Title of Invention	A METHOD AND DEVICE FOR PROCESSING TRAFFIC INFORMATION
Abstract	A method of processing traffic information includes receiving link vertex information including a first identifier and vertex components that each reveal a position along a link. The first identifier enables a determination of a type of information that is included within the received link vertex information. The method also includes determining the type of information included within the received link vertex information based on the first identifier and identifying vertex components within the link vertex information only if the first identifier enables a determination that the received link vertex information includes at least one vertex component.

Title of Invention

A METHOD AND DEVICE FOR PROCESSING TRAFFIC INFORMATION

Abstract

A method of processing traffic information includes receiving link vertex information including a first identifier and vertex components that each reveal a position along a link. The first identifier enables a determination of a type of information that is included within the received link vertex information. The method also includes determining the type of information included within the received link vertex information based on the first identifier and identifying vertex components within the link vertex information only if the first identifier enables a determination that the received link vertex information includes at least one vertex component.

Full Text	WO 2006/123902 PCT/KR2006/001859 DESCRIPTION PROVIDING ROAD INFORMATION INCLUDING VERTEX DATA FOR A LINK AND USING THE SAME 1. TECHNICAL FIELD This disclosure relates to providing traffic information of a road, particularly, information relating to the road. 2. BACKGROUND ART With the advancement in digital signal processing and communication technologies, radio and TV broadcasts are being digitalized. Digital broadcasting enables provision of various information (e.g., news, stock prices, weather, traffic information, etc.) as well as audio and video content. 3. DISCLOSURE OF INVENTION In one general aspect, a method of processing traffic information is provided. The method includes receiving link vertex information including a first identifier and vertex components that each reveal apposition along a link. The first identifier enables a determination of a type of information that is included within the received link vertex information. The method also includes determining the type of information included within the received link vertex information based on the first identifier and identifying vertex components within the link vertex information only if the first identifier enables a determination that the received link vertex information includes at least one vertex component. Implementations may include one or more additional features. For instance', receiving link vertex information may include receiving an indicator of a number of vertex components that are specified by the link vertex information. 1 WO 2006/123902 PCT/KR2006/001859 The number of vertex components included in the link vertex information may correspond to the number of vertex components indicated by the indicator. The received indicator may specify that the link vertex information includes only one vertice, and the identified vertex component consists of a single vertex component that reveals a single position along the link other than a start point and end point. The received indicator may specify that the link vertex information includes more than one vertice, and the identified vertex component includes multiple vertex components that correspondingly reveal multiple positions along the link other than start point and end point of the link. The identified vertex components may each be associated with a sequence value configured to order the vertex components along the link. Receiving link vertex information may include receiving the sequence value. The method may also include receiving information corresponding to a message management structure including information corresponding to a generation time of information reflected in the link vertex information. The generation time included within the received message management structure may relate to a plurality of vertex components. The generation time included within the received message management structure may relate to a plurality of message component structures that correspond to a vertex component. Each message component structure may further include an identifier specific to the type of information included in the message management structure and the first identifier may be an identifier, in a message component structure, specifying the inclusion of a vertex component. The vertex component may include, for each vertex component, a sequence value configured to order the vertex components along the link. In the method, the vertex component may identify a longitude and latitude associated with a position along a link 2 WO 2006/123902 PCT/KR2006/001859 other than a start point and an end point. The vertex component may include a text descriptor associated with the vertex component. Receiving link vertex information may- include decoding the link vertex information such that the received link vertex information is decoded link vertex information. Receiving link vertex information may include identifying a longitude of the vertex position information and identifying a latitude of the vertex position. The processing device may be configured to determine link vertex information is configured to determine a vertex position from information other than longitude, latitude, or sequence. The position may be a position along the link other than a start point or an end point of the link. In another general aspect, a traffic information communication device is provided. The device includes a data receiving interface configured to receive link vertex information including a link vertex identifier that identifies the received information as including at least one vertex component. The data receiving interface also includes an indication of a number of vertex components that are specified by the link vertex information and a number of vertex components corresponding to the indication. At least one of the vertex components includes a vertex component identifier that identifies the vertex component as a single one of the vertex components included within the link vertex information, vertex position information identifying a position of a vertex specified by the vertex component as including a position along a link. The device also includes a processing device configured to process the link vertex information received from the data receiving interface. The process includes determining a type of information included within the received link vertex information and identifying a vertex position specified by the vertex components based on. the received 3 WO 2006/123902 PCT/KR2006/001859 information. Implementations may include one or more additional features. For instance, the vertex position information may indicate a position along a path other than the shortest path between the endpoints of the link. The link vertex identifier may reflect that a single vertex is specified by the link vertex information, and the number of vertex components correspondingly include a single vertex component. The vertex position information may correspond to at least a two- dimensional position where at least one positional dimension corresponds to time. In the device, a set of values may corresponding to the first dimension may be a function of a set of values corresponding to time. The vertex position information may correspond to more than a two-dimensional position. One dimension may be associated with elevation. The processing device may be configured to decode information identifying a longitude of the vertex position and information identifying a latitude of the vertex position. Also, in the device, the link vertex information may include a data length of information used to reveal the vertex position along the link. The processing device may be configured to determine a vertex position from information other than longitude, latitude, or sequence. The processing device may be configured to receive link vertex information including information corresponding to a version number of information reflected in the link vertex information. The version number may be associated with a specific syntax of the data where any one of multiple syntaxes may be used. The processing devuce may be further configured to receive information corresponding to a message management structure including information corresponding to a generation time of information reflected in the link vertex information. 4 WO 2006/123902 PCT/KR2006/001859 The positions may be a position along the link other than a start point or an end point of the link. The processing device may be configured to determine the type of information included within the received link vertex information based on the link vertex iodentifier and the vertex component identifier. The processing device may be configured to identify the vertex position only if the link vertex identifier and the vertex component identifier enable a determination that the received link vertex information includes at least one vertex component In a further general aspect, a method of processing traffic information is provided. The method includes means for receiving link vertex information including a first identifier and vertex components that each reveal a position along a link. The first identifier enables a determination of a type of information that is included within the received link vertex information. The method also includes means for determining the type of information included within the received link vertex information based on the first identifier and means for identifying vertex components within the link vertex information only if the first identifier enables a determination that the received link vertex information includes at least one vertex component. The details of one or more implementations are set forth in the accompanying drawings and the description below. Other features will be apparent from the description and drawings, and from the claims. 4. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS FIG. 1 illustrates a network for providing traffic information; PIG. 2A illustrates a syntax relating to a part of a component frame including the traffic information; FIG. 2B illustrates a transmission format of a congestion 5 WO 2006/123902 PCT/KR2006/001859 traffic information (TPEG-CTT) message by focusing on a status component which includes road traffic information; FIG. 2C illustrates the transmission format of the congestion traffic information (TPEG-CTT) message by focusing on a coordinates component which includes road link information; FIGS. 2E to 21 show syntaxes of information elements shown FIG. 2C; FIG. 3A illustrates a road information component; FIG. 3B illustrates a transmission format of the congestion traffic information (TPEG-CTT) message by focusing on the road information component; FIG. 3C shows transfer format of a congestion traffic information (TPEG-CTT) message by focusing on a component carrying information relating to a shape of a road, link in. accordance with another implementation; FIG. 3D shows syntax of the element, shown in FIG. 3C, carrying information on a shape of a road link; FIG. 4 illustrates a structure of a navigation terminal installed to a vehicle; FIG. 5 illustrates an exemplary structure of a link information table organized based on information included in the received road information component; and FIGS. 6A through 6C illustrate graphical user interfaces corresponding to various modes displaying the road links and the speed in the road links. 