Patent Issued for Systems and methods for the mitigation of drowsy or sleepy driving (USPTO 11308785): State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company

2022 MAY 10 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- A patent by the inventors Hiles, Brian Todd (Bloomington, IL, US), filed on April 29, 2020, was published online on April 19, 2022, according to news reporting originating from Alexandria, Virginia, by NewsRx correspondents.

Patent number 11308785 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: “Driving vehicles while drowsy and falling asleep at the wheel are dangerous behaviors that cause car accidents, injuries, deaths, and monetary losses. Driving while drowsy or sleepy often garners comparisons to driving while chemically impaired (e.g., by alcohol) due to its disastrous consequences. However, while breathalyzer and blood tests are available to test for alcohol-impaired driving, tests to detect or determine whether a driver is driving while drowsy or sleepy are not readily available. Furthermore, self-reporting of drowsy and/or sleepy driving tends to be unreliable. As a result, drivers are not currently well-informed of the degree to which they are drowsy or sleepy, nor are drivers knowledgeable regarding their drowsy and/or sleepy driving habits, thus increasing the risk to them and others when they operate vehicles while drowsy or falling asleep.”

In addition to the background information obtained for this patent, NewsRx journalists also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent: “The present disclosure generally relates to systems, methods, devices, apparatuses, and techniques for mitigating drowsy or sleepy driving and improving driving safety based on vehicle-related and sleep-related telematics data. Embodiments of example systems, methods, devices, apparatuses, and techniques are summarized below. The example systems, methods, devices, apparatuses, and techniques summarized below may include additional, less, or alternate actions, and/or additional, less, or alternate components, including those discussed elsewhere herein.

“In an embodiment, a system for mitigating drowsy and/or sleepy driving may include a set of sensors disposed on-board a vehicle operated by a driver; a personal tracking device that senses one or more physiological conditions of the driver; and one or more computing devices that are communicatively connected to the set of on-board sensors of the vehicle and to the personal tracking device. The one or more computing devices may include one or more processors, one or more memories, and a set of computer-executable instructions stored on the one or more memories and executable by the one or more processors to: collect, via one or more communication channels, vehicle-related telematics data generated by the set of on-board sensors of the vehicle; collect, via the one or more communication channels, wellness-related telematics data generated by the personal tracking device based on the sensed physiological conditions of the driver, the wellness-related telematics data including sleep data indicative of at least one of a quality or a duration of sleep achieved by the driver; interpret the vehicle-related telematics data in conjunction with the wellness-related telematics data, thereby generating information indicative of a drowsy and/or sleepy state of the driver; and cause a mitigating action to be performed based on the generated information indicative of the drowsy and/or sleepy state of the driver.

“In an embodiment, a method for mitigating drowsy and/or sleepy driving may include collecting, via one or more communication channels by one or more computing devices, vehicle-related telematics data generated by a set of sensors monitoring at least one of a condition or a behavior of a vehicle operated by a driver; collecting, via the one or more communication channels by the one or more computing devices, wellness-related telematics data generated by a personal tracking device that senses physiological conditions of the driver, the wellness-related telematics data based on the sensed physiological conditions of the driver, and the wellness-related telematics data including sleep data that is indicative of at least one of a quality or a duration of sleep achieved by the driver; interpreting, at the one or more computing devices, the vehicle-related telematics data in conjunction with the wellness-related telematics data, thereby generating information indicative of a drowsy and/or sleepy state of the driver; and transmitting, by the one or computing devices, a command for a mitigating action to be performed, the command for the mitigation action based on the generated information indicative of the drowsy and/or sleepy state of the driver.

