Patent Issued for Method And System For Identifying Vehicle Collisions Using Sensor Data (USPTO 10,399,523)

2019 SEP 17 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- According to news reporting originating from Alexandria, Virginia, by NewsRx journalists, a patent by the inventors Christensen, Scott T. (Salem, OR); Dosher, David J. (Fitchburg, WI); Menon, Sunish Shreenarayan (Normal, IL); Dunham, Susan M. (Bloomington, IL), filed on February 7, 2018, was published online on September 16, 2019.

The assignee for this patent, patent number 10,399,523, is State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company (Bloomington, Illinois, United States).

Reporters obtained the following quote from the background information supplied by the inventors: “Today, vehicle collisions may be identified by drivers, passengers, and witnesses who see or are involved in the collision. However, such collisions may not be identified and reported in real-time, because the drivers, passengers, and witnesses involved in the collision may be incapacitated or unwilling to report the collision. Moreover, an assessment of a vehicle collision may be performed after the collision occurs, and may be based on vehicle damage reports and/or police reports.”

In addition to obtaining background information on this patent, NewsRx editors also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent: “To automatically identify a vehicle collision in near real-time, a collision identification system may obtain sensor data at a portable computing device within a vehicle. For example, the sensor data may include the position, speed, acceleration, pressure, sound intensity and/or rotation of the portable computing device. The sensor data may be analyzed according to a statistical model which is indicative of a vehicle collision. Based on the analysis, the collision identification system may determine whether a vehicle collision has occurred.

“In this manner, emergency notifications may be transmitted in near real-time, so that emergency personnel may respond as quickly as possible. Moreover, by identifying vehicle collisions via a portable computing device, collisions may be detected for any vehicle in an efficient manner and a user may have a single device for detecting collisions involving each of her vehicles. Also, sensor data may be collected from several portable computing devices of the driver and/or passengers in the vehicle. Advantageously, vehicle collisions may be identified with increased accuracy by comparing the sensor data collected at each of the portable computing devices.

“In an embodiment, a portable computing device for automatically identifying vehicle collisions using sensor data is provided. The portable computing device includes one or more processors, one or more sensors for receiving sensor data including at least one of: acceleration data, speed data, position data, pressure data, or rotation data, and a non-transitory computer-readable memory coupled to the one or more processors, and the one or more sensors and storing instructions thereon. When executed by the one or more processors, the instructions cause the portable computing device to obtain the sensor data from the one or more sensors, wherein a user of the portable computing device is travelling in a vehicle, and obtain statistical data indicative of a vehicle collision including (i) a sensor data characteristic which corresponds to the vehicle collision, wherein the sensor data characteristic is one of: acceleration, change in speed, change in pressure, or rotation, and (ii) a threshold value for the sensor data characteristic. The instructions further cause the portable computing device to determine whether a value for the sensor data characteristic included in the obtained sensor data exceeds the threshold value, and when the value for the sensor data characteristic included in the obtained sensor data exceeds the threshold value, determine that a collision has occurred involving the vehicle.

“In another embodiment, a computer-implemented method for automatically identifying vehicle collisions using sensor data is provided. The method includes sensing, at one or more sensors communicatively coupled to a portable computing device, information about the portable computing device, and obtaining sensor data from the one or more sensors communicatively coupled to the portable computing device, wherein a user of the portable computing device is travelling in a vehicle. The method further includes obtaining statistical data indicative of a vehicle collision including (i) a sensor data characteristic which corresponds to the vehicle collision, wherein the sensor data characteristic is one of: acceleration, change in speed, change in pressure, or rotation, and (ii) a threshold value for the sensor data characteristic. Moreover, the method includes determining whether a value for the sensor data characteristic included in the obtained sensor data exceeds the threshold value, and when the value for the sensor data characteristic included in the obtained sensor data exceeds the threshold value, determining that a collision has occurred involving the vehicle.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“We claim:

