Map application with transit navigation mode

• US 10,094,675 B2
• Filed: 09/29/2015
• Issued: 10/09/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 06/07/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Hajj, Usama M., Leighton, Ian, Hodge, David, Sabol, Cameron, van Os, Marcel
• Primary Examiner(s): Shaawat, Mussa A
• Assistant Examiner(s): Kerrigan, Michael V
• Application Number:
  US14/869,706
• Publication Number:
  US 20160358471A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,106 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/20 Instruments for performing navigational calculations G01C21/24, G01C21/26 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3423 Multimodal routing, i.e. combining two or more modes of transportation, where the modes can be any of, e.g. driving, walking, cycling, public transport
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3484 Personalized, e.g. from learned user behaviour or user-defined profiles
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/36 Input/output arrangements for on-board computers
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3667 Display of a road map G01C21/3614 takes precedence; guidance using 3D or perspective road maps G01C21/3635
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9038 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04842 Selection of displayed objects or displayed text elements G06F3/0482 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0485 Scrolling or panning
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0488 using a touch-screen or digitiser, e.g. input of commands through traced gestures
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/0125 Traffic data processing
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/123 indicating the position of vehicles, e.g. scheduled vehicles; Managing passenger vehicles circulating according to a fixed timetable, e.g. buses, trains, tramstransmission of navigation instructions to vehicles G08G1/0968

Abstract

Some embodiments provide a map application that displays a selectable user interface (UI) item for a transit station, a representation of which, is displayed over a presentation of a portion of a map of an area. Upon selection of the UI item, the map application of some embodiments provides a graphical user interface (GUI) that includes a first set of information about the transit station, and a second set of information about departure schedules of several different transit lines from the transit station.

Claims

1. A non-transitory machine readable medium storing a map application executable by at least one processing unit of a device, the application comprising sets of instructions for:

displaying a selectable user interface (UI) item for a transit station that is displayed on a portion of a map of an area;

providing, upon selection of the UI item, a graphical user interface (GUI) comprising departure schedules of a plurality of transit lines from the transit station;

determining for at least one transit line that the transit line is a high frequency transit line by comparing time intervals between pairs of consecutive departures of transit vehicles of the at least one transit line to a threshold time and identifying the at least one transit line as a high frequency transit line based on the comparison; and

for the at least one transit line, displaying, in the GUI, a frequency of departures for the transit line indicating time intervals between consecutive departures of the transit line at the transit station.

2. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 1, wherein the set of instructions for displaying the selectable UI item comprises a set of instructions for displaying a banner over the representation of the transit station, the banner comprising the selectable UI item as well as other information about the transit station.

3. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 1, wherein the application further comprises a set of instructions for displaying, on the GUI, at least one of a distance from a current location of the device to the transit station, an address of the transit station, and a set of selectable affordances for providing directions to the transit station.

4. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 1, wherein the transit station comprises a transit hub and the plurality of transit lines comprises different transit lines for different types of transit vehicles.

5. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 4, wherein the different types of transit vehicles comprise at least one of a subway, a light rail train, a bus, and a ferry.

6. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 1, wherein the plurality of transit lines are categorized into high frequency transit lines and low frequency transit lines, wherein time intervals between each pair of consecutive departures of transit vehicles of the high frequency transit lines from the transit station is less than the threshold time, while the time intervals between each pair of consecutive departures of transit vehicles of the low frequency transit lines from the transit station is more than the threshold time.

7. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 6, wherein a transit line of a first transit system is categorized as a high frequency transit line while a transit line of a second different transit system is categorized as a low frequency transit line.

8. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 6, wherein a first transit line of a transit system is categorized as a high frequency transit line while a second transit line of the same transit system is categorized as a low frequency transit line.

9. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 6, wherein the application further comprises a set of instructions for displaying, in the GUI, departure schedules of at least one low frequency transit line in addition to the displayed high frequency transit line.

10. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 9, wherein the set of instructions for displaying the departure schedules for the at least one low frequency transit line comprises a set of instructions for

displaying one or more departure times of next one or more transit vehicles of the at least one low frequency transit line from the transit station.

11. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 1, wherein the GUI is a first GUI, wherein the application further comprises a set of instructions for:

receiving a search for a location other than a transit station; and

displaying a second GUI comprising a set of information about public transit stations within a threshold vicinity of the searched location.

12. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 1, wherein the application further comprises sets of instructions for:

displaying a remaining time to a next departure of the transit line in addition to the displayed frequency of departures of the transit line;

receiving a selection of the remaining time to the next departure for the transit line; and

displaying a set of additional next departures of transit vehicles of the transit line from the transit station.

13. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 1, wherein the set of instructions for determining for at least one transit line that the transit line is a high frequency transit line comprises sets of instructions for:

comparing time intervals between each pair of consecutive departures of transit vehicles of the at least one transit line to a threshold time; and

identifying the at least one transit line as a high frequency transit line when the time intervals between each pair of consecutive departures is less than the threshold time.

14. An electronic device comprising:

a set of processing units for executing sets of instructions; and

a non-transitory machine readable medium storing a map application executable by at least one of the processing units of the device, the application comprising sets of instructions for;

displaying a selectable user interface (UI) item for a transit station that is displayed on a portion of a map of an area;

providing, upon selection of the UI item, a graphical user interface (GUI) comprising departure schedules of a plurality of transit lines from the transit station;

determining for at least one transit line that the transit line is a high frequency transit line by comparing time intervals between pairs of consecutive departures of transit vehicles of the at least one transit line to a threshold time and identifying the at least one transit line as a high frequency transit line based on the comparison; and

for the at least one transit line, displaying, in the GUI, (i) a frequency of departures for the transit line indicating time intervals between consecutive departures of the transit line at the transit station, and (ii) a remaining time to a next departure of the transit line.

15. The electronic device of claim 14, wherein the application further comprises a set of instructions for displaying, in the GUI, information about one or more incidents associated with one or more transit lines departing from the transit station.

16. The electronic device of claim 14, wherein the application further comprises sets of instructions for:

determining in which geographical area the transit station is located; and

for the transit line;

identifying a local directional term that is used in the geographical area for a departure direction of the transit line; and

displaying the local directional term as a trip heading of the transit line.

17. The electronic device of claim of claim 16, wherein the local directional term comprises a directional term that is different than traditional cardinal directions.

18. The electronic device of claim 16, wherein the transit station is a first transit station and the geographical area is a first geographical area, wherein the set of instructions for identifying the local directional term comprises sets of instructions for:

identifying a first local directional term for a particular departure direction of the transit line from the first transit station; and

identifying a second different directional term for the same particular departure direction of the transit line from a second transit station that is located in a second different geographical area.

19. The electronic device of claim 16, wherein the set of instructions for displaying the local directional term as the trip heading of the transit line comprises a set of instructions for displaying a cardinal direction as the trip heading of the transit line when no local directional term is identified to be used for the departure direction of the transit line in the geographical area.

20. The electronic device of claim 14 wherein the application further comprises a set of instructions for displaying, on the GUI, at least one of a distance from a current location of the electronic device to the transit station, an address of the transit station, and a set of selectable affordances for providing directions to the transit station.

21. The electronic device of claim 14, wherein the GUI is a first GUI, wherein the application further comprises sets of instructions for:

receiving a search for a location other than a transit station; and

displaying a second GUI comprising (i) public transit stations that are available within a threshold vicinity of the searched location and (ii) information about transit lines that depart from the public transit stations.

22. The electronic device of claim 14, wherein the set of instructions for determining for at least one transit line that the transit line is a high frequency transit line comprises sets of instructions for:

comparing time intervals between each pair of consecutive departures of transit vehicles of the at least one transit line to a threshold time; and

identifying the at least one transit line as a high frequency transit line when the time intervals between each pair of consecutive departures is less than the threshold time.