“In an embodiment, a tangible, non-transitory computer-readable medium may store instructions for mitigating drowsy and/or sleepy driving. The stored instructions, when executed by one or more processors of a computer system, may cause the computer system to: collect, via one or more communication channels, vehicle-related telematics data generated by a set of sensors monitoring at least one of a condition or a behavior of a vehicle operated by a driver; collect, via the one or more communication channels, wellness-related telematics data generated by a personal tracking device that senses physiological conditions of the driver, the wellness-related telematics data based on the sensed physiological conditions of the driver, and the wellness-related telematics data including sleep data that is indicative of at least one of a quality or a duration of sleep achieved by the driver; interpret the vehicle-related telematics data in conjunction with the wellness-related telematics data, thereby generating information indicative of a drowsy and/or sleepy state of the driver; and transmit a command for a mitigating action to be performed, the command for the mitigation action based on the generated information indicative of the drowsy and/or sleepy state of the driver.

“Systems or computer-readable media storing executable instructions for implementing all or part of the systems, techniques, apparatuses, devices, and/or methods described herein may also be provided in some embodiments. Systems and/or components for implementing all or parts of the systems, techniques, apparatuses, devices and/or methods described herein may include one or more of the following: a special-purpose computing device, a mobile computing device, a personal electronic device, an on-board computer, one or more remote servers or cloud computing systems, one or more remote data storage entities, devices, or systems, one or more sensors, one or more communication modules configured to communicate wirelessly via radio links, radio frequency links, and/or wireless communication channels, and/or one or more non-transitory, tangible program memories coupled to one or more processors of the special-purpose computing device, mobile computing device, personal electronic device, on-board computer, and/or one or more remote servers or cloud computing systems. Such program memories may store instructions, which, when executed by one or more processors, may cause a system, device, and/or apparatus described herein to implement part or all of one or more methods described herein. Additional or alternative features described herein below may be included in some embodiments.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“1. A system comprising: one or more processors; and a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing first computer-executable instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform operations comprising: receiving, from a vehicle computing device associated with a vehicle, vehicle operations data indicative of an operation of the vehicle by an operator; receiving, from an operator computing device associated with the operator, sleep data associated with the operator, wherein the sleep data is indicative of at least one of a quality of sleep or a duration of sleep; generating, based at least in part on the sleep data and the vehicle operations data, a risk profile associated with the operator, wherein the risk profile includes a metric indicating tendency of the operator to exhibit dangerous driving behavior; determining, based at least in part on the risk profile, an adjustment to an insurance policy associated with the operator; and modifying the insurance policy based at least in part on the adjustment.

“2. The system of claim 1, wherein the adjustment comprises at least one of: a change in structure of the insurance policy; a change in a cost associated with the insurance policy; or a change in a feature of the insurance policy.

“3. The system of claim 1, the operations further comprising: determining historical driving data associated with the operator, the historical driving data comprising at least one of: a number of insurance claims submitted by the operator; an amount of time the operator has been a licensed operator; or a number of traffic violations associated with the operator, wherein at least one of the risk profile or the adjustment is based in part on the historical driving data.

“4. The system of claim 1, the operations further comprising: receiving, over a period of time, a plurality of vehicle operations data associated with a plurality of instances of vehicle operations by the operator, wherein the vehicle operations data comprises first vehicle operations data of the plurality of vehicle operations data; receiving, over the period of time, a plurality of sleep data associated with a plurality of sleep intervals of the operator, wherein the sleep data comprises first sleep data of the plurality of sleep data; determining, based at least in part on the plurality of vehicle operations data and the plurality of sleep data, a number of instances of the operator operating the vehicle in a drowsy state; determining an incentive designed to decrease the number of instances of the operator operating the vehicle in the drowsy state; and sending an indication of the incentive to the operator computing device.

“5. The system of claim 4, wherein the period of time includes a first period of time, the plurality of vehicle operations data includes a first plurality of vehicle operations data, the plurality of instances includes a first plurality of instances, the sleep data includes first sleep data, and the number of instances includes a first number of instances, the operations further comprising: receiving, over a second period of time after the first period of time, a second plurality of vehicle operations data associated with a second plurality of instances of vehicle operations by the operator; receiving, over the second period of time, a second plurality of sleep data associated with a second plurality of sleep intervals of the operator; determining, based at least in part on the second plurality of vehicle operations data and the second plurality of sleep data, a second number of instances of the operator operating the vehicle in the drowsy state; determining, based at least in part on the second number of instances, that the operator qualifies for the incentive; and providing the incentive to the operator.

