Researchers Submit Patent Application, “System And Methods To Facilitate Safe Driving”, for Approval (USPTO 20200322476)

2020 OCT 27 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- From Washington, D.C., NewsRx journalists report that a patent application by the inventors COHEN, Yossef (Hod Hasharon, IL); GUR GERASI, Amiram (Ganey Tikva, IL); GUR, Eliyahu (Hannaton, IL); SHOSHAN, Yaakov (Ashkelon, IL), filed on May 5, 2020, was made available online on October 8, 2020.

The patent’s assignee is Saverone 2014 Ltd. (Petah-Tikva, Israel).

News editors obtained the following quote from the background information supplied by the inventors: “Driver distraction due to use of Smartphones contributes to up to 25% of car accidents worldwide. Tens of thousands of traffic accidents occur each year in the U.S. due to texting, browsing and use of other distracting cellphone functions while driving, causing thousands of deaths and tens of thousands of injuries each year.

“Cellphone use is a prime cause of youngsters’ deaths in car accidents in the U.S., and has exceeded statistics for deaths due to consumption of alcohol.

“Texting While Driving (TWD) increases the risk of a car accident by at least twenty-fold. U.S. traffic accidents cause billions of dollars of damage annually and a quarter of these accidents are associated with cellphone use. Current attempted solutions include applications that are voluntary, hence are not used, e.g. due to the subjective feeling that ‘Nothing will ever happen to me’ and HW/SW solutions that either require driver’s consent, can be removed by the driver, or block all cellphone use (including voice calls). There is no effective solution that is widely adopted to date.

“Conventional technology constituting background to certain embodiments of the present invention is described in the following publications inter alia:

“Patent document U.S. Pat. No. 8,131,205 discloses mobile phone detection and is operative to transmit different blocking signals capable of degrading or blocking mobile phone communication in a vehicle responsive to a velocity of the vehicle reaching different pre-configured velocity levels.

“Patent document U.S. Pat. No. 8,526,973 discloses a safety system that prevents the use of smart phone functions and replaces the blocked functions with alternative ways to communicate while in a car. The system allows software applications to be downloaded and run on its operating system. The system uses a local RF transmitter mounted in the car to send a signal detected by Smartphones in the car. The Smartphones download the application, decode the RF signal and disable and/or activate certain functions of the Smartphone.

“Patent document U.S. Pat. No. 8,204,649 discloses systems for preventing mobile computing device use while driving. A vehicle state is identified based on information received from an OBD port in the vehicle e.g. disabling mobile computing device email, texting, gaming, received phone calls, web browsing, and transmitted phone call functions.

“Patent document US20100087137 discloses a vehicle safety system which selectively deactivates a driver’s cellular telephone when the driver is ready to drive his or her vehicle. The vehicle safety system first determines the proximity between the cellular telephone and the driver’s seat of the vehicle by sensor to determine when the cellular telephone is located within a pre-set range from the driver’s seat of the vehicle and the gear state indicates the vehicle may be driven under power.

“Patent documents U.S. Pat. No. 7,898,428 and US20110039581 describe restricting the use of a mobile device while driving.

“The disclosures of all publications and patent documents mentioned in the specification, and of the publications and patent documents cited therein directly or indirectly, are hereby incorporated by reference. Materiality of such publications and patent documents to patentability is not conceded”

As a supplement to the background information on this patent application, NewsRx correspondents also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent application: “Certain embodiments of the present invention seek to provide programmable blocking of cellphone functionality which enables use of only ‘white list’ applications, e.g. as defined by local policy (that varies from region to region and/or per employer/insurer-associated fleet e.g. via application server that updates a mobile app periodically. It is appreciated that the term ‘fleet’ is used herein to refer to any group of vehicles which may all be owned by a single corporation or may all be leased by a single corporation or may all be insured by a single insurer. It is appreciated that ‘private drivers’ may subscribe to the computerized service described herein independently and not via any corporation or insurer. Each corporation, insurer or private driver may have its or her or his own white-list data repository, according to certain embodiments of the invention.

