Tom Tom International B.v.

Tomtom Global Content B.v.

Tomtom Navigation B.v.

Tomtom Traffic B.v.

Jeroen Trum

Jan Willem Van Den Brand

Henk Van Der Molen

Breght Boschker

Rob Van Seggelen

Robert Lukassen

Mark Huijnen

Frederic Bruneteau

Breght R Boschker

Frederic Bruteneau

A device is provided to extract scan lines data from images of a route, said scan line data comprising only a portion of the an image that extends along a scan line, and to store this data in memory together with respective positional data pertaining to the position of the device traveling along the route in a navigable network. This scan line and positional data can be obtained from a plurality of devices in a network and transmitted to computing apparatus, for example, for use in a production of a realistic view of a digital map.

Methods and systems for generating route data

Embodiments of the present invention relate to a device including a processor, a location determining device to determine a geographical location of the device and a communication device to wirelessly transmit data. In at least one embodiment, the processor is arranged to determine when the device is located in a vehicle which has vacated a parking place and, in response, to transmit a message via the communication device indicating a location of the parking place.

Navigation device and method for providing parking place availability

A navigation device and a method of determining parking information are disclosed. In at least one embodiment, the method includes receiving, at a server, journey information from a plurality of navigation devices, the journey information indicating one or more journeys made by each navigation device and determining, by the server from the journey information, parking information indicating a geographical location of one or more parking areas.

Apparatus and method for determining parking information

When preparing a representation of map display information for use by a navigation device, a set of source map data () is subject to a similarity analysis step () to try to identify elements in the source map data () that are similar in terms of their shape and/or their appearance when displayed. A classification and transformation parameter generation step () then classifies elements in the map into groups of similar elements as determined by the similarity analysis () and also determines the parameters and conditions under which the identified map elements can be considered to be similar. This is then used to generate a map database that includes a library of predefined map display elements having parametrable aspects, which map display elements can then be used to construct a desired map for display.

Map storage for navigation systems

When map data is to be processed for display in a mapping or navigation apparatus, the application processor () of the apparatus first checks to see whether any existing data in a local cache memory () represents a similar map part to the new data that is to be processed. This is done by means of a similarity analysis (). If the map data already in the cache () is determined to be sufficiently similar to the map data that is to be displayed, new map data from a main map storage () is not loaded and processed, but instead the existing data in the cache () is processed for display of the map part in question. This has the benefit of a reduced system load, since already processed data does not need to be reloaded and reprocessed.

Map rendering for navigation systems

A technique is disclosed for enabling collection and/or refinement of digital map information for aiding navigation route planning for vehicles larger than ordinary cars, such as goods-vehicles, buses, and car+caravan combinations. In at least one embodiment, a profile of a vehicle's characteristics, and one or more routes followed, are logged by a navigation device, and fed-back to a server that supports the navigation device with map data updates. At the server, or an alternative processing centre, the fed-back data from plural navigation devices is analysed to observe statistically the patterns of roads used by these vehicles, and to categorise these by the type of vehicle.

Navigation apparatus used-in vehicle

A navigation device includes a processor, a memory accessible by the processor, and a device to determine at least one physical parameter applied to the navigation device and to output information indicative of the at least one parameter to the processor. In at least one embodiment, the processor is arranged to determine a road-surface feature based upon the received information and to store road-surface quality information in the memory indicating the location of the road-surface feature.

Growing community of inventors

Eindhoven, Netherlands

Jeroen Trum