Abstract:
A flight delivery system that utilizes an architectural structure and network that allows real-time digital signals to be stored, retrieved and converted to an audio signal for radio transmission to achieve nearly instantaneous transmission of real-time data. The system utilizes a computerized reservation system as a source of information and stores it on a database. The information is called up by a computer that converts the data to a digital audio signal. The digital audio signal is then broadcast over airport antennae. The system features programs that allow for a conversion from airport city codes to the common identification for local cities.

Description:
TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION  
       [0001]     The present invention relates to an improved information delivery system and, more specifically, to an architecture and network that allows real time digital signals to be stored, retrieved and converted to an audio signal for radio transmission to achieve the nearly instantaneous transmission of real-time data.  
       BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
       [0002]     Without limiting the scope of the invention, the present invention relates to a network for gathering data and translating the data into a user-friendly format for transmission over a user-friendly medium. In such networks, emphasis is heavily placed on the accuracy of the information, the timeliness in the delivery of the information and the mode of the delivery of the information.  
         [0003]     In the field pertaining to this invention, the transmitted data is airline flight arrival and departure information. In the history of scheduled passenger air transportation, it has always been a goal to get flight arrival and departure information to the public in as an efficient method as possible. In the beginning days of scheduled passenger flight, this information was generally delivered by voice and written word. Passengers would call or, if at the airport, ask an agent of the airline the time of departure or arrival of a particular flight. The information would be available either by the spoken word or a sign located within the confines of an airport.  
         [0004]     Since that time and continuing to today, the passenger still gets the information the same way. Through the spoken word or through the written word. What has changed tremendously is the way the information is gathered and distributed. In the early days, the scheduling information was set by the airline and then distributed in schedule books.  
         [0005]     This prior system did not address scheduling changes that occurred after the schedule book was printed. Changes could occur for any number of reasons, including delays due to weather, mechanical problems or because of changes in an airline&#39;s overall flight system.  
         [0006]     The passengers would not be made aware of these changes until they entered the airport. The duty to inform the passengers fell to the agent at the airport. Overall, the prior manual system was a very inefficient system.  
         [0007]     As time went on, technology began to introduce changes in the way information was gathered and distributed. With the advent of the Semi-Automated Business Research Environment (SABRE), airlines began to have a tool at their disposal that allowed them to gather information more efficiently. Today, SABRE, a computerized reservation service (CRS), and other CRS&#39;, such as Covia, Worldspan and Apollo, collect and disburse information regarding not only passenger reservation information but also flight information. These CRS&#39; enable information to be more timely disbursed over a wide geographic area almost instantaneously. Today that geographic area includes the entire world.  
         [0008]     Today&#39;s methods of conveying the scheduled flight information to passengers, include automated telephone flight information services, e-mail, facsimile, use of television screens at airports along with public address systems at individual gates. There are video monitors placed inside the airport structures. Airports also have public address systems that are used to announce the most timely of information, flight cancellations, gate changes, explanations for other nonscheduled events. Large signs have been erected at some airports that provide flight information to people entering the airports. These signs have diminished value during inclement weather because visibility is poor, making it difficult for the visiting airport person to read.  
         [0009]     Accordingly, today there are various overlays of ways flight information is delivered to the airport visitor.  
         [0010]     In the case of various large airports where there may be more than one airport terminal, an improved system for providing flight information prior to entering the airport facilities is needed.  
         [0011]     The instant invention gathers flight information from a variety of sources, both human and computer, and converts it to a user-friendly audio signal, then transmits it to the airport visitor&#39;s automobile via radio frequencies for reception in the airport visitor&#39;s automobile. In this way, real-time information is delivered timely, accurately and in a user-friendly medium. Radio reception is not affected by weather conditions except in the most extreme of conditions. Therefore, the airport visitor has the information needed to determine where they need to go to either take or meet a flight. The radio signal is strong enough that it will reach the airport visitor&#39;s automobile prior to arriving at the airport in most instances, further providing ease of use.  
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
       [0012]     The present invention is an improved flight information collection and delivery system that provides real-time information in a user-friendly format. The invention offers the advantage of delivering real-time information to the airport visitor prior to entering the airport terminal in a way that is timely, accurate and largely independent of environmental factors.  
