Patent Issued for Risk Behavior Detection Methods Based On Tracking Handset Movement Within A Moving Vehicle (USPTO 10,867,354)

2020 DEC 30 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- From Alexandria, Virginia, NewsRx journalists report that a patent by the inventors Slusar, Mark V. (Chicago, IL); Kleinhenz, Joseph (Bollingbrook, IL); Huls, Eric D. (Chicago, IL), filed on June 5, 2017, was published online on December 28, 2020.

The patent’s assignee for patent number 10,867,354 is Allstate Insurance Company (Northbrook, Illinois, United States).

News editors obtained the following quote from the background information supplied by the inventors: “Telematics devices are used by insurance companies to monitor driving behavior for the purpose of setting insurance premiums based on an analysis of the monitored data. These devices transmit various types of information to a data analysis server, including information such as the time of day in which a vehicle is most frequently operated, the mileage reading of the vehicle, the number of times the vehicle is driven over a predetermined threshold (e.g., 80 mph, etc.), and instances of hard braking and quick acceleration, among other things.

“Telematics programs by insurance companies may offer participants the opportunity to reduce the cost of their insurance premium based on their driving behavior. While information such as the time of day and mileage reading may be helpful, additional information may be valuable to an insurance company when determining the cost of the insurance premium.”

As a supplement to the background information on this patent, NewsRx correspondents also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent: “In light of the foregoing background, the following presents a simplified summary of the present disclosure in order to provide a basic understanding of some aspects of the disclosure. This summary is not an extensive overview of the disclosure. It is not intended to identify key or critical elements of the disclosure or 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 more detailed description provided below.

“Aspects of the exemplary embodiments provide at least a method for determining a risk associated with a vehicle being driven by a driver based on data received by a computer based system. The data may comprise information that identifies movement and a position of a mobile communications device used by a driver of the vehicle over unit time. The data may further comprise telematics data such as speed, acceleration, deceleration, times of operation, duration of operation, mileage driven per day, and day of the week the vehicle is used.

“The various aspects of the exemplary embodiments are substantially shown in and/or described in connection with at least one of the following figures, as set forth more completely in the claims.

“These and other advantages, aspects, and novel features of the present disclosure, as well as details of illustrated embodiments, thereof, will be more fully understood from the following description and drawings.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“We claim:

“1. A method comprising: processing, by at least three localization devices attached to a first vehicle, a signal transmitted over time by a wireless communication device; determining, based on the processing, that a location, of the wireless communication device relative to the at least three localization devices, corresponds to a height of a driver in a seated position in the first vehicle; determining, by a computing device and based on the location of the wireless communication device, one or more occurrences of one or more events associated with the driver of the first vehicle; determining, by the computing device, one or more probabilities of occurrence of the one or more occurrences of the one or more events, and determining, based on the one or more probabilities, that an event of the one or more events corresponds to the driver speaking while the wireless communication device is placed on an ear of the driver; categorizing, by the computing device and based on the event, the driver of the first vehicle into a risk category; the method further comprising: prior to the transmitting of the signal by the wireless communication device, calibrating the wireless communication device by pairing each of the at least three localization devices while the wireless communication device is located in a vicinity of a driver seat of the first vehicle; determining, by the computing device over time and based on the signal transmitted by the wireless communication device, a triangulated position of the wireless communication device relative to the at least three localization devices; and determining, by the computing device and based on the triangulated position of the wireless communication device, that the driver is operating the wireless communication device while driving the first vehicle; and transmitting an alert to a second vehicle, wherein the second vehicle is different from the first vehicle.

“2. The method of claim 1, wherein insurance premium discounts are provided to the driver of the vehicle when the risk category indicates that the driver is associated with a good risk.

“3. The method of claim 1, wherein the wireless communication device comprises an active RFID tag.

“4. The method of claim 3, wherein the active RFID tag is powered by a battery.

“5. The method of claim 1, wherein an insurance premium of the driver is increased when the risk category indicates that the driver is associated with a high risk.

“6. The method of claim 1, wherein the signal comprises a Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) signal.

