HK1067345A - An automobile computer control system for limiting the usage of wireless telephones in moving automobiles - Google Patents

Description

Computer control system for motor vehicle with instructions limiting the use of wireless telephone in moving motor vehicle

Technical Field

The present invention relates to the use of wireless telephones and, in particular, to limiting such use in the event of a safety hazard.

Background

With the globalization of business, industry and trade, the transaction activities in these areas have evolved from localized organizations into different businesses in the world, and thus the communications industry has expanded rapidly. Wireless telephones, especially cellular telephones, have become so popular that their worldwide number is approaching one hundred million or more. Although the embodiments to be described subsequently relate to cellular telephones, the principles of the present invention are applicable to any wireless personal communication device that can be used to communicate inside an automobile. This includes a wide variety of currently available personal palm communicators or Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs), including, for example, Microsoft's WinCE line; PalmPilot line manufactured by 3 Com; and IBM's WorkPad. These devices are fully described in Palm III & PalPilot (Jeff Carlson, Peachpit Press, 1988).

Unfortunately, the use of wireless telephones by drivers of automobiles has resulted in an increase in the number of automobile accidents. Not only does the cellular phone require the use of one or even both hands of the driver, it also distracts the driver from driving. This problem has become so prominent that many countries have enacted or considered regulations that prohibit drivers from using cellular telephones in moving vehicles. This legislation is opposed by those who believe it is too aggressive for the driver and difficult to implement. However, this problem may become more pronounced as mobile office style progresses (staff may be contacted 24 hours a day-7 days a week).

Thus, the wireless telephone and automotive industries are seeking solutions to these problems for drivers.

Disclosure of Invention

The present invention provides a solution to the problem of using a cellular phone while driving. The protocol requires that legislation or voluntary action be taken by the handheld radiotelephone industry to place a sensing device in the radiotelephone that detects or senses when the telephone is on or in operation, and then to set a sensor that responds to a wireless off signal sent by the vehicle's computer control system.

Accordingly, the present invention provides an automotive computer control system that limits the use of a radiotelephone in a moving automobile, including a wireless device that senses when the speed of the automobile exceeds a predetermined speed; means for sensing when a driver of said automobile is using said wireless telephone; and means responsive to both of said sensing means for limiting use of said radiotelephone by said driver of said vehicle when the speed of said vehicle exceeds said predetermined speed. For the most safety, the predetermined speed is any speed of movement. Further, a wireless means of sensing when the speed of the car exceeds a predetermined speed may be achieved by a simple infrared means as will be described in more detail below.

Preferably, the system provides an automotive computer control system for restricting the use of a radiotelephone in a moving automobile, comprising: means for transmitting a signal in said vehicle towards a driver of the vehicle when the speed of the vehicle exceeds a predetermined speed; means for sensing said transmitted signal in a wireless telephone while said driver of said automobile is using said wireless telephone; and means responsive to said sensing means for restricting access to said wireless telephone by said driver of said automobile upon sensing said transmitted signal. As mentioned above, the emitted signal is preferably an infrared signal, in particular a narrow beam of infrared signals directed towards the driver. In this way, the narrow beam signal is sensed only when the driver of said car is using said cellular telephone. Means for restricting use of said radiotelephone when the speed of the vehicle exceeds a predetermined speed to switch off the radiotelephone; or may further comprise means for notifying the driver that the radiotelephone will be switched off after a brief period of time after said sensed speed of the vehicle exceeds said predetermined speed, and means for delaying switching off of said radiotelephone for said brief period of time.

Preferably, the system provides means for restricting use of said radiotelephone when the speed of said vehicle exceeds said predetermined speed, including means for notifying a service provider of said radiotelephone, whereby said service provider may be charged a higher rate when said speed exceeds said predetermined speed. The means for informing said service provider may also comprise means for transmitting additional data indicating that said speed exceeds said predetermined speed together with voice data during use of said radiotelephone by the driver.

Preferably, the system provides means for allowing reception of an incoming call transmission in said temporarily disconnected radiotelephone and means for disconnecting said incoming call transmission after a short predetermined period of time.

