Data processing: vehicles – navigation – and relative location – Navigation – Employing position determining equipment
Reexamination Certificate
2001-12-20
2003-11-11
Cuchlinski, Jr., William A. (Department: 3661)
Data processing: vehicles, navigation, and relative location
Navigation
Employing position determining equipment
C701S211000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06647337
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates generally to navigational devices, and in particular to identification of thoroughfares.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Route planning devices are well known in the field of navigational instruments. The method of route planning implemented by known prior art systems depends on the capabilities of system resources, such as processor speed and the amount and speed of memory. As increased system capability also increases system cost, the method of route planning implemented by a navigation device is a function of overall system cost.
One feature of increased system capability cost involves the labeling of thoroughfares with a best name, or a most well-known name. Thoroughfare names are either shielded or not shielded. A shielded thoroughfare name is one that appears on signs along thoroughfares inside of a symbol rather than merely being spelled out. Examples of shielded name includes US1, I270, or State 91. A non-shielded name is a name for a thoroughfare that is not typically displayed in a symbol on signs, such as “Jeff Davis Highway” or “Jack Nicklaus Freeway.” Some thoroughfares have multiple names, some of which may be shielded and some of which may be non-shielded name, for example, “Jeff Davis Highway” in Virginia is a non-shielded name for the same thoroughfare whose shielded name is “US1.”
In general, thoroughfares are better known by their non-shielded name, except for interstate thoroughfares. For example, highway US1 is more well known by the non-shielded name of “Jeff Davis Highway.” In contrast, the I635 interstate beltway around Kansas City, Kansas is not very well-known by its non-shielded name of the “Harry S. Darby” freeway.
Furthermore, conventional cartographic displays in navigational instruments frequently do not display the well-known non-shielded name of a thoroughfare. For example, conventional systems display the name “US1” on the display as a label for the thoroughfare that is better-known as the “Jeff Davis Highway.”
The frequent use of less-than-well-known thoroughfare names creates problems for the users of the cartographic data from navigation devices. More frequently than not, thoroughfare signs identify thoroughfares using the better-known names of the thoroughfares. As a result, the names on the thoroughfare signs can be different than the name provided by the navigation device. When the names are different, the user may not correctly identify the thoroughfare while in route, and may travel past, or miss the intended course of navigation.
Additionally, thoroughfare names often have a suffix, such as “business” or “alternate.” For example, “I-44 business” in Rolla, Mo., designates a portion or spur of I-44 that services a business district of a city that is also known by the non-shielded name of “US63.” An exception to the above rule in which interstate thoroughfares (“interstates”) are most well-known by the shielded name is that interstates with a suffix are better known by their non-shielded name. Therefore, “I-44 business” is better-known as “US63.”
In summary, conventional systems often communicate a label to a navigational device with a lesser-known name, or a nearly unknown name. Furthermore, conventional systems do not necessarily label a thoroughfare on a cartographic display of a navigational device with a better-known, or the best-known, name of the thoroughfare. Therefore, there exists a need for systems, methods, data structures, and apparatus adapted to communicate a label of a thoroughfare through an output of a navigational device with a better-known name, a well-known name, or the best-known name, of the thoroughfare.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The above mentioned problems of navigational devices are addressed by the present invention and will be understood by reading and studying the following specification. Systems and methods are provided to allow a better-known name, a well-known name, or the best-known name, to identify thoroughfares in cartographic data. The systems and methods of the present invention offer an improved navigational device which has a cartographic display with thoroughfare labels that correspond to the well-known name of the thoroughfare, which in turn, more accurately, efficiently, and understandably assists in navigation.
In some embodiments, a well-known name, a better-known name, and/or a most appropriate name in a given context of a thoroughfare is selected as the label name of the thoroughfare in cartographic data. One example of a well-known name is a non-shielded name. Where the thoroughfare is not an interstate, the first non-shielded thoroughfare name in a set of thoroughfare labels is identified and/or selected as the name of the thoroughfare. The same holds true if the thoroughfare is an interstate and the name for the interstate has a suffix.
