Tracking and analysis of drivers within a fleet of vehicles

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12062287-B2
Application number	US-202117559642-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 22, 2021
Priority date	Jun 22, 2015
Publication date	Aug 13, 2024
Grant date	Aug 13, 2024

Abstract

A system for tracking a fleet of vehicles and analyzing a driver associated with the fleet of vehicles. The system includes a monitoring engine for receiving information from a vehicle-tracking device associated with a vehicle of the fleet. A mapping engine displays, to a user, an icon indicative of an incident on a map. A video repository engine receives video data from a video camera associated with the vehicle and associates an incident video with the icon. A driver analysis engine obtains the incident information associated with a plurality of drivers and analyzes the incident information associated with the driver to generate a driver profile. The driver analysis engine compares the driver with corresponding drivers in the same and other fleets.

First claim

Having thus described various embodiments of the invention, what is claimed as new and desired to be protected by Letters Patent includes the following:

1. A method for analyzing a driver associated with a fleet of vehicles, the method comprising:
obtaining, by a vehicle tracker, incident information associated with driving characteristics of a vehicle driven by the driver,
wherein the vehicle is one of the fleet of vehicles;
generating metadata information for a real-time video, the metadata information associated with the driver and the driving characteristics;
embedding the metadata information with one or more frames of the real-time video,
wherein the metadata information is associated with the vehicle tracker and is indicative of the incident information;
transmitting, to a driver monitoring engine, the real-time video and the metadata information from the vehicle tracker associated with the vehicle of the fleet;
receiving, from the driver monitoring engine, the real-time video and the metadata information from the vehicle tracker associated with the vehicle,
using a driver analysis engine:
determining incidents associated with the driver;
determining risk for the driver based on the incidents;
generating one or more incident reports including an incident location and the incidents; and
determining a driver score indicative of the risk the driver takes while driving;

receiving a request from a supervisor to view a driver profile of the driver;
generating, using the driver analysis engine, the driver profile including at least the driver score, the real-time video including the metadata information from the vehicle tracker;
sending the driver profile to the supervisor; and
updating the driver profile in real-time.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein sending the driver profile to the supervisor causes each of the one or more incident reports to appear on a map in a location corresponding to the incident location.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the real-time video and the metadata information from the vehicle tracker is authenticated by a proximity tag worn by the driver.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the driver score is based in part on a comparison between the driver and one or more additional drivers associated with the fleet.

5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising generating a recommended training for the driver based on the driver score, the recommended training comprising at least the real-time video and the metadata information.

6. The method of claim 1 ,
wherein the incident information includes a video recording associated with the incident location and the incident information;
wherein the video recording includes the metadata information and the metadata information further comprises information indicative of a geographic orientation of the video recording.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the incident information includes a vehicle status.

8. One or more computer-readable media storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed by at least one processor, perform a method of monitoring driving performance, the method comprising:
obtaining, by a vehicle tracker, incident information associated with driving characteristics of a vehicle driven by a driver;
receiving, by a driver monitoring engine, a real-time video a real-time driving information, and metadata information from a vehicle monitor associated with the vehicle,
embedding the metadata information with one or more frames of the real-time video,
wherein the metadata information is associated with the vehicle tracker and is indicative of the incident information;
wherein the vehicle is associated with the driver and the metadata information includes one or more incident reports including an incident location and the incident information;
based on the real-time video, the real-time driving information, and the metadata information, calculating a driver score corresponding to driver safety while the driver is driving;
receiving a request from a user to view a driver profile corresponding to the driver;
generating, by a driver analysis engine, the driver profile, the driver profile containing the driver score, the real-time video including the embedded metadata information, and the real-time driving information;
sending the driver profile to the user; and
updating the driver profile in real-time.

9. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 8 , wherein sending the driver profile to the user causes each of the one or more incident reports to appear on a map in a location corresponding to the incident location.

10. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 8 , wherein the metadata information is authenticated by a proximity tag worn by the driver.

11. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 8 , wherein the driver score is based in part on a comparison between the driver and one or more additional drivers associated with a fleet of vehicles.

12. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 8 ,
wherein the method further comprises generating a plurality of recommended trainings for the driver, at least one of the plurality of recommended trainings comprising the real-time video, the real-time driving information, and the metadata information,
wherein the driver profile further includes the plurality of recommended trainings.

13. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 8 , wherein the incident information includes a video recording associated with the incident location and the incident information.

14. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 8 , wherein the incident information includes a vehicle status.

15. A system for tracking driver performance, the system comprising:
one or more sensors configured to detect driving characteristics of a vehicle of a fleet of vehicles;
a vehicle monitoring camera associated with the vehicle and a driver of the vehicle, the vehicle monitoring camera configured to transmit, in real time, one or more incident videos and metadata information embedded with one or more frames of the one or more incident videos to a driver monitoring engine,
wherein the metadata information is associated with the one or more sensors and is indicative of one or more incidents; and
at least one processor programmed to perform a method of tracking and displaying the driver performance, the method comprising:
receiving the one or more incident videos and the metadata information from the driver monitoring engine,
wherein the metadata information is indicative of incident information comprising at least an incident location associated with the one or more incident videos;
determining, using a driver analysis engine, the one or more incident videos, and the metadata information, a driver score;
receiving a request from a user to view a driver profile of the driver;
generating, using the driver analysis engine, the driver profile including at least the driver score, and the one or more incident videos including the embedded metadata information;
sending the driver profile to the user; and
updating the driver profile in real time.

16. The system of claim 15 , wherein the system further comprises:
a proximity tag worn by the driver which communicates with the vehicle monitoring camera to associate the one or more incident videos with the driver.

17. The system of claim 16 , wherein the proximity tag authenticates the one or more incident videos.

18. The system of claim 15 , wherein the driver score is based in part on a comparison between the driver and one or

Assignees

• Digital Ally Inc

Inventors

• Farnham Iv James W
• Phillips Steven L
• Troxel Jason R
• Rumage John

Classifications

• G08G1/127

  to a central station {; Indicators in a central station} · CPC title

• G07C5/0825

  using optical means · CPC title

• G07C5/08

  Registering or indicating performance data other than driving, working, idle, or waiting time, with or without registering driving, working, idle or waiting time · CPC title

• G07C5/008

  communicating information to a remotely located station (transmission systems for measured values G08C) · CPC title

• G08G1/0129

  for creating historical data or processing based on historical data · CPC title