GB2489028A

GB2489028A - Transportation availability broadcasting between two spatially selected catchments

Info

Publication number: GB2489028A
Application number: GB1104478.1A
Authority: GB
Inventors: David Roger Sherriff
Original assignee: QUICKMAP Ltd
Current assignee: QUICKMAP Ltd
Priority date: 2011-03-17
Filing date: 2011-03-17
Publication date: 2012-09-19
Also published as: GB201104478D0

Abstract

A subject, normally a person, a product, a package or a freight container, transmits a journey request description using signals generated on a computer system, comprising of a journey from a defined departure-catchment bounded area 10 to a defined destination-catchment bounded area 11, and that the said signals are capable of being received by any conveyances, normally trains, buses, aeroplanes, taxis, trucks and cars, that can interpret the signalling and respond to the signals on a computer system by a return of signals, the return signals containing offers of conveyance for transporting the subject from the departure-catchment to the destination-catchment.

Description

TRANSPORTATION AVAILABILiTY BROADCASTING BETWEEN TWO SPATIALLY

SELECTED CATCHMENTS

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present patent application concerns the emergence of the lnternet of Things that has been defined as people, products, packages, and vehicles that are embedded with sensors, telecommunications and digital electronic processors that hold in electronic memory descriptions and requirements and that have two way communication with others across networks on lnternets.

BACKGROUND OF THE 1NVENT1ON

A traveler can make a deliberate search through timetables, maps and real time information, assist or ask other people or employ computer programs to search on their behalf, for the purposes of making travel choices. This can be considered as a pull' information system. The push' information system is where the traveler can select from a range of vehicles readily advertising their willingness to offer travel in the direction of the required destination where information is actively disseminated to potential recipients who have indicated interest. Both the push and the pull information retrieval systems require efficient place to place selection methods.

This can be efficient where precise door to door or address to address information is required, and is also efficient between like facilities, for example, airports and train stations, but complexities arise when multi-modal options are being requested from departure and arrival points from within a vicinity. Current electronic journey planners struggle with generalised queries and create a vast number of computer generated options listing in lengthy detail every connection from a starting point to a finishing point of a journey. The invention here within simplifies transportation selection by using a push information system offering only available journeys between two place catchment areas.

Logistical networks exist for the purposes of efficient parcel, package and goods deliveries across numerous geographic locations and multiple options of transport. It is thought that the invention here within can also apply to logistical networks like distribution, truck haulage, freight container movement and warehouse inventory handling.

DEFINITIONS USED HERE WITHIN

For definition here within a signal' refers to electromagnetic radio waves, electric currents or optical transmissions that can transmit across distances containing digital or analogue information using common protocols, computer based languages, databases and data descriptions and by way of example, HTML and XML protocols used on the lnternet that can divide the information into common categories, or subject data fields for example; service on offer, pick-up point, fare, payment methods, route, time and many other descriptions. The lnternet' refers here within to the known interconnected system of networks that connects computers around the world via for instance the Internet Protocol Suite.

The subject' here within described can be anything such as a person, a product, an object, a package, a freight container, a vehicle, a robot and groupings of the same, and is particularly suited to things which traverse and, air and sea such a person intending to travel, a freight container, a parcel, mail items, and the like. The subject in the present invention is normally a person, a group of people, a freight container, a package, luggage or an item for transit. The subject normally has a means of moving locally so as to take advantage of opportunities for travel within a geographic range thus giving the subject an element of choice by way of example a person at a certain location can use different bus stops using prior knowledge so walking to these bus stops can be ignored. A subject can have active agents, either computer based or human, working on behalf of the said subject.

For the purposes of the ensuing descriptions the words mobile device wifl be used forthwith to mean any electronic device which is portable, that can usually be powered independently using batteries, that can process electronic code and that can telecommunicate both in receiving and transmission, constantly or intermittenUy via coded signals either over any distance through the air using radio, near distance using near field radio technologies, close distances through induction or by wire, examples of such devices being a mobile phone, a cell-phone, a touch pad, an e-book, a portable computer, a laptop computer, a smart ticketing card, and the ike.

The word map' here within used refers to a representation of local or global space, depicting features with geographic coordinates and X,Y,Z axis measurements or lower accuracy depictions using diagrams or photographs like aerial photography. The human to machine interface of a map can be visual, text based, haptic and verbally based using speech synthesis and voice recognition. The map becomes a mapping system' when integrated into a computer based product.

Mobile devices often come equipped with a Global Positioning System (GPS) that refers to the American military cluster of extra-terrestrial satellites that are beacons emitting radio signals for terrestrial referencing. For the purposes of the ensuing descriptions the letters GPS' will refer to any terrestrial or extra-terrestrial means of geographic positioning across the Earth's surface including cellular network closest base station referencing, interpolating signals between adjacent antenna towers, and mobile device cross referencing between other mobile devices.

THE INVENTION

According to the present invention, a subject' as here within defined, has a means of transmitting, processing and receiving signals using an electronic computer program application so that transportation conveyances' here within defined as trains, buses, planes, taxis, trucks, cars, robots and the like, have a means of receiving, processing and transmitting signals, whereby the subject indicates a present or a future requirement to travel from a departure catchment bounded area, encompassing the potential area of departure for the said subject to be transported from and henceforth to be called the departure-catchment' for the purposes of the ensuing descriptions, to a separate destination containment bounded area where the subject requires to travel to, encompassing the potential area of arrival for the said subject henceforth called the destination-catchment' for the purposes of the ensuing descriptions. The said subject transmits signals comprising of a departure-catchment to destination-catchment journey request description and that the said signals are capable of being received by any conveyances that can interpret the signalling and respond to the signals on a computer system by a return of signals, the return signals containing offers of conveyance for transporting the subject from the departure-catchment to the destination-catchment.

in accordance with another aspect, the subject only receives requests from conveyances when a threshold is passed, such as a fare value or a journey time by way of example, for a particular departure-catchment to destination-catchment journey.

in accordance with another aspect, the conveyances appear on the internet as though each is an active agent and in the business of self promotion of fares, times, seats, and the like.

in accordance with another aspect, the offers of transport from conveyances are based on stored information of pre-defined routes and associated timetables.

