Autonomous neighborhood vehicle commerce network and community

• US 9,373,149 B2
• Filed: 01/17/2014
• Issued: 06/21/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 03/17/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Raj Abhyanker
• Original Assignee: Fatdoor Incorporated
• Inventors: Abhyanker, Raj
• Primary Examiner(s): Black, Thomas G
• Assistant Examiner(s): Kong, Sze-Hon
• Application Number:
  US14/157,540
• Publication Number:
  US 20140136414A1
• Time in Patent Office: 886 Days
• Field of Search: 701/2, 701/23, 701/24, 701/26, 701/28, 701/36, 701/38, 701/40, 701/48, 701/49, 701/93, 701/96, 701411-415, 701/420, 701/422, 701/423, 701/436, 701/425, 701/519, 701/533, 701/300, 701/301, 700/213, 700/214, 700/216, 700/219, 700/228, 700/231, 700/233, 700/226, 707/737, 709/206, 709/218
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 19/41895 using automatic guided vehicles [AGV] control of position or course of AGV's G05D1/00
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0011 associated with a remote control arrangement
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0225 involving docking at a fixed facility, e.g. base station or loading bay parking aids B62D15/027
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0238 using obstacle or wall sensors G05D1/0246 and G05D1/0289 take precedence; lidar systems designed for anti-collision purposes G01S17/93
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/024 in combination with a laser lasers per se H01S
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0242 using non-visible light signals, e.g. IR or UV signals
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0251 extracting 3D information from a plurality of images taken from different locations, e.g. stereo vision stereoscopic image analysis H04N13/00; depth recovery from images G06T7/593
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0255 using acoustic signals, e.g. ultra-sonic singals sonar systems designed for anti-collision purposes G01S15/93
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0274 using mapping information stored in a memory device navigation using map-matching G01C21/30
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/028 using a RF signal
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/08 Logistics, e.g. warehousing, loading or distribution; Inventory or stock management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/308 using the Internet of Things
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/3224 Transactions dependent on location of M-devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/384 using social networks
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0241 Advertisements

Abstract

Disclosed is an autonomous neighborhood vehicle controllable through a neighborhood social network. In one embodiment, an autonomous neighborhood vehicle can autonomously navigate to a destination specified by a user of the neighborhood social network. In one embodiment, a computer system of the autonomous neighborhood vehicle is communicatively coupled to the neighborhood social network through a wireless network to autonomously navigate to a destination specified by the user of the neighborhood social network. A navigation server provides a remote sensing capability to the autonomous neighborhood vehicle. A particular user of a third-party application is authenticated as being a verified user of the neighborhood social network having a verified residential address. An information of the particular user is communicated to the third-party application from the neighborhood social network based on a personal address privacy preference of the particular user.

Claims

1. An autonomous neighborhood vehicle comprising:

a computer system of the autonomous neighborhood vehicle that is communicatively coupled to a commerce server of a neighborhood communication system through a wireless network to autonomously navigate the autonomous neighborhood vehicle to a destination specified by the commerce server; and

a navigation server of the autonomous neighborhood vehicle to provide a remote sensing capability to the autonomous neighborhood vehicle such that the autonomous neighborhood vehicle is autonomously navigable to the destination,

wherein the autonomous neighborhood vehicle periodically transmits a heartbeat message to the commerce server having a set of current geo-spatial coordinates of the autonomous neighborhood vehicle, a time stamp, a date stamp, and an operational status of the autonomous neighborhood vehicle,

wherein the autonomous neighborhood vehicle is in a form of autonomous neighborhood bicycle having a detachable storage compartment thereon, and having an ability to driverlessly traverse through bicycle lanes adjacent to a roadway based on commands from the commerce server,

wherein the autonomous neighborhood vehicle utilizes a sensory fusion algorithm through which at least some of an ultrasound, a radar unit, a light sensor, a LIDAR unit, a wheel encoding sensor, an accelerometer sensor, a gyroscopic sensor, a compass sensor, and a stereo optical sensor operate in concert to provide a three dimensional environmental view of an environment surrounding the autonomous neighborhood vehicle to the autonomous neighborhood vehicle,

