METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR SHARING TRAFFIC INFORMATION

• US 20100121522A1
• Filed: 11/02/2009
• Published: 05/13/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 11/05/2008
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Board of Trustees of The University of Illinois
• Original Assignee: Board of Trustees of The University of Illinois
• Inventors: Tanizaki, Masaaki, WOLFSON, OURI
• Application Number:
  US12/610,912
• Publication Number:
  US 20100121522A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/33
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/52 Determining velocity
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/0027 of actual mobile position, i.e. position determined on mobile
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/0104 Measuring and analyzing of parameters relative to traffic conditions

Abstract

A system that incorporates teachings of the present disclosure may include, for example, a communication device having a controller to receive from a system a broadcasted vehicle velocity, detect that a difference between a velocity of a vehicle carrying the communication device and the broadcasted vehicle velocity exceeds a threshold, and determine from a random policy whether to transmit the velocity of the vehicle to the system. Additional embodiments are disclosed.

Claims

1. A communication device, comprising a controller to:

receive from a system a broadcasted vehicle velocity;

detect that a difference between a velocity of a vehicle carrying the communication device and the broadcasted vehicle velocity exceeds a threshold; and

determine from a random policy whether to transmit the velocity of the vehicle to the system.

2. The communication device of claim 1, wherein the controller is operable to transmit to the system the velocity of the vehicle responsive to determining from the random policy to perform such transmission.

3. The communication device of claim 1, wherein the random policy conforms to a probability p for determining whether to transmit the velocity of the vehicle to the system.

4. The communication device of claim 3, wherein the probability p is determined from a tradeoff between a communication cost of transmitting the velocity of the vehicle to the system, and an uncertainty cost in calculating the broadcasted vehicle velocity.

5. The communication device of claim 1, wherein the controller is operable to receive the random policy from the system.

6. The communication device of claim 1, wherein the controller is operable to receive the threshold from the system.

7. The communication device of claim 1, wherein the controller is operable to receive from the system at least one of the random policy and the threshold according to a location of the vehicle.

8. The communication device of claim 1, wherein the communication device corresponds to a portable wireless communication device, and wherein the system corresponds to a computing device communicatively coupled to the communicative device over a wireless communication network.

9. The communication device of claim 1, wherein the communication device comprises a global positioning system to determine the velocity of the vehicle.

10. A computing device, comprising a controller to:

broadcast to a plurality of vehicles an observed vehicle velocity associated vehicles traveling on at least one road segment;

receive a velocity of a vehicle traveling the at least one road segment from a communication device responsive to detecting that a difference in the velocity of the vehicle and the observed vehicle velocity exceeds a threshold and satisfies a random policy used by the communication device; and

update the observed vehicle velocity according to the received velocity of the vehicle.

11. The computing device of claim 10, wherein the controller is operable to broadcast to the plurality of vehicles the updated observed vehicle velocity.

12. The computing device of claim 10, wherein the random policy corresponds to a probability for determining whether to transmit the velocity of the vehicle to the system.

13. The computing device of claim 12, wherein the probability is determined from a tradeoff between a communication cost of transmitting the velocity of the vehicle to the computing device, and an uncertainty cost in calculating the observed vehicle velocity.

14. The computing device of claim 10, wherein the controller is operable to transmit the random policy to the communication device.

15. The computing device of claim 10, wherein the controller is operable to transmit the threshold to the communication device.

16. The computing device of claim 10, wherein the controller is operable to transmit to the communication device at least one of the random policy and the threshold according to a location of the vehicle.

17. The computing device of claim 10, wherein the communication device is carried by the vehicle and corresponds to a portable wireless communication device, and wherein the computing device corresponds to a server communicatively coupled to the communication device over a wireless communication network.

18. A computer-readable storage medium, comprising computer instructions to transmit a measured velocity of a vehicle responsive to a random policy.

19. The storage medium of claim 18, comprising computer instructions to transmit the measured velocity of the vehicle responsive to detecting that a difference between the measured velocity of the vehicle and a broadcasted observed vehicle velocity exceeds a threshold, and the random policy directs a transmission of said velocity.

20. The storage medium of claim 18, wherein the storage medium operates in a communication device, and wherein the measured velocity is transmitted to a computing device for updating the broadcasted observed vehicle velocity.

21. A computer-readable storage medium, comprising computer instructions to receive from a device a measured velocity of a vehicle responsive to a random policy that directs said device to transmit the velocity of the vehicle.

22. The storage medium of claim 21, wherein the device corresponds to a communication device carried by the vehicle, and wherein the storage medium operates in a server operable to broadcast an observed vehicle velocity to a plurality of vehicles including the communication device.