“6. The system of claim 1, the operations further comprising: determining one or more first factors that increase a risk associated with the operation of the vehicle; and determining one or more second factors that decrease a risk associated with the operation of the vehicle, wherein the risk profile is generated based at least in part on the one or more first factors and the one or more second factors.

“7. The system of claim 6, the operations further comprising: causing an indication of at least one of the one or more first factors or the one or more second factors to be displayed via the operator computing device.

“8. The system of claim 1, wherein the vehicle operations data comprises at least one of: an acceleration associated with the vehicle; a deceleration associated with the vehicle; a jerk associated with the vehicle; or a speed associated with the vehicle.

“9. A method implemented at least in part by a server device associated with a service provider, the method comprising: receiving, from a vehicle computing device associated with a vehicle, vehicle operations data indicative of an operation of the vehicle by an operator; receiving, from an operator computing device associated with the operator, sleep data associated with the operator, wherein the sleep data is indicative of at least one of a quality of sleep or a duration of sleep; generating, based at least in part on the sleep data and the vehicle operations data, a risk profile associated with the operator, wherein the risk profile is associated with dangerous driving behavior of the operator; and modifying an insurance policy associated with the operator based at least in part on the risk profile.

“10. The method of claim 9, further comprising: determining, based at least in part on the risk profile, an adjustment to the insurance policy comprising at least one of: a change in a structure of the insurance policy; a change in a cost associated with the insurance policy; or a change in a feature of the insurance policy.

“11. The method of claim 9, further comprising: determining historical driving data associated with the operator, the historical driving data comprising at least one of: a number of insurance claims submitted by the operator; an amount of time the operator has been a licensed operator; or a number of traffic violations associated with the operator, wherein the risk profile is generated based in part on the historical driving data.

“12. The method of claim 9, further comprising: receiving, from the vehicle computing device, environmental data corresponding to an environment associated with the operation of the vehicle; and determining an environmental condition based at least in part on the environmental data, wherein the risk profile is generated based at least in part on the environmental condition.

“13. The method of claim 12, wherein the environmental data comprises at least one of: a weather condition associated with the environment; a road condition corresponding to a road associated with the operation of the vehicle; a road quality of the road; traffic congestion associated with the environment; pedestrian density associated with the environment; or construction activity associated with the environment.

“14. The method of claim 9, further comprising: receiving, over a period of time, a plurality of vehicle operations data associated with a plurality of instances of vehicle operations by the operator, wherein the vehicle operations data comprises first vehicle operations data of the plurality of vehicle operations data; receiving, over the period of time, a plurality of sleep data associated with a plurality of sleep intervals of the operator, wherein the sleep data comprises first sleep data of the plurality of sleep data; determining, based at least in part on the plurality of vehicle operations data and the plurality of sleep data, a number of instances of the operator operating the vehicle in a drowsy state; determining an incentive designed to decrease the number of instances of the operator operating the vehicle in the drowsy state; and sending an indication of the incentive to the operator computing device.

“15. The method of claim 14, wherein the period of time includes a first period of time, the plurality of vehicle operations data includes a first plurality of vehicle operations data, the plurality of instances includes a first plurality of instances, the sleep data includes first sleep data, and the number of instances includes a first number of instances, the method further comprising: receiving, over a second period of time after the first period of time, a second plurality of vehicle operations data associated with a second plurality of instances of vehicle operations by the operator; receiving, over the second period of time, a second plurality of sleep data associated with a second plurality of sleep intervals of the operator; determining, based at least in part on the second plurality of vehicle operations data and the second plurality of sleep data, a second number of instances of the operator operating the vehicle in the drowsy state; determining, based at least in part on the second number of instances, that the operator qualifies for the incentive; and providing the incentive to the operator.”

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URL and more information on this patent, see: Hiles, Brian Todd. Systems and methods for the mitigation of drowsy or sleepy driving. U.S. Patent Number 11308785, filed April 29, 2020, and published online on April 19, 2022. 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=11308785.PN.&OS=PN/11308785RS=PN/11308785

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