Traffic speed enforcement based on wireless phone network

• US 7,801,512 B1
• Filed: 03/05/2009
• Issued: 09/21/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 03/05/2009
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Makor Issues & Rights Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Makor Issues & Rights Ltd.
• Inventors: Myr, David
• Primary Examiner(s): SANTIAGO CORDERO, MARIVELISSE
• Application Number:
  US12/398,699
• Publication Number:
  US 20100227593A1
• Time in Patent Office: 565 Days
• Field of Search: 340936-937, 340/466, 340/988, 455/414.1, 455/436, 701/119, 342/104, 705/1, 705/4, 705/53
• US Class Current: 455/414.1
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/052 with provision for determining speed or overspeed speed measuring in general G01P
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/20 Monitoring the location of vehicles belonging to a group, e.g. fleet of vehicles, countable or determined number of vehicles

Abstract

The present invention includes systems and methods for detecting a speed limit violation based on the movement of a cell phone in a moving vehicle. The system and method determine whether a speeding violation has occurred based periodic cell phone location data, the time between a cell phone'"'"'s presence at one location and the next, and the speed limit of the section of a section of road that the cell phone could be located on. Embodiments of systems and methods of the invention detect whether a moving vehicle may be part of a public transit system, in which case the corresponding cell phones are removed from consideration. The system and method also include generating a speeding ticket for a car determined to have violated a corresponding speed limit, keeping a record of a speeding violation, and sending a request to settle the ticket if it is not paid on time. Also included in the invention are embodiments of systems and methods that detect whether a cell phone moving in a car is in engaged in a call, and if so, generating a ticket for a driving-while-talking violation.

Claims

1. A method for detecting the speed of a moving vehicle through measurements of cellular phone location data obtained through wireless handoff optimization measurements at specific time intervals, and determining if the vehicle'"'"'s speed is above a maximum speed limit for any particular section of a road, comprising:

a) generating a list of cell phones located at each cell of a wireless network;

b) determining, for a cell phone in the list of step a), when the cell phone has performed a handoff process due to moving from one cell in the wireless network to another cell in the wireless network;

c) determining, for a cell phone in the list of step a), the time of a handoff process following the handoff process of step b);

d) for a cell phone in the list that performed the handoff processes of steps b) and c), virtually positioning the cell phone onto each of all road sections that the cell phone could have been located on between points at which the handoff processes of steps b) ands c) could have occurred;

e) for a cell phone in the list that performed the handoff processes of steps b) and c), determining the distances between all points where the handoffs of steps b) and c) could have occurred along the road sections of step d);

f) for a cell phone in the list that performed the handoff processes of steps b) and c), obtaining from a speed limits database the maximum speed limit for the road sections of step d);

g) obtaining a number representing the minimum length of time in which the moving vehicle corresponding to a cell phone of step f) could travel the distance between two handoff points of step e) in compliance with said maximum speed limits, wherein the number is obtained from a real-time calculation of the minimum ratio of the distances of step e) to the maximum speed limits of step f), or from a database containing the pre-calculated result of said calculation;

h) comparing the actual time between handoffs in steps b) ands c) with the minimum length of time of step g) to determine if the moving vehicle is traveling at a speed above a corresponding maximum speed limit;

i) identifying cell phones that are grouped together in a single moving vehicle and eliminating those cell phones from the list;

j) for a vehicle corresponding to a cell phone in the list and traveling at a speed above a corresponding maximum speed limit, generating a speeding violation ticket; and

k) maintaining a database of speeding violations for a vehicle of step j) that is registered, determining if a certain speeding ticket has not been paid in time, and sending a request to settle the ticket.

2. A method according to claim 1, wherein the vehicle speed data is wirelessly transmitted to a law enforcement agency.

3. A method according to claim 1, further comprising recording corresponding cell phone number, license plate number, formal vehicle registration number, or vehicle identification number of a vehicle containing a cell phone and traveling at a speed above a corresponding maximum speed limit, and keeping such a record for a period of time.

4. A method according to claim 1, further comprising sending the speeding violation ticket to the registered owner of the corresponding vehicle, and keeping a record of sending the speeding ticket for a period of time.

5. A method according to claim 1, further comprising checking if a driver of a car that committed a speeding violation was also speaking on a phone in the same time period in which the driver committed a speeding violation, and generating a driving-while-speaking traffic violation ticket for the driver.

9. A system according to claim 1, further comprising means for sending the speeding violation ticket to the registered owner of the corresponding vehicle, and keeping a record of sending the speeding ticket for a period of time.

10. A system according to claim 1, further comprising means for checking if a driver of a car that committed a speeding violation was also speaking on a phone in the same time period in which the driver committed a speeding violation, and generating a driving-while-speaking traffic violation ticket for the driver.

