Navigation system for determining a route to a destination

• US 20060178821A1
• Filed: 05/04/2005
• Published: 08/10/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 05/04/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Harman Becker Automotive Systems GmbH (Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Harman Becker Automotive Systems GmbH (Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.)
• Inventors: Brulle-Drews, Christian
• Granted Patent: US 7,925,435 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/209
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3423 Multimodal routing, i.e. combining two or more modes of transportation, where the modes can be any of, e.g. driving, walking, cycling, public transport
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3685 the POI's being parking facilities
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3688 Systems comprising multiple parts or multiple output devices (not client-server), e.g. detachable faceplates, key fobs or multiple output screens
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/0969 having a display in the form of a map

Abstract

A pedestrian route navigation system (“PRNS”) in a vehicle capable of determining a route from a final parking position of the vehicle to a predetermined destination, comprising a final parking position unit and a pedestrian route calculation unit. The PRNS may include a display unit capable of outputting data concerning the route to the predetermined destination, and a transmitting/receiving unit capable of transmitting the data to a mobile information unit of the user of the vehicle.

Claims

1. A pedestrian route navigation system (“

PRNS”

) in a vehicle for determining a pedestrian route from a final parked position of the vehicle to a predetermined destination, the navigation system comprising;

a final parking position unit capable of determining the arrival of the vehicle at the final parking position; and

a pedestrian route calculation unit capable of determining the pedestrian route from the final parking position to the predetermined destination.

2. The PRNS of claim 1, further including a database in signal communication with the final parking position unit and the pedestrian route calculation unit, wherein the database comprises vehicle roadmap data and pedestrian roadmap data.

3. The PRNS of claim 2, wherein the database further comprises line tables data.

12. A method for indicating a route to a predetermined destination in a vehicle, comprising:

detecting a current position of the vehicle;

determining a route from the current position to the predetermined destination;

detecting whether the vehicle has reached a final parking position for the predetermined destination;

determining a route from the final parking position to the predetermined destination; and

outputting data describing the route from the final parking position to the predetermined destination.

4. The PRNS of claim 16, further including a control unit in signal communication with the final parking position unit and the pedestrian route calculation unit, wherein the control unit is configured to derive data describing the pedestrian route from the final parked position to the predetermined destination.

5. The PRNS of claim 4, further including a display unit in signal communication with the control unit, wherein the display unit is configured to provide the data describing the pedestrian route to a user of the vehicle.

6. The PRNS of claim 5, where the display unit comprises a visual display unit in the vehicle.

7. The PRNS of claim 5, where the display unit comprises audio loudspeakers in the vehicle.

8. The PRNS of claim 4, further including a disabling/enabling unit in signal communication with the control unit and the display unit, wherein the disabling/enabling unit is capable of determining whether the pedestrian route can be determined by the pedestrian route calculation unit and wherein the disabling/enabling unit is configured to disable and enable the outputting of data describing the pedestrian route from the control unit responsive to the determination.

9. The PRNS of claim 8, wherein the disabling/enabling unit is in signal communication with a switch in the vehicle and is disabled and enabled responsive to positions of the switch selected by the user of the vehicle.

10. The PRNS of claim 4, further including a transmitting/receiving unit in signal communication with the control unit, wherein the transmitting/receiving unit is capable of transmitting the data describing the pedestrian route from the control unit to a mobile information unit.

11. The PRNS of claim 10, wherein the transmitting/receiving unit is in signal communication with a database comprising roadmap data and is capable of receiving the roadmap data from the database.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising enabling and disabling the output of data describing the route from the final parking position to the predetermined destination.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein determining a route from the final parking position to the predetermined destination includes determining a pedestrian route from the final parking position to the predetermined destination utilizing roadmap data comprising pedestrian roadmap data and line tables data.

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising:

calculating a value of complexity for each section of a pedestrian route;

summing the complexity values for the entire pedestrian route;

comparing the summation of the complexity values to a threshold value; and

enabling or disabling the outputting of the pedestrian route responsive to the comparison of the summation of the complexity values to the threshold value.

16. The method of claim 12, wherein outputting data describing the route from the final parking position to the pedestrian destination further comprises outputting the direction of the predetermined destination relative to the final parking position, outputting the time it takes to arrive at the predetermined destination, outputting the pedestrian route to the predetermined destination, and outputting characteristics of the pedestrian route to the predetermined destination.

17. The method of claim 12, wherein detecting whether the vehicle has reached the final parking position further comprises detecting whether the engine of the vehicle has been turned off.

18. The method of claim 12, further comprising transmitting the data concerning the route from the final parking position to the predetermined destination to a mobile information unit of the user of the vehicle.

19. A PRNS in a vehicle, comprising:

means for detecting a current position of the vehicle;

means for determining a route from the current position to a predetermined destination;

means for detecting whether the vehicle has reached a final parking position for the predetermined destination;

means for determining a route from the final parking position to the predetermined destination; and

means for outputting data describing the route from the final parking position to the predetermined destination.

20. The PRNS of claim 19, further comprising:

means for enabling and disabling said means for outputting data describing the route from the final parking position to the predetermined destination.

21. The PRNS of claim 19, further comprising a data base comprising roadmap data, the roadmap data comprising vehicle roadmap data and pedestrian roadmap data.

22. The PRNS of claim 21, wherein said means for determining the route from the final parking position to the predetermined destination determines a pedestrian route using the pedestrian roadmap data.

23. The PRNS of claim 20, wherein the means for enabling and disabling the means for outputting data describing the route from the final parking position to the predetermined destination both enables and disables the outputting of the data responsive to the determination of the route from the final parking position to the predetermined destination.

24. The PRNS of claim 19, wherein the data describing the route from the final parking position to the predetermined destination comprise an indication of a pedestrian route to the predetermined destination, an indication of the direction to the predetermined destination, an indication of the time it takes to arrive at the predetermined destination, an indication of the distance of the path to the predetermined destination, an indication of a straight line path to the predetermined destination, and an indication of characteristics of the route to the predetermined destination.

25. The PRNS of claim 19, further comprising a transmitting/receiving unit that transmits the data describing the route from the final parking position to the predetermined destination to a mobile information unit of the user of the vehicle.