Patent Application
20070150174
This application is concurrently filed with U.S. patent application Ser. No.______, entitled “Predictive Navigation,” which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
This invention relates to navigation systems for commuter vehicles. More specifically, the invention relates to a vehicle navigation system that predicts a vehicle's destination and determines the best route to the destination.
Navigation systems are becoming increasingly common in commuter vehicles. Such systems typically features a display for displaying graphical or text data, for example a map including a present position or driving directions; a processor; a global positioning system (GPS) receiver; a memory/storage; and a user input interface. Many systems also include additional receiver(s) for receiving real time information such as traffic reports, weather reports, etc.
The navigation system can determine an optimal route to a destination. The system typically contains map data for a given zone of interest, for example, the user's city, state, and/or region. A user wanting directions to a particular destination inputs the address of the destination and the system determines one or more routes to the destination based on the map data and user's present position supplied by GPS receiver. The processor may also consider real time traffic conditions provided by a receiver in formulating the route(s). For example, the shortest route to a destination may not be the fastest route at a given time because of traffic congestion or an accident along the shortest route. A service provider outside of the vehicle can provide information concerning these conditions so that the navigation system can determine the most efficient, although not necessarily the shortest, route at a given time. The route can be continually updated to adapt to updated information.
Commuters frequently travel routes that are familiar and in such situations would not typically request the navigation system to determine a route. For example, during rush hour, numerous commuters travel the same route they travel every day. Such commuters are unlikely to solicit the navigation system to determine their route and would therefore forfeit the benefit of having the navigation system consider traffic conditions along the familiar route. However, this sometimes leads to long travel times, because had a given commuter consulted the navigation system, the commuter might have been made aware of congestion or other adverse conditions that could have been avoided if he had the benefit of such information that the navigation system could have provided.
Embodiments of the inventive aspects of this disclosure will be best understood with reference to the following detailed description, when read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:
The present disclosure provides a navigation system that is configured to store destinations in a database. When a user begins traveling in a vehicle, the navigation system can predict the destination from among stored destinations based on parameters such as the vehicle's present position, the time of day, historical travel patterns, etc. For example, if a trip begins in the early evening on a weekday and the vehicle's current position is at an address that the navigation system recognizes as a starting point (e.g., user's office) of a trip that normally leads him to a destination point (e.g., users home), the navigation system might guess that the destination is the user's home. The navigation system can prompt the user and confirm the destination. In addition, the predictive navigation algorithm may select multiple possible destinations and trips from the current set of time, location, heading parameters. For example, drivers may go to a grocery store on their way home from work on a regular basis. Therefore, the predictive navigation solution in the navigation system may predict home and the grocery stores as the possible destinations based on the predicted routes. The navigation system can prompt the user to select a destination from a list of the stored destinations and the list of destinations are prioritized according to the navigation system's prediction of the most likely of the destinations. Once the user confirms or selects a destination, the navigation system calculates a route considering current roadway conditions, of which user might be unaware. Thus, even though user is familiar with the route to be traveled and otherwise would not of his own accord consult the navigation system capabilities available to him, the smart navigation system operates regardless, displaying the predicted routes, showing travel times for the predicted routes, and when selected by the user, suggesting an alternate route to that assumed by the user based on information about roadway conditions.
The features of navigation system 101 described thus far function similarly to navigation systems that are known in the art. For example, a user of the navigation system 101 can use the system to determine the most efficient route to a destination. The memory/storage 106 typically contains map data for a given zone of interest, for example, the user's city, state, and/or region. The memory/storage 106 also contains the destination information for solicited routes from the navigation system 101. The processor 104 determines one or more routes to the destination based on the map data and user's present position supplied by the GPS receiver 105. The processor 104 may also consider real time traffic conditions provided by the traffic information receiver 108.
