SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR AUTOMATIC TRAFFIC ACCIDENT DETERMINATION AND NOTIFICATION

• US 20130006469A1
• Filed: 09/23/2011
• Published: 01/03/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 09/29/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cyber Physical Systems LLC
• Original Assignee: Cyber Physical Systems, Inc.
• Inventors: Green, William Blease, Thompson, Chris
• Granted Patent: US 9,390,625 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/36
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 21/013 including means for detecting collisions, impending collisions or roll-over
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/008 communicating information to a remotely located station transmission systems for measured values G08C
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/205 Indicating the location of the monitored vehicles as destination, e.g. accidents, stolen, rental

Abstract

A vehicle status awareness system includes one or more devices which are plugged into a cigarette lighter socket for a vehicle to receive power and are thereby fixed in position relative to the vehicle. The devices include movement sensors which indicate changes in movement of the vehicle, a position sensor which indicates a position of the vehicle, a communications device to send and receive data to and from a remote device, and a control unit. The control unit is programmed to receive and store program parameters, determine a location of the vehicle, determine a movement status of the vehicle based on a plurality of status criteria further comprising accident threshold settings, and transmit one or more of the program parameters, vehicle location, and movement status to the remote device. Where multiple devices are included, each device may have an RF transceiver or equivalent for bidirectional communications with the other device.

Claims

1. A device for automatically detecting vehicular accidents and providing accident notification, the device comprising:

a housing configured for coupling to a power source associated with the vehicle, said housing positioned in a fixed manner relative to the vehicle when coupled thereto;

a power supply residing within the housing and configured to receive power from the power source when the housing is coupled thereto;

one or more movement sensors residing within the housing and effective to generate output signals associated with movement of the vehicle;

a position sensor residing within the housing and effective to generate output signals associated with a position of the vehicle;

a communications device residing within the housing and effective to send and receive data via a communications network; and

a control unit functionally linked to each of said power supply, movement sensors, position sensor and communications device and further comprising a processor and one or more memory media, at least one of said memory media having program instructions residing thereon which upon execution by the processor are further effective to

receive and store accident threshold settings sent via the communications device,

determine a location of the vehicle based on the position sensor output signals,

determine a movement status of the vehicle based on the movement sensor output signals and one or more accident threshold settings, and

transmit one or more of said vehicle location and movement status via the communications device to a predetermined emergency contact upon determining a movement status associated with an accident.

2. The device of claim 1, the housing further comprising a cigarette lighter plug configured to engage a cigarette lighter socket as said power source associated with the vehicle.

3. The device of claim 2, the housing further comprising

a first portion comprising the cigarette lighter plug configured on a first end for coupling to the cigarette lighter socket and positioned in a fixed manner relative to the vehicle when coupled thereto;

a second portion coupled to the second end of the first portion and moveable between a first and a second position; and

a locking mechanism effective to permit movement by the second portion relative to the first portion in a first state and to prevent movement by the second portion relative to the first portion in a second state.

4. The device of claim 1, further comprising an audio sensor residing within the housing and functionally linked to the control unit,

the program instructions further effective to receive audio output signals from the audio sensor and to determine a movement status of the vehicle based on the movement sensor output signals, the audio sensor output signals and a plurality of status criteria further comprising accident threshold settings.

5. The device of claim 1, the program instructions further effective to

receive and store unsafe driving threshold settings, and

generate an unsafe driving status signal based on the movement sensor output signals and the unsafe driving threshold settings.

6. The device of claim 1, the housing having an interior and an exterior, the device further comprising a button residing on the exterior of the housing and functionally linked to the control unit residing in the interior of the housing, the program instructions further effective to perform a predetermined data transmission operation in accordance with user engagement of said button.

7. The device of claim 6, the predetermined data transmission operation comprising transmitting one or more of the program parameters, vehicle location, movement status and audio recordings to a predetermined destination via the communications device.

