Motorola Corporation

Other

Rafael A Saavedra

James Blake Bullock

Mark Clayton

Merlin J Smith

Jeffrey Solomon

Martha Vanegas

Patrick Luffman

A method and apparatus for generating real-time, symbolic descriptions for a navigational system is provided. The method may be employed within a variety of devices, including in-vehicle navigation systems, cellular telephones and PDAs. The method takes geographical coordinates corresponding to an oncoming maneuver, like a right-hand turn at a four-way intersection for example, and transforms them into a set of two-dimensional, planar coordinates. The method then maps these planar coordinates atop a pie-shaped, radial grid, and allocates points to subdivisions of the grid by counting the number of points that fall within the grid. The method then generates a symbolic description of the maneuver to be performed by drawing an arrow running from the beginning of the maneuver to the end of the maneuver atop a predetermined, generic description of the intersection. This real-time, graphical maneuver description is then displayed on a screen to a user. The use of the radial grid eliminates the need of performing complex, angular calculations with a local processor, and further eliminates the need of storing large image files in local memory.

Method and apparatus for generation of real-time graphical descriptions in navigational systems

A navigation system ( ) having a service center ( ) and a navigation unit ( ) and a method of transmitting data to reduce the complexity of the navigation unit ( ) and minimize the transmitted data. The navigation unit ( ) transmits ( ) a current location (or starting point ( )) and a desired destination (or destination point ( )). The service center ( ) receives ( ) the starting point and the destination point and selects ( ) a route ( ) between the two points. The service center ( ) then generates ( ) and transmits ( ) data associated with a plurality of points on the selected route ( ). These points may include items such as preparation points ( ), warning points ( ), instruction points ( ) and confirmation points ( ). The navigation unit ( ) receives the data associated with points and uses the data to prepare, warn, instruct and confirm that the user of the navigation unit ( ) is correctly traversing to the desired destination point ( ).

Server-based navigation system and method of operating same

A method of navigation guidance includes providing a communications node ( ), and a remote communications node ( ). The remote communications node ( ) requests a navigation route ( ) from communications node ( ). The navigation route ( ) is from a location ( ) to a destination location ( ). The navigation route ( ) is transmitted to remote communications node ( ), where the navigation route ( ) includes a plurality of route segments ( ) based on location ( ). The plurality of route segments include a set of multiple route threads from location ( ) to destination location ( ).

Method of navigation guidance for a distributed communications system having communications nodes

An embodiment of the invention includes a plurality of navigational position sources ( ) disposed to provide position data, a position service module ( ) to aggregate position data and to form a composite of position data ( ) and a position session module ( ) to transmit composite of position data ( ) to applications ( ). An embodiment of a method includes providing a plurality of navigational position sources ( ) disposed to provide position data, providing a position service module ( ) disposed to receive position data, and aggregating position data to form composite of position data ( ). Composite of position data ( ) is then transmitted to applications ( ) via a position session module ( ).

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Tempe, AZ, United States of America

Rafael A Saavedra