SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR DETERMINING AN OPTIMAL ROUTE USING AGGREGATED ROUTE INFORMATION

• US 20130018574A1
• Filed: 07/11/2011
• Published: 01/17/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 07/11/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Harman International Industries Incorporated (Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Harman International Industries Incorporated (Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.)
• Inventors: Adler, Andrew
• Granted Patent: US 8,706,397 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/408
• 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

A system for providing navigation information is provided. A navigation server receives route information from multiple mobile devices. A storage module stores the route information received from the mobile devices as aggregated route information. In response to receipt of a request for direction information from a starting location to a destination location, a route calculation module calculates one or more potential routes from the starting location to the destination location. An optimal route determination module determines which route of the one or more potential routes is an optimal route. The optimal route is determined based on the aggregated route information and a preselected criterion.

Claims

1. A system for providing navigation information comprising:

a navigation server that receives route information from a plurality of mobile devices;

a storage module that stores the route information received from the plurality of mobile devices as aggregated route information;

a route calculation module that, in response to receipt of a request for direction information from a starting location to a destination location, calculates one or more potential routes from the starting location to the destination location; and

an optimal route determination module that determines which route of the one or more potential routes is an optimal route based on at least the aggregated route information and a preselected criterion.

2. The system of claim 1 where:

the navigation server transmits direction information to a mobile device in response to receipt of the request for direction information received at the navigation server from the mobile device; and

the direction information includes directions from the starting location to the destination location along the optimal route.

3. The system of claim 2 where the aggregated route information includes route progression information and a plurality of respective user ratings for one or more routes.

4. The system of claim 3 where:

the route progression information includes a present location of the mobile device along the optimal route and corresponding timestamp information; and

the navigation server continually receives the route progression information from the mobile device while the mobile device is in transit along the optimal route.

5. The system of claim 3 where the user ratings are received at the navigation server from the mobile device or from a web browser of a web browser-enabled device.

6. The system of claim 1 where:

the aggregated routing information is weighted such that the optimal route determination module determines that a first type of aggregated routing information is more relevant than a second type of routing information when determining which route of the one or more potential routes is the optimal route; and

the optimal route determination module determines the optimal route based on at least the first type of aggregated routing information.

7. The system of claim 1 further comprising a route monitoring module that monitors the progression of a mobile device along the optimal route based on route progression information received at the route monitoring module from the mobile device.

8. The system of claim 7 where the route monitoring module determines, based on the route progression information, that the optimal route no longer satisfies the preselected criterion and in response to a determination that the optimal route no longer satisfies the preselected criterion:

the route calculation module calculates one or more new potential routes from a present location of the mobile device to the destination location;

the optimal route determination module determines which route of the one or more new potential routes is a new optimal route based on the aggregated route information and the preselected criterion; and

the navigation server transmits direction information to the mobile device where the direction information includes directions from the present location to the destination location along the new optimal route.

9. The system of claim 1 where:

the navigation server transmits a request for traffic information to a traffic server;

the navigation server receives the traffic information in response to receipt of the request at the traffic server; and

the optimal route determination module determines which route in the one or more potential routes is the optimal route based on at least the aggregated route information, the preselected criterion, and the traffic information.

10. The system of claim 1 where the preselected criterion is an estimation of travel time from the starting location to the destination location.

11. A computer-implemented method of providing navigation information comprising:

providing a navigation server configured for;

receiving route information from a plurality of mobile devices;

storing the route information received from the plurality of mobile devices as aggregated route information;

calculating one or more potential routes from a starting location to a destination location in response to receipt of a request for direction information from the starting location to the destination location; and

determining which route of the one or more potential routes is an optimal route based on at least the aggregated route information and a preselected criterion.

12. The computer-implemented method of claim 11 further comprising transmitting direction information to a mobile device in response to receipt of the request for direction information received from the mobile device where the direction information includes directions from the starting location to the destination location along the optimal route.

13. The computer-implemented method of claim 12 where the aggregated route information includes route progression information and a plurality of respective user ratings for one or more routes.

14. The computer-implemented method of claim 13 where the route progression information includes a present location of the mobile device along the optimal route and corresponding timestamp information and further comprising:

continually receiving the route progression information from the mobile client device while the mobile client device is in transit along the optimal route.

15. The computer-implemented method of claim 13 where the user ratings are received from the mobile device or from a web browser of a web browser-enabled device.

16. The computer-implemented method of claim 11 where the aggregated routing information is weighted and further comprising:

determining that a first type of aggregated routing information is more relevant than a second type of routing information when determining which route of the one or more potential routes is the optimal route; and

determining the optimal route based on at least the first type of aggregated routing information.

17. The computer-implemented method of claim 11 further comprising monitoring the progression of a mobile device along the optimal route based on route progression information received from the mobile device.

18. The computer-implemented method of claim 17 further comprising:

determining that the optimal route no longer satisfies the preselected criterion based on the route progression information;

calculating one or more new potential routes from a present location of the mobile client device to the destination location;

determining which route of the one or more new potential routes is a new optimal route based on the aggregated route information and the preselected criterion; and

transmitting direction information to the mobile device where the direction information includes directions from the present location to the destination location along the new optimal route.

19. The computer-implemented method of claim 11 further comprising:

transmitting a request for traffic information to a traffic server;

receiving the traffic information in response to receipt of the request at the traffic server; and

determining which route in the one or more potential routes is the optimal route based on at least the aggregated route information, the preselected criterion, and the traffic information.

20. The computer-implemented method of claim 11 where the preselected criterion is an estimation of travel time from the starting location to the destination location.