Car radio receiver comprising a memory for storing predetermined vocabulary elements

• US 5,950,117 A
• Filed: 04/12/1996
• Issued: 09/07/1999
• Est. Priority Date: 04/12/1995
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Continental Automotive GmbH (Continental AG)
• Original Assignee: VDO Control Systems
• Inventors: Zorer, Jean-Louis
• Primary Examiner(s): RAO, ANAND SHASHIKANT
• Application Number:
  US08/631,384
• Time in Patent Office: 1,243 Days
• Field of Search: 455/45, 455/186.1, 455/186.2, 340/905, 340/990, 340/995
• US Class Current: 455/186.1
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 20/55 for traffic information

Abstract

A vocabulary memory which contains descriptions of vocabulary elements is addressable by a code which is formed by a number designating a vocabulary element, but the set of useful codes for a given user comprises gaps (32-38) between groups of consecutive numbers which are referred to as segments (24-31). The vocabulary memory contains segments which are arranged end to end and the receiver comprises an auxiliary memory which contains, for a given segment (27), the smallest and largest code values of this segment and the position in the vocabulary memory of descriptions corresponding to the codes contained in this segment, as well as the addresses (225, 230) in said auxiliary memory of data of two other segments (25, 30) of the sequence of segments, some of which are situated above and some of which are situated below said given segment etc. in order to form a classification in the form of a tree.

Claims

1. A car radio receiver, comprising a vocabulary memory containing descriptions of vocabulary elements, each of the vocabulary element descriptions having a position in said memory and being identified by means of a code which is formed by a number, a set of codes designating useful vocabulary elements for a given user consisting of a sequence of numbers with gaps between groups of consecutive numbers, a group of said consecutive numbers being referred to as a segment, characterized in that the descriptions corresponding to the codes contained in the various segments of a set for a given user are arranged end to end in the vocabulary memory, and that the receiver comprises an auxiliary memory which contains digital data enabling determination, for each code in the set, of the position of the corresponding description in the vocabulary memory.

2. A car radio receiver as claimed in claim 1, characterized in that for a given segment the auxiliary memory contains the smallest code value contained in the segment, the largest code value contained in the segment, and the position in the vocabulary memory of the description corresponding to the code situated at one of the limits of the segment.

3. A car radio receiver as claimed in claim 2, characterized in that a so-called "tree" memory contains, in correspondence with the data of a segment, addresses in the auxiliary memory of data concerning other segments, some of which are below said given segment and some of which are above said given segment.

4. car radio receiver as claimed in claim 3, characterized in that for a given segment the treelike memory contains the address in the auxiliary memory of data of another segment of the sequence of segments which is situated substantially in the middle of those which are below said given segment, and the address in the auxiliary memory of data of another segment which is situated substantially in the middle of those which are above said given segment.

5. A car radio receiver as claimed in claim 4, characterized in that if there is no segment yet to be taken into account above or below the given segment, the treelike memory contains a special sign to indicate this fact.

6. A car radio receiver as claimed in claim 3, characterized in that the auxiliary memory and the treelike memory form one and the same memory.

7. A car radio receiver as claimed in claim 1, characterized in that it comprises a card reader and that the vocabulary memory and the auxiliary memory are accommodated on a removable card.

8. A personalized car radio receiver for a car radio broadcast system in which codes are broadcasted to car radio receivers containing stored vocabulary elements, each car radio receiver determining whether a received code is relevant to said each car radio receiver and retrieving stored vocabulary elements corresponding to received relevant codes, the car radio broadcast system having a multiplicity of different predefined vocabulary elements and a unique code number corresponding to each one of the predefined vocabulary elements, the personalized car radio receiver being adapted for a particular user with respect to which only a portion of the predefined vocabulary elements are considered relevant, comprising:

a vocabulary memory that contains only a portion of the predefined vocabulary elements of the car radio broadcast system, including the predefined vocabulary elements considered relevant to the particular user, the predefined vocabulary elements in said vocabulary memory consisting of a multiplicity of groups of predefined vocabulary elements, each one of said groups consisting of one or more predefined vocabulary elements having consecutively numbered codes, the consecutively numbered codes corresponding to any said group of predefined vocabulary codes forming a segment of codes, the predefined vocabulary elements in the vocabulary memory having addresses that cannot be determined directly from the codes that correspond to the predefined vocabulary elements in the vocabulary memory; and

an auxiliary memory containing information sufficient to generate from a received code that corresponds to a predefined vocabulary element in the vocabulary memory the address of the predefined vocabulary element in the vocabulary memory that corresponds to the received code,

whereby the combined size of the vocabulary memory and auxiliary memory is smaller than a vocabulary memory capable of storing all of the predefined vocabulary elements of the system.

10. A car radio receiver as claimed in claim 8, characterized in that it comprises a card reader and that the vocabulary memory and the auxiliary memory are accommodated on a removable card.

11. A personalized car radio receiver as claimed in claim 8 wherein the portion of the predefined vocabulary elements considered relevant to a particular user are the predefined vocabulary elements considered relevant to a particular geographical region.

12. A personalized car radio receiver as claimed in claim 11 wherein the predefined vocabulary elements contained in the vocabulary memory include location point vocabulary elements and the only location point vocabulary elements contained in the vocabulary memory are the location point vocabulary elements within the particular geographical region.

15. A car radio receiver as claimed in claim 11, characterized in that it comprises a card reader and that the vocabulary memory and the auxiliary memory are accommodated on a removable card.

16. A car radio receiver as claimed in claim 12, characterized in that it comprises a card reader and that the vocabulary memory and the auxiliary memory are accommodated on a removable card.

9. A personalized car radio receiver for a car radio broadcast system in which codes are broadcasted to car radio receivers containing stored predefined vocabulary elements, the car radio broadcast system including a multiplicity of different predefined vocabulary elements and having a unique code corresponding to each different predefined vocabulary element, the personalized car radio receiver being adapted for use in a particular geographical region with respect to which only a portion of the predefined vocabulary elements are relevant, comprising:

a vocabulary memory that contains only a portion of the predefined vocabulary elements of the car radio broadcast system, said portion including the predefined vocabulary elements relevant to a particular geographical region, the stored vocabulary elements in the vocabulary memory having addresses that cannot be determined directly from the codes that correspond to the stored vocabulary elements; and

an auxiliary memory containing information that correlates the addresses of the predefined vocabulary elements stored in the vocabulary memory with the codes that correspond to the predefined vocabulary elements stored in the vocabulary memory,

whereby any of the predefined vocabulary elements corresponding to received codes relevant to the particular geographical region can be retrieved from the vocabulary memory without storing all of the predefined vocabulary elements of the car radio receiver system in the vocabulary memory.

13. A car radio receiver as claimed in claim 9, characterized in that it comprises a card reader and that the vocabulary memory and the auxiliary memory are accommodated on a removable card.

14. A personalized car radio receiver as defined in claim 9 wherein the predefined vocabulary elements stored in the vocabulary memory include location point vocabulary elements and only the location point vocabulary elements identifying location points within the particular geographical region are stored in the vocabulary memory.

17. A car radio receiver as claimed in claim 14, characterized in that it comprises a card reader and that the vocabulary memory and the auxiliary memory are accommodated on a removable card.