Technical Field

The present application relates to a method carried out at a navigation device, to a method carried out at a system comprising the navigation device and a server, to the corresponding navigation device and the system comprising the navigation device and the server. Furthermore, a computer program and a carrier comprising the computer program is provided.

Background

Navigation devices using satellite based signals has become increasingly popular and navigation devices are used in different field of applications such as vehicles, smart phones for guiding or for sport applications etc.. Navigation devices are mainly used for navigation purposes, but a need exists to increase the field of application based on the fact that the current location of the user of the navigation device is known.

Summary

This need is met by the features of the independent claims. Further aspects are described in the dependent claims.

According to a first aspect a method is provided carried out at a navigation device wherein the navigation device determines the position of the navigation device, transmits the determined position via a available network (e.g. cellular, satellite, public Wi-Fi, etc.) to a server (e.g. cloud server) and receives location data from the server related to at least one point of interest (sightseen) which is located within a certain distance, in relative vicinity to the determined location, the location data providing further details about the at least one point of interest such as background information about the point of interest. The location data is then provided to a user of the navigation device. Furthermore the corresponding navigation device is provided comprising a position determining unit configured to determine the position of the navigation device, an interface configured to transmit the determined position via the available network to the server and configured to receive the location data from the server related to the point of interest which is located within a certain distance to the determined position, wherein the location data provide details about the at least one point of interest. An output unit is configured to provide the location data to a user of the navigation device.

Furthermore, a system is provided comprising the navigation device and the server wherein the server determines the location data located within the certain distance as provided by the navigation device and the server transmits the location data to the user.

Additionally a computer program is provided comprising program code where an execution of the program code causes at least one processing unit to execute a method in a navigation device or a system which will be explained in more details below, or as was discussed above.

Finally a carrier is provided comprising the computer program, wherein the carrier is one of an electronic signal, optical signal, radio signal, or computer readable storage medium.

It is to be understood that the features mentioned above and features yet to be explained below can be used not only in the respective combinations indicated, but also in other combinations or in isolation without departing from the scope of the present invention. Features of the above- mentioned aspects and embodiments described below may be combined with each other in other embodiments unless explicitly mentioned otherwise.

Brief description of the Drawings

The foregoing in additional features and effects of the application will become apparent from the following detailed description when read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings in which like reference numerals refer to like elements. Fig. 1 shows a schematic architectural view of a navigation device configured to provide additional information to a user.

Fig. 2 shows a further schematic architectural view of a navigation device configured to provide additional information to a user.

Fig. 3 shows a schematic view of a possible application in which a point of interest is highlighted in a field of view of a user of the navigation device of Fig.1 or 2.

Fig.4 shows a flowchart comprising the steps carried out by in the navigation device shown in Fig. 1 or 2.

Fig.5 show a further flowchart showing the interaction between the navigation device and the server in more detail.

Detailed description

In the following, embodiments of the invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. It is to be understood that the following description of embodiments is not to be taken in a limiting sense. The scope of the invention is not intended to be limited by the embodiments described hereinafter or by the drawings, which are to be illustrative only.

The drawings are to be regarded as being schematic representations, and elements illustrated in the drawings are not necessarily shown to scale. Rather, the various elements are represented such that their function and general purpose becomes apparent to a person skilled in the art. Any connection or coupling between functional blocks, devices, components of physical or functional units shown in the drawings and described hereinafter may also be implemented by an indirect connection or coupling. A coupling between components may be established over a wired or wireless connection. Functional blocks may be implemented in hardware, software, firmware, or a combination thereof. A possible field of application of the present application is explained below. A user of a navigation device is travelling somewhere in a foreign country and is going through or passing by historical villages, towns or cities or areas, but does not know anything about them. The user of the navigation device would like to know the history of the place, or famous facts regarding a beautiful building that can be seen on the left or right side. To this end a navigation device is provided which is shown in further detail in Fig. 1.

