Navigation system that supports multiple languages and formats
First Claim
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.
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Accused Products
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.
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Citations
11 Claims
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1. A navigation system comprising:
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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. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
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7. A method for providing routing information using a navigation system, the method comprising:
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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. - View Dependent Claims (8, 9, 10, 11)
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Specification