Intelligent Route Guidance

• US 20090005964A1
• Filed: 01/25/2008
• Published: 01/01/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 06/28/2007
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Christie, Gregory N., Forstall, Scott, Tiene, Kevin, Borchers, Robert E.
• Application Number:
  US12/020,073
• Publication Number:
  US 20090005964A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/201
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3484 Personalized, e.g. from learned user behaviour or user-defined profiles
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096822 where the segments of the route are transmitted to the vehicle at different locations and times
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096838 where the user preferences are taken into account or the user selects one route out of a plurality
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096883 where input information is obtained using a mobile device, e.g. a mobile phone, a PDA

Abstract

Intelligent route guidance can include deriving one or more routes based on traffic, historical data and/or preference data associated with route progressions implicated by the one or more routes. The route guidance can provide one or more recommended routes, which can be presented to a user for navigation purposes.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

identifying destination information associated with a mobile device;

identifying one or more routes comprising a plurality of route progressions based on a current location of the mobile device and the destination information;

retrieving route information associated with the plurality of route progressions, the route information comprising user preferences and traffic information associated with the plurality of route progressions;

analyzing the plurality of route progressions based on the route information; and

presenting one or more routes to the user based on the analysis.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing an estimated time associated with the one or more routes presented to the user, the estimated time being based on traffic information.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving positioning data from a plurality of peer devices; and

deriving traffic information based on the received peer device positioning data.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a plurality of preferences from the user; and

analyzing the plurality of route progressions based on the route information and the plurality of preferences.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing the method in a multi-touch environment.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the destination information is identified based upon user input.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the destination information is identified based on historical navigation information.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving updated route information during navigation of a route, the updated route information being associated with a plurality of route progressions between a current position and a destination identified by the destination information; and

providing one or more alternative routes during navigation based on the updated route information.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein providing one or more alternative routes during navigation based on the updated route information comprises providing an estimated time associated with each of the one or more alternative routes.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the estimated time is based on traffic information.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

retrieving user history data associated with navigation of each route progression comprising the one or more routes, wherein the user history data includes a history of each time a particular route progression is navigated, a navigation time respectively associated with each navigation of the particular route progression, and a time of day associated with each navigation of the particular route progression; and

deriving traffic information based on user history data.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the traffic information is retrieved from one or more peer devices navigating the plurality of route progressions.

13. A system comprising:

a destination engine operable to receive destination information;

a routing engine operable to identify a plurality of routes, each route comprising a plurality of route progressions, the identification of the plurality of routes being based on a current location of a mobile device and the destination information, the routing engine being further operable to retrieve route information associated with the plurality of route progressions, the route information comprising historical information associated with the plurality of route progressions and traffic information;

an analysis engine operable to analyze the plurality of route progressions based upon the route information; and

a presentation engine operable to present one or more routes to a user of the mobile device based on the analysis.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the presentation engine is further operable to provide an estimated time associated with the one or more routes presented to the user, the estimated time being based on one or more of historical information or traffic information.

15. The system of claim 14, further comprising a multi-touch screen operable to present the one or more routes to the user and to receive a selection of the one or more routes from the user.

16. The system of claim 13, further comprising:

a user interface operable to receive user input comprising a plurality of preferences from the user; and

wherein the analysis engine is operable to analyze the plurality of route progressions based on the route information and the plurality of preferences.

17. The system of claim 13, further comprising a user interface operable to receive destination information from the user using a multi-touch environment.

18. The system of claim 13, wherein the destination information is identified based on historical navigation information.

19. The system of claim 13, wherein the routing engine is further operable to retrieve updated route information during navigation of a route, the updated route information being associated with a plurality of route progressions between a current position and a destination identified by the destination information;

and

wherein the presentation engine is further operable to present one or more alternative routes during navigation based on the updated route information.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein the presentation engine is further operable to provide an estimated time associated with each of the one or more alternative routes.

21. The system of claim 20, wherein the estimated time is based on traffic information.

22. The system of claim 13, wherein the traffic information is derived from history data retrieved from a history data store, the history data including a history of each time a particular route progression is navigated, a navigation time respectively associated with each navigation of the particular route progression, and a time of day associated with each navigation of the particular route progression.

23. The system of claim 13, wherein the traffic information is retrieved from one or more peer devices navigating the plurality of route progressions.

24. The system of claim 13, further comprising a positioning system operable to derive the current location, the current location operable to be used by the routing engine to derive the plurality of routes, and by the analysis engine to estimate a navigation time associated with the plurality of routes.

25. The system of claim 24, wherein the positioning system comprises an accelerometer and a compass and uses dead reckoning to derive a current position.

26. The system of claim 24, wherein the positioning system comprises a global positioning system operable to receive location signals from satellites and to derive a current position based on the location signals.

27. The system of claim 24, wherein the positioning system is operable to estimate a location based on proximity to one or more cellular towers, the proximity being derived based on signal strength associated with a signal received from the one or more cellular towers.

28. A computer-implemented method comprising:

storing a history comprising a plurality of routes navigated by a user, each of the plurality of routes comprising a plurality of route progressions, the history further comprising a plurality of measured times associated with each of the previous navigations of the route progressions;

deriving a plurality of time metrics respectively associated with each of the plurality of route progressions based on the plurality of measured times;

associating the time metrics with respective route progressions;

receiving destination information; and

presenting a recommended route based upon the average time associated with the plurality of route progressions comprising the recommended route.

29. The method of claim 28, wherein the time metrics comprises a moving average based upon a predetermined number of navigations of a respective route progression.

30. The method of claim 28, wherein the time metrics comprise a moving average based on a number of previous navigations within a predetermined time period of a respective route progression.

31. The method of claim 28, further comprising communicating the time metrics associated with the route progressions to a server, the server being operable to distribute an aggregation of the time metrics to other users.

32. The method of claim 28, further comprising receiving traffic updates from one or more peer devices, the traffic updates associated with the plurality of route progressions comprising the recommended route.

33. The method of claim 32, further comprising updating the recommended route based on traffic updates received from peer devices.

34. The method of claim 32, wherein the traffic updates from peer devices are received from a server operable to aggregate traffic information from a plurality of peer devices.

35. A method comprising:

identifying destination information associated with a mobile device;

identifying a plurality of potential routes, the potential routes comprising a plurality of route progressions and being based on a current location of the mobile device and the destination information;

receiving routing information associated with the plurality of route progressions, the routing information comprising;

user preferences; and

traffic information associated with the plurality of route progressions;

analyzing the potential routes based on the route information; and

communicating one or more recommended routes to the user based on the analysis.

36. A method for determining a route between a source and a destination, comprising:

identifying a destination associated with a mobile device;

deriving one or more prospective routes between a current location associated with the mobile device and the destination, the one or more potential routes comprising a plurality of prospective route progressions;

receiving peer navigation data from one or more peer devices that have navigated any of the plurality of prospective route progressions within a previous time period;

selecting a route from the one or more prospective routes based upon the peer navigation data.