Estimation of actual conditions of a roadway segment by weighting roadway condition data with the quality of the roadway condition data

• US 9,437,108 B2
• Filed: 02/09/2015
• Issued: 09/06/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 09/25/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: HERE Global B.V. (Nokia Corporation)
• Original Assignee: HERE Global B.V. (Nokia Corporation)
• Inventors: Bespalov, Dmitriy, Carroll, I, James F., Zimmerman, Dean
• Primary Examiner(s): Desta, Elias
• Application Number:
  US14/617,562
• Publication Number:
  US 20150154862A1
• Time in Patent Office: 575 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/29 Geographical information databases
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/0104 Measuring and analyzing of parameters relative to traffic conditions
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/0125 Traffic data processing
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/0129 for creating historical data or processing based on historical data

Abstract

Actual conditions of a roadway segment are estimated by providing roadway condition data to a processor for the roadway segment from a plurality of different types of sources of the roadway condition data, assigning a quality to each of the plurality of different types of sources of the roadway condition data, and estimating in the processor the actual conditions of the roadway segment by using the roadway condition data and the quality of each of the plurality of different types of sources of the roadway data. The quality determines weightings given to each of the plurality of different types of sources.

Claims

1. An apparatus comprising:

at least one processor; and

at least one memory including computer program code for one or more programs;

the at least one memory and the computer program code configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus to at least perform;

receive condition data for at least one path segment from a plurality of data sources;

determine a hierarchy for the plurality of data sources; and

calculate estimated conditions on the at least one path segment based on the hierarchy for the plurality of data sources, wherein when data is available at a higher level of the hierarchy, the higher level supersedes a lower level of the hierarchy for the estimated conditions, and when data is unavailable at the higher level of the hierarchy, the lower level of the hierarchy is used for the estimated conditions.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the hierarchy includes the higher level, the lower level, and at least one middle level.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the higher level is a real time component and the lower level is an incident component.

4. The apparatus of claim 3, wherein the real time component includes a time to travel between two toll tag readers.

5. The apparatus of claim 3, wherein the real time component includes probe data from a cellular phone.

6. The apparatus of claim 3, wherein the real time component includes sensor data from a sensor along the at least one path segment.

7. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the higher level is an incident component and the lower level is a historical component.

8. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein the incident component includes congestion data based on information entered by a traffic operator.

9. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein the incident component includes non-congestion data including at least two of a weather condition, an incident, an event, and a mass transit condition.

10. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein the historical component includes a subhierarchy of data levels including historical speed data and speed limit data, wherein the historical speed data, when available, supersedes the speed limit data.

11. The apparatus of claim 1, the at least one memory and the computer program code configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus to at least perform:

assign a quality to the plurality of data sources of the condition data, wherein the estimated conditions on the at least one path segment are based on the quality.

12. An apparatus comprising:

at least one processor; and

at least one memory including computer program code for one or more programs;

the at least one memory and the computer program code configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus to at least perform;

receive condition data for at least one path segment from a plurality of data sources;

determine a hierarchy for the plurality of data sources; and

estimate conditions on the at least one path segment based on the hierarchy for the plurality of data sources, wherein when data is available at a higher level of the hierarchy, the higher level supersedes a lower level of the hierarchy for the estimated conditions, and when data is unavailable at the higher level of the hierarchy, the lower level of the hierarchy is used for the estimated conditions.

13. A method comprising:

Receiving, at input port, condition data for at least one path segment from a plurality of data sources;

determining, by a processor, a hierarchy for the plurality of data sources; and

calculating, by the processor, estimated conditions on the at least one path segment based on the hierarchy for the plurality of data sources, wherein when data is available at a point along the at least one path segment at a higher level of the hierarchy, the higher level supersedes a lower level of the hierarchy for the estimated conditions, and wherein when data is unavailable at the point along the at least one path segment at the higher level of the hierarchy, the lower level of the hierarchy is used for the estimated conditions.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the hierarchy includes the higher level, the lower level, and at least one middle level.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the higher level is a real time component, the middle level is an incident component, and the lower level is a historical component.

16. The method of claim 13, wherein the lower level is an incident component including an event criticality ratio between historical speed and free-flow speed.

17. The method of claim 13, wherein the higher level includes a real time component includes a time to travel between two toll tag readers.

18. The method of claim 13, wherein the lower level includes a mass transit condition on a non-passenger-vehicle transit.

19. The method of claim 18, the at least one memory and the computer program code configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus to at least perform:

assigning a quality to the plurality of data sources of the condition data, wherein the estimated conditions on the at least one path segment are based on the quality.

20. The method of claim 13, wherein the lower level includes a subhierarchy of data levels including historical speed data and speed limit data, wherein the historical speed data, when available, supersedes the speed limit data.