collecting, in the telematic application, driver status identification data; determining a driver status based on the driver status identification data; recording the driver status; and recording telematic data based on the driver status.

Claims

1. A method for driver identification comprising:

movably coupling a user device to a vehicle;

at an accelerometer of the user device, sampling a set of acceleration data during a time period, wherein the set of acceleration data characterizes vehicle motion during the time period;

at a GPS receiver, sampling a set of GPS data during the time period;

based on the set of acceleration data, determining a movement state of the vehicle indicative of vehicular travel during the time period at a speed within a speed range characteristic of the vehicle;

based on the set of acceleration data, determining a vehicle identifier of the vehicle; and

based on the vehicle identifier, the set of acceleration data, and the set of GPS data, determining an identity of a driver operating the vehicle throughout the time period.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein movably coupling the user device to the vehicle comprises coupling the user device to the vehicle through the driver.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the user device is retained by an article of clothing of the user.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the user device is retained against the vehicle by a gravitational force.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising generating, based on the set of acceleration data and the set of GPS data, a set of isolated device motion data reflective of relative movement of the user device with respect to the vehicle;

wherein the vehicle comprises the GPS receiver;

wherein the identity of the driver is determined based further on the set of isolated device motion data.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising sampling a set of vehicle identification data during the time period at the user device;

wherein the identity of the driver is determined based further on the set of vehicle identification data.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein:

sampling a set of vehicle identification data comprises sampling, at a microphone of the user device, a set of characteristic vehicle audio data emitted by the vehicle; and

the identity of the driver is determined based further on the set of characteristic vehicle audio data.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining a relative position of the user device with respect to the vehicle, wherein the identity of the driver is determined based further on the relative position.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein determining the relative position comprises:

at the user device, sampling a set of beacon signal data; and

determining the relative position based on the set of beacon signal data.

10. A method for driver identification comprising:

movably coupling a user device to a vehicle;

at the user device, determining a state of the vehicle, the state indicative of vehicular travel during a time period;

at the user device, determining a relative position of the user device with respect to the vehicle during the time period;

based on the relative position of the user device with respect to the vehicle, determining a vehicle identifier of the vehicle;

at an accelerometer of the user device, sampling a set of acceleration data during the time period;

at a GPS receiver, sampling a set of GPS data during the time period; and

based on the vehicle identifier and the set of acceleration data and the set of GPS data, determining an identity of a driver operating the vehicle throughout the time period.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein movably coupling the user device to the vehicle comprises coupling the user device to the vehicle through the driver.

12. The method of claim 10:

further comprising sampling, at a microphone of the user device, a set of vehicle audio data emitted by the vehicle; and

wherein the vehicle identifier is determined based further on the set of vehicle audio data.

13. The method of claim 10:

further comprising sampling a set of vehicle motion data; and

wherein the vehicle identifier is determined based further on the set of vehicle motion data.

14. The method of claim 10, wherein determining the relative position comprises:

at the user device, sampling a set of beacon signal data; and

determining the relative position based on the set of beacon signal data.

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising emitting a sonic beacon signal at a sound system of a vehicle;

wherein;

sampling the set of beacon signal data comprises sampling a set of sonic data corresponding to the sonic beacon signal using a microphone of the mobile electronic device; and

the relative position is determined based further on the set of sonic data.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein:

emitting the sonic beacon signal comprises emitting a first sound defining a first frequency and a second sound defining a second frequency, the first and second frequencies substantially similar, the first and second sounds cooperatively defining a phase offset; and

determining the relative position comprises;

determining a sonic interference characteristic based on the set of sonic data; and

determining the relative position based on the sonic interference characteristic, the first frequency, and the second frequency.

17. The method of claim 10:

further comprising sampling, at a microphone of the user device, a set of characteristic vehicle audio data emitted by the vehicle; and

wherein the vehicle identifier is determined based further on the set of characteristic vehicle audio data.