Mobile device and method and system for transmission of data thereto

• US 9,792,816 B2
• Filed: 11/08/2011
• Issued: 10/17/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 11/08/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: TomTom Traffic B.V. (TomTom NV)
• Original Assignee: TomTom Traffic B.V. (TomTom NV)
• Inventors: Fulger, Daniel, Mieth, Peter, Wiesner, Steffen Gunther
• Primary Examiner(s): Melton, Todd
• Assistant Examiner(s): ROBERSON, JASON R
• Application Number:
  US13/884,037
• Publication Number:
  US 20140018106A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,170 Days
• Field of Search: 701117, 701118, 701119, 701416, 701423
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3415 Dynamic re-routing, e.g. recalculating the route when the user deviates from calculated route or after detecting real-time traffic data or accidents
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3453 Special cost functions, i.e. other than distance or default speed limit of road segments
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3492 employing speed data or traffic data, e.g. real-time or historical traffic control systems for road vehicles involving transmission of navigation instructions to the vehicle G08G1/0968
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3691 Retrieval, searching and output of information related to real-time traffic, weather, or environmental conditions arrangements for giving variable traffic instructions G08G1/09
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/0967 Systems involving transmission of highway information, e.g. weather, speed limits transmission of navigation instructions to the vehicle G08G1/0968
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096775 where the origin of the information is a central station
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096827 where the route is computed onboard
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096844 where the complete route is dynamically recomputed based on new data
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services

Abstract

A server system 150 for providing data to at least one mobile device 200, the server system comprising a processing resource 174. In a first embodiment, the processing resource 174 is configured to generate contour data representing a boundary of a respective area for which a weather-related parameter has substantially the same value, the contour data being sent to a mobile device 200. In a second embodiment, the processing resource 174 is configured to determine a plurality of parameter values of a model representative of weather-related data, and to filter the parameter values such that only some of the values of sent to a mobile device 200.

Claims

1. A server system for providing data to at least one mobile device, the server system comprising:

a memory storage; and

a processing unit coupled to the memory storage, wherein the processing unit is operative to;

obtain data that represents the variation of a speed modification parameter as a function of location at a plurality of different times, wherein the speed modification parameter is representative of an expected modification to an average speed of travel due to weather or other environmental conditions; and

process the data to generate at least one data set for transmission to a mobile device, the generating comprising adding, to each data set, contour data for at least one contour that represents a boundary of a respective area for which the speed modification parameter has substantially a same value, the contour data comprising coordinates of vertices and/or edges of a polygon that represents the at least one contour, and the contour data configured to be used by the mobile device to compute, for the at least one contour, the respective area in which all of a plurality of road segments are to have a corresponding average speed modified using a same speed modification parameter; and

transmit the generated contour data to the mobile device;

a communications channel for transmitting the at least one data set to the mobile device;

wherein the communications channel is operable to receive time and location data from the mobile device identifying at least a time and one location and the processing unit is configured to obtain the at least one data set in dependence on the identified time and location.

2. A server system according to claim 1 further comprising obtaining weather data representative of at least one of actual and expected weather conditions as a function of location.

3. A server system according to claim 1, wherein the obtained data represents the variation of the speed modification parameter as a function of location at a plurality of different times, and the processing unit is operative to process the data to obtain a plurality of data sets, each data set representing the variation of the speed modification parameter as a function of location at a respective, different time.

4. A server system according to claim 3, wherein the processing unit is operative to compare contour data for a first one of the data sets representative of the value of the speed modification parameter as a function of location at a first time and a second one of the data sets representative of the value of the speed modification parameter as a function of location at a second time, and to identify contour data in the second data set representing a contour that corresponds to a contour represented by contour data in the first data set.

5. A server system according to claim 4, wherein the processing unit is operative to include contour identifiers in the data sets that identify the corresponding contours.

6. A server system according to claim 4, wherein the processing unit is operative to compare at least one of shape, size, position or overlap of at least one contour of the first data set and at least one contour of the second data set to determine corresponding contours.

7. A server system according to claim 4, wherein the processing unit is operative to determine expected movement or other change of the contours between the first time and the second time.

8. A server system according to claim 4, wherein the processing unit is operative to determine expected movement or other change of the contours between the first time and the second time based on predicted or actual wind speed and/or wind direction.

9. A server system according to claim 4, wherein the processing unit is operative to identify a contour represented by contour data in the first data set for which there is not a corresponding contour represented by contour data in the second data set, to assign at least one of a location and time for the appearance or disappearance of the contour, and to store an identifier representative of the at least one of a location and time of appearance or disappearance.

