Method and system for monitoring interactions with a vehicle

• US 9,230,439 B2
• Filed: 05/17/2012
• Issued: 01/05/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 05/20/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Otodata Wireless Network Inc.
• Original Assignee: Otodata Wireless Network Inc.
• Inventors: Gallovich, Jason, Boulay, Andr
• Primary Examiner(s): Tweel, Jr., John A
• Application Number:
  US14/118,484
• Publication Number:
  US 20140106781A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,328 Days
• Field of Search: 340/426.19, 340/439, 701/39, 701/43, 702/183
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 16/0231 Circuits relating to the driving or the functioning of the vehicle monitoring tyres B60C23/00; indicating overspeed B60K31/00; for dash boards B60K37/00, B60Q3/10; for indicating emergencies B60Q1/52; brake control systems B60T; registering or indicating the working of vehicles G07C5/00; measuring distance G01C, e.g. combinations of speed and distance G01C23/00; engine indicators G01L; measuring speed or acceleration G01P
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 25/33 of global position, e.g. by providing GPS coordinates
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 50/08 Interaction between the driver and the control system
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 50/14 Means for informing the driver, warning the driver or prompting a driver intervention
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/123 indicating the position of vehicles, e.g. scheduled vehicles; Managing passenger vehicles circulating according to a fixed timetable, e.g. buses, trains, tramstransmission of navigation instructions to vehicles G08G1/0968
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/205 Indicating the location of the monitored vehicles as destination, e.g. accidents, stolen, rental
• 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 4/02 Services making use of location information
• 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 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/12 Messaging; Mailboxes; Announcements
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/48 for in-vehicle communication

Abstract

A method and system for monitoring interactions with a vehicle are disclosed, the method comprising associating a mobile device of a user allowed for operating the vehicle with a device capable of providing an indication of a position of the vehicle; obtaining position data from the device capable of providing an indication of a position of the vehicle; obtaining position data from the mobile device associated with the device; comparing the obtained position data from the device with the obtained position data from the mobile device and using the comparison of the position data of the device with the position data of the mobile device to thereby monitor interactions with the vehicle.

Claims

1. A method for monitoring interactions with a vehicle, the method comprising:

associating a mobile device of a user allowed for operating the vehicle with a device capable of providing an indication of a position of the vehicle;

obtaining position data from the device capable of providing an indication of a position of the vehicle;

obtaining position data from the mobile device associated with the device;

comparing the obtained position data from the device with the obtained position data from the mobile device; and

using the comparison of the position data of the device with the position data of the mobile device to thereby monitor interactions with the vehicle.

2. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the associating of a mobile device of a user with a device capable of providing an indication of a position of the vehicle comprises accessing a web page and registering the mobile device of the user with a given vehicle.

3. The method as claimed in claim 2, wherein the registering of the mobile device of the user with the given vehicle comprises downloading and executing an application on the mobile device.

4. The method as claimed in claim 3, wherein the obtaining of the position data from the mobile device comprises the application providing the position data.

5. The method as claimed in claim 3, wherein the execution of the application comprises providing an indication of the vehicle to be monitored.

6. The method as claimed in claim 5, wherein the indication of the vehicle to be monitored is selected from a group consisting of a name, a Vehicle Identification Number (VIN), a plate and a customer identification number.

7. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the associating of a mobile device of a user allowed for operating the vehicle with a device capable of providing an indication of a position of the vehicle comprises sending a short message service (SMS) message comprising an identification of the vehicle to a SMS gateway.

8. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the obtaining of position data from the device capable of providing an indication of a position of the vehicle comprises obtaining position data from one of a GPS receiver installed in the vehicle and an OnStar™

FMV device installed in said vehicle.

9. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the obtaining of position data from the device capable of providing an indication of a position of the vehicle comprises determining an indication of a geographic sector where the vehicle is located.

10. The method as claimed in claim 9, wherein the determining of an indication of a geographic sector where the vehicle is located comprises providing a vehicle with a wireless transmitter and a given one of a plurality of wireless receivers receiving a signal transmitted by the wireless transmitter and providing a corresponding identification of a sector where the given receiver is located.

11. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the comparing of the obtained position data from the device with the obtained position data from the mobile device is performed over time, further wherein the using of the comparison of the position data of the device with the position data of the mobile device comprises detecting a variation in a comparison result, further wherein if the variation is detected, determining if the vehicle is moving and further wherein if the vehicle is moving, providing an alert to a third party.

12. The method as claimed in claim 11, wherein the third party is the user of the vehicle.

13. The method as claimed in claim 11, wherein the providing of the alert comprises sending an email to the third party.

14. The method as claimed in claim 11, wherein the providing of the alert comprises sending an SMS message to the third party.

