Did You Know...
...that several people are credited with the invention of the flush toilet? Most people have heard of Thomas Crapper (1837-1910), the sanitary engineer who invented the valve-and-siphon arrangement that made the modern toilet possible. Another claimant to "the throne" was British inventor Alexander Cumming who patented a toilet in 1775. Then there's a nameless Minoan (a native of ancient Crete) who lived 4,000 years ago who supposedly was ahead of his time and created the first flush toilet!
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| Number | Title | Issue Date |
| 7518533 | Navigation system and method, and computer program product A navigation system (500) is provided with: a navigation apparatus (510); a server apparatus (520) and a route information transmittance apparatus (530), which are inter-communicable via a communication network (540). The route inf... | 04/14/2009 |
| 7432829 | Apparatus and method for providing travel information An apparatus and method for providing travel information, including a database for storing information regarding a travel area, wherein the information includes at least one of road information, street information, intersection information, and traffic control devic... | 10/07/2008 |
| 7424363 | Method and system for adaptive navigation using a driver's route knowledge A method and system are described to adapt instructions for performing a task by a user, which includes receiving generalized instructions for the task, selecting a content of the generalized instructions based on user-specific knowledge regarding the task, construc... | 09/09/2008 |
| 7421336 | Automobile navigation device with guidance A navigation device decreasing the frequency at which a user data stored in a data storage section, the navigation device includes a route receiving section for receiving route data, a data selecting section for selecting candidate location data indicating at least ... | 09/02/2008 |
| 7418339 | Method for initiating navigation guidance in a distributed communications system A method is provided for improved navigation guidance in a portable navigation device (104) having a first navigation operating mode (302) for requesting (318, 324) and receiving (326, 334) routelet data and navigation route data and oper... | 08/26/2008 |
| 7398156 | Point search apparatus and in-vehicle navigation apparatus There are provided a point search apparatus and an in-vehicle navigation apparatus capable of searching destination candidates from which a user can view a visual target that he/she desires. A search means is formed so as to search destination candidates from which ... | 07/08/2008 |
| 7376510 | Map display for a navigation system A system and method are disclosed for displaying map information on a portable computing device. When approaching a location at which maneuvering guidance is to be provided by the portable computing device, the portable computing device presents alternating images o... | 05/20/2008 |
| 7353016 | Call intercept methods, such as for customer self-support on a mobile device A method for intercepting calls from a remote or mobile device for customer self-support detects when users or subscribers dial one or more predetermined numbers. If the number corresponds to one of the predetermined numbers (such as a customer support number), the ... | 04/01/2008 |
| 7353461 | Method and apparatus for selection control The present invention provides a method and apparatus for selection control using a touch screen, wherein first and second intersecting bars (1, 2) are displayed, preferably near the edge, on the screen (3), and the first bar (1) displays contai... | 04/01/2008 |
| 7321825 | Method and apparatus for determining vehicle operating conditions and providing a warning or intervention in response to the conditions A control system (12) for an automotive vehicle (10) includes a GPS system (16) that generates a vehicle position for a vehicle relative to a surface, a plurality of driver inputs (40), and a plurality of vehicle inputs (50). A con... | 01/22/2008 |
| 7312697 | Method of using telematics units to place courtesy notifications A method of providing courtesy notifications from a mobile vehicle including receiving courtesy notification user input at a vehicle telematics unit, receiving a time and a date at the telematics unit, determining whether the courtesy date and the courtesy time corr... | 12/25/2007 |
| 7293241 | Method and an arrangement for scrollable cross point navigation in a user interface The invention relates to a method and an arrangement for scrollable cross point navigation on a user interface in order to select a feature by combining object fields. Bars, where at least one of them is scrollable, have object fields which overlap and combine each ... | 11/06/2007 |
| 7239960 | Navigation method and system for visiting multiple destinations by minimum number of stops A navigation method and apparatus finds a location and a route to a plurality of destinations with the minimum number of stops or the shortest overall distance. The navigation method includes the steps of: specifying a plurality of destinations in a navigation syste... | 07/03/2007 |
| 7194355 | Navigation system When a vehicle performs route calculation at a current position, the number of lanes at the current position is found. A predetermined correspondence between the numbers of lanes and straight prioritized distances is used to find a straight prioritized distance at t... | 03/20/2007 |
| 7184885 | Navigation system and method therefor A navigation system includes an image search unit for searching across an image database by using image data transmitted from an image data input unit, as a search key, a search-result output unit for displaying at least one piece of image data extracted by the sear... | 02/27/2007 |
| 7184884 | Navigation device, information supplying server and information service system using the same A navigation device in that on each of fixed information having a long update period and update information having a short update period which compose the user service information stored in a navigation device whether or not the user service information is newest, i... | 02/27/2007 |
| 7161502 | Information display system An information display system for displaying a map that covers an area around a pre-registered point relevant to a date or a date and time. The position of the pre-registered point on the map is readily and accurately identified using the operator's selection of the... | 01/09/2007 |
| 7146273 | Navigation system, navigation apparatus, and server apparatus The Navigation Apparatus transmits to a server apparatus a current position, a destination, and an area of a geographical information stored in a geographic information memory part. The server apparatus receives them to calculate one or more potential routes from th... | 12/05/2006 |
| 7133771 | Automated route determination to avoid a particular maneuver A preferred route may be determined from an origin location to a destination location. The preferred route avoids a particular maneuver or particular maneuvers identified by a user. The determination is made by processing directed links (e.g., one-way edges) in a gr... | 11/07/2006 |
