Patent Publication Number: US-2015072707-A1

Title: Mobile system and method for marking location

Description:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
     At least one embodiment pertains to navigation, and more particularly, to a mobile system and method for marking a current location on a map. 
     BACKGROUND 
     Conventional navigations systems enable selecting locations on a digital map. However, conventional systems do not provide a technique for marking a location and adding the marked location to a point of interest (POI) database. Accordingly, a new system and method may be needed to mark locations on a digital map with a choice of additional input methods. 
     SUMMARY 
     Embodiments provide a mobile system, method, and software/processor that perform the method to pin the location of a mobile device or vehicle with, in an embodiment, a single touch. The location can then be transmitted to a remote device for later access and adding additional information by a user. 
     In an embodiment, the system comprises a position logic to determine a position of mobile system (e.g., in a vehicle or on a person); user interface logic to display a position determined by the position logic, retrieve data including a name associated with the position, and enable a user to mark the determined position; and transmission logic, operable when the user marks the determined position, to transmit the determined position and the retrieved data to a remote device. In an embodiment, the system further comprises recognition logic to acquire an image corresponding with the determined position and match the acquired image against images with associated names in a database. 
     In an embodiment, the method comprises: determining, with position logic, a position of a mobile system housing the position logic (e.g., in a vehicle or on a person); displaying, with a user interface logic, a position determined by the position logic and retrieve data including a name associated with the position; enabling, with the user interface logic, a user to mark the determined position; and transmitting, with a transmission logic, the determined position and the retrieved data to a remote device when the user marks the determined location. In an embodiment, the method further comprises acquiring, with recognition logic, an image corresponding with the determined position and match the acquired image against images with associated names in a database. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
       One or more embodiments are illustrated by way of example and not limitation in the figures of the accompanying drawings, in which like references indicate similar elements. 
         FIG. 1  is a diagram illustrating a network according to an embodiment. 
         FIG. 2  is a high-level extent diagram showing an example of architecture of a client, server and/or mobile system of  FIG. 1 . 
         FIG. 3  is a block diagram showing contents of the mobile system of  FIG. 1 . 
         FIG. 4  is an illustration of a user interface of the mobile system. 
         FIG. 5  is a flowchart illustrating a navigation marking technique. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
     References in this description to “an embodiment”, “one embodiment”, or the like, mean that the particular feature, function, structure or characteristic being described is included in at least one embodiment. Occurrences of such phrases in this specification do not necessarily all refer to the same embodiment. On the other hand, such references are not necessarily mutually exclusive either. 
       FIG. 1  is a diagram illustrating a network  100  according to an embodiment of the invention. The network  100  includes a server  110 , a computer  112 , a network (cloud)  120  and a vehicle (e.g., automobile) or person (referred to hereinafter as vehicle for simplicity)  130 . The vehicle  130  includes a mobile system  132  that is coupled the vehicle  130  (e.g., installed in or detachably coupled to the vehicle  130  or carried by a person  130 ). The mobile system  132  can include mobile phones, portable navigation devices, etc. In other embodiments, the vehicle  130  can include other vehicles, such as aircraft, ships, motorcycles, submersibles, etc. Note that the network  100  can include other and/or additional nodes. 
     The cloud  120  can be, for example, a local area network (LAN), wide area network (WAN), metropolitan area network (MAN), global area network such as the Internet, a Fibre Channel fabric, or any combination of such interconnects. Each of the server  110 , the computer  112 , and the mobile system  132  may be, for example, a conventional personal computer (PC), server-class computer, workstation, handheld computing/communication device, or the like. 
     During operation of the network  100 , a mobile device user uses the mobile system  132  to mark (“pin”) a current location using geographical coordinates or some other system, and transmits this location to the server  110 . Other information can be pulled from the cloud  120 , can be inputted by the user at a later time, and/or pulled or entered from/via the computer  112  via the cloud  120 . If a connection to the cloud  120  is unavailable, the mobile system  132  can transmit the data when a connection becomes available. In an embodiment in which the mobile system  132  is detachable, the mobile system  132  can transmit the data wired or wirelessly to the server  110  and/or computer  112 . A user, e.g., at computer  112 , can then retrieve the data from the server  110 . Operation of the mobile system  132  will be discussed in further detail below in conjunction with  FIGS. 3-5 . 
