Enabling driver communication

• US 8,378,849 B2
• Filed: 07/28/2009
• Issued: 02/19/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 07/28/2009
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: AirBNB Incorporated
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Chandra, Ankur, Ivan, Anca-Andreea
• Primary Examiner(s): Swarthout, Brent
• Application Number:
  US12/510,759
• Publication Number:
  US 20110025527A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,302 Days
• Field of Search: 340/905, 340/902, 340/995.13, 340/991
• US Class Current: 340/905
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/161 Decentralised systems, e.g. inter-vehicle communication

Abstract

Techniques for generating driving information based on one or more driver inputs are provided. The techniques include receiving information about one or more triggering factors from at least one of one or more internal entities and one or more external entities, using the information to generate a message about the one or more triggering factors, and sending the message to one or more additional drivers.

Claims

1. A method for generating driving information based on one or more driver inputs, wherein the method comprises:

receiving information about one or more triggering factors from at least one of one or more internal entities and one or more external entities;

using the information to generate a message about the one or more triggering factors;

computing a credibility score by comparing the message with one or more of a decision computed by a voting algorithm and a set of one or more external events; and

sending the message to one or more additional drivers, wherein one or more steps of said method are performed by one or more hardware devices.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising dynamically updating credibility of each driver.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein sending the message to one or more additional drivers comprises sending a weighted message based on credibility of each driver that provided input.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein information from one or more external entities comprises at least one of information related to a global positioning system (GPS) and information related to a state of a vehicle.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein information from one or more internal entities comprises information about at least one of a driver from a driver graphical user interface and a car sensor.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein sending the message to one or more additional drivers comprises sending the message to one or more additional drivers via a driver graphical user interface of each driver.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein using the information to generate a message about the one or more triggering factors comprises computing a score for the message.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein computing a score for the message comprises computing a score for the message online, wherein computing the score for the message online comprises comparing the message with a decision computed by the voting algorithm.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein computing a score for the message comprises computing a score for the message off-line, wherein computing a score for the message off-line comprises:

enabling a driver to connect to a website that contains the set of one or more external events; and

comparing the message with the one or more external events.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising enabling the voting mechanism based on driver community information.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the voting mechanism is used to make one or more determinations about one or more driving situations, and wherein the voting mechanism uses driver votes, state data and one or more weightings to make a determination about a driving situation.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the method is run on a system, wherein the system comprises one or more distinct software modules, each of the one or more distinct software modules being embodied on a tangible computer-readable recordable storage medium, and wherein the one or more distinct software modules comprise a driver graphical user interface module, a global positioning system module, a peer-to-peer client module and a rule engine module executing on a hardware processor.

13. A computer program product comprising a tangible computer readable recordable storage medium including computer useable program code for generating driving information based on one or more driver inputs, the computer program product including:

computer useable program code for receiving information about one or more triggering factors from at least one of one or more internal entities and one or more external entities;

computer useable program code for using the information to generate a message about the one or more triggering factors;

computer useable program code for computing a credibility score by comparing the message with one or more of a decision computed by a voting algorithm and a set of one or more external events; and

computer useable program code for sending the message to one or more additional drivers.

14. The computer program product of claim 13, wherein the computer useable program code for sending the message to one or more additional drivers comprises computer useable program code for sending a weighted message based on credibility of each driver that provided input.

15. The computer program product of claim 13, further comprising computer useable program code for dynamically updating credibility of each driver.

16. The computer program product of claim 13, wherein the computer useable program code comprises one or more distinct software modules, and wherein the one or more distinct software modules comprise a driver graphical user interface module, a global positioning system module, a peer-to-peer client module and a rule engine module executing on a hardware processor.

17. A system for generating driving information based on one or more driver inputs, comprising:

a memory; and

at least one processor coupled to the memory and operative to;

receive information about one or more triggering factors from at least one of one or more internal entities and one or more external entities;

use the information to generate a message about the one or more triggering factors;

computing a credibility score by comparing the message with one or more of a decision computed by a voting algorithm and a set of one or more external events; and

send the message to one or more additional drivers.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the at least one processor coupled to the memory operative to send the message to one or more additional drivers is further operative to send a weighted message based on credibility of each driver that provided input.

19. The system of claim 17, wherein the at least one processor coupled to the memory is further operative to dynamically update credibility of each driver.

20. The system of claim 17, further comprising a tangible computer-readable recordable storage medium having one or more distinct software modules embodied thereon, the one or more distinct software modules comprising a driver graphical user interface module, a global positioning system module, a peer-to-peer client module and a rule engine module executing on a hardware processor.