In accordance with another aspect, the conveyances making offers of transport by return signalling come from a central computer servers offering transportation between catchments on behalf of conveyances.

In accordance with another aspect, the two catchments, the departure-catchment and the destination-catchment are selected from a set of predetermined catchment areas already marked on geographic or diagrammatic mapping systems as a field of graphic objects with or without text and communicated to the subject on a computer based product using either a graphical user interface, a text interface or a verbal interface.

in accordance with another aspect, the two catchments, the departure-catchment and the destination-catchment, are definable both in geographic position and in geographic area that are selected on a mapping system and displayed on an &ectronic graphical user interface of a computer based product, by marking a boundary area for the said catchment by making use of a painter controlled by a computer interface device such as computer mouse to sketch an outline boundary on a computer display screen showing a map, a diagram or an aerial photograph.

ln accordance with another aspect, the two catchments are definable in both a geographic position and in geographic area that can be selected on a mapping system and displayed on an electronic graphical user interface of a computer based product by marking out or sketching a bounding area to establishes the scope of the geographic area of the said catchment using a finger tip or a plurality of fingers on a touch sensitive display screen interface on computer device showing a map, aerial photograph or diagram.

In accordance with another aspect, the two catchments are definable in both a geographic position and in geographic area that are selected on a mapping system and displayed on an electronic graphical user interface of a computer based product by referencing a bounding area using a geographic spatial recording system such as GPS, to record mapping coordinates on to a computer system that a user has defined by the geographic extents of the subject actually walking, cycling, and travelling by vehicle.

In accordance with another aspect, the two catchments are definable in both a geographic position and in geographic area that are generated on a computer based product by the prediction of place selection and area selection based on a subject's travel history stored in the memory of a local computer system or stored on a distant computer system connected over the Internet. The subject's travel history can be expanded to include stored data from a plurality of other subjects' travel patterns.

in accordance with another aspect, the two catchments are definable in both a geographic position and in geographic area by a text based system where a mix of place names, road names, addresses and postal codes are entered via a computer interface device nto computer program that creates a grouping of geographical locations by referencing to a data field of stored text along with the text's associated geographic coordinates, or by referencing to a relational position on a diagrammatic map relative to other stored text. The text catchment field can be expanded or contracted or modified using spatial language text commands.

In accordance with another aspect, the two catchments are definable in both a geographic position and in geographic area by a verbal based system where names and post codes are spoken into a microphone and interpreted into computer code using a voice recognition computer program that creates an amalgamation of the spoken geographical locations using cross referencing with a database of stored terms related to mapping coordinates, and thus a catchment boundary around the group of verbally stated locations is created and communicated back to the subject for checking by speech synthesis output. The verbal catchment field can be further expanded, contracted or modified by suggestions from a verbal spatially connected type of thesaurus, thus generating more verbal locations and communicated back to the subject using speech synthesis output.

In accordance with another aspect, the two catchments are definable in both a geographic position and in geographic area by the actions of pointing a mobile device, more commonly in the form of a cell-phone or mobile phone being used by the subject. The angular tilt measured by on-board sensors, also known as pitch, relative to a datum being normally horizontal or vertical of a mobile device, is interpreted by the mobile device's on-board electronic programs into a distance away from the mobile device to a catchment centre, for instance in the preferred calibration a vertical position of the mobile device represents near distances relative to the mobile device and rotating increasingly to the horizontal represents increasing distances away from the mobile device.

In accordance with another aspect, a mobile device becomes to be orientated and perceived by the subject to be pointing down at the ground and this orientation is measured and calibrated to become a way of pointing through the Earth's solid at global places from underneath places, as though the user where looking inside, for selecting global catchments on the Earth's surface such as entire cities, states, counties, regions and countries. A mobile device can use a three-axis gyro sensor or accelerometers to track the said pointing.

In the present invention, the density of spatially arranged places within a catchment, that are simulated within the program on the mobile device, is proportional to the distance of the real world places from the mobile device so that with increasing distance the greater the number of places within the catchment that are grouped together by the selection means within the program, and that with longer distances the places themselves become sub-summed into new definitions of a place that contain smaller places, and that these new definitions can themselves be sub-summed into even greater sized place definitions.

ln accordance with the present invention, the subject can scan around the subject's present place either automatically according a to computer scan program from a fixed position or by the subject moving a mobile device physically around in such a way as to become a scan of the surrounding landscape. This scan information is matched with catchments pre-identified on a stored mapping system which are communicated to the subject using an electronic display screen or by speech synthesis. The scan tracking can use accelerometers and three-axis gyroscopic sensors.

in accordance with another aspect, the catchments are definable by a fuzzy logic computer program that separates very certain places of potential travel within the catchment along with almost certain places within the catchment, from less certain places within the catchment and unlikely places within the catchment, the later tending to be discarded from the catchment.

in accordance with another aspect, the electronic processing of the subject's local computing system, which may also be connected to computer servers or cloud computing services, constantly anticipates the subject's future travel requirements using computing of any processing type and that this computing can pre-generate catchment areas by anticipation based on available information before the subject has requested any travel requirement. This method is useful where subject's local computer power is limited and is self adapting to what computing is available.

in accordance with another aspect, the catchments are definable in both a geographic position and in geographic area by a self shaping boundary controlled by a computer program that can alter the boundary over a time period and where the user can select and fix a boundary at a certain moment in time.

in accordance with another aspect, the catchments are definable in three dimensions in both a geographic centre position and in geographic volume using all methods here within described.

