Smart city apparatus, system, and method

• US 10,637,683 B2
• Filed: 12/23/2016
• Issued: 04/28/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 12/23/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: CenturyLink Intellectual Property LLC (Lumen Technologies, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: CenturyLink Intellectual Property LLC (Lumen Technologies, Inc.)
• Inventors: Funk, Tom, Carpenter, Phil, Walker, William R.
• Primary Examiner(s): Dunn, Darrin D
• Application Number:
  US15/390,061
• Publication Number:
  US 20180181091A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,222 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3415 Dynamic re-routing, e.g. recalculating the route when the user deviates from calculated route or after detecting real-time traffic data or accidents
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/02 using treadles built into the road pads or other sensitive devices responsive to passage of vehicles E01F11/00
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/07 Controlling traffic signals
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/095 Traffic lights
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096811 where the route is computed offboard
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096844 where the complete route is dynamically recomputed based on new data
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/133 within the vehicle ; Indicators inside the vehicles or at stops
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/163 involving continuous checking
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/166 for active traffic, e.g. moving vehicles, pedestrians, bikes
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/205 Indicating the location of the monitored vehicles as destination, e.g. accidents, stolen, rental
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2852 Metropolitan area networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 40/18 Network protocols supporting networked applications, e.g. including control of end-device applications over a network

Abstract

Novel tools and techniques are provided for implementing Internet of Things (“IoT”) functionality. In some embodiments, a computing system or IoT management node might receive sensor data from one or more IoT-capable sensors, analyze the sensor data to determine one or more actions to be taken, and identify one or more devices (e.g., household devices associated with a customer premises; vehicular components associated with a vehicle; devices disposed in, on, or along a roadway; devices disposed throughout a population area; etc.) for performing the determined one or more first actions. The computing system or IoT management node then autonomously controls each of the identified one or more devices to perform tasks based on the determined one or more first actions to be taken, thereby implementing smart environment functionality (e.g., smart home, building, or customer premises functionality, smart vehicle functionality, smart roadway functionality, smart city functionality, and so on).

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

receiving, with a computing system, at least one first sensor data from each of one or more Internet of Things (“

IoT”

) -capable devices of a plurality of IoT-capable devices disposed throughout a population area via machine-to-machine communications, each of the one or more IoT-capable devices comprising one or more first sensors that collect the at least one first sensor data;

analyzing, with the computing system, the at least one first sensor data to determine one or more first actions to be taken;

identifying, with the computing system, one or more devices disposed within the population area for performing the determined one or more first actions to be taken, based on the at least one first sensor data from each of the one or more IoT-capable devices, wherein the identified one or more devices comprises one or more dynamic lane change markers disposed on or embedded within a surface of each of one or more roadways; and

autonomously controlling, with the computing system, each of the identified one or more devices to perform one or more tasks, based on the determined one or more first actions to be taken, wherein autonomously controlling, with the computing system, each of the identified one or more devices to perform;

