Traffic delay indication

• US 20080167804A1
• Filed: 10/10/2007
• Published: 07/10/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 01/10/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: TomTom Navigation B.V (TomTom NV)
• Original Assignee: TomTom International BV (TomTom NV)
• Inventors: Mayer, Michiel, Geelen, Pieter
• Granted Patent: US 8,751,152 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/207
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3655 Timing of guidance instructions
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3697 Output of additional, non-guidance related information, e.g. low fuel level G01C21/3679 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096716 where the received information does not generate an automatic action on the vehicle control
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096741 where the source of the transmitted information selects which information to transmit to each vehicle
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096791 where the origin of the information is another vehicle

Abstract

A method of indicating traffic delays in a navigation system for planning a route of a vehicle is set out. The method includes the steps of receiving traffic information comprising position information of each one of a number of delay incidents, determining a position of the vehicle on a planned route, determining a relevance of each one of the delay incidents on the planned route, based on the position information of the respective delay incident and on the position of the vehicle, selecting at least one delay incident on the planned route, based on the determined relevance of the respective delay incident, and communicating information concerning the selected delay incident to a user. A computer program for performing the method is also set out.

Claims

1. A method of indicating traffic delays in a navigation system for planning a route of a vehicle, the method comprising the steps of:

receiving traffic information comprising position information of each one of a number of delay incidents,

determining a position of the vehicle on a planned route,

determining a relevance of each one of the delay incidents on the planned route, based on the position information of the respective delay incident and on the position of the vehicle,

selecting at least one delay incident on the planned route, based on the determined relevance of the respective delay incident, and

communicating information concerning the selected delay incident to a user.

2. The method of indicating traffic delays as claimed in claim 1, wherein the traffic information further comprises an expected delay caused by each one of the number of delay incidents and wherein the determining of the relevance of each one of the delay incidents on the planned route is further based on expected delay caused by the respective delay incident.

3. The method of indicating traffic delays as claimed in claim 1, wherein the traffic information further comprises a delay type of each one of the number of delay incidents and wherein the step of determining a relevance of each one of the delay incidents on the planned route is further based on the delay type of the respective delay incident.

4. The method of indicating traffic delays as claimed in claim 2, wherein the step of determining of the relevance of each one of the delay incidents on the planned route comprises assigning a high relevance value to the respective delay incident if an incident distance between the position of the vehicle and at least one of a position of the respective delay incident is below at least one of a predetermined distance limit and the expected delay of the respective delay incident is above a predetermined delay limit.

5. The method of indicating traffic delays as claimed in claim 4, wherein the predetermined delay limit is dependent on the incident distance.

6. The method of indicating traffic delays as claimed in claim 1, wherein the step of communicating further comprises showing a representation of the selected delay incident on a display of the navigation system, the representation of the selected delay incident including a representation of the position of the selected delay incident.

7. The method of indicating traffic delays as claimed in claim 6, wherein the representation of the position of the selected delay incident is a representation of an incident distance between the position of the vehicle and the position of the selected delay incident.

8. The method of indicating traffic delays as claimed in claim 7, wherein the step of communicating comprises displaying a traffic bar along an edge of the display screen, one end of the traffic bar comprising the representation of the position of the vehicle on the planned route in the form of a vehicle icon, the other end of the traffic bar comprising a finish icon for representing a destination of the planned route, the representation of the position of the selected delay incident comprising displaying the representation of the delay incident in between the vehicle icon and the finish icon, at distances from the vehicle icon and the finish icon corresponding to the incident distance and a distance between the selected delay incident and the destination respectively.

9. The method of indicating traffic delays as claimed in claim 2, wherein the step of communicating comprises communicating the expected delay caused by the selected delay incident to the user.

10. The method of indicating traffic delays as claimed in claim 2, further comprising determining a total expected delay of all delay incidents on the planned route together and communicating the total expected delay to the user.

11. The method of indicating traffic delays as claimed in claim 10, further comprising the steps of:

periodically updating the traffic information and the total expected delay and communicating the updated total expected delay, and

providing an audible warning message if a predetermined criterion is met.

12. The method of indicating traffic delays as claimed in claim 11, wherein the predetermined criterion is met when, since a previous warning message, the step of updating of the total expected delay has resulted in an increase of the total expected delay with more than a first predetermined amount of time.

13. The method of indicating traffic delays as claimed in claim 11, wherein the predetermined criterion is met when the previous warning message has been provided more than a second predetermined amount of time ago.

14. The method of indicating traffic delays as claimed in claim 11, wherein the audible warning message is generated using text to speech conversion.

15. A computer program stored on a computer readable medium, the computer program comprising:

a program portion arranged to receive traffic information comprising position information of each one of a number of delay incidents,

a program portion arranged to determine a position of a vehicle on a planned route,

a program portion arranged to determine a relevance of each one of the delay incidents on the planned route, based on the position information of the respective delay incident and on the position of the vehicle,

a program portion arranged to select at least one delay incident on the planned route, based on the determined relevance of the respective delay incident, and

a program portion arranged to communicate information concerning the selected delay incident to a user.

16. A navigation system for planning a route of a vehicle, the system comprising:

a receiver for receiving traffic information comprising position information of each one of a number of delay incidents,

a memory for storing the received traffic information,

a processor being arranged for;

determining a position of the vehicle on a planned route,

determining a relevance of each one of the delay incidents on the planned route, based on the position information of the respective delay incident and on the position of the vehicle, and

selecting at least one delay incident on the planned route, based on the determined relevance of the respective delay incident, and

an output for communicating information concerning the selected delay incident to a user.