Navigation system with distributed computing architecture

• US 6,691,128 B2
• Filed: 04/19/2001
• Issued: 02/10/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 04/19/2001
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: HERE Global B.V. (Nokia Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Navigation Technologies Corp. (Nokia Corporation)
• Inventors: Natesan, Senthil, Crane, Aaron, Robare, Philip
• Primary Examiner(s): AMSBURY, WAYNE P
• Application Number:
  US09/838,094
• Publication Number:
  US 20020169778A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,027 Days
• Field of Search: 707/102, 701/208
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/34 Route searching; Route guidance
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3881 Tile-based structures
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3889 Transmission of selected map data, e.g. depending on route
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3896 Transmission of map data from central databases
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/29 Geographical information databases
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99943 Generating database or data structure, e.g. via user interface

Abstract

A system and method for providing geographic data to end users'"'"' computing platforms. A server maintains downloadable geographic data that are organized into pre-computed parcels that correspond to pre-determined sub-areas into which the entire geographic region serviced by the server is divided. The server responds to requests from the end users'"'"' computing platforms for navigation services and data by sending selected pre-computed parcels of geographic data to the end users'"'"' computing platforms. The end users'"'"' computing platforms store the pre-computed parcels received from the server in a cache memory. The end users'"'"' computing platforms use the data in the pre-computed parcels to provide navigation-related features locally.

Claims

1. A server that provides geographic data for client computing platforms comprising:

a repository for geographic data,

wherein the repository contains data that represent geographic features located in a serviced geographic region, wherein the geographic region is divided into a plurality of pre-determined smaller sub-areas,

wherein the data contained in the repository are organized into a plurality of substantially uniform-sized parcels of data,

wherein each of said substantially uniform-sized parcels includes data that represent the geographic features located in separate respective one of the plurality of smaller sub-areas; and

a data downloading application run on said server that downloads one or more of said whole substantially uniform-sized parcels of data from said repository to said client computing platforms, as needed, for used therein.

2. The invention of claim 1 further comprising:

a working geographic database associated with said server and used by a navigation application on said server to perform a navigation-related function.

3. The invention of claim 2 wherein the navigation related function is route calculation.

4. The invention of claim 1 further comprising:

a finder application associated with said server and adapted to find information about businesses based upon specific criteria.

5. The invention of claim 4 wherein the specified criteria include location-based criteria.

6. The invention of claim 4 wherein the finder application also finds information about persons.

7. The invention of claim 1 further comprising:

a subscriber services application associated with said sever and adapted to provide subscriber services to end users who access the said sever.

8. The invention of claim 1 wherein the repository includes a plurality of collections of geographic data, wherein each collection represents the entire geographic region, wherein each collection is organized into a plurality of parcels of a substantially uniform size, and wherein the parcels in one of said plurality of collections has a different substantially uniform size than the parcels in another of said plurality of collections.

9. The invention of claim 1 wherein the repository includes a plurality of collections of geographic data, wherein each collection represents the entire geographic region, wherein each collection is organized into a plurality of parcels of a substantially uniform size, and wherein the parcels in one of said plurality of collections contains data that represents different attributes of the represented geographic features than the parcels in another of said plurality of collections.

10. The invention of claim 1 wherein the server also includes a repository of downloadable applications for downloading and running on client computing platforms.

11. The invention of claim 10 wherein the downloadable applications are applets.

12. The invention of claim 10 wherein the downloadable applications are plug-ins.

13. The invention of claim 10 wherein the downloadable applications include a memory manager application.

14. The invention of claim 10 wherein the downloadable applications include updates for applications already installed on client computing platforms.

15. The invention of claim 10 wherein the downloadable applications are applets that run in a browser installed on a client computing platform.

16. A method of operation for a navigation system comprising:

on a server, receiving a request for a navigation-related or map-related service from a client computing platform, wherein said navigation-related or map-related service includes at least one of;

information about traveling along a road network, route calculation, route guidance, people or business finding services, maps, point of interest searching, and destination selection;

using a plurality of pre-computed parcels of geographic data stored with said server to send to client computing platform to respond to said request, wherein each of the pre-computed parcels of geographic data in collection thereof corresponds to a separate one of a plurality of geographic sub-areas into which a geographic region is divided; and

determining which geographic sub-areas are required for the navigation-related or map-related service;

sending the pre-computed parcels of geographic data that correspond to the determined geographic sub-areas to the client computing platform.

17. The method of claim 16 further comprising:

on said server, determining a route between an origin and a destination.

