Automatic crash detection

• US 9,767,625 B1
• Filed: 04/13/2015
• Issued: 09/19/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 04/13/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Arity International Limited (Allstate Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Allstate Insurance Company (Allstate Corporation)
• Inventors: Snyder, Jared S., Ferguson, Dana, Irey, Grady
• Primary Examiner(s): Shafi, Muhammad
• Application Number:
  US14/685,067
• Time in Patent Office: 890 Days
• Field of Search: 701 315, 701121, 701 305, 701 309, 701 311, 701301, 701302
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 21/0132 responsive to vehicle motion parameters , e.g. to vehicle longitudinal or transversal deceleration or speed value
• CPC Class Codes: G01P 15/0891 with indication of predetermined acceleration values G01P15/135 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G01P 15/18 in two or more dimensions
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/008 communicating information to a remotely located station transmission systems for measured values G08C
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/085 using electronic data carriers
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 25/016 Personal emergency signalling and security systems emergency non-personal manually actuated alarm activators G08B25/12
• 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 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/44 for communication between vehicles and infrastructures, e.g. vehicle-to-cloud [V2C] or vehicle-to-home [V2H]

Abstract

Systems and methods are disclosed for determining whether or not a crash involving a vehicle has occurred. The acceleration of the vehicle may be measured using, for example, an accelerometer of a mobile device, which may be located inside the vehicle. The system may determine the magnitude of each accelerometer measurement and whether the magnitude exceeds one or more acceleration magnitude thresholds. The system may also determine the number of accelerometer events within a time window and whether the number exceeds one or more count thresholds. The system may determine whether a crash involving the vehicle has occurred based on the magnitudes of acceleration, number of acceleration events, and various thresholds. In some examples, the system may confirm that a crash has occurred based on, for example, the location of the mobile device.

Claims

1. A mobile computing device comprising:

an accelerometer configured to measure acceleration of at least one axis of the accelerometer;

communication circuitry configured to wirelessly communicate with other devices;

a processor; and

memory storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor of the mobile computing device to;

receive acceleration measurements measured by the accelerometer;

determine, based on the acceleration measurements measured by the accelerometer, a number of a plurality of acceleration events during a predetermined time window;

determine whether the number of the plurality of acceleration events during the predetermined time window exceeds a threshold number of acceleration events;

determine whether each of the plurality of acceleration events exceeding the threshold number of acceleration events has a magnitude exceeding an acceleration magnitude threshold;

when the number of the plurality of acceleration events during the predetermined time window exceeds the threshold number of acceleration events and each of the plurality of acceleration events exceeding the threshold number of acceleration events has a magnitude exceeding the acceleration magnitude threshold, determine that the mobile computing device is within a vehicle and that the vehicle was involved in a crash; and

responsive to determining that the vehicle was involved in the crash, send, via the communication circuitry and to a crash detection server, information identifying the mobile computing device and information corresponding to the crash.

2. The mobile computing device of claim 1, wherein the memory stores additional computer-executable instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor of the mobile computing device to:

when the number of the plurality of acceleration events during the predetermined time window does not exceed the threshold number of acceleration events, determine that the vehicle was not involved in a crash.

3. The mobile computing device of claim 1, wherein the accelerometer comprises three axes, and wherein the magnitude comprises one or more of a sum of the absolute values of each of the three axes of the accelerometer, a sum of the squares of each of the three axes of the accelerometer, or a magnitude of a single axis of the accelerometer.

4. The mobile computing device of claim 1, wherein the acceleration magnitude threshold comprises a plurality of acceleration magnitude thresholds, and wherein the memory stores additional computer-executable instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor of the mobile computing device to:

responsive to determining that the vehicle was involved in the crash, determine a severity of the crash based on whether one or more of the plurality of acceleration magnitude thresholds has been exceeded.

5. The mobile computing device of claim 1, wherein the predetermined time window comprises a number of acceleration samples measured periodically by the accelerometer.

6. The mobile computing device of claim 1, wherein the predetermined time window comprises a time value greater than 5 milliseconds.

7. The mobile computing device of claim 1, wherein the memory stores additional computer-executable instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor of the mobile computing device to:

responsive to determining that the vehicle was involved in the crash, send, via the communication circuitry and to the crash detection server, a message comprising information identifying an owner of the mobile computing device, and information identifying a location of the mobile computing device.

8. The mobile computing device of claim 1, wherein the mobile computing device comprises a mobile phone, and wherein the memory stores additional computer-executable instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor of the mobile phone to:

responsive to sending the information identifying the mobile phone to the crash detection server, receive, via the communication circuitry, a phone call.

9. The mobile computing device of claim 1, wherein the threshold number of acceleration events comprises two or more acceleration events.

10. A non-transitory computer readable medium storing instructions that, when read by a computing device, cause the computing device to:

receive acceleration measurements measured by an accelerometer of a mobile device;

determine, based on the acceleration measurements measured by the accelerometer of the mobile device, a number of a plurality of acceleration events during a predetermined time window;

determine whether the number of the plurality of acceleration events during the predetermined time window exceeds a threshold number of acceleration events;

determine whether each of the plurality of acceleration events exceeding the threshold number of acceleration events has a magnitude exceeding an acceleration magnitude threshold;

when the number of the plurality of acceleration events during the predetermined time window exceeds the threshold number of acceleration events and each of the plurality of acceleration events exceeding the threshold number of acceleration events has a magnitude exceeding the acceleration magnitude threshold, determine that the mobile device is within a vehicle and that the vehicle was involved in a crash; and

responsive to determining that the vehicle was involved in the crash, send, via communication circuitry configured to wirelessly communicate with other devices and to a crash detection server, information identifying the mobile device and information corresponding to the crash.

11. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 10, storing additional instructions that, when read by the computing device, cause the computing device to:

when the number of the plurality of acceleration events during the predetermined time window does not exceed the threshold number of acceleration events, determine that the vehicle was not involved in a crash.

12. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 10, wherein the accelerometer comprises three axes, and wherein the magnitude comprises one or more of a sum of the absolute values of each of the three axes of the accelerometer, a sum of the squares of each of the three axes of the accelerometer, or a magnitude of a single axis of the accelerometer.

13. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 10, wherein the acceleration magnitude threshold comprises a plurality of acceleration magnitude thresholds, and wherein the non-transitory computer readable medium stores additional instructions that, when read by the computing device, cause the computing device to:

responsive to determining that the vehicle was involved in the crash, determine a severity of the crash based on whether one or more of the plurality of acceleration magnitude thresholds has been exceeded.

14. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 10, wherein the predetermined time window comprises a number of acceleration samples measured periodically by the accelerometer.

15. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 10, wherein the threshold number of acceleration events comprises a plurality of acceleration events.