Cellular device Identification and Location with Emergency Number Selectivity Enforcement (CILENSE) for Moving Vehicles

Abstract

A system for restricting operation of wireless devices, for example cell phones, comprises a controller and a plurality of sensors. The system restricts device usage, while permitting emergency phone calls, for example 911 calls. The sensors receive transmissions from devices, and use the transmissions for identification and determining whether a device is within a restricted zone. One disclosed method is triangulation, using time of arrival of transmissions at the sensors. If the device is within the zone, the controller sends device identification, and possibly a customized restriction request, to a remote node, for example a control node of a cell phone network operator. The operator then uses its network resources to implement the requested restrictions. Communication between the controller and the remote node is secure, possibly encrypted, to minimize malicious interference. A wireless control can define vertices of the zone and exempt certain devices from restrictions. Jamming is not required.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A method for controlling operation of an active mobile communication device, comprising the following steps implemented using a machine processor:
 performing a first determination of whether the device is in a moving vehicle, including determining the relative position of the device in the vehicle, the determining the relative position including determining whether the device is in a passenger area of the moving vehicle or not;   performing a second determination of whether the device is to be excepted from control or not, both the first determination and the second determination being made for a plurality of devices within a proximity group of communication devices, the proximity group being in proximity to the vehicle;   producing a signal as a function of the first and second determinations;   disabling a texting function of the device in response to the signal;   sending a signal to the device indicating that the texting function is disabled; and   operating a controller and at least three sensors, communicatively coupled to the controller, to perform the first determining and the second determining.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1  further comprising:
 communicating disabling signals for the device to a cellular network operator. 
 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1  further comprising:
 communicating disabling signals for the device to disable at least one function selected from the list consisting of: 
 incoming voice calls and outgoing voice calls. 
 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 3  further comprising:
 determining whether certain communication events are to be exempted from disabling. 
 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1  further comprising:
 determining whether the disabling of functions is to be relaxed; and 
 responsive to determining that the disabling of functions is to be relaxed, generating a relaxation signal. 
 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 1  further comprising:
 repeatedly making at least the first determination; and 
 responsive to the first and second determinations, repeatedly sending the signal for disabling the texting function of the device. 
 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 1  wherein the first determining includes triangulating a position of the device. 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 1  wherein the first determining includes using direction of arrival information from at least one of the sensors.