GEOGRAPHICALLY-BASED INFORMATION DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM

• US 20100093272A1
• Filed: 10/14/2008
• Published: 04/15/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 10/14/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cirrus Systems, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Spot Devices Incorporated (Carmanah Technologies Corporation)
• Inventors: Burns, Chester Allen
• Granted Patent: US 8,818,258 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/3.06
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/0962 having an indicator mounted inside the vehicle, e.g. giving voice messages
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/137 the indicator being in the form of a map

Abstract

The present inventions pertain to the geographically based information distribution systems, including in particular systems configured to display advertisements and information about current status of public transit vehicles based on geographic position of the vehicle and/or the displays.

Claims

1. A geographically-based information distribution system comprising

at least one mobile unit position receiver attached to at least one mobile unit, wherein the mobile unit position receiver wirelessly receives mobile unit position information;

at least one mobile unit position transmitter attached to the mobile unit wherein the mobile unit position transmitter transmits the mobile unit position information;

at least one processing unit comprising

a processing unit receiver; and

a processing unit transmitter;

a database including

at least one video segment;

at least one geographical zone associated with the at least one video segment;

at least one video display capable of displaying the at least one video segment;

wherein the processing unit has as an input the mobile unit position information received from the mobile unit position transmitter;

wherein the processing unit periodically identifies the video segments in the database whose geographical zone includes the mobile unit position; and

selects video segments from the identified video segments;

wherein the processing unit transmitter transmits to the video display the selected video segments;

wherein the video segment selection process is repeated at predetermined periods of time.

2. The geographically-based information distribution system of claim 1 wherein the mobile unit is a vehicle.

3. The geographically-based information distribution system of claim 1 wherein the video segment is an audio-video segment and the video display is an audio-video display.

4. The geographically-based information distribution system of claim 2 wherein at least one of the video displays is located inside the vehicle.

5. The geographically-based information distribution system of claim 2 wherein at least one of the video displays is located on outside surface of the vehicle.

6. The geographically-based information distribution system of claim 1 wherein the mobile position receiver is a satellite navigation system receiver configured to receive the mobile unit position information from a satellite navigation system network.

7. The geographically-based information distribution system of claim 6 wherein the satellite navigation system receiver is a GPS receiver and the satellite navigation system network is a GPS network.

8. The geographically-based information distribution system of claim 1 wherein the video segment is static.

9. The geographically-based information distribution system of claim 1 wherein the video segment is dynamic.

10. The geographically-based information distribution system of claim 1 wherein the processing unit transmitter transmits the selected video segments wirelessly.

11. The geographically-based information distribution system of claim 1 wherein the mobile unit position transmitter transmits the mobile unit position information wirelessly.

12. The geographically-based information distribution system of claim 2 wherein the database further includes vehicle route information and schedule;

the processing unit compares the vehicle position information with the vehicle route information and schedule and transmits the results of the comparison to the video display.

13. The geographically-based information distribution system of claim 2 wherein at least one of the video displays is located at a vehicle stop.

14. The geographically-based information distribution system of claim 13 wherein the database further includes geographical location information for the video displays located at the vehicle stops and the processing unit selects video segments to be displayed on the video display based on the geographic location of the video display.

15. The geographically-based information distribution system of claim 1 wherein the processing unit determines whether the vehicle is moving and transmits this information to at least one of the video displays.

16. The geographically-based information distribution system of claim 1 wherein the database further includes at least one time period associated with the at least one video segment and the processing unit selects video segment at least in part based on the time periods of the identified video segments and the current time.

17. A geographically-based information distribution system comprising

at least one mobile unit position receiver attached to at least one mobile unit, wherein the mobile unit position receiver wirelessly receives mobile unit position information;

at least one mobile unit position transmitter attached to the mobile unit wherein the mobile unit position transmitter transmits the mobile unit position information;

at least one processing unit comprising

a processing unit receiver; and

a processing unit transmitter;

at least one video display

wherein at least one video display is stationary;

a database including

at least one video segment;

geographical location information of at least one of the stationary video displays;

wherein the processing unit has as an input the mobile unit position information received from the mobile unit position transmitter;

wherein the processing unit

selects from the database video segments to be displayed on the stationary video display based on the geographic location of the stationary video display;

generates mobile unit position presentation;

wherein the processing unit transmitter transmits to the stationary video display the selected video segments and the mobile unit position presentation;

wherein the video segment selection process is repeated at predetermined periods of time.