Data processing: vehicles – navigation – and relative location – Navigation – Employing way point navigation
Reexamination Certificate
1998-05-04
2001-03-06
Cuchlinski, Jr., William A. (Department: 3661)
Data processing: vehicles, navigation, and relative location
Navigation
Employing way point navigation
C701S206000, C701S207000, C701S214000, C701S223000, C701S300000, C342S357490, C342S357490, C455S011100, C455S013100, C455S039000, C340S870030, C370S310000, C370S312000, C370S313000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06199010
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to telecommunications in general, and, more particularly, to a wireless telecommunications system that provides both telecommunications service and navigational assistance to travelers.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
FIG. 1
depicts a schematic diagram of a portion of a wireless telecommunications system in the prior art, which system provides wireless telecommunications service to a number of wireless terminals (e.g., wireless terminals
101
-
1
through
101
-
3
) that are situated within a geographic region. The heart of a typical wireless telecommunications system is a wireless switching center (“WSC”), which also may be known as a mobile switching center or mobile telephone switching office. Typically, a wireless switching center (e.g., WSC
120
) is connected to a plurality of base stations (e.g., base stations
103
-
1
through
103
-
5
) that are dispersed throughout the geographic region serviced by the system and to the local and long-distance telephone and data networks (e.g., local-office
130
, local-office
138
and toll-office
140
). A wireless switching center is responsible for, among other things, establishing and maintaining a call between a first wireless terminal and a second wireless terminal or, alternatively, between a wireless terminal and a wireline terminal (e.g., wireline terminal
150
), which is connected to the system via the local and/or long-distance networks.
The geographic region serviced by a wireless telecommunications system is partitioned into a number of spatially distinct areas called “cells.” As depicted in
FIG. 1
, each cell is schematically represented by a hexagon. In practice, however, each cell has an irregular shape that depends on the topography of the terrain surrounding the cell. Typically, each cell contains a base station, which comprises: (1) the radios and antennas that the base station uses to communicate with wireless terminals in that cell; and (2) the transmission equipment that the base station uses to communicate with the wireless switching center.
For example, when a user of wireless terminal
101
-
1
desires to transmit information to a user of wireless terminal
101
-
2
, wireless terminal
101
-
1
transmits a data message bearing the user's information to base station
103
-
1
. The data message is then relayed by base station
103
-
1
to wireless switching center
120
via wireline
102
-
1
. Because wireless terminal
101
-
2
is in the cell serviced by base station
103
-
1
, wireless switching center
120
returns the data message back to base station
103
-
1
, which relays it to wireless terminal
101
-
2
.
Because people can require emergency assistance (e.g., first aid, police, fire, etc.) when they travel, a wireless telecommunications system must be capable of processing an emergency call (e.g., a “911” call in the United States, a “999” call in Europe, etc.) that is initiated from a wireless terminal. In particular, a wireless telecommunications system must perform three main steps when processing an emergency call from a wireless terminal:
1. the system must ascertain the precise location of the wireless terminal (e.g., its latitude and longitude to within 100 feet);
2. the system must route the emergency call to whichever emergency facility (e.g., police station, hospital, etc.) is closest to the location of the wireless terminal; and
3. the system must provide the authorities at the emergency facility with the location of the wireless terminal.
This last step is necessary because a person who places an emergency call from a wireless telephone might not know his or her precise location or might be injured or otherwise incapable of providing his or her location even if he or she knew it.
There are several techniques in the prior art for enabling a wireless telecommunications system to ascertain the precise location of a wireless terminal, and each requires the addition of specialized location equipment to the telecommunications system. Sometimes the location equipment is added to the base stations or other parts of the network, sometimes it is added to the wireless terminals, and sometimes it is added to both. In any case, the equipment for locating a wireless terminal is typically expensive.
Furthermore, although it is very important that a wireless telecommunications system be capable of processing an emergency call, the number of emergency calls actually placed is very small in comparison to the number of non-emergency calls. This has two significant implications. First, because the cost of the location equipment is expensive, the cost of the location equipment per emergency call is very high and, therefore, difficult to justify. Second, because emergency calls are infrequent, the location equipment is seldom used, which is an apparent waste of its unique capability.
Therefore, the need exists for a secondary use of the location equipment in a wireless telecommunications system, which secondary use does not interfere with its primary use in processing emergency calls and which helps to defray the cost of the location equipment.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention is a wireless telecommunications system that uses its location equipment to provide navigational assistance to travelers when the location equipment is not processing emergency calls. Because navigational assistance is a valuable service, a wireless service provider can charge for the service, which helps the wireless service provider pay for the location equipment.
The present invention is particularly well-suited for providing navigation assistance to travelers because it has both a telecommunications capability and a location-finding capability. This means that the present invention can use its location-finding capability to track the movements of a wireless terminal carried by a traveler and its telecommunications capability to transmit information to the traveler based on the location of the wireless terminal (e.g., “You just missed the left turn onto Maple Street needed to reach your Grandmother's house,” etc).
The illustrative embodiment of the present invention addresses three common navigation problems and provides various forms of navigational assistance to travelers in solving those problems.
The first navigation problem involves a traveler who takes the same trip infrequently. For example, when a traveler takes a short trip frequently (e.g., drive every day to work, drive once a week to the grocery store, etc.), the frequent repetition of making the trip is likely to ingrain the directions into the traveler's mind such that the traveler has no difficulty in remembering them. In contrast, when a traveler takes a long trip infrequently (e.g., drive once a year from home to Niagara Falls, etc.), the traveler is less likely to remember from past experience how to navigate to make the trip. This is particularly true when the route is convoluted. Therefore, to aid a traveler who takes the same trip infrequently, the illustrative embodiment tracks the movement of the traveler during one trip, records his or her movements, and, thereafter, provides navigational directions to the traveler (e.g., “turn left ahead at Maple Street,” etc.) at a later time on how to make the trip again.
The second navigation problem involves a traveler who needs to navigate homeward after completing the outward-bound portion of a trip. Even when a traveler has successfully navigated the outward-bound portion of a trip, the directions for navigating homeward are not necessarily obvious. This is particularly true when the outward-bound portion of the trip is particularly circuitous or involves backtracking. Therefore, to aid a traveler in making the homeward portion of a trip, the illustrative embodiment tracks the movement of the traveler on the outward-bound portion of the trip, records his or her movements, and, thereafter, provides navigational directions to the traveler on how to get home.
The third navigation problem involves multiple travelers who desire to take the same t
Breyer Wayne S.
Cuchlinski Jr. William A.
DeMont Jason Paul
DeMont & Breyer LLC
Lucent Technologies - Inc.
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