System for providing environmental condition information to vehicles and related methods

• US 9,024,786 B1
• Filed: 07/15/2014
• Issued: 05/05/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 09/29/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Baron Services Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Baron Services Incorporated
• Inventors: Jones, Erick C., Baron, Robert O. Sr., Thompson, Thomas S.
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen, Phung
• Application Number:
  US14/331,949
• Time in Patent Office: 294 Days
• Field of Search: 340/905, 340/539.13, 340/539.12, 340/601, 702/3
• US Class Current: 340/905
• CPC Class Codes: G01W 1/02 Instruments for indicating weather conditions by measuring two or more variables, e.g. humidity, pressure, temperature, cloud cover or wind speed G01W1/10 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/0967 Systems involving transmission of highway information, e.g. weather, speed limits transmission of navigation instructions to the vehicle G08G1/0968
• 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

Abstract

An apparatus for communicating weather related information to a vehicle has been developed. The invention includes, a navigational positioning system that provides the location of the vehicle and a receiver for receiving weather related data at the vehicle that includes road conditions, atmospheric conditions, weather warnings and watches, and forecast conditions. The weather related data is associated with a geographic grid that is made of a plurality of cells. The invention'"'"'s processor determines if the weather related data is associated with the vehicle location and displays the weather related data to the vehicle'"'"'s occupants.

Claims

1. A method of reporting environmental condition information to a remote vehicle comprising:

a. assigning a plurality of indicator values to a plurality of geographic cells to create a threat data matrix, wherein the indicator values are indicative of certain environmental conditions;

b. transmitting a threat data message having at least a portion of the threat data matrix to the remote vehicle; and

c. locally processing, at the remote vehicle, the received threat data matrix to determine the type of alert indications to be provided to a user.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the weather data message includes the geographic position of the geographic cells.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the geographic position of the geographic cells is associated with geographic location of the corners of the geographic cells.

4. The method of claim 2 further comprising the step of receiving the vehicle'"'"'s geographic position from a navigational positioning system and wherein the local processing at the remote vehicle includes comparing the geographic position of the geographic cells with the vehicle geographic position received from the navigational positioning system.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the threat data message indicates a road condition of at least one road in the plurality of geographic cells.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the threat data message indicates a characteristic of a weather event, said characteristic being at least one of form, duration, or intensity.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein each environmental condition has an assigned indicator value, and each environmental condition represented in the threat data matrix transmitted in the threat data message has an associated indicator value.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the threat data message includes indicator values associated with a single geographic cell.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein the threat data message includes indicator values associated with a plurality of geographic cells.

10. The method of claim 1 further including the step of prioritizing the reporting of environmental conditions to a user.

11. The method of claim 1 further comprising the step of locally storing indicator values for the geographic cells in close proximity to the location of the vehicle.

12. A method for providing environmental information to a remote mobile system comprising:

a. receiving environmental data;

b. processing the environmental data to associate the environmental data with a plurality of geographic grid cells;

c. assigning indicator values to the plurality of geographic grid cells to represent the environmental conditions of that cell to create an environmental condition matrix; and

d. outputting at least a portion of the environmental condition matrix to a distribution network for distribution to the remote mobile system for local processing to determine relevant environmental conditions based upon the remote mobile system'"'"'s location.

13. The method of claim 12 wherein each environmental condition has an assigned indicator value and each environmental condition represented in the outputted portion of the environmental condition matrix has an associated indicator value.

14. The method of claim 12 wherein the remote mobile system is further configured to receive the remote mobile system'"'"'s geographic position from a navigational positioning system and wherein the local processing includes comparing the geographic position of the grid cells with the remote mobile system'"'"'s geographic position.

15. The method of claim 12 wherein the outputted environmental condition matrix includes indicator values associated with a single grid cell.

16. The method of claim 12 wherein the outputted environmental condition matrix includes indicator values associated with a plurality of grid cells.

17. An apparatus for communicating weather related information comprising:

a. a receiver for receiving matrixed weather related data for a plurality of geographic grid cells at the vehicle, wherein each of the geographic grid cells is assigned a value indicative of the weather related data; and

b. a processor at the vehicle that receives vehicle location data and locally determines the reportable weather data from the matrixed weather data associated with received vehicle location.

18. The apparatus of claim 17 wherein the received matrixed weather data is associated with a single geographic cell.

19. The apparatus of claim 17 further comprising memory for storing values indicative of weather related data for the plurality of grid cells in close proximity to the location of the vehicle.

20. The apparatus of claim 17 wherein the received matrixed weather related data includes the geographic position of the geographic grid cells.