System and method of wireless downloads of map and geographic based data to portable computing devices

• US 20060080032A1
• Filed: 09/07/2005
• Published: 04/13/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 09/07/2004
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Alfred M. Wallner, Clive W.R. Cooper
• Original Assignee: Alfred M. Wallner, Clive W.R. Cooper
• Inventors: Cooper, Clive W.R., Wallner, Alfred M.
• Application Number:
  US11/222,340
• Publication Number:
  US 20060080032A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/208
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3664 Details of the user input interface, e.g. buttons, knobs or sliders, including those provided on a touch screen; remote controllers; input using gestures
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/367 Details, e.g. road map scale, orientation, zooming, illumination, level of detail, scrolling of road map or positioning of current position marker
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3682 output of POI information on a road map G01C21/3614, G01C21/3685 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3844 Data obtained from position sensors only, e.g. from inertial navigation
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/387 Organisation of map data, e.g. version management or database structures

Abstract

A system and method of managing map data on electronic devices such as portable electronic devices which includes a system and method of preloading map data, managing map data storage, sharing point of interest or pushpin data with other electronic devices, and displaying map data is disclosed.

Claims

1. A system for identifying a portion of a map on a display, the system comprising:

means for associating each of a plurality of regions of the map with a different color;

means for displaying each of the regions on the display in the associated color;

means for receiving a user selection of a pixel of the display;

means for determining the color of the pixel; and

means for identifying a selected region of the map by identifying the color of the pixel as having the color associated with the selected region.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the means for receiving the user selection comprises means for receiving user input.

3. A method of preloading map data, the method comprising:

storing map data on an electronic device;

determining the location of the electronic device;

predicting a direction of travel of the electronic device;

identifying map data along the direction of travel that is absent from the stored map data;

receiving the identified map data along the predicted direction of travel; and

storing the identified map data.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising deleting at least a portion of the stored data based on at least one of the heading or location of the electronic device.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein predicting the direction of travel comprises:

storing at least one past position of the electronic device; and

predicting the direction of travel based at least in part on a current position of the electronic device and at least in part on the at least one stored past position.

6. The method of claim 3, wherein predicting the direction of travel comprises:

receiving a route to between at least two locations.

7. The method of claim 3, wherein identifying map data along the direction of travel comprises:

projecting the direction of travel in at least one step from the current location.

8. The method of claim 3, wherein identifying map data along the direction of travel comprises:

identifying, based on predetermined criteria, map data comprising geographically related content.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the predetermined criteria comprise user preferences.

10. The method of claim 3, wherein the downloaded map data comprises map segment data.

11. The method of claim 3, wherein the downloaded map data comprises geographically related content.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the geographically related content comprises one or more of traffic or weather data.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein the geographically referenced content is associated with at least one of a location, a person, a vehicle, an organization, or an object and comprises at least one of a name, street address, a postal address, data indicative of an icon, a displayable layer, user comments, an Internet address, an email address, an identifier, geographic index, or a geographic coordinate range.

14. A system for preloading map data, the system comprising:

a storage configured to store map data on an electronic device;

a device configured to determine the location of the electronic device;

a transceiver configured to receive map data; and

a processor configured to;

identify a route of travel of the electronic device;

identify map data along the route of travel that is absent from the stored map data; and

download the identified map data along the route of travel via the transceiver.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the processor is further configured to identify, based on predetermined criteria, map data comprising geographically related content.

16. The system of claim 14, wherein the downloaded map data comprises geographically related content.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the geographically referenced content is associated with at least one of a location, a person, a vehicle, an organization, or an object and comprises at least one of a name, street address, a postal address, data indicative of an icon, a displayable layer, user comments, an Internet address, an email address, an identifier, geographic index, or a geographic coordinate range.