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Method and system for logging vehicle behavior

1. Nov 14 2013 diverting voice calls incoming to the mobile device during a driving period Advantageously this safety feature discour ages users from making or receiving phone calls whilst driv ing It will be appreciated that a driver is less able to control a vehicle effectively whilst also manipulating a mobile device and in many countries doing so is illegal However the pro vision of a hands free mode or accessory as are well known in the art may obviate the need for a user to manipu late the mobile device Accordingly the executed application may be arranged to control the mobile device to selectively disable and or divert voice calls incoming to the mobile device during a driving period in dependence on the detec tion of a hands free accessory or hands free mode enabled on the mobile device 0017 Furthermore the executed application may be arranged to control the mobile device to enable a hands free mode of operation on detection of a driving period For example the enabled hands free mode of operation may com prise enabling voice activated commands In light of this it is preferred that the adapter is configured to hold the mobile device in a way that facilitates reception of voice commands from the user In particular the mobile device may be held in a position relative to the user to permit clear reception of the users voice Typically this position is about the dashboard in a vehicle such as car or van Fu
2. 14 2013 0052 Preferably the executed application is arranged to encrypt the driving information stored on the memory Advantageously this reduces the possibility of said driving information being modified without authorisation This is an important consideration when such driving data may be used as evidence for example when determining the cause of an accident 0053 Preferably the mobile device is arranged to inter face with an external device to receive external driving infor mation from said external device It will be appreciated that the sensor set onboard the mobile device may be supple mented by a sensor set external to the mobile device For example the external device may be an engine management system of the vehicle and or the external device may be arranged to connect to the on car data network of the vehicle Thus the external device may have access to information associated with the behaviour of the vehicle for example the speed of the vehicle how much the brake pedal is being pressed etc Such driving information can be processed and or stored by the mobile device under control of the executed application in a manner similar to driving informa tion derived from sensor data internal to the mobile device 0054 Preferably the mobile device is arranged to inter face with an external device wirelessly for example via a Bluetooth connection Advantageously this removes the need for the mobile device to be phy
3. when highlighted ifa Recording Stack data file is selected then a user will be prompted to name it and then it will be stored as a Kept data file 0185 The icons in the File Management Screen change in dependence on the selected mode For example FIG 20 shows the icons 134 displayed when the Video selection mode is highlighted FIG 21 shows the icons 136 displayed when the Map selection mode is highlighted FIG 22 shows the icons 138 displayed when the Export selection mode is high lighted and FIG 23 shows the icons 140 displayed when the Keep selection mode is highlighted Advantageously this provides improved feedback to a user about what selection mode is highlighted and so what action is likely from the selection of a data file 0186 Referring to FIG 8 a fourth page 142 of the Witness application user manual is shown in which an image of a Recording Playback screen 144 is shown and described The Recording Playback screen is invoked by highlighting the Video Mode 126 in the File Management Screen 120 and selecting an appropriate data file 0187 Inthe Recording Playback screen 144 it is possible to play back a pre recorded video feed associated with a chosen data file As well as playing back the recorded video feed the Recording Playback screen also displays other asso ciated data such as telemetry data 146 For example date time speed forward backward G forces latitude longitude and heading informa
4. a predetermined period the mobile telecommunica tions device being further configured to receive a user inter Nov 14 2013 action to confirm or deny whether the further scheduled action should be taken within a predetermined period 12 A mobile telecommunications device according to claim 8 wherein the at least one predetermined action com prises communicating to a remote system that an event has been detected the mobile telecommunications device being further configured to receive from the remote system a reguest to transmit to the remote system selected portions of the driving information associated with the detected event and operate the wireless telecommunication module to trans mit the reguested driving information 13 A mobile telecommunications device according claim 1 wherein the memory comprises a long term memory for persistently storing driving information and a short term memory for transiently storing driving information the short term memory being arranged to receive driving information at a higher update rate than the long term memory the mobile telecommunications device being controlled by the executed application to write driving information to the short term memory at a predetermined update rate during the driving period in a predetermined seguence the mobile device being further controlled to overwrite the driving information previ ously written to the short term memory in accordance with the predetermined se
5. a user input to store a user selected image or sequence of images to the memory The image sensor data may be pro cessed to determine safety information and feedback said safety information to the driver For example the mobile device may be controlled to determine the proximity of the mobile device to other vehicles Said determination may be via comparing the apparent size of the number plate of other vehicles in an image with a known size of a standard number plate and from that the distance to those other vehicles Thus the mobile device can make a determination that another vehicle is too close and issue a warning to the driver to slow down to avoida collision Similarly images of the road ahead may be processed to determine whether a vehicle is drifting out of lane e g because the driver is falling asleep In US 2013 0302758 A1 response to such a determination an alert can be issued Similarly images of road signs may be processed to assess driver behaviour 0045 It will be appreciated that the mobile device may comprise a plurality of image sensors For example the mobile device may have a forward facing camera and a rear facing camera Accordingly it may be possible to view images of the road ahead external to the vehicle and also from inside the vehicle In particular the mobile device may be arranged to capture images or a seguence of images of the driver Images of the driver may be processed to make a safety det
6. driving period to derive driving Nov 14 2013 information associated with when and or how the vehicle is driven Preferably the mobile device is arranged to store a selection of the driving information to the memory Prefer ably the mobile device is arranged to transmit a selection of the driving information via the wireless telecommunication module The mobile device may be arranged to transmit a selection of the driving information via the wireless telecom munication module to a remote system such as a remote data logging system Advantageously transmitting rather than storing selected driving information prevents storage space local to the mobile device being used up 0064 According to a fifth aspect of the present disclosure there is provided a method of logging driving information associated with a vehicle when driven the method compris ing adapting and installing a mobile device to the vehicle the mobile device comprising a memory registering the start of a driving period during which the mobile device is installed to the vehicle and the vehicle is being driven by a driver pro cessing sensor data from a sensor set during the driving period to derive driving information associated with when and or how the vehicle is driven and storing a selection of the driving information to the memory of the mobile device 0065 According to a sixth aspect of the present disclosure there is provided a data logging system for logging dri
7. information recorded derived shortly after the driving incident in the same data file since this data mav also be relevant for understand ing a driving incident Furthermore this also enables the mobile telecommunications device to record multiple driving incidents For example a multiple collision 0108 The processor module 33 may be configured with encryption means enabling stored data f les to be encrypted US 2013 0302758 A1 to prevent data tampering Envisaged encryption means may comprise both software solutions and hardware solutions For example the processor module may comprise a cryptoproces sor or the processor may be configured with code to carry out a cryptographic process 0109 FIG 4a is a flow chart outlining the method carried out by the mobile telecommunications device 17 to deter mine if a driving incident has occurred in accordance with a preferred embodiment An application is downloaded from the content provider server 9 of FIG 1 onto the mobile telecommunications device 17 at step 36 as previously described This may be done over a telecommunications net work The application provides the mobile telecommunica tions device 17 with the previously described functionality when executed on the device The mobile telecommunica tions device is configured within the vehicle at step 38 This may comprise affixing the mobile telecommunications device 17 to the vehicle via an adapter as described previ ous
8. mobile device to the vehicle and or adapter The regis tration module may comprise an NFC device When the mobile device is brought into close proximity with the regis tration module a driving period is initiated 0113 Once the driving period has been initiated sensor data is sampled and recorded in storage 34 at step 44 Addi tionally the sampled sensor data is used to generate driving information by the processor module 33 The sampled sensor data and the driving information is continuously analysed by the processor module 33 at step 46 0114 The processor module 33 determines if a driving incident has been detected at step 48 This is determined on the basis of the analysis carried out at step 46 If a driving incident has been detected all the sensor data and driving information associated with the data file period is stored in a data file in protected storage 344 at step 50 0115 There are several ways in which a driving incident may be detected Preferably this is an automated process wherein the processor module 33 determines a driving inci dent has occurred on the basis of an observed marked varia Nov 14 2013 tion in sensor data and or driving information The term marked variation is to be understood to relate to a significant change in sensor data and or driving information occurring over a very short time period In other words a detected impulse in recorded sensor data and or driving information ind
9. step 58 The mobile telecom munications device 17 continues to sample sensor data to derive driving information and steps 44 through 62 are repeated until the driving period is determined to have ter minated 0122 FIG 4b provides more detail regarding how a driv ing incident may be automatically detected i e steps 46 and 48 of FIG 4a in a preferred embodiment where the mobile telecommunications device 17 is configured to sample audio data accelerometer data and GPS data only Each one of these types of data is analysed in turn at steps 64 66 and 68 The analysis may comprise comparing measured sensor data and or derived driving information with a data model The model may comprise defined threshold values for different data types Sampled sensor data and or driving information may be compared with the data model to determine if a driving incident has occurred 0123 For example the analysis of sampled audio data at step 64 may comprise comparing the recorded audio data with predetermined audio data models representing specific sounds Such sounds may relate to the sound of tyre sgueals the sound of deforming metal the sound of breaking glass passenger screaming and or shouting the sound of airbag deployment and any other sound which may be associated with a driving incident Effectively this may be considered audio fingerprinting which serves to identify specific sounds associated with a driving incident by carrying
10. than the speed limit allocated to a given road detected by GPS 0162 Further details regarding the features and function ality of the Witness application in particular the graphical user interface of the Witness application are now described 0163 Referring to FIG 5 a first page 80 of the Witness application user manual is shown in which an image of the Main Menu the top level menu 82 is displayed The Main Menu is displayed when a user first runs the application on a smart phone such as the iPhone 4 The main menu includes the following user selectable buttons 0164 Recording Screen 84 0165 File Management 86 0166 Settings 88 0167 Accident Management 90 0168 Information 92 displays up a manual as shown in FIGS 5 to 14 0169 Selecting the Recording Screen button 84 opens the Recording Screen 94 the second image shown in FIG 5 The Recording Screen 94 contains a video feed 96 from the camera of the smart phone which occupies the majority of the visible screen area Overlaid on to the video feed is the detected speed of the vehicle 98 e g 0 mph heading 100 e g south by south west and the elapsed recorded time 102 e g 00 00 Displayed in a left column of the Recording Screen are additional user selectable buttons 0170 Keep current video 104 pressing this button will automatically copy the current video and the previous video segment to the protected storage 345 and prevents that inform
11. the device monitoring system can automatically adjust US 2013 0302758 A1 the settings of the application For example the G force sen sitivity threshold may be increased remotely 0232 Thus the initial data that is automatically transmit ted from the mobile device to the vehicle monitoring system is limited in bandwidth so as not to overload the vehicle monitoring system as a whole However after processing or analysis is performed on the initial data further information may be reguested For example further information may be reguested automatically by the system or manually by a con troller acting for the insurance company Such further infor mation may include high resolution video logs and sensor data and derived driving information such as G force mea surements 0233 It will be understood that the mobile device may also automatically keep certain data at random Furthermore the reason for keeping certain data may also be logged e g logged as a result of a manual request by the user or in response to a high G force event 0234 The mobile device and device monitoring system may also be arranged to highlight detected transgressions For example driving during curfew hours or driving at locations where insurance is not valid e g other countries off road race tracks etc 0235 As will be appreciated the interaction of the mobile device and the device monitoring system has the advantage of actively improving us
12. the mobile telecommunications device determines at step 72 if a driving incident has occurred If it is determined that a driving incident has occurred then the telecommunications device proceeds with step 50 of FIG 4a If instead a driving incident is not detected the telecommunications device proceeds with step 60 of FIG 4a 0131 The GPS data analysis at step 68 comprises anal ysing positional data and velocity data for any anomalous readings For example a sudden deceleration followed by a zero velocity reading lasting a predetermined period of time may be indicative of a collision If such a zero velocity read ing is observed at step 70 in conjunction with anomalous audio and or accelerometer sensor at step 72 then a driving incident is determined and the mobile telecommunications device proceeds with step 50 of FIG 4a This is a further example of a threshold condition discussed previously 0132 The previously described mobile telecommunica tions device and method may also be used to monitor and generate a driver profile The driver profile may be indicative of the type of driver a user is For example this may comprise determining if a user is a calm and patient driver or an aggressive driver Also this may comprise determining whether a user regularly flouts speed limits and or ignores safety distances This type of information may be used by an insurance provider to conduct a personalised risk assessment for individ
