Data processing: vehicles – navigation – and relative location – Vehicle control – guidance – operation – or indication – Traffic analysis or control of surface vehicle
Reexamination Certificate
2000-03-10
2001-12-25
Louis-Jacques, Jacques H. (Department: 3661)
Data processing: vehicles, navigation, and relative location
Vehicle control, guidance, operation, or indication
Traffic analysis or control of surface vehicle
C701S118000, C701S119000, C701S209000, C340S905000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06334086
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a traffic information system, and more particularly, to an apparatus and method for collecting traffic information on roads by which a time and a speed required for traveling a link of a road are detected and collected on a real time basis regardless of a location or an environment of the road. An average travel time and an average travel speed by links of the entire road are computed and managed by time zones, which are constantly provided to a driver so as to inform him of the extent of traffic congestion on roadways immediately and accurately.
2. Description of the Background Arts
Recently, according to industrial development, supply of vehicles has been explosively increased, which makes drivers to take more time and distance for driving. Also, as the road networks become complicated as they are expanding, there are high possibilities for the drivers to take an unfamiliar road to drive.
The rapid increase in the supply of the vehicles compared to the relatively little road leads to the severe traffic congestion in roads, causing an enormous damage to the national economy.
In order to reduce such a damage, it is necessary to quickly and accurately detect the extent of traffic congestion of the entire road and inform drivers of it, so that they can be dispersed to less congested roads or less crowded time zones in their use of roads. This would be quite advantageous in view that the limited road resource is effectively utilized without any investment.
Accordingly, it is desirable to collect traffic information on the entire road, so as to recommend to the drivers the fastest route to an intended destination before his starting or inform the drivers when they are unfortunately caught in heavily congested roads or in complicated downtown traffic networks.
Recently, there have been presented many traffic information collection systems for collecting traffic flow information on the entire road by time zones, for an effective management.
The traffic information collection systems are characterized in that positions of roads and facilities on the map are digitized and stored in a memory, position information on a vehicle mounting a terminal is collected and matched with links as digitized on the map of the memory, thereby guiding a travel time and a travel speed of each link of the entire road.
The traffic information collection systems mostly employ a global positioning system (GPS).
The GPS system in use for the traffic information collection system is a space-based satellite radio navigation system developed by the U.S. Department of Defense which includes an intentional error in transmission in order to prevent any military use by other countries.
According to this system, by receiving radio signals transmitted from at least three or four satellites among many GPS satellites having an atomic clock placed in the orbit, a distance to the satellite is obtained from the travel time of the radio signals and a speed measurement is available by using the Doppler effect.
As aforementioned, though the global positioning system (GPS) was initially developed for military use, as it was recognized to have a high utility value for civil vehicle means, the satellites started a service for civil use, by transmitting radio signals for measurement including the intentional range error.
By applying the global positioning system to the traffic information collection system, information on a vehicle operation, such as a distance to the destination and a time required, can be obtained.
Typically, the range error contained in the signal receiving from the GPS satellite is approximately in the range of 100 m to 2km.
FIGS. 1 and 2
are exemplary views of an apparatus for collecting traffic information by using the global positioning system in accordance with a conventional art.
The apparatus for collecting traffic information of the conventional art includes a plurality of GPS satellites
10
for transmitting GPS signals including time information; a GPS terminal for receiving, computing and transmitting the position information of the vehicle as transmitted from the GPS satellites
10
; a vehicle
12
(termed as ‘probe vehicle’, hereinafter) mounting the GPS terminal; a communication relay unit
12
for relaying the signal transmitted from the GPS terminal
11
; and a service center
108
for receiving the position signal of the relayed probe vehicle, and computing and managing an average travel time and travel speed of the probe vehicle
12
.
As shown in
FIG. 2
, the GPS terminal
11
for computing the position information on the basis of the radio waves as transmitted from the GPS satellites
10
and transmitting the same to the communication relay unit
106
includes a GPS receiver
101
for receiving the GPS signal having the position information on the vehicle and the time information through an antenna
100
from the plurality of GPS satellites
10
and computing the position information of the probe vehicle
12
; an operating panel
103
for selecting and inputting corresponding functions; a CPU for analyzing history of the position information periodically transmitted from the GPS receiver
101
, to correct a position measurement error, and controlling the overall operation of the system; a wireless communication module
104
for modulating the position information on the probe vehicle for which the position error was corrected, and transmitting the same through the antenna
105
.
The GPS receiver
101
of the GPS terminal
11
includes a frequency down converter
101
a
for frequency down converting the plurality of GPS signals in the different range of a few GHz(substantially 1~2 GHz)as received through the antenna to baseband signals; a GPS tuner
101
b
for extracting only a GPS signal corresponding to the current position of the vehicle from the frequency down converted baseband signals; a position operation unit
101
c
for computing an absolute coordinate of latitude, longitude, altitude and a standard time with the extracted GPS signal and outputting current position information on the probe vehicle
12
to the CPU
102
.
The wireless communication module
104
of the GPS terminal
11
includes a local oscillator
104
b
for generating an oscillation frequency under the control of the CPU
102
; a modulator
104
a
for modulating the position information of the probe vehicle
12
of which position error was corrected by the CPU; a transmitting/amplifying unit
104
c
for amplifying the modulated signal to a sufficient amplitude; and a transmission power amplifier
104
d
for power-amplifying the amplified transmission signal to a sufficient intensity and transmitting the same through the antenna
105
.
As shown in
FIG. 2
, the service center
108
for receiving the position information on the probe vehicle
12
from the GPS terminal
11
and computing and managing the average travel time and travel speed of the probe vehicle
12
includes a communication server
108
a
for receiving the transmission signal of the GPS terminal
11
being relayed through the communication relay unit
106
, and extracting the position information on the probe vehicle
12
; a map server
108
b
for digitizing the extracted position information, and mapping it with the link on the electronic map to detect a travel time and a travel speed in the link; and a database server
108
c
for systematically managing the data related to the travel time and the travel speed of each link that was collected by operating the probe vehicle
12
from the map server
108
b.
FIG. 3
is a signal flow chart illustrating a method for collecting traffic information of
FIG. 2
wherein, when the probe vehicle is moving, the GPS signals transmitted from the plurality of the GPS satellites
10
are received by the GPS terminal
11
mounted in the probe vehicle
12
to compute the position of the probe vehicle and transmit it, and the service center
108
collects the transmitted position information on the probe vehicle
12
through the com
Jin Seo-Yong
Kim Dong-Joon
Ko Joong-Hyup
Park Jong-Hun
Sin Young-Dal
Jacobson & Holman PLLC
Louis-Jacques Jacques H.
ROTIS Inc. (Road Traffic Information Systems)
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