WO2015168001A1

WO2015168001A1 - Generating targeted reports of real-time information with selective advertisements

Info

Publication number: WO2015168001A1
Application number: PCT/US2015/027754
Authority: WO
Inventors: Frank J. RIZZO; Tim CHAMBERS; Gotce PEEV
Original assignee: Geo Traffic Network Llc
Priority date: 2014-04-30
Filing date: 2015-04-27
Publication date: 2015-11-05

Abstract

Provided is a computer system that includes a display for displaying traffic data to a reporter, a recording device for recording a traffic report voiced by the reporter, an input device for receiving instructions from the reporter, a cloud storage for storing recorded traffic reports, an adapter for receiving traffic data from a plurality of different traffic data sources, and a processor. The processor is configured to receive the traffic data, curate the received traffic data, output the curated traffic data, receive an instruction to turn on the recording device, record a traffic report for a road segment identified by a geocode or an identifier, the traffic report voiced by the reporter and including an analysis of the curated traffic data performed by the reporter for the road segment, and store the traffic report as a traffic report file in the cloud storage for access by a user device.

Description

GENERATING TARGETED REPORTS OF REAL-TIME INFORMATION WITH SELECTIVE

ADVERTISEMENTS

RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims priority to U.S. provisional application No. 61/986,541 entitled "GENERATING TARGETED REPORTS OF REAL-TIME INFORMATION WITH

SELECTIVE ADVERTISEMENTS," filed on April 30, 2014, the contents of such application being incorporated by reference herein.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The examples discussed herein relate to technologies for providing traffic information and, more particularly, for providing targeted traffic reports of real-time information with selective advertisements to users.

BACKGROUND

Traffic information is available to users (e.g., vehicle drivers, travelers, commuters, pedestrians, etc.) from a variety of sources. For example, users may obtain traffic information from radio broadcasts, television broadcasts and/or web sites. Other types of information, such as news, weather, sports, stocks quotes, etc. may be obtained in realtime for a desired location. Traffic information delivery, however, is typically more limited in scope and time period .

Radio broadcasts are typically time dependent (such as every 10 minutes or on the hour) and may be presented only during the AM/PM rush hours (or for emergency incidents). The traffic report is intended for the general audience and may provide limited scope description of the traffic situation (as may be covered in a short broadcast that is typically less than a minute in length). The length of the report may not be enough time to cover typical large markets (such as New York City). In addition, the report may not be relevant to the user's specific location or route. Furthermore, fewer users are listening to broadcast radio. Television broadcasts are similar to radio broadcasts in that they are also time dependent (e.g ., every 20 minutes during a rush hour time period) and provide limited information.

Web sites may also provide traffic reports. Web-generated reports may allow users to find traffic information relevant to their travel plans. However, users do not always have access to these web sites. In addition, when users access web sites with mobile devices (such as smart phones), the information presented by mobile device applications is typically limited (such as to maps and traffic incidents). Furthermore, it may be difficult for the user to access a web-generated report while driving.

SUMMARY

An example provides computer system for generating a traffic report based on curated traffic data. The computer system includes a display for displaying traffic data to a reporter, a recording device for recording a traffic report voiced by the reporter, an input device for receiving instructions from the reporter, a cloud storage for storing recorded traffic reports, an adapter for receiving traffic data from a plurality of different traffic data sources, and a processor. The processor is configured to receive the traffic data from the plurality of different traffic data sources through the adapter, curate the received traffic data, output the curated traffic data to the display, receive an instruction from the reporter through the input device to turn on the recording device, record through the recording device a traffic report for a road segment identified by a geocode or an identifier, the traffic report voiced by the reporter , the traffic report including an analysis of the curated traffic data performed by the reporter for the road segment, and store the traffic report as a traffic report file in the cloud storage for access by a user device via a network connection.

Also included is a user device for retrieving a traffic report based on curated traffic data. The user device includes a display for displaying traffic report selection data to the user, an input device for receiving instructions from the user, an output device for outputting a traffic report to the user, a communication interface for connecting to a cloud network, and a processor. The processor is configured to control the display to display to the user traffic report selection data for road segments, receive a traffic report selection of one or more of the road segments from the user through the input device, control the communication interface to transmit a request including at least one of an identifier for the selected road segment, and a geocode identifying a location of the user device, receive one or more traffic reports stored in the cloud through the communication interface, the one or more traffic reports being associated with the at least one of the selected road segments identified by the identifier, and a road segment located near the location of the user device indicated by the geocode, each of the selected one or more traffic reports including an analysis of the curated traffic data performed by a reporter on a curation computer, and audibly output the one or more selected traffic reports to the user through the output device.

Also included is a method for generating a traffic report based on curated traffic data. The method includes receiving, by a communication interface of a curation computer, traffic data from a plurality of different traffic data sources, curating, by a processor of the curation computer, the received traffic data, outputting, by a display of the curation computer, the curated traffic data, receiving, by an input device of the curation computer, an instruction from a reporter to turn on the recording device, recording, by a recording device of the curation computer, for a road segment identified by an identifier or a geocode, a traffic report voiced by the reporter, the traffic report including an analysis of the curated traffic data performed by the reporter, and storing, by the processor of the curation computer, the traffic report as a traffic report file in a cloud storage for access by user devices via a network connection. The application also includes an article of manufacture including programming to configure one or more computers to perform the method steps described above. The application also includes a system including one or more computers configured to perform the method steps described above.

Additional objects, advantages and novel features of the examples will be set forth in part in the description which follows, and in part will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon examination of the following and the accompanying drawings or may be learned by production or operation of the examples. The objects and advantages of the present subject matter may be realized and attained by means of the methodologies, instrumentalities and combinations particularly pointed out in the appended claims.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The examples may be understood from the following detailed description when read in connection with the accompanying drawings. In the drawings, common numerical references are used to represent like features. Included in the drawings are the following figures :

FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram illustrating an example system for providing targeted traffic reports of real-time information with selective advertisements.

FIG. 2 is a functional block diagram illustrating an example curation system.

FIG. 3 is a functional block diagram illustrating an example targeted report generation system.

FIG. 4 is a flow chart diagram illustrating an example method for publisher approval of recorded advertisements.

FIG. 5 is a flow chart diagram illustrating an example method for advertisement placement in a targeted report.

FIG. 6 is a flow chart diagram illustrating an example method of constructing a personalized report.

FIG. 7 is a flow chart diagram illustrating an example method for generating a targeted report responsive to user input.

FIG. 8 is a functional block diagram illustrating an example targeted report generation system for communication with user equipment.

FIG. 9 is a diagram illustrating example road segments, associated geocodes and associated advertisements.

FIG. 10 is an example targeted traffic report stitched together with advertisements.

FIG. 11 is an example of curated information presented to a reporter by a curation visualizer.

FIG. 12 is an example screenshot of a navigation map overlaid with traffic and route information, which are used to generate a route specific traffic report. j.

FIG. 13 is a simplified functional block diagram of a personal computer or the like that may be configured as a work station or other user terminal device, for example, to function as the reporter terminal, publisher portal and user equipment shown in the system of FIG. 1.

FIG. 14 is a simplified functional block diagram of a computer that may be configured as a host or server, for example, to function as the curation system, targeted report generation system and cloud storage shown in the system of FIG. 1.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

In general, it is desirable to provide accurate and timely reports (e.g., traffic, sports, weather, stock, etc.) in a manner that is useful to the recipient and profitable for the provider. As discussed above, current traffic data presentation in the marketplace is flawed because of its limited scope and time period.

Examples shown in the drawings and discussed herein relate to curation of traffic information from one or more data sources by human interaction. A curation system provides relevant data in front of an analyst (i.e., a reporter) to review. The curation system includes components that curate (i.e., collect, organize and display) traffic information for review by the reporter. The reporter may verbally and/or visually provide a "curated" geo-specific report (i.e., a report segment) that is specific to a predetermined road segment (i.e., part of a route within a market region) based on review of the relevant data. The result may be an audio segment file spoken by the reporter or a file of a video of the reporter. Each report segment may include a geographic code (also referred to herein as a geocode), such that each geocode is associated with a corresponding road segment. Each report segment may also include at least one identifier (e.g. alphanumerical), such that each identifier is associated with a corresponding road segment. Similarly, each user device may generate a geocode indicating the location of the user device. A targeted report generation system may generate a traffic report targeted to the user by combining one or more of the report segments into a single report, based on a current location or area of interest to the user, or based on an identifier(s) received from the user. The report generation system may provide the targeted report in a variety of formats. The report generation system may append advertisements before, during and/or after the report. Example traffic reports may be delivered to various users via a common application programming interface (API) that may be accessed by different media. The traffic reports may be geo-fenced and geo-targeted, and have at least one advertisement automatically stitched to the targeted traffic report (such as at the beginning and at the end of the report) in the same human voice providing a "live read" advertisement. Alternatively, or in addition, advertisements may be presented in other formats such that are displayed on the users mobile phone. For example, a banner advertisement may be delivered to the user's mobile phone using a push notification, email, social media, text messages, etc., and displayed after the user selects a specific traffic report.