         [0013]     It is a primary advantage of the present invention to provide real-time flight information to airport visitors. This is accomplished by connecting input from a variety of sources to a virtual network. As information is gathered about a specific flight, it is fed through a network to a computerized network. The information may include expected time of arrival, departure times, flight number, gate information, etc. The computer network is a computerized reservation system (CRS). The flight information is gathered by the CRS as part of its normal operations. It is converted into a computer language that allows it to be processed by the computer and then used to do a variety of functions, including scheduling flights, assigning crews, keeping updated information on weather, etc.  
         [0014]     The present invention takes this raw data in its computer language form and retrieves arrival and departure information. It should be noted that this information is the most current and comprehensive information that can be obtained about a particular flight. This information is taken from the CRS and stored on a file server. A personal computer, p.c., then accesses the file server on a periodic basis. It takes the information, retrieves and transmits it to a second p.c. that converts the computer language into a form that permits audio reception on radios. The signal is broadcast via a radio transmitter to the airport visitor. In this way, the airport visitor receives the most current information in a convenient and timely manner.  
         [0015]     Another advantage of this invention is that the system will reboot itself, without human intervention and the reboot will be virtually invisible to the ultimate user. By utilizing a particular memory location and placing a bit where one was not before, the system will automatically recognize when the bit is missing. The bite will be missing when the system is not receiving information from the data storage on the file server. Monitoring the location is a background task. The background task will read that that location is empty and force a hard reading.  
         [0016]     For a more complete understanding of the present invention, including its features and advantages, reference is now made to the following detailed description, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.  
     
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0017]     In the drawings:  
         [0018]      FIG. 1  is a high level block diagram of a network according to one aspect of this invention;  
         [0019]      FIG. 2  is a high level block diagram of the equipment that receives the data through to the transmission; and  
         [0020]      FIG. 3  is a high level block flow chart of the steps the system undertakes to present the information.  
     
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION  
       [0021]     In the following detailed description, a user shall mean and encompass a single user, a plurality of users or anyone of a plurality of users. The word “user” shall be used to mean anyone using an airport facility. Also, a node shall be understood to mean an entry point into a network, a network element, server or other designated point of access. Other similar connotations shall be obvious to those skilled in the art upon reference to this disclosure.  
         [0022]     In  FIG. 1 , the flight information network is shown and generally denoted as  5 . Flight information network  5  is a network connected to a variety of flight information sources. The information enters through various nodes. The nodes consist of output monitors  10 , printers  15 , computerized reservation system (CRS)  20 , and a file server  25  having a database  30 . The output monitors  10  are used to output information regarding flight arrivals and departures at various locations from around the world. The flight information is sent to CRS  20  from various sources where it is stored and then transmitted out to the nodes. This information is received at an airport local area network LAN  35 .  
         [0023]     The information stored in the CRS  20  is delivered to the airport LAN  35  where it is then disbursed to various nodes. These nodes may include the monitors  10 , the printers  15  and other output devices.  
         [0024]     The present invention is a part of, and accesses, the LAN  35  to retrieve the information it needs to broadcast to the airport visitor. As previously mentioned, the LAN  35  also has a database  30  as part of a file server  25 . The database  30  also captures the flight information received from the CRS  20  and culls it out from the other information. The information is held here until it is called up by personal computer  45 . It is the role of personal computer  45  to receive flight information from the file server  25 . Personal computer  45  takes the information retrieved from the file server  25  and converts it to an audio wave file. In the present invention, this is a typical audio wave file as developed by Microsoft. In this process, the soundblaster is initialized. The core of this function is called playwave. It first initializes the soundblaster. Then in the next step it allocates memory to receive the header information. It checks to make sure the digital signal processor is present and functioning properly. The playwave function calls all subsequent functions to the header file to read the wave. The timing loop is also set during this time. The time is set in the file server  25  from input from the CRS  20 .  
         [0025]     In  FIG. 2 , a high level block diagram of the equipment that receives the data is shown. Personal computer  45  is configured with a digital signal processor, DSP, which is 100% soundblaster compatible  16 , version 4.0 or greater, with a 16 bit DMA access. Such a DSP is manufactured by Creative Labs. It is available royalty free over the Internet and needs slight customization for use with the invention. The necessary modifications are obvious to one skilled in the art.  
         [0026]     The database  30  has a spelling disk  50  associated with it. Each airport has a separate and distinct city code associated with it. For example, the airport located between Dallas and Fort Worth is identified by the city code DFW. The city code of the airport at Fresno is FAT. The city code for Chicago&#39;s O&#39;HARE field is ORD. Accordingly, one of the things the program must do is to translate the airport name from the city code into an audio wave file the name of the city that is recognizable to the user.  
