274 results about "Estimated time of arrival" patented technology

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 computer-implemented method provides location-sensitive and time-sensitive calendaring to a wireless device, such as a cellphone, pager, PDA, etc. A user's calendar is maintained with a number of appointments, start times and end times for the appointments, meeting place and a list of attendees for the appointments. When the present time reading is within a predetermined minimum of a meeting start time of an appointment of a calendar of a user, the location of the user is determined based on the location of the wireless device. The location of the meeting place is also determined. Using historical data (of the user or others), the estimated time of arrival of the user at the meeting place is determined. If the estimated time of arrival is after the meeting start time, then a late message may be sent to the user and / or to the other meeting attendees.

An HVAC control system is described comprising: a server (32) having planned information, a man-machine interface (50) capable of communication with the server (32) to provide dynamic information about building occupancy based on a change in cold water in a mains riser. A central control unit (28) which can communicate with the server (32), and a room node (22, 24) for providing information about conditions within the room whereby, the information about room conditions is compared to planned information and / or dynamic information and adjustments made accordingly. The room node (22, 24) may comprise sensors (276, 278, 272, 274) which provide information about conditions in the room. Dynamic information can include changes to planned occupancy, the effect of solar heating and weather conditions. Changes to planned occupancy can be established through detecting location (internally or externally) or destination of a user; and calculating estimated time of arrival of a user.

A method and system for auctioning or sales of deliverable prepared food via the Internet permit customers to purchase or bid on prepared food items. A food preparation and delivery portion of the system includes a delivery vehicle, which may have a mobile kitchen for the preparation of food items en-route. The location of the delivery vehicle is determined from a global positioning system (GPS) receiver in the vehicle or via another location-finding mechanism. Food items with an estimated time of arrival (ETA) is displayed on a web page that provides an interface for purchase or bidding. Bidding may be made for the actual food item purchase or for a scheduled delivery time. Items may be re-auctioned, causing the delivery of a food item to be transferred to another bidder. Audio and / or visual communication with an ordering point and / or delivery vehicle may be provided in the user interface.

A system for optimizing pickup of goods employs a server for tracking orders placed by purchasers with vendors for pick-up at delivery locations in a service area, a location-aware device operated by a purchaser for notifying the server of identity and location when a purchaser is ready to proceed in transit to a real or potential delivery location in the service area, and a messaging device for the purchaser to receive ads sent by the server during a delivery time window based on an estimated time-of-arrival of the purchaser to the real or potential delivery location. By sending location-based ads to the purchaser in transit, the purchaser can be notified of other purchasing options along the way and can place additional orders to be consolidated for pickup at the delivery location. Vendors can use the system to provide “just-in-time” direct advertising to customers, and customers are motivated to subscribe to the system for convenience of delivery and time saving while shopping.

Embodiments of the present invention provide a system and method for maintaining a record of parking space usage data for a plurality of parking spaces, using the usage data to compute probability of availability for a given space as a function of time and communicating the resultant probability data along with availability data to an end user who is looking for a parking space in the area. This information can be combined with a user's estimated time of arrival (ETA) to assist the user in selecting a parking spot to drive to. A plurality of spaces can be ranked according to their likelihood of availability at an ETA to the general area or to each of the plurality of spaces.

When a user enters, initializes, or otherwise starts using a navigation function, such as a navigation function on a mobile phone or a stand-alone device, a destination is automatically selected for route generation and production of a navigation output (e.g., an Estimated Time of Arrival (ETA) at the destination). The destination is selected based on current proximity to a location that has a pre-defined destination associated with it. Such pre-defined destination usually is associated with the location by the user. A time of day criteria can also be imposed, such as requiring that the time of day either by in the morning or afternoon, a work day, or a holiday, or the opposite. In one example, locations proximate a work place can be associated with home as a pre-defined destination, and vice versa. A time of day criteria can be imposed, such that even if proximate work and it is in the morning, a route and ETA to home will not be generated.

Aspects provide for a navigation function implemented on a device that has a communication capability (e.g., a mobile phone) in which the navigation function automatically sends an Estimated Time of Arrival (ETA) to a contact associated with a destination selected for navigation purposes. For example, when a user activates a navigation function on his mobile phone, and selects a destination for which a route will be generated from his current location to the destination, a contact phone number associated with that destination will be sent a Short Message System (SMS) message with the calculated ETA. Provisions can be made for automatic updates as the route is traveled. Other information pertaining to the reasons for the ETA can be selected or automatically generated by the navigation function.

A display method and apparatus for a navigation system calculates and displays an estimated time of arrival (ETA) by a standard time at the destination and a POI (Point of Interest) open / close status at arrival, and a time zone change notice when a user crosses a boundary of the time zones. The display method includes the steps of: examining a position of a destination and monitoring a current position of a user during a travel to the destination; retrieving information on time zones and observation of daylight saving time at the current user position and the destination; calculating the ETA at the destination based on a local time and daylight saving time of the destination using the retrieved information; and displaying the ETA at the destination and a current time.