5. MODES FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION One such use for digital broadcasts is to satisfy an existing demand for traffic information. Proposals that involve the use of digital broadcasts for this purpose contemplate the use of standardized formatting of traffic information to be broadcast. This approach may be used to enable the use of traffic information receiving terminals made 6 WO 2006/123902 PCT7KR2006/001859 by different manufacturers, which each could be configured to detect and interpret traffic information broadcast in the same way. PIG. 1 is a diagram showing an overview of a network for traffic information according to an implementation. Referring to FIG. 1, by way of example, a traffic information providing- server 110 of a broadcasting station may reconfigure various congestion traffic information aggregated from a user's input, another server over the network 101, or a probe car, and then may broadcast the reconfigured information by radio so that a traffic information receiving terminal, such as a navigation device installed to a car 200, may receive the information. The congestion traffic information broadcast by the traffic information providing server 100 via radio waves may be transmitted as a component frame. The component frame, as shown in FIG. 2A, comprises a number field of messages included in the component frame 201, and a sequence 202 of congestion information messages as many as the messages included in the number'field 202. Hereafter, the congestion information message is referred to as a Transport Protocol Expert Group (TPEG) - congestion and travel-time information (CTT) message. In various implementations, one message segment of the sequence 202, that is, the TPEG-CTT message may comprise a message management container carrying information relating to date, time, and message generation time, a CTT container, and a TPEG-CTT location container, as shown in FIGS. 2B and 2C. At the front of the CTT container, a number field of CTT components 211 may be included. The number field of CTT components 211 may belong to the CTT container and the TPEG- CTT location container. Subsequent to the number field 211, CTT components corresponding to the number may be arranged. In various implementations, if a CTT component includes 7 WO 2006/123902 PCT/KR2006/001859 traffic flow information, the CTT component has an identifier (ID) of 0x80 as shown in FIG. 2B. The CTT component may- comprise one or more status components. The status component carries information relating to a section (link) average speed (a status component including an ID of 0x00), a link travel- time (a status component including an ID of 0x01, and congestion type (a status component including an ID of 0x03). In the description, specific IDs are described.as assignments to structures associated with specific information. The actual value of an assigned ID (e.g., 80h) is exemplary, and different implementations may assign different values for specific associations or circumstances. Thus, the CTT component may be used to provide various different types of data that may be signaled based on an identifier. For example, FIG. 2B and FIG. 2C illustrate a component with an identifier of 0x80 and 0x90 signaling, respectfully, status and location information. In various implementations, if a CTT component includes link location information, the CTT component has an ID of 0x09 as shown in FIG. 2C. Likewise, the CTT component may comprise. ' one or more TPEG-CTT location sub-containers Tpeg_loc_container illustratively structured as shown in FIG. 2D. Each TPEG-CTT location sub-container may comprise one or more TPEG-CTT location components Tpeg_loc_container. Each TPEG-CTT location component may include one or more location components including an ID of 0x00 that is illustratively structure as shown in FIG. 2E. The location component may comprise one or more coordinates components. The coordinates component may carry information relating to road link(s), that is, link(s) which may be the target of the traffic flow information included in the status component as described earlier. The link information may carry information relating to a road type such as high way and state road (a coordinates 8 WO 2006/123902 PCT/KR2006/001859 component including an ID of 0x00), coordinates information which may be expressed in WGS 84 (a coordinates component including an ID of 0x01) , link description information (a coordinate component including an ID of 0x03), and link identifying information (a coordinates component including an ID of 0x10), and the like. The information on load shape may be organized and transmitted, for example, in the form of PIG. 2F. The coordinates information may be organized and transmitted, for example, in the form of FIG. 2G. The link description information may be organized and transmitted, for example, in the form of FIG. 2H and the link identifying information may be organized and transmitted, for example, in the form of FIG. 21. The server 100 may reconfigure current road congestion information, as shown in FIGS. 2A to 21, based on the current traffic information aggregated through various paths and its traffic information stored in database, and may transmit the reconfigured information to the traffic information receiving terminal by radio. In one implementation, when the traffic information about each road link is provided, the traffic information receiving terminal may search a corresponding road section (hereafter, referred to as a "section" or a "link") on its held electronic map and may represent the received traffic information using color, graphic, or text. If the traffic information receiving terminal is without an electronic map, such that it cannot represent the received traffic information on such an electronic map, it may nevertheless represent the received traffic information using graphic or text. Specifically, the graphical representation may present the road as a linear form regardless of the actual type. According to an implementation , the server 100 may 9 WO 2006/123902 PCT7KR2006/001859 aggregate and may provide the traffic information relating to, for example, a new building, a shut-down road, or route or area, or a path change of the roads (hereafter, referred to as a road change), to a traffic information receiving terminal. In addition, the information about road shape may also provided for a traffic information receiving terminal not equipped with electronic map. Thus the system is capable of informing a user when a new road is configured, and/or an existing road is reconfigured to change its shape and/or shut down, such as, for example, due to construction. In the following, an implementation of method of providing the road change or road shape information is explained in detail. To provide the road change or road shape information, the server 100 may generate a road information component 300 Link_info_component configured as shown in FIG. 3A, and may load the road information component in the TPEG-CTT sub- container Tpeg_loc_container to transmit. The road information component 300 may be assigned an ID, e.g., 0x01 different from the ID 0x00 of the coordinates component. Each road information component Link_info_component, as shown in FIG. 3B, may comprise a link shape sub-component 3 01 carrying shape information relating to a certain link, a link creation sub-component 3 02 carrying information relating to a new link, a link change sub-component 303 for changing the shape of the existing link, and a link elimination sub- component 304 for removing a link. It is to be understood that the road information component may.comprise other sub- components. In various implementations, the link shape sub-component 301 has an ID of 0x00 and comprises an ID of the link, the number of link vertices, information relating to the vertices, and a name assigned to the link. The vertex is information 10 WO 2006/123902 PCT/KR2006/001859 consisting of a pair of latitude and longitude which may be . defined, for example, in the WGS 84 format, so that the traffic information receiving terminal may recognize the shape of the link and display the graphical representation according to the recognized shape. The link shape sub-component 301 may be provided to help the traffic information receiving terminal including no electronic map to represent a more accurate shape of the road based on the current location on the screen. Thus, the number of the vertices included in the link shape sub- component 301 may be enough to reveal the shape of the road when the road is presented according to the VGA or the QVGA on a scale lower than the precision of the electronic map supplied from a disk medium, for example, on a reduced scale of 1 to 10000. The link creation sub-component 3 02 has 0x01 as its ID and may comprise an ID of the link to be newly assigned, the number of link vertices, information relating to the vertices, and the number assigned to the link. The link creation sub- component 3 02 may be generated and provided when a road link is newly built. The link change sub-component 303 has 0x02 as its ID and may comprise an ID of the link, the number of link vertices, and information relating to the vertices. The link change sub- component 303 may be generated and provided when the shape of an existing road link is changed, for example, when the road shape is changed by linearizing the curved section. Since the link change sub-component 303 may provide information relating to the shape change of the existing road link, the same link ID as previously assigned to the link may be utilized and the sub-component 303 need not include a link name. The link elimination sub-component 3 04 has 0x03 as its ID. In FIG. 3B, although the link elimination sub-component 304 may include a. length field, the length field may be omitted 11 WO 2006/123902 PCT/KR2006/001859 since the link ID has a fixed length. The link elimination sub-component 304 may comprise a link ID to be deleted, and may be generated and provided in relating to a closed link for a long term due to construction and expansion of the road. The server 100 may configure the current congestion traffic information, as shown in FIGS. 2A through 2C, according to the traffic information aggregated through various paths and its stored traffic information database and may transmit the configured congestion traffic information to the traffic information receiving terminal by radio. Additionally, according to road change information, the sub- components 301 through 304 may be generated and loaded into the road information component 300 to transmit. In various implementations, after transmitting the information relating to the road change, traffic flow information, such as average' speed, link travel-time, congestion type, and so on, relating to the new road link and the changed road link, is transmitted in the same manner as other links. In various implementations, the information on link shape provided through the aforementioned link shape sub-component 3 01, may be provided for a terminal in different manner. For example, the vertex information about link shape may be carried by the aforementioned coordinates component as shown in FIG. 3C. The coordinates component 310 carrying vertex information has ID of 0x02 to distinguish from coordinates component (e.g., road-type list shown in FIG. 2C, etc.) carrying other information. Coordinates information describing road shape may be transmitted in a vertex component as shown in FIG. 3C, and each vertex component includes ID of 0x00 indicative of vertex component and sequence number (seq. no) indicative of order of vertex. 