Three dimensions described catchments can be used in areas with multi-storey buidings, warehouses with vertical racks, geography with hiUs and mountains and the like.

In accordance with another aspect, the catchments are definable in both a geographic posdion and in geographic area that are selected on a mapping system and disp'ayed on an electronic graphical user interface of a computer based product by a mathematical relationship between the size of the geographical area of the catchment relative to the distance away from the user where the further away the larger the catchment area, in either a linear or a non-linear progression.

In accordance with another aspect, the catchments, the departure-catchment and the destination-catchment, are definable in both geographic position and geographic area by selecting on a geographical coordinate mapping system the location of a geographic centre point and selecting a radial distance from the said point in order to define the geographic bounded area of the said catchments. The radial distance can be set in ways other than numeric input or map selected distance by; walking distance, cycling distance, taxis fare threshold distance, or determined how far another person picking-up the subject in a vehicle is prepared to travel.

in accordance with another aspect, the departure-catchment is pre-determined by a subject's geographic current location using GPS and all available conveyances have offers of travel ready for offering as soon as the said subject makes a request having been pre-altered to the subjecrs position. In addition the said conveyances may move themselves geographically to optimise their travel offerings according to the position of the subjects being tracked.

In accordance with another aspect, the catchments are definable in geographic area by expanding the area or reducing the area using whatever means in order to increase the offers of conveyance according to the greater area, or reduce the number of offers of conveyance according to the reduction according to a smaller area.

in accordance with another aspect the catchments, the departure-catchrnent and the destination-catchment can have one or more additional catchments between them or travel via' catchments that are definable in both a geographic position and in geographic area and that the conveyances are normafly required to travel through the additional catchments.

in accordance with another aspect the catchments, the departure-catchment and the destination-catchment, can be preceded by additional catchments for journey requests to continue on to and that these catchments are definable in both a geographic position and in geographic area by any means here within.

In accordance with another aspect, the departure-catchment may offer one of more fixed routes of transport to the general vicñnity of an ideal destination point and hence an automated destination-catchment can be generated bounding the destination points on the said fixed routes around the ideal destination point.

In accordance with another aspect, the departure-catchment or the destination-catchment is a linear catchment, either in the form of a straight line or of any line shape that links together more than one departure place or more than one destination place. A linear catchment can be increased in length or decreased in length to the next departure or arrival place following efther geographic mapping or diagrammatic mapping along the said linear geometry.

in accordance with another aspect, the departure-catchment or the destination-catchment is a single feature such as an address, a single building, a station, an airport terminal, a bus stop or the like.

ln accordance with another aspect, a plurality of subjects can act together to define catchments in unison for example the spatial extents of a group of subjects becomes the area definition for the departure-catchnient.

In accordance with another aspect, the conveyances need not be within the departure-catchment to make a journey offer but the conveyances should be capable of reaching the departure-catchment within criteria chosen such as a time period.

In accordance with another aspect, a catchment can be switched through different defining methods and the catchment boundary can vary in time.

ln accordance with another aspect, two or more catchments defined by any method can be merged into one catchment.

in accordance with another aspect, the catchments are definable in both a geographic position and in geographic area by any combinations of selection here within stated.

In accordance with another aspect, the subject is under guidance of a person or a robotic device and the said person or robot assumes the role of the subject. By way of example the subject may require the greater knowledge or experience of a third party or the third party is meeting the subject and prefers to organize the travel for the subject themselves.

In accordance with another aspect, conveyances, as here within defined, can act like individual entities on lnternet social media, Internet social commerce and Internet information services whereby way of examples using trading names of registered businesses; a particular scheduled train service can have a representation on Facebook, a particular bicycle for hire can Twitter offers of travel, and a group of taxis can form to offer a combined service on Groupon and LiftShare.

ln accordance with another aspect, the subject may be looking to travel between catchments immediately, in the near future and in the far future, thus the subject need not be in the departure-catchment for future travel requirement.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAW1NGS

Specific embodiments of the invention will now be described by way of examples with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:-Figure 1 shows a plan view, a spatial map representing objects in real world geographic locations plus superimposed catchments; Figures 2 and 3 maps examples of a catchment construction; Figure 4 and 5 show in perspective, a mobile phone selecting catchments; Figure 6 illustrates a view of the Earth where a catchment is being selected from a point on the Earth's surface; Figure 7 illustrates a diagrammatic text field of words; Figure 8 maps a plan of streets; Figure 9 maps ferry routes.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS

Referring to the drawings, an embodiment of the invention is shown by means of a diagrammatic map 13 in Fig I that represents objects in real world geographic locations, not to scale. A person requires to travel from a point-A 33 to a point-B 34. The person at 33 is prepared to travel in the vicinity of point-A to the airport 27, the railway station 23 and the bus pick-up point 22 which are contained by deliberate selection by the said person all of which become defined by departure-catchment area 10. Similarly the person is prepared to arrive in the vicinity of point-B at the airport 16, the railway station 19 and the bus drop-off point 25, that in turn define the destination-catchment area 11. To initiate travel from point-A to point-B the person sends out signals, for example from a mobile phone over the Internet, the description of the travel requirement.

