Patent Application
20090207049
The present invention relates to a method for announcing bus stop, and more particularly to a method for smart announcing of bus stop.
Various kinds of transport vehicles play a very important role in the metropolitan mass transportation. Due to the high density of population in the metropolitan areas, the mass transportation is important and required, and is also complicated to bring confusions to people living at the metropolitan areas. The government positively encourages people to utilize the mass transportation facilities, such as high speed rail trains, mass rapid transit (MRT) trains, general trains, airplanes, etc. City bus is one of many vehicles for mass transportation and has very close relation to people's daily life. In the early stages, most city buses have a female bus captain assigned thereto, and the female bus captain informs the passengers of the name of the next stop before the city bus arrives at the stop. However, with the coming of electronic era, an electronic signboard provided in the city bus has replaced the female bus captain to display the name of the next stop.
When using the conventional bus stop announcing system 1 to perform the announcement of the arrival at a bus stop, the global positioning device 11 receives a positioning signal transmitted from the satellite 14, retrieves data of current vehicle geographic longitude and latitude coordinates and current vehicle speed from the received positioning signal, computes a distance between the current position and the next stop based on the current vehicle geographic longitude and latitude coordinates and coordinates of the next stop, analyzes the current vehicle speed based on a basic vehicle speed, and sends the analyzed speed data and the computed distance data to the microprocessor 12. The microprocessor 12 computes the predicted distance using the received speed data, so that the bus stop announcing system 1 drives the broadcasting device 13 according to the predicted distance and the distance to the next stop to inform passengers of the arrival at the next stop. While the above-described conventional bus stop announcing system is convenient for use, it has the following disadvantages:
Therefore, it is tried by the inventor to develop a method for smart announcing of bus stop through a smart bus stop announcing system for a mass transportation vehicle to timely announce the next stop for passengers to have sufficient time to get ready for getting off without the risk of rushing to or staying at the bus door.
A primary object of the present invention is to provide a method for smart announcing of bus stop, which is implemented through a smart bus stop announcing system having a navigation positioning device, a sensor, a microprocessor, and an audio-visual (AV) device. The navigation positioning device receives a satellite signal from a satellite and retrieves current vehicle geographic longitude and latitude coordinates from the received satellite signal. The navigation positioning device compares a databank thereof with the current vehicle geographic longitude and latitude coordinates to determine whether there is a special posit ion value, such as a tunnel, and, if yes, computes a distance from the current position to a next target position, such as a stop, based on the special position value and the current vehicle geographic longitude and latitude coordinates. The microprocessor of the bus stop announcing system receives data from the navigation positioning device and computes parameters for adjusting a remaining distance and the remaining distance; or, in the event of a traffic jam in the tunnel, the sensor detects and sends vehicle speed data to the microprocessor, so that the microprocessor adjusts the remaining distance and the parameters for adjusting the remaining distance based on the detected speed data, and determines whether to drive the AV device according to the remaining distance and the distance to the next target position, so as to solve the problem of early announcement of the arrival at the next stop to ensure that passengers are timely informed of the arrival at the next stop.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a method for smart announcing of bus stop, which is implemented through a smart bus stop announcing system having a navigation positioning device, a sensor, a microprocessor, and an AV device. The navigation positioning device is internally provided with a databank and a basic vehicle speed data. When the navigation positioning device receives a satellite signal from a satellite, it retrieves current vehicle geographic longitude and latitude coordinates from the received satellite signal, computes to obtain the current vehicle speed data, and compares the databank with the current vehicle geographic longitude and latitude coordinates. When a special position value is located from the comparison, the navigation positioning device computes a distance from the current position to the next stop based on the coordinates of the special position value and the current vehicle geographic longitude and latitude coordinates, and analyzes the current vehicle speed based on the basic vehicle speed data. The analyzed speed data and distance data are sent to the microprocessor for the same to compute parameters for adjusting a remaining distance and the remaining distance based on the received speed data. In the event the vehicle encounters a traffic jam in a tunnel, the sensor detects and sends vehicle speed data to the microprocessor, so that the microprocessor adjusts thee remaining distance and the parameters for adjusting the remaining distance based on the detected speed data, and determines whether to drive the AV device according to the remaining distance and the distance to the next target position, so that passengers are timely informed of the arrival at the next stop and have sufficient time to get ready for getting off the vehicle.