13. wireless tele communication module of the mobile device to a remote system Advantageously this enables a remote system to be notified of the occurrence of a particular event and the details associated with that event For example the remote system may be arranged to deploy emergency services based on a transmitted notification concerning the occurrence of a crash and also the location of the mobile device and so the vehicle are also included in the transmitted information A further advantage of transmitting driving information and or sensor data to a remote system 1s that such data then does not need to be stored on or processed by the mobile device Thus this can free the storage space on the mobile device and also allow the processor of the mobile device to carry out other tasks A remote system may comprise or be interfaced with an insur ance company database US 2013 0302758 A1 0033 A further advantage associated with sending driving information to a remote system is that the driving information can be assessed remotely This assessment can be performed automatically or manually either way it advantageously removes the processing burden from the mobile device Alter natively if transmission bandwidths are small the processing can be executed automatically on the processing device In this case the use of virtual neural networks can be used to determine whether the driving information represents accept able or unacceptab
14. 2 6 filed 15 Dec 2010 GB 1101259 8 filed 25 Jan 2011 GB 1109759 9 filed 10 Jun 2011 and GB 1118777 0 filed 31 Oct 2011 the contents of which are incorporated by this reference as if full set forth herein in their entirety FIELD 0002 The present disclosure relates to methods and sys tems for logging driving information associated with vehicle behaviour Moreover the present disclosure relates to a mobile device adapted for installation to a vehicle and con figured to log such driving information for example video footage associated with how the vehicle is driven Such driv ing information may subseguently be utilised to determine the cause of an event such as an accident to modify driver behaviour and or to determine insurance premiums BACKGROUND 0003 Data logging devices are commonly installed on aircraft that log data about events associated with the behav iour of the aircraft and also the crew controlling the aircraft Such data logging devices are commonly termed black boxes and are very useful for determining the cause of prob lems that have effected the aircraft especially when no other record of a significant event such as a crash exists 0004 Similar data logging devices exist for road vehicles and can be used to realise similar advantages Vehicle users as well as authorities can use such devices to determine the cause of traffic accidents or other vehicle related events whether these stem from a ve
15. 5 Mb Recording 4 gad 25 May 2011 15 00 131 5 Mb Recording 5 25 May 2011 15 05 5 0 Mb Recording 6 26 May 2011 11 01 12 6 Mb 136 136 136 136 136 Recording 7 25 May 2011 14 25 127 2 Mb Patent Application Publication Nov 14 2013 Sheet 23 of 25 US 2013 0302758 A1 Recording 1 25 May 2011 14 45 128 6 Mb Recording 2 25 May 2011 14 50 128 6 Mb Recording 3 25 May 2011 14 55 127 5 Mb Recording 4 25 May 2011 15 00 131 5 Mb Recording 5 25 May 2011 15 05 5 0 Mb Recording 6 26 May 2011 11 01 12 6 Mb Recording 7 25 May 2011 14 25 127 2 Mb Patent Application Publication Nov 14 2013 Sheet 24 of 25 US 2013 0302758 A1 ae Recording 1 25 May 2011 14 45 128 6 Mb Recording 2 25 May 2011 14 50 128 6 Mb 140 Recording 3 25 May 2011 14 55 127 5 Mb 140 Recording 4 25 May 2011 15 00 131 5 Mb 140 ide Recording 5 25 May 2011 15 05 5 0 Mb Recording 6 26 May 2011 11 01 12 6 Mb 140 bhp Recording 7 25 May 2011 14 25 127 2 Mb bpp Fig 23 Patent Application Publication Nov 14 2013 Sheet 25 of 25 US 2013 0302758 A1 208 208 Repeat PIN Set PIN Fig 24 US 2013 0302758 A1 METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR LOGGING VEHICLE BEHAVIOR CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS 0001 This application is a United States National Stage entry of PCT GB2011 052491 which claims the full Paris Convention benefit of and priority to GB 102129
16. Securely store sensor data and driving i in a synnwn information n Fe storage TYR l 58 KO a EEE ETE ym i O file period i ora za L Transmit 8 0 Sn nesa Transmit sensor data and y To emergency ve j driving information to H server insurance server E ever JI sener Ue eee a H 86 i mm g L No_ lt Bing period ST Ves Veg End Process MG IU ai Fig 4a Patent Application Publication Nov 14 2013 Sheet 5 of 25 US 2013 0302758 A1 Step 44 Analyse audio data Analyse GPS data Analyse accelerometer data Sensor data observed which s associated with a driving incident Zero velocity for pre determined period observed Patent Application Publication Nov 14 2013 Sheet 6 of 25 US 2013 0302758 A1 80 230 y Witness User Manual Main Menu File Management 86 82 Settings 88 Accident 99 Management Recording Screen Button 84 94 Recording Screen Keep Current 104 Video Take Photo 96 110 Patent Application Publication Nov 14 2013 Sheet 7 of 25 US 2013 0302758 A1 112 230 J Main Menu User Manual The recording screen also displays your current heading speed and recording time During recording the exit button becomes the map display button Pressing this toggles the display of a map overlay showing your current position Pressing the Keep Current Video button will automatically copy the current video an
17. US 20130302758A1 as United States a2 Patent Application Publication o Pub No US 2013 0302758 A1 Wright 43 Pub Date Nov 14 2013 54 METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR LOGGING VEHICLE BEHAVIOR 76 Inventor Andrew William Wright Surrey GB 21 Appl No 22 PCT Filed 86 PCTNo 371 o 2 4 Date 13 994 455 Dec 15 2011 PCT GB11 52491 Jul 24 2013 30 Foreign Application Prioritv Data Dec 15 2010 GB Lemna 1021292 6 Jan 25 2011 1101259 8 Jun 10 2011 1109759 9 Oct 31 2011 1118777 0 Content Provider Server Publication Classification 51 Int Cl G06F 17 00 2006 01 G09B 19 14 2006 01 52 U S CI CPC sta G06F 17 00 2013 01 G09B 19 14 2013 01 TIS PC eea a ii et 434 65 701 1 57 ABSTRACT Methods and svstems for logging driving information asso ciated with a vehicle when driven are disclosed In one aspect a mobile telecommunications device is provided that is adapted for installation to a vehicle and configured to log driving information associated with the vehicle when driven The mobile device is arranged to register the start ofa driving period during which the mobile device is installed to the vehicle and the vehicle is being driven by a driver The mobile device is also arranged to process sensor data during the driving period to derive driving information associated with how the vehicle is driven The mobile device is also arranged to store
18. a and or the driving information may be used to determine for example if the driver is a cautious driver or a reckless driver This information may be used for example by an insurance provider to conduct a risk assessment and to tailor an insurance premium to the subject driver on the basis of a determined driving characteristic Further details of this alternative embodiment are described below 0083 Themobiletelecommunication device s functional ity is provided by the Witness application which is installed in the device s local non volatile storage and which is executed by the device s native processor The application may be downloaded to the mobile device via the shared com munications network 13 and telephone base station 15 from the content provider server 9 0084 In use once the application has been configured for execution on the mobile telecommunications device when a driving incident has been detected by the mobile telecommu nications device data comprising one or more of mobile device sensor data derived driving information and captured image data may be automatically forwarded to one or more of the remotely located devices 5 7 9 11 For example the mobile device may be configured such that when a driving incident is detected such as a collision involving an automo bile 3 driving information including image data captured by the mobile device derived from the sensor data is automati cally forwarded to
19. a selection of the driving information to a memory et m t 4 Communicatiori Network Emergency Services Server US 2013 0302758 A1 Nov 14 2013 Sheet 1 of 25 Patent Application Publication L Big Janas Japa MAWOJ ik e JBAJSQ SOIG Aovebisura YONAN uogeoiunuuuor aw dm ai ad r gt 44BA IOS BJUBINSUJI Patent Application Publication Nov 14 2013 Sheet 2 of 25 US 2013 0302758 A1 N co ii g 3 Boe g fa k aad cw US 2013 0302758 A1 2013 Sheet 3 of 25 14 Nov Patent Application Publication Lb ainpoy aunjde9 oipny ampon aunides aew Bid ginpow ans Suoneonunuiuiooejeg SSO AA A NPOJAJ SUOMEOIUNUILUGS BINPOJN 4OSSe001 ee apeos obeio1g popoea0id JOAIBIOY Sd SZ IOU ee Patent Application Publication Nov 14 2013 Sheet 4 of 25 US 2013 0302758 A1 36 Download Application and install on mobile device l tall 38 Configure mobile device in vehic le L ED Sasa Specifv recording strategv Ma MAI i NN ea ren Register start of a driving period a i 4 UAN and record sensor data and generate driving infomation pone Speer fed cree Lo drivr driving information AD A F at 66 prn File period gae No LT one o RQ RE y ng 46 ot s e Y Yes 50 a data file lt
20. al Bus or via a wireless communication protocol such as Blue tooth This data may subsequently be used by the mobile telecommunications device to complement sensor data cap tured directly by the telecommunications device In this way a more accurate model of a driving incident and or of a user profile may be generated For example native vehicle telem etric systems may comprise electronic tyre pressure sensors and are able to detect if a tyre is under and or over inflated This information may be communicated to the mobile tele communications device and may help to explain the causes for a driving incident such as a sudden loss oftraction result ing from a burst tyre 0137 Further features of the Witness application are set out below 0138 Benchmarking 0139 It will be appreciated that different sensor types phones mounting positions vehicles drivers and road con ditions may generate differing outputs for driving behaviour that is safe To account for this the Witness application may have the following functionality Nov 14 2013 0140 During a training mode e g first week of enabling the Witness application the input from the sensors are used to build up a benchmark for a particu lar driver s typical driving conditions 0141 Assuming an accident does not occur during this training mode the benchmark data can be subse guently used to assess the occurrence of driving inci dent 0142 T
21. alysed through slowed down playback Furthermore it is possible to zoom in and out of a region of the video file using a pinch and zoom movement as is standard with most multi touch touch screen devices 0196 Referring to FIG 9 a fifth page 158 of the Witness application user manual is shown in which a different type of Recording Playback screen 160 is shown and described Spe cificallv the image represents playback ofa pre recorded data file as can be invoked by highlighting the Map Mode 128 in the File Management Screen 120 and selecting an appropriate data file 0197 In contrast with the Video Mode playback this Map Mode playback shows a map of the area 162 where the record ing took place A blue breadcrumb trail 164 is overlaid on to the map showing the extent of movement of the vehicle dur ing the recorded period A scrub slider 166 is shown which is user operable to adjust the time within the recorded period As the slider is adjusted a pin 168 moves along the blue breadcrumb 164 to show the position of the vehicle at the time as specified by the slider 166 Tapping the pin 168 displays associated telemetry data 170 at that position and time 0198 Referring to FIG 10 asixth page 172 of the Witness application user manual is shown in which an image of a Video Export Screen 174 is described The Video Export Screen 174 may be invoked by highlighting the Export button 130 in the File Management Screen 120 and selecting
22. an appropriate data file 0199 The Video Export Screen 174 allows the quality of the video associated with the selected data file to be adjusted before that video is exported Advantageously this can allow the user to control the size of the data to be exported Telem etry data i e sensor data is also exported embedded within the video file Video data can be exported with or without sound depending on the permissions of the user Export typically involves copying data files from the mobile device to a local computer e g via a data cable or a remote server e g via a wireless connection 0200 Referring to FIG 11 a seventh page 176 of the Witness application user manual is shown in which an image of the Settings Screen 178 is displayed and described The Settings Screen 178 allows the operation of the Recording Strategy to be controlled Specifically the Settings Screen allows a user to select the number of video segments that the application should store and the size of those segments i e a data file period Accordingly the user is able to set a limit to the storage usage of the Recording Stack i e the size of the Nov 14 2013 buffer 34a part of the program The user can also control the storage usage of the Recording Stack through the use of the video guality buttons 0201 Note that the Witness application may be arranged to calculate the remaining memory available on the smart phone and suggest the appropria
23. arded to the telephone of the user selected per sonal contact informing the contact of the driving incident The mobile device may be egually be arranged to communi cate with a personal contact via any known electronic mes US 2013 0302758 A1 saging service and or instant messaging service too For example via Apple s iMessage or RIM s BlackBerry Messenger BBM service 0087 This functionality of forwarding a message to a nominated contact may also be of particular benefit for man aging large fleets of vehicles For example a car hire service In this way if any of the vehicles comprised in the fleet are involved in a driving incident the car hire service may be automatically notified of the identity of the specific vehicle involved in the driving incident In such embodiments the nominated personal contact would be preselected by the vehicle fleet manager The option of providing a second user selected personal contact is also envisaged In this way a message may be forwarded to both the car hire service for example and to the driver s selected personal contact 0088 In preferred embodiments the mobile telecommuni cations device relates to a mobile telephone having native processing functionality and preferably relates to a smart phone Preferably the mobile telephone comprises a camera arranged to enable image capture and preferably arranged to enable a seguence of images to be captured taken in temporal successi
24. ation Nov 14 2013 Sheet 18 of 25 US 2013 0302758 A1 Back Witness Details Full name of witness CO House number or name SA Street name G Postal town or citv name G Postal Zip code AS Home telephone number Patent Application Publication Nov 14 2013 Sheet 19 of 25 US 2013 0302758 A1 230 224 Back Drivers Details Full name of driver GS House number or name Street name ee Postal town or city name CO Postal Zip code MA Home telephone number Patent Application Publication Nov 14 2013 Sheet 20 of 25 US 2013 0302758 A1 230 Your Details Insurance company Insurance policy number Policy expiry date Fig 19 Patent Application Publication Nov 14 2013 Sheet 21 of 25 US 2013 0302758 A1 230 Main Menu Recordings TE Recording 1 25 May 2011 14 45 128 6 Mb q Recording 2 AH 25 May 2011 14 50 128 6 Mb T Recording 3 tH 25 May 2011 14 55 127 5 Mb TH Recording 4 E 25 May 2011 15 00 131 5 Mb TH Recording 5 BH 25 May 2011 15 05 5 0 Mb H Recording 6 a 26 May 2011 11 01 12 6 Mb TR Recording 7 aH 25 May 2011 14 25 127 2 Mb Patent Application Publication Nov 14 2013 Sheet 22 of 25 US 2013 0302758 A1 230 Main Menu Recordings Recording 1 AE 25 May 2011 14 45 128 6 Mb TA Recording 2 25 Mav 2011 14 50 128 6 Mb Recording 3 25 Mav 2011 14 55 127
