Patent Issued for Technology For Using Image Data To Assess Vehicular Risks And Communicate Notifications (USPTO 10,373,500)

2019 AUG 19 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- According to news reporting originating from Alexandria, Virginia, by NewsRx journalists, a patent by the inventors Chan, Aaron Scott (Champaign, IL); Sanchez, Kenneth J. (San Francisco, CA), filed on September 22, 2017, was published online on August 19, 2019.

The assignee for this patent, patent number 10,373,500, is State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company (Bloomington, Illinois, United States).

Reporters obtained the following quote from the background information supplied by the inventors: “Individuals have been operating and traveling in vehicles as a means of transportation for decades. With the increasing prevalence of electronic devices and sensors, there are more available components to generate data associated with vehicle operation. For example, vehicle sensors can measure or detect vehicle location, acceleration, general movement, and other information. There are existing applications that use this data to facilitate certain functionalities. For example, vehicle operators are able to share their velocity with other vehicle operators so that the other operators may gauge certain traffic conditions.

“However, there are no existing solutions for effectively and efficiently using image data to reduce or eliminate certain driving risks. Accordingly, there is an opportunity for systems and methods to leverage image data to identify, and reduce or eliminate certain driving risks.”

In addition to obtaining background information on this patent, NewsRx editors also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent: “A computer-implemented method in an electronic device of managing notifications associated with vehicular transportation is provided. The method may include accessing image data from at least one image sensor located within a vehicle being operated by a vehicle operator, analyzing, by a computer processor, the image data to determine a state of the vehicle operator as depicted in the image data, determining, based on the state of the vehicle operator, that a risk exists, identifying at least one component to which to transmit a notification that indicates the risk, generating the notification that indicates the risk, and transmitting, via a network connection, the notification to the at least one component.

“In another embodiment, a system for managing notifications associated with vehicular transportation is provided. The system may include a transceiver configured to communicate via a network connection, a memory configured to store non-transitory computer executable instructions, and a processor configured to interface with the memory. The processor may be configured to execute the non-transitory computer executable instructions to cause the processor to access image data from at least one image sensor located within a vehicle being operated by a vehicle operator, analyze the image data to determine a state of the vehicle operator as depicted in the image data, determine, based on the state of the vehicle operator, that a risk exists, identify at least one component to which to transmit a notification that indicates the risk, generate the notification that indicates the risk, and transmit, via the transceiver, the notification to the at least one component.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“What is claimed is:

“1. A computer-implemented method in an electronic device of managing notifications associated with vehicular transportation, the method comprising: accessing image data from at least one image sensor located within a vehicle being operated by a vehicle operator; analyzing, by a computer processor, the image data to determine a state of the vehicle operator as depicted in the image data; determining, based on the state of the vehicle operator, that a risk exists; identifying a current location of the vehicle; determining, based on the current location of the vehicle, a future location of the vehicle; determining, based on the future location of the vehicle, a component to which to transmit a notification that indicates the risk, wherein a location of the component is within a vicinity of the future location of the vehicle; determining, based on the risk, an action for an additional vehicle operator of an additional vehicle to undertake to mitigate the risk; generating the notification that indicates (i) the risk, and (ii) the action for the additional vehicle operator to undertake to mitigate the risk; and transmitting, via a network connection, the notification to the component.

“2. The computer-implemented method claim 1, wherein determining the component comprises: determining one of: (i) the additional vehicle or (ii) an infrastructure component.

“3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein determining the component is further based on the current location of the vehicle.

“4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein analyzing the image data to determine the state of the vehicle operator as depicted in the image data comprises: analyzing the image data to determine at least one of: (i) a positioning of the vehicle operator as depicted in the image data, and (ii) a movement made by the vehicle operator as depicted in the image data.

“5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising: accessing a set of telematics data associated with operation of the vehicle; and transmitting, via the network connection, at least a portion of the set of telematics data to the component.

