WHELEN DEVELOPING MESSAGE PROJECTION TECH - WHEN WILL IT BE AVAILABLE AND HOW EXPENSIVE WILL IT BE?

Taking a lead from other industries one lighting manufacturer is attempting to protect intellectual property in their market for the possible development and deployment of A-I generated, projected signage, traffic direction or advisory messages as generated by the data aggregated and collected within emergency vehicles. The application and invention details can be seen below. How long until products are seen in the market? Is this Dynamic Variable Imaging or Artificial Intelligence Created Roadway Messaging?

"AUGMENTED REALITY TRAFFIC ADVISOR SYSTEM AND METHOD"

Systems and methods for displaying projected image onto a surface to create an active augmented reality environment may include a lighting device and a controller. The controller may receive information, such as a user input or sensor information, and determine one or more projection properties for the lighting device. The lighting device may receive a control signal from the controller and adjust one or more parameters in order to project the image onto the surface in accordance with a desired user input and the sensor information.

Background
Roadside signs and message displays are used for alerting drivers and ensuring the safety of vehicles and pedestrians. These signs and message displays provide information regarding traffic laws for a particular area, such as the speed limit, and may also warn of changes to normal traffic patterns such as when there is road construction or an accident blocking one or more lanes of a highway. However, the information provided by these signs or displays may be passive, in that the text or information is fixed or un-changing and may not clearly indicate which road segments are impacted or what actions the driver of a vehicle should take. Additionally, painted road markings or reflective signs may be deployed after an event occurs, and delays in installation and use may cause further accidents. While certain systems, like dot matrix displays, may enable both static or scrolling messages, these may also be fixed in a particular location and may be slow to update.

Common warning and advisory situations may include, for example, road construction, traffic accidents, temporary lane shifts, police traffic stops, and closures of toll lanes, exit ramps, or roads. In the case road construction on a highway, passive reflective signs may be erected on the shoulder to alert drivers of the upcoming construction and may further provide messaging on which road lanes are closed. Additional passive warning technologies, such as reflective barriers, may be placed in any closed lanes, and dot matrix displays or similar systems may be used to form arrows to indicate which lanes drivers should use to avoid the closed lanes. For example, if a left lane is blocked, barriers erected in that lane along with a dot matrix display arrow pointing to the right may be used to inform drivers to merge out of the closed left lane and into the open right lanes. Depending on the locations of these passive warning technologies and whether the warning or advisory situation is still ongoing or has previously ended, motorists may be confused about the particular path to take, causing the flow of traffic to slow and increasing the chances of accidents between vehicles trying to navigate the situation.

In an embodiment, a system for projecting an image onto a surface includes a projector module, the projector module having a matrix of lighting devices. The system also includes one or more sensors, the one or more sensors configured to obtain at least one or more image parameters associated with the image. The system further includes a processor and a memory having instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the system to receive one or more image parameters from the one or more sensors. The instructions, when executed by the processor, also cause the system to determine one or more image projection properties based, at least in part, on the one or more image parameters, the one or more image projection properties adjusting features of the projector module to display the image according to a selected output format. The instructions, when executed by the processor, also cause the system to cause the image to be projected, by the projector module, in accordance with the one or more image projection properties.

In an embodiment, a method for projecting an image onto a surface, includes receiving a user input associated with an output message of the image. The method also includes receiving sensor information associated with at least a relative position of a projector module and the surface. The method further includes determining, based at least in part on the sensor information and the output message, one or more projection properties. The method also includes illumining one or more lighting devices in a pattern to display the image.