Patent Abstract:
A method for exchanging information between vehicles involved in or near a collision site. When a collision is sensed by one vehicle, a message is transmitted from the one vehicle to at least one of the other vehicles within a threshold distance of the one vehicle. The message contains at least the identity of the one vehicle and preferably driver information, insurance information, along with the time and place of the collision.

Full Description:
DESCRIPTION 
     Field of the Invention 
     This invention relates to mobile wireless communication, and more specifically to a method for automatically exchanging information between vehicles involved in a collision or near a collision site. 
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     The current law requires drivers involved in a collision exchange insurance information and get witness if possible. Typically this is done by paper and pen, which is both time consuming and error prone. Sometimes drivers may not have their insurance information available at the scene of incidents. Sometimes drivers may even try to escape from the scene to avoid liability. 
     Collision detection and automatic notification systems already exist in the prior art, for example OnStar from General Motor [1], MP200-GPS from Sierra Wireless [2], and Placer 450 from Trimble [3]. These systems deliver notification to a central station with a preprogrammed number stored in the in-vehicle device via vehicle-to-infrastructure communications. The problem with these solutions is that they do not allow vehicles to exchange information and that they require vehicles in the communication range of cellular network infrastructure. 
     BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     This present invention discloses a method which can automatically collect the other party&#39;s information and find witness at the scene of incidents without human intervention, thus greatly reducing the possibility of transcription error and hit-and-run. 
     This invention requires an automobile to be equipped a device of the following characteristics. First, the device needs wireless communication capability which can transmit/receive packets to/from the air. Second, the device needs some storage capability which can store the driver&#39;s information (e.g. name and driver license number), the vehicle&#39;s information (e.g., vehicle identification number and license plate number) and the driver&#39;s insurance information (e.g., insurance company name, policy number, and phone number.) Third, the device needs a sensor which can determine whether or not the vehicle is involved in a collision. 
     The basic sequence of events that will happen in a incident involving two vehicles equipped with the aforementioned device is described as follows. The sequence of events for the case of a multi-vehicle incident can be derived easily. Upon the collision sensors in both vehicles detect a collision, the in-vehicle device will broadcast its information over a radio channel and also try to receive the information from the other party. 
     The information to be exchanged can be tagged with the time and location when a collision is detected so that exchanging information are confined within vehicles involved in the same collision. The time and location information can be obtained, for example, by Global Position Systems (GPS). 
     In order to be sure that the information received is truly originated from the sender, the message sender has to digitally sign the message using a cryptosystem known in the prior art. Digital signatures can also prevent the receiving party from tampering with the received information. The broadcast information can also be encrypted by the public key of a trusted third party such as the police department or DMV (department of motor vehicles). In such a case, the receiving party has to work with the trusted third party to decrypt the received information. 
     The nature, principle and utility of the invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description when read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. 
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
     FIG. 1 shows a collision involving two vehicles which exploit the present invention to automatically exchange information. 
     FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the functional modules of the in-vehicle device according to the present invention. 
     FIG. 3 is a flowchart for the collision handling procedure executed by the controller when the collision sensor is triggered. 
     FIG. 4 is a flowchart for the alternative collision handling procedure executed by the controller when the collision sensor is triggered. 
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 
     Preferred embodiment of this invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings. 
     FIG. 1 shows a collision involving two vehicles  101  and  102  which exploit the present invention  200  to automatically exchange information. 
     FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the functional modules of the in-vehicle device  200  in FIG.  1 . The in-vehicle device  200  includes a controller  210  which is connected to a broadcast communication device  201 , a collision sensor  202 , a GPS (Global Positioning System) receiver  203 , a storage device  204  and an input/output (I/O) device  205 . The controller  210  can send and receive messages over a broadcast channel using the broadcast communication device  201 . For the cost reasons, the broadcast communication device  201  is half-duplex, which means that the device can transmit and receive but not simultaneously. The collision sensor  202  can monitor the activity of the vehicle and notify the controller  210  when it detects that the vehicle is involved in a collision. The GPS receiver  203  can provide the controller  210  with the location of the vehicle in terms of longitude/latitude/altitude coordinates within the accuracy of the GPS system. The storage device  204  stores the information about the driver, the vehicle, the insurance company, and the messages sent and received by the controller  210 . The user interface  205  is for the driver or other persons to interact with the in-vehicle device and to access the information stored in the storage device  204 . 
     The in-vehicle device can be implemented by two embodiments. Which one is preferable depends on whether the in-vehicle device has to perform tasks other than the ones being described, i.e. automatic information exchange upon collision. 
