Vehicle navigation system and method thereof

• US 20080281508A1
• Filed: 08/14/2007
• Published: 11/13/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 05/08/2007
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: E-TEN Information Systems Company Limited (Acer, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: E-TEN Information Systems Company Limited (Acer, Inc.)
• Inventors: Fu, Wen-Chih
• Application Number:
  US11/889,499
• Publication Number:
  US 20080281508A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/201
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3647 Guidance involving output of stored or live camera images or video streams
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/29 Geographical information databases
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9537 Spatial or temporal dependent retrieval, e.g. spatiotemporal queries
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096805 where the transmitted instructions are used to compute a route

Abstract

A vehicle navigation system comprises a signal receiving module, a location selection module, a route planning module, an image obtaining module, a display module and a route selection module. The signal receiving module is used for obtaining first location information of a vehicle; the location selection module is used for obtaining second location information of the vehicle; the route planning module is used for obtaining a suggested route for the vehicle according to the first location information and second location information; the image obtaining module is used for obtaining at least one image related to the suggested route; the display module is used for displaying the at least one image; and the route selection module is used for selecting whether to keep the original suggested route or to activate the route planning module to obtain a new suggested route.

Claims

1. A vehicle navigation system comprising:

a signal receiving module, for obtaining first location information of a vehicle;

a location selection module, for obtaining second location information of the vehicle;

a route planning module electrically connected to the signal receiving module and the location selection module, for obtaining a suggested route for the vehicle according to the first location information and the second location information;

an image obtaining module electrically connected to the route planning module, for obtaining at least one image related to the suggested route according to the suggested route; and

a display module electrically connected to the image obtaining module, for displaying the at least one image related to the suggested route.

2. The vehicle navigation system as claimed in claim 1 further comprising a selection module, for selecting whether to keep the suggested route or to enable the route planning module to obtain a new suggested route according to the at least one image related to the suggested route.

3. The vehicle navigation system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the first location information is current location information of the vehicle and the second location information is destination location information of the vehicle.

4. The vehicle navigation system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the at least one image related to the suggested route obtained by the image obtaining module is obtained from at least one webcam related to the suggested route.

5. The vehicle navigation system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the at least one image related to the suggested route obtained by the image obtaining module is a real-time image related to the suggested route.

6. The vehicle navigation system as claimed in claim 4, wherein the image obtaining module is adapted to connect to the at least one webcam and obtain the at least one image related to the suggested route from the at least one webcam by obtaining an Internet address (IP Address) of the at least one webcam.

7. The vehicle navigation system as claimed in claim 4, wherein the image obtaining module is adapted to connect to a database through a network connection to obtain the at least one image related to the suggested route from the at least one webcam stored in the database.

8. The vehicle navigation system as claimed in claim 4, wherein the display module displays the at least one image related to the suggested route from the closer webcam to the farther webcam as determined from the first location.

9. The vehicle navigation system as claimed in claim 8, wherein the display module displays the at least one image related to the suggested route from a predetermined number of the closest webcams located away from the first location.

10. A vehicle navigation method comprising:

obtaining first location information of a vehicle;

obtaining second location information of the vehicle;

according to the first location information and the second location information, obtaining a suggested route of the vehicle;

according to the suggested route, obtaining at least one image related to the suggested route; and

displaying the at least one image related to the suggested route for a subsequent decision of whether to keep the suggested route.

11. The vehicle navigation method as claimed in claim 10 further comprising:

in response to the subsequent decision, obtaining a new suggested route;

according to the new suggested route, obtaining at least one new image related to the new suggested route; and

displaying the at least one new image related to the suggested route for a further subsequent decision of whether to keep the new suggested route.

12. The vehicle navigation method as claimed in claim 10, wherein the first location information is current location information of the vehicle and the second location information is destination location information of the vehicle.

13. The vehicle navigation method as claimed in claim 10, wherein the at least one image related to the suggested route is obtained from at least one webcam related to the suggested route.

14. The vehicle navigation method as claimed in claim 10, wherein the at least one image related to the suggested route is a real-time image related to the suggested route obtained from at least one webcam related to the suggested route.

15. The vehicle navigation method as claimed in claim 13, wherein the at least one image related to the suggested route from the at least one webcam is obtained by accessing to an Internet address (IP Address) of the at least one webcam.

16. The vehicle navigation method as claimed in claim 13, wherein the at least one image related to the suggested route from the at least one webcam is obtained by reading the at least one image related to the suggested route from at least one webcam stored in a database.

17. The vehicle navigation method as claimed in claim 13, wherein the displayed at least one image related to the suggested route is obtained from the closer webcam to the farther webcam as determined from the first location.

18. The vehicle navigation method as claimed in claim 17, wherein the at least one image related to the suggested route is displayed from a predetermined number of the closest webcams located away from the first location.

19. A method of obtaining an image related to a suggested route for a vehicle comprising:

providing a database storing connection information and location information of a plurality of video cameras, each video camera used for recording at least one image related to a suggested route at a location corresponding to that video camera;

according to the suggested route of the vehicle, extracting from the database the connection information of the video camera of at least one location on the suggested route;

connecting to the at least one video camera based on the connection information; and

obtaining the recorded image related to the suggested route from the video camera.

20. A method of obtaining an image related to a suggested route for a vehicle comprising:

connecting to a database storing connection information and location information of a plurality of video cameras;

according to a suggested route for the vehicle, identifying the video camera of at least one location on the suggested route from the database; and

extracting an image related to the suggested route recorded by the at least one video camera.

21. A method of obtaining an image related to a suggested route for a vehicle comprising:

according to a suggested route of the vehicle, obtaining a plurality of images related to the suggested route from a plurality of video cameras on the suggested route; and

according to distances from a current location, displaying the image related to the suggested route from at least one video camera.

22. The method as claimed in claim 21, wherein a predetermined number of images related to the suggested route are obtained from the closer webcam to the farther webcam as determined from the first location.