Neutral zones for navigation
View Patent ↗The described method and system provide for treatment of certain areas as neutral zones during GPS navigation to avoid unnecessary off-route notifications and route recalculation. A GPS unit determines whether the user has entered a geographic region designated as a neutral zone, and does not provide the user with off-route notifications while the user is within the neutral zone. Not providing off-route notifications may be implemented by the GPS device by considering the user to be within the calculated route while the user is within a neutral zone, or by disabling off-route notifications (and route recalculation) while the user is within the neutral zone. The neutral zone may be defined by a set of GPS coordinates. The neutral zone may further be polygonal, and the size of the neutral zone may be based on the accuracy of the GPS device.
1. A method for satellite-based navigation using a satellite-based navigation device having a processor, comprising:
receiving, at the device, input from a user corresponding to an intended destination;
calculating, using the device, a set of navigation instructions constituting a defined route from a starting point to the intended destination;
determining, using the device, after the calculating, that the user has entered a neutral zone geographic region at an intermediate position along the defined route, wherein the neutral zone geographic region includes a portion of the defined route and one or more vehicle stopping locations proximate to the portion of the defined route and does not include beginning and end points of the defined route, wherein the one or more vehicle stopping locations corresponds to at least one of the group consisting of: a rest stop, a gas station, a restaurant, and lodging; and
suppressing, at the device, route recalculation while the vehicle remains in the neutral zone geographic region;
wherein neutral zone geographic regions are defined based on defined routes such that it is possible for a part of a roadway that is included within a neutral zone geographic region of a first defined route to not be included within any neutral zone geographic region of a second defined route.
2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the neutral zone geographic region is defined by a set of Global Positioning System (GPS) coordinates.
3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the neutral zone geographic region is polygonal.
4. The method of claim 2 , wherein the determining comprises:
comparing GPS information corresponding to the current position of the user with the set of GPS coordinates defining the neutral zone geographic region.
5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the determining comprises:
receiving an input from the user that the user is entering a geographic region that the user considers a neutral zone.
6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the size of the neutral zone geographic region is based on an accuracy value associated with the device.
7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the starting point is a current position of the user determined at approximately the time of route calculation.
8. The method of claim 1 , wherein information regarding neutral zone geographic regions is stored at a database.
9. A system for satellite-based navigation, comprising a tangible, non-transient computer-readable medium having thereon computer executable instructions, the computer executable instructions comprising instructions for:
calculating a defined route from a starting point to the intended destination based on a received input from a user corresponding to an intended destination;
determining, after the calculating, that the user has entered a neutral zone geographic region at an intermediate position along the defined route, wherein the neutral zone geographic region includes a portion of the defined route and one or more vehicle stopping locations proximate to the portion of the defined route and does not include beginning and end points of the defined route, wherein the one or more vehicle stopping locations corresponds to at least one of the group consisting of: a rest stop, a gas station, a restaurant, and lodging; and
suppressing route recalculation while the vehicle remains in the neutral zone geographic region;
wherein neutral zone geographic regions are defined based on defined routes such that it is possible for a part of a roadway that is included within a neutral zone geographic region of a first defined route to not be included within any neutral zone geographic region of a second defined route.
10. The system of claim 9 , further comprising a database for storing neutral zone information, wherein the computer executable instructions further comprise:
instructions for retrieving neutral zone information from the database to be used in the determining.
11. The system of claim 10 , wherein the database for storing neutral zone information is located at a call center.
12. The system of claim 10 , wherein the neutral zone information is programmed into the database based on neutral zone information provided by a call center.
13. The system of claim 10 , wherein the neutral zone information is programmed into the database based on neutral zone information provided by the user.
14. The system of claim 9 , wherein the instructions for the determining further comprise:
instructions for receiving an input from the user that the user is entering a geographic region that the user considers a neutral zone.
15. The method of claim 5 , further comprising determining that the user has exited the neutral zone geographic region;
wherein determining that the user has exited the neutral zone geographic region comprises receiving an input from the user that the user is exiting the geographic region that the user considers a neutral zone.
16. The system of claim 13 , wherein the neutral zone information is provided by the user sending a signal to indicate entry into the neutral zone geographic region and the user subsequently sending a signal to indicate departure from the neutral zone geographic region.
17. The method of claim 1 , wherein the portion of the defined route included in the neutral zone geographic region is part of a highway, and the one or more vehicle stopping locations is accessible by a vehicle from the highway.
18. The system of claim 9 , wherein the portion of the defined route included in the neutral zone geographic region is part of a highway, and the one or more vehicle stopping locations is accessible by a vehicle from the highway.