autonomously controlling, with the computing system, the one or more dynamic lane change markers on the one or more roadways to dynamically change lane markers to at least one of change a number of lanes or shift the lanes to divert around a predicted position of at least one of a person, an animal, or a first vehicle, wherein at least one of changing the number of lanes or shifting the lanes is based on an estimated position and an estimated speed of one or more second vehicles relative to a calculated vector path of at least one of the person, the animal, or the first vehicle.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the population area is one of a sub-division, a collection of sub-divisions, a village, a town, a city, a municipal region, a state, a province, a collection of states, a collection of provinces, an island, a collection of islands, a country, a collection of countries, a continent, a collection of continents, a space station, a space vehicle, an orbital habitat, or a habitat disposed on a different planetary body.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the computing system comprises one of an IoT management node disposed at a service provider facility associated with providing services to the population area, a municipal, state, federal, or private entity IoT management node, a plurality of municipal, state, federal, or private entity IoT management nodes, a computing system disposed at a vehicle traffic control center, a cloud computing system, a distributed computing system that integrates computing resources from plurality of IoT-capable devices, or a combination of two or more of these computing systems.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein autonomously controlling, with the computing system, each of the identified one or more devices to perform the one or more tasks comprises sending, with the computing system, one or more first control instructions to each of the identified one or more devices to perform the one or more tasks, based on the determined one or more first actions to be taken.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein autonomously controlling, with the computing system, each of the identified one or more devices to perform one or more tasks comprises autonomously controlling, with the computing system, each of the identified one or more devices to halt or reroute traffic around one of a construction zone, an accident area, a school zone, or a congested portion of traffic.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the identified one or more devices comprise at least one of a navigation system disposed in each of one or more third vehicles travelling on the roadway or one or more traffic control signal devices, wherein autonomously controlling, with the computing system, each of the identified one or more devices to halt or reroute traffic comprises autonomously controlling, with the computing system, each of the identified one or more devices to halt or reroute traffic, by performing at least one of sending updated navigation instructions to the navigation system disposed in each of the one or more third vehicles travelling on one or more roadways, sending control instructions to the one or more traffic control signal devices along the one or more roadways, or dynamically changing lane markers along the one or more roadways.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein rerouting traffic comprises at least two of rerouting a first set of vehicles along a first alternative path, rerouting a second set of vehicles along a second alternative path, or rerouting a third set of vehicles along a third alternative path, around the one of the construction zone, the accident area, the school zone, or the congested portion of traffic.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the identified one or more devices comprise at least one of a navigation system disposed in each of the one or more second vehicles travelling on the roadway, a navigation system disposed in each of one or more emergency response vehicles, one or more traffic control signal devices, one or more news media access devices, one or more user devices associated with each of one or more residents of the population area, one or more electronic billboards, one or more digital street signs, or one or more display devices disposed through the population area, wherein the one or more IoT-capable devices each comprises one of one or more pressure sensors, one or more temperature sensors, one or more motion sensors, one or more structural integrity sensors, one or more solar light sensors, one or more seismic sensors, one or more weather station sensors, one or more air quality sensors, one or more moisture sensors, one or more wind sensors, or one or more particulate sensors, wherein, based on detection of signs of disaster comprising at least one of a tornado, flooding, lightning storms, hurricanes, blizzards, fires, smog, meteor impact, airplane crash, automobile accident, construction accident, train accident, building collapse, dam breach, or terrorist attack, autonomously controlling, with the computing system, each of the identified one or more devices to perform the one or more tasks comprises autonomously controlling, with the computing system, each of the at least one of the navigation system disposed in each of the one or more second vehicles travelling on the roadway, the navigation system disposed in each of the one or more emergency response vehicles, the one or more traffic control signal devices, the one or more news media access devices, the one or more user devices associated with each of the one or more residents of the population area, the one or more electronic billboards, the one or more digital street signs, or the one or more display devices disposed through the population area to direct emergency response teams to locations of the disaster while directing residents and other people away from the disaster.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more IoT-capable devices comprise at least one of one or more pressure sensors, one or more temperature sensors, one or more motion sensors, one or more communications signal detectors, one or more user devices associated with one or more users, or one or more location sensors disposed in the one or more user devices, wherein the identified one or more devices further comprise at least one of one or more street lamps or one or more traffic control signal devices, wherein autonomously controlling, with the computing system, each of the identified one or more devices to perform one or more tasks comprises performing corresponding at least one of autonomously controlling, with the computing system, the one or more street lamps to turn on above and ahead of a predicted path of each of the one or more users and to turn off a predetermined number of street lamps behind the predicted path of each of the one or more users, or autonomously controlling, with the computing system, the one or more traffic control signal devices to stop cross traffic along the one or more roadways and allow pedestrian traffic along the predicted path of two or more users when the two or more users are determined to be likely to cross the one or more roadways.