FIELD OF INVENTION:
The present invention relates to a method to operate a navigation system and a navigational system. In particular the present invention relates to changing geographic data for a navigation system without modifying the stored original geographic data even when the situation demands changes are made in the stored data.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION:
There are many types of navigation systems existing in the market and known in the prior art. In order to provide good navigating function, the most essential feature is a need to have an updated geographical data at all times, to ensure that the stored data represents the real physical features in a geographical region. So it is now a practice and a necessity to upgrade or update the geographical data with newer versions, whenever a change is to be incorporated. This method of updating the geographical data is expensive and is also time consuming.
A hard disk drive is a typical storage device used in a vehicle navigation system. A navigation system with a built-in hard disk drive uses a navigation software and map data stored In a hard disk drive to navigate a vehicle to a destination.
One of the drawbacks of a navigation system with a built-in hard disk drive is that, the navigation system can not work during upgrade. Upgrading a navigation system with a built-in hard disk drive involves detaching the hard disk drive, updating the geographic data within the hard disk drive, and restoring the hard disk drive to the system. Detaching the hard disk dnve prohibits the navigation system from

operating during the upgrade. This implies that a navigation system with a built-in hard disk drive is forced to quit navigating the vehicle during upgrade of the system. Furthermore, this upgrade procedure undesirably requires the user to hand over the vehicle to the dealer to have the hard disk drive updated.
Therefore, a need exists to provide a technique for effectively reducing duration when a navigation system is forced to quit operating, in order to upgrade the system with minor changes in data.
Some navigation systems may use geographic data stored in CD/DVD/SD CARD etc. Whenever the data in the geographical region undergoes changes, the user needs to buy a new storage media in order to use the updated data. If the changes are minor, this may cause unnecessary financial cost to the user.
OBJECT OF THE INVENTION:
Therefore, keeping in mind that need exists to provide a technique for effectively modifying stored data set from time to time. It is also attempted effectively to shorten the duration of upgradation. It is also attempted to continue the use of the original data set, for the life time of the navigation system, without a need to replace the original data set.
The main objective of the invention is to provide a system and a method for a navigation system, to create, update and retrieve changed data without interfehng with the original geographic data set.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION:
The present invention relates to a system and method of creating/updating a geographic data, by creating a transformed data based on user inputs.
The received inputs are stored in a preset format, in the transformed data, so that, an interface layer can retrieve the stored data from the created transformed data, based on inputs received from user or navigation software.
It is therefore possible to create, update and retrieve changed data without interfering with the original geographic data and without any change on the navigational software. The navigation systems thereby become more convenient and useful for the user without increasing the cost of the system. Further it is no longer needed to update the geographical data on short intervals because minor changes can be performed by the user himself.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS:
1. Fig1 shows a transformation data.
2. Fig 2 shows the flowchart according to one of the embodiment.
3. Fig 3 shows the flowchart according to another embodiment.
4. Fig 4 shows a transformation data created by the user for city name change based on input received from the user.
DESCRIPTION OF INVENTION:
The present application relates to navigation systems and in particular the present invention relates to updating/creating geographic data for a navigation system,

without modifying the stored original geographic data , even when the situation demands changes are made in the stored original geographic data. The original geographic data is stored on a physical storage medium.
Automobile navigation systems of different types, for use on vehicle are openly available and these provide variety of useful features for navigation.
A typical navigation system has (1) a detailed data of one or more geographic areas or regions, (2) a navigation software, (3) a positioning system or location detection system; (4) an appropriate hardware, such as a microprocessor, memory, display, keyboard and storage medium for the data, (5) User interface such as keypad, touchpad, voice input to keying in the input data by the user.
Description of the geographic data is mentioned below:-
The detailed geographic data is in the form of one or more detailed, organized data files or data sets. The detailed geographic data includes information about the positions of roads and intersections in or related to one or more specific geographic regional areas, and may also include information whether the street is one way, number of turns encountered, restriction of turn encountered, points of interest and public utility points and service points. The geographic data that is pre-stored in a navigation system is the original geographic data.
The positioning system or location detection system will be based on known technologies, to determine or approximate vehicle's physical location in a geographic area. It is the general practice to install a GPS-type system (global

positioning system), or any other known mechanism or combinations of these, or other systems, all of which are well-known in the art.
