System and method for monitoring a signage system of a transit vehicle

• US 9,530,336 B2
• Filed: 12/09/2010
• Issued: 12/27/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 12/09/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Luminator Holding LP (LTG Acquisition, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Luminator Holding LP (LTG Acquisition, Inc.)
• Inventors: Safavi, Ramin, Gao, Zhicun, Zhou, Xiaoping, Taylor, Larry T.
• Primary Examiner(s): Zimmerman, Brian
• Assistant Examiner(s): Lau, Kevin
• Application Number:
  US12/964,595
• Publication Number:
  US 20110210952A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,210 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G09F 21/048 Advertisement panels on sides, front or back of vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2320/0646 Modulation of illumination source brightness and image signal correlated to each other
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2330/10 Dealing with defective pixels
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2360/144 the light being ambient light
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2360/145 the light originating from the display screen
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 3/006 Electronic inspection or testing of displays and display drivers, e.g. of LED or LCD displays testing individual LED's G01R31/2635; testing lamps G01R31/44; testing of optical features of LCD displays G02F1/1309

Abstract

A sign-monitoring system includes at least one electronic sign and a controller comprising a processor and memory. The electronic sign includes a pixel array, the pixel array including a plurality of pixels. The electronic sign further includes an embedded controller coupled to the at least one electronic sign. The embedded controller develops diagnostic information for the at least one electronic sign, the diagnostic information including information related to a number of malfunctioning pixels in the plurality of pixels. The controller is communicably coupled to the embedded controller and receives at least a portion of the diagnostic information from the embedded controller. In addition, the controller assesses the at least a portion of the diagnostic information to develop health information. The assessment involves evaluating the information related to the number of malfunctioning pixels.

Claims

1. A sign-monitoring system comprising:

at least one electronic sign, the at least one electronic sign comprising;

a pixel array, the pixel array comprising a plurality of pixels;

wherein the pixel array comprises a plurality of printed circuit boards (PCBs), each PCB providing a sub-array of the pixel array; and

an embedded controller coupled to the at least one electronic sign operable to create diagnostic information for the at least one electronic sign;

wherein the creation of the diagnostic information comprises;

an analysis of the pixel array as a single matrix; and

a determination of a number of malfunctioning pixels in at least one of;

a row of the single matrix, wherein the row spans more than one PCB of the plurality of PCBs; and

a column of the single matrix, wherein the column spans more than one PCB of the plurality of PCBs; and

a controller comprising a processor and memory communicably coupled to the embedded controller, wherein the controller;

receives at least a portion of the diagnostic information from the embedded controller; and

assesses at least a portion of the diagnostic information to develop health information, the assessment comprising evaluating the information related to the number of malfunctioning pixels.

2. The sign-monitoring system of claim 1, comprising:

wherein each electronic sign of the at least one electronic sign comprises a voltage-sensing device, the voltage-sensing device measuring voltage across the plurality of pixels; and

wherein the embedded controller;

issues at least one command to the voltage-sensing device selected from the group consisting of;

a command to detect short circuits in the plurality of pixels and a command to detect open circuits in the plurality of pixels; and

for each pixel in the plurality of pixels, determines the pixel to be a malfunctioning pixel responsive to a detected short circuit or a detected open circuit.

3. The sign-monitoring system of claim 1, wherein the embedded controller:

analyzes the diagnostic information to create a reduced set of diagnostic information; and

transmits the reduced set of diagnostic information to the controller.

4. The sign-monitoring system of claim 1, wherein the number of malfunctioning pixels comprises a number of consecutive malfunctioning pixels;

and

wherein, responsive to the number of consecutive malfunctioning pixels exceeding a predetermined threshold, the controller determines that service of the pixel array is required, the determination of service being included as part of the health information.

5. The sign-monitoring system of claim 1, wherein, responsive to the number of malfunctioning pixels exceeding a predetermined threshold, the controller determines that service of the pixel array is required, the determination of service being included as part of the health information.

6. The sign-monitoring system of claim 1, comprising:

wherein the at least one electronic sign comprises a plurality of electronic signs and the health information comprises overall health information for the sign-monitoring system; and

wherein the assessment comprises aggregating health information for each of the plurality of electronic signs.

7. The sign-monitoring system of claim 6, wherein the sign-monitoring system is implemented on a transit vehicle and the plurality of electronic signs are mounted for viewing on the transit vehicle.

8. The sign-monitoring system of claim 7, wherein the controller reports at least a portion of the health information, the report comprising at least one selected from the group consisting of:

display of at least a portion of the health information to an operator of the transit vehicle;

storage and logging of the at least a portion of the diagnostic information and the at least a portion of the health information in computer-readable storage;

transmission of the at least a portion of the health information to an external device; and

transmission of the at least a portion of the health information to a remote server.

9. The sign-monitoring system of claim 1, comprising:

wherein the embedded controller performs a test for processing integrity between the plurality of PCBs, a result of the test being included as part of the diagnostic information.

10. The sign-monitoring system of claim 1, wherein the controller generates self-diagnostic information related to features of the controller, the self-diagnostic information being selected from the group consisting of:

information related to backlighting, information related to a sound-making device, and information related to data-access errors.

