CLIAMS:1. A method for detecting a road condition using a navigation device, the method comprising:
receiving, by the navigation device, a plurality of vibration signals from one or more sensors configured to sense vibration of a vehicle;
obtaining, by the navigation device, a wave pattern based on an acceleration value of the vehicle being evaluated from the plurality of vibration signals;
comparing, by the navigation device, the obtained wave pattern with a threshold wave pattern;
detecting, by the navigation device, the road condition when the wave pattern matches the threshold wave pattern; and
transmitting, by the navigation device, data related to the detected road condition to a server being associated to the navigation device for storing and alerting other vehicles a presence of the detected road condition.

2. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the road condition is at least one of pothole, speed breaker, speed bump, hump, obstacle, object and pavement distress.

3. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the threshold wave pattern is a sine waveform.

4. The method as claimed in claim 1 further comprising computing one or more parameters relating to the road condition by the navigation device, wherein the one or more parameters is at least one of width of the road condition, breadth of the road condition, depth of the road condition, height of the road condition, and time required for the vehicle to cross the road condition.

5. The method as claimed in claim 4 further comprising transmitting the one or more parameters along with the data related to the detected road condition by the navigation device to the server for storing in a storage unit, wherein the detected road condition is assigned with a unique Identification (ID).

6. The method as claimed in claim 1 further comprises alerting, by the navigation device, the presence of the road condition by performing:
providing, by the navigation device, one or more Global Positioning System (GPS) parameters of the vehicle to the server at a regular time intervals; and
receiving a data related to a road condition ahead, by the navigation device, from the server based on the one or more GPS parameters; and
alerting, by the navigation device, the presence of the road condition upon receiving the data related to the road condition.

7. The method as claimed in claim 6, wherein the one or more GPS parameters is at least one of current location or latitude and longitude position of the vehicle, direction of vehicle travel and velocity of the vehicle.

8. The method as claimed in claim 6 further comprising receiving, by the navigation device, at least one of distance between the road condition and the current location of the vehicle and time taken by the vehicle to reach the road condition from the server.

9. The method as claimed in claim 6 further comprising updating, by the navigation device, one or more parameters relating to the road condition to the server, by performing:
receiving, by the navigation device, an alert on the presence of a road condition from the server;
evaluating, by the navigation device, one or more parameters associated with the road condition while passing the road condition; and
transmitting, by the navigation device, the evaluated one or more parameters to the server for updating in the storage unit, wherein the evaluated one or more parameters is compared with the stored one or more parameters associated with the road condition to update thereby increasing the accuracy of the one or more parameters associated with the road condition.

10. The method as claimed in claim 9 further comprises updating non-existence of the road condition when the one or more parameters being evaluated by the navigation device do not match with the stored one or more parameters being associated with the road condition.

11. A navigation device for detecting road condition for a vehicle, said navigation device comprising:
a processor;
a memory communicatively coupled to the processor, wherein the memory stores processor-executable instructions, which, on execution, cause the processor to:
receive a plurality of vibration signals from one or more sensors configured to sense vibration of the vehicle;
obtain a wave pattern based on an acceleration value of the vehicle being evaluated from the plurality of vibration signals;
compare the obtained wave pattern with a threshold wave pattern;
detect the road condition when the wave pattern matches the threshold wave pattern; and
transmit data related to the detected road condition to a server being associated to the navigation device for storing and alerting other vehicles a presence of the detected road condition.

12. The navigation device as claimed in claim 11, wherein the one or more sensors to sense the vibration of the vehicle is selected from at least one of at least one accelerometer, at least one gyroscope, piezoelectric and other related vibration sensors.

13. The navigation device as claimed in claim 11 is further configured to compute one or more parameters relating to the road condition, wherein the one or more parameters is at least one of width of the road condition, breadth of the road condition, depth of the road condition, height of the road condition, and time required for the vehicle to cross the road condition.

14. The navigation device as claimed in claim 13 is further configured to transmit the one or more parameters along with the data related to the detected road condition by the navigation device to the server for storing in a storage unit, wherein the detected road condition is assigned with a unique Identification (ID).

15. The navigation device as claimed in claim 11 is further configured to:
provide one or more Global Positioning System (GPS) parameters of the vehicle to the server at a regular time intervals; and
receive a data related to a road condition ahead from the server based on the one or more GPS parameters; and
alerting the presence of the road condition upon receiving the data related to the road condition.
16. The navigation device as claimed in claim 15, wherein the one or more GPS parameters is provided using sensors selected from a group comprising a GPS device, a compass, speed sensor, and inertial navigation system.

17. The navigation device as claimed in claim 15 receives at least one of distance between the road condition and the current location of the vehicle and time taken by the vehicle to reach the road condition from the server.

18. The navigation device as claimed in claim 15 is further configured to:
receive an alert on the presence of a road condition from the server;
evaluate one or more parameters associated with the road condition while passing the road condition; and
transmit the evaluated one or more parameters to the server for updating in the storage unit, wherein the evaluated one or more parameters is compared with the stored one or more parameters associated with the road condition to update thereby increasing the accuracy of the one or more parameters associated with the road condition.

19. The navigation device as claimed in claim 18 is further configured to update non-existence of the road condition when the one or more parameters being evaluated by the navigation device do not match with the stored one or more parameters being associated with the road condition.
,TagSPECI:TECHNICAL FIELD
The present subject matter is related, in general to detection of road conditions and more particularly, but not exclusively to a method and a device for detecting and alerting road conditions for a vehicle.

BACKGROUND
Generally, vehicles encounter a variety of detrimental road conditions which are potentially hazardous to travel. The road conditions include, but are not limited to, potholes, objects in the road, uneven road surfaces, speed bumps, humps, speed breakers, and pavement distress etc. Typically, a driver of a vehicle must be alerted about road conditions ahead in advance.