The present invention extends to methods, systems, and computer program products for monitoring signalized traffic flow. A processor in a sensor system or traffic controller interface estimates the time-of-arrival and other traffic flow estimates of one or more vehicles to an intersection stop bar, while the vehicles are within a continuous range of one or more transducers view of the sensor system. A level of efficiency and safety within the signalized traffic flow is estimated by the sensor system based upon one or more of the estimated time-of-arrival and other flow variables estimates and then communicated to the control unit of the traffic signal system. Other flow estimates for each vehicle include but are not limited to: position relative to the stop bar, lane position, velocity, acceleration, time headway and classification.

Methods and systems are provided for selectively using traffic flow data to provide routing options for a vehicle traveling to a destination point. There is provided a method comprising setting a threshold traffic flow data availability level, receiving traffic flow data from traffic flow sensors placed along one or more routes to the destination point, and determining whether the traffic flow data for each route meets the threshold availability level. The method further comprises enabling a flow-based route guidance for those routes for which the traffic flow data meets the threshold availability level. In one embodiment, the flow-based route guidance comprises utilizing the traffic flow data to calculate an estimated time of arrival at the destination point along each route.

A method and system for auctioning or sales of deliverable prepared food via the Internet permit customers to purchase or bid on prepared food items. A food preparation and delivery portion of the system includes a delivery vehicle, which may have a mobile kitchen for the preparation of food items en-route. The location of the delivery vehicle is determined from a global positioning system (GPS) receiver in the vehicle or via another location-finding mechanism. Food items with an estimated time of arrival (ETA) is displayed on a web page that provides an interface for purchase or bidding. Bidding may be made for the actual food item purchase or for a scheduled delivery time. Items may be re-auctioned, causing the delivery of a food item to be transferred to another bidder. Audio and / or visual communication with an ordering point and / or delivery vehicle may be provided in the user interface.

There is disclosed a system and method for electronic article surveillance wherein the time taken for articles to move from a starting point to a destination point by way of a series of zones is monitored in real time, taking into account bottleneck and non-bottleneck zones. A set of simple rules is applied so as to give estimated times of arrival for any given article. When it is calculated that an article will arrive after a predetermined critical time, an alert is triggered and remedial action may be taken. Various attributes of each zone may additionally be monitored, for example the number of articles in the zone or the temperature of the zone. The system and method may be applied to passengers in an airport, a warehouse or distribution centre, or any other application where articles are being moved from one place to another.

Systems and methods for requesting modification of traffic flow control systems that combine satellite position navigation systems and dead reckoning technology with secure radio communications to accurately report a vehicle's real-time location and estimated arrival times at a series of signal lights within a traffic grid or at a distant signal light, while enabling signal controllers to accommodate priority requests from these vehicles, allowing for these vehicles to maintain a fixed schedule with minimal interruption to other grid traffic.

Systems and methods for requesting modification of traffic flow control systems that combine satellite position navigation systems and dead reckoning technology with secure radio communications to accurately report a vehicle's real-time location and estimated arrival times at a series of signal lights within a traffic grid or at a distant signal light, while enabling signal controllers to accommodate priority requests from these vehicles, allowing for these vehicles to maintain a fixed schedule with minimal interruption to other grid traffic.

The portable appliance informs users about waiting times at stops in a bus network, the appliance comprising a radio receiver to receive data enabling waiting times to be determined, an interrogation keypad, a central unit for evaluating the estimated time of arrival of the next bus at a particular stop, a screen for displaying the waiting time for said bus, and a sound emitter. The central unit is designed to update cyclically the estimated time of arrival for the next bus and to actuate the sound emitter when said estimated time of arrival differs excessively from the time of arrival initially estimated the last time the appliance was interrogated by the user.

There is disclosed a system and method for electronic article surveillance wherein the time taken for articles to move from a starting point to a destination point by way of a series of zones is monitored in real time, taking into account bottleneck and non-bottleneck zones. A set of simple rules is applied so as to give estimated times of arrival for any given article. When it is calculated that an article will arrive after a predetermined critical time, an alert is triggered and remedial action may be taken. Various attributes of each zone may additionally be monitored, for example the number of articles in the zone or the temperature of the zone. The system and method may be applied to passengers in an airport, a warehouse or distribution center, or any other application where articles are being moved from one place to another.

An autonomous apparatus for generating real-time estimates of the time of arrival of vehicles at user selected sites. The apparatus is comprised of two separate components, a vehicle unit which is carried by each vehicle and a user unit which is carried by each user. The vehicle unit determines time and geographical position at predetermined locations and broadcast these data to the user units through a wireless communications medium. The user unit receives the time and position information and adds it to computer memory records of similar data received over a prior period of time. The combined set of recorded data is used to estimate the time that the broadcasting vehicle will arrive at a specific location, that location having been specified by the user on a previous occasion by pressing a button on the user unit when the vehicle was stopped at the selected location. The estimated arrival time is presented on a display. The system operates without any assistance or information input from humans and its user require no special knowledge or skills. It is ideally suited for application to school bus transportation services.

