System and method for controlling mobile services using sensor information

• US 9,232,046 B2
• Filed: 06/01/2012
• Issued: 01/05/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 07/21/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sensoriant, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Tksn Holdings, LLC
• Inventors: Naqvi, Shamim A.
• Primary Examiner(s): LE, DANH C
• Application Number:
  US13/507,077
• Publication Number:
  US 20140370869A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,313 Days
• Field of Search: 455/418, 455/550.1, 455/26.1, 455/569.2
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/597 Recognising the driver's state or behaviour, e.g. attention or drowsiness
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/10 Multimedia information
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/58 Message adaptation for wireless communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/6091 including a wireless interface
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72463 to restrict the functionality of the device
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2250/02 including a Bluetooth interface
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2250/12 including a sensor for measuring a physical value, e.g. temperature or motion telephones including GPS signal receivers H04M2250/10
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2250/52 including functional features of a camera constructional features concerning the integration of cameras in portable phones H04M1/0264
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42382 Text-based messaging services in telephone networks such as PSTN/ISDN, e.g. User-to-User Signalling or Short Message Service for fixed networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/026 using orientation information, e.g. compass
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/027 using movement velocity, acceleration information
• 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 4/40 for vehicles, e.g. vehicle-to-pedestrians [V2P]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/50 Service provisioning or reconfiguring
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 48/16 Discovering, processing access restriction or access information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 48/18 Selecting a network or a communication service
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/18 Processing of user or subscriber data, e.g. subscribed services, user preferences or user profiles; Transfer of user or subscriber data

Abstract

A system includes a database of image data associated with a vehicle; and control logic configured to cause a user device to capture one or more images and compare data associated with the one or more images with the image data to determine if a user is present in a vehicle and disable a text messaging function at least in part responsive to the determination using the image data.

Claims

1. A method of controlling user device services using sensor information comprising:

providing a user device comprising;

detecting environment conditions surrounding the user device using an environment sensor and generating and broadcasting periodic and triggered updated information about the environment conditions from the user device;

detecting conditions of the user device using an internal sensor and generating and broadcasting periodic and triggered updated information about the conditions of the user device from the user device;

activating at least one image capturing device included as part of the user device and capturing one or more images responsive to one or more detected conditions; and

creating a registry comprising updated information from the environment sensor and the internal sensor, the one or more captured images, and information about what applications involve texting and are authenticated for the user device along with an application profile stating what resources each application needs and generating and broadcasting the registry both using triggers and periodically;

providing a network facility in communication with the user device;

creating an environment map in communication with the user device and the network facility comprising resource profiles comprising the information broadcast from the user device and defining resources as available to the user device and generating and broadcasting periodic and triggered updated resource profiles further comprising information about the available resources in response to receiving the broadcast information;

storing updated resource profiles in the network facility;

providing a rules-based inference engine in communication with the environment map and the network facility and defining particularized access policies matching rules for matching by comparing the one or more captured images to stored images of a vehicle driver operating environment and making texting enabled and available if there is no match and making texting disabled and unavailable if there is a match;

receiving broadcasts of information generated from the user device and the environment map into the network facility and communicating with the inference engine in response to receiving broadcasted information to determine if the received information matches a resource profile, and, if there is a match, deciding whether or not the one or more captured images generated by the user device and the environment map matches a vehicle driver operating environment; and

modifying the resource profiles if the captured images match a vehicle driver operating environment to define texting as disabled and unavailable to the user device based on the environment conditions indicating that texting is occurring from the vehicle driver operating environment.

2. The method recited in claim 1 wherein the at least one image capturing device comprises a rear facing cellular telephone camera.

3. The method recited in claim 1 wherein the at least one image capturing device comprises a forward facing cellular telephone camera.

4. The method recited in claim 1 further comprising the environment sensor and the internal sensor detecting user device orientation data, user device temperature data, user speed data, user acceleration data, and user location data.

5. The method recited in claim 4 further comprising determining the speed of the user device and disabling the texting function responsive to determining if the speed is above a threshold and the user device is located within a vehicle driver operating environment.

6. The method recited in claim 1 further comprising transmitting the one or more captured images to a service provider site in communication with the network facility, the service provider site comparing the one or more captured images to an image database to decide whether or not the one or more captured images generated by the user device and the environment map match a vehicle driver operating environment, and notifying the network facility of the image matching.

7. The method recited in claim 1 further comprising providing a warning message to the user device responsive to the comparing the one or more captured images.

8. The method of claim 1 further comprising maintaining a database of image data associated with vehicles in communication with the user device.

9. The method of claim 8 further comprising configuring the user device for communicating with the rules-based inference engine and controlling the user device to compare the one or more captured images with the database of image data associated with vehicles.

