METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR PRESENTING NAVIGATION INFORMATION

• US 20090319173A1
• Filed: 06/24/2008
• Published: 12/24/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 06/24/2008
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Oath Inc. (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Yahoo! Inc. (Apollo Global Management, Inc.)
• Inventors: McAfee, Preston R.
• Application Number:
  US12/145,447
• Publication Number:
  US 20090319173A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/201
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3476 using point of interest [POI] information, e.g. a route passing visible POIs
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3679 Retrieval, searching and output of POI information, e.g. hotels, restaurants, shops, filling stations, parking facilities G01C21/3611 takes precedence

Abstract

A method and device which may present more user-friendly navigation information. A user may be on a trip to a destination, following a route calculated by a navigation device. When the user stops and searches for a place he is interested in with the navigation device, the destination, the route and the user'"'"'s moving direction may be considered when presenting a list of search results. The navigation device may search a database to obtain search results matching the user'"'"'s searching criteria. For each search result, the navigation device may determine a branch route connecting the search result and the current geographic location. Search results requiring considerable back-tracking may be ignored, and the remaining search results may be presented to the user.

Claims

1. A method of presenting search results on a navigation device, the method comprising:

receiving a destination;

determining a route from an origin to the destination;

receiving search criteria for a place;

determining a current geographic location of the navigation device which is between the origin and the destination;

searching a memory device for places matching the criteria; and

presenting a list of search results, taking into consideration the relationship between a search result and the route from the origin to the destination.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining a branch route from the current geographic location to each of the search results.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

determining whether a search result requires back-tracking.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

reducing the number of search results requiring back-tracking.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

determining the length of a branch route.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

determining whether the length of the branch route is longer than a predetermined value.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

ignoring the search result when it requires back-tracking and its branch route exceeds the predetermined value.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

indicating that the search result requires back-tracking when presenting the list of search results.

9. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

ignoring a search result when it requires back-tracking.

10. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

determining a back-tracking distance of a search result, wherein the back-tracking distance is a distance between the search result and the current geographic location along the direction of the route.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

weighting the back-tracking distance with a weight constant.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

obtaining a weighted branch route distance by adding the weighted back-tracking distance to a length of the branch route.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

presenting the search results according to the weighted branch route distance.

14. A computer program product comprising a computer-readable medium having instructions which, when performed by a computer, perform a method for presenting search results on a navigation device, the method comprising:

receiving a destination;

determining a route from an origin to the destination;

receiving search criteria for a place;

determining a current geographic location of the navigation device which is between the origin and the destination;

searching a memory device for places matching the criteria; and

presenting a list of search results, taking into consideration the relationship between a search result and the route from the origin to the destination.

15. The computer program product of claim 14, wherein the method further comprises:

determining whether a search result requires back-tracking.

16. The computer program product of claim 15, wherein the method further comprises:

determining a branch route from the current geographic location to a search result and a length of the branch route.

17. The computer program product of claim 16, wherein the method further comprises:

indicating that a search result requiring back-tracking when presenting the list of the search results.

18. The computer program product of claim 15, wherein the method further comprises:

determining a back-tracking distance of a search result, wherein the back-tracking distance is a distance between the search result and the current geographic location along the direction of the route.

19. The computer program product of claim 18, wherein the method further comprises:

weighting the back-tracking distance with a weight constant, and reducing the number of search results requiring back-tracking using the weighted back-tracking distance.

20. A personal navigation device, comprising:

a navigation information processing unit for receiving navigation signals from a navigation system;

a memory for storing a map;

a display for displaying the map;

a user interface for receiving commands; and

a CPU which;

receiving a destination;

determining a route from an origin to the destination;

receiving search criteria for a place;

determining a current geographic location of the navigation device which is between the origin and the destination;

searching a memory device for places matching the criteria; and

presenting a list of search results, taking into consideration the relationship between a search result and the route from the origin to the destination.