Method and System for Emergency Notification

Abstract

An apparatus for use within a vehicle to notify an emergency responder of a vehicle emergency, comprising an electrical interface configured to receive vehicle information from a vehicle data bus in communication with one or more vehicle modules. The apparatus also includes a wireless transceiver capable of establishing a wireless communication link with a mobile phone and capable of sending vehicle information to the mobile phone. The apparatus also includes an accelerometer capable of determining acceleration or deceleration of the vehicle. The apparatus also includes a processor configured to detect a vehicle emergency occurring at or near the vehicle based on the accelerometer, output a wireless signal to the mobile phone to instruct the mobile phone to dial an emergency responder and establish communication with the emergency responder upon detection of the vehicle emergency; and to communicate with a pre-defined emergency contact other than the emergency responder.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

[0001] This application is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No. 11/769,346, filed Jun. 27, 2007. The disclosure of which is incorporated in its entirety by reference herein.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

[0002] 1. Field of the Invention

[0003] Embodiments of the present invention generally relate to a method and system for notifying emergency responders in the event of an automobile accident or other emergency.

[0004] 2. Background Art

[0005] ONSTAR offers a SAFE & SOUND program in which a human "Advisor" fields emergency calls from ONSTAR-equipped vehicles. Calls are manually initiated at the vehicle either by depressing an emergency button located within the passenger compartment (e.g. below the rear-view mirror), or automatically initiated upon deployment of an air bag in the event of a collision. Collisions may be detected using one or more accelerometers or other impact detecting devices mounted within the vehicle, as is well known in the art.

[0006] An emergency call from an ONSTAR-equipped vehicle to the Advisor switchboard indicates the geographic location of the vehicle, and places the Advisor in voice communication with the passenger compartment. The Advisor attempts to communicate with the occupant(s) of the vehicle to determine the severity and circumstances of the incident giving rise to the emergency call. If the Advisor determines that emergency attention is necessary, either because of the occupant response(s), or because there was no response indicating that the occupant(s) may be ejected and/or severely injured, the Advisor dispatches emergency responders closest to the reported location of the vehicle.

[0007] U.S. Pat. No. 7,119,669 titled "Method And Apparatus For Detecting Vehicular Collisions" describes a cellular telephone that is equipped with technology for detecting a vehicular collision. This system is portable and operates independently, without the need of embedded vehicular subsystems, such as an accelerometer to detect collisions or a global positioning system to detect vehicle velocity and location. These subsystems are embedded into the cellular telephone described in the `669 patent. The '699 patent describes communicating electronic data, such as the magnitude, time and location of the collision to authorities in the even a collision is detected. The '699 patent also describes playing prerecorded messages about the device's owner, including medical information. The '699 patent describes various software "filters" for screening out "false positives" or "false collision detections" to avoid unnecessarily contacting emergency responders in non-emergency situations, such as when the cellular telephone is accidently dropped.

[0008] U.S. Pat. No. 5,918,180 titled "Telephone Operable Global Tracking System For Vehicles" describes a system for tracking vehicles using a cellular telephone and global positioning system that is located in the vehicle. The system also includes a speech synthesizer circuit that converts the digitally-encoded coordinates into speech for enunciating the vehicle location through the cellular telephone. By calling the cellular telephone from a remote location, the owner of the vehicle can determine its location. The `180 patent also describes using the system to call the police.

[0009] U.S. Pat. No. 5,555,286 titled "Cellular Phone Based Automatic Emergency VesselNehicle Location System" describes a navigation unit that receives GPS data, and upon receipt of an activation event such as an airbag deployment, causes DTMF tones to be generated in a cellular telephone for dialing an emergency responder. The geographic location information and the identity of the vehicle are synthesized into voice and are then communicated to the emergency responder using the cellular telephone connection.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

[0010] A first illustrative embodiment includes an apparatus for use within a vehicle to notify an emergency responder of a vehicle emergency, comprising an electrical interface configured to receive vehicle information from a vehicle data bus in communication with one or more vehicle modules. The apparatus also includes a wireless transceiver capable of establishing a wireless communication link with a mobile phone and capable of sending vehicle information to the mobile phone. The apparatus also includes an accelerometer capable of determining acceleration or deceleration of the vehicle. The apparatus also includes a processor configured to detect a vehicle emergency occurring at or near the vehicle based on the accelerometer, output a wireless signal to the mobile phone to instruct the mobile phone to dial an emergency responder and establish communication with the emergency responder upon detection of the vehicle emergency; and to communicate with a pre-defined emergency contact other than the emergency responder.

