Animated LED Message Device for Inter-Vehicle Communication
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current vehicle communication technologies, particularly vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication, face challenges such as high latency, limited expressiveness, and the need for widespread infrastructure and device adoption, making it difficult to implement effective and versatile communication systems that can convey complex information without distracting drivers.
Innovation Solution
The integration of an animated light electronic message device on vehicles, using a blockchain-managed symbol library and micro processing units, allows for the selective display of pre-defined digital symbols that can be understood by both humans and machines, enabling advanced communication topologies like point-to-point transmission and broadcasting, without requiring additional functionality in receiving vehicles or infrastructure.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If traditional V2V communication using radio channels is used, then information can be transmitted between vehicles, but the system requires widespread infrastructure and device adoption, large capital investment, and suffers from high latency
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces the traditional radio frequency communication system with an optical communication system using visible light LEDs. This substitution eliminates the need for complex radio infrastructure, specialized receivers, and large capital investments while achieving reliable V2V communication through human-visible light signals that can be detected by standard camera or sensor systems.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent makes vehicles universally compatible by using visible light signals that can be perceived by both human drivers and machine sensors without requiring specialized receiving equipment. This multi-functional approach allows the same communication system to serve both human-to-human and machine-to-machine communication needs, eliminating the need for widespread adoption of specialized devices.
2Adaptability or versatility
If simple communication methods like honking are used, then no additional equipment is needed, but the communication lacks versatility and is prone to misinterpretation
Solution Approach 1:
The patent uses different colors of visible light (red, yellow, green, blue) to encode different types of communication messages. Each color represents a specific category or meaning, allowing for versatile and unambiguous communication. For example, red could indicate stop or danger, green could indicate go or safety, enabling clear distinction between different message types without relying on ambiguous acoustic signals.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent employs dynamic patterns of light emission including blinking, pulsing, and sequential activation of multiple LEDs to convey different messages and states. This dynamic behavior allows a single static hardware system to express multiple meanings, enhancing versatility while maintaining message clarity through recognizable patterns that are difficult to misinterpret.
3Adaptability or versatility
If multiple static signs or decals are installed on vehicles for communication, then various messages can be displayed, but the system lacks dynamic expressiveness and requires physical installation changes
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces static physical signs with dynamic electronic LED displays that can change messages instantaneously through electrical control. This allows drivers to switch between different communication messages easily without any physical installation or removal of signs, providing both message variety and operational ease.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent uses periodic blinking or pulsing patterns of the LED lights to convey different types of information or urgency levels. This periodic action allows a single set of LEDs to communicate multiple meanings through temporal patterns, providing message variety without requiring multiple physical signs.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This solution enables vehicles to communicate complex information, such as road conditions or driver intentions, in a versatile and expressive manner, improving safety, efficiency, and social connections, while avoiding the need for multiple static signs or decals, and ensuring that messages can be recognized by any vehicle or environment without additional equipment.
Implementation Method 1
A LED (Light Emitting Diode) dot-matrix display, or LED screen, is a grid of LED lights wired together
Data Source
AI summary
The disclosure presents a set of novel methods and apparatus designed to add a communication ability to an external surface of a vehicle, using an animated visible light electronic message device, by selectively displaying pre-defined digital symbols. The addition of the display to a vehicle allows the vehicle to communicate with other vehicles, persons, or devices without requiring any functionality change to the other party. The new methods and apparatus also enable two vehicles that are both installed with the message devices to communicate with each other. These message devices can be installed on surfaces which include, but are not limited to, windshields of the vehicle, the top of the vehicle, the front and back bumper of the vehicle or other windows of the vehicle. The digital symbols displayed are pre-defined by the device manufacturer and not modifiable or creatable by the vehicle user. The digital symbol may be in the format of a blockchain asset that is strictly controlled and managed by the device manufacturer's eco-system. However, the vehicle user can choose which symbol to display and the way it is displayed, for example, the color, position, size, animation speed, and time and duration. The animation speed can either be fast or close to still. The display parameters can also be controlled automatically by pre-defined scripts, rules, or an artificial intelligence (A.I.). The new inter-vehicle communication networking topology ranges from point-to-point transmission and single-to-multiple broadcasting, to multiple-to-multiple and nested networks.