System and method for detecting use of a wireless device while driving

• US 20100035632A1
• Filed: 08/06/2008
• Published: 02/11/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 08/06/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Inthinc Technology Solutions Incorporated
• Original Assignee: inthinc, Inc. (ORBCOMM Incorporated)
• Inventors: Catten, Jonathan C.
• Granted Patent: US 8,688,180 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/456.100
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/08 Testing, supervising or monitoring using real traffic
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/02 Terminal devices

Abstract

A system for detecting the use of wireless devices such as a mobile phone, personal digital assistant (PDA), or pagers in a moving vehicle receives wireless signals inside a vehicle using a radio frequency (RF) sensor(s) and converts the RF signals into voltage signals. The voltage signals are then compared with known waveforms to determine if the wireless signals indicate a received call, if the received call is answered, a transmitted call, an SMS text message, data associated with internet browsing on a wireless device, or Bluetooth activity.

Claims

1. A device for detecting wireless signals in a vehicle, comprising:

an antenna interface in communication with an antenna that receives wireless signals;

a power detector connected to the antenna interface, the power detector converting wireless signals received by the antenna into a voltage waveform;

a motion sensor; and

a processor in communication with the power detector and the motion sensor,

wherein the processor receives the voltage waveform from the power detector and compares the voltage waveform to a stored waveform to determine mobile phone usage, and correlates the determined mobile phone usage with motion data received from the motion sensor.

2. The device of claim 1, wherein the motion sensor is a GPS sensor.

3. The device of claim 1, further comprising an additional sensor in communication with the processor.

4. The device of claim 3, wherein the additional sensor is a directional microphone and the processor receives directional sound data from the additional sensor and correlates the directional sound data with the determined mobile phone usage in order to determine a location of a user.

5. The device of claim 1, further comprising an additional sensor in communication with the processor.

6. The device of claim 5, wherein the additional sensor is a seat belt sensor and the processor receives seat belt sensor data from the additional sensor and correlates the seat belt sensor data with the determined mobile phone usage to determine a location of a user.

7. The device of claim 1, wherein the mobile phone usage is selected from one of a group consisting of:

a received unanswered voice call, a received answered voice call, a transmitted voice call, a text message, internet browsing, and Bluetooth activity.

8. The device of claim 7, wherein the received unanswered voice call has a regular non-bursting pattern.

9. The device of claim 7, wherein the received answered voice call has a coarse bursting pattern with.

10. The device of claim 7, wherein the text message has a coarse bursting pattern.

11. The device of claim 7, wherein the text message has a coarse bursting pattern.

12. The device of claim 7, wherein the internet browsing has a coarse bursting pattern.

13. The device of claim 7, wherein the Bluetooth activity has a bursting pattern.

14. A device for detecting the number of passengers in a vehicle, comprising:

an antenna interface in communication with at least one antenna that receives wireless signals;

a power detector connected to the antenna interface, the power detector converting wireless signals received by the at least one antenna into a voltage waveform; and

a processor in communication with the power detector,

wherein the processor receives the voltage waveform from the power detector and analyzes the voltage waveform to determine a number of mobile phones in use.

15. The device of claim 14, further comprising a motion sensor in communication with the power detector, wherein the processor receives motion data from the motion sensor and correlates the motion data with the voltage waveform to determine the number of mobile phones in use in a moving vehicle.

16. The device of claim 15, wherein the motion sensor is a GPS device.

17. A method of detecting the number of passengers in a vehicle, comprising:

receiving wireless signals at at least one receiver;

converting the wireless signals into a voltage waveform;

analyzing the voltage waveform to determine the location and number of discrete wireless signals; and

determining a number of mobile phone users in a vehicle.

18. A device for detecting the number of passengers in a vehicle, comprising:

a sensing bus that receives data from vehicle sensors; and

a processor in communication with the sensing bus,

wherein the processor receives the data from the sensing bus and analyzes seat belt data to determine a number of passengers in the vehicle.

19. The device of claim 18, further comprising a motion sensor in communication with the processor, wherein the processor receives motion data from the motion sensor and correlates the motion data with the sensing data to determine the number of passengers in a moving vehicle.

20. The device of claim 19, wherein the motion sensor is a GPS device.

21. A method of detecting the number of passengers in a vehicle, comprising:

receiving seat belt data from a sensing bus in the vehicle;

analyzing the seat belt data to determine a number of passengers in a vehicle.