[0011] A second illustrative embodiment includes a vehicle emergency-notification apparatus, comprising an interface for receiving vehicle-data from a vehicle data-bus and a Bluetooth transceiver for sending the vehicle-data and connecting to a mobile-phone. The apparatus also includes a processor configured to detect an emergency occurring at or near the vehicle based on an accelerometer and configured to send instructions to the mobile-phone to dial and establish communication with an emergency-responder upon detection of the emergency. The processor is also configured to send instructions to the mobile-phone to communicate emergency-information to a pre-defined emergency contact.

[0012] A third illustrative embodiment includes a method for notifying an emergency-responder of a vehicle emergency, comprising receiving from a data-bus vehicle-data that includes vehicle-information and occupant-information, sending the vehicle-data to a mobile-phone via a wireless-connection, and detecting an emergency occurring at or near the vehicle based on an accelerometer. The method also includes sending instructions upon detection of the emergency to the mobile-phone to dial and establish communication with the emergency-responder and transmit emergency-information, vehicle-information, or occupant-information to a pre-defined emergency contact.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0013] FIG. 1 is a system diagram illustrating aspects of physical embodiments of the present invention; and

[0014] FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a BLUETOOTH controller which may be implemented to support aspects and embodiments of the present invention;

[0015] FIG. 3 is a flow diagram illustrating a process for implementing embodiments of the present invention.

[0016] These figures are not exclusive representations of the systems and processes that may be implemented to carry out the inventions recited in the appended claims. Those of skill in the art will recognize that the illustrated system and process embodiments may be modified or otherwise adapted to meet a claimed implementation of the present invention, or equivalents thereof.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT(S)

[0017] FIG. 1 illustrates a physical system architecture which may be implemented to practice one or more aspects of the present invention. Block 10 generally comprises vehicle sub-systems, some of which may be interconnected by a vehicle network 12 such as a Controller Area Network or other suitable communication network.

[0018] Data processor 16 may receive and send information across vehicle network 12 through an appropriate network interface or bus adapter 24. Data processor 16 may be a traditional RISC or CISC processor in bus communication with general purpose volatile memory 26, and general purpose non-volatile or persistent storage 22, such as magnetic or flash memory, as is well known in the art. Removable memory 40 may also be provided, such as a compact flash card or a flash memory module having a Universal Serial Bus (USB) interface (not shown).

[0019] A global positioning signal receiver/processor 14 may be implemented to receive radio signals (e.g. the L1 frequency of 1575.42 MHz in the UHF band) from multiple satellites of the Navigation Signal Timing and Ranging (NAVSTAR) Global Positioning System. These signals may include a pseudorandom code identifying the transmitting satellite, ephemeris data and almanac data. The global positioning signal receiver/processor 14 may process this data to determine the two-dimensional location (e.g. latitude and longitude), the three-dimensional location (e.g. latitude, longitude and altitude), the velocity and/or the direction of the vehicle. Location, velocity and/or direction information calculated at the global positioning signal receiver/processor 14 may be communicated across vehicle network 12, and/or directly to data processor 16 via link 18.

[0020] Alternatively, a global positioning signal receiver/processor 53 may be a subsystem of cellular telephone 50. Information representing the global position of the cellular telephone, and thus the vehicle in which the cellular telephone is located, may be retrieved by data processor 16 via transceiver 38 and communication link 46.

[0021] The vehicle sub-systems may include a map database 20. Database 20, like general storage 22, may take several forms including but no limited to magnetic storage (e.g. a hard drive), optical storage (e.g. CD-ROM, DVD), flash memory, etc. Data processor 16 may determine a present street location and heading of the vehicle based on latitude, longitude and direction data received from GPS receiver/processor, and map data retrieved from database 20, as is well known in the art.

[0022] A plurality of emergency condition sensors 28 may be interfaced to vehicle network 28. Such sensors may include but are not limited to air bag deployment sensors, vehicle impact sensors, dash impact sensors, seat/occupant impact sensors, rollover sensors, flame/heat sensors, gasoline sensors and an occupant-activated panic button. These sensors may operate within individual processing modules (not shown), each having a separate interface (not shown) to the vehicle network 12 for sending signals indicating a plurality of different emergency conditions.

[0023] Another subsystem in communication with data processor 16 includes a voice synthesizer or decoder 28 for converting digital information received from the data processor 16 into audible speech signals, i.e. analog sound signals. The analog sound signals may be communicated through speaker 32, or processed at transceiver 38, for communication to cellular telephone 50 transceiver (not shown) across piconet 46 as discussed in greater detail below. A dual tone multifrequency (DTMF) interface 30 may be provided for receiving analog DTMF frequencies and processing them as command signals to data processor 16, as is well known in the art of automated telephone menu systems.

