Probabilistic road system reporting

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9489838-B2
Application number	US-201414204315-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 11, 2014
Priority date	Mar 11, 2014
Publication date	Nov 8, 2016
Grant date	Nov 8, 2016

Abstract

Probabilistic road system reporting may involve determining a probability that a section of road is congested, calculating the congestion levels for sections of road having a high probability of congestion, and providing calculated congestion levels. The high probability congestion road sections may also be subject to more frequent congestion level calculation and updating than road sections having lesser probabilities of congestion.

First claim

We claim:

1. A method comprising:
determining, by at least one processor, probabilities of congestion of respective road segments of a road network using the following equation:

P
=

S
historical

S

free
⁢

⁢
flow

,

wherein P is the probability of congestion of a road segment, S historical is a historical speed of the road segment determined using historical data relating to traffic for the road network and S free flow is an expected seed of vehicles on the road segment in free flow traffic conditions;
receiving at least a portion of current data relating to traffic for the road network derived from a Global Positioning System (GPS) in one or more mobile devices;
calculating, using the current data, a current congestion of a first one of the road segments determined to have a higher probability of congestion and not calculating a current congestion of a second one of the road segments determined to have a lower probability of congestion,
wherein the lower probability of congestion or the higher probability of congestion are determined based on an expected speed of vehicles on the particular road segment in free flow traffic conditions;
generating data indicative of a visual representation including an indication of the calculated current congestion of the first one of the road segments; and
sending the data indicative of a visual representation including the indication of the calculated current congestion to a navigation device.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the determining the probabilities of congestion comprises determining the probabilities of congestion for a particular time of day, and calculating the current congestion of road segments involves calculating the congestion of road segments at a time of day correlating to the particular time of day.

3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising: repeating the calculating of the current congestions of the first one of the road segments.

4. A non-transitory computer readable medium including instructions that when executed on a computer are operable to cause the computer to:
receive, from one or more mobile devices, at least a portion of recent data derived from a Global Positioning System (GPS) and relating to traffic of a plurality of road segments;
obtain a probability of congestion of a particular road segment of a road network comprising the plurality of road segments from the following equation:

P
=

S

free
⁢

⁢
flow

⁡

(

N
paths

)

S
current

wherein P is the probability of congestion of the particular road segment, S current is a current average speed of the particular road segment determined using the recent data, N paths is a number of path counts determined for the particular road segment, and S free flow is an expected seed of vehicles on the particular road segment in free flow traffic conditions;
calculate a current congestion of the particular road segment in response to the obtained probability of congestion indicating that the particular road segment has a high probability of congestion;
generate data indicative of a visual representation including an indication of the calculated current congestion of the particular road segment; and
send the data indicative of a visual representation including the indication of the calculated current congestion to a navigation device.

5. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 4 , wherein the probability of congestion is obtained for specific periods of time throughout a day, and the current congestion of the particular road segment is calculated during a specific period of time when the particular road segment is indicated as a high probability of congestion.

6. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 4 , wherein the current congestion of the particular road segment is calculated using the recent data.

7. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 4 , wherein the instructions are further operable to: repeat the calculating of the current congestion of the particular road segment periodically.

8. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 7 , wherein the instructions are further operable to:
determine probabilities of congestion for other road segments of the plurality of road segments; and
calculate the current congestions of the other road segments.

9. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 8 , wherein a time period for repeating is shorter for road segments determined to have a higher probability than the time period for repeating for road segments determined to have a lower probability.

10. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 8 , wherein the road segments are provided a priority proportional to the determined probability of congestion, and road segments provided a higher priority are calculated on a shorter period than road segments having a lower priority.

11. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 4 , wherein the instructions are further operable to: obtain probabilities of congestion of other road segments of the plurality of road segments; and provide an indication of congestion for road segments where the obtained probabilities of congestion indicate that road segments do not to have the high probability of congestion, the indication based on historical data relating to traffic congestion of the road segments.

12. An apparatus comprising:
at least one processor; and at least one memory including computer program code; the at least one memory and the computer program code configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus to at least:
determine probabilities of congestion of road segments of a road network using at least historical device data relating to traffic on the road segments of the road network;
identify, for a specific time, a sub-set of the road segments having higher probabilities of congestion than others of the road segments;
calculate current traffic congestion of the road segments of the sub-set based on recent device data; and
provide, in real-time, an indication of the calculated current traffic congestion of the road segments of the sub-set determined to have the higher probability of traffic congestion,
wherein the probabilities of congestion are determined using historical data relating to traffic for the road network,
wherein the probabilities of congestion are de

Assignees

• Here Global Bv

Inventors

• Fowe James Adeyemi
• Giurgiu Gavril
• Stenneth Leon Oliver
• Boroditsky Vladimir

Classifications

• G08G1/096775

  where the origin of the information is a central station · CPC title

• G08G1/096716

  where the received information does not generate an automatic action on the vehicle control · CPC title

• G08G1/0141

  for traffic information dissemination · CPC title

• G08G1/01

  Detecting movement of traffic to be counted or controlled (G08G1/07 - G08G1/14 take precedence) · CPC title

• G08G1/096741

  where the source of the transmitted information selects which information to transmit to each vehicle · CPC title