Data processing: vehicles – navigation – and relative location – Navigation – Employing position determining equipment
Reexamination Certificate
2000-03-21
2001-08-21
Cuchlinski, Jr., William A. (Department: 3661)
Data processing: vehicles, navigation, and relative location
Navigation
Employing position determining equipment
C701S201000, C701S202000, C701S209000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06278942
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to navigation systems and more particularly the present invention relates to providing guidance when a driver deviates from a route for which route guidance was previously being provided a navigation system.
Navigation systems provide useful features, such as calculating a route to a desired destination and providing guidance for following the route. In order to provide these features, navigation systems use geographic data that include information about the locations of roads and intersections, estimated travel times along road segments, the speed limits along roads, etc. Using these kinds of geographic data, programming algorithms included in navigation systems can find an optimal (e.g, fastest or shortest) route to a specified destination.
Some navigation systems provide a feature that can detect if a vehicle has departed from a route for which route guidance was being provided (i.e., when the vehicle has gone “off-route”). Upon detecting that the vehicle has gone off-route, the navigation system calculates a new route to either the destination or back to the original route and provides guidance to the vehicle driver for following the new route. A factor that can complicate providing this feature is that the calculation of the new route may take several seconds during which time the vehicle position may change. Therefore, the point of origin from which the new route was calculated may not be valid several seconds later when the guidance for following the new route is available for the driver. Worse still, the vehicle driver may have encountered an intersection before the route guidance for following the new route was available and chosen a path leading from the intersection that was not part of the new route. If this occurs, the vehicle is off-route of the new route when the new route becomes available thereby necessitating calculation of another new route from the vehicle position to either the destination or back to the original route.
Accordingly, there exists a need in a navigation system to provide route guidance to a user when the vehicle in the navigation system goes off-route.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
To address these and other objectives, the present invention comprises a method performed by a navigation system to provide guidance to a driver of a vehicle when the vehicle departs from a route to a destination for which route guidance was being provided by the navigation system. Intersections that can be reached by the vehicle while calculation of a new solution route to the destination is being performed are identified. For each identified intersection, cost factors associated with the possible paths leading from the identified intersection are modified to increase the likelihood that the new solution route include those paths with the least cost factors.
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Cuchlinski Jr. William A.
Kaplan Lawrence M.
Kozak Frank J.
Marc-Coleman Marthe
Navigation Technologies Corp.
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