Method, apparatus and computer program product for dynamic display of billboard information

• US 20060229939A1
• Filed: 04/12/2005
• Published: 10/12/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 04/12/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Bhakta, Dharmesh N., Ravi, Kumar, Lee, Walter Chun-Won, Rybczynski, Eric Siegfried
• Granted Patent: US 7,495,631 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/14.620
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0265 Vehicular advertisement
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0272 Period of advertisement exposure
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 99/00 Subject matter not provided for in other groups of this subclass

Abstract

Display time for a billboard message is varied in proportion to measured speed of one or more vehicles. This may include varying not only the time a message is presented on the billboard, but also varying the density of the message. An overall message may be broken into segments displayed a sequence of billboards depending on the speed, e.g., for a faster moving vehicle the message has more segments. If the speed of a vehicle is great enough, the message segments are also reduced to fewer words or graphics, which may also be larger. Also, clusters of vehicles are detected and a billboard message display is varied in response to the clusters, which may include display time or segmentation variation, so as to more nearly optimize the number of persons who are able to see the message. Further, a billboard is rotated per vehicle speed, distance, length or clusters.

Claims

1. A method for dynamically-controlled display of information on a billboard, the method comprising the steps of:

a) displaying a billboard message, wherein the message is displayed on the billboard for a certain time duration;

b) measuring speed of at least one vehicle by at least one sensor; and

c) selecting the message display time duration, by at least one computer, in response to the measured speed.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

selectively breaking the message into a number of segments by the computer; and

displaying the message segments on respective ones of a number of billboards by the computer, wherein the billboards are located such that they are viewable in a sequence as the at least one vehicle moves, and wherein the number of segments is selected in response to the measured speed, such that the number of segments is increased in response to an increase in the measured speed.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein selectively breaking the message into a number of segments by the computer includes i) breaking the message into two segments for a first measured speed, wherein for the first measured speed the displaying of the message segments on respective ones of a number of billboards includes displaying a first one of the two message segments on a first one of the billboards and displaying a second one of the two message segments on a second one of the billboards, and ii) breaking the message into three segments for a second measured speed, the second measured speed being a higher speed than the first measured speed, wherein for the second measured speed the displaying of the message segments on respective ones of a number of billboards includes displaying a first one of the three message segments on a first one of the billboards, displaying a second one of the two message segments on a second one of the billboards, and displaying a third one of the three message segments on a third one of the billboards

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the message includes at least one word or includes graphical information, and the method further comprises:

changing, by the computer, the at least one word or the graphical information included in the message in response to the measured speed.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the message includes a certain number of words, and the changing of the at least one word or the graphical information includes changing the certain number of words to a smaller number of words in response to an increase in the measured speed.

6. The method of claim 1, including the step of:

detecting, by at least one sensor, clusters of vehicles traveling in a certain direction on a road, wherein step b) further comprises measuring, by the sensor, speed of at least one of the clusters of vehicles, and wherein the message display time duration is selected in step c) in response to the measured speed of the clusters, enabling an increased number of persons to see the message from within the traveling vehicles.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein the step of displaying the billboard message includes starting the message displaying at a certain start time, the message start time being selected in response to the measured speed of the clusters, and wherein selecting the message start time includes selecting the message start time to correspond to a time when one of the clusters arrives at a distance from which the message for the billboard is readable, and selecting the message display time duration includes selecting the message display time duration to correspond to a time interval when the one of the clusters is at a distance from which the message for the billboard is readable.

8. The method of claim 6, including the step of:

rotating the billboard by the computer in response to the speed of such a cluster, wherein the rotation is about an axis substantially perpendicular to the road and wherein the rotating responsive to the cluster speed tends to maintain a face of the billboard toward the cluster, enabling an increased number of persons to see the message from within the traveling vehicles.

9. The method of claim 1, including the step of:

detecting, by the sensor, lengths of vehicles traveling in a certain direction on a road, wherein the message display time duration is selected by the computer in step c) also in response to the lengths, enabling an increased number of persons to see the message from within the traveling vehicles.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein step c) further comprises:

selecting the message display time duration for the billboard message such that the billboard message is displayed for a shorter time duration as the measured speed increases, and for a longer time duration as the measured speed decreases.

11. A computer program product for dynamically-controlled display of information on a billboard, wherein the computer program product resides on a computer usable medium having computer readable program code, the program code comprising:

first instructions for displaying a message on a billboard for a certain time duration;

second instructions for computing speed of at least one vehicle in response to a sensor measurement; and

third instructions for selecting the message display time duration in response to the speed.

12. An apparatus for dynamically-controlled display of information on a billboard, wherein the computer program product resides on a computer usable medium having computer readable program code, the apparatus comprising:

a billboard;

a sensor for measuring speed of at least one vehicle; and

a computer for communicating with the sensor and varying display time of a message on the billboard, wherein the message display time is selected in response to the measured speed.

13. The apparatus of claim 12, further comprising:

at least a second billboard, the billboards being located such that they are viewable in a sequence as the at least one vehicle moves, wherein the computer selectively breaks the message into a number of segments and controls displaying of the segments on the respective billboards, the computer selecting the number of segments in response to the speed measured by the sensor such that the number of segments is increased in response to an increase in the measured speed.

14. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the computer i) breaks the message into two segments for a first measured speed, wherein for the first measured speed the displaying of the message segments on respective ones of a number of billboards includes displaying a first one of the two message segments on a first one of the billboards and displaying a second one of the two message segments on a second one of the billboards, and ii) breaks the message into three segments for a second measured speed, the second measured speed being a higher speed than the first measured speed, wherein for the second measured speed the displaying of the message segments on respective ones of a number of billboards includes displaying a first one of the three message segments on a first one of the billboards, displaying a second one of the two message segments on a second one of the billboards, and displaying a third one of the three message segments on a third one of the billboards

15. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the message includes at least one word or includes graphical information, and the computer changes at least one word or the graphical information included in the message in response to the speed measured by the sensor.

16. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein wherein the message includes a certain number of words, and the changing of the at least one word or the graphical information includes the computer changing the certain number of words to a smaller number of words in response to an increase in the measured speed.

17. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the sensor is for measuring speed of at least one cluster of vehicles and the computer selects the message display time duration in response to measured speed of the clusters, enabling an increased number of persons to see the message from within the traveling vehicles.

18. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the computer starts the message displaying at a certain start time, the message start time being selected in response to the measured speed of the clusters, and wherein selecting the message start time includes selecting the message start time to correspond to a time when one of the clusters arrives at a distance from which the message for the billboard is readable, and selecting the message display time duration includes selecting the message display time duration to correspond to a time interval when the one of the clusters is at a distance from which the message for the billboard is readable.

19. The apparatus of claim 16, including:

an operator for rotating the billboard by the computer in response to the speed of such a cluster, wherein the rotation is about an axis substantially perpendicular to the road and wherein the rotating responsive to the cluster speed tends to maintain a face of the billboard toward the cluster, enabling an increased number of persons to see the message from within the traveling vehicles.

20. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the sensor is for detecting lengths of vehicles traveling in a certain direction on a road, wherein the message display time duration is selected by the computer, also in response to the lengths, enabling an increased number of persons to see the message from within the traveling vehicles.

21. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the computer selects the message display time duration for the billboard message such that the billboard message is displayed for a shorter time duration as the measured speed increases, and for a longer time duration as the measured speed decreases.