WO2012130716A1

WO2012130716A1 - Navigation device - destination dependant route calculation

Info

Publication number: WO2012130716A1
Application number: PCT/EP2012/055086
Authority: WO
Inventors: Vasantha Kumar NARAYAN
Original assignee: Robert Bosch Gmbh; Robert Bosch Engineering And Business Solutions Limited
Priority date: 2011-03-25
Filing date: 2012-03-22
Publication date: 2012-10-04
Also published as: EP3265753A1

Abstract

The invention discloses a method and a device to calculate a route which is most appropriate for the destination. The navigation device (10) has a data set of road network as well as Points of Interest (POI). The POIs are classified into different categories like Airports, Railway Stations, Hospitals, Restaurants etc. The invention proposes a method wherein each of these categories of POIs have been assigned a Destination type. The Destination types may be "Critical, "Important", "Normal", "Leisure" etc. Whenever user selects a POI as a destination, the user interface calculates a route based on the Destination type of the POI. For each of the destination types, a set of criteria for route calculations are stored in a table. Similarly a Destination type can be entered by the user for any destination address and the user interface uses the Destination type to calculate the most appropriate rout to the destination.

Description

TITLE

"NAVIGATION DEVICE - DESTINATION DEPENDANT ROUTE CALCULATION" Field of Invention:

The invention relates to a Navigation device. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION:

The Navigation devices providing different route options to the user for the selection of the route are known in the prior art. The different route options provided for the user are, Short Route, Fast Route, Economic Route, Scenic Route, and Ecological Route etc. The options listed here are only as an example and not a complete list. Along with these Route options, there are additional route settings like, Avoid Motorways, Avoid Toll Roads, Avoid tunnels etc. Also these are only for examples and do not form the complete set.

Normally these Route options and the Route settings are selected by the user using a menu. This menu is normally different from the menu where the user selects a destination.

The destination selection may happen through a separate menu. The destination selection may be made by the user through the input of destination address, selection of a point of interest (POI) from a map or a list, selection from Favorite list, selection from Last destinations list etc.

Once the destination is selected, the navigation device calculates a route taking into account the already set route options and the route settings.

In the prior arts, the navigation device does not ask the user to enter route options/route settings for every destination. So whatever the user has set earlier, the same route options/ settings are considered for all future route calculations until changed by user again.

This may not be appropriate because if previously the user has set "fast route" as Route option to reach to a destination, for example a hospital, the same route options/settings are used when he enters the next destination, for example a park. Using fast route option to reach a hospital was user's intention but using same route option for next destination, for example, to a park may not be intended by the user. As the navigation device takes already set route options/route settings and does not prompt the user for the new route options/route settings for the new destination, the user may not be aware of the route options/settings used for the route calculation. OBJECT OF THE INVENTION:

The object of the invention is to provide a navigation device and a method for better route calculation. The invention proposes a method to calculate route to a destination taking into account the route options/route settings which are most appropriate to the selected destination. This is achieved by assigning "Destination Type" to all the stored destinations and the POIs. Some of the Destination Types, for example, may be, Critical, Urgent, Normal, Leisure, etc. In the document the term "Destination Type" may be just referred as type or type of destination.

Based on the Destination Type corresponding to the destination, the route options/route settings are dynamically selected. These route options/ route settings are valid only for selected type of destinations for route calculation. Later, for the next destination, if the user selects a destination of another type, then a new set of route options/route settings are applied for the route calculation.

Thus for every type of destination, an appropriate set of route options/route settings are applied automatically for the route calculation.

ADVANTAGES OF THE INVENTION:

By selecting route options/route settings based on the type of the destination, the route calculated will be more appropriate to the destination selected. The users, who are not familiar with the routes in the city or the area, are provided an appropriate route based on the destination selected. The users need not manually change the route options/route settings required to reach the destination when they are entering any new destination, the device automatically selects the most appropriate route options/settings for every destination. Thus the users can reach the destination with ease.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS:

Figure 1 Shows a schematic of a navigation device Figure 2 Shows typical Route Options Figure 3 Shows typical Route Settings

Figure 4 Shows a table containing the data used for route calculation DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION:

Shown in fig. 1 is a schematic of a navigation device 10. A typical navigation device 10 generically comprises an input means 12; an output means 14, a position finding means 16, an user interface 18, a route calculation means 20, route guidance means 22 and a road network database 24 which also contains other data, for example, data on POIs. A typical navigation device, its internal components and its functioning are obvious to the people skilled in the art and it is not within the objective of this invention to disclose them in detail. Only the components which are relevant to describe the invention are disclosed.