6. A system for detecting the speed of a moving vehicle through measurements of cellular phone location data obtained through wireless handoff optimization measurements at specific time intervals, and determining if the vehicle'"'"'s speed is above a maximum speed limit for any particular section of a road, comprising:

a) means for generating a list of cell phones located at each cell of a wireless network;

b) means for determining, for a cell phone in the list of step a), when the cell phone has performed a handoff process due to moving from one cell in the wireless network to another cell in the wireless network;

c) means for determining, for a cell phone in the list of part a), the time of a handoff process following the handoff process of step b);

d) means for, for a cell phone in the list that performed the handoff processes of steps b) and c), virtually positioning the cell phone onto each of all road sections that the cell phone could have been located on between points at which the handoff processes of steps b) and c) could have occurred;

e) means for, for a cell phone in the list that performed the handoff processes of steps b) and c), determining the distances between all points where the handoffs of steps b) and c) could have occurred along the road sections of step d);

f) means for, for a cell phone in the list that performed the handoff processes of steps b) and c), obtaining from a speed limits database the maximum speed limit for the road sections of steps d);

g) means for obtaining a number representing the minimum length of time in which the moving vehicle corresponding to a cell phone of step f) could travel the distance between two handoff points of step e) in compliance with said maximum speed limits, wherein the number is obtained from a real-time calculation of the minimum ratio of the distances of step e) to the maximum speed limits of step f), or from a database containing the pre-calculated result of said calculation;

h) means for comparing the actual time between handoffs in steps b) and c) with the minimum length of time of step g) to determine if the moving vehicle is traveling at a speed above a corresponding maximum speed limit;

i) means for identifying cell phones that are grouped together in a single moving vehicle and eliminating those cell phones from the list;

j) means for, for a vehicle corresponding to a cell phone in the list and traveling at a speed above a corresponding maximum speed limit, generating a speeding violation ticket; and

k) means for maintaining a database of speeding violations for a vehicle of step j) that is registered, determining if a certain speeding ticket has not been paid in time, and sending a request to settle the ticket.

7. A system according to claim 6, further comprising means for wirelessly transmitting vehicle speed data.

8. A system according to claim 6, further comprising means for recording corresponding cell phone number, license plate number, formal vehicle registration number, or vehicle identification number of a vehicle containing a cell phone and traveling at a speed above a corresponding maximum speed limit, and keeping such a record for a period of time.

11. A method for detecting the speed of a moving vehicle through measurements of cellular phone location data obtained through wireless handoff optimization measurements at specific time intervals, and determining if the vehicle'"'"'s speed is above a maximum speed limit for any particular section of a road, comprising:

a) generating a list of cell phones located at each cell of a wireless network;

b) determining, for a cell phone in the list of step a), when the cell phone has performed a handoff process due to moving from one cell in the wireless network to another cell in the wireless network;

c) determining, for a cell phone in the list of step a), the time of a handoff process following the handoff process of step b);

d) for a cell phone in the list that performed the handoff processes of steps b) ands c), virtually positioning the cell phone onto each of all road sections that the cell phone could have been located on between points at which the handoff processes of steps b) and c) could have occurred;

e) for a cell phone in the list that performed the handoff processes of steps b) ands c), determining the distances between all points where the handoffs of steps b) and c) could have occurred along the road sections of step d);

f) for a cell phone in the list that performed the handoff processes of steps b) and c), obtaining from a speed limits database the maximum speed limit for the road sections of step d);

g) obtaining a number representing the minimum length of time in which the moving vehicle corresponding to a cell phone of step f) could travel the distance between two handoff points of step e) in compliance with said maximum speed limits, wherein the number is obtained from a real-time calculation of the minimum ratio of the distances of step e) to the maximum speed limits of step f), or from a database containing the pre-calculated result of said calculation;

h) comparing the actual time between handoffs in steps b) and c) with the minimum length of time of step g) to determine if the moving vehicle is traveling at a speed above a corresponding maximum speed limit;

i) identifying cell phones that are grouped together in a single moving vehicle and eliminating those cell phones from the list;

j) for a vehicle corresponding to a cell phone in the list and traveling at a speed above a corresponding maximum speed limit, adding a corresponding cell phone number, license plate number, formal vehicle registration number, or vehicle identification number of the vehicle to a list representing speeding vehicles; and

k) transmitting said list of speeding vehicles to a third party.

12. A system for detecting the speed of a moving vehicle through measurements of cellular phone location data obtained through wireless handoff optimization measurements at specific time intervals, and determining if the vehicle'"'"'s speed is above a maximum speed limit for any particular section of a road, comprising:

a) means for generating a list of cell phones located at each cell of a wireless network;

b) means for determining, for a cell phone in the list of step a), when the cell phone has performed a handoff process due to moving from one cell in the wireless network to another cell in the wireless network;

c) means for determining, for a cell phone in the list of step a), the time of a handoff process following the handoff process of step b);

d) means for, for a cell phone in the list that performed the handoff processes of steps b) and c), virtually positioning the cell phone onto each of all road sections that the cell phone could have been located on between points at which the handoff processes of steps b) and c) could have occurred;

e) means for, for a cell phone in the list that performed the handoff processes of steps b) and c), determining the distances between all points where the handoffs of steps b) and c) could have occurred along the road sections of step d);

f) means for, for a cell phone in the list that performed the handoff processes of steps b) and c) obtaining from a speed limits database the maximum speed limit for the road sections of steps d);

g) means for obtaining a number representing the minimum length of time in which the moving vehicle corresponding to a cell phone of step f) could travel the distance between two handoff points of step e) in compliance with said maximum speed limits, wherein the number is obtained from a real-time calculation of the minimum ratio of the distances of step e) to the maximum speed limits of step f) or from a database containing the pre-calculated result of said calculation;

h) means for comparing the actual time between handoffs in steps b) and c) with the minimum length of time of step g) to determine if the moving vehicle is traveling at a speed above a corresponding maximum speed limit;

i) means for identifying cell phones that are grouped together in a single moving vehicle and eliminating those cell phones from the list;

j) means for, for a vehicle corresponding to a cell phone in the list and traveling at a speed above a corresponding maximum speed limit, adding a corresponding cell phone number, license plate number, formal vehicle registration number, or vehicle identification number of the vehicle to a list representing speeding vehicles; and

k) means for transmitting said list of speeding vehicles to a third party.