21739results about "Detection of traffic movement" patented technology

A vehicle imaging system includes an imaging sensor having a field of view exterior of a vehicle, an image processor and a display. The imaging sensor generates a signal indicative of an image representative of a scene occurring within the field of view. The image processor receives the signal from the imaging sensor and processes the signal to detect at least one relevant object within the image. The display is operable to display at least one iconistic representation of the at least one detected relevant object in response to an output signal generated by the image processor. The display is positionable within the vehicle and is viewable by a driver or passenger or occupant of the vehicle. The imaging sensor may be mounted to a mounting bracket mounted at a license plate area of the vehicle.

An on-board intelligent vehicle system includes a sensor assembly to collect data and a processor to process the data to determine the occurrence of at least one event. The data may be collected from existing standard equipment such as the vehicle communication bus or add-on sensors. The data may be indicative of conditions relating to the vehicle, roadway infrastructure, and roadway utilization, such as vehicle performance, roadway design, roadway conditions, and traffic levels. The detection of an event may signify abnormal, substandard, or unacceptable conditions prevailing in the roadway, vehicle, or traffic. The vehicle transmits an event indicator and correlated vehicle location data to a central facility for further management of the information. The central facility sends communications reflecting event occurrence to various relevant or interested users. The user population can include other vehicle subscribers (e.g., to provide rerouting data based on location-relevant roadway or traffic events), roadway maintenance crews, vehicle manufacturers, and governmental agencies (e.g., transportation authorities, law enforcement, and legislative bodies).

System and methods for determining and disseminating current traffic information and / or route information are presented. For example, in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention, traffic condition information is collected from mobile units that provide their location or position information. The traffic condition may be determined, for example, based on the difference between the velocity of each mobile unit and the speed limit corresponding to their location. Furthermore, the fastest routes between two locations may be determined and provided based on historical and / or current conditions and provided to a mobile unit. In accordance with another embodiment of the present invention, route information may be utilized to determine whether a mobile unit (e.g., associated with a vehicle) is allowed or prohibited from traveling along a certain route.

A vision system for a vehicle includes an imaging device having an imaging sensor, a camera microcontroller, a display device having a display element, a display microcontroller, and at least one user input selectively actuatable by a user. The imaging device communicates an image signal to the display device via a communication link. The display microcontroller affects the image signal in response to the at least one user input. The camera microcontroller monitors the image signal on the communication link and adjusts a function of the imaging device in response to a detection of the affected image signal. The vision system may adjust a display or sensor of the system in conjunction with a distance detecting system.

A system of mobile units are installed in multiple vehicles in traffic. These mobile units include both wireless communications devices and apparatus that determines the location of each vehicle. Monitoring a vehicle's position as a function of time also reveals the velocity of the vehicle. Position and speed information is periodically broadcast by the vehicles to a central monitoring station and to neighboring vehicles. At the central monitoring station, the collective input of a set of vehicles is processed to provide an instant chart of traffic conditions in the area. Warnings of delays or updates on traffic conditions on the road ahead are then automatically returned to subscribers of the information or are used as part of an Intelligent Vehicle Highway System (IVHS). Neighboring vehicles within a region communicating with one another form a network in which the broadcast information is processed locally on the respective vehicles to estimate possible problems ahead and consider computing an alternate road and / or checking with the central monitoring station for more information. If out of range of the central monitoring station, the vehicles in the network form a local area network for the exchange and update of information, and when any vehicle in the network is within range of the central monitoring station, the local area network data is uploaded to help update the overall traffic information.

A system for instantaneously monitoring traffic congestion including a plurality of monitoring electronic devices located in motor vehicles traveling on roadways in a selected region. Each monitoring electronic device is coupled to a GPS receiver that provides physical location to a wireless modem capable of connecting to a wireless communication network. The system also includes a central computer connected to a wide area network that is able of continuously downloading physical location information from a plurality of monitoring electronic devices also connected to the wide area network. The central computer uses a traffic monitoring software program and a mapping database containing roadway information for a region and the movement information from the monitoring electronic devices to create a continuously updated traffic congestion database. Authorized users of the system are able to log onto the central computer to a portion of the database that contains specific traffic flow and congestion information. Using the system, users are also able to obtain estimated times of arrival for a specific trip, and recommendations on alternative route information. The system can also take into consideration current or anticipated events that may affect traffic congestion.

A vision system for a vehicle includes an imaging device having an imaging sensor, a camera microcontroller, a display device having a display element, a display microcontroller, and at least one user input selectively actuatable by a user. The imaging device communicates an image signal to the display device via a communication link. The display microcontroller affects the image signal in response to the at least one user input. The camera microcontroller monitors the image signal on the communication link and adjusts a function of the imaging device in response to a detection of the affected image signal. The vision system may adjust a display or sensor of the system in conjunction with a distance detecting system.