In another embodiment, an electronic navigational aid device that identifies a name of a thoroughfare includes a memory and a processor. The memory includes a list of one or more names of the thoroughfare, and the shield types, if any, of the names of the thoroughfare. The processor is adapted to communicate with the memory. The processor obtains the list of names of the thoroughfare, and the shield types, if any, of the name(s) of the thoroughfare. The most well-known name of the thoroughfare is selected from the list for labeling the thoroughfare.
The present invention has the advantage of using a better-known name for a thoroughfare in cartographic data. This is helpful to a human user of the cartographic data when the cartographic data is used or relied upon by the user in navigating thoroughfares.
REFERENCES:
patent: 5297051 (1994-03-01), Arakawa et al.
patent: 5543789 (1996-08-01), Behr et al.
patent: 5839086 (1998-11-01), Hirano
patent: 5925090 (1999-07-01), Poonsaengsathit
patent: 5991690 (1999-11-01), Murphy
patent: 6081803 (2000-06-01), Ashby et al.
patent: 6092076 (2000-07-01), McDonough et al.
patent: 6184823 (2001-02-01), Smith et al.
patent: 6188955 (2001-02-01), Robinson et al.
patent: 6188956 (2001-02-01), Walters
patent: 6249742 (2001-06-01), Friederich et al.
patent: 6317684 (2001-11-01), Roeseler et al.
patent: 6317687 (2001-11-01), Morimoto et al.
patent: 6321158 (2001-11-01), DeLorme et al.
patent: 6330453 (2001-12-01), Suzuki et al.
“An optimal pathfinder for vehicles in real-world digital terrain maps”, http://www.nease.net/jamsoft/shortestpath/pathfinder/4.html, 11 pages, (1999).
“Informed Search Methods”,Artificial Intelligence, A Modern Approach, Prentice Hall, Inc., pp. 92-115, (1995).
“Real-Time Vehicle Routing in Dynamic and Stochastic Urban Traffic Networks”, http://www.gpu.srv.ualberta.ca/lfu/research.htm, pp. 1-3, (1997).
Ahuja, R., et al., “Faster Algorithms for the Shortest Path Problem”,Journal of the Association for Computing Machinery, 37(2), pp. 213-223, (1990).
Chung, V., et al., “An Efficient Implementation of Parallel A *”,CFPAR, Montreal, Canada, pp. 153-167, (1994).
Fu, L., “Heuristic Shortest Path Algorithms and their Potential IVHS Applications”,Proceedings of the Fourth Univeristy of Alberta—University of Calgary, Joint Graduate Student Symposium in Transportation Engineering, pp. 83-109, (1995).
Ikeda, T., et al., “A Fast Algorithm for Finding Better Routes by AI Search Techniques”,Vehicle Navigation and Information Systems Conference Proceedings, pp. 291-296, (1994).
Kaindl, H., et al., “Memory-Bounded Bidirectional Search”,Proceedings of the 12th National Conference on Art, AAAI Press, Seattle, WA, pp. 1359-1364, (1994).
Laporte, G., “The Vehicle Routing Problem: An overview of exact and approximate algorithms”,European Journal of Operational Research, 59, pp. 345-358, (1992).
Myers, B., “Data Structures for Best-First Search”, http://www4.ncsu.edu/jbmyers/dsai.htm, pp. 1-6, (1997).
Ronngren, R., et al., “Parallel and Sequential Priority Queue Algorithms”,ACM Transactions on Modeling and Computer Simulation, 7(2), pp. 168-172, 198, 199, (1997).
Stout, B., “Smart Moves: Intelligent Pathfinding”,Gamasutra, http://www.gamasutra.com/features/programming/080197/
Cuchlinski Jr. William A.
Hernandez Olga
LandOfFree
Navigation system, method and device for labeling thoroughfares does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.
If you have personal experience with Navigation system, method and device for labeling thoroughfares, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Navigation system, method and device for labeling thoroughfares will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-3118455