Device, system and method for remotely entering, storing and sharing addresses for a positional information device

• US 20070252689A1
• Filed: 04/28/2006
• Published: 11/01/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 04/28/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Geographic Location Innovations, LLC (Leigh M. Rothschild)
• Original Assignee: Rothschild Trust Holdings LLC (Leigh M. Rothschild)
• Inventors: Rothschild, Leigh
• Granted Patent: US 7,917,285 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 340/539.130
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/34 Route searching; Route guidance
• 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 21/3874 Structures specially adapted for data searching and retrieval
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3896 Transmission of map data from central databases
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/005 including pedestrian guidance indicator
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096816 where the complete route is transmitted to the vehicle at once
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/09685 where the complete route is computed only once and not updated
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096866 where the complete route is shown to the driver
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096883 where input information is obtained using a mobile device, e.g. a mobile phone, a PDA
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks

Abstract

Devices, systems and methods for remotely entering, storing and sharing location addresses for a positional information device, e.g., a global positioning system (GPS) device, are provided. The present disclosure allows a user to easily and safely enter an address into a GPS device by giving that address to a remote communications link and to have that link automatically program the user'"'"'s GPS device for usage. The device, system and method of the present disclosure further allows the user to use this stored address(es) on multiple GPS devices without having to manually enter the address(es).

Claims

1. A method for entering location information into a positional information device, the method comprising:

receiving a request for at least one location from a user;

determining coordinates of the least one requested location; and

transmitting the determined coordinates to the device.

2. The method as in claim 1, wherein the receiving step includes receiving an identifier of the device.

3. The method as in claim 2, wherein the identifier is a mobile phone number or an IP address.

4. The method as in claim 1, wherein the request is received by voice communication or data transfer.

5. The method as in claim 1, wherein the coordinates of the requested at least one location are latitude and longitude of the at least one requested location.

6. The method as in claim 1, wherein the request is received from the device.

7. The method as in claim 1, wherein the request is received from a remote computer.

8. The method as in claim 7, furthering comprising receiving a first identifier from the remote computer.

9. The method as in claim 8, wherein the first identifier is an Internet cookie.

10. The method as in claim 7, furthering comprising determining a second identifier for the positional information device based on the received first identifier of the remote computer.

11. The method as in claim 10, wherein the second identifier of the positional information device is a mobile phone number or an IP address.

12. The method as in claim 1, further comprising receiving a time and date associated with the requested at least one location;

transmitting the associated time and date with the determined coordinates; and

displaying the determined coordinates at the associated time and date.

13. The method as in claim 1, wherein the determining step includes retrieving the coordinates from a database residing on a server.

14. The method as in claim 1, wherein the determining step includes retrieving the coordinates from at least one second positional information device.

15. The method as in claim 1, wherein the determining coordinates step includes resolving an address of the at least one location into latitude and longitude coordinates.

16. The method as in claim 15, wherein the address is determined by information associated to the address.

17. The method as in claim 16, wherein the associated information is a name of a person residing at the address, a cross street of the address, a zip code of the address, a phone number of the address or an alternative spelling of the address.

18. A positional information device comprising:

a locational information module for determining location information of the device;

a communication module for transmitting a request for at least one location remote of the device and for receiving coordinates of the at least one location;

a processing module configured to receive the coordinates from the communication module and determine route guidance based on the location of the device and the received coordinates; and

a display module for displaying the route guidance.

19. The device as in claim 18, further comprising a storage module for storing the received coordinates.

20. The device as in claim 18, wherein the communication module is configured to transmit an identifier of the device with the request.

21. The device as in claim 20, wherein the identifier is a mobile phone number or an IP address.

22. The device as in claim 18, wherein the communication module is configured to transmit the request by voice communications.

23. The device as in claim 18, wherein the communication module is configured to transmit the request by wireless data transfer.

24. The device as in claim 18, wherein the communication module is configured to transmit a time and date associated with the requested at least one location and to receive the associated time and date with the coordinates and wherein the processing module is configured to display on the display module the coordinates at the associated time and date.

25. A system for entering location information into a positional information device, the system comprising:

a server configured to receive a request for at least one location, determine coordinates of the least one requested location and to transmit the determined coordinates to the device;

the positional information device including

a locational information module for determining location information of the device;

a communication module for receiving coordinates of the at least one location from the server;

a processing module configured to receive the coordinates from the communication module and determine route guidance based on the location of the device and the received coordinates; and

a display module for displaying the route guidance; and

a communications network for coupling the positional information device to the server.

26. The system as in claim 25, wherein the device transmits an identifier with the request to the server.

27. The system as in claim 26, wherein the identifier is a mobile phone number or an IP address.

28. The system as in claim 25, wherein the communications network is a telematics network.

29. The system as in claim 25, wherein the request is received from the device.

30. The system as in claim 25, wherein the request is received from a remote computer.

31. The system as in claim 30, wherein the remote computer transmits a first identifier with the request to the server.

32. The system as in claim 31, wherein the first identifier is an Internet cookie.

33. The system as in claim 30, wherein the server is configured to determine a second identifier for the device based on the received first identifier of the remote computer.

34. The system as in claim 33, wherein the second identifier of the device is a mobile phone number or an IP address.

35. The system as in claim 25, wherein the server receives a time and date associated with the requested at least one location and transmits the associated time and date with the determined coordinates to the device and the device displays the determined coordinates at the associated time and date.

36. The system as in claim 25, wherein the server retrieves the coordinates from a database residing on the server.

37. The system as in claim 25, wherein the server retrieves the coordinates from at least one second positional information device.

38. The system as in claim 25, wherein the server resolves an address of the at least one location into latitude and longitude coordinates.

39. The system as in claim 38, wherein the address is determined by information associated to the address.

40. The system as in claim 39, wherein the associated information is a name of a person residing at the address, a cross street of the address, a zip code of the address, a phone number of the address or an alternative spelling of the address.

41. The system as in claim 25, wherein the server is operated by a live operator and the request for the at least one location is received by voice communications.