A vehicle awareness system for monitoring remote vehicles relative to a host vehicle. The vehicle awareness system includes at least one object sensing device and a vehicle-to-vehicle communication device. A data collection module is provided for obtaining a sensor object data map and vehicle-to-vehicle object data map. A fusion module merges the sensor object data map and vehicle-to-vehicle object data map for generating a cumulative object data map. A tracking module estimates the relative position of the remote vehicles to the host vehicle.

An on-board intelligent vehicle system includes a sensor assembly to collect data and a processor to process the data to determine the occurrence of at least one event. The data may be collected from existing standard equipment such as the vehicle communication bus or add-on sensors. The data may be indicative of conditions relating to the vehicle, roadway infrastructure, and roadway utilization, such as vehicle performance, roadway design, roadway conditions, and traffic levels. The detection of an event may signify abnormal, substandard, or unacceptable conditions prevailing in the roadway, vehicle, or traffic. The vehicle transmits an event indicator and correlated vehicle location data to a central facility for further management of the information. The central facility sends communications reflecting event occurrence to various relevant or interested users. The user population can include other vehicle subscribers (e.g., to provide rerouting data based on location-relevant roadway or traffic events), roadway maintenance crews, vehicle manufacturers, and governmental agencies (e.g., transportation authorities, law enforcement, and legislative bodies).

Provided is a system for identifying vehicles of traffic violators, the system having elements that include: a video camera for providing, in real-time, a video signal that represents plural sequential video image frames (either perceptually continuous video, such as 30 frames per second, or non-perceptually continuous video, such as 1-2 fps); a traffic violation detector (e.g., a radar gun, an in-ground loop, a pair of self-powered wireless transponders or transmitters, a camera-based speed detection system, or any other speed sensor) that provides a trigger signal (e.g., based on vehicle speed and detection of the state of a traffic signal); a video recorder that receives the video signal provided by the camera and records the video signal in a buffer until receipt of a trigger signal, at which point at least a portion of the video signal stored in the buffer is preserved for recording and direct real-time storage of the video signal to a hard drive, or other high-capacity storage medium, commences. As a result, the video signal is preserved during a pre-programmable sliding (or rolling) time interval prior to provision of the trigger signal.

A method and system for traffic monitoring and prediction of traffic intensity. The method comprises the steps of determining at least twice, within a specified time interval, geographical positions of a plurality of mobile devices in a mobile telecommunications network. This is done by means of measuring at least one property of signals transmitted between the mobile devices and base stations in the mobile telecommunications network. At least a subset of the geographical positions are compared with a route of a road provided in a route database in order to identify mobile devices having routes corresponding to at least a part of the road route. A velocity for the identified mobile devices based on the at least two positions, and the calculated velocity of at least one identified mobile device is compared with a reference velocity of the road in order to predict traffic intensity on the road. A system for short range monitoring is also provided.

Unpossessed road data is added to possessed road data stored in a road contour database of an information center. An on-vehicle terminal apparatus first compares a current position of a vehicle detected by a D-GPS unit against the road data stored in a storage section for storing road contour data of possessed roads. If the current position deviates from a known existing road, it is determined that the vehicle travels on an unpossessed road. Road data of the unpossessed road is then obtained based on a travel locus of the vehicle and sent to the information center together with a reliability index of the road data. The information center collects unpossessed road data from a plurality of sources, evaluates the reliability index for each data, and adds sufficiently reliable road data to the possessed road data. Thus, the information center can quickly obtain and utilize new and reliable road data.

System and method for identifying speeding violations, comprising determining a current speed and a current location of a vehicle, determining a posted speed limit for the current location from a speed-by-street database, comparing the current speed of the vehicle to the posted speed limit, and evaluating whether the current speed exceeds the posted speed limit. Errors are identified in the speed-by-street database by storing a plurality of speeding violation records, wherein the speeding violation records each include a speeding event location; analyzing the speeding violation records to identify one or more speeding event locations having multiple speeding violations; comparing a posted speed limit at the one or more speeding event locations having multiple speeding violations to corresponding speed limit data in the speed-by-street database; and identifying one or more speed limit entries in the speed-by-street database that do not match the posted speed limit.