Conveyances in the form of transport vehicles receive over the lnternet the signals of this travel requirement description where aircraft 15, trains 24 and bus 21 can respond back to the person with offers of travel that fulfill the journey requirement, the said conveyances being able to travel on their respective routes on railway tracks 18 and 20 and road 14, with air travel not requiring defined routes. Parked taxi 49 on road 26 can also receive the request signals and similarly make responding offers of travel back to the same person and by nature of taxis is not fixed to any particular route. The person accepts an offer by return message to the selected conveyance where the person then travels to one of the three departure points to be transported to the respective arrival point by the selected conveyance.

Various methods can be used to delineate a catchment; an embodiment of the invention in Fig 2 shows an example of a geographic point 28, where a person is at or wishes to get to, from which a variable radius distance 27 defines a circumferential line 29 containing circular catchment area 17, and an embodiment of the invention in Fig 3 shows mapped a catchment boundary line 30 enveloping selected buildings 32 that separates them from other buildings 31.

An embodiment of the invention showing catchment selection is shown successively in Fig 4 and where places 38 are selected by mobile phone 37 whereby increasing angular tilt of the mobile phone's body selects larger catchment areas with increasing distances away from the mobile device. The mobile phone 37 has an on-board electronic program that allows the mobile phone to select a nearby catchment field 39 with angle of tilt from the vertical shown by angle of alpha 36, and decreasing the said tilt angle of beta 41, allows the selection of a further a field and larger catchment area 40. Mobile phones are shown by virtual connections 58 to selected catchments for illustrative purposes only. By another programming on the mobile phone, a combination of the angular tilt and rotalonal movement of the mobile phone's casing in relation to ground can imply pointing at places around the Earth's surface in Fig 6, where a mobile phone is being used by a person at point 42 on the Earths surface to select catchments such as whole countries 44, whereby the virtual connection for illustrative purposes only 43 shows the direction of pointing of the mobile phone through the Earth's solid 45.

Text input and verbal voice recognition input methods can be used to delineate a catchment by example of a embodiment of the invention in Fig 7 which shows a diagrammatic spatial text field on an electronic display screen 48 with relative spaced text labels 46 with a group selection bounded by the catchment indicated by line 47 enclosing highlighted and relatively spaced text labels 57.

An embodiment of the invention showing a stepped expansion of a catchment is shown in Fig 8 where a grid pattern city road plan 50 has a catchment Df four city blocks 49 that can be expanded to sixteen city blocks by a command expanding the catchment by one city block in all directions to catchment 51. Variations of expansion or contraction of the catchments are possible such as by way of example, expanding the catchment one city block west or contracting the catchment by one city block in the south east corner.

An embodiment of the invention showing a linear expansion of a linear catchment for vehicles, vehicle trailers and intermodal freight containers crossing the sea on ferries is shown in Fig 9 where on a map 54 displayed on an electronic display screen, has two linear catchments 53 representing either departure-catchments or destination-catchments which string ferry ports 56 together with their associated sea crossing routes 59. The linear catchments can be extended to the next ferry ports 55 along the coast line 52 by a deliberate action of expanding the catchment.

The reverse is also true where linear catchments can be contracted.

Claims

CLAIMSI A subject with a requirement to travel, normally a person, a freight container or a deRvery item, has of a means, either directly or via a third party, of signahng using computers and telecommunications a requirement to travel from a defined departure-catchment bounded area encompassing potential places to travel from, to a destination within a defined destination-catchment area encompassing potential places to travel to, both catchments being defined by selection from variable parameters via electronic computer-human interfaces and/or by generated or pre-generated selections from computer systems. Selections and decisions relating to catchment definition are directly made by the subject or by human or computer representatives acting as agents for the said subject. Transport conveyances such as trains, planes, buses and the like, and/or their human or computer agents, have a means of receiving the said requirement to travel, have a means of processing the requirement and have a means of replying to the requirement with offers of conveyance for the said subject from the departure-catchment to the destination-catchment.
2 A subject with a requirement to travel as claimed in Claim I, wherein the subject only C") receives signals from conveyances for a particular departure-catchment to destination-catchment cD journey when a threshold is passed, such as a fare value or a journey time.C

