Data processing: vehicles – navigation – and relative location – Navigation – Employing position determining equipment
Reexamination Certificate
1993-08-20
2003-07-01
Frejd, Russell (Department: 2123)
Data processing: vehicles, navigation, and relative location
Navigation
Employing position determining equipment
C701S201000, C701S209000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06587786
ABSTRACT:
NOTICE REGARDING COPYRIGHT MATERIAL
a portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains materials which is subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has no objection to the fasmile reproduction by anyone of the patent document or the patent disclosure as it appears in the Patent and Trademark office patent file or records, but otherwise reserves all copyright rights whatsoever.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates in general to navigation systems, and more particularly to a navigation system incorporating artificial intelligence that is useful for cars and trucks requiring no sensors for spatially locating the vehicle and which uses an audio, rather than visual, interface with the driver.
2. Description of the Related Art
Many existing navigation systems utilize internal sensors or navigation satellites to locate the subject vehicle with respect to a digital map and then, once located, create a visual presentation of the map, the location of the vehicle and the destination point on a CRT mounted in the dashboard or elsewhere in the vehicle. Some systems also calculate a preferred route which is highlighted on the displayed map. A great deal of effort and technology is used in these systems in order to locate the vehicle as accurately as possible in order to perform the navigation function.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,630,209; 4,829,578; 4,502,123; 4,242,731; 4,679,147; 4,796,189; 4,677,429; 4,882,696; 4,749,924; 4,758,959 and 4,827,520 pertain to car navigation systems or to voice actuated control of a vehicle and are representative of these existing navigation systems.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,758,959 issued to Thoone et al., is indicative of both the ability and shortcomings of the existing systems. In U.S. Pat. No. 4,758,959, speedometers and accelerometers are utilized to estimate the vehicle's position and corrections are made to try to keep the vehicle positioned on the map. The map and the vehicle are displayed on a CRT. The operator inputs his source and destination points via a keyboard.
The problems associated with this kind of system are as follows:
1. The accelerometer and velocity sensors are subject to drift and can go out of calibration. Even if the sensors were perfect or if very accurate satellite positioning were possible, the maps available are not accurate, having been digitized from maps which are essentially hand drawn. Thus, it is difficult to determine what street or section of street the vehicle is actually on.
2. The presentation of a map on a CRT in a moving vehicle is a dangerous distraction, especially in heavy traffic found around cities.
3. The use of a keyboard for input from the driver is another distraction and could be dangerous to use while the vehicle is in motion.
4. The use of on-board sensors requires the use of specialized procedures with specially trained personnel for proper installation. Typically, this kind of installation is best done at the factory where the vehicle is built. Therefore, these devices miss the broad after-market of existing cars.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Accordingly, the following are some of the primary objects and advantages of the present invention:
1. To provide a navigation system which uses artificial intelligence algorithms to find the best route from source to destination, without requiring any sensors to locate the car;
2. To provide a navigation system which contains an audio, rather than a visual, interface with the driver and is thereby non-distracting;
3. To provide a means for the driver of the vehicle to negate or deny any turn instruction given by the computer and to demand an alternative route. This feature overcomes the need for extremely accurate maps in which every one-way street and every possible turn restriction (including time of day turn restrictions) have been incorporated;
4. To provide a navigation system having few mechanical parts in order to increase reliability and decrease the cost of production;
5. To provide a navigation system that can be built around a very inexpensive, portable compact disk music player which will keep the music functions while adding the navigation functions;
6. To provide a navigation system which does not have to be installed in the car. It can be portable or in the form of an AM/FM Compact Disc Radio and can be sold to anyone who already has a car;
7. To provide a navigation system with traffic avoidance capability, when digitized traffic information becomes available. An FM receiver can be tuned to pick up the latest traffic information and adjust street and highway speeds accordingly. The artificial intelligence routing algorithms in the device will automatically route the driver around congested areas;
8. To provide a navigation system which may optionally utilize a drive shaft rotation sensor as a convenience to alert the driver that his next turn is coming up. It can also aid in escaping a highway traffic jam which has been detected up ahead by the traffic update receiver (see 7 above).
In summary, the present invention is directed to a navigation system for a vehicle including means, such as a speech digitizer or an analog signal processor, for converting a spoken audio signal into a corresponding electrical signal and for storing said electrical signal as data in a location data memory. A microprocessor is coupled to the location data memory and to a map data memory for processing data from each of the memories according to a program stored in a program memory. The stored program includes path finding procedures for selecting a path between two points, a first point being represented by data stored in the location data memory and a second point being represented by data stored in the map data memory, and for generating a set of electrical signals representing a selected path. Means are coupled to the microprocessor for converting the set of electrical signals representing the selected path to an audibly perceptible signal.
A method for the navigation of a vehicle embodying the present invention includes the steps of: sensing a spoken audio command from the user and converting the sensed audio command into a corresponding electrical signal; storing the electrical signal as data in a location data memory; selecting a path between two points, a first point being represented by data stored in the location data memory, and a second point being represented by data stored in a map data memory by processing in a microprocessor data from the location data memory and from a map data memory according to a program stored in a program memory; generating a set of electrical signals representing a selected path; and, converting the set of electrical signals representing the selected path to an audibly perceptible signal.
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SAE Technica
Audio Navigation Systems, Inc.
Browdy and Neimark , P.L.L.C.
Frejd Russell
LandOfFree
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