Traffic data services without navigation systems

• US 8,396,651 B2
• Filed: 05/03/2010
• Issued: 03/12/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 05/01/2009
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Sirius XM Radio Inc. (Liberty Media Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Sirius XM Radio Inc. (Liberty Media Corporation)
• Inventors: Finnis, Sven, Stumphauzer, William Carl II, Dombrowski, John, Coppisetti, Naresh, Birks, David
• Primary Examiner(s): Fleming, Faye M.
• Application Number:
  US12/799,898
• Publication Number:
  US 20110118966A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,044 Days
• Field of Search: 701/117, 701/118, 340/901, 340/904, 340/905, 340/992, 340/993
• US Class Current: 701/117
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/00 Traffic control systems for road vehicles arrangement of road signs or traffic signals E01F9/00 ; automatic vehicle control B62D
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/0962 having an indicator mounted inside the vehicle, e.g. giving voice messages
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/0969 having a display in the form of a map

Abstract

A non-navigation data system for providing traffic data service in a mobile environment can include a data decoder for decoding a digital data stream from a digital audio radio transmission source, location determining means (such as GPS or cellular location determining schemes) for determining a current location of a mobile receiver receiving the digital data stream, a display for displaying traffic data corresponding to the current location, and a plurality of static maps wherein the traffic data corresponding to the current location is overlaid at least over a portion of the static maps.

Claims

1. A data delivery system for providing traffic data service in a mobile environment, comprising:

a data decoder for decoding a digital data stream containing traffic data from a digital audio radio transmission source;

location determining means for determining a current location of a mobile receiver receiving the digital data stream;

a display for displaying traffic data corresponding to the current location; and

a plurality of static images of road networks,

wherein the traffic data corresponding to the current location is overlaid on on one or more of said static images associated with the current location.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the location determining means is a global positioning service receiver or a SDARS or cellular receiver using one or more among time of arrival, phase of arrival, strength of arrival, frequency of arrival, time difference of arrival, and multiangulation.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the traffic data is super-imposed onto a predetermined number of static map tiles.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the system uses Traffic Message Channel (TMC) location tables

5. The system of claim 1, wherein a user can at least one of traverse locations or zoom-in or zoom-out using a number of tiles of static maps and wherein the traffic service data is correspondingly overlaid over the tiles as they are traversed.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein a user can select alternate traffic markets from a drop down menu, via speech recognition, or other user friendly input method.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the system is integrated with a radio head unit in a vehicle.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the data decoder is an Alert-C decoder in a head unit of a digital audio radio system radio used to decode digital streaming traffic data.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the traffic data corresponding to the current location is overlaid at least over a portion of the static maps in a manner where road network and names are overlaid accurately and in a manner where labels remain visible.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein multiple adjacent traffic markets are displayed on a single screen.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the display, traffic data, and traffic maps support day and night coloring.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein a base map image is tiled and traversed by tile automatically in a direction corresponding to the direction of movement detected by the location determining means in a zoomed in configuration.

13. The system of claim 1, wherein a zoomed out view of a geographic location is done using a manual option.

14. The system of claim 1, wherein the display supports a split screen view wherein a first portion of the screen displays traffic data overlaid over a map and a second portion of the screen displays music or other auxiliary data.

15. The system of claim 1, wherein the traffic data uses Traffic Message Channel (TMC) Location Codes and wherein the system further includes a TMC location code lookup table to convert the TMC location codes back into a latitude and longitudes for display on a geo-referenced image.

16. The system of claim 1, wherein the system generates stylized color coded maps using straight lines for each market representative of roads being traversed.

17. The system of claim 1, wherein the system further comprises a back channel to provided additional traffic data to the system.

21. The system of claim 1, wherein traffic information can be overlaid on each image using such a custom location code database.

22. The system of claim 21, wherein the images can be geo-referenced with latitude/longitude information.

23. The system of claim 1, wherein maps have individual TMC traffic location tables that can identify the road segments visible in each map image.

18. A method for providing a traffic data service in a mobile environment that does not have a navigation system, comprising:

decoding a digital data stream containing traffic data from a digital audio radio transmission source;

determining a current location of a mobile receiver receiving the digital data stream;

presenting traffic data corresponding to the current location; and

overlaying the traffic data corresponding to the current location over one or more static images associated with the current location.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the current location is determined using a global positioning service receiver or a SDARS or cellular receiver using one or more among time of arrival, phase of arrival, strength of arrival, frequency of arrival, time difference of arrival, and multiangulation or any combination thereof.

20. The method of claim 18, wherein the traffic service data is super-imposed onto a predetermined number of static map tiles.