Crowd sourcing exterior vehicle images of traffic conditions
First Claim
1. A method of reporting traffic condition images between vehicles, the method comprising:
- providing computing devices in a plurality of vehicles, each computing device coupled to a plurality of image sensors configured for recording images on a roadway traversed by the respective vehicle;
at each of the plurality of vehicles, recording images generated by the plurality of image sensors in the respective computing device;
coupling vehicle operating condition data with the images;
transmitting the images and the vehicle operating condition data from the respective computing devices through a network for storage in a crowd sourcing traffic condition control, wherein each image is stored in conjunction with time and date stamp information and coordinates of a roadway segment where the image was taken;
upon request for traffic condition images, transmitting and displaying, to a requesting vehicle, an icon of a selected vehicle actively coupled to the crowd sourcing traffic condition control, the icon including a plurality of indicators, each depicting a location of an image sensor;
receiving, by the crowd sourcing traffic condition control, an inquiry from the requesting vehicle for a traffic condition image from a selected image sensor of the selected vehicle, and transmitting commands to the selected vehicle for generating an image from the selected sensor;
receiving, by the crowd sourcing traffic condition control, an image from the selected sensor of the selected vehicle; and
transmitting, by the crowd sourcing traffic condition control, the traffic condition image to the requesting vehicle for display in the requesting vehicle.
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Accused Products
Abstract
An apparatus and method for crowd sourcing current traffic conditions using an image sensor on a vehicle to record traffic conditions at the vehicle location, date and time stamp the images, and transmit the images along with selected vehicle operating conditions and vehicle coordinates through a network to a central crowd sourcing traffic condition control. The control stores the images and, upon receiving an image request from a vehicle, transmits traffic condition images to the requesting vehicle through the network for a specified roadway segment. A vehicle opted-in to the control can select another opted-in vehicle to have an image taken by the any selected vehicle of a desired road location. The control handles the exchange of a request and an image between the requesting vehicle and the selecting vehicle to enable an instantaneous image of a desired road location to be displayed in the requesting vehicle.
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Citations
7 Claims
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1. A method of reporting traffic condition images between vehicles, the method comprising:
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providing computing devices in a plurality of vehicles, each computing device coupled to a plurality of image sensors configured for recording images on a roadway traversed by the respective vehicle; at each of the plurality of vehicles, recording images generated by the plurality of image sensors in the respective computing device; coupling vehicle operating condition data with the images; transmitting the images and the vehicle operating condition data from the respective computing devices through a network for storage in a crowd sourcing traffic condition control, wherein each image is stored in conjunction with time and date stamp information and coordinates of a roadway segment where the image was taken; upon request for traffic condition images, transmitting and displaying, to a requesting vehicle, an icon of a selected vehicle actively coupled to the crowd sourcing traffic condition control, the icon including a plurality of indicators, each depicting a location of an image sensor; receiving, by the crowd sourcing traffic condition control, an inquiry from the requesting vehicle for a traffic condition image from a selected image sensor of the selected vehicle, and transmitting commands to the selected vehicle for generating an image from the selected sensor; receiving, by the crowd sourcing traffic condition control, an image from the selected sensor of the selected vehicle; and transmitting, by the crowd sourcing traffic condition control, the traffic condition image to the requesting vehicle for display in the requesting vehicle. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4)
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5. A system for generating images of roadway traffic conditions using crowd sourcing image gathering, the system comprising:
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a network; a plurality of computing devices carried in a respective plurality of vehicles and having at least one processor executing stored program instructions to; receive images from at least one image sensor of a plurality of image sensors carried on each respective vehicle; record each image with a time and date stamp; couple vehicle operating coordinates and vehicle direction information with each of the recorded images; and transmit the recorded images coupled with the vehicle operating coordinates and vehicle direction information through the network; a display carried in each vehicle and coupled to the computing device in the vehicle for displaying traffic condition images; a crowd sourcing traffic condition control including at least one processor executing program instructions to; receive the recorded images coupled with the vehicle operating coordinates and vehicle direction information from a vehicle over the network; store the recorded images in a memory; in response to a request from an image requesting vehicle for traffic conditions for a specific roadway segment, transmitting and displaying, to the requesting vehicle, an icon of a selected vehicle actively coupled to the crowd sourcing traffic condition control, the icon including a plurality of indicators, each depicting a location of an image sensor; and transmit, over the network, the images from a selected image sensor to the image requesting vehicle which made the request for traffic conditions. - View Dependent Claims (6, 7)
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Specification