Method and system for obtaining geographic data using navigation systems

• US 6,381,537 B1
• Filed: 06/02/2000
• Issued: 04/30/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 06/02/2000
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: HERE Global B.V. (HERE Holding Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Navigation Technologies Corp. (Nokia Corporation)
• Inventors: Kaplan, Lawrence M., Chenault, William W.
• Primary Examiner(s): Cuchlinski, Jr., William A.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Marc-Coleman, Marthe Y.
• Application Number:
  US09/586,276
• Time in Patent Office: 697 Days
• Field of Search: 701/200, 701/201, 701/202, 701/207, 701/208, 701/209, 701/210, 701/211, 701/212, 701/213, 701/214, 701/215, 701/220, 340/990, 340/995, 340/988, 340/994
• US Class Current: 701/209
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/20 Monitoring the location of vehicles belonging to a group, e.g. fleet of vehicles, countable or determined number of vehicles

Abstract

A system and method for collecting address data for a geographic database are disclosed. Data are collected using a plurality of end users navigation systems. The data indicate a location at which a trip by a vehicle in which a navigation system is located ended and a desired destination entered into the navigation system by an end user prior thereto. These data are received in a data collection facility that statistically analyzes the data and uses the data to update a geographic database.

Claims

1. A method of obtaining data for a geographic database using a navigation system in a vehicle comprising the steps of:

collecting data identifying a desired destination and data indicating a position of said vehicle when the vehicle has just completed a trip; and

forwarding said data identifying said desired destination and data indicating the position of said vehicle when the vehicle has just completed a trip to a data collection facility; and

updating a geographic database to indicate that the position of the vehicle when the vehicle has just completed said trip corresponds to a location of the desired destination.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising the step of:

prior to the step of collecting, obtaining an indication whether the vehicle was being driven on a calculated route.

3. The method of claim 1 further comprising the step of:

prior to the step of collecting, obtaining data indicating a position of said vehicle when the vehicle has just completed a trip.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein said step of collecting is performed by a program in said navigation system.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein said program obtains data indicating a position of said vehicle when the vehicle has just completed a trip from a vehicle positioning application.

6. The method of claim 4 wherein said program obtains data indicating whether the vehicle was being driven on a calculated route from a route guidance application.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the data identifying a desired destination is a street address.

8. A method of obtaining address data for a geographic database using navigation systems in a plurality of vehicles comprising the steps of:

collecting data from each of said plurality of vehicles wherein said data from each vehicle comprises data identifying a desired destination and data indicating a position of said vehicle when the vehicle has just completed a trip;

statistically analyzing said data collected from said plurality of vehicles; and

updating a master copy of a geographic database based upon said analyzing step to indicate that the position at which each of said plurality of vehicles when completing a trip corresponds to a location of the corresponding desired destination.

9. The method of claim 8 further comprising:

distributing copies of the geographic database after the updating step.

10. The method of claim 9 further wherein the copies of the geographic database are in a different format than a format of the master copy.

11. The method of claim 8 further comprising:

after the updating step, distributing copies of the geographic database to said navigation systems in said plurality of vehicles.

12. The method of claim 11 wherein the copies of the geographic database distributed to said navigation systems in said plurality of vehicles includes updated address data.

13. The method of claim 8 wherein said step of collecting is performed using wireless transmission.

14. A system for collecting address data for a geographic database comprising:

a plurality of vehicles each having

a navigation system into which a desired destination can be entered and a route calculated to said desired destination; and

a data collection program that collects data indicating said desired destination and data indicating a location of the vehicle when a trip to said desired destination is over; and

a central data collection facility that receives the data collected by the data collection programs in said plurality of vehicles and updates a master copy of a geographic database to indicate that the location of each of said plurality of vehicles when completing a trip corresponds to the location of the corresponding desired destination.

15. The system of claim 14 wherein the address data collection program includes a process that receives an indication whether an associated vehicle was on a calculated route.

16. The system of claim 14 wherein the central data collection facility includes a process that statistically analyzes the data collected by the data collection programs in said plurality of vehicles.

17. The system of claim 14 wherein the address data collection program in at least some of the vehicles stores the data indicating said desired destination and data indicating a location of the vehicle when a trip to said desired destination is over in a data file in an associated vehicle.

18. The system of claim 14 wherein the central data collection facility includes a process that distributes updated copies of a master copy of a geographic database to said plurality of vehicles.

19. The system of claim 14 wherein the desired destination indicated by the data that are collected by the data collection program includes a street address.

20. The system of claim 14 wherein the central data collection facility includes a master copy of a geographic database that is updated using the data collected by the data collection programs in said plurality of vehicles.

21. The system of claim 14 wherein the address data collection program in at least some of the vehicles collects data indicating an actual route followed by the vehicle to said desired destination and wherein the central data collection facility includes a process that analyzes the data indicating actual routes followed by vehicles to common destinations to determine common points along said routes and points of departure.