| 7124023 | Traffic flow data collection agents A method and apparatus to compute a fastest route is described. The method uses the speed of a plurality of informer vehicles as data collection agents to summarize traffic conditions. A central processing point collects the data. Navigation systems in receiving veh... | 10/17/2006 |
| 7124025 | Vehicular navigation device A vehicular navigation device includes a control circuit to designate a route to a destination from a start point to be defined. When a route designation instruction is inputted, it is determined whether an intersection being a target for route designation is presen... | 10/17/2006 |
| 7116941 | Megatelecommunication technology the electronic hand off stereo phone system An entertainment device for vehicles having communication and information means adaptable to include various telecommunication and Internet applications, a sun-visor monitoring screen is configured with the entertainment device for viewing data content. The sun-viso... | 10/03/2006 |
| 7110879 | Method for making available route data for a navigational device For the purpose of making available route data for a navigational device, an overall route is divided up into route segments which each include a part of the overall route. A first route segment is transmitted to the navigational device, upon its request, which arou... | 09/19/2006 |
| 7099772 | Route determination method and device A route calculation method allowing an optimized route to be drawn up by means of a calculator between a point α and a point β, consisting in using digitized data from at least a first and a second source, and consisting of (i) determining a plurality of alpha nod... | 08/29/2006 |
| 7043234 | Data transmitting and receiving method between a mobile terminal and an information center in a navigation system A data transmitting and receiving method between a mobile terminal and an information center in a navigation system is disclosed. The present invention is characterized in that if lower items of a destination are not received from the information center in the middl... | 05/09/2006 |
| 7039879 | Method and apparatus for scrollable cross-point navigation in a user interface Method and apparatus for controlling an electronic device by navigating through a hierarchy of groups of commands while continuously providing the current location and path in the hierarchical structure. A displayed scrollable cross-point navigation image has two ba... | 05/02/2006 |
| 7035650 | System and method for providing directions A method for providing directions includes receiving at a server, from at least one fixed wireless communication device, information identifying a current location of a portable communication device. The portable communication device has short range wireless communi... | 04/25/2006 |
| 7035734 | Method and system for communicating navigation information A method for communicating navigation information includes receiving destination information from a user. The destination information comprises a desired destination of the user. The method includes determining a first route to the destination and communicating the ... | 04/25/2006 |
| 7016781 | Method and system for querying in a moving object database A database receives location information about a moving object. Using the destination of the object and an electronic map, the database finds a projected path for the moving object. From the projected path, the database computes a trajectory. The trajectory may be u... | 03/21/2006 |
| 6996469 | Method of route calculation and method of navigation A method of route calculation in an vehicle navigation device is described, whereby a route from a starting location or a current location to a destination location is calculated, so that in the case of a deficiency in the vehicle or a deficiency impairing the drive... | 02/07/2006 |
| 6992598 | Apparatus and method for providing travel information An apparatus and method for providing travel information, including a database for storing information regarding a travel area, wherein the information includes at least one of road information, street information, intersection information, and traffic control devic... | 01/31/2006 |
| 6988036 | Navigation terminal, navigation system, navigation program and drive guide method When the drive guide is performed by acquiring the drive route information from the information center, a control unit of the navigation terminal receives the information of a partial drive route in the total drive route connecting the place of departure and the pla... | 01/17/2006 |
| 6968271 | Method and system for querying in a moving object database A database receives location information about a moving object. Using the destination of the object and an electronic map, the database finds a projected path for the moving object. From the projected path, the database computes a trajectory. The trajectory may be u... | 11/22/2005 |
| 6965325 | Traffic monitoring system Systems and techniques to determine a primary route between two locations by monitor vehicle speed using transmitting wireless devices. In general, in one implementation, the technique includes: receiving information associated with traffic conditions on a route fro... | 11/15/2005 |
| 6947834 | Method for inputting a destination into a navigation device A method for entering destinations into a navigation device is described, characters of a destination name being input and a list of destination names which begin with the character(s) input being generated as a function of the character(s) input, in which the list ... | 09/20/2005 |
| 6937869 | Route planning system for mobile telecommunications A route planning system for use in mobile telecommunications is disclosed. A user of a mobile station such as a wireless telephone, PDA, pager or computer, initiates a route planning service request and provides a destination telephone number. A switching center res... | 08/30/2005 |
| 6933860 | Method and apparatus for the display of temporal distance data An electronic device is built including a memory, a processor, and a display. The processor is configured to calculate an array of estimated travel time data from a first location to a plurality of locations within a destination area from a set of situational parame... | 08/23/2005 |
| 6931321 | Navigation system and a route guidance data storage program A navigation system including a controller that defines a first search criterion concerning travel routes and a second search criterion concerning travel time, searches for a route in accordance with the first search criterion and the second search criterion, and st... | 08/16/2005 |
| 6915207 | Method and system for setting travel time and method and system for route calculation with use thereof A position of a vehicle is detected by receiving a position detection signal transmitted from the travelling vehicle. It is sensed whether or not the vehicle passes a starting node of a required link on a road network, and when the vehicle passes the starting node, ... | 07/05/2005 |
| 6909967 | Navigation device and route retrieving device A navigation device includes: a display device which displays a map; a route search device which searches a route based upon a departure location, an enroute location, and a destination location which have been inputted; an enroute location addition device which add... | 06/21/2005 |
