Method and terminal unit for the spatial allocation of information referring to one location

• US 6,324,466 B1
• Filed: 05/28/1999
• Issued: 11/27/2001
• Est. Priority Date: 11/28/1996
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Sirius XM Connected Vehicle Services Inc. (Liberty Media Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Mannesmann AG (Vodafone Group PLC)
• Inventors: Schulz, Werner, Vieweg, Stefan, Heimann, Josef
• Primary Examiner(s): Cuchlinski, Jr., William A.
• Assistant Examiner(s): To, Tuan C
• Application Number:
  US09/319,099
• Time in Patent Office: 914 Days
• Field of Search: 701/117, 701/209, 701/208, 701/211, 340/905, 340/995, 345/353
• US Class Current: 701/117
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/092 Coding or decoding of the information
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/093 Data selection, e.g. prioritizing information, managing message queues, selecting the information to be output
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096716 where the received information does not generate an automatic action on the vehicle control
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/09675 where a selection from the received information takes place in the vehicle
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096775 where the origin of the information is a central station

Abstract

An efficient and trouble-proof location referencing of information transmitted from a information provider to the terminal unit is made possible by a method for spatial allocation of information, referring to a location in a terminal unit, wherein the information is sent from an information provider (6) to the terminal unit together with location coordinate data which is associated with this information and which concerns the geographic coordinates (geographic longitude and latitude) of the location and with supplemental location data the allocation of the information to a location is carried out in the terminal unit:

based on a comparison of the transmitted location coordinate data relating to the information with location coordinate data in a reference file in the terminal unit;

and based on a comparison of the transmitted supplemental location data relating to the information (1, 2) with supplemental location data (4, 5) in the reference file (10) in the terminal unit (8),

and by means of a terminal unit.

Claims

1. A method for spatial allocation of information referring to a location in a terminal unit, comprising the steps of:

sending the information from an information provider to the terminal unit together with location coordinate data which is associated with this information and which concerns the geographic coordinates of the location and with supplemental location data;

carrying out an allocation of the information to a location in the terminal unit;

based on a comparison of the transmitted location coordinate data relating to the information with location coordinate data in a reference file in the terminal unit; and

based on a comparison of the transmitted supplemental location data relating to the information with supplemental location data in the reference file in the terminal unit; and

storing the location coordinate data of the location in files of the information provider and in the terminal unit and sending the data from the information provider to the terminal unit as identification of a location to which transmitted information refers, the location coordinate data exactly designating the geographic coordinates of the location to every 10 to 500 m.

2. A method according to claim 1, wherein the information is traffic information, the information provider is a traffic information provider, and the terminal unit is arranged in a vehicle.

3. A method according to claim 1, wherein the supplemental location data include road type and road number of the location to which the information refers.

4. A method according to claim 1, wherein the supplemental location data include, at least in the terminal unit, at least one of a name of a position and a city, municipality, or district.

5. A method according to claim 1, including checking supplemental location data when an entry relating to a location for the location coordinate data is found in the reference file, and determining the location on the basis of the transmitted supplemental location data by searching for the supplemental location data in the reference file when there are differences between the transmitted supplemental location data of the transmitted information and the supplemental location data in the reference file.

6. A method according to claim 1, including determining the location on the basis of a comparison of the transmitted supplemental location data with supplemental location data in the reference file when the transmitted location coordinate data are not contained in the reference file.

7. A method according to claim 1, including determining the location on the basis of the location coordinate data approximately with respect to its geographic longitude and latitude when neither the transmitted location coordinate data nor the supplemental location data are contained in the reference file.

8. A method according to claim 1, wherein the supplemental location data, at least in the terminal unit, include data representing attributes concerning at least one of presence of an intersection, a branch-off, a roadway and a start, middle and end of the roadway.

9. A method according to claim 1, wherein the location coordinate data exactly designate the geographic coordinates of the location every 100 m.

10. A method according to claim 1, wherein the sending step includes sending the information, the location coordinate data and the supplemental location information at least one of in a predetermined format and in a predetermined sequence from the information provider to the terminal unit.

11. A method according to claim 1, including correcting the reference file if a discrepancy exists between at least one of the location coordinate data and the supplemental location information received and retrieved from the reference file, respectively, by identifying the location coordinate data stored in the reference file found to have a discrepancy with the received location coordinate data, erasing the location coordinate data and associated supplemental location information from the reference file, and storing the received location coordinate data and associated supplemental location information in the reference file.

12. A method according to claim 1, including navigating a vehicle by using the information.

13. A method according to claim 1, including transmitting an identification of a digital map to which the location coordinate data refer.

14. A method according to claim 13, wherein the location in the map that is used in the terminal unit is also determined at least based on the identification.

15. A method according to claim 1, including reading out messages concerning at least one of the location coordinate data and the supplemental location data from the terminal unit in addition to the information.

