How It Works

HOW AUTO GUARDIAN WORKS

“Smart,” technology is driving every aspect of our lives now.  Almost anything you need or want or currently have is equipped with some form of highly-engineered technology.  The way we cook, communicate, commute, cash checks…where isn’t there technology?

Auto Guardian uses the cutting-edge hardware and software, native to passenger vehicles, every make or model, to provide specific actions in carefully orchestrated sequence to sustain life until rescue arrives. Technological actions that respond to commands by that one algorithmic program, the only purpose of which is to intervene in potentially dangerous events that cause heatstroke (hyperthermia) or freezing (hypothermia) in vehicles.

Air quality, air temperature, lowering windows fractionally for safety reasons, sounding a special audible alarm to alert passers-by to act are all part of the command system that springs into action once a risk is identified by the system.

Inventors

Lin Yu, Ph.D., Massachusetts; Mary Clover Apelian, CFRE, CAHP, Florida.

Problem

When young children and pets are trapped inside vehicles that are either sitting in direct sunlight or overcast skies the potential for heatstroke becomes greater the longer the situation exists. Due to the greenhouse effect, the vehicle cabin temperature rises to intolerable and harmful levels; those trapped will undergo irreparable lifelong damage, or die of heatstroke.

In 2014, two business partners were motivated by the all-too-frequent reports on heatstroke tragedies to solve this problem. A literature search revealed a large number of related patents already granted. It was apparent that, despite serious efforts of others, the problem had not been effectively solved, thus young children and family pets continue to suffer and frequently lose their lives in hot cars. 

Most proposed solutions rely on some after-market, stand-alone hardware gadget that senses children are on board, in child safety seats, and sounds a warning to alert the driver when the engine stops and the door is opened.  This has no relevance for pets. These systems so far, have been proven by and large ineffective.

Some proposed solutions rely on various built-in visual or audio prompts to remind parents and drivers to check for children in the back seat. Such repetitive prompts soon lose their effectiveness as they become merely background clutter for a driver who may be distracted or otherwise engaged.  Random forgetfulness can neither be regulated nor changed behaviorally; it is a natural phenomenon that begs a solution to save life, not remind a driver.

Auto Guardian Project

Objectives

The inventors aimed for the following objectives; a system that:

  • saves lives of young children, pets, and incapacitated people;
  • has scientific validity, i.e., built on scientific principles;
  • is comprehensive;
  • is an integral part of the vehicle’s native computing system, as opposed to an add-on;
  • is deterministic;
  • calls for rescue; driver, emergency responders, passers-by, etc.;
  • sustains lives inside vehicle by available vehicle resources (A/C, windows, etc.) to maintain a suitable vehicle interior environment;
  • is autonomous; human intervention is eliminated from daily operations of this system, 
  • uses only already tested and approved native hardware/software; therefore, low risk to manufacturers;
  • is low cost – in development, in production, and in after-market upgrading.

Journey 

In the past four and a half years, the inventors conducted many vehicle greenhouse heating process experiments under different weather conditions, researched the patterns of the heating process, and developed a theoretical framework and abstract model for deeper understanding and insight.  Armed with this research knowledge, they constructed the Auto Guardian system with the above goals in mind, and applied them to their solution.  

Solution

What Auto Guardian Is

The system is 

  • a software system that controls vehicle interior environment to maintain a life-sustainable health condition until the arrival of rescue personnel;
  • relies on native vehicle sensors for environment condition assessment and native vehicle devices to execute action commands;
  • factory installed;

A utility patent was issued on March 31, 2020.  US Pat. No. 10,603,980.

What Auto Guardian Does 

Auto Guardian does the following in a precise, nuanced and deterministic way: 

  • pulls output data from various sensors continuously;
  • uses sensor data as input to detect four types of vehicular health hazards: hyperthermia, hypothermia, excessive carbon monoxide (CO), high level of carbon dioxide (CO2);
  • assesses risk level and urgency level;
  • issues action commands to various vehicle components/devices (e.g., engine, A/C, windows, siren, wireless phone, etc., the actions may include one or several of:
    • warns driver of the situation;
    • starts the engine;
    • shuts off the engine;
    • starts the A/C (cooling, heating, ventilating);
    • opens windows (only by 4”);
    • closes windows;
    • blasts the horn or a unique audible message;
    • calls 911 for rescue;
    • self-drives to police station, fire station or hospital, while audible sound alerts those close by (autonomous vehicles only).

Based upon the risk level and the urgency level calculations, the time allowed for drivers to act can be lengthened or shortened.  In low risk and low urgency situations, the maximum time allowed before the system makes 911 rescue calls is 30 min.

