Communication between vehicles

• US 9,955,306 B1
• Filed: 02/12/2017
• Issued: 04/24/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 03/12/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Jack Barron
• Original Assignee: Jack Barron
• Inventors: Barron, Jack
• Primary Examiner(s): Tran, Phuoc
• Application Number:
  US15/430,530
• Time in Patent Office: 436 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24578 using ranking
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9537 Spatial or temporal dependent retrieval, e.g. spatiotemporal queries
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/023 using mutual or relative location information between multiple location based services [LBS] targets or of distance thresholds
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/26 Network addressing or numbering for mobility support

Abstract

According to aspects of embodiments of the invention, a computer-implemented process comprises: operating a server holding a database of visual data identifying a plurality of vehicles and a communication contact identifier associated with each of the plurality of vehicles; and providing to a user a software application constructed and arranged to retrieve a communication contact identifier from the database using visual data provided by the user identifying a vehicle with which communication is desired.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented process for completing a communication channel initiated by a device user with a vehicle for which a communication contact identifier is unknown to the device user, comprising:

operating a server holding;

a database of visual data identifying a plurality of vehicles, current geo-location information for the plurality of vehicles, and a communication contact identifier associated with each of the plurality of vehicles;

obtaining a subset of data for a vehicle with which to communicate insufficient to uniquely identify the vehicle into a device operated by the device user;

transmitting from the device operated by the device user to the server the subset of data;

identifying in the database a target vehicle exceeding a set threshold for likelihood of matching the subset of data; and

completing a communication channel to the selected target vehicle, for which the communication contact identifier is otherwise unknown to the user, using the communication contact identifier retrieved from the database.

2. The computer-implemented process of claim 1, further comprising:

obtaining current geo-location information for the device user;

obtaining current geo-location information for the plurality of vehicles in the database;

selecting as the target vehicle, that one of the plurality of vehicles identified in the database having current geo-location information within a desired range of the current geo-location information for the user.

3. The computer-implemented process of claim 2, the act of selecting further comprising:

picking a target vehicle for which a difference between the target vehicle current geo-location information and the current geo-location information for the device user is a minimum of differences for the set of candidate vehicles.

4. The computer-implemented process of claim 1, the act of obtaining the subset of data for a vehicle with which to communicate further comprising scanning license plates.

5. The computer-implemented process of claim 1, the act of selecting further comprising:

scoring a set of candidate target vehicles by a combination of;

more likely match, being a likelihood of matching the subset of visual data, and higher proximity, being a smaller difference between each target vehicle current geo-location information and the current geo-location information for the device user; and

picking the target vehicle as that candidate target vehicle having a highest score of the combination of more likely match and higher proximity.

6. The computer-implemented process of claim 1, wherein:

completing a communication channel includes operating a mobile app executing on a smart phone to initiate a mobile phone call using a mobile phone number as the communication contact identifier.

7. The computer-implemented process of claim 1, operating the server further comprising:

receiving visual data identifying a plurality of vehicles into a computer database from operators of the plurality of vehicles; and

receiving a plurality of communication contact identifiers into the computer database in association with the plurality of vehicles from operators of the plurality of vehicles.

8. The computer-implemented process of claim 7, operating the server further comprising:

receiving into a computer memory, a request to communicate accompanied by the visual data provided by the user identifying the vehicle with which communication is desired; and

returning from the computer database a communication contact identifier associated with the vehicle with which communication is desired.

9. The computer-implemented process of claim 1, wherein the visual data further comprises:

vehicle tag character sequences.

10. The computer-implemented process of claim 1, wherein the visual data further comprises:

visual characteristics inherent to the vehicle.

11. The computer-implemented process of claim 10, wherein the visual characteristics include at least one of the vehicle make, model, and color.

12. The computer-implemented process of claim 1, wherein the visual data further comprises:

unique visual characteristics assigned to the vehicle by operating the server and subsequently applied to the vehicle.