Public transit vehicle arrival information system
First Claim
1. An interactive information and control system for transit vehicles in a transit system, comprising:
- (1) a global positioning system device located in selected transit vehicles in the transit system for monitoring the position of said transit vehicles;
(2) a system computer, (a) storing an historical transit data table containing transit vehicle schedules of the travel times necessary for said transit vehicles to move from one stop to another along their routes under different conditions, advertisements, and information for the operators and passengers of said transit vehicles, (b) selecting from said historical transit data table a schedule of travel times applicable for current conditions along a given route, and (c) using said schedule of travel times from said historical transit data table and said position of said transit vehicles at a given time to calculate predicted arrival times at which said transit vehicles will arrive at upcoming stops and incorporating, said predicted arrival times in a predicted transit data table;
(3) means communicating between said global positioning system device and said system computer for transmitting said position of said transit vehicles to said system computer;
(4) means broadcasting said predicted transit data table within the area served by the transit system; and
(5) receivers selected from any member of the group consisting of portable receivers, receivers at selected vehicle stops, and receivers on board said transit vehicles within the transit system, said receivers adapted for receiving the broadcasted predicted transit data table and displaying at least subsets of said predicted transit data table associated with said selected receivers, including subsets containing said predicted arrival times, a hold time that said transit vehicles will pause at their current locations, said advertisements, and said information for said operators and passengers of said transit vehicles.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A system for notifying passengers waiting for public transit vehicles of the status of the vehicles, including the arrival times of vehicles at stops. The system includes global position determining devices located in the vehicles for determining the location of the vehicles along their routes. A central processor or computer is coupled to the global position determining devices for receiving the locations of vehicles therefrom. The processor is programmed to compute and update from the present location of the transit system vehicles and electronically stored information a transit data table which includes status information for all the vehicles in the system, including the location of scheduled stops, connections to other transit vehicles at the stops, and the arrival times of vehicles at their stops. The vehicle status and other information, including news and advertisements are then made available for public access in a manner geared to the locations of the vehicles, the time of day, day of week, date, location, season, holiday, weather etc. Portable access means such as pagers, notebook and palm computers and telephones and stationary access means such as personal computers and telephones and display modules in communication with the central processor, receive the computed arrival time and other information for selected routes, stops, etc. from the central processor, and communicate the information to the passenger(s).
317 Citations
12 Claims
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1. An interactive information and control system for transit vehicles in a transit system, comprising:
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(1) a global positioning system device located in selected transit vehicles in the transit system for monitoring the position of said transit vehicles;
(2) a system computer, (a) storing an historical transit data table containing transit vehicle schedules of the travel times necessary for said transit vehicles to move from one stop to another along their routes under different conditions, advertisements, and information for the operators and passengers of said transit vehicles, (b) selecting from said historical transit data table a schedule of travel times applicable for current conditions along a given route, and (c) using said schedule of travel times from said historical transit data table and said position of said transit vehicles at a given time to calculate predicted arrival times at which said transit vehicles will arrive at upcoming stops and incorporating, said predicted arrival times in a predicted transit data table;
(3) means communicating between said global positioning system device and said system computer for transmitting said position of said transit vehicles to said system computer;
(4) means broadcasting said predicted transit data table within the area served by the transit system; and
(5) receivers selected from any member of the group consisting of portable receivers, receivers at selected vehicle stops, and receivers on board said transit vehicles within the transit system, said receivers adapted for receiving the broadcasted predicted transit data table and displaying at least subsets of said predicted transit data table associated with said selected receivers, including subsets containing said predicted arrival times, a hold time that said transit vehicles will pause at their current locations, said advertisements, and said information for said operators and passengers of said transit vehicles. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3)
at least one signal button suitably located for access by a passenger for sending a request for a type of service to said system computer, wherein said system computer receives location data contemporaneous with said request.
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4. An interactive information and control system for transit vehicles in a transit system, comprising:
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(1) a global positioning system device located in selected transit vehicles in the transit system for monitoring the position of said transit vehicles;
(2) a system computer, (a) storing at least one historical transit data table containing transit vehicle schedules of the travel times necessary for said transit vehicles to move from one stop to another along their routes under different conditions, advertisements, and information for the operators and passengers of said transit vehicles, (b) selecting from said historical transit data table a schedule of travel times applicable for current conditions along a given route, and (c) using said schedule of travel times from said historical transit data table and the position of said transit vehicles at a given time to calculate predicted arrival times at which said transit vehicles will arrive at upcoming stops and incorporating said predicted arrival times in a predicted transit data table;
(3) means communicating between said global positioning system device and said system computer for transmitting said position of said transit vehicles to said system computer;
(4) means broadcasting said predicted transit data table within the area served by the transit system;
(5) receivers selected from any member of the group consisting of portable receivers, receivers at selected vehicle stops, and receivers on board said transit vehicles within the transit system, said receivers adapted for receiving the broadcasted predicted transit data table and displaying at least subsets of said predicted transit data table associated with said selected receivers, including subsets containing at least one of said predicted arrival times, a hold time that said transit vehicles will pause at their current locations, said advertisements, and said information for said operators and passengers of said transit vehicles;
(6) means supplying contemporaneous status information regarding said transit vehicles and route conditions to said system computer;
(7) means applying said contemporaneous status information to the predicted transit data table to update the predicted transit data table; and
(8) means using the updated predicted transit data table to allocate said transit vehicles within the system. - View Dependent Claims (5, 6)
at least one signal button suitably located for access by a passenger for sending a request for a type of service to said system computer, wherein said system computer receives location data contemporaneous with said request.
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7. A method for providing information to and controlling vehicles in a transit system, comprising:
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(1) monitoring the positions of a plurality of vehicles and periodically broadcasting said plurality of vehicle positions to one or more selected locations separate from said plurality of vehicles;
(2) at the selected locations, (a) storing at least one historical transit data table containing vehicle schedules of the travel times necessary for said plurality of vehicles to move from one stop to another along their routes under different conditions, advertisements, and information for the operators and passengers of said plurality of vehicles, (b) selecting from said historical transit data table a schedule of travel times applicable for current conditions along a given route, and (c) using said schedule of travel times from said historical transit data table and said plurality of vehicle positions at a given time to calculate predicted arrival times at which said plurality of vehicles will arrive at upcoming stops and incorporating said predicted arrival and departure times in a predicted transit data table;
(3) broadcasting said predicted transit data table within the area served by the transit system;
(4) at selected receivers including on said plurality of vehicles, receiving the broadcasted predicted transit data table and displaying at least subsets of said predicted transit data table associated with said selected receivers, including subsets containing at least one of said predicted arrival times, a hold time that said plurality of vehicles will pause at their current locations, said advertisements, and said information for said operators and passengers of said plurality of vehicles;
(5) broadcasting contemporaneous status information regarding said plurality of vehicles and route conditions to said one or more selected locations;
(6) applying said contemporaneous status information to said predicted transit data table to update said predicted transit data table; and
(7) broadcasting said updated predicted transit data table to said plurality of vehicles and using said updated predicted transit data table information to allocate vehicles within the transit system. - View Dependent Claims (8, 9, 10, 11, 12)
displaying to said operators of said plurality of vehicles operator specific information to be acted upon appropriately by said operators of said plurality of vehicles based on the content of said operator specific information.
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12. The method of claim 7 further comprising:
accessing, by a passenger with a portable access device, at least subsets of said predicted transit data table that has been broadcasted, including subsets containing at least one of said predicted arrival times, a hold time that said plurality of vehicles will pause at their current locations, said advertisements, and said information for said operators and passengers of said plurality of vehicles.
Specification