Patent Issued for Systems and methods for determining the driver of a vehicle (USPTO 11627216): United Services Automobile Association
2023 APR 27 (NewsRx) -- By a
The patent’s assignee for patent number 11627216 is
News editors obtained the following quote from the background information supplied by the inventors: “It is now well understood that a significant number of vehicle accidents occur while drivers are distracted by their personal devices, such as smartphones, tablets and laptops. Despite many warnings and public service announcements alerting drivers of the risks they are taking by responding to or making telephone calls, reading or sending text messages, or reading communications received via any of the several social media platforms, accidents due to such distracted driving continue to happen at an alarming rate. One possible solution to this issue-disabling all personal devices in a vehicle once the vehicle is in motion-is unsatisfactory because disabling the personal devices of passengers serves no useful purpose. Even less drastic measures, such as precluding making phone calls based upon GPS position may be unsatisfactory because they do not preclude a personal device from being used for texting or accessing social media, for example.
“Instead, in many cases, allowing passengers (but not drivers) to entertain themselves during a long drive makes the trip more pleasurable (or at least more tolerable) for both the driver and the passengers. Also, drivers often may need to use certain apps while they are driving that are sufficiently useful such that their usefulness outweighs any slight increase in the risk posed by any distraction caused by the apps. Examples of such apps include a hands-free app for receiving telephone calls and a navigation app.
“For these reasons, there is a need for systems and methods that limit drivers’ uses of their personal devices, but allow passengers full use of their personal devices.”
As a supplement to the background information on this patent, NewsRx correspondents also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent: “In one aspect, embodiments include a method for reducing distractions for the driver of a motor vehicle by having a first personal device broadcast pings that include a time stamp identifying when the pings were sent. A second personal device receives the pings, calculates that it is probably collocated with the first personal device, and responds by reporting its position and velocity relative to the first personal device, and the time it received the ping from the first device. The first personal device then determines that the second personal device is proximal to the first personal device and establishes a mesh network with the second personal device. The first personal device and the second personal device then exchange identification of any additional personal devices that might have previously been identified by either of the two devices, eliminate any duplicates, and add the de-duplicated devices to the mesh network. The method then identifies which of the personal devices are associated with the driver of the motor vehicle, and which are associated with passengers, and disables all distracting apps from the driver’s personal devices.
“In another aspect, embodiments include a method for reducing distractions for a driver of a motor vehicle using a first personal device broadcasting pings that include a time stamp identifying the time when the pings were sent, and a second personal device that receives the pings broadcast by the first personal device. The second personal device then calculates the distance from the first personal device to the second personal device based at least in part on the time the pings were received compared to the time identified in the time stamp. The first personal device and the second personal device establish a mesh network between them, and further determine whether any additional personal devices are collocated with the first personal device and the second personal device. The first personal device and the second personal device then add any additional personal devices that have been determined to be collocated with the first personal device and the second personal device within the motor vehicle to the mesh network, identify any personal devices that are associated with the driver of the vehicle, and disable any distracting apps present in the personal devices associated with the driver of the motor vehicle.
“In yet another aspect, embodiments include a method for reducing distractions for a driver of a motor vehicle in which a first personal device broadcasts pings that include time stamps identifying when the pings were sent. A second personal device receives the pings broadcast by the first personal device at specific receiving times, and calculates its position relative to the first personal device based upon differences between the times identified by the time stamps and the specific receiving times. The first personal device then determines that the second personal device is collocated with the first personal device within the motor vehicle, and establishes a mesh network between the first personal device and the second personal device. The first personal device and the second personal device then identify any additional personal devices that may be collocated within the vehicle, identify which of the personal devices are associated with the driver of the vehicle, and disable any distracting apps on the personal devices associated with the driver of the vehicle.
“Other systems, methods, features and advantages of the invention will be, or will become, apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art upon examination of the following figures and detailed description. It is intended that all such additional systems, methods, features and advantages be included within this description and this summary, be within the scope of the invention, and be protected by the following claims.”
The claims supplied by the inventors are:
“1. A method for reducing distractions for a first driver of a motor vehicle comprising: a first personal device broadcasting pings that include a time stamp identifying when the pings were sent; a second personal device receiving the pings broadcast by the first personal device that calculates that the probability that the second personal device is collocated with the first personal device and responding to the first personal device by reporting its position relative to the first personal device, its velocity relative to the first personal device’s velocity, and the time it received the ping from the first personal device; the first personal device then determining that the second personal device is proximal to the first personal device and establishing a mesh network with the second personal device; the first personal device and the second personal device then exchanging identification of additional personal devices that might have previously been identified by either of these two personal devices, eliminating redundancy of the previously identified additional personal devices, and adding non-redundant additional personal devices to the mesh network; identifying which of the personal devices on the mesh network are associated with the driver of the motor vehicle and which of the personal devices are associated with passengers in the motor vehicle; and disabling at least one distracting application from at least one of the personal devices associated with the driver.
“2. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of disabling at least one distracting application from at least one of the personal devices associated with the driver does not disable applications from personal devices that are associated only with passengers in the motor vehicle.
“3. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining if one of the motor vehicle’s doors has been opened during a stop, determining if a new driver has now replaced the first driver, and disabling at least one distracting application on at least one of the new driver’s personal devices.
“4. The method of claim 3, further comprising determining if the first driver is now a passenger in the vehicle, and restoring full functionality to at least one of the first driver’s personal devices.
“5. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining if the motor vehicle has been in an accident, and identifying at least one personal device associated with the driver when the accident occurred.
“6. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of identifying which of the personal devices are associated with the driver comprises generating a map of relative positions of the personal devices.
“7. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining that the motor vehicle has been in an accident based at least on a sudden dramatic change in position of the second personal device relative to the first personal device, and alerting first responders.