The navigation device 100 of Fig. 1 comprises a positioning or navigation module 110 which is configured to receive the satellite-based signals and which is configured to determine the position based on the signals, wherein the signals might be GPS signals or GLONASS signals. The positioning module may furthermore determine the route to a defined location, to a point of interest, POI, and may provide guidance to the user. An interface 120 is configured to transmit the determined position over available wireless network (like 5G, or WiFi, not shown) to a server 200 comprising an interface 210, a processing unit 220 and a memory 230 which may be provided in a cloud wherein the server can include an excursion database providing additional information about point of interests such as the history or any other interesting piece of information related to a point of interest. The cloud can comprise more than one server and may include a distributed network of servers, which look from the user perspective as only one server. A main control unit 130 is configured to control the operation of the navigation device 100. Image capturing module 190 can comprise one or several image or video capturing devices such as video cameras which help to detect the environment of the navigation device. In the embodiment shown the navigation device 100 is implemented in a vehicle, however it should be understood that the navigation device may also be a stand-alone unit implemented in other devices like handheld device (e.g. Tablet PC or Smartphone). The information of the navigation device may be displayed on a display 140 which may be a head up display or any other display provided in the vehicle or on the navigation device. Furthermore the windscreen or side window 150 could be used as projecting surface for images. A speech synthesizer or text-to-speech unit 160 is provided wherein the speech synthesizer is able to receive text data from the control unit 130, which is converted into speech data which can be output via an audio system 170 and audio output devices 180 (for example, loudspeakers). The text data can include the location data generated by the server 200 which provide a description of a point of interest located in the environment of the navigation device. In the following different applications of the system shown in Fig. 1 are explained in more detail. The user is interested in a certain point of interest he or she is approaching or he or she is currently viewing. The server 200 receives the position data transmitted from the navigation device via interface 120 and checks whether there is any object of interest in the neighborhood, either an object in the line of sight which is visible to the user or an object located within a certain distance. It can be several kilometers or several meters, depending on multiple factors, like speed of the vehicle or user, density of POIs in vicinity of current user’s location, direction of user, sphere of interests of user, his/her age, education, statistics of previous choices, etc.. If an interesting POI is found the server is selecting the best candidate and starts transmitting the text via the connection to the navigation device 100. The received text is passed through the control unit 130 to the speech synthesizer 160 which generates speech from the text. The audio system then performs digital signal processing to improve the perception of the audio signal and distributes the audio between available audio output devices connected to the audio system such as loudspeakers, headrest speakers, Bluetooth speakers, headphones, earphones etc. Speed of text-to-speech processor may vary depending on the amount of information to be presented at the given time and user’s preferences. The server 200 can choose the best object of point of interest among several candidates based on different criteria or multifactor criteria including the user's preferences, the estimated available time for providing the information to the user, the popularity of the object of interest. The main control unit 130 collects the received information sends the information to the cloud, controls the speech synthesizer such as the speed of the text reading. If the device is supplied with a head up display configured to highlight the objects on the wind screen in the vehicle or on the side windows, the control unit 130 is controlling the head up display to highlight the objects of interest while the vehicle is moving. For a correct displaying it might be needed to determine the exact position of the user in the vehicle and the viewing direction using cameras provided in the vehicle, so that the head position and rotation of the user in the vehicle can be determined. Furthermore, it is possible that the server 200 includes background music proposed for the current object of interest to create a certain atmosphere of perception and the corresponding location data that is output to the user as text or speech data. By way of example it could be a music associated with the historical period in which the object of interest was built. A first application of the system shown in Fig. 1 is an application called excursion on the way. In this first application the user is passing a certain unknown area and would like to know the history of the place or famous facts regarding certain buildings or other parts of interest in the line of sight or in the neighborhood. The application may be started by the user so that the navigation device starts to transmit the location data to the server with the information that information is required for certain points of interest located in the neighborhood. The server will select the POIs and collect the corresponding location data located within the certain distance and retransmit it back to the user. The location data contains the additional information for the points of interest located in the neighborhood. The navigation device can then output the received location data so that the user is provided with facts about the building or other objects of interest which are in the line of sight.

Furthermore it is possible that the information provided in the location data depends on the speed the user is travelling. The user may get more information if the user is moving slowly or even very slowly in case of a traffic jam, or will receive less information if the interested place is passed rapidly. This means that the audio or video information will be synchronized with the position and speed. The system including the navigation device and the server 200 may even adapt the amount of information dynamically if it detects that the user is going slower or has even stopped, regardless of whether it was done intentionally to listen to more information about the point of interest or because the user is stuck in a traffic jam. The navigation device will transmit velocity data to the server 200. The velocity data can either directly contain the determined velocity as determined by the navigation device based on the different positions or the velocity data can contain the corresponding positions and the associated point in times of the position so that the server could then deduce the velocity based on the received positions and the corresponding time stamps.