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more IoT-capable devices comprise at least one of one or more pressure sensors, one or more temperature sensors, or one or more motion sensors, wherein the identified one or more devices further comprise at least one of one or more street lamps or one or more traffic control signal devices, wherein autonomously controlling, with the computing system, each of the identified one or more devices to perform one or more tasks comprises performing corresponding at least one of autonomously controlling, with the computing system, the one or more street lamps to turn on above and ahead of a predicted path of each of one or more third vehicles and to turn off a predetermined number of street lamps behind the predicted path of each of the one or more third vehicles, or autonomously controlling, with the computing system, the one or more traffic control signal devices to allow a greater number of vehicles to continue past an intersection based on the predicted path of each of the greater number of vehicles while stopping a lesser number of vehicles moving along a cross-direction of the intersection for a predetermined period based on the predicted path of each of the lesser number of vehicles.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more IoT-capable devices comprise at least one of one or more pressure sensors, one or more temperature sensors, one or more motion sensors, or one or more location sensors disposed on one or more public transit vehicles, wherein the identified one or more devices further comprise at least one of one or more display devices on public transit platforms or stops, one or more traffic control signal devices, one or more railway signaling systems, one or more railway track switches, one or more railway network control systems, or one or more railway power control systems, wherein autonomously controlling, with the computing system, each of the identified one or more devices to perform one or more tasks comprises performing corresponding at least one of autonomously controlling, with the computing system, the one or more display devices on public transit platforms or stops to notify passengers of real-time schedules, status, and delays of public transit vehicles, autonomously controlling, with the computing system, the one or more traffic control signal devices to coordinate roadway-based public transit vehicles along the one or more roadways to service passengers while diverting the roadway-based public transit vehicles away from or around at least one of accident areas, construction zones, congested portions of traffic, or disaster areas, or autonomously controlling, with the computing system, at least one of the one or more railway signaling systems, the one or more railway track switches, the one or more railway network control systems, or the one or more railway power control systems to coordinate railway-based public transit vehicles along the one or more railway tracks to service passengers while diverting the railway-based public transit vehicles away from or around at least one of railway accident areas, railway construction zones, congested portions of track, or disaster areas, wherein the railway-based public transit vehicles comprise at least one of light rail commuter trains, regional commuter trains, trams, street cars, high speed trains, magnetic levitation trains, or subway trains.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more IoT-capable devices comprise at least one of one or more pressure sensors, one or more temperature sensors, one or more motion sensors, or one or more location sensors disposed on one or more railway trains, wherein the identified one or more devices comprise at least one of one or more display devices in an operator'"'"'s cab of each of one or more railway trains, one or more display devices beside railway crossings, one or more alert devices along railway tracks, one or more railway signaling systems, one or more railway track switches, one or more railway network control systems, or one or more railway power control systems, wherein autonomously controlling, with the computing system, each of the identified one or more devices to perform one or more tasks comprises performing at least one of autonomously controlling, with the computing system, the one or more display devices in the operator'"'"'s cab of each of the one or more railway trains to display alerts regarding any roadway vehicles, people, animals, or obstructions near or along the railway tracks, autonomously controlling, with the computing system, at least one of the one or more display devices beside railway crossings or the one or more alert devices along railway tracks to alert nearby vehicles, people, or animals of oncoming trains, or autonomously controlling, with the computing system, at least one of the one or more railway signaling systems, the one or more railway track switches, the one or more railway network control systems, or the one or more railway power control systems to avoid any railway accidents.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the identified one or more devices comprise one or more power generation nodes, the one or more power generation nodes generating and providing power to at least one of one or more batteries or an electrical power grid interface, wherein autonomously controlling, with the computing system, each of the identified one or more devices to perform one or more tasks comprises autonomously controlling, with the computing system, each of the one or more power generation nodes to transfer generated power to the at least one of the one or more batteries or the electrical power grid interface.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more first sensors of the one or more IoT-capable devices comprise sensors monitoring at least one of one or more portions of public lawn areas, one or more public area indoor plants, one or more public area outdoor plants, one or more public area shrubs, one or more public area bushes, or one or more public area trees, wherein the one or more first sensors of the one or more IoT-capable devices each comprises one or more moisture sensors, one or more lawn height detectors, one or more nitrogen level sensors, one or more phosphate level sensors, one or more potassium level sensors, one or more leaf color detectors, one or more wind sensors, one or more indoor solar light sensors, one or more outdoor solar light sensors, one or more outdoor wind sensors, one or more local weather station sensors, one or more regional weather station sensors, one or more motion detectors detecting proximity of people or animals, or one or more humidity sensors, wherein the identified one or more devices comprises at least one of one or more user devices associated with grounds-keeping crew members, one or more automated lawn mowers, one or more sprinkler systems, or one or more animal deterrent systems, wherein autonomously controlling, with the computing system, each of the identified one or more devices to perform one or more tasks comprises autonomously controlling, with the computing system, the at least one of the one or more user devices associated with grounds-keeping crew members, the one or more automated lawn mowers, the one or more sprinkler systems, or the one or more animal deterrent systems to coordinate irrigation and greens-keeping for the at least one of the one or more portions of public lawn areas, the one or more public area indoor plants, the one or more public area outdoor plants, the one or more public area shrubs, the one or more public area bushes, or the one or more public area trees.