12 WO 2006/123902 PCT/KR2006/001859 FIG. 3D shows structures of the vertex component and the coordinates component carrying vertex information about link shape. In the implementation-of FIG. 3C, the coordinates component 310 carrying vertex information may not have identification information on a link to which the vertex information is applied. Instead, link identifying information may be carried by a link component included in the link identifying information component (a coordinates component whose ID is 0x10) as shown in FIG. 2C. The association there between may be made by, for example, placed order in a coordinates component. That is., a link ID carried by the first link component may be associated with the first link vertex coordinates component, and another link ID carried by the second link component may be associated with the second link vertex coordinates component. FIGS. 4-6 illustrates exemplary implementation of a system for receiving and utilizing traffic information. Other systems may be organized differently or include different components. Specifically, FIG. 4 illustrates a structure of a navigation terminal installed to a vehicle for receiving traffic information from the server 100. In FIG. 4, the navigation terminal comprises a tuner 1 tuning to a signal band of the traffic information transmission and outputting a modulated signal, a demodulator 2 outputting a traffic information signal by demodulating the modulated traffic information signal, a TPEG-CTT decoder 3 acquiring various traffic information by decoding the demodulated traffic information signal, a global positioning system (GPS) module 8 acquiring the current location (longitude, latitude, and height) by receiving satellite signals from a plurality of low earth orbit satellites, a storage structure 4 storing various graphic information, an 13 WO 2006/123902 PCT/KR2006/001859 input part 9 receiving a user's input, a navigation engine 5 controlling a screen output based on the user's input, the current location, and the acquired traffic information, a memory 5a temporarily storing necessary information, a liquid crystal display (LCD) panel 7 displaying image, and an LCD drive 6 applying a driving signal according to a graphic to be displayed to the LCD panel 7. The input part 9 may be a touch, screen on the LCD panel 7. To ease the understanding, it is assumed that the storage structure 4 is or is not provided with the electronic map including information relating to links and nodes. The tuner 1 tunes the signal received at the server 100. The- modulator 2 demodulates and outputs the tuned signal according to a preset scheme. Next, the TPEG-CTT decoder 3 extracts the TPEG message, as shown in PIGS. 2A through 21 and FIGS. 3A and 3B or FIGS. 3C and 3D, from the demodulated signal and temporarily stores the extracted message. The temporarily stored TPEG message is analyzed and thus necessary information and/or control data according to the message content is provided to the navigation engine 5. Although the various information and/or the control data are transferred from the TPEG-CTT decoder 3 to the navigation engine 5, for purposes of brevity, the following descriptions focuses on how to process the road shape and the road change information, though other information is involved. The TPEG-CTT decoder 3 extracts the date/time, and the message generation time in the message management container of the TPEG message and checks whether a subsequent container is a CTT event container based on the information of a 'message element'(i.e. an identifier). When the subsequent container is the CTT event container, the information acquired from the CTT container in the CTT event container is provided so that the navigation engine 5 may perform the display operation 14 WO 2006/123902 PCT/KR2006/001859 according to the traffic flow information and the road information, to be explained below. Providing the navigation engine 250 with the information may include determining,.based on identifiers, that the traffic information includes a message management container including status or vertex information within various message components within the message management container. The components may each include different status or vertex information associated with different links or locations and identifiers associated with the different status or vertex information. The containers and components may each include information associated with a generation time, version number, data length, and identifiers of included information. Location information corresponding to current traffic flow information is acquired from the subsequent TPEG-CTT location container. This location information may include location coordinates such as longitude and latitude of a start point and an end point according to the type information of the TPEG-CTT location container, or the link, i.e., the' link ID assigned to the road link. If a storage structure 4 is equipped, a link corresponding to the received information may be specified based on the information relating to the links and the nodes stored in the storage structure 4. The navigation engine 5 may convert the location coordinates of the received link to the link ID or vice versa. In the implementation of FIG. 3B, the TPEG-CTT decoder 3 checks whether the road information component including the ID of 0x01 is received in the TPEG-CTT location sub-container Tpeg_loc_container. When the road information component is present, the TPEG decoder 3 detects sub-components from the road information component and provides information included in the sub-components to the navigation engine 5. If the detected sub-components are link shape sub-components 15 WO 2006/123902 PCT/KR2006/001859 including the ID of 0x00 and the terminal in FIG. 4 stores the electronic map in the storage structure 4, the information included in the sub-components may be ignored by the navigation engine 5. In the implementation of FIG. 3C, the vertex information on link shape is extracted from the coordinates component including ID of 0x02 included in the location component including ID of 0x00, and -the extracted vertex information may be sent to the navigation engine 5 or discarded. If the storage structure 4. does not store the electronic map, the navigation engine 5 may store the information of the received link shape sub-components in the link information table, as shown in FIG. 5, of the memory 5a. In doing so, the vertex information may be separately stored in a vertex pool and a location address addr k of a start vertex of the stored vertices may be recorded to a corresponding entry of the link information table. When the electronic map is embedded in the storage structure 4, the navigation engine 5 may read out a necessary area (an area around the current location) on the electronic map based the current location coordinates received from the GPS module 8 and displays the area on the LCD panel 7 via the LCD drive 6. In doing so, the place corresponding to the current location may be marked by a specific graphic symbol. When the storage structure 4 does not have the electronic map, the navigation engine 5 may control the LCD drive 6 to display the road shape as the graphical presentation on the LCD panel 7 according to the vertex information with respect to the links belonging to the area around the current location in the link information table stored in the memory 5a as show in FIG. 5. The links belonging to the current area may be confirmed based on the vertex information of the links. If the detected sub-components are link creation sub- 16 WO 2006/123902 PCT/KR2006/001859 components including the ID of 0x01 or link change sub- components including the ID of 0x02, the navigation engine 5 may store the information which is included in the sub- components and received from the TPEG-CTT decoder 3, in the link information table as constructed in PIG. 5, regardless of the electronic map embedded in the storage structure 4. If there is an entry including the same link ID, the information may be stored by substituting the entry. If the detected sub-components are link elimination components including the ID of 0x03, the TPEG-CTT decoder 3 may request the navigation engine 5 to issue an elimination request command of the link including the ID identical to the link ID of the sub-components. When the electronic map is not provided, the navigation engine 5 may control deletion of the entry of the' corresponding link from the link information table in the memory 5a. When the. electronic map is provided, the navigation engine 5 may search an entry including the corresponding link ID in the link information table of the memory 5a. If such an entry is discovered, the entry may be deleted from the link information table of FIG. 5. If the entry is not discovered, the entry may be recorded, in a separate deleted link table in the memory 5A. The deleted link table arranges IDs of the deleted links. The navigation engine 5 controls the display of the traffic flow information received from the TPEG-CTT decoder 3, e.g., the link average speed or the link average travel-time in the displayed area according to the location coordinates of the link ID included in the coordinates component corresponding to the status component which carries the traffic flow information, within the subsequent location container. The link corresponding to the location coordinates or the link ID received in the location container may be retrieved from the memory 5a. When the storing structure 4 . 17 WO 2006/123902 PCT/KR2006/001859 stores the electronic map and the corresponding link is not discovered in the memory 5a, the retrieval in the storage structure 4 may be conducted. In case of the terminal including the electronic map, since entries of the link information table stored in the memory 5a may be first retrieved, the link including the information based on the latest road conditions may be specified earlier than the electronic map of the storage map 4. As such, the new link or the changed link and the general link may be specified. The traffic flow information as to the specified' link is acquired from the corresponding status component with the CTT component which carries the traffic information and has the ID-of 0x80 as mentioned above. The navigation engine 5 may display the traffic flow information, e.g., the average speed on the path by changing a color according to the link average speed as shown in FIGS. 6A and 6B or by indicating a number to the corresponding link as shown in FIG. 6C. For example, as for the ordinary road, the red denotes 0-10 km/h, the orange denotes 10-20 km/h, the green denotes 20-40 km/h, and the blue denotes more than 40 km/h. Particularly, FIG. 6A depicts a case when the terminal of FIG. 4 .is equipped with the electronic map, FIG. 6B depicts a case when the electronic map is not provided and the LCD drive 6 and the LCD panel 7 support the graphical representation, and FIG. 6C depicts a case when the electronic map is not provided and the LCD drive 6 and the LCD panel 7 support only the text representation. Referring to FIG. 6A, the new road link or the changed road link may be displayed according to the vertex information of the corresponding link stored in the link information table stored in the memory 