15. The method as claimed in claim 12, wherein the providing of the alert comprises calling the mobile device of the user.

16. A vehicle interaction monitoring unit for monitoring interactions with a vehicle, the vehicle interaction monitoring unit comprising:

a position data receiving unit for receiving a position data from a vehicle position data providing unit;

a mobile device data receiving unit for receiving a mobile device data signal, the mobile data signal comprising position data from the mobile device of a user of the vehicle;

a processing unit operatively connected to the position data receiving unit and to the mobile device data receiving unit, the processing unit for comparing position data from the vehicle position data providing unit with the position data from the mobile device, the processing further using a result from the comparison between the position data from the vehicle position data providing unit with the position data from the mobile device for providing an indication of an interaction of the user with the vehicle.

17. The vehicle interaction monitoring unit as claimed in claim 16, wherein the position data is received from the vehicle position data providing unit via a data network.

18. The vehicle interaction monitoring unit as claimed in claim 16, wherein the position data is received from the mobile device via a data network.

19. The vehicle interaction monitoring unit as claimed in claim 16, wherein the vehicle position data providing unit comprises one of a GPS receiver and an OnStar™

FMV device.

20. The vehicle interaction monitoring unit as claimed in claim 16, further comprising a memory unit operatively connected to the processing unit, wherein the processing unit stores the position data from the vehicle position data providing unit and the position data from the mobile device over time in the memory unit.

21. The vehicle interaction monitoring unit as claimed in claim 20, wherein the use of the result from the comparison between the position data from the vehicle position data providing unit with the position data from the mobile device comprises detecting a variation over time in a result of a comparison between the stored position data from the vehicle position data providing unit and the stored position data from the mobile device.

22. The vehicle interaction monitoring unit as claimed in claim 16, further comprising an interaction indication providing unit operatively connected to the processing unit, the interaction indication providing unit for providing an indication of an interaction between the user and the vehicle to a third party.

23. The vehicle interaction monitoring unit as claimed in claim 22, wherein the third party is the user.

24. The vehicle interaction monitoring unit as claimed in claim 23, wherein the interaction indication providing unit provides the indication of an interaction using one of an email, a SMS message and a call made on mobile device of the user.

25. The vehicle interaction monitoring unit as claimed in claim 20, further comprising a registering unit operatively connected to the processing unit, the registering unit for receiving from a given user an indication of a given associated mobile device with a given vehicle, further wherein the processing unit receives and stores in the memory unit the position data from the given vehicle position data providing unit and the position data from the given mobile device over time together with an indication of the corresponding registered vehicle.

26. The vehicle interaction monitoring unit as claimed in claim 25, wherein the registering unit is accessed by the given user via a data network.

27. The vehicle interaction monitoring unit as claimed in claim 26, wherein the data network comprises the Internet, further wherein the vehicle registering unit comprises a web server.

28. A method for monitoring interactions with an item, the method comprising:

associating a mobile device of a user with a device capable of providing an indication of a position of the item;

obtaining position data from the device capable of providing an indication of a position of the item;

obtaining position data from the mobile device associated with the device;

comparing the obtained position data from the device with the obtained position data from the mobile device; and

using the comparison of the position data of the device with the position data of the mobile device to thereby monitor interactions with the item.

29. A computer-readable storage medium storing computer-executable instructions which, when executed, cause a computing device to perform a method for monitoring interactions with a vehicle performing, the method comprising:

associating a mobile device of a user allowed for operating the vehicle with a device capable of providing an indication of a position of the vehicle;

obtaining position data from the device capable of providing an indication of a position of the vehicle;

obtaining position data from the mobile device associated with the device;

comparing the obtained position data from the device with the obtained position data from the mobile device; and

using the comparison of the position data of the device with the position data of the mobile device to thereby monitor interactions with the vehicle.

30. A computing device, the computing device comprising:

a display unit;

a processing unit operatively connected to the display unit;

a memory operatively connected to the processing unit, the memory comprising one or more programs, wherein the one or more programs are stored in the memory and configured to be executed by the processing unit, the one or more programs including;

instructions for associating a mobile device of a user allowed for operating the vehicle with a device capable of providing an indication of a position of the vehicle;

instructions for obtaining position data from the device capable of providing an indication of a position of the vehicle;

instructions for obtaining position data from the mobile device associated with the device;

instructions for comparing the obtained position data from the device with the obtained position data from the mobile device, and

instructions for using the comparison of the position data of the device with the position data of the mobile device to thereby monitor interactions with the vehicle.