Navigation application with adaptive instruction text

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9418672-B2
Application number	US-201213632116-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 30, 2012
Priority date	Jun 5, 2012
Publication date	Aug 16, 2016
Grant date	Aug 16, 2016

Abstract

Some embodiments provide a navigation application. The navigation application includes an interface for receiving data describing junctures along a route from a first location on a map to a second location on the map. The data for each juncture includes a set of angles at which roads leave the juncture. The navigation application includes a juncture decoder for synthesizing, from the juncture data, instruction elements for each juncture that describe different aspects of a maneuver to be performed at the juncture. The navigation application includes an instruction generator for generating at least two different instruction sets for a maneuver by combining one or more of the instruction elements for the juncture at which the maneuver is to be performed. The navigation application includes an instruction retriever for selecting one of the different instruction sets for the maneuver according to a context in which the instruction set will be displayed.

First claim

We claim:

1. A non-transitory machine readable medium storing a navigation application for execution by at least one processing unit of a device, the navigation application comprising:
an interface for receiving data describing junctures along a route from a first location on a map to a second location on the map, wherein the data for each juncture comprises a set of angles at which roads leave the juncture;
a juncture decoder for synthesizing, from the juncture data, instruction elements for each juncture, each instruction element comprising a text string that describes a different aspect of a maneuver to be performed at the juncture;
an instruction generator for generating a plurality of instruction variants for a same maneuver, each instruction variant comprising one or more of the instruction elements for the juncture at which the maneuver is to be performed; and
an instruction retriever for selecting one of the plurality of instruction variants for the maneuver based on an operational modality of the navigation application in which the instruction variant will be displayed, wherein the instruction retriever selects different instruction variants for the maneuver when (i) the navigation application executes in a foreground of the device such that the device displays a navigation presentation and (ii) the navigation application executes in a background of the device without the device displaying the navigation presentation.

2. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 1 , wherein the navigation application further comprises an operational modality analyzer for determining in which operational modality the instruction variant will be displayed.

3. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 1 , wherein the navigation application further comprises a sign generator for incorporating the selected instruction variant into a sign for display to a user of the navigation application.

4. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 3 , wherein the sign comprises a graphical indication of the maneuver in addition to the selected instruction variant, wherein the graphical indication is based on the operational modality in which the sign will be displayed.

5. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 3 , wherein the sign is designed to appear similar to a road sign.

6. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 3 , wherein the sign overlays an animated map of the route.

7. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 1 , wherein the navigation application is a mapping and navigation application operating on a handheld device.

8. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 1 , wherein the instruction variants for a same maneuver vary in the number of instruction elements used to generate the different instruction variants.

9. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 1 , wherein the instruction generator is further for ranking the generated instruction variants for a particular maneuver based on amounts of information conveyed about the maneuver by the different instruction variants.

10. A non-transitory machine readable medium storing a navigation application for execution by at least one processing unit, the navigation application comprising sets of instructions for:
receiving juncture data describing junctures along a route, from a first location to a second location, at which maneuvers are required;
automatically generating instruction elements for a particular juncture based on the juncture data for the particular juncture as well as previous and subsequent junctures along the route, wherein each instruction element comprises a text string;
combining the generated instruction elements into a plurality of different text maneuver instructions for a same maneuver to be performed at the particular juncture;
ranking the text maneuver instructions based on an amount of information conveyed by each of the text maneuver instructions; and
selecting a highest ranked one of the plurality of text maneuver instructions for the maneuver that fits within a display area, wherein different contexts of the navigation application have different display areas for the text maneuver instruction.

11. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 10 , wherein the juncture data for the particular juncture comprises a location of the juncture on a map as well as angles for each of the road entering and leaving the juncture.

12. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 10 , wherein the set of instructions for combining the generated instruction elements comprises sets of instructions for:
combining all of the elements into a first maneuver instruction; and
combining a subset of the elements into a second maneuver instruction.

13. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 12 , wherein the first maneuver instruction is ranked higher than the second maneuver instruction.

14. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 10 , wherein the set of instructions for automatically generating the instruction elements comprises a set of instructions for synthesizing text strings for a set of element categories.

15. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 14 , wherein the instruction elements comprises a first element indicating a location at which the maneuver will be performed, an element summarizing the primary maneuver to perform at the particular juncture, an element identifying a road on which the maneuver exits the juncture, an element identifying an object towards which the maneuver leads, and an element identifying a distance between the particular juncture and the object towards which the maneuver leads.

16. A non-transitory machine readable medium storing a navigation application for execution by at least one processing unit of a device, the navigation application comprising sets of instructions for:
receiving juncture data describing junctures along a route at which maneuvers are required;
generating a plurality of different text instructions for a particular maneuver to perform at a particular juncture based on the juncture data, wherein each text instruction comprises one or more text strings that describe different aspects of the particular maneuver;
displaying a first text instruction for the particular maneuver when the navigation application executes in a foreground of the device such that a display screen of the device displays a navigation presentation; and
displaying a second, different text instruction for the particular maneuver when the navigation application executes in a background of the device without displaying the navigation presentation on the display screen of the device.

17. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 16 , wherein the different sets of text instructions for the particular maneuver are ranked based on an amount of information conveyed.

18. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 17 , wherein the first set of text instructions conveys more information about the particular maneuver and is ranked ahead of the second set of text instructions.

19. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 18 , wherein the first context comprises a larger display area for displaying text instructions than the second context.

20. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 17 , wherein the application further comprises a set of instructions for determining which of the different sets of text instructions for the particular maneuver to display on the display screen of the device by s

Assignees

• Apple Inc

Inventors

• Pylappan Seejo K
• Vulcano Emanuele
• Moore Bradford A
• Van Os Marcel

Classifications

• G10L21/00 Primary

  Speech or voice signal processing techniques to produce another audible or non-audible signal, e.g. visual or tactile, in order to modify its quality or its intelligibility (G10L19/00 takes precedence) · CPC title

• G06F3/04817

  using icons (graphical or visual programming using iconic symbols G06F8/34) · CPC title

• H04R2499/13

  Acoustic transducers and sound field adaptation in vehicles · CPC title

• G01C21/3632

  Guidance using simplified or iconic instructions, e.g. using arrows (G01C21/365 takes precedence) · CPC title

• G01C21/34

  Route searching; Route guidance · CPC title