Methods and systems of managing accident communications over a network

Abstract

Systems and methods are configured to detect the occurrence of accidents, and to collect, process, and distribute accident related data. The accident related information may include location information, accident image information, and/or other information. Optionally, upon detection of an accident, emergency contacts of a user involved in the accident may be automatically notified of the accident. Data may be imaged using a camera of a mobile device, barcode locations may be identified, and barcodes may be decoded.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A mobile device configured to manage accident-related communications, comprising:
 a wireless interface;   a processing system;   a touch screen;   a camera;   non-transitory computer readable memory that stores instructions that when executed by the processing system cause the mobile device to:
 provide a first user interface that enables a user to report an event, wherein the first user interface enables the user to select an event-type among a plurality of different event types; 
 receive via the touch screen an event type selection from the user; 
 based at least in part on the received event type selection from the user, select an information capture process among a plurality of information capture process; 
 identify an estimated location of the user based at least in part on WiFi, cell tower, or GPS location information; 
 present via the touch screen a map selected based at least in part on the user's estimated location; 
 enable the user to identify a precise event location by touching a location on the map and/or via a touch keyboard entry; 
 provide a second user interface requesting an image of a document; 
 in response to a user input received via the touch screen, cause a viewfinder corresponding to the mobile device camera to be displayed, wherein the viewfinder displays a live image being viewed by the mobile device camera; 
 cause an alignment indicator to be displayed with the viewfinder while the live image is displayed; 
 enable the user to capture an image of a document displayed via the viewfinder; 
 determine a location of an optical code on the document; 
 cause the optical code to be decoded to obtain at least alphanumeric information; 
 provide a third user interface having one or more fields populated with at least a portion of the alphanumeric information obtained from the optical code; 
 provide a fourth user interface enabling the user to record content from an event observer by touching a record control presented via the touch screen; 
 cause event observer content to be recorded in response to the user touching the record control; 
 transmit to a remote system, using the wireless interface, at least the precise location, at least a portion of the alphanumeric information obtained by decoding the barcode, and the recorded observer content.