“Certain embodiments of the present invention seek to provide a Self Enforcing System for blocking of cellphone functionality while driving, including a system control unit for blocking of cellphone functionality, which guarantees driver compliance in using only system-approved cellphone applications when driving, e.g. whether his/her cellphone is connected to a system control unit, or not e.g. by virtue of cooperation between a mobile application and an alarm system which sounds an alarm if the driver disconnects the Bluetooth or other communication, or removes the mobile app. Typically, the alarm is designed to be disturbing enough to the driver (and passengers), similar to the seat-belt off alarm, so as to ensure the following sequence: driver inactivates vehicle’s system e.g. Bluetooth off or system’s mobile app deleted--on-board system components enter alarm mode and an annoying alarm is generated--driver reconnects system--system returns to safe mode in which dangerous cellphone functionalities e.g. those requiring texting are deactivated--and texting accidents are thus averted.

“According to certain embodiments, all text-operated apps are blocked other than, possibly, text-operated apps which are individually whitelisted e.g. Waze.

“Certain embodiments of the present invention seek to provide using an alarm for ensuring driver compliance with blocking of cellphone functionality while driving e.g. whenever the system identifies that the driver has a phone and is driving, but the phone is not connected to the system for blocking of cellphone functionality e.g. BT (Bluetooth or other communication) is turned off or cellphone functionality blocking mobile app is not activated.

“A particular advantage of providing the above in suitable combination is that fleet discipline (fleet policy re which cellphone functionality may be used by drivers e.g.) may thereby be effectively enforced for all vehicles in the fleet.

“Certain embodiments of the present invention seek to provide a system for identifying the presence of a driver’s cellphone including distinguishing same from presence of other cellphones in the same vehicle, e.g. cellphones held by passengers next to or behind the driver.

“Certain embodiments of the present invention seek to provide a system for preventing driver distraction due to phone usage which may include a mobile application and/or a radio transmitter. A system control unit typically runs real-time decision making hardware and/or software methods receiving real-time data from a driver’s mobile and/or vehicle via a wireless or wired connection. The mobile application may be operative for controlling a driver’s phone functions and/or sending driver data to a server and allowing only selected mobile features while driving. The radio transmitter circuit may output RF signals to an interface with mobile communications and may block the signals. The system control unit and/or Radio Transmitter may be permanently installed inside the vehicle. Modes of operation may include some or all of: (i) Idle--operating but inactive since vehicle is not moving, enables full phone functions. (ii) Active--vehicle driving, mobile application is active in blocking apps e.g. present a ‘black-list’ of applications and services on the driver’s phone. (iii) Alert (or Blocking) mode--if system control unit cannot communicate with the mobile application and/or radio transmitter circuit--perform an undesirable action from the driver’s point of view e.g. block all phone communications or generate an alert such as an unpleasant driver-audible sound.

“Using, for example, an In Vehicle Protection System (e.g. IvVPS.TM.) certain embodiments shown and described herein prevent in-vehicle cellular use for activities that are prohibited by local laws (e.g. Texting While Driving (TWD)). Hardware and software elements may be permanently installed in the vehicle.

“At least the following embodiments are included in the scope of the present invention:

“Embodiment 1

“A vehicle safety system operating on a driver’s cellphone and comprising:

“Selective blocking apparatus, controlled by a processor, for blocking specified functionalities of the cellphone only when the cellphone is in a vehicle in motion; and

“communication functionality operative to receive from a remote server and deliver updates which determine which specified functionalities the selective blocking apparatus is to block.

“Embodiment 2

“A system according to Embodiment 1 wherein said specified functionalities comprise apps.

“Embodiment 3

“A system according to any of the preceding embodiments wherein only specified functionalities deemed dangerous, according to programmable cellphone functionality safety criteria, are blocked by said Selective blocking apparatus.

“Embodiment 4

“A system according to any of the preceding embodiments and also comprising a mobile app; and at least one remote server having a dynamic repository of cellphone functionality safety data which sends downloads to the mobile app via said communication functionality, for each of a multiplicity of vehicles.

“Embodiment 5

“A system according to any of the preceding embodiments wherein said dynamic repository comprises:

“at least one cellphone functionality safety-ranking list; and

“corresponding functionality, in the server and in the mobile app, operative to update said at least one cellphone functionality safety-ranking list.