The reporter may prepare a report segment responsive to reviewing all of the relevant traffic information displayed by the curation system. Report segments may be generated on a per-route basis. Each route in a market may be determined individually. The route may be further segmented into road segments, so that a targeted report can be prepared and geo-fenced for purposes of advertisement and report delivery (i.e., for personalized traffic reports).

The reporter records each report segment (such as in an mp3 file or a portion of an mp3 File) for each road segment in a route. The report segments may be uploaded from the curation system and stored in cloud storage. The road segment is predetermined and may include one or more predetermined geocodes (such as longitude/latitude points, traffic management channel (TMC) codes, open source codes, LinkID, etc.). Thus, each report segment includes a geocode that corresponds to the road segment. In some examples, each report segment may relate to multiple geocodes associated with different traffic request platforms. Accordingly, a targeted traffic report may be generated using the report segments (with multiple geocodes) regardless of the type of traffic request platform of the user equipment (with associated geocode language) that requests a traffic report. In some examples, the geocode may indicate the location of the road segment and the type of incident(s) identified along the road segment. The road segment may also include an identifier (e.g. alphanumerical) that is unique to each road segment. The road segment can therefore be selected based on at least one of the geocode and the identifier.

In addition to the recorded report segments, the reporter may record one or more advertisements during the reporting shift. Each advertisement may be associated with one of the road segments. For example, a first road segment may have recorded

advertisements related to coffee shops along that road segment. A second road segment may have recorded advertisements related to car insurance. Thus, both advertisements and report segments may be recorded by the same reporter, during the reporting shift.

The API of the targeted report generation system may receive a request for a traffic report from a user. Depending on the delivery platform, the requesting user may be a content distributor (e.g. a radio or television station) or an end use customer (e.g. a person with a mobile device). The system may select and combine one or more report segments for a route (and/or may combine multiple routes for a market region), to form a targeted report for the user. The targeted report may be stitched with, for example, front and back end advertisement bumpers and sent to the user. (For example, see FIG. 10.) The advertisement may include a geo-located advertisement (for example, based on an end user's current or expected location) or broader advertisements (such as an insurance company that is not necessarily geo-located). The request received from the user may include an identifier(s) that identifies a road segments(s) that the user wants included in a traffic report. If the request includes an identifier(s), the curation device is able to generate a targeted (and personalized) traffic report for the user based on the identified road segment(s). The identifier may be a number or an alphanumerical number associated with a specific road segment in the curation system. This allows the user to select a road segment from collection of road segments available through the curation system. For example, the user could predefine a personalized traffic report by selecting a number of road segment(s) which, for example, may define a user's route of travel to work in the morning. This route can be automatically reversed, for example, for the commute home in the evening.

The request received from the user may also include a geocode indicating the location of the user device. If the request includes a geocode, the curation device is able to generate a targeted traffic report with road segments in close proximity to the location indicated in the geocode. For example, the curation device may select road segments having geocodes close to that of the geocode of the user device.

Each report segment may be associated with other advertisement parameters, such as time of day (e.g., to provide advertisements for hot coffee in the morning, cold coffee in the afternoon) and/or with user information (gender, type of vehicle, other user information). The user information may be used to present targeted ads, such as luxury car advertisements to one type of audience and pickup truck advertisements to another type of audience. Each report segment may also be associated with pre-designated advertisements for different media (such as for a digital radio station or for a navigation system) .

Each report segment may be stitched together with other similar segments to form a full road report. For example, a report segment for a first segment of 195 (from the Delaware state line to the Philadelphia Airport) may be stitched together with a report segment for a second segment of 195 (from the airport to Aramingo Ave.), etc. Each full road report may also be stitched together with other road reports to produce a full market report for a particular geographical region (such as for the Philadelphia area). (See FIG. 9.)

Referring to FIG. 9, the road segment "DELAWARE TO 476" covers an area that may include five separate traffic message channel (TMC) codes. All five TMC codes (along with the geocodes for Open OR, LinkID, etc.) may be included in the corresponding report segment. In general, a road segment may include one or more of the same type of geocode. As shown in FIG. 9, advertisements may also be associated with the road segments. In addition, different advertisements may be associated with different types of geocodes. For example DUNKIN DONUTS may be associated with TMC codes, STATE FARM may be associated with Open Source codes, etc. It is noted that a road segment may be a major road (e.g. Interstate 76), secondary road (e.g. route 252), or tertiary road (e.g. Paxon Hallow Rd.). The voiced traffic reports may be generated for the major and secondary roads, and the tertiary roads. However, it may be beneficial to provide automated reports (rather than voiced reports) for the tertiary roads given their vast quantity and the limited number of reporters. For example, traffic data from the curation system could be automatically input to a text to voice converter to produce an automated traffic report that is delivered to the user device as an audio file. The audio file can be a concatenation of phrases (audio segments) that appear to the end user like a voiced report.

Example targeted traffic reports may include, for example, real-time traffic information proximate to a current position of the user requesting the report, traffic information along a predetermined route of the user, a full traffic report for multiple routes in a predetermined market region, an indication of adverse traffic conditions along the predetermined route, an average speed along the predetermined route, any airport delays, etc.

In some examples, targeted traffic reports may be integrated with a map and/or navigation application. In other examples, any changes in traffic conditions may be sent as a notification to the user. For example, an automated Twitter update may be provided. In other examples, targeted traffic reports may be integrated with social networking websites, such as Foursquare, for example, with routes indicated as places.

In some examples, text to speech may be used to cover smaller markets. The targeted traffic report may provide incident level audio reports. In some examples, the targeted traffic report may be integrated with 5-1-1 services.

Referring to FIG. 1, a functional block diagram example of system 100 is shown. System 100 provides targeted traffic reports of real-time information with selective advertisements. Although the present teachings are applicable to processing of video segments to produce reports, further discussion of specific examples will focus on processing of audio segments to produce audio reports. System 100 includes curation system 102 and targeted report generation system 104 (also referred to herein as report system 104) in communication via network 106. The curation system 102 and the targeted report generation system 104 may each be implemented on one or more network connected computer platforms. System 100 also includes cloud storage 132 of various data such as report segments 120, advertisements 122, geographic information 124, product locations 126, registration information 128 for publishers 112 and, optionally, user preference information 130 for users 116. Curation system 102 and report system 104 may store and retrieve data from cloud storage 132 via network 106.

Reporter(s) 108 may operate various computer platforms 110 to access curation system 102. In general, computer platform 110 includes a user interface including display and audio capabilities, such that reporter 108 may review traffic information data, advertisement copies and record information. The recorded information may include traffic report segments (for each road segment) and advertisements. The recorded report segments may be stored in report segment storage 120 of cloud storage 132. The recorded advertisements may be stored in advertisement storage 122 of cloud storage 132.

Publisher(s) 112 may access report system 104 via publisher portal 114. Publishers 112 may include registration information, a record of which may be stored in registration storage 128 of cloud storage 132. The registration information may be used to permit access to report system 104, for example, to provide advertisement copies for curation system 102 and to approve advertisements recorded by reporters 108. In some examples, recorded advertisements approved by publishers 112 may be stitched together with a targeted traffic report. Publisher portal 114 is described further below with respect to FIGS. 3 and 4. Examples of publisher 112 includes, without being limited to Internet Radio (e.g., Kaliki, Tuneln, Stitcher), broadcast radio, news services, etc.

User(s) 116 operate various user equipment 118 to access report system 104. User equipment 118 may include, without being limited to, mobile devices (such as smart phones), mobile-connected cars, web-accessible (smart) televisions, televisions, personal navigation devices or personal computers. The various user equipment 118 may have the appropriate hardware and software to send and receive data over network 106. Although not shown in Fig. 1, user equipment 118 may access network via RF technology (e.g. cellphone communications, Mobile-connected car communications, etc.). Specifically, user equipment 118 may use one or more data networks 106, such as the Internet or a phone system, some of which may include wireless portions.

In some examples, content distributer(s) 119 (e.g. a radio station or a television station) may also send a request for a targeted traffic report to report system 104.

Responsive to the request, content distributer(s) 119 may receive the targeted traffic report and distribute this targeted traffic report to multiple end user customers such as user 116 with user equipment 118 (e.g., a mobile phone).

