device to decrease car accidents caused by using cell

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they are driving and more than the 50% of car accidents are caused by distractions. Due to this statistics, the government has made efforts to decrease accidents ...
DEVICE TO DECREASE CAR ACCIDENTS CAUSED BY USING CELL PHONE WHILE DRIVING Gerardo Espinosa-Garza, Imelda de Jesús Loera-Hernández, Carolina TreviñoLópez, Mariana Guzmán-Briones, Azalia Tobías-Guevara, Omar Castro-Parra, Isaac Silva-Gutiérrez, Heriberto García-Reyes, Leopoldo Eduardo CárdenasBarrón Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey (MEXICO)

Abstract In the past few years, cell telephones have improved their technological development making them hard to ignore. The cell telephones are in many ways essential but sometimes put in risk to people. For example, the use of cell phones has produced severe car accidents. There are several applications to deactivate the cell phone's signal so that the drivers cannot use the cell phone whereas he or she is driving. However, all these applications only work if and only if the driver activate them. This work proposes a device to reduce car accidents by using the cell phone while driving. The device consists of an application that disables any messaging application as chat and whatsapp in a mandatory way. This device limits just the driver´s cell phone (while driving) from any messaging application in an obligatory manner; it activates when detects through GPS, that the vehicle surpasses the fixed speed limit of 20 Km/h. Keywords: Accidents, cellphone, blocking app.

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INTRODUCTION

In the past few years, cell telephones have increased their technological development making them hard to ignore. The cell telephones become in many ways necessary but sometimes put in risk to people. For example, the use of cell phones has caused severe car accidents that in some cases, result in death. According to Agüero et al. (2014) the usage of cell phones during driving occupies one of the leading positions in car accidents. Angell and Flanigan (2011) reviewed the technology and software products for preventing and mitigating driver distraction. Tivesten and Dozza (2015) mentioned that the usage of cell phones are associated with an increased car accidents. According to Cheng (2015) several states have imposed laws that prohibit drivers to texting and talking on cell phones during driving. According to a survey, approximately 16% of drivers use their cell phone while they are driving and more than the 50% of car accidents are caused by distractions. Due to this statistics, the government has made efforts to decrease accidents through the charges for the usage of cell phones when a person is driving. In some studies it has been proven that the distraction of a person using his/her phone and driving in state of drunkenness are almost the same; see for instance Strayer et al. (2006). It is important to remark that a cell phone and a car need the same amount of attention in order to have a good control, therefore both activities cannot be performed at the same time by a person. The number of drivers that suffer car accidents for using the cell phone while they are driving has increased a lot recently. If the statistics remain unchanged, in the next years, one of the first ten causes of death in the world would be attributed to the usage of cell phones while driving. According to a survey, 81.2% of respondents use the telephone while they are driving, 35% of those or someone close to them have had a car accident and a little over 80% of respondents agree to use a blocking system. The objective of this project is to propose a devise in order reduce the amount of car accidents caused by the usage of a smartphone while driving. The device disables access to cell phone while driving, however, the rest of the passengers are able to have connectivity. The device has three components, the first one is a mobile application that activates and controls the blocking signal of the cell phone, and the second one consists of a router or electronic device that activates the communication functions to other passengers via a wire connection (third component). The wire entrance for the cell phone is special and does not function with current designs; these entrances are located close to the passengers; the wires are of a certain size and these are not extendible so that the driver cannot reach them or have access to connectivity unless he or she stops driving.

Proceedings of ICERI2016 Conference 14th-16th November 2016, Seville, Spain

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ISBN: 978-84-617-5895-1

An oral presentation of this work was presented by Espinosa-Garza et al. (2016) at the IIE Annual Conference and Expo.

