Technical Field of the Invention

The invention relates to a wildlife accident tracking and warning system, which focuses on the accident information caused by wild animals, takes into account their location information, and gives a warning to the drivers by the definition of wild animals in the use of in-vehicle navigation.

Background of the Invention

In today’s navigation systems, the destination is entered on the map with country, province, district, quarter, street, and door number and the system computes more than 50 routes by use of direction data (road-importance order, main road, by-roads, junctions, one way, no vehicle entrance, the bridge not used, etc.) from the current coordinates. The route is created and it directs us to the target/destination we had previously chosen by voice warning and video data. Commercially available navigation systems are not designed to take wildlife into account. Wildlife-vehicle collisions can occur, especially when drivers are passing through an area that is important to wildlife (wildlife reserve areas, wildlife conservation areas, wildlife production areas, wildlife placement areas, state hunting grounds, general hunting grounds, private hunting grounds, model hunting grounds, national parks, nature conservation areas, nature monuments, nature parks, special environmental protection areas, RAMSAR sites, wetlands, recreation areas, city forests, site areas). Existing navigation software is not integrated with important wildlife areas. This results in the death and injury of both humans and wild animals as well as causes financial loss.

In the state-of-art, the application numbered US20200293035A1 relates to scanning the vehicle surrounding and taking images and analyzing thereof together with a controller provided in the vehicle when certain conditions where wild animals can be seen using a server device via telecommunication network during the day. When a wild animal is detected, an actuator is controlled to prevent contact with the vehicle with the wild animal. The brake and steering wheel of the vehicle is controlled. In the state-of-art the invention numbered "JPH0694147A" relates to a method for regeneration of a warning for the passing of wild animals to the driver of a motor vehicle. Here data related to the movement of the motor vehicle is determined by a computing unit, received from the moving database of the motor vehicle, and risk before passing is computed based on data determined about the movement of the motor vehicle and data received about passing of the animal.

The documents found in the state-of-arts do not disclose a system providing transmission of data about an image of wild animals (died or injured), accident reason; vehicle collision, trapped into a fence, power plants (wind power plants, hydroelectric power stations, etc.), railroad, seashore, wetland areas, an agricultural area, illegal hunting) and animal report (dead, injured), location, date, and time information. For that reason, a wildlife accident tracking and warning system providing achievement of much information about the death and injury of wild animals is needed.

As a result, due to the above-described disadvantages and inadequacy of existing solutions, it has been necessary to make development in the related art.

Purpose of the Invention

The invention relates to a navigation-based wildlife accident tracking and warning system having analyzing information about the death and injuries of wild animals, receives layers related to wildlife areas from geographic data sources, analyzes such data, and transmits it to the vehicle navigation system.

The most important purpose of the invention is to provide a voice warning by the system at a present distance from the accident black spot.

Another purpose of the invention is to update routes for potential accidents.

Another purpose of the invention is to enable the expert to determine the wild animal class (mammal, bird, reptile, amphibian, and unidentified) and animal species (scientific name, English name, IUCN threatened categories, animal weight, and size, male and female, etc.) information through the expert labeling interface.

Another purpose of the invention is to provide discovery of class the distribution of wild animals involved in wildlife accidents, the distribution of wild animals involved in an accident on basis of species, the distribution of wild animals involved in accidents based on threatened categories (IUCN), reasons for the occurrence of accidents, distribution of locations where accidents happen, report of wild animals after an accident, occurring months, seasons and times of accidents, speed limits of highways where accidents occur, meteorological conditions when accidents happen.

Another purpose of the invention is to provide transmission of data about images of wild animals (died or injured) and thus determining accident black spots, accident reason; vehicle collision, trapped into a fence, power plants (wind power plants, hydroelectric power stations, etc.), railroad, seashore, wetland areas, an agricultural area), and animal report (dead, injured), location, date and time information.

Another purpose of the invention is to provide the areas where wild animal accidents occur the most.

Another purpose of the invention is to identify the areas where accidents occur frequently and to ensure the placement of warning signs and plates for vehicle drivers.

Another purpose of the invention is to provide a record of wild animals on a species basis in the accidents resulting from the wildlife-vehicle collision on highways and thus taking measures for endangered species of wild animals.

Another purpose of the invention is to provide discover the wild animal species particularly affected by the accidents.

The structural and characteristic features and all advantages of the invention will be understood better in the figures given below and the detailed description by reference to the figures. Therefore, the assessment should be made based on the figures and taking into account the detailed descriptions.

