Abstract:
Realtime or near realtime data is provided by a reporting service to a data aggregator. The data aggregator provides the aggregated data to a network operations center. The aggregated data may be indexed. A mobile device used by a user provides identification information to the network operations center. Such identification information includes location information. The network operation center correlates the identification information with the aggregated data and transmits correlated data to the user via the mobile device such that the user has realtime or near realtime data.

Description:
RELATED APPLICATIONS  
       [0001]     This is application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 60/680,260, filed May 11, 2005, titled METHOD AND APPARATUS TO ALLOW TWO WAY COMMUNICATION TO PROVIDE TIME AND LOCATION SPECIFIC INFORMATION, which is incorporated herein by reference. This application is related to U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/905,890, titled METHOD AND APPARATUS TO ALLOW CUSTOMERS TO INITIATE CALL CENTER CONTACT, filed Jan. 25, 2005, incorporated herein by reference as if set out in full. 
     
    
     FIELD OF THE INVENTION  
       [0002]     The present invention relates to providing real-time or near real-time, location specific information to a communication device and, more particularly to establishing a two-way communication link between devices to provide real-time or near real-time location specific traffic updates.  
       BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
       [0003]     According to recent surveys, traffic congestion remains a significant problem in many areas of the country and world. Drivers typically obtain information relating to congestion through radio broadcasts or the like. Drivers obtaining information from the radio tuned to a particular station and typically receive live information from a traffic reporter, either land or air based. The report, however, frequently has little to do with the driver&#39;s current location. For example, a driver north of town may be listening to a broadcast regarding a significant accident south of town on the radio. Because the accident south of town is significant, smaller incidents north of town, while known or at least knowable by the reporting service, are not actually reported. Thus, the driver taking a typical route to a destination may inadvertently get detained by the smaller incident that could have been avoided if more time and location specific information had been provided to the driver.  
         [0004]     Of course, the general broadcast is designed to provide the greatest good to the greatest number of people, but to the driver stuck in traffic, that is of little consequence.  
         [0005]     Moreover, once stuck in traffic, it is frequently difficult to determine new, different, and less congested routes. In part, this is because a number of people begin diverting from the conventional path. The people diverting to alternative roots may increase congestion and incidents on those routes due, in part, to the higher than normal traffic. These alternative route incidents are often derived from more major incidents and frequently go completely unreported. Thus, the information delivery service (such as the traffic reporter) is often unaware of the incident. Even major incidents are normally reported significantly after the fact, as it typically requires a person witnessing (or stuck) in the incident to call in and report the incident to the information service in order to have the information service investigate and report on the same.  
         [0006]     Thus, it would be desirable to develop methods, apparatuses, and systems in which the subscriber or customer can receive location and time specific information. Moreover, it would be desirous if the subscriber or customer could provide feedback information to the information providing service to indicate a possible incident and/or confirm a suspected incident.  
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
       [0007]     The present invention provides a method for providing two way communication between a user and an information provider. The method includes obtaining raw data from data reporting services and aggregating the raw data into aggregated data. The aggregated data is provided to network operations center that also receives identification information from a user device. The center correlates the aggregated data with the identification information and transmits the aggregate data to the user device when the aggregated data is correlated with the identification information.  
         [0008]     The present invention also provides a system to communicate realtime or near realtime data to a user. The system includes a network operations center including a data aggregating database. A mobile device is coupled to the network operations center by a wireless communication link. The data aggregating database receives raw data from reporting services and aggregates the raw data into aggregated data. The mobile device provides identification information to the network operations center. The network operations center uses the aggregated data in the database and transmits the data to a user of the mobile device if the aggregated data and the identification information are correlated.  
         [0009]     The foregoing and other features, utilities and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the following more particular description of a preferred embodiment of the invention as illustrated in the accompanying drawings. 
     
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING  
       [0010]     The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification, illustrate embodiments of the present invention, and together with the description, serve to explain the principles thereof. Like items in the drawings are referred to using the same numerical reference.  
         [0011]      FIGS. 1 and 2  are functional block diagrams of a system consistent with an embodiment of the present invention. 
     