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3. A subject with a requirement to travel as claimed in Claim 1 or Claim 2, wherein the conveyances appear on the Internet as though each is an active agent and in the business of self promotion of fares, times, seats, and the like.
4. A subject with a requirement to travel as claimed in Claim 1, Claim 2 or Claim 3, wherein the offers of transport from conveyances are based on stored information of pre-defined routes and associated timetables.
5. A subject with a requirement to travel as claimed in Claim 1, Claim 2, Claim 3 or Claim 4, wherein the conveyances making offers of transport by return signalling come from a central computer servers offering transportation between catchments on behalf of conveyances.
6. A subject with a requirement to travel as claimed in Claim I, wherein the departure-catchment and/or the destination-catchment are selected from a set of predetermined catchment areas already marked on geographic or diagrammatic mapping systems as a field of graphic objects with or without text.
7. A subject with a requirement to travel as claimed in Claim I or Claim 6, wherein the computer driven interface means to the subject is either a graphical user interface, a text interface or a verbal interface.
8. A subject with a requirement to travel as claimed in Claim 1, wherein the departure-catchment and/or the destination-catchment are definable by marking a boundary area using a pointer controlled by a computer interface device such as computer mouse, to sketch as an overlay an outline boundary on a computer display screen showing a map, a diagram or an aerial photograph.
9. A subject with a requirement to travel as claimed in Claim 1, wherein the departure-catchment and/or the destination-catchment are definable by marking out or sketching a bounding area to establishes the scope of the geographic area of the said catchment using a finger tip or a plurality of fingers on a touch sensitive display screen interface on computer device showing a map, aerial photograph or diagram.
10. A subject with a requirement to travel as claimed in Claim 1, wherein the departure- (Y) catchment and/or the destination-catchment are definable by referencing a bounding area using a cD geographic spatial recording system such as GPS, to record mapping coordinates on to a C computer system that a user has defined by the geographic extents of the subject actually CV) walking, cycling, and travelling by vehicle.
11. A subject with a requirement to travel as claimed in Claim 1, wherein the departure-catchment and/or the destination-catchment are definable by the prediction of place selection and area selection based on a subjeces travel history stored in the memory of a local computer system or stored on a distant computer system connected over the Internet.
12. A subject with a requirement to travel as claimed in Claim I or Claim 11, wherein the departure-catchment and/or the destination-catchment are definable by using the history of other subjects' travel patterns.
13. A subject with a requirement to travel as claimed in Claim 1, wherein the departure-catchment and/or the destination-catchment are definable by referencing to a data field of stored text along with the text's associated geographic coordinates.
14. A subject with a requirement to travel as claimed in Claim 1, wherein the departure-catchment and/or the destination-catchment are definable by referencing to a relational position of text on a diagrammatic map relative to other stored text.
15. A subject with a requirement to travel as claimed in Claim 1, Claim 13 or Claim 14, wherein the catchment fields defined in text are expanded or contracted or modified using spatial language text commands.
16. A subject with a requirement to travel as claimed in Claim 1, wherein the departure-catchment and/or the destination-catchrnent are definable in both a geographic position and in geographic area by a verbal based system where names and post codes are spoken into a microphone and interpreted into computer code using a voice recognition computer program that creates an amalgamation of the spoken geographical locations using cross referencing with a database of stored terms related to mapping coordinates, and the verbally defined catchment boundary can be communicated back to the subject by speech synthesis output.
17. A subject with a requirement to travel as claimed in Claim 1 or Claim 16, wherein the c-"-departure-catchment and/or the destination-catchment definitions can be further expanded, Ta contracted or modified by suggestions from a verbal spatially connected type of thesaurus. C1)
18. A subject with a requirement to travel as claimed in Claim 1, wherein the departure-O catchment and/or the destination-catchment are definable by the actions of pointing a mobile device, more commonly in the form of a cell-phone or mobile phone being used by a subject, using the angular tilt measured by on-board sensors, also known as pitch, relative to a datum being normally horizontal or vertical of a mobile device, which is interpreted by the mobile device's on-board electronic programs into a distance away from the mobile device to a catchment centre.
19. A subject with a requirement to travel as claimed in Claim 1, wherein the departure-catchment and/or the destination-catchment are definable when a mobile device equiped with three-axis gyroscopic sensor or accelerometers becomes to be orientated and perceived by the subject to be pointing down at the ground and this orientation is measured and calibrated to become a way of pointing through the Earth's solid at global places from underneath places, as though the user where looking inside, for selecting global catchrnents on the Earth's surface such as entire cities, states, counties, regions and countries.
20. A subject with a requirement to travel as claimed in any proceeding claim, wherein the density places within a catchment is proportional to the distance of the real world places from the mobile device so that with increasing distance the greater the number of places within the catchment that are grouped together by the selection means within the program.
21. A subject with a requirement to travel as claimed in Claim 20, wherein the places become sub-summed into new definitions of a place that contain smaller places, and that these new definitions can themselves be sub-summed into even greater sized place definitions.
22. A subject with a requirement to travel as claimed in Claim 1, wherein the departure-catchment and/or the destination-catchment are definable by scanning around the subject's present place either automatically according a to computer scan program from a fixed position where the scan information is matched with catchments pre-identified on a stored mapping system which are communicated to the subject using an electronic display screen or by speech synthesis.
23. A subject with a requirement to travel as claimed in Claim 1, wherein the departure-catchment and/or the destination-catchment are definable by the subject physically scanning c-"-around the landscape by moving a mobile device with on-board accelerometers and three-axis Ta. . gyroscopic sensors, where the scan information is matched with catchments pre-identified on a (Y) stored mapping system which are communicated to the subject using an electronic display screen or by speech synthesis.C

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24. A subject with a requirement to travel as claimed in Claim 1, wherein the departure-catchment and/or the destination-catchment are definable by a fuzzy logic computer program that separates very certain places of potential travel within the catchment along with almost certain places within the catchment, from less certain places within the catchment and unlikely p'aces within the catchment, the ater tending to be discarded from the catchment.
25. A subject with a requirement to travel as claimed in Claim 1, wherein the departure-catchment and/or the destination-catchment are definable by the subject's local computing system constanty anticipating the subject's future travel requirements by pre-generating catchment areas based on available information before the subject has requested any travel requirement.
26. A subject with a requirement to travel as claimed in any proceeding claim, wherein the subject's local computing system is connected to computer servers or cloud computing services.
27. A subject with a requirement to travel as claimed in Claim 1, wherein the departure-catchment and/or the destination-catchment are definable by a self shaping boundary controlled by a computer program that can alter the boundary over a time period and where the user can select and fix a boundary at a certain moment in time.
28. A subject with a requirement to travel as claimed in any proceeding claim, wherein the departure-catchment and/or the destination-catchment are definable in three dimensions in both a geographic centre position and in geographic volume.
29. A subject with a requirement to travel as claimed in Claim 1, wherein the departure-catchment and/or the destination-catchment are definable by a mathematical relationship between the size of the geographical area of the catchment relative to the distance away from the user where the further away the larger the catchment area, in either a linear or a non-linear progression.
30. A subject with a requirement to travel as claimed in Claim 1, wherein the departure-catchment and/or the destination-catchment are definable by selecting on a geographical coordinate mapping system the location of a geographic centre point and selecting a radial distance from the said point in order to define the geographic bounded area of the said C) catchments.