A wireless piconet transceiver is mounted in a vehicle, and a complementary fixed wireless piconet transceiver is mounted in a garage, service station, police squad car, etc., for communication with the vehicle when parked adjacent thereto. The vehicle establishes a temporary piconet network with the user's home piconet. Vehicle operational statistics are tracked and maintained in a centralized vehicle computer database. This database can be manipulated to store the data desired by the vehicle owner. Via a wireless piconet connection, this database can transmitted to another piconet device such as the owner's computer. This computer system can be part of a wireless piconet, such as Bluetooth, This provides the computer with the ability to communicate with external wireless devices such as a cell phone, PDA, computer, or a cordless telephone. This invention allows for the configuration, or selection of desired vehicle data to be tracked. This configuration can take place on the owner's home computer (or laptop) and consequently transmitted to the vehicle computer using a wireless piconet protocol, e.g., the Bluetooth protocol. Additionally, this configuration can be manipulated by a direct interface to the vehicle provided by the manufacturer. Exemplary vehicle statistics which may be tracked include, but are not limited to, miles per gallon, average miles per hour, maximum MPH, miles driven per trip, driving statistics based on time of day and / or on identified driver, rotations of the engine per minute (RPM), temperature of engine, fuel gauge level, oil pressure, tires, brakes, engine coolant, wiper fluid, global positioning satellite (GPS) system, and / or even compressed voice from inside car cockpit during operation of vehicle.

A system, method, and computer program product for determining lane information in a road segment to drive a first vehicle to minimize travel time. According to an embodiment, navigation data of the first vehicle and at least one other vehicle in a road segment is sent to a computer server system via their respective clique leaders through a communication network. The lane information may include whether a change of lane is required, a lane to avoid, an optimum lane, and rank order of drivable lanes according to increasing order of travel time for the first vehicle to minimize travel time. The determined lane information is sent to the appropriate user device through its clique leader. The user device presents the lane information to a human driver and / or autonomous vehicle driving system of the first vehicle appropriately.

Geographic location data and telematics data may be collected in real-time by a mobile device within a vehicle, or the vehicle itself. The telematics data may indicate vehicle direction, speed, motion, etc., as well as traffic hazards in the surrounding environment. A remote server may receive the location and telematics data from two vehicles. If an anomalous or hazardous condition exists in the vicinity of the first vehicle, a geographic relationship with the second vehicle is determined, and if within a predetermined distance, an alert or alternate route for the second vehicle is determined and transmitted to the second vehicle. As a result, a negative impact or risk of collision caused by the anomalous condition on the second vehicle is alleviated. The amount of the insured's usage of the telematics data-based risk mitigation or prevision functionality may be used to calculate or adjust insurance premiums, rates, or discounts.

A passive transponder identification system and credit card type transponder are disclosed, particularly, the transponder identification system to utilize a transmitting manner of two different RF signals is provided. The present invention directly relates to a passive transponder without any kind of power source. Therefore, the present invention has advantages of having a constant gain value by developing a high-gain dual polarizing antenna for a small credit card type passive tranponder to identify at long distance, independently to any direction of the transponder; improving gain values than conventional transponder tag antenna by 6-9 dB to ensure a sub-permanent life time by providing the desired identification performance by means of a small credit card type passive transponder without power supply; and being applicable to any systems to identify and distinguish high-speed moving objects.

System and method for real-time, automatic, recognition of large time-scale driving patterns employs a statistical pattern recognition framework, implemented by means of feed-forward neural network utilizing models developed for recognizing, for example, four classes of driving environments, namely highway, main road, suburban traffic and city traffic, from vehicle performance data. A vehicle control application effects changes in vehicle performance aspects based on the recognized driving environment.

A system for collecting, storing, linking and processing license plate data to provide compilations of information and displays of such compiled information. The system has a license plate reading system that may record time and location data in addition to license plate data, license plate image data, and image data of a vehicle. The data is collected over an extended period of time and stored for later searching. The data may be correlated, indexed and / or categorized in storage. The collected data may be compared to various existing or other databases and correlated and / or indexed to such databases. That collected data may be processed, searched, and / or analyzed for a variety of purposes.

The present invention includes a number of embodiments for improving vehicle situational awareness at intersections. A first embodiment may comprise a lens fitted at the top of the windshield or outside the vehicle, for refracting the light to the driver, so the driver may more easily see signals, signage and other features of an intersection, as well as other traffic. A second embodiment of the invention is used as an aid to prompt the driver that a light has changed. In a third embodiment, the light change sensor may be combined with other vehicle status information. As the car comes to a stop, the route guidance system may determine if the vehicle is at or in the vicinity of an intersection. Depending on the route guidance database, the system may also know whether or not there are traffic lights at the intersection. Using the vehicle's on board forward-looking radar sensor, the system may then determine if it is first in line at the intersection. In a fourth embodiment the system may be part of a portable after-market routing device. In a fifth embodiment the system, either portable or fixed, may be used to detect changes in the intensity of the brake lights of the vehicle ahead.

