METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR PRESENTING TRAFFIC-RELATED INFORMATION

• US 20100235774A1
• Filed: 04/02/2010
• Published: 09/16/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 12/22/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: HNTB Holdings Limited
• Original Assignee: HNTB Holdings Limited
• Inventors: Simon, Christopher James, Claudon, Timm J., Stehle, Tommy Allen, Sohl, Shawn Dewayne, Koromyslov, Aleksandr Mikhailovych
• Granted Patent: US 7,984,055 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/771
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/09 Arrangements for giving variable traffic instructions railroad crossing signals B61L; reflectors E01F, G08B; indicating arrangements for variable information by selection or combination of individual elements G09F9/00
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/13 the indicator being in the form of a map

Abstract

Presenting of real-world situational data on a dynamically updateable user interface is provided for by providing a dynamically updateable user interface that includes dynamic objects having variable characteristics and that correspond to real-world objects, receiving situational data that corresponds to a status of the one or more real-world objects, and conforming the one or more variable characteristics to be consistent with the situational data such that an observer of the one or more dynamic objects is informed of a current status of a corresponding real-world situation.

Claims

1. One or more computer-storage media having computer-useable instructions embodied thereon, that when executed by a computing device, perform a method of presenting real-world situational data on a system-independent, dynamically updateable user interface, the method comprising:

receiving information from a vector based computer aided drafting (CAD) graphics file that depicts a drawing comprising display objects which correspond to real-world objects that have variable display characteristics, wherein the display objects describe roadway geometry;

obtaining object rendering data from the graphics file to form a set of definable objects situated to resemble the roadway geometry;

providing a dynamically updateable user interface (UI) comprising one or more dynamic objects which reflect real-world events;

depicting the one or more dynamic objects on a map generated from the object-rendering data;

receiving situational data corresponding to a status of the real-world events;

conforming one or more variable characteristics associated with the dynamic objects according to the received situational data; and

updating the object rendering data, which automatically updates the associated dynamic objects of the dynamically updateable UI.

2. The media of claim 1, further comprising:

utilizing a route manager with the dynamically updateable UI to separate a route into a plurality of segments, wherein each of the plurality of segments are further divided into a set of polygons and each of the sets of polygons comprise a common map-related trait.

3. The media of claim 2, further comprising:

selecting a region via said route manager within an area comprising some of the plurality of segments and some of the sets of polygons, and wherein said selecting is based upon at least one of the real-world events; and

displaying the at least one real-world event for the selected region and the designated real world event to the dynamically updateable UI.

4. The media of claim 1, further comprising determining whether the object rendering data has changed from a previous state to a subsequent state.

5. The media of claim 4, further comprising automatically re-depicting the dynamic objects consistent with the subsequent state to the dynamically updateable UI.

6. The media of claim 4, wherein the determining comprises determining on an irregular schedule and based upon the occurrence of one or more events.

7. The media of claim 1, wherein the one or more variable characteristics includes one or more variable visual characteristics or audio characteristics.

8. The media of claim 7, wherein the visual characteristics include one or more of a color, a fill pattern, a blinking status, and a texture.

9. The media of claim 1, further comprising generating one or more alerts associated with the situational data.

10. The media of claim 9, further comprising communicating the one or more alerts to one or more remote devices.

11. One or more computer-storage media having computer-useable instructions embodied thereon, that when executed by a computing device, perform a method for presenting real-world situational data on a dynamically updateable user interface, the method comprising:

creating a dynamically updateable user interface (UI) including a map from a vector based computer aided drafting (CAD) graphics file comprising object-rendering data which describes real-world objects;

drawing the map via the dynamically updateable UI comprising static objects representing roadway geometry and depictions of dynamic objects, the depictions represented by attribute-receivable objects which are associated with one or more variable characteristics;

conforming the one or more variable characteristics according to received situational data;

receiving an indication that the object-rendering data has changed; and

automatically updating the map in response to the changed object-rendering data located in a repository.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the repository stores coordinate-geometry information and traffic-status information.

13. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

communicating traffic data to the dynamically updateable UI according to a push or pull model.

14. One or more computer-storage media having computer-useable instructions embodied thereon, that when executed by a computing device, facilitate a method for presenting real-world situational data on a dynamically updateable user interface, the method comprising:

importing one or more graphic primitives from one or more third party computer aided drafting (CAD) programs to a vector based CAD graphics file;

attaching attribute information to the one or more graphic primitives;

grouping the one or more graphic primitives into a logical or hierarchical order;

building object rendering data from the grouped one or more graphic primitives, the object rendering data describing real-world objects and being stored in the CAD graphics file;

communicating the object rendering data to a dynamically updateable user interface (UI);

updating the object rendering data according to changes in situational data associated with one or more real-world projects; and

automatically updating the dynamically updateable UI according to the updated object rendering data.

15. The media of claim 14, wherein the communicating comprises:

providing one or more drawing files comprising drawing data which represents roadway geometry.

16. The media of claim 15, wherein the communicating further comprises:

providing one or more drawing files comprising drawing data which depicts dynamic objects represented by attribute-receivable objects which are associated with one or more variable characteristics of received situational data.

17. The media of claim 14, further comprising:

gathering a plurality of informational attributes associated with traffic conditions of a geographic area; and

representing the informational attributes on the dynamically updateable UI.

18. The media of claim 16, wherein an observer of the dynamic objects is informed of a current status corresponding to a real-world situation.

19. The media of claim 16, wherein the automatically updating reflects a change in coordinate geometry information associated with the dynamic objects presented on the dynamically updateable UI.

20. The media of claim 14, further comprising:

receiving traffic data from one or more traffic-data gathering components.