Navigation system for a vehicle

• US 6,216,085 B1
• Filed: 08/31/1998
• Issued: 04/10/2001
• Est. Priority Date: 09/03/1997
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Continental Automotive GmbH (Continental AG)
• Original Assignee: Mannesmann VDO AG (Continental AG)
• Inventors: Mulder, Edwin W., Emmerink, Carla J. M., Walgers, Erik J., Lahaije, Paul D. M. E.
• Primary Examiner(s): Cuchlinski, Jr., William A.
• Assistant Examiner(s): PIPALA, EDWARD J
• Application Number:
  US09/143,836
• Time in Patent Office: 953 Days
• Field of Search: 701/117, 701/118, 701/200, 701/204, 701/208, 701/209, 701/210, 340/905, 340/439, 340/990, 340/995, 455/186.1
• US Class Current: 701/117
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/26 specially adapted for navigation in a road network
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/093 Data selection, e.g. prioritizing information, managing message queues, selecting the information to be output

Abstract

A navigation system (100) guiding a driver of a vehicle has a receiver (102) for the reception of traffic message. The navigation system has a filter module (104) that determines the delay caused by the event of the received traffic message. The filter module only transfers the traffic message to the process module (106) of the navigation system if the delay is larger than a threshold (108).

Claims

1. A navigation system for guiding a driver of a vehicle on a route, the navigation system comprising:

a receiver for the reception of a traffic message, the traffic message comprising an event and a location to which the event relates,

a filter module for a evaluating the traffic message and for deciding whether the traffic message is to be processed, and

a process module for processing and exploiting the traffic message, wherein the filter module is operative;

to determine a delay on the basis of the event in the traffic message and

to either transfer the traffic message to the process module if the delay is larger than a predetermined threshold or to discard the traffic message if the delay is not larger than the predetermined message, and wherein the decision to transfer the traffic message does not depend on the route of the vehicle.

2. A navigation system as claimed in claim 1, comprising a map database including one or more properties of the location in the traffic message and wherein the filter module is operative to determine the delay on the basis of at least one of the properties of the location in the traffic message.

3. A navigation system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the receiver is suitable for the reception of RDS TMC traffic messages.

4. A navigation system as claimed in claim 1, comprising a display for displaying a map, wherein the process module includes a display module for displaying a representation of the event of the traffic message on the displayed map.

5. A navigation system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the process module includes a planning module for planning a route between an origin and a destination on the basis of the event and the location of the traffic message.

6. A navigation system as claimed in claim 1, comprising an input device allowing the driver to input a value for the predetermined threshold.

7. A method of giving guidance information to a driver of a vehicle on a route, the method comprising:

receiving a traffic message comprising an event and a location to which the event relates,

evaluating the traffic message independent of the route of the vehicle in order to decide whether the traffic message is to be presented, and

if so decided, presenting the traffic message to the driver, wherein evaluating the traffic message includes;

determining a delay on the basis of the event in the traffic message and

deciding to present the traffic message if the delay is larger than a predetermined threshold or to discard the traffic message if the delay is not larger than the predetermined threshold.

8. A navigation system for guiding a driver of a vehicle on a route, the navigation system comprising:

a receiver which receives a traffic message with data containing an event and a location to which the event relates;

a filter module coupled to the receiver which evaluates the traffic message and decides whether the traffic message is to be processed independent of the route traveled by the vehicle, the filter module determining a delay on the basis of the event in the traffic message and transferring the traffic message to the processing module if the delay is larger than a predetermined threshold; and

a processing module coupled to the filter for processing and exploiting the traffic message.