Patent Issued for Systems And Methods For Controlling The Collection Of Vehicle Use Data Using A Mobile Device (USPTO 10,977,601)

2021 APR 28 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- From Alexandria, Virginia, NewsRx journalists report that a patent by the inventors Bowne, Benjamin (Mackinaw, IL); Baker, Nicholas R. (Normal, IL); Christopulos, Nick U. (Bloomington, IL); Wilkerson, Bryan T. (Bloomington, IL), filed on October 24, 2012, was published online on April 26, 2021.

The patent’s assignee for patent number 10,977,601 is State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company (Bloomington, Illinois, United States).

News editors obtained the following quote from the background information supplied by the inventors: “Improvements in roadway and automobile designs have steadily reduced injury and death rates in developed countries. Nevertheless, auto collisions are still the leading cause of injury-related deaths, an estimated total of 1.2 million worldwide in 2004, or 25% of the total from all causes. Further, driving safety is particularly important for higher-risk drivers such as teens and elderly drivers, as well as higher-risk passengers such as infant and elderly passengers. For example, motor vehicle crashes are the number one cause of death for American teens.

“Thus, driving safety remains a critical issue in today’s society. Various efforts and programs have been initiated to improve driving safety over the years. For example, driving instruction courses (often referred to as ‘drivers ed’) are intended to teach new drivers not only how to drive, but how to drive safely. Typically, an instructor rides as a passenger and provides instruction to the learning driver, and evaluates the driver’s performance. As another example, ‘defensive driving’ courses aim to reduce the driving risks by anticipating dangerous situations, despite adverse conditions or the mistakes of others. This can be achieved through adherence to a variety of general rules, as well as the practice of specific driving techniques. Defensive driving course provide a variety of benefits. For example, in many states, a defensive driving course can be taken as a way to dismiss traffic tickets, or to qualify the driver for a discount on car insurance premiums.

“From the perspective of an automobile insurance provider, the provider seeks to assess the risk level associated with a driver and price an insurance policy to protect against that risk. The process of determining the proper cost of an insurance policy, based on the assessed risk level, is often referred to as ‘rating.’ The rating process may include a number of input variables, including experience data for the specific driver, experience data for a class of drivers, capital investment predictions, profit margin targets, and a wide variety of other data useful for predicting the occurrence of accidents as well as the amount of damage likely to result from such accidents.

“In the industry today, driving behavior data for insurance rating purposes is collected by specialized devices that plug into vehicle data ports. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,832,141, issued to Skeen et al., discloses an onboard diagnostic memory module that is configured to plug into the OBD II port. The memory module is preprogrammed with data collection parameters through microprocessor firmware by connection to a PC having programming software for the module firmware. Data is recorded on a trip basis. Intelligent interrogation occurs by interpretive software from an interrogating PC to retrieve a trip-based and organized data set including hard and extreme acceleration and deceleration, velocity (in discrete bands), distance traveled, as well as the required SAE-mandated operating parameters.”

As a supplement to the background information on this patent, NewsRx correspondents also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent: “In accordance with the teachings of the present disclosure, a mobile device, such as a smartphone, is used to collect and transmit vehicle operation data, rather than a specialized device that plugs into a vehicle data port.

“According to one aspect of the invention, a mobile device may include at least one sensor that detects a characteristic of the mobile device selected from distance traveled, location, time, and g-force dynamics; a processor; and a tangible non-transitory computer readable storage medium containing instructions that, when executed on by the processor, are programmed to automatically detect that a wireless connection has been established between the mobile device and a vehicle, and in response to detecting the wireless connection between the mobile device and the vehicle, automatically start collecting vehicle operation data via the at least one sensor. The mobile device may automatically stop collecting the vehicle operation data in response to the vehicle being turned off.

“According to another aspect, a method for automatically recording vehicle operation data may include automatically detecting that a wireless connection has been established between a mobile device and a vehicle associated with the mobile device, and in response to detecting the wireless connection between the mobile device and the vehicle, automatically starting to collect vehicle operation data via at least one sensor provided by the mobile device.

