METHOD, COMPUTER PROGRAM AND SYSTEM FOR OPTIMISING ROUTES PROVIDED BY NAVIGATION SYSTEMS

• US 20090326798A1
• Filed: 05/01/2008
• Published: 12/31/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 05/02/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Maplebear Inc.
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Insolia, Nina, MacLellan, Scot
• Granted Patent: US 8,185,304 B2
• 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

Abstract

A method of controlling a navigation system. Navigation systems which are capable of gathering historical information concerning routes taken by a number of individual vehicles are known. Such systems rely on a central database to analyse and store the historical information of all the participating vehicles. The central database can therefore suggest an improved route to a vehicle based on the analysis of the information gathered from the participating vehicles. However, as the central database analyses historical information received from a number of different types of vehicles (e.g. delivery trucks, taxis, motorbikes etc.), the routes suggested by the system are often inappropriate for a specific type of vehicle. For example, a route which is appropriate for a motorbike is often not appropriate for a truck, and vice versa. A method of controlling a navigation system is provided which builds up historical information of routes taken by a vehicle and uses this information to provide an appropriate route for the vehicle based upon deviations from suggested routes stored upon a mobile computer unit of the navigation system of the vehicle.

Claims

1. A method of controlling a navigation system including the steps of:

inputting an indication of a destination location to a mobile computer unit;

monitoring the current location of the mobile computer unit;

outputting a suggested route for reaching the destination location from the current location along a route selected on a predefined map, wherein the suggested route is determined by the mobile computer unit and takes into consideration traffic data stored on the mobile computer unit;

monitoring deviations from the suggested route; and

using the monitored deviations to improve the traffic data stored on the mobile computer unit.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the determination of the suggested route includes comparing the number of times a deviation from the suggested route was taken with the number of times the suggested route was taken.

3. The method according to claim 2, wherein the traffic data stored on the mobile computer unit is updated when the number of times a deviation from the suggested route was taken exceeds a predetermined threshold.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein the step of outputting the suggested route for reaching the destination location includes the additional step of considering one or more predetermined user preferences.

5. A computer program for performing a method for controlling a navigation system when the computer program is executed on a data processing system, the method comprising:

inputting an indication of a destination location to a mobile computer unit;

monitoring the current location of the mobile computer unit;

outputting a suggested route for reaching the destination location from the current location along a route selected on a predefined map, wherein the suggested route is determined by the mobile computer unit and takes into consideration traffic data stored on the mobile computer unit;

monitoring deviations from the suggested route; and

using the monitored deviations to improve the traffic data stored on the mobile computer unit.

6. (canceled)

7. A mobile computer unit for a navigation system, the mobile computer unit comprising:

means for inputting an indication of a destination location to the mobile computer unit;

means for storing traffic data;

means for calculating a suggested route for reaching the destination location from a current location along a route selected on a predefined map, wherein the suggested route is calculated by the mobile computer unit and takes into consideration traffic data stored on the mobile computer unit;

means for outputting the suggested route;

means for monitoring deviations from the suggested route;

means for improving the traffic data using the monitored deviations.