Patent ID: 9420427
Filing Date: 2016-08-16
CPC Classification: G01C,H04W

Claim Text:
1. A method for continuously tracking pedestrian or vehicle traffic, particularly in urban settings, while using reduced computer resources, comprising the steps of: A) establishing a cell grid within a given geographical region, on which is overlaid a road system; B) receiving positional data records associated with each of a plurality of mobile devices within said region, from a base station; C) generating, for each of said received positional data records which is associated with a corresponding user of said plurality of mobile devices, a reassignable Estimated Location Indicator (ELI) in each cell of said grid traversed by said corresponding user within a given period of time, wherein each of said ELIs is indicative of an estimated location within a cell in which a given mobile device is located at a given time, yet includes a large number of possibilities of an actual location of said given mobile device within a cell at said given time; and D) generating a shortest predicted path between each of said generated ELIs; wherein the generated predicted path extends through a transitional point through adjacent cells whereat a predetermined number of vehicles pass when traveling between said adjacent cells, said transitional point being located at an intersection of a road of said road system and a cell border and constituting a logical constraint for predicting the shortest predicted path; wherein the predicted path is found by performing the following steps: a) dividing each cell of said grid which has been traversed by said corresponding user within said given period of time into a predetermined number of subzones; b) generating an iteratable ELI for each of said subzones; c) performing the pair-wise iterative process, whereby: d) after a pair of said iteratable ELIs has been provisionally found such that the estimated time to travel there between matches the elapsed time difference from said first cell to said second cell, generating a corresponding predicted path between said provisionally found locations; e) filtering out said provisionally found locations if said corresponding predicted path does not extend through a transitional point; and f) repeating steps c-e until said corresponding predicted path extends through a transitional point.