16. A method according to claim 1, including generating and reading out a report based on additional information stored in the reference file, the additional information being for a set of location coordinate data of a location in the terminal unit, and at least the transmitted information from the terminal unit.

17. A method according to claim 1, wherein the information provider also has a reference file.

18. A method according to claim 17, wherein the information provider formats and orders the information, location coordinate data and supplemental location data by means of the reference file.

19. A method according to claim 1, including generating and sending to the information provider a report comprising at least one of the location coordinate data present in the terminal unit and the supplemental location data and the information when a discrepancy is determined between supplemental location data transmitted with the information and the location coordinate data and the supplemental location data determined on the basis of the transmitted location coordinate data in the reference file in the terminal unit.

20. A method according to claim 1, including requesting a current reference file from the information provider and transmitting the current reference file from the information provider to the terminal unit when a discrepancy is determined between supplemental location data transmitted in relation to location coordinate data and supplemental location data determined on the basis of the transmitted location coordinate data in the reference file in the terminal unit.

21. A method according to claim 1, wherein other location coordinate data concerning locations contained in the reference file are contained in the reference file for a set of location coordinate data, a readout of the terminal unit to a user of the terminal unit being based on these locations.

22. A method according to claim 1, wherein the sending of information from the information provider to the terminal unit is carried out via one of a radio channel, a mobile radio network, and a paging network.

23. A method according to claim 1, including carrying out a determination of location in the terminal unit and using the location of the terminal unit for relevance checking of the information, and reading out only relevant information to a user of the terminal unit.

24. A method according to claim 1, including linking the location of the terminal unit known to the terminal unit with information received from the information provider in a report to be read out to a user of the terminal unit.

25. A method according to claim 1, wherein the reference file is on an exchangeable storage medium.

26. A method according to claim 25, wherein the reference file is on one of a chip and a CD ROM.

27. A terminal unit comprising:

a reference file and a program for carrying out a method for spatial allocation of information, which method includes the steps of sending the information from an information provider to the terminal unit together with location coordinate data which is associated with this information and which concerns the geographic coordinates of the location and with supplemental location data;

carrying out an allocation of the information to a location in the terminal unit, based on a comparison of the transmitted location coordinate data relating to the information with location coordinate data in a reference file in the terminal unit; and

based on a comparison of the transmitted supplemental location data relating to the information with supplemental location data in the reference file in the terminal unit; and

storing the location coordinate data of the location in files of the information provider and in the terminal unit and sending the data from the information provider to the terminal unit as identification of a location to which transmitted information refers, the location coordinate data exactly designating the geographic coordinates of the location to every 10 to 500 m;

storage means for storing the program and for the reference file;

processor means for running the program;

reception means for receiving information from an information provider; and

a readout device for reading out a report to a user of the terminal unit.

28. A terminal unit according to claim 27, further comprising a means of communication by which a correction of one of the reference file and a current reference file can be called, the channel being usable as a back channel.

29. A terminal unit according to claim 27, wherein the terminal unit is configured to be installable in a vehicle.

30. A terminal unit according to claim 27, wherein the readout device is an acoustic readout device operative to readout a report based on at least one of the information, location coordinate data and supplemental location data to the user of the terminal unit.

31. A terminal unit according to claim 27, wherein the readout device is an optical readout device.

32. A terminal unit according to claim 27, wherein the terminal unit includes a file that contains additional information for readout together with the information.

33. A terminal unit according to claim 27, and further comprising a map file with a traffic network map.

34. A terminal unit according to claim 33, and further comprising a position determining device for navigation.

35. A terminal unit according to claim 27, and further comprising reading means for reading in data from an exchangeable storage medium which can be introduced into the reading device.

36. A method for computer-aided generation of a reference file, a map file representing a traffic network and relating to locations of a predeterminable type, the method comprising the steps of:

one of calculating and reading out from the map file the locations;

one of determining and taking from the map file supplemental location data relating to a location; and

determining the location coordinate data from geographic longitude and geographic latitude of the location with a predeterminable accuracy and filing the coordinate data together with the supplemental location data of the location in a target file.

37. A method according to claim 36, and further comprising the step of one of determining and taking from the map file attributes of a location and storing the attributes in the target file relating to the location:

storage means for storing the program and for the reference file;

processor means for running the program;

reception means for receiving information from an information provider; and

a readout device for reading out a report to a user of the terminal unit.

38. A method according to claim 36, including storing the location coordinate data taken from the map file or determined on the basis of the map file in the target file with a predeterminable accuracy, in a form of geographic longitude and latitude coordinates required for displaying at an accuracy of 100 m.

39. A method according to claim 36, wherein locations of a predetermined type are at least one of road segments in the map file, road intersections, entrances and exits.