Traffic disruption detection using passive monitoring of vehicle occupant frustration level

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11574540-B2
Application number	US-202017130675-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 22, 2020
Priority date	Dec 29, 2015
Publication date	Feb 7, 2023
Grant date	Feb 7, 2023

Abstract

Aspects of the present disclosure include a navigation system and computer-implemented methods for detecting traffic disruption events based on an analysis of input component data obtained from navigation-enabled devices of vehicles near a particular location. Traffic disruption events are events such as accidents, construction road closures, police and speed traps, or road hazards that cause a decrease in the flow of traffic along a particular route and thus, added time delays for occupants of vehicles traveling along those routes. The navigation system scores the input component data associated with each vehicle and aggregates the scored input component data to obtain a frustration score associated with the vehicle. The navigation system may detect traffic disruption events based on a number of vehicles near a particular area having associated frustration scores above a certain threshold.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method comprising:
detecting a traffic disruption event at a particular location;
obtaining sensor data from a plurality of devices, the sensor data captured by respective sensors associated with the plurality of devices;
determining, based on the sensor data, a measure of frustration associated with one or more of the plurality of devices within a threshold distance of a location of the traffic disruption event; and
verifying the traffic disruption event based on the determined measure of frustration.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the verifying the traffic disruption event includes comparing the particular location of the traffic disruption event to location data received with the sensor data obtained from the plurality of devices.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the determining the measure of frustration includes comparing the sensor data to baseline data stored in user account records maintained in a database.

4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising transmitting a verification of the traffic disruption event to one or more of the plurality of devices.

5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising causing display of a map within a user interface, the map including an indicator of the traffic disruption event.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the sensor data includes motion data obtained from respective motion sensors associated with the plurality of devices.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein the determining the measure of frustration includes determining a velocity or frequency of motion of one or more of the plurality of devices from the motion data.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the sensor data includes heart rate data obtained from respective heart rate sensors associated with the plurality of devices.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein the determining the measure of frustration includes:
determining a heart rate of at least one user associated with at least one of the plurality of devices based on heart rate data; and
comparing the determined heart rate to baseline heart data included in a user account record of the user.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the sensor data includes audio data obtained from a microphone, and wherein the determining the measure of frustration includes determining an audio level of the audio data.

11. The method of claim 10 , wherein the determining the measure of frustration further includes:
identifying, from the audio data, one or more keywords using speech recognition; and
comparing the one or more keywords to a repository of frustration terms.

12. The method of claim 1 , wherein each of the plurality of devices are associated with respective users traveling in a vehicle.

13. The method of claim 1 , wherein the verifying comprising determining that at least one of the devices is within a predefined distance of the particular location have an associated measure of frustration above a predefined threshold.

14. A non-transitory machine-readable storage medium embodying instructions that, when executed by a machine, cause the machine to perform operations comprising:
detecting a traffic disruption event at a particular location;
obtaining sensor data from a plurality of devices, the sensor data captured by respective sensors associated with the plurality of devices;
determining, based on the sensor data, a measure of frustration associated with one or more of the plurality of devices within a threshold distance of a location of the traffic disruption event; and
verifying the traffic disruption event based on the determined measure of frustration.

15. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 14 , wherein the verifying the traffic disruption event includes comparing the particular location of the traffic disruption event to location data received with the sensor data obtained from the plurality of devices.

16. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 14 , wherein the determining the measure of frustration includes comparing the sensor data to baseline data stored in user account records maintained in a database.

17. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 14 , wherein the operations further comprise transmitting a verification of the traffic disruption event to one or more of the plurality of devices.

18. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 14 , wherein the sensor data includes motion data obtained from respective motion sensors associated with the plurality of devices.

19. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 18 , wherein the determining the measure of frustration includes determining a velocity or frequency of motion of one or more of the plurality of devices from the motion data.

20. A system comprising:
one or more processors of a machine; and
one or more machine-readable mediums storing instructions to configure the one or more processors to perform operations comprising:
detecting a traffic disruption event at a particular location;
obtaining sensor data from a plurality of devices, the sensor data captured by respective sensors associated with the plurality of devices;
determining, based on the sensor data, a measure of frustration associated with one or more of the plurality of devices within a threshold distance of a location of the traffic disruption event; and
verifying the traffic disruption event based on the determined measure of frustration.

Assignees

• Ebay Inc

Inventors

• Glasgow Dane
• Maclaurin Matthew Bret
• Newey Neville Rhys
• VanWinkle Justin
• Hall Christopher Michael
• Mcneill Trista
• Ramadge David

Classifications

• G01C21/3691

  Retrieval, searching and output of information related to real-time traffic, weather, or environmental conditions (arrangements for giving variable traffic instructions G08G1/09) · CPC title

• A61B5/6893

  Cars · CPC title

• G08G1/093 Primary

  Data selection, e.g. prioritizing information, managing message queues, selecting the information to be output · CPC title

• G08G1/096883

  where input information is obtained using a mobile device, e.g. a mobile phone, a PDA · CPC title

• G08G1/0125

  Traffic data processing · CPC title