Accident Notification via Sensor Fusion
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing mobile devices require cognitive input from users to initiate communication, which can be impossible during critical situations like accidents, leading to a need for alternative systems and methods for generating accident notifications.
Innovation Solution
A portable device with a sensing system that generates alerts based on motion and audio, encodes assistance requests with location information, and transmits them to a server to summon help, allowing for automatic notification even when the user is incapacitated.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If automatic accident detection is implemented using sensing systems, then assistance can be summoned without user input during incapacitation, but device complexity increases due to additional sensors and processing requirements
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines multiple sensing capabilities (accelerometer, gyroscope, barometer, microphone) into a unified accident detection system that works together to identify crash events. This merging of sensors and their data processing creates a comprehensive detection system that automatically triggers assistance requests without requiring user input, resolving the contradiction between ease of operation and device complexity by integrating functions rather than adding separate systems.
Solution Approach 2:
The sensing system is designed to perform multiple functions: detecting crashes, determining impact severity, identifying crash directions, and triggering appropriate assistance responses. By making the sensing system multi-functional, the patent reduces the need for separate dedicated systems for each function, thereby managing complexity while achieving automatic operation during user incapacitation.
2Reliability
If multiple sensors and processing functions are integrated for automatic accident detection, then assistance notification reliability improves during user incapacitation, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The accident detection system is segmented into distinct functional modules: motion sensing (accelerometer, gyroscope), environmental sensing (barometer), audio sensing (microphone), and processing logic. Each module independently processes its specific data type and contributes to the overall accident determination. This segmentation allows the system to achieve high reliability through multiple independent verification points while managing complexity through modular architecture.
Solution Approach 2:
The system incorporates feedback mechanisms where sensor data continuously monitors the device state, and when accident criteria are met, the system triggers an assistance request and provides confirmation feedback. The processing logic analyzes sensor inputs in real-time and adjusts its response based on the severity and characteristics of detected events, ensuring reliable notification while maintaining systematic control over the complexity of multiple sensing functions.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
Enables immediate and automatic assistance in accident situations by transmitting location-based assistance requests to selected devices, ensuring help can be summoned without user input, thereby enhancing safety and response times.
Implementation Method 1
a sensing system that can be configured to generate a sensed signal indicative of one of a sensed motion and an audio detected by the sensing system
Data Source
AI summary
This disclosure relates to systems and methods for summoning emergency personnel to assist a user associated with a portable device. A system can include a processor that can access non-transitory memory and execute machine readable instructions stored therein. The machine readable instructions can cause the processor to receive an assistance request generated by the portable device. The request can include location information for the portable device. The machine readable instructions can further cause the processor to transmit an assistance summons request to one or more selected devices that the user is need of assistance, receive a confirmation message generated by at least one of the one or more selected devices confirming that the user associated with the portable device is need of the assistance, and transmit one or more notification messages to summon the emergency personnel for the user.