Data processing: vehicles – navigation – and relative location – Navigation – Employing position determining equipment
Patent
1997-04-07
1999-07-06
Chin, Gary
Data processing: vehicles, navigation, and relative location
Navigation
Employing position determining equipment
701210, 340990, 340995, G06F16500
Patent
active
059192461
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a process and a device for providing navigational assistance to a driver in reaching a target position with a vehicle. More particularly to a process in which the current local position of the vehicle is identified, a route is determined and current travel tips for the route are obtained from a traffic computer, which is disposed outside of the vehicle, and are displayed to the driver.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Vehicle guidance and navigation systems, especially off-board navigation systems, having optical and/or acoustical output devices for travel tips to guide a vehicle driver along a determined route to a preestablished target destination are known. These systems are used, for example, to display information based on digitalized road maps, which are stored in or outside of the vehicle, to drivers unfamiliar with an area. This information concerns, for example, the current geographical position, the route and the impending directional changes.
In the process known from DE 4039887, the desired target position is input manually and the current geographical position is determined by a position-finding system installed in the vehicle. The target position and the current geographical position are then transmitted to an off-board navigation system, which determines a route on the basis of a digital road map, taking into account current traffic information. Finally, this route, together with the road network in the area near the vehicle, is transmitted by the off-board navigation system to the vehicle and shown on a display, highlighted by means of color, for example, using simple arrows or directional symbols.
In this and other known guidance systems, it is disadvantageous that the driver must always input the target in some form. For many drivers, this requirement is especially burdensome in the case of routine trips (e.g., the daily drive to and from work). Because the routes in such cases are so well known to them, drivers often fail to enter their targets. Thus, drivers often fail to use the guidance system, even though systems that provide information on current traffic conditions can provide valuable assistance, even in the case of daily trips to the same destination, by guiding a vehicle to its target along the fastest of several possible routes, especially when traffic jams and the like occur on the route of travel.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The object of the present invention is to provide a process for fully automatic navigational assistance, especially for frequently repeated routine trips, in which the driver's input is minimized. The navigational assistance is to be operative, in particular, during traffic jams, short-term detours, etc. In addition it is an object of the invention to provide, a device to implement this process.
Pursuant to these objects, and others which will become apparent hereafter, one aspect of the present invention resides in a process for providing navigational assistance to a vehicle driver in reaching a target position in a vehicle, which process includes the steps of identifying a current local position, determining a route, deriving the target position automatically according to probability by comparing stored historical travel information with current travel information, obtaining current travel tips for the route from a traffic computer disposed outside the vehicle, and relaying the tips to the driver.
Another aspect of the invention resides in a device for providing navigational assistance to a vehicle driver in reaching a target position, which device includes local position finding means for detecting a current local position, route finding means, communication means for exchanging data with a traffic computer disposed outside the vehicle, and means for relaying travel tips to the vehicle driver. The route finding means includes a target position derivation device operative to automatically drive the target position, according to probability, based on stored historical
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Albrecht Uwe
Garthwaite Paul
Waizmann Gerd
Chin Gary
Mannesmann Aktiengesellschaft
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