BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

This patent application relates to an automated method and system for determining a possible road safety violation, specifically for determining when a driver of a motor vehicle may be under the influence of alcohol, and then notifying a third party such as traffic law enforcement officers on the ground.

One of the biggest causes of motor vehicle collisions is the use of alcohol by drivers of the motor vehicle.

This is well documented and the law in most countries around this is very strict. However, in some countries with traffic police that are not well- resourced and equipped this is difficult to monitor and enforce.

The present invention thus seeks to provide a method and system to address this.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

According to one example embodiment there is provided a blood alcohol level testing device including: a memory; an accelerometer; a blood alcohol testing module; a communication module; and a processor connected to the memory, accelerometer, blood alcohol testing module and communication module, the processor having software executing thereon, the software executing the following method steps: receiving accelerometer data from the accelerometer and using the accelerometer data to determine if the mobile computing device is moving which means that a motor vehicle in which the device is located is moving; receiving blood alcohol level data from the blood alcohol testing module, the blood alcohol level data including the results of a blood alcohol level test undertaken by a driver of the motor vehicle; using the accelerometer data and the blood alcohol level data to determine a possible road safety violation if one of the following criteria are met: i) the accelerometer data shows that the breathalyser device is moving and the blood alcohol level data shows that the driver of the motor vehicle has failed the blood alcohol level test; or ii) the accelerometer data shows that the mobile computing device is moving and no blood alcohol level data has been received; and if a possible road safety violation has occurred then transmitting a possible road safety violation warning message via the communication module.

The device may further include a GPS module and wherein the processor obtains a current location of the mobile computing device from the GPS module and the possible road safety violation warning message includes the location. The possible road safety violation warning message is preferably transmitted to a traffic law enforcement system.

The communication module is typically a long range communication module.

According to another example embodiment there is provided a mobile computing device including: a memory; an accelerometer; a communication module; and a processor connected to the memory, accelerometer and communication module, the processor having software executing thereon, the software executing the following method steps: receiving accelerometer data from the accelerometer and using the accelerometer data to determine if the mobile computing device is moving which means that a motor vehicle in which the device is located is moving; receiving blood alcohol level data via the communication module from an external blood alcohol testing device, the blood alcohol level data including the results of a blood alcohol level test undertaken by a driver of the motor vehicle; using the accelerometer data and the blood alcohol level data to determine a possible road safety violation if one of the following criteria are met: i) the accelerometer data shows that the mobile computing device is moving and the blood alcohol level data shows that the driver of the motor vehicle has failed the blood alcohol level test; or ii) the accelerometer data shows that the mobile computing device is moving and no blood alcohol level data has been received; and if a possible road safety violation has occurred then transmitting a possible road safety violation warning message via the communication module.

The mobile computing device may include a GPS module wherein the processor obtains a current location of the mobile computing device from the GPS module and the possible road safety violation warning message includes the location.

The possible road safety violation warning message is preferably transmitted to a traffic law enforcement system.

The communication module may include short-range communication ability and long-range communication ability.

According to another example embodiment there is provided a method for determining a possible road safety violation, the method including: receiving accelerometer data from an accelerometer and using the accelerometer data to determine if a motor vehicle is moving; receiving blood alcohol level data from a blood alcohol level testing device, the blood alcohol level data including the results of a blood alcohol level test undertaken by a driver of the motor vehicle; using the accelerometer data and the blood alcohol level data to determine a possible road safety violation if one of the following criteria are met: i) the accelerometer data shows that the motor vehicle is moving and the blood alcohol level data shows that the driver of the motor vehicle has failed the blood alcohol level test; or ii) the accelerometer data shows that the motor vehicle is moving and no blood alcohol level data has been received; and if a possible road safety violation has occurred then transmitting a possible road safety violation warning message.

The method may further include obtaining a current location of the motor vehicle wherein the possible road safety violation warning message includes the current location.

The possible road safety violation warning message is preferably transmitted to a traffic law enforcement system.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Figure 1 shows a schematic drawing of a mobile computing device in accordance with an example embodiment;

Figure 2 shows a schematic drawing of a blood alcohol level testing device in accordance with a first example embodiment;

Figure 3 shows an example system of the present invention;

Figure 4 shows an example flowchart used to determine abnormal driver behaviour; and

Figure 5 shows a schematic drawing of a blood alcohol level testing device in accordance with a second example embodiment;

DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

In the following description, for purposes of explanation, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of an embodiment of the present disclosure. It will be evident, however, to one skilled in the art that the present disclosure may be practiced without these specific details.