15. A system, comprising:

one or more Internet of Things (“

IoT”

) -capable devices of a plurality of IoT-capable devices disposed throughout a population area, each IoT-capable device comprising;

one or more first sensors;

a first transceiver;

at least one first processor; and

a first non-transitory computer readable medium communicatively coupled to the at least one first processor, the first non-transitory computer readable medium having stored thereon computer software comprising a first set of instructions that, when executed by the at least one first processor, causes the IoT-capable device to;

receive at least one first sensor data from the one or more first sensors; and

send the at least one first sensor data to a computing system via machine-to-machine communications, via the first transceiver;

the computing system, comprising;

a second transceiver;

at least one second processor;

a second non-transitory computer readable medium communicatively coupled to the at least one second processor, the second non-transitory computer readable medium having stored thereon computer software comprising a second set of instructions that, when executed by the at least one second processor, causes the computing system to;

receive the at least one first sensor data from each of one or more IoT-capable devices via machine-to-machine communications via the second transceiver;

analyze the at least one first sensor data to determine one or more first actions to be taken;

identify one or more devices disposed within the population area for performing the determined one or more first actions to be taken, based on the at least one first sensor data from each of the one or more IoT-capable devices, wherein the identified one or more devices comprises one or more dynamic lane change markers disposed on or embedded within a surface of each of one or more roadways; and

autonomously control each of the identified one or more devices to perform one or more tasks, based on the determined one or more first actions to be taken, by sending control instructions to each of the identified one or more devices, wherein autonomously controlling each of the identified one or more devices to perform;

autonomously controlling the one or more dynamic lane change markers on the one or more roadways to dynamically change lane markers to at least one of change a number of lanes or shift the lanes to divert around a predicted position of at least one of a person, an animal, or a first vehicle, wherein at least one of changing the number of lanes or shifting the lanes is based on an estimated position and an estimated speed of one or more second vehicles relative to a calculated vector path of at least one of the person, the animal, or the first vehicle; and

the one or more devices disposed within the population area, each comprising;

a third transceiver;

at least one third processor; and

a third non-transitory computer readable medium communicatively coupled to the at least one third processor, the third non-transitory computer readable medium having stored thereon computer software comprising a third set of instructions that, when executed by the at least one third processor, causes the device to;

receive the control instructions from the computing system; and

perform one or more tasks of the device based on the control instructions.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the first set of instructions, when executed by the at least one first processor, further causes the IoT-capable device to:

determine whether at least one first sensor data from the one or more first sensors exceeds a predetermined threshold for each corresponding type of sensor;

wherein sending the at least one first sensor data to the computing system via machine-to-machine communications, via the first transceiver, comprises sending the at least one first sensor data to the computing system via machine-to-machine communications, via the first transceiver, in response to a determination that the at least one first sensor data from the one or more first sensors exceeds the predetermined threshold for each corresponding type of sensor; and

in response to a determination that at least one second sensor data from the one or more first sensors does not exceed the predetermined threshold for at least one corresponding type of sensor, prevent the at least one second sensor data from being sent to the computing system.

17. The system of claim 15, wherein the population area is one of a sub-division, a collection of sub-divisions, a village, a town, a city, a municipal region, a state, a province, a collection of states, a collection of provinces, an island, a collection of islands, a country, a collection of countries, a continent, a collection of continents, a space station, a space vehicle, an orbital habitat, or a habitat disposed on a different planetary body.

18. The system of claim 15, wherein the computing system comprises one of an IoT management node disposed at a service provider facility associated with providing services to the population area, a municipal, state, federal, or private entity IoT management node, a plurality of municipal, state, federal, or private entity IoT management nodes, a computing system disposed at a vehicle traffic control center, a cloud computing system, a distributed computing system that integrates computing resources from plurality of IoT-capable devices, or a combination of two or more of these computing systems.

