APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR VEHICLE SAFETY FOR HANDS FREE SMS CAPABILITY IN A MOVING VEHICLE

• US 20150172450A1
• Filed: 12/16/2013
• Published: 06/18/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 08/25/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Tara Chand Singhal
• Original Assignee: Tara Chand Singhal
• Inventors: Singhal, Tara Chand
• Granted Patent: US 9,357,361 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/26 Speech to text systems G10L15/08 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/6075 adapted for handsfree use in a vehicle H04M1/6058 takes precedence; arrangements for holding telephones in a vehicle B60R11/0241
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/6083 by interfacing with the vehicle audio system
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72403 with means for local support of applications that increase the functionality
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72436 for text messaging, e.g. short messaging services [SMS] or e-mails
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72463 to restrict the functionality of the device
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/14 Short messaging services, e.g. short message services [SMS] or unstructured supplementary service data [USSD]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/80 Services using short range communication, e.g. near-field communication [NFC], radio-frequency identification [RFID] or low energy communication

Abstract

A vehicle safety function is installed and operative in the vehicle electronics. The vehicle function is implemented via a texting-safety logic inside the vehicle electronics. The texting-safety logic when the vehicle exceeds a threshold speed outputs an RF signal with a texting-safety code. The texting-safety code is picked up by a smart phone in the vehicle to alert the driver about the danger of texting and/or disable the texting feature in the phone while the vehicle is being driven.

Claims

1. A vehicle safety system, comprising:

a. a safe-texting safety logic in a vehicle electronics that is periodically being input one of (i) a vehicle speed, (ii) state of ignition, or (iii) both (i) and (ii);

b. the logic, if the vehicle is in ignition or alternatively vehicle speed exceeds a threshold, transmits via a short distance protocol RF transmission an industry standard safe-texting safety code.

2. The safety system as in claim 1, comprising:

the logic transmits the safety code only when the vehicle electronics detects that a smart phone has been paired up with vehicle electronics.

3. The safety system as in claim 1, comprising:

a. an antenna that is a conical beam RF transmitting antenna is used for transmission;

b. the antenna is positioned in the vicinity of driver seat of the vehicle, so that only a smart phone with the driver while in the driver seat receives the industry safety code.

4. The safety system as in claim 1, comprising:

a. a smart phone has phone logic that detects the RF signal transmission and verifies the industry standard safe-texting safety code from the signal;

b. the logic if the code indicates vehicle ignition or vehicle in motion, disables an SMS mode of the smart phone;

c. the logic sends an acknowledgment signal via the RF to the vehicle electronics.

5. The safety system as in claim 4, comprising:

vehicle electronics logic receives the acknowledgment signal and annunciates via vehicle audio system an advisory that “

now SMS use via by vehicle mode is operational”

.

6. The safety system as in claim 4, comprising:

a. the phone sends “

phone in texting use”

signal via vehicle RF electronics, when driver attempts SMS texting;

b. vehicle electronics logic detects “

phone texting in use”

signal from smart phone and annunciates an advisory via vehicle audio system;

“

Use of Texting Not allowed while driving”

.

7. A safe-texting-safety logic in a smart phone, comprising:

a. the logic receives short distance RF transmission of a safety code from a vehicle electronics;

b. the logic parses the code and if the vehicle is in ignition or in motion activates a safe-texting SMS logic in the smart phone.

8. The logic as in claim 7, comprising:

the safe-texting SMS logic has an interface with the vehicle electronics to route SMS data and voice commands for receiving and sending SMS between the smart phone and the vehicle electronics equipped with an audio and microphone system.

9. The logic as in claim 7, comprising:

a. the SMS logic has a text to speech conversion (TSC) module and a speech to text conversion (STC) module;

b. the logic uses TSC module to convert text of received SMS messages to speech and routes to Vehicle electronics;

c. the logic uses STC module to convert speech received from the vehicle electronics to text for use in an SMS.

10. The logic as in claim 7, comprising:

a. the SMS logic has a text to speech conversion (TSC) module and a speech to text conversion (STC) module;

b. the logic uses TSC module to convert SMS text command and actions to speech and routes to Vehicle electronics;

c. the logic uses STC module to convert speech received SMS commands and actions from the vehicle electronics to text for use in an SMS.

11. The logic as in claim 7, comprising:

a. the SMS logic has a text to speech conversion (TSC) module and a speech to text conversion (STC) module;

b. the modules have access to a library of words that are used in SMS;

c. the logic uses the libraries to facilitate text to speech and speech to text conversion.

12. A system of safety for using a hands and eyes free SMS feature in a smart phone inside a vehicle, comprising:

a. a phone-logic in the smart phone detects a received SMS and sends an SMS received alert to the vehicle electronics via RF along with sender name in a form suitable for a vehicle audio system to annunciate the alert and sender name;

b. the logic awaits for a response from the vehicle electronics to route or not route the text to the vehicle electronics;

c. the logic on receiving a response to route from vehicle electronics converts the SMS text to speech, using a text to speech conversion algorithm and routes the speech to vehicle audio system.

13. The safety system as in claim 12, comprising:

d. the logic awaits for a speech reply from the vehicle and if received temporarily stores speech and inputs to a speech to text conversion algorithm;

e. the logic sends a SMS reply using the text from the algorithm, thereby providing a hands and eyes free SMS capability to receive and reply to an SMS while in the vehicle.

14. The safety system as in claim 13, comprising:

a. the logic detects a digital code transmission from the vehicle electronics and parses the content of the code;

b. if the code indicates vehicle not in motion, disables the implementation of features of claim 13;

c. if the code indicates vehicle is in motion enables the implementation of features of claim 13.

15. A system of safety for using a hands and eyes free SMS feature in a vehicle using smart phone inside a vehicle, comprising:

a. a vehicle-logic interfaces with a vehicle audio and microphone devices and detects an audio request to send a SMS and enables a driver to select a telephone number from a pre-stored list of telephone numbers by name or number;

b. the logic sends the SMS request and the SMS destination to a paired smart phone;

c. the logic awaits a speech message for SMS from the driver via vehicle microphone device and routes the speech received SMS to smart phone;

d. the logic awaits for a speech SMS reply from the smart phone and plays using vehicle audio device, thereby proving a hands and eyes free SMS capability to send and reply to an SMS while in the vehicle.

16. The safety system as in claim 15, comprising:

a. the logic detects a digital code transmission from the phone electronics and parses the content of the code;

b. if the code indicates SMS not in use disables the implementation of features of claim 15;

c. if the code indicates SMS in use enables the implementation of features of claim 15.