The input means 12 may be a conventional type of keyboard or a touch screen. Through the input means 12, the user enters the inputs required for the functioning of the navigation device 10, for example for calculating a route that guides the user from a starting point to a destination.

The output means 14 may be a display device, e. g. an LCD (liquid crystal display) flat screen. On the display means 14, the maps and the conventional route guidance information may be displayed.

The user interface 18 receives the inputs from the user and passes the inputs to the other means. The user interface 18 also displays the information for the user on the output means 16.

This road network database 24 encompasses all of the necessary geographical data required for performing a routing operation when the planned route is calculated.

In the document position of the vehicle and the location of the vehicle are used interchangeably.

The position finding means 16 may comprise a GPS receiver and other algorithms to compute the position of the navigation device 10. The route calculation means 20 calculates a route from a given starting position to the required destination. When the route is calculated, the user inputs entered into the input means for specifying the desired traveling route and the data from the road network database are thereby taken into account. The route so calculated may be displayed on the output means 14. The route guidance means 22 guides the user from the starting position to the required destination along the calculated route. The route guidance means 22 may output from time to time audio and/or visual instructions for the user.

Some of the above means explained may be combined.

The road network database 24 comprises a set of destinations referred as Points Of Interest or POI for short. The POIs indicate locations which are of interest to the user. The POIs are normally organized under categories. The examples of POI categories are Hotels, Restaurants, Tourist Places, Shopping malls, Railway stations, Airport etc. The examples are only for the purpose of illustration and not act as a limitation. Below a particular category, a location identified by geographical co-ordinates is included as a POI. For example, under the category of Hotels, the "Taj Hotel" may be included as a POI. It is possible that some of the categories of POIs may have sub-categories.

The road network database 24 may be referred as database in rest of the document. Shown in Fig 2. are the route options:

Some of the example are: Fast Route, Short Route, Optimized Route, Scenic Route, Dynamic Route etc. These are available in prior art. From these options only one can be active at any given time. The active element is indicated with an active button which is shown as dark circle.

Shown in fig. 3 are the typical Route settings available in prior arts. Here any number of elements can be made active at any given time. The invention proposes to add one more element to the Route settings. The new element is referred as "Intelligent Route". The user can activate or deactivate the new element "Intelligent Route" by checking or unchecking the check box.

The destination can be entered in different ways. POIs can be directly selected as destinations by the user. Also the user can directly enter the destination address by entering country name, city name, street name etc. Other ways of entering destination addresses are by touching a point from the map on the touch screen display, selecting from the "Favorite destinations list" which is previously stored, selecting from "Last destinations list" which is automatically updated after every journey.

The invention is conveniently used when the destination is selected by following ways:

Selecting a POI as a destination

Selecting destination from the Favorite destinations list

Selecting destination from the Last destinations list

All the POI actegories available in the database have a Destination type assigned to them. Examples for the Destination types may be: Critical, Important, Normal, Leisure etc. These are provided only as examples and are not limited by these.

The assignment of destination type for POIs is done at category level, i.e. each category of POIs are assigned with a destination type.

The example assignment of Destination types for POI categories may be as below;

Hospital - Critical;

Airport - Urgent;

Railway Station - Urgent;

Restaurant - Normal;

Park - Leisure etc.

Again these are only shown as examples.

Also every Destination type will have a predefined route options and route settings. This will be stored in a table in the navigation device as shown in fig. 4.

For example :

Critical : Route option - Fast Route

Route settings - Avoid ferries, Avoid narrow roads Urgent: Route option - Fast Route

Route settings - Avoid narrow roads

Leisure: Route option - Economic Route

Route settings - Avoid Toll roads

When the user selects a particular POI as destination, the user interface checks whether the "Intelligent Route" is active. If the setting "Intelligent route" is active, then user interface retrieves the Destination type assigned to the selected category of POI. Then the user interface retrieves from the table shown in Fig. 4, the Route options and Route settings corresponding to the said Destination type. The retrieved route options and the route settings are passed to the route calculation means. The route options and the route settings are taken into account when calculating the route for the selected POI.