25. ation from being overwritten The user is advised to press this button in the event of a driving incident that needs to be recorded 0171 Take photo 106 captures a still photograph 0172 Exit Recorder 108 returns to main screen 0173 Start Stop Recording 110 starts recording video footage and other data 0174 Referring to FIG 6 a second page 112 of the Wit ness application user manual is shown in which an image of the Recording Screen 114 is shown and described operating in a map displaying mode rather than a video feed mode 0175 Duringrecording i e when the Start Stop Record ing button 110 is pressed the Exit Recorder button in the Recording Screen is substituted with a Map Display button 116 Pressing it will toggle between the modes showing the video feed and a map of the current location 0176 Referring to FIG 7 a third page 118 of the Witness application user manual is shown in which the File Manage ment Screen 120 is shown and described The File Manage ment Screen 120 can be accessed by pressing the File Man agement Button 86 in the Main Menu 0177 The File Management Screen 120 displays video and associated data e g telemetry data that has been previ ously recorded The stored data is contained in either a pro tected area of storage or in a Recording Stack Data files in the protected area are saved and so not overwritten as part of a Recording Strategy In contrast data files in t
26. ations device accord ing to claim 1 and receive therefrom a unigue identifier for association of the mobile device with a corresponding one of the plurality of accounts and driving information to be logged to that corresponding account 18 A data logging system according to claim 17 wherein the driving information comprises at least one of a driving score and sensor data captured and processed by the mobile device during a driving period during which the mobile device is installed to a vehicle being driven by a driver the data logging system being further arranged to process the driving information logged to the corresponding account to US 2013 0302758 A1 Nov 14 2013 18 generate a driving score used to determine a risk profile for at least one of the vehicle and driver 19 A data logging system according to claim 18 wherein the driving score is used to define an insurance premium associated with the account and the data logging system is further arranged to communicate to the mobile telecommu nication device an insurance offer generated in response to the driving information received from the mobile device 20 A method of logging driving information associated with a vehicle when driven the method comprising adapting and installing a mobile device to the vehicle the mobile device comprising a memory registering the start of a driving period during which the mobile device is installed to the vehicle and the vehicle i
27. bile to modify one or more event indication models in response to the benchmark Advantageously such a benchmark ensures that the event indication models may be tailored to the stan dard behaviour ofa particular vehicle As will be appreciated different sensor types mobile devices mounting positions vehicles drivers and road conditions may generate different sets of sensor data for driving behaviour that is considered standard or safe Accordingly the benchmark allows the mobile device to account for variable driving conditions 0031 Preferably a plurality of benchmarks may be defined A benchmark may be defined for each driver A benchmark may be defined for each vehicle to which the mobile device is to be installed Ideally a benchmark is defined for each driver vehicle pair To this end the mobile device may be arranged to receive an input to specify a driver a vehicle or a driver vehicle pair Advantageously this ensures that different drivers and vehicles do not disrupt the accurate event detecting capabilities of the event detector 0032 Once a predetermined event has been detected by the event detector it is desirable to take an appropriate action in response to that detected event Accordingly the executed application may be arranged to control the mobile device to take at least one predetermined action in response to a detected event The action taken may comprise transmitting driving information and or sensor data via the
28. context may be counter intuitive to a person skilled in the art such generic devices are not designed to withstand events such as catastrophic crashes Furthermore such generic devices are usually not necessarily configured to appropriately detect conditions that may need to be recorded Such devices are usually kept in a user s pocket or bag and so are not best placed to generate sensor data associated with the behaviour of a vehicle However the inventor of the present disclosure has realised that such a mobile device that is adapted for installation to the vehicle can overcome such drawbacks and fulfil a role similar to a US 2013 0302758 A1 black box To this end the mobile telecommunication device may comprise an adapter arranged to hold the device securely to the vehicle 0013 Advantageously as well as protecting the device from damage the adapter improves the suitability and reli ability of the sensor data and so the driving information associated with when and or how the vehicle is being driven For example if the sensor set comprises an accelerometer the acceleration of the vehicle can be more accurately measured due to the mobile device being firmly attached to the vehicle Similarly if the sensor set comprises an image sensor for example for capturing video footage of the road ahead better footage can be obtained as the mobile device can be held in the correct position and orientation relative to the vehicle In par
29. d signs such as stop signs or traffic lights Furthermore driving conditions as affected by the weather can be determined For example if the windscreen wipers are detected to be in motion it can be inferred to be raining Once the driving conditions are so determined an assessment of the driving performance of a user can be made by determining whether the user reacts or behaves appropri ately to the driving conditions For example if the driver is seen to be jumping red lights or driving dangerously in rain or snow then a higher risk profile may be assigned to that driver 0135 Similarly accelerometer and g force data may be used to determine if a user has an erratic driving style For example a user that generates sharp variations in g force data and accelerometer data during regular operation of a vehicle may be considered to drive erratically and therefore at greater risk of being involved in an accident and insurance premium rates for the user may be tailored accordingly 0136 The mobile telecommunications device may also be conf gured to interface and communicate directly with a vehicles native telemetry systems For example the majority of modern cars have inbuilt electronic control systems or engine management systems arranged to collect data regard ing vehicle system performance This data may be commu nicated to the mobile telecommunications device either via a wired physical connection such as USB Universal Seri
30. d the previous video to the kept videos section in the library Use this button if an incident occurs whilst you are driving and you wish to keep it 114 Fig 6 Patent Application Publication Nov 14 2013 Sheet 8 of 25 US 2013 0302758 A1 118 File management Recordings H Recording 1 2 Mav 2011 06 53 4 5 Mb 20 April 2011 18 07 40 3 Mb 20 April 2011 18 01 11 0 Mb 21 April 2011 12 12 24 4 Mb video wep Export Keep 126 128 130 132 The top section of the file management screen contains the recording stack The recording stack contains your recent video segments the number of which depends upon your personal settings The bottom section contains videos segments that you have chosen to keep Your kept recordings Recording 1 En can be deleted Last Stretch Home individually but the 20 April 2011 18 07 40 3 Mb video stack can only Inside View 20 April 2011 18 01 11 0 Mb be cleared from the jA Long Cross setting screen 21 April 2011 12 12 24 4 Mb seo map expr Keer Fig 7 Patent Application Publication Nov 14 2013 Sheet 9 of 25 US 2013 0302758 A1 142 230 Recording Rlavback a lt 775 7 20 Apr 2011 18 07 47 29 Mph G 0 2 ee Lat 51 1857 Lon 2 5290 Hdg 306 The playback screen shows your recorded video along with the associated telemetry data The data displayed shows the date and time of the recording the current speed the forward and reverse G force the cur
31. defined threshold values must be observed 0117 Similarly the occurrence of a driving incident may also be recorded manually by the user via the application GUI This may be beneficial for the purposes of documenting data associated with a low velocity collision colloguially referred to as a fender bender which may not result in any marked variations in sampled sensor data and therefore may not be automatically detected 0118 Once a driving incident such as a collision has been detected and the data f le comprising the associated sensor data and driving information has been securely stored in protected storage 344 the data file is transmitted to the insur ance server 5 of FIG 1 at step 52 The data f le informs the insurance provider that a driving incident has occurred and provides the insurance provider with the sensor data and derived driving information This data assists the insurance provider in better understanding the collision in addition to assisting with determining culpability where more than one vehicle are involved 0119 Similarly once a driving incident has been detected an S O S message may be automatically forwarded from the mobile telecommunications device 17 to the emergency ser vices server 7 at step 54 The S O S message may also comprise sensor data and derived driving information which may assist the emergency services in coordinating their response 0120 As mentioned previously the mobi
32. detector is arranged to compare the set of predetermined data values against corre sponding sensor data to determine whether the predetermined event has occurred 0027 For example the event indication model may indi cate that a serious crash has occurred if values returned by an accelerometer sensor exceed predetermined data values of the event indication model thereby representing a sustained vehicle deceleration beyond a threshold level Following on from this it will be appreciated that detection of an event may be dependent on matching a sequence of data values that have occurred over time Moreover the event indication model may comprise a sequence of predetermined data values the sequence being associated by a function of time Thus the event detector may be arranged to compare the sequence of predetermined data values against corresponding sensor data that have been generated over a given time period Put another way the event detector and event indication model are arranged to indicate the occurrence of an event in dependence on the correlation between a set of predetermined data values occurring over time Thus a set of values returned from sensor data over a period of time are compared against a corresponding sequence of predetermined data values of the event indication model Typically this is to determine a rate of change of variables associated with a sensor set 0028 It will be understood that an event indication model
33. e guently stored in the buffer 34a For example a five minute video period setting instructs the processor 33 to store all seguentially captured image data captured by the image cap ture module 21 over a period of five minutes in a separate video data file It is to be understood that whilst the image capture module 21 is continuously sampling image data in other words it is continuously capturing image data this plurality of captured image data is grouped together for stor age in video data files each data file representing a five minute data file period 0104 Sampled sensor data and derived driving informa tion is also continuously analysed by the processor module 33 for the purposes of detecting a driving incident As soon as a driving incident is identified the associated sensor data and derived driving information is stored in a data file in accor dance with the data recording strategy Returning to the example described in the preceding paragraph this entails combining the video footage captured within a temporal win dow of five minutes leading up to the detected driving inci dent in a single video file and storing this data file in pro tected storage 34b Whilst each different type of sensor data may be recorded in separate data files in preferred embodi ments all the different types of sensor data sampled by the mobile telecommunications device 17 are stored together in a single data file in accordance with the user se
34. e module 27 a communications module 29 a processor module 31 and a storage module 33 The image capture module 21 accelerometer 23 GPS receiver 25 and audio capture module 27 form a sensor set and are generically referred to as data capture modules in the ensuing description and are differentiated from the commu nications module 29 processor module 31 and storage mod ule 33 in that they comprise sensors for sampling physical data 0093 This sampled physical data which is also referred to as sensor data is subseguently processed by the processor module 31 and stored in the storage module 33 0094 The image capture module 21 may relate to any image capture device such as an integrated camera com monly found in smartphones or similar mobile devices As mentioned previously the image capture module 21 is pref erably configured to capture a plurality of images taken in temporal succession such as provided by a video camera 0095 The accelerometer 23 is arranged to provide infor mation regarding the motion of the automobile 3 along all three dimensional axes For example the accelerometer 23 provides information regarding the pitch yaw and roll ofthe automobile 3 Sensor data captured from the accelerometer 23 may be used to determine the g forces the automobile has been subjected to This is particularly useful in determining the severity of a collision In general the greater the g forces experienced in a collision the great
35. e select the option and set the speed if vou would like this to happen Please note If vou change the speed units vou will need to re adjust the map trigger speed accordingiv Fig 12 Patent Application Publication Nov 14 2013 Sheet 14 of 25 US 2013 0302758 A1 230 194 Personal Details 196 These details will be used in the event of an Name accident to send an CarReg _ _ _ _ automated message Mobile No J Enter your name the registration number of the car the device will be used in the telephone number of this device and the e mail address of the person you would like contacted e mail address to use in an emergency You can also set here the option to prevent the video stack from being cleared This screen can be protected with a PIN number but please make sure you remember it or make a note of it somewhere Re setting the PIN can only be accomplished by deleting and re installing the app which will result in all video and data being lost Fig 13 Patent Application Publication Nov 14 2013 Sheet 15 of 25 US 2013 0302758 A1 230 Accident Management In the event of an accident Witness provides the necessary tools you need in order to gather and keep the correct information ud Main Menu Accident Management Witness Detalls AN Other 245 The Street Big City BC34 V87 Tel 12345 123456 Mob 89765 123456 another another com Car Registration N A Witness and driver de