         [0027]     To do this a spelling disk  50  is associated with the local personal computer  45 . The spelling disk uses a routine that automatically translates from city code to user language. A separate routine is required for this because the system needs to be able to differentiate between similar city names. For example, when the city San Jose is mentioned, one needs to know if this is San Jose, Calif. or San Jose, Costa Rica. Another example would be Monterrey, Calif. and Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, Mexico.  
         [0028]     The same logistics encountered with the real time automated voice response system for flight information occurs here with this system. A person having ordinary skill in the art would be familiar with the work necessary to handle all the nuances that are associated with changing city codes to audible city names. Listed below is the table that is used to convert city code to audible city names. 
    ABE Allentown-Bethlehem     ABI Abilene     ABQ Albuquerque     ACA Acapulco     ACK Nantucket, Mass.     ACT Waco     ACV Eureka Arcata Calif.     AEX Alexandria La.     AFW Alliance-Afw     AGP Malaga     AKL Auckland, New Zealand     ALB Albany     ALO Waterloo     AMA Amarillo     ANC Anchorage     ANU Antigua     APF Naples Fla.     ARN Stockholm     ASE Aspen     ASU Asuncion     ATL Atlanta     AUA Aruba     AUH Abu Dhabi     AUS Austin     AVL Asheville     AXA Anguilla     AZO Kalamazoo     BAH Bahrain, Bahrain     BAQ Barranquilla     BDA Bermuda     BDL Hartford-Springfield     BFL Bakersfield     BGI Barbados     BHM Birmingham Ala.     BHX Birmingham UK     BJX Leon Mexico     BMI Bloomington Ill.     BNA Nashville     BOG Bogota, Colombia     BOI Boise, Idaho     BOS Boston     BPT Beaumont-Port Arthur     BQK Brunswick Ga.     BQN Aguadilla PR     BRL Burlington Iowa     BRU Brussels, Belgium     BTR Baton Rouge     BUD Budapest, Hungary     BUF Buffalo     BUR Burbank     BWI Baltimore-Washington     BZE Belize City, Belize     CAE Columbia S.C.     CAK Akron-Canton     CCS Caracas     CGH Sao Paulo, Brazil     CHA Chattanooga     CHS Charleston S.C.     CIC Chico CA     CID Cedar Rapids-Iowa City     CKB Clarksburg W.Va.     CLD Carlsbad Calif.     CLE Cleveland     CLL College Station     CLO Cali, Colombia     CLT Charlotte N.C.     CMH Columbus Ohio     CMI Champaign-Urbana     CNF Belo Horizonte Brazil     COS Colorado Springs     CPT Cape Town     CRP Corpus Christi     CSG Columbus Ga.     CUN Cancun     CUR Curacao, Netherland Anti     CUU Chihuahua, Mexico     CVG Cincinnati     CWA Wausau-Stevens Pt     CZM Cozumel     DAB Daytona Beach     DAY Dayton     DBQ Dubuque     DCA Washington-National     DEC Decatur Ill.     DEN Denver     DFW Dallas-Ft Worth     DOH Doha, Qatar     DOM Dominica     DRO Durango Colorado     DSM Des Moines     DTW Detroit     DUS Dusseldorf     EGE Vail Colo.     EIS Tortola Beef Island     ELP El Paso     ESF Alexandria     EUG Eugene Oreg.     EVV Evansville Ind.     EWN New Bem N.C.     EWR Newark     EYW Key West     EZE Buenos Aires, Argentina     FAI Fairbanks     FAR Fargo     FAT Fresno     FAY Fayetteville N.C.     FDF Fort De France     FLL Ft Lauderdale     FLO Florence S.C.     FMN Farmington N.Mex.     FMY Fort Myers     FNT Flint     FPO Freeport, Bahamas     FRA Frankfurt, Germany     FSD Sioux Falls     FSM Ft Smith     FTW Fort Worth     FWA Ft Wayne     FYV Fayetteville Ark.     GCM Grand Cayman     GDL Guadalajara, Mexico     GEO Georgetown, Guyana     GGG Longview-Kilgore     GGT George Town     GHB Governors Hrbr     GIG Rio De Janeiro     GLA Glasgow UK     GLS Galveston, Tex.     GND Grenada     GPT Gulfport Biloxi     GRB Green Bay     GRR Grand Rapids     GRU Sao Paulo, Brazil     GSO Greensboro     GSP Greenville-Spartanburg     GSW Ft.worth-Great Southwest     GTR Columbus-Starkville     GUA Guatemala City     GUC Gunnison     GYE Guayaquil, Ecuador     HDN Steamboat Springs     HDQ Test City     HEL Helsinki, Finland     HHH Hilton Head     HKY Hickory N.C.     