Mass transit-based people traffic sensing and control

• US 10,049,572 B2
• Filed: 11/11/2016
• Issued: 08/14/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 11/11/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Maertens, Katherine A.
• Primary Examiner(s): Haile, Benyam
• Application Number:
  US15/349,249
• Publication Number:
  US 20180137757A1
• Time in Patent Office: 641 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/52 Surveillance or monitoring of activities, e.g. for recognising suspicious objects recognising microscopic objects G06V20/69
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/53 Recognition of crowd images, e.g. recognition of crowd congestion
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/593 Recognising seat occupancy
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/005 including pedestrian guidance indicator
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/0112 from the vehicle, e.g. floating car data [FCD]
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/012 from other sources than vehicle or roadside beacons, e.g. mobile networks
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/0129 for creating historical data or processing based on historical data
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/0133 for classifying traffic situation
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/0141 for traffic information dissemination
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/0145 for active traffic flow control
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096816 where the complete route is transmitted to the vehicle at once
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096844 where the complete route is dynamically recomputed based on new data
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/123 indicating the position of vehicles, e.g. scheduled vehicles; Managing passenger vehicles circulating according to a fixed timetable, e.g. buses, trains, tramstransmission of navigation instructions to vehicles G08G1/0968
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/025 using location based information parameters
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/42 for mass transport vehicles, e.g. buses, trains or aircraft

Abstract

User location is detected. User traffic at a mass transit stop rear the user location is detected and compared to user traffic at other mass transit stops in close proximity to the first mass transit stop. An alternate stop identifier system is controlled to surface information indicative of a location of an alternate mass transit stop for a user along with a commute time impact metric indicative of how the user'"'"'s commute time will be affected by using the alternate stop.

Claims

1. A computing system, comprising:

a processor; and

memory storing instructions executable by the processor, wherein the instructions, when executed, configure the computing system to;

access metadata corresponding to an organization location identified as a people traffic source, the metadata representing a number of workers at the organization location and working hours of the organization location;

based on the metadata, generate a people traffic value corresponding to people traffic from the people traffic source;

generate a congestion indicator indicative of people traffic congestion on a mass transit system at a plurality of different mass transit stops based on the people traffic value;

obtain a user location of a user and a destination location for the user;

obtain a first mass transit route having a first origination mass transit stop and a destination mass transit stop that corresponds to the destination location;

based on the congestion indicators, the user location, and the destination location, identify a second mass transit route that is different than the first mass transit route and includes an alternative origination mass transit stop for the user; and

determine a commute time impact on a commute time for the user to the destination location based on the user relocating from the user location to the alternative origination mass transit stop to use the second mass transit route; and

generate a control signal to control rendering, to the user, of an indication of;

the alternative origination mass transit stop, and

a commute time impact metric indicative of the commute time impact.

2. The computing system of claim 1 wherein the instructions, when executed, configure the computing system to:

select the first origination mass transit stop, from the plurality of different mass transit stops, for which a congestion indicator is to be generated.

3. The computing system of claim 2 wherein the instructions, when executed, configure the computing system to select the plurality of different mass transit stops based on a proximity of the different mass transit stops to the user location and the first mass transit route.

4. The computing system of claim 2 wherein the instructions, when executed, configure the computing system to:

select a set of people traffic sources based on;

a proximity of the first origination mass transit stop to the set of people traffic sources; and

the first mass transit route.

5. The computing system of claim 4 wherein the instructions, when executed, configure the computing system to:

access metadata corresponding to the set of people traffic sources;

generate a people traffic value corresponding to people traffic from each people traffic source in the set of people traffic sources; and

generate a congestion indicator indicative of people traffic congestion on the mass transit system at the plurality of different mass transit stops based on the people traffic values.

6. The computing system of claim 5 wherein the instructions, when executed, configure the computing system to:

generate the people traffic value corresponding to an event venue identified as a people traffic source by identifying, as the metadata, an event time and event attendance data for the event.

7. The computing system of claim 1 wherein the instructions, when executed, configure the computing system to:

generate the congestion indicator as a time indicator indicative of an estimated time before a mass transit vehicle, with available passenger capacity, will arrive at a first mass transit stop.

8. The computing system of claim 1 wherein the instructions, when executed, configure the computing system to:

generate a health impact output indicative of a health impact on the user, corresponding to the user relocating from the user location to the alternative origination mass transit stop, and generate a control signal to control surfacing of the health impact output.

