Utilization by a vehicle of wireless data from intelligent street signs

A system for providing and utilizing information wirelessly provided to a vehicle during a journey comprising:

• a plurality of intelligent street signs disposed adjacent a roadway for vehicular traffic, each intelligent street sign including a wireless transmitter that repetitively transmits radio frequency signals that carry digital data where at least part of the digital data contains information associated with the function of the intelligent street sign;
• a radio frequency receiver disposed in a vehicle and adapted for receipt of the radio frequency signals transmitted from the intelligent street sign;
• a computer, coupled to the receiver and disposed in the vehicle, receives the digital data recovered by the receiver;
• the computer parses the digital data into separate fields where each field contains values representing information related to the corresponding street sign;
• the computer identifies a first field containing a first value where the first value defines a predetermined type of vehicle for which the information contained in the other fields is relevant;
• the computer compares the first value with a stored value in memory of the computer to determine if the information contained in the other fields is relevant to the vehicle;
• the computer recovering the information contained in the other fields if the comparison of the first value with the stored value determined the other fields to be relevant to the vehicle.

A method for acquiring information useful for assisting a vehicle along a journey comprising the steps of:

• receiving radio frequency signals transmitted from intelligent street signs by a receiver disposed in the vehicle;
• receiving a packet of digital data recovered by the receiver from the received signals by a computer disposed in the vehicle;
• parsing the digital data into separate fields by the computer where each field contains values representing information related to the corresponding street sign;
• identifying a first field containing a first value by the computer where the first value defines a predetermined type of vehicle for which the information contained in the other fields is relevant;
• comparing the first value with a stored value in memory of the computer to determine if the information contained in the other fields is relevant to the vehicle;
• recovering the information contained in the other fields if the comparison of the first value with the stored value determined the other fields to be relevant to the vehicle.