Preferably, means are provided for storing a set of emergency telephone numbers and means for activating said disconnected radiotelephone to call any of said set of emergency telephone numbers in order to handle an emergency.

According to another aspect of the present invention there is provided a computer controlled method of restricting the use of a radiotelephone in a moving vehicle, comprising:

sensing when a speed of the automobile exceeds a predetermined speed;

wirelessly sensing when a driver of said automobile is using said wireless telephone; and

limiting use of a wireless telephone by said sensed driver of said automobile when said sensed speed of said automobile exceeds said predetermined speed.

Preferably, there is provided a method of restricting use of a radiotelephone in a moving vehicle, comprising:

transmitting a signal in said vehicle towards a driver of the vehicle when the speed of the vehicle exceeds a predetermined speed;

sensing the transmitted signal in the wireless telephone while the driver of the automobile is using said wireless telephone; and

the driver of the car is restricted from using the wireless telephone upon sensing the transmitted signal.

Drawings

The present invention may be better understood, and its numerous objects and advantages made apparent to those skilled in the art by referencing the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a side view, partially cut away, of a portion of an automobile arranged to illustrate the operation of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a partial top view of the structure of FIG. 1 as viewed from the inside of the vehicle;

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating the operation of a cellular telephone used in an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of a generalized data processing system including a processor unit that provides onboard vehicle computer control for the present invention; and

figure 5 is a flow chart showing the steps involved in using a wireless telephone to limit the use of a driver of a moving automobile using the system of the present invention.

Detailed Description

Referring to fig. 1, a side view of a portion of an automobile 10 is provided, in which automobile 10 a driver 11 is using a wireless telephone 12. Fig. 2 is an exploded top view of the same components. A conventional (within 10 feet) infrared system is used. The source or emitter 14 emits a narrow beam IR signal on the driver's head, which is typically within 2 to 5 feet from the emitter 14. At which point the narrow beam needs to be no more than 2 feet in diameter. The radiotelephone 12 has an IR port 13 through which a transmitter 14 can broadcast data to the telephone. It should be noted that such IR communication ports are already present in most of the currently available wireless communication personal palm devices or PDAs mentioned above.

Such an IR port must be incorporated into a cellular telephone in order to practice the present invention. Since many current and in-design cellular telephones will perform a wide variety of different functions of these communication PDAs, the IR port on the cellular telephone of the present invention will be available for other functions.

Such IR ports are described in detail in Personal Computer Secrets (Bobo' Donnell, IDG Books Worldwide Inc., Foster City, CA, 1999, page 215). The IR signal should conform to the IrDA (Infrared Data Association) standard of at least 1.15Mbps (but preferably about 4Mbps (FastIrDA)). The role of an IR port as port 12 in a wireless Palm-type device is further described in How to Do Ethernet with Your Palm Handheld (Dave Johnson et al, 2000, Osborne/McGraw-Hill, Berkeley, Calif., especially pp.84-90).

The IR port 13 is on while the cellular phone 12 is in use. As described in more detail below, a computer control system in the automobile monitors the speed of the automobile to sense when the automobile exceeds a predetermined level at which it is determined that a hazard will occur using the cellular telephone. A reasonable default value is zero speed, i.e. it is not safe to use the cellular phone at any speed. In this case, if the vehicle is moving, the transmitter 14 will transmit a signal within the narrow beam IR beam 15 that will turn off the cell phone after a warning and a short delay or immediately.

Referring to fig. 3, for background, a simplified exemplary wireless cellular telephone 12 is depicted as being transmitted from and into a vehicle 10. A general view of a portion of the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN)25 of the channel path to and from the wireless cellular telephone 12 is shown. The mobile or cellular telephone 12 is connected via a wireless air connection transmission path 20 to a cellular receive/transmit antenna 21 at a site 22. It should also be understood that each exemplary cell site 22 has a number of cellular telephones wirelessly connectable to the respective site. Base stations 23 are respectively connected to sites 22 to enable transmission/reception of RF communications to cellular telephone 12 via atmospheric connection 20. The base station 23 is connected to a mobile switching center 24. This mobile switching center 24 has a number of radiotelephones connected thereto. The center operates to control channel connections, i.e., switches, into and out of the PSTN30, that these calls come from or terminate at a mobile telephone, such as cellular telephone 12. Switching center 24 connects channels from cellular telephone 12 and others to PSTN 25.

