Patent Issued for Method And System For Identifying Vehicle Collisions Using Sensor Data (USPTO 10,814,812)

2020 NOV 11 (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 James (Fitchburg, WI); Menon, Sunish Shreenarayan (Normal, IL); Dunham, Susan M. (Bloomington, IL), filed on November 22, 2019, was published online on November 9, 2020.

The assignee for this patent, patent number 10,814,812, 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 server device for automatically identifying vehicle collisions using sensor data is provided. The server device includes one or more processors, and a non-transitory computer-readable memory coupled to the one or more processors, and storing instructions thereon. When executed by the one or more processors, the instructions cause the server device to obtain a set of training data including a plurality of sets of sensor data from portable computing devices collected during vehicle trips, the plurality of sets of sensor data including a first subset of sensor data corresponding to vehicle trips involved in vehicle collisions and a second subset of sensor data corresponding to vehicle trips not involved in vehicle collisions, each set of sensor data including at least one of: position data, speed data, acceleration data, rotation data, pressure data, or sound data. The instructions further cause the server device to generate, using the training data, a statistical model for identifying whether a portable computing device is in a vehicle involved in a vehicle collision based on sensor data from the portable computing device, obtain a current set of sensor data from a portable computing device, compare the current set of sensor data from the portable computing device to the statistical model to determine whether the portable computing device is in a vehicle involved in a vehicle collision, and determine that a vehicle collision has occurred involving the vehicle including the portable computing device based on the comparison.

“In another embodiment, a computer-implemented method for automatically identifying vehicle collisions using sensor data is provided. The method includes obtaining a set of training data including a plurality of sets of sensor data from portable computing devices collected during vehicle trips, the plurality of sets of sensor data including a first subset of sensor data corresponding to vehicle trips involved in vehicle collisions and a second subset of sensor data corresponding to vehicle trips not involved in vehicle collisions, each set of sensor data including at least one of: position data, speed data, acceleration data, rotation data, pressure data, or sound data. The method further includes generating, using the training data, a statistical model for identifying whether a portable computing device is in a vehicle involved in a vehicle collision based on sensor data from the portable computing device. Moreover, the method includes obtaining a current set of sensor data from a portable computing device, comparing the current set of sensor data from the portable computing device to the statistical model to determine whether the portable computing device is in a vehicle involved in a vehicle collision, and determining that a vehicle collision has occurred involving the vehicle including the portable computing device based on the comparison.”

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: a user interface; 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: obtain the sensor data from the one or more sensors, wherein a user of the portable computing device is travelling in a 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; 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; and in response to determining that the collision has occurred, (i) determine whether the user requires emergency assistance and (ii) display collision information on the user interface, wherein: in response to determining that the user does not require emergency assistance, displaying the collision information includes displaying at least one collision tip providing the user with a recommended action to perform after the collision.

“2. The portable computing device of claim 1, wherein the collision information includes contact information of an insurance agent of the user.

“3. The portable computing device of claim 1, wherein the at least one collision tip includes a recommendation to notify an insurance agent of the user.

“4. The portable computing device of claim 1, wherein the at least one collision tip includes a recommendation to collect information associated with other people involved in the collision.

“5. 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.

“6. The portable computing device of claim 1, wherein the collision information includes a collision request asking the user to verify that a vehicle collision occurred, and wherein the instructions further cause the portable computing device to: 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.

“7. The portable computing device of claim 1, 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: 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.

“10. 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; obtaining, at 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 a 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; 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; and in response to determining that the collision has occurred, (i) determining whether the user requires emergency assistance and (ii) causing collision information to be displayed on the portable computing device, wherein: in response to determining that the user does not require emergency assistance, causing the collision information to be displayed includes causing at least one collision tip to be displayed, the at least one collision tip providing the user with a recommended action to perform after the collision.

“11. The method of claim 10, wherein causing the collision information to be displayed includes causing contact information of an insurance agent of the user to be displayed.

“12. The method of claim 10, wherein the at least one collision tip includes a recommendation to notify an insurance agent of the user.

“13. The method of claim 10, wherein the at least one collision tip includes a recommendation to collect information associated with other people involved in the collision.

“14. The method of claim 10, further comprising: causing, by the one or more processors, an emergency notification to be transmitted to one or more emergency contacts for the user.

“15. The method of claim 10, wherein causing the collision information to be displayed includes causing a collision request to be displayed 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.

“16. The method of claim 10, 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.

“17. The method of claim 16, 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.

“18. The method of claim 10, 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 James; Menon, Sunish Shreenarayan; Dunham, Susan M. Method And System For Identifying Vehicle Collisions Using Sensor Data. U.S. Patent Number 10,814,812, filed November 22, 2019, and published online on November 9, 2020. 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=10,814,812.PN.&OS=PN/10,814,812RS=PN/10,814,812

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