Apparatus and method monitoring traffic
First Claim
1. A method of selecting commencement and termination points on a road network for transit time measurements on the road network, wherein at least one point for at least one of the roads of the network is selected without that selection being determined by any other road of the network.
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Accused Products
Abstract
An apparatus and method for monitoring traffic comprises a plurality of vehicles fitted with units. Each unit comprises a CPU, a timer and a GPS device. Whenever a vehicle passes a waypoint determined by the GPS device, the CPU notes the time supplied by the timer. When the vehicle passes the next waypoint determined by the GPS device, the CPU notes the time again. The CPU substracts the two times to derive the actual journey time for the link between the two waypoints, and this is compared against a stored link-time for the link. If the actual journey time is greater by a preset amount than the stored link-time, then the unit transmits the relevant information to a control computer by way of a communication device. In addition to notifying the control computer when the vehicle has exceeded a standard time for the link between the waypoints, the unit can monitor the progress of the vehicle along the link by monitoring its progress along sublinks using a technique known as “micro-pointing”.
37 Citations
27 Claims
- 1. A method of selecting commencement and termination points on a road network for transit time measurements on the road network, wherein at least one point for at least one of the roads of the network is selected without that selection being determined by any other road of the network.
- 9. An apparatus for monitoring traffic, including a memory in which is recorded a programme for selecting commencement and termination points on a road network for transit time measurements on the road network, wherein the programme selects at least one point of said commencement and termination points for at least one of the roads of the network without that selection being determined by any other road of the network.
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17. A method of monitoring traffic comprising:
- selecting a commencement point and a termination point on a road network,
communicating positional data for the commencement point and termination point to each of a plurality of vehicles, at each of the plurality of vehicles monitoring when the vehicle passes from the commencement point to the termination point and calculating the transit time taken for the vehicle to travel between the two points, comparing the transit time taken with a standard transit time for travel between the two points, and communicating with a control centre if said transit time taken exceeds the said standard transit time by more than a preset amount. - View Dependent Claims (18, 19)
- selecting a commencement point and a termination point on a road network,
- 20. An apparatus for monitoring traffic in a road network comprising a plurality of arrangements each carried by respective vehicles, each arrangement comprising calculating means for calculating the transit time taken to travel between two points and for comparing the transit time taken with a standard transit time for travel between the two points and communicating means communicating with a control centre if said transit time taken exceeds the said standard transit time by more than a preset amount, wherein said communicating means is adapted to receive information from the control centre defining the position on the road network of at least one of the two points.
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22. A method of monitoring traffic comprising:
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establishing along a road first and second points at respective ends of a route segment along which a vehicle is to travel, the route segment being subdivided into a number of links, at the vehicle, calculating in turn the transit times taken for the vehicle to travel along respective links of the route segment, in turn comparing the transit times taken with expected transit times for the respective links, and communicating with a control centre if and when any of the transit times taken exceeds the corresponding expected transit time by a predetermined threshold. - View Dependent Claims (23, 24)
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25. An apparatus for monitoring traffic comprising:
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establishing means arranged to establish along a road first and second points at respective ends of a route segment along which a vehicle is to travel, the route segment being subdivided into a number of links, and an arrangement to be carried by the vehicle and comprising calculating means which serves to calculate in turn the transit times taken for the vehicle to travel along the said links, comparing means which serves to compare in turn the transit times taken with expected transit times for the respective links, and communicating means which serve to communicate with a control centre if and when any of said transit times taken significantly exceeds to corresponding expected transit time. - View Dependent Claims (26, 27)
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Specification