Methods And Devices For Providing Route Information

• US 20110175756A1
• Filed: 03/30/2011
• Published: 07/21/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 09/08/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: TransLoc, Inc. (Constellation Software Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: TransLoc, Inc. (Constellation Software Incorporated)
• Inventors: Lovelace, Jesse, Harris, Justin, Whiton, Joshua
• Granted Patent: US 9,007,238 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 340/995.19
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 35/00 Instruments specially adapted for vehicles; Arrangement of instruments in or on vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 35/60 Instruments characterised by their location or relative disposition in or on vehicles arrangements of lighting devices on dashboards B60Q3/10
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/26 specially adapted for navigation in a road network
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3626 Details of the output of route guidance instructions traffic control systems for road vehicles involving transmission of navigation instructions to the vehicle G08G1/0968
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/13 the indicator being in the form of a map

Abstract

Route information for at least a first route and a second route is displayed using display indicators assigned to each route. The routes may be decomposed into discrete segments, some of which may be shared among the routes. Upon determining which segments are shared by routes, the shared segments may be displayed using an interleaved pattern of the display indicators associated with the routes. The interleaved pattern may comprise an alternating pattern of the display indicators associated with the routes. Shared segments may also be displayed in a cycling pattern that includes the respective display indicators of the shared routes. Non-shared segments may be displayed with the respective display indicators for the routes that use that segment. The width of the patterns along the shared segments may be substantially the same as the width of the non-shared segments. In one embodiment, the routes may be fixed. Targets associated with each route may be displayed on the routes.

Claims

1. A method of displaying on an electronic display a graphical depiction of route information determined by an electronic route processor, the method comprising:

accessing a computer memory and obtaining data defining a first route and a second route;

assigning a first display indicator to the first route;

assigning a second display indicator to the second route;

processing the first and second routes in the electronic route processor and determining discrete route segments that are shared by both the first and second routes; and

displaying on the electronic display as the graphical depiction of the route information a repeating pattern of the first and second route indicators along the shared route segments with the repeating pattern including one or more of the first route indicators followed by one or more of the second route indicators.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising displaying on the electronic display non-shared segments of the first route with the first display indicator and displaying non-shared segments of the second route with the second display indicator.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising displaying on the electronic display a first target moving along the first route and a second target moving along the second route.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the width of the repeating pattern displayed on the electronic display is substantially the same as the width of the non-shared segments.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the repeating pattern includes a single-file row of the first and second route indicators.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein processing the first and second routes in the electronic route processor and determining discrete route segments that are shared by both the first and second routes includes decomposing in the electronic processor each of the routes into discrete route segments.

7. A method of displaying on an electronic display a graphical depiction of route information determined by an electronic route processor, the method comprising:

accessing a computer memory and obtaining data defining a first route and a second route;

assigning a first display indicator to the first route;

assigning a second display indicator to the second route;

processing the first and second routes in the electronic route processor and determining discrete route segments that are shared by both the first and second routes; and

displaying on the electronic display as the graphical depiction of the route information the first display indicator along non-shared segments of the first route, the second display indicator along non-shared segments of the second route, and a timed cycling pattern of the first display indicators along the one or more shared route segments for a first time interval and the second display indicators along the one or more shared route segments for a second time interval.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein processing the first and second routes in the electronic route processor and determining discrete route segments that are shared by both the first and second routes includes decomposing in the electronic processor each of the routes into discrete route segments.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein the first and second time intervals are the same.

10. The method of claim 7, further comprising assigning a visibility state to each of the first and second routes and displaying on the electronic display the cycling pattern when the visibility state of the first and second routes is in an on condition.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising displaying on the electronic display the one or more shared segments using the first display indicator for the first route when the visibility state of the second route is in an off condition.

12. The method of claim 7, wherein a width of the cycling pattern displayed on the electronic display of the shared segments is substantially the same as the first and second display indicators displayed on the electronic display of the non-shared segments.

13. The method of claim 7, further comprising displaying on the electronic display one or more tracked targets moving along the first and second routes.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the tracked targets comprise transit vehicles.

15. A method of displaying on an electronic display a graphical depiction of route information determined by an electronic route processor, the method comprising:

accessing a computer memory and obtaining data defining multiple routes;

assigning separate unique display indicators to each of the routes;

processing the routes in the electronic route processor and determining discrete route segments that are shared by at least two of the routes;

displaying on the electronic display as the graphical depiction of the route information the respective display indicator along non-shared segments of the routes and a timed cycling pattern of the respective display indicators along the shared route segments, the timed cycling pattern including individually displaying each of the respective display indicators for a period of time.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein each of the respective display indicators for the timed cycling pattern are displayed for an equal amount of time.

17. The method of claim 15, wherein processing the routes in the electronic route processor and determining discrete route segments that are shared by at least two of the routes includes routes decomposing in the electronic processor each of the routes into discrete route segments.

18. The method of claim 15, wherein a width of the timed cycling pattern displayed on the electronic display is substantially the same as the width of the non-shared segments.

19. The method of claim 15, further comprising displaying on the electronic display one or more tracked targets moving along the first and second routes.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the tracked targets comprise transit vehicles.