Providing access to a collection of content items

• US 8,346,470 B2
• Filed: 07/07/2008
• Issued: 01/01/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 07/12/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. (Koninklijke Philips N.V.)
• Original Assignee: Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. (Koninklijke Philips N.V.)
• Inventors: Geurts, Lucas Jacobus Franciscus, Rozendaal, Leendert Teunis
• Primary Examiner(s): Camby, Richard M.
• Application Number:
  US12/667,716
• Publication Number:
  US 20100198499A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,639 Days
• Field of Search: 701408-412, 701423-426
• US Class Current: 701/408
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/20 Instruments for performing navigational calculations G01C21/24, G01C21/26 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3647 Guidance involving output of stored or live camera images or video streams
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096775 where the origin of the information is a central station
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 29/106 using electronic means
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4524 involving the geographical location of the client retrieval from the Internet by querying based on geographical locations G06F16/9537; systems specially adapted for using geographical information in broadcast systems H04H60/70; protocols in which the network application is adapted for the location of the user terminal in communication control or processing H04L67/52; services making use of the location of users or terminals in wireless networks H04W4/02; locating users or terminals in wireless networks H04W64/00

Abstract

In a collection(2) of content items, each content item is represented by at least one signal for rendering in a perceptible form on a rendering system(5,6;25,26,27,28,29), and each content item is linked to data (8,10) specifying at least one geographical location for each content item. A method of providing access to the content items in the collection includes obtaining geographical data defining a route and assembling a signal for use by a 5 rendering system(5,6;25,26,27,28,29), the signal being representative of a succession of signals representing a sequence of content items, so as to progress along the route as the signals representing the sequence of content items are rendered. The content items in the sequence are selected by applying at locations along the route a selection criterion based on the location along the route and the data specifying at least one geographical location for 10 each content item. The signal for use by the rendering system, when rendered, causes a speed of progression along the route to vary according to how many content items are obtained for each next location along the route by applying the selection criterion, and according to the lengths of signals representing them.

Claims

1. Method of providing access to a collection of content items,

each content item being represented by at least one signal for rendering in a perceptible form on a rendering system, and

each content item being linked to data specifying at least one geographical location for each content item, including:

obtaining geographical data defining a route; and

assembling a signal for use by a rendering system, the assembled signal being representative of a succession of signals representing a sequence of content items, so as to progress along the route as the signals representing the sequence of content items are rendered,

where the content items in the sequence are selected by applying at locations along the route a selection criterion based on the location along the route and the data specifying at least one geographical location for each content item, and the assembled signal for use by the rendering system, when rendered, causes a speed of progression along the route to vary according to how many content items are obtained for each next location along the route by applying the selection criterion, and according to the lengths of signals representing said content items.

2. Method according to claim 1, where geographical data defining at least a section of the route is obtained automatically in response to a user command of a type other than user input of a type that specifies any of a location and a sub-section on at least the section of the route.

3. Method according to claim 1, including providing a user interface for receiving user input specifying geographical locations, where the step of obtaining geographical data defining the route includes obtaining user input specifying at least one point on the route.

4. Method according to claim 3, including determining the route from user input specifying only one or both end points of the route.

5. Method according to claim 1, where the step of obtaining geographical data defining the route includes receiving a signal identifying successive locations of a moving navigation device.

6. Method according to claim 1, including causing the assembled signal to be rendered concurrently with information identifying a current location as progress is made along the route, the current location being a location specified by data linked to the content item represented by a currently rendered one of the succession of signals.

7. Method according to claim 6, including

displaying a map on a screen and

indicating the progression of the current location on the map displayed on the screen.

8. Method according to claim 1, where the step of assembling the signal includes inserting, into the signal, data based on a mix of data representative of successive ones of the signals representing the sequence of content items at a transition between signal sections representative of only the successive signals.

9. Method according to claim 1, where the content items in the sequence are selected by at least conditionally applying a further selection criterion, unrelated to the data specifying at least one geographical location for each content item.

10. System for providing access to a collection of content items,

each content item being represented by at least one signal for rendering in a perceptible form on a rendering system, and

each content item being linked to data specifying at least one geographical location for each content item,

where the system is configured:

to obtain geographical data defining a route; and

to assemble a signal for use by a rendering system, the assembled signal being representative of a succession of signals representing a sequence of content items, so as to progress along the route as the signals representing the sequence of content items are rendered,

where the content items in the sequence are selected by applying at locations along the route a selection criterion based on the location along the route and the data specifying at least one geographical location for each content item, and where the system is configured to render the assembled signal such that, when rendered, the assembled signal causes a speed of progression along the route to vary according to how many content items are obtained for each next location along the route by applying the selection criterion, and according to the lengths of signals representing said content items.

11. System according to claim 10 including a navigation device for providing geographical data identifying successive locations of said navigations device when the system is in motion.

12. A computer program embodied in a non-transitory computer-readable medium for effecting the performance of a method of providing access to a collection of content items,

each content item being represented by at least one signal for rendering in a perceptible form on a rendering system, and

each content item being linked to data specifying at least one geographical location for each content item, including:

obtaining geographical data defining a route; and

assembling a signal for use by a rendering system, the assembled signal being representative of a succession of signals representing a sequence of content items, so as to progress along the route as the signals representing the sequence of content items are rendered,

where the content items in the sequence are selected by applying at locations along the route a selection criterion based on the location along the route and the data specifying at least one geographical location for each content item, and the assembled signal for use by the rendering system, when rendered, causes a speed of progression along the route to vary according to how many content items are obtained for each next location along the route by applying the selection criterion, and according to the lengths of signals representing said content items.