“7. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least three localization devices comprise four localization devices that are symmetrically attached to the vehicle.

“8. An apparatus comprising: at least three localization devices attached to the first vehicle, wherein each localization device comprises a RFID node; a wireless communication device transmitting a signal that is received by each of the at least three localization devices, wherein prior to the transmitting, the wireless communication device has been calibrated by pairing each localization device to the wireless communication device while the wireless communication device is located in a vicinity of a driver seat of the first vehicle; a computer processor; and a tangible computer memory storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed by the computer processor, cause the apparatus to perform steps comprising: processing, by the computer processor, the signal transmitted by the wireless communication device; determining, by the computer processor over time and based on the signal transmitted by the wireless communication device, a triangulated position of the wireless communication device relative to the at least three localization devices; determining, by the computer processor and based on the triangulated position of the wireless communication device, that the driver is operating the wireless communication device while driving the first vehicle; and transmitting an alert to a second vehicle, wherein the second vehicle is different from the first vehicle.

“9. The apparatus of claim 8 wherein the triangulated position corresponds to a height of the driver in a seated position in the vehicle and an event of one or more events corresponds to the driver speaking while the wireless communication device is placed on an ear of the driver, wherein the tangible computer memory further stores computer-executable instructions that, when executed by the computer processor, cause the apparatus to perform steps comprising: determining, by the computer processor and by using an algorithm, one or more occurrences of the one or more events based on the triangulated position; determining, by the computer processor and by using the algorithm, one or more probabilities of occurrence of the one or more occurrences of the one or more events, and based on the one or more probabilities, categorizing, by the computer processor, the driver into a risk category.

“10. The apparatus of claim 9 wherein insurance premium discounts are provided to an insured of the vehicle if the risk category indicates that the driver is associated with a low risk.

“11. The apparatus of claim 8 wherein alerts are transmitted to the wireless communication device if the triangulated position changes irregularly over time, and wherein the wireless communication device comprises an active RFID tag powered by a battery.

“12. The apparatus of claim 9 wherein an insurance premium of an insured is increased if the risk category indicates that the driver is associated with a high risk.

“13. The apparatus of claim 8 wherein the signal comprises a Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) signal.

“14. The apparatus of claim 8 wherein the at least three localization devices comprises four localization devices that are symmetrically attached to the vehicle.

“15. A system comprising: at least one memory; and at least one processor coupled to the at least one memory and configured to perform, based on instructions stored in the at least one memory: periodically receiving a signal transmitted over time by a wireless communication device in a vehicle, wherein the signal is indicative of a location of the wireless communication device relative to at least three localization devices attached to the vehicle; analyzing the received signal to determine one or more occurrences of one or more events associated with a driver of the vehicle; determining, by using an algorithm and based on the location of the wireless communication device, one or more probabilities of the one or more occurrences of the one or more events; and based on the one or more probabilities, categorizing the driver of the vehicle into a risk category.

“16. The system of claim 15 wherein an insurance premium of an insured is increased if the risk category indicates that the driver is associated with a high risk.

“17. The system of claim 15 wherein the signal comprises a Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) signal.

“18. The system of claim 15, wherein insurance premium discounts are provided to the driver of the vehicle when the risk category indicates that the driver is associated with a low risk.

“19. The system of claim 15, wherein the wireless communication device comprises an active RFID tag powered by a battery.

“20. The system of claim 15, wherein the location corresponds to a height of the driver in a seated position in the vehicle, and an event of the one or more events corresponds to the driver speaking while the wireless communication device is placed on an ear of the driver.”

For additional information on this patent, see: Slusar, Mark V.; Kleinhenz, Joseph; Huls, Eric D. Risk Behavior Detection Methods Based On Tracking Handset Movement Within A Moving Vehicle. U.S. Patent Number 10,867,354, filed June 5, 2017, and published online on December 28, 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=10,867,354.PN.&OS=PN/10,867,354RS=PN/10,867,354

(Our reports deliver fact-based news of research and discoveries from around the world.)