“According to another aspect, computer instructions embodied in a tangible non-transitory computer readable storage medium may be executable by a processor to: automatically detect that a wireless connection has been established between a mobile device and a vehicle associated with the mobile device, and in response to detecting the wireless connection between the mobile device and the vehicle, automatically start to collect vehicle operation data via at least one sensor provided by the mobile device, without interaction between the mobile device and a user.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“What is claimed is:

“1. A mobile device comprising: at least one accelerometer and a GPS system provided in the mobile device; a processor; a memory; a Bluetooth enabled radio transmitter; and a tangible non-transitory computer readable storage medium containing instructions that, when executed on by the processor, perform the following steps: detect a wireless connection established between the mobile device and a vehicle having an engine by receiving a first indication from the Bluetooth enabled radio transmitter that it is connected to the vehicle; identify the vehicle by vehicle identification information in response to (a) the vehicle engine being started and (b) detecting the wireless connection between the mobile device and the vehicle, automatically start to collect vehicle operation data via the at least one accelerometer and a GPS system provided in the mobile device; continue to collect vehicle operation data via the at least one accelerometer and GPS system provided in the mobile device while the wireless connection between the mobile device and the vehicle is maintained; sense the orientation of the mobile device within the vehicle; store the collected and processed vehicle operation data in the memory; transmit the stored vehicle operation data from the mobile device to a server of a remote data storage system via a network; store additional data after transmitting the stored vehicle operation data; automatically detect that the wireless connection between the mobile device and the vehicle has been disconnected by receiving a second indication from the Bluetooth enabled radio transmitter that it is no longer connected to the vehicle; and in response to detecting the disconnection of the wireless connection between the mobile device and the vehicle, automatically stop collecting vehicle operation data via the at least one accelerometer and GPS system provided in the mobile device and send any stored additional vehicle operation data not previously sent to the server; such that the collection of vehicle operation data via the at least one accelerometer and GPS system provided in the mobile device is automatically started and stopped upon connection and disconnection, respectively, of the wireless connection between the mobile device and the vehicle; process the collected vehicle operation data to calculate one or more driving behavior metrics; transmit the one or more driving behavior metrics from the mobile device to a remote processing computer; and interrupt data collection when the mobile device is not oriented suitably for data collection.

“2. The mobile device of claim 1, wherein the wireless connection between the mobile device and the vehicle is automatically established in response to the vehicle being started, such that the mobile device automatically connects with the vehicle and starts collect vehicle operation data in response to the vehicle being started, without interaction between the mobile device and a user.

“3. The mobile device of claim 1, wherein the instructions are further configured to transmit the collected vehicle operation data from the mobile device to the remote processing computer.

“4. The mobile device of claim 1, wherein the instructions are further configured to automatically stop collecting vehicle operation data in response to the vehicle being turned off.

“5. The mobile device of claim 1, wherein the instructions are further configured to: automatically obtain vehicle identification information from the vehicle; and link the vehicle identification information with the collected vehicle operation data for storage or transmission of the collected vehicle operation data.

“6. The mobile device of claim 5, wherein the vehicle identification information comprises a MAC address associated with the vehicle.

“7. The mobile device of claim 5, wherein the vehicle identification information comprises a Bluetooth MAC address associated with the vehicle.

“8. The mobile device of claim 1, wherein the mobile device is a device selected from smartphone, cell phone, mobile telephone, personal digital assistant (PDA), laptop computer, and tablet-style computer.

“9. The mobile device of claim 1, wherein the mobile device is a GPS device.

“10. The mobile device of claim 1, wherein the wireless connection is a Bluetooth connection.

“11. The mobile device of claim 1, wherein the wireless connection is automatically established between the mobile device and the vehicle in response to the vehicle engine being started.

“12. The mobile device of claim 1, wherein the wireless connection is automatically established between the mobile device and the vehicle prior to the vehicle engine being started.

“13. The mobile device of claim 1, wherein the tangible non-transitory computer readable storage medium containing instructions that, when executed on by the processor, further perform the step of: process the collected data to compensate for any changes in orientation.

“14. A method for automatically recording vehicle operation data, the method comprising: automatically detecting that a wireless connection has been established between a mobile device and a vehicle associated with the mobile device and having an engine by receiving a first indication from a Bluetooth enabled radio transmitter that it is connected to the vehicle; identifying the vehicle by vehicle identification information; in response to detecting the wireless connection between the mobile device and the vehicle, automatically starting to collect vehicle operation data via at least one accelerometer and a GPS system in the mobile device; continuing to collect vehicle operation data via the at least one accelerometer and a GPS system provided in the mobile device while the wireless connection between the mobile device and the vehicle is maintained; sensing the orientation of the mobile device within the vehicle; storing the collected and processed vehicle operation data in a memory of the mobile device; transmitting the stored vehicle operation data from the mobile device to a server of a remote data storage system via a network; storing additional data after transmitting the stored vehicle operation data; automatically detecting that the wireless connection between the mobile device and the vehicle has been disconnected by receiving a second indication from the Bluetooth enabled radio transmitter that it is no longer connected to the MAC address; and in response to detecting the disconnection of the wireless connection between the mobile device and the vehicle, automatically stopping collecting vehicle operation data via the at least one accelerometer and a GPS system provided in the mobile device and send any stored additional vehicle operation data to the server; such that the collection of vehicle operation data via the at least one accelerometer and a GPS system provided in the mobile device is automatically started and stopped upon connection and disconnection, respectively, of the wireless connection between the mobile device and the vehicle; processing the collected vehicle operation data to calculate one or more driving behavior metrics; transmitting the one or more driving behavior metrics from the mobile device to a remote processing computer; and interrupting data collection when the mobile device is not oriented suitably for data collection.

