Automobile usage analytics and personalization

• US 9,809,184 B2
• Filed: 11/09/2015
• Issued: 11/07/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 11/09/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Adobe Inc.
• Original Assignee: Adobe Systems Incorporated (Adobe Inc.)
• Inventors: Smith, Kevin Gary, George, William Brandon, Brown, James H.
• Primary Examiner(s): PATEL, SHARDUL D
• Application Number:
  US14/936,574
• Publication Number:
  US 20170129426A1
• Time in Patent Office: 729 Days
• Field of Search: 701 49, 701 99, 701118
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 2360/334 Projection means
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 2370/334 Projection means
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 2370/73 with special adaptation to the user or to the vehicle
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 35/00 Instruments specially adapted for vehicles; Arrangement of instruments in or on vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 35/10 Input arrangements, i.e. from user to vehicle, associated with vehicle functions or specially adapted therefor
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 35/65 Instruments specially adapted for specific vehicle types or users, e.g. for left- or right-hand drive
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 16/037 for occupant comfort , e.g. for automatic adjustment of appliances according to personal settings, e.g. seats, mirrors, steering wheel
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0266 based on the position of the vehicle
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/008 communicating information to a remotely located station transmission systems for measured values G08C
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/0808 Diagnosing performance data testing of vehicles G01M17/00; testing of electrical installation on vehicles G01R31/005
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/0825 using optical means

Abstract

Automobile usage analytics and personalization are described. In one or more implementations, a digital medium environment is described in which sensors are included with parts of automobiles, detect usage events that result from auto part usage, and produce sensor data indicative of the events. In this environment, a method is described of efficiently aggregating the sensor data and accurately determining automobile usage therefrom. Based on the automobile usage, the automobile is personalized for users. For example, personalized recommendations are made to automobile users to suggest goods, services, or information determined pertinent to the users. The aggregated sensor data can be used in other ways to personalize the automobile, such as to adjust seat positions, control climate, and so on. Further, the aggregated sensor data is used to answer queries regarding automobile usage that are made by users (e.g., manufacturers) via analytics tools of an auto usage reporting platform.

Claims

1. A method implemented by one or more computing devices in an environment in which sensors are included with parts of automobiles, detect usage events that result from automobile usage, and produce sensor data indicative of the usage events, the method further implemented to generate recommendations that are based on the automobile usage, the method comprising:

obtaining the sensor data, by the one or more computing devices, for an automobile associated with a user that describes the usage events detected by auto part sensors of the automobile;

analyzing the obtained sensor data to compute statistics that summarize usage of the automobile;

determining, by the one or more computing devices, at least one of a product or service that is pertinent to the user based on both the statistics that summarize the usage of the automobile and interaction data associated with the user that describes interactions of the user with other sensor-configured objects;

generating one or more recommendations to suggest the determined product or service by presenting the one or more recommendations to the user via output interfaces of the automobile; and

communicating, by the one or more computing devices, the generated one or more recommendations to the automobile for presentation via the output interfaces.

2. The method as described in claim 1, further comprising determining the at least one product or service that is pertinent to the user based on learned preferences of the user that are learned by applying machine learning to the obtained sensor data.

3. The method as described in claim 1, wherein the at least one product or service is determined pertinent based on the user and at least one other user, the user being detected as a driver of the automobile and the other user being detected as a passenger in the automobile.

4. The method as described in claim 1, wherein the at least one product or service is determined pertinent to the user based on a current location of the automobile.

5. The method as described in claim 1, wherein the at least one product or service is determined pertinent to the user based on a destination of the automobile.

6. The method as described in claim 1, wherein information suggesting how to drive the automobile is determined pertinent to the user based on the statistics that summarize the usage of the automobile, and the one or more recommendations are generated to include the information suggesting how to drive the automobile.

7. The method as described in claim 1, wherein the sensor data describes adjustments made by the user to configure a driving environment of the automobile.