Conventionally, driver awareness of road conditions is carried out either by observing the road condition directly or how the other vehicles are responding or travelling on a road, or through conventional sources such as radio traffic reports. However, awareness of a driver is not a feasible method to avoid detrimental road conditions, since driver can forget the presence of a type of road condition. Additionally, the conventional methods sometimes provide inadequate alerts to drivers in relation to any detrimental road conditions.

Further, the conventional methods detect the road conditions at a predetermined radius with respect to a location of the vehicle. Additionally, detecting the road conditions based on linear acceleration data of the vehicle while travelling is a great challenge.

Measurement of one or more parameters related to the road condition is a difficult task. The parameters include, but are not limited to, width, height and breadth of the road condition, time required to pass the road condition, distance at which the road condition is present from the current location of the vehicle and time to reach to road condition. Additionally, updating an accurate value of the parameters associated with a road condition is a challenge.

Hence, there is a need for a method and device to detect the road conditions based on the linear acceleration data of the vehicle and also to update parameters of the road condition accurately in in an efficient way.
SUMMARY
One or more shortcomings of the prior art are overcome and additional advantages are provided through the present disclosure. Additional features and advantages are realized through the techniques of the present disclosure. Other embodiments and aspects of the disclosure are described in detail herein and are considered a part of the claimed disclosure.
Disclosed herein, is a method for detecting a road condition using a navigation device. The method comprises one or more steps performed by the navigation device. The first step of the method comprises receiving a plurality of vibration signals from one or more sensors configured to sense vibration of a vehicle. The second step comprises obtaining a wave pattern based on an acceleration value of the vehicle being evaluated from the plurality of vibration signals. The third step comprises comparing the obtained wave pattern with a threshold wave pattern. The fourth step comprises detecting the road condition when the wave pattern matches the threshold wave pattern. The last step comprises transmitting data related to the detected road condition to a server being associated to the navigation device for storing and alerting other vehicles a presence of the detected road condition. Also, the method performs alerting the presence of the road condition by providing one or more Global Positioning System (GPS) parameters of the vehicle to the server at a regular time intervals. Then, a data related to a road condition ahead is received by the navigation device from the server based on the one or more GPS parameters. The presence of the road condition is alerted by the navigation device upon receiving the data related to the road condition. The method also updates one or more parameters relating to the road condition to the server by receiving, by the navigation device, an alert on the presence of a road condition from the server. Upon alerting, one or more parameters associated with the road condition are evaluated by the navigation device while passing through the road condition. Then, the evaluated one or more parameters are transmitted to the server for updating in the storage unit. The evaluated one or more parameters is compared with the stored one or more parameters associated with the road condition to update thereby increasing the accuracy of the one or more parameters associated with the road condition. The method also updates non-existence of the road condition when the one or more parameters being evaluated by the navigation device do not match with the stored one or more parameters being associated with the road condition.

In an aspect of the present disclosure, a navigation device for detecting road condition for a vehicle. The navigation device comprises a processor and a memory communicatively coupled to the processor. The memory stores processor-executable instructions, which, on execution, cause the processor to receive a plurality of vibration signals from one or more sensors configured to sense vibration of the vehicle. The processor obtains a wave pattern based on an acceleration value of the vehicle being evaluated from the plurality of vibration signals. The processor then compares the obtained wave pattern with a threshold wave pattern. Also, the processor detects the road condition when the wave pattern matches the threshold wave pattern. Further, the processor transmits data related to the detected road condition to a server being associated to the navigation device for storing and alerting other vehicles a presence of the detected road condition. The processor is configured to provide one or more Global Positioning System (GPS) parameters of the vehicle to the server at a regular time intervals. The processor receives a data related to a road condition ahead from the server based on the one or more GPS parameters. The processor alerts the presence of the road condition upon receiving the data related to the road condition. The processor is also configured to receive an alert on the presence of a road condition from the server. The processor then evaluates one or more parameters associated with the road condition while passing the road condition and transmits the evaluated one or more parameters to the server for updating in the storage unit. The evaluated one or more parameters is compared with the stored one or more parameters associated with the road condition to update thereby increasing the accuracy of the one or more parameters associated with the road condition. The processor is configured to update non-existence of the road condition when the one or more parameters being evaluated by the navigation device do not match with the stored one or more parameters being associated with the road condition.

The foregoing summary is illustrative only and is not intended to be in any way limiting. In addition to the illustrative aspects, embodiments, and features described above, further aspects, embodiments, and features will become apparent by reference to the drawings and the following detailed description.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE ACCOMPANYING DRAWINGS
The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and constitute a part of this disclosure, illustrate exemplary embodiments and, together with the description, serve to explain the disclosed principles. In the figures, the left-most digit(s) of a reference number identifies the figure in which the reference number first appears. The same numbers are used throughout the figures to reference like features and components. Some embodiments of system and/or methods in accordance with embodiments of the present subject matter are now described, by way of example only, and with reference to the accompanying figures, in which:

Figure 1 illustrates a block diagram of a navigation device for detecting a road condition in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure;

Figures 2a to 2e illustrate an exemplary wave pattern based on an acceleration value for different kinds of road condition and circumstances in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure;

Figures 3a and 3b illustrate an exemplary comparison of wave pattern of a speed breaker and a pothole with a threshold wave pattern in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure;

Figure 3c shows an exemplary computation to evaluate center points of a bump for increasing the accuracy of parameters associated with the bump in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure;

Figures 3d to 3f show implementation of other methods in alternate to the sinusoidal detection method to detect the road condition in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure;

Figure 4 illustrates a flowchart of method for detecting a road condition using the navigation device in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure;

Figure 5 illustrates a flowchart of method for alerting the presence of the road condition in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure; and

Figure 6 illustrates a flowchart of method for updating one or more parameters in a storage unit of the server to increase the accuracy of the one or more parameters in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure.

