Telecommunications – Radiotelephone system – Zoned or cellular telephone system
Reexamination Certificate
1999-08-19
2001-10-16
Nguyen, Lee (Department: 2746)
Telecommunications
Radiotelephone system
Zoned or cellular telephone system
C455S413000, C455S414200, C340S905000, C340S988000, C701S117000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06304758
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The invention relates to a method and system for providing and transmitting individualized traffic information in spoken form.
DESCRIPTION OF THE RELATED ART
A multiplicity of methods are known for providing traffic information in voice form to interested users, in particular automobile drivers. The transmission media used in these methods include, in particular, broadcast radio, television and other broadcasting media. This class of methods has the common feature that the sender of the information does not know the current situation of the user, in particular his current location, and all the available information is always transmitted within a relatively large geographical region. Information transmission carried out in a corresponding manner in response to an individual request would lead not only to a high load on the communication channel but also to considerable overloading of the user, since he would be “buried” in a multiplicity of information items that were not currently relevant to him.
Furthermore, methods are known which allow a request by a user and in this case allow the information center to take account of individual user problems. So-called “hotlines” or “call centers” represent one example of this. These are suitably equipped telephone centers which take account of the users' wishes and answer questions. In the specific application area of traffic information, corresponding services are known, for example, from mobile radio networks or the automobile clubs. These services are distinguished by high costs for the operator and, in the end, for the user as well, since the services have to be provided manually. Furthermore, automated systems are known, which lead the user to a selection menu using the voice mode, in order to select and to provide the desired information. These voice dialog systems are used in telephone networks, for example, for travel route information, but recently for traffic information services as well. In this case, the information is offered in voice form, while menu control in telephone networks is typically possible by voice input and/or by pressing keys. The disadvantage of these known systems is the depth and complexity of the menu, particularly in the case of complex applications such as the transmission of traffic information.
Both classes of methods are distinguished by the information being presented in spoken form. Particularly while driving, this audible form of information presentation offers ergonomic advantages, for example in comparison with a visual presentation on a display. The formulation of the request in voice form is, however, either expensive in terms of manual handling, or is complex and time-consuming in automated handling.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The object of the invention is to propose a cost-effective, efficient and ergonomic method, for providing individualized traffic information and a system for carrying out this method, avoiding the disadvantages described above. The essential aim in this case is to limit the information transmission as far as possible to that traffic information which may actually be meaningful to the user.
The provision and transmission of the desired traffic information are carried out in a three-stage process. In the first process step, the request for traffic information is transmitted from the user/terminal to the information center, with the request being made in character-coded form and including at least details relating to a geographical position. The geographical position, this is preferably the user's current position, is a first selection criterion for the information center to select the relevant traffic information. By including further information in the request, in particular the direction of travel or traffic information which has already been obtained and/or is known by the user, the selection can be further refined according to the invention, and the relevance can thus be enhanced further by suppressing irrelevant or redundant information. According to the invention, the request is made in character-coded form in order to allow automated processing. The request results in an order being opened in the information center, and this order is given a unique order number, which is called the reference code in the following text. In the second process step, the details transmitted in the request are used in the information center to search for the desired information in a traffic database, and to collate this information. The information is provided under this reference code in the information center, and a message with the reference code is transmitted to the user. In the third process step, the user calls the information which is kept available, quoting the reference code, via the voice channel of a telephone network. If no relevant traffic information is available or predetermined fault conditions have occurred in the search, a development of the invention provides for special predefined reference codes to be transmitted to the user in this case, which contain appropriate information so that the process can be terminated without setting up a voice link and without the telephone charges incurred in so doing.
The described breakdown into three process steps achieves a number of advantages over the previously known methods. Firstly, the voice link is essentially used only for listening to the information. The entire time-consuming selection process (which may be susceptible to faults) in the voice channel is avoided, and the information is presented in compact form, efficiently and cost-effectively. Secondly, the selection process is reduced just to a request, and it is sufficient to state a geographical position. There is no need for any tedious, multistage interactive selection process as in voice dialog systems. Thirdly, the request and response are an interchange of coded information which can be handled expediently and cost-effectively not via the voice channel but as short messages via special data channels in the telephone network. This can be done, for example, by the so-called short message channel (SMS channel) in a GSM mobile radio network. Fourthly, by means of the interposed process step providing and transmitting back a “collection address” (=reference code), the called channel can be set up from the user end. This is by far the most costly transmission step in the methods. The communication costs are thus largely borne directly by the user. Since, as a result of the provision of special telephone numbers with increased tariffs, modern telephone networks also offer the capability for billing so-called premium services, the service can be charged for without any problems via the user's telephone charges. There is no need for any special charge to be made or a contract to be established between the user and the traffic information provider. The service can thus be offered without any problems to the general public since, whenever it is used, it can be paid for just via the telephone charges. Fifthly, the method offers the further advantage that no voice link whatsoever need be set up unless information is available. The user therefore does not first of all need to take a tedious and costly route through a selection menu, just to find out that there are no traffic messages for his route.
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Gaida Jürgen
Hoischen Bettina
Iierbig Wolfgang
Kohler Uwe
Schulz Werner
Cohen & Pontani, Lieberman & Pavane
Mannesmann AG
Nguyen Lee
Nguyen Simon
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