Navigation method, medium, and system

• US 20080033636A1
• Filed: 08/03/2007
• Published: 02/07/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 08/04/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Inventors: Lea, Jong-ho, Ryu, Hee-seob, Lee, Yong-beom
• Granted Patent: US 8,392,111 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/201
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3415 Dynamic re-routing, e.g. recalculating the route when the user deviates from calculated route or after detecting real-time traffic data or accidents
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3492 employing speed data or traffic data, e.g. real-time or historical traffic control systems for road vehicles involving transmission of navigation instructions to the vehicle G08G1/0968

Abstract

A method, medium, and system providing an updating traveling route to a user. The navigation system includes a route selecting unit to select an optimal route for an item to traverse based on calculated performance indexes of a plurality of alternative routes for the traversal, a performance index calculating unit to recalculate the performance indexes of the alternative routes during a current traversal of the selected optimal route based on received external information regarding sections of available traversals after a predetermined point in each alternative route beyond a current point of the current traversal, and a route changing unit to selectively update the optimal route during the current traversal based on the recalculated performance indexes.

Claims

1. A navigation system, comprising:

a route selecting unit to select an optimal route for an item to traverse based on calculated performance indexes of a plurality of alternative routes for the traversal;

a performance index calculating unit to recalculate the performance indexes of the alternative routes during a current traversal of the selected optimal route based on received external information regarding sections of available traversals after a predetermined point in each alternative route beyond a current point of the current traversal; and

a route changing unit to selectively update the optimal route during the current traversal based on the recalculated performance indexes.

2. The navigation system of claim 1, further comprising:

a requesting unit to request, from a remote device, the information regarding the sections of the available traversals after the predetermined point in each alternative route beyond the current point of the current traversal.

3. The navigation system of claim 2, wherein the remote device is a navigation server comprising a database with congestion information on a plurality of positions available for traversal.

4. The navigation system of claim 2, wherein the predetermined point is a predetermined crossroad in each alternative route before the item traveling along the current traversal reaches the predetermined crossroad.

5. The navigation system of claim 1, wherein the item is a vehicle and the navigation system is a navigation system within the vehicle.

6. The navigation system of claim 1, wherein a performance index of an alternative route is a sum of performance indexes of a plurality of sections that are divided from a corresponding predetermined point on the alternative route.

7. The navigation system of claim 6, wherein the performance index is determined by at least one of a time required to pass through each divided section, the distance of each divided section, information on a fare for each divided section, and traffic information of each divided section.

8. The navigation system of claim 1, wherein, when a specific condition is identified as occurring in a predetermined alternative route, the performance index calculating unit predicts an affected point where the item will encounter an area that is affected by the specific condition, and recalculates the performance indexes of the alternative routes based on the performance indexes of the sections divided from the predetermined point, the predicted affected point, and an identified point where the specific condition originates or occurs.

9. The navigation system of claim 8, wherein the performance index calculating unit predicts the affected point based on a traveling speed of the item and a spread rate for the specific condition in the area.

10. The navigation system of claim 8, wherein the performance index calculating unit predicts the affected point based on at least one of a deterministic queuing theory and a shockwave theory.

11. The navigation system of claim 1, wherein the information regarding the sections of the available traversals after the predetermined point in each alternative route beyond the current point of the current traversal is provided from other items traversing routes in the sections after the predetermined point.

12. The navigation system of claim 1, further comprising:

an output unit to selectively output information on the optimal route and the updated optimal route.

13. The navigation system of claim 1, further comprising:

a detecting unit to detect a specific condition related to a traveling state of the item; and

a transmitting unit to transmit information on a corresponding section in which the specific condition is detected to a remote device for provision to other navigation systems.

14. The navigation system of claim 13, wherein the specific condition is a variation in a traversal speed of the item.

15. The navigation system of claim 1, wherein the performance index calculating unit recalculates the performance indexes of the alternative routes during the current traversal of the selected optimal route based on the received external information if a request for the received information is sent to a corresponding remote device, where the request is sent to the remote device when a traversal time for the item to reach the predetermined point meets a predetermined threshold time.

16. A navigation method, comprising:

selecting an optimal route for an item to traverse based on calculated performance indexes of a plurality of alternative routes for the traversal;

recalculating the performance indexes of the alternative routes during a current traversal of the selected optimal route based on received external information regarding sections of available traversals after a predetermined point in each alternative route beyond a current point of the current traversal; and

selectively updating and outputting the optimal route during the current traversal based on the recalculated performance indexes.

17. The navigation method of claim 16, further comprising:

requesting from a remote device the information regarding the sections of the available traversals after the predetermined point in each alternative route beyond the current point of the current traversal.

18. The navigation method of claim 17, wherein the predetermined point is a predetermined crossroad in each alternative route before the item traveling along the current traversal reaches the predetermined crossroad.

19. The navigation method of claim 16, wherein the item is a vehicle and the navigation system is a navigation system within the vehicle.

20. The navigation method of claim 16, wherein a performance index of an alternative route is a sum of performance indexes of a plurality of sections that are divided from a corresponding predetermined point on the alternative route.

21. The navigation method of claim 20, wherein the performance index is determined by at least one of a time required to pass through each divided section, the distance of each divided section, information on a fare for each divided section, and traffic information of each divided section.

22. The navigation method of claim 16, wherein, when a specific condition is identified as occurring in a predetermined alternative route, the navigation method further comprises predicting an affected point where the item will encounter an area that is affected by the specific condition, and recalculating the performance indexes of the alternative routes based on the performance indexes of the sections divided from the predetermined point, the predicted affected point, and an identified point where the specific condition originates or occurs.

23. The navigation method of claim 22, wherein the predicting of the affected point further comprises predicting the affected point based on a traveling speed of the item and a spread rate for the specific condition in the area.

24. The navigation method of claim 22, wherein the predicting of the affected point further comprises predicting the affected point based on at least one of a deterministic queuing theory and a shockwave theory.

25. The navigation method of claim 16, wherein the information regarding the sections of the available traversals after the predetermined point in each alternative route beyond the current point of the current traversal is provided from other items traversing routes in the sections after the predetermined point.

26. The navigation method of claim 16, further comprising:

detecting a specific condition related to a traveling state of the item; and

transmitting information on a corresponding section in which the specific condition is detected to a remote device for provision to external navigation systems.

27. The navigation method of claim 26, wherein the specific condition is a variation in a traversal speed of the item.

28. The navigation method of claim 16, further comprising selectively requesting the received external information based a traversal time for the item to reach the predetermined point meeting a predetermined threshold time.

29. At least one medium comprising computer readable code to control at least one processing element to implement the method of claim 16.