36. e sensor data from a sensor set external to the mobile device Preferably the sensor interface is arranged to inter face with an external device as described in relation to the f rst aspect of the present disclosure Advantageously this enables a mobile device to utilise a richer or better equipped sensor set than that local to the mobile device 0063 According to a fourth aspect of the present disclo sure there is provided a mobile device adapted for installation to a vehicle and configured to log driving information asso ciated with the vehicle when driven Preferably the mobile device comprises a sensor interface arranged to receive sensor data from an external sensor set The mobile device may comprise an internal sensor set Preferably the mobile device comprises a processor for processing the sensor data to derive said driving information Preferably the mobile device com prises a memory for storing said derived driving information Preferably the mobile device is a mobile telecommunication device comprising a wireless telecommunications module Preferably the wireless telecommunications module is oper able to download an application Preferably the mobile device comprises a registration means for registering the start ofa driving period during which the mobile device is installed to the vehicle and the vehicle is being driven by a driver Preferably the processor is arranged to process sensor data from the sensor set during the
37. egistration means for register ing the start of a driving period during which the mobile device is installed to the vehicle and the vehicle is being driven by a driver wherein the processor is arranged to process sensor data from the sensor set during the driving period to derive driving information associated with when and or how the vehicle is driven and store a selection of the driving information to the memory 0061 According to a third aspect of the present disclosure there is provided a mobile telecommunications device adapted for installation to a vehicle and configured to log driving information associated with the vehicle when driven the mobile device comprising a sensor interface arranged to receive sensor data from a sensor set a processor for process ing the sensor data to derive said driving information a memory for storing said derived driving information a wire less telecommunications module operable to download a con trolling application and a registration means for registering the start of a driving period during which the mobile device is installed to the vehicle and the vehicle is being driven by a driver wherein the processor is arranged to process sensor data from the sensor set during the driving period to derive driving information associated with when and or how the vehicle is driven and store a selection of the driving informa tion to the memory 0062 Preferablv the sensor interface is arranged to receiv
38. ein the initialization input is gen erated in response to sensor data reflecting a detected speed above a predetermined threshold 4 A mobile telecommunications device according to claim 1 comprising a registration module configured to register the installation of the mobile device to the vehicle wherein the registration moduleis arranged to determine a match between the location of the mobile device and the location of the vehicle 5 A mobile telecommunications device according to claim 1 controlled by the executed application to down sample sensor data from a first sampling rate to a second sampling and store the sensor data as driving information at said second sampling rate 6 A mobile telecommunications device according to claim 1 controlled by the executed application to process sensor data from the sensor set during a plurality of driving periods to derive driving information associated with how the vehicle is driven for each of the driving periods the sensor data being processed during a first set of driving periods defining a benchmark against which sensor data is compared during subseguent sets of driving periods 7 A mobile telecommunications device according to claim 6 comprising an event detector for detecting the occurrence of a predetermined event by correlating the sensor data against at least one event indication model the at least one event indication model comprising a set of predetermined data values that the ev
39. ent detector is arranged to compare against corresponding sensor data wherein the mobile tele communications device is controlled by the executed appli cation to modify the at least one event indication model in response to the benchmark 8 A mobile telecommunications device according to claim 1 controlled by the executed application to detect the occur rence of a predetermined event of significance such as a crash and in response take at least one predetermined action 9 A mobile telecommunication device according to claim 8 wherein the at least one predetermined action is at least one of storing driving information associated with that event to the memory storing driving information captured at a higher sampling rate than when an event is not detected and trans mitting driving information via the wireless telecommunica tion module of the mobile telecommunication device to a remote system 10 A mobile telecommunications device according to claim 8 wherein the at least one predetermined action com prises providing feedback to a user to indicate that an event has been detected the mobile telecommunications device being configured to receive a user interaction to confirm or deny whether the detected event has actually occurred fol lowing said feedback 11 A mobile telecommunications device according to claim 10 wherein the feedback comprises notifying a user that a further action has been scheduled and will be taken within
40. er driving behaviour That is if the user knows that their logged driving behaviour may adversely effect their insurance policy then it is likely that the user will be dissuaded from driving recklessly In view of this an insurance company may be able to incentivise users through lower insurance premiums 0236 However so that users do not wrongfully benefit from such incentives it is necessary to enforce the correct and consistent use of the Witness application 0237 It would not be beneficial from the perspective of the insurance company if the user could choose when to enable the application For example if a user could choose to disable the application when speeding then the effectiveness of the application would be reduced 0238 Accordingly the application may include measures to guarantee that the application is enabled whenever a given insured vehicle is being driven 0239 Such measures may involve matching data recorded by the Witness application with that recorded independently by the vehicle For example the Witness application records the distance travelled during every journey To ensure the summed distances of all journeys tracked by the Witness application tally with the total travelled distance of the vehicle the user may be prompted to enter the odometer mileage periodically 0240 Ifthe distance recorded by the Witness application does not correlate with the difference between odometer read ings then the disc
41. er the risk of serious injury to the passengers of the vehicle This information may assist the emergency services in forming an initial assessmentofthe severity ofa collision Furthermore this type of data may also assist the emergency services and or insurance provider to obtain a better understanding of the driving incident For example in the event of a collision this data may assist the emergency services and or insurance provider to obtain a better understanding of how the collision occurred This information may subseguently be used for dispute resolution and or for determining culpability 0096 The GPS receiver 25 is arranged to provide location information such as positional coordinates and can also provide velocity information When combined with the accel erometer sensor data the GPS receiver data can be used to provide a very accurate model of a driving incident such as a collision In particular the GPS sensor data provides velocity data such as the velocity of impact The velocity data enables one to determine if a vehicle was being driven at speeds greater than the legally permitted maximum speeds 0097 The audio capture module 27 provides means such as a microphone for recording audio data which might be generated by a driving incident This includes any sounds generated externally to the vehicle for example the sound of an impact or the sound of the crumple zone being crushed Additionally sounds generated inter
42. ermination For example the images may be processed to detect whether the driver is falling asleep In particular a blink rate of the driver may be detected by processing the image data Similarly a determination may be made whether the driver has their eyes closed In response to such a deter mination that a driver is falling asleep the mobile device may be arranged to issue an alert so as to wake the driver 0046 Preferably the sensor set comprises an audio sensor such as a microphone Accordingly the corresponding sensor data may comprise audio data 0047 Advantageously an image sensor and or an audio sensor can provide an important record of an event such as a crash 0048 Preferably the sensor set comprises a positioning module arranged to determine the position of the mobile device The positioning modulemay comprisea GPS module The positioning module may be arranged to utilise the wire less telecommunication module to self localise for example by determining a position relative to one or more mobile telecommunication cell towers Advantageously the posi tioning module can allow the mobile device to determine its position and so the position of the vehicle over time Accordingly the positioning module can thus determine the speed of the mobile device and vehicle Thus the correspond ing sensor data may comprise latitude longitude elevation speed and other data obtainable from positioning modules such as GPS modu
43. est from a communication to the phone from the insur ance company transmit all or selected portions of the recorded data associated with the incident 0155 N B Use of the communication channels is controlled by the Witness application to prioritise essential communications such as calls to the emer gency services 0156 Note that data transmission from the mobile telephone to the insurance company may be auto matic for example triggered by a detected incident or manual for example in response to a request from the insurance company In the latter case the Witness application may include functionality to allow the insurance company to browse through the data files available on the mobile telephone so as to select one or more for transmission to the insurance company 0157 Data Processing for Generating a User Profile 0158 Further features of the user profile generation embodiment are summarised 0159 Ifthe Witness application incorrectly detects an event or incident of significance and receives feedback that the vehicle was not involved in an accident but was in a near miss this could alter the risk profile of the US 2013 0302758 A1 driver For example if this happens frequently but no accident occurs over a given period this could be an indicator that the driver is good at reacting to potential hazards 0160 Erratic driving e g jerky steering or braking detected by G force sensor 0161 Driving faster
44. face GUI The graphical user interface comprise user interactable artefacts such as buttons Prefer ably the user interactable artefacts may be displayed on the screen and receive a user input for selection or control of those artefacts The mobile device may be controlled to selectively hide those artefacts in dependence on the state of the mobile device 0059 Preferably the mobile device is controlled by the application to provide feedback about the driving information and or values of the sensor data Ideally such feedback is via the display screen For example a detected speed may be displayed a time elapsed may be displayed a bearing head US 2013 0302758 A1 ing may be displayed a detected position may be displayed and or a detected image or seguence of images may be dis played e g via a video feed 0060 According to a second aspect of the present disclo sure there is provided a mobile telecommunications device adapted for installation to a vehicle and configured to log driving information associated with the vehicle when driven the mobile device comprising a sensor set comprising at least one of an image sensor an audio sensor an accelerometer and a positioning module a processor for processing sensor data from at least the sensor set to derive said driving information a memory for storing said derived driving information a wireless telecommunications module operable to download a controlling application and a r
45. from the vehicle 0010 Furthermore such a mobile telecommunication device presents additional advantages over known dedicated black box systems as the data logging functionality of the mobile telecommunication device can be continually refined This can be achieved without physically upgrading the hard ware of the device and also without significant user interven tion Specifically the application may be arranged to deter mine whether a software update exists and if so control the mobile device to download at least portions of an improved version of the application Conveniently downloading may be via the wireless telecommunication module Said down loading may be automatic or may be user confirmed For the avoidance of doubt the application will typically be stored on a portion of the memory of the mobile device and executed therefrom as is known in the art Also it will be appreciated that the application or portion thereof may be downloaded via the wireless telecommunication module and or via an intermediary device For example the application may be side loaded to the mobile device from an intermediary com puting device 0011 The application may be sourced from an application store and or content provider For example the content pro vider may comprise the Apple Appstore The content provider may comprise a cloud computing provider 0012 It will be appreciated that the use of such a generic mobile device in this
46. guence 14 A mobile telecommunications device according to claim 13 controlled by the executed application to detect the occurrence of a predetermined event of significance such as a crash and in response take at least one predetermined action including transferring data from the short term memory to the long term memory 15 A mobile telecommunications device according to claim 1 further arranged to interface with an external device such as an engine management system the external device having access to external driving information associated with a condition of the vehicle the mobile device being arranged to receive at least a portion of the external driving information from the external device 16 A mobile telecommunications device according to claim 1 controlled by the executed application to process the driving information to generate a driving score associated with a particular driver to be transmitted via the wireless telecommunication of the mobile device to a remote system 17 A data logging system for logging driving information from a remote mobile telecommunications device according to claim 1 the data logging system comprising a database for storing a plurality of accounts each account having a unigue identif er and the database being arranged to store driving information associated with at least one of a vehicle and a driver a communications interface arranged to communicate with the remote mobile telecommunic
47. he Recording Stack may be overwritten as part of the Recording Strategy 13 Nov 14 2013 0178 As illustrated in FIG 7 the bottom section of the list represents the Kept data files 122 whereas the top section of the list represents the Recording Stack 124 Kept data files 122 can be edited and deleted from the File Management Screen 120 whereas Recording Stack data files cannot Editing Kept data files can involve renaming them 0179 The recorded data files are listed on screen along with the time and date of the recording and the electronic size of the data file Accordingly the user is provided with feed back about how big the data files are and so if the smart phone is low in storage the user can elect to delete certain Kept data files Recording Stack data files will be auto matically overridden by the Recording Strategy 0180 The controls on the toolbar at the bottom of the recordings screen allow a user to change the selection mode of the video stack and includes 0181 Video 126 when highlighted if a data file is selected a video recording playback screen will be dis played 0182 Map 128 when highlighted ifa data file is selected then a map will be displayed showing the area over which the recording was made 0183 Export 130 when highlighted a selected data file will be passed to an Export Screen where export options will be provided 0184 Keep 132
