Traffic display with viewing distance control

• US 10,304,360 B1
• Filed: 04/11/2018
• Issued: 05/28/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 09/12/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: DeLorean, LLC
• Original Assignee: DeLorean, LLC
• Inventors: DeLorean, Jack Z.
• Primary Examiner(s): Swarthout, Brent
• Application Number:
  US15/950,445
• Time in Patent Office: 412 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0241 Advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/052 with provision for determining speed or overspeed speed measuring in general G01P
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/095 Traffic lights
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096 provided with indicators in which a mark progresses showing the time elapsed, e.g. of green phase
• CPC Class Codes: G09F 27/005 Signs associated with a sensor

Abstract

A sign displays moving, still, or blank images. In one aspect the sign is mounted over a roadway for viewing by occupants of vehicular traffic and pedestrians. In another aspect the sign is mounted on a vehicle. An associated sensor senses the motion of traffic in the vicinity of the sign. When traffic moves at less than a predetermined speed, the sign displays moving or changing information. At greater speeds the display on the sign is either still or blank, so as to avoid distracting nearby drivers. An electronic system provides various aspects that augment sign operation such as GPS, reception of signage information for use in particular locations, advertiser billing information based on sign usage, and collection and reporting of demographics that aid advertisers in maximizing their impact.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

at least one motion sensor;

a directional viewing sign including a display viewable from a range of angles;

a privacy filter coupled to the directional viewing sign, wherein the privacy filter limits the viewing angles from which the display is viewable at a predetermined range of vertical viewing angles relative to the display; and

memory communicatively connected to the directional viewing sign, the memory storing instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform operations comprising;

determining, based at least in part on receiving data from the at least one motion sensor, speeds of one or more vehicles within the predetermined range of vertical viewing angles relative to the display;

outputting for display on the directional viewing sign and based at least in part on the speeds of the one or more vehicles being less than a threshold speed, first image data; and

outputting for display on the directional viewing sign and based at least in part on the speeds of the one or more vehicles being greater than the threshold speed, second image data, the second image data being different than the first image data.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the first image data corresponds to a dynamic image, and the second image data corresponds to a static image.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the first image data corresponds to video data, and the second image data corresponds to a static image.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the first image data includes a first portion and a second portion, and wherein the one or more processors are further configured to perform operations comprising:

outputting the first portion for a first period of time; and

outputting the second portion for a second period of time, wherein the second period of time is after the first period of time.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more processors are further configured to perform operations comprising at least one of:

switching from the first image data to the second image data based at least in part on the speeds of the one or more vehicles exceeding the threshold speed;

or

switching from the second image data to the first image data based at least in part on the speeds of the one or more vehicles falling below the threshold speed.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the predetermined range of vertical viewing angles relative to the display includes a first predetermined range of vertical viewing angles and a second predetermined range of vertical viewing angles, and wherein outputting the first image data causes a first image to be displayed at the first predetermined range of vertical viewing angles, and wherein outputting the first image data causes a second image to be displayed at the second predetermined range of vertical viewing angles.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the predetermined range of vertical viewing angles relative to the display includes a first predetermined range of vertical viewing angles and a second predetermined range of vertical viewing angles, and wherein outputting the second image data causes a first image to be displayed at the first predetermined range of vertical viewing angles, and wherein outputting the second image data causes a second image to be displayed at the second predetermined range of vertical viewing angles.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein outputting the first image data or outputting the second image data is further based at least in part on detecting a threshold number of vehicles within the predetermined range of vertical viewing angles relative to the display.

9. A system comprising:

one or more processors;

a directional viewing sign including;

a display; and

a privacy filter coupled to the directional viewing sign, wherein the privacy filter limits viewing of the display such that a portion of the display is viewable within a first range of distances and less than the portion of the display is viewable within a second range of distances;

at least one motion sensor to detect speeds of one or more vehicles within the first range of distances from the directional viewing sign; and

one or more non-transitory computer-readable media storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed on the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform operations comprising;

transmitting to the directional viewing sign and based at least in part on speeds of the one or more vehicles being less than a threshold speed, a first image; and

transmitting to the directional viewing sign and based at least in part on the speeds of the one or more vehicles being greater than the threshold speed, a second image, the second image being different than the first image.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the second image is a blank image.

11. The system of claim 9, further comprising one or more cameras, wherein the one or more processors are further configured to perform operations comprising:

receiving, from the one or more cameras, image data; and

identifying one or more objects in the image data;

wherein at least one of the first image or the second image is based at least in part on the one or more objects.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the one or more objects comprise license plates of the one or more vehicles.

13. The system of claim 11, wherein the one or more objects comprise occupants in the one or more vehicles.

14. The system of claim 9, wherein the one or more processors are further configured to perform operations comprising ceasing the transmitting of the second image to the directional viewing sign based at least in part on the speeds of the one or more vehicles being greater than the threshold speed.

15. A system comprising:

a display viewable from a predetermined range of distances;

one or more processors;

one or more motion sensors arranged so as to limit detection of speeds of one or more vehicles to within the predetermined range of distances of the display; and

one or more non-transitory computer-readable media storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed on the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform operations comprising;

receiving, via the one or more motion sensors, the speeds of the one or more vehicles within the predetermined range of distances of the display;

receiving, from one or more remote computing devices, first image data;

receiving, from the one or more remote computing devices, second image data, the second image data being different than the first image data; and

based at least in part on the speeds of the one or more vehicles relative to a threshold speed, at least one of;

sending, to the display, the first image data for display;

or

sending, to the display, the second image data for display.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein at least one of the first image data or the second image data is based at least in part on a geographic location of the display.

17. The system of claim 15, wherein the one or more processors are further configured to perform operations comprising at least one of:

based at least in part on determining that the speeds of the one or more vehicles are greater than the threshold speed, switching from sending the first image data to the display to sending the second image data to the display;

or

based at least in part on determining that the speeds of the one or more vehicles are less than the threshold speed, switching from sending the second image data to the display to sending the first image data to the display.

18. The system of claim 15, further comprising a privacy filter coupled to the display, wherein the privacy filter limits viewing of the display to within the predetermined range of distances.

19. The system of claim 15, wherein at least one of the first image data or the second image data is displayed at a rate according to the speeds of the one or more vehicles within the predetermined range of distances of the display.

20. The system of claim 15, wherein at least one of the first image or the second image corresponds to at least one of advertising material, a public announcement, or safety information.