It should be appreciated by those skilled in the art that any block diagrams herein represent conceptual views of illustrative systems embodying the principles of the present subject matter. Similarly, it will be appreciated that any flow charts, flow diagrams, state transition diagrams, pseudo code, and the like represent various processes which may be substantially represented in computer readable medium and executed by a computer or processor, whether or not such computer or processor is explicitly shown.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION
In the present document, the word "exemplary" is used herein to mean "serving as an example, instance, or illustration." Any embodiment or implementation of the present subject matter described herein as "exemplary" is not necessarily to be construed as preferred or advantageous over other embodiments.

While the disclosure is susceptible to various modifications and alternative forms, specific embodiment thereof has been shown by way of example in the drawings and will be described in detail below. It should be understood, however that it is not intended to limit the disclosure to the particular forms disclosed, but on the contrary, the disclosure is to cover all modifications, equivalents, and alternative falling within the spirit and the scope of the disclosure.
The terms “comprises”, “comprising”, or any other variations thereof, are intended to cover a non-exclusive inclusion, such that a setup, device or method that comprises a list of components or steps does not include only those components or steps but may include other components or steps not expressly listed or inherent to such setup or device or method. In other words, one or more elements in a system or apparatus proceeded by “comprises… a” does not, without more constraints, preclude the existence of other elements or additional elements in the system or apparatus.
Embodiments of the present disclosure are related to detect a road condition using a navigation device. The road condition which include, but is not limited to, pothole, speed breaker, speed bump, hump, obstacles, objects and pavement distress are detected. The road condition is detected using a sinusoidal detection methodology. The detection of road condition is carried out by receiving vibration signals from vibration sensors which sense the vibrations of a vehicle. Using the vibration signals, a wave pattern based on an acceleration value of the vehicle which is being evaluated from the vibration signals is obtained. The wave pattern is a sine waveform. The obtained wave pattern is compared with a threshold wave pattern which is stored in a memory of the navigation device. The road condition is detected when the wave pattern matches with the threshold wave pattern. A date related to the detected road condition is transmitted to a server being associated to the navigation device for storing and alerting other vehicles a presence of the detected road condition.
In an embodiment, parameters relating to the road condition are computed by the navigation device. The parameters include, but are not limited to, width of the road condition, breadth of the road condition, depth of the road condition, height of the road condition, time required for the vehicle to cross the road condition. The vehicle and other vehicles are alerted on the presence of the road condition. For alerting, the navigation device during the travel of the vehicle provides GPS parameters of the vehicle at regular time intervals to the server. If a road condition is identified around at a certain radius of the GPS location of the vehicle, then a data related to the presence of the road condition at a certain distance is received based on the GPS parameters. Then, the navigation alerts on the presence of the road condition upon receiving the data related to the presence of the road condition.
In an embodiment, the navigation device updates the parameters of the road condition to the server, which may be a cloud server. The navigation device receives an alert on the presence of a road condition from the server. Upon receiving the alert, the parameters associated with the road condition while passing the road condition are evaluated. Thereafter, the parameters are transmitted to the server for updating in the storage unit of the server. The transmitted parameters are compared with the stored parameters associated with the road condition to update thereby increasing the accuracy of the one or more parameters associated with the road condition. When the parameters being evaluated by the navigation device do not match with the stored one or more parameters being associated with the road condition then the non-existence of the road condition is detected and updated to the server.
Figure 1 illustrates a block diagram of the navigation device 100 for detecting a road condition in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure.

The navigation device 100 may be implemented in a variety of forms which includes, but is not limited to, computing systems, such as a laptop computer, a notebook, mobile device such as phone, tablet, etc., dashboard unit of a vehicle, speedometer unit of the vehicle and multi-meter unit of the vehicle. For example, the navigation device 100 is implemented in the form of the dashboard unit of the vehicle. In another example, the navigation device 100 is implemented in a mobile phone or tablet. In an embodiment, the navigation device 100 detects the road condition using a sinusoidal detection methodology which is an application module configured in the navigation device 100. The navigation device 100 configured with the sinusoidal detection application detects the road condition while travelling in the vehicle. In one embodiment, let a mobile phone be configured with a sinusoidal detection application, thereby acting as a navigation device 100, used by a driver or any user while travelling in the vehicle for detecting the road condition. The road condition includes, but is not limited to, pothole, speed breaker, speed bump, hump, obstacles, objects, pavement distress and the like.

In one implementation, the navigation device 100 includes a central processing unit (“CPU” or “processor”) 101, an input/output (I/O) interface 102 and a memory 103. The processor 101 may comprise at least one data processor for executing program components and instructions for detecting road condition. The processor 101 may include specialized processing units such as integrated system (bus) controllers, memory management control units, floating point units, graphics processing units, digital signal processing units, etc. In an embodiment, the processor 101 may be disposed in communication with one or more input modules (not shown in figure 1) via I/O interface 102. The one or more input modules are configured to receive vibration signals via I/O interface 102. In particular, the I/O interface 102 is coupled with the processor 101 through which a plurality of vibration signals are received. The I/O interface 102 may employ communication protocols/methods such as, without limitation, audio, analog, digital, monoaural, RCA, stereo, IEEE-1394, serial bus, universal serial bus (USB), infrared, PS/2, BNC, coaxial, component, composite, digital visual interface (DVI), high-definition multimedia interface (HDMI), RF antennas, S-Video, VGA, IEEE 802.n /b/g/n/x, Bluetooth, cellular (e.g., code-division multiple access (CDMA), high-speed packet access (HSPA+), global system for mobile communications (GSM), long-term evolution (LTE), WiMax, or the like), etc. The processor 101 is enabled to detect the road condition based on the plurality of vibration signals received from the I/O interface 102. In an embodiment, the processor 101 may be disposed in communication with one or more output module (not shown in figure 1) via I/O interface 102. In this way, an output data containing results of detection of road condition is outputted via the I/O interface 102. For example, a presence of the road condition, a nonexistence of the road condition, one or more parameters related to the road condition etc. are outputted via the I/O interface 102.

