System and method for providing shared information about traveled road segments

• US 20090157292A1
• Filed: 07/13/2007
• Published: 06/18/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 07/13/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Malikie Innovations Limited (Key Patent Innovations Limited)
• Original Assignee: BlackBerry Corporation (Blackberry Limited)
• Inventors: Tzamaloukas, Assimakis, Currie, Robert
• Granted Patent: US 8,660,794 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/200
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/34 Route searching; Route guidance

Abstract

A system and method splices into, or replaces routes identified based on road geometry with routes taken by the same user or other users to create alternate routes that may be selected by a user to display, for example, on a map or for which driving directions can be displayed. Communication of routes traveled by different devices may be received from a server or from another device. A naming convention for road segments and ordered paths of road segments is described.

Claims

1. A method of identifying road segments most heavily used by a plurality of users for at least one reason, comprising:

receiving from each of the plurality of different of different devices an indication of a path comprising a plurality of contiguous road segments;

identifying at least one reason from among a plurality of reasons why a user of said device is believed to have traveled the path;

for each of said indications received, recording a vote that indicates that each of a plurality of portions of each path was traveled for the reason received;

identifying a plurality of portions having a higher number of votes for at least one of the plurality of reasons.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the vote recorded indicates at least one selected from the group comprising a time and a date; and

the plurality of portions are identified responsive to the at least one selected from the group comprising the time and the date.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the reason is identified responsive to at least a portion of the path.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the reason is identified responsive by receiving it from the user.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the plurality of reasons comprises a travel time of the route.

6. The method of claim 5, additionally comprising comparing the travel time of the route to a travel time of a different route.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the plurality of reasons is related to a desire to avoid an alternate route with at least one characteristic.