DRIVER STATUS INDICATOR

• US 20160050315A1
• Filed: 08/14/2014
• Published: 02/18/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 08/14/2014
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Harman International Industries Incorporated (Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Harman International Industries Incorporated (Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.)
• Inventors: Malhotra, Manu, Mishra, Trisha, Baalu, Arvin
• Application Number:
  US14/460,258
• Publication Number:
  US 20160050315A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/008 communicating information to a remotely located station transmission systems for measured values G08C
• 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 1/72463 to restrict the functionality of the device
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/436 Arrangements for screening incoming calls , i.e. evaluating the characteristics of a call before deciding whether to answer it based on the calling party profile H04M3/42059; based on location H04M3/42348; based on presence H04M3/42365; diversion H04M3/54
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/16 Communication-related supplementary services, e.g. call-transfer or call-hold

Abstract

Embodiments are disclosed for determining a driver status and presenting the driver status to a calling party. In some embodiments, an in-vehicle computing system of a vehicle includes a display, a processor, and a storage device that stores instructions executable by the processor to receive vehicle status data from one or more vehicle systems and sensors. The instructions may also be executable to determine one or more parameters of operation for the vehicle based on the received vehicle status data, compare the one or more parameters of operation for the vehicle to one or more driver status indicator, determine a driver status of a driver of the vehicle based on the comparison of the parameters to the driver status indicators, and selectively send the driver status to a server, the server being located remotely from the vehicle.

Claims

1. A method for managing calls to a driver of a vehicle, the method comprising:

receiving vehicle status data from one or more vehicle systems and sensors;

selectively blocking an incoming call from a calling party to the driver based on the vehicle status data; and

sending a response to the calling party responsive to blocking the incoming call, the response including at least one of an indication that the incoming call was blocked, a reason for blocking the incoming call, and the vehicle status data.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the vehicle status data is received at a mobile device of the driver from an in-vehicle computing system of the vehicle, the mobile device of the driver being located within the vehicle, and wherein the response to the calling party is sent from the mobile device of the driver to the calling party.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the vehicle status data is received at an in-vehicle computing system from the one or more vehicle systems and sensors and a notification of the incoming call is received at the in-vehicle computing system from a mobile device of the driver, and wherein selectively blocking the incoming call from the calling party comprises blocking the incoming call at the in-vehicle computing system and sending a control instruction from the in-vehicle computing system to the mobile device of the driver to send the response to the calling party responsive to blocking the incoming call.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the vehicle status data is received at a remote server located remotely from the vehicle, the method further comprising determining a driver status based on the vehicle status data and selectively sending an indication of the driver status to a mobile device of the calling party.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the remote server selectively blocks the incoming call from reaching the driver based on the driver status and sends the response to the calling party responsive to blocking the incoming call.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein blocking the incoming call comprises suppressing a notification of the incoming call at one or more of an in-vehicle computing system of the vehicle and a mobile device of the driver.

7. An in-vehicle computing system of a vehicle, the in-vehicle computing system comprising:

a display;

a processor;

a storage device that stores instructions executable by the processor to;

receive vehicle status data from one or more vehicle systems and sensors;

determine one or more parameters of operation for the vehicle based on the received vehicle status data;

compare the one or more parameters of operation for the vehicle to one or more driver status indicator;

determine a driver status of a driver of the vehicle based on the comparison of the parameters to the driver status indicators; and

selectively send the driver status to a remote device, the remote device being located remotely from the vehicle.

8. The in-vehicle computing system of claim 7, wherein the vehicle status data is received via a controller area network (CAN) bus of the vehicle.

9. The in-vehicle computing system of claim 7, wherein the one or more parameters of operation for the vehicle includes a vehicle speed and the one or more driver status indicator thresholds includes a plurality of vehicle speed ranges, each speed range being associated with a different driver status.

10. The in-vehicle computing system of claim 7, wherein the remote device comprises a server and wherein the instructions are further executable to compare the driver status to an immediately prior determined driver status, send the driver status to the server when the driver status is different from the immediately prior determined driver status, and not send the driver status to the server when the driver status is the same as the immediately prior determined driver status.

11. The in-vehicle computing system of claim 7, wherein the instructions are further executable to detect a driver entry into the vehicle and initiate the determination of the driver status responsive to detecting the driver entry.

12. The in-vehicle computing system of claim 7, wherein the instructions are further executable to monitor user activity in the vehicle or on a social media network, and wherein determining the driver status is further based on the user activity.

13. The in-vehicle computing system of claim 7, wherein the instructions are further executable to selectively block incoming calls based on the vehicle status data.

14. The in-vehicle computing system of claim 13, wherein blocking the incoming calls and messages comprises sending a control message to a mobile device of the driver instructing the mobile device of the driver to suppress notifications for incoming calls and messages and to send a response to the calling parties that establish the incoming calls indicating that the incoming calls were blocked.

15. The in-vehicle computing system of claim 7, wherein the storage device further stores an association of each of a plurality of candidate driver statuses with a plurality of driver status indicators, each candidate driver status being met responsive to parameters of operation for a vehicle meeting all or a subset of the plurality of driver status indicators.

16. The in-vehicle computing system of claim 15, wherein for each candidate driver status, the associated driver status indicators are ranked with an importance level indicating whether meeting that driver status indicator is required for that candidate driver status.

17. The in-vehicle computing system of claim 7, wherein the remote device is one or more of a server and a mobile device of a calling party and wherein the instructions are further executable to selectively send one or more of the parameters of operation for the vehicle to the remote device.

18. A method for managing driver status information in a server, the method comprising:

receiving a request from a mobile device of a calling party for a driver status for a selected driver;

retrieving the driver status and associated driver status information for the selected driver from a data storage device communicatively connected to the server, the associated driver status information including vehicle status information for a vehicle in which the selected driver is located received from an in-vehicle computing system of the vehicle; and

sending the driver status and at least a subset of the associated driver status information to the mobile device of the calling party.

19. The method of claim 18, further comprising determining if the associated driver status information is up to date based on a comparison of the receipt time of the associated driver status information and a current time and sending a request for updated status information if the associated driver status information is not up to date.

20. The method of claim 18, wherein the request for the driver status includes an identifier for the selected driver.