A system on a network provides estimated time of arrival information to a client located on the network. The system is adapted to present to the client pages for eliciting a product inquiry including a product number. The system receives the product inquiry, determines estimated time of arrivals for various destinations for at least one in-transit unit having the product number, and transmits to the client the estimated time of arrivals.

An individualized baggage tracking and notification system provides airline baggage tracking information to individual customers for purposes of customer convenience and / or theft avoidance. The individualized baggage tracking information may indicate, for each of one or more baggage items affiliated with the customer, indicia of one or more baggage handling nodes visited by the baggage items, indicia of recorded arrival times of the baggage items at the visited nodes, indicia of one or more baggage handling nodes not yet visited by the baggage items and indicia of projected arrival times of the baggage items at those nodes. In an instance where a customer baggage item has reached a terminating node (e.g., a baggage carousel), the system may indicate the arrival time of the baggage item at the terminating node; or in the instance the baggage item has not yet reached the terminating node, the system may indicate a projected arrival time of the baggage item at the terminating node.

The disclosed embodiments relate to prediction of traffic dynamics. A descriptive model is provided that uses historical probe data to create “tidal-like” patterns for the usual dynamics on the road network and creates a framework for taking a future time, e.g. in terms of month, day, time, and suggesting a typical speed for the specified road network link at that specific time. With this model, better predictions for estimated time of arrival will be derived. As opposed to blindly extrapolating from a static model, the disclosed embodiments dynamically adapt to current conditions using real time data to adapt, based on current conditions, the model from which a predicted speed may be determined.

The method provides real time task-related data to customers seeking services by a vendor's task person (T-P) at a customer location. The T-P has a GPS-enabled phone-tablet-device linked by a the network to a task collection database which includes data on task, customer, location, T-P, and current location. The customer is permitted to access the database showing location, the time and / or distance of T-P, the projected time of arrival, duration, and time of completion. The customer selects a communications channel for call ahead time and delay notice. Additionally, the system and method may be deployed over a distributed computed system which includes a supplemental computer and a supplemental database. The web based server forwards to the supplemental computer and supplemental database the customer selected communications channel, mode, call ahead and delay data.

A method and system for achieving highly available, fault-tolerant execution of components in a distributed computing system, without requiring the writer of these components to explicitly write code (such as entity beans or database transactions) to make component state persistent. It is achieved by converting the intrinsically non-deterministic behavior of the distributed system to a deterministic behavior, thus enabling state recovery to be achieved by advantageously efficient checkpoint-replay techniques. The method comprises: adapting the execution environment for enabling message communication amongst and between the components; automatically associating a deterministic timestamp in conjunction with a message to be communicated from a sender component to a receiver component during program execution, the timestamp representative of estimated time of arrival of the message at a receiver component. At a component, tracking state of that component during program execution, and periodically checkpointing the state in a local storage device. Upon failure of a component, the component state is restored by recovering a recent stored checkpoint and re-executing the events occurring since the last checkpoint. The system is deterministic by repeating the execution of the receiving component by processing the messages in the same order as their associated timestamp.

The present invention is a method of coordinating an activity at a destination includes receiving a first signal indicative of a first location of a first party (110). The first signal is received at a destination of the first party. A second signal indicative of a second location of a second party is received at a destination (112), which is also the destination of the second party. A schedule is created (150) to coordinate the activity automatically at the destination. The schedule is based on the first and second signals indicative of the first and second locations and may include additional functions such as the estimated times of arrival of the first and second parties (120, 122). Also, the present invention is a method of notification upon arrival at a predetermined location (200) that includes receiving a first signal indicative of the location of a first party (210). A second signal is transmitted to a second party (230) when the location of the first party is equal to a first predetermined location (220). The activity is coordinated at a second location based on the second signal.

The present invention is a method of coordinating an activity at a destination includes receiving a first signal indicative of a first location of a first party (110). The first signal is received at a destination of the first party. A second signal indicative of a second location of a second party is received at a destination (112), which is also the destination of the second party. A schedule is created (150) to coordinate the activity automatically at the destination. The schedule is based on the first and second signals indicative of the first and second locations and may include additional functions such as the estimated times of arrival of the first and second parties (120, 122). Also, the present invention is a method of notification upon arrival at a predetermined location (200) that includes receiving a first signal indicative of the location of a first party (210). A second signal is transmitted to a second party (230) when the location of the first party is equal to a first predetermined location (220). The activity is coordinated at a second location based on the second signal.

A system and method of predicting usage of a charging station includes collecting charging activity history of a plurality of charging stations. A charging station is determined associated with a requesting electric vehicle. A future demand for the charging station is predicted based on the collected charging activity history. A predicted usage value of the charging station is provided based on the predicted future demand for an estimated time of arrival of the requesting electric vehicle at the charging station.