NAVIGATION DEVICE & METHOD

• US 20120053823A1
• Filed: 12/31/2009
• Published: 03/01/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 05/04/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Tomtom Global Content B.V (TomTom NV)
• Original Assignee: Tele Atlas North American Incorporated
• Inventors: Wilson, Christopher Kenneth Hoover
• Granted Patent: US 10,371,533 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/119
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 10/26 Segmentation of patterns in the image field; Cutting or merging of image elements to establish the pattern region, e.g. clustering-based techniques; Detection of occlusion
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/588 Recognition of the road, e.g. of lane markings; Recognition of the vehicle driving pattern in relation to the road
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/0104 Measuring and analyzing of parameters relative to traffic conditions
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/0129 for creating historical data or processing based on historical data
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/052 with provision for determining speed or overspeed speed measuring in general G01P
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096844 where the complete route is dynamically recomputed based on new data

Abstract

Embodiments of the present invention relate to a method of determining speed information, comprising receiving traffic monitoring information navigation devices (610), wherein the traffic monitoring information includes identification information identifying a mobile device (630), location information indicating a geographic locations (910, 920) at which the identification information was received from the mobile device (630), and temporal information indicating times at which the identification information was received, and determining speed information associated with the mobile device from the traffic monitoring information.

Claims

1. A method of determining speed information, comprising:

receiving first traffic monitoring information from a first navigation device, wherein the first traffic monitoring information includes identification information identifying a mobile device, location information indicating a first geographic location at which the identification information was received from the mobile device, and temporal information indicating a time at which the identification information was received;

receiving second traffic monitoring information from second navigation device, wherein the second traffic monitoring information includes identification information identifying the mobile device, location information indicating a second geographic location at which the identification information was received from the mobile device, and temporal information indicating a time at which the identification information was received; and

determining speed information from the first and second traffic monitoring information.

2. The method of claim 1, comprising:

receiving, at the first navigation device, the identification information from the mobile device; and

receiving, at the second navigation device, the identification information from the mobile device.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the identification information is received from the mobile device using a relatively short range wireless communication protocol.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the speed information is determined according to:

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the speed information is average speed information associated with one or more road segments.

6. The method of claim 1, comprising storing the speed information associated with map data.

7. A computer program product comprising computer executable instructions which, when executed by a computer, implement the method of claim 1.

8. A navigation device, comprising:

a wireless communication device for receiving data; and

a location determining means for determining a geographic location of the device;

the navigation device includes a traffic monitoring module arranged to receive, via the wireless communication device, identification information from a mobile device, to determine location information indicating a geographic location at which the identification information is received, and temporal information indicating the time at which the identification information is received.

9. The device of claim 8, wherein the wireless communication device is based on a relatively short-range communication protocol.

10. The device of claim 9, wherein the wireless communication device is a Bluetooth communication device.

11. The device of claim 8, wherein the traffic monitoring module is arranged to communicate the identification information, location information and temporal information to a server.

12. A system, comprising:

one or more navigation devices according to claim 8; and

a server communicatively couplable to the one or more navigation devices to receive the identification information, location information and temporal information, wherein the server is arranged to determine speed information associated with the mobile device according to the received information.

13. The system according to claim 12, wherein the server determines the speed information from information received from first and second navigation devices indicating first and second geographic locations at which identification information was received from the mobile device and associated temporal information.

14. The system of claim 12, wherein the server determines the speed information according to:

15. The system of claim 12, wherein the mobile device is one of:

an in-vehicle electronic device, a navigation device or a mobile communication device.