The memory 103 (e.g., RAM, ROM, etc.) is communicatively coupled to the processor 101. The memory 103 stores processor-executable instructions to detect road condition. The memory 103 may include, but is not limited to, Random Access Memory (RAM), Read Only Memory (ROM), removable disc drives, etc. In an embodiment, the memory 103 stores a threshold wave pattern, one or more parameters related to the road condition and one or more Global Positioning System (GPS) parameters of the vehicle.

In an embodiment, the navigation device 100 comprises data 104 and modules 110. In one implementation, the data 104 may include, for example, vibration signals 105, acceleration values 106, road condition parameters 107, one or more GPS parameters 108, and other data 109.

In an embodiment, the vibration signals 105 are the data received from one or more sensors 117. The one or more sensors 117 include, but are not limited to, accelerometer, at least one gyroscope, piezoelectric and other related vibration sensors. The accelerometer includes, but is not limited to, two axis accelerometer and three axis accelerometer. The at least one gyroscope include, for example, vibrating structure gyroscope. In one implementation, the one or more sensors 117 are configured in the vehicle. In such case, the one or more sensors 117 are communicatively connected to the navigation device 100 through medium. The medium includes, but is not limited to, wired medium for example optical fiber and wireless medium. The one or more sensors 117 sense the vibrations of the vehicle while passing a certain road surface or road condition. In another implementation, the one or more sensors 117 are configured in the navigation device 100. For example, the vibrations of the vehicle are sensed by the mobile phone (which acts as navigation device 100) configured with the one or more sensors 117. In another implementation, the vibrations of the navigation device 100 are sensed by the one or more sensors 117 configured within the navigation device 100. For example, a mobile phone is configured with the one or more sensors 117 to sense the vibrations of the mobile phone while passing a certain road surface or road condition. Upon sensing the vibrations, the plurality of vibration signals are generated by the one or more sensors 117 which are received as one of the data 104 by the navigation device 100.

The processor 101 of the navigation device 100 uses the plurality of vibration signals 105 to evaluate an acceleration value of the vehicle. For example, consider a vehicle travels over a particular road surface or road condition, for example, a speed breaker. During the travel, the linear acceleration value is usually in the form of increasing acceleration, for example, from 0 to 8 for around 10 to 15 consecutive values which is followed by decreasing acceleration, example from 8 to 0 for around 10 to 15 values. Again a decreasing acceleration from 0 to -8 for consecutive 10-15 values followed by increasing acceleration from -8 to 0 is evaluated. The value of acceleration is evaluated which are one of the data 104 referred to as acceleration values 106.

The road condition parameters 107 are the one or more parameters relating to the road condition. The one or more parameters include, but are not limited to, width of the road condition, breadth of the road condition, depth of the road condition, height of the road condition, location of the road condition, latitude/latitude values of the center of the road condition, latitude/longitude values of the leftmost point of the road condition, latitude/longitude values of the rightmost point of the road condition and time required for the vehicle to cross the road condition. In an embodiment, the one more parameters are computed by the navigation device 100 while passing the road condition. In an implementation, the one or more parameters are computed by other sensors (not shown in figure 1) communicatively connected to the navigation device 100. The computed one or more parameters are received as one of the data 104 referred to as road condition parameters 107.

The one or more GPS parameters 108 are the parameters which include, but are not limited to, current location or latitude and longitude position of the vehicle, direction of vehicle travel and velocity of the vehicle. In an embodiment, the one or more GPS parameters 108 are provided as data 104 by a device which includes, but is not limited to, GPS device, a compass, speed sensor, and inertial navigation system.

In one embodiment, the data 104 may be stored in the memory 103 in the form of various data structures. Additionally, the aforementioned data 104 may be organized using data models, such as relational or hierarchical data models. The other data 109 may be used to store data, including temporary data and temporary files, generated by the modules 110 for performing the various functions of the navigation device 100. In an embodiment, the data 104 are processed by modules 110 of the navigation device 100. The modules 110 may be stored within the memory 103.

In one implementation, the modules 110 may include, for example, detection module 111, compute module 112, update module 113, alert module 114 and output module 115. The navigation device 100 may also comprise other modules 116 to perform various miscellaneous functionalities of the navigation device 100. It will be appreciated that such aforementioned modules may be represented as a single module or a combination of different modules.

The detection module 111 performs detection of a road condition using sinusoidal detection algorithm. The plurality of vibration signals 105 are received from the one or more sensors 117 which are configured to sense the vibrations of the vehicle. A wave pattern based on the acceleration value which is being evaluated from the plurality of vibration signal 105 is obtained. In an embodiment, the wave pattern is a sine waveform which is a sinusoid sine waveform obtained based on the evaluated acceleration value. For example, the consecutive values of decreasing and increasing accelerations while passing a speed breaker forms a complete sine waveform. The wave pattern i.e. sine waveform repeats itself for 2 to 3 times based on width of the speed breaker and the time that would take to travel the speed breaker. In an embodiment, the wave pattern is different for different kinds of the road condition. An exemplary wave pattern of the acceleration values for different kinds of the road condition and circumstances is shown in figures 2a to 2e where X axis represents sample values and Y axis represents the linear acceleration values. Figure 2a shows an exemplary sinusoidal sine waveform for a speed breaker. Figure 2b shows an exemplary sinusoidal sine waveform for a pothole. Figure 2c shows an exemplary sinusoidal sine waveform for a flat road in which neither a speed breaker humps nor pothole is present. Figure 2d shows an exemplary sinusoidal sine waveform for a sudden acceleration in vehicle speed. Figure 2e shows an exemplary sinusoidal sine waveform for a sudden brake in vehicle speed.