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31. A subject with a requirement to travel as claimed in Claim 30, wherein the radial distance Ct) can be set in ways using walking distance, cycling distance, taxis fare threshold distance, or determined how far another person picking-up the subject in a vehicle is prepared to travel.
32. A subject with a requirement to travel as claimed in any proceeding claim, wherein the departure-catchment is pre-determined by a subject's geographic current location.
33. A subject with a requirement to travel as claimed in Claim 32, wherein all available conveyances have offers of travel ready prepared for the subject as soon as the said subject makes a request having been tracking the subject's position.
34. A subject with a requirement to travel as claimed in Claim 33, wherein conveyances move themselves geographically to optimise their travel offerings according to the position of the subjects being tracked.
35. A subject with a requirement to travel as claimed in any proceeding claim, wherein the departure-catchment and/or the destination-catchment are definable in geographic area by expanding the area or reducing the area using whatever means in order to increase the offers of conveyance according to the greater area, or reduce the number of offers of conveyance according to the reduction according to a smaller area.
36. A subject with a requirement to travel as claimed in any proceeding claim, wherein the departure-catchment and the destination-catchment can have one or more additional catchments between them that are definable in both a geographic position and in geographic area whereby the conveyances are normally required to travel through the additional catchments.
37. A subject with a requirement to travel as claimed in any proceeding claim, wherein the departure-catchment and the destination-catchment can have additional catchments for journey requests to continue on to.
38. A subject with a requirement to travel as claimed in Claim 37, wherein the additional catchments are definable in both a geographic position and in geographic area.c-"-
39. A subject with a requirement to travel as claimed in Claim 1, wherein the departure-Ta catchment has offers one of more fixed routes of transport to the general vicinity of an ideal 0) destination point from which an automated destination-catchment can be generated bounding the cD destination points on the said fixed routes around the ideal destination point.