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APPS AND METHODS

There exist some applications to block the cell phone's signal so that the driver cannot use the cell phone while he or she is driving the car. However, these applications only work if and only if the driver activate them, therefore these application are useless if they are not activated. The main argument in favour of using a cell phone while driving is that sometimes there are business, personal and health related calls which are necessary to be answered. According to statistics of car accidents, the apps of AT&T Drive, DriveSafe.Iy, Dial2Do, Textecution, Text-Star, ZoomSafer and others have not been a solution for decreasing cell phone related car accidents. AT&T Drive blocks the extra functions of the cell phone, sends pre-established responses in case the user receives a text message. Emails and messages are silenced. This app also blocks the option to read or write, but it can receive 5 phone calls and call 911, and it allows access to a music player. The app activates when it detects that someone is driving at 15 MPH or more, and turns off when the speed goes under 15 MPH. It takes around 2 or 3 minutes to deactivate. DriveSafe.ly does not permit to the user to read messages. This app reads the messages out loud to the user. It can also be used for phone calls and emails. Textecution turns off the function to receive or send messages. This is achieved by using the GPS function and detecting if the user is going over 17 MPH. Text-Star blocks the function of text messages when the vehicle goes over 17 MPH and allows automatic answers. ZoomSafer suppresses text messages and emails and sends automatic personalized responses that explain that the phone’s owner cannot receive text messages or calls because he or she is driving. TxtBlocker is a phone blocking system ideal for children, since it allows to choose the functions that should be blocked and leave the rest unblocked, or to block the phone completely. At the moment, it is only available for BlackBerry and in the US. SMS Replier is a multiplatform program adequate as a SMS filter which can be programmed to the user’s liking. It can be configured so that the GPS detects movement across a highway and blocks SMS reception, with the addition that it responds with a message that explains that the receiver cannot answer because he or she is driving. It also allows to configure which contacts should not be blocked, as well as those that should be blocked always. Another function is that it avoids SMS spam via filtering of sending numbers. It is available for Blackberry, Android, Windows Mobile 7 and in the future for iPhone. There is a professional version with a cost of 19.95 euro and a free version, which has less functions. DriveScribe is very different from those mentioned before since it does not block cell phone signals, it sends messages or alerts in case the driver exceeds the speed limit or breaks a law, does not respect signs, among other examples. It is available for Android and iPhone and has no cost. PhoneGuard is a suppressor system in which an established speed (for example, 10mph) deactivates cell phone functions. The app administrator is informed when a certain speed is passed (for example, 65 mph), alerting parents, for example, that a teenage driver is driving over the established limits. Gobiz is a system in which the administrators have a visual test through an audio/video recording with mounted cameras in the front of the vehicle and the passenger cabin. The administrators can evaluate the driver’s behavior in using of cellphones, drugs and erratic driving. However, these applications work only if the driver activates them. This is the reason why it is not an efficient solution. If the driver decides not to activate them, his or her cell phone would continue to function normally and could cause distractions. The difference between our proposal and existing applications is that this system aims to be arbitrary and of obligatory use to the user, so that it is impossible for the driver to use his or her cell phone while driving.

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METHODOLOGY

This work presents the viability of developing a dispositive/application that unable cell phone’s signal when a person is driving the car in order to ensure that the driver does not use the cell phone. But the rest of the passengers are able to use their cell phones freely. This dispositive/application blocks messaging, chats, whatsapp and any other software installed on the cell phone that distracts the driver of a vehicle while he or she is driving. The dispositive/application block system is made of two components: 1) a cell application that activates and controls the locking system and 2) an electronic device that enables the passengers to access to the communication functions of their phones through a physical connection.

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The dispositive/application blocks system must be integrated into the car/cell device that automatically block any phone signal so it makes impossible to interfere with the activity of driving. The difference between this proposal and existing applications on the market is that this dispositive/application block system is mandatory for the driver. Therefore, with this dispositive/application block system it will be impossible for a driver to use a cell phone while he or she is driving.

Figure 1. Device/application block system.

Figure 1 shows dispositive/application block system. This must be placed on the front of the vehicle (but can also be placed on the back) and the connections are placed inside the vehicle in such way that the outputs are accessible to the passengers but not available to the person that is driving the car. The device is integrated in the car where the router is placed. It must be in the front of the car, however, it can also be placed in the back. The wire for the cell phone connection is female and is designed in order to it cannot to be replaced or extended. The male wire that goes into female wire are shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2. Male wire to C1 phone.

Figure 3. Female wire to C2 router.

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CONCLUSIONS

This work proposes dispositive/application block system for cell phones as an alternative in response to decrease car accidents due to drivers using cell phone while they are driving. Nevertheless, this idea requires the contribution of diverse actors in order to succeed. For example, the government must approve laws to guarantee the citizens’ security. The device to prevent car accidents requires the participation of various agents. On one side, the government must adjust laws in order to guarantee the safety of citizens allowing device to prevent car accidents to be used, and private communication companies must also adopt and promote these types of systems.

REFERENCES [1]

Agüero, D., Almeida, G., Espitia, M., Flores, A., Espig, H. (2014). Uso del teléfono celular como distractor en la conducción de automóviles, Salus, 18(2), 27-34.

[2]

Angell, L. S., and H. P. Flanigan (2011). Technology and software products for preventing and mitigating driver distraction, Ergonomics in Design: The Quarterly of Human Factors Applications 19(4), 28-29.

[3]

Cheng, C. (2015). Do cell phone bans change driver behavior?, Economic Inquiry, 53(3), 14201436.

[4]

Espinosa-Garza, G., Loera-Hernández, I.J., Treviño-López, C., Guzmán-Briones, M., TobíasGuevara, A., Castro-Parra, O., Silva-Gutiérrez, I., García-Reyes, H., Cárdenas-Barrón, L.E., Strategic application to decrease car accidents while driving, IIE Anual Conference and Expo 2016, USA.

[5]

Strayer, D. L., Drews, F.A., Crouch, D.J. (2006). A comparison of the cell phone driver and the drunk driver, Hum Factors Human Factors: The Journal of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society 48(2), 381-391.

[6]

Tivesten, E. y Dozza M. (2015) Driving context influences drivers' decision to engage in visual– manual phone tasks: Evidence from a naturalistic driving study, Journal of Safety Research, 53, 87-96.

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