Method for identifying a place, and terminal and central unit therefor

ES 2 159 409 T3

DESCRIPTION

Procedure for the identification of a place, terminal and central.

The invention relates to a method for the identification of a place, a terminal and a central.

The identification of a place on the occasion of a request in a terminal can be used for different purposes. Specifically, it is convenient for identifying a place of departure or arrival requested, etc. on a desired route on a navigation device. In a remote-controlled navigation (off-board navigation) the requests must be transferred from a terminal to a central. In them the location designations can be very long, so that the cost of requesting at the terminal and the cost of transmitting from the terminal to a traffic exchange is relatively large. An implementation of the possibility of a truncated (abbreviated) request for a place designation of a site in a terminal and being able to complete the abbreviated place based on an address data file in the terminal precludes the list of places must be fully available in the terminal and a correction or update is necessary. A request with a single sign with the respective immediate transmission from the terminal to the traffic center and the back-transfer of identifiable places through the signs requested so far is relatively expensive based on the telecommunication required and on the assisted data transfer. by packages, due to the travel times and the differences in travel time of different packages, it is technically expensive and uncomfortable to use; One reason for this can be seen in the relatively large positive list (that is, list of place designations, which start with the string of signs previously requested in the terminal). The transfer of a complete place designation is however fraught with errors in the application and is inconvenient, time-consuming in transmission and is expensive and above all not necessarily compatible in representation (Frankfurt aM or Frankfurt am Main) for representation on a venue designation list at the headquarters.

Document US-A-5191532 publishes a procedure for the identification of a name by means of a terminal, where the complete list of possible names is stored in the terminal. A string of signs is requested and it is checked whether the number of names in the list that could correspond is less than a predetermined maximum number. If not, another sign must be given.

The object of the invention is therefore the identification of a location designation that is as simple, ergonomic, efficient and free from possible failures, which saves on telecommunication costs and yet is compatible between the terminal and the central; specifically, a location designation for a requested route on a navigation device. The object is solved by means of the objects of the independent claims.

The invention makes it possible to identify an easy, ergonomic, fault-free, inexpensive place in the transmission as well as compatible between the terminal and the central through the user of a terminal, specifically through the driver of a vehicle with a terminal of navigation. This does not require a memory so large in the terminal as for a complete storage of all the places, so that the terminal can be manufactured cheaply. The site designation list is easily upgradeable. The place designation can be for example a city, a street, a zone of a street, a junction, a geographical data, such as a mountain, hill, valley, a bridge, etc., a district of a city, a public building , etc. It was especially indicated for the identification of uniquely designated places, such as cities or highways.

The signs entered can be in particular numbers and / or letters. A string of signs, which is also designated as "string", is the alignment of signs, specifically in the sequence of their introduction. The requested string of signs may be contained in different positions of a place designation; in particular it can be contained at the beginning of a place designation; in particular it can be compared to the beginning of place designations. The positive list is a list of site designations, which is known to the central office. An exception list is a list of strings of signs (entries) with which too many names of the position list begin, so that the rollback of all these names of the positive list from the control panel to the terminal for the choice of the desired name from there it would be too wide.

The procedure can be carried out in different conformations. The positive list is stored on purpose in the central.

The list of exceptions can be stored in the terminal and / or in the control panel. The verification of whether the requested string of signs was contained in the list of exceptions can be carried out in the control panel or especially in the terminal.

The transfer from the terminal to the exchange was carried out on purpose by radio, especially by mobile radio. In particular, packet transmission can be carried out, in particular by means of a short message, such as GSM-SMS.

The procedure can be carried out in a terminal and / or in a central, specifically as a program. To do this, at least parts of the program for location requests, for communication and for access to the data stored there are implemented in the terminal or in the central respectively. Which parts of the program are subsequently carried out at which place depends on the specific configuration of the procedure, especially according to the above sub-claims.

Other aspects and advantages of the invention result from the following description of an example of realization by hand of the drawing. In oil it shows:

Fig. 1 a crude abstract flowchart of a procedure embodiment with an exception list implemented in a terminal,

Fig. 2 a partial communication protocol user-terminal-server (= central) for an example of an interactive identification of a

ES 2 159 409 T3 place,

Fig. 3 an example of an exception list for a place designation in the form of German city names for a maximum number of signs of six signs.