     In another embodiment, additional data related to the current location can also be stored to the memory and/or transmitted to the server  110 , such as name and address of location. This additional data can be determined by looking to a database locally or in the cloud  120  to find a name/address corresponding to a map location and/or use image recognition technologies to match building/landscape images of the current location to a database of known images. 
       FIG. 2  is a high-level extent diagram showing an example of an architecture  200  of the server  110 , the computer  112 , or the mobile system  132  of  FIG. 1 . The architecture  200  includes one or more processors  210  and memory  220  coupled to an interconnect  260 . The interconnect  260  shown in  FIG. 2  is an abstraction that represents any one or more separate physical buses, point-to-point connections, or both, connected by appropriate bridges, adapters, or controllers. The interconnect  260 , therefore, may include, for example, a system bus, in the form of a Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) bus, a HyperTransport or industry standard architecture (ISA) bus, a small computer system interface (SCSI) bus, a universal serial bus (USB), IIC (12C) bus, or an Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) standard 1394 bus, also called “Firewire”, and/or any other suitable form of physical connection. 
     The processor(s)  210  is/are the central processing unit (CPU) of the architecture  200  and, thus, configured to control the overall operation of the architecture  200 . In certain embodiments, the processor(s)  210  accomplish this by executing software or firmware stored in memory  220 . The processor(s)  210  may be, or may include, one or more programmable general-purpose or special-purpose microprocessors, digital signal processors (DSPs), programmable controllers, application specific integrated circuits (ASICs), programmable logic devices (PLDs), or the like, or a combination of such devices. 
     The memory  220  is or includes the main memory of the architecture  200 . The memory  220  represents any form of random access memory (RAM), read-only memory (ROM), flash memory, or the like, or a combination of such devices. In use, the memory  220  may contain, among other things, software or firmware code for use in implementing at least some of the embodiments introduced herein. 
     Also connected to the processor(s)  210  through the interconnect  260  is a communications interface  240 , such as, but not limited to, a network adapter, one or more output device(s)  230  and one or more input device(s)  250 . The network adapter  240  may be configured to provide the architecture  200  with the ability to communicate with remote devices over the network cloud  120  and may be, for example, an Ethernet adapter or Fibre Channel adapter. The input device  250  may include a touch screen, keyboard, and/or mouse, etc. The output device  230  may include a screen and/or speakers, etc. In an embodiment, the architecture  200  includes a receiving device (e.g., antenna) to receive satellite or other signals needed to calculate location. 
     The techniques introduced herein can be implemented by programmable circuitry programmed/configured by software and/or firmware, or entirely by special-purpose circuitry, or by a combination of such forms. Such special-purpose circuitry (if any) can be in the form of, for example, one or more application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), programmable logic devices (PLDs), field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), etc. 
     Software or firmware to implement the techniques introduced here may be stored on a machine-readable storage medium and may be executed by one or more general-purpose or special-purpose programmable microprocessors. A “machine-readable medium”, as the term is used herein, includes any mechanism that can store information in a form accessible by a machine (a machine may be, for example, a computer, network device, cellular phone, personal digital assistant (PDA), manufacturing tool, any device with one or more processors, etc.). For example, a machine-accessible medium includes recordable/non-recordable media (e.g., read-only memory (ROM); random access memory (RAM); magnetic disk storage media; optical storage media; flash memory devices; etc.), etc. 
     The term “logic”, as used herein, means: a) special-purpose hardwired circuitry, such as one or more application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), programmable logic devices (PLDs), field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), or other similar device(s); b) programmable circuitry programmed with software and/or firmware, such as one or more programmed general-purpose microprocessors, digital signal processors (DSPs) and/or microcontrollers, or other similar device(s); or c) a combination of the forms mentioned in a) and b). 
     Note that any and all of the embodiments described above can be combined with each other, except to the extent that it may be stated otherwise above or to the extent that any such embodiments might be mutually exclusive in function and/or structure. 
       FIG. 3  is a block diagram showing contents of the mobile system  132  of  FIG. 1 . The mobile system  132  includes a global position system logic (GPS or position logic)  300 , map data  310 , a user interface logic (UI)  320 , pin data  330 , a recognition logic  340  and a transmission logic  350 . 
     The GPS  300  includes any logic capable of determining position, such as a logic that uses satellite signals (GPS, Beidou, Glonass, Galileo, etc.), inertial navigation, and/or ground-based signals (LORAN-C). The map data  310  includes a database of graphical representations of terrain and/or topography as well as related data including names and addresses of terrain features (e.g., buildings, stores, monuments, etc.). In an embodiment, part or all of the map data  310  can be stored separate from the mobile system  132 . For example, the map data  310  can be stored on the server  110  and accessed via the cloud  120 . 
