Navigation apparatus for coupling with an expansion slot of a portable, handheld computing device

• US 6,693,586 B1
• Filed: 08/10/2002
• Issued: 02/17/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 08/10/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Garmin Limited
• Original Assignee: Garmin Limited
• Inventors: Wiegers, Michael R., Kalis, Robert M., Walters, Thomas H.
• Primary Examiner(s): Blum, Theodore M.
• Application Number:
  US10/215,891
• Time in Patent Office: 556 Days
• Field of Search: 342/357.06, 342/357.1, 342/357.13, 701/213
• US Class Current: 342/357.4
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/20 Instruments for performing navigational calculations G01C21/24, G01C21/26 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/13 Receivers
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/35 Constructional details or hardware or software details of the signal processing chain
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/1626 with a single-body enclosure integrating a flat display, e.g. Personal Digital Assistants [PDAs]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/1632 External expansion units, e.g. docking stations
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/1698 the I/O peripheral being a sending/receiving arrangement to establish a cordless communication link, e.g. radio or infrared link, integrated cellular phone details of antennas disposed inside a computer H01Q1/2266
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/0214 Foldable telephones, i.e. with body parts pivoting to an open position around an axis parallel to the plane they define in closed position combined with translation movement H04M1/0235
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/0235 Slidable or telescopic telephones, i.e. with a relative translation movement of the body parts; Telephones using a combination of translation and other relative motions of the body parts
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72409 by interfacing with external accessories hands-free H04M1/60
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72412 using two-way short-range wireless interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2250/10 including a GPS signal receiver

Abstract

A navigation apparatus (10) configured for removably coupling with and providing navigational capabilities to a portable, handheld computing device (12). The navigation apparatus (10) includes a navigation receiver (26) for receiving navigation signals from a plurality of sources; a processor (24) coupled with the navigation receiver (26) for determining a location of the navigation apparatus (10) as a function of the received navigation signals; and an interface/connector (44). The interface/connector (44) is either a Secure Digital slot connector or a Compact Flash slot connector. Location data stored in the navigation apparatus (10) and data representative of the location determined by the navigation apparatus (10) may be delivered from the processor (24) to the handheld computing device (12) so that it may be displayed and used by a user of the device (12).

Claims

1. A navigation apparatus configured for coupling with and providing navigational capabilities to a portable, handheld computing device, the navigation apparatus comprising:

a navigation receiver for receiving navigation signals from a plurality of sources;

a processor coupled with the navigation receiver for determining a location of the navigation apparatus as a function of the received navigation signals;

memory accessible by the processor for storing location data; and

a connector coupled with the processor and selected from the group consisting of a Secure Digital slot connector and a Compact Flash slot connector for removably connecting with a corresponding expansion slot on the handheld computing device so that the location data stored in the memory and data representative of the location of the apparatus may be delivered from the processor of the navigation apparatus to the handheld computing device.

2. The navigation apparatus as set forth in claim 1, wherein the location data includes cartographic map data used for displaying cartographic maps on a display of the handheld computing device.

3. The navigation apparatus as set forth in claim 1, wherein the memory is resident in the navigation apparatus.

4. The navigation apparatus as set forth in claim 1, further including a wireless transceiver for transmitting and receiving data over a wireless communications network.

5. The navigation apparatus as set forth in claim 4, wherein the wireless transceiver is a cellular transceiver and the wireless communications network is a cellular radio network.

6. The navigation apparatus as set forth in claim 1, further including a portable, handheld housing for housing the navigation receiver, the processor, the memory, and the connector.

7. The navigation apparatus as set forth in claim 6, the handheld housing including a lower section housing the connector and an upper section hingedly connected to the lower section and moveable between raised and lowered positions relative to the lower section.

8. The navigation apparatus as set forth in claim 7, further including a navigation antenna coupled with the navigation receiver and positioned in the upper section of the housing so that the navigation antenna may be raised and lowered with the upper section.

9. The navigation apparatus as set forth in claim 7, further including a wireless antenna coupled with the navigation receiver and positioned in the upper section of the housing so that the wireless antenna may be raised and lowered with the upper section.

10. The navigation apparatus as set forth in claim 6, further including an expansion slot positioned on the housing and selected from the group consisting of a Secure Digital slot and a Compact Flash slot for removably coupling with an external memory cartridge that, when received in the expansion slot, can be accessed by the processor.

11. The navigation apparatus as set forth in claim 1, wherein the handheld computing device is a personal digital assistant.

12. A navigation apparatus configured for coupling with and providing navigational capabilities to a portable, handheld computing device, the navigation apparatus comprising:

a navigation receiver for receiving navigation signals from a plurality of sources;

a processor coupled with the navigation receiver for determining a location of the navigation apparatus as a function of the received navigation signals, wherein the processor provides additional processing capacity beyond the handheld computing device such that the processor may compute separately from the handheld computing device;

an expansion slot coupled with the processor and selected from the group consisting of a Secure Digital slot and a Compact Flash slot for removably coupling with an external memory cartridge which has location data stored thereon, wherein the processor may access the location data from the external memory cartridge via the expansion slot; and

a connector coupled with the processor and selected from the group consisting of a Secure Digital slot connector and a Compact Flash slot connector for connecting with a corresponding expansion slot on the handheld computing device so that the location data stored in the memory and data representative of the location of the apparatus may be delivered from the processor of the navigation apparatus to the handheld computing device.

13. The navigation apparatus as set forth in claim 12, wherein the location data includes cartographic map data used for displaying cartographic maps on a display of the handheld computing device.

