# US 9,521,525 B2 · Method and apparatus for detecting a left-behind phone

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- Number: US 9,521,525 B2
- Document ID: US9521525B2
- Status: Granted
- Kind: B2
- Application number: 14/710,979
- Filed: 2015-05-13
- Published: 2015-09-03
- Granted: 2016-12-13
- Earliest claimed: 2012-07-03
- Assignees: Ford Global Technologies, LLC
- Applicants: Ford Global Technologies, LLC
- Inventors: Jialiang Le; Manoharprasad K. Rao; Kwaku O. Prakah-Asante
- Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US9521525B2

## CPC

- H04W 12/126: Anti-theft arrangements, e.g. protection against subscriber identity module [SIM] cloning
- H04W 4/027: {using movement velocity, acceleration information}
- H04W: WIRELESS COMMUNICATION NETWORKS (broadcast communication H04H; communication systems using wireless links for non-selective communication, e.g. wireless extensions H04M1/72)

## Abstract

A system includes a vehicle computing processor. The processor is configured to, through wireless communication with a phone, and after determining that a vehicle engine is not running, request and receive motion sensor data from the phone. The processor is further configured to determine if a phone is moving with a driver based on the motion sensor data. Also, the processor is configured to alert the driver if the phone is not moving with the driver.

## Claims

### Claim 1

A system comprising:
a processor configured to:
save indicia of a phone-present state, upon pairing of a phone with a vehicle, indicating that the phone was paired with the vehicle during a journey;
scan for a wireless signal corresponding to the phone associated with the saved indicia upon vehicle power-up, responsive to a determination that the vehicle is at a home location;
alert a vehicle occupant that the phone may be left at home if the scan results in not-finding the wireless signal.

### Claim 2

A computer-implemented method comprising:
saving indicia of a phone-present state, via a vehicle computer, upon pairing of a phone with a vehicle, indicating that the phone was paired with the vehicle during a journey;
scanning for a wireless signal corresponding to the phone associated with the saved indicia upon vehicle power-up, responsive to a determination that the vehicle is at a home location:
alerting a vehicle occupant that the phone may be left at home if the scan results in not-finding the wireless signal.