Patent Application
20070265773
The present invention relates to methods and programs for computer generated maps, and particularly to such methods that are easy to use by even novice users who use such maps in the delivery of goods and services.
The explosive development of the Internet or World Wide Web (Web) has had a major, and still expanding, impact on the consumer purchasing and shopping functions of our society. This has resulted in the rapidly increasing purchase of products over the Internet. Virtually all aspects of shopping and purchasing, e.g. ordering, billing and payment, have been made faster and more efficient by the Internet.
However, there is one function on which the rapid Internet purchasing boom has placed a great burden. All of the purchased products have to be delivered to the ultimate consumer in a timely manner consistent with the speed and efficiency of the other Internet purchasing functions. Conventional delivery carriers such as UPS or FedEx and the US Postal Service have had to deal with this increasing demand for delivery services.
This has created a new work force of less experienced delivery people. Many in this work force work on a part time basis. Many small business delivery services are starting up to meet this demand. The FedEx Corporation, for example, has worked with small business partners in establishing FedEx Home Delivery Services in which small trucking businesses are franchised. Actually, such developments are potentially beneficial to the economy through the creation of new jobs in the delivery business to replace the traditional retail jobs that may be lost to Internet shopping.
These new delivery service functions will be carried out by users inexperienced in the intricacies of destination location using conventional road and street maps, particularly in urban geographical regions. These new delivery functions are likely to operate on tight margins with little tolerance for time wasted in looking for destinations. There is, of course, available to such users, an established variety of computer generated mapping services for locating destinations.
A general survey of available services for generating route maps is described in the article, Rendering Effective Route Maps Improving Usability Through Generalization, by M. Agrawala and C. Stolte, Stanford University, published in Siggraph 2001, and available from the Internet at http://graphics.stanford.edu/papers/routemaps. Also, the operating system WindowsXP™ offers expedients based upon Global Positioning Systems (GPS), as described in the article, Navigate with a Tablet PC and Microsoft Streets & Trips 2005 With GPS Locator, Tony Northrup, April 2005, and available on the Internet at http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/tablepc/learnmore/n orthrup_navigate.mspx.
While there are many available systems for generating maps to aid in destination location in urban street environments, these would present additional complexities to new delivery drivers.
The present invention provides an implementation for the computer generation of destination maps that are easy to use and intuitive to the new or novice delivery user by taking advantage of what the user already knows. The manager or host of the computer generating mapping method compiles and stores a list of most of the landmarks within the geographic area within which the deliveries are to be made. The new user is prompted to choose from the stored list, all of the landmarks with which he is familiar, and knows how to reach. This set of user known landmarks is stored in association with the particular user. When a delivery by the user is to be made within the region, a determination is made of the optimum landmark from which the user may proceed to the destination, and a map is generated only from the landmark to the destination. The basic assumption is that the user knows the starting landmark and how to reach it. The optimum landmark is usually the landmark from which the route distance to the destination is shortest. However, other algorithms for selecting the optimum landmark may be used. One alternative would include selecting a departure point, and then determining the minimum route distance from the departure point to the destination via the landmark. Another alternative may involve determining the optimum landmark by a combination of the minimum route distance and the complexity of the routing from the landmark to the destination. In any event, the complexities of optimum landmark selection are unknown and transparent to the user. All he has to do is get to the chosen optimum landmark on his own, and then use the generated map from the landmark to the destination.
The present invention will be better understood and its numerous objects and advantages will become more apparent to those skilled in the art by reference to the following drawings, in conjunction with the accompanying specification, in which:
In an alternative embodiment illustrated with respect to
The optimum landmark for the destination may be chosen by algorithms that weigh the complexity of the route in combination with the shortest distance. For example, the algorithm may take into account weights entered by the system manager for number of turns, number of traffic lights and anticipated traffic densities for different times of the day.
However, irrespective of the method used, all the driver gets is a simplified map from the optimum landmark to the destination. Where the delivery vehicle has a dashboard display, the route may be shown on the display. More likely in a simplified system, the map will be printed out and given to the driven along with his delivery assignment. While the illustration involved a pizza delivery, the invention may be even more effectively used in package delivery by commercial carriers. In such cases, the route may be printed out directly on the delivery bill or invoice.
Referring now to
Display adapter 36 includes a frame buffer 39 that is a storage device that holds a representation of each pixel on the display screen 38. Images may be stored in frame buffer 39 for display on monitor 38 through various components, such as a digital to analog converter (not shown) and the like. By using the aforementioned I/O devices, a user is capable of inputting information to the system through keyboard 24 or mouse 26 and receiving output information from the system via display 38.
Now, with reference to the programming shown in
Provision is also made for the optional activation of an alternative routine to replace the routine of step 73 that is responsive to the entry of a destination and will select the landmark in the driver's set from which the routing distance from the starting point to the destination will be the shortest, step 75. The system may provide for the printing of the Map of step 74 to the destination on the bill of the provider of goods or services so that the driver may conveniently have the map together with the invoice or shipping bill, step 76.
Now, with reference to the flowchart of
It should be noted that the operational principles described hereinabove are applicable if the delivery person is to make a plurality of deliveries on a delivery route. The initial shipping or departure point is still operative to select the first landmark. Then, the first and subsequent destinations receiving a delivery are considered as shipping points in the subsequent determination of optimum landmarks for each subsequent destination.
Although certain preferred embodiments have been shown and described, it will be understood that many changes and modifications may be made therein without departing from the scope and intent of the appended claims.