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION  
       [0012]     The present invention will be described with reference to  FIGS. 1 and 2  While the present invention will be explained in the context of traffic information, both providing information to a driver as well as receiving information from a driver, one of ordinary skill in the art will recognize on reading the disclosure that the present invention can be used in other environments, such as, for example, locating moving objects and providing directions to the object.  
         [0013]     Referring now to  FIG. 1 , a system  100  consistent with the present invention is shown. System  100  includes a network operations center (NOC)  102 , a mobile device  104 , and an information provider  106 . A communication link  108  connects NOC  102  and mobile device  104  and a communication link  110  connects NOC  102  and information provider  106 . For convenience, system  100  is described in relation to traffic information. Thus, mobile device  104  is mounted in a vehicle  112 , such as, for example, a car (although vehicle could be a bus, truck, railroad car, boat, airplane, or the like). Information provider  106  is a real-time or near real-time traffic data provider.  
         [0014]     Communication link  108  connecting NOC  102  and mobile device  104  is wireless. Communication link  108  could be any number of wireless protocols, such as, for example, two-way radio protocols, paging protocols, text messaging protocols, cellphone protocols, or the like. Preferably, communication link  108  uses a ReFLEX two-way paging protocol. A positioning device (PD)  114  may be mounted in vehicle  112  as well. As shown, PD  114  is a satellite  116  based global positioning device (GPD)  114 . PD  114  could, however, be a tower based system. The PD  114  could be separate from mobile device  104 , as shown, or integrated into mobile device  104 . PD  114  and satellites  116  are connected using communication link  118 . PD  114  and satellites  116  operate as conventional manners to provide location information for mobile device  104 , which information will be used as explained further below. As used herein, one of ordinary skill in the art would recognize that satellites  116  could be replaced with radio frequency towers and the location information could be derived using other conventional methodologies, such as, for example, triangulation. For ease of use, mobile device may include conventional voice recognition modules  120  and text-to-speech modules  122 . A display  130 , optionally, may be incorporated into vehicle  112  as well.  
         [0015]     Referring now to  FIG. 2 , operation of system  100  will now be explained in more detail. While explained in as a series of steps, one of ordinary skill in the art will recognize on reading the disclosure that many of the steps described are operating in parallel.  FIG. 2  shows traffic data  20 , such as, for example, accidents (as shown by accident  124  in  FIG. 1 ), high congestion, or the like being identified by traffic data sources  22 , step  202 . Traffic data sources can be, for example, traffic reports, police reports, individual and independent call in information, or the like. Traffic data sources  22  broadcast the traffic data  20  to the information provider  106 , which in the case of traffic, for example, is a traffic data aggregation service (TDAS)  106 , step  204 . TDAS  106  stores and aggregates or indexes the traffic data  20 , step  206 . In traffic, aggregating the data may include providing location tags on the raw data reported from the information provider. If the raw data was related to stocks, for example, the aggregating may be based on company capitalization. Other types of aggregating and indexing are available. TDAS  104  transmits traffic data  20  to NOC  102 , step  208 . Traffic data  20 , or traffic events, can be continuously transmitted to NOC  102  and stored by NOC  102  or, alternatively, NOC  102  could request information on an as needed basis. Moreover, TDAS  104  and NOC  102  may be integrated into a single entity.  
         [0016]     Substantially at the same time as obtaining, indexing, and storing the traffic data, mobile device  104  in vehicle  114  is continuously or periodically using a signal from the positioning system, for example, satellites  116  to determine its location, step  208 . The positioning system may, for example, be a global satellite positioning system where GPD  114  communicates with satellites  116  to determine the position of the vehicle. Location information  30  is communicated to NOC  102  over communication link  108 , such as, for example, a two-way paging infrastructure, step  210 . Other two-way wireless transmission protocols as are generally known in the art are useable also. Location information  30  could be broadcast continuously or periodically. NOC  102  identifies traffic data related to the location information, step  212 , and transmits the traffic data  20  to mobile device  104  over communication link  108 . The traffic data could then be displayed on an in car display  130 , such as, for example, a digital map, or the text-to-speech module  120  could convert the signal into an audio signal, step  214 . If NOC  102  does not store and index the traffic data itself, NOC  102  would perform the additional step of requesting traffic data  20  from information provided  104 , step  216 .  
         [0017]     NOC  102  could be preprogrammed to provide traffic data within a certain radius of location information  30 . Alternatively, location information could transmit a user-specified sensitivity. For example, mobile device  104  may have a device  132  to allow the user to select different sensitivities, such as, for example, a 1 mile radius, a 2 mile radius, a 5 miles radius, a 7 mile radius, etc. Device  132  may be one or more toggle switches, a touch screen, keyboard, a graphical user interface, or the like. Still alternatively, NOC  102  could be preprogrammed to return different sensitivities depending on the street. For example, a residential street may provide a sensitivity of 2 miles, while an interstate may provide a sensitivity of 10 miles. Another option would be to provide location information  30  and direction of travel information  32 . NOC  102  could deliver traffic data for 6 miles in the direction of travel and, for example, 2 miles in the other directions.  
         [0018]     Communication link  110  between information provider  106  and NOC  102  can be any number of conventional connections, such as, for example, telephone, cellular, LAN, WAN, Ethernet, WiFi, wireless, Bluetooth, Internet, or the like. Moreover, information provider  106  could be incorporated into NOC  102  such that communication link  110  may be any conventional bus, coax, ribbon cable, fiber optic, or the like.  
         [0019]     NOC  102  also may have a map module  50 . Map module  50  would provide geographic map information to NOC  102 , step  218 . Map module  50  can obtain geographic map information from any of a number of conventional sources. Using map information, NOC  102  can overlay traffic events, street information, and location information to provide traffic data to particular users. Moreover, NOC  102  could provide alternative driving directions based on the map. For example, if main street is blocked by faulty traffic light, and vehicle  114  is traveling north on main street towards the traffic event, NOC  102  may direct vehicle  114  to take a left on detour street, and take a right onto main street parallel. Once past the traffic event, NOC  102  could further direct vehicle  114  to take a right onto return street and a left to continue north on main street.  
         [0020]     Finally, mobile device  104  may provide feedback information  35  to NOC  102  and/or information provider  106 . For example, if vehicle  112  is traveling down an interstate with an average speed limit of 65 mph, a sudden decrease in speed (which may be indicated by less movement over time by the location information), information provider  106  may use that as traffic data because a sudden drop in speed on the interstate would normally indicate congestion. This type of feedback information could be used as original reporting of traffic data (i.e., new incidents, or confirmation of other reports/predictions).  
         [0021]     While the invention has been particularly shown and described with reference to an embodiment thereof, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that various other changes in the form and details may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.