“Embodiment 6

“A system according to any of the preceding embodiments wherein said dynamic repository comprises a plurality of ‘white lists’ of apps corresponding respectively to a plurality of fleets of vehicles and wherein the communication functionality in an individual vehicle downloads an individual white list of apps from among said plurality thereof, depending on the individual fleet from among said plurality thereof, to which the individual vehicle belongs.

“Embodiment 7

“A system according to any of the preceding embodiments wherein the processor controls said Selective blocking apparatus to block certain functionalities of the cellphone only when the vehicle is in a first type of geographic location and not when the vehicle is in a second type of geographic location.

“Embodiment 8

“A system according to any of the preceding embodiments wherein the first type of geographic location comprises a high-risk road or portion thereof.

“Embodiment 9

“A system according to any of the preceding embodiments wherein the communication functionality resides in a mobile application on the driver’s cellphone, which is updated on occasion by a remote application server.

“Embodiment 10

“A system according to any of the preceding embodiments wherein the communication functionality comprises a radio transmitter.

“Embodiment 11

“A system according to any of the preceding embodiments wherein the processor receives real-time data from at least one of the driver’s cellphone and the vehicle via at least one of a wireless connection and a wired connection.

“Embodiment 12

“A system according to any of the preceding embodiments wherein the mobile application is operative for sending driver data to a server.

“Embodiment 13

“A system according to any of the preceding embodiments wherein the radio transmitter circuit is operative to output RF signals to interface with mobile communications.

“Embodiment 14

“A system according to any of the preceding embodiments wherein Driver identification apparatus is installed in the vehicle and remains there irrespective of whether the driver and/or his cellphone is or is not in the vehicle.

“Embodiment 15

“A system according to any of the preceding embodiments wherein the Selective blocking apparatus has at least one of (or all of or any pair of or any 3 of) the following modes of operations:

“(i) Idle mode--Selective blocking apparatus is inactive since vehicle is parked, enables hill functionality of the driver’s cellphone

“(ii) active/safe mode--selective blocking apparatus is controlled by the processor to be active in blocking cellphone functionality while vehicle is driving; and

“(iii) undesirable/alert mode--Selective blocking apparatus is unable to operate (e.g. because main unit can’t communicate with the mobile application and/or radio transmitter circuit or driver disconnects Bluetooth or removes mobile app) so the processor cause an undesirable outcome from the driver’s point of view to occur; and.

“(iv.) safe mode in which the system is disabled.

“Embodiment 16

“A system according to any of the preceding embodiments wherein said undesirable outcome comprises at least one of:

“all phone communications from the driver’s cellphone are blocked;

“activation of an alert e.g. alarm audible to the driver.

“Embodiment 17

“A system according to any of the preceding embodiments and also comprising an alarm controlled by the processor to operate if and only if the Selective blocking apparatus is in undesirable mode.

“Embodiment 18

“A system according to any of the preceding embodiments wherein the processor comprises cellphone identification functionality which enables the processor to control the Selective blocking apparatus for blocking specified functionalities of only the driver’s cellphone without affecting functioning of other cellphones present in a moving vehicle.

“Embodiment 19

“A system according to any of the preceding embodiments wherein said cellphone identification functionality utilizes at least Time-Differential-Of-Arrival (TDOA) technology to distinguish the driver’s cellphone from other cellphones present in a vehicle whose engine is on.

“Embodiment 20

“A system according to any of the preceding embodiments wherein said cellphone identification functionality utilizes at least Channel Fingerprinting technology to distinguish the driver’s cellphone from other cellphones present in a vehicle whose engine is on.

“Embodiment 21

“A system according to any of the preceding embodiments wherein said cellphone identification functionality utilizes at least one of the following technologies to distinguish the driver’s cellphone from other cellphones present in a moving vehicle: Angle-Of-Arrival (AOA)/Direction-Of-Arrival (DOA) technology; Time-Of-Arrival (TOA) technology.

“Embodiment 22

“A system according to any of the preceding embodiments wherein said Channel Fingerprinting technology utilized by said cellphone identification functionality comprises Power Level based technology.

“Embodiment 23

“A system according to any of the preceding embodiments wherein said Channel Fingerprinting technology utilized by said cellphone identification functionality comprises Delay-spread based technology.

“Embodiment 24

“A system according to any of the preceding embodiments wherein the Selective blocking apparatus is controlled by the processor for blocking at least one manually operated functionality of the cellphone and wherein at least one voice-operated functionality of the cellphone is not blocked.