48. here is preferably an option to notify the Wit ness application of a change in parameters e g different driver driving off road etc Thus a number of profiles may be set up Each profile may reguire an independent training mode period 0143 Ifthe Witness application incorrectly detects that a driving incident has occurred it can receive feedback from the user to modify its sensitivities E g a more aggressive driver is actually driving 0144 Crash Collision Management 0145 On detection of a crash or other driving incident the Witness application is arranged to take one or more of the following actions 0146 Announce that it has detected an accident au dio screen prompt 0147 Call the emergency services with option to cancel e g Audio screen prompt Witness has detected that you have been involved in a serious accident and will call the emergency services If this is not the case please cancel within 10 seconds 0148 Provide reassurance 0149 Provide the user with a checklist of things to do 0150 Take photographs of vehicles involved in the incident inc number plates 0151 Take down name address insurance details etc of 3 7 parties involved in incident 0152 Communicate to the insurance company that an incident has been detected e g low bandwidth data or text message 0153 Protect the high quality recorded data so it is not overwritten 0154 If appropriate or in response to a requ
49. hicle malfunction or driver negligence For example the data logged by these devices can be used as evidence for insurance claims and so potentially to determine insurance premiums 0005 Some of these data logging devices can be inte grated with the car data network and so may take inputs from sensors integrated with the vehicle such as those measuring the speed of the vehicle However these can be difficult and costly to install Others having their own internal sensor set are more readily retrofitted to a vehicle Nonetheless such data logging devices for road vehicles are less prevalent per haps due to their unjustifiable expense Accordingly the uptake of data logging devices that can be retrofitted to road vehicles as are known in the art has been minimal 0006 It is the object of the present disclosure to alleviate the above mentioned problems at least in part SUMMARY 0007 Aspects of some exemplary implementations pro vide a mobile telecommunications device adapted for instal lation to a vehicle and configured to log driving information associated with the vehicle when driven the mobile device comprising a sensor set comprising at least one of an image sensor an audio sensor an accelerometer and a positioning module a processor for processing sensor data from the sen sor set to derive said driving information a memory for storing said derived driving information and a wireless tele Nov 14 2013 communicat
50. icative of a significant change in the state of motion of the vehicle occurring over a short time period For example a sudden increase in the g forces the vehicle is subjected to may be indicative of a collision and if observed result in a driving incident being determined to have occurred by the processor module 33 0116 Predefined threshold values may also be used to automate the detection of a driving incident For example each data type and or derived driving information e g accel eration velocity g force pitch roll yaw etc may be asso ciated with a threshold value When any one of these thresh old values is exceeded the processor module 33 may be configured to determine that a driving incident has occurred Similarly the automated detection of a driving incident may reguire that a threshold condition associated with a combina tion of predefined threshold values each threshold value being associated with a different data type and or type of driving information must be exceeded in order for the pro cessor module 33 to automatically determine that a driving incident has occurred For example in the eventofa collision it is reasonable to expect to observe a marked variation in g force accompanied by a marked variation in velocity Accordingly the threshold condition may reguire that in order for a collision to be automatically detected both a marked variation in g force and a marked variation in speed in excess of pre
51. iled information associated with the behaviour of a vehicle during a crash than when the vehicle is being driven normally 0023 Accordingly the executed application may be arranged to control the mobile device to detect the occurrence ofa predetermined event of significance such as a crash and in response store driving information associated with that event to the memory Preferably said driving information associated with that event comprises driving information in the lead up to and immediately following the event In par ticular detailed driving information in the lead up to and immediately following a predetermined event of significance is preferably stored It will be understood that the driving information associated with the detected event may be trans mitted via the wireless telecommunication module in addi tion to or instead of storing said data Said transmitted driv ing information may be transmitted to a remote data logging system 0024 To this end the mobile device may comprise an event detector for detecting the occurrence of an event 0025 Preferably the event detector is arranged to detect the occurrence of a predetermined event by correlating data such as sensor data against an event indication model The application may comprise the event indication model 0026 Preferably the event indication model comprises a set of predetermined data values corresponding to a predeter mined event Accordingly the event
52. ined by the user as will be described below In any case once this storage space has been exhausted the oldest recorded data is overwritten by newly sampled data and this cycle of overwriting older data with newly sampled data is continuously carried out during operation of the telecommunications device 17 unless a driv ing incident has been detected in which case and as men tioned previously all data related to the driving incident is stored in a long term protected storage 345 to safeguard it from being overwritten by newer data 0103 In preferred embodiments the mobile telecommu nications device 17 may be configured with a data recording strategy by the user This might define the freguency with which sensor data is sampled In other words how many measurements are made per unit of time Furthermore the recording strategy also defines how data is recorded In pre ferred embodiments sampled sensor data is stored in data files in the buffer 34a Each data file represents a plurality of seguentially sampled sensor data captured over a defined Nov 14 2013 period of time which will be referred to as a data file period This is best illustrated by considering captured image data such as video footage A video period may be defined which period defines the unit of physical time covered by captured video footage comprised in a single video data file this is the data file period for image data The video data file is subs
53. ions module operable to download an applica tion the mobile device being arranged to execute the down loaded application to control the mobile device to register the start of a driving period during which the mobile device is installed to the vehicle and the vehicle is being driven by a driver process sensor data from the sensor set during the driving period to derive driving information associated with how the vehicle is driven and store a selection of the driving information to the memory 0008 Advantageously the use of a mobile telecommuni cation device enables a data logging device to be conveniently and inexpensively retrofitted to a vehicle Mobile telecom munication devices such as smart phones are becoming increasingly widespread and these devices tend to have the requisite sensor sets to capture data concerning vehicle behaviour Thus a generic mobile telecommunication device already owned by a driver of the vehicle can be loaded with the application to provide such data logging functionality that would otherwise necessitate a dedicated black box Thus the functionality of a black box can be realised without addi tional expense 0009 Following on from this it will be appreciated that the mobile device is ideally a portable mobile telecommuni cation device Ideally the mobile device is a hand portable mobile device Advantageously the portability permits the mobile device to be conveniently fitted to and removed
54. is shown in FIG 19 0220 Details recorded via the Accident Management Screen 212 are electronically authenticated and feature a time stamp In alternatives this data may be encrypted to ensure the integrity of the stored data 0221 Furthermore in alternatives the exchange of the details of the drivers and witnesses can be conducted at least in part via Bluetooth for example between mobile devices and or via email Relevant information associated with the driver is pre stored on the Witness application in a format that can be sent readily via a communication channel such as Bluetooth or email 0222 Finally note that in each Screen or Menu there is a button 230 provided to go back to the previous menu Also when certain actions are performed or selected by a user the Witness application is arranged to provide an audible feed Nov 14 2013 back signal for example a beep For example this could be in response to starting a recording keeping a video segment and or a stopped recording Alternatives and Extensions 0223 The Witness application can be extended to inter face with remote users to allow them to control the operation of the application as well as view information logged by the application 0224 In particular the present application can be extended to a scenario where the Witness application is under the control of an insurance company Such an insurance com pany may provide insurance to the use
55. le driving patterns 0034 The action taken may comprise storing data cap tured at a higher or the highest possible sampling rate than when an event is not detected Thus as described above this may involve preventing the down sampling of sensor data Furthermore the action taken may comprise protecting said driving information from being overwritten 0035 The action taken may comprise providing feedback to a user to indicate that an event has been detected Prefer ably the mobile device is configured to receive a user inter action to confirm or deny whether the detected event has actually occurred following said feedback Advantageously such user feedback can be used to modify event indication models thereby to refine the effectiveness of the event detec tor The mobile device may comprise a speaker Accordingly such feedback may be provided via an audio prompt The mobile device may comprise a display screen Accordingly such feedback may be provided via a visual prompt The feedback may comprise notifying a user that a further action has been scheduled and will be taken within a predetermined period For example the feedback may indicate to a user that an event such as a serious crash has been detected and so the next action to be taken will be to contact emergency services within 10 seconds Preferably the feedback includes a prompt to receive a user input For example the prompt may be arranged to receive a user input to ca
56. le telecommuni cations device 17 will continue to sample and record sensor data even oncea driving incident has been detected unless the mobile telecommunications device 17 detects that the driving period has terminated at step 56 If the driving period has terminated the present method is terminated and the device stops recording sensor data The end of a driving period may be automatically detected by the processor module 33 if US 2013 0302758 A1 certain conditions are met For example if the measured velocity of the vehicle remains Zero for a predetermined period of time the processor module 33 may infer that the vehicle is stationary and no longer being driven and accord ingly ceases recording sensor data and the method is termi nated If instead the processor determines that the driving period has not yet terminated a new data file period is initi ated at step 58 and steps 44 through 62 are repeated 0121 Where a driving incident is not detected at step 48 the processor module 33 will determine if the data file period has expired at step 60 If the data file period has expired then the sensor data and the derived driving information generated during the data file period is combined and stored in a single data file for storage in the buffer 345 at step 62 The proces sor 3 then determines at step 56 if the driving period has terminated If the driving period has not terminated a new data file period is initiated at
57. lected data recording strategy This means that the five minute data file referred to above preferably also comprises GPS data accel erometer data and audio data sampled over the five minute time period 0105 Data files are stored in the buffer 34a unless they are associated with a driving incident in which case thev are then stored in protected storage 345 which cannot be overwritten Once the storage space comprised in the buffer 34a has been exhausted the oldest data f le is overwritten by a newer data file 0106 Data compression methods may also be used in conjunction with the present disclosure to improve the use of storage For example data comprised in data files which have not been associated with a driving incident may be com pressed using compression technigues which technigues will be known to the skilled reader Similarly within a data file associated with a driving incident sensor data captured at time coordinates which are distant from the determined driv ing incident may be compressed In this way the resolution of sensor data which is directly pertinent to a driving incident is maintained whilst sensor data which mav be less relevant to the driving incident is maintained at a lower resolution 0107 Since the sensors of the mobile telecommunications device 17 are continuously recording sensor data even when a driving incident is detected the device 17 may be config ured to comprise sensor data and or driving
58. les as is known in the art 0049 Preferably the sensor set comprises an orientation sensor for determining the orientation of the mobile device Said orientation sensor may comprise an electronic compass for determining a bearing and so the direction in which the mobile device is facing Accordingly the corresponding sen sor data may comprise orientation and bearing data Advan tageously such data can be used to augment the data of the positioning module Furthermore the executed application may be arranged to use the data from the orientation sensor to determine whether the mobile device has been fitted to vehicle and whether the mobile device has been fitted in the correct orientation Advantageously the data from the orien tation sensor may also be used to determine whether a sig nificant event has occurred such as the vehicle overturning 0050 Preferably the sensor set comprises a user input device arranged to receive an input from a user The userinput device may comprise at least one of buttons and a touch sensitive display screen Advantageously this allows a userto input data to the mobile device 0051 Preferably the mobile device comprises a timer Preferably the executed application is arranged to control the mobile device to record sensor data and or driving informa tion against time as determined by the timer Accordingly the timer can be used to time synchronise sensor data and or driving information Nov