“8. A method, performed by a first personal device within a motor vehicle, for reducing distractions for a driver of the motor vehicle, comprising: broadcasting a ping that includes a time stamp identifying when the ping was sent, the ping being received by a second personal device; receiving, from the second personal device, a position of the second personal device relative to the first personal device, a velocity of the second personal device relative to a velocity of the first personal device, and a time the second personal device received the ping from the first personal device; determining that the second personal device is proximal to the first personal device; establishing a communication with the second personal device; exchanging, with the second personal device, identification of additional personal devices that were previously identified by either of the first personal device and the second personal device as being within the motor vehicle; eliminating redundancy of the previously identified additional personal devices; adding non-redundant additional personal devices to the communication; identifying which of the personal devices on the communication are associated with the driver of the motor vehicle and which of the personal devices on the communication are associated with passengers in the motor vehicle; and instructing at least one of the personal devices associated with the driver of the motor vehicle to disable at least one distracting application.
“9. The method of claim 8, wherein the step of instructing the personal devices associated with the driver of the motor vehicle to disable distracting applications does not disable applications from the personal devices that are associated only with passengers in the motor vehicle.
“10. The method of claim 8, further comprising: determining that a door of the motor vehicle has been opened during a stop; determining that a new driver has now replaced the driver of the motor vehicle; and instructing at least one personal device of the new driver to disable at least one distracting application.
“11. The method of claim 10, further comprising: determining that the driver of the motor vehicle is now a passenger in the motor vehicle; and instructing at least one personal device of the driver of the motor vehicle to restore functionality to at least one application of the personal devices of the driver of the motor vehicle that is now the passenger in the motor vehicle.
“12. The method of claim 8, further comprising: determining that the motor vehicle has been in an accident; and identifying at least one personal device associated with the driver of the motor vehicle when the accident occurred.
“13. The method of claim 8, wherein the step of identifying which of the personal devices on the communication are associated with the driver of the motor vehicle comprises generating a map of relative positions of the personal devices.
“14. The method of claim 8, further comprising: determining that the motor vehicle has been in an accident based at least on a sudden dramatic change in position of the second personal device relative to the first personal device; and alerting first responders.
“15. A method, performed by a first personal device within a motor vehicle, for reducing distractions for a driver of the motor vehicle, comprising: broadcasting a ping that includes a time stamp identifying when the ping was sent, the ping being configured for receipt by a second personal device; receiving, from the second personal device, a position of the second personal device relative to the first personal device, a velocity of the second personal device relative to a velocity of the first personal device, and a time the second personal device received the ping from the first personal device; determining that the second personal device is proximal to the first personal device; establishing a communication with the second personal device; identifying which of the personal devices on the communication are associated with the driver of the motor vehicle and which of the personal devices on the communication are associated with passengers in the motor vehicle; and instructing at least one of the personal devices associated with the driver of the motor vehicle to disable at least one distracting application.
“16. The method of claim 15, further comprising: identifying at least one additional personal device as being within the motor vehicle; receiving, from the second personal device, identification of at least one additional personal device as being within the motor vehicle; eliminating redundancy of the identified additional personal devices; and adding non-redundant additional personal devices to the communication.
“17. The method of claim 15, wherein the step of instructing the personal devices associated with the driver of the motor vehicle to disable distracting applications does not disable applications from personal devices that are associated only with passengers in the motor vehicle.
“18. The method of claim 15, further comprising: determining that a door of the motor vehicle has been opened during a stop; determining that a new driver has now replaced the driver of the motor vehicle; and instructing at least one personal device of the new driver to disable at least one distracting application.
“19. The method of claim 18, further comprising: determining that the driver of the motor vehicle is now a passenger in the motor vehicle; and instructing at least one personal device of the driver of the motor vehicle to restore functionality to at least one application of the personal devices of the driver of the motor vehicle that is now the passenger in the motor vehicle.
“20. The method of claim 15, wherein the step of identifying which of the personal devices on the communication are associated with the driver of the motor vehicle comprises generating a map of relative positions of the personal devices.”
For additional information on this patent, see: Russell, Christopher M. Systems and methods for determining the driver of a vehicle.
(Our reports deliver fact-based news of research and discoveries from around the world.)
Patent Application Titled “Generating Instructions for Physical Experiments Using Whole Body Digital Twin Technology” Published Online (USPTO 20230110674): Patent Application
Brickell L&A Holdings LLC to Acquire First Trinity Financial Corporation
Advisor News
- Study: How should lawmakers fix the Social Security gap?
- Could Trump seek revenue via a sharp cut in 401(k) contribution limits?
- The ‘guardrails approach’ to retirement income
- Is there a mismatch between advisor marketing and consumer preferences?
- State health plan users may see premium increases under SC House budget proposal
More Advisor NewsAnnuity News
Health/Employee Benefits News
- Study Findings on Managed Care Are Outlined in Reports from Cambridge Health Alliance (Examining Racial/ethnic Disparities In Tobacco Dependence Treatment Among Medicaid Beneficiaries Using Fifty State Medicaid Claims, 2009-2014): Managed Care
- Sen. Denise Tepler: The vital role of MaineCare
- North Star Health Alliance partners with LifeNet of N.Y.
- Alfa health plan debate brews again in State House
- Kansas advocates condemn U.S. House budget tied to Republicans' proposed Medicaid cuts
More Health/Employee Benefits NewsLife Insurance News
- Insurance Companies
- Zim's Insurance Market Value Seen At U.S.$2,51bn
- Presentation FY 2024
- Somerset Re Accelerates Growth with Strong Deal Momentum into 2025
- Annual MD&A (q4 2024 mda)
More Life Insurance News