C

C)
40. A subject with a requirement to travel as claimed in any proceeding claim, wherein the departure-catchment and/or the destination-catchment is a linear catchment, either in the form of a straight line or of any line shape that links together more than one departure place andlor more than one destination place.
41. A subject with a requirement to travel as claimed in Claim 40, wherein the linear catchment can be increased in length or decreased in length to the next departure or arrival place following either geographic mapping or diagrammatic mapping along the same linear geometry.
42. A subject with a requirement to travel as claimed in any proceeding claim, wherein the departure-catchment or the destination-catchment is a single feature such as an address, a single building, a station, an airport terminal, a bus stop or the like.
43. A subject with a requirement to travel as claimed in any proceeding claim, wherein subjects can act together to define catchments using the spatial extents of a group of subjects.
44. A subject with a requirement to travel as claimed in Claim 1, Claim 2, Claim 3, Claim 4 or Claim 5, wherein the conveyances need not be within the departure-catchment to make a journey offer but the conveyances are capable of reaching the departure-catchment within criteria chosen such as a time period.
45. A subject with a requirement to travel as claimed in any proceeding claim, wherein the departure-catchrnent and/or the destination-catchment can be switched through different defining methods and the catchment boundary can vary in time.
46. A subject with a requirement to travel as claimed in any proceeding claim, wherein two or more catchments defined by any method can be merged into one catchment.
47. A subject with a requirement to travel as claimed in any proceeding claim, wherein the catchments are definable by any combination here within stated.
48. A subject with a requirement to travel as claimed in any proceeding claim, wherein the c-"-subject is under guidance of a person or a robotic device and the said person or robot assumes Ta the role of the subject. C1)
49. A subject with a requirement to travel as claimed in Claim 1, wherein the conveyances can act like individual entities on lnternet social media, lnternet social commerce and lnternet CV) information services.
50. A subject with a requirement to travel as claimed in Claim 1, wherein the subject may be looking to travel between catchments immediately, in the near future and in the far future, thus the subject need not be in the departure-catchment for future travel requirement.Amendments to the claims have been filed as followsCLAIMSI A subject with a requirement to travel, normally a person, a freight container or a delivery item, has of a means of signaling using computers and telecommunications a requirement to travel from a defined departure-catchment bounded area encompassing potential places to travel from, to a destination within a defined destination-catchment area encompassing potential places to travel to, both catchments being defined by selection from variable parameters via electronic computer-human interfaces and/or by generated or pre-generated selections from computer systems, while transport conveyances such as trains, planes, buses and the like, and/or their human or computer agents, have a means of receiving the said requirement to travel, have a means of processing the requirement and have a means of replying to the requirement with offers of conveyance for the said subject from the departure-catchment to the destination-catchment.2 A subject with a requirement to travel as claimed in Claim 1, wherein the subject only receives signals from conveyances for a particular departure-catchment to a particular destination-catchment journey when a threshold is passed such as a fare value or a journey time. (SIcD 3. A subject with a requirement to travel as claimed in Claim I or Claim 2, wherein the conveyances appear on the lnternet as though each is an active agent and in the business of self promotion of fares, times, seats, and the like.4. A subject with a requirement to travel as claimed in Claim 1, Claim 2 or Claim 3, wherein the offers of transport from conveyances are based on stored information of pre-defined routes and associated timetables.5. A subject with a requirement to travel as claimed in Claim I, Claim 2, Claim 3 or Claim 4, wherein the conveyances making offers of transport by return signalling come from a central computer server(s) offering transportation between catchments on behalf of conveyances.6. A subject with a requirement to travel as claimed in Claim I, wherein the departure-catchment and/or the destination-catchment are selected from a set of predetermined catchment areas already marked on geographic or diagrammatic mapping systems as a field delineated by graphic objects with or without text.7. A subject with a requirement to travel as claimed in Claim I or Claim 6, wherein the computer driven interface communicates with the subject by either a graphical user interface, a text interlace or a verbal interface.8. A subject with a requirement to travel as claimed in Claim 1, wherein the departure-catchment and/or the destination-catchment are definable by marking a boundary area using a pointer controlled by a computer interface device such as computer mouse, to sketch as an overlay outline boundary on a computer display screen displaying a map, a diagram or an aerial photograph.9. A subject with a requirement to travel as claimed in Claim 1, wherein the departure-catchment and/or the destination-catchment are definable by marking out or sketching a bounding area to establishes the scope of the geographic area of the said catchment using a finger tip or a plurality of fingers on a touch sensitive display screen interface on computer device displaying a map, aerial photograph or diagram.10. A subject with a requirement to travel as claimed in Claim 1, wherein the departure-catchment and/or the destination.catchment are definable by referencing a bounding area using a geographic spatial recording system such as GPS, to record mappng coordinates on to a C\sJ computer system that a user has recorded by the geographic extents of the subject actually cD walking, cycling, and travelling by vehicle.II. A subject with a requirement to travel as claimed in Claim 1, wherein the departure-catchment and/or the destination-catchment are definable by the prediction of place selection and area selection based on a subject's travel history stored in the memory of a local computer system or stored on a distant computer system connected over the Internet.12. A subject with a requirement to travel as claimed in Claim 1 or Claim 11, wherein the departure-catchment and/or the destination-catchment are definable by using the history of other subjects' travel patterns.13. A subject with a requirement to travel as claimed in Claim 1, wherein the departure-catchment and/or the destination-catchment are definable by referencing to a data field of stored text along with the text's associated geographic coordinates.14. A subject with a requirement to travel as claimed in Claim 1, wherein the departure-catchment and/or the destination-catchment are definable by referencing to a relational position of text on a diagrammatic map relative to other stored text.15. A subject with a requirement to travel as claimed in Claim 1, Claim 13cr Claim 14, wherein the catchment fields defined in text are expanded or contracted or modified using spatial language text commands.16. A subject with a requirement to travel as claimed in Claim 1, wherein the departure-catchment and/cr the destination-catchment are definable in both a geographic position and in geographic area by a verbal based system where names and post codes are spoken into a microphone and interpreted into computer code using a voice recognition computer program that creates an amalgamation of the spoken geographical locations using cross referencing with a database of stored terms related to mapping coordinates, and the verbaUy defined catchment boundary can be communicated back to the subject by speech synthesis output, or via computer display screen.17. A subject with a requirement to travel as claimed in Claim I or Claim 16, wherein the departure-catchment and/or the destination-catchment definitions can be further expanded, contracted or modified by suggestions from a verbal spatially connected type of thesaurus.Ct 1 18. A subject with a requirement to travel as claimed in Claim 1, wher&n the departure-catchment and/or the destination-catchment are definable by the actions of pointing a mobile device, more commonly in the form of a cell-phone or mobile phone being used by a subject, using the angular tilt measured by on-board sensors, also known as pitch, relative to a datum being normally horizontal or vertical of a mobile device, which is interpreted by the mobile device's on-board electronic programs into a distance away from the mobile device to a catchment centre.19. A subject with a requirement to travel as claimed in Claim 1, wherein the departure-catchment and/or the destination-catchment are definable when a mobile device equipped with three-axis gyroscopic sensor or accelerometers becomes to be orientated and perceived by the subject to be pointing down at the ground and this orientation is measured and calibrated to become a way of pointing through the Earth's solid at global places from underneath places, as though the user where looking inside, for selecting global catchments on the Earth's surface such as entire cities, states, counties, regions and countries.20. A subject