A method for operating a navigation system, in particular in a motor vehicle, comprising the following steps: determining an upcoming waypoint of a route, which is planned by the navigation system, with respect to which an item of navigation information is to be output to a user, ascertaining surroundings data relating to the surroundings of the waypoint, ascertaining at least one reference object, which is located in the surroundings of the waypoint, from the surroundings data, assigning a verbal designation to the reference object, preparing the navigation information comprising the designation, and acoustically outputting the navigation information.

A method of providing enhanced navigation information in a vehicle in response to a finding of driver confusion includes the steps of monitoring behavior of a driver, determining whether the driver is confused based on the behavior of the driver, and providing additional points of interest data to the driver if the driver is determined to be confused.

A route display method for display on a terminal apparatus comprises: acquiring starting point information indicating a starting point and destination information indicating a destination; generating route information indicating a route from the starting point to the destination, wherein the route information includes a plurality of passing points; extracting captured images corresponding to the plurality of the passing points from a database which stores the captured images in relation to corresponding image capturing locations respectively, wherein each of the image capturing locations is within a range from the each of the plurality of the passing points; and displaying the extracted captured images in association with a map image sequentially in an order from a first captured image corresponding to a first passing point closest to the starting point to a second captured image corresponding to a second passing point closest to the destination.

To provide context-aware audio navigation instructions, a server device obtains sets of audio navigation instructions previously provided to users along with sensor data descriptive of a context in which the audio navigation instructions were provided and an indication of whether a driver correctly responded to the audio navigation instructions. The server device trains a machine learning model using this data, where the machine learning model identifies audio navigation instruction parameters for a particular context. In response to a request for navigation directions, the server device receives sensor data from the client computing device generating the request that is indicative of the environment surrounding the client computing device. The server device then applies the sensor data and navigation instructions to the machine learning model to generate a set of audio navigation instructions responsive to the request. The server device provides the set of audio navigation instructions to the client computing device.

A method for recording data of a trip is implemented by a processor of a recording device and includes: in response to receipt of a location record, performing a trajectory analysis on the location record so as to determine, with respect to a plurality of point of interest (POI), whether each of the POIs has been visited; and generating a travel record that includes the location record and any POI that has been visited.

A vehicle selects various sound sources and outputs driving sound based on information received from the navigation system. A database stores sound sources classified as first and second emotions. A controller outputs a landmark name based on a route guidance text and outputs a ratio of the first and second emotions corresponding to the landmark name. The controller selects a first sound source from the sound sources classified as the first emotion based on the first emotion ratio, selects a second sound source from the sound sources classified as the second emotion based on the second emotion ratio and determines first and second playback periods based on the ratios of the first and second emotions. The controller outputs a first sound generated based on the first sound source during the first playback period and a second sound generated based on the second sound source during the second playback period.

A vehicle includes a camera configured to capture an image; and a controller programmed to analyze quality of the image to calculate a lens cleanliness, responsive to detect the lens cleanliness being below a predefined threshold, identify a carwash station within a predefined distance from a navigation route, indicate the carwash station to a vehicle user, and responsive to receiving user input selecting the carwash station, set the carwash station as a navigation destination.

A computer includes a processor and a memory storing instructions executable by the processor to receive an image including a physical landmark, output a plurality of synthetic images, wherein each synthetic image is generated by simulating at least one ambient feature in the received image, generate respective feature vectors for each of the plurality of synthetic images, and actuate one or more vehicle components upon identifying the physical landmark in a second received image based on a similarity measure between the feature vectors of the synthetic images and a feature vector of the second received image, the similarity measure being one of a probability distribution difference or a statistical distance.

Described is a travel-based geo-paired information system. The system includes a server having a memory storing geo-paired information that includes content regarding or related to a point of interest. The system also includes a user computing device coupled to the server. The server may be programmed to receive location information from the user computing device. The server may also be programmed to automatically process the location information and determine whether a location of the user computing device is within a predetermined distance from a point of interest geolocation. Then the server may automatically find and retrieve geo-paired information corresponding to or paired to the point of interest geolocation and automatically deliver to the user computing device, for presenting, the content related to the point of interest corresponding to the location of the user computing device.

A navigation apparatus and method which uses personal contact-based route guidance. A route guidance generator receives information about personal contacts including a location, a description and a rating value for route guidance and generates route guidance suitable for navigation applications. The personal contacts based guidance can be combined with normal street and maneuver based guidance.