Thus the destinations themselves influence the route calculation. The route calculated this way is more appropriate to the selected destination. The route options and the route settings are applicable only for this particular type of destination. When the user selects a new destination belonging to another type, automatically a new set of Route options and Route settings from the table are used.

After the journey the destination is automatically stored in "Last destinations list". When the destination so entered by the user is stored either in favorite destinations list or the last destinations list, the user is provided with an option to assign a Destination type to the destination before storing it in the favorite destinations list or the last destinations list. Thus the destination and the type are stored in the list selected, i.e. Last destinations list or Favorite destinations list.

To assign a Destination type to the current destination which is not still stored in last destinations, the user has to activate a menu through a key. The user interface displays a message "Assign Destination type to current destination?" and provides options to select "YES" or "NO". When the user presses "YES", the user interface provides the list of destination types, i.e. Critical, Urgent, Normal, Leisure etc. Once the user selects appropriate Destination type, the same is assigned to the current destination. The user interface automatically stores every destination in the last destinations list after the destination is reached. The user interface stores the Destination type too in the last destinations list when storing the destination.

To assign or change Destination type to destinations which are already stored in the last destinations list or favorite destinations list, the user again needs to activate an appropriate menu. The user interface displays options like "Assign Destination type to Last destinations" or "Assign Destination type to Favorite destinations". When the user selects one of the two, the list is displayed which contains destinations. The user may select a particular destination from the list. Then the Destination types are displayed. The user can select the Destination type from the list. The user interface assigns the Destination type to the destination selected. The destination and the Destination type are stored in the list. In the same way the Destination type can be modified for a particular destination from the list.

When the user selects a destination either from the last destinations list or favorite destinations list, the user interface checks whether the selected destination has a Destination type assigned to it. If there is a Destination type assigned to it, the user interface retrieves the route options and the route settings corresponding to the destination type, from the table. Route calculation means uses this information to calculate an appropriate route for the destination, if the "Intelligent Route" selection is active.

When the selected destination from the list does not have a Destination type assigned to it, the "Intelligent Route" selection is ignored if already active.

Also a menu is provided to modify the table shown in Fig. 4. When the user enters this menu, the options are provided to modify the Route Options/Route settings.

Thus by selecting the elements in the table in Fig. 4 appropriately, the user can make the route calculation according to his preferences for different destinations.

By providing the new feature "Intelligent Route", the invention overcomes the disadvantage of using the same criteria for calculating route for different destinations unless manually changed by the user. The user is relieved of difficulties in remembering the appropriate Route options/Route settings for different destinations. Once the data in the table is entered according to the preferences, the user interface automatically takes care for all the future destinations. In another embodiment of the invention, the user can enter the destination address directly by entering the Country name, City name, Street name etc. and then assign a Destination type as Critical or Urgent or Normal or Leisure etc. depending upon the destination. The user interface uses the Destination type for the route calculation and an appropriate route is calculated depending upon the Destination type. Once the journey ends, the destination address is automatically stored in the "Last destinations list" along with the Destination type. The user can easily select the stored destination from the "Last destinations list" in future and the user interface retrieves the destination address and the Destination type and appropriately provides route calculation and route guidance to the user.

Claims

Claims:

1. A navigation device adapted to :

receive destination address from an user

- calculate an appropriate route in dependence upon the said destination address.

2. A navigation device according to claim 1 wherein the destination address may be in the form of a Point of interest (POI).

3. A navigation device according to claim 1 wherein the destination address may be in the form of direct input of country name, city name, street name etc.

4. A navigation device according to claim 1 wherein the destination address may be in the form of input from a map displayed on a touch screen, wherein the user touches a point on the map to input it as destination address.

5. A navigation device according to claim 1 comprising a navigation data set wherein each category of POI is assigned a Destination type for the purpose of route calculation.

6. A navigation device according to claim 1 wherein the Destination type is assigned to each of the pre-stored destinations

7. A navigation device according to claim 1 wherein a table containing the destination types and the route calculation criteria corresponding to the destination types is stored in the memory

8. A method for a navigation device to calculate a route to a destination, the said method comprising the steps:

Receiving a destination address from an user

Receiving a Destination type for the said destination address

Retrieving route calculation criteria corresponding to the said Destination type

- Calculating a route to the said destination address using the said route calculation criteria

9. A method according to claim 8 wherein the Destination type is input by the said user

10. A method according to claim 8 wherein the Destination type is stored in a table for different categories of POIs