Brief Description of the Drawings

Figure 1 is a schematic drawing of the invention's wildlife accident tracking and warning system.

Reference Numbers 100. Wildlife accident tracking and warning system

110. Database

120. Application

121. Interface

130. Server

140. Navigation system

Detailed Description of the Invention

The invention relates to a navigation-based wildlife warning system analyzing information about the death and injuries of wild animals, receiving layers related to wildlife areas from geographic data sources, analyzing these data, and transmitting them to the vehicle navigation system.

Wildlife accident tracking and warning system (100) analyses the data obtained from various geographical data sources and wildlife accident tracking and warning system (100) at the server, provides giving voice warning of "wildlife area" by the system when accident black spots are 100 m away to drivers and provides passing of drivers more carefully and at set out speed limits from those areas and updating of a route for potential accidents on the route.

Database (110) stores data on protected areas on highway networks in the world, geographical data source data about wildlife reserve areas, wildlife conservation areas, wildlife production areas, wildlife placement areas, state hunting grounds, general hunting grounds, private hunting grounds, model hunting grounds, national parks, nature conservation areas, nature monuments, nature parks, special environmental protection areas, RAMSAR sites, wetlands, recreation areas, city forests, site areas. Data stored in the database (110) are in one of the vector GIS file formats (Esh Shape File, GeoJSON, GML, or KML).

Application (120) working on an electronic device provides transmission of data about an image of wild animal (died or injured) and thus determining accident black spots, accident reason; vehicle collision, trapped into a fence, power plants (wind power plants, hydroelectric power stations, etc.), railroad, seashore, wetland areas, agricultural area), and animal report (dead, injured), location, date and time information. The application (120) comprises a labeling interface (121) therein. The application (120) provides the offering information in the database (110) and server (130) to users via a web interface.

Labeling interface (121) provides discovery of information on wild animal class (mammal, bird, reptile, amphibian, unidentified) and animal species (scientific name, English name, IUCN threatened categories, animal weight, and size, male and female, etc.) by experts by use of data entered into the application (120) by the user having an accident. All information from the application (120) and the labeling interface (121) is transmitted to the server (130) and stored at the server (130).

The server (130) is in communication with the application (120), the labeling interface (121), and the database (110). The server (130) analyses the data obtained therefrom, provides discovery of class distribution of wild animals involved in wildlife accidents, distribution of wild animals involved in an accident on basis of species, distribution of wild animals involved in accidents based on threatened categories (IUCN), reasons for the occurrence of accidents, distribution of locations where accidents happen, the report of wild animals after an accident, occurring months, seasons and times of accidents, speed limits of highways where accidents occur, meteorological conditions when accidents happen. The server (130) provides determination of address information (province, district, quarter, others) obtained from the position information (x, y) related to each wild animal send from the application (120) and meteorological data (received from the related web page) obtained using an image capturing time and location information and road code and speed limit obtained from highway road information.

Navigation system (140) in communication with the server (130) located inside the vehicle to find the most eligible road for going from one point to another and perform a journey on the planned route, displaying data received from server (130) on the display for the user, warning driver with voice warning at a certain distance to accident points detected by the server (130) and conducting route updating for potential accidents on the route. The navigation system (140) provides a display to the user the class distribution of wild animals involved in wildlife accidents computed by the server (130), the distribution of wild animals involved in an accident on basis of species, the distribution of wild animals involved in accidents based on threatened categories (IUCN), reasons for the occurrence of accidents, distribution of locations where accidents happen, report of wild animals after an accident, occurring months, seasons and times of accidents, speed limits of highways where accidents occur, meteorological conditions when accidents happen. In a preferred application of the invention, the navigation system (140) gives voice warning of a "wildlife area" when accident black spots are 100 m away and updates the route for potential accidents on the route.

As a result of the data obtained from the wildlife accident tracking and warning system (100), highway authorities and related institutions, ecological art structures (culverts, viaducts, under-highway roads, wildlife underpasses, ecological bridges, protective and guiding fences for highway sides) audible and visual warning systems will be placed at accident black spots. With help of a warning system together with mobile and web-based wildlife accident tracking systems, a database can be created so that the authorities can take the necessary measures at accident black spots for the protection of wild animals, especially the conservation of endangered species and the protection of biodiversity. It will also provide a database for insurance companies regarding the wild animal-vehicle collision.