10. The method of claim 9 further comprising storing the database internally on the user device.

11. The method of claim 9 further comprising storing the database remotely on at least one remote server.

12. The method of claim 9 further comprising controlling the user device to determine if a user is present in a vehicle driver operating environment based on comparing the one or more captured images with the database of image data then disabling the user device text messaging function by writing to the registry in the user device.

13. The method of claim 12 further comprising providing at least one machine readable medium including executable instructions controlling the user device with control logic for determining if a user is present in a vehicle driver operating environment and for disabling the user device text messaging function by writing to the registry in the user device.

14. The method of claim 1 further comprising transmitting one or more commands to the user device using the network facility and controlling the user device with control logic to receiving commands from the network facility that disable texting by updating the registry.

15. A method of enabling and disabling user device services comprising:

activating at least one image capturing device included as part of the user device and capturing one or more images responsive to one or more predetermined conditions of the user device;

creating a registry comprising the one or more captured images and information about what applications involve texting and are authenticated for the user device along with an application profile stating what resources each application needs;

comparing the one or more captured images with representative images of vehicle driver operating environments to determine if a user is in the vehicle driver operating environment; and

disabling text message capabilities by updating the registry if the one or more captured images match one or more of the representative images of vehicle driver operating environments.

16. The method of claim 15 further comprising determining the speed of the user device and disabling the texting function responsive to determining if the speed is above a threshold and the user device is located within a vehicle driver operating environment.

17. The method of claim 15 further comprising maintaining a database of image data associated with vehicles in communication with the user device, controlling the user device to compare the one or more captured images with the database of image data associated with vehicles wherein the database is stored in one form of internally on the user device and remotely in at least one remote server, controlling the user device to determine if a user is present in a vehicle driver operating environment based on comparing the one or more captured images with the database of image data, and disabling the user device text messaging function by writing to the registry in the user device if a user is present in a vehicle driver operating environment.

18. The method of claim 17 further comprising providing at least one machine readable medium including executable instructions controlling the user device with control logic for determining if a user is present in a vehicle driver operating environment and for disabling the user device text messaging function by writing to the registry in the user device.

19. A method of controlling user device services for a plurality of user devices using sensor information comprising:

providing a plurality of user devices, each specific user device comprising;

detecting environment conditions surrounding the specific user device using an environment sensor and generating and broadcasting periodic and triggered updated information about the environment conditions from the specific user device;

detecting conditions of the specific user device using an internal sensor and generating and broadcasting periodic and triggered updated information about the conditions of the specific user device from the specific user device;

activating at least one image capturing device included as part of the specific user device and capturing one or more images responsive to one or more detected conditions;

creating a registry comprising updated information from the environment sensor and the internal sensor, the one or more captured images, and information about what applications involve texting and are authenticated for the specific user device along with an application profile stating what resources each application needs and generating and broadcasting the registry both using triggers and periodically; and

identifying the specific user device and its specific end user using identification information from the specific user device and generating and broadcasting periodic and triggered updated information about the specific user device and its specific end user;

providing a network facility in communication with the plurality of user devices;

creating an environment map in communication with the plurality of user devices and the network facility comprising a plurality of resource profiles comprising the information broadcast from the plurality of user devices and defining resources as available to the plurality of user devices and generating and broadcasting periodic and triggered updated resource profiles further comprising information about the available resources in response to receiving the broadcast information;

storing the updated plurality of resource profiles in the network facility;

providing a rules-based inference engine in communication with the environment map and the network facility and defining particularized access policies matching rules for matching by comparing the one or more captured images to stored images of a vehicle driver operating environment and making texting enabled and available if there is no match and making texting disabled and unavailable if there is a match;

receiving broadcasts of information generated from the plurality of user devices and the environment map into the network facility and communicating with the inference engine in response to receiving broadcasted information to determine if the received information matches a resource profile, and, if there is a match, deciding whether or not the one or more captured images generated by the plurality of user devices and the environment map matches a vehicle driver operating environment; and

modifying the resource profiles if the captured images match a vehicle driver operating environment to define texting as disabled and unavailable to the user device identified by the broadcast identification information based on the environment conditions indicating that texting is occurring from the vehicle driver operating environment.

20. The method of claim 19 further comprising maintaining a database of image data associated with vehicles in communication with the user device, configuring the user device for communicating with the rules-based inference engine and controlling the user device to compare the one or more captured images with the database of image data associated with vehicles, controlling the user device to determine if a user is present in a vehicle driver operating environment based on comparing the one or more captured images with the database of image data then disabling the user device text messaging function by writing to the registry in the user device.