SYSTEM FOR DETECTING ABNORMAL BEHAVIORS OF A DRIVER

Abstract

A system for detecting abnormal behaviors of a driver of a vehicle includes: an input unit including a display module for displaying a plurality of buttons with different colors and characters to allow the driver to select desired buttons to generate an input password; a processing unit connected with the input unit and including: a random control module for randomly re-arranging the colors and the characters every time after the driver has entered one of the buttons; and a password verification module for comparing the input password and a predetermined password and generating an unlock instruction when the input password matches the predetermined password; a communication unit connected with the processing unit for receiving and transmitting the unlock instruction; and an unlock control unit connected with the communication unit for unlocking a door lock or an engine lock of the vehicle upon receiving the unlock instruction.

Claims

1. A system for detecting abnormal behaviors of a driver of a vehicle, comprising: an input unit including a display module for displaying a plurality of buttons with different colors and characters to allow the driver to select desired buttons to generate an input password; a processing unit connected with the input unit and comprising: a random control module for randomly re-arranging the colors and the characters on the buttons every time after the driver has entered one of the buttons; and a password verification module for comparing the input password and a predetermined password and generating an unlock instruction when the input password matches the predetermined password; a communication unit connected with the processing unit for receiving and transmitting the unlock instruction; and an unlock control unit connected with the communication unit for unlocking a door lock or an engine lock of the vehicle upon receiving the unlock instruction.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the processing unit further includes a timing module for determining an input time the driver has taken to generate the input password.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the processing unit compares the input time determined by the timing module and a predetermined input time.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the input time is greater than the predetermined input time, and the processing unit generates and transmits an instruction for re-entering a password to the input unit.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the predetermined input time is 1.1 to 1.5 times of an average of multiple input times for inputting a correct password, and the predetermined input time does not exceed a maximum allowable time for entering a correct password.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein one input time among the multiple input times for inputting the correct password is substantially greater than the rest of the input times, the input time is excluded from calculation of the average of the multiple input times.

7. The system of claim 2, wherein the password verification module consecutively determines a mismatch between the input password and the predetermined password a predetermined number of times, and the processing unit stops accepting the input password from the input unit and waits for a predetermined waiting period before accepting the input password again.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the colors of the buttons are visually similar to the colors of the characters on the buttons.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the predetermined password includes alphabet letters or numbers arranged in an order.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the communication unit is connected with the unlock control unit via a wireless communication interface.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein at least one of the input unit, the processing unit, and the communication unit is provided in a mobile device or a vehicle-equipped control interface.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein the predetermined password includes alphabet letters or numbers not arranged in an order.

13. The system of claim 1, wherein the communication unit is connected with the unlock control unit via a wired communication interface.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0021] FIG. 1 is schematic diagram illustrating a system of the present disclosure; and

[0022] FIGS. 2 and 3 are schematic diagrams illustrating the system in use in accordance with different embodiments of the present disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS

[0023] One of ordinary skill in the art can readily understand the advantages and effects of the present disclosure upon referring to the detailed explanations and embodiments of the present disclosure. These descriptions and embodiments are for illustrative purpose only and in no way limit the present disclosure only to those provided herein.

[0024] It should be noted that the structures, ratios, sizes shown in the drawings appended to this specification are to be construed in conjunction with the disclosure of this specification in order to facilitate understanding of those skilled in the art. They are, by no means, meant to limit the present disclosure to the specific details described herein. Without affecting the effects created and objectives achieved by the present disclosure, any modifications, changes or adjustments to the structures, ratio relationships or sizes, are to be construed as fall within the ranges covered by the technical content disclosed herein. Meanwhile, terms, such as external, internal, inside, outside, and the like, are for illustrative purposes only, and are not meant to limit the ranges implementable by the present disclosure. Any changes or adjustments made to their relative relationships, without modifying the substantial technical content, are also to be construed as within the ranges implementable by the present disclosure.

[0025] As shown in FIGS. 1 to 3, a system for detecting abnormal behaviors of a driver to prevent both drunk or drugged driving and vehicle theft in accordance with the present disclosure is provided. The system includes an input unit 11, a processing unit 13, a communication unit 15 and an unlock control unit 20. In an embodiment, the input unit 11, the processing unit 13 and the communication unit 15 are provided in the same device 10. The device 10 can be a control interface of a vehicle-equipped device or a mobile device. The input unit 11, the processing unit 13 and the communication unit 15 can be implemented through software, firmware or hardware.

[0026] In an embodiment, the input unit 11 can be an apparatus with a touch-sensitive function, and includes a display module 111. The display module 111 displays a plurality of buttons with various colors and characters. The display module 111 provides the buttons or the characters displayed thereon so as to be selected by a driver for entering a password. The colors of these buttons are designed such that they may be more difficult to be identified for people who are under the influence of alcohol or drugs. A password can be alphabet letters and/or numbers arranged or not arranged in an order to increase the difficulty of cracking the password.

