Systems and methods for the mitigation of drowsy or sleepy driving

• US 10,672,248 B1
• Filed: 02/05/2019
• Issued: 06/02/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 08/17/2017
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company (State Farm)
• Original Assignee: State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company (State Farm)
• Inventors: Hiles, Brian Todd
• Primary Examiner(s): Pham, Toan N
• Application Number:
  US16/268,180
• Time in Patent Office: 483 Days
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/18 for vehicle drivers or machine operators
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 28/066 actuating a signalling device B60K28/063 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2040/0827 due to sleepiness
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2556/45 External transmission of data to or from the vehicle
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 40/09 Driving style or behaviour
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 21/06 indicating a condition of sleep, e.g. anti-dozing alarms

Abstract

Systems and methods for mitigating drowsy and/or sleepy driving may include utilizing vehicle-related and wellness-related telematics to detect and/or predict drowsy and/or sleepy driving states of a driver of a vehicle and take mitigating actions to thereby increase the safety of the driver and other people and/or vehicles in the vicinity of the driver'"'"'s vehicle. Vehicle-related telematics data and wellness-related telematics data (which may include sleep data) may be collected via sensors that disposed on-board the vehicle, in the vehicle'"'"'s environment, and at a personal health/fitness tracker of the driver. The collected data may be collectively interpreted to detect, predict, and/or otherwise discover information relating to a drowsy and/or sleepy state of the driver, and one or more mitigating actions may be automatically performed based on the discovered information to thereby mitigate undesirable effects of drowsy/sleepy driving and increase driving safety.

Claims

1. A system for mitigating drowsy driving by a driver of a vehicle, comprising:

a personal tracking device that senses a set of physiological conditions of the driver; and

a mobile computing device interfacing with the personal tracking device and comprising;

a set of sensors,

a processor, and

a memory storing a set of computer-executable instructions;

wherein the processor is configured to execute the set of computer-executable instructions to;

collect vehicle-related telematics data generated by the set of sensors and indicative of operation of the vehicle,

collect, from the personal tracking device, data indicative of the set of physiological conditions of the driver and including at least sleep data indicative of at least one of a quality or a duration of sleep achieved by the driver prior to the driver driving the vehicle,

generate information indicative of a drowsy state of the driver based on analyzing the vehicle-related telematics data and the data indicative of the set of physiological conditions, and

cause a mitigating action to be performed based on the information indicative of the drowsy state of the driver.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the mobile computing device is a personal electronic device of the driver.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the set of sensors comprises at least one of:

at least one camera, an accelerometer, a gyroscope, a magnetometer, a barometer, a thermometer, a compass, a proximity sensor, a light sensor, a Hall Effect sensor, a microphone, or a speaker.

4. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

a set of on-board sensors disposed within the vehicle and configured to generate additional vehicle-related telematics data; and

an on-board computing device disposed within the vehicle and configured to process the additional vehicle-related telematics data;

wherein the mobile computing device is configured to connect to the on-board computing device.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the information indicative of the drowsy state of the driver comprises information indicative of one of a detected drowsy state of the driver or a predicted drowsy state of the driver.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein to cause the mitigating action to be performed, the processor is configured to automatically send, to a component of the vehicle, a command to automatically cause an operating behavior of the vehicle to be changed.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein to cause the mitigating action to be performed, the processor is configured to automatically cause a user interface to present a notification of the information indicative of the drowsy state.

8. A method for mitigating drowsy driving by a driver of a vehicle, the method executed by a mobile computing device, the method comprising:

collecting vehicle-related telematics data generated by a set of sensors of the mobile computing device and indicative of operation of the vehicle;

collecting, from a personal tracking device, data indicative of a set of physiological conditions of the driver and including at least sleep data indicative of at least one of a quality or a duration of sleep achieved by the driver prior to the driver driving the vehicle;

generating, by a processor, information indicative of a drowsy state of the driver based on analyzing the vehicle-related telematics data and the data indicative of the set of physiological conditions; and

causing, by the processor, a mitigating action to be performed based on the information indicative of the drowsy state of the driver.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the mobile computing device is a personal electronic device of the driver.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein collecting the vehicle-related telematics data generated by the set of sensors comprises:

collecting the vehicle-related telematics data generated by at least one of;

at least one camera, an accelerometer, a gyroscope, a magnetometer, a barometer, a thermometer, a compass, a proximity sensor, a light sensor, a Hall Effect sensor, a microphone, or a speaker.

11. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

connecting to an onboard computing device disposed within the vehicle and configured to process additional vehicle-related telematics data generated by a set of on-board sensors disposed within the vehicle.

12. The method of claim 8, wherein generating the information indicative of the drowsy state of the driver comprises:

generating information indicative of one of a detected drowsy state of the driver or a predicted drowsy state of the driver.

13. The method of claim 8, wherein causing the mitigating action to be performed comprises:

automatically sending, to a component of the vehicle, a command to automatically cause an operating behavior of the vehicle to be changed.

14. The method of claim 8, wherein causing the mitigating action to be performed comprises:

automatically presenting, in a user interface, a notification of the information indicative of the drowsy state.

15. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having stored thereon a set of instructions, executable by a processor of a mobile computing device, for mitigating drowsy driving by a driver of a vehicle, the instructions comprising:

instructions for collecting vehicle-related telematics data generated by a set of sensors of the mobile computing device and indicative of operation of the vehicle;

instructions for collecting, from a personal tracking device, data indicative of a set of physiological conditions of the driver and including at least sleep data indicative of at least one of a quality or a duration of sleep achieved by the driver prior to the driver driving the vehicle;

instructions for generating information indicative of a drowsy state of the driver based on analyzing the vehicle-related telematics data and the data indicative of the set of physiological conditions; and

instructions for causing a mitigating action to be performed based on the information indicative of the drowsy state of the driver.

16. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the mobile computing device is a personal electronic device of the driver.

17. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the set of sensors comprise at least one of:

at least one camera, an accelerometer, a gyroscope, a magnetometer, a barometer, a thermometer, a compass, a proximity sensor, a light sensor, a Hall Effect sensor, a microphone, or a speaker.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the instructions further comprise:

instructions for connecting to an onboard computing device disposed within the vehicle and configured to process additional vehicle-related telematics data generated by a set of on-board sensors disposed within the vehicle.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the instructions for generating the information indicative of the drowsy state of the driver include instructions for generating information indicative of one of a detected drowsy state of the driver or a predicted drowsy state of the driver.

20. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the instructions for causing the mitigating action to be performed include instructions for automatically sending, to a component of the vehicle, a command to automatically cause an operating behavior of the vehicle to be changed.