Communication method and arrangement

• US 7,110,880 B2
• Filed: 01/03/2005
• Issued: 09/19/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 10/22/1997
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: American Vehicular Sciences LLC (Acacia Research Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Intelligent Technologies International, Inc.
• Inventors: Konovalov, Vladymyr Michailovich, Breed, David S., Johnson, Wendell C., DuVall, Wilbur E., Lukin, Kostyantyn Alexandrovich
• Primary Examiner(s): Zanelli, Michael J.
• Application Number:
  US11/028,386
• Publication Number:
  US 20050137786A1
• Time in Patent Office: 624 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 701/207
• CPC Class Codes: B60N 2/2863 backward facing
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 10/06 including control of combustion engines
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 10/18 including control of braking systems
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 10/20 including control of steering systems
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2050/0071 Controller overrides driver automatically
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2050/0073 Driver overrides controller
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2050/0075 Automatic parameter input, automatic initialising or calibrating means
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2556/50 of positioning data, e.g. GPS [Global Positioning System] data
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 30/02 Control of vehicle driving stability
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 30/04 related to roll-over prevention
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 30/14 Adaptive cruise control
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 30/16 Control of distance between vehicles, e.g. keeping a distance to preceding vehicle
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 30/18154 Approaching an intersection
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 30/18159 Traversing an intersection
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 30/18172 Preventing, or responsive to skidding of wheels
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 40/06 Road conditions
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 40/072 Curvature of the road
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 40/076 Slope angle of the road
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 50/00 Details of control systems for road vehicle drive control not related to the control of a particular sub-unit , e.g. process diagnostic or vehicle driver interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 50/14 Means for informing the driver, warning the driver or prompting a driver intervention
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 13/931 : of land vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 17/86 : Combinations of lidar systems with systems other than lidar, radar or sonar, e.g. with direction finders
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 17/89 : for mapping or imaging
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/17 : Emergency applications
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/41 : Differential correction, e.g. DGPS [differential GPS]
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/42 : Determining position
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/50 : whereby the position solution is constrained to lie upon a particular curve or surface, e.g. for locomotives on railway tracks
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 2013/9315 : Monitoring blind spots
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 2013/9316 : combined with communication equipment with other vehicles or with base stations
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 2013/9318 : Controlling the steering
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 2013/93185 : Controlling the brakes
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 2013/9319 : Controlling the accelerator
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 2013/932 : using own vehicle data, e.g. ground speed, steering wheel direction
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 2013/9321 : Velocity regulation, e.g. cruise control
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 2013/9322 : using additional data, e.g. driver condition, road state or weather data
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 2013/93271 : in the front of the vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 2013/93272 : in the back of the vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 2013/93273 : on the top of the vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 2013/9329 : cooperating with reflectors or transponders
• 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 1/0246 : using a video camera in combination with image processing means
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0257 : using a radar radar systems designed for anti-collision purposes between land vehicles or between land vehicle and fixed obstacles G01S13/931
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/027 : comprising intertial navigation means, e.g. azimuth detector inertial navigation G01C21/16; inertial navigation combined with non-inertial navigation instruments G01C21/165
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0274 : using mapping information stored in a memory device navigation using map-matching G01C21/30
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0278 : using satellite positioning signals, e.g. GPS
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/161 : Decentralised systems, e.g. inter-vehicle communication
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/163 : involving continuous checking
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/164 : Centralised systems, e.g. external to vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/165 : for passive traffic, e.g. including static obstacles, trees
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/166 : for active traffic, e.g. moving vehicles, pedestrians, bikes
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/167 : Driving aids for lane monitoring, lane changing, e.g. blind spot detection

Abstract

Arrangement for transferring information between a vehicle and one or more transmitters separate from the vehicle includes an antenna mounted on the vehicle and capable of receiving radio frequency waves emitted by the transmitter and containing information, a position determining device for determining the position of the vehicle, and a processor coupled to the antenna and the position determining device and arranged to analyze the waves received by the antenna, determine whether any received waves contain information of interest for operation of the vehicle based on the vehicle'"'"'s position as determined by the position determining device, and extract the information of interest only from the received waves determined to contain information of interest. The information of interest may be information about the transmitter such as its location, speed, velocity, etc., or information relating to road conditions, weather and the like.

Claims

1. An arrangement for transferring information between a vehicle and at least one transmitter separate from the vehicle, each of the at least one transmitter transmitting radio frequency waves containing positional information about the transmitter, information necessitated by the information transferring arrangement and additional information of potential interest for operation of the vehicle, comprising:

an antenna mounted on the vehicle and capable of receiving radio frequency waves emitted by the transmitter and containing information;

a position determining device for determining the position of the vehicle; and

a processor coupled to said antenna and said position determining device and arranged to analyze the waves received by said antenna, determine whether any received waves contain information of interest for operation of the vehicle based on the vehicle'"'"'s position as determined by said position determining device, and extract the information of interest only from the received waves determined to contain information of interest,

said processor being arranged to extract only the positional information and the information necessitated by the information transferring arrangement from all received waves and analyze the positional information to determine whether any received waves contain information of interest for operation of the vehicle and then extract additional information only from received waves determined to contain information of interest for operation of the vehicle.