[0024] Transceiver 38 may establish a piconet 46 with cellular telephone 50 or other available device. Cellular telephone 50 is an example of a transient cellular communication device that is not permanently integrated into the vehicle. Another example of a transient cellular communication device may be a laptop computer having cellular communication and piconet communication capabilities.

[0025] In one example, transceiver 38 may comprise a BLUETOOTH controller. Those of skill in the art will recognize that other transceivers may be used having different communication characteristics and performance.

[0026] As illustrated in FIG. 2, a BLUETOOTH controller may include a link manager layer 82, a baseband layer 84 and a radio layer 86. The radio layer 86 may include a radio frequency module operating at 2.4 GHz using binary frequency modulation.

[0027] Baseband layer 84 may include a baseband resource manager 92 for managing the exchange of data between connected devices over logical links and logical transports, as well as the use of the radio medium to carry out inquiries, make connections, or be discoverable.

[0028] Baseband layer 84 may also include a link controller 90 which handles encoding and decoding of BLUETOOTH packets from the data payload and parameters related to the physical channel, logical transport and logical link. The link controller 90 carries out the link control protocol signaling which is used to communicate flow control and acknowledgment and retransmission request signals.

[0029] Device manager 94 controls the general behavior of the BLUETOOTH enabled device. It is responsible for operation of the BLUETOOTH system that is not directly related to data transport, such as inquiring for the presence of other nearby devices, connecting to other devices or making the local device discoverable or connectable by other devices.

[0030] The link manager layer 82 may include a link manager 96 for managing the creation, modification, and release of logical links and/or logical transports, as well as the update of parameters related to physical links between devices. The link manager may achieve this by communicating with the link manager in remote BLUETOOTH devices using the link management protocol (LMP). The LMP allows the creation of new logical links and logical transports between devices when required, as well as the general control of link and transport attributes such as the enabling of encryption on the logical transport, the adapting of transmit power on the physical link or the adjustment of QoS settings for a logical link.

[0031] Other vehicle subsystems 10 include a link status indicator 36 for notifying vehicle occupants of the status of the communication link between transceiver 38 and cellular telephone 50. Statuses include but are not limited to available devices, paired, unpaired, connected, not connected, etc. In one embodiment, the status of the communication link is indicated on a liquid crystal display (LCD). In another embodiment, one or more light emitting diodes (LEDs) or other visual indicators are provided. In yet another embodiment, audible status notifications are provided through the vehicle sound system and/or speaker 32. Link status may be monitored by data processor 16 in conjunction with transceiver 38.

[0032] A select/cancel switch 34 may also interface with data processor 16 for push-button control over microprocessor/system functions as described in greater detail below. Select/cancel switch 34 may be a soft switch operating in conjunction with a LCD display, or a software switch operated by voice command received at microphone 32 and processed by voice synthesizer 28 and/or microprocessor 16.

[0033] A wide variety of different interconnections among subsystems 10 and external communication networks may be practiced within the scope of the present invention, beyond those illustrated in FIG. 1. For example, a hard wire connection may be established between cellular telephone 50 and data processor 16, voice synthesizer 28, and/or DTMF interface 30. In another example, data processor 16 may be connected directly or indirectly to emergency sensor modules 28, and may monitor the ports to which the emergency sensor modules are attached instead of vehicle network 12.

[0034] In one embodiment of the present invention, cellular telephone 50 establishes wireless communication 48 with terrestrial tower 52. Terrestrial tower 52 in turn established communication through telephone switching network 54 with emergency responder(s) 56. Emergency responders may include police, ambulance a 911 public safety access point (PSAP), etc. as described in greater detail below. Terrestrial tower 52 may also establish communication through telephone switching network 54 with other contacts 58, as described in greater detail below.

[0035] In another embodiment of the present invention, terrestrial tower 52 may establish communication through telephone switching network 54 with a data interface (not shown) at web server 60. As described in greater detail below, data may be uploaded and downloaded communicated from associated database 68 to/from storage 22 associated with microprocessor 16, as illustrated by dashed line 70.

