Real-time traffic condition measurement using GPS data
View Patent ↗In embodiments of the present invention, a computer program may use GPS coordinates associated with cell phones located within multiple cars to measure real time traffic conditions. These traffic conditions may be measured based at least in part on using parameters including, but not limited to, a time of day, a day of the week, a weather condition, a road condition, or some other parameter relating to traffic conditions. The traffic conditions may be used to calculate a vehicle speed between two locations and predict related travel time. The real-time traffic condition information may be manually accessed by a user from their cell phone or automatically presented to a user's cell phone when the cell phone enters a specific geographic location or region.
1. A computer program product embodied in a non-transitory computer readable medium that, when executing on one or more computers, performs the steps of:
Step One: identifying a first location, at time one, of a plurality of automobiles using a first set of GPS coordinates that are associated with a cell phone to locate the cell phone within each of the plurality of automobiles;
indentifying a second location, at a time two, subsequent to time one, for each of the plurality of automobiles using a second set of GPS coordinates that are associated with the cell phone to locate the cell phone within each of the plurality of automobiles;
calculating a vehicle speed for each of the plurality of automobiles using the first location at time one and the second location at time two;
using the calculated vehicle speed for each of the plurality of automobiles to create a traffic condition measure for a route in proximity to the first and second locations; and
Step Two: iteratively performing Step One, in real-time, at a time interval to calculate a real-time traffic condition measure;
receiving a user request from a user's cell phone for traffic condition information associated with the route; wherein the user's request is automatically generated from the cell phone upon detection of the cell phone by a cell tower in proximity to the first and second locations; and
presenting the real-time traffic condition measure to the display of the user's cell phone.
2. The computer program product of claim 1 , wherein the real-time traffic condition measure is measure of traffic density.
3. The computer program product of claim 2 , wherein the measure of traffic density is used to predict a travel time.
4. The computer program product of claim 3 , wherein the travel time prediction is based at least in part on the measure of traffic density and at least one parameter.
5. The computer program product of claim 4 , wherein the at least one parameter is a time of day corresponding to the real-time calculation of the traffic condition measure.
6. The computer program product of claim 4 , wherein the at least one parameter is a day of the week corresponding to the real-time calculation of the traffic condition measure.
7. The computer program product of claim 4 , wherein the at least one parameter is a weather condition corresponding to the real-time calculation of the traffic condition measure.
8. The computer program product of claim 4 , wherein the at least one parameter is a road condition corresponding to the real-time calculation of the traffic condition measure.
9. The computer program product of claim 1 , wherein the real-time traffic condition measure presented to the display of the user's cell phone is created upon receipt of the user's request.
10. The computer program product of claim 1 , wherein the user request is a manual request.
11. The computer program product of claim 1 , wherein the real-time traffic condition measure presented to the display of the user's cell phone derives from a second user's prior request for the same traffic information.
12. The computer program product of claim 11 , wherein the second user's request is a manual request.
13. The computer program product of claim 11 , wherein the second user's request is an automated request that is sent from the second user's cell phone upon the second user's cell phone entering a geographic location.
14. The computer program product of claim 13 , wherein the geographic location is a geographic region.
15. A computer program product embodied in a non-transitory computer readable medium that, when executing on one or more computers, performs the steps of:
Step One: identifying a first location, at time one, of a plurality of automobiles using a first set of GPS coordinates that are associated with a cell phone to locate the cell phone within each of the plurality of automobiles;
indentifying a second location, at a time two, subsequent to time one, for each of the plurality of automobiles using a second set of GPS coordinates that are associated with the cell phone to locate the cell phone within each of the plurality of automobiles;
calculating a vehicle speed for each of the plurality of automobiles using the first location at time one and the second location at time two;
using the calculated vehicle speed for each of the plurality of automobiles to create a traffic condition measure for a route in proximity to the first and second locations;
Step Two: iteratively performing Step One, in real-time, at a time interval to calculate a real-time traffic condition measure;
receiving a user request from a user's cell phone for traffic condition information associated with the route, wherein the user's request is automatically generated from the cell phone upon detection of the cell phone by a cell tower in proximity to the first and second locations; and
presenting the real-time traffic condition measure to the display of the user's cell phone, wherein the presented real-time traffic condition measure is selected from a plurality of real-time traffic conditions measures based at least in part on the presented real-time traffic condition measure containing traffic data relating to a geographic area in proximity to the cell phone tower from which the user's request was received.
16. The computer program product of claim 15 , wherein the presented real-time traffic condition measure is calculated upon receipt of the user's request.
17. The computer program product of claim 15 , wherein the presented real-time traffic condition measure was calculated prior to receiving the user's request.