Curation system 102 provides "curated" and recorded geo-coded report segments

120 (as recorded by reporters 108) that pertain to routes of a predetermined market region. Curation system 102 may collect traffic information for routes in the

predetermined market region. In conjunction with reporter(s) 108, curation system 102 may verify the collected traffic information, organize the traffic information according to road segments and provide recorded geo-coded report segments 120. Curation system 102 also provides recorded advertisements 122 (as recorded by the same reporters 108). Curation system 102 includes any hardware, software, and data suitable for performing these functions and for communicating with various components of system 100 over data network 106. Curation system 102 is described further below with respect to FIG. 2.

Report system 104 provides targeted traffic reports of real-time information with selective advertisements to user equipment 118 of user 116. The targeted traffic reports may be provided responsive to a specific request received from user equipment 118 and/or via a scheduled report request according to user preference information 130 associated with user 116. In other examples, report system 104 may provide targeted traffic reports to content distributer(s) 119 (e.g., a radio or television station). Content distributer(s) 119 may provide the targeted traffic reports to end use customers (such as user(s) 116), for example, via a radio or television broadcast.

As shown in FIG. 10, in one example, the targeted traffic report may include a traffic report (audio file #2 as recorded by a specific reporter 108) and one or more advertisements (such as audio file #1 and audio file #3). The advertisements (audio files # 1 and 3) are also recorded by the same reporter 108 and selected from the stored advertisements 122. The recorded traffic report may include one or more report segments selected from report segment storage 120. A plurality of report segments may be stitched together to form audio file #2. Thus, the traffic report may represent, for example, a traffic report of a single route, a traffic report of multiple routes or a traffic report for an entire predetermined market region. Report system 104 includes any hardware, software, and data suitable for performing these functions and for communicating with various components of system 100 over data network 106. Report system 104 is described further below with respect to FIG. 3.

Report system 104 may provide a software application program that may be accessible by different platforms (such as radio/internet radio, television, web sites, on demand audio, on demand video, maps, social media, other applications, etc.) The software application program may provide the targeted traffic reports in a suitable format for different platforms. In some examples, a porta! used to access API interface 302 (such as by publisher(s) 112, content distributer(s) 119 and/or user(s) 116) may include a server application). In some examples, user equipment 118 (such as a mobile device) may include a client application. In other examples, user equipment 118 (such as a personal computer) and/or the portal used to access API interface 302 may include a browser to download content from report system 104.

Geographic information storage 124 may store geographic information including map data for the predetermined market region. The map data may include data that represents routes in the market region as well as other landmarks and/or geographic features in the market region. Product locations information storage 126 may store information including data that indicates a geographic location of products associated with advertisements 122. In one example, the product locations information 126 may be used with geographic information 124 to select advertisements 122 that advertise products along a travel route of user 116 (such as for a gas station).

User preference information storage 130 may store user preferences for when to receive targeted traffic reports, routes of interest for the traffic reports, and where to send the targeted traffic reports. A user's preference information is obtained by report system 104 and stored in user preference storage 130 of cloud storage 132. For example, user 116 may want to receive targeted traffic reports at a specific time of day and/or day of week. As another example, user 116 may indicate a phone number or email address of user equipment 118 for sending the targeted traffic report.

In operation, curation system 102 receives traffic information from a number of sources, such as social media (e.g., Twitter Facebook), raw traffic data (e.g., TrafficCaster, TCI), application data (e.g., mobile application data, internal application data, external application data) and data from live cameras. Reporter 108 reviews the traffic information and records curated geocoded report segments 120 for respective road segments in the predetermined marketing region. Report segments 120 are stored in cloud storage 132. Report generation system 104 receives a request for a traffic report, selects report segments 120 for inclusion in the targeted report based on the request. For example, the report may include information of traffic proximate a current location of user 116, information of traffic along a specified route of user 116, all roads in the market region, major roads in the market region, incidents at predetermined locations, all incidents in the region, specific types of incidents, incidents according to different levels of severity, etc. Report system 104 may also stitch one or more advertisements 122 (stored in cloud storage 132) to the targeted report (as shown in FIG. 10). The targeted report, with selected advertisements 122 is provided to user equipment 118 of user 116.

Referring to FIG. 2, example curation system 102 is shown. Curation system 102 includes adapter 202 for receiving traffic information 200, curation processor 204 for curating information 200, predictive modeling engine 206 to predict traffic conditions based on information 200 and curation visualizer 208 for providing curated information to reporter 108. Curation system 102 also includes report dashboard 210 and optimization pipeline 216. Curation system 102 may optionally include one or more of voice to text processor 218, language translator 220, market vernacular and copy builder 222 and road condition monitor and alert processor 224.

Reporter 108 may review the curated information (as curated by curation processor 204 and predictive modeling engine 206) via curation visualizer 208 and may turn ON a recording mechanism to record a report segment for each road segment (recorded via a suitable recording mechanism such as transducer and/or a camera) based on review of the curated information by reporter 108. Reporter 108 may then provide the recorded report segments to report dashboard 210 (e.g., upload recorded audio and/or video files, such as MP3 files, to report dashboard 210). Report dashboard 210 may separate the recorded report segments into artifact binaries 212 (i.e., the recorded report segment) and artifact metadata 214. Metadata 214 may include a date and/or time stamp of when the report segment was recorded, reporter information, an incident severity indication, the associated road segment geocode, associated road segment identifier, etc. Metadata 214 may be used to identify an appropriate targeted report among artifact binaries 212 and appropriate recorded advertisements 122 (such as advertisements associated with the same reporter 108 who recorded the report segments).

Adapter 202 may be configured to receive traffic information 200 from different sources in different formats and to convert the information into a common format readable by curation processor 204 and predictive modeling engine 206. Traffic information 200 may include any suitable source of information indicating traffic conditions in a

predetermined market region. For example, information may be received from data point providers, public sources such as state-run 5-1-1 programs (including camera views, speed flows and variations), social media (from consumers, government, quasi- govemment sources (e.g., turnpike commissions, public utilities)), emergency

management services (EMS), fire scanners, police scanners, news radio, television, etc.

Curation processor 204 receives the formatted traffic information (from adapter 202) and generates curated information for reporter 108 to review including an indication of any incidents. The report may include a level of accuracy for an incident and/or a confidence level for the incident. Curation processor 204 may provide an indication depending on the severity of the problem and whether reporter 108 is already aware of the incident.

Predictive modeling engine 206 may also receive the formatted traffic information (from adapter 202) and predict the traffic conditions, such as based on previous traffic conditions, the time of day, the day of the week, whether the day is a holiday, etc. For example, if it is the 4^th of July and it falls on a Saturday as opposed to the prior year which fell on a Friday, predictive modeling engine 206 may indicate that last year at this time there was a significant traffic increase at a particular hour. The expected traffic increase may be provided to curation processor 204. Curation processor 204 may use the information provided by predictive modeling engine 206 to aid in the analysis of traffic information 200. Predictive modeling engine 206 may include one or more machine learning processing algorithms to predict the traffic conditions.

Curation visualizer 208 provides the curated information to reporter 108. Reporter 108 may view traffic information 200, the curated information from curation processor 204 and predicted traffic conditions from predictive modeling engine 206, to determine the current traffic conditions and identify any change in traffic conditions (with respect to specific road segments). For example, curation processor 204 may indicate a false alarm for a traffic incident. Reporter 108 may identify this as a false alarm and not report the incident. FIG. 11 illustrates an example of curated information that may be presented to reporter 108 by curation visualizer 208.

Report dashboard 210 may include an upload interface for uploading a recorded report segment (such as an MP3 file) recorded by reporter 108. The recorded report segment may be uploaded as an artifact binary 212. When reporter 108 creates a report segment and uploads it into cloud storage 132, the report segment is separated into the binary digital format (artifact binary 212) of the spoken words and artifact metadata 214 associated with the report segment (who created it, when was it created, why was it created, the severity of the road segment, etc.) .

Optimization pipeline 216 may generate different versions (e.g., different styles, formats and/or fidelities) of the recorded report segment, and store the different versions in artifact binaries 212. For example, different fidelities of the report segment may be generated so that a report may be provided to a broadcast station for high fidelity delivery and the same report may be provided to a device (that is experiencing low bandwidth or poor signal strength) .

Optional voice to text processor 218 may convert the recorded artifact binaries 212 to text. Optional language translator 220 may convert the text (from voice to text processor 218) to a different language (for example, from English to Spanish), to form multi-lingual reporter 221. The artifact binaries 212, converted text and/or the translated text may be stored to cloud storage 132 (FIG. 1).