11. The sign-monitoring system of claim 1, comprising:

wherein the controller detects at least one communication-link problem over one or more networks in the sign-monitoring system; and

wherein information related to the detection is included as part of the health information.

12. The sign-monitoring system of claim 1, comprising:

a light sensor coupled to at least one of the at least one electronic sign, wherein the light sensor senses light and, responsive thereto, facilitates adjustment of a brightness of the at least one of the at least one electronic sign; and

wherein the controller receives information related to the brightness and verifies proper operation of the light sensor via the received information.

13. The sign-monitoring system of claim 1, wherein the plurality of pixels in the pixel array comprise a plurality of light-emitting diodes (LEDs).

14. A sign-monitoring method, the method comprising:

providing a sign-monitoring system, the sign-monitoring system comprising at least one electronic sign and a controller comprising a processor and memory;

wherein each electronic sign of the at least one electronic sign comprises a pixel array and an embedded controller, the pixel array comprising a plurality of pixels;

wherein the pixel array comprises a plurality of printed circuit boards (PCBs), each PCB providing a sub-array of the pixel array;

via the embedded controller, creating diagnostic information for the at least one electronic sign;

wherein the creating of the diagnostic information comprises;

an analysis of the pixel array as a single matrix; and

a determination of a number of malfunctioning pixels in at least one of;

a row of the single matrix, wherein the row spans more than one PCB of the plurality of PCBs; and

a column of the single matrix, wherein the column spans more than one PCB of the plurality of PCBs;

via the controller, receiving at least a portion of the diagnostic information from the embedded controller; and

via the controller, assessing at least a portion of the diagnostic information to develop health information.

15. The sign-monitoring method of claim 14, wherein a malfunctioning pixel comprises a pixel in the plurality of pixels at which at least one of a short circuit and an open circuit is determined to exist.

16. The sign-monitoring method of claim 14, comprising:

reducing an amount of network bandwidth necessary to transmit the diagnostic information, the reducing comprising creating a reduced set of diagnostic information from the diagnostic information; and

transmitting the reduced set of diagnostic information to the controller.

17. The sign-monitoring method of claim 14, wherein the number of malfunctioning pixels comprises a number of consecutive malfunctioning pixels;

and

wherein, responsive to the number of consecutive malfunctioning pixels exceeding a predetermined threshold, determining, via the controller, that service of the pixel array is required, the determination of required service being included as part of the health information.

18. The sign-monitoring method of claim 14, wherein, responsive to the number of malfunctioning pixels exceeding a predetermined threshold, determining, via the controller, that service of the pixel array is required, the determination of required service being included as part of the health information.

19. The sign-monitoring method of claim 14, comprising:

wherein the at least one electronic sign comprises a plurality of electronic signs; and

wherein developing the health information comprises;

developing overall health information for the sign-monitoring system; and

aggregating health information for each of the plurality of electronic signs.

20. The sign-monitoring method of claim 14, comprising reporting at least a portion of the health information, the reporting comprising at least one selected from the group consisting of:

displaying the at least a portion of the health information to an operator of a transit vehicle;

storing and logging the diagnostic information and the at least a portion of the health information in computer-readable storage;

transmitting the at least a portion of the health information to an external device; and

transmitting the at least a portion of the health information to a remote server.

21. The sign-monitoring method of claim 14, comprising:

via the embedded controller, performing a test for processing integrity between the plurality of PCBs, a result of the test being included as part of the diagnostic information.

22. The sign-monitoring method of claim 14, comprising, via the controller, developing self-diagnostic information related to features of the controller, the self-diagnostic information being selected from the group consisting of:

information related to backlighting, information related to a sound-making device, and information related to data-access errors.

23. The sign-monitoring method of claim 14, comprising:

via the controller, detecting a communication-link problem over at least one network in the sign-monitoring system; and

wherein information related to the detecting is included as part of the diagnostic information.

24. The sign-monitoring method of claim 14, comprising:

via the controller, receiving information related to brightness of the at least one electronic sign; and

verifying proper operation of a light sensor via the received information.

25. The sign-monitoring method of claim 14, wherein the plurality of pixels in the pixel array comprise a plurality of light-emitting diodes (LEDs).

26. A sign-monitoring system comprising:

a plurality of electronic signs, each electronic sign in the plurality of electronic signs comprising;

a pixel array, the pixel array comprising a plurality of pixels;

wherein the pixel array comprises a plurality of printed circuit boards (PCBs), each PCB providing a sub-array of the pixel array;

an embedded controller coupled to the electronic sign, the embedded controller creating diagnostic information for the electronic sign wherein the creating of the diagnostic information comprises;

an analysis of the pixel array as a single matrix; and

a determination of a number of malfunctioning pixels in at least one of;

a row of the single matrix, wherein the row spans more than one PCB of the plurality of PCBs; and

a column of the single matrix, wherein the column spans more than one PCB of the plurality of PCBs; and

at least one controller comprising a processor and memory communicably coupled to the plurality of electronic signs, wherein the at least one controller;

requests and receives diagnostic information from the embedded controller for each of the plurality of electronic signs; and

analyzes the diagnostic information to develop overall health information for the sign-monitoring system; and

wherein the analysis comprises, for each electronic sign in the plurality of electronic signs, assessing at least a portion of the diagnostic information to develop health information.