with a requirement to travel as claimed in any proceeding claim, wherein the density of places within a catchment is proportional to the distance of the real world places from the mobile device so that with increasing distance the greater the number of places within the catchment that are grouped together by the selection means within the program.21. A subject with a requirement to travel as claimed in Claim 20, wherein the places become sub-summed into new definitions of a place that contain smaller places, and that these new definitions can themselves be sub-summed into even greater sized place definitions.22. A subject with a requirement to travel as claimed in Claim 1, wherein the departure-catchment and/or the destination-catchment are definable by scanning around the subject's present place either automatically according a to computer scan program from a fixed position where the scan information is matched with catchments pre-identified on a stored mapping system which are communicated to the subject using an electronic display screen or by speech synthesis.23. A subject with a requirement to travel as claimed in Claim 1, wherein the departure-catchment and/or the destination-catchment are definable by the subject physically scanning around the landscape by moving a mobile device with on-board accelerometers and three-axis gyroscopic sensors, where the scan information is matched with catchments pre-identified on a C\1 stored mapping system which are communicated to the subject using an electronic display screen or by speech synthesis. (SI24. A subject with a requirement to travel as claimed in Claim 1, wherein the departure-catchment and/or the destination-catchment are definable by a fuzzy logic computer program that separates very certain places of potential travel within the catchment along with almost certain places within the catchment, from less certain places within the catchment and unlikely places within the catchment, the later tending to be discarded from the catchment.25. A subject with a requirement to travel as claimed in Claim 1, wherein the departure-catchment and/or the destination-catchment are definable by the subject's local computing system constantly anticipating the subject's future travel requirements by p re-generating catchment areas based on available information before the subject has requested any travel requirement.26. A subject with a requirement to travel as claimed in any proceeding claim, wherein the subject's local computing system is connected to computer servers or cloud computing services.27. A subject with a requirement to travel as claimed in Claim 1, wherein the departure-catchment and/or the destination-catchment are definable by a self shaping boundary controlled by a computer program that can alter the boundary over a time period and where the user can select and fix a boundary at a certain moment in time.28. A subject with a requirement to travel as claimed in any proceeding claim, wherein the departure-catchment and/or the destination-catchment are definable in three dimensions in both a geographic centre position and in geographic volume.29. A subject with a requirement to travel as claimed in any proceeding claim, wherein the departure-catchment and/or the destination-catchment are definable by a mathematical relationship between the size of the geographical area of the catchment relative to the distance away from the user where the further away the larger the catchment area, in either a linear or a non-linear progression.30. A subject with a requirement to travel as claimed in Claim 1, wherein the departure-catchment and/or the destination-catchment are definable by selecting on a geographical coordinate mapping system the location of a geographic centre point and selecting a radial * distance from the said point in order to define the geographic bounded area of the said % M catchments.C'sJ 31. A subject with a requirement to travel as claimed in Claim 30, wherein the radial distance can be set using a walking distance, a cycling distance, a taxis fare threshold distance, or a distance determined by how far the subject is prepared to travel.C32. A subject with a requirement to travel as claimed in any proceeding claim, wherein the departure-catchment is pre-determined by a subject's geographic current location.33. A subject with a requirement to travel as claimed in Claim 32, wherein all available conveyances have offers of travel ready prepared for the subject as soon as the said subject makes a request having been tracking the subject's position.34. A subject with a requirement to travel as claimed in Claim 33, wherein conveyances move themselves geographically to optimise their travel offerings to the said subject according to the position and selection requirements of the subject being monitored.35. A subject with a requirement to travel as claimed in any proceeding claim, wherein the departure-catchment and/or the destination-catchment are definable in geographic area by expanding the area or reducing the area using whatever means in order to increase the offers of conveyance according to the greater area, or to reduce the number of offers of conveyance according to the reduction of the area.36. A subject with a requirement to travel as claimed in any proceeding claim, wherein the departurecatchment and the destination-catchment can have one or more additional catchments between them that are definable in both a geographic position and in geographic area whereby the conveyances are normally required to travel through the additional go-between catchments.37. A subject with a requirement to travel as claimed in any proceeding claim, wherein the starting departure-catchment and the intended destination-catchment can have addiUonal catchments for journey requests for journey continuation.38. A subject with a requirement to travel as claimed in Claim 36 or Claim 37, wherein the additional catchments are definable as in all the proceeding claims, in both a geographic position and in geographic area.39. A subject with a requirement to travel as claimed in Claim 1, wherein the destination-catchment can be generated automatically around a fixed destination point by using information from one or more fixed routes of transport and their associated fixed destination points along C\sJ these said routes in relation to the fixed destination point.40. A subject with a requirement to travel as claimed in any proceeding claim, wherein the departurecatchment and/or the destination-catchment is a linear catchment, either in the form of a straight line or of any line shape that links together one or more than one departure places and/or one or more than one destination places.41. A subject with a requirement to travel as claimed in Claim 40, wherein the linear catchment can be increased in length or decreased in length to the next departure or arrival place following either geographic mapping or diagrammatic mapping along the same linear geometry.42. A subject with a requirement to travel as claimed in any proceeding claim, wherein the departurecatchment or the destination-catchment is a single feature such as an address, a single building, a station, an airport terminal, a bus stop or the like.43. A subject with a requirement to travel as claimed in any proceeding claim, wherein subjects can act together to define catchments using the spatial extents of a group of subjects.44. A subject with a requirement to travel as claimed in Claim 1, Claim 2, Claim 3, Claim 4 or Claim 5, wherein the conveyances need not be within the departure-catchment to make a journey offer but the conveyances are capable of reaching the departure-catchment within criteria chosen such as a time period that passes before the subject wants to depart.45. A subject with a requirement to travel as claimed in any proceeding claim, wherein the departure-catchment and/or the destination-catchment can be switched through different defining methods.46. A subject with a requirement to travel as claimed in any proceeding claim, wherein two or more catchments defined by any method can be merged into one catchment.47. A subject with a requirement to travel as claimed in any proceeding claim, wherein the catchments are definable by any combination here within stated.48. A subject with a requirement to travel as claimed in any proceeding claim, wherein the subject is under guidance of a person or a robotic device and the said person or robot takes on the role of the subject thus acting as a servant of the said subject for the purposes catch ment selection. (SI49. A subject with a requirement to travel as claimed in Claim 1, wherein the conveyances can act like individual entities an lnternet social media, lnternet social commerce and Internet information services for the purposes of communicating offers of travel related to the departure-catchment and the destination-catchment.50. A subject with a requirement to travel as claimed in Claim 1, wherein the subject may be looking to travel between catchments immediately, in the near future and in the far future, thus the subject need not be in a departure-catchment for future travel requirement.
51. A subject with a requirement to travel as claimed in any proceeding claim, wherein the subject works in tandem with another subject to determine departure-catchments and/or destination-catchments, using verbal or visual communication tools either directly in the presence of each other or indirectly using electronic communication systems.
52. A subject with a requirement to travel as claimed in any proceeding claim, wherein the departure-catchment and/or the destination-catchment can vary in time.