The navigation software of the navigation system uses the data stored in geographic data and the output of location or positioning system, to compute the best possible route to the destination selected by the user. The navigation software will provide route guidance to the user with a voice, text messages, or display of map of the route and user's selected destination in the geographic area. The navigation software may also provide the user with specific directions to locations in the geographic area from wherever the user is located. This enables the user to drive along the route displayed in the visual display means and with a voice support giving information or fore warning of the distance to drive, turns to take and signals ahead, etc.
The navigation software is coupled to a stored geographic data and a vehicle location apparatus, such as a GPS receiver. The navigation software is configured to receive vehicle location data from the vehicle location apparatus, to receive a destination selection from the user interface, to retrieve road-network/address data from the stored original geographic data, and to generate route information between the vehicle location and the selected destination selection.
In a vehicle navigation system, a position information detection means detects position information of a vehicle, using for example, a GPS receiver. When detecting an event such as request for destination, the navigation software predicts a route and time to the destination. Traffic information regarding the route to destination, is
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acquired by the navigation software, which may then be displayed with a voice to support, on the screen. In systems such as currently-used vehicle navigation systems, a user can specify a destination or a route clearly, so that a mechanism for providing the user with information regarding the specified destination or route can be easily attained.
A typical navigation system combines the navigation software, original geographic data and the positioning system into a single operating device and are installed in vehicles. Alternatively, navigation software and original geographic datasets may be independent software products loaded in the appropriate hardware in the car. The system is stand-alone system or may utilize a communication link to a central or regional or distributed system. Navigation systems may also be used for seeking information relating to traffic control or traffic monitoring.
In order to provide useful and enhanced features in a navigation system, there is a need to collect and compile detailed, reliable, and up-to-date data about geographical regions and areas. There is also a need to continuously update the geographic data since many data can rapidly become out dated.
There may be a case where the user is familiar only with the current updated geographical data, but the navigation system's data has the un-updated geographical data. It is necessary that both the above requirements shall be met simultaneously.

For example, old roads are renamed, businesses change locations, old cities are renamed, House numbers may change etc. It is expected that end-users, such as vehicle owners who have navigation systems in their vehicles, will tend to use the new data i.e. the new name of the city or the new name of the road and will demand to have the geographic data in their navigation systems updated from time to time, which will be an expensive manner of providing this updated data to the user.
In order to enable the user to use updated geographic data in a navigation system, which is associated with the original geographical data over the lifetime of the navigation system, the provider of geographic data needs to provide an interface layer that transforms the updated geographic data into original geographic data, which continues to be compatible with the user's particular navigation system.
The invention provides an interface layer as a new feature in the navigation systems, which will enable the user to handle any changes in data stored in original geographic data, for example changes in city/street names/house numbers etc.
Example: If a city name is changed from , Ex. 'MADRAS' to 'CHENNAI', presently the user will not be able to enter/select the city 'CHENNAI' as destination, because the stored data does not contain the new name 'CHENNAI' in the city list, but contains its previous name "MADRAS".
Here the options available, for the user, are to update or buy the new data for the storage media which will incur unnecessary cost or still keep using the older name 'MADRAS', which is not so convenient.
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The invention suggests a simple feature in the navigation system to overcome the above mentioned problem.
To achieve the foregoing and other objectives and in accordance with the purposes of the present invention, there is provided an improved method and system for updating/creating a geographic data for a navigation system.
When the user desires to change or rename a place as above, i.e. if a city name is changed from , Ex. 'MADRAS' to 'CHENNAI', a transformation data will be created as explained in figure 4, based on inputs received from user.
The new feature is a menu driven option - "Change city/street name".
The user selects this option as part of settings. When this feature is activated, the
present city/street name list will be displayed in alphabetical order.
User selects 'MADRAS' which is the first user input and presses enter.
The system prompts now for new city name.
User enters the new city name "CHENNAI" which is the second user input.
The system acknowledges by displaying confirmation message - City 'MADRAS'
changed to 'CHENNAI'. Each of these inputs will be associated to each other.
The new feature will create/update a Transformed data as shown in figure 1, in the EEPROM (electrically erasable programmable read only memory) or any other non¬volatile memory, which retains its contents even after power supply is removed and stores there, the user inputs. This is a 2 dimensional data set, which contains first user input and second user input for each change. The first user input data is
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hereinafter referred as the original data element and the second input data is hereinafter referred as the transformed data element. Even after switching off of the system, the table entries will be retained in the memory.
