POINT OF REFERENCE DIRECTIONS

• US 20090043489A1
• Filed: 01/17/2008
• Published: 02/12/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 01/17/2007
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: David P. Weidner
• Original Assignee: David P. Weidner
• Inventors: Weidner, David P.
• Application Number:
  US12/016,122
• Publication Number:
  US 20090043489A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/201
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/20 Instruments for performing navigational calculations G01C21/24, G01C21/26 take precedence

Abstract

A method and system for path mapping using point of reference (POR) entities. One embodiment is a process that receives information corresponding to a recommended path of travel between a start point and a destination, the recommended path of travel definable by a plurality of nodes, each node serially connected to an adjacent node by an edge; receives information corresponding to a plurality of point of reference (POR) entities, the information associating each POR entity with at least one of the nodes and edges of the recommended path of travel and the information including a description of the POR entity; and constructs directions for traversing the recommended path of travel based upon the description of the POR entities.

Claims

9-1. The method of claim 1, wherein the recommended path includes a first sub-path, a first transition, a second preferred sub-path, and a best match transition between an end node of the first sub-path and a start node of the second sub-path.

11. A system operable to describe a recommended path of travel, comprising:

a memory operable to store a map of the path of travel defined as a plurality of nodes and a plurality of edges, each edge connecting two nodes, and further operable to store information corresponding to a plurality of point of reference (POR) entities, the information associating each POR entity with at least one of the nodes and edges of the recommended path of travel; and

a processing system operable to;

identify POR entities at the nodes and edges of the recommended path of travel for a plurality of nodes and respective edges defining the path of travel; and

construct directions for traversing the recommended path of travel based upon the POR entities.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the processing system is operable to generate at least one of a travel map and a set of directions based upon the POR entities along the path of travel, further comprising:

an output interface operable to output at least one of the travel map and the set of directions determined by the processing system.

13. The system of claim 11, further comprising:

an input interface is operable to receive the map of the path of travel from a database.

14. The system of claim 11, further comprising:

an input interface is operable to receive the information associating the POR entities with the nods and edges of the recommended path of travel.

15. A method for associating map data of an architectural entity of interest with information corresponding to a plurality of point of reference (POR) entities, the method comprising:

receiving map data defined by a plurality of nodes and edges, each edge connecting two of the nodes, and each of the nodes corresponding to a respective location of the node in the architectural entity of interest, and each of the edges corresponding to a location of path of travel between the respective node locations;

receiving information corresponding to a plurality of point of reference (POR) entities, the information associating each POR entity with a respective location of the POR entity in the architectural entity of interest

comparing the node locations with the POR locations;

in response to the node location corresponding to the POR location, associating the node with the POR entity;

comparing the path of travel locations with the POR locations; and

in response to a path of travel location corresponding to the POR location, associating the path of travel with the POR entity.

16. The system of claim 15, further comprising:

storing the associated node-POR entity pairs in a database; and

storing the associated path of travel-POR entity pairs in a database.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the received information describes characteristics of each POR entity, further comprising:

generating a description of the characteristics of the POR entities; and

storing the description in the database.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the description includes a verbal description of the POR entity.

19. The system of claim 17, wherein the description includes an image of the POR entity.

20. The system of claim 17, wherein the description includes a textual description of the POR entity.