Architecture for Distributing Transit Data

• US 20140358411A1
• Filed: 11/15/2013
• Published: 12/04/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 06/01/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Khoe, May-Li, Hagedorn, Joseph A.
• Granted Patent: US 9,412,275 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/117
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/26 specially adapted for navigation in a road network
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/34 Route searching; Route guidance
• 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 21/3661 Guidance output on an external device, e.g. car radio
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3694 Output thereof on a road map
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/13 the indicator being in the form of a map

Abstract

Some embodiments provide a program that receives from several data providers route data and graphical representation of route data (e.g., transit systems, schedules, stops, etc.) for different localities. The program also stores this data on a set of servers for later retrieval and transmission to commute applications operating in different localities. The program further retrieves from external vendors location data of transit vehicles that traverse routes based on the route data and schedule data. The location data is for transmitting to commute applications.

Claims

1. A non-transitory machine-readable medium storing a program executable by at least one processing unit, the program comprising sets of instructions for:

receiving from a set of one or more data providers transit system data and user interface (UI) definitions specifying the manner the transit system data is presented in a particular locality when the transit system data is displayed in commute applications operating at the particular locality; and

storing the transit system data and UI definitions on a set of servers for later retrieval and transmission to different commute applications operating in different localities.

2. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the UI definitions from different data providers specify different graphical representations for different elements of the transit system in the particular locality.

3. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 2, wherein an element of a transit system is one of a route, a stop along a route, and a schedule for a stop.

4. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 2, wherein the different graphical representations comprise at least one of the fonts, symbols, shapes, and colors of different elements that are used to represent the transit system or data regarding the transit system.

5. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the set of data providers that provides transit system data comprises at least one of a transit system operator and a third party that collects transit system data from a transit system operator.

6. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the UI definitions specify the manner the transit system data is presented in order to mirror graphical representations of the transit system data in the particular locality.

7. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 1, wherein a locality is one of a neighborhood, a city, a county, a state, and a country.

8. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 1, wherein route data and UI definitions from a first data provider in the set of data providers is for displaying on commute applications operating in a first locality and route data and UI definitions from a second data provider in the set of data providers is for displaying on commute applications operating in a second, different locality.

9. A non-transitory machine-readable medium storing a program which when executed by at least one processing unit processes schedule and route data requests for commute applications, the program comprising sets of instructions for:

determining, upon receiving a request from a particular commute application for schedule and route data, a locality of the particular commute application;

retrieving, based on the locality, schedule and route data and graphical representation data for the schedule and route data; and

providing the retrieved schedule, route, and graphical representation data to the particular commute application.

10. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 9, wherein the commute application displays, in a display area, the schedule and route data using graphical representations defined for the locality.

11. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 9, wherein the request comprises metadata regarding the locality of the particular commute application.

12. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 9, wherein determining the locality of the particular commute application comprises accessing a lookup table that specifies the locality based on the metadata.

13. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 9, wherein retrieving the schedule and route data comprises accessing a set of storages for aggregating schedule and route data.

14. A system for managing data for commute applications, the system comprising:

a first set of servers for handling static data by receiving from a plurality of data providers route data and schedule data for the route data and storing the route data and the schedule data for later retrieval and transmission to commute applications; and

a second set of servers for handling dynamic data by retrieving from external vendors location data of transit vehicles that traverse routes based on the route data and schedule data, the location data for transmission to commute applications.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the first set of servers handles the static further by receiving from a particular data provider in the plurality of data providers updates to the route data and schedule data for the route data and storing the updates for later transmission to commute application that have received previous versions of the route data and the schedule data for the route data.

16. The system of claim 14, wherein the plurality of data providers comprises a plurality of transit systems.

17. The system of claim 14, wherein the route data comprises a plurality of routes.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the route data further comprises a plurality of stops for each route.

19. The system of claim 14, wherein the second set of servers retrieves from the external vendors the location data by aggregating the location data and determining times of arrivals for trips along routes based on the aggregated location data.

20. The system of claim 14, wherein the schedule data comprises, for each trip along a route, a name of the route for a trip, a plurality of stops along the route for the trip, and a plurality of arrival times at the stops along the route for the trip.

21. The system of claim 14 further comprising a module for providing an application programming interface (API) for communicating with the plurality of data providers and the external vendors.

22. The system of claim 21, wherein the first set of servers receives from the plurality of data providers route data and schedule data for the route data by receiving from the plurality of data providers route data and schedule data for the route data through the API.

23. The system of claim 14, wherein the second set of servers retrieves the location data by accessing a storage for storing aggregated location data from the external vendors.

24. The system of claim 14, wherein the second set of servers retrieves the location data by retrieving at least a portion of the location data from at least one external vendor.

25. The system of claim 14, wherein the set of instructions for retrieving the location data comprises a set of instructions for retrieving the location data from the external vendors.

26. The system of claim 14, wherein the program further comprises a set of instructions for processing the retrieved location data in order to format the location data into a defined format that is usable by the commute applications.

27. The system of claim 26, wherein the set of instructions for processing the retrieved location data comprises a set of instructions for filtering and cleaning the location data.