Data processing: vehicles – navigation – and relative location – Navigation – Employing position determining equipment
Reexamination Certificate
2000-02-16
2003-01-07
Beaulieu, Yonel (Department: 3661)
Data processing: vehicles, navigation, and relative location
Navigation
Employing position determining equipment
C701S208000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06505117
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a method for navigating an object in accordance with the preamble of Patent claim
1
. In said method, the object is navigated starting from a starting point to a destination along traffic routes which are contained in an electronically stored traffic route map.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Routing or navigation systems are used, for example, to direct a driver with his motor vehicle to his destination in the best way possible. Different navigation systems differ in this respect. Those of the first generation are autonomous. They merely have digitized traffic routes or road maps on CD-ROM and do not have a connection to traffic information services or service providers. For this reason, their route calculations cannot be optimized with respect to the current traffic conditions. Other disadvantageous factors are the relative speed with which the street maps become out of date and the necessity of having to obtain the appropriate data carriers whenever one wishes to drive to new, more remote regions.
In navigation systems with so-called “off-board” routing, the calculation of the route is exported to a service provider. Thus, for example, a driver has the route dynamically transmitted to him after he has input his destination. The exporting of the calculation of the route and of the data material required for it has a number of advantages. Thanks to the service provider's access to information from an extremely wide variety of sources which he can coordinate and interconnect centrally, the service provider is able to include immediately in the calculation of the routes current traffic reports, congestion forecasts, information on road works and the weather etc. In addition, the service provider can keep his data stock (digitized road maps, information on hotels, sights, public buildings etc.) more up to date and has access to relatively large quantities of data and more computing power than terminals (as cheap as possible). In this way, the driver can be guided on a route which is dynamically optimized to the respective current peripheral conditions. In addition, the procurement of new updated CD-ROMs is dispensed with. The traffic processes are thus optimized and traffic flow is made more efficient, reliable and less damaging to the environment.
It has proven a disadvantage with the two methods described above that, in order to calculate the route from the starting point to the destination, a relatively large amount of data management has to take place, and thus a large computing capacity and computing time are required.
3. Objects of the Invention
The invention is based on the object of specifying a method for navigating an object, which can be used to calculate routes more quickly using less computing power.
The way of achieving the object set is specified in the characterizing part of Patent claim
1
. Advantageous refinements of the inventions can be found in the subclaims.
BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
A method according to the invention is distinguished by the fact that the traffic routes contained in the electronically stored traffic route map are provided with routing points. These routing points contain not only information, for example in the form of a vector, on their actual geographic position (length, width) but also information on the course (for example course of the roads) lying in their vicinity, and the directions along which it is possible to navigate or drive. The routing points thus greatly facilitate the navigation and reduce the computational work which it requires.
According to a very advantageous development of the invention, the routing points are assigned routing values which, starting from the destination, either only increase or only decrease as the distance from said destination grows larger, the object being navigated using the routing values which only decrease or only increase.
The routes are calculated according to the inventive method starting from the destination in the manner, as it were, of a propagating wave with routing values.
In the process, the destination is assigned, for example, the routing value 1, while all the routing points which, viewed in the direction in which the route runs, are directly adjacent are assigned the routing value 2. The last-mentioned routing points which are directly adjacent in the direction in which the route runs are then assigned the routing value 3, and the destination is now eliminated out etc. The routing values can thus be used to guide the object starting from any position in the traffic route map. To do this, the closest routing point with the lowest routing value is used as the direction indicator because this point lies closest to the destination. The method could in principle also be implemented in such a way that it is started with a relatively high routing value at the destination, which then decreases to lower values. In this case, the navigation would take place from the starting point to the destination in the direction of increasing routing values.
The provision of the routing points with the routing values which either only increase or only decrease can be implemented relatively easily and quickly with the result that the route can be calculated in a short time and with only a small amount of computing power. The data record which is necessary for the navigation itself after the route has been created is, furthermore, relatively small, with the result that its management also requires only a small amount of computing capacity and storage capacity.
The method according to the invention can therefore also be implemented advantageously in first-generation navigation systems, provided that the traffic route maps stored on the CD-ROMs are provided with routing points. The routes can be calculated relatively quickly and with little computing power, with the result that relatively cheap terminals can be used. This applies also with respect to the fact that the data record calculated for navigation is relatively small, with the result that it also requires only a small amount of storage capacity.
However, owing to this relatively small data record which represents the calculated route, it is also possible to apply the method according to the invention advantageously even if the “off-board” routing which has already been described at the beginning, in which the route is calculated by the service provider, is carried out. In this case, the calculated route must be transmitted from the service provider to the navigation system of the object which is to be navigated, which can now be carried out relatively easily, for example over a telephone link, owing to the small amount of data for the calculated route.
Apart from digital voice transmission, mobile radio also provides various possible types of data transmission, and it is now available with virtual complete coverage. Thus, the data which relate to the navigation, in this case the route calculated by the service provider, can be transmitted to the customer using an existing telephone by means of, for example, the GSM short message service SMS. Because the amount of data to be transmitted is relatively small, calling the calculated route from the service provider to the customer does not constitute a considerable cost factor, especially since the transmission of data does not require a continuous data link. The use of the method according to the invention could thus be attractive even if parts of its execution take place at the service provider end.
The method according to the invention can in principle be implemented to navigate any desired objects along traffic routes. As already mentioned, the objects can be motor vehicles which are capable of detecting their actual geographic position, for example using a GPS receiver which is carried along.
However, the objects of the type in question may also be mobile phones themselves if they are capable of detecting their actual geographic position, for example by surveying their position using a plurality of surrounding
Ratert Matthias
Serafat Reza
Beaulieu Yonel
Nokia Mobile Phones
Perman & Green LLP
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