SATELLITE POSITIONING SYSTEM ENABLED TRAFFIC DETERMINATION

• US 20090073035A1
• Filed: 11/14/2008
• Published: 03/19/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 12/31/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: RDPA, LLC
• Original Assignee: RDPA, LLC
• Inventors: Baker, James W., Burke, Kay S., Percy, R. Cameron, Percy, Roger D.
• Granted Patent: US 8,462,048 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 342/357.520
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 1/02 using radio waves G01S19/00 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/14 specially adapted for specific applications
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/34 Power consumption
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 2205/002 for traffic control, mobile tracking, guidance, surveillance or anti-collision
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/0027 of actual mobile position, i.e. position determined on mobile
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/0294 Trajectory determination or predictive filtering, e.g. target tracking or Kalman filtering
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0201 Market modelling; Market analysis; Collecting market data
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0205 Location or geographical consideration
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0242 Determining effectiveness of advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/52 of users
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/66 for using the result on distributors' side
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/023 using mutual or relative location information between multiple location based services [LBS] targets or of distance thresholds

Abstract

The present invention is directed to utilizing monitoring devices (200) for determining the demographics of individuals passing a particular geographic location. The monitoring devices (200) are distributed to a number of study respondents. The monitoring devices (200) track the movements of the respondents whose demographics are known. While various technologies may be used to track the movements of the respondents, at least some of the location tracking of the monitoring devices (200) utilize a satellite (105) location system such as the global positioning system (“GPS”). Geo data (movement data) collected by the monitoring devices is analyzed by a post-processing server (400) that determines the demographics of the study respondents that pass a chosen geographic location.

Claims

1. Apparatus for determining the demographics of individuals (“

respondents”

) passing a predetermined geographic location, comprising;

(a) a plurality of monitoring devices for tracking the paths of travel followed by a plurality of respondents whose demographics are known, each of said respondents associated with a respective one of said plurality of monitoring devices, each of said plurality of monitoring devices comprising;

(i) a satellite positioning system SPS engine for tracking the movement of the related respondent along the path of travel followed by the respondent and generating satellite data that represents the path of travel followed by the respondent;

(ii) a processing unit for processing the path of travel satellite data; and

(iii) a memory for storing said path of travel satellite data; and

(b) a server for;

(i) collecting the path of travel satellite data from each of the monitoring devices; and

(ii) comparing the collected path of travel satellite data with a predetermined geographic location to determine the demographics of the respondents passing the predetermined geographic location.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the data stored in the plurality of monitoring devices is downloaded to the server.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein said monitoring devices also include a radio frequency positioning mechanism to track the paths of travel of said respondents.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein said monitoring devices also include an accelerometer to track the paths of travel of said respondents.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein said monitoring devices also include a gyroscope to track the paths of travel of said respondents.

6. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein said monitoring devices also include a compass to track the paths of travel of said respondents.

7. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein said monitoring devices also include an altimeter to track the-paths of travel of said respondents.

8. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the satellite data stored in the monitoring devices is collected by downloading the satellite data to the server at predetermined intervals.

9. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the satellite data includes partial satellite data.

10. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the satellite data is stored as geo data and wherein the collected path of travel satellite data is geo data.

11. The apparatus claim 1 wherein the server also analyzes the collected path of travel satellite data to determine the number of respondents that pass the predetermined geographic location (“

reach”

).

12. The apparatus of claim 11 wherein reach is categorized according to the demographics of the respondents.

13. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the server also analyzes the collected path of travel satellite data to determine how often respondents pass the predetermined geographic location (“

frequency”

).

14. The apparatus of claim 13 wherein frequency is categorized according to the demographics of the respondents.

15. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the server also analyzes the collected path of travel satellite data to determine the dwell time of the respondents in the predetermined geographic location.

16. A computer-implemented method of determining the demographics of individuals (“

respondents”

) passing a predetermined geographic location, the method comprising;

(a) storing geo data in a plurality of respondent monitoring devices as said plurality of respondent monitoring devices move along respective paths of travel, each of said respondent monitoring devices associated with a respondent having known demographics, at least a portion of said geo data derived from a satellite positioning system (SPS), said stored geo data representing the movement of said plurality of respondent monitoring devices along said respective paths of travel; and

(b) downloading said geo data stored in said plurality of respondent monitoring devices to a post processing server for determining the demographics of respondents passing a predetermined geographic location by comparing the geo data representing the movement of said plurality of respondents monitoring devices along said respective paths of travel with data representing the predetermined geographic location.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

analyzing said geo data to determine if said geo data is erroneous; and

removing any erroneous data from said geo data prior to determining the demographics of respondents passing said predetermined location.

18. The method of claim 16, further comprising augmenting said geo data with external data to enhance accuracy.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein said external data is geographic information system (“

GIS”

) data.

20. The method of claim 16, wherein said geo data is grouped in accordance with the demographics of said respondents.

21. The method of claim 16, further comprising initializing said monitoring devices with study specific data.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein said study specific data includes RF zones.

23. The method of claim 16, further comprising obtaining device data.

24. The method of claim 23, wherein said device data is obtained from said plurality of monitoring devices.

25. The method of claim 24, wherein device data obtained from said plurality of monitoring devices is downloaded to said post processing server.

26. The method of claim 16, wherein said plurality of locations that track the movement of said plurality of monitoring devices include locations located along calculated lines extending between geo data locations.

27. The method of claim 26, wherein the calculated lines are straight lines.

28. The method of claim 26, wherein the calculated lines are curved lines.

29. The method of claim 16, wherein said geo data includes velocity data describing the rate of movement of said plurality of monitoring devices.

30. The method of claim 16, further comprising grooming said geo data to enhance accuracy.

31. The method of claim 30, wherein grooming said geo data comprises adding DGPS data to said geo data.

32. The method of claim 31, wherein grooming said geo data comprises determining additional geo data locations from data representing known locations.

33. The method of claim 16, further comprising identifying and storing anomalous geo data.

34. The method of claim 16, further comprising determining confidence ratings for said monitoring device locations.

35. The method of claim 16, further comprising enhancing the accuracy of said geo data using Geographic Information System (GIS) data to enhance said geo data.

36. The method of claim 16, further comprising entering demographic data into each of said plurality of monitoring devices.

37. The method claim 16 further comprising analyzing the collected path of travel satellite data to determine the number of respondents that pass the predetermined geographic location (“

reach”

).

38. The method of claim 37 further comprising categorizing reach according to the demographics of the respondents.

39. The method of claim 16 further comprising analyzing the collected path of travel satellite data to determine how often respondents pass the predetermined geographic location (“

frequency”

).

40. The method of claim 39 further comprising categorizing frequency according to the demographics of the respondents.

41. The method of claim 16 further comprising analyzing the collected path of travel satellite data to determine the dwell time of the respondents in the predetermined geographic location.