Patent ID: 11967229
Assignee: BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF THE UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA, FOR AND ON BEHALF OF THE UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA IN HUNTSVILLE
Field: Control (Instruments)
Classification: CPC G  H | IPC G  H

Claim 14:
15. A method for sensing vehicles on a road, comprising:
sensing light with a first photosensor and a second photosensor each positioned on or in the road at a predetermined first distance apart at a first location, thereby providing respective first sensor data indicative of the light sensed by the first photosensor and second sensor data indicative of the light sensed by the second photosensor;
sensing light with a third photosensor and a fourth photosensor each positioned on or in the road at a predetermined second distance apart at a second location different from the first location, thereby providing respective third sensor data indicative of the light sensed by the third photosensor and fourth sensor data indicative of the light sensed by the fourth photosensor;
identifying a first transition in the first sensor data caused by a shadow cast on the first photosensor by a first vehicle traveling over or near the first photosensor on or in the road and a second transition in the second sensor data caused by a shadow cast on the second photosensor by the first vehicle traveling over or near the second photosensor on or in the road;
identifying a third transition in the third sensor data caused by a shadow cast on the third photosensor by a second vehicle traveling over or near the third photosensor on or in the road and a fourth transition in the fourth sensor data caused by a shadow cast on the fourth photosensor by the second vehicle traveling over or near the fourth photosensor on or in the road;
detecting the first vehicle based on the first transition and the second transition and the second vehicle based on the third transition and the fourth transition;
based on the detecting, transmitting information indicative of the detected first vehicle and the detected second vehicle to a remote server via a first communication interface associated with the first photosensor and the second photosensor and via a second communication interface associated with the third photosensor and the fourth photosensor, respectively; and
determining traffic pattern information, with the remote server, by performing analysis and calculations on the transmitted information.