Optional market vernacular and copy builder 222 may include copy examples and market vernacular associated with the predetermined market region. For example, routes may have local designations (e.g., the "Blue Route") for Interstate 1-476 in Pennsylvania. The market vernacular and copy vernacular may aid reporter 108 in delivering the report segment as a native of the market region. Element 222 may be used to train reporters 108 on new markets. Element 222 may also include copy examples to provide new reporters 108 with a guide for delivering traffic reports.

Optional road condition monitor 224 may monitor incidents identified by curation processor 204 and the time to issue a new report segment by reporter 108, to determine whether there are any issues with reporter 108 and/or with the accuracy of the report segments. Thus, monitor 224 may determine that a predetermined time has lapsed between when a new report segment is recorded and an incident is identified, and may store a flag responsive to the determination. Monitor 224, thus, may monitor traffic conditions and the frequency of the report segments. A flag may indicate to the reporter's manager (and the reporter) that another report segment should be generated to maintain the accuracy of the traffic report. It is understood that, if curation processor 204 produces a false alarm, an indication of the false alarm condition may be sent to monitor 224, so as not to trigger the flag .

Reporter 108 may also receive advertisement (ad) copies 226 and generated recorded advertisements 122 for the received ad copies 226. For example, a reading of ad copies 226 by reporter 108 may be recorded (e.g ., via a suitable recording mechanism such as transducer and/or a camera) . The recorded advertisements 122 may also be provided to report dashboard 210 (e.g ., by uploading recorded audio and/or video files, such as MP3 files, to report dashboard 210) . The recorded advertisements 122 may also be stored as artifact binaries 212 (as well as provided in different formats, styles and/or fidelities by optimization pipeline 216) . Metadata of recorded advertisements 122 (such as a date and/or time stamp of when the advertisement was recorded, reporter information, an associated road segment geocode, associated road segment identifier etc.) may also be stored as artifact metadata 214.

Referring to FIG. 3, example report system 104 is shown. Report system 104 includes API interface 302 for receiving requests (e.g ., from publishers 112 and users 116), request processor 304 for validating publisher requests, advertisement

determination engine 306 (referred to herein as ad engine 306), bid engine 308, multiplexer (MUX) processor 310 and optimization pipeline 312. Ad engine 306 and bid engi ne 308 determine which advertisements from stored advertisements 122 to include in the targeted report. Ad engine 306 also identifies which report segments 120 to select based on information in the request and artifact metadata 214. MUX processor 310 selects the identified report segments 120 (among artifact binaries 212) and stitches the selected report segments with the selected advertisements to form the targeted traffic report.

Optimization pipeline 312 may prepare a version of the targeted traffic report (e.g ., style, format and/or fidelity) suitable for presentation to user equipment 118 (FIG. 1) .

In general, input 314 may represent input from publishers 112 (via publisher portal 114) or input from users 116 (via user equipment 118) . The input may include a request for a traffic report by user 116. The traffic report request may include at least one of a current position of user 116, user information, additional information about routes to be included in the report, etc. The input from publisher(s) 112 may include a request for access to report system 104 (for example, for injecting advertisement copies,

reviewing/approving recorded advertisements, downloading reports/advertisements).

An access request from publishers 112 may include an authentication key, if the publisher 112 has previously registered with system 100. If the access request includes an authentication key, request processor 304 validates the authentication key. Request processor 304 may compare the authentication key to information stored in registration 128 (FIG. 1 ), to permit or deny access by publisher 112. If publisher 112 is not registered with system 100, report system 104 may direct publisher to registration process 316. Registration process 316 may establish a

relationship between system 100 and publisher 112. Registration process 316 allows publisher 112 to provide information for registration with system 100, which is then stored in registration 128 (such as in cloud storage 132). Registration process 316 provides an authentication key and an end point to publisher 112, for access report system 104. The authentication key may be uniquely associated with a respective publisher 112. Each publisher 112 may be provided with a different endpoint. By using different endpoints (and different authentication keys), report system 104 may monitor and measure how many advertisement each publisher 112 pulls (e.g., how many per day, how often they are being pulled, etc.) In some examples, registration process 316 provides a unique uniform resource locator (URL) specific to publisher 112 for access to report system 104.

Ad engine 306 receives a traffic report request from user 116 (FIG. 1). The traffic report request may include at least one of, for example, the type of user equipment 118, whether user 116 is moving, a current position of user 116 or user preferences (via user preference information 130 in cloud storage 132). For example, user 116 may run Pandora while they are driving in a car (i.e., an example of user equipment 118). Pandora may identify that user 116 is driving down a roadway, and may provide this information to ad engine 306 (via API interface 302). Ad determination engine 306 may use the information in the request and determine which report segments 120 to include so that the targeted traffic report is specific to their direction of travel, their roadway and is embedded with one or more selected advertisements 122. For example, the current position of user 116, any direction of travel, the current roadway on which user 116 is traveling, stored user preferences 130, etc. may be compared with the geocodes or identifiers of report segments 120 (stored in artifact metadata 214) to select report segments associated with road segments that may be of interest to user 116.

Advertisements 122 may be selected based on one or more parameters such as, without being limited to, user information (e.g., gender, age, type of user equipment 118, etc.), stored user preferences 130, a current position of user 116, an identified roadway on which user 116 is traveling, which establishments the user 116 is expected to pass along his direction of travel on the roadway, the time of day, the day of the week, any publishers 112 associated with the roadway, etc. In addition, there may be multiple different publishers 112 (of similar products or different products) associated with the same roadway, time of day, etc. Bid engine 308 may be used to select an advertisement 122 based on parameters associated with user 116, user equipment 118, roadways, direction of travel, expected direction of travel, publishers 112, products along the direction of travel, etc., for an appropriate advertisement 122. Bid engine 308 may also compare expected publisher payment for different advertisements 122 in order to select an appropriate advertisement.

Artifact metadata 214 may be used to identify appropriate report segments 120 (based on the corresponding geocodes or corresponding identifier) and appropriate advertisements 122. Artifact metadata 214 may include the name of each reporter 108 for recorded report segments 120 and advertisements 122. In some examples,

advertisements 122 are selected such that both the report segment(s) 120 and

advertisement(s) 122 are presented by the same reporter 108.

MUX processor 310 receives an identification of the report segments 120 and an identification of the advertisements 122 to include in the targeted report. MUX processor 310 retrieves the identified report segment(s) 120 and identified advertisement(s) 122 (from artifact binaries via cloud storage 132) and stiches the selected report segment(s) 120 and the selected advertisement(s) 122 to form the targeted traffic report. As discussed above, advertisement(s) 122 may be placed at the start of the report, at the end of the report and/or at any other position within the report.

Optimization pipeline 312 may generate different qualities, formats, styles and/or fidelities of the targeted traffic report for various user equipment 118 capabilities and/or transmission/reception capabilities within network 106 (FIG. 1). For example, processor 310 may determine that user 116 is driving down a roadway and reaches a location with poor reception. Processor 310 may then switch the targeted traffic report to a lower fidelity that is already generated by optimization pipeline 312, or trigger optimization pipeline 312 to generate a traffic report with a scenario specific format when a poor reception location is identified. Similarly, processor 310 may switch to a higher fidelity report when the reception improves.

When the targeted traffic report is generated, the report is streamed to a file or to an endpoint (element 318), at which point it may be subsequently delivered to user equipment 118. Referring next to FIG. 4, a flow chart diagram is shown of an example method for publisher approval of recorded advertisements. The method may be performed via interaction between publisher(s) 112 and publisher portal 114 (FIG. 1). Publisher portal 114 may, in turn, interact with report system 104 for access to report system 104 and advertisements 122 stored in cloud storage 132. Publisher 112 may first perform registration process 316 (step 400), if publisher 112 has not previously registered with system 100. Once publisher 112 is verified as being registered and is authenticated (such as via request processor 304 (FIG. 3), step 400 may proceed to step 402, and publisher 112 may access report system 104.

At step 402, publisher 112 may review advertisement copies and upload advertisement copies (which may be stored in cloud storage 132). Publisher 112 may also provide feedback and/or refine advertisement copies. At step 404, reporter(s) 108 may record one or more advertisements (as described in FIG. 2). The advertisement copies recorded in step 404 may copies refined by publisher 112 in step 402. At step 406, publisher 112 may also review recorded advertisements 122 and approve recorded advertisements for advertisement placement or reject recorded advertisements 122. At step 408, approved advertisements may be stored in cloud storage 132 for use in targeted traffic reports. Step 406 may proceed to step 402 when a recorded advertisement 122 is rejected. In some examples, rejected advertisements may be removed from cloud storage 132. In some examples, publishers 112 may also select particular reporters 108 for specific advertisement copies.

