Patent Issued for System And Method For Automatically Modifying Brake Light Intensity (USPTO 10,207,635)

2019 FEB 27 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- A patent by the inventors Sanchez, Kenneth J. (San Francisco, CA); Chan, Aaron Scott (Bloomington, IL), filed on January 16, 2018, was published online on March 4, 2019, according to news reporting originating from Alexandria, Virginia, by NewsRx correspondents.

Patent number 10,207,635 is assigned to State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company (Bloomington, Illinois, United States).

The following quote was obtained by the news editors from the background information supplied by the inventors: “Vehicles serve as a common form of transportation utilized by many. Often, vehicle usage can lead to road congestion. Vehicle operators are required to stay focused on the vehicles ahead of them as well as road conditions. In some circumstances, a distracted individual may cause an accident that could result in vehicle damage, traffic jams, and/or injury or death.

“As hand-held devices have evolved, more individuals have become accustomed to always being virtually connected. Additionally, vehicles have experienced an increased prevalence of sensors capable of sensing and generating data associated with vehicle operators and their operation. However, even with this increasing prevalence, there are no existing solutions for determining when specific drivers are operating vehicles in certain situations. For example, there is no existing solution for determining when a vehicle operator may be distracted. Accordingly, there is an opportunity for systems and methods to leverage various data to determine when vehicle operators may be distracted, and accordingly facilitate certain actions to mitigate the risks posed by the distracted vehicle operators.”

In addition to the background information obtained for this patent, NewsRx journalists also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent: “In one aspect, a computer-implemented method of dynamically modifying brake lights of a first vehicle is provided. The method may include receiving, from a first electronic device associated with the first vehicle, image data depicting an operator of the first vehicle, analyzing, by a processor, the image data to determine a set of characteristics associated with the operator depicted in the image data, accessing a set of baseline image data having a set of baseline characteristics, comparing the set of characteristics of the image data to the set of baseline characteristics of the set of baseline image data, based on the comparing, determining that the operator of the first vehicle is distracted, determining, based on a location of the first vehicle, a second vehicle that is located in front of the first vehicle, and transmitting, via a communication network, a brake light command to a second electronic device associated with the second vehicle, wherein the second electronic device is configured to execute the brake light command to cause brake lights of the second vehicle to modify intensity.

“In another aspect, a server configured to dynamically modify brake lights of a first vehicle is provided. The server comprises a transceiver configured to communicate data via at least one network connection, a memory configured to store non-transitory computer executable instructions and a set of baseline image data having a set of baseline characteristics, and a processor configured to interface with the transceiver and the memory, wherein the processor is configured to execute the non-transitory computer executable instructions to cause the processor to: receive, from a first electronic device associated with the first vehicle via the transceiver, image data depicting an operator of the first vehicle, analyze the image data to determine a set of characteristics associated with the operator depicted in the image data, access, from the memory, the set of baseline image data having the set of baseline characteristics, compare the set of characteristics of the image data to the set of baseline characteristics of the set of baseline image data, based on the comparing, determine that the operator of the first vehicle is distracted, determine, based on a location of the first vehicle, a second vehicle that is located in front of the first vehicle, and transmit, via the transceiver, a brake light command to a second electronic device associated with the second vehicle, wherein the second electronic device is configured to execute the brake light command to cause brake lights of the second vehicle to modify intensity.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“What is claimed is:

“1. A computer-implemented method of dynamically modifying a brake lights of a first vehicle, the method comprising: receiving, from a first electronic device associated with the first vehicle, image data depicting an operator of the first vehicle; analyzing, by a processor, the image data to determine a set of characteristics associated with the operator depicted in the image data; accessing a set of baseline image data having a set of baseline characteristics; comparing the set of characteristics of the image data to the set of baseline characteristics of the set of baseline image data; based on the comparing, determining that the operator of the first vehicle is distracted; determining, based on a location of the first vehicle, a second vehicle that is located in front of the first vehicle; transmitting, via a communication network, a brake light command to a second electronic device associated with the second vehicle, wherein the second electronic device is configured to execute the brake light command to cause brake lights of the second vehicle to modify intensity.

“2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein determining, based on the location of the first vehicle, the second vehicle that is located in front of the first vehicle comprises: determining at least one of: a location of the second vehicle, a speed of the second vehicle, and a direction of travel of the second vehicle; and determining, based on the location of the first vehicle and the at least one of: the location of the second vehicle, the speed of the second vehicle, and the direction of travel of the second vehicle, that the second vehicle is located in front of the first vehicle.

“3. The computer-implement method of claim 1, further comprising: determining that an additional vehicle is traveling in front of the first vehicle; and transmitting, via the communication network, an additional brake light command to an additional electronic device associated with the additional vehicle, wherein the additional electronic device is configured to execute the additional brake light command to cause brake lights of the additional vehicle to modify intensity.

