Providing Accident Detection in Vehicular Networks through OBD-II Devices and Android-based Smart Phones

Traffic accidents are one of the leading causes of fatalities in the world. An important indicator of survival rates after an accident is the time between the accident and when emergency medical personnel are dispatched to the scene. Eliminating the time between when an accident occurs and when first responders are dispatched to the scene decreases mortality rates by 6%.. By combining smart phones with existing vehicles through an appropriate interface we are able to move closer to the smart vehicle paradigm, offering the user new functionalities and services when driving. In this application we propose an Android based application that monitors the vehicle through an On Board Diagnostics (OBD-II) interface, being able to detect accidents. The application reacts to positive detection by sending details about the accident through SMS to pre-defined destinations, immediately followed by an automatic phone call to the emergency services.