Referring next to FIG. 5, a flow chart diagram is shown of an example method for advertisement placement in a targeted report. The method may be performed, for example, by ad engine 306 and bid engine 308 (FIG. 3) of report system 104. At step 504, ad engine 306 may receive a report request 502 from user 116 and may submit the request (including any parameters associated with user 116, user equipment 118, roadways, direction of travel, expected direction of travel, publishers 112, products along the direction of travel, etc.) to bid engine 308. At steps 506, bid engine 308 may select an appropriate advertisement based on the available stored advertisements 122 and the parameters in the request. At step 508, the selected advertisement may be indicated for inclusion in the targeted report.

In some examples, there may be one advertisement associated with a roadway. In other examples, bid engine 308, at step 506, may select among multiple advertisements for a roadway. In some examples, bid engine 308 may identify a cost for an advertisement injection and/or how frequently a particular advertisement of publisher 112 is expected to occur over a predetermined time period. In some examples, bid engine 308 may select between multiple publishers 112 competing for the same advertisement space. In some examples, advertisements that are selected may be different for a user 116 that is stationary at home than for a user 116 that is travelling along a roadway. In some examples, the user's information may be used by bid engine 308 to select an

advertisement 122. For example, user 116 may indicate a preference for a particular coffee shop. Based on this information, bid engine 308 may select advertisements 122 related to the coffee shop for placement in the targeted traffic report. In other examples, the advertisements that are selected are for products that user 116 is expected to pass along their direction of travel along the roadway. For example, if a particular coffee shop is located along a first direction of travel, but not a second direction of travel, an

advertisement for the coffee shop may be included along the first direction of travel, but not along the second direction of travel.

Referring next to FIG. 6, a flow chart diagram is shown of an example method of constructing a personalized report for user 116. At step 602, a list of roadways may be provided to user 116 via a suitable user interface of user equipment 118. For example, report system 104 may communicate with user equipment 118 to capture user preference information 130, such as roadways for inclusion in a personalized report. In some examples, the user interface may include a user dashboard 706 (described further below with respect to FIG. 7). At step 604, report system 104 may receive a selection of one or more roadways from user equipment 118 of user 116 for the personalized report. At step 606, the selected roadway(s) are stored in cloud storage 132, such as user preference information 130.

In some examples, report system 104 may receive an indication, in step 604, of desired origin and destination addresses selected by user 116 (via the user interface). Report system 104 may select roadway(s) based on the origin/destination addresses and present the selected roadways to user 116 (such as in step 602). Report system 104 may receive a confirmation or further selection of roadways from user 116 in step 604. Steps 602-604 may be repeated until desired roadway(s) are selected by user 116.

Referring next to FIG. 7, a flow chart diagram is shown of an example method for generating a targeted report responsive to a user request. Although FIG. 7 illustrates a method for targeted report generation responsive to a user request, a similar method for targeted report generation may be provided responsive to a request by content distributer(s) 119. User equipment 118 may include user dashboard 706 for accessing and registering with report system 104 (FIG. 1). At step 704, user 116 may provide one or more user preferences 130 to report system 104, for example, via user dashboard 706, that may be stored in cloud storage 132. User dashboard 706 may link to API interface 302 of report system 104 (FIG. 3). User preferences may include roadway personalization information, such as for particular roadways that are traveled by user 116 (e.g. on a daily basis, at different times of the day, on particular days, etc.).

At step 702, MUX processor 310 may also receive road update alert 704 (e.g., from cloud storage 132). At, step 702, the targeted traffic report stitched together by MUX processor 310 may be selected (by ad engine 306) to include roadway personalization information. For example, if there are three roadways that are regularly traveled by user 116 during the week, the targeted traffic report may include those three identified roadways without including all of the roadways (for example, fifteen) for a predetermined market region. At step 708, the targeted traffic report may be optimized via optimization pipeline 312, as described above. At step 710, the report is streamed to a file or to an endpoint, at which point it may be subsequently delivered to user equipment 118.

In one example, the targeted traffic report may provide a market region overview that includes a compilation of all routes in the market region, with more significant issues indicated at the beginning of the report. User(s) 116 may use roadway personalization to select roadways of interest. In some examples, user dashboard 706 may include an interface where widgets may be displayed on a map. User 116 may manipulate the widgets to identify roadways of interest and/or areas of interest within a market region. In some examples, the identified personalized roadways may be provided as a widget in an application (such as a mobile application) . The user 116 may select the widget to listen to the targeted traffic report (based on the personalized roadway information). In some examples, the application may provide alerts to user 116 (either automatically or responsive to a request from user 116) if the road conditions change over the personalized roadway over a predetermined time period. For example, the application may provide road update alert 704 to user 116 if the road conditions change over the next two hours.

Referring to FIG. 8, example targeted report generation system 104' is shown. Report system 104' is similar to report system 104 (FIG. 3), except that report system 104' includes interface 802 for communication with user equipment 118. Although not shown, report system 104' may also include bid engine 308 (FIG. 3) and/or optimization pipeline 312. FIG. 8 also illustrates several non-limiting examples of user equipment 118.

User equipment 118 may communicate directly with report system 104' via interface 802. In this manner, user equipment 118 may request a targeted report by communication to ad engine 306. Ad determination engine 306 may use the information in the request and determine which report segments 120 and which advertisements 122 to select. MUX processor 310 receives an identification of the report segments 120 and an identification of the advertisements 122 to include in the targeted report. MUX processor 310 retrieves the identified report segment(s) 120 and identified advertisement(s) 122 (from artifact binaries 212 via cloud storage 132) and stiches the selected report segment(s) 120 and the selected advertisement(s) 122 together to form a combined targeted traffic report 804. Targeted report 804 is streamed to a file or to an endpoint (element 806), at which point it may be subsequently delivered to user equipment 118 via interface 802.

Interface 802 may include any suitable interface for communication with user equipment 118. In some examples, interface 802 may include API interface 302 (FIG. 3). Example curation systems 102 provide a complete conversion from raw data with an accuracy rate of between about 80% to about 99%. There may be time delays associated with data dissemination and the reliance of the initial data point providers as to a primarily data output. A human curation element (i.e., reporter(s) 108) may intelligently augment the curation process. Curation system 102 includes predictive elements (such as predictive modeling engine 206), as well as indications of changes to road conditions as they occur in real time (such as via curation processor 204), to provide reporter 108 with tools to timely determine the accuracy of all information, and provide detailed and up to date traffic reports. As the reports are performed for predetermined segmented roads, the system enables the reporter to input report segments (based on the specific road segment).

Curation processor 204 and predictive modeling engine 206 may provide reporter 108 with an indication of the road conditions currently occurring (in and around the road segment), as well as conditions expected to occur (based in part upon historical data).

This information may aid reporter 108 in estimating traffic conditions. The report segment 120 for a road segment may include a number of different possible geolocation points (i.e., geocodes) associated with different types of geographical information systems and other information delivery systems. Examples of geocodes include longitude/latitude points and TMC codes. Thus, the report segments 120 may be retrieved via API 302 by any suitable geo location code, which may make the report segments geo encoding agnostic.

Targeted report generation system 104 may geo-fence the targeted traffic report based on the road segmentations. Advertisement(s) 122 may be geo-targeted to user 116 by stitching one or more selected advertisement to a (geo-fenced) traffic report that provides real-time traffic information to user 116. The advertisements 122 are recorded by the same reporter 108 who records the report segments 120 (for example, during the reporter's shift). The recorded advertisements 122 may also be geo-tagged and may be included with the targeted report (such as with a specific report segment 120 for a hyper- local advertisement). Because all of the report segments 120 may be stored (such as in cloud storage 132) and made available (such as via API interface 302), the same report segment 120 may be provided to any type of user equipment 118. For example, a targeted traffic report provided to a mobile phone user may be the same report provided to a navigation system that is calling the same API interface 302. Report system 104 may place different advertisements on the same targeted report (i.e., stitch different advertisements 122 to one or more selected report segments 120) and provide the resulting advertisement-attached reports to different end users (for example, as determined by publisher 112) . For example, a first publisher may purchase

advertisements to be presented on mobile devices and a second publisher may purchase advertisements to be presented on in-car dashboard report systems.

Targeted traffic reports may be provided to user(s) 116 via many different formats. In one example, the traffic report may include video and/or audio, and may be presented via a television station broadcast and/or a radio station broadcast. In one example, the traffic report may include video and audio, and may be presented via a website. In one example, the traffic report may include audio and may be presented via an application on user equipment 118 (such as a mobile device). In one example, the traffic report may include audio and may be presented as an application on an Internet connected

automobile dashboard. In one example, the traffic report may include bilingual audio (such as provided by multi-lingual reporter 221 in FIG. 2), and may be integrated with 5- 1-1 services.