5a. In FIG. 6B, links may be displayed on the screen according to the vertex information of the links organized in the link information table of the memory 5a. In 18 WO 2006/123902 PCT/KR2006/001859 the case in which the electronic map is provided and a link belonging to the currently displayed link is included in the deleted link table of the memory 5a, the link may not be displayed on the screen. Alternatively, as indicated by mark 'A' in FIG. 6A, a specific mark indicative of the shut-down may be displayed on the displayed road and thus the traffic flow information on the blocked road may not be displayed. In FIG. 6A, the relevant link is displayed in the white rather than in the red, the orange, the green, and the blue that indicate the average speed. Meanwhile, in case that the navigation engine 5 has a path search function with respect to the destination, it is possible to automatically search or re-search a desired path based on the received link average speed or link average travel-time when the user's request is specified or the destination is designated. A terminal' without the electronic map may determine and may display the path on. the screen based on the links in the link information table registered to the memory 5a and the received traffic flow information relating to the links. Note that the received traffic flow information of the links may be stored in the memory 5a until it is updated by the next traffic flow information. A terminal with the electronic map may determine a path based on the traffic flow information relating to the links of the link information table registered in the memory 5a and the. traffic flow information relating to the link information on the electronic map of the storage structure 4. As for a link including the same link ID, the link in the link information table may be selected. Next, a determination may be made whether the links along the selected path are organized in the deleted link table of the memory 5a. When they are not in the deleted link table, the selected path may be confirmed. Otherwise, when the links along the selected path are in the deleted link table, a 19 WO 2006/123902 PCT/KR2006/001859 partial path including the links may be excluded and the whole path may be determined by conducting the re-search in relation to the partial path. As a result, the determined path may be displayed on the map of the screen. If the terminal of FIG. 4 is equipped with a voice output- means, it the terminal may output the received traffic flow information relating to the links on the determined path as the voice. Also, in a case in which a blocked road, that is, the link recorded in the deleted link table appears in front of the path during the driving, a.voice such as "a ^certain road' ahead is shut down" may be output. Note that the vcertain road' may correspond to the deleted link ID and that the output voice may be a complex sound corresponding to the link name in the link information on the electronic map. The foregoing description has been presented for purposes of illustration. Thus, various implementations -with improvements, modifications, substitutions, or additions within the spirit and scope as defined by the following appended claims. 20 WO 2006/123902 PCT/KR2006/001859 CLAIMS 1. A method of-processing traffic information, comprising: receiving link vertex information including a first identifier and vertex components that each reveal a position along a link; and identifying vertex components within the link vertex information. 2. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving link vertex information includes receiving an indicator of a number of vertex components that are specified by the link vertex information wherein the number of vertex components included in the link vertex information corresponds to the number of vertex components indicated by the indicator. 3. The method of claim 2, wherein the received indicator specifies that the link vertex information includes only one vertice, and the identified vertex component consists of a single vertex component that reveals a single position along the link other than a start point and end point. 4. The method of claim 2, wherein the received indicator specifies that the link vertex information includes more than one vertice, and the identified vertex component includes multiple vertex components that correspondingly reveal multiple positions along the link other than start point and end point of the link. 5. The method of claim 4, wherein the identified vertex components are each associated with a sequence value 21 WO 2006/123902 PCT/KR2006/001859 configured to order the vertex components along the link. 6. The method of claim 4, wherein receiving link vertex information includes receive the sequence value. 7. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving information corresponding to a message management structure including information corresponding to a generation time of information reflected in the link vertex information. 8. The method of claim 7, wherein the generation time included within the received message management structure relates to a plurality of vertex components. 9. The method of claim 8, wherein the generation time included within the received message management structure relates to a plurality of message component structures that correspond to a vertex component. 10. The method of claim 9, wherein each message component structure further comprises an identifier specific to the type of information included in the message management structure and the first identifier is an identifier, in a message component structure, specifying the inclusion of a vertex component. 11. The method of claim 10, wherein the vertex component includes, for each vertex component, a sequence value configured to order the vertex components along the link. 12. The method of claim 1, wherein the vertex component identifies a longitude and latitude associated with a position along a link other than a start point and an end point. 22 WO 2006/123902 PCT/KR2006/001859 13 The method of claim 1, wherein the vertex component includes a text descriptor associated with the vertex component. 14. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving link vertex information includes decoding the link vertex information such that the received link vertex information is decoded link vertex information. 15. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving link vertex information includes identifying a longitude of the vertex position information and identifying a latitude of the vertex position. 16. The method of claim 1, wherein the position is a position along the link other than a start point or an end point of the link. 17. A traffic information communication device, comprising: a data receiving interface configured to receive link vertex information including: a link vertex identifier that identifies the received information as including at least one vertex component, and at least one of the vertex components including: a vertex component identifier that identifies the vertex component as a single one of the vertex components included within the link - vertex information, and vertex position information identifying a position of a vertex specified by the vertex 23 WO 2006/123902 PCT/KR2006/001859 component as including a position along a link, a processing device configured to process the link vertex information received from the data receiving interface, the process including: identifying a vertex position specified by the vertex components. 18. The device, of claim 17, wherein the vertex position information indicates a position along a path other than the shortest path between the endpoints of the link. 19. The device of claim 17, wherein the link vertex identifier reflects•that a single vertex is specified by the link vertex information, and the number of vertex components correspondingly include a single vertex component. 20. The device of claim 17, wherein the vertex position information corresponds to at least a two-dimensional position where at least one positional dimension corresponds to time. 21. The device of claim 20, wherein a set of values corresponding to the first dimension is a function of a set of values corresponding to time. 22. The device of claim 17, wherein the vertex position information corresponds to more than a two-dimensional position, wherein, one dimension is associated with elevation. 23. The device of claim 17, wherein the processing device is configured to decode information identifying a longitude of the vertex position and information identifying a latitude of the vertex position. 24 WO 2006/123902 PCT/KR2006/001859 24. The device of claim 17, wherein the link vertex information includes a data length of information used to reveal the vertex position along the link. 25. The device of claim 17, wherein the processing device is configured to determine a vertex position from information other than longitude, latitude, or sequence. 26. The device of claim 17, wherein the process device is configured receive link vertex information including information corresponding to a version number of information reflected in the link vertex information, wherein the version number is associated with a specific syntax of the data where any one of multiple syntaxes may be used. 27. The device of claim 17, wherein the processing device is configured to receive information corresponding to a message management structure including information corresponding to a generation time of information reflected in the link vertex information. 28. The method of claim 17, wherein the position is a position along the link other than a start point or an end point of the link. 29. The method of claim 17, wherein the processing device is configured to determine the type of information included within the received link vertex information based on the link vertex iodentifier and the vertex component identifier. 30. The method of claim 29, wherein the processing device is configured to identify the vertex position only if 25 WO 2006/123902 PCT/KR2006/001859 the link vertex identifier and the vertex component identifier enable a determination that the received link vertex information includes at least one vertex component. 32. A method of processing traffic information, comprising: means for receiving link vertex information including a first identifier and vertex components that each reveal a position along a link, wherein the first identifier enables a determination of a type of information that is included within the received link vertex information; means for determining the type of information included within the received link vertex information based on the first identifier; and means for identifying vertex components within the link vertex information only if the first identifier enables a determination that the received link vertex information includes at least one vertex component. 26 A method of processing traffic information includes receiving link vertex information including a first identifier and vertex components that each reveal a position along a link. The first identifier enables a determination of a type of information that is included within the received link vertex information. The method also includes determining the type of information included within the received link vertex information based on the first identifier and identifying vertex components within the link vertex information only if the first identifier enables a determination that the received link vertex information includes at least one vertex component.