The present invention finds application in the field of road safety, particularly to assist traffic law enforcement officers in enforcing traffic laws around not drinking alcohol and driving.

Referring to Figure 1 of the accompanying figures, a first example embodiment of the present invention is illustrated including a mobile computing device 10.

In this illustrated example, the mobile computing device is a mobile telephone but it will be appreciated that other mobile computing devices with equivalent functionality could also be used and the description of the mobile computing device as a mobile telephone is for illustrative but not limiting purposes.

An accelerometer 14 is used to detect the movement of the mobile computing device. In the case of the mobile telephone being a modern smartphone this is usually included in the standard hardware of the smartphone.

A GPS module 16 determines the location of the mobile computing device at any given time using the global positioning system. This is also usually included in the standard hardware of the smartphone.

A communication module 18 is used for transmitting and receiving data to and from the mobile computing device.

The communication module 18 of a smartphone typically includes short- range communication ability and long-range communication ability.

The short-range communication ability could be Bluetooth, for example, by means of which the mobile computing device 10 can communicate with other devices in relatively near proximity to the mobile computing device 10. The long-range communication ability could be, for example, to transmit data over a communications network.

The communication network may be a Public Services Telecommunications Network (PSTN), a Private Network, a Virtual Private Network (VPN), an Intelligent Network (IN) or Converged Network for example, or may be a combination of one or more of these network types.

Where the network is not a public network, it may belong to law enforcement, authorised private security or another commercial entity who would act on information related to the sobriety of the driver of the motor vehicle, for example a trucking company that owns a truck being driven or a motor vehicle insurance company that insures the motor vehicle being driven.

The mobile computing device 10 may also include a display 20 by means of which information can be displayed to a user of the device and a user interface 22 by means of which a user can input data and instructions into the device.

An example of a user interface 22 is a touchscreen which is often included in modern smartphones together with one or more buttons and/or switches also typically included in modern smartphones.

A processor 24 is connected to the memory 12, accelerometer 14, GPS module 16, communication module 18, display 20 and user interface 22.

The processor 24 has software executing thereon and the processor 24 controls the operation of the mobile computing device 10.

The use of this example mobile computing device 10 for determining a possible road safety violation will now be described.

The mobile computing device will be connected with a blood alcohol level testing device either wirelessly for example via Bluetooth, or by being wired to the blood alcohol level testing device possibly via the audio jack input in a smartphone for example. Alternatively, or in addition, the blood alcohol level testing device may also be plugged directly into a motor vehicle equipped with sobriety detection software in which case the vehicle on board computer is the mobile computing device that is connected to the blood alcohol level testing device.

In this way, the results of any blood alcohol level tests conducted on a motor vehicle driver can be transmitted from the blood alcohol level testing device to the mobile computing device.

For purposes of this description, the blood alcohol level testing device will not be described as a breathalyser device which are currently ubiquitous. However, it will be appreciated that there are other blood alcohol level testing devices available such as transdermal alcohol detection systems. Thus it will be appreciated that the reference to the blood alcohol level testing device as being a breathalyser device is exemplary.

The breathalyser is a device for estimating blood alcohol level or blood alcohol content (BAG) from a breath sample and is frequently used by traffic law enforcement officers to determine if a motor vehicle driver is driving under the influence of alcohol.

For purposes of the present invention, a driver of a motor vehicle will be required to use the breathalyser device to take a test before driving and the results of the test will then be transmitted to a connected mobile computing device 10.

In order to ensure that it is the driver of the motor vehicle that is taking the breathalyser and not a third party, the person taking the breathalyser needs to be authenticated.

In one example, a camera 26 of the mobile telephone 10 is used to take a picture of the user simultaneously as they blow into the breathalyser device.

Facial recognition software is used to verify that the owner of the device/vehicle is indeed the one who has taken the breathalyser test. The facial recognition software is preferably executing on the mobile telephone 10 but in one example may be executing on a remote server in which case the picture is transmitted from the mobile telephone 10 to the remote server.

