System and Method for Weather Mapping to Road Segments

• US 20090312943A1
• Filed: 02/04/2009
• Published: 12/17/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 02/04/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: DTN, LLC (TBG AG)
• Original Assignee: WSI Incorporated
• Inventors: Marsh, Victor W., Kelly, Terence F., Kelly, Christopher W., Baird, Kevin E.
• Granted Patent: US 8,521,426 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/204
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/26 specially adapted for navigation in a road network
• CPC Class Codes: G01W 1/10 Devices for predicting weather conditions computers per se G06; display devices G09
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096758 where no selection takes place on the transmitted or the received information
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096888 where input information is obtained using learning systems, e.g. history databases

Abstract

A computer-implemented method for generating a weather index mapped to a road segment for a particular time frame includes receiving weather condition information for a plurality of time periods, parsing the weather condition information to determine weather conditions for a road segment defined by a starting point and an ending point for the plurality of time periods, and generating a plurality of weather indices for the road segment. Each weather index is associated with one of the plurality of time periods and is representative of a predicted traffic impact based on historical information of the received weather conditions for the road segment. The plurality of time periods includes at least one future time period and the weather condition information includes forecasted weather information.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for generating a weather index mapped to a road segment for a particular time frame, comprising:

(a) receiving weather condition information for a plurality of time periods;

(b) parsing the weather condition information to determine weather conditions for a road segment defined by a starting point and an ending point for the plurality of time periods; and

(c) generating a plurality of weather indices for the road segment, each weather index being associated with one of the plurality of time periods, each weather index further being representative of the predicted traffic impact based on historical information of the received weather conditions for the road segment,

wherein the plurality of time periods includes at least one future time period and wherein the weather condition information includes forecasted weather information.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein each predicted traffic impact is based on historical information particular to the road segment for which the weather index is being generated.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the method further include generating a travel route associated with a travel time, the travel route including a plurality of road segments and a weather index for that road segment, wherein the weather index is representative for each road segment is representative of the weather index that will be in effect based on the travel route and arrival time for that road segment.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the arrival time for each particular road segment is determined based on the weather indices of the road segments previously scheduled along the travel route.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the representation of the weather conditions is selected from the group of weather presentation formats consisting of weather condition color contours and weather condition icons.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the representation of the traffic conditions is selected from the group of traffic presentation formats consisting of colors indicating travel speeds along the defined travel route and traffic affecting condition icons.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the weather index generated for any particular road segment is calculated based on the highest predicted traffic impact anywhere along the road segment.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the starting point and ending point of a road segment are provided as a longitude and latitude value.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the weather condition information is filtered and the weather index calculated based on the filtered weather condition information to generate an application specific weather index.

10. The method of claim 9, further including generating a snow plowing equipment allocation schedule based on the application specific weather index.

11. A computer-implemented system for generating a weather index mapped to a road segment for a particular time frame, comprising:

(a) a weather condition information source configured to generate weather condition information for a plurality of time periods;

(b) a road segment database including a plurality of road segments, each segment defined by a starting point and an ending point;

(c) a weather mapping application configured to parse the weather condition information to determine weather conditions for the road segments in the road segment database; and

(c) a weather index generator configure to generate a plurality of weather indices for each road segment, each weather index being associated with one of the plurality of time periods, each weather index further being representative of the predicted traffic impact based on historical information of the received weather conditions for the road segment,

wherein the plurality of time periods includes at least one future time period and wherein the weather condition information includes forecasted weather information.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein each predicted traffic impact is based on historical information particular to the road segment for which the weather index is being generated.

13. The system of claim 11, wherein the method further include generating a travel route associated with a travel time, the travel route including a plurality of road segments and a weather index for that road segment, wherein the weather index is representative for each road segment is representative of the weather index that will be in effect based on the travel route and arrival time for that road segment.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the arrival time for each particular road segment is determined based on the weather indices of the road segments previously scheduled along the travel route.

15. The system of claim 11, wherein the weather index generated for any particular road segment is calculated based on the highest predicted traffic impact anywhere along the road segment.

16. The system of claim 11, wherein the representation of the weather conditions is selected from the group of weather presentation formats consisting of weather condition color contours and weather condition icons.

17. The system of claim 15, wherein the representation of the traffic conditions is selected from the group of traffic presentation formats consisting of colors indicating travel speeds along the defined travel route and traffic affecting condition icons.

18. The system of claim 11, wherein the starting point and ending point of a road segment are provided as a longitude and latitude value.

19. The system of claim 11, wherein the weather condition information is filtered and the weather index calculated based on the filtered weather condition information to generate an application specific weather index.

20. The system of claim 19, further including generating a snow plowing equipment allocation schedule based on the application specific weather index.

21. A computer-implemented method for generating a weather index mapped to a road segment for a particular time frame, comprising:

(a) receiving weather condition information for a plurality of time periods;

(b) parsing the weather condition information to determine weather conditions for a road segment defined by a starting point and an ending point for the plurality of time periods;

(c) generating a plurality of weather indices for the road segment, each weather index being associated with one of the plurality of time periods, each weather index further being representative of the predicted traffic impact based on historical information of the received weather conditions for the road segment;

(d) generating a preliminary travel route including a plurality of road segments, each of the road segments having an arrival time;

(e) providing a weather index for each road segment based on the preliminary travel route and arrival time for each road segment, wherein the predicted arrival time for each particular road segment is determined based on the weather indices of the road segments previously scheduled along the travel route; and

(f) modifying the preliminary travel route based on the provided weather indices to generate at least one additional travel route.