Patent Issued for Driving Analysis Based On Movement Data (USPTO 10,429,203)
2019 OCT 15 (NewsRx) -- By a
The assignee for this patent, patent number 10,429,203, is
Reporters obtained the following quote from the background information supplied by the inventors: “The ability to collect and analyze driving data and driving behaviors associated with vehicles and drivers has many valuable applications, for example, relating to vehicle and driver insurance, vehicle financing, product safety and marketing, government and law enforcement, and various other applications in other industries. For example, an insurance company may offer a safe driving discount, and a financial institution may offer financing incentives to customers based on driving behavior. Law enforcement or governmental personnel may collect and analyze driving data to identify dangerous driving roads or times, detect moving violations and other unsafe driving behaviors. In other cases, driving data may be used for navigation applications, vehicle tracking and monitoring applications, and vehicle maintenance applications, product sales and targeting advertisement applications, among others.
“Vehicle-based computer systems, such as on-board diagnostics (OBD) systems and telematics devices, may be used in automobiles and other vehicles, and may be capable of collecting various driving data. For example, OBD systems may receive information from the vehicle’s on-board computers and sensors in order to monitor a wide variety of information relating to the vehicle systems, such as engine RPM, emissions control, vehicle speed, throttle position, acceleration and braking rates, use of driver controls, etc. Vehicles may also include Global Positioning System (GPS) receivers and devices installed within or operating at the vehicle configured to collect vehicle location and time data. Such vehicle-based systems may be capable of collecting driving data which may be used to perform various driving data analyses such as statistical driving evaluations, driver score calculations, etc. However, not all vehicles are equipped with systems capable of collecting, analyzing, and communicating driving data. Moreover, a single vehicle may be used by multiple different drivers, and conversely, a single driver may drive multiple different vehicles. Thus, driving data collected by a vehicle-based system might not completely and accurately reflect a driver’s driving behavior.
“In contrast to vehicle-based systems, mobile devices such as smartphones, personal digital assistants, tablet computers, and the like, are often carried and/or operated by a single user. Some mobile devices may include one or more movement sensors, such as an accelerometer, gyroscope, speedometer, and/or GPS receivers, capable of detecting movement.”
In addition to obtaining background information on this patent, NewsRx editors also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent: “The following presents a simplified summary in order to provide a basic understanding of some aspects of the disclosure. The summary is not an extensive overview of the disclosure. It is neither intended to identify key or critical elements of the disclosure nor to delineate the scope of the disclosure. The following summary merely presents some concepts of the disclosure in a simplified form as a prelude to the description below.
“Aspects of the disclosure relate to systems, apparatuses, computer-implemented methods, and computer-readable media for receiving and analyzing movement data, and for determining driving trips and associated drivers based on the movement data. In some cases, movement data may be collected by one or more mobile devices, such as smartphones, tablet computers, and other mobile devices including movement sensors. The movement data may include, for example, acceleration data, speed data, rotation rate data, and other movement data recorded by a mobile device. The movement data may be analyzed and one or more driving trips may be identified based on the movement data collected by the mobile device. The analysis, which may be performed by the mobile device or a related data analysis server, may determine driving trips as distinguished from walking, running, train or air travel, and other non-driving movement of the mobile device.
“According to additional aspects, after identifying one or more driving trips, the previously collected movement data and/or additional collected driving data may be analyzed to identify drivers, vehicles, routes, driving events and behaviors and/or additional driving data. In some examples, after a driving trip is identified using one or more movement sensors, additional sensors may be activated to confirm and/or collect additional data about the driving trip. Such driving trip data may be used, for example, to update driving records or driver scores, offer insurance and/or other various products and services to drivers.
“Other features and advantages of the disclosure will be apparent from the additional description provided herein.”