“6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein determining, based on the state of the vehicle operator, that the risk exists comprises: estimating, based on the state of the vehicle operator, a future movement to be undertaken by the vehicle; and determining, based on the future movement, that the risk exists.

“7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein determining the action comprises: determining, based on the risk and the future movement to be undertaken by the vehicle, the action for the additional vehicle operator of the additional vehicle to undertake to mitigate the risk.

“8. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein determining, based on the state of the vehicle operator, that the risk exists comprises: estimating, based on the state of the vehicle operator, a current operating state of the vehicle; estimating, based on the current operating state of the vehicle operator, a future movement to be undertaken by the vehicle; and determining, based on the future movement, that the risk exists.

“9. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein determining, based on the state of the vehicle operator, that the risk exists comprises: identifying the risk that corresponds to the state of the vehicle operator, the risk having a likelihood of occurrence; and determining that the likelihood of occurrence of the risk at least meets a threshold value.

“10. A system for managing notifications associated with vehicular transportation, comprising: a transceiver configured to communicate via a network connection; a memory configured to store non-transitory computer executable instructions; and a processor configured to interface with the memory, wherein the processor is configured to execute the non-transitory computer executable instructions to cause the processor to: access image data from at least one image sensor located within a vehicle being operated by a vehicle operator, analyze the image data to determine a state of the vehicle operator as depicted in the image data, determine, based on the state of the vehicle operator, that a risk exists, identify a current location of the vehicle, determine, based on the current location of the vehicle, a future location of the vehicle, determine, based on the future location of the vehicle, a component to which to transmit a notification that indicates the risk, wherein a location of the component is within a vicinity of the future location of the vehicle, determine, based on the risk, an action for an additional vehicle operator of an additional vehicle to undertake to mitigate the risk, generate the notification that indicates (i) the risk, and (ii) the action for the additional vehicle operator to undertake to mitigate the risk, and transmit, via the transceiver, the notification to the component.

“11. The system of claim 10, wherein the component is one of: (i) the additional vehicle or (ii) an infrastructure component.

“12. The system of claim 10, wherein the processor determines the component further based on the current location of the vehicle.

“13. The system of claim 10, wherein to analyze the image data to determine the state of the vehicle operator as depicted in the image data, the processor is configured to: analyze the image data to determine at least one of: (i) a positioning of the vehicle operator as depicted in the image data, and (ii) a movement made by the vehicle operator as depicted in the image data.

“14. The system of claim 10, wherein the processor is further configured to: access a set of telematics data associated with operation of the vehicle, and transmit, via the transceiver, at least a portion of the set of telematics data to the component.

“15. The system of claim 10, wherein to determine, based on the state of the vehicle operator, that the risk exists, the processor is configured to: estimate, based on the state of the vehicle operator, a future movement to be undertaken by the vehicle, and determine, based on the future movement, that the risk exists.

“16. The system of claim 15, wherein to determine the action, the processor is configured to: determine, based on the risk and the future movement to be undertaken by the vehicle, the action for the additional vehicle operator of the additional vehicle to undertake to mitigate the risk.

“17. The system of claim 10, wherein to determine, based on the state of the vehicle operator, that the risk exists, the processor is configured to: estimate, based on the state of the vehicle operator, a current operating state of the vehicle, estimate, based on the current operating state of the vehicle operator, a future movement to be undertaken by the vehicle, and determine, based on the future movement, that the risk exists.

“18. The system of claim 10, wherein to determine, based on the state of the vehicle operator, that the risk exists, the processor is configured to: identify the risk that corresponds to the state of the vehicle operator, the risk having a likelihood of occurrence, and determine that the likelihood of occurrence of the risk at least meets a threshold value.”

For more information, see this patent: Chan, Aaron Scott; Sanchez, Kenneth J. Technology For Using Image Data To Assess Vehicular Risks And Communicate Notifications. U.S. Patent Number 10,373,500, filed September 22, 2017, and published online on August 19, 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=10,373,500.PN.&OS=PN/10,373,500RS=PN/10,373,500

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