The interface layer also performs a logical check as shown in figure 2 and 3 and retrieves either the original data element or transformed data element from the transformed data, based on request from navigation software or user interface.
Because the interface layer presents a uniform, consistent view of the original geographic data to the navigation system, it can continue to operate without concern about interfacing updated geographic data with the physical medium and the stored geographic data. From the end-user's point of view, the interface layer provides updated geographic data automatically when a request is raised.
Based on the size of EEPROM or non-volatile memory available in the system for this new feature, there can be a limit for the no. of changes that can be handled.
Now whenever user wants to see the city list, the system reads the city list from storage media, which contains still the name 'MADRAS'. But before presenting this to the user, the interface layer converts name 'MADRAS' to 'CHENNAI' and then displays.
User can select the name CHENNAI from the list and use the system as before, for navigation guidance.
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The interface layer on receiving the name 'CHENNAI' from user interface, checks whether 'CHENNAI' has an entry in the "Transformed data" which means that a transformed data element is associated to the orginal data element. If it finds the entry, then it looks into the corresponding Original data element, which contains 'MADRAS', and picks up the name 'MADRAS' and passes on to the other modules for route calculation, route guidance etc.
The change happens only in the user interface level. At the processing level, the navigation system uses the original data. The change happens to be only in the user interface level both at receiving information from the user and providing information to the user.
The invention is applicable to handling changes in street names/house numbers etc., which have different data in the stored original geographic data set.
The main advantage of the invention is that, the existing original geographic data can still be used even if there is change/updation in the geographic data that deals with new city/street names or house numbers.
It is intended that the foregoing detailed description be regarded as illustrative rather than limiting and that it is understood that the following claims including all equivalents are intended to define the scope of the invention.
Furthermore, other desirable features and characteristics of the present invention will become apparent from the subsequent detailed description and the appended
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claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and the foregoing technical field and background
As such, the system represents an effective and economical alternative to a relatively high cost, premium updated geographical data.
Accordingly, the shortcomings of the prior art have been overcome by providing an improved automobile navigation system, with a compatible updations in geographical data.
The system is versatile, yet economical, to incorporate the new interface layer, which acts like interface unit between the user requested data and the original geographical data, instead of substituting the original data with an updated version.
The embodiments described herein provide enhanced operating capabilities, at a relatively low cost in the automobile navigation system, with the original geographical data.
While at least one embodiment has been presented in the foregoing detailed description, it should be appreciated that a vast number of variations exist. It should also be appreciated that the embodiment or embodiments are only examples, and are not intended to limit the scope, applicability, or configuration of the invention in any way. Rather, the foregoing detailed description will provide those skilled in the art, with a convenient usage of original data with an additional feature, to support the original data for making the updated data available to the user for the convenience
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of seeking the navigation support from the navigation system. It should be understood that various changes can be made in the function and arrangement of elements without departing from the scope of the invention as set forth in the appended claims and the legal equivalents thereof.
However, in fact the operation of searching for a destination or a route is complicated and confusing due to new and better functionalities of navigation systems and the situation becomes worse when user does not find the desired destination on the screen from which he can select the destination. In addition, it is considered that if such operation performed by the driver, more essentially during the drive, will cause diversion of attention as the driver has to recall the old name of the destination, thereby obstructing the careful driving and should also know the current destinations' old names even though the current destination name may be in use publicly.
The present invention relates to a data processing apparatus, for updating data using current data in use at the user end and interface layer for translating this updated data into original data for the navigation software at that end. In a vehicle navigation system which operates with stored data, will generally get its updation by means of replacement. However, in this invention the original data stored in the data is not updated, but the updated version of the data is made available to the extent required by the user at the user end.
In this manner even though the original data is not updated and is not necessary to be updated, the user assumes that the data has been updated. Further the data
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generation time period in the interface layer, due to the low volume of data, is small whereby new information and repeat updations can be provided for the vehicle users economically.
Moreover the invention enables the user who has purchased a vehicle installed navigation system with a particular data, to continue to use the navigation system with the original data, thereby increasing the life of the navigation system. The usage is attempted with a minimal substitution of data as the corrective data and to translate the updated data back to the original data in the navigation software end.
