System and method for electronic road signs with in-car display capabilities

• US 7,859,428 B2
• Filed: 05/13/2008
• Issued: 12/28/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 02/21/2006
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Kyndryl Incorporated
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Polozoff, Alexandre, Boss, Gregory Jensen, Waters, Timothy Moffett, Hamilton, Rick Allen II
• Primary Examiner(s): Lee; Benjamin C
• Assistant Examiner(s): TANG, SIGMUND N
• Application Number:
  US12/119,659
• Publication Number:
  US 20090284394A1
• Time in Patent Office: 959 Days
• Field of Search: 340/905, 340/908
• US Class Current: 340/905
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/0962 having an indicator mounted inside the vehicle, e.g. giving voice messages
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096716 where the received information does not generate an automatic action on the vehicle control
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096758 where no selection takes place on the transmitted or the received information
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096783 where the origin of the information is a roadside individual element

Abstract

The present invention is method and system for delivering road sign content information to a mobile computing device for display to the driver of a vehicle. The system consists of a wireless communication network in communication with a mobile computing device operationally coupled to a dashboard display device or a vehicle head'"'"'s up display device. The wireless communication network further comprises a plurality of meshed network sign transmitting devices placed along predetermined intervals along the highway. Each sign-transmitting device is capable of transmitting road sign content information to the mobile computing device for display to the driver.

Claims

1. In a wireless communication network comprising a plurality of road signs containing wireless road sign transmitters capable of transmitting signals containing information to mobile computing devices located in motor vehicles, a system for delivering road sign content to the mobile computing devices within motor vehicles, the system comprising:

a road sign transmitter for continuously broadcasting signals onto the wireless communication network a message containing specific road sign content information;

a computing device within a motor vehicle capable of receiving from a motor vehicle occupant display parameters for displaying information with specifically defined content received from road sign transmitters, said computing device also capable of continuously monitoring the wireless communication network for signals being broadcast over the network, the broadcasted signals coming from road sign transmitters;

a receiver within said computing device for capturing a signal transmitted over the wireless communication network, when the signal is in range of the mobile computing device;

a processing component within the receiving device for interpreting information contained in a received signal, determining the road sign content information contained in the signal, storing the captured road sign content information transmitting the captured road sign information to a display device based on one or more display parameters previously defined by a vehicle occupant; and

a display device for displaying for a predetermined time period contents of a road sign contained in the captured signal and transmitted to said display device from said processing component.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein the mobile computing device is a hand-held computing device.

3. The system of claim 1 further comprises an interface for securing the mobile computing device into a computing system manufactured as part of the vehicle.

4. The system of claim 1 wherein said processing component for interpreting information contained in a received signal has the ability to retrieve from the retrieved signal a set of attributes that identify the specific type of road sign content contained in the received signal.

5. The system of claim 1 further comprises a device to activate a backup sign transmitter to replace a deactivated sign transmitter.

6. The system of claim 1 wherein the display device further comprises the capability of redisplaying the message for an additional predetermined period of time.

7. The system of claim 1 further comprises an input mechanism in the computing device for accepting a user request to filter and display a specific type of information contained in a received signal transmitted from a road sign transmitter, the filter request containing parameters on which a filtering operation will be base.

8. The system of claim 7 wherein said display device further comprises a mechanism in said computing device for displaying information from a the road sign based upon the user'"'"'s filtering request.

9. The system claim 1 further comprising:

a device for providing a remote server in communication with the plurality of road sign transmitters;

a mechanism for continuously monitoring the plurality of sign transmitters to determine their status; and

if a sign transmitter malfunctions a computing device means for issuing an error notification.