Method and apparatus reporting a vehicular sensor waveform in a wireless vehicular sensor network
First Claim
1. A method for responding to the presence of a vehicle comprising the step of:
- operating a wireless vehicular sensor network (1600) comprising the steps of;
operating at least one wireless vehicular sensor node (500) responding to said presence of said vehicle (6) in said wireless vehicular sensor network, comprising the steps of;
using a vehicle sensor state (104) from a vehicular sensor (2) to create a vehicular sensor waveform (106) based upon said presence of said vehicle by updating a vehicle sensor state queue with said vehicle sensor state, deriving said vehicular sensor waveform from said vehicle sensor state queue, determining a change-in-presence of said vehicle based upon said vehicle sensor state queue, and updating a waveform queue with a waveform characteristic when said change-in-presence is indicated;
generating a report (130) including at least two waveform characteristic (120) of at least two of said vehicular sensor waveform by assembling said report from said waveform queue, and indicating report members of said waveform queue; and
operating a transmitter (22) in a transceiver (20) to send said report across at least one wireless physical transport (1510) to an access point (1500) included said wireless vehicular sensor network, to approximate said vehicular sensor waveform at said access point; and
operating said access point, comprising the steps;
operating a receiver in a second transceiver (1020) to receive said report; and
deriving a vehicle velocity estimate (1054) for at least one of said vehicle from said report.
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Accused Products
Abstract
At least one waveform characteristic of a vehicular sensor waveform is reported in a wireless vehicular sensor network. The vehicular sensor waveform results a vehicle'"'"'s presence near a wireless vehicular sensor node. The waveform characteristic may be rising edge, falling edge, waveform duration and/or waveform midpoint of vehicular sensor waveform. Report transmission uses at least one wireless physical transport. Transmitting the report may initiate a response across the wireless physical transport, preferably from an access point, an acknowledgement of receiving the report. The transmitted report may be received by an access point in the wireless vehicular sensor network. The wireless vehicular sensor network may create any of a vehicular traffic report, a vehicular parking report, and/or a vehicular speeding report, based upon the received vehicular sensor waveform report.
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Citations
45 Claims
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1. A method for responding to the presence of a vehicle comprising the step of:
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operating a wireless vehicular sensor network (1600) comprising the steps of; operating at least one wireless vehicular sensor node (500) responding to said presence of said vehicle (6) in said wireless vehicular sensor network, comprising the steps of; using a vehicle sensor state (104) from a vehicular sensor (2) to create a vehicular sensor waveform (106) based upon said presence of said vehicle by updating a vehicle sensor state queue with said vehicle sensor state, deriving said vehicular sensor waveform from said vehicle sensor state queue, determining a change-in-presence of said vehicle based upon said vehicle sensor state queue, and updating a waveform queue with a waveform characteristic when said change-in-presence is indicated; generating a report (130) including at least two waveform characteristic (120) of at least two of said vehicular sensor waveform by assembling said report from said waveform queue, and indicating report members of said waveform queue; and operating a transmitter (22) in a transceiver (20) to send said report across at least one wireless physical transport (1510) to an access point (1500) included said wireless vehicular sensor network, to approximate said vehicular sensor waveform at said access point; and operating said access point, comprising the steps; operating a receiver in a second transceiver (1020) to receive said report; and deriving a vehicle velocity estimate (1054) for at least one of said vehicle from said report. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41)
wherein the means for operating said radio transmitter, further comprises; means for operating a radio transceiver to send said report of said waveform characteristic to said access point; and wherein the means for operating said infrared transmitter, further comprises; means for operating an infrared transceiver to send said report of said waveform characteristic to said access point.
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11. The wireless vehicular sensor network of claim 8, wherein said radio transceiver implements a version of at least one wireless communications protocol.
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12. The wireless vehicular sensor network of claim 11, wherein said wireless communications protocol includes the IEEE 80215 communications standard.
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13. The wireless vehicular sensor network of claim 12, wherein said version of said wireless communications protocol includes the IEEE 802154 communications standard.
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14. The wireless vehicular sensor network of claim 13, wherein said radio transceiver uses at least one channel of said wireless communications protocol.
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15. The wireless vehicular sensor network of claim 8, wherein said vehicular sensor includes a magnetic sensor.
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16. The wireless vehicular sensor network of claim 15, wherein said magnetic sensor has a primary sensing axis for sensing said presence of said vehicle used to create said vehicle sensor state.
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17. The wireless vehicular sensor network of claim 15, wherein said magnetic sensor uses a form of the magnetic resistive effect to create said vehicle sensor state.
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18. The wireless vehicular sensor network of claim 17, wherein said magnetic sensor includes an at least two axis magneto-resistive sensor to create said vehicle sensor state.
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19. The wireless vehicular sensor network of claim 18, wherein said magnetic sensor includes a two axis magneto-resistive sensor to create said vehicle sensor state.
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20. The wireless vehicular sensor network of claim 18, wherein said magnetic sensor includes a three axis magneto-resistive sensor to create said vehicle sensor state.
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21. The wireless vehicular sensor network of claim 8, wherein at least one of said means for using said vehicular sensor and said means for operating said transmitter, includes at least one of a finite state machine, a field programmable logic device, and a computer;
wherein said computer includes at least one instruction processor and at least one data processor directed by at least one of said instruction processors.
