System and related method for offering navigation guidance

• US 9,194,715 B2
• Filed: 10/14/2012
• Issued: 11/24/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 10/14/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: MiTAC International Corporation (MiTAC Holdings Corp.)
• Original Assignee: MiTAC International Corporation (MiTAC Holdings Corp.)
• Inventors: Yang, Shan-Chih
• Primary Examiner(s): Beaulieu, Yonel
• Assistant Examiner(s): Ramesh, Krishnan
• Application Number:
  US13/651,460
• Publication Number:
  US 20140107915A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,136 Days
• Field of Search: 704/425, 701/425
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3626 Details of the output of route guidance instructions traffic control systems for road vehicles involving transmission of navigation instructions to the vehicle G08G1/0968
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3641 Personalized guidance, e.g. limited guidance on previously travelled routes
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3676 Overview of the route on the road map

Abstract

A method of providing navigation guidance information to a user of a portable electronic device includes uploading a track file to a server, the track file containing a plurality of waypoints that form a track, adding a plurality of navigation points to the plurality of waypoints to produce a modified track file, the plurality of navigation points providing navigation guidance to the user of the portable electronic device, and the plurality of navigation points containing data for creating a graphical depiction of intersections associated with the turn-by-turn navigation guidance. The method further includes downloading the modified track file to the portable electronic device, and providing bi-directional turn-by-turn navigation guidance to the user of the portable electronic device when the user reaches each of the plurality of navigation points as the user follows the path indicated by the modified track file.

Claims

1. A server for adding navigation guidance information to tracks, the server comprising:

a memory storing a map database comprising geographic data;

a transceiver receiving a track file uploaded to the server, the track file containing at least three user-defined waypoints that form a track;

track processing software modifying the track file to produce a modified track file, the modified track file comprising the at least three user-defined waypoints and a plurality of navigation points, the plurality of navigation points being generated according to the map database and containing navigation data providing bi-directional turn-by-turn navigation guidance to a user of a portable electronic device storing the modified track file when the user of the portable electronic device follows a path indicated by the modified track file, and the plurality of navigation points containing graphical data for creating a graphical depiction of intersections associated with the turn-by-turn navigation guidance, wherein each navigation point of the plurality of navigation points comprises data indicating a distance from the navigation point until an intersection to which the navigation point corresponds; and

a processor executing the track processing software, controlling the transceiver to output the modified track file, and controlling operation of the server.

2. The server of claim 1, further comprising a user preference database for indicating the user'"'"'s preferences in how the server generates the modified track file.

3. The server of claim 2, wherein the user preference database stores the user'"'"'s preferences regarding at what distance before upcoming intersections the user wishes to be notified of the intersections.

4. The server of claim 1, wherein each navigation point of the plurality of navigation points comprises data indicating longitude and latitude coordinates of the navigation point.

5. The server of claim 1, wherein each navigation point of the plurality of navigation points comprises data indicating a direction from the intersection that the user should avoid traveling.

6. The server of claim 1, wherein the modified track file is stored in a format conforming to the GPS eXchange (GPX) format, and the modified track file stored in the GPX format contains non-standard GPX tags for indicating navigational data associated with the navigation points.

7. A navigation system, comprising:

a server comprising;

a first memory storing a map database comprising geographic data;

a first transceiver receiving a track file uploaded to the server, the track file containing at least three user-defined waypoints that form a track;

track processing software modifying the track file to produce a modified track file, the modified track file comprising the at least three user-defined waypoints and a plurality of navigation points, the plurality of navigation points being generated according to the map database and containing navigation data providing bi-directional turn-by-turn navigation guidance to a user when the user follows a path indicated by the modified track file, and the plurality of navigation points containing graphical data for creating a graphical depiction of intersections associated with the turn-by-turn navigation guidance, wherein each navigation point of the plurality of navigation points comprises data indicating a distance from the navigation point until an intersection to which the navigation point corresponds; and

a first processor executing the track processing software, controlling the first transceiver to output the modified track file not containing a map database, and controlling operation of the server; and

a portable electronic device comprising;

a second transceiver receiving the modified track file from the server;

a second memory storing the modified track file received from the server, wherein the portable electronic device does not contain its own locally-stored map database;

a position receiving device receiving position signals indicating a current position of the portable electronic device;

a display;

guidance software outputting on the display the graphical depiction of the path indicated by the modified track file, the current position of the portable electronic device with respect to the path indicated by the modified track file according to the position signals received by the position receiving device, and turn-by-turn navigation guidance extracted from the navigation points of the modified track file when the user reaches each of the plurality of navigation points, wherein the graphical data consists of lines and arrows, and the lines and arrows indicate a “

from direction”

that the user is coming from and a “

to direction”

indicating where the user should travel to along the path indicated by the modified track file; and

a second processor executing the guidance software and controlling operation of the portable electronic device.

8. The navigation system of claim 7, wherein the server further comprises a user preference database for indicating the user'"'"'s preferences in how the server generates the modified track file.

9. The navigation system of claim 8, wherein the user preference database stores the user'"'"'s preferences regarding at what distance before upcoming intersections the user wishes to be notified of the intersections.

10. The navigation system of claim 7, wherein each navigation point of the plurality of navigation points comprises data indicating longitude and latitude coordinates of the navigation point.

11. The navigation system of claim 7, wherein each navigation point of the plurality of navigation points comprises data indicating a direction from the intersection that the user should avoid traveling.

12. The navigation system of claim 7, wherein the portable electronic device does not contain a map database.

13. The navigation system of claim 7, wherein the modified track file is stored in a format conforming to the GPS eXchange (GPX) format, and the modified track file stored in the GPX format contains non-standard GPX tags for indicating navigational data associated with the navigation points.