wherein the autonomous neighborhood vehicle automatically generates an emergency broadcast message to a set of neighbors in a geo-spatial vicinity of the autonomous neighborhood vehicle when the autonomous neighborhood vehicle detects a failure condition comprising at least one of an impact, a mechanical failure, an electrical failure, and a damage condition, wherein the emergency broadcast message includes at least one of a photo data, a geo-spatial coordinates data, a video data, an audio data, a timeout condition of a heartbeat message receipt at the commerce server, and a textual data associated with the failure condition,

wherein the autonomous neighborhood vehicle automatically parks itself in a garage structure associated with an operator of the autonomous neighborhood vehicle adjacent to a passenger vehicle, wherein the operator is at least one of an individual, a family, a business, an owner, and a lessee,

wherein a storage compartment is temperature regulated to maintain a temperature of an item in transit between a starting address associated with at least one of a merchant and a neighbor in a neighborhood in a geospatial vicinity of the autonomous neighborhood vehicle, and a destination address associated with a recipient of the item in the neighborhood in the geospatial vicinity of the autonomous neighborhood vehicle, wherein a neighborhood boundary is defined through a neighborhood boundary data provider,

wherein the commerce server;

to generate, using a mapping server associated with a privacy server through the wireless network, a geospatial representation of a set of points on a map defining residences associated with each user of a community network having the member data,

to authenticate, using a verify module of the privacy server, a particular user of a third-party application as being a verified user of the community network having a verified residential address in the neighborhood system,

to communicate, using the verify module of the privacy server, a social graph of the particular user based on a personal address privacy preference of the particular user,

to provide, using the verify module of the privacy server, the verified residential address to the third-party application based on the authentication of the particular user of the third-party application as being the verified user of the neighborhood communication system,

wherein the privacy server communicatively coupled with the mapping server through a network to apply an address verification algorithm associated with each user of an online community to verify that each user lives at a residence associated with a claimable residential address of the online community formed through a social community module of the privacy server using the processor and the memory,

wherein the mapping server to generate a latitudinal data and a longitudinal data associated with each claimable residential address of the online community associated with each user of the online community,

wherein the privacy server to automatically determine a set of access privileges in the online community associated with each user of the online community by constraining access in the online community based on a neighborhood boundary determined using a Bezier curve algorithm of the privacy server,

wherein the privacy server to instantiate the event when the particular user is associated with the claimable residential address based on a verification of the particular user as living at a particular residential address associated with the claimable residential address using the privacy server,

wherein the privacy server to constrain the particular user to communicate through the online community only with the set of neighbors having verified residential addresses using the privacy server, and

wherein the privacy server to define the set of neighbors as other users of the online community that have each verified their addresses in the online community using the privacy server and which have each claimed residential addresses that are in a threshold radial distance from a claimed address of the particular user.

2. The autonomous neighborhood vehicle of claim 1 further comprising:

a set of wheels aligned in a pattern to provide the autonomous neighborhood vehicle stability when traversing at least one of a sidewalk, a bike lane, and a roadway;

an electronic locking mechanism of the storage compartment;

wherein items are storable in the storage compartment.

3. The autonomous neighborhood vehicle of claim 1 further comprising:

a sidewalk detection sensor to detect a gradation rise caused by a sidewalk start location and a gradation drop caused by a sidewalk end location; and

a telescopic riser coupled to a base of the autonomous neighborhood vehicle automatically displace a set of front wheels to rise and fall based on the detected one of the gradation rise caused by the sidewalk start location and the gradation drop caused by the sidewalk end location to provide mechanical stability for the item in the storage compartment of the autonomous neighborhood vehicle.

