Historical data based navigational routing

• US 20100235077A1
• Filed: 03/13/2009
• Published: 09/16/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 02/27/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: TeleCommunication Systems Inc (Comtech Telecommunications Corporation)
• Original Assignee: TeleCommunication Systems Inc (Comtech Telecommunications Corporation)
• Inventors: Chan, Janny
• Granted Patent: US 8,548,736 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/200
• 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

Navigational routing is generated incorporating an estimation of future traffic conditions. The future traffic conditions are estimated based on historical traffic data, e.g., obtained over a recent period of time. The system provides navigational routing based on historical traffic data incorporated into a calculated route of travel. The historical data is used to calculate a probability that given roads along the route will be problematic at a certain time of the day, i.e., at the time, day of week, and place that you would be expected to be traveling on that certain road. Accordingly, historical traffic data is used to help determine a best route based on the probability of certain roads being problematic at a certain time of day.

Claims

1. A navigation system for providing driving directions, comprising:

a navigation system module to calculate a desired best route to be driven based on user criteria;

a historical traffic database containing entries relating an expected speed based on historical traffic conditions of a given road segment, at a given time;

wherein said navigation system module has access to said historical traffic database so that it can calculate a deviation between a time of travel based on a posted speed limit and a time of travel based on predicted speeds due to probable traffic.

2. The navigation system for providing driving directions according to claim 1, further comprising:

a historical data maintenance system to provide periodic updates to said historical traffic database that revise predicted speeds due to recent traffic on relevant road segments.

3. A method of providing driving directions to a driver, comprising:

obtaining a destination of a trip to be taken;

obtaining a time of departure of said trip, said trip to be embarked upon at a time in the future; and

calculating a best route to said destination using predicted driving speed based on historical data at an expected time of use of relevant road segments.

4. The method or providing driving directions to a driver according to claim 3, further comprising:

calculating a deviation in duration of said trip between a duration calculated based on posted speed limits of road segments to be traveled, and a duration calculated based on historical data at expected times of use of relevant road segments.

5. The method of providing driving directions to a driver according to claim 4, further comprising:

essentially closing at least one road segment from consideration of use on said trip if a speed along said at least one road segment is slower than a given threshold percentage of a posted speed limit along said at least one road segment; and

recalculating said best route without use of said at least one closed road segment.

6. The method of providing driving directions to a driver according to claim 3, further comprising:

obtaining an origin of said travel.

7. The method of providing driving directions to a driver according to claim 3, wherein:

said future time is at least a day in the future.

8. Apparatus for providing driving directions to a driver, comprising:

means for obtaining a destination of a trip to be taken;

means for obtaining a time of departure of said trip, said trip to be embarked upon at a time in the future; and

means for calculating a best route to said destination using predicted driving speed based on historical data at an expected time of use of relevant road segments.

9. The apparatus for providing driving directions to a driver according to claim 8, further comprising:

means for calculating a deviation in duration of said trip between a duration calculated based on posted speed limits of road segments to be traveled, and a duration calculated based on historical data at expected times of use of relevant road segments.

10. The apparatus for providing driving directions to a driver according to claim 9, further comprising:

means for essentially closing at least one road segment from consideration of use on said trip if a speed along said at least one road segment is slower than a given threshold percentage of a posted speed limit along said at least one road segment; and

means for recalculating said best route without use of said at least one closed road segment.

11. The apparatus for providing driving directions to a driver according to claim 8, further comprising:

obtaining an origin of said travel.

12. The apparatus for providing driving directions to a driver according to claim 8, wherein:

said future time is at least a day in the future.