| Category | SOFT | P30 | One For the Road: A Texting Management App to Promote |
| Safe Driving |
| Abstract | In 2015, the U.S. Department of Transportation reported that of 30,057 |
| fatal crashes in the U.S. during 2013, 411 were involved cell phone use |
| as a driver distraction. This accounts for 14% of all distraction-related |
| fatal crashes. The principal problem of cell phone distraction is its use |
| as a medium of communication; upon operating a motor vehicle, many |
| drivers, as evidenced by the DTS compiled accident data, do not cease |
| their use of cellphones. Two key solutions come to mind to combat this |
| problem: either deactivate cell phone use temporarily while the vehicle |
| is under operation, or introduce a way for the phone itself to notify |
| people sending messages to the user that said user is driving. The |
| latter solution has yet to be attempted; thus, the purpose of this project |
| was to create integrated cell phone software that allows a phone to |
| detect when it is being used in a moving vehicle and subsequently alert |
| those in communication with the driver that the person in question is |
| operating a vehicle. The app will be designed in Java to seamlessly run |
| in the background of a phone’s operating system (Android OS only) |
| upon being started, measuring movement speed via the phone’s |
| accelerometer and triggering a conditional response should the |
| phone’s speed exceed a set limit. Thus, those in communication with |
| the driver would be dissuaded from texting them, reducing distraction |
| and potentially saving lives. |
| Bibliography | National Center for Statistics and Analysis (NCSA) Motor Vehicle Traffic |
| Crash Data |
| Resource Page. The U.S. Department of Transportation National |
| Highway Traffic Safety Administration, April 2015. Web. 11 Feb. 2017. |
| crashstats.nhtsa.dot.gov/Api/Public/ViewPublication/812132. |
| |
| "Meet Android Studio." Android Developers. Google Inc., n.d. Web. 11 |
| Feb. 2017. developer.android.com/studio/intro/index.html. |
| |
| "Introduction to Android." Android Developers. Google Inc., n.d. Web. |
| 11 Feb. 2017. developer.android.com/guide/index.html. |