The claims supplied by the inventors are:
“The invention claimed is:
“1. A computing device, comprising: one or more hardware memory units; and one or more processors; wherein the computing device is configured to access and employ the memory units and processors to: automatically initiate a movement data analysis software application to operate as a background application on the computing device, the movement data analysis software application being configured to continuously receive movement data collected by one or more movement sensors of the computing device, the one or more movement sensors of the computing device being configured to detect and collect movement data of the computing device when the computing device is moved; analyze the received movement data for a window of time sampled at a predetermined sampling rate to determine a binary output, the binary output including one of: the received movement data for the window of time corresponds to movement of the computing device in an automobile during a first driving trip or the received movement data for the window of time corresponds to movement of the computing device not in an automobile and during a non-driving trip; responsive to determining that said received movement data for the window of time corresponds to movement of the computing device in an automobile during the first driving trip: store and output data corresponding to the first driving trip; activate at least one additional movement sensor, the at least one additional movement sensor being a vehicle-based sensor different from the one or more movement sensors of the computing device; and initiate a communication session with a vehicle-based computer system in communication with the vehicle-based sensor and different from the computing device to obtain additional data from the at least one additional movement sensor; and responsive to determining that said received movement data for the window of time does not correspond to movement of the computing device in an automobile during the first driving trip receive additional movement data collected by one or more movement sensors of the computing device.
“2. The computing device of claim 1, wherein the computing device is a mobile computing device, the mobile computing device further comprising: one or more movement sensors configured to collect said movement data, the one or more movement sensors comprising at least one of a gyroscope, an accelerometer, a speedometer, or a global positioning system (GPS) receiver.
“3. The computing device of claim 2, wherein the mobile computing device is further configured to access and employ the memory units and processors to: collect a first portion of said movement data using a first movement sensor of the mobile device while the at least one additional movement sensor is in an inactive state, wherein the determination that said movement data corresponds to movement during the first driving trip is based on the first portion of said movement data; in response to determining that said movement data corresponds to movement during the first driving trip, activate the at least one additional movement sensor; and after the at least one additional movement sensor is activated, collect a second portion of said movement data using the at least one additional movement sensor, wherein the second portion of said movement data is used to determine driving data associated with the first driving trip.
“4. The computing device of claim 1, wherein determining that said movement data corresponds to movement of the computing device in an automobile during the first driving trip comprises: calculating an acceleration variable based at least on first acceleration data corresponding to acceleration in a first axis direction, and second acceleration data corresponding to acceleration in a second axis direction; and calculating a rotation rate variable based at least on first rotation rate data corresponding to rotation around a first axis, and second rotation rate data corresponding to rotation around a second axis.
“5. The computing device of claim 1, wherein determining that said movement data corresponds to movement of the computing device in an automobile during the first driving trip comprises: analyzing acceleration data and rotation data collected during the window of time; and determining the binary output based on the analysis of the acceleration data and rotation data collected during the window of time.
“6. The computing device of claim 5, wherein determining the binary output further comprises: calculating a probability that the acceleration data and rotation data collected during the window of time correspond to driving; and comparing the probability to a driving prediction threshold.
“7. A method, comprising: automatically initiating a movement data analysis software application to operate as a background application on a movement data analysis computing device, the movement data analysis software application being configured to continuously receive movement data of the movement data analysis computing device from one or more movement sensors of the movement data analysis computing device; analyzing the received movement data for a window of time sampled at a predetermined sampling rate to determine a binary output, the binary output including one of: the received movement data for the window of time corresponds to a movement of the movement data analysis computing device in an automobile during a first driving trip or the received movement data for the window of time corresponds to movement of the movement data analysis computing device not in an automobile and during a non-driving trip; and if it is determined that said movement data for the window of time corresponds to movement of the movement data analysis computing device in an automobile during the first driving trip: outputting, by the movement data analysis computing device, data corresponding to the first driving trip; activating at least one additional movement sensor, the at least one additional movement sensor being a vehicle-based sensor different from the one or more movement sensors of the movement data analysis computing device; and initiating a communication session with a vehicle-based computer system in communication with the vehicle-based sensor and different from the movement data analysis computing device to obtain additional data from the at least one additional movement sensor; and if it is determined that said received movement data for the window of time does not correspond to movement of the movement data analysis computing device in an automobile during the first driving trip receive additional movement data collected by one or more movement sensors of the movement data analysis computing device.
“8. The method of claim 7, wherein receiving the movement data comprises receiving data from one or more movement sensors of a mobile computing device, the one or more movement sensors comprising at least one of a gyroscope, an accelerometer, a speedometer, or a global positioning system (GPS) receiver.