“1. A portable computing device for automatically identifying vehicle collisions using sensor data, the portable computing device comprising: one or more processors; one or more sensors for receiving sensor data including at least one of: acceleration data, speed data, position data, pressure data, or rotation data; and a non-transitory computer-readable memory coupled to the one or more processors, and the one or more sensors, and storing thereon instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the portable computing device to: determine that the portable computing device is in a vehicle by detecting a speed over a threshold speed or detecting an electronic signal from a vehicle head unit; in response to determining that the portable computing device is in the vehicle, obtain the sensor data from the one or more sensors, wherein a user of the portable computing device is travelling in the vehicle; obtain statistical data indicative of a vehicle collision including (i) a sensor data characteristic which corresponds to the vehicle collision, wherein the sensor data characteristic is one of: acceleration, change in speed, change in pressure, or rotation, and (ii) a threshold value for the sensor data characteristic; determine whether a value for the sensor data characteristic included in the obtained sensor data exceeds the threshold value; and when the value for the sensor data characteristic included in the obtained sensor data exceeds the threshold value, determine that a collision has occurred involving the vehicle.

“2. The portable computing device of claim 1, wherein the instructions further cause the portable computing device to transmit an emergency notification to one or more emergency contacts for the user.

“3. The portable computing device of claim 1, further comprising a user interface, wherein the instructions further cause the portable computing device to: cause a collision request to be displayed on the user interface asking the user to verify that a vehicle collision occurred; and in response to receiving an indication from the user that the collision occurred or when the user does not respond within a predetermined amount of time, transmit an emergency notification to emergency personnel, wherein the emergency notification includes a location of the user and at least some of the sensor data.

“4. The portable computing device of claim 1, wherein the obtained sensor data is a first set of sensor data, and to obtain statistical data indicative of a vehicle collision, the instructions cause the portable computing device to, during a training period: obtain a plurality of second sets of sensor data, wherein at least one of the plurality of second sets of sensor data corresponds to the vehicle collision and wherein at least one of the plurality of second sets of sensor data does not correspond to the vehicle collision; and determine a value for the sensor data characteristic of the at least one second set of sensor data which corresponds to the vehicle collision.

“5. The portable computing device of claim 4, wherein the at least one second set of sensor data which does not correspond to the vehicle collision includes sensor data indicative of the portable computing device being manipulated by the user, and the instructions cause the portable device to adjust the value for the sensor data characteristic which corresponds to the vehicle collision based upon the sensor data indicative of the portable computing device being manipulated by the user.

“6. The portable computing device of claim 1, wherein the statistical data further includes a plurality of threshold sample rate ranges at which the sensor data characteristic.

“7. The portable computing device of claim 6, wherein the statistical data further includes a threshold change in speed and when the acceleration included in the obtained sensor data does not exceed a threshold acceleration, the instructions cause the portable computing device to: determine whether a change in speed included in the obtained sensor data exceeds a threshold change in speed; and when the change in speed included in the obtained sensor data exceeds the threshold change in speed, determine whether a collision has occurred involving the vehicle based upon the acceleration and the change in speed.

“8. The portable computing device of claim 7, wherein to determine whether a collision has occurred based upon the acceleration and the change in speed, the instructions cause the portable computing device to: assign an acceleration score based upon the acceleration; assign a speed score based upon the change in speed; combine the acceleration score and the speed score into an overall collision likelihood score; determine whether the overall collision likelihood score exceeds a threshold collision score; and when the overall collision likelihood score exceeds the threshold collision score, determine that a collision has occurred involving the vehicle.

“9. The portable computing device of claim 1, wherein the instructions further cause the portable computing device to: obtain sensor data from a plurality of sets of sensors corresponding to a plurality of portable computing devices, wherein a plurality of users of the plurality of portable computing devices are travelling in the vehicle; for each set of sensor data, compare the obtained sensor data to the statistical data indicative of the vehicle collision; and determine that a collision has occurred involving the vehicle based upon the comparison.

“10. The portable computing device of claim 1, wherein the instructions further cause the portable computing device to: determine at least one of (i) a severity of the vehicle collision or (ii) a type of the vehicle collision based upon the comparison of the obtained sensor data to the statistical data.