Referring now to fig. 4, a typical computer control system that may be used as an on-board controller for various automotive functions, including control of the use of a wireless telephone in a moving automobile, will be described. A central processing unit 30 is provided and interconnected to various other components by a system bus 32. An operating system 35 running on processor 30 provides control and is used to coordinate the functions of the various components of the control system. The OS35 is stored in Random Access Memory (RAM)31, which in a typical vehicle control system has four to eight megabytes of memory. Programs for the various vehicle monitor and control functions are now permanently stored in Read Only Memory (ROM)33 and moved into and out of RAM to perform their respective functions. This includes the cellular phone usage control program of the present invention. The car may have a display 43 controlled by a display adapter 42 to provide information to the driver. The vehicle control system monitors various vehicle parameters via representative sensors/monitors 36 and 37 connected to the processor 30 via respective I/O adapters 36 and 37. Processes such sensed data and issues appropriate responsive control signals through the adapter 45. In the operation of the invention, feedback is obtained at the control system via the monitor: when the vehicle speed has exceeded the predetermined maximum value for use with the cellular telephone, an appropriate stop phone IR signal is sent through IR adapter 40 via IR transmitter 44 and received through IR port 13 of wireless telephone 12 in FIG. 1.

Operation of an exemplary control program according to the present invention will now be described with reference to FIG. 5. Initially, the maximum speed of the cellular telephone that is available in the car is set at step 50. Let us assume here that the default maximum speed set by the manufacturer is any speed greater than zero. However, the user or any regulatory agency controlling the use of the cellular telephone may be provided with the ability to adjust this default maximum speed. A determination is made as to whether a cellular telephone is in use, beginning at step 51. If NO, the process returns to initial step 51, waiting for cellular phone usage in step 51. If YES is determined in step 51, the cellular telephone is being used, a further determination is made in step 52 as to whether the maximum speed for such use has been exceeded. If NO, the process returns to step 52 and the speed monitoring continues in step 52. If YES, the maximum speed has been exceeded, and in step 53 it is further determined whether the current telephone call is an emergency call. As set forth above, the user is allowed to list and store a set of emergency numbers such as 911, EMS, and fire department. The call is compared to this list before being cancelled by the system. Thus, YES will return the process to step 53, where the emergency call is monitored until the end in step 53. If the determination at step 53 is NO, then there is NO emergency call, then the user is alerted at step 54 that the call will be terminated after a predetermined number of seconds. The alert may be a conventional verbal alert via a cellular telephone, such as "this call will end within 15 seconds unless parked".

This warning and termination of the call can be done simply and directly, for example by sending an IR beam when the maximum speed of use of the phone is exceeded, regardless of whether a cellular phone is used or not. Then, if the cellular phone is in use, the IR port in the phone is activated and delays are implemented and the call is terminated by the program in the phone. This simple method is effective for operation without the use of a cellular phone at any speed. Thus, if the car is running, an IR signal is sent. No setup inputs and controls are required within the computer system of the automobile. However, if any type of maximum speed control is to be implemented, it is desirable to have a program in the cellular telephone that controls speed settings, warnings, delay timeouts, and termination of calls. In this operation, the vehicle's computer control system encodes the vehicle's speed as a beam-like IR signal decodable in the cellular telephone and compares it to the maximum speed already encoded in the cellular telephone. With the result that appropriate warnings and terminations are initiated. By doing this programming in the cell phone, the cell phone service provider will be able to update the cell phone firmware (e.g., high speed ROM) to change the maximum speed allowed. This approach also enables the service provider to provide different maximum speeds in different cities or countries by simply sending new operating parameters over the cellular network.

It is then determined in step 55 whether the delay period has timed out. NO returns the process to step 55 and waits for a timeout at step 55. YES shuts off the cell phone and the process returns to the initial step 51 where it waits for another use of the cell phone in step 51.

