System And Method For Using Cellular Network Components To Derive Traffic Information

• US 20110117896A1
• Filed: 11/13/2009
• Published: 05/19/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 11/13/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: AT&T Mobility II LLC (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Mobility II LLC (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Soelberg, Emily Lyons, Berry, Michael J. JR.
• Granted Patent: US 8,494,496 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/414.3
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/0104 Measuring and analyzing of parameters relative to traffic conditions
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/0141 for traffic information dissemination
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/08 Testing, supervising or monitoring using real traffic
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/44 for communication between vehicles and infrastructures, e.g. vehicle-to-cloud [V2C] or vehicle-to-home [V2H]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 64/006 with additional information processing, e.g. for direction or speed determination

Abstract

A traffic reporting system and method for geographic area of interest. The system includes standard wireless telecommunication components configured to establish search criteria, determine a sample size, collect traffic information, calculate additional traffic information, and generate reports.

Claims

1. A method for generating a traffic report, comprising:

selecting a geographic area of interest;

establishing search criteria;

collecting traffic information based on the establishing step;

calculating traffic data from the collected traffic information;

generating a traffic report from the calculated traffic data.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising determining a sample size for the collecting step.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the sample size is determined automatically based on the total volume of traffic information available.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the search criteria is based upon a travel direction.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the report includes advertising.

8. The method of claim 1 further comprising receiving a request for a traffic report.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein the selecting, establishing, collecting, calculating and generating steps are performed in response to the receiving step.

10. The method of claim 1 further comprising comparing the traffic data to historical traffic data and wherein the traffic report includes comparative traffic data.

4. The method of clam 1 wherein the search criteria is based upon demographic data.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein the report includes advertising based at least in part on the demographic data.

11. A method for generating a traffic report, comprising:

receiving a request for the traffic report from a mobile handset, wherein the request includes a geographic area and search criteria;

collecting traffic information based on the receiving step;

calculating traffic data from the collected traffic information;

generating a traffic report from the calculated traffic data'"'"'

delivering the traffic report to the mobile handset.

12. The method of claim 11 wherein the collecting step is based on demographic data.

13. The method of claim 11 wherein the traffic report includes advertising based at least in part on the traffic report.

14. A method of generating a traffic report, comprising:

selecting a mobile handset for tracking purposes;

collecting location information for that handset at selected time intervals;

calculating a speed and direction which the handset is traveling;

comparing the speed and direction with historical data;

generating a traffic report based on the calculating and comparing steps.