2. The arrangement of claim 1, wherein the information of interest is information which allows for the determination or calculation of one of a distance between the transmitter and the vehicle, an angle between the transmitter and the vehicle, a direction between the transmitter and the vehicle, a place of the transmitter and a geographic position of the transmitter and combinations thereof.

3. The arrangement of claim 1, wherein the analysis by said processor of the positional information extracted from all of the received waves to determine whether any received waves contain information of interest for operation of the vehicle includes an analysis of the positional information to determine whether any received waves originate from a transmitter within a pre-determined area relative to the vehicle.

4. The arrangement of claim 1, wherein said antenna is capable of transmitting radio frequency waves, said processor being arranged to direct transmission of encoded signals from said antenna including information about the position of the vehicle.

5. The arrangement of claim 4, wherein said processor is arranged to derive encoded signals using a code based on the position of the vehicle.

6. The arrangement of claim 1, wherein said antenna is capable of transmitting radio frequency waves, said processor being arranged to direct transmission of encoded signals from said antenna including information about the position of the vehicle and identification of the vehicle.

7. The arrangement of claim 1, further comprising a speed determining device arranged in the vehicle for determining the speed of the vehicle, said processor being coupled to said speed determining device for encoding signals including information about the speed of the vehicle.

8. The arrangement of claim 1, further comprising a motion determining device arranged in the vehicle for determining the direction of motion of the vehicle, said processor being coupled to said motion determining device for encoding signals including information about the direction of motion of the vehicle.

9. The arrangement of claim 1, wherein said processor is arranged to derive encoded signals by phase modulation of distance or time between code transmissions, phase or amplitude modulation of code sequences, changes of the polarity of an entire code sequence or individual code segments, or bandwidth modulation of a code sequence, said processor deriving the encoded signals using a code based on the position of the vehicle.

10. A method for transferring information between a vehicle and at least one transmitter separate from the vehicle, each of the at least one transmitter transmitting radio frequency waves containing positional information about the transmitter, information necessitated by the information transferring method and additional information of potential interest for operation of the vehicle, comprising:

arranging an antenna on the vehicle capable of receiving the radio frequency waves emitted by the transmitter;

receiving waves transmitted by the at least one transmitter via the antenna;

determining the position of the vehicle;

analyzing the waves received by the antenna to extract the positional information about the transmitter and information necessitated by the information transferring method from each wave;

determining from the extracted positional information whether any received waves contain additional information of actual interest for operation of the vehicle; and

extracting the additional information only from those transmitted signals determined to contain information of actual interest for operation of the vehicle.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the additional information contained in each transmitted wave is information which allows for the determination or calculation of one of a distance between the transmitter and the vehicle, an angle between the transmitter and the vehicle, a direction between the transmitter and the vehicle, a place of the transmitter and a geographic position of the transmitter and combinations thereof.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein the wave analysis step comprises analyzing the received waves to determine whether any received waves originate from a transmitter within a pre-determined area relative to the vehicle, the information extracting step comprising extracting additional information only from the waves received from any transmitter determined to be within the pre-determined area relative to the vehicle.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

determining a direction between each transmitter within the pre-determined area relative to the vehicle and the vehicle; and

limiting the extraction of additional information from waves received from the transmitters within the pre-determined area relative to the vehicle to only those whose direction to the vehicle affects the traveling of the vehicle.

14. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

determining a direction of travel of each transmitter within the pre-determined area relative to the vehicle and the vehicle; and

limiting the extraction of additional information from waves received from the transmitters within the pre-determined area relative to the vehicle to only those whose direction of travel affects the traveling of the vehicle.

15. The method of claim 10, wherein the wave analysis step comprises analyzing the received waves to determine whether any received waves originate from a transmitter traveling in a direction toward the vehicle'"'"'s current position, the information extracting step comprising extracting additional information only from the waves received from any transmitter traveling toward the vehicle'"'"'s current position.

16. The method of claim 10, wherein the wave analysis step comprises analyzing the received waves to determine whether any received waves originate from a transmitter traveling in a direction toward the vehicle'"'"'s current position or toward the vehicle'"'"'s projected position based on the vehicle'"'"'s current position and direction of travel, the information extracting step comprising extracting additional information only from the waves received from any transmitter traveling in a direction toward the vehicle'"'"'s current or projected position.

17. The method of claim 10, wherein the antenna is capable of transmitting radio frequency waves, further comprising:

transmitting encoded signals from the antenna including information about the position of the vehicle; and

selecting a code to use for encoding the signal based on the position of the vehicle.

18. The method of claim 10, wherein the signals are analyzed to determine whether any of the signals originate from transmitters dedicated to the transmission of road conditions or traffic data whereby the signals containing information of interest originate from the transmitters dedicated to the transmission of road conditions or traffic data.