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PCT/KR2006/001859
DESCRIPTION
PROVIDING ROAD INFORMATION INCLUDING VERTEX DATA
FOR A LINK AND USING THE SAME
1. TECHNICAL FIELD
This disclosure relates to providing traffic information
of a road, particularly, information relating to the road.
2. BACKGROUND ART
With the advancement in digital signal processing and
communication technologies, radio and TV broadcasts are being
digitalized. Digital broadcasting enables provision of various
information (e.g., news, stock prices, weather, traffic
information, etc.) as well as audio and video content.
3. DISCLOSURE OF INVENTION
In one general aspect, a method of processing traffic
information is provided. The method includes receiving link
vertex information including a first identifier and vertex
components that each reveal apposition along a link. The first
identifier enables a determination of a type of information
that is included within the received link vertex information.
The method also includes determining the type of information
included within the received link vertex information based on
the first identifier and identifying vertex components within
the link vertex information only if the first identifier
enables a determination that the received link vertex
information includes at least one vertex component.
Implementations may include one or more additional
features. For instance', receiving link vertex information may
include receiving an indicator of a number of vertex
components that are specified by the link vertex information.
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The number of vertex components included in the link vertex
information may correspond to the number of vertex components
indicated by the indicator. The received indicator may specify
that the link vertex information includes only one vertice,
and the identified vertex component consists of a single
vertex component that reveals a single position along the link
other than a start point and end point. The received indicator
may specify that the link vertex information includes more
than one vertice, and the identified vertex component includes
multiple vertex components that correspondingly reveal
multiple positions along the link other than start point and
end point of the link. The identified vertex components may
each be associated with a sequence value configured to order
the vertex components along the link. Receiving link vertex
information may include receiving the sequence value.
The method may also include receiving information
corresponding to a message management structure including
information corresponding to a generation time of information
reflected in the link vertex information. The generation time
included within the received message management structure may
relate to a plurality of vertex components. The generation
time included within the received message management structure
may relate to a plurality of message component structures that
correspond to a vertex component. Each message component
structure may further include an identifier specific to the
type of information included in the message management
structure and the first identifier may be an identifier, in a
message component structure, specifying the inclusion of a
vertex component. The vertex component may include, for each
vertex component, a sequence value configured to order the
vertex components along the link.
In the method, the vertex component may identify a
longitude and latitude associated with a position along a link
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other than a start point and an end point. The vertex
component may include a text descriptor associated with the
vertex component. Receiving link vertex information may-
include decoding the link vertex information such that the
received link vertex information is decoded link vertex
information. Receiving link vertex information may include
identifying a longitude of the vertex position information and
identifying a latitude of the vertex position. The processing
device may be configured to determine link vertex information
is configured to determine a vertex position from information
other than longitude, latitude, or sequence. The position may
be a position along the link other than a start point or an
end point of the link.
In another general aspect, a traffic information
communication device is provided. The device includes a data
receiving interface configured to receive link vertex
information including a link vertex identifier that identifies
the received information as including at least one vertex
component. The data receiving interface also includes an
indication of a number of vertex components that are specified
by the link vertex information and a number of vertex
components corresponding to the indication. At least one of
the vertex components includes a vertex component identifier
that identifies the vertex component as a single one of the
vertex components included within the link vertex information,
vertex position information identifying a position of a vertex
specified by the vertex component as including a position
along a link. The device also includes a processing device
configured to process the link vertex information received
from the data receiving interface. The process includes
determining a type of information included within the received
link vertex information and identifying a vertex position
specified by the vertex components based on. the received
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information.
Implementations may include one or more additional
features. For instance, the vertex position information may
indicate a position along a path other than the shortest path
between the endpoints of the link. The link vertex identifier
may reflect that a single vertex is specified by the link
vertex information, and the number of vertex components
correspondingly include a single vertex component. The vertex
position information may correspond to at least a two-
dimensional position where at least one positional dimension
corresponds to time.
In the device, a set of values may corresponding to the
first dimension may be a function of a set of values
corresponding to time. The vertex position information may
correspond to more than a two-dimensional position. One
dimension may be associated with elevation. The processing
device may be configured to decode information identifying a
longitude of the vertex position and information identifying a
latitude of the vertex position.
Also, in the device, the link vertex information may
include a data length of information used to reveal the vertex
position along the link. The processing device may be
configured to determine a vertex position from information
other than longitude, latitude, or sequence. The processing
device may be configured to receive link vertex information
including information corresponding to a version number of
information reflected in the link vertex information. The
version number may be associated with a specific syntax of the
data where any one of multiple syntaxes may be used.
The processing devuce may be further configured to
receive information corresponding to a message management
structure including information corresponding to a generation
time of information reflected in the link vertex information.
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The positions may be a position along the link other than a
start point or an end point of the link. The processing device
may be configured to determine the type of information
included within the received link vertex information based on
the link vertex iodentifier and the vertex component
identifier. The processing device may be configured to
identify the vertex position only if the link vertex
identifier and the vertex component identifier enable a
determination that the received link vertex information
includes at least one vertex component
In a further general aspect, a method of processing
traffic information is provided. The method includes means for
receiving link vertex information including a first identifier
and vertex components that each reveal a position along a link.
The first identifier enables a determination of a type of
information that is included within the received link vertex
information. The method also includes means for determining
the type of information included within the received link
vertex information based on the first identifier and means for
identifying vertex components within the link vertex
information only if the first identifier enables a
determination that the received link vertex information
includes at least one vertex component.
The details of one or more implementations are set forth
in the accompanying drawings and the description below. Other
features will be apparent from the description and drawings,
and from the claims.
4. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS
FIG. 1 illustrates a network for providing traffic
information;
PIG. 2A illustrates a syntax relating to a part of a
component frame including the traffic information;
FIG. 2B illustrates a transmission format of a congestion
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traffic information (TPEG-CTT) message by focusing on a status
component which includes road traffic information;
FIG. 2C illustrates the transmission format of the
congestion traffic information (TPEG-CTT) message by focusing
on a coordinates component which includes road link
information;
FIGS. 2E to 21 show syntaxes of information elements
shown FIG. 2C;
FIG. 3A illustrates a road information component;
FIG. 3B illustrates a transmission format of the
congestion traffic information (TPEG-CTT) message by focusing
on the road information component;
FIG. 3C shows transfer format of a congestion traffic
information (TPEG-CTT) message by focusing on a component
carrying information relating to a shape of a road, link in.
accordance with another implementation;
FIG. 3D shows syntax of the element, shown in FIG. 3C,
carrying information on a shape of a road link;
FIG. 4 illustrates a structure of a navigation terminal
installed to a vehicle;
FIG. 5 illustrates an exemplary structure of a link
information table organized based on information included in
the received road information component; and
FIGS. 6A through 6C illustrate graphical user interfaces
corresponding to various modes displaying the road links and
the speed in the road links.
5. MODES FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION
One such use for digital broadcasts is to satisfy an
existing demand for traffic information. Proposals that
involve the use of digital broadcasts for this purpose
contemplate the use of standardized formatting of traffic
information to be broadcast. This approach may be used to
enable the use of traffic information receiving terminals made
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by different manufacturers, which each could be configured to
detect and interpret traffic information broadcast in the same
way.
PIG. 1 is a diagram showing an overview of a network for
traffic information according to an implementation. Referring
to FIG. 1, by way of example, a traffic information providing-
server 110 of a broadcasting station may reconfigure various
congestion traffic information aggregated from a user's input,
another server over the network 101, or a probe car, and then
may broadcast the reconfigured information by radio so that a
traffic information receiving terminal, such as a navigation
device installed to a car 200, may receive the information.
The congestion traffic information broadcast by the
traffic information providing server 100 via radio waves may
be transmitted as a component frame. The component frame, as
shown in FIG. 2A, comprises a number field of messages
included in the component frame 201, and a sequence 202 of
congestion information messages as many as the messages
included in the number'field 202. Hereafter, the congestion
information message is referred to as a Transport Protocol
Expert Group (TPEG) - congestion and travel-time information
(CTT) message.
In various implementations, one message segment of the
sequence 202, that is, the TPEG-CTT message may comprise a
message management container carrying information relating to
date, time, and message generation time, a CTT container, and
a TPEG-CTT location container, as shown in FIGS. 2B and 2C. At
the front of the CTT container, a number field of CTT
components 211 may be included. The number field of CTT
components 211 may belong to the CTT container and the TPEG-
CTT location container. Subsequent to the number field 211,
CTT components corresponding to the number may be arranged.
In various implementations, if a CTT component includes
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traffic flow information, the CTT component has an identifier
(ID) of 0x80 as shown in FIG. 2B. The CTT component may-
comprise one or more status components. The status component
carries information relating to a section (link) average speed
(a status component including an ID of 0x00), a link travel-
time (a status component including an ID of 0x01, and
congestion type (a status component including an ID of 0x03).
In the description, specific IDs are described.as assignments
to structures associated with specific information. The actual
value of an assigned ID (e.g., 80h) is exemplary, and
different implementations may assign different values for
specific associations or circumstances. Thus, the CTT
component may be used to provide various different types of
data that may be signaled based on an identifier. For example,
FIG. 2B and FIG. 2C illustrate a component with an identifier
of 0x80 and 0x90 signaling, respectfully, status and location
information.
In various implementations, if a CTT component includes
link location information, the CTT component has an ID of 0x09
as shown in FIG. 2C. Likewise, the CTT component may comprise. '
one or more TPEG-CTT location sub-containers
Tpeg_loc_container illustratively structured as shown in FIG.
2D. Each TPEG-CTT location sub-container may comprise one or
more TPEG-CTT location components Tpeg_loc_container. Each
TPEG-CTT location component may include one or more location
components including an ID of 0x00 that is illustratively
structure as shown in FIG. 2E. The location component may
comprise one or more coordinates components. The coordinates
component may carry information relating to road link(s), that
is, link(s) which may be the target of the traffic flow
information included in the status component as described
earlier. The link information may carry information relating
to a road type such as high way and state road (a coordinates
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component including an ID of 0x00), coordinates information
which may be expressed in WGS 84 (a coordinates component