19. The system of claim 15, wherein the identified one or more devices further comprise at least one of a navigation system disposed in each of the one or more second vehicles travelling on the roadway, a navigation system disposed in each of one or more emergency response vehicles, one or more street lamps, one or more traffic control signal devices, one or more news media access devices, one or more user devices associated with each of one or more residents of the population area, one or more electronic billboards, one or more digital street signs, one or more display devices disposed through the population area, one or more display devices on public transit platforms or stops, one or more power generation nodes, one or more high-voltage power distribution switches, one or more railway trains, one or more display devices beside railway crossings, one or more alert devices along railway tracks, one or more railway signaling systems, one or more railway track switches, one or more railway network control systems, one or more railway power control systems, one or more user devices associated with grounds-keeping crew members, one or more automated lawn mowers, one or more automated trimmers, one or more sprinkler systems, one or more fertilizer dispensers, one or more animal deterrent systems, one or more user devices associated with cleaning crew members, one or more automated vacuum machines, one or more automated sweeping machines, one or more automated mopping machines, one or more drones with dusting tool, one or more aerial drones with vacuuming tool, one or more aerial drones with wiping tool, one or more air purifiers, one or more air filters, or one or more electrostatic particulate collecting tools.

20. An apparatus, comprising:

one or more first processors; and

a non-transitory computer readable medium communicatively coupled with the one or more first processors, the non-transitory computer readable medium having stored thereon computer software comprising a set of instructions that, when executed by the one or more first processors, causes the apparatus to;

receive at least one first sensor data from each of one or more Internet of Things (“

IoT”

) -capable devices of a plurality of IoT-capable devices disposed throughout a population area via machine-to-machine communications, each of the one or more IoT-capable devices comprising one or more first sensors that collect the at least one first sensor data;

analyze the at least one first sensor data to determine one or more first actions to be taken;

identify one or more devices disposed within the population area for performing the determined one or more first actions to be taken, based on the at least one first sensor data from each of the one or more IoT-capable devices, wherein the identified one or more devices comprises one or more dynamic lane change markers disposed on or embedded within a surface of each of one or more roadways; and

autonomously control each of the identified one or more devices to perform one or more tasks, based on the determined one or more first actions to be taken, wherein autonomously controlling each of the identified one or more devices to perform;

autonomously controlling the one or more dynamic lane change markers on the one or more roadways to dynamically change lane markers to at least one of change the number of lanes or shift the lanes to divert around a predicted position of at least one of a person, an animal, or a first vehicle, wherein at least one of changing a number of lanes or shifting the lanes is based on an estimated position and an estimated speed of one or more second vehicles relative to a calculated vector path of at least one of the person, the animal, or the first vehicle.

21. The apparatus of claim 20, wherein the apparatus is one of an IoT management node disposed at a service provider facility associated with providing services to the population area, a municipal, state, federal, or private entity IoT management node, a plurality of municipal, state, federal, or private entity IoT management nodes, a computing system disposed at a vehicle traffic control center, or a distributed computing system that integrates computing resources from plurality of IoT-capable devices.

22. The apparatus of claim 20, wherein autonomously controlling each of the identified one or more devices to perform the one or more tasks comprises sending one or more first control instructions to each of the identified one or more devices to perform the one or more tasks, based on the determined one or more first actions to be taken.

23. The apparatus of claim 20, wherein the population area is one of a sub-division, a collection of sub-divisions, a village, a town, a city, a municipal region, a state, a province, a collection of states, a collection of provinces, an island, a collection of islands, a country, a collection of countries, a continent, a collection of continents, a space station, a space vehicle, an orbital habitat, or a habitat disposed on a different planetary body.

24. The apparatus of claim 20, wherein the identified one or more devices further comprise at least one of a navigation system disposed in each of the one or more second vehicles travelling on the roadway, a navigation system disposed in each of one or more emergency response vehicles, one or more street lamps, one or more traffic control signal devices, one or more news media access devices, one or more user devices associated with each of one or more residents of the population area, one or more electronic billboards, one or more digital street signs, one or more display devices disposed through the population area, one or more display devices on public transit platforms or stops, one or more power generation nodes, one or more high-voltage power distribution switches, one or more railway trains, one or more display devices beside railway crossings, one or more alert devices along railway tracks, one or more railway signaling systems, one or more railway track switches, one or more railway network control systems, one or more railway power control systems, one or more user devices associated with grounds-keeping crew members, one or more automated lawn mowers, one or more automated trimmers, one or more sprinkler systems, one or more fertilizer dispensers, one or more animal deterrent systems, one or more user devices associated with cleaning crew members, one or more automated vacuum machines, one or more automated sweeping machines, one or more automated mopping machines, one or more drones with dusting tool, one or more aerial drones with vacuuming tool, one or more aerial drones with wiping tool, one or more air purifiers, one or more air filters, or one or more electrostatic particulate collecting tools.