59. ly 0110 The recording strategy is specified at step 40 As mentioned previously this comprises setting the period of time that each recorded data file represents Furthermore it may also comprise defining the size of the buffer 34a and or the number of data files that are to be stored within the buffer Preferably the recording strategy is specified only once upon first use of the mobile telecommunications device 17 Where the recording strategy has already been defined method step 40 is skipped and the method continues with step 42 0111 The start of a driving period is registered at step 42 The start of the driving period determines when the recording of sampled sensor data begins The start of a driving period may be manually entered by the user via the application s graphical user interface GUI Alternatively the start of the driving period may be automated For example the mobile device 17 may be configured to initiate the driving period once sensor data above a minimum threshold value is recorded indicative of the vehicle being in motion For example once a velocity greater than 20 kilometres per hour is detected 0112 Alternativelv the start of the driving period may be initiated once the application determines that the mobile tele communications device 17 has been affixed to the vehicle For example the adapter 21 may comprise a registration module not shown arranged to register the installation and fixation of the
60. ly the Witness application may be arranged to send detailed or high bandwidth information if a user indi cates that an accident has occurred 0229 In either case the video segments and associated sensor and or derived driving information data associated with the relevant event will be sent However no other data for example from another date will be sent 0230 Alternatively less computationally or bandwidth intensive information may be sent on a periodic basis for example every day week or month Such general informa tion may be sent to establish a profile of a particular user For example many high G force related activities may indicate that the driver is driving aggressively A determination about the profile can be made automatically by requesting and auto matically analysing further data For example the location and speed information can be used to determine whether a vehicle is found to frequently break the speed limit If this is the case then the profile of the user can be set accordingly 0231 Such general and periodically obtained information can also be used to remotely adjust the settings of the appli cation For example many high G force related activities may instead indicate that the set up of the car is such that the mobile device is subjected to high G forces rather than the driver driving aggressively Ifthe driving is determined to be safe but the mobile device is setting off many false positives then
61. m the short term memory to the long term memory Advantageously this can ensure that the most recent information associated with an event is persistently stored in the long term memory and is not overwritten 0043 Preferably the sensor set comprises an accelerom eter for detecting the acceleration of the mobile device Accordingly the corresponding sensor data may comprise acceleration data generated by the accelerometer The accel erometer may be a single axis or dual axis accelerometer However it is preferable that the accelerometer is a three axis accelerometer so that movement of the vehicle may be deter mined in three dimensional space Furthermore as the mobile device may be mounted by a user in one of a number of different orientations relative to the vehicle a three axis accelerometer ensures that acceleration along the axis aligned with the general forward movement of the vehicle may be effectively detected This is particularly important to deter mine an event such as heavy braking of the vehicle and or a crash 0044 Preferably the sensor set comprises an image sensor such as a camera Accordingly the corresponding sensor data may comprise images and or a sequence of images generated from the image sensor Said sequence of images may be processed and or stored in the form of a video Advanta geously this can improve the space utilisation of the sequence of images Preferably the mobile device is arranged to receive
62. may comprise a plurality of sets of predetermined data values Nov 14 2013 each set corresponding to different sensor data For example an event indication model associated with a serious accident event may contain data values corresponding to both the deceleration of the vehicle and the orientation of the vehicle Thus if a vehicle is involved in a serious impact and over turns this is represented by the model and so can be detected by the event detector 0029 Preferably the event indication model comprises a pattern of predetermined data values Preferably the event detector is arranged to detect the occurrence of an event by carrying out pattern recognition by matching sensor data values to the pattern of predetermined data values of the event indication model Preferably there are a plurality of event indication models Each event indication model may be asso ciated with a separate predetermined event 0030 Preferably the executed application may be arranged to control the mobile device to process sensor data from the sensor set during a plurality of driving periods to derive driving information associated with when and or how the vehicle is driven for each of the driving periods Prefer ably sensor data processed during a first set of driving periods define a benchmark against which sensor data is compared during subsequent sets of driving periods In particular the executed application may be arranged to control the mo
63. mobile device of FIG 2 0076 FIG 4a is a process flow chart illustrating method steps executable by the mobile device of FIGS 2 and 3 0077 FIG 45 is a more detailed process flow chart pro viding an example of how a driving incident or event may be detected in accordance with embodiments of the present dis closure and 0078 FIGS 5 to 24 illustrate a graphical user interface of the mobile device according to FIGS 1 to 4b DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS 0079 Specific embodiments are now described with ref erence to the appended figures 0080 A preferred embodiment of the present disclosure relates to a mobile telecommunications device for recording events associated with a vehicle such as a car In particular the mobile telecommunications device is loaded with an application a mobile app which is arranged to record and document the events surrounding an incident involving the vehicle a driving incident such as a vehicle collision The mobile application may be referred to as the Witness application in the ensuing description 0081 FIG 1 illustrates a system 1 within which a vehicle such as an automobile 3 configured with a mobile telecom munications device executing the Witness application may communicate with one or more remotely located devices or systems Such devices may relate to one or more servers such as an insurance server 5 an emergency services server 7 a content pro
64. n that may be derived from sensor data sampled by the aforementioned modules and accordingly a complete list of the different types of driving information that may be derived from sampled sensor data is omitted for brevity 0100 The processor module 33 is also configured to anal yse sampled sensor data and generated driving information to determine if a driving incident has occurred described in more detail below 0101 Sampled sensor data is stored in storage 34 which is operatively coupled to the processor module 33 along with any generated driving information The storage 34 is prefer ably configured with a FIFO First In First Out storage buffer 34a and a permanent storage component 34b In preferred embodiments the data capture modules are configured to sample data at periodic intervals Preferably these intervals are sufficiently small of the order of milliseconds such that for practical purposes the data capture modules may be con sidered to sample data continuously The sampled data along with any derived driving information is preferably stored in the storage buffer 34a unless a driving incident has been identified in which case the associated sensor data and driv ing information is stored in the permanent storage component 34b to avoid undesirable overwriting 0102 In preferred embodiments the FIFO storage buffer 34a is provided with a finite amount of storage space None theless said storage space may be predef
65. nally to the vehicle are also recorded Such audio data may also help to recreate a driving incident and understanding the causes of the incident 0098 The communication module 29 provides the mobile telecommunications device 17 with functionality for commu nicating with the remotely located devices 5 7 9 11 of FIG US 2013 0302758 A1 1 The communication module 29 comprises a wireless tele communications sub module 31 enabling communication over a telecommunications network An optional wi fi com munication sub module is also envisaged Similarly the pres ence of wired communication modules are also envisaged such as a USB port and or an IEEE 1394 interface more commonly known as FireWire to support wired commu nication with a remote device such as a personal computer or similar Such a connection may be useful for the purposes of side loading the application to the mobile device 0099 As mentioned previously sensor data captured from any one of the aforementioned data capture modules 21 23 25 27 is processed by the processor module 33 to generate driving information By driving information is intended any data which may be derived from raw sensor data captured by any one of the aforementioned modules 21 23 25 27 For example g force data is driving information which is derived from the sensor data sampled by the accelerometer 23 The skilled reader will be familiar with the plurality of types of driving informatio
66. ncel a subseguently scheduled action Advantageously this prevents actions being taken needlessly as a result of an incorrect determina tion of an event 0036 The feedback may provide reassurance and or guid ance to a user For example a user may be provided with an important checklist of things to do following an accident or incident For example the user may be guided to use a camera image sensor on the mobile device to take photographs of the vehicles involved in the incident including the number plates of those vehicles The user may be guided to use a text input device on the mobile device to note the name address insurance details etc of third parties involved in incident 0037 The action taken may comprise communicating to a remote system associated with an insurance company that an incident has been detected e g via a low bandwidth data connection or via text message If appropriate or in response to a reguest from a communication to the mobile device from the remote svstem the action taken may com prise transmitting all or selected portions of the driving infor mation associated with the detected event 0038 Preferably the executed application is arranged to control the mobile device to prioritise essential communica tions such as calls to the emergency services 0039 Preferably the memory comprises a long term memory for persistently storing driving information and or sensor data Preferably the memory comp
67. nd at which speed it should be displayed in favour of the video feed This is a safety feature of the Witness application that hides the video feed during recording when the vehicle is detected as travelling above a predetermined speed The video feed is replaced by a map of the location of the vehicle as is typical with in vehicle GPS devices Note that although the on screen video feed is replaced with a map video recording continues in the background 0206 In alternatives the application may be arranged to detect the vehicle speed and at a particular speed switch off the screen entirely It should be understood that the device will continue to record video telemetry and other information even when the screen is switched off Entirely switching off the screen of the device is advantageous as it significantly reduces the drain on the battery of the mobile device 0207 Note that the Witness application is also arranged to interface with the phone to detect low light conditions and in response change the brightness of the screen to prevent the user driver being dazzled This can also save battery life 0208 The More Settings Screen 186 also includes a Per sonal Details button 192 which when pressed invokes a Per sonal Details Screen 0209 Referring to FIG 13 a ninth page 194 of the Witness application user manual is shown in which an image of the Personal Details Screen 196 is displayed and described 0210 Here the name 198
68. ng system may be further arranged to receive from the mobile device a user acceptance of the insur ance offer 0070 The mobile device may be arranged to generate an insurance offer in response to a predetermined set of condi tions being met For example driving information over a plurality of driving period adhering to predetermined models Such models may comprise safe driving parameters and or thresholds 0071 For brevity it will be understood that features func tions and advantages of different aspects of the present dis closure may be combined or substituted where context allows For example features functions or advantages of the mobile device described in relation to the first to fourth US 2013 0302758 A1 aspects of the present may be provided as method steps in the method of logging driving information according to the fifth aspect of the present disclosure BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 0072 In order that the disclosure may be more readily understood reference will now be made by way of example to the accompanying drawings in which 0073 FIG 1 is a schematic illustration of a system within which the mobile device of various embodiments of the present disclosure may be used 0074 FIG 2 is an illustration of the automobile of FIG 1 configured with a mobile device in accordance various embodiments of the present disclosure 0075 FIG 3 is a schematic illustration of the functional components of the
69. o code functionality into the device 1 A mobile telecommunications device adapted for instal lation to a vehicle and configured to log driving information associated with the vehicle when driven the mobile device comprising a sensor set comprising at least one of an image sensor an audio sensor an accelerometer and a positioning mod ule a processor for processing sensor data from the sensor set to derive said driving information amemory for storing said derived driving information and a wireless telecommunications module operable to down load an application the mobile device being arranged to execute the down loaded application to control the mobile device to register the start of a driving period during which the mobile device is installed to the vehicle and the vehicle is being driven by a driver process sensor data from the sensor set during the driving period to derive driving information associated with how the vehicle is driven and store a selection of the driving information to the memory US 2013 0302758 A1 2 A mobile telecommunications device according to claim 1 comprising an adapter arranged to hold the device securely to the vehicle 3 A mobile telecommunications device according to claim 1 controlled by the executed application to register the start of a driving period in response to an initialization input gen erated automatically in response to the sensor data having predetermined values wher
70. o determine if a driving incident has occurred For example approximate g force values for detecting cer tain driving incidents are as follows 0126 Harsh braking a deceleration of greater than 2 5 m s or forward G force of greater than 0 7 G for more than 400 msec 0127 Harsh acceleration from stationary an accel eration greater than 2 5 m s or backward G force of greater than 0 7 G for more than 800 msec 0128 Harsh swerving lateral G forces greater than 0 7 G for more than 400 msec 0129 The data models are preferably preconfigured and are comprised within the application executed on the mobile telecommunications device Different data models are used depending on the type of vehicle the telecommunications device is being used with Different vehicle types will expe rience different states of motion during regular operation which must be considered in determining ifa driving incident has occurred For example a motorcycle will display more roll and or pitch than an automobile during regular operation Accordingly different data models and or threshold values must be used to automate the identification of a driving inci dent for different vehicle types The specific data models used may be selected during an initial configuration of the mobile telecommunications device by indicating the type of vehicle the device is being used with 0130 On the basis of the audio data analysis and the accel erometer data analysis