The detection module 111 compares the obtained wave pattern with the threshold wave pattern stored in the memory 103 of the navigation device 100. The threshold wave pattern is a sine waveform. If the wave pattern matches with a type of threshold wave pattern, then a particular road condition is detected by the navigation device 100. In an example, the intensity values, the longitudinal values and latitudinal values of the wave pattern and threshold wave pattern are compared. For example, if the wave pattern matches with a threshold wave pattern corresponding to speed breaker, then the speed breaker is detected as shown in figure 3a. In another example, if the wave pattern matches with a threshold wave pattern corresponding to a pothole, then the pothole is detected by the detection module 111 as shown in figure 3b.

In an embodiment, the one or more parameters related to the road condition are computed by the compute module 112. For example, for the detected speed breaker, a width parameter of value 12.57380 N in latitude and 770.1124'E in longitude and 120.5801'N in latitude and 770.1149'E in longitude, height parameter of value 120.2134'N in latitude and 770.1036'E in longitude and 120.4598'N in latitude and 770.1002'E in longitude , and time of 30 seconds (s) is required for the vehicle to pass the speed breaker. In an embodiment, a data related to the detected road condition along with the computed one or more parameters related to the road condition are transmitted to a server for storing in the storage unit 120 of the server 119. In an embodiment, the server 119 is a cloud server. The navigation device 100 is connected to the server 119 through a network 118. The network 118 may include, without limitation, a direct interconnection, local area network (LAN), wide area network (WAN), wireless network (e.g., using Wireless Application Protocol), and the Internet. In an embodiment, the detected road condition is assigned with a unique Identification (ID) in the storage unit 120 of the server 119. In an embodiment, the data related to the detected road condition along with the computed one or more parameters related to the road condition are transmitted for alerting other vehicles a presence of the detected road condition.

The table 1 below shows the one or more parameters and the ID of the corresponding road condition, for example speed breaker, stored in the storage unit 120.
Location ID Width Height/depth Time
XYZ from 53058'53''N in latitude and 44012'28''E in longitude IDXYZ01 120.5738'N in latitude, 770.1124'E in longitude and 120.5801'N in latitude, 770.1149'E in longitude 120.2134'N in latitude and 770.1036'E in longitude and 120.4598'N in latitude and 770.1002'E in longitude 30s
GEF from 24066'50''N in latitude and 28078'98''E in longitude IDGEF09 110.6789'N in latitude, 790.5783'E in longitude and 110.6233'N in latitude, 790.5644'E in longitude 110.1678'N in latitude and 790.7465'E in longitude and 110.6534'N in latitude and 790.5443'E in longitude 35s
Table 1
From the above table 1, the road condition, for example, speed breaker is detected at location “XYZ from 5305853''N in latitude and 4401228''E in longitude”. The ID assigned to the detected speed breaker is “IDXYZ01”. The width of the speed breaker computed to be of value “120.5738'N in latitude, 770.1124'E in longitude and 120.5801'N in latitude, 770.1149'E in longitude, and height computed to be120.2134'N in latitude and 770.1036'E in longitude and 120.4598'N in latitude and 770.1002'E in longitude”. The time of 30s is required for the vehicle to pass the speed breaker. Another example, pothole is detected at location “GEF from 2406650''N in latitude and 2807898''E in longitude”. The ID assigned to the detected speed breaker is “IDGEF09”. The width of the speed breaker computed to be of value “110.6789'N in latitude, 790.5783'E in longitude and 110.6233'N in latitude, 790.5644'E in longitude” and height is “110.1678'N in latitude and 790.7465'E in longitude and 110.6534'N in latitude and 790.5443'E in longitude”. The time of 35s is required for the vehicle to pass the speed breaker.
The alert module 113 alerts the presence of a road condition in real-time. The navigation device 100 provides the one or more GPS parameters of the vehicle to the server 119 at regular time intervals to the server 119. The one or more GPS parameters comprise current location, latitude and longitude position of the vehicle, direction of vehicle travel and velocity of the vehicle. For example, the location of the vehicle i.e. “ABC” is the location where the vehicle is travelling. The latitude and direction of vehicle travel may be, for example, 170 to the North. The velocity of the vehicle i.e. the vehicle is travelling with velocity of 40m/s. The server 119 identifies the presence of the road condition based on the one or more GPS parameter. In an embodiment, the road condition is identified based on travel direction of the vehicle, which is identified by taking two time lapsed GPS values of the vehicle. Then, a distance between two GPS values and the road condition is calculated to determine whether the vehicle is moving towards the road condition. This is determined when the distance calculated is reducing. The vehicle is determined to be moving away from the road condition when the distance calculated is increasing. Next, an intersection of the direction of the vehicle with the road condition is determined by taking two consecutive GPS values. Then, an imaginary line between the two consecutive GPS values is created. Later, the leftmost and rightmost points of the road condition are measured to create an imaginary line between the leftmost and rightmost points of the road condition. Then, the intersection of the imaginary line of the two GPS values with the imaginary line of the leftmost and rightmost points checked using standard line intersection algorithm. In this way, the intersection point between the leftmost and rightmost points of the road condition is computed.

One example embodiment of the present disclosure is identifying the road condition. For example, the speed breaker is located at “XYZ” location distant from the location “ABC” for 0.5 miles. The server 119 provides a data associated to the identified road condition ahead along with the corresponding one or more parameters based on the one or more GPS parameters which in turn are received by the navigation device 100. In an embodiment, the data includes, but is not limited to, distance between the road condition and current location of the vehicle and time taken by the vehicle to reach the road condition. For example, the distance of 0.5 miles is the distance between the speed breaker at location “XYZ” and current location “ABC” of the vehicle. The time to be taken by the vehicle to reach the speed breaker at location “XYZ” is 90s.

