TRANSIT NAVIGATION

• US 20160356613A1
• Filed: 09/29/2015
• Published: 12/08/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 06/07/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Hajj, Usama M., van Os, Marcel, Andrich, Brian, Leighton, Ian, O'Beirne, Justin, Hodge, David, Wachsman, Eleanor Cady, Kelso, Nathaniel V., Reiner, Aaron A., McGavran, Christine B., Yue, Wesley, Grundstrom, Eric L.
• Granted Patent: US 10,180,331 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/20 Instruments for performing navigational calculations G01C21/24, G01C21/26 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3423 Multimodal routing, i.e. combining two or more modes of transportation, where the modes can be any of, e.g. driving, walking, cycling, public transport
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3484 Personalized, e.g. from learned user behaviour or user-defined profiles
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/36 Input/output arrangements for on-board computers
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3667 Display of a road map G01C21/3614 takes precedence; guidance using 3D or perspective road maps G01C21/3635
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9038 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04842 Selection of displayed objects or displayed text elements G06F3/0482 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0485 Scrolling or panning
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0488 using a touch-screen or digitiser, e.g. input of commands through traced gestures
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/0125 Traffic data processing
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/123 indicating the position of vehicles, e.g. scheduled vehicles; Managing passenger vehicles circulating according to a fixed timetable, e.g. buses, trains, tramstransmission of navigation instructions to vehicles G08G1/0968

Abstract

Some embodiments provide a map application that identifies a transit route that includes one or more transit legs between a starting location and a destination location. In response to a request to start navigating the identified transit route, the map application of some embodiments provides a first display area for displaying a set of navigation instructions, each of which describes a transit maneuver that is associated with a transit leg of the transit route. The map application also provides a second display area for displaying a map region presentation associated with the navigation instruction that is displayed in the first display area.

Claims

1. A non-transitory machine readable medium storing a map application executable by at least one processing unit of a device, the application comprising sets of instructions for:

identifying a transit route between a starting location and a destination location, the transit route comprising a set of transit legs; and

in response to a request to start navigating the identified transit route, providing;

a first display area for displaying a set of navigation instructions that each describes a transit maneuver associated with a particular transit leg; and

a second display area for displaying a set of map region presentations that each is associated with a navigation instruction that is displayed in the first display area.

2. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 1, wherein each transit leg in the set of transit legs comprises one of (i) a portion of the transit route that is travelled by a transit vehicle, and (ii) a navigable walking portion.

3. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 2, wherein a transit vehicle that travels a portion of the transit route comprises one of a subway train, a bus, a ferry, and a light rail train.

4. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 2, wherein a navigable walking portion comprises a navigable walking distance that is (i) more than a threshold distance and (ii) between one of the starting location and a first transit station of the first transit leg, a last transit station of a transit leg and a first transit station of a subsequent transit leg, and a last transit station and the destination.

5. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 1, wherein the set of transit legs comprises at least two portions of the transit route that are travelled by two transit vehicles that are of a same type, wherein the two transit vehicles belong to two different transit lines.

6. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 1, wherein the device further comprises a touch-sensitive display screen on which the first and second display areas are displayed, wherein the application further comprises a set of instructions for receiving a touch and drag contact on the display screen of the device on the first display area for scrolling through the set of navigation instructions displayed in the first display area.

7. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 6, wherein the application further comprises sets of instructions for, upon receiving the touch and drag contact:

determining in which direction the touch contact on the first display area is dragged;

when the touch contact is dragged on the touch-sensitive display screen to the left, displaying (i) in the first display area, a next navigation instruction of the set and (ii) in the second display area, a map region presentation associated with a portion of the transit route for which the next navigation instruction is displayed in the first display area; and

when the touch contact is dragged on the touch-sensitive display screen to the right, displaying (i) in the first display area, a previous navigation instruction of the set and (ii) in the second display area, a map region presentation associated with a portion of the transit route for which the previous navigation instruction is displayed in the first display area.

8. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 6, wherein the application further comprises a set of instructions for identifying a current location of the device, wherein the second display area is further for displaying the current location of the device while scrolling through the set of navigation instructions displayed in the first display area when the displayed portion of the map in the second display area includes the current location of the device.

9. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 1, wherein the application further comprises sets of instructions for:

tracking a current location of the device;

identifying a particular transit leg of the transit route that is associated with the current location of the device;

determining that the currently displayed navigation instruction in the first display area does not describe a transit maneuver associated with the particular transit leg; and

automatically displaying;

in the first display area, a navigation instruction that describes a transit maneuver associated with the particular transit leg; and

in the second display area, a map region presentation that is associated with the navigation instruction.

10. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 9, wherein the set of instructions for automatically displaying comprises a set of instructions for automatically scrolling the set of navigation instructions and their associated map region presentations in the first and second display areas to reach the navigation instruction that describes a transit maneuver and the navigation instruction'"'"'s associated map region presentation.

11. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 1, wherein each transit leg comprises a portion of the transit route that is travelled by a transit vehicle, the application further comprising sets of instructions for, before receiving the request to start navigating:

displaying a route summary comprising a selectable presentation of the set of transit legs; and

upon selection of the presentation, displaying a scrollable navigation list comprising every navigation instruction in the set of navigation instructions.

12. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 1, wherein the application further comprises sets of instructions for:

upon receiving the request to navigate to the destination, determining whether the current location of the device is within a threshold distance of the destination; and

when the current location of the device is within the threshold distance, switching from a transit navigation mode to a walking navigation mode in order to provide a set of turn-by-turn walking instructions to reach the destination.

13. For a map application executing on a device, a method for providing transit navigation presentation, the method comprising:

identifying a transit route between a starting location and a destination location, the transit route comprising a set of transit legs; and

in response to a request to start navigating the identified transit route, providing;

a first display area for displaying a set of navigation instructions that each describes a transit maneuver associated with a particular transit leg; and

a second display area for displaying a set of map region presentations that each is associated with a navigation instruction that is displayed in the first display area.

14. The method of claim 13 further comprising:

identifying a current location of the device; and

based on a distance between the current location of the device and a first transit station of a next transit leg, describing different transit maneuvers associated with the next transit leg.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein describing the different transit maneuvers comprises describing a first transit maneuver when the distance is more than a threshold distance, and describing a second different transit maneuver when the distance is less than or equal to the threshold distance.

16. The method of claim 13, wherein each transit leg comprises a portion of the transit route that is travelled by a transit vehicle, the method further comprising, for each current transit leg for which an associated navigation instruction is displayed in the first display area:

determining whether an alternative route comprising one or more alternative transit legs that can replace the current transit leg is available; and

when the alternative route is available, displaying, in the second display area, a selectable user interface (UI) item for replacing the current transit leg with the alternative route in order to modify the identified transit route.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the alternative route comprises a transit route that (i) starts from or near a same transit station from which the current transit leg starts and (ii) ends at or near a same transit station at which the current transit leg ends.

18. The method of claim 16 further comprising, upon selection of the UI item, replacing the current transit leg with the one or more alternative transit legs of the alternative route.

19. An electronic device comprising:

a set of processing units for executing sets of instructions; and

a non-transitory machine readable medium storing a map application which when executed by at least one of the processing units of the device provides a transit navigation presentation, the application comprising sets of instructions for;

identifying a transit route between a starting location and a destination location, the transit route comprising a set of transit legs; and

in response to a request to start navigating the identified transit route, providing;

a first display area for displaying a set of navigation instructions that each describes a transit maneuver associated with a particular transit leg; and

a second display area for displaying a set of map region presentations that each is associated with a navigation instruction that is displayed in the first display area.

20. The electronic device of claim 19, wherein a transit maneuver that is associated with a transit leg comprises boarding a next transit vehicle of a transit line at a first transit station of the transit leg.

21. The electronic device of claim 20, wherein the transit maneuver further comprises an address of the first transit station and a departure schedule of the transit line at the first transit station.

22. The electronic device of claim 21, wherein the departure schedule for the transit line comprises a frequency of departures of transit vehicles of the transit line at the first transit station.

23. The electronic device of claim 22, wherein the frequency of departures of the transit vehicles of the transit line at the first transit station comprises a time interval between each pair of departures of the transit vehicles of the transit line from the first transit station.

24. The electronic device of claim 21, wherein the departure schedule for the transit line comprises (i) a frequency of departures of transit vehicles of the transit line at the first transit station when the transit line is a high frequency transit line, and (ii) a set of departure times of a set of next transit vehicles of the transit line from the first transit station when the transit line is a low frequency transit line.

25. The electronic device of claim 19, wherein a transit maneuver that is associated with a transit leg comprises name and address of a last transit station of the transit leg to exit a transit vehicle.

26. The electronic device of claim 25, wherein the last transit station comprises a subway station, wherein a subsequent transit maneuver comprises an exit address through which to exit the subway station.