[0036] Web server 60 having associated storage 68 may host a plurality of web pages for Internet access 62 by a plurality of browsers, including but not limited to emergency responder(s) 66, cellular telephone owner(s) 64, healthcare providers, etc. As described in greater detail below, some browsers, such as cellular telephone owners 64 may upload data over Internet 62 to storage 68, and other browsers, such as emergency responders 66 may download data

[0037] FIG. 3 illustrates an example algorithm 100 for implementing an embodiment of the present invention. Those of skill in the art will recognize that the scope of the present invention is not limited to the specific algorithm illustrated in FIG. 3. The illustrated process may modified to fit a particular implementation of the present invention. The processes illustrated in FIG. 3 may be implemented by one or more processors, such as data processor 16 illustrated in FIG. 1. No particular type of processor or configuration is required.

[0038] At step 102, a local communication link may be established with an available cellular telephone in or nearby the vehicle passenger compartment. The link may be a BLUETOOTH piconet, or other suitable short-range network, wired or wireless. At steps 104 and 106, the status of the communication link may monitored on a continuous or basis, or at regular intervals. The status of the link may include the connectivity of the paired cellular telephone, the signal strength, the identity of other available devices, etc. s described with respect to FIG. 1, link status may be reported by LCD display, LED, or audibly. Preferably, a warning or other notification is provided to passengers within the vehicle compartment when a link is disrupted, or when no link is available.

[0039] At step 108, an emergency notification signal is received from vehicle emergency sensors 110. Vehicle emergency sensors 110 may include but are not limited to air bag deployment sensors, vehicle impact sensors, dash impact sensors, seat impact sensors, rollover sensors, flame sensors, gasoline sensors, etc. Emergency signals from these sensors may be received at data processor 16 directly by wire, wirelessly, or over vehicle network 12.

[0040] Upon receipt of an emergency notification signal, the system may notify occupants of the vehicle, at step 112, that an emergency call to one or more emergency responders 56 or other contacts 58 is going to be made at cellular telephone 50. Occupant notification is preferably done audibly using voice synthesizer 28 and speaker 32 which may or may not be a component of the vehicle sound system. The following is an example notification: [0041] "Warning. A safety sensor in this vehicle has detected a vehicle collision. The vehicle safety system will automatically contact emergency responders in 10 seconds. Press your cancel button or say CANCEL if you want to terminate this call."

[0042] Of course, an unlimited number of different notifications may be provided. They may be pre-recorded, pre-defined, or dynamically created based on the particular emergency detected and/or the particular occupant(s) within the vehicle. Preferably, the notification is repeated. At step 114, the vehicle occupants are provided with an opportunity to cancel the emergency call using the select/cancel switch 22 or a voice command received at microphone 32 and voice synthesizer 28. If a cancellation signal is received, the process stops, and returns to monitoring link status at block 104.

[0043] If the emergency call is not terminated at 114, emergency information is collected at step 118. Emergency information may include vehicle information 116 and occupant information 120. Vehicle information 116 may include latitude, longitude, direction, last velocity, etc from GPS receiver/processor 14, street location if the vehicle is equipped with map data 20, vehicle type/color, vehicle emergency condition (e.g., impact, fire, rollover, fire, gasoline leak, etc.), number of occupants, seat belt status, etc. Occupant information 120 may include name, age, address, blood type, medical allergies, medical condition, insurance information, physician information, emergency contact(s), etc. Emergency information may be stored in a plurality of storage locations including memory 26, storage 22, removable memory 40, or storage 51 associated with cellular telephone 50.

[0044] Occupant identification may be determined by the owner of the cellular telephone 50 paired with transceiver 38, voice input at microphone 32, user input at a vehicle console display (not shown), or other means including key identifier, memory key identifier, etc.

[0045] After emergency information is collected at step 118, another occupant notification may be made warning the occupant(s) that an emergency call is going to be made, and providing the occupant(s) with an opportunity to cancel the call, as described above with respect to steps 112 and 114. This step is represented by dashed lines 128.

[0046] If the emergency call is not canceled, transceiver 38 such as a BLUETOOTH controller may initiate a call on cellular telephone 50 to one or more emergency responders 56 or other contacts 58 at step 121. If a call cannot be initiated, the system attempts to establish connection with another cellular telephone in or nearby the vehicle as represented at block 122, and communicate the emergency information as represented at block 121.

[0047] At step 124, elements of vehicle information 116 and/or occupant information 120 may be synthesized into speech signals at voice synthesizer 28 and read to the terminating party 56 or 58 as indicated at block 126. In one embodiment of the present invention, the data processor 16 and the voice synthesizer 28 provide the terminating party 56 or 58 with touch tone DTMF menu options for repeating and retrieving the various elements of vehicle information 116 and/or occupant information 120. This process is illustrated with dashed lines 130 and 132.

