Universal GPS traffic monitoring system

• US 8,386,157 B2
• Filed: 10/13/2009
• Issued: 02/26/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 10/10/2008
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Jin Hong Kim
• Original Assignee: Jin Hong Kim
• Inventors: Kim, Jin Hong
• Primary Examiner(s): Tran, Dalena
• Application Number:
  US12/578,550
• Publication Number:
  US 20100100307A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,232 Days
• Field of Search: 701117-119, 340/995.13, 340/995.1, 340/995.14
• US Class Current: 701/119
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/14 specially adapted for specific applications
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/0027 of actual mobile position, i.e. position determined on mobile
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/01 Detecting movement of traffic to be counted or controlled G08G1/07 - G08G1/14 take precedence

Abstract

A universal GPS traffic monitoring system that uses a plurality of GPS enabled mobile devices to transmit near real-time traffic direction and speed information to a server. The sever processes the information thereby reducing the computational load and power consumption of the mobile devices. The system uses a Traffic Pattern Recognition software program that recognizes only valid traffic data while filtering out unwanted traffic data. The system creates a Distributed Traffic Data Store database containing the average speeds for designated traffic monitoring points (TMPs) created for the region. A request for traffic data containing the boundary data and the zoom level is sent from the mobile device to the server. The server reviews the request and determines which specific Distributed Traffic Data Store database contains the information and then creates and sends a compressed file containing the traffic information relevant to the TMPs in the request to the mobile device.

Claims

1. A system for collecting information on traffic conditions, the system comprising:

a traffic server for receiving speed, direction and location data from a plurality of GPS enabled mobile devices operating in traffic monitored region;

a plurality of GPS enabled mobile devices used to send current speed, current direction, and current location data to said server;

a traffic monitoring point database coupled to said server containing a plurality of traffic monitoring points in region; and

, a traffic pattern recognition software program loaded into said server used to filter valid speed, direction and location data from invalid speed and location data uploaded from said mobile devices using a filter chain process that uses a speed check step, a coarse boundary check step, a bearing check step and an accurate boundary check step, said traffic pattern recognition software program stores speed data from valid speed/location data into a Distributed Traffic Data Store database containing the traffic monitoring point associated with said speed, direction and location data from said mobile devices and disregard invalid speed, direction and location data from said mobile devices.

2. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein said speed and location data is uploaded from said mobile devices at time intervals determined by the mobile device.

3. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein said speed and location data is uploaded from said mobile devices at time intervals determined by said server.

4. The system as recited in claim 1, further including a traffic request from said mobile device to said server requesting valid traffic data.

5. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein said traffic request includes a traffic map zoom level, a traffic map display boundary information so that only traffic monitoring points in said Distributed Traffic Data Store database and associated with said traffic monitor points within said traffic map display boundary are sent to said mobile device.

6. The system as recited in claim 1, further including said server being configured to process a traffic request from said mobile device to said server requesting valid traffic data.

7. The system as recited in claim 6, wherein said traffic request includes a traffic map display boundary so that only traffic monitoring points in said Distributed Traffic Data Store database and associated with said traffic monitor points within said boundary identifier are sent to said mobile device.

8. The system as recited in claim 7, wherein said speed, direction and location data is uploaded from said mobile devices at time intervals determined by said server.

9. A system for collecting real time traffic data and then transmitting the collected traffic information, comprising:

a. a wireless communication network;

b. plurality of GPS enabled mobile devices used to communicate with said wireless communication network and transmits speed, direction and location data thereto;

c. a client side software program loaded into said mobile device used to transmit speed, direction and location data over said wireless communication network, said client side also used to produce a traffic request for traffic in a designated region;

d. a server coupled to said wireless communication network,

e. a traffic monitoring point database coupled to said server, said traffic monitoring point database containing a plurality of traffic monitoring points in a region where traffic is monitored;

f. a traffic pattern recognition software program that uses a filter chain process loaded into said server, said filter chain process being used to filter said uploaded speed, direction, and location data from said mobile devices into valid and invalid data, said valid data being saved in a Distributed Traffic Data Store database containing a plurality of traffic monitoring points associated with the valid traffic data; and

,

g. a traffic pattern requestor program loaded into said server used to process traffic requests and transmit valid traffic speed data to said mobile devices, said traffic pattern requestor determines the traffic map display boundary information associated with each said traffic request from said mobile devices and then determines the traffic monitor points within said traffic map boundary information and sends the average speed value associated with each said traffic monitoring point to said mobile device.

10. The system for collecting real time traffic data and then transmitting the collected traffic information as recited in claim 9 further comprising said traffic pattern recognition program uses the traffic zoom level from said mobile devices to control the amount of traffic data downloaded to said mobile devices.

11. A method for automatically updating motor vehicle traffic information using a GPS enable device located within a motor vehicle operating in a traffic region containing a plurality of traffic monitoring points, the method comprising:

selecting a server coupled to a traffic monitoring point database containing a plurality of traffic monitoring points in a traffic region, said server includes a traffic pattern recognition software program loaded therein that filters said uploads speed, direction and location data from GPS enabled devices into valid and invalid data, said valid data being saved in a Distributed Traffic Data Store database,

sending speed, direction and location data via a wireless network from a plurality of GPS enabled devices located in traffic moving within a traffic monitored region to said server;

determining the traffic monitoring point located at said traffic monitoring region associated with said speed, direction and location data;

filtering said speed and location information to determine whether said traffic monitoring point associated with said speed, direction and location data is found in said traffic monitoring database, said filtering being conducted using a filter chain process that uses a speed check step, a coarse boundary check step, a bearing check step and an accurate boundary check step,

storing said speed data associated with said traffic monitoring point in said traffic monitoring database in said Traffic Data Store database;

determining the location of said GPS enabled device; and

,

sending speed data associated with said traffic monitoring points between said server and said GPS enabled device when said GPS enabled device is within a designated boundary containing said traffic monitoring points.