In a variant of cellular phone usage control, his cellular phone service provider charges the user at a very high rate for usage of the phone at speeds above maximum speed. This option after the YES determination in step 52 that the maximum speed has been exceeded is shown in dashed lines in fig. 5. The cellular telephone is not switched off but the time at the speed exceeding the maximum speed is recorded in step 57 and provided to the service provider for billing purposes in step 58 and the process returns to step 52 where the speed is continuously monitored to determine if it continues to exceed the maximum speed in step 52.

While certain preferred embodiments have been shown and described, it will be understood that many changes and modifications may be made without departing from the scope and content of the appended claims.

Claims (13)

1. An automotive computer control system for limiting the use of a wireless telephone in a moving automobile, comprising:

a wireless device that senses when a speed of the automobile exceeds a predetermined speed;

means for sensing when a driver of said automobile is using said wireless telephone; and

means responsive to both of said sensing means for limiting said use of said wireless telephone by said driver of said vehicle when said vehicle speed exceeds said predetermined speed.

2. The vehicle computer control system that restricts use of a wireless telephone in a moving vehicle of claim 1, further comprising:

means for transmitting a signal in said vehicle towards a driver of the vehicle when the speed of the vehicle exceeds a predetermined speed;

means for sensing said transmitted signal in said wireless telephone while said driver of said automobile is using said wireless telephone; and

means for restricting said driver of said vehicle from using said wireless telephone upon sensing said transmitted signal in response to said sensing means.

3. A vehicle computer control system as claimed in claim 1 wherein said means for transmitting said signal in said vehicle transmits an infrared signal.

4. A vehicle computer control system as claimed in claim 2 wherein said means for sensing said emitted signal on said wireless telephone comprises infrared signal sensing means.

5. A vehicle computer control system as in claim 4 wherein said means for transmitting said signal in said vehicle transmits a narrow beam infrared signal directed toward the driver whereby said narrow beam signal is sensed only when the driver of said vehicle is using said cellular telephone.

6. The vehicle computer control system of claim 1 wherein said means for limiting the use of said wireless telephone shuts off said wireless telephone when the speed of said vehicle exceeds said predetermined speed.

7. The automotive computer control system of claim 6, further comprising:

means for notifying the driver that the radiotelephone will be switched off after a brief period of time after said sensing that the speed of the vehicle has exceeded said predetermined speed; and

means for delaying switching off said radiotelephone for said brief period of time.

8. A vehicle control system as defined in claim 1 wherein said means for limiting the use of said wireless telephone when the speed of said vehicle exceeds said predetermined speed comprises means for notifying a service provider of said wireless telephone whereby said service provider may charge a higher rate when said speed exceeds said predetermined speed.

9. The automotive computer control system of claim 8 wherein said means for notifying said service provider comprises:

means for transmitting additional data indicating that said speed exceeds said predetermined speed together with voice data during use of said radiotelephone by the driver.

10. The automotive computer control system of claim 6, further comprising:

means for permitting reception of an incoming telephone transmission in said disconnected radiotelephone; and

means for shutting off said incoming transmission after a short predetermined period of time.

11. The automotive computer control system of claim 6, further comprising:

means for storing a set of emergency telephone numbers; and

means for activating said disconnected radiotelephone to call any of said set of emergency telephone numbers.

12. A computer controlled method of restricting the use of a radiotelephone in a moving vehicle, comprising:

sensing when a speed of the automobile exceeds a predetermined speed;

wirelessly sensing when a driver of said automobile is using said wireless telephone; and

restricting said sensed use of the radiotelephone by a driver of said automobile when the sensed speed of said automobile exceeds said predetermined speed.

13. The computer controlled method of restricting the use of a wireless telephone in a moving automobile of claim 12 further comprising:

transmitting a signal in said vehicle towards a driver of the vehicle when the speed of the vehicle exceeds a predetermined speed;

sensing the transmitted signal in the wireless telephone while the driver of the automobile is using said wireless telephone; and

the driver of the car is restricted from using the wireless telephone upon sensing the transmitted signal.