Apple Patents Commute Assistant for Future iPhones

Apple’s iPhone can already provide a soundtrack during your daily commute and distract you with a book, movie or game, but now the tech giant wants to make it easier for you to get where you’re going. A US patent application submitted by Apple shows that the California-based company has been developing a new ‘Commute Assistant’ to give up-to-the minute travel information.

The new service would appear as an app on Apple’s devices to help commuters find the best way to make their journey by public transport.

Source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2871743/Now-Apple-wants-help-improve-commute-Patent-reveals-future-iPhones-plan-journeys-public-transport-update-route-problems-occur.html

Apple’s patent shows it has been developing an entirely new service dedicated to helping commuters. It wants to produce a one-stop app that will fulfill all of a users’ commuting needs by providing a rolling list of bus and train travel times, routes, stops, route changes and delays.

While there are already many third-party apps available for the iPhone, few seem to have the scope or ambition of Apple’s proposed service.

It wants to produce a one-stop app that will fulfill all of a users’ commuting needs by providing a rolling list of bus and train travel times, routes, stops, route changes and delays.

For those with more exotic modes of transport in mind, the patent even mentions the service could include boats, airplanes and helicopters.

Apple said it will pull together information from different transport networks in an area to provide up-to-the second information to calculate the quickest route.

Users will be able to search for transport options using a map and their location, or by time, or a particular route.

It proposes using a ‘dynamic focus table’, which provides a list of options that are updated as new information comes in, and changes as commuters move along their route.

Apple claims it would be able to use information provided by transport companies themselves, information collected by third parties, and even data from sensors carried on board vehicles.

The patent application said: ‘The commute application provides a novel user interface that presents the routes and the schedules for the routes in an intuitive and fluid manner.

‘For instance, the commute application of some embodiments includes several user interface widgets for facilitating the presentation of different routes that are part of different transit systems in a way that different route alternatives can be easily viewed.

The patent suggests that the new app will send commuters alerts if a bus or train on their route is running late. Users will be able to search for transport options using a map and their location, or by time, or a particular route.

Apple hopes its Commute Assistant will help tourists by replacing the need for tube maps and bus timetables.

Apple’s patent will allow commuters to scroll through a route by time, showing where a service will stop.

Commuters will be able to select a backup route to help them should there be problems on their chosen journey (illustrated).

‘The commute application provides a dynamic focus table that dynamically presents schedules for trips along a particular route.

‘For instance, when a particular route is selected to view its details, the dynamic focus table automatically presents the next upcoming trip along the particular route.

‘In some embodiments, the dynamic focus table displays the next upcoming trip information based on the current time of the device and the location of the device.

The dynamic focus table allows a user to quickly scroll though all the trips that are scheduled to travel along the a particular route throughout the day or for a certain period of time.

‘In some embodiments the commute application receives updates to the arrival and departure time of transit vehicles at each stop along a route from a set of servers operated by a transit operators or from one or more third parties or from equipment that these parties install on the transit vehicles.’

The patent, titled ‘User Interface Tools for Commute Assistant’, builds on Apple’s Maps service that it provides on all its devices.

It proposes using a ‘dynamic focus table’, which provides a list of options that are updated as new information comes in, and changes as commuters move along their route.

Unlike Google’s Maps service, it is not yet able to provide detailed transport network information.
And Apple Maps has been previously criticised for not being as accurate as its rival.

In the past few years Apple has acquired a number of firms that produce transportation apps, including HopStop, Locationary and Embark.

Apple’s patent includes options for saving a route, saving favourite locations and selecting a backup route for a trip.
Users would also be able to check specific stops to see all the services that pass through it regardless of time and mode of transport.

Apple also proposes to include information about internet access along a route and etiquette for boarding vehicles, where to stand on a platform and on escalators.

It is also expected to be able to keep updating in the background, sending commuters notifications if a bus or train on their chosen route is running late.

Read more HERE | SOURCE: DailyMail