“Embodiment 25

“A system according to any of the preceding embodiments wherein the Selective blocking apparatus is controlled by the processor for blocking at least some text-operated apps of the cellphone.

“Embodiment 26

“A system according to any of the preceding embodiments and also comprising at least one ‘white list’ database.

“Embodiment 27

“A computer program product, comprising a non-transitory tangible computer readable medium having computer readable program code embodied therein, said computer readable program code adapted to be executed to implement a vehicle safety method operating on a driver’s cellphone and comprising: Controlling a processor for selectively blocking specified functionalities of the cellphone only when the cellphone is in a vehicle in motion; and Controlling communication functionality operative to receive from a remote server and deliver updates which determine which specified functionalities the selective blocking apparatus is to block.

“Embodiment 28

“A vehicle safety method operating on a driver’s cellphone and comprising: Using a processor for selectively blocking specified functionalities of the cellphone only when the cellphone is in a vehicle in motion; and Using communication functionality operative to receive from a remote server and deliver updates which determine which specified functionalities the selective blocking apparatus is to block.

“The term ‘mobile (communication) device’ and similar, as used herein is intended to include but not be limited to any of the following: mobile telephone, smart phone, playstation, iPad, TV, remote desktop computer, game console, tablet, mobile e.g. laptop or other computer terminal, embedded remote unit.

“Any tables herein may include some or all of the fields and/or records shown herein.

“Also provided, excluding signals, is a computer program comprising computer program code means for performing any of the methods shown and described herein when said program is run on at least one computer; and a computer program product, comprising a typically non-transitory computer-usable or -readable medium e.g. non-transitory computer-usable or -readable storage medium, typically tangible, having a computer readable program code embodied therein, said computer readable program code adapted to be executed to implement any or all of the methods shown and described herein. The operations in accordance with the teachings herein may be performed by at least one computer specially constructed for the desired purposes or general purpose computer specially configured for the desired purpose by at least one computer program stored in a typically non-transitory computer readable storage medium. The term ‘non-transitory’ is used herein to exclude transitory, propagating signals or waves, but to otherwise include any volatile or non-volatile computer memory technology suitable to the application.

“Any suitable processor/s, display and input means may be used to process, display e.g. on a computer screen or other computer output device, store, and accept information such as information used by or generated by any of the methods and apparatus shown and described herein; the above processor/s, display and input means including computer programs, in accordance with some or all of the embodiments of the present invention. Any or all functionalities of the invention shown and described herein, such as but not limited to operations within flowcharts, may be performed by any one or more of: at least one conventional personal computer processor, workstation or other programmable device or computer or electronic computing device or processor, either general-purpose or specifically constructed, used for processing; a computer display screen and/or printer and/or speaker for displaying; machine-readable memory such as optical disks, CDROMs, DVDs, BluRays, magnetic-optical discs or other discs; RAMs, ROMs, EPROMs, EEPROMs, magnetic or optical or other cards, for storing, and keyboard or mouse for accepting. Modules shown and described herein may include any one or combination or plurality of: a server, a data processor, a memory/computer storage, a communication interface, a computer program stored in memory/computer storage.

“The term ‘process’ as used above is intended to include any type of computation or manipulation or transformation of data represented as physical, e.g. electronic, phenomena which may occur or reside e.g. within registers and/or memories of at least one computer or processor. The term processor includes a single processing unit or a plurality of distributed or remote such units.

“The above devices may communicate via any conventional wired or wireless digital communication means, e.g. via a wired or cellular telephone network or a computer network such as the Internet.

“The apparatus of the present invention may include, according to certain embodiments of the invention, machine readable memory containing or otherwise storing a program of instructions which, when executed by the machine, implements some or all of the apparatus, methods, features and functionalities of the invention shown and described herein. Alternatively or in addition, the apparatus of the present invention may include, according to certain embodiments of the invention, a program as above which may be written in any conventional programming language, and optionally a machine for executing the program such as but not limited to a general purpose computer which may optionally be configured or activated in accordance with the teachings of the present invention. Any of the teachings incorporated herein may, wherever suitable, operate on signals representative of physical objects or substances.

“The embodiments referred to above, and other embodiments, are described in detail in the next section.