HNL Honolulu     HOU Houston-Hobby     HPN Westchester Cty     HRL Harlingen     HSV Huntsville     HUF Terre Haute     HUX Huatulco MX     IAD Washington-Dulles     IAH Houston Intercontinental     ICT Wichita     IDA Idaho Falls     IFP Laughlin-Bullhead City     ILE Killeen     ILM Wilmington N.C.     IND Indianapolis     INT Winston-Salem     ISP Long Island MacArthur     IYK Inyoke Calif.     JAC Jackson Hole     JAN Jackson Miss.     JAX Jacksonville     JFK New York-JFK     JNB Johannesburg     JXN Jackson Mich.     KIN Kingston, Jamaica     LAF Lafayette Ind.     LAN Lansing     LAS Las Vegas     LAW Lawton     LAX Los Angeles     LBB Lubbock     LCH Lake Charles     LEX Lexington     LFT Lafayette La.     LGA New York-LGA     LGB Long Beach     LGW London-LGW     LHR London-LHR     LIM Lima, Peru     LIT Little Rock     LMT Klamath Falls     LPB La Paz, Bolivia     LRD Laredo     LRM Casa De Campo-LRM     LSE Lacrosse-Winona     LYH Lynchburga VA     MAD Madrid, Spain     MAF Midland-Odessa     MAN Manchester UK     MAR Maracaibo     MAZ Mayaguez, PR     MBJ Montego Bay, Jamaica     MBS Saginaw     MCE Merced Calif.     MCI Kansas City     MCO Orlando     MCT Muscat Oman     MDT Harrisburg     MDW Chicago-Midway     MEI Meridian Miss.     MEL Melbourne, Australia     MEM Memphis     MEX Mexico City     MFE McAllen     MFR Medford Oreg.     MGA Managua, Nicaragua     MGM Montgomery     MHH Marsh Harbor, Bahamas     MIA Miami     MIE Muncie     MKE Milwaukee     MKG Muskegon Mich.     MLB Melboume Fla.     MLI Moline Ill.     MLU Monroe     MOB Mobile     MOD Modesto Calif.     MQT Marquette     MRY Monterey Calif.     MSN Madison Wis.     MSP Minneapolis-St Paul     MSY New Orleans     MTH Marathon Fla.     MTY Monterrey, Mexico     MUC Munich, Germany     MVD Montevideo, Uruguay     MWX Mosstown Bahamas     MXP Milan, Italy     MYR Myrtle Beach     NAP Naples Fla.     NAS Nassau, Bahamas     NRT Tokyo-Narita     OAJ Jacksonville N.C.     OAK Oakland     OGG Kahului Maui     OKC Oklahoma City     OMA Omaha     ONT Ontario Calif.     ORD Chicago     ORF Norfolk     ORY Paris, France     OWB Owensboro Ky.     OXR Oxnard     PAH Paducah Ky.     PAP Port Au Prince     PBI West Palm Beach     PDX Portland Oreg.     PGV Greenville N.C.     PHF Newport News     PHL Philadelphia     PHX Phoenix     PIA Peoria     PIE St Petersburg     PIT Pittsburgh     PLS Providenciales, Turks     PNS Pensacola     POP Puerto Plata, DR     POS Port Of Spain, Trinidad     POU Poughkeepsie     PRX Paris, Tex.     PSE Ponce, Pr     PSP Palm Springs     PTP Pointe A Pitre     PTY Panama City     PUJ Punta Cana, Dr     PVD Providence     PVR Puerto Vallarta     RDD Redding     RDM Redmond Oreg.     RDU Raleigh-Durham     RFD Rockford Ill.     RIC Richmond     RNO Reno     ROA Roanoke     ROC Rochester N.Y.     RST Rochester Minn.     RSW Fort Myers     SAL San Salvador     SAN San Diego     SAP San Pedro Sula     SAT San Antonio     SAV Savannah     SBA Santa Barbara     SBN South Bend     SBP San Luis Obispo     SCC Deadhorse-Prudhoe Bay Ak.     SCK Stockton CA     SCL Santiago, Chile     SCQ Sntiago D Cmpst     SDF Louisville     SDQ Santo Domingo     SEA Seattle-Tacoma     SEL Seoul, Korea     SFB Sanford Fla.     SFO San Francisco     SGF Springfield Mo.     SHV Shreveport     SID Cape Verde Is     SIN Singapore     SJC San Jose, Calif.     SJD Los Cabos     SJO San Jose, Costa Rica     SJT San Angelo     SJU San Juan     SKB St Kitts     SLC Salt Lake City     SLU St Lucia     SMF Sacramento     SMX Santa Maria     SNA Orange County     SPI Springfield Ill.     SPS Wichita Falls     SRQ Sarasota     STL St Louis     STS Santa Rosa, Calif.     