10. A server system according to claim 9, wherein the location of appearance or disappearance of the contour is determined in dependence on expected movement or other change of the contours between the first time and the second time.

11. A server system according to claim 3, wherein the processing unit is operative to obtain the plurality of data sets, to determine changes in the contour data between data sets, and to select at least one of the data sets for transmission to the at least one mobile device in dependence on the determined changes between data sets.

12. A server system according to claim 11, wherein the processing unit is operative to omit a data set if changes in the contour data between the data set and a preceding data set, or between data set and a subsequent data set, are below a predetermined level.

13. A server system according to claim 11, wherein the processing unit is operative to select data sets to ensure that no contours both appear and disappear from the plurality of data sets at times between consecutive selected data sets.

24. The server according to claim 1, wherein the server transmits the generated contour data to the mobile device if the speed modification parameter exceeds previously transmitted speed modification parameter by a predetermined threshold.

14. A mobile device, comprising:

a communication channel for transmitting and receiving data, wherein the communications channel is configured to transmit time and location data identifying at least one location and to receive at least one data set that represents a value of a speed modification parameter as a function of location at a plurality of different times in response to the transmitted location data, wherein the speed modification parameter is representative of an expected modification to an average speed of travel associated with road segments within a digital map due to weather or other environmental conditions; and

a processing unit for processing the received at least one data set, wherein;

the at least one data set comprises contour data that represents at least one contour, each contour representing a boundary of a respective area for which the speed modification parameter has substantially the same value, the contour data comprising coordinates of vertices and/or edges of a polygon that represents the at least one contour, and the contour data configured to be used by the mobile device to compute, for the at least one contour, the respective area in which all of a plurality of road segments are to have a corresponding average speed modified using a same speed modification parameter; and

the processing unit is configured to process the contour data to determine the value of the speed modification parameter for the at least one location at an associated time, wherein processing the contour data comprises computing, for the at least one contour, the respective area, and determining, based on the respective area, the value of the speed modification parameter for the at least one location.

15. A device according to claim 14, wherein the speed modification parameter is representative of at least one of actual and expected weather conditions as a function of location.

16. A device according to claim 14, wherein the at least one data set comprises a plurality of data sets, each data set representative of the value of the speed modification parameter as a function of location at a respective, different time, and each data set comprising contour data.

17. A device according to claim 16, wherein each data set comprises at least one contour identifier, each contour identifier identifying respective contour data, and the processing unit is configured to determine using the at least one contour identifier contour data in a second data set that corresponds to contour data in a first data set.

18. A device according to claim 16, wherein the processing unit is configured to process each data set to generate a corresponding image frame, wherein each image frame represents the speed modification parameter as a function of location at a respective, different time.

19. A device according to claim 18, wherein the processing unit is configured to provide the image frames to a display device for display of the image frames in sequence.

20. A device according to claim 16, wherein the processing unit is configured to interpolate contour data from a first of the data sets representative of the value of the speed modification parameter as a function of location at a first time, and corresponding contour data from a second of the data sets representative of the value of the speed modification parameter as a function of location at a second, different time.

21. A device according to claim 20, wherein the processing unit is configured to obtain, from the interpolation, interpolated data corresponding to a third time between the first time and the second time.

23. The device according to claim 14, wherein the device recalculates a route based on the received at least one data set.

22. A non-transitory computer readable medium comprising computer readable instructions which, when executed by a processing unit of a mobile device, cause the mobile device to:

transmit location data identifying at least a time and one location;

receive at least one data set that represents a value of a speed modification parameter as a function of location in response to the transmitted location data, wherein the speed modification parameter is representative of an expected modification to an average speed of travel associated with road segments within a digital map due to weather or other environmental conditions, and wherein the at least one data set comprises contour data that represents at least one contour, each contour representing a boundary of a respective area for which the speed modification parameter has substantially the same value, the contour data comprising coordinates of vertices and/or edges of a polygon that represents the at least one contour, and the contour data configured to be used by the mobile device to compute the respective area in which all of a plurality of road segments are to have a corresponding average speed modified using a same speed modification parameter; and

process the contour data to determine the value of the speed modification parameter for at least one location and an associated time, wherein processing the contour data comprises computing, for the at least one contour, the respective area, and determining, based on the respective area, the value of the speed modification parameter for at least one location.

25. The computer readable medium of claim 22 further comprising providing an output on the mobile device based on the speed modification parameter.