The excursion mode operation could also be activated on the way such as on the motorway to the place of destination so that the server 200 will provide you interesting facts about the place or town the user is approaching. The server 200 comprises a database stored in the memory 230 in which the corresponding additional text is bound to every single point of interest such as buildings, bridges, parks, areas, countries etc.. Another field of application is an operating mode named “Routed excursion" in which the user indicates in the navigation system that the user would like to go for excursion and visit interesting places in the neighborhood. In this activated “Routed excursion" mode the server 200 determines and offers one or more predefined excursions or composes the excursions, guiding the user from one point of interest to another based on the preferences provided by the user such as the available time, the area, the types of sightseeing, the kind of user, whether the user is a child or is a teenager. The user can furthermore indicate an education level or other preferences which type of points of interest the user is interested in. One user might be more interested in sports activities and would like to receive information about point of interest such as famous sport stadiums whereas another user might be interested in historical buildings. The different routes or the selected routes will be provided from the server to navigation device 100 which then guides the user to the different points of interest. The navigation device may provide voice instructions.

Fig. 2 shows a similar navigation device 100A similar to the navigation device shown in Fig.1 and the modules having the same reference numeral are the same modules as discussed in connection with Fig. 1. The system of Fig. 2 differs from the system of Fig. 1 by the fact that no speech synthesizer is available so that here the audio system either directly outputs the audio stream as provided by the server 200 or if text is provided by the server 200, the text may be displayed on display 140.

In the following further options are explained which are independent which kind of operating mode is used, the “Routed excursion” operating mode or the excursion on the route operating mode. In any of the modes it is possible to highlight an object of interest for which the current information is provided using the head up display or the windscreen.

In general the navigation device is able to determine instantaneous velocity, i.e. the velocity at a current (short) time interval. The amount of location data to be transmitted may be dependent on an averaged (or weighted) velocity, which is composed as a certain function of digitalized samples of instantaneous velocities Fig. 3 shows the field of view 50 of a user travelling in a car in which a point of interest 70 is provided. The navigation device knows the current position of the user and the position of the desired point of interest and may highlight it to the user. This could be done by a frame e.g. colored frame 60 or by some other type of highlighting of point of interest presented on the head up display or windscreen. The frame 60 could also be displayed on other windows such as the left/right side window of the vehicle. If several users are travelling in the same vehicle, the content provided may also be personalized depending on various factors such as the age of the listener, the level of education, the personal preferences regarding details, by way of example one user might want to know more historical facts or architectural regularities whereas another user wants to have a short summary.

For highlighting the points of interest the control unit 130 may receive information from the cameras 190, can search the object of interest in the image based on the position provided by the navigation device and the position of the point of interest and forms the proper protection shape such as the frame 60 to be displayed on the windscreen, and sends command to the display or head up display 140 to draw the highlighting pattern such as the frame and can start the output of the location data including the additional information until it disappears from the zone of visibility. This guidance of object of interest is a dynamic process implemented in the control unit 130 to avoid the search of object at every update time of the device. The goal of this guidance is to keep updated coordinates of the projection of the image of the point of interest at every point in time based on the previous state of the guiding and based on the current input of the guiding which could be a precalculated angular position of the image and distance to it relative to the position of the vehicle or navigation device. The guiding could to be supported by the inputs such as images from the object of interest available from image databases such as street view or Google maps.

For a mobile version the highlighting of objects can be done by either activating the camera on the mobile device and finding your point of interest or by framing the object on virtual reality glasses.

Furthermore it is possible to carry out a personalization of the provided location data. Different users provided in the vehicle may have different preferences about the provided information. To this end it is possible to create individual listening zones in the vehicle wherein these sounds could be obtained by a personal ear- or headphones, headrest speakers or by using directed sound waves assuming that the audio output devices are not only responsible for delivering content to the target listener but also for compensating the crosstalk content delivered to other listeners via the loudspeakers.

The available wireless network, through which the data are transmitted from the navigation device 100 to the server and back, may be, for example, a mobile communications network such as a 3G, 4G or 5G network or public Wi-Fi.

Fig. 4 summarizes the steps carried out by the navigation device in the situation discussed above. In step S41 the navigation device determines the position of the navigation device, in step S42 the position is transmitted to the server 200 and in step S43 the location data are received from the server 200, the location data comprising the required more detailed information about a certain point of interest or several points of interests. In step S44 the audialized location data are then provided to the user by outputting them visually and/or via audio output devices to the user. Audialized means transformed to the audio signal by text-to speech transformation if received as text from the server.

