Navigation Device and Method

• US 20130218453A1
• Filed: 06/22/2010
• Published: 08/22/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 06/22/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: TomTom Navigation B.V (TomTom NV)
• Original Assignee: TomTom International BV (TomTom NV)
• Inventors: Geelen, Pieter
• Granted Patent: US 10,175,057 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/410
• 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 21/3626 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

A navigation device comprises a processing section (520); and an output section (530) for providing an output responsive to the processing section; wherein the processing section (520) has access to map data (540) and avoidance data (550), the avoidance data (550) including information for identifying undesirable locations, and the processing section (520) is arranged to: receive location information representing a geographical location and direction of travel in relation to the map data (540); and establish, based on the location information and map data (540), whether the geographical location and direction of travel approach a navigation decision point having a plurality of navigation choices, where each navigation choice corresponds to an onward route leaving the navigation decision point; determine, based on the map data (540) and avoidance data (550), for at least one onward route leaving the navigation decision point, whether the onward route unavoidably includes an undesirable location; and provide result information to the output section (530) based, at least in part, on the determination.

Claims

1. A navigation device, comprising:

a processing section; and

an output section for providing an output responsive to the processing section;

the processing section having access to map data and avoidance data, the avoidance data including information for identifying undesirable locations, and

the processing section is arranged to;

receive location information representing a geographical location and direction of travel in relation to the map data; and

establish, based on the location information and map data, whether the geographical location and direction of travel approach a navigation decision point having a plurality of navigation choices, where each navigation choice corresponds to an onward route leaving the navigation decision point;

determine, based on the map data and avoidance data, for at least one onward route leaving the navigation decision point, whether the onward route unavoidably includes an undesirable location; and

provide result information to the output section based, at least in part, on the determination.

2. The navigation device according to claim 1, wherein the onward route is determined to unavoidably include an undesirable location if, along the onward route, an undesirable location is reached before a next navigation decision point.

3. The navigation device according to claim 2, wherein the onward route is determined to unavoidably lead to an undesirable location if, along the onward route, all subsequent routes from subsequent navigation decision points include an undesirable location.

4. The navigation device according to claim 1, wherein the processing section performs the determination for either:

each onward route from the approached navigation decision point,

an onward route from the approached navigation decision point corresponding to a continuation of a route by which the decision point is approached,

an onward route from the approached navigation decision point, the onward route along a pre-planned route.

5. The navigation device according to claim 1, wherein the avoidance data identifies as undesirable at least one of toll roads, taxable routes, a congestion charging zone, routes with height restrictions, routes with width restrictions and routes with weight restrictions.

6. The navigation device according to claim 1, wherein the navigation device is arranged to receive time data representative of at least one of a current time or an expected time at which an undesirable location will be reached, and wherein:

the avoidance data is time-dependent, and the processing section performs the determination based, at least in part, on the time data.

7. The navigation device according to claim 6, wherein the processing device investigates whether a degree to which an undesirable location is undesirable will change within a predetermined time period, and at least one of:

the result of this investigation is used in the determination of whether the onward route unavoidably includes an undesirable location, and

the result information provided to the output section includes the result of this investigation.

8. The navigation device according to claim 7, wherein the result information includes a recommendation to wait in order to reduce the degree to which an undesirable location is undesirable.

9. The navigation device according to claim 1 wherein the output from the output device includes a route or directions for avoiding the undesirable location.

10. The navigation device according to claim 1, wherein at least one of:

routes from a navigation decision point that double-back on an approach to the decision point,

routes from a navigation decision point that that re-trace an approach to a decision point, and

routes from a navigation decision point that form a closed loop,

are not considered by the processing section to be onward routes from the decision point when performing the determination.

11. The navigation device according to claim 1, wherein the output from the output device includes a warning based on the result information received from the processing section.

12. The navigation device according to claim 1, wherein the navigation device includes a positioning device, the positioning device arranged to determine the location information, the location information being representative of the geographical location and direction of travel of the positioning device.

13. The navigation device according to claim 1, wherein the navigation device is a server, and the location information is received from a remote device.

14. A system comprising:

the navigation device according to claim 13; and

the remote device, the remote device being a positioning device arranged to determine the location information, the location information being representative of the geographical location and direction of travel of the positioning device.

15. A machine-implemented navigation method comprising:

receiving location information representing a geographical location and direction of travel;

establishing, based on the location information, whether the geographical location and direction of travel approaches a navigation decision point having a plurality of navigation choices, where each navigation choice corresponds to an onward route leaving the navigation decision point;

accessing information for identifying undesirable locations;

determining, based on the information for identifying undesirable locations, for at least one onward route leaving the navigation decision point, whether the onward route unavoidably includes an undesirable location; and

outputting result information responsive to the determination.