If the user attempts to engage in a fraudulent breath test, the relevant authority will be alerted as will be described in more detail below.

In any event, after the user takes the breathalyser test, either the actual blood alcohol content reading is transmitted or a pass or fail reading is transmitted, or both.

In either case, this information is included in the breathalyser data that is transmitted to the mobile computing device 10 and received via the communication module 18.

The received breathalyser data will typically be stored in the memory 12.

The communication module 18 will also receive accelerometer data from the accelerometer 14.

The processor 24 will use the accelerometer data to determine if the mobile computing device 10 is moving which means that a motor vehicle in which the device is located is moving.

It will be appreciated that there will be some threshold levels and the movement will need to be up of these levels to exclude a situation where the user of the device is walking and not driving.

The processor 24 will use the accelerometer data and the breathalyser data to determine a possible road safety violation if one of the following criteria are met: i) the accelerometer data shows that the mobile computing device is moving and the breathalyser data shows that the driver of the motor vehicle has failed the breathalyser test; or ii) the accelerometer data shows that the mobile computing device is moving and no breathalyser data has been received; and

It will be appreciated that in scenario i) above the driver of the motor vehicle has failed a breathalyser test and is now driving the motor vehicle.

In scenario ii) above it is possible that the motor vehicle driver did not take the breathalyser test at all and is now driving the motor vehicle. This is a suspicious scenario which needs to be investigated further.

If a possible road safety violation has occurred, a possible road safety violation warning message is transmitted via the communication module 18.

Typically, before transmitting a message, the processor 24 obtains a current location of the mobile computing device from the GPS module and the possible road safety violation warning message includes the location of the mobile computing device 10. It will be appreciated that the current location of the mobile computing device will be the same as the current location of the driver and the motor vehicle which the driver is driving.

The possible road safety violation warning message is transmitted at least to a traffic law enforcement system either directly or via an intermediate third party system.

Alternatively, or in addition, the possible road safety violation warning message is transmitted to the system of an interested third party such as an insurance company, vehicle rental company or vehicle fleet owner.

The possible road safety violation warning message may also include an identification of the driver and/or vehicle. Figure 2 illustrates a second embodiment in which a blood alcohol level testing device 28 incorporates the various modules described above plus a blood alcohol level module 30.

In this embodiment, it will be appreciated that all of the components are incorporated into one integral device 28. In one example, this device 28 may be connected to the vehicle on board systems either at the time of manufacture of the vehicle or as a retrofit.

The mobile computing device 10 includes a memory 12 which is used for data storage.

In this example, not only will traffic law enforcement be informed of the driver lacking sobriety but, by alerting the vehicle manufacturer that the driver is above the legal blood alcohol level, the manufacture may deactivate the vehicle either remotely in a safe manner or the vehicle may be prevented from starting by onboard vehicle systems thereby preventing the driver from driving altogether in vehicles that have this functionality available.

In either embodiment described above, the mobile computing device 10 or breathalyser device 28 could also be used to determine if the driver is possibly driving under the influence of alcohol by monitoring driving behaviour.

A deviation from the ordinary driving style of the user will also produce a possible road safety violation warning message to traffic law enforcement authorities who will then track the vehicle and conduct a sobriety test.

The incentive would be that that the driver should take their own sobriety test via the device or there is the possibility of incurring the additional sanction of fraud if for example a third party takes the test for the driver.

In this example, three sensors are typically used to monitor driver behaviour, namely accelerometer 14, gyroscope 38, and magnetometer 40, together with the GPS 16. These are able to monitor the safe and unsafe acceleration and deceleration, right and left turn, lane changes, speeding and harsh braking.

An algorithm has been implemented to determine the score of the driver ranging from 0-10. If the driver exceeds a pre-determined score this will trigger a retest of the driver’s sobriety.

In order to implement data from the sensors is collected and this data collection firstly occurs as follows:

• Acceleration/Deceleration - determined using pitch angles obtained through sensor fusion and x-axis of accelerometer. Sensor fusion means using a number of sensors in conjunction to increase accuracy. For instance, to detect acceleration and deceleration, the accelerometer, magnetometer and GPS are used together.

• Turn/Lane change - determined using yaw angles obtained through sensor fusion and y-axis of accelerometer.

• Speed and speed limit - from a Location API.

• Brakes - determined by observing if user reduces speed by more than 40 km/h within 2 sec.

