System and method for providing an electronic representation of a route

• US 8,751,163 B2
• Filed: 04/08/2011
• Issued: 06/10/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 04/08/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Verizon Connect Development Limited
• Original Assignee: Fleetmatics Ireland Limited (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Inventors: Mitchell, Peter
• Primary Examiner(s): NGUYEN, TAN QUANG
• Application Number:
  US13/083,222
• Publication Number:
  US 20120259545A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,159 Days
• Field of Search: 701/527, 701/409, 701/426, 701/540, 705/4, 340/989, 382/103, 382/241, 382/285, 382/199
• US Class Current: 701/527
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3647 Guidance involving output of stored or live camera images or video streams
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/202 Dispatching vehicles on the basis of a location, e.g. taxi dispatching

Abstract

Disclosed is a computer systems, methods and computer program products for providing an electronic representation of a route. A display device displays a plurality of sequential displays of the ground level area representations along the recorded route including: a first display comprising an origin location area representation; a plurality of sequential displays comprising sequential location area representations along the route; and a last display of a destination location area representation. The at least one ground level image can be a photographic image. A record of a route is recorded by a GPS device.

Claims

1. A method of providing an electronic representation of a route, comprising, in at least one computer and a computer readable storage medium or media including computer code:

accessing a record of a route traveled by a vehicle from an origin location to a destination location, wherein the record of the route comprises point-to-point locations recorded by a GPS device associated with the vehicle;

receiving a plurality of ground level area representations of locations corresponding locations along the recorded route including an origin location and a destination location;

the at least one computer and the computer readable storage medium or media including computer code that causes the at least one computer to cause a display device to display thereon;

a plurality of sequential displays of the ground level area representations along the recorded route so as to replicate a real-time first person view of the route as travelled including;

a first display comprising an origin location area ground level representation;

a plurality of sequential displays comprising sequential location area ground level representations along the route; and

a last display of a destination location area ground level representation.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the area representation for each location comprises at least one ground level image representation of the location.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the at least one ground level image is a photographic image.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the method further comprises:

receiving a record of a route recorded by a GPS device.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the method further comprises:

accessing a record of the route on a computer configured store GPS data accessing a map database to displaying the route as a map.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the method further comprises:

displaying the plurality of sequential displays of the ground level area representations along the recorded route so as to replicate a first person view of the route.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein the method further comprises:

configuring the computer to provide to a graphic user interface an user-interactive interface to control and replay the ground level sequential displays.

8. The method of claim 6 wherein the method comprises:

receiving a record of a route recorded by a GPS device; and

displaying the plurality of sequential displays in a time sequence different than that of the speed of the GPS recorded route.

9. The method of claim 7 wherein the method further comprises:

providing, for at least one of the plurality of locations, a plurality of area representations configured to display a 360 degree view of the location for the first person view.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein the method further comprises:

accessing a database storing a plurality of the recorded routes;

wherein the at least one computer and the computer readable storage medium or media includes computer code that causes the at least one computer to cause a display device to display thereon, for each stored route, the plurality of sequential displays of the area representations along the recorded route.

12. The computer system of claim 1 wherein the one or more processors are further programmed at least to:

receive at least one ground level image representation for each location along the route.

11. A computer system including at least one computer processor and computer readable storage medium or media including computer code configured to provide an electronic representation of a route, the system comprising:

one or more processors programmed at least to

access, from a memory operatively coupled to at least one of the processors, a record of a route traveled by a vehicle from an origin location to a destination location, wherein the record of the route comprises of point-to-point GPS location data recorded by a GPS device associated with the vehicle;

receive a plurality of ground level area representations of locations corresponding locations along the recorded route including an origin location and a destination location; and

cause a display device to display thereon a plurality of sequential displays of the ground level area representations along the recorded route so as to replicate a real-time first person view of the route including

a first display comprising an origin location area ground level representation;

a plurality of sequential displays comprising sequential location ground level area representations along the route; and

a last display of a destination location area ground level representation.

13. The computer system of claim 11, wherein the at least one ground level image comprises a photographic image.

14. The computer system of claim 11, wherein the one or more processors are further programmed at least to:

access a record of a route recorded by a GPS device.

15. The computer system of claim 11, wherein the one or more processors are further programmed at least to:

access a record of the route for provision to a computer configured to display the route as map.

16. The computer system of claim 11, wherein the one or more processors are further programmed at least to cause the display to:

cause the display device to display thereon the plurality of sequential displays of the ground level area representations along the recorded route so as to replicate a first person view of the route.

17. The computer system of claim 11, wherein the computer is configured to provide to a graphic user interface a user-interactive interface to control and replay the ground level sequential displays.

18. The computer system of claim 11, wherein the one or more processors are further programmed at least to:

receive a record of a route recorded by a GPS device; and

cause the display device to display thereon the plurality of sequential displays in a time sequence different than that of the speed of the GPS recorded route.

19. The computer system of claim 11, wherein the one or more processors are further programmed at least to:

provide, for at least one of the plurality of locations, a plurality of area representations configured to display a 360 degree view of the location for the first person view.

20. The computer system of claim 11, wherein the one or more processors are further programmed at least to:

store a plurality of the recorded routes; and

cause the display device to display thereon, for each stored route, the plurality of sequential displays of the ground level area representations along the recorded route.

21. A computer program product comprising a computer-readable storage medium encoded with instructions that, when executed by at least one processor within a computer system that comprises one or more processors and a memory operatively coupled to at least one of the processors, cause the computer system at least to:

access, in a memory operatively coupled to at least one of the processors, a record of a route traveled by a vehicle from an origin location to a destination location, wherein the record of the route comprises point-to-point GPS location data recorded by a GPS device associated with the vehicle as traveled;

receive a plurality of ground level area representations of locations corresponding locations along the recorded route including an origin location and a destination location; and

cause display device to display thereon a plurality of sequential displays of the ground level area representations along the recorded route so as to replicate a real-time first person view of the route including

a first display comprising an origin location ground level area representation;

a plurality of sequential displays comprising sequential location ground level area representations along the route; and

a last display of a destination location ground level area representation.