including an ID of 0x01) , link description information (a
coordinate component including an ID of 0x03), and link
identifying information (a coordinates component including an
ID of 0x10), and the like.
The information on load shape may be organized and
transmitted, for example, in the form of PIG. 2F. The
coordinates information may be organized and transmitted, for
example, in the form of FIG. 2G. The link description
information may be organized and transmitted, for example, in
the form of FIG. 2H and the link identifying information may
be organized and transmitted, for example, in the form of FIG.
21.
The server 100 may reconfigure current road congestion
information, as shown in FIGS. 2A to 21, based on the current
traffic information aggregated through various paths and its
traffic information stored in database, and may transmit the
reconfigured information to the traffic information receiving
terminal by radio.
In one implementation, when the traffic information about
each road link is provided, the traffic information receiving
terminal may search a corresponding road section (hereafter,
referred to as a "section" or a "link") on its held electronic
map and may represent the received traffic information using
color, graphic, or text. If the traffic information receiving
terminal is without an electronic map, such that it cannot
represent the received traffic information on such an
electronic map, it may nevertheless represent the received
traffic information using graphic or text. Specifically, the
graphical representation may present the road as a linear form
regardless of the actual type.
According to an implementation , the server 100 may
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aggregate and may provide the traffic information relating to,
for example, a new building, a shut-down road, or route or
area, or a path change of the roads (hereafter, referred to as
a road change), to a traffic information receiving terminal.
In addition, the information about road shape may also
provided for a traffic information receiving terminal not
equipped with electronic map. Thus the system is capable of
informing a user when a new road is configured, and/or an
existing road is reconfigured to change its shape and/or shut
down, such as, for example, due to construction.
In the following, an implementation of method of
providing the road change or road shape information is
explained in detail.
To provide the road change or road shape information, the
server 100 may generate a road information component 300
Link_info_component configured as shown in FIG. 3A, and may
load the road information component in the TPEG-CTT sub-
container Tpeg_loc_container to transmit. The road information
component 300 may be assigned an ID, e.g., 0x01 different from
the ID 0x00 of the coordinates component.
Each road information component Link_info_component, as
shown in FIG. 3B, may comprise a link shape sub-component 3 01
carrying shape information relating to a certain link, a link
creation sub-component 3 02 carrying information relating to a
new link, a link change sub-component 303 for changing the
shape of the existing link, and a link elimination sub-
component 304 for removing a link. It is to be understood that
the road information component may.comprise other sub-
components.
In various implementations, the link shape sub-component
301 has an ID of 0x00 and comprises an ID of the link, the
number of link vertices, information relating to the vertices,
and a name assigned to the link. The vertex is information
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consisting of a pair of latitude and longitude which may be .
defined, for example, in the WGS 84 format, so that the
traffic information receiving terminal may recognize the shape
of the link and display the graphical representation according
to the recognized shape. The link shape sub-component 301 may
be provided to help the traffic information receiving terminal
including no electronic map to represent a more accurate shape
of the road based on the current location on the screen. Thus,
the number of the vertices included in the link shape sub-
component 301 may be enough to reveal the shape of the road
when the road is presented according to the VGA or the QVGA on
a scale lower than the precision of the electronic map
supplied from a disk medium, for example, on a reduced scale
of 1 to 10000.
The link creation sub-component 3 02 has 0x01 as its ID
and may comprise an ID of the link to be newly assigned, the
number of link vertices, information relating to the vertices,
and the number assigned to the link. The link creation sub-
component 3 02 may be generated and provided when a road link
is newly built.
The link change sub-component 303 has 0x02 as its ID and
may comprise an ID of the link, the number of link vertices,
and information relating to the vertices. The link change sub-
component 303 may be generated and provided when the shape of
an existing road link is changed, for example, when the road
shape is changed by linearizing the curved section. Since the
link change sub-component 303 may provide information relating
to the shape change of the existing road link, the same link
ID as previously assigned to the link may be utilized and the
sub-component 303 need not include a link name.
The link elimination sub-component 3 04 has 0x03 as its ID.
In FIG. 3B, although the link elimination sub-component 304
may include a. length field, the length field may be omitted
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since the link ID has a fixed length. The link elimination
sub-component 304 may comprise a link ID to be deleted, and
may be generated and provided in relating to a closed link for
a long term due to construction and expansion of the road.
The server 100 may configure the current congestion
traffic information, as shown in FIGS. 2A through 2C,
according to the traffic information aggregated through
various paths and its stored traffic information database and
may transmit the configured congestion traffic information to
the traffic information receiving terminal by radio.
Additionally, according to road change information, the sub-
components 301 through 304 may be generated and loaded into
the road information component 300 to transmit.
In various implementations, after transmitting the
information relating to the road change, traffic flow
information, such as average' speed, link travel-time,
congestion type, and so on, relating to the new road link and
the changed road link, is transmitted in the same manner as
other links.
In various implementations, the information on link shape
provided through the aforementioned link shape sub-component
3 01, may be provided for a terminal in different manner. For
example, the vertex information about link shape may be
carried by the aforementioned coordinates component as shown
in FIG. 3C. The coordinates component 310 carrying vertex
information has ID of 0x02 to distinguish from coordinates
component (e.g., road-type list shown in FIG. 2C, etc.)
carrying other information.
Coordinates information describing road shape may be
transmitted in a vertex component as shown in FIG. 3C, and
each vertex component includes ID of 0x00 indicative of vertex
component and sequence number (seq. no) indicative of order of
vertex.
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FIG. 3D shows structures of the vertex component and the
coordinates component carrying vertex information about link
shape.
In the implementation-of FIG. 3C, the coordinates
component 310 carrying vertex information may not have
identification information on a link to which the vertex
information is applied. Instead, link identifying information
may be carried by a link component included in the link
identifying information component (a coordinates component
whose ID is 0x10) as shown in FIG. 2C. The association there
between may be made by, for example, placed order in a
coordinates component. That is., a link ID carried by the first
link component may be associated with the first link vertex
coordinates component, and another link ID carried by the
second link component may be associated with the second link
vertex coordinates component.
FIGS. 4-6 illustrates exemplary implementation of a
system for receiving and utilizing traffic information. Other
systems may be organized differently or include different
components. Specifically, FIG. 4 illustrates a structure of a
navigation terminal installed to a vehicle for receiving
traffic information from the server 100.
In FIG. 4, the navigation terminal comprises a tuner 1
tuning to a signal band of the traffic information
transmission and outputting a modulated signal, a demodulator
2 outputting a traffic information signal by demodulating the
modulated traffic information signal, a TPEG-CTT decoder 3
acquiring various traffic information by decoding the
demodulated traffic information signal, a global positioning
system (GPS) module 8 acquiring the current location
(longitude, latitude, and height) by receiving satellite
signals from a plurality of low earth orbit satellites, a
storage structure 4 storing various graphic information, an
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input part 9 receiving a user's input, a navigation engine 5
controlling a screen output based on the user's input, the
current location, and the acquired traffic information, a
memory 5a temporarily storing necessary information, a liquid
crystal display (LCD) panel 7 displaying image, and an LCD
drive 6 applying a driving signal according to a graphic to be
displayed to the LCD panel 7. The input part 9 may be a touch,
screen on the LCD panel 7. To ease the understanding, it is
assumed that the storage structure 4 is or is not provided
with the electronic map including information relating to
links and nodes.
The tuner 1 tunes the signal received at the server 100.
The- modulator 2 demodulates and outputs the tuned signal
according to a preset scheme. Next, the TPEG-CTT decoder 3
extracts the TPEG message, as shown in PIGS. 2A through 21 and
FIGS. 3A and 3B or FIGS. 3C and 3D, from the demodulated
signal and temporarily stores the extracted message. The
temporarily stored TPEG message is analyzed and thus necessary
information and/or control data according to the message
content is provided to the navigation engine 5. Although the
various information and/or the control data are transferred
from the TPEG-CTT decoder 3 to the navigation engine 5, for
purposes of brevity, the following descriptions focuses on how
to process the road shape and the road change information,
though other information is involved.
The TPEG-CTT decoder 3 extracts the date/time, and the
message generation time in the message management container of
the TPEG message and checks whether a subsequent container is
a CTT event container based on the information of a 'message
element'(i.e. an identifier). When the subsequent container is
the CTT event container, the information acquired from the CTT
container in the CTT event container is provided so that the
navigation engine 5 may perform the display operation
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according to the traffic flow information and the road
information, to be explained below. Providing the navigation
engine 250 with the information may include determining,.based
on identifiers, that the traffic information includes a
message management container including status or vertex
information within various message components within the
message management container. The components may each include
different status or vertex information associated with
different links or locations and identifiers associated with
the different status or vertex information. The containers and
components may each include information associated with a
generation time, version number, data length, and identifiers
of included information.
Location information corresponding to current traffic
flow information is acquired from the subsequent TPEG-CTT
location container. This location information may include
location coordinates such as longitude and latitude of a start
point and an end point according to the type information of
the TPEG-CTT location container, or the link, i.e., the' link
ID assigned to the road link. If a storage structure 4 is
equipped, a link corresponding to the received information may
be specified based on the information relating to the links
and the nodes stored in the storage structure 4. The
navigation engine 5 may convert the location coordinates of
the received link to the link ID or vice versa.
In the implementation of FIG. 3B, the TPEG-CTT decoder 3
checks whether the road information component including the ID
of 0x01 is received in the TPEG-CTT location sub-container
Tpeg_loc_container. When the road information component is
present, the TPEG decoder 3 detects sub-components from the
road information component and provides information included
in the sub-components to the navigation engine 5. If the
detected sub-components are link shape sub-components
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including the ID of 0x00 and the terminal in FIG. 4 stores the
electronic map in the storage structure 4, the information
included in the sub-components may be ignored by the
navigation engine 5.
In the implementation of FIG. 3C, the vertex information
on link shape is extracted from the coordinates component
including ID of 0x02 included in the location component
including ID of 0x00, and -the extracted vertex information may
be sent to the navigation engine 5 or discarded.
If the storage structure 4. does not store the electronic
map, the navigation engine 5 may store the information of the
received link shape sub-components in the link information
table, as shown in FIG. 5, of the memory 5a. In doing so, the
vertex information may be separately stored in a vertex pool
and a location address addr k of a start vertex of the stored
vertices may be recorded to a corresponding entry of the link
information table.
When the electronic map is embedded in the storage
structure 4, the navigation engine 5 may read out a necessary
area (an area around the current location) on the electronic
map based the current location coordinates received from the
GPS module 8 and displays the area on the LCD panel 7 via the
LCD drive 6. In doing so, the place corresponding to the
current location may be marked by a specific graphic symbol.
When the storage structure 4 does not have the electronic map,
the navigation engine 5 may control the LCD drive 6 to display
the road shape as the graphical presentation on the LCD panel
7 according to the vertex information with respect to the
links belonging to the area around the current location in the
link information table stored in the memory 5a as show in FIG.
5. The links belonging to the current area may be confirmed
