ROUTE PORTALS

• US 20120316771A1
• Filed: 06/07/2011
• Published: 12/13/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 06/07/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: General Motors LLC (General Motors Company)
• Original Assignee: General Motors LLC (General Motors Company)
• Inventors: Damon, Todd E., Cucuzella, Mathew
• Granted Patent: US 8,909,468 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/412
• 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

Abstract

The described method and system provide for utilizing portals during GPS navigation to avoid unnecessary off-route notifications and route recalculation in problem areas. The method and system are described in the context of a GPS unit that is part of a telematics unit in a vehicle. If the route calculated by the GPS unit includes certain problem areas such as tunnels and stacked bridges, the GPS unit may utilize portals to process GPS navigation through those areas. When a user enters a portal, normal GPS navigation is suspended and certain features are disabled. For example, the user will not longer receive Turn-by-Turn (TBT) directions, off-route notifications, error notifications, and route recalculation notifications, until the GPS unit determines that the user has arrived at a second portal or until the user manually re-enables those features. The portals should be preferably located at the inlets and outlets to the problem areas. Thus, while the user is in a problem area, errant GPS information may be discarded or ignored, and the provision of unnecessary off-route notifications and route recalculations to the user may be avoided.

Claims

1. A method for GPS (Global Positioning System) navigation on a GPS device, comprising:

receiving, at the GPS device, input from a user corresponding to an intended destination;

calculating a route from a starting point to the intended destination;

determining that the user has entered a geographic region designated as a first portal; and

disabling provision of one or more predetermined types of notifications to the user until a predetermined condition occurs.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the predetermined condition is determining that the user has entered a geographic region designated as a second portal.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the second portal is associated with the first portal.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the predetermined condition is receiving input from the user to enable the one or more predetermined types of notifications.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more predetermined types of notifications are at least one of:

Turn-by-Turn (TBT) directions, off-route notifications, error notifications, and route recalculation notifications.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

after determining that the user has entered a geographic region designated as a first portal, discarding GPS position information corresponding to the current position of the user until the predetermined condition occurs unless the GPS information corresponding to the current position of the user indicates that the current position of the user is at a geographic region designated as a second portal.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

after determining that the user has entered a geographic region designated as a first portal, ignoring GPS signal reception-related errors until the predetermined condition occurs.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the geographic region designated as a first portal is defined by a set of GPS coordinates.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the size of the geographic region designated as a first portal depends on at least one of:

the accuracy of the GPS positioning system and map features within the vicinity of the geographic region designated as a first portal.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein determining that the user has entered a geographic region designated as a first portal comprises:

comparing GPS information corresponding to the current position of the user with the set of GPS coordinates defining the geographic region designated as a first portal.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the starting point is a current position of the user determined at approximately the time of route calculation.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the GPS device is a hardware component within a vehicle.

13. A system for GPS (Global Positioning System) navigation, comprising a tangible, non-transient computer-readable medium having thereon computer executable instructions, the computer executable instructions comprising:

instructions for calculating a route from a starting point to the intended destination based on a received input from a user corresponding to an intended destination;

instructions for determining that the user has entered a geographic region designated as a first portal; and

instructions for disabling provision of one or more predetermined types of notifications to the user until a predetermined condition occurs.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the predetermined condition is determining that the user has entered a geographic region designated as a second portal.

15. The system of claim 13, wherein the second portal is associated with the first portal.

16. The system of claim 13, wherein the predetermined condition is receiving input from the user to enable the one or more predetermined types of notifications.

17. The system of claim 13, wherein the computer executable instructions further comprise:

instructions for discarding GPS position information corresponding to the current position of the user after determining that the user has entered a geographic region designated as a first portal until the predetermined condition occurs unless the GPS information corresponding to the current position of the user indicates that the current position of the user is at a geographic region designated as a second portal.

18. The system of claim 13, wherein the computer executable instructions further comprise:

instructions for disabling processing of GPS signal reception-related errors after determining that the user has entered a geographic region designated as a first portal, until the predetermined condition occurs.

19. The system of claim 13, comprising a database for storing information pertaining to designations of geographic regions as portals.

20. The system of claim 13, wherein the tangible, non-transient computer-readable medium is located within a telematics unit in a vehicle.