Telematics based on handset movement within a moving vehicle

• US 9,086,948 B1
• Filed: 03/13/2013
• Issued: 07/21/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 03/13/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Allstate Insurance Company (Allstate Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Allstate Insurance Company (Allstate Corporation)
• Inventors: Slusar, Mark V., Kleinhenz, Joseph, Huls, Eric D.
• Primary Examiner(s): Tran, Dalena
• Application Number:
  US13/802,088
• Time in Patent Office: 860 Days
• Field of Search: 701/31.4, 701/408, 701/32.3, 340/539.11, 340/539.1, 340/539.13, 455/456.1
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2540/227 Position in the vehicle
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 40/09 Driving style or behaviour
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 11/02 using radio waves G01S19/00 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 13/00 Systems using the reflection or reradiation of radio waves, e.g. radar systems; Analogous systems using reflection or reradiation of waves whose nature or wavelength is irrelevant or unspecified
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/13 Receivers
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/14 specially adapted for specific applications
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/51 Relative positioning
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/52 Determining velocity
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 2205/01 specially adapted for specific applications
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 2205/09 for tracking people
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/02 using radio waves using satellite radio beacon systems for determining position G01S19/00
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/0284 Relative positioning
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/08 Insurance
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/008 communicating information to a remotely located station transmission systems for measured values G08C
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/0112 from the vehicle, e.g. floating car data [FCD]
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/0129 for creating historical data or processing based on historical data
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/017 identifying vehicles G08G1/015, G08G1/054 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/163 involving continuous checking
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/20 Monitoring the location of vehicles belonging to a group, e.g. fleet of vehicles, countable or determined number of vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/023 using mutual or relative location information between multiple location based services [LBS] targets or of distance thresholds
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/027 : using movement velocity, acceleration information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 : Location-based management or tracking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/40 : for vehicles, e.g. vehicle-to-pedestrians [V2P]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/44 : for communication between vehicles and infrastructures, e.g. vehicle-to-cloud [V2C] or vehicle-to-home [V2H]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/48 : for in-vehicle communication
• 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

At least a system for providing telematics data associated with a vehicle being driven by a driver is described. The vehicular telematics data may be obtained by tracking the movements of a wireless communications device of a driver of the vehicle. The telematics data may provide, among other things, speed, acceleration, deceleration, times of operation, duration of operation, mileage driven per day, and day of the week the vehicle has been used.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

at least three localization devices attached to a vehicle;

a wireless communication device for transmitting a signal to each of said at least three localization devices, wherein each of said at least three localization devices processes said signal to determine a first movement of said wireless communication device relative to said at least three localization devices attached to said vehicle; and

a telematics processing module of a computing device for;

determining a second movement of said wireless communication device, wherein said second movement corresponds to the absolute movement of said wireless communication device obtained from a global positioning system (GPS)

adjusting a first data associated with said first movement using a second data associated with said second movement; and

determining an actual movement of said vehicle after said adjusting is performed.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein said actual movement is used to generate vehicular telematics data of said vehicle.

3. The system of claim 1 wherein a first data corresponding to said first movement is transmitted from said at least three localization devices.

4. The system of claim 1 wherein a second data corresponding to said second movement is transmitted from said wireless communication device.

5. The system of claim 1 wherein said at least three localization devices comprise RFID nodes.

6. The system of claim 1 wherein an RFID tag is attached to said wireless communication device.

7. The system of claim 1 wherein said actual movement of said vehicle is used to determine an insurance premium of an insured of said vehicle.

8. The system of claim 1 wherein said signal comprises a Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) signal.

9. A system comprising:

at least one memory; and

at least one processor coupled to the at least one memory and configured to perform, based on instructions stored in the at least one memory;

receiving first data corresponding to movement of a wireless communication device relative to a plurality of localization devices positioned throughout a vehicle;

receiving second data corresponding to the absolute movement of said wireless communication device, said second data obtained from a global positioning system (GPS);

adjusting said second data by said first data to calculate an actual movement of said vehicle; and

determining a driving score using said actual movement.

10. The system of claim 9 wherein said actual movement is used to generate velocity, acceleration, and deceleration information associated with said vehicle.

11. The system of claim 9 wherein said first data is transmitted from said plurality of localization devices comprising at least three localization devices.

12. The system of claim 9 wherein second data is transmitted from said wireless communication device.

13. The system of claim 9 wherein said at least three localization devices comprise RFID nodes.

14. The system of claim 9 wherein an RFID tag is attached to said wireless communication device.

15. The system of claim 9 wherein said first data is generated by using a Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) signal originating from one or more localization devices attached to said vehicle.

16. A computing device comprising:

at least one processor; and

at least one memory storing computer executable instructions, wherein execution of said computer executable instructions by said at least one processor causes said computing device to perform steps comprising;

receiving first data providing the absolute movement of a wireless communication device, said first data obtained from using an on-board diagnostics (OBD) module and an accelerometer resident in said wireless communication device;

receiving second data providing the movement of said wireless communication device relative to a vehicle, said second data obtained from processing one or more signals received by at least one of at least three localization devices, said one or more signals transmitted by said wireless communication device;

generating a value corresponding to an actual movement of said vehicle by adjusting the first data corresponding to said absolute movement by said second data corresponding to said movement of said wireless communication device relative to said vehicle; and

determining an insurance premium associated with said vehicle using said value corresponding to said actual movement.

17. The computing device of claim 16 wherein said actual movement is used to determine velocity, acceleration, and deceleration data associated with said vehicle.

18. The computing device of claim 17 wherein said velocity, acceleration, and deceleration data is mapped to dates and times of day.

19. The computing device of claim 16 wherein said one or more signals comprises one or more Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) signals.

20. The computing device of claim 16 wherein said at least three localization devices comprise RFID nodes.

21. The computing device of claim 16 wherein an RFID tag is attached to said wireless communication device.

22. A system comprising:

at least three localization devices attached to a vehicle; and

a wireless communication device for transmitting a signal to each of said at least three localization devices, wherein each of said at least three localization devices reflects said signal to determine a first data corresponding to movement of said wireless communication device relative to said vehicle over time and a second data corresponding to the absolute movement of said wireless communication device obtained from a global positioning system (GPS), wherein said first data is used to adjust said second data to yield adjusted values, said adjusted values used to provide telematics information corresponding to said vehicle.

23. The system of claim 22 wherein said actual movement is used to determine velocity, acceleration, and deceleration data associated with said vehicle.

24. The system of claim 23 wherein said velocity, acceleration, and deceleration data is mapped to dates and times of day.

25. The system of claim 22 wherein said at least three localization devices comprises four devices that are attached to said vehicle symmetrically.

26. The system of claim 22 wherein said at least three localization devices comprise RFID nodes.

27. The system of claim 22 wherein an RFID tag is attached to said wireless communication device.

28. The system of claim 22 wherein said telematics information is used to provide a measure of risk of said vehicle.

29. The system of claim 22 wherein said signal comprises a Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) signal.

30. The system of claim 22 wherein an amplitude and phase of said signal is used by said at least three localization devices.