METHODS, APPARATUSES, AND COMPUTER PROGRAM PRODUCT FOR TRAFFIC DATA AGGREGATION USING VIRTUAL TRIP LINES AND GPS-ENABLED MOBILE HANDSETS

• US 20090143966A1
• Filed: 11/30/2007
• Published: 06/04/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 11/30/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nokia Technologies Oy (Nokia Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Nokia Corporation
• Inventors: Jacobson, Quinn, Annavaram, Murali, Hoh, Baik
• Granted Patent: US 7,818,114 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/118
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/0104 Measuring and analyzing of parameters relative to traffic conditions
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/052 with provision for determining speed or overspeed speed measuring in general G01P

Abstract

A device for determining when a virtual trip line has been crossed or traversed is provided. The device includes a memory for storing the virtual trip lines which are defined pairs of location descriptors corresponding to a geographic area. The device further includes a processor that is capable of determining the location of the device when it crosses a virtual trip line as well as its speed and direction. The processing element is further capable of sending this information to another electronic device such as a server that may determine a number of vehicles crossing a virtual trip line for a specified amount of time, the average speed of vehicles crossing the virtual trip line and the traffic density in a region near the virtual trip line. The device is capable of receiving the information that was determined by the server.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

defining one or more geometrical boundaries with data, each geometrical boundary comprising a plurality of location descriptors, each of the location descriptors and the geometrical boundaries corresponds to a geographic area of the world;

determining that at least one of the geometrical boundaries were traversed;

generating data when the at least one of the geometrical boundaries is traversed;

using the generated data to determine one or more conditions associated with the geographic area.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein each of the plurality of location descriptors comprises a set of location descriptors and the method further comprises, defining each set of location descriptors as a coordinate of latitude and a coordinate of longitude.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the geographic area comprises an area of a road.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein generating data comprises determining a speed at which the at least one of the geometrical boundaries was traversed and a location of at least one entity that traversed the at least one of the geometrical boundaries.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more conditions comprises information corresponding to one or more of a number of entities that traversed the one or more geometrical boundaries during a predetermined amount of time, the average speed of the entities traversing the one or more geometrical boundaries or density data associated with the entities in the geographic area.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the entities comprise one or more vehicles and the one or more vehicles comprise a terminal.

7. The method of claim 5, further comprising, sending the information to the entities.

8. The method of claim 5, wherein the information comprises traffic information and the density data comprises traffic density data and the method further comprises sending one or more of the traffic information or the density data to one or more of the entities.

9. The method of claim 5, further comprising removing private information from the generated data which relates to a user, or the entities.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein defining the one or more geometrical boundaries further comprises defining placement restriction data associated with the geometrical boundaries, the placement restriction data specifies that the geographic area comprises a public area.

11. The method of claim 7, further comprising delaying the sending of the information a predetermined amount of time.

12. The method of claim 2, wherein each set of location descriptors comprises an offset within a segment of a road.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the geometrical boundaries comprises lines and the plurality of location descriptors correspond to at least two different endpoints of a line.

14. The method of claim 2, wherein each set of location descriptors comprises an offset relative to a segment of a road.

15. An apparatus comprising a processing element configured to:

receive one or more geometrical boundaries defined with data, each geometrical boundary comprising a plurality of location descriptors, each of the location descriptors and the geometrical boundaries corresponds to a geographic area of the world;

determine that at least one of the geometrical boundaries were traversed;

generate data when the at least one of the geometrical boundaries is traversed;

use the generated data to determine one or more conditions associated with the geographic area.

16. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein each of the plurality of location descriptors comprises a set of location descriptors and the processing element is further configured to, define each set of location descriptors as a coordinate of latitude and a coordinate of longitude.

17. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the geographic area comprises an area of a road.

18. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein generate data comprises determining a speed in which the at least one of the geometrical boundaries was traversed and a location of at least one entity that traversed the at least one of the geometrical boundaries.

19. The apparatus of claim 18, wherein the processing element is further configured to remove private information from the generated data which relates to a user, or the at least one entity.

20. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the one or more geometrical boundaries further comprises placement restriction data associated with the geometrical boundaries, the placement restriction data specifies that the geographic area comprises a public area.

21. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the processing element is further configured to delay sending of data associated with the one or more conditions, to at least one device, a predetermined amount of time.

22. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the one or more geometrical boundaries further comprises attributes associated with the geometrical boundaries, the attributes specify that the at least one of the geometrical boundaries are only operable during a specified time or are only valid for a particular category of a user.

23. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein each set of location descriptors comprises an offset within a segment of a road.

24. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the geometrical boundaries comprises lines and the plurality of location descriptors correspond to at least two different endpoints of a line.

25. A computer program product, the computer program product comprising at least one computer-readable storage medium having computer-readable program code portions stored therein, the computer-readable program code portions comprising:

a first executable portion for defining one or more geometrical boundaries with data, each geometrical boundary comprising a plurality of location descriptors, each of the location descriptors and the geometrical boundaries corresponds to a geographic area of the world;

a second executable portion for determining that at least one of the geometrical boundaries were traversed;

a third executable portion for generating data when the at least one of the geometrical boundaries is traversed;

a fourth executable portion for using the generated data to determine one or more conditions associated with the geographic area.

26. The computer program product of claim 25, wherein each of the plurality of location descriptors comprises a set of location descriptors and the computer program product further comprising, a fifth executable portion for defining each set of location descriptors as a coordinate of latitude and a coordinate of longitude.

27. An apparatus comprising a processing element configured to:

generate one or more geometrical boundaries defined with data, each geometrical boundary comprises a plurality of location descriptors, each of the location descriptors and the geometrical boundaries corresponds to a geographic area of the world;

send the one or more geometrical boundaries to a terminal which uses the data to determine one or more conditions associated with the geographic area.

28. The apparatus of claim 27, wherein the processing element is further configured to:

receive information associated with the one or more conditions; and

utilize the information to determine one or more of a number of entities that traversed the one or more geometrical boundaries during a predetermined amount of time, the average speed of the entities traversing the one or more lines or density data associated with the entities in the geographic area.

29. The apparatus of claim 28, wherein the information comprises traffic information and the density data comprises traffic density data and the processing element is further configured to send one or more of the traffic information or the traffic density data to one or more of the entities.