Data processing: vehicles – navigation – and relative location – Vehicle control – guidance – operation – or indication – Traffic analysis or control of surface vehicle
Reexamination Certificate
2000-04-14
2002-10-15
Cuchlinski, Jr., William A. (Department: 3661)
Data processing: vehicles, navigation, and relative location
Vehicle control, guidance, operation, or indication
Traffic analysis or control of surface vehicle
C701S118000, C701S119000, C340S901000, C340S905000, C340S988000, C342S357490
Reexamination Certificate
active
06466862
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a system for providing traffic information, and more particularly a system for providing traffic information to a plurality of mobile users connected to a network.
Commuters have a need for information relating to the congestion and traffic which they may encounter on a commute over a road, a highway, or a freeway. Unfortunately, the prior art methods of providing traffic information to commuters do not allow commuters to evaluate the extent to which there is congestion on a highway on which the commuter may wish to travel.
One known method of providing traffic information consists of radio reports. A radio station may broadcast traffic reports, such as from a helicopter that monitors traffic conditions over portions of a freeway. Unfortunately, these reports are usually intermittent in nature. Accordingly, to hear the report, the commuter must be listening to the radio station at the time the report is being broadcast on the radio. Further, the extent of the information provided is severely limited to broad generalizations. For example, the information provided during the broadcast may be limited to the area being currently viewed by the reporter, or the information may be based on a previous view at a prior time of another portion of the freeway. Some broadcasts may include multiple observers of different portions of the freeway, yet these systems also provide incomplete information relating to overall traffic patterns. In addition, the information provided is vague, subjective, and usually limited to broad generalities relating to traffic flow.
Another known traffic information system is provided by television broadcasts. In these systems, television stations may mount video cameras pointed at certain portions of a freeway, or may broadcast video images from a helicopter. The television station may periodically broadcast traffic reports and include in the traffic report a view of different portions of the freeway from the video cameras. Again, this system provides little useful information to a commuter. The commuter must be watching the broadcast at the time the information is being transmitted. However, by the time the commuter actually gets into his vehicle and enters a potentially congested area, the traffic may have changed. Further, the information provided is limited to those areas where the traffic is being monitored and may consist of stale information. Often the video image is limited to a small portion of the road, and shows traffic flowing in a single direction.
Yet another method to provide traffic information is to provide a website that is accessible using the Internet that contains traffic information. While these types of systems have the advantage of providing more up to date information, these systems typically provide a map for a large area. Thus, for a person commuting in a car, the system displays traffic information for many areas not of interest to the commuter. In addition, these types of systems require manipulation by the commuter to find the relevant traffic information. For example, while the map may allow the commuter to zoom in on a particular area, the user must provide inputs to the system to instruct the system to zoom in on a particular area. However, a commuter who is actively driving cannot operate a computer and drive at the same time. In addition, these systems may rely on manual entry of data received from subjective traffic reports and/or traffic sensors. Thus this method may additionally suffer from added cost due to manual labor, incorrect entry of data, and slow response to quickly changing traffic conditions.
Fan et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,959,577, disclose a system for processing position and travel related information through a data processing station on a data network. In particular, Fan et al. teach the use of a GPS receiver to obtain a measured position fix of a mobile unit. The measured position fix is reported to the data processing station which associates the reported position with a map of the area. Typically, the measured position of the mobile unit is marked and identified by a marker on the map. The area map is then stored in the data processing station and made available for access by authorized monitor units or mobile units. An authorized monitor unit may request a specific area map. This permits shipping companies to monitor the location of their fleet and permits the mobile units to identify their current location in relation to a map, which is particularly suited for the application of navigation to a particular destination. In addition, Fan et al. teach that the measured position data transmitted from the mobile units may be used to calculate the speeds at which the vehicles travel. The collective speed data from the mobile units is then available for use by the monitor units, such as those at the shipping company, to route the vehicles away from traffic congestions and diversions. In this manner, the dispatcher at the shipping company, to which Fan et al. teaches the data is available to, may use the collective speed data to decide which vehicles to contact in order to reroute them.
Westerlage et al., U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,097,377 and 5,987,377, disclose a system for determining an expected time of arrival of a vehicle equipped with a mobile unit.
Zijderhand, U.S. Pat. No. 5,402,117, discloses a method of collecting traffic information to determine an origin-destination matrice without infringing upon the privacy of the users.
Mandhyan et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,539,645, is related to monitoring movement of traffic along predetermined routes, where individual moving elements can move with a high degree of discretion as to speed except when congestion, accident or the like limit speeds. Mandhyan et al. uses the deployment of calibrant vehicles for collecting and reporting information which describes vehicle speeds actually being experienced along the routes of interest where the data are processed statistically as a function of the time of day. The output provides baseline data against which observations at a particular time, category, weather, event, and location can be compared, to identify the existence of abnormal conditions, and to quantify the abnormality. To determine abnormal conditions, Mandhyan et al. teach the use of probe vehicles. In particular, Mandhyan et al. is applicable to monitoring the flow of motor vehicles along roads which are subject to delays of sufficient frequency and severity that correction action or dissemination of information announcing a delay are economically desirable. Unfortunately, the use of probe vehicles may be expensive and the relevancy of the data is limited to the availability of the probe vehicles.
Lappenbusch et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,982,298, disclose a traffic information system having servers that makes traffic data, images, and video clips available to a user interface on client devices. Lappenbusch et al. envision that the client devices are personal or desktop computers, network computers, set-top boxes, or intelligent televisions. The user interface includes a road map showing a plurality of road segments that a user can interactively select. Vehicular speed information is provided to the system from traffic sensors monitoring the traffic. In addition, the user interface has a road image area that changes as the user selects different road segments to show recent images of a currently selected road segment. Unfortunately, the system taught by Lappenbusch et al. is complicated to operate and requires significant user interaction to provide relevant data, which is suitable for such “stationary” traditional computing devices.
Smith, Jr. et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,774,827, disclose a system to alleviate the need for sophisticated route guidance systems, where the commuter has a positioning system as well as a map database in a car. A central facility receives and stores current traffic information for preselected commuter routes from various current traffic information sources, such as local police authorities, toll-w
DeKock Bruce W.
Qian Richard J.
Russell Kevin L.
Chernoff Vilhauer McClung & Stenzel LLP
Cuchlinski Jr. William A.
DeKock Bruce
Marc-Coleman Marthe Y.
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