71. on In other words in preferred embodiments the mobile telephone comprises a camera configured to enable video footage of a seguence of events to be captured 0089 Alternatively the mobile telecommunications device may relate to a PDA a notepad such as an iPad or any other mobile device comprising local processing means and means for communicating with a telecommunications network 0090 FIG 2 provides a more detailed view of the auto mobile 3 of FIG 1 and illustrates a preferred arrangement of the mobile telecommunications device 17 within the automo bile 3 In the illustrated embodiment the mobile telecommu nications device 17 relates to a smartphone configured with an image capture device such as a camera Preferably the device 17 is arranged within the vehicle such that the camera has a clear line of sight of the road in the principle direction of travel of the automobile 3 For example the device 17 may be attached to the windshield 19 of the automobile 3 in an adapter 21 The adapter 21 may comprise a flexible telescopic arm configured with a suction cup at one end for affixing the adapter to the windshield 19 and a dock arranged at the opposite end for securely holding the telecommunications device 17 in place The telescopic arm enables the position of the device 17 to be varied such that a clear line of sight in the direction of travel may be obtained 0091 The details of the adapter 21 are irrelevant for present
72. out a signal profile analyses of the audio signal captured by the audio capture module 27 To achieve this the storage device 34 may comprise a database of prestored audio sound files The audio sound files represent sounds associated with a driving inci dent The captured audio signal is compared with the sound files comprised in the database to identify matches between the captured audio signal and the database of sound files This facilitates the audio fingerprinting of specific sounds indica tive of a driving incident present within the captured audio data signal captured by the audio capture module 27 0124 Similarly the analysis of sampled accelerometer data at step 66 may comprise comparing the sampled data with predetermined accelerometer data models The data models represent specific states of motion of the vehicle For example this might comprise defining threshold values for yaw pitch and roll which if exceeded indicate a state of motion of the vehicle indicative of a driving incident For example a measured yaw value above a predetermined threshold value may be indicative of the vehicle having lost traction and is fishtailing and or skidding Similarly a roll Nov 14 2013 and or pitch value above a predetermined threshold value may be indicative of the vehicle having overturned 0125 Accelerometer sensor data is also used for deriving driving information such as g forces Analysis of g force data is also used t
73. pose of logging how a vehicle is being driven during the driving period Whilst it may be possible to sample and process sensor data at a relatively high rate i e many times a second continually storing driving informa tion derived from that sensor data at such a high rate can use up a lot of storage space on the mobile device the majority of which is likely to be redundant Therefore by being selective about the driving information that is stored storage utilisation can be made more efficient 0021 In particular the executed application may control the mobile device to store a summary of the driving period The summary may comprise compressed and or summarised driving information For example the sensor data can be processed at a first sampling rate and then down sampled to a US 2013 0302758 A1 fraction of the first sampling rate for storage as driving infor mation Put another way the mobile device can be controlled by the executed application to down sample sensor data from a first sampling rate to a second sampling and store the sensor data as driving information at said second sampling rate Advantageously this retains a snapshot of when and or how the vehicle is being driven but with fewer data points and so reguiring less storage space 0022 Nonetheless under certain circumstances it is more useful to retain information at higher or the highest possible sampling rates In particular it is more important to have deta
74. purposes with the exception that it must enable a clear line of sight in the principle direction of travel of the vehicle to be obtained and it must firmly affix the mobile to the vehicle Affixing the mobile telecommunications device 17 to the automobile 3 ensures that the mobile device 17 is able to accurately capture the automobile s state of motion By principle direction of travel is intended the main direction of travel of the vehicle when operated in a conventional way indicated by the arrow A in FIG 2 In other words the forward direction of travel The skilled reader will appreciate that whilst most vehicles such as an automobile may have more than one direction of travel e g travelling backwards when in reverse gear the majority of vehicles have a primary direc tion of travel which is the intended direction of travel for any transit of substantial length and or distance Arranging the telecommunications device 17 relative to the direction of principal travel ensures that the camera not shown of the Nov 14 2013 telecommunications device 17 is well placed to capture any image data which may be pertinent to a subseguently detected driving incident such as a collision 0092 FIG 3 is a schematic of the modular components of the mobile telecommunications device 17 of FIG 2 Prefer ably the mobile telecommunications device 17 comprises an image capture module 21 an accelerometer 23 a GPS receiver 25 an audio captur
75. r and so may have an interest in the behaviour of that user and moreover a vehicle under the control of that user as described previously 0225 In such a scenario the insurance company will maintain a device monitoring system that can interface with a mobile device running the Witness application In fact the device monitoring system may interface with a large number of mobile devices each running an individual copy of the Witness application logging respective user vehicle behav iours This could the insurance provider server 5 of FIG 1 0226 With such a monitoring system it is unpractical to actively monitor each and every mobile device and receiving and handling the sheer guantity of data from each and every device would also be very difficult 0227 Consequently the device monitoring system and the mobile devices are advantageously arranged to automatically and intelligently interface with one another in a way that minimises the computational and bandwidth burden on the device monitoring system 0228 In particular each mobile device running the Wit ness application is arranged to make a determination as to whether there is a need to transfer data to the device monitor ing system For example the Witness application may be arranged to automatically send data to the device monitoring system that only has high G force activity associated with it as this may be indicative of a crash or another driving inci dent Alternative
76. rent GPS position and the current heading The G force measures the force of braking and acceleration with the phone mounted with the screen facing rearward and the back of the phone facing forwards Video playback is controlled via the scrub bar at the bottom The vertical slider on the left is the playback speed Other controls are loop pause and eject Fig 8 Patent Application Publication Nov 14 2013 Sheet 10 of 25 US 2013 0302758 A1 230 158 Please Note The playback video screen is a floating view and can be zoomed by pinching and moved with a single finger A double tap will reset the view Map Playback 20 April 2011 LOGE fap pin to show recorded vehicle data Map playback shows where a recording was made via a blue breadcrumb trail A pin shows the vehicle position and can be tapped to reveal telemetry data The scrub slider will move the pin according to the recorded telemetry Fig 9 Patent Application Publication Nov 14 2013 Sheet 11 of 25 US 2013 0302758 A1 Video Export Video Export Oualit Begin Export To Camera Roll Cancel Export Choose the video quality according to your preference and the video will be exported to the camera roll with the telemetry data embedded within the video Medium and high guality reveal good results but with fairly large files usually too big to e mail although trimming within the camera roll can shorten the video to just the bit you need Low guality p
77. repancy will be flagged to the user and or the insurance company A substantial discrepancy will typi cally indicate that the Witness application has not been moni toring all vehicle journeys and the appropriate action can be taken e g the user can be warned insurance premium may be raised etc 0241 It will be appreciated that such a tallying exercise depends on the Witness application being used every time one particular vehicle is driven However in alternatives if the Witness application is used with different vehicles the Wit ness application may be arranged to register the different Nov 14 2013 vehicles so that their respective odometer readings can be tallied with distance recordings associated with each respec tive vehicle 0242 Other measures can be implemented in conjunction with the Witness application to guarantee that the application is enabled whenever a given vehicle is being driven For example the mobile device on which the Witness application is installed may comprise an NFC device such as an RFID tag The NFC device may be compatible with a complemen tary device on a so called smart holster into which the mobile device may be fitted during operation 0243 The smart holster interacts with the NFC device on the smart phone to determine whether or not the smart phone is inserted into the smart holster The smart holster can then be interfaced with the engine management system of the vehicle so that the
78. rises a buffer The buffer may comprise a short term memory for transiently storing driving information and or sensor data Preferably the short term memory is arranged to receive driving infor Nov 14 2013 mation and or sensor data at a higher update rate than the long term memory Preferably the long term memory has a larger capacity than the short term memory 0040 Preferably the executed application controls the mobile device to write driving information and or sensor data to the short term memory at a predetermined update rate during the driving period Ideally the driving information and or sensor data is written to the short term memory in a predetermined sequence ideally a chronological sequence Preferably the executed application controls the mobile device to overwrite driving information and or sensor data previously written to the short term memory Advanta geously this ensures that recording of sensor data and or driving information especially data that is recorded at a rela tively high update rate is not prevented during the driving period due to the short term memory becoming full 0041 Preferably the driving information and or sensor data is overwritten in accordance with the predetermined sequence Advantageously this can ensure that the most rel evant up to date data is retained in the short term memory 0042 Preferably the action taken in response to a detected event comprises transferring data fro
79. roduces small files but the guality suffers Please remember that the iphone is not a desktop computer and therefore long video segments exported at high guality may take several minutes to complete Fig 10 Patent Application Publication Nov 14 2013 Sheet 12 of 25 US 2013 0302758 A1 230 Settings Settings 180 Video recording can be adjusted to allow up to an hour of recorded video in the video stack Choose the segment length in minutes and the number of segments you would like according to the available space on your device Each minute of video at high qualitv will use 26Mb of space 1 hour will use 1 5Gb G Sensitivity adjusts the automatic triggering of crash detection Raise the sensitivity if you find that crash detection is triggered during normal driving due to differences in vehicle suspension Fig 11 Patent Application Publication Nov 14 2013 Sheet 13 of 25 US 2013 0302758 A1 184 230 More Settings 186 More Settings f Speed units Clear the 188 Mph video stack Auto display map at set speed Delete se 192 Activate map at 45 Mph Choose vour preferred speed units here which will be used throughout the app Even if vou change the speed units after a recording is made then the correct speed units will be used in plavback and export Vou are able to choose whether to have the map overlav displav at a certain speed during recording on the main recording screen Pleas
80. rthermore the adapter is configured with an opening through which an audio sensor of the mobile device is able to receive the user s voice 0018 Also even though a drivers control of a vehicle may be affected by manipulating the mobile device under certain circumstances this may not be objectionable for example when the vehicle is stationary Accordingly the executed application may be arranged to control the mobile device to selectively disable and or divert voice calls incoming to the mobile device during a driving period in dependence on the driving information for example the speed and location of the vehicle 0019 Furthermore it will be appreciated that the driver may not be the only user within the vehicle and so disabling functions of the mobile device may not be appropriate under all circumstances as a passenger of the vehicle may want to use the mobile device whilst the driver is driving Under these circumstances the executed application is arranged to control the mobile device to register the presence of a non driver for example via image recognition or entry of an unlock code and unlock or retain the original functionality of the mobile device Furthermore the executed application may be arranged to run in the background Accordingly the mobile device may be used for other purposes such as making or receiving a telephone call 0020 It is advantageous to store only selected driving information for the pur
81. s being driven by a driver processing sensor data from a sensor set during the driving period to derive driving information associated with how the vehicle is driven and storing a selection of the driving information to the memory of the mobile device
82. sically connected to the external device As will be appreciated following a driving period a user may want to leave the vehicle and so take a personal mobile telecommunication device with them and so a wireless interface with such an external device obviates the inconvenience of physically detaching and then subseguently re attaching the mobile device 0055 Preferably the mobile device is further controlled by the application to determine a unigue identifier associated with the mobile device and retrieve from the memory and transmit via the wireless telecommunication module to a remote system said driving information paired with said unigue identifier 0056 Advantageously by pairing an identifier uniquely associated with the mobile device enables the remote system to unambiguously determine the source of the driving infor mation Accordingly said driving information can be matched to a particular driver and or vehicle This is particu larly useful when assessing a risk profile of said driver 0057 Preferably the mobile device is controlled by the executed application to process the driving information to generate a driving score The driving information may com prise the driving score 0058 Preferably the mobile device comprises a display screen Preferably the display screen is touch sensitive Advantageously the display screen may thereby be user interactable Preferably the mobile device comprises a graphical user inter