Fig. 5 shows the interaction between the navigation device 100 and the server 200 in more detail. In step S51 the user may start one of the operating modes and in step S52 the navigation device determines the position of the navigation device which is transmitted in step S53 to the server 200. The information that is transmitted in step S53 can include, as discussed above different additional pieces of information such as user preferences about the content to be delivered by the server, the age of the user, the level of education etc. Furthermore, velocity data may be transmitted either directly describing the velocity of the navigation device or provided as position data linked to the corresponding point in time so that the server is able to calculate the speed of the navigation device. Based on the provided information in step S53, the server can in step S54 determine the location data which includes the additional information for one or several points of interest located within a certain distance to the user. The content is generated based on the user preferences and other information provided by the user. By way of example based on the velocity of the navigation device the amount of content can be selected so that more information is provided when the user is travelling slowly and less information is provided when the user is travelling faster. The information is then transmitted back to the user in Step S55.

Summarizing the idea discussed above is to provide additional information for an excursion on the way for a user which may be in a vehicle or may be walking using an internet connection and geolocation information. The navigation device can compose the route for excursion, or it is possible to choose between predefined excursion routes. In addition the user can have the possibility to view the proposed route and to introduce changes to it based on interests of the listener, the available time, the traffic situation etc. The user can furthermore, define the deviation of the excursion, so that the speed of the speech and the amount of information may be adapted based on the current speed of the user and the number of places to be visited. Summarizing the application discussed above gives the user of a navigation device the possibility to listen to additional information about point of interests on the way with an optional highlighting of the object in the field of view of the user.

From the above said some general conclusions can be drawn:

As far as the navigation device is concerned, the navigation device may determine the velocity data of the navigation device allowing a velocity of the navigation device to be determined. The velocity data are then transmitted to the server 200 and the received location data are received as velocity dependent location data wherein the size of this data received in a defined time period depends on the transmitted velocity data. Here the size of the velocity dependent location data can become larger when the velocity decreases and could become smaller when the velocity determined from the velocity data increases.

The velocity data can be transmitted periodically to the server and the size of the velocity dependent location data received from the server can vary over time in dependence on the variation of the velocity determined from the velocity data. Further, the navigation device may determine the user’s preferences about the type of point of interest the user is interested in, wherein the user preference is transmitted to the server and the information received from the server will then depend on the determined user’s preference. The navigation device may furthermore highlight at least one point of interest in a geographical map displayed to a user or on a display which is used in the navigation device.

The navigation device may further utilize the age of the user and/or a level of education by transmitting this kind of information to the server, wherein the content of the received location data then depends on the age and/ or the level of education.

The navigation device can be furthermore connected to several audio output devices. In case of using loudspeakers as audio output devices, a position of the user relative to the different loudspeakers may be determined and one of the several loudspeakers may be selected in dependence on the determined position and the location data is output on the selected loudspeaker or loudspeakers. This helps to direct the desired content to a certain user.

Furthermore, it is possible to determine a field of view of the user and to determine whether a line of sight of the user to the point of interest is present or not. The navigation device may then limit the providing of the location data to the user as long as the user has line of sight to the point of interest.

The location data may be received as text data and the location data may be passed to a text to speech module present in the navigation device where the text data is converted to speech data and the speech data is then output to the user. Furthermore, it is possible that the navigation device currently is guiding the user on a calculated route to a destination location and the navigation device may determine that the user desires to visit at least one point of interest, determines a detour route from the determined position to the at least one point of interest and guides the user along the detour route to the at least one point of interest and back to the calculated route.

As far as the cooperation between the navigation device and the server is concerned, the server can determine the location data located within a certain distance and transmits the location data to the user. Furthermore, the server may determine that the user is interested in visiting at least two different points of interest, by way of example in the “Routed excursion” operating mode. The server can then determine an excursion route from the determined position to the at least two points of interest, determines the location data for the at least two points of interest and transmits the location data and guidance information for the excursion route to the navigation device. The server may furthermore determine the velocity with which the navigation device is travelling based on the received velocity data. It can then determine the amount of content present in the location data in dependence on the velocity and transmit the location data as velocity dependent location data to the navigation device. The server may furthermore utilize the age and/or level of education of the user of the navigation device and may adapt the content of the location data in dependence on the age and/ or level of education. This adapted content is then transmitted as location data to the navigation device.