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22. A method comprising the step making said wireless vehicular sensor network of claim 8, comprising the step:
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making said wireless vehicular sensor node, comprising the steps; inserting a circuit apparatus containing said means of said wireless vehicular sensor node into a plastic shell to content-create a content shell; wherein said method further comprises at least one of the steps; gluing said content shell to an indentation in a locally flat surface to create said wireless vehicular sensor node with said glued bond to said indentation in said locally flat surface; and gluing a protective assembly containing said content shell to said locally flat surface to create said wireless vehicular sensor node with said glued bond to said locally flat surface.
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23. The method of claim 22, further comprising the step:
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filling said content shell with a filler to fill-create a filled shell; and wherein said method, further comprises at least one of the steps; gluing said filled shell to an indentation in a locally flat surface to create said wireless vehicular sensor node with said glued bond to said indentation in said locally flat surface; and gluing said filled shell to said locally flat surface to glue-create said wireless vehicular sensor node with a glued bond to said locally flat surface.
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24. The wireless vehicular sensor node with said glued bond to said locally flat surface and the wireless vehicular sensor node with said glued bond to said indentation in said locally flat surface, as a product of the process of claim 22.
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25. The method of claim 1, wherein the step operating said receiver further comprises at least one of the steps:
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operating said receiver to receive said report from said wireless vehicular sensor node; and operating said receiver to receive said report via an intermediate node from said wireless vehicular sensor node.
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26. The method of claim 1, wherein the step operating said receiver further comprises the step:
- operating said second transceiver to receive said report.
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27. The method of claim 26, wherein the step operating said access point further comprising the step of:
- operating said second transceiver to send an acknowledgement of said report.
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28. The method of claim 27, wherein the step operating said second transceiver to send, further comprises at least one of the steps:
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operating said second transceiver to send said acknowledgement to said wireless vehicular sensor node; and operating said second transceiver to send said acknowledgement via an intermediate sensor node to said wireless vehicular sensor node.
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29. The acknowledgement, as a product of the process of claim 28.
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30. The method of claim 26, wherein the step operating said access point further comprising the step:
- operating said second transceiver to send a synchronization message to at least one wireless vehicular sensor node included in said wireless vehicular sensor network.
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31. The method of claim 30, wherein the step operating said second transceiver to send said synchronization message, further comprises the step:
- operating said second transceiver to send said synchronization message to each of said wireless vehicular sensor nodes included in said wireless vehicular sensor network.
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32. The method of claim 30, wherein said synchronization message includes a global clock count.
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33. The method of claim 32, wherein the step operating said access point further comprising the step:
- maintaining said global clock count.
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34. The method of claim 26, wherein said second transceiver includes at least one of:
- an ultrasonic transmitter, a radio transmitter, and an infra-red transmitter.
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35. The method of claim 30, wherein the step operating said second transceiver to send said synchronization signal, further comprises the step:
- operating said transceiver to send said synchronization message via an intermediate node to said at least one wireless vehicular sensor node.
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36. The method of claim 1, wherein said receiver includes at least one of:
an ultrasonic receiver, a radio receiver, and an infra-red receiver.
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37. The method of claim 1, wherein the step operating said access point further comprising the step:
- assembling a traffic report based upon said vehicle velocity estimate.
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38. The method of claim 37, wherein the step operating said access point further comprising the step:
- operating a network transceiver to send said traffic report to a traffic monitoring network.
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39. The traffic report, as a product of the process of claim 37.
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40. The vehicular sensor waveform, the waveform characteristic, the report, the report received at said access point and the vehicle velocity estimate, as products of the process of claim 1.
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41. The method of claim 1, wherein the step operating said wireless vehicular sensor node further comprises the step of:
- operating at least two of said wireless vehicular sensor nodes, each responding to said presence of said vehicle by generating and sending said report; and
wherein the step of operating said receiver further comprises the step of operating said receiver to receive said report from each of at least two of said wireless vehicular sensor nodes; wherein the step of deriving said vehicle estimate further comprises deriving said vehicle velocity estimate based upon at least two of said reports, each from different of said wireless vehicular sensor nodes.
- operating at least two of said wireless vehicular sensor nodes, each responding to said presence of said vehicle by generating and sending said report; and
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42. A wireless vehicular sensor network (1600) configured to respond to the presence of a vehicle, comprising:
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at least two wireless vehicular sensor nodes (500) each configured to wirelessly receive a global clock count (52) indicated by a synchronization message to maintain a clock count (36) used to operate a vehicle sensor (2) to respond to said presence of said vehicle (6) to generate and send a report (130) via a transceiver (20) across at least one wireless physical transport (1510), with said wireless vehicular sensor nodes further configured to generate said report including at least two vehicular sensor waveforms each including at least two waveform characteristics based upon a vehicle sensor state from a vehicle sensor by updating a vehicle sensor state queue with said vehicle sensor state, deriving said vehicular sensor waveform from said vehicle sensor state queue, determining a change-in-presence of said vehicle based upon said vehicle sensor state queue, and updating a waveform queue with a waveform characteristic when said change-in-presence is indicated, and generate said report by assembling said report from said waveform queue, and indicating report members of said waveform queue; and an access point (1500) including a second transceiver (1020) configured to receive said report across said wireless physical transport, a clock timer (1022) used to create a global clock count used to generate a synchronization message transmitted by said second transceiver across said wireless physical transport to each of said wireless vehicular sensor nodes, and a vehicle velocity estimate (1054) based upon said reports received via said second transceiver, with said reports acknowledged by acknowledgement messages sent said across said wireless physical transport to said wireless vehicle sensor node that originated said report. - View Dependent Claims (43, 44, 45)
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Specification