METHOD, APPARATUS AND SYSTEM FOR USE IN NAVIGATION

• US 20080114541A1
• Filed: 11/15/2006
• Published: 05/15/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 11/15/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• 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: Shintani, Peter, Ozaki, Art
• Granted Patent: US 8,055,440 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/209
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/362 received from an external device or application, e.g. PDA, mobile phone or calendar application

Abstract

The present embodiments provide methods, processes and systems for use in determining navigation. Some embodiments provide methods that receive a communication at a mobile navigation system from an external device, determine whether the communication comprises navigation information, extract the navigation information when the communication comprises navigation information, identify a navigation location based on the navigation information, retrieve a current location, and generate navigation instructions between the current location and the navigation location.

Claims

1. A method for use in navigating, comprising:

receiving a communication at a mobile navigation system from an external device;

determining whether the communication comprises navigation information;

extracting the navigation information when the communication comprises navigation information;

identifying a navigation location based on the navigation information;

retrieving a current location; and

generating navigation instructions between the current location and the navigation location.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the receiving the communication comprises wirelessly receiving the communication over Bluetooth wireless communication.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining whether the communication comprises a navigation command; and

implementing the determining whether the communication comprises a navigation command and implementing the extracting of the navigation information when the communication does comprises the navigation command.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the determining whether the communication comprises a navigation command comprises determining whether the communication comprises a navigation system identifier for the mobile navigation system.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining whether the communication comprises navigation information comprises parsing the communication, and determining whether the communication comprises a location information identifier.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the extracting the navigation information comprises identifying a portion of content of the communication that is selected.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the extracting the navigation information comprises identifying the selected portion of content selected on a local display.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining whether the communication comprises multimedia information; and

displaying the multimedia information on a local display.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

determining whether a vehicle within which the local display is located is moving;

preventing the multimedia information from being displayed on the local display when the vehicle is moving; and

routing the multimedia information to a secondary display and displaying the multimedia information on the secondary display when the vehicle is moving.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the routing the multimedia information comprises routing the multimedia information to the secondary display that is generally not viewable by an operator of the vehicle.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

transmitting at least a portion of the generated navigation instructions to the external device.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the generating the navigation instructions comprises generating one or more graphical image data representative of the navigation instructions such that the transmitting at least the portion of the generated navigation instructions comprises transmitting the one or more graphical image data to the external device to be displayed on the external device.

13. A method for use in acquiring navigation directions, comprising:

receiving a transmit command in a wireless communication device;

identifying location information stored in the wireless communication device associated with the command;

identifying a receiving mobile navigation system;

generating a communication comprising formatting the communication to be recognized by the navigation system as intended for use by the navigation system; and

transmitting the communication.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the formatting of the communication comprises incorporating a navigation system identifier and the location information into the communication.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein the identifying the location information comprises identifying content that has been selected through the wireless communication device.

16. The method of claim 13, wherein the identifying the location information comprises parsing display information of content being displayed and detecting a location information identifier.

17. The method of claim 13, wherein the generating of the communication comprises formatting the communication and incorporating a predefined header identifying the communication as a location communication.