Mobile navigation system with graphic crime-risk display
A navigation system for mobile use includes street map data used for creating a dynamic map display tracking movement of the vehicle and includes crime data used to provide an overlay on the dynamic display indicating a risk of crime to the vehicle's occupants from the surrounding area. Crime data may be harvested from police websites and/or generated using statistical correlation techniques from other proxy information. Presented crime data indicate crime risk, type of crime, crime date or time of occurrence, and linkage to environmental conditions such as type of weather, temperature, and moonlight.
1. A vehicular GPS device comprising:
a GPS receiver providing substantially real time location information related to a position of the vehicle holding the GPS receiver;
a graphics display;
an electronic memory storing:
(i) a street map; and
(ii) crime data linked to locations;
a computer executing a stored program and communicating with the GPS receiver, the graphics display, and the electronic memory to:
(i) generate a dynamic display of a street map following the position of the vehicle; and
(ii) generate multiple shaded zones in the dynamic display of the street map, the multiple shaded zones depicting the crime data in the locations of the shaded zones;
wherein the crime data is further linked to time of day and wherein the multiple shaded zones depict the crime data only for a current predetermined time range.
2. A vehicular GPS device comprising:
a GPS receiver providing substantially real time location information related to a position of the vehicle holding the GPS receiver;
a graphics display;
an electronic memory storing:
(i) a street map; and
(ii) crime data linked to locations;
a computer executing a stored program and communicating with the GPS receiver, the graphics display, and the electronic memory to:
(i) generate a dynamic display of a street map following the position of the vehicle; and
(ii) generate multiple shaded zones in the dynamic display of the street map, the multiple shaded zones depicting the crime data in the locations of the shaded zones;
wherein the crime data is further linked to date and wherein the multiple shaded zones depict the crime data only for a current range of dates.
3. The vehicular GPS receiver of claim 2 wherein the crime data is further linked to environmental conditions including at least one of: air temperature, phase of the moon, precipitation and wherein the multiple shaded zones depict the crime data only for corresponding environmental conditions.
4. The vehicular GPS receiver of claim 2 wherein the crime data includes severity of crime and a shading of the shaded zones maps to different degrees of crime severity.
5. A vehicular GPS device comprising:
a GPS receiver providing substantially real time location information related to a position of the vehicle holding the GPS receiver;
a graphics display;
an electronic memory storing:
(i) a street map; and
(ii) crime data linked to locations;
a computer executing a stored program and communicating with the GPS receiver, the graphics display, and the electronic memory to:
(i) generate a dynamic display of a street map following the position of the vehicle; and
(ii) generate multiple shaded zones in the dynamic display of the street map, the multiple shaded zones depicting the crime data in the locations of the shaded zones;
wherein the street map identifies limited access highways and wherein the shading of the shaded zones is excluded in a predetermined distance from limited access highways.
6. A vehicular GPS device comprising:
a GPS receiver providing substantially real time location information related to a position of the vehicle holding the GPS receiver;
a graphics display;
an electronic memory storing:
(i) a street map; and
(ii) crime data linked to locations;
a computer executing a stored program and communicating with the GPS receiver, the graphics display, and the electronic memory to:
(i) generate a dynamic display of a street map following the position of the vehicle; and
(ii) generate multiple shaded zones in the dynamic display of the street map, the multiple shaded zones depicting the crime data in the locations of the shaded zones;
wherein the street map magnification is reduced when crime statistics are displayed to provide for a meaningful statistical crime sample.
7. A method of improving traveler safety comprising the steps of:
(a) using a GPS receiver to obtain substantially real time location information related to a position of the vehicle holding the GPS receiver;
(b) generating a dynamic display of a street map following the position of the vehicle using stored street map data; and
(c) generating multiple shaded zones in the dynamic display of the street map, the multiple shaded zones depicting the crime data in the locations of the shaded zones using stored crime data linked to locations
wherein the crime data is further linked to time of day and wherein the multiple shaded zones depict the crime data only for a current predetermined time range.
8. The method of claim 7 wherein the crime data includes severity of crime and a shading of the shaded zones maps to different degrees of crime severity.
9. The method of claim 7 wherein the crime data is further linked to environmental conditions including at least one of: air temperature, phase of the moon, precipitation and wherein the multiple shaded zones depict the crime data only for corresponding environmental conditions.
10. The method of claim 7 wherein in the shaded zones provide a shading reflecting an areal density of a particular crime type.
11. A method of improving traveler safety comprising the steps of:
(a) using a GPS receiver to obtain substantially real time location information related to a position of the vehicle holding the GPS receiver;
(b) generating a dynamic display of a street map following the position of the vehicle using stored street map data; and
(c) generating multiple shaded zones in the dynamic display of the street map, the multiple shaded zones depicting the crime data in the locations of the shaded zones using stored crime data linked to locations
wherein the crime data is further linked to date and wherein the multiple shaded zones depict the crime data only for a current range of dates.
12. A method of improving traveler safety comprising the steps of:
(a) using a GPS receiver to obtain substantially real time location information related to a position of the vehicle holding the GPS receiver;
(b) generating a dynamic display of a street map following the position of the vehicle using stored street map data; and
(c) generating multiple shaded zones in the dynamic display of the street map, the multiple shaded zones depicting the crime data in the locations of the shaded zones using stored crime data linked to locations;
wherein the street map identifies limited access highways and wherein the shading of the shaded zones is excluded in a predetermined distance from limited access highways.
13. A method of improving traveler safety comprising the steps of:
(a) using a GPS receiver to obtain substantially real time location information related to a position of the vehicle holding the GPS receiver;
(b) generating a dynamic display of a street map following the position of the vehicle using stored street map data; and
(c) generating multiple shaded zones in the dynamic display of the street map, the multiple shaded zones depicting the crime data in the locations of the shaded zones using stored crime data linked to locations;
wherein the street map magnification is reduced when crime statistics are displayed to provide for any meaningful statistical crime sample.
14. An aggregating system for crime data comprising:
an electronic computer connected to the Internet to:
(a) visit a list of predetermined websites providing local crime data;
(b) execute a site-specific script to extract crime types, crime locations and crime times from the site;
(c) reformat the extracted data and provide the reformatted data to a geocoder providing a unique coordinate for each crime incident;
(d) save the data and unique coordinate for each crime incident in a database;
(e) query the database to find relevant crime data for a particular map area;
(f) provide an areal crime map using the results of the queried database.