4. A method comprising:

associating an autonomous neighborhood vehicle with a non-transient location;

determining, through a commerce server of a neighborhood communication system, that a destination in a threshold radial distance from the non-transient location is received by the autonomous neighborhood vehicle through a wireless network;

determining an optimal route from a current location of the autonomous neighborhood vehicle to the destination;

traveling autonomously on the optimal route to the destination,

periodically determining, through a processor, the current location of the autonomous neighborhood vehicle;

communicating the current location of the autonomous neighborhood vehicle to the commerce server;

automatically activating a set of light emitting diodes encompassing the autonomous neighborhood vehicle when a light sensor detects that an environmental brightness is below a threshold luminosity;

creating an envelope around the autonomous neighborhood vehicle, wherein the envelope includes a set of minimum ranges, wherein the set of minimum ranges includes at least one of a minimum distance that must be kept in at least one of a direction in front, behind, to a left, to a right, above, and below the autonomous neighborhood vehicle;

establishing at least one of a range of a speed the autonomous vehicle may reach;

establishing at least one of a minimum and a maximum distance traveled by the autonomous neighborhood vehicle,

wherein the minimum and the maximum distance traveled by the autonomous neighborhood vehicle is set for at least one of a per trip, a per day and a per delivery distance traveled;

establishing a maximum magnitude of deceleration, wherein the maximum magnitude of deceleration is measured in feet per second squared;

establishing a minimum crosswalk proximity at which the autonomous neighborhood vehicle is permitted to stop;

determining at a predetermined interval if a different route that is more efficient than the optimal route exists based on at least one of a delivery time, a pendency of time, and a minimal travel distance,

wherein the predetermined interval for determining if the different route is more efficient than the optimal route exists includes at least one of constantly determining, determining every minute, determining every one hundred yard, when the autonomous neighborhood vehicle encounters traffic, when the autonomous neighborhood vehicle encounters an object;

calculating the different route;

traveling along the different route as long as the different route remains the most efficient route;

determining when an alternate field of view is needed;

prioritizing established constraints of at least one of the envelope, the speed, the distance traveled, a magnitude of deceleration and a minimum crosswalk proximity in respect to the need to establish the alternate field of view;

determining an optimal alternate field of view that does not violate established constraints prioritized obtaining the alternate field of view;

obtaining the optimal alternate field of view without violating constraints prioritized obtaining the alternate field of view,

wherein obtaining the optimal alternate field of view without violating constraints prioritized obtaining the alternate field of view involves at least one of switching sensors, moving the autonomous neighborhood vehicle and moving sensors, and wherein the set of minimum ranges of the envelope depends on at least one of the speed of the autonomous neighborhood vehicle, a set of weather conditions, an environment of the autonomous neighborhood vehicle, an item, and a nature of the object that is in close proximity with the autonomous neighborhood vehicle,

wherein a storage compartment is temperature regulated to maintain at least one of a temperature and a humidity of an item in transit between a starting address associated with at least one of a merchant and a neighbor in a neighborhood in a geospatial vicinity of the autonomous neighborhood vehicle, and a destination location associated with a recipient of the item in the neighborhood in the geospatial vicinity of the autonomous neighborhood vehicle, wherein a neighborhood boundary is defined through a neighborhood boundary data provider, and wherein the storage compartment is equipped with a suspension device to protect the item in the storage compartment while in transit;

automatically generating an emergency broadcast message to a set of neighbors in a geo-spatial vicinity of the autonomous neighborhood vehicle when the autonomous neighborhood vehicle detects a failure condition comprising at least one of an impact, a mechanical failure, an electrical failure, and a damage condition, wherein the emergency broadcast message includes at least one of a photo data, a geo-spatial coordinates data, a video data, an audio data, a timeout condition of a heartbeat message receipt at the commerce server, and a textual data associated with the failure condition;

periodically transmitting a heartbeat message to the commerce server having a set of current geo-spatial coordinates of the autonomous neighborhood vehicle, a time stamp, a date stamp, and an operational status of the vehicle;

