Method and apparatus for sharing geographically significant information

• US 8,838,384 B1
• Filed: 03/12/2013
• Issued: 09/16/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 09/29/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: HRL Laboratories LLC (The Boeing Co.)
• Original Assignee: HRL Laboratories LLC (The Boeing Co.)
• Inventors: Daily, Michael J., Lu, Henry, Martin, Kevin, O'Neal, Michael
• Primary Examiner(s): Black, Thomas G
• Assistant Examiner(s): PAIGE, TYLER D
• Application Number:
  US13/797,705
• Time in Patent Office: 553 Days
• Field of Search: 701/516, 381/77, 381/88, 340/988
• US Class Current: 701/516
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3629 Guidance using speech or audio output, e.g. text-to-speech text to speech systems per se G10L13/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 5/02 Spatial or constructional arrangements of loudspeakers

Abstract

A three dimensional audio playback system in which the audio clips are determined by location. The audio playback system being located within a vehicle to aid in navigation or for entertainment or informational or safety purposes.

Claims

1. A audio comment exchange system comprising a plurality of vehicles each equipped with audio and geographic location identification recording apparatus, the audio and geographic location identification recording apparatus storing audio comments associated with geographically identified landmarks or locations by associating the audio comments with geographic location data, each vehicle being further equipped with wireless communication apparatus for exchanging audio comments and associated geographic location data with other vehicles via a shared database.

2. The audio comment exchange system of claim 1 wherein the shared database is accessible via the Internet.

3. The audio comment exchange system of claim 1 wherein the audio comments are stored as sounds in a binary format.

4. The audio comment exchange system of claim 1 wherein the audio comments are stored and/or shared as textual data.

5. The audio comment exchange system of claim 1 wherein an audio comment stored by a user in a first vehicle is played back to a user in a second vehicle when the second vehicle arrives at a geographic location having a predetermined relative location to a geographically identified landmark which is associated with the comment stored by the user in the first vehicle.

6. The audio comment exchange system of claim 5 wherein audio comments stored by a user are stored as textual data.

7. The audio comment exchange system of claim 6 wherein the audio comments stored as textual data, when played back to another user, are converted from textual data to human-like vocal sounds.

8. The audio comment exchange system of claim 5 wherein audio comments stored by users in the shared database are filtered using user-selectable filtering criteria before being played back to other users.

9. A audio comment exchange method comprising:

equipping a plurality of vehicles each with audio and geographic location identification apparatus and with a wireless communication apparatus,

storing audio comments associated with geographically identified landmarks or locations by associating the audio comments with geographic location data in a shared database, and

sharing audio comments and associated geographic location data with users in vehicles via the shared database and the wireless communication apparatus.

10. The audio comment exchange method of claim 9 wherein the shared database is accessible via the Internet.

11. The audio comment exchange method of claim 9 wherein the audio comments are stored as sounds in a binary format.

12. The audio comment exchange method of claim 9 wherein the audio comments are stored and/or shared as textual data.

13. The audio comment exchange method of claim 9 wherein an audio comment stored by a user in a first vehicle is played back to a user in a second vehicle when the second vehicle arrives at a geographic location having a predetermined relative location to a geographically identified landmark which is associated with the comment stored by the user in the first vehicle.

14. The audio comment exchange method of claim 13 wherein audio comments stored by a user are stored as textual data.

15. The audio comment exchange method of claim 14 wherein the audio comments stored as textual data, when played back to another user, are converted from textual data to human-like vocal sounds.

16. The audio comment exchange method of claim 13 further including filtering the audio comments stored by users in the shared database using user-selectable filtering criteria before being played back to a user.

17. A system for sharing information between users located in different vehicles, the geographic information comprising at least:

(i) information about or pertaining to some landmark or geographic location of interest and (ii) data describing the location of said landmark or geographic location of interest on the planet, the system for sharing information between users comprising, in each vehicle, a GPS and apparatus for recording and/or storing the information about or pertaining to some landmark or geographic location of interest and associating it with data from the GPS describing the location of said landmark or geographic location of interest, said system further including a wireless communication system for sharing geographic information provided by a first user in a first vehicle with a second user in a second vehicle.

18. The system of claim 17 wherein the system further includes a database in each said vehicle containing geographic information, the database in the second vehicle being updated with new geographic information from the database in the first vehicle when instructed to do so by said first user.

19. An audio comment exchange method comprising:

equipping a plurality of vehicles each with audio recording and playback apparatus, a GPS and a wireless communication apparatus,

storing in a database audio comments, recorded in a first vehicle using said recording and playback apparatus, said audio comments being associated with one or more geographically identified landmarks or locations by associating the recorded audio comments with geographic location data provided by said GPS, and

sharing the recorded audio comments and associated geographic location data with one or more users in one or more other vehicles via the wireless communication apparatus.

20. The method of claim 19 further including starting the playback of a recorded audio comment to said one or more users in said one or more other vehicles when said one or more other vehicles attains a location which is sufficiently geographically close to geographic location data provided by the GPS in the first vehicle and associated with the audio comment being played back.