In one example, the traffic report may include audio and may be overlaid on a navigation map. For example, FIG. 12 is an example screenshot of navigation map 1200 overlaid with targeted traffic reports 1206 for a selected route 1202. As shown in FIG. 12, route 1202 includes first and second road segments 1202-1, 1202-2, having

corresponding targeted traffic reports 1206-1, 1206-2. Route 1202 also visually indicates congestion, such as illustrated within road segment 1202-2.

As shown by the above discussion, functions relating to the system devices in Fig. 1 may be implemented on computers connected for data communication via the components of a packet data network, operating as a personal computer and/or as a server device. Although special purpose devices may be used, such devices also may be implemented using one or more hardware platforms intended to represent a general class of user's data processing device commonly used to run "client" programming and/or a general class of data processing device commonly used to run "server" programming. The user device may correspond to the reporter device 108, publisher portal 114 or user equipment 116, whereas the server computer may be configured to implement the functions of the curation system 102, targeted report generation system 104 or cloud storage 132 as discussed above.

As known in the data processing and communications arts, a general-purpose computing device, computer or computer system typically comprises a central processor or other processing device, internal data connection(s), various types of memory or storage media (RAM, ROM, EEPROM, cache memory, disk drives etc.) for code and data storage, and one or more network interfaces for communication purposes. The software

functionalities involve programming, including executable code as well as associated stored data, e.g. files used for the report curation and generation service/function(s) . The software code is executable by the general-purpose computer that functions as the curation system, targeted report generation system and cloud storage system, and/or that functions as a reporter, publisher and user terminal device. In operation, the code is stored within the general-purpose computer platform. At other times, however, the software may be stored at other locations and/or transported for loading into the appropriate general-purpose computer system. Execution of such code by a processor of the computer platform enables the platform to implement the methodology for requesting a report, curating data and generating a report, in essentially the manner performed in the implementations discussed and illustrated herein. Although those skilled in the art likely are familiar with the structure, programming and general operation of such computer systems, it may be helpful to consider some high-level examples. FIGS. 13 and 14 provide functional block diagram illustrations of general purpose computer hardware platforms. FIG. 13 depicts a computer with user interface elements, as may be used to implement a client computer (e.g. user equipment 116) or other type of work station or terminal device (e.g. reporter computer 110), although the computer of FIG. 14 may also act as a host or server if appropriately programmed. FIG. 14 illustrates a network or host computer platform, as may typically be used to implement a server (e.g. curation system 102).

With reference to FIG. 13, a user device type computer system 1151, which may serve as the reporter terminal 108, publisher portal 112 and user equipment 116, includes processor circuitry forming a central processing unit (CPU) 1152. The circuitry

implementing the CPU 1152 may be based on any processor or microprocessor

architecture such as a Reduced instruction set computing (RISC) using an ARM

architecture, as commonly used today in mobile devices and other portable electronic devices, or a microprocessor architecture more commonly used in computers such as an instruction set architecture (ISA) or Complex instruction set computing (CISC)

architecture. The CPU 1152 may use any other suitable architecture. Any such architecture may use one or more processing cores. The CPU 1152 may contain a single

processor/microprocessor, or it may contain a number of microprocessors for configuring the computer system 1152 as a multi-processor system.

The computer system 1151 also includes a main memory 1153 that stores at least portions of instructions for execution by and data for processing by the CPU 1152. The main memory 1153 may include one or more of several different types of storage devices, such as read only memory (ROM), random access memory (RAM), cache and possibly an image memory (e.g. to enhance image/video processing). Although not separately shown, the memory 1153 may include or be formed of other types of known memory/storage devices, such as PROM (programmable read only memory), EPROM (erasable

programmable read only memory), FLASH-EPROM, or the like.

The system 1151 also includes one or more mass storage devices 1154. Although a storage device 1154 could be implemented using any of the known types of disk drive or even tape drive, the trend is to utilize semiconductor memory technologies, particularly for portable or handheld system form factors. As noted, the main memory 1153 stores at least portions of instructions for execution and data for processing by the CPU 1152. The mass storage device 1154 provides longer term non-volatile storage for larger volumes of program instructions and data. For a personal computer, or other similar device example, the mass storage device 1154 may store the operating system and application software as well as content data, e.g. for uploading to main memory and execution or processing by the CPU 1152. Examples of content data include messages and documents, and various multimedia content files (e.g. images, audio, video, text, binary, traffic reports, traffic data, and combinations thereof) . Instructions and data can also be moved from the CPU 1152 and/or memory 1153 for storage in device 1154.

The processor/CPU 1152 is coupled to have access to the various instructions and data contained in the main memory 1153 and mass storage device 1154. Although other interconnection arrangements may be used, the example utilizes an interconnect bus 1155. The interconnect bus 1155 also provides internal communications with other elements of the computer system 1151.

The system 1151 also includes one or more input/output interfaces for

communications, shown by way of example as several interfaces 1159 for data

communications via a network 1158. The network 1158 may be or communicate with the network 106 of FIG. 1. Although narrowband modems are also available, increasingly each communication interface 1159 provides a broadband data communication capability over wired, fiber or wireless link. Examples include wireless (e.g. WiFi) and cable connection Ethernet cards (wired or fiber optic), mobile broadband 'aircards,' and Bluetooth access devices. Infrared and visual light type wireless communications are also contemplated.

Outside the system 1151, the interface provide communications over corresponding types of links to the network 1158. In the example, within the system 1151, the interfaces communicate data to and from other elements of the system via the interconnect bus 1155.

For operation as a user terminal device, the computer system 1151 further includes appropriate input/output devices and interface elements. The example offers visual and audible inputs and outputs, as well as other types of inputs. Although not shown, the system may also support other types of output, e.g. via a printer. The input and output hardware devices are shown as elements of the device or system 1151, for example, as may be the case if the computer system 1151 is implemented as a portable computer device (e.g. laptop, notebook or ultrabook), tablet, smartphone or other handheld device. In other implementations, however, some or all of the input and output hardware devices may be separate devices connected to the other system elements via wired or wireless links and appropriate interface hardware.

For visual output, the computer system 1151 includes an image or video display

1161 and an associated decoder and display driver circuit 1162. The display 1161 may be a projector or the like but typically is a flat panel display, such as a liquid crystal display (LCD). The decoder function decodes video or other image content from a standard format, and the driver supplies signals to drive the display 1161 to output the visual information. The CPU 1152 controls image presentation on the display 1161 via the display driver 1162, to present visible outputs from the device 1151 to a user, such as application displays and displays of various content items (e.g. still images, videos, messages, documents, traffic reports, traffic data, and the like). In the example, the computer system 1151 also includes a camera 1163 as a visible light image sensor. Various types of cameras may be used. The camera 1163 typically can provide still images and/or a video stream, in the example to an encoder 1164. The encoder 1164 interfaces the camera to the interconnect bus 1155. For example, the encoder 164 converts the image/video signal from the camera 1163 to a standard digital format suitable for storage and/or other processing and supplies that digital image/video content to other element(s) of the system 1151, via the bus 1155.

Connections to allow the CPU 1152 to control operations of the camera 1163 are omitted for simplicity.

In the example, the computer system 1151 includes a microphone 1165, configured to detect audio input activity, as well as an audio output component such as one or more speakers 1166 configured to provide audible information output to the user. Although other interfaces may be used, the example utilizes an audio coder/decoder (CODEC), as shown at 1167, to interface audio to/from the digital media of the

interconnect bus 1155. The CODEC 1167 converts an audio responsive analog signal from the microphone 1165 to a digital format and supplies the digital audio to other element(s) of the system 1151, via the bus 1155. The CODEC 1167 also receives digitized audio via the bus 1155 and converts the digitized audio to an analog signal which the CODEC 1167 outputs to drive the speaker 1166. Although not shown, one or more amplifiers may be included to amplify the analog signal from the microphone 1165 or the analog signal from the CODEC 1167 that drives the speaker 1166.

One or more elements in computer 1151 can be configured by software or the like so that elements of the computer implement a recording device to record traffic reports voiced by the reporter. The microphone or camera would serve as associated input device(s) for the recording device functionality. For example, at least one of camera 1163 and microphone 1165 can detect at least one of video and audio of the reporter generating the traffic report. The video and/or audio may be encoded by encoder 1164 and codec 1167, and then stored or recorded as a traffic report in memory 1153 or memory 1154. This recorded traffic report may also be transmitted to the user equipment 118 via communication interface 1159, network 1158 and network 106.