[0048] If the occupant(s) have identified additional contacts 58 for reporting emergency information, those entities are contacted, and emergency information is reported, as represented by step 134.

[0049] As illustrated in FIG. 1, emergency responders 66 and cellular telephone/vehicle owners 64 are provided with Internet access to web server 60 having associated storage 68. Cellular telephone/vehicle owners 64 may access one or more Web pages hosted at server 60 for defining the emergency information to be provided to emergency responders 56 and 66, and/or the manner in which that information is provided. For example, cellular telephone/vehicle owners 64 may specify their name, age (date of birth), address, blood type, medical allergies, medical conditions, physician, emergency contact persons, etc. Cellular telephone/vehicle owners 64 may specify which of this information is disclosed to emergency responders 56 and/or 66 in the event of an emergency. The emergency information may be uploaded to cellular telephone storage 51 via cellular link 48, and/or to in-vehicle storage 22 for reporting via voice synthesizer 28 to emergency responders 56 and other contacts 58 in the event of an emergency.

[0050] The emergency information may also be stored in a database 68 associated with web server 68 for Internet access by emergency responders 66 in the event of an emergency. In one embodiment, speech transmission to emergency responders 56 includes instructions for accessing occupant emergency information at server 60 over the Internet 62. In this manner, emergency responders 56 and/or 66 can readily access all of an occupant's emergency information.

[0051] While the best mode for carrying out the invention has been described in detail, those familiar with the art to which this invention relates will recognize various alternative designs and embodiments for practicing the invention as defined by the following claims.

Claims

1. An apparatus for use within a vehicle to notify an emergency responder of a vehicle emergency, comprising: an electrical interface configured to receive vehicle information from a vehicle data bus in communication with one or more vehicle modules; a wireless transceiver capable of establishing a wireless communication link with a mobile phone and further capable of sending at least a portion of the vehicle information to the mobile phone; an accelerometer capable of determining acceleration or deceleration of the vehicle; and a processor configured to: detect a vehicle emergency occurring at or near the vehicle based at least in part on the accelerometer; output a wireless signal to the mobile phone to instruct the mobile phone to: 1) dial an emergency responder and establish communication with the emergency responder upon detection of the vehicle emergency; and 2) communicate with a pre-defined emergency contact other than the emergency responder.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the processor is further configured to request the mobile phone to send emergency information to the emergency responder upon detection of the vehicle emergency.

3. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the emergency information includes GPS data retrieved from the mobile phone.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the processor is further configured to request the mobile phone to send emergency information to a web server.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the processor is further configured to request the mobile phone to send emergency information to the pre-defined emergency contact upon detection of the vehicle emergency.

6. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein the emergency information includes information describing the vehicle emergency, location, or vehicle identification number.

7. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein the emergency information includes occupant information.

8. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein the occupant information indicates an owner of the mobile phone.

9. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein the emergency information includes occupant information and vehicle information.

10. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the vehicle information includes data received from an accelerometer

11. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the processor is further configured to request the mobile phone to communicate with the pre-defined emergency contact after the mobile phone dials the emergency responder.

12. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the processor is further configured to request the mobile phone to send emergency information to the emergency responder and the pre-defined emergency contact upon detection of the vehicle emergency.

13. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the wireless transceiver is a Bluetooth transceiver.

14. A vehicle emergency-notification apparatus, comprising: an interface for receiving vehicle-data from a vehicle data-bus; a Bluetooth transceiver for sending the vehicle-data and connecting to a mobile-phone; a processor configured to: detect an emergency occurring at or near the vehicle based on an accelerometer; send instructions to the mobile-phone to: dial and establish communication with an emergency-responder upon detection of the emergency; communicate emergency-information to a pre-defined emergency contact other than the emergency-responder.

15. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the emergency-information is hosted at a Web server.

16. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the processor is further configured to request the mobile phone to send emergency-information to the emergency-responder upon detection of the vehicle emergency.

17. A method for notifying an emergency-responder of a vehicle emergency, comprising: receiving from a data-bus vehicle-data that includes vehicle-information and occupant-information; sending the vehicle-data to a mobile-phone via a wireless-connection; detecting an emergency occurring at or near the vehicle based on an accelerometer; sending instructions upon detection of the emergency to the mobile-phone to: dial and establish communication with the emergency-responder; and communicate emergency-information or occupant-information to a pre-defined emergency contact other than the emergency-responder.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the emergency-information is hosted at a Web server.

19. The method of claim 17, wherein the wireless-connection is a Bluetooth-connection.

20. The method of claim 17, wherein the occupant-information indicates an owner of the mobile phone.