Data processing: vehicles – navigation – and relative location – Navigation – Determination of travel data based on the start point and...
Reexamination Certificate
2003-07-29
2004-09-14
Marc-Coleman, Marthe Y. (Department: 3661)
Data processing: vehicles, navigation, and relative location
Navigation
Determination of travel data based on the start point and...
C701S201000, C340S995190
Reexamination Certificate
active
06792349
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to motor vehicle navigation technology and, more particularly, to a vehicle navigation system and method that provide a simple navigation way for a car driver to forward to the destination.
2. Description of Related Art
Conventional motor vehicle navigation systems are to provide each motor vehicle with a huge electronic map database and a well-equipped On-Board Unit, enabling the well-equipped On-Board Unit of each motor vehicle to calculate the optimal route to the destination itself. Because each motor vehicle must be equipped with such a huge electronic map database and such an expensive On-Board Unit, the cost is high, and much vehicle installation space is required.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,292,743 and U.S. Pat. No. 6,314,369 disclose a navigation technology, which uses a remote server to calculate the optimal route for a car and sends the calculated information to the motor vehicle's On-Board Unit wirelessly. The information to be sent to the motor vehicle's On-Board Unit according to the conventional navigation methods include the geographical longitude/latitude (or even altitude) coordinates of all turning points of the optimal route. Because the calculated geographical longitude/latitude (or even altitude) coordinates must be further processed through a complicated calculating procedure to convert degree/minute/second data into second data and then to let converted second data be sent to the motor vehicle's On-Board Unit wirelessly by a remote server, the amount of wirelessly transmitting data is huge which resulting in high error rate. Further, upon receipt of the converted second data, the motor vehicle's On-Board Unit must frequently converts the currently received degree/minute/second data of GPS coordinates into second data every two to five seconds so as to compare with the optimal route's second data. Therefore, the loading of converting procedure of the frequent GPS coordinates in the On-Board Unit is very heavy and time-consuming. In order to achieve the aforesaid complicated calculating and comparing procedure, the conventional On-Board Unit must still remain a powerful function which resulting in high cost.
Therefore, it is desirable to provide a vehicle navigation system that eliminates the aforesaid drawbacks.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is the object of the present invention to provide a vehicle navigation system and method, which simplifies the On-Board Unit of a car to lower the cost. It is another object of the present invention to provide a vehicle navigation system and method, which reduces the wireless transmitting amount and improves wireless transmitting accuracy. It is further another object of the present invention to provide a vehicle navigation system and method, which enables the consumer service center to provide an on-line navigating service when the car got lost.
According to one aspect of the present invention, the vehicle navigation method is used in a remote consumer service center, comprising the steps in series of:
(A) receiving the position data of a starting point and the position data of a destination point;
(B) searching at least one traveling route from the starting point to the destination point;
(C) selecting a geo area covering the at least one traveling route, in which the geo area is defined by at least two position parameters and divided into a plurality of geo zones subject to a pair of predetermined 2D (two-dimensional) grid number, the geo zones each being respectively defined with a respective pair of 2D (two-dimensional) index subject to a 2D (two-dimensional) array rule;
(D) searching multiple traveling zones corresponding to the geo zones which including the at least one traveling route therein;
(E) establishing a simple navigation information, the simple navigation information comprising the at least two position parameters, the pair of predetermined 2D grid number, and the pairs of 2D indexes of the traveling zones; and
(F) transmitting the simple navigation information to a car,
The serviceman of the remote consumer service center can achieve the aforesaid step by step manually. Preferably, the remote consumer service center provides a server and an electronic map database to execute the above steps in series automatically, achieving a rapid and accurate effect. Further, a memory may be installed in the remote consumer service center to store the simple navigation information, so that a monitoring 2D grillwork, a current grid corresponding to the 2D grid of the current position of the car, and all the traveling grids having their pairs of 2D indexes same with those of said traveling zones can be displayed on a display. Therefore, the serviceman of the remote consumer service center can provide an on-line navigating service later through a wireless communication device (for example, GPRS module, GSM module, 3C module, or any of a variety of other equivalent wireless communication modules) to the On-Board Unit (OBU) of the car to guide the car moving forward synchronically when the car got lost.
According to another aspect of the present invention, the vehicle navigation system is installed in a car, comprising a GPS (global positioning system) module, a memory, a processor, and an output device. The aforesaid simple navigation information is preferably received by a wireless communication device in the car and then is stored in the memory. The processor reads the at least two position parameters of the simple navigation information from the memory, defines a 2D (two-dimensional) grillwork by means of the at least two position parameters, reads the pair of predetermined 2D grid number from the memory and divides the 2D grillwork into a plurality of 2D (two-dimensional) grids each having a respective reference point position and a respective pair of 2D index defined subject to a 2D (two-dimensional) array rule, fetches the current position data of the car from the GPS module, and compares the current position data of the car to the reference point positions of the 2D grids so as to calculate the pair of 2D index of a current grid corresponding to the current position of the car. The processor also controls the output device to display the 2D grillwork, the current grid, and a plurality of traveling grids having their pairs of 2D indexes same with the pairs of 2D indexes stored in the memory.
Therefore, the processor of the On-Board Unit simply needs to renew and display the current grid of the current position of the car on the output device, for enabling the car driver to compare with all the traveling grids by himself to find the forwarding direction himself. Because the processor of the present invention needs neither to convert longitude/latitude coordinates data into seconds nor to calculate the next direction to the traveling route, the On-Board Unit is simplified, and the cost of the On-Board Unit is greatly lowered. Further, because the consumer service center needs not to convert the complicated longitude/latitude coordinates into second data, the wireless data transmission amount is greatly reduced and the higher accuracy of wireless data transmission is achieved, and the consumer service center can synchronously display a monitoring 2D grillwork to synchronously provide an on-line navigating service when the car got lost.
Other objects, advantages, and novel features of the invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.
REFERENCES:
patent: 5513110 (1996-04-01), Fujita et al.
patent: 6151375 (2000-11-01), Nakatsugawa
Chen Kuo-Rong
Huang Cheng-Hung
Lee Chun-Chung
Bacon & Thomas PLLC
Marc-Coleman Marthe Y.
Sin Etke Technology Co., Ltd.
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