Method and system for providing off-road guidance
First Claim
1. A computer-implemented method for automatically generating and presenting guidance information to direct a user along an off-road route, the method comprising:
- electronically and automatically identifying with a look-ahead-point finder a point located on said route nearest to a location of said user and identifying a look-ahead point as a point located ahead of said user along said route and located a threshold distance ahead of said nearest point, a look-ahead distance as a distance from a start of said route to said look-ahead point, and a look-ahead angle as an angle to the look-ahead point,electronically and automatically checking to see if the user is on track towards the look-ahead point, and if the user is not on track towards the look-ahead point, electronically and automatically with a guidance message constructor receiving the look-ahead angle as an input, returning with the guidance message constructor a guidance message, including a qualitative description of what the user should do to be on track towards the look-ahead point,electronically presenting information with a guidance presenter based on the guidance message and look-ahead distance to said user including arrows in order to guide said user towards said look-ahead point, andelectronically searching with a turn analyzer said route to find a turn in said route, and presenting information with the guidance presenter to said user including an arrow with an angle regarding said turn.
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Accused Products
Abstract
The present invention is a computer-implemented system for providing guidance information to aid a user in traveling along an off-road route. This system assumes that the route has already been determined. Also, it is assumed that the user'"'"'s position and orientation can be determined, for example using existing techniques such as the global positioning system (GPS). The present invention uses a Look-Ahead-Point Finder (100) to find a point, which we refer to as a look-ahead point, located on the route ahead of the user'"'"'s current location. A Guidance Message Constructor (102) and a Guidance Presenter (106) are used to present the user with guidance information directing him towards the look-ahead point. If the user is already headed towards the look-ahead point, then a Turn Analyzer (108) is used to search the route in order to find the next turn location. If the user is found to be nearing a turn, then the Guidance Message Constructor (102) and the Guidance Presenter (106) are used to give the user information about the turn including its distance and direction.
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Citations
28 Claims
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1. A computer-implemented method for automatically generating and presenting guidance information to direct a user along an off-road route, the method comprising:
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electronically and automatically identifying with a look-ahead-point finder a point located on said route nearest to a location of said user and identifying a look-ahead point as a point located ahead of said user along said route and located a threshold distance ahead of said nearest point, a look-ahead distance as a distance from a start of said route to said look-ahead point, and a look-ahead angle as an angle to the look-ahead point, electronically and automatically checking to see if the user is on track towards the look-ahead point, and if the user is not on track towards the look-ahead point, electronically and automatically with a guidance message constructor receiving the look-ahead angle as an input, returning with the guidance message constructor a guidance message, including a qualitative description of what the user should do to be on track towards the look-ahead point, electronically presenting information with a guidance presenter based on the guidance message and look-ahead distance to said user including arrows in order to guide said user towards said look-ahead point, and electronically searching with a turn analyzer said route to find a turn in said route, and presenting information with the guidance presenter to said user including an arrow with an angle regarding said turn. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12)
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13. A system for automatically generating and presenting guidance information to direct a user along an off-road route, given said route and a location and orientation of said user as inputs, the system comprising:
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a look-ahead-point finder configured to electronically and automatically identify a point on said route nearest to a location of said user location, and electronically determine a look-ahead point as a point located on said route and located a threshold distance ahead of said nearest point, a look-ahead distance as a distance from a start of said route to said look-ahead point, and a look-ahead angle as an angle to the look-ahead point, a track detector configured to electronically and automatically check to see if the user is on track towards the look-ahead point, and if the user is not on track towards the look-ahead point, electronically and automatically with a guidance message constructor receiving the look-ahead angle as an input, return with the guidance message constructor a guidance message, including a qualitative description of what the user should do to be on track towards the look-ahead point, a guidance presenter for presenting information based on the guidance message and look-ahead distance to said user including arrows in order to guide said user towards said look-ahead point, and a turn analyzer for electronically searching said route to find a turn in said route, and presenting information with the guidance presenter to said user including an arrow with an angle regarding said turn. - View Dependent Claims (14, 15, 16, 17, 18)
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19. A computer program product for automatically generating and presenting guidance information to direct a user along an off-road route, and including one or more computer readable instructions embedded on a tangible, non-transitory computer readable medium, and configured to cause one or more computer processors to perform the steps of
electronically and automatically identifying with a look-ahead-point finder a point located on said route nearest to a location of said user and identifying a look-ahead point as a point located ahead of said user along said route and located a threshold distance ahead of said nearest point, a look-ahead distance as a distance from a start of said route to said look-ahead point, and a look-ahead angle as an angle to the look-ahead point, electronically and automatically checking to see if the user is on track towards the look-ahead point, and if the user is not on track towards the look-ahead point, electronically and automatically with a guidance message constructor receiving the look-ahead angle as an input, returning with the guidance message constructor a guidance message, including a qualitative description of what the user should do to be on track towards the look-ahead point, electronically presenting information with a guidance presenter based on the guidance message and look-ahead distance to said user including arrows in order to guide said user towards said look-ahead point, and electronically searching with a turn analyzer said route to find a turn in said route, and presenting information with the guidance presenter to said user including an arrow with an angle regarding said turn.
Specification