iBump: Smartphone Application to Detect Car Accidents

Traffic accidents are a fact of life. While accidents are sometimes unavoidable, studies show that the long response time required for emergency responders to arrive is a primary reason behind increased fatalities in serious accidents. One way to reduce this response time is to reduce the amount of time it takes to report an accident. Smartphones are ubiquitous and with network connectivity are perfect devices to immediately inform relevant authorities about the occurrence of an accident. This paper presents the development of a system that uses smartphones to automatically detect and report car accidents in a timely manner. Data is continuously collected from the smartphone's accelerometer and analyzed using Dynamic Time Warping (DTW) to determine the severity of the accident, reduce false positives and to notify first responders of the accident location and owner's medical information. In addition, accidents can be viewed on the smartphone over the Internet offering instant and reliable access to the information concerning the accident. By implementing this application and adding a notification system, the response time required to notify emergency responders of traffic accidents can reduce the response time and perhaps help in reducing fatalities.