based on the vertex information of the links.
If the detected sub-components are link creation sub-
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components including the ID of 0x01 or link change sub-
components including the ID of 0x02, the navigation engine 5
may store the information which is included in the sub-
components and received from the TPEG-CTT decoder 3, in the
link information table as constructed in PIG. 5, regardless of
the electronic map embedded in the storage structure 4. If
there is an entry including the same link ID, the information
may be stored by substituting the entry.
If the detected sub-components are link elimination
components including the ID of 0x03, the TPEG-CTT decoder 3
may request the navigation engine 5 to issue an elimination
request command of the link including the ID identical to the
link ID of the sub-components. When the electronic map is not
provided, the navigation engine 5 may control deletion of the
entry of the' corresponding link from the link information
table in the memory 5a. When the. electronic map is provided,
the navigation engine 5 may search an entry including the
corresponding link ID in the link information table of the
memory 5a. If such an entry is discovered, the entry may be
deleted from the link information table of FIG. 5. If the
entry is not discovered, the entry may be recorded, in a
separate deleted link table in the memory 5A. The deleted link
table arranges IDs of the deleted links.
The navigation engine 5 controls the display of the
traffic flow information received from the TPEG-CTT decoder 3,
e.g., the link average speed or the link average travel-time
in the displayed area according to the location coordinates of
the link ID included in the coordinates component
corresponding to the status component which carries the
traffic flow information, within the subsequent location
container. The link corresponding to the location coordinates
or the link ID received in the location container may be
retrieved from the memory 5a. When the storing structure 4 .
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stores the electronic map and the corresponding link is not
discovered in the memory 5a, the retrieval in the storage
structure 4 may be conducted. In case of the terminal
including the electronic map, since entries of the link
information table stored in the memory 5a may be first
retrieved, the link including the information based on the
latest road conditions may be specified earlier than the
electronic map of the storage map 4.
As such, the new link or the changed link and the general
link may be specified. The traffic flow information as to the
specified' link is acquired from the corresponding status
component with the CTT component which carries the traffic
information and has the ID-of 0x80 as mentioned above.
The navigation engine 5 may display the traffic flow
information, e.g., the average speed on the path by changing a
color according to the link average speed as shown in FIGS. 6A
and 6B or by indicating a number to the corresponding link as
shown in FIG. 6C. For example, as for the ordinary road, the
red denotes 0-10 km/h, the orange denotes 10-20 km/h, the
green denotes 20-40 km/h, and the blue denotes more than 40
km/h. Particularly, FIG. 6A depicts a case when the terminal
of FIG. 4 .is equipped with the electronic map, FIG. 6B depicts
a case when the electronic map is not provided and the LCD
drive 6 and the LCD panel 7 support the graphical
representation, and FIG. 6C depicts a case when the electronic
map is not provided and the LCD drive 6 and the LCD panel 7
support only the text representation.
Referring to FIG. 6A, the new road link or the changed
road link may be displayed according to the vertex information
of the corresponding link stored in the link information table
stored in the memory 5a. In FIG. 6B, links may be displayed on
the screen according to the vertex information of the links
organized in the link information table of the memory 5a. In
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the case in which the electronic map is provided and a link
belonging to the currently displayed link is included in the
deleted link table of the memory 5a, the link may not be
displayed on the screen. Alternatively, as indicated by mark
'A' in FIG. 6A, a specific mark indicative of the shut-down
may be displayed on the displayed road and thus the traffic
flow information on the blocked road may not be displayed. In
FIG. 6A, the relevant link is displayed in the white rather
than in the red, the orange, the green, and the blue that
indicate the average speed.
Meanwhile, in case that the navigation engine 5 has a
path search function with respect to the destination, it is
possible to automatically search or re-search a desired path
based on the received link average speed or link average
travel-time when the user's request is specified or the
destination is designated. A terminal' without the electronic
map may determine and may display the path on. the screen based
on the links in the link information table registered to the
memory 5a and the received traffic flow information relating
to the links. Note that the received traffic flow information
of the links may be stored in the memory 5a until it is
updated by the next traffic flow information. A terminal with
the electronic map may determine a path based on the traffic
flow information relating to the links of the link information
table registered in the memory 5a and the. traffic flow
information relating to the link information on the electronic
map of the storage structure 4. As for a link including the
same link ID, the link in the link information table may be
selected. Next, a determination may be made whether the links
along the selected path are organized in the deleted link
table of the memory 5a. When they are not in the deleted link
table, the selected path may be confirmed. Otherwise, when the
links along the selected path are in the deleted link table, a
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partial path including the links may be excluded and the whole
path may be determined by conducting the re-search in relation
to the partial path. As a result, the determined path may be
displayed on the map of the screen.
If the terminal of FIG. 4 is equipped with a voice output-
means, it the terminal may output the received traffic flow
information relating to the links on the determined path as
the voice. Also, in a case in which a blocked road, that is,
the link recorded in the deleted link table appears in front
of the path during the driving, a.voice such as "a ^certain
road' ahead is shut down" may be output. Note that the
vcertain road' may correspond to the deleted link ID and that
the output voice may be a complex sound corresponding to the
link name in the link information on the electronic map.
The foregoing description has been presented for purposes
of illustration. Thus, various implementations -with
improvements, modifications, substitutions, or additions
within the spirit and scope as defined by the following
appended claims.
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CLAIMS
1. A method of-processing traffic information,
comprising:
receiving link vertex information including a first
identifier and vertex components that each reveal a position
along a link; and
identifying vertex components within the link vertex
information.
2. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving link
vertex information includes receiving an indicator of a number
of vertex components that are specified by the link vertex
information wherein the number of vertex components included
in the link vertex information corresponds to the number of
vertex components indicated by the indicator.
3. The method of claim 2, wherein the received
indicator specifies that the link vertex information includes
only one vertice, and the identified vertex component consists
of a single vertex component that reveals a single position
along the link other than a start point and end point.
4. The method of claim 2, wherein the received
indicator specifies that the link vertex information includes
more than one vertice, and the identified vertex component
includes multiple vertex components that correspondingly
reveal multiple positions along the link other than start
point and end point of the link.
5. The method of claim 4, wherein the identified
vertex components are each associated with a sequence value
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configured to order the vertex components along the link.
6. The method of claim 4, wherein receiving link
vertex information includes receive the sequence value.
7. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving
information corresponding to a message management structure
including information corresponding to a generation time of
information reflected in the link vertex information.
8. The method of claim 7, wherein the generation time
included within the received message management structure
relates to a plurality of vertex components.
9. The method of claim 8, wherein the generation time
included within the received message management structure
relates to a plurality of message component structures that
correspond to a vertex component.
10. The method of claim 9, wherein each message
component structure further comprises an identifier specific
to the type of information included in the message management
structure and the first identifier is an identifier, in a
message component structure, specifying the inclusion of a
vertex component.
11. The method of claim 10, wherein the vertex
component includes, for each vertex component, a sequence
value configured to order the vertex components along the link.
12. The method of claim 1, wherein the vertex component
identifies a longitude and latitude associated with a position
along a link other than a start point and an end point.
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13 The method of claim 1, wherein the vertex component
includes a text descriptor associated with the vertex
component.
14. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving link
vertex information includes decoding the link vertex
information such that the received link vertex information is
decoded link vertex information.
15. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving link
vertex information includes identifying a longitude of the
vertex position information and identifying a latitude of the
vertex position.
16. The method of claim 1, wherein the position is a
position along the link other than a start point or an end
point of the link.
17. A traffic information communication device,
comprising:
a data receiving interface configured to receive link
vertex information including:
a link vertex identifier that identifies the
received information as including at least one vertex
component, and
at least one of the vertex components including:
a vertex component identifier that identifies
the vertex component as a single one of the vertex
components included within the link - vertex
information, and
vertex position information identifying a
position of a vertex specified by the vertex
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component as including a position along a link,
a processing device configured to process the link vertex
information received from the data receiving interface, the
process including:
identifying a vertex position specified by the vertex
components.
18. The device, of claim 17, wherein the vertex position
information indicates a position along a path other than the
shortest path between the endpoints of the link.
19. The device of claim 17, wherein the link vertex
identifier reflects•that a single vertex is specified by the
link vertex information, and the number of vertex components
correspondingly include a single vertex component.
20. The device of claim 17, wherein the vertex position
information corresponds to at least a two-dimensional position
where at least one positional dimension corresponds to time.
21. The device of claim 20, wherein a set of values
corresponding to the first dimension is a function of a set of
values corresponding to time.
22. The device of claim 17, wherein the vertex position
information corresponds to more than a two-dimensional
position, wherein, one dimension is associated with elevation.
23. The device of claim 17, wherein the processing
device is configured to decode information identifying a
longitude of the vertex position and information identifying a
latitude of the vertex position.
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24. The device of claim 17, wherein the link vertex
information includes a data length of information used to
reveal the vertex position along the link.
25. The device of claim 17, wherein the processing
device is configured to determine a vertex position from
information other than longitude, latitude, or sequence.
26. The device of claim 17, wherein the process device
is configured receive link vertex information including
information corresponding to a version number of information
reflected in the link vertex information, wherein the version
number is associated with a specific syntax of the data where
any one of multiple syntaxes may be used.
27. The device of claim 17, wherein the processing
device is configured to receive information corresponding to a
message management structure including information
corresponding to a generation time of information reflected in
the link vertex information.
28. The method of claim 17, wherein the position is a
position along the link other than a start point or an end
point of the link.
29. The method of claim 17, wherein the processing
device is configured to determine the type of information
included within the received link vertex information based on
the link vertex iodentifier and the vertex component
identifier.
30. The method of claim 29, wherein the processing
device is configured to identify the vertex position only if
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the link vertex identifier and the vertex component identifier
enable a determination that the received link vertex
information includes at least one vertex component.
32. A method of processing traffic information,
comprising:
means for receiving link vertex information including a
first identifier and vertex components that each reveal a
position along a link, wherein the first identifier enables a
determination of a type of information that is included within
the received link vertex information;
means for determining the type of information included
within the received link vertex information based on the first
identifier; and
means for identifying vertex components within the link
vertex information only if the first identifier enables a
determination that the received link vertex information
includes at least one vertex component.
26