A user of a terminal would like to indicate the name of a place to a central that is connected with the terminal by means of the request in the terminal. For this, a clear identification of the place intended by the user in the central is required. A request and identification of places of this type is required in particular in the traffic navigation of a vehicle with a terminal by means of a radio central; For this, they ask, for example, the place of departure and / or the place of destination of a route, for which the user of the terminal wants a navigation aid from the central through the terminal and / or a request for the current place, by For example, a street read by the user at the edge of the street, a place plate etc. to collect the position of the terminal.

In various application cases, such as the entry of a place designation on the vehicle in the navigation, the entry of the place designation should be as short as possible. To do this, a string of signs is asked in the terminal. For example, several signs can be typed one after the other or entered by means of a verbal input and be composed in a chain of signs or a chain of signs can be taken through the aquatic pronunciation, etc.

Figure 1 shows crudely abstracted an example of a realization of a question from a place for its identification in the terminal, where here a list of exceptions (also designable as "list of bad words" of "bad words") is implemented in the terminal.

The program starts at Start 1. Next, a sign is asked in step 2. Next, it is checked in step 3 if the string of signs asked is contained in the list of exceptions (here contained in the central one) of strings of signs that form the beginning of several names. If the chain of signs given so far is contained in the list of exceptions, it is required from the control panel to the terminal that requires the user of the terminal to enter more signs. When the user (in the choice 5inFig. 1) wants more signs, he continues with step 2, that is, with the entry of at least one more sign. The desire to give more signs can be given for example (= "Sa" in step 5) by means of introducing another sign.

When the user in step 5 does not want to enter more signs, that is, when he presses a key for example, he continues with step

6. With this, all the chains of signs that begin with the chain of signs given up to then are sent here; for entered sign strings that are contained in the exception list, these will be multiple sign strings. Eventually, only some of the strings of signs can be transferred to a positive list in the central one, which begin with the string of signs entered, and, if the user wants another string of signs that begins with the string to be transferred of signs entered, the other sign strings can be transferred in another step. From the corresponding transferred sign strings the user of the terminal can here choose a sign string in a step not shown.

In the case represented, a sign from the list of exceptions has the length 1, since it is already checked after the request for a sign whether the requested sign (= here requested string of signs) is contained in the list of exceptions. If all the strings of signs in the exception list have a certain average length, a step can be entered between step 1 and 2, in which a minimum number of signs is requested.

In the present case, the list of exceptions, that is, the list with strings of signs with which several strings of names-signs begin, is stored in the central. In addition, there is also the positive list of strings of signs, that is, the list of names of all the relevant names in the traffic center. In the terminal, therefore, only the request for signs of the entered string of signs and the representation of the determined name or also of several names transferred from the central to the terminal for the user are carried out.

How many names must start with a chain of signs that can be given, so that that chain of signs that can be given (that is, that beginning of several names) is contained in a list of exceptions, depends on different conditions, here especially on the transfer channel . When, for example, five names (= strings of signs of the positive list) can be efficiently transmitted from the control panel to the terminal that come into consideration and that start with the string of signs entered, it is sensible to take strings of signs starting from the list of exceptions with more than five names.

Figure 2 shows an example of the communication between a terminal user (client), a terminal and a central (= server).

In the example of Figure 2, the user of the terminal then introduces the signs F, R, A, N, K, E. These signs are in an exception list, which is contained here in the terminal, since there are too many names beginning with "Franke" (here place designations). Therefore the user is required to enter more signs of the desired name. For this, the user of the terminal enters the signs N, H, E, so that the chain of signs entered is completed to "Frankenhe". This chain of signs is transferred to the central. The exchange communicates from the positive list displayed in the exchange those names (strings of signs) that begin with the string of signs entered, here therefore “Frankenheim bei Leipzig” and “Frankenheim bei Meiningen”. These (here two) strings of signs from the positive list are transferred from the central to the terminal. The terminal renders the list of both questionable names to the customer. The customer chooses the second name from both names, that is Frankenheim bei Meinigen. The terminal transfers here for the later use of the place "Frankenheim bei Meiningen" to the central, where it can be used appropriately; in espe3

ES 2 159 409 T3 cial an identified place can be a place of destination, a place of origin, etc. for a route request from a terminal user in the control panel.

Figure 3 shows an example of an exception list for the example of German city names, that is, strings of signs with which more than six German cities begin. The length of the sign strings contained in the list of exceptions in Figure 3 is different here.