Automatic cloudbased notification system for vehicle accidents

• US 9,758,120 B2
• Filed: 07/21/2015
• Issued: 09/12/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 07/24/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Andreas Alamanos
• Original Assignee: Andreas Alamanos
• Inventors: Alamanos, Andreas
• Primary Examiner(s): Previl, Daniel
• Application Number:
  US14/804,816
• Publication Number:
  US 20160031397A1
• Time in Patent Office: 784 Days
• Field of Search: 3404255, 340531, 3405391, 3404261, 34042618, 34053911, 340 61, 340 81, 3405734, 3406861, 340902-903, 3406911
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 2021/0027 Post collision measures, e.g. notifying emergency services
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 21/00 Arrangements or fittings on vehicles for protecting or preventing injuries to occupants or pedestrians in case of accidents or other traffic risks safety belts or body harnesses in vehicles B60R22/00; devices, apparatus or methods for life-saving in general A62B; safety devices for propulsion unit control specially adapted for, or arranged in, vehicles B60K28/00; seats constructed to protect the occupant from the effect of abnormal g-forces, e.g. crash or safety seats, B60N2/42; energy-absorbing arrangements for hand wheels for steering vehicles B62D1/11; energy-absorbing arrangements for vehicle steering columns B62D1/19; harnessing in aircraft B64D25/00
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 25/001 Alarm cancelling procedures or alarm forwarding decisions, e.g. based on absence of alarm confirmation
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 25/002 Generating a prealarm to the central station
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 25/016 Personal emergency signalling and security systems emergency non-personal manually actuated alarm activators G08B25/12
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 25/08 using communication transmission lines G08B13/19658, G08B21/0286, G08B25/016 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/012 from other sources than vehicle or roadside beacons, e.g. mobile networks
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/205 Indicating the location of the monitored vehicles as destination, e.g. accidents, stolen, rental
• 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 4/90 Services for handling of emergency or hazardous situations, e.g. earthquake and tsunami warning systems [ETWS]

Abstract

The proposed method and system is a client-server system where client is an application monitoring and processing the readings of the sensors of a personal mobile device in a moving vehicle and when the possibility of a crush is predicted, transmit to the remote server a provisional alarm. If after a predefined time period a FALSE ALARM signal not received by the remote server from the client then an accident alarm ticket will be forwarded from the remote server to an emergency service center.

Claims

1. A method of sending an alarm on the occurrence of a vehicle accident, comprising the steps of:

a) a personal mobile device in a vehicle monitoring readings from sensors of the personal mobile device;

b) the personal mobile device processing the readings from the sensors to detect a condition which indicates a possibility that the vehicle is about to have an accident;

c) when the condition which indicates a possibility that the vehicle is about to have an accident is detected, the personal mobile device transmitting a provisional alarm to a remote server;

d) the remote server receiving the provisional alarm from the personal mobile device;

e) the remote server starting a timer upon receipt of the provisional alarm from the personal mobile device;

f) if the remote server does not receive a cancellation of the provisional alarm from the personal mobile device before the timer reaches an end of a predefined time, the remote server forwarding an alarm to an emergency service center.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of the personal mobile device sending a cancellation to the remote server if an accident did not occur before the end of a time which is less than the predetermined time from the time the mobile device sent the provisional alarm.

3. The method of claim 2, in which when the personal mobile device sends a cancellation of a provisional alarm, the personal mobile device adjusts a threshold to be used in the step of detecting a condition that indicates a possibility that the vehicle is about to have an accident, such that an occurrence of the same condition will not trigger another provisional alarm.

4. The method of claim 1, in which the personal mobile device detects a condition which indicates a possibility of an accident by the steps of:

processing the readings from the sensors to generate a predicted next state of the vehicle after a time delay;

waiting the time delay;

comparing the predicted next state to an actual state;

if a difference between the actual state and the predicted next state exceeds a defined threshold, the personal mobile device considers a condition which indicates a possibility of an accident to have been detected.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising the step of the personal mobile device adjusting the defined threshold after the personal mobile device sends a cancellation of a provisional alarm, such that an occurrence of the same condition will not trigger another provisional alarm.

6. The method of claim 1, in which a length of the provisional alarm is less than 40 bytes.

7. The method of claim 1, in which the provisional alarm comprises an identification of the personal mobile device and coordinates of a location of the personal mobile device.

8. The method of claim 1, in which a length of the provisional alarm is selected such that the provisional alarm is sent by the personal mobile device in less than 33 milliseconds.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the personal mobile device transmits the provisional alarm to the remote server through a mobile broadband network.