Transmission of geographic information to mobile devices
First Claim
1. A method of distribution of geographic information to mobile devices via a wireless communications network, the method including:
- generating a plurality of data elements comprising containing the geographic information, each data element relating to and including an identifier of a specific single segment of a segmented map, wherein the plurality of data elements comprise a first set of data elements providing low level of detail (LLoD) geographic information and one or more additional sets of data elements providing high level of detail (HLoD) geographic information; and
broadcasting the data elements via the wireless communications network for receipt by the mobile devices, wherein the first set of data elements is broadcast via a first transmission channel and the additional sets of data elements are broadcast via one or more transmission channels separate from the first; and
wherein broadcast of each of the LLoD data elements is repeated more frequently than broadcast of each of the HLoD data elements.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
Provided is a data transmission method, a communications network, a mobile receiving device and data processing methods for use in broadcast of geographic information to mobile devices. The invention overcomes the problem of lack of currency of static information distribution via CD-ROM, and the problem of the cost of lengthy connections to the Internet which is a requirement of some dynamic solutions. The geographic data which is relevant to a transmitter in the network is broadcast by the transmitter as a plurality of separate data elements which each relate to and include an identification of a specific map segment of a segmented map, such that the data elements can be transmitted independently of each other and the map segment identifier can be used by the receiving device to position the geographic information of each data element within the appropriate map segment. Each data element is retransmitted periodically such that gaps can be filled in and the map can be built up over time even if transmission failures occur during a transmission.
104 Citations
14 Claims
-
1. A method of distribution of geographic information to mobile devices via a wireless communications network, the method including:
-
generating a plurality of data elements comprising containing the geographic information, each data element relating to and including an identifier of a specific single segment of a segmented map, wherein the plurality of data elements comprise a first set of data elements providing low level of detail (LLoD) geographic information and one or more additional sets of data elements providing high level of detail (HLoD) geographic information; and
broadcasting the data elements via the wireless communications network for receipt by the mobile devices, wherein the first set of data elements is broadcast via a first transmission channel and the additional sets of data elements are broadcast via one or more transmission channels separate from the first; and
wherein broadcast of each of the LLoD data elements is repeated more frequently than broadcast of each of the HLoD data elements. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
-
-
10. A wireless data communications network for transmission of geographic information from a first data processing system to mobile devices, the network comprising:
-
the first data processing system including means for generating a plurality of data elements to comprise contain the geographic information, each data element relating to and including an identifier of a specific single segment of a segmented map, wherein the plurality of data elements comprise a first set of data elements providing low level of detail (LLoD) geographic information and one or more additional sets of data elements providing high level of detail (HLoD) geographic information and means for distributing the data elements via the network to a plurality of geographically distributed transmitters; and
a plurality of transmitters for broadcasting the data elements via wireless communications for receipt by the mobile devices, wherein the first set of data elements is broadcast via a first transmission channel and the additional sets of data elements are broadcast via one or more transmission channels separate from the first; and
wherein broadcast of each of the LLoD data elements is repeated more frequently than broadcast of each of the HLoD data elements.
-
-
11. A wireless data communications network for transmission of geographic information from a first data processing system to mobile devices, the network comprising:
-
the first data processing system including means for generating a plurality of data elements to contain the geographic information, each data element relating to and including an identifier of a specific single segment of a segmented map, and means for distributing the data elements via the network to a plurality of geographically distributed transmitters; and
a plurality of transmitters for broadcasting the data elements via wireless communications for receipt by the mobile devices;
wherein the first data processing system includes;
a data processing component for separating input geographic information into data components which are each related to a single segment of a map, in accordance with a defined map segmentation, wherein the plurality of data elements comprise a first set of data elements providing a low level of detail (LLoD) geographic information and one or more additional sets of data elements providing a high level of detail (HLoD) geographic information and for combining one or more of the data components related to a specific map segment with an identifier of the specific map segment to create a data element;
wherein the plurality of transmitters broadcast the first set of data elements via a first transmission channel and broadcast the additional sets of data elements via one or more transmission channels separate from the first, the plurality of transmitters broadcasting the first set of data elements more frequently than the additional sets of data elements.
-
-
12. A data communication and data processing device including:
-
a receiver for receiving wireless broadcast transmissions including receiving data elements which each include geographic information related to a specific single segment of a segmented map and each include an identifier of said map segment, the receiver being capable of receiving data elements via a plurality of different communication channels;
a memory for storing a representation of the segmented map;
a processing component implementing functions to process the map segment identifier of a received data element to determine which segment of a map the geographic information included in the data element relates to, and for adding the geographic information of the data element to the respective segment of the segmented map representation within the device and for determining for which map segments one or more broadcast data elements have not been received and for controlling the operation of the receiver to receive on the communication channel or channels relevant to the broadcast data elements which have not been received in priority to other communication channels. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14)
-
Specification