Identifying a driver of a vehicle

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9707911-B1
Application number	US-201615076360-A
Country	US
Kind code	B1
Filing date	Mar 21, 2016
Priority date	Mar 21, 2016
Publication date	Jul 18, 2017
Grant date	Jul 18, 2017

Abstract

The present invention extends to methods, systems, and computer program products for identifying a person as a driver of a vehicle. Aspects include using in-vehicle sensors to increase the accuracy of driver identification initially determined using other mechanisms. As such, at least two different types of sensory devices can be utilized to gather data in an effort to identify the driver. The data gathered from the first sensor (e.g., at a key fob) is processed to identify the driver based on learned characteristic patterns, such as the driver's gait, before the driver enters the vehicle. The data gathered from the second sensor (e.g., in an in-vehicle face or voice recognition system) is processed to confirm the driver. The confirmation is based on biometric data and learned characteristic patterns. Data from the second sensor is provided back to the first sensor to confirm the driver identity.

First claim

What is claimed:

1. A method for use at a vehicle, the method for identifying a person as a driver prior to the person entering the vehicle, the method comprising:
receiving a driver identifier and a probability from a mobile device, the driver identifier identifying the person as a driver of the vehicle, the driver identifier determined through gait analysis at the mobile device, the probability indicating a likelihood that the gait analysis correctly matched the driver identifier to the person;
adjusting vehicle settings to stored preferences for the driver identifier;
using a sensor device at the vehicle to confirm the driver identifier by sensing biometric data of the person; and
sending the confirmed driver identifier to the mobile device as feedback to increase the accuracy of subsequent gait analysis used to match the driver identifier to the person.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein receiving a probability from the mobile device comprises receiving a probability indicating a likelihood that a gait pattern detected by sensors of the mobile device was correctly matched to the person.

3. The method of claim 2 , further comprising:
sending the confirmed driver identifier to the mobile device to confirm that the gait pattern was correctly matched to the person.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein receiving a driver identifier from a mobile device comprises receiving a driver identifier from one of: a key fob and a smart phone.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein adjusting vehicle settings to stored preferences for the driver identifier comprises adjusting one or more of: a steering column, a stereo, a driver seat position, and climate control.

6. A method for use at a vehicle, the vehicle having a computer system including one or more processors and system memory, the method for confirming a person as a driver of the vehicle, the method comprising:
receiving a driver identifier and a probability via wireless communication from a mobile device, the driver identifier identifying the person as a driver of the vehicle, the driver identifier determined by analyzing a gait pattern at the mobile device, the gait pattern detected by sensors of the mobile device, the probability indicating a likelihood that the gait pattern was correctly matched to the person;
based on the driver identifier and the probability, adjusting one or more vehicle settings to stored preferences for the person;
using a sensor device at the vehicle to derive a driver identifier by sensing biometric data of the person; and
sending the derived driver identifier to the mobile device as feedback to confirm that the gait pattern was correctly matched to the person, the feedback increasing the accuracy of subsequently matching the gait pattern to the person at the mobile device.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein the mobile device is a key fob.

8. The method of claim 6 , wherein the mobile device is a smart phone.

9. The method of claim 6 , further comprising determining that the probability is above a threshold prior to adjusting the one or more vehicle settings.

10. The method of claim 9 , wherein adjusting the one or more vehicle settings comprises adjusting the one or more vehicle settings prior to the person entering the vehicle.

11. The method of claim 6 , wherein adjusting one or more vehicle settings comprises adjusting one or more of: a steering column, a stereo, a driver seat position, and climate control.

12. The method of claim 6 , wherein the sensor device comprises a voice recognition system.

13. The method of claim 6 , wherein the sensor device comprises a facial recognition system.

14. The method of claim 6 , wherein the sensor device comprises a retinal scanner system.

15. The method of claim 6 , wherein the sensor device comprises a fingerprint scanner system.

16. A vehicle computer system for identifying a person as a driver of the vehicle prior to the person entering the vehicle, the system comprising:
one or more processors;
system memory;
a biometric sensor configured to sense biometric data of the person; and
one or more computer storage devices having stored thereon computer-executable instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the vehicle computer system to:
receive a driver identifier and a probability via wireless communication from a mobile device, the driver identifier identifying the person as a driver of the vehicle, the driver identifier determined by analyzing a gait pattern at the mobile device, the gait pattern detected by sensors at the mobile device, the probability indicating a likelihood that the gait pattern was correctly matched to the person;
based on the driver identifier and the probability, adjust one or more vehicle settings to stored preferences for the person;
use the biometric sensor to derive a driver identifier by sensing biometric data of the person; and
send the derived driver identifier to the mobile device as feedback to confirm that the gait pattern was correctly matched to the person, the feedback increasing the accuracy of subsequently matching the gait pattern to the person at the mobile device.

17. The system of claim 16 , further comprising computer-executable instructions that, when executed, cause the vehicle computer system to determine that the probability is above a threshold prior to adjusting the one or more vehicle settings.

18. The system of claim 17 , wherein computer-executable instructions that, when executed, cause the vehicle computer system to adjust the one or more vehicle settings comprise computer-executable instructions at that, when executed, cause the computer system to adjust the one or more vehicle settings prior to the person entering the vehicle.

19. The system of claim 16 , further comprising computer-executable instructions that, when executed, cause the vehicle computer system to query the biometric sensor for driver identification.

20. The system of claim 16 , wherein computer-executable instructions that, when executed, cause the vehicle computer system to send the derived driver identifier to the mobile device comprise computer-executable instructions that, when executed, cause the vehicle computer system to send the driver identifier back to the mobile device.

Assignees

• Ford Global Tech Llc

Inventors

• Myers Scott Vincent
• Elwart Shane
• Talamonti Walter Joseph
• Mullen Jonathan Thomas
• Nelson Zachary David
• Smith Tory
• Halder Bibhrajit
• Han Kyu Jeong

Classifications

• H04L43/16

  Threshold monitoring · CPC title

• H04W4/005

  Electricity · mapped topic

• B60R16/037 Primary

  for occupant comfort {, e.g. for automatic adjustment of appliances according to personal settings, e.g. seats, mirrors, steering wheel} · CPC title

• G06V40/70 Primary

  Multimodal biometrics, e.g. combining information from different biometric modalities · CPC title

• H04W4/70

  Services for machine-to-machine communication [M2M] or machine type communication [MTC] · CPC title