Providing navigation directions

• US 7,774,132 B2
• Filed: 07/05/2006
• Issued: 08/10/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 07/05/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Inventors: DeGrazia, Bradley Richard
• Primary Examiner(s): Tran; Khoi
• Assistant Examiner(s): SAMPLE, JONATHAN L
• Application Number:
  US11/428,782
• Publication Number:
  US 20080046170A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,497 Days
• Field of Search: 701/202, 701/200, 701/201, 701/300
• US Class Current: 701/202
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/20 Instruments for performing navigational calculations G01C21/24, G01C21/26 take precedence

Abstract

In one embodiment, a navigation system provides navigation directions within particular locations within a facility, such as within a corporate campus, airport, resort, building, etc. The navigation system may respond to navigation requests for different types of facility target destinations such as a location, a person, a movable item, an event, or a condition. Different location resources can be accessed depending on the type of requested target destination. For example, an employee database may be used to locate an office within the facility associated with navigation request that contains an employee name. A natural voice communication scheme can be used to access to the navigation system through a larger variety of networks and communication devices.

Claims

1. An apparatus, comprising:

a processor; and

a memory coupled to the processor comprising instructions executable by the processor, the processor operable when executing the instructions to;

access a navigation request from a remote network device identifying a navigation objective;

determine a location of the navigation objective;

receive speech from the remote network device and convert the received speech into text data;

store a table including entries mapping structure location identifiers to locations on a structure map;

compare the text data to the entries to correlate the text data to a particular one of the entries;

determine a location of the remote network device with respect to the navigation objective based on the correlation, wherein the location of the remote network device is determined based on the received speech using said speech-to-text conversion, said stored table, and said correlation;

generate directions from the determined location of the remote network device to the determined location of the navigation objective; and

transmit the generated directions to the remote network device.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the processor is operable to generate speech based on at least one of the structure location identifiers specified in the entries and transmit the generated speech over a network to the remote network device.

3. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the navigation objective is a dynamic navigation objective, and wherein the processor is operable when executing the instructions to determine the location of the dynamic navigation objective by identifying a person, a movable object, or a meeting associated with the dynamic navigation objective.

4. The apparatus of claim 3, wherein the processor is operable when executing the instructions to determine the location of the dynamic navigation objective by communicating with a security access system or a wireless network that interconnects computers located within the structure.

5. The apparatus of claim 3, wherein the processor is operable when executing the instructions to determine the location of the remote network device with respect to the dynamic navigation objective by associating a Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tag corresponding to the remote network device with an RFID terminal.

6. The apparatus of claim 3, wherein the generated directions comprise generated speech ready for immediate play out by the remote network device independently of any natural language decoding subsequent to transmission as speech over the network.

11. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the processor is further operable to transmit a Media Resource Control Protocol (MRCP) communication over a packet switched network to translate the navigation request before generating the directions.

12. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the processor is further operable to automatically send course corrections in real time as speech.

18. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the navigation objective is a dynamic navigation objective, and wherein the dynamic navigation objective changes from a first place at a first point in time to a second place at a second point in time while the user is navigating toward the dynamic navigation objective, and wherein the apparatus is configured to continually transmit updates of current location information associated with the dynamic navigation objective to adjust for the change from the first location at the first point in time to the second location at the second point in time.

7. A system, comprising:

a portable network device wirelessly coupled to a server over a network;

the portable network device configured to generate a navigation request in response to input from a user for wireless transmission to the server, the navigation request listing the name of a person or the name of a meeting;

the server configured to receive and process the navigation request and discover a current location of the person or the meeting;

the server configured to generate directions from a location of the portable network device to the discovered current location of the person or the meeting; and

the portable network device configured to receive the directions over a wireless receiver as speech and play out the received speech directions.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the locations of the portable network device and the person or meeting relate to a particular facility.

9. The system of claim 8, the server configured to determine the location of the portable network device based on speech wirelessly transmitted from the portable network device, wherein the directions are arranged to guide the user from a floor of a structure of the facility to another floor that is above or below the floor.

10. A method, comprising:

accessing a navigation request from a remote network device identifying a dynamic navigation objective;

determining a location of the dynamic navigation objective wherein determining the location of the dynamic navigation objective and the location of the remote network device is with respect to a particular facility, and wherein determining the location of the dynamic navigation objective is by identifying a person or a meeting associated with the dynamic navigation objective;

determining the location of the remote network device with respect to the dynamic navigation objective;

generating directions from the location of the remote network device to the location of the dynamic navigation objective for communication to the remote network device;

accessing an employee office location directory for the person or a conference room location directory for the meeting to determine the location of the dynamic navigation objective; and

comparing the location of the dynamic navigation objective and the location of the remote network device to a facility map.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein determining the location of the remote network device with respect to the dynamic navigation objective includes first communicating with a Global Positioning System (GPS) to identify a longitudinal and latitudinal position of the user location and then comparing the longitudinal and latitudinal position with the facility map to produce a pinpointed user location within the facility.

14. A method, comprising:

generating a navigation request in response to input from a user for communication to one or more servers from a mobile network device of the user, the navigation request identifying a dynamic navigation objective of the user, wherein the dynamic navigation objective is a person or a meeting; and

accessing directions from a location of the mobile network device to a location of the dynamic navigation objective generated by the one or more servers in response to the navigation request for presentation to the user, wherein the directions are received by the mobile network device as voice data over a voice band connection extending between the mobile network device and the one or more servers.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the locations of the mobile network device and the dynamic navigation objective relate to a particular facility.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the facility is a plural-floor facility and the directions are arranged to guide the user from a floor within the facility to another floor that is above or below the floor.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the directions include indications of where to turn inside the facility and descriptions of reference points located inside the facility.