In an embodiment, the intersection points of the road condition are used to determine the distance between the road condition and vehicle and the time required to reach the road condition. For example, based on the vehicle’s speed and the distance to the road condition, a check is performed periodically if the vehicle is within the vicinity of the road condition. If the vehicle is within the vicinity of the road condition then an alert is provided to slow down speed. The alert module 113 alerts the presence of the road condition along with the corresponding one or more parameters when the vehicle comes in closer to the road condition. For example, the alert module 113 alerts that the speed breaker is at location “XYZ” which is 0.5 miles from the current location “ABC” of the vehicle, the time to be taken by the vehicle to reach the speed breaker at location “XYZ” is 90s, and the width and height of the speed breaker is 0.5m and 1.5m respectively.

In an embodiment, the alert module 113 provides the alert in a form which includes, but is not limited to, visual form and audio form. In one implementation, the alert may be provided to the other vehicle in the vicinity that is using the same navigation device 100 for detecting and alerting the road condition. For example, vehicle 1 passing through the speed breaker may alert the vehicle 2 present behind the vehicle 1 in relation to the presence of the speed breaker. In an embodiment, the

The update module 114 updates one or more parameters relating to the road condition with the server 119. Particularly, the storage unit 120 of the server 119 is updated with a new one or more parameters when the new one or more parameters are accurate than the already stored one or more parameters. The alert module 113 receives an alert on the presence of the road condition form the server 119 based on the one or more GPS parameters. Then, the compute module 112 evaluates one or more parameters associated with the road condition while passing the road condition. The computed one or more parameters are transmitted to the server 119 for updating in the storage unit 120. The evaluated one or more parameters is compared with the stored one or more parameters associated with the road condition to update thereby increasing the accuracy of the one or more parameters associated with the road condition.

In an embodiment, width of the road condition, breadth of the road condition, depth of the road condition, height of the road condition, location of the road condition, latitude/latitude values of the center of the road condition, latitude/longitude values of the leftmost point of the road condition, latitude/longitude values of the rightmost point of the road condition and time of last recorded value are determined. For example, considering in previous computation, the width and height of the speed breaker computed to be of value “1m” and “1.5m”. The time of 30s is required for the vehicle to pass the speed breaker.

In real-time, when the vehicle passes the same speed breaker, the width, of the speed breaker computed to be of value “ 120.4596'N in latitude, 770.1189'E in longitude and 120.4701'N in latitude, 770.1133'E in longitude” and height is “120.2245'N in latitude and 770.1233'E in longitude and 120.3424'N in latitude and 770.1010'E in longitude”. In current cycle, the width, height, breadth etc. of the road condition may change due to continuous stress exerted by the vehicle movements. The time of 18s is required for the vehicle to pass the speed breaker. The new parameters comprising the width and height of the speed breaker of “120.4596'N in latitude, 770.1189'E in longitude and 120.4701'N in latitude, 770.1133'E in longitude”, and “120.2245'N in latitude and 770.1233'E in longitude and 120.3424'N in latitude and 770.1010'E in longitude” and time of 27s are provided to the server 119 for comparison. The new parameters i.e. the width and height of the speed breaker of “120.4596'N in latitude, 770.1189'E in longitude and 120.4701'N in latitude, 770.1133'E in longitude” and “120.2245'N in latitude and 770.1233'E in longitude and 120.3424'N in latitude and 770.1010'E in longitude ” and the time of 27s are compared with the stored parameters i.e. the width and height of the speed breaker of “120.4596'N in latitude, 770.1189'E in longitude and 120.4701'N in latitude, 770.1133'E in longitude ” and “120.2245'N in latitude and 770.1233'E in longitude and 120.3424'N in latitude and 770.1010'E in longitude” and the time of 30s.

The storage unit 120 is updated with new parameters when the new parameters are accurate than the stored parameters of the speed breaker. Hence, the storage unit 120 is updated with parameters i.e. with the width and height of the speed breaker of “120.4596'N in latitude, 770.1189'E in longitude and 120.4701'N in latitude, 770.1133'E in longitude” and “120.2245'N in latitude and 770.1233'E in longitude and 120.3424'N in latitude and 770.1010'E in longitude” and the time of and 27s. Likewise, the storage unit 120 is updated with new parameters when the new parameters are accurate than the stored parameters of the pothole. Hence, the storage unit 120 is updated with parameters i.e. with the width of “120.4596'N in latitude, 770.1189'E in longitude and 120.4701'N in latitude, 770.1133'E in longitude, height of “120.2245'N in latitude and 770.1233'E in longitude and 120.3424'N in latitude and 770.1010'E in longitude” and time of 23s. The entries in the storage unit 120 with new parameters are shown in below table 2.
Location ID Width Height/depth Time
XYZ IDXYZ01 120.4596'N in latitude, 770.1189'E in longitude and 120.4701'N in latitude, 770.1133'E in longitude 120.2245'N in latitude and 770.1233'E in longitude and 120.3424'N in latitude and 770.1010'E in longitude 27s
GEF IDGEF09 110.6263'N in latitude, 790.5478'E in longitude and 110.6111'N in latitude, 790.5773'E in longitude 110.1453'N in latitude and 790.7546'E in longitude and 110.6987'N in latitude and 790.5201'E in longitude 33s
Table 2
In an embodiment, the updating process is continued until accuracy of center point, leftmost point and rightmost point of the road condition along with intensity, latitude and longitude values, time of last recorded value, and time required by the vehicle to pass the road condition is narrowed down. Figure 3c shows an exemplary computation method to narrow down the center points of the bump. In the illustrated figure 3c, P is a latitude/longitude value of the leftmost point of the bump, P2 is a latitude/longitude value of the rightmost point of the bump, and m1 and m2 are the center values of the bump. From the illustrated figure 3c, a mean of the center of the points i.e. m1 and m2 is computed to calculate the new center of the combined accumulated data. Then a mean of the leftmost and the rightmost points are computed to obtain new leftmost and rightmost points. In such way, width of bump is widened for which an accurate way of maintaining the vehicle velocity, and speed is achieved.

