The subject matter, which is regarded as the invention, is particularly pointed out and distinctly claimed in the claims at the conclusion of the specification. The foregoing and other objects, features, and advantages of the invention are apparent from the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings in which:
The detailed description explains the preferred embodiments of the invention, together with advantages and features, by way of example with reference to the drawings.
Turning now to the drawings in greater detail, it will be seen that in
Regarding, the status of an upcoming traffic light, such can be detected by, for example, a smart traffic system such as described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,989,766 to Mese et al., assigned to International Business Machines Corporation, which is incorporated herein in its entirety by reference. The Mese et al. system is a GPS based system that allows a vehicle to receive information regarding the distance and status of an upcoming traffic light. If the speedometer signal is other than 0 M.P.H., the break is released, or the accelerator is engaged the vehicle is in motion. If an upcoming traffic light is red (or yellow) such that the vehicle will be stopping, then the vehicle may be treated as not in motion when the other factors indicate such, thereby allowing the video to play as discussed below. If an upcoming traffic light is green such that the vehicle will not be stopping, then the vehicle will treated as if it were in motion unless the other factors indicate otherwise. For example, if the vehicle were pulled-off to the side of a road. When a vehicle is stopped at a traffic light and the traffic light is detected as changing to green, the vehicle will treated as if it is in motion even though the other factors may not yet indicate such motion. Also, with such a GPS system the proximity to the traffic light can easily be determined, such that a vehicle that is many vehicles away from the traffic light (due to traffic or construction) would be allowed to watch for an addition amount of time. This is due to the fact that in long traffic lines, there is a time lag before vehicles further back in the line move with respect to when to the traffic light changed. Accordingly, in this situation the traffic light may be green but the vehicle is not moving and the system will treat the vehicle as not in motion for the purpose of operating the video. Further, proximity sensors are available on vehicles, and can be used to provide additional information for the system in conjunction with the traffic light detection. More specifically, the video could be allowed to play until the vehicle in front of the vehicle with the video system begins to move. The proximity sensors could detect movement of the vehicle in front.
Turning to
The spooled/stored images and audio may be accessed at any time permitted by the system, i.e., when the vehicle is not in motion. Further, the playback rate may be accelerated to allow the operated to catch up on live broadcast.
The capabilities of the present invention can be implemented in software, firmware, hardware or some combination thereof.
As one example, one or more aspects of the present invention can be included in an article of manufacture (e.g., one or more computer program products) having, for instance, computer usable media. The media has embodied therein, for instance, computer readable program code means for providing and facilitating the capabilities of the present invention. The article of manufacture can be included as a part of a computer system or sold separately.
Additionally, at least one program storage device readable by a machine, tangibly embodying at least one program of instructions executable by the machine to perform the capabilities of the present invention can be provided.
The flow diagrams depicted herein are just examples. There may be many variations to these diagrams or the steps (or operations) described therein without departing from the spirit of the invention. For instance, the steps may be performed in a differing order, or steps may be added, deleted or modified. All of these variations are considered a part of the claimed invention.
While the preferred embodiment to the invention has been described, it will be understood that those skilled in the art, both now and in the future, may make various improvements and enhancements which fall within the scope of the claims which follow. These claims should be construed to maintain the proper protection for the invention first described.