NAVIGATION COMMUNICATION WITH SELF-IDENTIFYING ELEMENTS

• US 20100063732A1
• Filed: 09/05/2008
• Published: 03/11/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 09/05/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Singhal, Gaurav, Kays, Jennifer Hilary, Kumar, Dhiresh, Xu, Zhangwei, Khan, Ali, Hall, Martin H., Bussmann, Alexander
• Granted Patent: US 8,311,732 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/213
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/20 Instruments for performing navigational calculations G01C21/24, G01C21/26 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/26 specially adapted for navigation in a road network

Abstract

A navigation device includes a communication subsystem and a navigation subsystem. The communication subsystem communicates with a remote navigation database via a gateway using variable-size data payloads. Each variable-size data payload is accompanied by a content-identifier and a size-identifier. The navigation subsystem determines a current position of the navigation device and encodes the current position of the navigation device as one or more position payloads that are sent from the communication subsystem to the remote navigation database via the gateway. Each position payload is sent with an accompanying content-identifier and size-identifier.

Claims

1. A navigation device, comprising:

a communication subsystem to communicate with a remote navigation database via a gateway, the communication subsystem configured to use variable-size data payloads, including a parent variable-size data payload accompanied by a parent size-identifier and a parent content-identifier, the parent content-identifier identifying the parent variable-size data payload as including a plurality of child variable-size data payloads, each child variable-size data payload accompanied by a child size-identifier and a child content-identifier; and

a navigation subsystem to determine a current position of the navigation device and to encode the current position of the navigation device as one or more child position payloads to be sent from the communication subsystem to the remote navigation database via the gateway, each child position payload to be sent with an accompanying child content-identifier and child size-identifier.

2. The navigation device of claim 1, where the navigation subsystem includes a global satellite positioning receiver for determining a current position of the navigation device.

3. The navigation device of claim 1, where the communication subsystem is configured to send and receive variable-size data payloads via a first communication channel, different than a second communication channel that the gateway uses to send and receive the variable-size data payloads to and from the remote navigation database.

4. The navigation device of claim 3, where the communication subsystem is configured to send and receive variable-size data payloads to the gateway via a personal area network, and where the gateway is configured to send and receive variable-size data payloads to and from the remote navigation database via a cellular network.

5. The navigation device of claim 4, where the communication subsystem includes an IEEE 802.15 radio configured to send and receive variable-size data payloads with accompanying content-identifiers and size-identifiers.

6. The navigation device of claim 1, where the communication subsystem is further configured to send an error-detection checksum for inspection by the remote navigation database.

7. The navigation device of claim 6, where the error-detection checksum is a cyclic redundancy check sent in an HTTP header.

8. The navigation device of claim 1, where the communication subsystem is configured to send each child position payload and accompanying child content-identifier and child size-identifier as a portion of a body of an HTTP POST.

10. The navigation device of claim 1, where the content-identifier accompanying each data payload is encoded as a 1 byte number and the size-identifier accompanying each data payload is encoded as a 2 byte number.

21. The navigation device of claim 1, where the parent variable-size data payload includes at least one child variable-size data payload related to the current position, the at least one child variable-size data payload being accompanied by a child content-identifier that defines a parameter of a search query of the remote navigation database specific to the current position.

9. (canceled)

11. A method of exchanging personal navigation information, comprising:

determining a current position;

encoding the current position as a position payload;

bundling the position payload with a content-identifier specifying a content-type of the position payload and a size-identifier specifying a size of the position payload, the position payload and bundled content-identifier and size-identifier collectively constituting a self-identifying element, the content-identifier belonging to a finite set of predetermined content-identifiers including at least one content-identifier that identifies a parent self-identifying element as including a plurality of child self-identifying elements;

sending the self-identifying element including the position payload to a gateway for relaying to a remote navigation database; and

receiving from the remote navigation database via the gateway one or more other self-identifying elements, each received self-identifying element including a data payload, a content-identifier specifying a content-type of that received data payload and a size-identifier specifying a size of that received data payload.

12. The method of claim 11, where determining a current position includes calculating the current position using trilateration of three or more satellites.

13. The method of claim 11, where sending the self-identifying element to a gateway includes sending the self-identifying element via a first communication channel, different than a second communication channel that the gateway uses to send the self-identifying element to the remote navigation database.

14. The method of claim 13, where sending the self-identifying element via a first communication channel includes sending the self-identifying element via an IEEE 802.15 communication channel.

15. The method of claim 11, where sending the self-identifying element includes sending the self-identifying element as a portion of a body of an HTTP POST.

16. The method of claim 11, where sending the self-identifying element includes sending the self-identifying element as a payload portion of another self-identifying element.

17. The method of claim 11, where the content-identifier of each self-identifying element is encoded as a 1 byte number and the size-identifier of each self-identifying element is encoded as a 2 byte number.

18. The method of claim 11, further comprising sending an error-detection checksum for inspection by the remote navigation database.

22. The method of claim 11, where the self-identifying element including the position payload is a child self-identifying element of a parent self-identifying element, the parent self-identifying element including a child self-identifying element that includes a payload and a content-identifier that defines that payload as a parameter of a search query of the remote navigation database specific to the current position.

19. (canceled)

20. Memory holding executable instructions that, when executed by a logic subsystem, cause the logic subsystem to:

determine a current position;

encode the current position as a position payload;

bundle the position payload with a content-identifier specifying a content-type of the position payload and a size-identifier specifying a size of the position payload, the position payload and bundled content-identifier and size-identifier collectively constituting a self-identifying element, the content-identifier belonging to a finite set of predetermined content-identifiers including at least one content-identifier that identifies a parent self-identifying element as including a plurality of child self-identifying elements;

send the self-identifying element including the position payload to a gateway for relaying to a remote navigation database; and

receive from the remote navigation database via the gateway one or more other self-identifying elements, each received self-identifying element including a payload, a content-identifier specifying a content-type of that received payload and a size-identifier specifying a size of that received payload.