     The UI  320 , as will be discussed in further detail in conjunction with  FIG. 4 , displays the graphical representation on a screen of the mobile system  132  and enables a user to pin a location, e.g., by pressing a single button thereby generating the pin data  330 . The pin data  330  includes coordinates of the current location or other location specified by a user on the screen and optionally, the above-mentioned related data for the coordinates. 
     The recognition logic  340 , which is optional like other components, may be configured to determine a name of features using image recognition (e.g., pattern recognition) by comparing an image of a feature at the coordinates versus an image with a known name in the map data  310 . The recognition logic  340  can obtain the feature image using a digital camera or other imaging device if so equipped and/or retrieve a street view from the map data  310  or other database (e.g., Google Street View). For example, when at coordinates of a McDonald&#39;s not listed in the map data  310 , the recognition logic  340  obtains an image that includes golden arches and then compares the arches to images in the map data  310  that indicates golden arches represent the name McDonald&#39;s. In another example, the recognition logic  340  compares the obtained image of a building (e.g., McDonald&#39;s storefront) with another database of street images and associated data. If the recognition logic  340  determines a match, the associated data is then added to the pin data  330 . The recognition logic  340  is not limited to comparing buildings, etc. but can be used for any other features, including natural features (mountains, etc.). In other words, the recognition logic  340  can determines names of features by comparing a specific characteristic of the features (e.g., logos) and/or larger views of the feature (e.g., an entire building). 
     In an embodiment, if the recognition logic  340  comes up with more than one match and/or has a low confidence for a match, the UI  320  can present results to a user for confirmation via a single input (e.g., single touch of the screen). Accordingly, the recognition logic has a technical effect of ensuring consistency and accuracy of the data. In another embodiment, the recognition logic  340  performs optical character recognition on the image to determine a name of the location. 
     The transmission logic  350  may be configured to interact with the UI  320  and the recognition logic  340  to transmit and receive data via the cloud  120  and/or a direct connection as needed. 
       FIG. 4  is an illustration of the UI  320  of the mobile system  132 . In an embodiment, the UI  320  operates with a touch screen displaying a map  30  with a highlighted point  32  (e.g., current location of vehicle). A user can pin the location indicated by point  32  by tapping a digital button  33  with a finger  31 . In other embodiments, the UI  320  can use voice recognition, gesture recognition, and/or any other input techniques. 
       FIG. 5  is a flowchart illustrating a navigation marking technique  500 . First, the GPS  300  determines ( 510 ) a current location and the UI  320  may optionally display and/or otherwise output (e.g., aurally) the location using the map data  310 . The determining ( 510 ) can occur while a vehicle containing or a person carrying the GPS  300  is moving. A user then pins (marks) the location by inputting a pin command (e.g., by touching a pin button on screen, voice activation, etc.) which is received ( 520 ) by the UI  320 . The UI  320  then retrieves ( 530 ) relevant data from the map data  310  corresponding with the coordinates, if available. In another embodiment, the UI  320 , with the transmission logic  350 , retrieves the relevant data from a remote source instead of or in addition to the map data  310 . 
     In an embodiment, the recognition logic  340  also retrieves ( 540 ) an image as discussed above and applies ( 550 ) recognition algorithm(s) to the image. Optionally, the UI  320  can display results recognition algorithm(s) for a user to select. The transmission logic  350  then transmits data to the server  110  and/or computer  112 , where the data can later be accessed, shared, etc. The transmission can be wired and/or wireless and the transmission logic  350  can buffer the data for later transmission if a network or a receiving device is unavailable. The method  500  then ends. In an embodiment, the user can also supply his/her own identifying information to the location and not rely on image matching technology. For example, location of a first date with spouse. 
     In an embodiment, a user retrieves the stored location data from the server  110  by logging in the dedicated website via the user&#39;s computer  112 . The user can share the location data with his/her comments or recommendations to his/her friends through e.g. Email, Multimedia message or Social websites, etc. 
     Although embodiments have been described with reference to specific exemplary embodiments, it will be recognized that embodiments are not limited to the embodiments described, but can be practiced with modification and alteration within the spirit and scope of the appended claims. Accordingly, the specification and drawings are to be regarded in an illustrative sense rather than a restrictive sense.