Patent ID: 6438561
Filing Date: 2002-08-20
Classification: G01C,G08G,Y10S

Abstract:
A method of operating a navigation application program comprising:receiving broadcast traffic messages that include data that indicate traffic conditions at locations on roads in a geographic area, wherein each of said traffic messages includes data that indicates a starting location of a reported traffic condition, wherein said starting location is a location selected from an ordered sequence of designated locations along a road to which location reference numbers have been assigned, and data that indicates an extent of the reported traffic condition, wherein said extent is expressed as a number of adjacent locations in said ordered sequence of designated locations extending from the starting location; extracting from each of said traffic messages the data that indicates the staring location and the data that indicates the extent; using a geographic database to identify affected road segments that extend from the starting lotion and from each of the adjacent locations in said ordered sequence of designated locations extending from starting location indicated by the extent; associating traffic conditions contained in the traffic messages with the affected road segments; and using the geographic database to calculate a route to a selected destination along roads taking into account the traffic conditions associated with the affected road segments.