Intelligent road signs

• US 8,880,237 B2
• Filed: 01/04/2013
• Issued: 11/04/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 01/04/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Slingshot IOT LLC
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Boss, Gregory J., Jones, Andrew R., McConnell, Kevin C., Moore, John E.
• Primary Examiner(s): Beaulieu, Yonel
• Application Number:
  US13/734,312
• Publication Number:
  US 20140195068A1
• Time in Patent Office: 669 Days
• Field of Search: 701/1, 701/117, 348148- 9, 405/84, 406/12, 382104- 5, 340/539.22, 340/539.26, 340/691.1, 340/691.6, 340/905, 340907- 8, 340936- 7, 340/939
• US Class Current: 701/1
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/0112 from the vehicle, e.g. floating car data [FCD]
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/0116 from roadside infrastructure, e.g. beacons
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/0145 for active traffic flow control
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096716 where the received information does not generate an automatic action on the vehicle control
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096725 where the received information generates an automatic action on the vehicle control
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096741 where the source of the transmitted information selects which information to transmit to each vehicle
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096775 where the origin of the information is a central station
• CPC Class Codes: G16Z 99/00 Subject matter not provided for in other main groups of this subclass

Abstract

An approach is provided for providing customized information to a driver of a vehicle. The approach is implemented in a computer infrastructure having computer executable code on a computer readable storage medium having programming instructions operable to: obtain one or more parameters of a vehicle; obtain environmental conditions outside of the vehicle; and calculate a speed at which the vehicle should traverse a portion of a road. The calculating is based on the one or more parameters of the vehicle and the environmental conditions outside of the vehicle. The approach is further operable to provide the calculated speed to the vehicle.

Claims

1. A method implemented in a computer infrastructure having computer executable code tangibly embodied on a computer readable storage medium having programming instructions operable to:

obtain one or more parameters of a vehicle;

obtain environmental conditions outside of the vehicle;

calculate a speed in which the vehicle should traverse a portion of a road, the calculating being based on the one or more parameters of the vehicle and the environmental conditions outside of the vehicle;

transmit the calculated speed to an electronic road display and the vehicle for purposes of displaying the calculated speed; and

transmit other information to the electronic road display for purposes of displaying the other information.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more parameters of the vehicle includes at least one of current speed, tire conditions, brake pad conditions, current weight of vehicle, weight of trailer if any, number of axles, and safety features of the vehicle.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the environmental conditions are obtained from one or more sensors and cameras.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the one or more sensors include at least one of a radar, weather sensors, and road condition sensors, and the cameras include video cameras, each of which provide information to a calculating unit used to calculate the calculated speed.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the calculating of the speed is further based on at least one of:

municipal, state and/or federal speed limits for a portion of the road in which the vehicle is traversing;

historical information associated with the portion of the road in which the vehicle is traversing; and

information obtained by user input.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the other information is at least one of vehicle identification, road conditions, weather conditions and road configuration.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the calculated speed is transmitted directly to the vehicle.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein a service provider at least one of creates, maintains, deploys and supports the computer infrastructure.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein steps of claim 1 are provided by a service provider on a subscription, advertising, and/or fee basis.

2. The method of clam 1, wherein the environmental conditions include at least one of a road condition in which the vehicle will traverse and weather conditions.

11. A system implemented in hardware, comprising:

one or more sensors which are configured to obtain environmental conditions;

one or more transceivers which are configured to obtain at least one vehicle parameter of a vehicle traversing a portion of a road;

a calculating unit which is configured to calculate a speed in which the vehicle should traverse the portion of the road, the calculating being based on the environmental conditions and the at least one vehicle parameter; and

an electronic road display which is configured to receive and display the calculated speed.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the sensors are configured to obtain weather conditions, vehicle trajectory and road conditions.

13. The system of claim 11, further comprising monitoring stations for obtaining weather conditions, vehicle trajectory and road conditions used to calculate the calculated speed.

14. The system of claim 11, further comprising a transmitting unit to transmit the calculated speed directly to the vehicle.

15. The system of claim 11, wherein the calculating unit calculates the speed in which the vehicle should traverse the portion of the road using any one of:

municipal, state and/or federal speed limits for the portion of the road in which the vehicle is traversing;

historical information associated with the portion of the road in which the vehicle is traversing; and

information obtained by user input.

16. The system of claim 11, wherein the calculating unit is provided on a central service server and the one or more sensors are remotely positioned from the central service server.

17. The system of claim 11, wherein the calculating unit is provided with the electronic road display for displaying the calculated speed.

18. The system of claim 11, wherein the calculating unit periodically updates the calculated speed and provides the updated calculated speed to the vehicle, as it is traversing different portions of the road.

19. A computer program product comprising a computer usable storage medium having readable program code embodied in the storage medium, the computer program product includes at least one component operable to:

calculate a speed that a vehicle should be traveling along a portion of a roadway, based on obtained environmental conditions and at least one vehicle parameter of a vehicle traversing the portion of the roadway; and

display the calculated speed on an electronic road display to provide the calculated speed to an operator of the vehicle.

20. The computer program product of claim 19, further operable to calculate the speed based on historical information previously obtained for calculating speed for at least one of the vehicle and other vehicles.

21. A computer system for calculating a vehicle'"'"'s recommended speed, the system comprising:

a CPU, a computer readable memory and a computer readable storage media;

first program instructions to obtain vehicle information;

second program instructions to obtain conditions outside of the vehicle;

third program instructions to calculate the recommended speed of the vehicle while traverse a portion of a road, the calculating being based on the obtained vehicle information, conditions outside of the vehicle, road configuration and historical information related to the portion of the road;

fourth program instructions to provide the recommended speed to the vehicle by displaying it on a roadside sign with additional information comprising at least one of;

vehicle identification, weather conditions, road conditions, and road configuration,

wherein the first, second, third and fourth program instructions are stored on the computer readable storage media for execution by the CPU via the computer readable memory.

22. The computer system of claim 21, further comprising fifth program instructions to provide the recommended speed directly to an occupant of the vehicle.

23. A method of deploying a system for calculating a recommended speed of a vehicle comprising:

providing a computer infrastructure, being operable to;

obtaining vehicle information, environmental conditions and road conditions for a portion of a road in which the vehicle is traversing;

calculating the recommended speed of the vehicle for the portion of the road, the calculating being based on the obtained vehicle information, environmental conditions and road conditions;

updating the recommended speed as the vehicle is traversing the portion of the road based on a location of the vehicle on the portion of the road; and

transmitting the recommended speed and the updated recommended speed to an electronic road display for display thereon.

24. The method of clam 1, wherein the vehicle is one of a plurality of vehicles and the electronic road display provides a customized calculated speed for each of the plurality of vehicles and each of the plurality of vehicles is identified by a unique vehicle ID.