19. A method for transferring information from transmitters to a moving vehicle, comprising:

determining the position of the vehicle;

transmitting a signal from each transmitter containing its position, information necessitated by the information transferring method and additional information;

arranging an antenna on the vehicle;

receiving the signals from the transmitters via the antenna;

analyzing the signals received by the antenna to extract the positional information about the transmitters and information necessitated by the information transferring method from each signal;

determining from the extracted positional information whether any transmitters are situated within a pre-determined area relative to the vehicle; and

extracting the additional information only from signals received from transmitters within the pre-determined area relative to the vehicle.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the additional information is information which allows for a determination or calculation of one of a distance between the transmitter and the vehicle, an angle between the transmitter and the vehicle, a direction between the transmitter and the vehicle, a place of the transmitter and a geographic position of the transmitter and combinations thereof.

21. The method of claim 19, further comprising:

determining a direction between each transmitter within the pre-determined area relative to the vehicle and the vehicle; and

limiting the extraction of the additional information from waves received from the transmitters within the pre-determined area relative to the vehicle to only those whose direction affects the traveling of the vehicle.

22. The method of claim 21, further comprising:

determining a direction of travel of each transmitter within the pre-determined area relative to the vehicle and the vehicle; and

limiting the extraction of additional information from waves received from the transmitters within the pre-determined area relative to the vehicle to only those whose direction of travel affects the traveling of the vehicle.

23. The method of claim 19, further comprising:

determining whether any received waves originate from a transmitter traveling in a direction toward the vehicle'"'"'s current position; and

extracting additional information only from the waves received from any transmitter traveling toward the vehicle'"'"'s current position.

24. The method of claim 19, further comprising:

determining whether any received waves originate from a transmitter traveling in a direction toward the vehicle'"'"'s current position or toward the vehicle'"'"'s projected position based on the vehicle'"'"'s current position and direction of travel; and

extracting additional information only from the waves received from any transmitter traveling in a direction toward the vehicle'"'"'s current or projected position.

25. The method of claim 19, further comprising:

encoding the signals transmitted by the transmitters; and

selecting a code to use for encoding the signals for each transmitter based on the position of the transmitter.

26. The method of claim 19, further comprising:

positioning the transmitters on vehicles; and

determining the position of each transmitter using a (GPS-based system.

27. A method for transferring information between a vehicle and at least one transmitter separate from the vehicle, comprising:

mounting an antenna on the vehicle which is capable of receiving radio frequency waves emitted by the transmitter containing information and capable of transmitting radio frequency waves containing information;

determining the position of the vehicle;

analyzing the waves received by the antenna;

determining whether any received waves contain information of interest for operation of the vehicle based on the vehicle'"'"'s position; and

extracting the information of interest only from the received waves determined to contain information of interest;

transmitting encoded signals from the antenna; and

generating the encoded signals using a code based on the position of the vehicle such that the position of the vehicle is determinable upon decoding of the signal.

28. The method of claim 27, further comprising assigning an identification to the vehicle and encoding an identification of the vehicle into transmission from the antenna.

29. An arrangement for transferring information between a vehicle and at least one transmitter separate from the vehicle, comprising:

an antenna mounted on the vehicle and capable of receiving radio frequency waves emitted by the transmitter and containing information and capable of transmitting radio frequency waves;

a position determining device for determining the position of the vehicle; and

a processor coupled to said antenna and said position determining device and arranged to analyze the waves received by said antenna, determine whether any received waves contain information of interest for operation of the vehicle based on the vehicle'"'"'s position as determined by said position determining device, and extract the information of interest only from the received waves determined to contain information of interest,

said processor being arranged to direct transmission of encoded signals from said antenna including information about the position of the vehicle.

30. The arrangement of claim 29, wherein said processor is arranged to direct transmission of encoded signals from said antenna including identification of the vehicle.

31. An arrangement for transferring information between a vehicle and at least one transmitter separate from the vehicle, comprising:

an antenna mounted on the vehicle and capable of receiving radio frequency waves emitted by the at least one transmitter and containing information and transmitting radio frequency waves containing information;

a position determining device for determining the position of the vehicle; and

a processor coupled to said antenna and said position determining device and arranged to analyze the waves received by said antenna, determine whether any received waves contain information of interest for operation of the vehicle based on the vehicle'"'"'s position as determined by said position determining device, and extract the information of interest only from the received waves determined to contain information of interest,

said processor being arranged to generate encoded signals using a code based on the position of the vehicle, the encoded signals being transmitted by said antenna.

32. The arrangement of claim 31, wherein said processor is arranged to encode the signals by phase modulation of distance or time between code transmissions, phase or amplitude modulation of code sequences, changes of the polarity of an entire code sequence or individual code segments, or bandwidth modulation of a code sequence.

33. A method for transferring information between a vehicle and at least one transmitter separate from the vehicle, comprising:

mounting an antenna on the vehicle which is capable of receiving radio frequency waves emitted by the transmitter and containing information and capable of transmitting radio frequency waves;

determining the position of the vehicle;

analyzing the waves received by the antenna;

determining whether any received waves contain information of interest for operation of the vehicle based on the vehicle'"'"'s position; and

extracting the information of interest only from the received waves determined to contain information of interest;

transmitting encoded signals from the antenna including information about the position of the vehicle.