“4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein transmitting the brake light command to the second electronic device comprises: transmitting, via the communication network, the brake light command to a brake light interface associated with the second vehicle, wherein the brake light interface is connected to the brake lights of the second vehicle.

“5. The computer-implemented method of claim 4, wherein the brake light interface sends the brake light command either directly to the brake lights or indirectly to the brake lights via an on board device (OBD) system.

“6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising: determining that the operator of the first vehicle remains distracted; and transmitting, via the communication network, an additional brake light command to the second electronic device associated with the second vehicle, wherein the second electronic device is configured to execute the additional brake light command to cause the brake lights of the second vehicle to blink at a variable rate.

“7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising: determining that the second vehicle is no longer located in front of the first vehicle; and transmitting, via the communication network, an additional brake light command to the second electronic device associated with the second vehicle, wherein the second electronic device is configured to execute the additional brake light command to cause the brake lights of the second vehicle to revert to normal intensity.

“8. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising: transmitting, via the communication network, an alert to the second electronic device associated with the second vehicle, wherein the second electronic device is configured to display the alert.

“9. The computer-implemented method of claim 8, wherein the alert identifies the first vehicle.

“10. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising: generating the brake light command.

“11. A server configured to dynamically modify brake lights of a first vehicle, comprising; a transceiver configured to communicate data via at least one network connection; a memory configured to store non-transitory computer executable instructions and a set of baseline image data having a set of baseline characteristics; a processor configured to interface with the transceiver and the memory, and configured to execute the non-transitory computer executable instructions to cause the processor to: receive, via the transceiver from a first electronic device associated with the first vehicle, image data depicting an operator of the first vehicle, analyze the image data to determine a set of characteristics associated with an operator depicted in the image data, access, from the memory, the set of baseline image data having the set of baseline characteristics, compare the set of characteristics of the image data to the set of baseline characteristics of the set of baseline image data, based on the comparing, determine that the operator of the first vehicle is distracted, determine, based on a location of the first vehicle, a second vehicle that is located in front of the first vehicle, and transmit, via the transceiver, a brake light command to a second electronic device associated with the second vehicle, wherein the second electronic device is configured to execute the brake light command to cause brake lights of the second vehicle to modify intensity.

“12. The server of claim 11, wherein to determine, based on the location of the first vehicle, the second vehicle that is located in front of the first vehicle, the processor is configured to: determine at least one of: a location of the second vehicle, a speed of the second vehicle, and a direction of travel of the second vehicle, and determine, based on the location of the first vehicle and the at least one of: the location of the second vehicle, the speed of the second vehicle, and the direction of travel of the second vehicle, that the second vehicle is located in front of the first vehicle.

“13. The server of claim 11, wherein the processor is further configured to: determine that an additional vehicle is traveling in front of the first vehicle; and transmit, via the transceiver, an additional brake light command to an additional electronic device associated with the additional vehicle, wherein the additional electronic device is configured to execute the additional brake light command to cause brake lights of the additional vehicle to modify intensity.

“14. The server of claim 11, wherein to transmit the brake light command to the second electronic device, the processor is configured to: transmit, via the transceiver, the brake light command to a brake light interface associated with the second vehicle, wherein the brake light interface is connected to the brake lights of the second vehicle.

“15. The server of claim 14, wherein the brake light interface sends the brake light command either directly to the brake lights or indirectly to the brake lights via an on board device (OBD) system.

“16. The server of claim 11, wherein the processor is further configured to: determine that the operator of the first vehicle remains distracted, and transmit, via the transceiver, an additional brake light command to the second electronic device associated with the second vehicle, wherein the second electronic device is configured to execute the additional brake light command to cause the brake lights of the second vehicle to blink at a variable rate.

“17. The server of claim 11, wherein the processor is further configured to: determine that the second vehicle is no longer located in front of the first vehicle, and transmit, via the transceiver, an additional brake light command to the second electronic device associated with the second vehicle, wherein the second electronic device is configured to execute the additional brake light command to cause the brake lights of the second vehicle to revert to normal intensity.

“18. The server of claim 11, wherein the processor is further configured to: transmit, via the transceiver, an alert to the second electronic device associated with the second vehicle, wherein the second electronic device is configured to display the alert.

“19. The server of claim 18, wherein the alert identifies the first vehicle.

“20. The server of claim 11, wherein the processor is further configured to: generate the brake light command.”

URL and more information on this patent, see: Sanchez, Kenneth J.; Chan, Aaron Scott. System And Method For Automatically Modifying Brake Light Intensity. U.S. Patent Number 10,207,635, filed January 16, 2018, and published online on March 4, 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=10,207,635.PN.&OS=PN/10,207,635RS=PN/10,207,635

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