Depending on the form factor and intended type of usage/applications for the computer system 1151, system 1151 will include one or more of various types of additional user input elements, shown collectively at 1168. Each such element 1168 will have an associated interface 1169 to provide responsive data to other system elements via bus 1155. Examples of suitable user inputs 1168 include a keyboard or keypad, a cursor control (e.g. a mouse, touchpad, trackball, cursor direction keys etc.).

Another user interface option provides a touchscreen display feature. At a high level, a touchscreen display is a device that displays information to a user and can detect occurrence and location of a touch on the area of the display. The touch may be an actual touch of the display device with a finger, stylus or other object; although at least some touchscreens can also sense when the object is in close proximity to the screen. Use of a touchscreen display as part of the user interface enables a user to interact directly with the information presented on the display. The display may be essentially the same as discussed above relative to element 1161 as shown in the drawing. For touch sensing, however, the user inputs 1168 and interfaces 1169 would include a touch/position sensor and associated sense signal processing circuit. The touch/position sensor is relatively transparent, so that the user may view the information presented on the display 1161. The sense signal processing circuit receives sensing signals from elements of the touch/position sensor and detects occurrence and position of each touch of the screen formed by the display and sensor. The sense circuit provides touch position information to the CPU 1152 via the bus 1155, and the CPU 1152 can correlate that information to the information currently displayed via the display 1161, to determine the nature of user input via the touchscreen.

A mobile device type user terminal may include elements similar to those of a laptop or desktop computer, but will typically use smaller components that also require less power, to facilitate implementation in a portable form factor. Some portable devices include similar but smaller input and output elements. Tablets and smartphones, for example, utilize touch sensitive display screens, instead of separate keyboard and cursor control elements.

Each computer system 1151 runs a variety of applications programs and stores data, enabling one or more interactions via the user interface, provided through elements, and/or over the network 1158 to implement the desired user device processing for the reporter terminal 108 services, publisher portal 112 services and user equipment 116 services. The user computer system/device 1151, for example, runs a report generating application for reporter system 108, an advertisement upload and bidding application for the publisher portal 112, and a report selection application for user equipment 118.

In one example, FIG. 14 is a simplified functional block diagram of a computer 1251 that may be configured as a host or server, for example, to function as the curation system 102, targeted report generation system 104 and cloud storage system 132 shown in the system diagram of FIG. 1.

The example 1251 will generally be described as an implementation of a server computer, e.g . as might be configured as a blade device in a server farm. Alternatively, the computer system may comprise a mainframe or other type of host computer system capable of web-based communications, media content distribution, or the like via the network 1158. Although shown as the same network as served the user computer system 1151, the computer system 1251 may connect to a different network. The computer system 1251 in the example includes a central processing unit (CPU) 1252, a main memory 1253, mass storage 1255 and an interconnect bus 1254. These elements may be similar to elements of the computer system 1151 or may use higher capacity hardware. The circuitry forming the CPU 1252 may contain a single

microprocessor, or may contain a number of microprocessors for configuring the computer system 1252 as a multi-processor system, or may use a higher speed processing architecture. The main memory 1253 in the example includes ROM, RAM and cache memory; although other memory devices may be added or substituted. Although semiconductor memory may be used in the mass storage devices 1255, magnetic type devices (tape or disk) and optical disk devices typically provide higher volume storage in host computer or server applications. In operation, the main memory 1253 stores at least portions of instructions and data for execution by the CPU 1252, although instructions and data are moved between memory and storage and CPU via the interconnect bus in a manner similar to transfers discussed above relative to the system 1151 of FIG. 13.

The system 1251 also includes one or more input/output interfaces for

communications, shown by way of example as interfaces 1259 for data communications via the network 23. Each interface 1259 may be a high-speed modem, an Ethernet (optical, cable or wireless) card or any other appropriate data communications device. To provide the service to a large number of users' client devices, the interface(s) 1259 preferably provide(s) a relatively high-speed link to the network 1158. The physical communication link(s) may be optical, wired, or wireless (e.g., via satellite or cellular network).

Although not shown, the system 1251 may further include appropriate input/output ports for interconnection with a local display and a keyboard or the like serving as a local user interface for configuration, programming or trouble-shooting purposes. Alternatively, the server operations personnel may interact with the system 1251 for control and programming of the system from remote terminal devices via the Internet or some other link via network 1158.

The computer system 1251 runs a variety of applications programs and stores the curation data for the curation system 102, the report generation data for the targeted report generation system 104, and the cloud data of cloud storage 132. One or more such applications enable the curation and generation of targeted traffic reports. Those skilled in the art will recognize that the computer system 1251 may run other programs and/or host other web-based or e-mail based services. As such, the system 1251 need not sit idle while waiting for service related functions.

The example (FIG. 14) shows a single instance of a computer system 1251. Of course, the server or host functions may be implemented in a distributed fashion on a number of similar platforms, to distribute the processing load. Additional networked systems (not shown) may be provided to distribute the processing and associated communications, e.g. for load balancing or failover.

The hardware elements, operating systems and programming languages of computer systems like 1151, 1251 generally are conventional in nature, and it is presumed that those skilled in the art are sufficiently familiar therewith to understand implementation of the present curation and reporting technique using suitable

configuration and/or programming of such computer system(s) particularly as outlined above relative to 1151 of FIG. 13 and 1251 of FIG. 14.

Hence, aspects of the methods of curation and report generating outlined above may be embodied in programming, e.g. in the form of software, firmware, or microcode executable by a user computer system, a server computer or other programmable device. Program aspects of the technology may be thought of as "products" or "articles of manufacture" typically in the form of executable code and/or associated data that is carried on or embodied in a type of machine readable medium. "Storage" type media include any or all of the tangible memory of the computers, processors or the like, or associated modules thereof, such as various semiconductor memories, tape drives, disk drives and the like, which may provide non-transitory storage at any time for the software programming. All or portions of the software may at times be communicated through the Internet or various other telecommunication networks. Such communications, for example, may enable loading of the software from one computer or processor into another, for example, from a management server or host computer of the service provider into the computer platform of the curation system that will be the server and/or the computer platform of the user that will be the client device for the user equipment 18 to provide the report selection service. Thus, another type of media that may bear the software elements includes optical, electrical and electromagnetic waves, such as used across physical interfaces between local devices, through wired and optical landline networks and over various air-links. The physical elements that carry such waves, such as wired or wireless links, optical links or the like, also may be considered as media bearing the software. As used herein, unless restricted to one or more of "non-transitory," "tangible" or "storage" media, terms such as computer or machine "readable medium" refer to any medium that participates in providing instructions to a processor for execution.

Hence, a machine readable medium may take many forms, including but not limited to, a tangible storage medium, a carrier wave medium or physical transmission medium. Non-volatile storage media include, for example, optical or magnetic disks, such as any of the storage devices in any computer(s) or the like, such as may be used to implement the, etc. shown in the drawings. Volatile storage media include dynamic memory, such as main memory of such a computer platform. Tangible transmission media include coaxial cables; copper wire and fiber optics, including the wires that comprise a bus within a computer system. Carrier-wave transmission media can take the form of electric or electromagnetic signals, or acoustic or light waves such as those generated during radio frequency (RF) and light-based data communications. Common forms of computer-readable media therefore include for example: a floppy disk, a flexible disk, hard disk, magnetic tape, any other magnetic medium, a CD-ROM, DVD or DVD-ROM, any other optical medium, punch cards paper tape, any other physical storage medium with patterns of holes, a RAM, a PROM and EPROM, a FLASH-EPROM, any other memory chip or cartridge, a carrier wave transporting data or instructions, cables or links transporting such a carrier wave, or any other medium from which a computer can read programming code and/or data. Many of these forms of computer readable media may be involved in carrying one or more sequences of one or more instructions to a processor for execution.

Program instructions may comprise a software or firmware implementation encoded in any desired language. Programming instructions, when embodied in machine readable medium accessible to a processor of a computer system or device, render computer system or device into a special-purpose machine that is customized to perform the operations specified in the program.

It will be understood that the terms and expressions used herein have the ordinary meaning as is accorded to such terms and expressions with respect to their corresponding respective areas of inquiry and study except where specific meanings have otherwise been set forth herein. Relational terms such as first and second and the like may be used solely to distinguish one entity or action from another without necessarily requiring or implying any actual such relationship or order between such entities or actions. The terms

"comprises," "comprising," "includes," "including," or any other variation thereof, are intended to cover a non-exclusive inclusion, such that a process, method, article, or apparatus that comprises a list of elements does not include only those elements but may include other elements not expressly listed or inherent to such process, method, article, or apparatus. An element proceeded by "a" or "an" does not, without further constraints, preclude the existence of additional identical elements in the process, method, article, or apparatus that comprises the element.

