System and method for electronic road signs with in-car display capabilities
View Patent ↗The present invention is method and system for delivering road sign content information to a mobile computing device for display to the driver of a vehicle. The system consists of a wireless communication network in communication with a mobile computing device operationally coupled to a dashboard display device or a vehicle head's up display device. The wireless communication network further comprises a plurality of meshed network sign transmitting devices placed along predetermined intervals along the highway. Each sign-transmitting device is capable of transmitting road sign content information to the mobile computing device for display to the driver.
1. In a wireless communication network comprising a plurality of wireless road sign transmitters in communication with a mobile computing device located, a method of delivering road sign content to the mobile computing devices within vehicles, the method comprising the steps of:
continuously broadcasting signals onto the wireless communication network a message containing specific road sign content information from the road sign transmitter;
continuously monitoring at the mobile computing device, within the vehicle, a wireless communication network for signals being broadcast over the network, the broadcasted signals coming from road sign transmitters;
capturing the message from the wireless communication network, when the signal is in range of the mobile computing device;
interpreting the message contained in the captured signal to determine the road sign content information; and
based on display parameters previously defined by a user, displaying onto a display device operationally coupled to the mobile computing device contents of a road sign contained in the captured message the message.
2. The method of claim 1 wherein the mobile computing device is a hand-held computing device.
3. The method of claim 1 further comprises interfacing the mobile computing device into a computing system manufactured as part of the vehicle.
4. The method of claim 1 wherein the interpreting step further comprises retrieving from the message a set of attributes that identifies the specific type of road sign to be displayed.
5. The method of claim 1 further comprises activating a backup sign transmitter to replace a deactivated sign transmitter.
6. The method of claim 1 wherein the displaying step further comprises redisplaying the message for a predetermined period of time after the initial display period.
7. The method of claim 1 further comprises the step of accepting a user request to filter and display a specific type of message.
8. The method of claim 7 wherein the displaying step further comprises displaying the road sign based upon the user request.
9. The method claim 1 further comprising: providing a remote server in communication with the plurality of sign transmitters; continuously monitoring the plurality of sign transmitters to determine their status; and issuing an error notification when a sign transmitter malfunctions.