Responding to in-vehicle environmental conditions

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9955326-B2
Application number	US-201314129797-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 25, 2013
Priority date	Oct 25, 2013
Publication date	Apr 24, 2018
Grant date	Apr 24, 2018

Abstract

Technologies for generating a warning based on environmental conditions sensed in a vehicle include an in-vehicle warning system for determining whether an operator of the vehicle is present, determining whether a non-operator occupant is present in the vehicle, and determining whether environmental conditions sensed within the vehicle satisfy a reference condition threshold. Such technologies may also include performing an emergency action in response to determining that the environmental conditions sensed within the vehicle satisfy the reference condition threshold, determining that the operator of the vehicle is not present, and determining that the non-operator occupant is present in the vehicle.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. An in-vehicle warning system to generate a warning based on environmental conditions sensed in a vehicle, the in-vehicle warning system comprising:
a vehicle monitoring module to: (i) determine whether an operator of the vehicle is present, (ii) determine whether a non-operator occupant is present in the vehicle, and (iii) determine whether environmental conditions sensed within the vehicle satisfy a reference condition threshold;
an emergency action module to transmit an alert notification message to a mobile computing device of the operator in response to: (i) a determination that the environmental conditions sensed within the vehicle satisfy the reference condition threshold, (ii) a determination that the operator of the vehicle is not present, and (iii) a determination that the non-operator occupant is present in the vehicle, wherein the alert notification message comprises an image captured by a camera positioned inside of the vehicle or a video captured by the camera positioned inside of the vehicle; and
a system override controllable by the operator to prevent transmission of the alert notification message when activated, wherein the emergency action module is to transmit the alert notification message regardless of the activation of the system override in response to a determination that at least one environmental condition sensed within the vehicle is greater than an upper threshold.

2. The in-vehicle warning system of claim 1 , wherein to transmit the alert notification message to the mobile computing device of the operator comprises to transmit the notification message to the mobile computing device via a text message.

3. The in-vehicle warning system of claim 1 , wherein the alert notification message further comprises at least one of: information indicative of the presence of the non-operator occupant in the vehicle, information indicative of the environmental conditions sensed within the vehicle.

4. The in-vehicle warning system of claim 1 , wherein to determine whether the environmental conditions satisfy the reference condition threshold comprises to determine the presence of an the emergency event in response to a determination that the environmental conditions sensed within the vehicle satisfy the reference condition threshold; and
wherein the emergency action module is further to at least one of alert third-party emergency services of the emergency event or control one or more components of the vehicle.

5. The in-vehicle warning system of claim 4 , wherein to alert the third-party emergency services comprises to transmit the alert notification message to an emergency services system.

6. The in-vehicle warning system of claim 5 , wherein the emergency action module is further to determine a location of the vehicle; and
wherein the alert notification message comprises the determined location of the vehicle.

7. The in-vehicle warning system of claim 4 , wherein to control one or more components of the vehicle comprises at least one of open a window of the vehicle, turn on the vehicle, turn off the vehicle, control the temperature inside of the vehicle, activate a horn of the vehicle, flash one or more lights of the vehicle, control a door lock of the vehicle, or activate an alarm of the vehicle.

8. The in-vehicle warning system of claim 1 , wherein the vehicle monitoring module is further to:
receive an image of an interior cabin of the vehicle captured by the camera positioned within the vehicle;
compare the captured image of the interior cabin to a baseline representation of the interior cabin;
identify one or more occupants of the vehicle based on the comparison; and determine a location of each identified occupant.

9. The in-vehicle warning system of claim 8 , wherein the vehicle monitoring module is further to identify one or more background objects within the baseline representation of the interior cabin; and
wherein to compare the captured image of the interior cabin to the baseline representation of the interior cabin comprises to remove the one or more background objects identified within the baseline representation from the captured image of the interior cabin.

10. The in-vehicle warning system of claim 1 , wherein the vehicle monitoring module is further to receive cabin data captured by at least one sensor positioned within the vehicle.

11. The in-vehicle warning system of claim 10 , wherein the at least one sensor comprises at least one environmental condition sensor;
wherein the received cabin data comprises environmental condition data captured by the environmental condition sensor and indicative of an environmental condition inside of the vehicle; and
wherein to determine whether the environmental conditions sensed within the vehicle satisfy the reference condition threshold comprises to compare the environmental condition data captured by the at least one environmental condition sensor with the reference condition threshold.

12. The in-vehicle warning system of claim 11 , wherein the at least one environmental sensor comprises at least one of a temperature sensor or an air quality sensor.

13. The in-vehicle warning system of claim 10 , wherein the received cabin data comprises at least one of occupant movement data indicative of a movement of the non-operator occupant within the vehicle, occupant physiological data indicative of one or more vital signs of the non-operator occupant, occupant characteristic data indicative of a physical characteristic of the non-operator occupant, or occupant activity data indicative of an activity of the non-operator occupant;
wherein to determine whether the non-operator occupant is present in the vehicle comprises to determine whether the non-operator occupant is present in the vehicle based on the at least one of the occupant movement data, the occupant physiological data, the occupant characteristic data, or the occupant activity data captured by the at least one sensor; and
wherein the at least one sensor comprises at least one of a motion sensor, a breathing detection sensor, a heart rate sensor, a microphone, a biometric sensor, or a wearable sensor configured to be worn by the non-operator occupant of the vehicle.

14. The in-vehicle warning system of claim 1 , wherein the emergency action module is further to determine whether the system override is activated; and
wherein to transmit the alert notification message to the mobile computing device of the operator in response to a determination that the environmental conditions sensed within the vehicle satisfy the reference condition threshold, a determination that the operator of the vehicle is not present, and a determination that the non-operator occupant is present in the vehicle comprises to transmit the alert notification message to the mobile computing device of the operator in response to: (i) a first determination that the environmental conditions sensed within the vehicle satisfy the reference condition threshold, (ii) a second determination that the operator of the vehicle is not present, (iii) a third determination that the non-operator is present in the vehicle, and (iv) a fourth determination that the system override is not activated.

15. One or more non-transitory machine readable media comprising a plurality of instructions stored thereon that in response to being executed by an in-vehicle warning system, cause the in-vehicle warning system to:
determine whether an operator of the vehicle is present;
determine whether a non-operator occupant is present in the vehicle;
determine whether environmental conditions sensed within the vehicle satisfy

Assignees

• Intel Corp

Inventors

• Avrahami Daniel
• Healey Jennifer A
• Malamud Ariel
• Baskin Lonny

Classifications

• H04W4/12

  Messaging; Mailboxes; Announcements · CPC title

• H04W4/40

  for vehicles, e.g. vehicle-to-pedestrians [V2P] · CPC title

• H04W4/90 Primary

  Services for handling of emergency or hazardous situations, e.g. earthquake and tsunami warning systems [ETWS] · CPC title

• H04W4/38

  for collecting sensor information · CPC title

• G08B21/22

  responsive to presence or absence of persons · CPC title