14. The navigation apparatus as set forth in claim 12, further including memory resident in the navigation apparatus.

15. The navigation apparatus as set forth in claim 12, further including a wireless transceiver for transmitting and receiving data over a wireless communications network.

16. The navigation apparatus as set forth in claim 15, wherein the wireless transceiver is a cellular transceiver and the wireless communications network is a cellular radio network.

17. The navigation apparatus as set forth in claim 12, further including a portable, handheld housing for housing the navigation receiver, the processor, the memory, and the connector.

18. The navigation apparatus as set forth in claim 12, wherein the portable, handheld computing device is a digital assistant.

19. A method of storing location data in a navigation apparatus configured for coupling with a handheld computing device, the method comprising the steps of:

connecting the navigation apparatus to the handheld computing device via a connector selected from the group consisting of a Compact Flash connector and a Secure Digital connector;

connecting the handheld computing device to a computer;

transferring the location data from the computer to the handheld computing device;

transferring the location data from the handheld computing device to the navigation apparatus; and

storing the location data in memory resident in the navigation apparatus such that the navigation apparatus may access the memory.

20. The method as set forth in claim 19, further including the step of storing the location data in memory cartridges removably coupled with an expansion slot on the navigation apparatus.

21. The method as set forth in claim 19, wherein the handheld computing device is a personal digital assistant.

22. The method as set forth in claim 19, wherein the location data includes cartographic map data that may be used to display cartographic maps on a display of the handheld computing device.

23. A method of storing location data in a navigation apparatus configured for coupling with a portable, handheld computing device, the method comprising the steps of:

connecting the navigation apparatus to the handheld computing device via a connector selected from the group consisting of a Compact Flash connector and a Secure Digital connector;

establishing a wireless communications connection between the handheld computing device and a computer;

transferring the location data from the computer to the handheld computing device via the wireless communications connection;

transferring the location data from the handheld computing device to the navigation apparatus; and

storing the location data in memory resident in the navigation apparatus such that the navigation apparatus may access the memory.

24. The method as set forth in claims 23, further including the step of storing the location data in memory cartridges removably coupled with a expansion slot on the navigation apparatus.

25. The method as set forth in claim 23, wherein the handheld computing device is a personal digital assistant.

26. The method as set forth in claim 23, wherein the location data includes cartographic map data that may be used to display cartographic maps on a display of the handheld computing device.

27. The method as set forth in claim 23, wherein the wireless communications connection is selected from the group consisting of a Bluetooth wireless connection, a Wifi wireless connection, a wireless LAN connection, an infrared wireless connection and a cellular radio wireless connection.

28. A navigation apparatus configured for coupling with and providing navigational capabilities to a portable, handheld computing device, the navigation apparatus comprising:

a navigation antenna for detecting navigation signals from a plurality of sources;

a navigation receiver coupled with the navigation antenna for receiving the navigation signals therefrom;

a processor coupled with the navigation receiver for determining a location of the navigation apparatus as a function of the received navigation signals, wherein the processor provides additional processing capacity beyond the handheld computing device such that the processor may compute separately from the handheld computing device;

memory accessible by the processor for storing location data, wherein the memory is resident in the navigation apparatus and provides additional memory beyond the handheld computing device;

a connector coupled with the processor for removably connecting with a corresponding expansion slot on the handheld computing device so that the location data stored in the memory and data representative of the location of the apparatus may be delivered from the processor of the navigation apparatus to the handheld computing device, wherein the connector is selected from the group consisting of a Secure Digital slot connector and a Compact Flash slot connector; and

a portable housing including

a lower section for housing the connector, and

an upper section hingedly connected with the lower section for housing the navigation antenna, the upper section and the navigation antenna being moveable between raised and lowered positions relative to the lower section.

29. The navigation apparatus as set forth in claim 28, wherein the upper section further houses the navigation receiver and the processor.

30. The navigation apparatus as set forth in claim 28, further including a wireless transceiver positioned in the upper section for transmitting and receiving data over a wireless communications network.

31. The navigation apparatus as set forth in claim 30, wherein the wireless transceiver is a cellular transceiver and the wireless communications network is a cellular radio network.

32. The navigation apparatus as set forth in claim 31, further including a wireless antenna coupled with the wireless transceiver and positioned in the upper section so that the wireless antenna may be moved between raised and lowered positions.

33. A navigation apparatus configured for coupling with and providing navigational capabilities to a portable, handheld computing device, the navigation apparatus comprising:

a navigation receiver for receiving navigation signals from a plurality of sources;

a processor coupled with the navigation receiver for determining a location of the navigation apparatus as a function of the received navigation signals and creating data representative of the location;

memory accessible by the processor for storing cartographic data; and

a connector coupled with the processor and selected from the group consisting of a Secure Digital slot connector and a Compact Flash slot connector for removably connecting with a corresponding expansion slot on the handheld computing device so that the cartographic data stored in the memory and the data representative of the location of the apparatus may be delivered from the processor of the navigation apparatus to the handheld computing device.

34. The navigation apparatus as set forth in claim 33, further including a wireless transceiver for transmitting and receiving data over a wireless communications network.

35. The navigation apparatus as set forth in claim 34, wherein the wireless transceiver is a cellular transceiver and the wireless communications network is a cellular radio network.

36. The navigation apparatus as set forth in claim 33, further including a portable, handheld housing for housing the navigation receiver, the processor, the memory, and the connector.

37. The navigation apparatus as set forth in claim 33, wherein the portable, handheld computing device is a digital assistant.