“Any trademark occurring in the text or drawings is the property of its owner and occurs herein merely to explain or illustrate one example of how an embodiment of the invention may be implemented.

“Unless specifically stated otherwise, as apparent from the following discussions, it is appreciated that throughout the specification discussions, utilizing terms such as, ‘processing’, ‘computing’, ‘estimating’, ‘selecting’, ‘ranking’, ‘grading’, ‘calculating’, ‘determining’, ‘generating’, ‘reassessing’, ‘classifying’, ‘generating’, ‘producing’, ‘stereo-matching’, ‘registering’, ‘detecting’, ‘associating’, ‘superimposing’, ‘obtaining’ or the like, refer to the action and/or processes of at least one computer/s or computing system/s, or processor/s or similar electronic computing device/s, that manipulate and/or transform data represented as physical, such as electronic, quantities within the computing system’s registers and/or memories, into other data similarly represented as physical quantities within the computing system’s memories, registers or other such information storage, transmission or display devices. The term ‘computer’ should be broadly construed to cover any kind of electronic device with data processing capabilities, including, by way of non-limiting example, personal computers, servers, computing system, communication devices, processors (e.g. digital signal processor (DSP), microcontrollers, field programmable gate array (FPGA), application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), etc.) and other electronic computing devices.

“The present invention may be described, merely for clarity, in terms of terminology specific to particular programming languages, operating systems, browsers, system versions, individual products, and the like. It will be appreciated that this terminology is intended to convey general principles of operation clearly and briefly, by way of example, and is not intended to limit the scope of the invention to any particular programming language, operating system, browser, system version, or individual product.

“Elements separately listed herein need not be distinct components and alternatively may be the same structure. A statement that an element or feature may exist is intended to include (a) embodiments in which the element or feature exists; (b) embodiments in which the element or feature does not exist; and © embodiments in which the element or feature exist selectably e.g. a user may configure or select whether the element or feature does or does not exist.

“Any suitable input device, such as but not limited to a sensor, may be used to generate or otherwise provide information received by the apparatus and methods shown and described herein. Any suitable output device or display may be used to display or output information generated by the apparatus and methods shown and described herein. Any suitable processor/s may be employed to compute or generate information as described herein e.g. by providing one or more modules in the processor/s to perform functionalities described herein. Any suitable computerized data storage e.g. computer memory may be used to store information received by or generated by the systems shown and described herein. Functionalities shown and described herein may be divided between a server computer and a plurality of client computers. These or any other computerized components shown and described herein may communicate between themselves via a suitable computer network.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“1-28. (canceled)

“29. A vehicle safety system operating on a driver’s cellphone and comprising: selective blocking apparatus, controlled by a processor, for blocking specified functionalities of the cellphone only when the cellphone is in a vehicle in motion; and communication functionality operative to receive from a remote server and deliver updates which determine which specified functionalities the selective blocking apparatus is to block; wherein the processor is configured to include cellphone identification functionality operative to identify presence of a cellphone in a driver’s seat area by receiving and analyzing RF signals of the cellphone’s modem and accordingly, to command the selective blocking apparatus to block specified functionalities of only the driver’s cellphone without affecting functioning of other cellphones present in the vehicle; wherein the cellphone identification functionality enables the processor to control the selective blocking apparatus for blocking specified functionalities of only the driver’s cellphone without affecting functioning of other cellphones present in a moving vehicle; and wherein, to support plural cellular frequencies, the cellphone identification functionality is configured to a given region/country standards, by loading a configuration file from a version control server; wherein the selective blocking apparatus has at least the following mode of operation: (i) idle mode.

“30. An automobile comprising: a passenger compartment; several wide-band RF sensors covering a frequency span of 0.7-2.7 GHz disposed at locations in the passenger compartment; each RF sensor comprising an antenna, an LNA, and an analog-to-digital converter.”

For additional information on this patent application, see: COHEN, Yossef; GUR GERASI, Amiram; GUR, Eliyahu; SHOSHAN, Yaakov. System And Methods To Facilitate Safe Driving. Filed May 5, 2020 and posted October 8, 2020. Patent URL: http://appft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PG01&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=%2220200322476%22.PGNR.&OS=DN/20200322476&RS=DN/20200322476

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