9. The computing system of claim 1 wherein the instructions, when executed, configure the computing system to:

receive a mass transit vehicle input generated on a mass transit vehicle and being indicative of congestion at the first origination mass transit stop.

10. The computing system of claim 1 wherein the instructions, when executed, configure the computing system to receive at least one of:

a mass transit operator input generated by a mass transit vehicle operator device and indicative of congestion at the first origination mass transit stop;

or

a crowd sourced input indicative of congestion at the first origination mass transit stop.

11. The computing system of claim 1 wherein the destination mass transit stop comprises a first destination mass transit stop, and the second mass transit route comprises a second destination mass transit stop that:

corresponds to the destination location; and

is different than the first destination mass transit stop.

12. A computer implemented method, comprising:

accessing metadata corresponding to an organization location identified as a people traffic source, the metadata representing a number of workers at the organization location and working hours of the organization location;

based on the metadata, generating a people traffic value corresponding to people traffic from the people traffic source;

generating a congestion indicator indicative of people traffic congestion on a mass transit system at a plurality of different mass transit stops based on the people traffic value;

receiving a user location of a user and a destination location for the user;

obtaining a mass transit route having;

an origination mass transit stop corresponding to the user location, and

a destination mass transit stop that corresponds to the destination location;

determining a first commute time from the origination mass transit stop to the destination mass transit stop on the mass transit route;

based on the congestion indicators, the user location, and the destination location, identifying an alternative origination mass transit stop for the user;

determining a second commute time from the alternative origination mass transit stop to the destination location;

comparing the first and second commute times to calculate a commute time impact metric indicative of a commute time impact based on the user relocating from the user location to the alternative origination alternative mass transit stop; and

generating a control signal to control an output device to render, to the user, the alternative origination mass transit stop and the commute time impact metric.

13. The computer implemented method of claim 12 and further comprising:

selecting an origination stop, from the plurality of different mass transit stops, for which a congestion indicator is to be generated; and

detecting a set of people traffic sources within a given proximity of the selected origination stop and based on the mass transit route.

14. The computer implemented method of claim 13 and further comprising:

accessing metadata corresponding to the set of people traffic sources;

generating a people traffic value corresponding to people traffic from each people traffic source in the set of people traffic sources; and

providing the people traffic values to the stop congestion logic, the stop congestion logic generating a congestion indicator indicative of people traffic congestion on the mass transit system at the plurality of different mass transit stops based on the people traffic values.

15. The computer implemented method of claim 14 wherein generating the people traffic value comprises:

generating the people traffic value corresponding to an event venue identified as a people traffic source by identifying, as the metadata, an event time and event attendance data for the event.

16. The computer implemented method of claim 12 wherein generating the congestion indicator comprises:

generating a time indicator indicative of an estimated time before a mass transit vehicle, with available passenger capacity, will arrive at a mass transit stop corresponding to the user location.

17. The computer implemented method of claim 12 and further comprising:

generating a health impact output indicative of a health impact on the user, corresponding to the user relocating from the user location to the suggested origination stop; and

generating a control signal to control surfacing of the health impact output.

18. A computing system, comprising:

a processor; and

memory storing instructions executable by the processor, wherein the instructions, when executed, configure the computing system to provide;

stop proximity generator logic configured to detect a set of people traffic sources within a proximity of a mass transit stop in a mass transit system, based on a mass transit route;

people traffic estimation logic configured to;

access metadata corresponding to the set of people traffic sources, the metadata including organization metadata corresponding to an organization location identified as a people traffic source, and

representing a number of workers at the organization location and working hours of the organization location;

generate a people traffic value corresponding to people traffic from each people traffic source in the set of people traffic sources;

stop congestion logic configured to;

receive the people traffic values; and

based on the people traffic values, generate a plurality of congestion indicators for a plurality of different mass transit stops, each congestion indicator corresponding to one of the mass transit stops and being indicative of an estimated time before a mass transit vehicle, with available passenger capacity, will arrive at the corresponding mass transit stop;

stop suggestion logic configured to;

obtain a user location and the mass transit route; and

identify a suggested origination stop for a user based on the congestion indicators for the plurality of different mass transit stops, the user location and the mass transit route;

commute time impact generator logic configured to generate a commute time impact metric indicative of a commute time impact on a commute time for the user based on the user relocating from the user location to the suggested origination stop; and

output logic configured to generate a control signal to control rendering of the suggested origination stop and the commute time impact metric.