In an embodiment, the server 119 updates non-existence of the road condition when the one or more parameters being evaluated by the navigation device 100 do not match with the stored one or more parameters being associated with the road condition. In an embodiment, when no parameters are evaluated by the navigation device 100 then a non-existence of the road condition is determined which is in turn updated to the storage unit 120 of the server 119.

In other embodiments, one or more methodology in alternative to sinusoidal detection method to detect the road condition is implemented. The one or more methodology is threshold detection method, consecutive value difference method, standard deviation method and selection method.

The threshold detection method detects the road condition based on setting up a normalized threshold for linear acceleration. Figure 3d shows an exemplary threshold detection method for detecting road condition based on threshold. For example, the linear acceleration of the navigation device 100 i.e. mobile phone is constantly compared with the normalized threshold values in both directions i.e. positive and negative. If the linear acceleration crosses either of the thresholds then the road condition is determined to be detected.

The consecutive value difference method is based on setting up a normalized threshold for the difference between 2, 3, 4 and 5 consecutive values of linear acceleration as shown in figure 3e. The difference of linear acceleration between consecutive values is measured. The measured difference of linear acceleration is with set threshold. If the value crosses the threshold then the road condition is detected.

The standard deviation method calculates a standard deviation based on normalizing the deviation value on a smooth driving test case. The standard deviation set value is compared with ongoing standard deviation of the vehicle’s linear acceleration over past ‘n’ values. While a vehicle goes through a road condition, for example a bump, the standard deviation shows a sudden difference which detects the road condition as bump. Figure 3f shows an exemplary standard deviation method for detecting road condition.

The selection method is dependent on the above the threshold detection method, the consecutive value difference method, the standard deviation method and the sinusoidal detection method. The threshold detection method, the consecutive value difference method, the standard deviation method and the sinusoidal detection method are assigned with weightage value. Based on the sum of the weightage value, the road condition is detected.

Figures 4, 5 and 6, illustrated the methods 400, 500 and 600 which may be described in the general context of computer executable instructions. Generally, computer executable instructions can include routines, programs, objects, components, data structures, procedures, modules, and functions, which perform particular functions or implement particular abstract data types.

The order in which the methods 400, 500 and 600 are described are not intended to be construed as a limitation, and any number of the described method blocks can be combined in any order to implement the methods 400, 500 and 600. Additionally, individual blocks may be deleted from the methods 400, 500 and 600 without departing from the spirit and scope of the subject matter described herein. Furthermore, the methods 400, 500 and 600 can be implemented in any suitable hardware, software, firmware, or combination thereof.

Figure 4 illustrates a flowchart of method 400 for detecting a road condition using the navigation device 100 in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure.

At block 401, the plurality of vibration signals are received from the one or more sensors 117 which are configured to sense the vibrations of the vehicle while passing a certain road surface or road condition.

At block 402, a wave pattern based on an acceleration value which is being evaluated from the plurality of vibration signals is obtained by the detection module 111.

At block 403, the obtained wave pattern is compared with a threshold wave pattern. In an embodiment, the threshold wave pattern is a sine waveform. If the obtained wave pattern do not match with the at least one threshold wave pattern, then the process goes to block 405 via “NO” to end the process. If the obtained wave pattern matches with at least one threshold wave pattern, then the road condition is detected which at block 405 via “YES”.

At block 405, data related to the detected road condition is transmitted to the server 119 being associated to the navigation device 100 for storing in the storage unit 120 and alerting other vehicles a presence of the detected road condition.

In an embodiment, the compute module 112 computes the one or more parameters relating to the road condition. The computed one or more parameters are stored in the storage unit 120 of the server 119. In an embodiment, the detected road condition is assigned with a unique Identification (ID).

Figure 5 illustrates a flowchart of method 500 for alerting the presence of the road condition along with one or more parameters in the storage unit 120 of the server 119 based on accuracy in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure.

At block 501, one or more GPS parameters of the vehicle are provided to the server 119 at a regular time intervals.

At block 502, data related to the road condition ahead along with the corresponding one or more parameters are received based on the one or more GPS parameters by the alert module 113. The data also comprises distance between the road condition and current location of the vehicle and time taken by the vehicle to reach the road condition

At block 503, the presence of the road condition along with the corresponding one or more parameters is alerted by the alert module 113. In an embodiment, the alert module 113 provides the alert in a form which includes, but is not limited to, visual form and audio form. In one implementation, the alert may be provided to the other vehicle in the vicinity that is using the same navigation device 100 for detecting and alerting the road condition.

Figure 6 illustrates a flowchart of method 600 for updating one or more parameters in the storage unit 120 of the server 119 for increasing the accuracy of the one or more parameters associated with the road condition in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure.

At block 601, the alert module 113 receives an alert on the presence of the road condition from the server 119.

At block 602, the compute module 112 evaluates one or more parameters relating to the road condition in real-time i.e. while the vehicle travels over the road condition.

At block 603, the evaluated one or more parameters are transmitted to the server 119 for updating in the storage unit 120. The evaluated one or more parameters are compared with the stored one or more parameters to update thereby increasing the accuracy of the evaluated one or more parameters over the stored one or more parameters. If the evaluated one or more parameters are not accurate than the stored one or more parameters, then the process goes to block 605 via “NO” to end the process. If the computed one or more parameters are accurate than the stored one or more parameters, then the process goes to block 604 via “Yes” where the storage unit 120 is updated with the one or more parameters by the server 119.

