Intelligent travel assistant

• US 20060173618A1
• Filed: 02/01/2005
• Published: 08/03/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 02/01/2005
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.), Sony Electronics Inc. (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.), Sony Electronics Inc. (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Moore, Donald, McKay, Micheale, MacGregor, Christopher, Champion, Mark, Eyer, Mark
• Application Number:
  US11/048,549
• Publication Number:
  US 20060173618A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/213
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3484 Personalized, e.g. from learned user behaviour or user-defined profiles
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096811 where the route is computed offboard
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096883 where input information is obtained using a mobile device, e.g. a mobile phone, a PDA

Abstract

In one embodiment, a method comprises monitoring geographical locations of a device equipped with a global positioning satellite (GPS) receiver, which is moved over a travel route. During movement or subsequently thereafter, information pertaining to the geographical locations is uploaded to a processing center to compute travel patterns for the commuter in possession of the device. As a result, prior to the normal point of time when the computer travels over the travel route, travel-related information for the travel route is downloaded to the device for use in selecting a route of travel.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

deriving geographical locations of a device equipped with a global positioning satellite (GPS) receiver;

processing GPS location information comprising a plurality of sampled geographical locations; and

uploading the GPS information for use in determining one or more travel routes for a commuter in possession of the device and for subsequently downloading travel-related information associated with the one or more travel routes.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the deriving of the geographical locations includes analysis of global positioning signals to determine a location of the device at a first point of time and analysis of the global positioning signals to determine a location of the device at a second point of time.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the processing of the GPS information includes storing a value identifying the first point of time along with the information to identify the geographical location at the first point of time.

4. The method of claim 1 further comprising

computing a travel route associated with the plurality of sampled geographical locations;

determining a start time of the travel route; and

automatically downloading travel-related information for the travel route to the device prior to the start time.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein prior to automatically downloading the travel-related information, the method further comprising:

determining traffic conditions for the travel route at a predetermined time before downloading the travel-related information to the device;

notifying a commuter in possession of the device if the traffic conditions are worse than normal; and

downloading the travel-related information prior to a typical time for downloading the travel-related information.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein prior to sampling geographical locations, the method further comprising:

placing the device into a sampling mode.

7. The method of claim 6 further comprising:

determining a start time of at least one of the one or more travel routes; and

downloading travel-related information for the at least one of the one or more travel routes to the device prior to the start time.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the downloading of travel-related information for the at least one of the one or more travel routes is automatic without activity by a commuter using the device.

9. The method of claim 4, wherein prior to downloading the travel-related information, the method further comprising:

determining traffic conditions for the at least one of the one or more travel routes a predetermine time before downloading of the travel-related information; and

notifying a commuter in possession of the device if the traffic conditions are worse than normal.

10. A method comprising:

monitoring geographical locations of a device equipped with a global positioning satellite (GPS) receiver being moved over a travel route starting at a first point of time when the device is at a first geographical location;

uploading information pertaining to the geographical locations to a processing center; and

downloading travel-related information for the travel route at a download time being prior to the first point of time.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the monitoring of the geographical locations comprising:

placing the device into a sampling mode of operation;

sampling a first geographical location of the device upon placing the device into the sampling mode;

sampling successive geographical locations of the device at predetermined time intervals; and

sampling a final geographical location of the device upon exiting from the sampling mode of operation.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the uploading of the information includes uploading one or more geographical location and corresponding sampling times.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein prior to downloading the travel-related information for the travel route, the method further comprising:

computing traffic conditions for the travel route by the processing center based on uploaded geographical location and sampling times from other devices with GPS receivers.

14. The method of claim 10 further comprising:

transmitting a warning prior to the download time if traffic conditions for the travel route are determined to be worse than normal.

15. The method of claim 10 further comprising:

downloading travel-related information for at least one travel route acting as an alternative to the travel route at the download time.

16. Embodied within a machine-readable medium executed by a processor within a device equipped with a global positioning satellite (GPS) receiver, a software comprising:

a first module to upload geographical locations of the device being moved over a travel route starting at a first point of time during a selected day when the device is at a first geographical location; and

a second module to download travel-related information for the travel route at a download time during a subsequent day after the selected day.

17. The software of claim 16, wherein the machine-readable medium being contained within a cellular telephone including the GPS receiver.

18. The software of claim 16, wherein the second module to download the travel-related information for the travel route prior to the first point of time during the subsequent day.

19. A processing center comprising:

means for communicating with one or more global satellite positioning (GPS) devices;

means for computing travel-related information associated with a historical travel route of a first GPS device of the one or more GPS devices; and

means for downloading the travel-related information.

20. The processing center of claim 19, wherein the means for downloading provides the travel-related information prior to a start time denoted by movement of the first GPS device after a prolonged time of non-movement.