Personalized traveler information dissemination system

• US 6,989,765 B2
• Filed: 03/05/2003
• Issued: 01/24/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 03/05/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Uber Technologies, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Triangle Software LLC (Pelmorex, Inc.)
• Inventors: Gueziec, Andre
• Primary Examiner(s): Wu, Daniel
• Assistant Examiner(s): Nguyen, Tai T.
• Application Number:
  US10/379,967
• Publication Number:
  US 20030171870A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,056 Days
• Field of Search: 340/905, 340/870.01, 340/995, 340/988, 340/992, 340/994, 340/995.24, 340/995.13, 701/211, 701/213, 701/209
• US Class Current: 340/905
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/26 specially adapted for navigation in a road network
• 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

Abstract

Disclosed herein is a traveler information monitoring and dissemination system. The system disclosed herein provides real time information to a traveler, wherein the real time information may be pre-selected by the traveler. The system ensures consistent and quality data are produced and issued to the traveler.

Claims

1. A traveler information dissemination system, comprising:

a traveler information selection utility for storing user criteria organized by location codes;

at least one data source for providing current data relating to traveling conditions;

a data processing system for producing quality data, the quality data comprising current data that is as complete and timely as is presently available, and a corresponding location code from the current data, wherein the data processing system stores the quality data and location code; and

,

a publishing system for obtaining traveler information from the quality data based on the location code and providing the traveler information to a user according to the user criteria.

2. A traveler information dissemination system as in claim 1, wherein the user criteria comprises at least one of:

day of week, date, time, severity level, direction and location.

3. A traveler information dissemination system as in claim 1, wherein the traveler information selection utility is accessible through the Internet.

4. A traveler information dissemination system as in claim 1, wherein the traveler information selection utility accepts user criteria provided by a wireless device.

5. A traveler information dissemination system as in claim 4, wherein the wireless device comprises at least one of a global positioning system receiver and a cellular telephone.

6. A traveler information dissemination system as in claim 1, wherein the current data comprises at least one of vehicular incident information, vehicular speed and congestion information, public event information, weather information, and user input.

7. A traveler information dissemination system as in claim 1, comprising:

at least one feeding program for at least one of including a unique identification in the current data, transferring the current data and repackaging the current data.

8. A traveler information dissemination system as in claim 1, wherein the quality data comprises at least one of geographic coordinates, a severity level, an identification code, an end time, and a direction.

9. A traveler information dissemination system as in claim 1, wherein the publishing system comprises an abbreviation engine for providing traveler information in an abbreviated form.

10. A traveler information dissemination system as in claim 1, wherein the publishing system comprises at least one of a data publisher and a data dispatcher.

11. A traveler information dissemination system as in claim 1, wherein the publishing system comprises a graphical icon publisher for generating graphical icons descriptive of a class of traveler information.

12. A traveler information dissemination system as in claim 1, further comprising a diagnostic program for evaluation of the system.

13. The traveler information dissemination system of claim 1, wherein each location code corresponds to one of one or more sections of one or more roadways.

14. The traveler information dissemination system of claim 13, wherein each section of the one or more roadways is assigned a unique location code.

15. A computer implemented method for disseminating traveler information to a user, comprising:

storing user criteria for selecting the traveler information, wherein the user criteria are organized by a user criteria location code;

collecting current data relating to traveling conditions from at least one data source;

determining a second location code for the current data;

producing quality data from the current data, the quality data comprising current data that is as complete and timely as is presently available;

storing the quality data and the second location code; and

,

providing the traveler information to the user according to the user criteria, wherein the traveler information is selected from the quality data by matching the second location code with the user criteria location code.

16. A method as in claim 15, wherein the second location code represents a location within the user criteria location code.

17. A method as in claim 15, wherein collecting comprises obtaining the current data and pushing the current data to the processing system.

18. A method as in claim 15, wherein producing quality data comprises determining for each piece of the current data and including in each piece of the current data at least one of:

a geographical coordinate, a severity level and an end time.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein a given piece of current data does not include one or more items, wherein producing quality data comprises determining for the given piece the one or more items and providing the one or more items in quality data corresponding to the given piece, and wherein the one or more items comprises one or more of:

a geographical coordinate, a severity level and an end time.

20. A method as in claim 15, wherein producing quality data comprises at least one of vehicular incident information, vehicular speed and congestion information, public event information, weather information, and user input.

21. A method as in claim 15, wherein providing comprises sending the traveler information to at least one of a cellular phone, a pager, a PDA, and an email address.

22. A method as in claim 15, wherein providing the traveler information comprises providing the traveler information in an abbreviated form.

23. A method as in claim 15, wherein providing the traveler information comprises displaying the traveler information according to at least one graphical icon, the icon descriptive of a class of traveler information.

24. A method as in claim 15, wherein the method further comprises sorting the traveler information by severity level.

25. The method of claim 24, wherein providing traveler information to the user further comprises providing only traveler information having predetermined severity levels to the user.

26. The method of claim 15, wherein each user criteria location code corresponds to one of one or more sections of one or more roadways and wherein each second location code corresponds to one of the one or more sections of the one or more roadways.

27. The method of claim 26, wherein each section of the one or more roadways is assigned a unique location code.