The structure and the technical means adopted by the present invention to achieve the above and other objects can be best understood by referring to the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments and the accompanying drawings, wherein
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The sensor 33 includes an accelerometer 331 for measuring the speed of a transportation vehicle. The accelerometer 331 is electrically connected to the navigation positioning device 31 and the microprocessor 32, and utilizes an inertial navigation system (INS) as a measuring way to detect the speed of a transportation vehicle. Since the measuring way based on the inertial navigation system belongs to a highly specialized technical field, and is not a subject matter of the present invention, it is not discussed in details herein.
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(200) Starts operating;
(201) The navigation positioning device 31 receives a satellite signal from the satellite 4;
(202) The navigation positioning device 31 retrieves data of current vehicle geographic longitude and latitude coordinates based on the received satellite signal, and computes to obtain data of current vehicle speed;
(203) The navigation positioning device 31 compares the data of current vehicle geographic longitude and latitude coordinates with the scheduled route data to determine whether there is a tunnel position; if yes, the navigation positioning device 31 would perform the following step (204); and if not, the navigation positioning device 31 would perform the following step (208);
(204) The navigation positioning device 31 computes a distance between the current position and the next stop based on the coordinates of the tunnel position and the data of current vehicle longitude and latitude coordinates;
(205) The microprocessor 32 computes parameters for adjusting a remaining distance and the remaining distance based on the basic vehicle speed data and the data of current vehicle speed received from the navigation positioning device 31;
(206) The accelerometer 331 detects the vehicle speed and sends the detected vehicle speed data to the microprocessor 32, so that the microprocessor 32 adjusts the remaining distance and the parameters for adjusting the remaining distance according to the detected vehicle speed data;
(207) The system 3 determines whether to drive the display unit 351 and the audio unit 353 based on the remaining distance and the distance to the next stop; or
(208) The navigation positioning device 31 starts computing a distance between the current position and the next stop based on the current vehicle longitude and latitude coordinates and the coordinates of the next stop;
(209) The microprocessor 32 computes the parameters for adjusting a predicted distance and the predicted distance based on the basic vehicle speed data and the current vehicle speed data received from the navigation positioning device 31;
(210) The system 3 determines whether to drive the display unit 351 and the audio unit 353 based on the predicted distance and the distance to the next stop; and
(211) Ends one cycle of operation.
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On the other hand, if it is determined no tunnel is found from the comparison of the current vehicle geographic longitude and latitude coordinates with the scheduled route data, the navigation positioning device 31 starts computing the distance from the current position to the next stop based on the current vehicle geographic longitude and latitude coordinates and the coordinates of the next stop. When the distance to the next stop is obtained, the navigation positioning device 31 analyzes the current vehicle speed data based on the basic vehicle speed data. The analyzed vehicle speed data and the computed distance data are simultaneously sent to the microprocessor 32. The microprocessor 32 computes the parameters for adjusting the predicted distance and the predicted distance based on the received vehicle speed data, and determines whether to drive the display unit 351 and the audio unit 353 according to the predicted distance and the distance to the next stop, so that passengers on the bus may be timely informed of the arrival at the next stop and get ready for getting off the bus.
In computing the parameters for adjusting the remaining distance or the predicted distance, as well as the remaining distance or the predicted distance, the microprocessor 32 may utilize an artificial neural system or a fuzzy system to control the computing, so that the computing of most appropriate bus stop announcing time can be achieved. Since the computing based on an artificial neural system or a fuzzy system belongs to a highly specialized technical field, and is not a subject matter of the present invention, it is not discussed in details herein.
In conclusion, the present invention advantageously provides a method for smart announcing of bus stop that enables passengers on a mass transportation vehicle to timely know the arrival at the next stop and have sufficient time to get ready for getting off without the need of rushing to or staying at the bus door. Therefore, the vehicle provides the passengers with more conveniences in taking the vehicle. Moreover, with the method of the present invention, the arrival at the next stop is automatically announced via the bus stop announcing system, it is not necessary for the vehicle driver to personally operate the bus stop announcing system or pay attention to the timing announcement of arrival at the next stop during driving. Therefore, the driver is allowed to concentrate in driving to ensure the safety of passengers.
The present invention has been described with a preferred embodiment thereof and it is understood that many changes and modifications in the described embodiment can be carried out without departing from the scope and the spirit of the invention that is intended to be limited only by the appended claims.