In an embodiment, the server 119 updates a non-existence of the road condition when the one or more parameters being evaluated by the navigation device 100 do not match with the stored one or more parameters being associated with the road condition.

One or more computer-readable storage media may be utilized in implementing embodiments consistent with the present disclosure. A computer-readable storage medium refers to any type of physical memory on which information or data readable by a processor may be stored. Thus, a computer-readable storage medium may store instructions for execution by one or more processors, including instructions for causing the processor(s) to perform steps or stages consistent with the embodiments described herein. The term “computer-readable medium” should be understood to include tangible items and exclude carrier waves and transient signals, i.e., be non-transitory. Examples include random access memory (RAM), read-only memory (ROM), volatile memory, nonvolatile memory, hard drives, CD ROMs, DVDs, flash drives, disks, and any other known physical storage media.

Advantages of the embodiment of the present disclosure are illustrated herein.

Embodiment of the present disclosure implements the sinusoidal detection algorithm to detect the road condition.

Embodiment of the present disclosure provides alerts to the vehicle and other vehicles as well vehicles in the vicinity so that the driver is aware of the presence of the road condition.

Embodiment of the present disclosure updates accurate values of the parameters related to the road condition.

The described operations may be implemented as a method, system or article of manufacture using standard programming and/or engineering techniques to produce software, firmware, hardware, or any combination thereof. The described operations may be implemented as code maintained in a “non-transitory computer readable medium”, where a processor may read and execute the code from the computer readable medium. The processor is at least one of a microprocessor and a processor capable of processing and executing the queries. A non-transitory computer readable medium may comprise media such as magnetic storage medium (e.g., hard disk drives, floppy disks, tape, etc.), optical storage (CD-ROMs, DVDs, optical disks, etc.), volatile and non-volatile memory devices (e.g., EEPROMs, ROMs, PROMs, RAMs, DRAMs, SRAMs, Flash Memory, firmware, programmable logic, etc.), etc. Further, non-transitory computer-readable media comprise all computer-readable media except for a transitory. The code implementing the described operations may further be implemented in hardware logic (e.g., an integrated circuit chip, Programmable Gate Array (PGA), Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), etc.).

Still further, the code implementing the described operations may be implemented in “transmission signals”, where transmission signals may propagate through space or through a transmission media, such as an optical fiber, copper wire, etc. The transmission signals in which the code or logic is encoded may further comprise a wireless signal, satellite transmission, radio waves, infrared signals, Bluetooth, etc. The transmission signals in which the code or logic is encoded is capable of being transmitted by a transmitting station and received by a receiving station, where the code or logic encoded in the transmission signal may be decoded and stored in hardware or a non-transitory computer readable medium at the receiving and transmitting stations or devices. An “article of manufacture” comprises non-transitory computer readable medium, hardware logic, and/or transmission signals in which code may be implemented. A device in which the code implementing the described embodiments of operations is encoded may comprise a computer readable medium or hardware logic. Of course, those skilled in the art will recognize that many modifications may be made to this configuration without departing from the scope of the invention, and that the article of manufacture may comprise suitable information bearing medium known in the art.

The terms "an embodiment", "embodiment", "embodiments", "the embodiment", "the embodiments", "one or more embodiments", "some embodiments", and "one embodiment" mean "one or more (but not all) embodiments of the invention(s)" unless expressly specified otherwise.

The terms "including", "comprising", “having” and variations thereof mean "including but not limited to", unless expressly specified otherwise.

The enumerated listing of items does not imply that any or all of the items are mutually exclusive, unless expressly specified otherwise.

The terms "a", "an" and "the" mean "one or more", unless expressly specified otherwise.

A description of an embodiment with several components in communication with each other does not imply that all such components are required. On the contrary a variety of optional components are described to illustrate the wide variety of possible embodiments of the invention.

When a single device or article is described herein, it will be readily apparent that more than one device/article (whether or not they cooperate) may be used in place of a single device/article. Similarly, where more than one device or article is described herein (whether or not they cooperate), it will be readily apparent that a single device/article may be used in place of the more than one device or article or a different number of devices/articles may be used instead of the shown number of devices or programs. The functionality and/or the features of a device may be alternatively embodied by one or more other devices which are not explicitly described as having such functionality/features. Thus, other embodiments of the invention need not include the device itself.

The illustrated operations of Figures 4, 5 and 6 show certain events occurring in a certain order. In alternative embodiments, certain operations may be performed in a different order, modified or removed. Moreover, steps may be added to the above described logic and still conform to the described embodiments. Further, operations described herein may occur sequentially or certain operations may be processed in parallel. Yet further, operations may be performed by a single processing unit or by distributed processing units.

Finally, the language used in the specification has been principally selected for readability and instructional purposes, and it may not have been selected to delineate or circumscribe the inventive subject matter. It is therefore intended that the scope of the invention be limited not by this detailed description, but rather by any claims that issue on an application based here on. Accordingly, the disclosure of the embodiments of the invention is intended to be illustrative, but not limiting, of the scope of the invention, which is set forth in the following claims.

While various aspects and embodiments have been disclosed herein, other aspects and embodiments will be apparent to those skilled in the art. The various aspects and embodiments disclosed herein are for purposes of illustration and are not intended to be limiting, with the true scope and spirit being indicated by the following claims.

Referral Numerals:
Reference Number Description
100 Navigation Device
101 Processor
102 I/O Interface
103 Memory
104 Data
105 Vibration Signals
106 Acceleration Values
107 Road Condition Parameters
108 Global Positioning System (GPS) parameters
109 Other Data
110 Modules
111 Detection Module
112 Compute Module
113 Alert Module
114 Update Module
115 Output Module
116 Other Modules
117 Sensors
118 Network
119 Server
120 Storage Unit