Communications: directive radio wave systems and devices (e.g. – Directive – Including a satellite
Reexamination Certificate
1999-08-27
2001-03-06
Tarcza, Thomas H. (Department: 3662)
Communications: directive radio wave systems and devices (e.g.,
Directive
Including a satellite
C342S357490
Reexamination Certificate
active
06198431
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND—FIELD OF INVENTION
This invention relates to GPS tracking and customized mapping specifically for use by people outdoors.
BACKGROUND—DESCRIPTION OF PRIOR ART
Modern technology has brought us the ability to monitor and track movements of persons over geographic areas by use of monitoring devices that utilize the Globally Positioned Satellite System or (“GPS”). GPS is a position
avigation system that consists of a constellation of 28 satellites. A GPS receiver is an electronic device that receives signals from the satellites to determine its location on earth, in any weather. GPS has been around since the early 1980s and has been fully operational for many years now.
In any GPS device used by the civilian population corrections are made to adjust the vertical error inherent in the GPS signal. The US government adds a variable to the mix of data transmitted from the satellites so that no one can download immediate precise accurate information. Typically this technology is used by the civilian population in motorized vehicles to assist in determining where that vehicle is located geographically.
Heretofore, GPS tracking has been focused mainly on this use in automobiles and for motorized vehicle travel and many devices have been developed. For example, Kishi, Pat. No. 5,144,318 relates to an apparatus and method for navigating a vehicle using GPS and Ishikawa et.al., Pat. No. 5,657,232 relates to an onboard positioning system. However, such GPS systems are not suitable for use by an individual person when outdoors to display and record their location for either immediate viewing on a map or later printing onto a map of the individuals entire geographic travels. Typically, these vehicle GPS systems are large in size, utilize a motor vehicle's power system and provide a dash board display. Such a system is not compact nor portable for use by an individual on his or her person outdoors.
Correspondingly, there are several GPS devices described as handheld or portable devices for use by a person outside. Odagiri et al., Pat. No. 5,905,460 is a wrist watch type GPS receiver. This is dependent on body movement for activation of the GPS device and may be used to alert a monitoring station of a persons travels outside a restricted area. See also, Woo et al., Pat. No. 5,627,548 navigation wristwear and Layson, Jr., Pat. No. 5,731,757 a portable tracking apparatus for continuous determination of location of criminal offenders and victims. More widely used in the market place are devices from Magellan, Garmin, Lowrance and Trimble describable as handheld display devices programmed by the user as to the identity of their immediate location and updated again by the user as they move geographically. Until recently, these devices limited their mapping to a hand held display of an up loaded map. Now it appears few devices are being used to both up load maps and down load maps with data. However, no device other than this invention interfaces with a mapping system software where three or four dimensional data is displayed on a two dimensional map thereby creating a 3-D enhanced map. See, Eshenbach, U.S. Pat. No 5,798,732 . (See Also, Prior Art Disclosure including Trimble, Garmin, Magellan and Lowrance wet) page excerpts.)
This invention as to its customized mapping system has no prior art. It integrates several technologies to produce a high-resolution topographical map display with very detailed contours, as low as two foot levels, as compared to more normal forty foot mapping onto complicated high-resolution map images. The tracker and mapping system uses software technology that graphs 3-D mapping interfaces to show your true position on a 3-D enhanced projection map or a map that looks like a picture by (1) tying above ground movement to an X-Y coordinate on the ground; (2) adding intelligence to the GPS data to determine the visible location of the X-Y coordinate as printed on the 3-D enhanced projection view and (3) adding special features in the mapping process as true Z-buffering or sorting objects in terms of distance from the eye by displaying the furthest object first and then accurately displaying the corrected raw GPS data as dots or bread crumbs onto the 3-D map model.
SUMMARY INCLUDING OBJECTS AND ADVANTAGES
This inventions unique mapping system and customized software addresses the issues and heretofore unsolved problems of GPS elevation drift in nonobvious ways that is totally surprising and fascinating to all persons skilled in the art of GPS and the field of mapping. For example, prior to my invention, the GPS world has not been able to control the third dimension factor of elevation drift, which can fluctuate from 10 feet to 400 feet. Therefore, this invention, for the first time, permits the accurate display of three-dimensional and four dimensional (including display of time) data onto a two-dimensional map producing what is termed a 3-D enhanced projection map. This invention with its integrated tracking and mapping system now makes it possible to display true geochron data for 3-D viewing.
The problem of elevation drift has been corrected in the mapping system software to anchor the elevation of the person wearing the tracker to the digital elevation model of a mountain or variable terrain model at the user's X-Y location. This method assumes that the user is always on the mountain or terrain surface. In addition, in the skiing application where a skier ascends the mountain via a ski lift he or she is above the ground while on the lift. The software “senses” when the skier is traveling uphill along the trace of a lift line and the software either fails to draw the lift or anchors the skier to the lift line at the chair elevation. This is accomplished by supplying software with a digitized line representing the lift line and its average height, which the software uses to perform a proximity analysis on the skier's position. If the skier is within a certain distance of a known (preprogrammed) lift line and their direction is indicating a sustained upward motion, then the skier is assumed to be riding the lift and their location is snapped to the lift line while their elevation is set to the height of the lift above the surface.
Next the mapping system software takes the GPS raw data recorded as the users location by latitude, longitude and elevation and converts if from what would be a floating way point when attempted to be placed onto a 3-D topographical model or picture map to an accurate display of location.
Further, the inventions unique technique and application addresses the problem of “traveling” waypoints by Z-buffering. The visual representation of a skier's track can be suppressed when he or she is out of sight behind a ridgeline in certain views. Z-buffering is a computer graphics process whereby all objects in a view are sorted by distance to the viewers eye, and the image is built up by rendering the furthest objects (like distant GPS tracks or terrain ridges) first. In this way, since the nearer objects are drawn last, they cover up the farther ones where they should. Because this process uses just simple occlusion, the processing effort to calculate positions of objects is minimized, resulting in faster rendering. The final result is a picture map with accurate GPS waypoints displayed.
By this invention, this unique mapping feature, used to enhance the map product produced through GPS technology, will be available to the consumer either as a daily rental or as a purchased apparatus with mapping software as further described herein. It appears that GPS “techies” are just now using existing GPS trackers such as Garmin, Magellan, Trimble and Lowrance with off the shelf mapping software such as street maps to transfer the GPS data collected by the receiver onto a map displayed either on the hand held unit or a later printed. There does not appear to be specialized or customized mapping system software offered for purchase and use with the “prior art” products.
Even more exciting with this invention, in the very near future by the a
MapTrek LLC
Mull Fred H.
Oppedahl & Larson LLP
Tarcza Thomas H.
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