Patents by Inventor Jeffrey Hightower

Jeffrey Hightower has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Publication number: 20150177005
    Abstract: For a segment of a route, a navigation data gathering system and method may progressively increment the precision of data analysis in proportion to the number of people actively on a route segment. Navigation data may be anonymized to preclude the possibility of correlating navigation data with personal data to track users or infer private information. Further, the system or method may determine if information for a route segment can be used at all based on the number of users of that segment. If the number of users does not exceed a threshold, the information collected on that route may not be used for other purposes. Thus, the system and method may use navigation data related to a busy section of an interstate highway at the level of precision with which the data is gathered, but reduce the level of precision of data available for a rarely used road segment.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 3, 2015
    Publication date: June 25, 2015
    Inventors: William Henry Steinmetz, Jeffrey Hightower Hightower
  • Patent number: 8972187
    Abstract: For a segment of a route, a navigation data gathering system and method may progressively increment the precision of data analysis in proportion to the number of people actively on a route segment. Navigation data may be anonymized to preclude the possibility of correlating navigation data with personal data to track users or infer private information. Further, the system or method may determine if information for a route segment can be used at all based on the number of users of that segment. If the number of users does not exceed a threshold, the information collected on that route may not be used for other purposes. Thus, the system and method may use navigation data related to a busy section of an interstate highway at the level of precision with which the data is gathered, but reduce the level of precision of data available for a rarely used road segment.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 28, 2013
    Date of Patent: March 3, 2015
    Assignee: Google Inc.
    Inventors: William Henry Steinmetz, Jeffrey Hightower
  • Patent number: 8880347
    Abstract: The present disclosure relates to generating graphical turn indicators associated with road junctions having an on-route road segment and multiple off-route road segments extending from a center of the road junction. More particularly, the present disclosure provides graphical turn indicators that represent road junctions having multiple road segments that extend from a center of the road junction within close angular proximity with respect to one another. Each road segment of a road junction is mapped to a unique graphical element of the graphical turn indicator and each graphical element represents a particular turn type.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 24, 2013
    Date of Patent: November 4, 2014
    Assignee: Google Inc.
    Inventors: Jeffrey Hightower, William H. Steinmetz