Method for improving traffic safety by means of using beacons

• US 8,907,813 B2
• Filed: 12/26/2007
• Issued: 12/09/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 12/28/2006
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Vodafone Group PLC
• Original Assignee: Vodafone Group PLC
• Inventors: Cajigas Bringas, Guillermo, Touset Rios, Miguel Angel, Sendra Alcina, Jos Carlos
• Primary Examiner(s): Zimmerman, Brian
• Assistant Examiner(s): Nguyen, An T
• Application Number:
  US11/964,317
• Publication Number:
  US 20080291007A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,540 Days
• Field of Search: 340/901, 340/905, 340/945, 340/983, 340/825, 340/502, 340/505, 340/928, 340/936, 340/993, 340/426.11, 340/9, 340/995.1, 340/539.13, 340435-436, 701/9, 701/19, 701/213, 701300-302
• US Class Current: 340/905
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/052 with provision for determining speed or overspeed speed measuring in general G01P
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096725 where the received information generates an automatic action on the vehicle control
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096783 where the origin of the information is a roadside individual element
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/164 Centralised systems, e.g. external to vehicles

Abstract

A traffic accident prevention service provides a method for improving traffic safety by using beacons. Each vehicle participating in the traffic accident prevention service includes a system for determining the speed of the vehicle, and a terminal connected to the system that has access to a wireless access network. Positioning beacons are located at different points of the road network and communicate via radio with the vehicles circulating close to them. The network warns the terminal of the safety parameters by knowing the position of the vehicle when it passes close to a beacon so that the driver can take appropriate actions.

Claims

1. A method for improving traffic safety using beacons located at different points of a road network, the method comprising:

wirelessly transmitting from each beacon a message including a respective identifier (ID_B);

receiving, at a terminal installed in a vehicle circulating in the road network, the message from a given one of the beacons including its identifier (ID_B);

once the terminal receives the message from the given one of the beacons, transmitting from the terminal to a mobile telephony network an identifier (ID_TE) of the terminal and the identifier (ID_B) received from the given one of the beacons;

in the mobile telephony network, calculating an average speed of the vehicle based on;

an entry time in a register database of the identifier (ID_B) of a current beacon and an entry time of the identifier (ID_B) of a previous beacon which the vehicle has passed; and

known distances between the current beacon and the previous beacons;

in the mobile telephony network, determining a speed limit allowed for the vehicle at a point of the road network in which the vehicle is located;

from the mobile telephony network, sending a speed limit message to the terminal in dependence upon the determined speed limit;

once the terminal receives the message from the given one of the beacons, determining a distance (D_s) between the vehicle and a second vehicle located in front of the vehicle and transmitting the distance (D_s) to the mobile telephony network;

in the mobile telephony network, determining a safety distance the vehicle has to maintain from vehicles ahead of the vehicle at said point of the road network;

from the mobile telephony network, sending the safety distance to the terminal; and

upon determining that the safety distance exceeds the distance (D_s), transmitting a distance warning message to the terminal indicating that the safety distance exceeds the distance (D_s).

2. The method of claim 1, wherein sending the speed limit message to the terminal further comprises, upon determination that the speed of the vehicle exceeds the speed limit, the mobile telephony network sending a warning message to the terminal indicating that the speed of the vehicle exceeds the speed limit.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the speed limit message is transmitted to at least one occupant of the vehicle.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the speed limit message is transmitted to an external system in charge of automatically adjusting the speed of the vehicle.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the message from a given one of the beacons includes information including the identifier (I_DB), and wherein determining the speed limit allowed for the vehicle further comprises determining the speed limit allowed for the vehicle using at least some of the information received from the given one of the terminals.