On-Board Detection and Logging of Driver Smartphone Use
OwnerSamuel J. Petuchowskiinventor
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Methods and a computer application program for identifying manual use of a phone by the driver of a vehicle. The application collects heading, velocity and radial acceleration data already available to the operating system of all smart phones and uses the asymmetry with respect to right and left turns between a radial acceleration based on Earth-frame-based heading and speed data and a measured actual radial acceleration to detect manual phone usage by a driver. Detection may result in a visual and auditory warning that would incriminate the driver if the vehicle were to be stopped by law enforcement authorities or involved in an accident.
Claims14
A method for detecting manual use of a mobile phone by a driver of a vehicle, the the method comprising:
- a. receiving contemporaneous Earth-frame-referenced heading and speed data pertaining to a vehicle;
- b. deriving, based on the contemporaneous Earth-frame-referenced heading and speed data, to the exclusion of any accelerometer data, an incremental heading change, a sign associated with the incremental heading change that is one of positive or negative, and a calculated nominal radial acceleration based on the contemporaneous Earth-frame-referenced heading and speed data;
- c. calculating a signed offset between the calculated nominal radial acceleration and a measured actual radial acceleration of the mobile phone, the signed offset bearing the sign associated with the incremental heading change;
- and
- d. determining manual use by the driver, as distinct from any passenger, on the basis of at least the signed offset between the measured actual radial acceleration of the mobile phone relative to the calculated nominal radial acceleration.
An improvement to a mobile phone having a magnetometer, a GPS receiver and an accelerometer, the improvement adapted to detect usage of the mobile phone by a driver of a vehicle by virtue of loading thereon:
- a. program code for receiving contemporaneous heading and contemporaneous speed data associated with a contemporaneous Earth-frame-based heading and a contemporaneous speed of the vehicle;
- b. program code for deriving, based solely on said contemporaneous heading and contemporaneous speed data, an incremental heading change, a sign associated with the incremental heading change that is one of positive or negative, and a calculated nominal radial acceleration;
- c. program code for receiving inertial accelerometer data from an accelerometer onboard the mobile phone;
- d. program code for calculating, based at least on said inertial accelerometer data, a measured actual radial acceleration of the mobile phone;
- and
- e. program code for determining manual use by the driver as distinct from any passenger on the basis of at least a difference between the measured actual radial acceleration of the mobile phone relative to the calculated nominal radial acceleration.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.