TECHNIQUE FOR EFFECTIVE NAVIGATION BASED ON USER PREFERENCES

• US 20130197796A1
• Filed: 03/13/2013
• Published: 08/01/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 10/19/1999
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Silver State Intellectual Technologies, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Silver State Intellectual Technologies, Inc.
• Inventors: Obradovich, Michael L., Pirtle, John D., Schebesch, Steven W.
• Granted Patent: US 9,983,015 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/423
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3461 Preferred or disfavoured areas, e.g. dangerous zones, toll or emission zones, intersections, manoeuvre types, segments such as motorways, toll roads, ferries
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3484 Personalized, e.g. from learned user behaviour or user-defined profiles
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3617 using user history, behaviour, conditions or preferences, e.g. predicted or inferred from previous use or current movement
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3679 Retrieval, searching and output of POI information, e.g. hotels, restaurants, shops, filling stations, parking facilities G01C21/3611 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising

Abstract

In a navigation device in accordance with the invention, user profiles may be stored and used to navigate a user who may be driving in a vehicle, on foot, or in other mode of transportation. Each user profile corresponds to one of the user'"'"'s personae. For example, the user business profile corresponding to the user'"'"'s business persona may be different from the user personal profile corresponding to the user'"'"'s personal persona. For instance, the user business profile may include fine-dining type restaurants for business meetings while the user personal profile may instead include fast-food type restaurants for personal dining. The inventive navigation device provides the user with a navigated route, together with information concerning the favorite facilities and events surrounding the navigated route, which satisfy the preferences in a selected user profile. In accordance with an aspect of the invention, blockages may also be established using the device to avoid selected areas, e.g., high crime areas, in the navigated route, or to block transmission of selected information concerning, e.g., uninteresting facilities and events, to the inventive navigation device.

Claims

1. Navigation apparatus comprising:

a memory for storing at least one profile, the at least one profile including preferences;

a device for providing data identifying a location of the apparatus, favorites being determined based on the data and the preferences in the at least one profile,

an interface for receiving a navigation request; and

a processor responsive to the navigation request for providing navigation information which includes information concerning at least one of the favorites.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the at least one profile includes a personal profile which contains preferences relating to personal activities.

3. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the at least one profile includes a business profile which contains preferences relating to business activities.

4. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the at least one profile includes a vacation profile which contains preferences relating to vacation activities.

5. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the at least one profile includes a preset profile which allows for editing.

6. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the favorites concern selected facilities.

7. The apparatus of claim 6 wherein the selected facilities include selected restaurants.

8. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the favorites concern selected events.

9. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the navigation information also includes information concerning a navigated route and a geographic relation of the at least one of the favorites to the navigated route.

10. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the data includes global positioning system (GPS) based data.

11. The apparatus of claim 1 comprising a hand-held device.

12. Navigation apparatus comprising:

a device for providing data concerning a location of the apparatus;

an interface for selecting a mode of transportation; and

a processor for providing map related information based on the data and a selected mode of transportation.

13. The apparatus of claim 12 wherein the selected mode of transportation includes walking.

14. The apparatus of claim 12 wherein the selected mode of transportation includes transportation by vehicle.

15. The apparatus of claim 12 wherein the selected mode of transportation includes public transportation.

16. The apparatus of claim 12 wherein the map related information includes information concerning traffic conditions.

17. The apparatus of claim 12 wherein the map related information includes information concerning road conditions.

18. The apparatus of claim 12 wherein the map related information includes information concerning weather conditions.

19. The apparatus of claim 12 wherein the map related information is organized according to GPS coordinates.

20. Apparatus for receiving a navigation request comprising:

a memory for storing at least one profile including preferences;

a device for providing data indicating a location of the apparatus,

an interface for providing navigation information, the navigation information including a set of favorites which is identified based on the preferences and the location of the apparatus; and

a processor responsive to the navigation request for determining based on the data whether the location of the apparatus is outside a predetermined range of a current location of the apparatus, the interface providing navigation information which includes a second set of favorites when it is determined that the location of the apparatus is outside the predetermined range of the current location of the apparatus, the second set of favorites being identified based on the preferences and the current location of the apparatus.

21-53. -53. (canceled)