“11. A computer-implemented method for automatically identifying vehicle collisions using sensor data, the method executed by one or more processors programmed to perform the method, the method comprising: sensing, at one or more sensors communicatively coupled to a portable computing device, information about the portable computing device; determining, by one or more processors, that the portable computing device is in a vehicle by detecting a speed over a threshold speed or detecting an electronic signal from a vehicle head unit; in response to determining that the portable computing device is in the vehicle, obtaining, at the one or more processors, sensor data from the one or more sensors communicatively coupled to the portable computing device, wherein a user of the portable computing device is travelling in the vehicle; obtaining, at the one or more processors, statistical data indicative of a vehicle collision including (i) a sensor data characteristic which corresponds to the vehicle collision, wherein the sensor data characteristic is one of: acceleration, change in speed, change in pressure, or rotation, and (ii) a threshold value for the sensor data characteristic; determining, by the one or more processors, whether a value for the sensor data characteristic included in the obtained sensor data exceeds the threshold value; and when the value for the sensor data characteristic included in the obtained sensor data exceeds the threshold value, determining, by the one or more processors, that a collision has occurred involving the vehicle.

“12. The method of claim 11, further comprising: causing, by the one or more processors, an emergency notification to be transmitted to one or more emergency contacts for the user.

“13. The method of claim 11, further comprising: causing, by the one or more processors, a collision request to be displayed on the portable computing device asking the user to verify that a vehicle collision occurred; and in response to receiving an indication from the user that the collision occurred or when the user does not respond within a predetermined amount of time, causing, by the one or more processors, an emergency notification to be transmitted to emergency personnel, wherein the emergency notification includes a location of the user and at least some of the sensor data.

“14. The method of claim 11, wherein the obtained sensor data is a first set of sensor data, and wherein obtaining statistical data indicative of a vehicle collision includes, during a training period: obtaining, at the one or more processors, a plurality of second sets of sensor data, wherein at least one of the plurality of second sets of sensor data corresponds to the vehicle collision and wherein at least one of the plurality of second sets of sensor data does not correspond to the vehicle collision; and determining, by the one or more processors, a value for the sensor data characteristic of the at least one second set of sensor data which corresponds to the vehicle collision.

“15. The method of claim 14, wherein the at least one second set of sensor data which does not correspond to the vehicle collision includes sensor data indicative of the portable computing device being manipulated by the user, and the method further comprises: adjusting, by the one or more processors, the value for the sensor data characteristic which corresponds to the vehicle collision based upon the sensor data indicative of the portable computing device being manipulated by the user.

“16. The method of claim 11, wherein the statistical data further includes a plurality of threshold sample rate ranges at which the sensor data characteristic is measured.

“17. The method of claim 16, wherein the statistical data further includes a threshold change in speed and when the acceleration included in the obtained sensor data does not exceed a threshold acceleration, the method includes: determining, by the one or more processors, whether a change in speed included in the obtained sensor data exceeds a threshold change in speed; and when the change in speed included in the obtained sensor data exceeds the threshold change in speed, determining, by the one or more processors, whether a collision has occurred involving the vehicle based upon the acceleration and the change in speed.

“18. The method of claim 17, wherein determining whether a collision has occurred based upon the acceleration and the change in speed includes: assigning, by the one or more processors, an acceleration score based upon the acceleration; assigning, by the one or more processors, a speed score based upon the change in speed; combining, by the one or more processors, the acceleration score and the speed score into an overall collision likelihood score; determining, by the one or more processors, whether the overall collision likelihood score exceeds a threshold collision score; and when the overall collision likelihood score exceeds the threshold collision score, determining, by the one or more processors, that a collision has occurred involving the vehicle.

“19. The method of claim 11, further comprising: obtaining sensor data from a plurality of sets of sensors corresponding to a plurality of portable computing devices, wherein a plurality of users of the plurality of portable computing devices are travelling in the vehicle; for each set of sensor data, comparing the obtained sensor data to the statistical data indicative of the vehicle collision; and determining that a collision has occurred involving the vehicle based upon the comparison.

“20. The method of claim 11, further comprising: determining, by the one or more processors, at least one of (i) a severity of the vehicle collision or (ii) a type of the vehicle collision based upon the comparison of the obtained sensor data to the statistical data.”

For more information, see this patent: Christensen, Scott T.; Dosher, David J.; Menon, Sunish Shreenarayan; Dunham, Susan M. Method And System For Identifying Vehicle Collisions Using Sensor Data. U.S. Patent Number 10,399,523, filed February 7, 2018, and published online on September 16, 2019. Patent URL: http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=10,399,523.PN.&OS=PN/10,399,523RS=PN/10,399,523

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