RESPONDING TO IN-VEHICLE ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS

• US 20160249191A1
• Filed: 10/25/2013
• Published: 08/25/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 10/25/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Original Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Inventors: AVRAHAMI, Daniel, HEALEY, Jennifer A., MALAMUD, Ariel, BASKIN, Lonny
• Granted Patent: US 9,955,326 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 21/22 responsive to presence or absence of persons
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 21/24 Reminder alarms, e.g. anti-loss alarms
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/12 Messaging; Mailboxes; Announcements
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/38 for collecting sensor information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/40 for vehicles, e.g. vehicle-to-pedestrians [V2P]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/90 Services for handling of emergency or hazardous situations, e.g. earthquake and tsunami warning systems [ETWS]

Abstract

Technologies for generating a warning based on environmental conditions sensed in a vehicle include an in-vehicle warning system for determining whether an operator of the vehicle is present, determining whether a non-operator occupant is present in the vehicle, and determining whether environmental conditions sensed within the vehicle satisfy a reference condition threshold. Such technologies may also include performing an emergency action in response to determining that the environmental conditions sensed within the vehicle satisfy the reference condition threshold, determining that the operator of the vehicle is not present, and determining that the non-operator occupant is present in the vehicle.

Claims

1-25. -25. (canceled)

26. An in-vehicle warning system to generate a warning based on environmental conditions sensed in a vehicle, the in-vehicle warning system comprising:

a vehicle monitoring module to;

(i) determine whether an operator of the vehicle is present, (ii) determine whether a non-operator occupant is present in the vehicle, and (iii) determine whether environmental conditions sensed within the vehicle satisfy a reference condition threshold; and

an emergency action module to perform an emergency action in response to;

(i) a determination that the environmental conditions sensed within the vehicle satisfy the reference condition threshold, (ii) a determination that the operator of the vehicle is not present, and (iii) a determination that the non-operator occupant is present in the vehicle.

27. The in-vehicle warning system of claim 26, wherein to determine whether the environmental conditions satisfy the reference condition threshold comprises to determine the presence of an emergency event in response to a determination that the environmental conditions sensed within the vehicle satisfy the reference condition threshold;

and

wherein to perform the emergency action comprises to alert the operator of the presence of the emergency event.

28. The in-vehicle warning system of claim 27, wherein to alert the operator comprises to transmit a notification message to a mobile computing device of the operator.

29. The in-vehicle warning system of claim 28, wherein to transmit the notification message to the mobile computing device of the operator comprises to transmit the notification message to the mobile computing device via a text message.

30. The in-vehicle warning system of claim 28, wherein the notification message comprises at least one of:

information indicative of the presence of the non-operator occupant in the vehicle, information indicative of the environmental conditions sensed within the vehicle, an image captured by a camera positioned inside of the vehicle, or a video captured by the camera positioned inside of the vehicle.

31. The in-vehicle warning system of claim 26, wherein to determine whether the environmental conditions satisfy the reference condition threshold comprises to determine the presence of an emergency event in response to a determination that the environmental conditions sensed within the vehicle satisfy the reference condition threshold;

and

wherein to perform the emergency action comprises to at least one of alert third-party emergency services of the emergency event or control one or more components of the vehicle.

32. The in-vehicle warning system of claim 31, wherein to alert the third-party emergency services comprises to transmit a notification message to an emergency services system.

33. The in-vehicle warning system of claim 32, wherein to perform the emergency action further comprises to determine a location of the vehicle;

and

wherein the notification message comprises the determined location of the vehicle.

34. The in-vehicle warning system of claim 31, wherein to control one or more components of the vehicle comprises at least one of open a window of the vehicle, turn on the vehicle, turn off the vehicle, control the temperature inside of the vehicle, activate a horn of the vehicle, flash one or more lights of the vehicle, control a door lock of the vehicle, or activate an alarm of the vehicle.

35. The in-vehicle warning system of claim 26, wherein the vehicle monitoring module is further to:

receive an image of an interior cabin of the vehicle captured by a camera positioned within the vehicle;

compare the captured image of the interior cabin to a baseline representation of the interior cabin;

identify one or more occupants of the vehicle based on the comparison; and

determine a location of each identified occupant.

36. The in-vehicle warning system of claim 35, wherein the vehicle monitoring module is further to identify one or more background objects within the baseline representation of the interior cabin;

and

wherein to compare the captured image of the interior cabin to the baseline representation of the interior cabin comprises to remove the one or more background objects identified within the baseline representation from the captured image of the interior cabin.

37. The in-vehicle warning system of claim 26, wherein the vehicle monitoring module is further to receive cabin data captured by at least one sensor positioned within the vehicle.

38. The in-vehicle warning system of claim 37, wherein the at least one sensor comprises at least one environmental condition sensor;

wherein the received cabin data comprises environmental condition data captured by the environmental condition sensor and indicative of an environmental condition inside of the vehicle; and

wherein to determine whether the environmental conditions sensed within the vehicle satisfy the reference condition threshold comprises to compare the environmental condition data captured by the at least one environmental condition sensor with the reference condition threshold.

39. The in-vehicle warning system of claim 38, wherein the at least one environmental sensor comprises at least one of a temperature sensor or an air quality sensor.