The present invention provides systems and methods for remotely configuring a mobile device communicatively coupled with a vehicle. The mobile device receives current GPS and vehicle information and transmits the information to a remote server. The remote server displays vehicle and / or driver information to remote users via a user interface. The user interface provides remote users the ability to remotely configure the mobile device according to user-customizable settings. In embodiments, configurations may be made in real-time and / or on-the-fly. In further embodiments, the server receives data feeds from a variety of external data sources and integrates the data to provide recommended vehicle configurations.

System and method for warning drivers of changing road conditions is disclosed. In one embodiment road condition information is obtained for at least a portion of a route. The road condition information is analyzed to identify one or more significant features on the portion of the route. The driver is alerted to the one or more significant features.

System and method for warning drivers of changing road conditions is disclosed. In one embodiment road condition information is obtained for at least a portion of a route. The road condition information is analyzed to identify one or more significant features on the portion of the route. The driver is alerted to the one or more significant features.

The present invention provides a situation awareness system of a driver of a vehicle in a multi-vehicle environment, said system comprising: a. a remote central server communicatively connected to a vehicle, comprising: i. a server computer comprising a CPU, a memory, and an operating system; ii. a wireless server transceiver; iii. databases within said server computer; iv. server applications within said server computer; b. a vehicle subsystem installed in a vehicle with a driver, comprising: i. an vehicle computer having a CPU, a memory, and an operating system; ii. sensors; iii. vehicle databases; iv. a vehicle transducer to interrogate external environmental responders about the state of the environment; v. a wireless vehicle transceiver; vi. vehicle applications within said vehicle computer; vii. a situation assessment application,

An emergency vehicle traffic light preemption system for preemption of traffic lights at an intersection to allow safe passage of emergency vehicles. The system includes a real-time status monitor of an intersection which is relayed to a control module for transmission to emergency vehicles as well as to a central dispatch office. The system also provides for audio warnings at an intersection to protect pedestrians who may not be in a position to see visual warnings or for various reasons cannot hear the approach of emergency vehicles. A transponder mounted on an emergency vehicle provides autonomous control so the vehicle operator can attend to getting to an emergency and not be concerned with the operation of the system. Activation of a priority-code (i.e. Code-3) situation provides communications with each intersection being approached by an emergency vehicle and indicates whether the intersection is preempted or if there is any conflict with other approaching emergency vehicles. On-board diagnostics handle various information including heading, speed, and acceleration sent to a control module which is transmitted to an intersection and which also simultaneously receives information regarding the status of an intersection. Real-time communications and operations software allow central and remote monitoring, logging, and command of intersections and vehicles.

A vehicle-mounted system (1010) for recording video and audio. The system (1010) uses distributed processing, including encoding the video and audio at their source(s), and a high-speed, e.g., Ethernet, bus (1148) connecting the various system components and external devices. The system (1010) may include a display monitor (1040) which is integrated into the same housing (1020) as a rear view mirror (170) of the vehicle, with the display monitor (1040) being located behind the mirror (170) and video displayed on the monitor being visible through the mirror (170).

A method for monitoring vehicle speed is provided. The method includes receiving a current speed of a vehicle and a current speed limit associated with a current location of the vehicle. A current speed range is calculated by comparing the current speed of the vehicle to the current speed limit. Operator alert preferences including a caution range and a warning range are accessed. An alert responsive to the current speed range and to the operator alert preferences is communicated to the operator of the vehicle. The alert includes one or more caution attributes when the current speed range of the vehicle is within the caution range. The alert includes one or more warning attributes when the current speed range of the vehicle is within the warning range. The alert includes one or more at speed attributes when the current speed range of the vehicle is not within the caution range or the warning range.

The information available to a driver of a vehicle is greatly expanded using wireless communications (e.g., using Bluetooth wireless communication devices). In one embodiment, information regarding an adjacent vehicle such as a brake light, a turn light, speed, distance, direction, etc., is transmitted from one vehicle to a nearby or adjacent other vehicle. The received information is used in any appropriate manner, such as causing the receiving vehicle to change vehicle speed or brake, to turn to avoid a collision, etc. In a second embodiment, roadside wireless transceivers collect information regarding passing vehicles, and central database is compiled relating to a traffic conditions. The traffic condition information can be passed back to the passing vehicles for appropriate use, e.g., causing the driver to slow down, or even causing a navigation device in the receiving vehicle to manually prompt for or automatically recalculate a best route to an intended destination. In yet another embodiment, broadcast transmitters can be established at signs and other significant locations transmitting information to passing vehicles. The broadcast information may be as simple as indicating the existence of the sign, or depending upon the range of the particular wireless transmitter, the existence of a particular sign, bump in road, curve, etc., can be forewarned far in advance of when the driver will actually see the relevant object. Alternatively, the broadcast information may be quite detailed, e.g., containing a detailed itemization and directions to a large number of gas stations, restaurants, etc., reachable from a particular exit from a highway.