STT St Thomas, USVI     STX St Croix, USVI     SUX Sioux City Iowa     SVD St Vincent     SVO Moscow, Russia     SWF Newburgh Stewart     SXM St Maarten     SYD Sydney, Australia     SYR Syracuse     TAM Tampico     TCB Treasure Cay     TCL Tuscaloosa     TFS Tenerife     TGU Tegucigalpa     TLH Tallahassee Fla.     TOL Toledo     TPA Tampa     TPL Temple Tex.     TSS MidtownManhattan     TUL Tulsa     TUS Tucson     TVC Traverse City     TXK Texarkana     TXL Berlin     TYR Tyler     TYS Knoxville     UIO Quito, Ecuador     UVF St Lucia     VIJ Virgin Gorda     VIS Visalia     VLN Valencia     VPS Ft Walton Beach     VRB Vero Beach, Fla.     WI Santa Cruz, Bolivia     WAW Warsaw     YEG Edmonton     YHM Hamilton, Canada     YHZ Halifax     YOW Ottawa     YQB Quebec City     VPS Ft Walton Beach     VRB Vero Beach, Fla.     WI Santa Cruz, Bolivia     WAW Warsaw     YEG Edmonton     YHM Hamilton, Canada     YHZ Halifax     YOW Ottawa     YQB Quebec City     YUL Montreal     YVR Vancouver BC     YWG Winnipeg MB     YYC Calgary     YYZ Toronto     ZIH Zihuatanejo     ZRH Zurich, Switzerland     ZRK Rockford Ill.     ZSA San Salvador BH    
 
         [0407]     The CRS  20  retrieves, stores and dispatches information about every matter concerning a flight. This information includes all take offs and landings. They are reported through the CRS  20  and then the information is dispensed throughout the system. The flight information is retrieved and stored into a database  30 . This information is, in turn, be called up for use by the file server  25  in response to periodic requests from personal computer  45 .  
         [0408]     Because a large amount of information is received from the CRS  20 , other information above and beyond arrival and departure times may also be retrieved. These enhancements would include other airline information. For example, the present invention may be used to identify not only the flight arrival time, but also the airline for which the craft is flying.  
         [0409]     In another embodiment the present invention may have a continuous loop that periodically repeats the identity of the airline for whom the flight information is being provided.  
         [0410]     All of this information is fed into the personal computer  45  where, as stated previously, a wave file is called up to translate the information from machine language into a user-friendly format.  
         [0411]     From the personal computer  45 , the information is transmitted to an audio plug  55  The audio plug  55  goes directly to a regular telephone circuit  60 . The audio plug connects personal computer  45  with the airport network. The circuit may be a dedicated line or part of a vertical network. In the preferred embodiment, it is a part of a dedicated line.  
         [0412]     The telephone circuit goes out to an airport LAN  63  shown at  FIG. 2 . The airport LAN  63  includes a radio transmitter  65  located at the airport. In the preferred embodiment the radio transmitter is a 60 watt transmitter with a broadcast radius of 10 miles. The broadcast is received on a user&#39;s radio and the user then audibly hears pertinent information regarding flight arrival and departure.  
         [0413]      FIG. 3  is a high level flow chart showing the steps of the software program. In general, the program first loads the software configuration. Then it looks for and connects to the network. From the network, the software locates the file server and transfers flight information into half of a buffer. At the same time, it initializes the soundblaster and wave files and DMA. Next, it sets up the wave file and DSP. The information is then converted to an audio format and then sent to the airport LAN  63  to be sent to an equalizer  70 . From the equalizer  70 , the information is sent to a transmitter  65  and from there out through airport antennaes  75 .  
         [0414]     A copy of the source code follows. It is an embodiment of the invention but the invention should not be limited to this code. It is provided as an example.