     In the case where the user interface  205  is a microphone, the controller  210  of the in-vehicle device is a PC with sufficiently high processing power such that it can perform tasks such as speech recognition, text-to-speech conversion, audio equipment control, internet access, etc. An example is the Clarion AutoPC. The controller  210  is also programmed to implement the flowcharts shown in FIGS. 3-4 and includes device drivers to control the broadcast communication device  201 , the collision sensor  202 , the GPS receiver  203 , the storage device  204 , and the user interface  205 . With the standard Universal Serial Bus (USB) support in the AutoPC, the broadcast communication device  201 , the collision sensors  202 , the GPS receiver  203 , the storage device  204  and the user interface  205  can all be connected to the controller  210  by the USB. 
     The broadcast communication device  201  can be a radio modem that operates in the unlicensed ISM band (902-928 MHz). It can comply with the IEEE 802.11 wireless local area network (LAN) standard or implement other wireless LAN protocol (such as Ricochet modem [4]) as long as their transmission power is lower than 30 dBm (1 Watt) as regulated by FCC Part 15 Ruling. The collision sensor  202  can be implemented, for example, by commercially available sensors which detect collision based on change of inertia [5] and acceleration [6], or other devices which react to changes in contact pressure [7]. Typically these sensors have a digital output (e.g. CMOS or TTL) which produces a voltage pulse when they are triggered by a collision. Reference books such as [8] and [9] teach how to develop circuits and codes to implement the serial communication interface between a computer and a peripheral device. The GPS receiver  203  connected to the controller  210  will receive GPS satellite signals and inform the controller  210  as to the position of the vehicle and the current time. The GPS receiver  203  can be obtained off-the shelf. The storage device  204  can be implemented using, for example, a flash memory. The user interface  205  could be a display with a speaker and a keyboard. 
     In another embodiment, the controller  210  is a low-cost microprocessor which only implements the functions required to realize the present invention. The interface between the controller  210  and the peripheral devices ( 201 ,  202 ,  203 ,  204 ,  205 ) can be chosen from digital bus standards such as PCI, PCMCIA, USB, etc. 
     Regardless of which embodiment is used, a collision handling procedure will be executed by the controller  210  when the collision sensor  202  detects a collision event and notifies the controller  210 . FIG. 3 is a flowchart for the collision handling procedure  300  executed by the controller when the collision sensor is triggered. The controller  210  first gets the present time and location of the vehicle from the GPS receiver  203  in step  302 . The controller further gets the information about the driver (e.g., driver license number), the vehicle (e.g., vehicle identification number, license plate number, etc.) and the insurance company (e.g., company name, phone number, policy number, etc.) from the storage device  204  in step  304 . The controller  210  then constructs an outgoing message containing the aforementioned information and stores the outgoing message in the storage device  204  in step  306 . The controller  210  then enters a loop where the controller  210  sets the broadcast communication device  201  in the receive mode for a random period of time in step  320 , stores all received messages in the storage device  204  in step  322 , transmits the outgoing message stored in the storage device  204  in step  324 , and checks if enough copies of outgoing messages have been sent in step  326 . If the number of copies the outgoing message been sent is greater than a pre-specified value, the controller  210  stops executing the collision handling procedure. Otherwise, the controller  210  loops back to step  320 . The collision handling procedure  300  is based on the ALOHA protocol without sending positive acknowledgment for each received message. In the ALOHA protocol, the likelihood of successfully transmitting a message increases as the number of copies been sent increases provided that the mean value of the random period of time in step  320  is large enough. 
     Note that the outgoing message constructed in step  306  is sent out in step  324  in clear text. Thus, it is not difficult for the receiver of the message to read and modify the received message. In fact, it is easy for a controller to forge a received message. To eliminate these drawbacks of the collision handling procedure described in FIG. 3, a flowchart of an alternative collision handling procedure is shown in FIG. 4, which is almost the same as FIG. 3 except for the step of constructing a secure outgoing message in step  406 . Modern cryptographic techniques, such as public key cryptography and digital signature, can be applied to construct a secure outgoing message. For example, the outgoing message can be digitally signed by the private key of the driver automatically. That way, the receiving controller cannot forge a received message. Moreover, the outgoing message can be encrypted by the public key of a trusted third party, such as the police department, in step  406  so that the receiving controller cannot read the message without the intervention of a trusted third party. 
     References 
     [1] OnStar of General Motor, http://www.onstar.com/ 
     [2] MP200-GPS of Sierra Wireless, http://www.sierrawireless.com/ 
     [3] Placer GPS 450 of Trimble, http://www.trimble.com/ 
     [4] Rocochet modem of Metricom, http://www.ricochet.com/ 
     [5] U.S. Pat. No. 5,210,456, O. Suzuki, 1993. 
     [6] U.S. Pat. No. 5,684,701, D. S. Breed, 1997. 
     [7] U.S. Pat. No. 5,488,872, P. McCormick, 1996. 
     [8] Serial Port Complete: Programming and Circuits for RS-232 and RS-485 Links and Networks, by Jan Axelson, ISBN 0965081923. 
     [9] C Programming Guide to Serial Communications, by Joe Campbell, ISBN 0672302861. 
     References 1 through 9 above are hereby incorporated herein by reference.

Technology Classification (CPC): 6