8. The method as described in claim 7, further comprising causing the adjustments to be made to the driving environment automatically in response to detecting the user entering the automobile.

9. The method as described in claim 8, wherein the adjustments are made to at least one of:

a position of a seat of the automobile;

a position of one or more mirrors of the automobile;

a position of a steering wheel of the automobile;

a climate of at least a portion of the automobile;

or

entertainment preferences of the automobile.

10. A method implemented by one or more computing devices in an environment in which sensors are included with parts of automobiles, detect usage events that result from auto part usage, and produce sensor data indicative of the usage events, the method further implemented to efficiently aggregate the sensor data and accurately make a determination of auto part usage from the aggregated sensor data to answer queries regarding the auto part usage that are made by users via analytics tools of an auto usage reporting platform, the method comprising:

obtaining, by the one or more computing devices, the sensor data for an auto part and environmental data associated with the auto part, the sensor data describing a usage event detected by one or more auto part sensors of the auto part and the environmental data describing driving conditions in which an automobile having the auto part is operated at a time of the usage event;

converting, by the one or more computing devices, the sensor data into aggregated usage data by aggregating the usage data with other usage data of the auto part, the other usage data being maintained in the auto usage reporting platform which exposes the analytics tools to provide the users with information that describes the auto part usage;

receiving a query from a user, by the one or more computing devices and made using an analytics tool, for information that describes usage of the auto part;

generating, by the one or more computing devices, an answer to the query based on the aggregated usage data and the environmental data, the generated answer configured for output via the analytics tool to present the information that describes the usage of the auto part; and

communicating, by the one or more computing devices, the generated answer to the user for presentation via the analytics tool.

11. The method as described in claim 10, further comprising aggregating the usage data of the auto part with the other usage data of the auto part and with usage data of other parts of an automobile that includes the auto part and the other parts.

12. The method as described in claim 10, wherein generating the answer to the query includes determining the usage of the auto part from the aggregated usage data maintained in the auto usage reporting platform.

13. The method as described in claim 10, wherein the generated answer enables a user device to display the information that describes the usage of the auto part via the analytics tool.

14. The method as described in claim 10, wherein the obtained sensor data is formatted in data packets which each describe a particular usage event, the sensor data formatted as the data packets by the one or more auto part sensors.

15. The method as described in claim 10, wherein the sensor data obtained for the auto part has different fields for describing the usage events of the auto part than the sensor data obtained for different auto parts.

16. The method as described in claim 10, wherein the analytics tools exposed by the auto usage reporting platform include at least one of:

a freeform query and segmentation tool;

a path and sequencing tool;

an anomaly detection tool;

a contribution analysis tool;

or

a cohort analysis tool.

17. A system of an automobile implemented in an environment in which sensors are included with parts of automobiles, detect usage events that result from automobile usage, and produce sensor data indicative of the usage events, the system further configured to output recommendations generated for presentation to a user of the automobile based on automobile usage, the system comprising:

one or more processors; and

memory having stored thereon instructions that are executable by the one or more processors to perform operations comprising;

receiving the sensor data from the auto part sensors of the automobile that describes the usage events detected by the auto part sensors;

communicating the sensor data to an auto usage reporting platform that is configured to generate one or more recommendations for presentation to the user, the one or more recommendations suggesting at least one of a product or a service determined pertinent to the user based on usage of the automobile according to the sensor data and further based on interaction data associated with the user that describes interactions of the user with other sensor-configured objects;

receiving the one or more recommendations from the auto usage reporting platform; and

outputting the one or more recommendations via an output interface of the automobile for presentation to the user.

18. The system as described in claim 17, wherein the output interface is a display interface of the automobile.

19. The system as described in claim 17, wherein the sensor data describes adjustments made by the user to configure a driving environment of the automobile.

20. The system as described in claim 19, wherein the operations further comprise causing the adjustments to be made to the driving environment automatically in response to detection of the user entering the automobile.