What is Different 

A key difference between the Auto Guardian system and all others known at this time is its elimination of false alarms; calling for rescue when there is no emergency.  The design of the program which uses a carefully-constructed algorithm to assess/measure, command/stand down, deliver action to existing, onboard sensors and other native hardware allows for quick, life-preserving action only when conditions within the cabin indicate the need.  A humanistic approach, this ensures accuracy of response and reassures vehicle owners of precise monitoring of the vehicle and its occupants.

Design and Development Approaches / Methods

  • template based – action commands can be adjusted and updated without the need to modify system structure and process flow;
  • parameterized – the use of parameters enables the flexibility of the system behavior in real-time, making it more user friendly, more humanized based on specific situations, where all of the system’s considerable features can be achieved without code base change, expedient for development and system behavior adjustments, and for aftermarket product upgrade;
  • data driven (sensor and parameter data) – making the system very sensitive to changes in its environment in real-time, and flexible enough to adjust actions, also in real-time.
  • plug-n-play – enables the system to, without changing system framework and process flow, easily adapt to action modifications, and new types of health hazards at low cost;
  • algorithmic – the business process is realized in the streamlined algorithms of Auto Guardian.
  • fully autonomous – human intervention required only for initial set-up at point-of-sale;
  • minimal cost for development, operation and maintenance.

Benefits & Advantages 

The competitive advantages of Auto Guardian vs. other existing products with similar objectives are summarized in the comparison chart (below).

The template based, parameterized and sensor data driven approach enable Auto Guardian to become extremely flexible, in the following aspects:  system development, system adjustment & refinement, system testing, productization, installation and deployment, aftermarket product upgrade, where much can be done by changing parameter data values without touching the code base of the system.  

Auto Guardian requires no specific hardware addition, so the related cost is minimal. The major cost is software development. Auto Guardian is designed with the flexibility built into its framework; therefore, the software development cost is low. Most adjustments and fine-tuning can be done without changing the code base but modifying predefined parameter data. This also has an impact on aftermarket product upgrade as well, keeping it at low cost.

As the system is an integral part of the native vehicle computing control system as a component, it requires no separate maintenance activities.

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Summary

Auto Guardian is the result of careful research of both the problem and the numerous attempts at a solution; its complex, yet smoothly- operational system focused not on alerting a driver but on saving a life or lives trapped in the back seat of a vehicle. This major difference in approach – the human touch to a high-tech solution – is what differentiates Auto Guardian from all others.  Life is preserved, based on finely-tuned algorithms, while rescue is notified and until it arrives.

Human-sensitive features include: 

  • Autonomous software commands that minimize false alarms, (low risk) thus allowing drivers time to ameliorate a developing (low urgency) situation within the vehicle, if necessary, before First Responders are notified; sustaining life, even in low risk/low urgency situations through the system’s life-saving procedures (AC, lower windows, etc.);
  • Removing responsibility for the system’s daily operational performance from a person; algorithm accuracy in detecting, monitoring and commanding action ensures maximum life-sustaining capability;
  • Safeguards that every child-friendly vehicle on the market can afford this embedded system with its one-time-only programming costs for each proprietary vehicle; a cost willingly borne by the manufacturer in the name of child safety and life preservation:

Expressed technically, Auto Guardian is a computer-implemented process for controlling a vehicle interior. It includes detecting a previously defined situation that relates to an undesirable environmental condition of the vehicle interior, and assessing both a risk level and an urgency level, based on a vehicle sensor input and vehicle historical records.  The process also includes generating a vehicle command based upon the detected previously defined situation, the assessed risk level, and assessed urgency level, and executing the generated vehicle command to control at least one of an engine, a window, and a heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) unit to modify an environmental condition of the vehicle interior.  The process also comprises performing in a cyclically recurring manner, until the detected previously defined situation is resolved, re-assessing the risk level, the urgency level, or both, re-generating a vehicle command, and executing the re-generated vehicle command.

How Hot Can a Car Get?

Why does this happen? When sun rays enter a vehicle, it not only heats up the air inside of your vehicle, but it also heats up your seats, your steering wheel, and that piece of chocolate you are saving for later. As these things are heated, they radiate additional heat that gets trapped inside of your vehicle, raising the inside temperature of the vehicle significantly.

Because of this, it is crucial that you do not leave any child or pet inside a vehicle on a day that is 65ºF or hotter under ANY circumstance. While the outside temperature may be comfortable, the inside of your vehicle will quickly turn into an oven and a hazard to any passengers who may not be able to easily exit the vehicle.