Patent Application
20160018234
The present invention provides a navigation system with improved ways of entering a destination or other information. At times, selecting a destination on a navigation system can be time-consuming. In the case of a navigation system installed in a rental vehicle, the user is by definition in an unfamiliar geographic area using a navigation system with which he may be unfamiliar. Even in the best of circumstances, entering a street address takes some time.
A navigation system includes a media reader that can be used to select a destination very quickly. The user presents a code or media to the media reader. A processor in the navigation system receives the code or information on the media from the media reader. The processor obtains a destination based upon the code and provides a route from the current position to the destination.
The media reader may be a camera in which case the user may present a QR code or bar code to the media reader. The code may be transmitted by the processor to a remote server which translates the code to an associated destination. The destination is returned to the processor for route calculation. Alternatively, the route can be calculated by the server and returned to the processor. Alternatively, the user can present a business card, flyer or brochure containing a printed address that the camera can recognize and convert to an address for the destination.
The media reader may also be a local wireless circuit, such as an NFC reader. The user can present an NFC chip to the NFC reader. The NFC chip may contain an address or a code that can be translated at the server.
A navigation system 10 according to one example of the present invention is shown in
The example embodiment of the navigation system 10 is shown and described herein as installed into a vehicle; however, it should be noted that the navigation system 10 could be installed as part of the OEM vehicle equipment, as part of the vehicle interior, or as shown, as a separately installed appliance. The particular example described below is in the context of a navigation system in a rental vehicle. Again, this context is primarily for purposes of illustration, as the invention is not limited to rental vehicles or to vehicles.
The navigation system 10 may also contain one or more position-determining devices, such as GPS 18, accelerometer/gyro 20, etc. The navigation system 10 may be in communication with the vehicle bus 34 (e.g. OBD-II or variations thereof), which can provide speed and distance information. The navigation system 10 may include wireless communication, such as cell circuitry 22. The navigation system 10 may include a speaker 24 for communicating routing instructions to the driver. The navigation system 10 may include local wireless communication circuitry 30, such as NFC, Bluetooth, WiFi, WiFi Direct, Bluetooth or Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE), or the like, as newer communication protocols are developed.
The particular configuration of the hardware, route guidance and position-determining hardware and software is not critical to the present invention. Many configurations are known. As is also known, the navigation system 10 permits a user to select a destination from the databases of roads and points of interest. The navigation system 10 can then calculate a route via roads in the roads database to the selected destination from the current location of the navigation system 10. The navigation system 10 displays the route and/or communicates turn-by-turn instructions to the user as the navigation system 10 follows the recommended route.
Referring to
First, QR codes or barcodes or other visible codes could be could be read by the camera 26 in the navigation system 10. The code 46 could be on a paper media 44, such as on printed material, brochure, advertising literature, card, etc. Alternatively, the code 46 could be displayed on an electronic display such as on a portable electronic device 48 such as a mobile phone, tablet, iPod, etc. The navigation system 10 may be in communication (e.g. via cell circuitry 22 to cell towers for connection to the internet, as is known) with one or more remote servers 36. The server 36 includes coded entries 38 that link a code 46 to the destination 40 (e.g. lat/long, street address, franchise name, etc) or set of destinations 40. The code 46 is read by the camera 26 and the navigation system 10 may transmit the code 46 to the server 36 to retrieve a destination which may specifically reference the database of roads (e.g. a lat/long, lat/long/altitude or street address) or a point of interest more generally (e.g. a particular brand of hotel or restaurant, the nearest one of which can be found by the navigation system). The destination is then used as the destination for calculation of a route by the navigation system.
As another alternative, the portable electronic device 48 or the media 44 may include an NFC chip 50 or other local wireless connectivity compatible with local wireless communication circuitry 30 on the navigation system 10. The media 44 may be a smart business card, smart advertising literature, etc, with a specific destination stored on (or accessible via) the NFC chip 50 (again it could be a lat/long, lat/long/altitude, street address, name) or the NFC chip 50 may be associated with a coded entry 38 on the server 36 where the destination is stored. In any event, the NFC chip 50 could also reference multiple locations (e.g. by reference a chain of restaurants or hotel by name).
If the portable electronic device 48 is used, in addition to the above options, the user can also choose a specific address from the user's address book, browsed website, an email, etc. and send it to the navigation system 10 via the local wireless communication circuitry 30. As another alternative, the NFC chip 50 on the portable electronic device 48 can be used to read NFC stored information on smart media, which is then transmitted to the navigation system via Bluetooth, WiFi, or some other local wireless communication protocol, via local wireless communication circuitry 30.
As yet another alternative, the camera 26 could be used to read an address 60 from a business card 58. The image from the camera 26 is converted to the letters and numbers of the address and may be used to access a destination in the database in memory 16.
The invention is not limited to choosing destinations for route calculation. A destination may also have other associated information that can be presented to the user. For example, a restaurant destination may also enable the user to obtain business hours of operation, contact information, coupons, advertising, home size, property tax information. Additionally, any of the above methods could be used to provide audible information related to the destination.
In accordance with the provisions of the patent statutes and jurisprudence, exemplary configurations described above are considered to represent a preferred embodiment of the invention. However, it should be noted that the invention can be practiced otherwise than as specifically illustrated and described without departing from its spirit or scope.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 62012156 | Jun 2014 | US |
