SYSTEM FOR TRANSMITTING, PROCESSING, RECEIVING, AND DISPLAYING TRAFFIC INFORMATION

• US 20120083995A1
• Filed: 04/05/2011
• Published: 04/05/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 05/09/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Crowd Sourced Traffic LLC
• Inventors: Vorona, Dimitri
• Granted Patent: US 9,286,795 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/119
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/0104 Measuring and analyzing of parameters relative to traffic conditions
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/0112 from the vehicle, e.g. floating car data [FCD]
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/0133 for classifying traffic situation
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/0141 for traffic information dissemination
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096716 where the received information does not generate an automatic action on the vehicle control
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/09675 where a selection from the received information takes place in the vehicle
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096775 where the origin of the information is a central station
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096783 where the origin of the information is a roadside individual element
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096791 where the origin of the information is another vehicle

Abstract

A system for sharing and processing road condition information includes a number of road condition information computer systems within individual vehicles or devices and a virtual road condition information server on a mobile network. The road condition information computer systems are each connected through a peer-to-peer radio, cellular, Wi-Fi, or other similar communications network, and which each operate with a database for displaying road maps, with a database storing average speed data for directions of travel along roadways, and with a location sensor used to determine the location and average speed of the vehicle or device, which are transmitted to other vehicles. The virtual server returns average speed data for road segments, which is displayed on the road maps. The system includes sharing average speed data calculated as well average speed data received from the plurality of vehicles to other vehicles, thereby enhancing the real-time communication of road condition data.

Claims

23. A computer program product comprising computer-executable instructions embodied in a non-transitory computer-readable medium and residing in a user device for performing steps comprising:

receiving, via a receiver, information regarding road conditions for at least one road segment, wherein said receiver is associated with a first vehicle of a plurality of vehicles;

receiving, via said receiver, information regarding average traffic speed for at least one road segment;

displaying, via a display screen, a subset of said information regarding said average speed data for a road segment, wherein said subset of said information is displayed over one or more displayed roadmaps;

displaying, via said display screen, a first indication on a road segment, wherein said first indication is an indicator of average speed traveled by said first vehicle;

determining, via a location determining module, a location and direction of said first vehicle of said plurality of vehicles;

determining a speed of said first vehicle, wherein said speed is the speed of the vehicle at time the determined location and direction of said first vehicle was determined; and

transmitting, via a transmitter, data representing said determined location, direction and speed to at least one third party for determination of an average speed for a road segment;

wherein said computer program product displays an orientation of said first vehicle and at least a second vehicle, wherein said orientation is and at least said second vehicle that said location determining module resides on.

1. A computer program product comprising computer-executable instructions embodied in a non-transitory computer-readable medium and residing in a user device for performing the steps, comprising:

receiving, via a receiver, information regarding road conditions from a plurality of third-party users, wherein said receiver is of or associated with a first vehicle of a plurality of vehicles;

storing, via a data storage database, said information regarding road condition data from said plurality of third-party users;

storing, via a road condition database, information regarding average speed data for road segments traveled by said plurality of third-party users;

displaying, via a display device, a subset of said information regarding said average speed data for road segments traveled, wherein said subset of said information is displayed on computer-generated roadmaps;

displaying, via said display screen, a first indication on a road segment, wherein said first indication is an indicator of average speed traveled by said first vehicle in any direction of travel of road and any direction of travel of road by at least a second vehicle of said plurality of vehicles;

determining, via a location determining module, a location and direction of said first vehicle of said plurality of vehicles;

calculating periodically, via a processor, an average speed of movement, wherein said calculation is performed at least for a predetermined time or predetermined distance traveled; and

transmitting, via a transmitter, said average speed of movement to at least one of other vehicles of said plurality of vehicles or a server, and transmitting said average speed data received from said plurality of vehicles to said other vehicles or said server, wherein said transmission is sent over a communications network that connects to each of said vehicles of said plurality of vehicles and said server,

wherein said computer program product displays said indication if said average speed data for road segments is displayed, and

wherein said computer program product displays an orientation of said first vehicle and at least a second vehicle, wherein said orientation is and at least said second vehicle that said location determining module resides on.

2. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein said communication network includes any communications network.

3. The computer program product of claim 2, wherein said communications network is one of an internet connection, a public switched telephone network, a cellular tower connected to said public switched telephone network, a cellular network, a 3G cellular network, a 4G cellular network, Edge network, WiFi network, WiMax network, or any other wireless network.

4. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein information regarding said average speed data includes data for opposite directions of travel a subset of said road segments.

5. The computer program product of claim 4, further comprising displaying said data for opposite direction of travel, wherein said data is displayed with a second indication, wherein said second indication resides next to said first indication on said display device.

6. The computer program product of claim 1, further comprising varying a subset of said information displayed in response to a movement of said vehicle.

7. The computer-program product of claim 6, further comprising controlling, via a user interface, said subset of said information that is displayed, wherein said subset of said information that is displayed is varied in response to inputs entered into said user interface.

8. The computer program product of claim 7, wherein said user interface includes a navigation control and a zoom control.

9. The computer program product of claim 1, further comprising varying said subset of said information displayed on said display device in relation to said responses to inputs entered into said user interface.

10. The computer program product of claim 9, wherein said inputs entered include inputting an address corresponding to a second location, wherein said address in entered via a virtual keyboard or entered through voice commands utilizing voice recognition for determining said second location corresponding to said address and for displaying said second location corresponding to said address on said roadmap displayed on said display device, and for providing information regarding said road condition data related to said address.

11. The computer program product of claim 10, further comprising determining a direction of travel to said second location, wherein said direction of travel is displayed on said display device and includes a route of travel of said vehicle from a location received by said location determining module to said address, wherein said route of travel being displayed on said display device.

12. The computer program product of claim 1, further comprising receiving information regarding said road condition data by any of said plurality of third-party users.

13. The computer program product of claim 1, further comprising:

storing, via a second data storage database, average data values, wherein said average data values are an average of said average speed data received by said road condition database;

transmitting said average data values to a remote device or any of said plurality vehicles;

transmitting said average speed data to a network,

receiving said average data values from said network; and

communicating, via said communications network, said received average data values to any of said plurality of vehicles.

14. The computer program product of claim 13, further comprising:

determining if a connection is made with said road condition information server over said communication network, wherein computer program product establishes a connection with said any one of said plurality of remote devices containing said computer program product or any of said plurality of vehicles containing said computer program product if said connection is not made, wherein said connection is established to receive or transmit said average data values from said plurality of remote devices or said plurality of vehicles.

15. The computer program product of claim 14, wherein said communications network is an internet connection, a public switched telephone network, a cellular tower connected to said public switched telephone network, a cellular network, a 3G cellular network, a 4G cellular network, Edge network, WiFi network, WiMax network, or any other wireless network.

16. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein said user device includes a computer, tablet computing device, a wireless telephone, a mounted heads-up display, a portable heads up display or a GPS device.

17. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein said road condition data comprises an average speed of said plurality of vehicles.

18. The computer program product of claim 17, further comprising calculating average data values including averages of speeds of a number of vehicles over particular road segments,

wherein said average data values additionally comprise an indicator representing said values comparing said averages of speeds with said normal speeds,

wherein said values are used to display a color if said averages of speeds is higher or lower than said normal speeds, wherein said normal speeds are one of historical speeds for said particular road segments or speed limits for said particular road segments.

19. The computer program product of claim 18, further comprising calculating values comparing said averages of speeds of a number of vehicles over particular road segments with normal speeds of vehicles over said particular road segments, and said average data values additionally comprise an indicator representing said values comparing said averages of speeds with said normal speeds.

20. The computer program product of claim 19, wherein said first indication includes at least one of color or speed on a road segment displayed on said display device in a location corresponding with a location indicated by an output of said location determining module and in an orientation indicating a direction of travel of said vehicle.

21. The computer program product of claim 20, further comprising storing, via said road condition database, color codes indicating road condition conditions for said road segments, wherein said computer program product receives said color codes and display colors derived from said color codes in locations corresponding to said road segments.

22. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein said information regarding said road condition data received from said plurality of third-party users includes an average speed of movement of said each user in a direction of movement along a road segment and a location of said user on said road segment, and

wherein said data storage database stores said road condition data received from said plurality of third-party users in a record corresponding to said direction of movement along said road segments and to calculate an average data value of all of said average speeds of movement received from said plurality of vehicles to be included within said average data value stored within said record within said database.

24. The computer program product of claim 23, wherein said transmitting step performed by said computer program product further comprises transmitting to a communication network.

25. The computer program product of claim 24, wherein said communications network is one of an internet connection, a public switched telephone network, a cellular tower connected to said public switched telephone network, a cellular network, a 3G cellular network, a 4G cellular network, Edge network, WiFi network, WiMax network, and a wireless network.

26. The computer program product of claim 23, further comprising the computer program product performing the step of displaying, via said display screen, a first indication on a road segment, wherein said first indication is an indicator of average speed traveled by said first vehicle;

27. The computer program product of claim 23, wherein information regarding said average speed data includes data for opposite directions of travel on a subset of said road segments.

28. The computer program product of claim 26, further comprising displaying said data for opposite direction of travel, wherein said data is displayed with a second indication, wherein said second indication resides next to said first indication on said display device.

29. The computer program product of claim 23, further comprising the computer program product performing the step of displaying, via said display screen, at least one road condition indication on a road segment, wherein each of the at least one road indications indicates at least one of the received information regarding road conditions;

30. The computer program product of claim 23, wherein the computer program product is configured to further perform the step of determining a road condition, and a location of the road condition via the location determining module, and wherein the computer program product is further performs the step of transmitting, via the transmitter, data representing said determined location, and road condition to at least one third party.

31. The computer program product of claim 30, wherein the step of determining a road condition comprises the step of displaying a user interface element having a predetermined set of road conditions for a user to select from, and upon selection of one or more predetermined road conditions, transmitting, via the transmitter, data representing said determined location, and road condition to at least one third party.

31-1. The computer program product of claim 30, wherein the step of determining a road condition comprises the step of determining from a sensor module, the existence of one or more road conditions, and upon determination of the existence of one or more predetermined road conditions, transmitting, via the transmitter, data representing said determined location, and road condition to at least one third party.

32. A computer program product comprising computer-executable instructions embodied in a computer-readable medium for performing steps comprising:

receiving, via a receiver, information regarding one or more road conditions for at least one road segment, from one or more transmitters, each associated with a vehicle;

receiving, via said receiver, information regarding the location of a transmitter, said location associated with at least one road conditions;

storing said road condition information and location information associated with said road condition;

receiving, via said one or more receiver, information regarding traffic speed and location for at least one transmitter;

storing said traffic speed information and location;

generating an average traffic speed for a road segment by averaging the information regarding traffic speeds for locations defined by the road segment;

generating a set of road condition data and associated location information for each road condition;

transmitting, via a transmitter, data representing said average traffic speed for a road segment to one or more receivers associated with a vehicle;

transmitting, via a transmitter, data representing said set of road condition data and associated location information to one or more receivers associated with a vehicle.

33. The computer program product of claim 32, further comprising the computer program product performing the step of determining a set of road condition data and associate location information by comparing the generated average traffic speed for a road segment against a normal average traffic speed for the road segment and determining that a road condition exists when the generated average speed falls below a predetermined threshold related to the normal average traffic speed for the road segment.

34. The computer program product of claim 32, further comprising the computer program product performing the step of determining a set of road condition data and associated location information related to a lane closure by comparing the generated average traffic speed for a road segment against a normal average traffic speed for the road segment, and comparing a number of location data associated with the received speed data for a particular location to the number of normal location data associated with a particular location, and determining that a lane closure road condition exists when the generated average speed falls below a predetermined threshold related to the normal average traffic speed for the road segment and the number of received location data associated with a particular location falls below a predetermined threshold related to the normal location data associated with the particular location.