“15. The method of claim 14, wherein the wireless connection between the mobile device and the vehicle is automatically established in response to the vehicle being started, such that the mobile device automatically connects with the vehicle and starts collect vehicle operation data in response to the vehicle being started, without interaction between the mobile device and a user.

“16. The method of claim 14, comprising automatically stopping the collection of vehicle operation data in response to the vehicle being turned off.

“17. The method of claim 14, further comprising: automatically obtaining vehicle identification information from the vehicle; and linking the vehicle identification information with the collected vehicle operation data for storage or transmission of the collected vehicle operation data.

“18. The method of claim 17, wherein the vehicle identification information comprises a MAC address associated with the vehicle.

“19. The method of claim 17, wherein the vehicle identification information comprises a Bluetooth MAC address associated with the vehicle.

“20. The method of claim 14, wherein the wireless connection is a Bluetooth connection.

“21. The method of claim 14, wherein collecting vehicle operation data via at least one accelerometer and GPS system provided in the mobile device comprises collecting a characteristic of the mobile computing device selected from distance traveled, location, time, and g-force dynamics via at least one accelerometer and GPS system provided in the mobile device.

“22. Computer instructions embodied in a tangible non-transitory computer readable storage medium, the computer instructions being executable by a processor to: automatically detect that a wireless connection has been established between a mobile device and a vehicle associated with the mobile device and having an engine by receiving a first indication from a Bluetooth enabled radio transmitter that it is connected to the vehicle; identify the vehicle by vehicle identification information; in response to (a) the vehicle engine being started and (b) detecting the wireless connection between the mobile device and the vehicle, automatically start to collect vehicle operation data via at least one accelerometer and a GPS system provided in the mobile device provided by the mobile device, without interaction between the mobile device and a user; store the collected vehicle operation data in a memory of the mobile device; continue to collect vehicle operation data via the at least one of the accelerometer or GPS system provided in the mobile device while the wireless connection between the mobile device and the vehicle is maintained; sense the orientation of the mobile device within the vehicle; transmit the stored vehicle operation data from the mobile device to a server of a remote data storage system via a network; store additional data after transmitting the stored vehicle operation data; automatically detect that the wireless connection between the mobile device and the vehicle has been disconnected by receiving a second indication from the Bluetooth enabled radio transmitter that it is no longer connected to the MAC address; and in response to detecting the disconnection of the wireless connection between the mobile device and the vehicle, automatically stop collecting vehicle operation data via the at least one accelerometer and a GPS system provided in the mobile device and send any additional stored vehicle operation data to the server; such that the collection of vehicle operation data via the at least one accelerometer and a GPS system provided in the mobile device is automatically started and stopped upon connection and disconnection, respectively, of the wireless connection between the mobile device and the vehicle; process the collected vehicle operation data to calculate one or more driving behavior metrics; transmit the one or more driving behavior metrics from the mobile device to a remote processing computer; and interrupt data collection when the mobile device is not oriented suitably for data collection.

“23. The computer instructions of claim 22, further comprising transmitting the collected vehicle operation data from the mobile device to a remote processing computer.

“24. The computer instructions of claim 22, wherein the computer instructions are configured to stop collecting vehicle operation data in response to the vehicle being turned off.

“25. The computer instructions of claim 22, wherein the computer instructions are further configured to: automatically obtain from the vehicle a MAC address associated with the vehicle; and link the vehicle MAC address with the collected vehicle operation data for storage or transmission of the collected vehicle operation data.

“26. The computer instructions of claim 22, wherein collecting vehicle operation data via at least one sensor provided by the mobile device comprises collecting a characteristic of the mobile computing device selected from distance traveled, location, time, and g-force dynamics via at least one sensor provided by the mobile device.”

For additional information on this patent, see: Bowne, Benjamin; Baker, Nicholas R.; Christopulos, Nick U.; Wilkerson, Bryan T. Systems And Methods For Controlling The Collection Of Vehicle Use Data Using A Mobile Device. U.S. Patent Number 10,977,601, filed October 24, 2012, and published online on April 26, 2021. 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=10,977,601.PN.&OS=PN/10,977,601RS=PN/10,977,601

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