The navigation system 101 of the present invention, however, also maintains a database of all solicited destinations (i.e., addresses) to which the vehicle 102 has traveled, as well as all unsolicited destinations and related parameters to which the vehicle 102 has traveled. Thus, the system 101 displays a list of saved destinations 113 and prompts the user to select a destination from the displayed destinations, regardless of whether the user explicitly solicits the use of the navigation system 101, or not, such as the user would not be inclined to do when anticipating travel along a well-known route. The user can scroll among stored addresses 113 using arrow buttons 111 and select a destination using button 112. In
The database of destinations 113 can include addresses that the user has previously entered into the navigation system 101, for example, because the user has requested directions to the address. Also, the navigation system 101 can be configured to store the address corresponding to the final position of the vehicle 102 before the navigation system 101 is turned off. The system 101 knows the vehicle 102's final position via the GPS receiver 105.
Because the navigation system 101 presents the user with the convenient option to select a destination from a displayed list of addresses, the user is more inclined to select a destination, even thought the user might not actually need route data to the destination. In other words, the user might not be inclined to take the time to manually input a destination into the navigation system 101 if the user already knows how to get there, but if the user simply has to select from a list, the user might be more inclined to do so. In another embodiment, to further assist the user in selecting a destination from the list, the navigation system 101 calculates the expected travel times for each predicted destination shown on the list, and displays the travel times to the user. All travel times above average is highlighted to the user. Thus, the user benefits from the navigation system's ability to calculate a route based on information about traffic conditions, including accidents and/or congestion, of which the user might be unaware.
According to one embodiment, the navigation system 101 predicts one or more destinations based on a matrix of parameters and prioritizes the list of destinations based on the prediction. Therefore, a user does not have to scroll through the entire list of potential addresses to find his desired destination, as those addresses or destinations that are unlikely given current conditions are discarded.
According to one embodiment, the navigation system 101 predicts a destination based on parameters stored in database 106 relating to each trip the vehicle 102 has taken. More specifically, the processor 105 is programmed with an algorithm that predicts destinations based on such stored parameters relating to trips that the vehicle 102 has made in the past.
A trip might be considered as the duration from the time the navigation system 101 is activated (i.e., commensurate with starting vehicle 102) until the system 101 is deactivated (i.e., when the vehicle 102 is turned off).
As the trip commences, either along the planned route or along an unsolicited route, the system 101 can continue to log 306 one or more additional parameters for the route. For example, the system 101 can log route details such as the streets traversed during the route, turns, directions, etc. Alternatively, the system 101 might simply log vehicle locations at various time intervals. These one or more additional parameters help the algorithm predict future destinations by discriminating between different destinations associated with trips beginning at the same initial address. For example, many trips have an INITIAL ADDRESS that is the user's home address. By checking the user's position one minute into a trip, some destinations will be more likely than others. The database 201 depicted in
When trip is complete, i.e., when the solicited destination is reached or when the system 101 and/or vehicle 102 are powered down, the logging routine logs the route details 308 such as DESTINATION, end time, and end day/date. The DESTINATION parameter may be simply the last address indicated by the GPS receiver 205 before the navigation system 101 is turned off.
The parameters listed in
A predictive strategy of the presently disclosed navigation system 101 is illustrated as follows: referring again to
At any time during the trip, the user can select or confirm one of the routes from the displayed list 412, causing the navigation system 101 to display the recommended route to the user 413. Absent a selection by the user, the navigation system 101 continues to check if ignition/power is on 414, and if so, continues to monitor and collect route data such as location, heading, etc. 415. Using the continually updated route data from the present trip, the navigation system 101 continues to update and reprioritize the displayed routes 406, 407 and update the calculated routes based on continually received real time traffic data.
As the trip progresses, some of the predicted routes may cease to be relevant, for example as the user passes through a “decision point” such as an intersection or interchange. Other routes may be recalculated, for example because of a traffic accident or congestion that occurs after the trip has commenced. These aspects are illustrated graphically in
Referring to
Still referring to
Although this disclosure discusses the relevance of addresses (e.g., originating addresses and destination addresses), it should be understood that “addresses” can also include information over and beyond a mere street address (e.g., 123 Elm Street), and can include merely positional information, such as GPS information, longitude and latitude coordinates, etc.
It should be understood that the inventive concepts disclosed herein are capable of many modifications. To the extent such modifications fall within the scope of the appended claims and their equivalents, they are intended to be covered by this patent.