8. A device for automatically detecting vehicular accidents and providing accident notification, the device comprising:

a first housing configured for coupling to a power source associated with the vehicle, said first housing positioned in a fixed manner relative to the vehicle when coupled thereto;

a power supply residing within the housing and configured to receive power from the power source when the housing is coupled thereto;

a second housing electrically coupled to the first housing to receive power from the power supply;

one or more movement sensors residing within either the first housing or the second housing and effective to generate output signals associated with movement of the vehicle;

a position sensor residing within the second housing and effective to generate output signals associated with a position of the vehicle;

a communications device residing within the second housing and effective to send and receive data via a communications network; and

a control unit functionally linked to each of said power supply, movement sensors, position sensor and communications device and further comprising a processor and one or more memory media, at least one of said memory media having program instructions residing thereon which upon execution by the processor are further effective to

receive and store accident threshold settings sent via the communications device,

determine a location of the vehicle based on the position sensor output signals,

determine a movement status of the vehicle based on the movement sensor output signals and the accident threshold settings, and

transmit one or more of said vehicle location and movement status via the communications device to a predetermined emergency contact upon determining a movement status associated with an accident.

9. The device of claim 8, the second housing being positioned in a fixed manner relative to the vehicle.

10. The device of claim 8, the second housing being positioned in a non-fixed manner relative to the vehicle, the movement sensor residing within the first housing so as to be positioned in a fixed manner relative to the vehicle.

11. The device of claim 10, the first housing further comprising a cigarette lighter plug configured to engage a cigarette lighter socket as said power source associated with the vehicle.

12. The device of claim 8, further comprising an audio sensor residing within the second housing and functionally linked to the control unit,

the program instructions further effective to receive audio output signals from the audio sensor and to determine a movement status of the vehicle based on the movement sensor output signals, the audio sensor output signals and a plurality of status criteria further comprising accident threshold settings.

13. The device of claim 8, the plurality of status criteria further comprising safe driving threshold settings, the program instructions further effective to generate status signals having one of a plurality of status modes in accordance with a determined movement status.

14. The device of claim 8, the second housing having an interior and an exterior, the device further comprising a button residing on the exterior of the second housing and functionally linked to the control unit residing in the interior of the second housing, the program instructions further effective to perform a predetermined data transmission operation in accordance with user engagement of said button.

15. The device of claim 14, the predetermined data transmission operation comprising transmitting one or more of the program parameters, vehicle location, movement status and audio recordings to a predetermined destination via the communications device.

16. A computer program product tangibly embodied in a computer-readable memory medium, the computer program product including program instructions executable by a processor to perform a method of automatically detecting vehicular accidents and providing accident notification, the method comprising:

receiving and storing accident threshold settings in a database functionally linked to the memory medium and the processor;

receiving position sensor output signals representative of vehicle position;

receiving movement sensor output signals representative of vehicle movement;

determining a location of the vehicle based on the position sensor output signals;

determining a movement status of the vehicle based on the movement sensor output signals and the accident threshold settings; and

transmitting one or more of said vehicle location and movement status via a communications device functionally linked to the processor and the memory medium to a predetermined emergency contact upon determining a movement status associated with an accident.

17. The computer program product of claim 16, the program instructions executable by the processor to perform a method further comprising

receiving audio output signals from an audio sensor and

determining a movement status of the vehicle based on the movement sensor output signals, the audio sensor output signals and the accident threshold settings.

18. The computer program product of claim 17, wherein the step of determining a movement status of the vehicle based on the movement sensor output signals, the audio sensor output signals and the accident threshold settings further comprises the steps of

comparing received movement signals to a first accident threshold setting;

determining a potential accident condition where received movement signals exceed the first accident threshold setting;

comparing received audio signals to a second accident threshold setting; and

confirming the determined accident condition where received audio signals exceed the second accident threshold setting.

19. The computer program product of claim 18, wherein the step of determining a movement status of the vehicle based on the movement sensor output signals, the audio sensor output signals and the accident threshold settings further comprises the step of

assigning a first weight value and a second weight value to the first and second accident threshold determinations, respectively.

20. The computer program product of claim 17, the program instructions further effective to execute the method further comprising the steps of

receiving and storing unsafe driving threshold settings, and

generating unsafe driving condition signals based on the movement sensor output signals and the unsafe driving threshold settings.