Patent ID: 8423255
Filing Date: 2013-04-16
Classification: G08G

Abstract:
1. A traffic sensing system for collecting information on traffic conditions, the system comprising: a traffic sensing server for receiving traffic reports from mobile traffic sensing devices and providing aggregate traffic reports from the received traffic reports; and a plurality of mobile traffic sensing devices for sensing traffic-related information near the devices and sending traffic reports to the traffic sensing server, the mobile traffic sensing devices being smart phones being transported by vehicles, each smart phone being arbitrarily oriented in a vehicle, each smart phone including an accelerometer and a cellular communication device, a component that determines the orientation of the accelerometer based on a direction of travel of the vehicle transporting the smart phone as indicated by a braking force of the vehicle and based on a direction of gravity as indicated by a gravitational force, the orientation being determined even though the accelerometer is included in a smart phone that is arbitrarily oriented in the vehicle, a component that samples the accelerometer, and a component that derives traffic-related information from the accelerometer samples.