Grouping Maneuvers for Display in a Navigation Presentation

• US 20170356753A1
• Filed: 09/23/2016
• Published: 12/14/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 06/12/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Findley, Adam B., Fillhardt, Nathan L., Strawn, Justin M., Andrich, Brian J., Hajj, Usama M., Sasada, Tadayasu
• Granted Patent: US 10,739,157 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3415 Dynamic re-routing, e.g. recalculating the route when the user deviates from calculated route or after detecting real-time traffic data or accidents
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3608 using speech input, e.g. using speech recognition
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3635 Guidance using 3D or perspective road maps
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3638 including 3D objects and buildings three dimensional [3D] modelling, e.g. data description of 3D objects G06T17/00; geographic models G06T17/05
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3655 Timing of guidance instructions
• 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: G01C 21/3676 Overview of the route on the road map
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/14 Digital output to display device ; Cooperation and interconnection of the display device with other functional units
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/147 using display panels
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 15/20 Perspective computation
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 17/05 Geographic models
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 19/003 Navigation within 3D models or images
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096827 where the route is computed onboard
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/0969 having a display in the form of a map
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2380/10 Automotive applications
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/22 Procedures used during a speech recognition process, e.g. man-machine dialogue
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 2015/223 Execution procedure of a spoken command
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/183 for receiving images from a single remote source
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/188 Capturing isolated or intermittent images triggered by the occurrence of a predetermined event, e.g. an object reaching a predetermined position signal generation from motion picture films H04N5/253

Abstract

Some embodiments of the invention provide several novel methods for generating a navigation presentation that displays a device navigating a route on a map. The method of some embodiments uses a virtual camera that, based on detected changes in the navigation context, dynamically modifies the way it captures portions of the map to produce different navigation scenes in the navigation presentation. To generate the navigation scenes, the method of some embodiments (1) identifies different sets of attributes that describe the different navigation contexts at different times during the navigation presentation, and (2) uses these different sets of attributes to identify different styles for operating the virtual camera. In some embodiments, the method uses an identified style to specify the virtual camera'"'"'s positional attributes, which, in turn, define the portions of the map that the virtual camera identifies for rendering to produce several navigation scenes for a period of time (e.g., until the navigation context changes, or until the navigation presentation ends when the navigation context does not change again). During the navigation presentation, each time the navigation context changes, the identified set of attributes may change. This change, in turn, may cause the method of some embodiments to select a new style for operating the virtual camera. When the style for operating the virtual camera changes, the method of some embodiments modifies the way the virtual camera captures the portion of the map to render.

Claims

1. A non-transitory machine readable medium storing a program for execution by at least one processing unit, the program for generating a navigation presentation for display on a device, said presentation displaying the device navigating on a map along a route to a destination, the program comprising sets of instructions for:

identifying, during the navigation presentation, a plurality of upcoming maneuvers along the route;

dynamically identifying a group of upcoming maneuvers that satisfy a set of grouping criteria; and

directing a virtual camera to generate a plurality of navigation scenes in the navigation presentation that each displays concurrently all the maneuvers in the group of upcoming maneuvers.

2. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 1,

wherein the set of grouping criteria comprises a maximum number of maneuvers in the group, and

wherein the set of instructions for dynamically identifying the group comprises a set of instructions for limiting the number of maneuvers in the group to be no more than a particular number.

3. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 1,

wherein the set of grouping criteria comprises a minimum number of maneuvers in the group, and

wherein the set of instructions for dynamically identifying the group comprises a set of instructions for requiring the number of maneuvers in the group to be at least a particular number.

4. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 1,

wherein the set of grouping criteria comprises a criterion for grouping successive maneuvers that are associated with at least one category,

wherein the set of instructions for dynamically identifying the group comprises a set of instructions for:

determining whether each upcoming maneuver is associated with at least one category; and

identifying a subset of successive upcoming maneuvers that are associated with at least one category;

defining the subset of successive upcoming maneuvers as the group of upcoming maneuvers.

5. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 4, wherein at least one category for grouping maneuvers relates to whether at least two successive maneuver are within a particular threshold distance of each other.

6. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 5, wherein each maneuver has a type, wherein another category for grouping the maneuvers relates to whether each of at least two successive maneuvers has a type from a set of maneuver types that need to be grouped.

7. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 6, wherein the set of maneuver types comprises roundabout maneuvers and exit ramps.

8. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 4, wherein each maneuver has a type, wherein at least one category for grouping the maneuvers relates to whether each of at least two successive maneuvers has a type from a set of maneuver types that need to be grouped.

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

providing to the virtual camera the locations of the maneuvers in the group of maneuvers, said virtual camera using the provided locations to generate, for each navigation scene, a frame that encompasses all the maneuvers in the group of upcoming maneuvers.

10. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 9, wherein for each navigation scene, the virtual camera adjusts a zoom level at which the virtual camera captures a portion of the map in order to ensure that the frame for that scene is shown within a particular location of a display screen of the device.

11. A mobile device comprising:

a set of processing units for executing instructions;

a non-transitory machine readable medium storing a program for execution by at least one processing unit, the program for generating a navigation presentation for display on a device, said presentation displaying the device navigating on a map along a route to a destination, the program comprising sets of instructions for;

identifying, during the navigation presentation, a plurality of upcoming maneuvers along the route;

dynamically identifying a group of upcoming maneuvers that satisfy a set of grouping criteria; and

directing a virtual camera to generate a plurality of navigation scenes in the navigation presentation that each displays concurrently all the maneuvers in the group of upcoming maneuvers.

12. The mobile device of claim 11,

wherein the set of grouping criteria comprises a maximum number of maneuvers in the group, and

wherein the set of instructions for dynamically identifying the group comprises a set of instructions for limiting the number of maneuvers in the group to be no more than a particular number.

13. The mobile device of claim 11,

wherein the set of grouping criteria comprises a minimum number of maneuvers in the group, and

wherein the set of instructions for dynamically identifying the group comprises a set of instructions for requiring the number of maneuvers in the group to be at least a particular number.

14. The mobile device of claim 11,

wherein the set of grouping criteria comprises a criterion for grouping successive maneuvers that are associated with at least one category,

wherein the set of instructions for dynamically identifying the group comprises a set of instructions for:

determining whether each upcoming maneuver is associated with at least one category; and

identifying a subset of successive upcoming maneuvers that are associated with at least one category;

defining the subset of successive upcoming maneuvers as the group of upcoming maneuvers.

15. The mobile device of claim 14, wherein at least one category for grouping maneuvers relates to whether at least two successive maneuver are within a particular threshold distance of each other.

16. The mobile device of claim 15, wherein each maneuver has a type, wherein another category for grouping the maneuvers relates to whether each of at least two successive maneuvers has a type from a set of maneuver types that need to be grouped.

17. The mobile device of claim 16, wherein the set of maneuver types comprises roundabout maneuvers and exit ramps.

18. The mobile device of claim 14, wherein each maneuver has a type, wherein at least one category for grouping the maneuvers relates to whether each of at least two successive maneuvers has a type from a set of maneuver types that need to be grouped.

19. The mobile device of claim 11, wherein the program further comprises sets of instructions for:

providing to the virtual camera the locations of the maneuvers in the group of maneuvers,

said virtual camera using the provided locations to generate, for each navigation scene, a frame that encompasses all the maneuvers in the group of upcoming maneuvers.

20. The mobile device of claim 11, wherein to generate the frame for each navigation scene, the virtual camera points towards the last maneuver in the group of maneuvers.