“9. The method of claim 7, further comprising: collecting a first portion of said movement data using a first movement sensor of the movement data analysis computing device while the at least one additional movement sensor is in an inactive state, wherein the determination that said movement data corresponds to movement during the first driving trip is based on the first portion of said movement data; in response to determining that said movement data corresponds to movement during the first driving trip, activating the at least one additional movement sensor; and after the at least one additional movement sensor is activated, collecting a second portion of said movement data using the at least one additional movement sensor, wherein the second portion of said movement data is used to determine driving data associated with the first driving trip.
“10. The method of claim 7, wherein determining that said movement data corresponds to movement of the movement data analysis computing in an automobile during the first driving trip comprises: calculating an acceleration variable based at least on first acceleration data corresponding to acceleration in a first axis direction, and second acceleration data corresponding to acceleration in a second axis direction; and calculating a rotation rate variable based at least on first rotation rate data corresponding to rotation around a first axis, and second rotation rate data corresponding to rotation around a second axis.
“11. The method of claim 7, wherein determining that said movement data corresponds to movement of the movement data analysis computing in an automobile during the first driving trip comprises: analyzing acceleration data and rotation data collected during the window of time; and determining the binary output based on the analysis of the acceleration data and rotation data collected during the window of time.
“12. The method of claim 11, wherein determining the binary output further comprises: calculating a probability that the acceleration data and rotation data collected during the window of time correspond to driving; and comparing the probability to a driving prediction threshold.
“13. A system, comprising: a driving data analysis server; and one or more mobile computing devices, wherein the driving data analysis server comprises: one or more processors; one or more nonvolatile hardware memory units; and one or more networking components, wherein the driving data analysis server is configured to access and employ the memory units and processors to: transmit a movement data analysis software application, via the one or more networking components, to the one or more mobile computing devices; and receive driving trip data generated by the movement data analysis software application from the one or more mobile computing devices, wherein each of the one or more mobile computing devices comprises: one or more volatile hardware memory units, the memory units configured to receive and store movement data; and one or more, said processors configured to analyze movement data; wherein each of the mobile computing devices is configured to receive, store, and execute the movement data analysis software application, and said movement data analysis software application is programmed to access and employ the memory units and processors of the mobile computing device to: automatically initiate the movement data analysis software application to operate as a background application on each of the mobile computing devices, the movement data analysis software application being configured to continuously receive movement data collected by one or more movement sensors of the mobile computing device, the one or more movement sensors of the mobile computing device being configured to detect and collect movement data of the mobile computing device when the mobile computing device is moved; analyze the received movement data for a window of time sampled at a predetermined sampling rate to determine a binary output, the binary output including one of: the received movement data for the window of time corresponds to movement of at least one mobile computing device in an automobile during a first driving trip or the received movement data for the window of time corresponds to movement of the at least one mobile computing device not in an automobile and during a non-driving trip; and responsive to determining that said received movement data for the window of time corresponds to movement of the at least one mobile computing device in an automobile during the first driving trip: transmit output data corresponding to the first driving trip to the driving data analysis server; activate at least one additional movement sensor, the at least one additional movement sensor being a vehicle-based sensor different from the one or more movement sensors of the mobile computing device; and initiate a communication session with a vehicle-based computer system in communication with the vehicle-based sensor and different from the mobile computing device to obtain additional data from the at least one additional movement sensor; and responsive to determining that said received movement data for the window of time does not correspond to movement of the at least one mobile computing device in an automobile during the first driving trip receive additional movement data collected by one or more movement sensors of the computing device.
“14. The system of claim 13, wherein the movement data analysis software application is further programmed to access and employ the memory units and processors of the mobile computing device to: collect a first portion of said movement data using a first movement sensor of the mobile computing device while the at least one additional movement sensor is in an inactive state, wherein the determination that said movement data corresponds to movement during the first driving trip is based on the first portion of said movement data; in response to determining that said movement data corresponds to movement during the first driving trip, activate the at least one additional movement sensor; and after the at least one additional movement sensor is activated, collect a second portion of said movement data using the at least one additional movement sensor, wherein the second portion of said movement data is used to determine driving data associated with the first driving trip.
“15. The computing device of claim 1, wherein the movement of the computing device not in an automobile and during the non-driving trip includes movement during at least one of: a walking event, an air travel event, and a train travel event.”
For more information, see this patent: Brandmaier, Jennifer A.; Fitzgerald, Jeffrey; Huls, Eric; Kleinhenz, Joseph; Loo, William; Manzella,
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