Unless otherwise stated, any and all measurements, values, ratings, positions, magnitudes, sizes, and other specifications that are set forth in this specification, including in the claims that follow, are approximate, not exact. They are intended to have a reasonable range that is consistent with the functions to which they relate and with what is customary in the art to which they pertain.

While the foregoing has described what are considered to be the best mode and/or other examples, it is understood that various modifications may be made therein and that the subject matter disclosed herein may be implemented in various forms and examples, and that they may be applied in numerous applications, only some of which have been described herein. It is intended by the following claims to claim any and all modifications and variations that fall within the true scope of the present concepts.

Although illustrated and described herein with reference to specific embodiments, the present subject matter is not intended to be limited to the details shown. Rather, various modifications may be made in the details within the scope and range of equivalents of the claims and without departing from the invention.

Claims

What is Claimed :

1. A computer system for generating a traffic report based on curated traffic data, the system including :

a display for displaying traffic data to a reporter;

a recording device for recording a traffic report voiced by the reporter;

an input device for receiving instructions from the reporter;

a cloud storage for storing recorded the traffic report;

an adapter for receiving traffic data from a plurality of different traffic data sources; and

a processor configured to :

receive the traffic data from the plurality of different traffic data sources through the adapter,

curate the received traffic data,

output the curated traffic data to the display,

receive an instruction from the reporter through the input device to turn on the recording device,

record through the recording device the traffic report for a road segment identified by a geocode or an identifier, the traffic report voiced by the reporter, the traffic report including an analysis of the curated traffic data performed by the reporter for the road segment, and

store the traffic report as a traffic report file in the cloud storage for access by a user device via a network connection.

2. The computer system of claim 1, wherein the processor is further configured to record the curated traffic report file as at least one of an audio file, a video file, a binary file or a text file.

3. The computer system of claim 1, wherein the processor is further configured to stitch multiple traffic report files together for multiple road segments to provide a traffic report for a route selected by the user device.

4. The computer system of claim 1, wherein the processor is further configured to stitch at least one advertisement file together with the traffic report file, the advertisement being selected by the processor based on at least one of a location of the user device and user preferences set with respect to the user device.

5. The computer system of claim 1, wherein the processor is further configured to:

curate the received traffic data by performing at least one of predictive modeling of traffic, assigning a confidence level of traffic, and deliver the traffic report file at a quality based on at least one of network and user device capabilities.

6. The computer system of claim 1, receive, via the communication interface, an identifier from the user device, the identifier identifying a road segment, retrieve a traffic report for the identified road segment,

stitch the retrieved traffic report together along with at least one advertisement as an audio file, and

transmit, via the communication interface, the audio file to the user device.

7. The computer system of claim 1, wherein the processor is further configured to: receive bids from advertisement publishers,

select an advertisement from one of the publishers based on the bids, and stitch the selected advertisement together with the traffic report file.

8. The computer system of claim 1, wherein the processor is further configured to: receive, via the communication interface, a geocode from the user device, the geocode identifying a location of the user device,

retrieve traffic reports for road segments located near the location identified by the geocode,

stitch the retrieved traffic reports together along with at least one advertisement as an audio file, and

transmit, via the communication interface, the audio file to the user device.

9. The computer system of claim 1, wherein the processor is further configured to: stitch multiple traffic report files together for multiple road segments to provide a personalized traffic report based on at least one of the identifier or geocode received from the user device.

10. The computer system of claim 1, wherein the processor is further configured to: perform text to voice conversion of the curated traffic data when the identified road segment is a tertiary road.

11. A user device for retrieving a traffic report based on curated traffic data, the user device including :

a display for displaying traffic report selection data to the user;

an input device for receiving instructions from the user;

an output device for outputting a traffic report to the user;

a communication interface for connecting to a cloud network; and

a processor configured to:

control the display to display to the user traffic report selection data for road segments,

receive a traffic report selection of one or more of the road segments from the user through the input device, control the communication interface to transmit a request including at least one of an identifier for identifying the selected road segment, and a geocode identifying a location of the user device,

receive one or more traffic reports stored in the cloud through the communication interface, the one or more traffic reports being associated with the at least one of the selected road segment identified by the identifier, and a road segment located near the location of the user device indicated by the geocode, each of the selected one or more traffic reports including an analysis of the curated traffic data performed by a reporter on a curation computer, and

audibly output the one or more selected traffic reports to the user through the output device.

12. The user device of claim 11, wherein the user device is a mobile device configured to display an application for selecting the one or more traffic reports for the road segment, and the mobile device notifies the user of updates for the selected one or more traffic reports through at least one of push notifications, email, text messages and social media.

13. The user device of claim 12, wherein the application reports user location and preferences to the curation computer which allows the curation computer to select: 1) an appropriate road segment to transmit to the user device, the appropriate road segment corresponding to the at least one of the selected road segment identified by the identifier and a road segment located near the location of the user device indicated by the geocode, and 2) advertisements to transmit to the user device.

14. The user device of claim 11, wherein the output device outputs audio of the selected one or more traffic reports stitched together with at least one audible

advertisement that is based on at least one of the user device location indicated by the geocode and user preferences.

15. The user device of claim 11, wherein the user device is a content distributor computer operated by at least one of a radio station or a television station, the content distributor computer requesting traffic reports for road segments to fit a specific time duration, and further distributing traffic reports to devices of customers of the radio or television station.

16. The user device of claim 11, wherein the traffic report is recorded as at least one of an audio file, a video file, binary file or a text file.

17. The user device of claim 11, wherein the output device outputs audio of the selected one or more traffic reports stitched together with at least one audible

advertisement output prior to or after the traffic report.

18. The user device of claim 11, wherein the processor is further configured to: receive, via the communication interface, traffic reports for at the least one of the selected segment identified by the identifier and the road segment near the location of the user device as indicated by the geocode, the traffic reports including traffic reports stitched together along with at least one advertisement as an audio file, and

output the audio file to the user via the output device.

19. The user device of claim 11, wherein the processor is further configured to: receive multiple traffic report files stitched together for multiple road segments as a personalized traffic report based on the transmitted identifier or geocode.

20. The user device of claim 11, wherein the traffic report is a text to voice conversion of the curated traffic data when the identified road segment is a tertiary road.

21. A method for generating a traffic report based on curated traffic data, the method including :

receiving, by a communication interface of a curation computer, traffic data from a plurality of different traffic data sources;

curating, by a processor of the curation computer, the received traffic data;

outputting, by a display of the curation computer, the curated traffic data;

receiving, by an input device of the curation computer, an instruction from a reporter to turn on the recording device;

recording, by a recording device of the curation computer, for a road segment identified by an identifier or a geocode, a traffic report voiced by the reporter, the traffic report including an analysis of the curated traffic data performed by the reporter; and

storing, by the processor of the curation computer, the traffic report as a traffic report file in a cloud storage for access by user devices via a network connection.

22. The method of claim 21, further comprising recording, by the processor, the traffic report file as at least one of an audio file, a video file, a binary file and a text file.

23. The method of claim 21, further comprising stitching, by the processor, multiple traffic report files together for multiple road segments to provide a traffic report for a route of road segments selected by the user device with identifiers, or road segments near a location of the user device as indicated by the geocode.

24. The method of claim 21, further comprising stitching, by the processor, at least one advertisement file together with the traffic report file, the advertisement file being selected by the processor based on at least one of a location of the user device and user preferences set in the user device.

25. The method of claim 21, further comprising curating, by the processor, the received traffic data by performing at least one of predictive modeling of traffic and assigning a confidence level of traffic.

26. The method of claim 21, further comprising :

receiving, by the processor, through the communication interface, bids from advertisement publishers,

selecting, by the processor, an advertisement from one of the publishers based on the bids, and

stitching, by the processor, the selected advertisement together with the traffic report file.

27. The method of claim 21, further comprising ;

receiving, via the communication interface, at least one of an identifier and a geocode from the user device, the identifier identifying a road segment selected by the user of the user device, and the geocode indicating a location of the user device,

retrieving, by the processor, a traffic report for a road segment either identified by the identifier or located near the location of the user device as indicated by the geocode,

stitching, by the processor, the retrieved traffic report together along with at least one other traffic report and at least one other advertisement as an audio file, and transmitting, via the communication interface, the audio file to the user device.

28. The method of claim 21, further comprising :

stitching, by the processor, multiple traffic report files together for multiple road segments to provide a personalized traffic report based on at least one identifier or geocode received from the user device.

29. The method of claim 21, further comprising :

performing, by the processor, text to voice conversion of the curated traffic data when the identified road segment is a tertiary road.