Vehicle Zone Tracking via Wireless Sensor Distance Patterns
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing systems fail to reliably determine the seating zone of a mobile device within a vehicle, especially when the device is located in storage areas like the center console, leading to ambiguous results due to instantaneous triangulation methods.
Innovation Solution
A system that tracks distance values from wireless sensors to associate a mobile device with a vehicle entrance based on consistent approach and departure patterns over time, using sensor data to identify the entrance through which the device passed, thereby determining the seating zone.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Speed
If instantaneous triangulation is used to determine device location, then quick positioning is achieved, but reliability deteriorates when device is in storage areas like center console
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary tracking of distance values from multiple wireless sensors before making a final seating zone determination. Instead of relying on a single instantaneous triangulation, the system collects distance data over time from sensors positioned at different locations, establishing a pattern of approach and departure that precedes the final zone assignment. This preliminary data collection resolves ambiguity in storage area locations.
Solution Approach 2:
The system continuously monitors distance values from wireless sensors and uses this feedback to determine whether a device is approaching or departing from sensor locations. This feedback mechanism allows the system to distinguish between devices in seating zones (which show consistent approach-departure patterns) and devices in storage areas (which show inconsistent patterns), thereby improving reliability without sacrificing positioning speed.
2Measurement precision
If multiple sensors are used to track device position, then measurement precision improves, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system divides the vehicle interior into distinct seating zones, each monitored by a specific pair of wireless sensors. Rather than using all sensors for every measurement, the system segments the monitoring task so that each seating zone has dedicated sensors, simplifying the overall system while maintaining high measurement precision for device position determination.
Solution Approach 2:
The system applies different monitoring strategies to different locations within the vehicle. Seating zones are monitored using pairs of sensors that track approach and departure patterns, while storage areas are identified by the absence of such patterns. This local differentiation allows the system to achieve high measurement precision where needed without unnecessarily increasing complexity throughout the entire vehicle interior.
Data Source
AI summary
Values may be tracked from wireless sensors of a vehicle indicative of distance between the mobile device and the sensors. When the values over time indicate approach and then departure of the device to a first side of the vehicle and consistent approach of the device to a second side of the vehicle, the device may be associated with a seating zone of an identified closest pair of the sensors. Wireless sensors may be proximate to entrances to a vehicle. The vehicle may track values from the sensors indicative of distance between a mobile device and the sensors; calculate pair values as sums of the values received from pairs of the sensors proximate vehicle entrances; and identify one of the entrances through which the mobile device passed according to the pair value with a minimum value closest to a distance between the pair of the sensors.