A method of processing traffic information includes receiving link vertex information including a first identifier and vertex components that each reveal a position along a link. The first identifier enables a determination of a type of information that is included within the received link vertex information. The method also includes determining the type of information included within the received link vertex information based on the first identifier and identifying vertex components within the link vertex information only if the first identifier enables a determination that the received link vertex information includes at least one vertex component.

Documents:

http://ipindiaonline.gov.in/patentsearch/GrantedSearch/viewdoc.aspx?id=YK+lz8VGu9WFpe/0gSVvJw==&loc=wDBSZCsAt7zoiVrqcFJsRw==

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Patent Number

272845

Indian Patent Application Number

4412/KOLNP/2007

PG Journal Number

19/2016

Publication Date

06-May-2016

Grant Date

28-Apr-2016

Date of Filing

16-Nov-2007

Name of Patentee

LG ELECTRONICS INC.

Applicant Address

20, YOIDO-DONG, YOUNGDUNGPO-GU, SEOUL 150-010,

Inventors:

#	Inventor's Name	Inventor's Address
1	LEE, JOON, HWI	101-2108 SAMHO APT., YANGPUNGDONG-3-GA, YOUNGDUNGPO-GU, SEOUL 150-788
2	KIM, YOUNG, IN	101-102 BROWN-STONE GWANAK APT., 1721, BONGCHEON 2-DONG, GWANAK-GU, SEOUL 151-052
3	JUNG, MUN, HO	615-701 JEONGDEUNMAEUL WOOSUNG 6- DANJI APT., JEONGJA-DONG BUNDANG-GU, SEONGNAM-SI, GYEONGGI-DO 463-753
4	JOE, MOON, JEUNG	903-1402 MOKRYEON SHINDONGAH APT., BEOMGYE-DONG, DONGAN-GU, ANYANG-SI, GYEONGGI-DO 431-776
5	YI, DONG, HOON	102-104 SAMSUNG RAEMIAN APT., GIREUM 1-DONG, SEONGBUK-GU, SEOUL 136-770
6	SEO, CHU, HYUN	205-1706 JUGONG 2-CHA APT., SILLIM 10(SIP)-DONG, 201-206 GWANAK-GU, SEOUL 151-794

PCT International Classification Number

G08G 1/0969

PCT International Application Number

PCT/KR2006/001859

PCT International Filing date

2006-05-18

PCT Conventions:

#	PCT Application Number	Date of Convention	Priority Country
1	10-2005-0101414	2005-10-26	U.S.A.
2	60/759963	2006-01-19	U.S.A.
3	60/681971	2005-05-18	U.S.A.
4	10-2006-0023213	2006-03-13	U.S.A.