83. tails can be stored and viewed from within the internal database There is also a place to store your insurance details should you need them Please enter these now so they are in the phone for future use Fig 14 Patent Application Publication Nov 14 2013 Sheet 16 of 25 US 2013 0302758 A1 230 Accident Management What should you do Is anyone injured XK Is the accident causing a hazard 2k Has someone left the scene If yes to any of these then call the emergency services 1 Witnesses Collect the names and addresses of any witnesses 2 Photographs Take pictures of the scene of the accident damage to cars and other property and the occupants of the other vehicle 3 Drivers Collect names addresses registration numbers and insurance details of all other drivers involved Fig 15 Patent Application Publication Nov 14 2013 Sheet 17 of 25 US 2013 0302758 A1 230 Accident Management di N Your details You must give your details to other drivers DO NOT ADMIT LIABILITY Inform your insurance company Even if you aren t going to make a claim Inform the police If someone is injured or a dog or farm animal Report in person to a police Station and take your insurance details driver s licence and MOT certificate Close this view and use the built in tools included with this application to help you collect the data Fig 16 Patent Application Public
84. tched to after the Witness application has detected that there has been an incident e g via G forces exceeding a threshold level Similarlv data can automaticallv be permanentiv stored as Kept and or sent if high G forces are detected 0214 As can be seen on the Accident Management Screen 212 there are the following user selectable buttons 0215 Accident Advice What to do 214 This option provides guidance as to what to do during an accident see FIGS 15 and 16 for the displayed Accident Advice Screens 0216 Witnesses 216 This option invokes functionality to allow the collection of information from or about witnesses to an incident An image of the Witnesses Detail information summary screen 214 is shown in FIG 14 FIG 17 shows the Witness Detail infor mation collection screen 218 Voice notes can also be taken via the microphone of the smart phone 0217 Photos 220 This option enables the camera to allow a user to capture images associated with an incident 0218 Drivers 222 This option invokes functionality to allow collection about the other drivers involved in an incident such as their vehicle and insurance details The Drivers Detail information collec tion screen 224 is shown in FIG 18 0219 Your Details 226 This option provides a readily available store of the details of the user as to be provided to other drivers and can contain name address and insurance details The Your Details screen 228
85. te settings automatically 0202 The Recording Strategy involves maintaining a user controlled number of video segments When a new video recording is initialised instantiating a new segment this is written over the oldest video segment Thus only the most recently recorded videos are maintained in the Recording Stack 0203 Another setting that can be controlled in the Settings Screen 178 is the G force threshold at which the Witness application will assume that a crash has taken place It is expected that different vehicles and driving styles will need different G force thresholds to be set to ensure a reasonable sensitivity to crash forces whilst also prevent crash detection false positives It should be noted that although the manual recites Raise the sensitivity if you find that crash detection is triggered during normal driving it is the sensitivity threshold that is to be raised and not the sensitivity itself A slider 180 allows the sensitivity threshold to be set via the touch sensitive screen 0204 The Settings Screen 178 also has a button 182 to allow a user to define more settings via a More Settings Screen 0205 Referring to FIG 12 an eighth page 184 of the Witness application user manual is shown in which an image of the More Settings Screen 186 is displayed and described Here it is possible for the user to select speed units 188 and also select whether the map should be displayed during recording 190 a
86. the insurance server 5 via the base station 15 and shared communications network 13 In this way data relating to the driving incident a collision in this example is automatically forwarded to the automobile user s insurance provider for use in claim settlement and or to determine culpability 0085 Similarly once a driving incident has been detected data may also be automatically forwarded to the emergency services server 7 For example such data may comprise the position information of the automobile 3 along with an auto mated S O S message reguesting assistance from the emer gency services Forwarded data may also comprise sensor data and any relevant derived driving information such as speed of impact the g forces the vehicle was subjected to during the collision or any other information wherefrom the severity of the collision may be determined and which may be used to assist the emergency services in coordinating the appropriate level of response 0086 Optionally an electronic message may be sent to a personal contact preselected by the user For example an automated message such as an e mail may be forwarded to the PC 11 of the user nominated personal contact informing the personal contact that the user of the vehicle 3 has been involved in a driving incident Similarly and due to the mobile device s telecommunications functionality an elec tronic text message such as an SMS Short Message Service may be forw
87. the sensor data having predetermined values For example if the sensor data reflects a detected speed above a predetermined threshold for example 20 kilometres per hour then this can be used to trigger the start of the driving period Similarly if the sensor data reflects that the mobile device is held securely to the vehicle in a predetermined position for example via the adapter this can also be used to trigger the start of the driving period To this end the adapter and or the mobile device may comprise a registration module configured to register the installation of the mobile device to the vehicle and or the adapter The registration module may comprise a proximity sensor to detect the proximity of the mobile device to the vehicle The registration module may comprise a NFC near field communication device The reg istration module may be arranged to determine a match between the location ofthe mobile device and the location of the vehicle The match may be performed by receiving and comparing a first positioning input associated with the posi tion of the vehicle and a second positioning input associated with the position of the mobile device The registration mod ule and or adapter may be a smart holster 0016 Preferably the executed application controls the mobile device to manage voice calls incoming to the mobile device during a driving period For example said voice call management may comprise temporarily disabling and or
88. ticular the mobile device may be positioned by the adapter so that its image sensor views the road ahead through a windshield of the vehicle 0014 As mentioned the device is arranged to log driving information associated with the vehicle when that vehicle is being driven This is realised by registering the start of the driving period during which the mobile device is installed to the vehicle and the vehicle is being driven by the driver Advantageously this prevents driving information from being needlessly recorded As will be appreciated the mobile device has only a finite storage capacity and so registering the start of the driving period is useful for minimising the unnec essary usage of memory In particular where the mobile device comprises an image sensor and the sensor data com prises a seguence of images e g a video the storage space can be very guickly filled by the memory 0015 To this end it is preferred that when the application is executed it controls the mobile device to register the start of a driving period in response to an initialisation input The initialisation input may comprise a user input for example the user manually executing the application on the mobile device The initialisation input may also or instead be gener ated automatically in response to the mobile device being installed to the vehicle and or the vehicle being driven The initialisation input may be generated automatically in response to
89. tion is overlaid onto the video feed As the video is played back these values will typically change depending on the behaviour of the vehicle as recorded by the mobile device 0188 Forward and backward G forces are those that cor respond to the forward and backward movement of the vehicle and are the primary metric for determining an event such as a crash However other G forces e g up down and side to side may also be measured by the device even if they are not necessarily displayed on the mobile screen US 2013 0302758 A1 0189 As recited in FIG 8 the Recording Playback screen provides further user controls in the form of 0190 Playback Position Scrub Bar 148 horizontal bar at bottom of screen 0191 Playback Speed Bar 150 vertical bar at left side of screen 0192 Pause 152 pauses playback 0193 Eject 154 return to previous screen 0194 Loop 156 plays the data file continuously 0195 The Playback Position Scrub Bar 148 allows a user to jump to different positions within the recording without necessarily needing to watch all of the recorded footage Advantageously this allows a user to more guickly locate a desired item of footage within a given data file Also the Playback Speed Bar 150 can be used to speed up or slow down the playback of the data file This allows a desired item of footage to be found more guickly through sped up playback and also allows an item of footage to be more carefully an
90. ual users Insurance premium rates may then be tailored to the specific user on the basis of the personalised risk assessment 0133 For example analysis of captured image data such as video footage may be used to determine ifa user regularly flouts safety distances In preferred embodiments the mobile telecommunications device is arranged within the subject US 2013 0302758 A1 vehicle to have a clear line of sight of the road in the direction of principle motion Accordingly the number plate of any vehicle preceding the subject vehicle will be captured by the image capture module Since the physical dimensions of number plates are standardised and known in each country they may be used as a metric to scale the captured image When combined with the known optical characteristics of the image capture module this enables the distance of the image capture module from the image object i e the preceding vehicle to be determined at the time of image capture This information may then be used to see if a user adheres to recommended safety distances A user that is observed to regularly flout recommended safety distances may be con sidered to represent a greater risk and accordingly may be reguired to pay a greater insurance premium than a user who regularly respects recommended safety distances 0134 Imageanalvsis can also be used to determine driving conditions and the driving environments For example image processing can detect roa
91. vehicle may be activated and driven only when the mobile device is in place within the smart holster 0244 It will be appreciated that the mobile device has so far been described in the context of a smart phone However it will be appreciated by a person skilled in the art that other devices may also be suitable for performing the functions described in relation to the Witness application For example the Witness application may be adapted to run on a general purpose tablet style computing device such as an iPad 0245 Furthermore it will be understood that features advantages and functionality of the different embodiments described herein may be combined where context allows In addition a skilled person will appreciated that the function ality described above may be implemented using the mobile device suitably programmed 0246 Having described several exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure and the implementation of different functions of the device in detail it is to be appreciated that the skilled addressee will readily be able to adapt the basic con figuration of the device to carry out described functionality without requiring detailed explanation of how this would be achieved Therefore in the present specification several func tions of the device have been described in different places without an explanation of the required detailed implementa tion as this not necessary given the abilities of the skilled addressee t
92. vehicle registration number 200 mobile number 202 and email address 204 to be used in an emergency can be specified by the user In the event of a detected incident these details along with information regarding the detected incident e g time of incident location and optionally telemetry data will be emailed to the specified email address automatically This can ensure that the chosen US 2013 0302758 A1 recipient of that email will be informed immediately about the occurrence and nature of the detected incident 0211 This Personal Details Screen 196 also allows the user to set whether it is possible for the video stack to be deleted 206 A security PIN protects the changing of this option so that if a first user having the PIN for example a parent can review the driving style and behaviour of a second user not having the PIN for example their son or daughter by reviewing the Recording Stack as the Recording Stack cannot be deleted by that second user As shown in FIG 24 the PIN can be set for the first time by entering it twice into the appropriate PIN fields 208 0212 Referring to FIG 14 a tenth page 210 of the Witness application user manual is shown in which images of an Accident Management Screen 212 and Witness Details Screen 214 are displaved and described 0213 The Accident Management Screen 212 can be invoked by the user selecting the accident management button 90 on the Main Menu or can be automaticallv swi
93. vider server 9 and a personal computer 11 Com munication between the automobile 3 and the one or more remotely located devices 5 7 9 11 may be effected via a shared communication network 13 The shared communica tion network may relate to a wide area network WAN such as the Internet and may also comprise telecommunications networks For example the mobile telecommunications device of the present embodiments may be arranged to com municate with any one of the remotely located devices 5 7 9 11 via a mobile telecommunications base station 15 which is coupled to the shared mobile telecommunications network 13 0082 A main purpose of the mobile telecommunications device when arranged within a vehicle in motion such as the illustrated automobile 3 is to monitor and process sensor data captured by the mobile device to derive driving information associated with the moving automobile 3 As mentioned pre viously this driving information is subseguently used by the mobile device to determine if a driving incident or event has Nov 14 2013 occurred The term driving incident as used within the present context may relate to an event such as a collision a near miss dangerous driving erratic driving or similar Simi larlv the driving information may be used as a means for monitoring a driver s driving performance and determining a driving characteristic or user profile for the subject driver In other words the sensor dat
94. ving information comprising a database for storing a plurality of accounts each account having a unigue identifier and the database being arranged to store driving information associ ated with at least one of a vehicle and a driver a communi cations interface arranged to communicate with a remote mobile device and receive therefrom a unigue identifier for association of the mobile device with a corresponding one of the plurality of accounts and driving information to be logged to that corresponding account 0066 Theremote mobile device may bea mobile device in accordance with one of the first to fourth aspects of the present disclosure 0067 Preferably the driving information comprises a driving score Preferably the driving information comprises sensor data captured and processed by the mobile device during a driving period during which the mobile device is installed to a vehicle being driven by a driver 0068 Preferably the system is arranged to process the driving information logged to the corresponding account to generate a driving score The driving score may be used to determine a risk profile for at least one of the vehicle and driver The driving score may be used to define an insurance premium associated with the account 0069 Preferably the system is further arranged to com municate to a mobile device an insurance offer generated in response to the driving information received from the mobile device The data loggi

Method and system for logging vehicle behavior

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