Based on the accelerometer 14 and the sensor fusion values, the following thresholds are used to determine the unsafe and safe events When an unsafe event takes place, the values might go from -ve to +ve or vice versa, so there may be more than 5 values above the threshold in such events. The counter 5 only means that 5 values were recorded on such unsafe condition and doesn’t mean that 5 such unsafe events have occurred.

Referring now to Figure 4, here, Xs, XB, Xw, XT, XA are the factors obtained as shown in the above flowchart during each events, and values are assigned depending on the safe and unsafe events.

• Xs - Speed Factor

• XB - Break Factor

• Xw - Weather Factor

• XT - Turn Factor

• XA - Acceleration Factor

• TE - Turn Estimate

• AE - Acceleration Estimate.

TE and AE are the Turn Estimate and Acceleration Estimate respectively. These are the values obtained based on the sensor values in the last 30 seconds.

TE is obtained by dividing the number of counter of yaw that has crossed the threshold values in the last 30 second upon the total number of sensor values recorded in the last 30 seconds.

Similarly, AE is obtained by dividing the number of counter of pitch that has crossed the threshold value in the last 30 seconds upon the total number of sensor values recorded in the last 30 seconds.

The unsafe score is calculated as follows:

Unsafe Level = 0.3*speed_factor (Xs) + 0.2 + 0.2 * brake_factor (XB) +

0.2 * Turn factor (XT) + 0.2 * Acceleration factor (XA) Then the unsafe safe score is calculated by reducing the unsafe score from 10, since factors have been assigned for each event from 0 to 10 in the above analysis. Thus 0 is highly unsafe and 10 being highly safe.

Figure 3 illustrates a plurality of mobile telephones 10 and a plurality of breathalyser devices 28 connected via cellular communication network 32 to a server 34 with an associated database 36.

The server 34 may be operated by a traffic law enforcement agency, an insurance company, a vehicle rental company or a vehicle fleet owner as the case may be.

The server 34 will contain a mobile backend which is a collection of API (Application Interface) containing business logic and functionality which communicates with a mobile application executing on the mobile communications device 10. The communication between the API and mobile application is on standard HTTP protocol on port 80.

In a prototype embodiment, the mobile backend was deployed on a container running on Ubuntu 18.4, with PHP 7.2 parser with Nginx web server.

The database of the prototype embodiment has database management system software in use being MySQL v5.7 running in a standalone docker container with ubuntu 18.4 as the base operating system.

In any event, a possible road safety violation warning message will be transmitted from the mobile telephone 10 or the breathalyser device 28 to the server 34.

From the server 34, a lookout data message is sent to traffic law enforcement officers on the ground to look out for a particular vehicle being driven by the owner of the mobile telephone 10 or the breathalyser device 28 has either failed or not taken the breathalyser test.

The message could be sent via SMS for example or could be a data message, as circumstances require. If the vehicle has an on board tracking system, by integrating this into the functionality of the system, law enforcement will be able to track the driver through the vehicle tracking device whether:

1 . The driver has failed the breathalyser test;

2. Deactivated their phone; or

3. Failed to take the breathalyser test.

In a further embodiment, referring to Figure 5, the blood alcohol level testing device 10 includes a memory 12, a blood alcohol testing module 30, a communication module 18 and a processor connected to the memory 12, blood alcohol testing module 30 and communication module 18.

The processor includes software executing thereon which executes the following method steps.

The processor 24 receives blood alcohol level data from the blood alcohol testing module 30, the blood alcohol level data including the results of a test undertaken by a driver of a motor vehicle.

The processor 24 determines if the blood alcohol level data indicates the driver’s blood alcohol level is above a predetermined level.

If the blood alcohol level is above a predetermined level, then a possible road safety violation warning message is transmitted via the communication module 18.

The communication module is typically a long range communication module and the possible road safety violation warning message is transmitted to a central server.

As described above, the long-range communication module transmits data over a communications network which may be a Public Services Telecommunications Network (PSTN), a Private Network, a Virtual Private Network (VPN), an Intelligent Network (IN) or Converged Network for example, or may be a combination of one or more of these network types.

The possible road safety violation warning message may include an identification of the driver and/or vehicle.

The possible road safety violation warning message may also include the blood alcohol level detected.