18. The method of claim 17 further comprising:

sending data that indicates the route to the client computing platform.

19. The method of claim 17 wherein the step of determining comprises:

identifying which of the geographic sub-areas are located along the route; and

determining to send the pre-computed parcels of geographic data that represent the geographic sub-areas identified as being located along the route.

20. The method of claim 16 further comprising:

selecting the collection from a plurality of different collections of pre-computed data parcels.

21. The method of claim 20 further comprising:

receiving from the client computing platform an indication of which of said plurality of different collections to send data from.

22. The method of claim 20 wherein the step of selecting is preceded by accessing a subscriber database that indicates which collection to send data from.

23. An architecture for a navigation system comprising:

a server;

client computing platforms;

a network over said client computing platforms and said server can communicate with each other;

a geographic database associated with said server;

a geographic data repository associated with said sever and containing substantially uniform-sized pre-computed parcels of geographic data, wherein each parcel in a collection represents geographic features located in a separate one of a plurality of geographic sub-areas into which a geographic region is divided; and

a geographic data application on the server that determines which of said pre-computed parcels of geographic data of said client computing platforms in response to requests therefrom for a navigation-related or map-related service.

24. The invention of claim 23 wherein the collection is one of a plurality of collections of geographic data, each of which is organized into a plurality of pre-computed parcels, and wherein the plurality of pre-computed parcels in one of said plurality of collections has a different substantially uniform data size than the plurality of pre-computed parcels in another of said collections.

25. A method of managing memory resources in a client computing platform comprising the steps of:

receiving substantially uniform-sized predetermined parcels of data from a server,

wherein each substantially uniform-sized predetermined parcel of data contains data that represent geographic features located within a separate respective one of a plurality of sub-areas into which a geographic region is divided; and

storing said substantially uniform-sized predetermined parcels of data in corresponding-sized portions of a cache memory in said client computing platform.

26. The method of claim 25 further comprising:

using said substantially uniform-sized predetermined parcels of data to display a map on said client computing platform.

27. The method of claim 26 wherein said map is a strip map.

28. The method of claim 26 further comprising:

showing a calculated route on said map.

29. The method of claim 25 wherein the sub-areas corresponding to said substantially uniform-sized predetermined parcels of data received by said client computing platform overlap a portion of a calculated route.

30. The method of claim 29 wherein the route is calculated on the server.

31. The method of claim 25 wherein the substantially uniform-sized predetermined parcels of data received by said client computing platform include separate types of data contained in separate substantially uniform-sized predetermined parcels of data.

32. The method of claim 25 wherein the substantially uniform-sized predetermined parcels of data received by said client computing platform include separate types of data contained in each substantially uniform-sized predetermined parcels of data.

33. The method of claim 25 further comprising:

prior to receiving the substantially uniform-sized predetermined parcels of data from the server, on the client computing platform, identifying types of data needed to support functions provided by the client computing platform.

34. The method of claim 25 further comprising:

using the data contained in said substantially uniform-sized predetermined parcels of data to provide route guidance.

35. The method of claim 25 further comprising:

using the data contained in said substantially uniform-sized predetermined parcels of data to explicate a calculated route.

36. The method of claim 25 wherein the sub-areas corresponding to said substantially uniform-sized predetermined parcels of data received by said client computing platform overlap an initial portion of a calculated route;

and

as the client computing platform travels along the calculated route, obtaining additional substantially uniform-sized predetermined parcels of data corresponding to sub-areas that overlap subsequent portions of said calculated route.

37. The method of claim 25 further comprising:

determining a position of the client computing platform relative to roads represented by data contained in said substantially uniform-sized predetermined parcels of data received by said client computing platform.

38. The method of claim 25 further comprising:

determining whether said client computing platform has departed from a calculated route.

39. The method of claim 38 further comprising:

calculating a way back to said calculated route using data contained in said substantially uniform-sized predetermined parcels of data received by said client computing platform.

40. The method of claim 25 further comprising:

downloading an application from the server to be run on said client computing platform.

41. The method of claim 40 wherein the application downloaded from the server is an applet.

42. The method of claim 40 wherein the application downloaded from the server is a plug-in.

43. The method of claim 40 wherein the application downloaded from the server runs in a browser on the client computing platform.

44. The method of claim 26 further comprising:

receiving data from the server that indicates a route between an origin and destination, wherein the route was calculated on the server.

45. The method of claim 44 further comprising:

from the client computing platform, specifying the origin and destination to the server prior to receiving data from the server that indicates the route.