40. The in-vehicle warning system of claim 37, wherein the received cabin data comprises at least one of occupant movement data indicative of a movement of the non-operator occupant within the vehicle, occupant physiological data indicative of one or more vital signs of the non-operator occupant, occupant characteristic data indicative of a physical characteristic of the non-operator occupant, or occupant activity data indicative of an activity of the non-operator occupant;

wherein to determine whether the non-operator occupant is present in the vehicle comprises to determine whether the non-operator occupant is present in the vehicle based on the at least one of the occupant movement data, the occupant physiological data, the occupant characteristic data, or the occupant activity data captured by the at least one sensor; and

wherein the at least one sensor comprises at least one of a motion sensor, a breathing detection sensor, a heart rate sensor, a microphone, a biometric sensor, or a wearable sensor configured to be worn by the non-operator occupant of the vehicle.

41. The in-vehicle warning system of claim 26, wherein the emergency action module is further to determine whether an override is activated;

and

wherein to perform the emergency action in response to a determination that the environmental conditions sensed within the vehicle satisfy the reference condition threshold, a determination that the operator of the vehicle is not present, and a determination that the non-operator occupant is present in the vehicle comprises to perform the emergency action in response to;

(i) a first determination that the environmental conditions sensed within the vehicle satisfy the reference condition threshold, (ii) a second determination that the operator of the vehicle is not present, (iii) a third determination that the non-operator is present in the vehicle, and (iv) a fourth determination that the override is not activated.

42. One or more machine readable media comprising a plurality of instructions stored thereon that in response to being executed by an in-vehicle warning system, cause the in-vehicle warning system to:

determine whether an operator of the vehicle is present;

determine whether a non-operator occupant is present in the vehicle;

determine whether environmental conditions sensed within the vehicle satisfy a reference condition threshold;

perform an emergency action in response to;

(i) a determination that the environmental conditions sensed within the vehicle satisfy the reference condition threshold, (ii) a determination that the operator of the vehicle is not present, and (iii) a determination that the non-operator occupant is present in the vehicle.

43. The one or more machine readable media of claim 42, wherein to determine whether the environmental conditions satisfy the reference condition threshold comprises to determine the presence of an emergency event in response to a determination that the environmental conditions sensed within the vehicle satisfy the reference condition threshold;

and

wherein to perform the emergency action comprises to at least one of;

(i) alert the operator of the presence of the emergency event, (ii) alert third-party emergency services of the emergency event, or (iii) control one or more components of the vehicle.

44. The one or more machine readable media of claim 42, wherein the plurality of instructions further cause the in-vehicle warning system to:

receive an image of an interior cabin of the vehicle captured by a camera positioned within the vehicle;

compare the captured image of the interior cabin to a baseline representation of the interior cabin;

identify one or more occupants of the vehicle based on the comparison; and

determine a location of each identified occupant.

45. The one or more machine readable media of claim 42, wherein the plurality of instructions further cause the in-vehicle warning system to receive cabin data captured by at least one sensor positioned within the vehicle.

46. The one or more machine readable media of claim 45, wherein the at least one sensor comprises at least one environmental condition sensor;

wherein the received cabin data comprises environmental condition data captured by the environmental condition sensor and indicative of an environmental condition inside of the vehicle; and

wherein to determine whether the environmental conditions sensed within the vehicle satisfy the reference condition threshold comprises to compare the environmental condition data captured by the at least one environmental condition sensor with the reference condition threshold.

47. The one or more machine readable media of claim 45, wherein the received cabin data comprises at least one of occupant movement data indicative of a movement of the non-operator occupant within the vehicle, occupant physiological data indicative of one or more vital signs of the non-operator occupant, occupant characteristic data indicative of a physical characteristic of the non-operator occupant, or occupant activity data indicative of an activity of the non-operator occupant;

wherein to determine whether the non-operator occupant is present in the vehicle comprises to determine whether the non-operator occupant is present in the vehicle based on the at least one of the occupant movement data, the occupant physiological data, the occupant characteristic data, or the occupant activity data captured by the at least one sensor; and

wherein the at least one sensor comprises at least one of a motion sensor, a breathing detection sensor, a heart rate sensor, a microphone, a biometric sensor, or a wearable sensor configured to be worn by the non-operator occupant of the vehicle.

48. A method for generating a warning based on environmental conditions sensed in a vehicle, the method comprising:

determining, by an in-vehicle warning system of the vehicle, whether an operator of the vehicle is present;

determining, by the in-vehicle warning system, whether a non-operator occupant is present in the vehicle;

determining, by the in-vehicle warning system, whether environmental conditions sensed within the vehicle satisfy a reference condition threshold;

performing, by the in-vehicle warning system, an emergency action in response to;

(i) determining that the environmental conditions sensed within the vehicle satisfy the reference condition threshold, (ii) determining that the operator of the vehicle is not present, and (iii) determining that the non-operator occupant is present in the vehicle.

49. The method of claim 48, wherein determining whether the environmental conditions satisfy the reference condition threshold comprises determining the presence of an emergency event in response to the environmental conditions sensed within the vehicle satisfying the reference condition threshold;

and

wherein performing the emergency action comprises at least one of;

(i) alerting the operator of the presence of the emergency event, (ii) alerting third-party emergency services of the emergency event, or (iii) controlling one or more components of the vehicle.

50. The method of claim 48, further comprising:

receiving, by the in-vehicle warning system, an image of an interior cabin of the vehicle captured by a camera positioned within the vehicle;

comparing, by the in-vehicle warning system, the captured image of the interior cabin to a baseline representation of the interior cabin;

identifying, by the in-vehicle warning system, one or more occupants of the vehicle based on the comparison; and

determining, by the in-vehicle warning system, a location of each identified occupant.