Patent ID: 7706965

Claim:
A computer-implemented method for facilitating travel on roads by providing reliable data readings for road traffic sensors associated with the roads in such a manner as to accurately reflect actual vehicle travel on the roads, the method comprising: receiving indications of multiple road segments of one or more roads, each road segment having one or more associated road traffic sensors that provide data regarding speeds of vehicles traveling by the road traffic sensors; and for each of at least some of the road traffic sensors, automatically providing reliable vehicle travel speed data for a recent period of time, by receiving from the road traffic sensor multiple data readings that each include a reported speed of one or more vehicles traveling by the road traffic sensor at an associated time that is within the recent period of time; determining a current data reading distribution for the road traffic sensor to reflect reported vehicle travel speeds during the recent period of time based on the received data readings; determining an average historical data reading distribution for the road traffic sensor to reflect average vehicle travel speeds during one or more prior periods of time that correspond to the recent period of time, the average historical data reading distribution being based on multiple data readings received from the road traffic sensor during the one or more prior periods of time; generating a comparison of the current and average historical data reading distributions for the road traffic sensor based at least in part on determining a statistical measure of entropy for each of the current and average historical data reading distributions and on determining a statistical measure of similarity between the current and average historical data reading distributions; determining whether the road traffic sensor likely provided reliable data readings for the recent period of time based at least in part on whether the generated comparison indicates sufficient differences between the current and average historical data reading distributions for the traffic sensor to reflect a likely malfunction of the road traffic sensor; and if the road traffic sensor is determined to not have likely provided reliable data readings for the recent period of time, estimating reliable vehicle speeds for the recent period of time for at least a portion of the road segment associated with the road traffic sensor in a manner that is not based on the received data readings for the recent period of time, and providing the estimated vehicle speeds for use as a replacement for the received data readings for the recent period of time, so as to facilitate travel on the one or more roads by providing reliable data about vehicle travel.