System, apparatus, and method for implementing one or more internet of things (IoT) capable devices embedded within a roadway structure for performing various tasks

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10222773-B2
Application number	US-201615390023-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 23, 2016
Priority date	Dec 23, 2016
Publication date	Mar 5, 2019
Grant date	Mar 5, 2019

Abstract

Novel tools and techniques are provided for implementing Internet of Things (“IoT”) functionality. In some embodiments, a computing system or IoT management node might receive sensor data from one or more IoT-capable sensors, analyze the sensor data to determine one or more actions to be taken, and identify one or more devices (e.g., household devices associated with a customer premises; vehicular components associated with a vehicle; devices disposed in, on, or along a roadway; devices disposed throughout a population area; etc.) for performing the determined one or more first actions. The computing system or IoT management node then autonomously controls each of the identified one or more devices to perform tasks based on the determined one or more first actions to be taken, thereby implementing smart environment functionality (e.g., smart home, building, or customer premises functionality, smart vehicle functionality, smart roadway functionality, smart city functionality, and so on).

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method, comprising:
receiving, with a computing system, at least one first sensor data from each of one or more first Internet of Things (“IoT”)-capable devices of a plurality of IoT-capable devices via machine-to-machine communications, each of the one or more first IoT-capable devices comprising one or more first sensors that collect the at least one first sensor data, each of the one or more first IoT-capable devices being embedded within a roadway structure of a roadway;
analyzing, with the computing system, the at least one first sensor data to determine one or more first actions to be taken;
identifying, with the computing system, one or more devices for performing the determined one or more first actions to be taken, based on the at least one first sensor data from each of the one or more first IoT-capable devices; and
autonomously controlling, with the computing system, each of the identified one or more devices to perform one or more tasks, based on the determined one or more first actions to be taken.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein autonomously controlling, with the computing system, each of the identified one or more devices to perform the one or more tasks comprises sending, with the computing system, one or more first control instructions to each of the identified one or more devices to perform the one or more tasks, based on the determined one or more first actions to be taken.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the computing system comprises one of a single processor disposed within a vehicle, a plurality of processors disposed within the vehicle, an IoT management node disposed within the vehicle, an IoT management node disposed at a customer premises associated with an owner of the vehicle, an IoT management node disposed at a business premises associated with a company that owns or operates the vehicle, an IoT management node disposed at a service provider facility associated with providing services to the owner of the vehicle, an IoT management node disposed at one or more roadway service provider facilities associated with service providers that provide roadway services, a server computer remote from the vehicle, a roadway-embedded IoT management node, a plurality of roadway-embedded IoT management nodes, a municipal, state, federal, or private entity IoT management node, a plurality of municipal, state, federal, or private entity IoT management nodes, a computing system disposed at a vehicle traffic control center, a cloud computing system, a distributed computing system that integrates computing resources from plurality of IoT-capable devices, or a combination of two or more of these computing systems.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the roadway comprises at least one of a local road, a main road, a highway, an airport apron, an airport ramp, an airport runway, a canal, a lock, or a waterway, wherein the one or more first IoT-capable devices, which are embedded in the roadway structure of the roadway, each comprises one of one or more communications signal detectors, one or more wireless access points, one or more pressure sensors, one or more temperature sensors, one or more motion sensors, one or more structural integrity sensors, one or more solar light sensors, one or more seismic sensors, one or more weather station sensors, one or more air quality sensors, one or more moisture sensors, one or more wind sensors, or one or more particulate sensors, a top surface of each first IoT-capable device being one of substantially level with a top surface of the roadway or below the top surface of the roadway.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the one or more structural integrity sensors comprise at least one of two or more global positioning system sensors or two or more relative position sensors, wherein the at least one first sensor data comprises data indicating a change in position of one structural integrity sensor relative to another structural integrity sensor beyond a predetermined threshold amount, wherein the identified one or more devices comprise a communications system, wherein autonomously controlling, with the computing system, each of the identified one or more devices to perform one or more tasks comprises autonomously controlling, with the computing system, the communications system to send a message to a repair crew to repair the roadway in response to the at least one first sensor data indicating a change in position of one structural integrity sensor relative to another structural integrity sensor beyond a predetermined threshold amount.

6. The method of claim 4 , wherein the computing system is at least one of a roadway-embedded IoT management node, a plurality of roadway-embedded IoT management nodes, a municipal, state, federal, or private entity IoT management node, a plurality of municipal, state, federal, or private entity IoT management nodes, a computing system disposed at a vehicle traffic control center, a cloud computing system, or a distributed computing system that integrates computing resources from plurality of IoT-capable devices.

7. The method of claim 4 , wherein the plurality of IoT-capable devices further comprises one or more second IoT-capable devices that are each disposed in one of a street lamp, a traffic control signal device, or an above-ground structure, wherein the one or more second IoT-capable devices each comprises one of one or more communications signal detectors, one or more wireless access points, one or more temperature sensors, one or more solar light sensors, one or more weather station sensors, one or more air quality sensors, one or more humidity sensors, one or more moisture sensors, one or more wind sensors, or one or more particulate sensors.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the one or more first IoT-capable devices comprise at least one of one or more pressure sensors, one or more temperature sensors, or one or more motion sensors, wherein autonomously controlling, with the computing system, each of the identified one or more devices to perform one or more tasks comprises autonomously controlling, with the computing system, each of the identified one or more devices to halt or reroute traffic based on a determination that a traffic congestion condition exists.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein the identified one or more devices comprise at least one of a navigation system disposed in one or more vehicles travelling on the roadway or one or more traffic control signal devices, wherein autonomously controlling, with the computing system, each of the identified one or more devices to halt or reroute traffic based on a determination that a traffic congestion condition exists comprises autonomously controlling, with the computing system, each of the identified one or more devices to halt or reroute traffic based on a determination that a traffic congestion condition exists, by performing at least one of sending updated navigation instructions to the navigation system disposed in the one or more vehicles travelling on the roadway or sending control instructions to the one or more traffic control signal devices.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the one or more first IoT-capable devices comprise at least one of one or more pressure sensors, one or more temperature sensors, or one or more motion sensors, wherein the plurality of IoT-capable devices further comprises one or more second IoT-capable devices comprising at least one of a speedometer sensor, a vehicle navigation system, an electronic throttle control system, a braking system, a gear system, a steering system, or a vehicle turn signal system of each of one or more vehicles travelling on the roadway, wherein the identified one or more devices comprise at least one of the

Assignees

• Centurylink Ip Llc

Inventors

• Funk Tom
• Carpenter Phil
• Morrill Robert J
• Walker William R

Classifications

• H04W4/70

  Services for machine-to-machine communication [M2M] or machine type communication [MTC] · CPC title

• H04W4/44

  for communication between vehicles and infrastructures, e.g. vehicle-to-cloud [V2C] or vehicle-to-home [V2H] · CPC title

• H04W4/38

  for collecting sensor information · CPC title

• H04L67/12

  specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks · CPC title

• G05B2219/14006

  Safety, monitoring in general · CPC title