Navigation system that supports multiple languages and formats

• US 6,989,770 B1
• Filed: 10/03/2001
• Issued: 01/24/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 10/03/2001
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: HERE Global B.V. (HERE Holding Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Navteq North America LLC (HERE Holding Corporation)
• Inventors: Painter, Jeffrey E.
• Primary Examiner(s): SWARTHOUT, BRENT
• Application Number:
  US09/970,375
• Time in Patent Office: 1,574 Days
• Field of Search: 340/995.19, 340/995.2, 340/995.23, 340/995.24, 340/995.12, 701/200, 701/201, 701/206, 701/209, 701/211, 701/213
• US Class Current: 340/995.12
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3626 Details of the output of route guidance instructions traffic control systems for road vehicles involving transmission of navigation instructions to the vehicle G08G1/0968
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/454 Multi-language systems; Localisation; Internationalisation

Abstract

A navigation system includes a navigation-related information server and one or more customer-interface servers. Each customer-interface server receives requests for navigation-related information from end users who have end user computing platforms. The end users send their requests for navigation-related information from end user computing platforms over a data network to the customer-interface servers. In order to respond to the end users, the customer-interface servers request language and format-independent navigation-related information from the navigation-related information server. The navigation-related information server receives the requests from the customer-interface servers. To response to each request for navigation-related information, the navigation-related information server uses one or more geographic databases to formulate language- and format-independent data structures. These language- and format-independent data structures are sent to the customer-interface servers. The customer-interface servers receive the language- and format-independent responses from the navigation-related information server, and formulate language- and format-specific responses that are sent to the end users. In one embodiment, the language and format-independent responses provided by the navigation-related information server are in XML format. The customer-interface servers use XML style sheets to formulate language and format-specific instructions that are sent to the end users.

Claims

1. A navigation system comprising:

end user electronic devices;

a customer-interface server; and

a navigation-services server,

wherein said end user electronic devices send requests for navigation services to said customer-interface server and receive responses to said requests from said customer-interface server;

wherein said customer-interface server includes programming that, upon receiving said requests from said end user electronic devices, transmits query messages over the Internet to said navigation-services server, wherein said query messages request navigation information for responding to said requests;

wherein said navigation-services server receives said query messages from said customer-interface server, and using navigation applications installed on said navigation-services server and a geographic database associated therewith, formulates language-independent reply messages to said query messages, and sends said language-independent reply messages to said customer-interface server, and

wherein said customer-interface server further includes programming that, upon receiving said language-independent reply messages from said navigation-services server, formulates said responses and sends said responses to said end user electronic devices.

2. The navigation system of claim 1 wherein said requests for navigation services from said end user electronic devices are sent to said customer-interface server over the Internet.

3. The navigation system of claim 1 wherein said language-independent reply messages are in XML format.

4. The navigation system of claim 1 wherein said customer-interface server uses XML stylesheets to formulate the responses that are sent to said end user electronic devices.

5. The navigation system of claim 1 wherein the responses that are sent to said end user electronic devices are in HTML format.

6. The navigation system of claim 5 wherein said customer-interface server uses an XML stylesheet to formulate the responses that are sent to said end user electronic devices into HTML format.

7. A method for providing routing information using a navigation system, the method comprising:

on a customer-interface server, receiving a request over a data network from an end user for route guidance to a destination;

from the customer-interface server, sending a message over the data network to a navigation-related information server for maneuvering instructions;

on the navigation-related information server, after receiving the message from the customer-interface server, calculating a route to the destination and determining a series of maneuvers for traveling along a route to the destination;

on the navigation-related information server, forming a language- and format-independent data structure that represents the series of maneuvers;

from the navigation-related information server, sending the language- and format-independent data structure over the data network to the customer-interface server;

on the customer-interface server, using the language- and format-independent data structure received from the navigation-related information server to form language- and format-specific maneuvering instructions; and

from the customer-interface server, providing the form language- and format-specific maneuvering instructions to the end user over the data network.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein the language- and format-specific maneuvering instructions are in HTML format.

9. The method of claim 7 wherein the language- and format-independent data structure is in XML format.

10. The method of claim 7 wherein the data network comprises the Internet.

11. The method of claim 7 wherein said customer-interface server uses an XML stylesheet to form the language- and format-specific maneuvering instructions.