automatically contacting emergency response services when the autonomous neighborhood vehicle detects at least one of a crime, an accident involving third parties and an attempted tampering with the autonomous neighborhood vehicle, wherein the contacting includes at least one of the time stamp, the geo-spatial coordinates data, the photo data, the video data, the audio data, and the textual data, and wherein emergency response services include at least one of a police station, a fire station and a medical responder;

calculating a set of predicted behaviors of detected objects within a threshold distance from the autonomous neighborhood vehicle;

determining confidence levels for the predicted behaviors, wherein the confidence levels are at least one of a number and a percentage of the probability of each predicted behavior occurring;

adjusting confidence levels for the predicted behaviors based on at least one of a change in location, a change in the speed, a change of direction, a change in angle and observed behavior;

vending the item from the storage compartment;

ejecting the item from an ejection module, wherein the item is ejected through an air based propulsion system aligned through a camera adjacent to the ejection module;

detecting a stop sign and automatically stopping the autonomous neighborhood vehicle at an appropriate point when the stop sign is detected;

detecting a yield sign and automatically monitoring and yielding to a traffic flow at an intersection in the neighborhood;

detecting when a pedestrian is walking in a path proximate to the neighborhood vehicle;

detecting when a bicyclist is biking in the path proximate to the neighborhood vehicle,

accepting a credit payment using at least one of a magnetic card reader of the autonomous neighborhood vehicle, a near-field credit scanner of the autonomous neighborhood vehicle, and a biometric payment reader of the autonomous neighborhood vehicle,

wherein the commerce server is in a privacy server of the neighborhood communication system that is wirelessly coupled with the autonomous neighborhood vehicle, and wherein the privacy server is a community network comprising;

verifying that each user of the community network lives at a residence associated with a claimable residential address of the community network formed through a social community module of the privacy server using the processor and a memory,

obtaining from each user of the community network, using the processor of a data processing system, a member data associated with each user, the member data including an address,

associating an address with a profile of each user,

determining a location of each user based on the member data,

storing the member data in a database, and

obtaining a personal address privacy preference from each user, the personal address privacy preference specifying if the address should be displayed to other users;

generating, using a mapping server associated with the privacy server through a network, a geospatial representation of a set of points on a map defining residences associated with each user of the community network having the member data;

authenticating, using a verify module of the privacy server, a particular user of a third-party application as being a verified user of the neighborhood communication system having a verified residential address in the neighborhood communication system;

communicating, using the verify module of the privacy server a social graph of the particular user based on the personal address privacy preference of the particular user to the third party application; and

providing, using the verify module of the privacy server, the verified residential address to the third-party application based on the authentication of the particular user of the third-party application as being the verified user of the neighborhood communication system,

wherein the privacy server communicatively coupled with the mapping server through the network is configured to apply an address verification algorithm associated with each user of an online community to verify that each user lives at the residence associated with the claimable residential address of the online community formed through the social community module of the privacy server using the processor and the memory,

wherein the mapping server is configured to generate a latitudinal data and a longitudinal data associated with each claimable residential address of the online community associated with each user of the online community,

wherein the privacy server is configured to automatically determine a set of access privileges in the online community associated with each user of the online community by constraining access in the online community based on a neighborhood boundary determined using a Bezier curve algorithm of the privacy server,

wherein the privacy server is configured to instantiate the event when the particular user is associated with the claimable residential address based on a verification of the particular user as living at a particular residential address associated with the claimable residential address using the privacy server,

wherein the privacy server is configured to constrain the particular user to communicate through the online community only with a set of neighbors having verified residential addresses using the privacy server, and

wherein the privacy server is configured to define the set of neighbors as other users of the online community that have each verified their addresses in the online community using the privacy server and which have each claimed residential addresses that are in the threshold radial distance from a claimed address of the particular user.