The present invention is thereby related to more specifically the vehicle navigation system, but may be extended to any navigation system, operating with the stored data and the method in particular to a technique, to continue the use of navigation system with original data, without the need to update the stored data, in a vehicle navigation system.
An improved method and a system that provides for an interface layer has been attempted in this invention, which is applicable to any typical navigation system. The navigation system shall be of type that includes navigation software , that provides navigating features to the user of the system, along with the geographical data, stored therein, wherein the geographical data includes the information relating to the geographical region about which the navigation system provides the navigation features to the user.
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- The interface layer envisaged in the invention, is preferably stored in the navigation system as a combination of software functions and lool< up tables corresponding to stored data which have been transformed, with corresponding transformed data. The interface layer isolates navigation software from the geographic data, where the data elements have undergone transformation. The interface layer intercepts the user requests, checks whether the requested data is a transformed data, by looking at the transformed data. If the user request is a transformed data, then it retrieves the original data and presents to the navigation software for further processing. Same way the interface layer receives the original data from navigation software, checks whether the data has undergone transformation, by looking in the transformed data. If yes, then it presents to the user the transformed data.
This means any changes in the stored data, is accommodated in the interface layer, which links the transformed data with original data contained in stored data, such that the interface layer interacts with the navigation software to provide navigating features to the user. The navigation software responds only to original geographic data from stored data, whereas the user seeks the transformed data, both of which are made available in the invention.
The system and the method pertain to gaining control over the execution of navigation software with an interface layer, comprising of the following steps. Firstly intercepting the user input data to a navigation software. Then determining whether the requested input data is a original data or a transformed data and if transformed data, then translating the transformed data back to a corresponding original data.
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Thereafter forwarding the corresponding original data to the navigation software to generate the navigation function.
It also comprises executing a corresponding translation of original data to transformed data for forwarding the data to the user interface.
Further, the user visibility of the system is, restricted to transformed data and is unaware of the original data element stored in the transformed data and the navigation software is unaware of the configuration of the interface layer, utilized to track back the transformed data element into a corresponding original data element stored in the transformed data, for executing navigation related function.
In the invention, a transformation data is prepared in the interface layer, which corresponds to the transformation associated with the data, wherein each transformation defines a modification in the data of the original data and also includes corresponding transformed data so as to form a transformed data.
To facilitate the description of the inventive system and the novel method, the system has been described in terms of examples and it shall be appreciated that these are provided for the purpose of illustration only and that various modifications are feasible without departing from the inventive concept.
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WE CLAIM :
1. A method of operating a navigation system comprising navigation software
and original geographic data, comprises the steps of:
a first user input identifying at least one original geographical data element of
said original geographical data;
a second user input creating a transformed data element;
thereby associating the original geographical data element and the
transformed data element; and
retrieving the transformed data element or the corresponding original
geographic data element, based on request from user or the navigation
software.
2. A method according to claim 1, wherein the first user input which is stored as original data element that is associated to a transformed data element, is a street name, city name, house no. etc, that the user wishes to rename.
3. A method according to claim 1 and 2, wherein the second user input which is stored as transformed data element is a street name, city name, house no. etc, that the user wishes to use as a new name.
4. A method according to claim 1, 2 and 3 wherein on receiving input from the user, it is checked if the input is available as transformed data element, if yes the associated original data element is retrieved and passed on to the navigation software for further processing and if received input data from user is not available as transformed date element, the received user input itself is passed on to the navigation software for further processing.
5. A method according to claim 1, 2 and 3, wherein on receiving a output to be provided to the user from the navigation software, it is checked if the output
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has an associated transformed data element; if yes the corresponding transformed data element is retrieved for providing to the user; and if not the received output from the navigation software is provided to the user.
6. A method according to the above claims wherein the original geographic data
includes the information relating to cities, streets, maps, points of interest, etc
about which the navigation system provides the navigation feature to the
user.
7. A navigation system comprising of a navigation software and original
geographic data, comprising:
an interface layer identifying at least one original geographical data element
of said original geographical data based on a first user input; and
the interface layer creates a transformed data element based on a second
user input; the interface layer thereby associating the original geographical
data element and the transformed data element; and
the interface layer retrieving the transformed data element or the associated
original geographic data element, based on request from user or the
navigation software.