[0027] The processing unit 13 is connected to the input unit 11, and includes a random control module 131, a password verification module 133 and a timing module 135. The random control module 131 is configured such that, after a driver has entered a button or character, the colors and the characters on the buttons are randomly re-arranged. In other words, the random control module 131 randomly re-arranges the colors and characters on the buttons each time the driver has entered a specific button. This prevents the driver from entering the password out of habit and increases the difficulty in entering the password correctly by a thief or a drunk or drugged driver.

[0028] This also avoids onlookers gaining the password by memorizing the locations of the password. The password verification module 133 is used for verifying whether the password entered is correct. If the password entered is correct, an unlock instruction is transmitted to the unlock control unit 20. In an embodiment, the device 10 may store a predetermined password (set by driver or default). When the inputted password matches the predetermined password, the password verification module 133 transmits the unlock instruction to the unlock control unit 20. Otherwise, unlocking is not performed. The timing module 135 is used for timing how long it takes the driver to enter the password. When the input time determined by the timing module 135 exceeds a predetermined input time, the processing unit 13 determines that the reaction time of the driver is too long, and consequently requires the driver to re-enter the password. Accordingly, the password verification module 133 will not generate an unlock instruction. As a result, the vehicle cannot be started. If the predetermined input time is set too short, the reaction time may be too stringent even for people with normal cognitive ability to enter passwords in time. On the contrary, if the predetermined input time is set too long, there is no effective prevention against unauthorized or undesirable unlocking of the vehicle. A preferred embodiment of the processing unit of the present disclosure uses machine learning to obtain an average of multiple input times for entering a correct password and set the predetermined input time to be 1.1 to 1.5 times of the average input time, i.e., 110% to 150% of the average input time for entering the correct password. The average input time can be obtained from five or six occurrences of correct entering of the password. However, if an input time for entering the correct input is much longer than the rest of the input times, this outlier is excluded from the calculation of the average input time. The processing unit 13 may also have a default maximum allowable input time for entering the correct password. If a predetermined input time derived from the machine-learnt average input time exceeds the maximum allowable input time for entering the correct password, the maximum allowable input time for entering the correct password is used as the predetermined input time for entering a password.

[0029] If the password verification module 133 determines that wrong passwords have been inputted a predetermined number of times, the processing unit 13 stops accepting any inputted passwords from the input unit 11 and waits for a predetermined waiting period before accepting passwords inputted via the input unit 11. In a preferred embodiment of the present disclosure, the maximum allowed attempts are set to be three. If three unsuccessful consecutive attempts have been made in the predetermined time period, a waiting time of fifteen minutes is imposed before one is allowed to enter the password again. This prevents the driver/thieves from repetitively trying many passwords.

[0030] The communication unit 15 is connected to the processing unit 13 for transmitting the unlock instruction from the password verification module 133 to the unlock control unit 20.

[0031] The unlock control unit 20 is provided on a vehicle, and can be, for example, an unlock device for the door, the engine or the steering wheel. The unlock control unit 20 is connected with the communication unit 15 for receiving the unlock instruction of the password verification module 133 in order to unlock the door or the engine to start the vehicle. The connection between the communication unit 15 and the unlock control unit 20 can be implemented via a wireless communication interface using a wireless communication protocol, such as Wi-Fi, Li-Fi, Bluetooth, Wireless USB, NFC, RFID, TransferJet, DSRC, EnOcean, ZigBee or UWB, or a wired interface, such as an open wire line, a RJ-45 copper twisted pair, a LAN wire, a RS232 cable, a twisted pair, coaxial cable, an optical fiber, an universal serial bus (USB), a waveguide or the like. In use, as shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, the driver presses a button or a character displayed on the display module 111 of the input unit 11. Every time a character is pressed, the random control module 131 will then re-arrange the colors of the buttons and the characters on the buttons to increase the difficulty of entering the password correctly, preventing a drunk or drugged person from entering the password relying on habit. In an embodiment, the colors of the buttons, the characters on the buttons and the background are designed to be similar to each other. In another embodiment, the numbers are a light or white color, and the background also uses a light color. In yet another embodiment, the numbers are a dark color, and the background also uses a dark color. Each time a specific button or character is selected, the buttons and characters will change their colors or order, so it takes more effort for the driver to identify the characters. In an embodiment, the driver is required to input the correct password within the predetermined input time, otherwise he will need to enter the password again. If the driver entered the wrong passwords three consecutive times, he will need to wait for the waiting period to elapse before he can re-enter the password to prevent repetitive attempts and brute-force attacks.

[0032] The above embodiments are only used to illustrate the principles of the present disclosure, and should not be construed as to limit the present disclosure in any way. The above embodiments can be modified by those with ordinary skill in the art without departing from the scope of the present disclosure as defined in the following appended claims.