5. A neighborhood communication system comprising:

a commerce server;

a wireless network; and

a set of autonomous neighborhood vehicles that are communicatively coupled to the commerce server of the neighborhood communication system through the wireless network to autonomously travel to destinations specified by the commerce server,

wherein each of the set of autonomous neighborhood vehicles to periodically transmit heartbeat messages to the commerce server having a set of current geo-spatial coordinates of each of the autonomous neighborhood vehicles, a time stamp, a date stamp, and an operational status of each of the autonomous neighborhood vehicles lanes adjacent to a roadway based on commands from the commerce server,

wherein at least some of the autonomous neighborhood vehicles are in a form of autonomous neighborhood bicycles each having a detachable storage compartment thereon, and having an ability to driverlessly traverse through bicycle,

wherein each of the autonomous neighborhood vehicle utilizes a sensory fusion algorithm through which at least some of an ultrasound unit, a radar unit, a light sensor, a LIDAR unit, a wheel encoding sensor, an accelerometer sensor, a gyroscopic sensor, a compass sensor, and a stereo optical sensor operate in concert to provide a three dimensional environmental view to the autonomous neighborhood vehicle of an environment surrounding each of the autonomous neighborhood vehicle,

wherein a particular autonomous neighborhood vehicles to automatically generate an emergency broadcast message to a set of neighbors in a geo-spatial vicinity of the particular autonomous neighborhood vehicle when the particular autonomous neighborhood vehicle detects a failure condition comprising at least one of an impact, a mechanical failure, an electrical failure, and a damage condition, wherein the emergency broadcast message includes at least one of a photo data, a geo-spatial coordinates data, a video data, an audio data, a timeout condition of the heartbeat message receipt at the commerce server, and a textual data associated with the failure condition,

wherein each of the autonomous neighborhood vehicles automatically park themselves in a garage structure associated with an operator of the autonomous neighborhood vehicle adjacent to a passenger vehicle, wherein the operator is at least one of an individual, a family, a business, an owner, and a lessee,

wherein a storage compartment is temperature regulated to maintain a temperature of an item in transit between a starting address associated with at least one of a merchant and a neighbor in a neighborhood in a geospatial vicinity of the autonomous neighborhood vehicle, and a destination address associated with a recipient of the item in the neighborhood in the geospatial vicinity of the autonomous neighborhood vehicle, wherein the neighborhood boundary is defined through a neighborhood boundary data provider,

wherein the commerce server;

to generate, using a mapping server associated with a privacy server through the wireless network, a geo spatial representation of a set of points on a map defining residences associated with each user of a community network having the member data,

to authenticate, using a verify module of the privacy server, a particular user of a third-party application as being a verified user of the neighborhood communication system having a verified residential address in the neighborhood communication system,

to communicate, using the verify module of the privacy server, a social graph of the particular user based on a personal address privacy preference of the particular user to the third-party application,

to provide, using the verify module of the privacy server, the verified residential address to the third-party application based on the authentication of the particular user of the third-party application as being the verified user of the neighborhood communication system,

wherein the privacy server communicatively coupled with the mapping server through a network to apply an address verification algorithm associated with each user of an online community to verify that each user lives at a residence associated with a claimable residential address of the online community formed through a social community module of the privacy server using the processor and the memory;

wherein the mapping server to generate a latitudinal data and a longitudinal data associated with each claimable residential address of the online community associated with each user of the online community,

wherein the privacy server to automatically determine a set of access privileges in the online community associated with each user of the online community by constraining access in the online community based on a neighborhood boundary determined using a Bezier curve algorithm of the privacy server,

wherein the privacy server to instantiate the event when the particular user is associated with the claimable residential address based on a verification of the particular user as living at a particular residential address associated with the claimable residential address using the privacy server,

wherein the privacy server to constrain the particular user to communicate through the online community only with the set of neighbors having verified residential addresses using the privacy server,

wherein the privacy server to define the set of neighbors as other users of the online community that have each verified their addresses in the online community using the privacy server and which have each claimed residential addresses that are in a threshold radial distance from a claimed address of the particular user.