Claims Analysis
Total Claims: 8
Claim 1
Independent Claim
157 words
A road vehicle route selection and guidance system, comprising: beacons distributed over a designated geographical area broadcasting route guidance information to passing vehicles, and one or more vehicles each equipped with a compass, odometer, computer including display and data entry means, a receiver for receiving information from a beacon, the information being presented in the form of nodes and route links between the nodes, where the information is relatively detailed in a first area immediately surrounding the beacon, and the information is relatively sparse in second areas further away than the first area and nodes are defined in terms of a hierarchical code (as herein defined of the form wherein nodes in said second areas are defined in terms of code elements Di and nodes in said first area in terms of code elements Di+j, and where the intended destination is entered into said computer by said data entry means in terms of an identifying hierarchical code.
Claim 2
Dependent Claim
157 words
A road vehicle route selection and guidance system, comprising: beacons distributed over a designated geographical area broadcasting route guidance information to passing vehicles, and one or more vehicles each equipped with a compass, odometer, computer including display and data entry means, a receiver for receiving information from a beacon, the information being presented in the form of nodes and route links between the nodes, where the information is relatively detailed in a first area immediately surrounding the beacon, and the information is relatively sparse in second areas further away than the first area and nodes are defined in terms of a hierarchical code (as herein defined of the form wherein nodes in said second areas are defined in terms of code elements Di and nodes in said first area in terms of code elements Di+j, and where the intended destination is entered into said computer by said data entry means in terms of an identifying hierarchical code.
Claim 3
Dependent Claim
21 words
A system as claimed in claim 1 wherein the hierarchical code comprises a post code of the form C = D₁D₂D₃D₄.
Claim 4
Dependent Claim
81 words
A system as claimed in claim 1 or 2 wherein the second areas are divided into distant areas and intermediate areas intermediate said first area and said distant areas, wherein the route links in said first area define substantially all local roads, the route links in said intermediate areas define main roads and the nodes define main links between the main roads, and the route links in said distant areas define a direction to a central part of the distant area.
Claim 5
Dependent Claim
45 words
A system as claimed in claim 3 wherein nodes in said distant areas are defined in terms of the first code element on the hierarchical code, and nodes in said intermediate areas are defined in time of the second code element of the hierarchical code.
Claim 6
Dependent Claim
18 words
A system as claimed in claim 4 wherein grid map references are additionally employed to define said nodes.
Claim 7
Independent Claim
26 words
A system as claimed in any preceding claim wherein nodes and route links in said first area are defined as offsets from an initial beacon position.
Claim 8
Dependent Claim
22 words
A system as claimed in claim 1 and substantially as described with reference to figures 6 and 7 of the accompanying drawings.