Intelligently placing labels

• US 10,282,916 B2
• Filed: 06/17/2016
• Issued: 05/07/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 06/01/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Adlers, Erik Anders Mikael, Marrin, Christopher F., Lindkvist, Elisabeth, Hultquist, Jeffrey Paul McCurdy, Henderson, II, Ian MacDonald
• Primary Examiner(s): Black, Thomas G
• Assistant Examiner(s): Lewandroski, Sara J
• Application Number:
  US15/186,406
• Publication Number:
  US 20160300397A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,054 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3635 Guidance using 3D or perspective road maps
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3638 including 3D objects and buildings three dimensional [3D] modelling, e.g. data description of 3D objects G06T17/00; geographic models G06T17/05
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3673 Labelling using text of road map data items, e.g. road names, POI names
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3682 output of POI information on a road map G01C21/3614, G01C21/3685 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3691 Retrieval, searching and output of information related to real-time traffic, weather, or environmental conditions arrangements for giving variable traffic instructions G08G1/09
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 11/00 2D [Two Dimensional] image generation
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 19/20 Editing of 3D images, e.g. changing shapes or colours, aligning objects or positioning parts
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2219/004 Annotating, labelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2219/2016 Rotation, translation, scaling
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 3/60 Rotation of whole images or parts thereof
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 5/00 Control arrangements or circuits for visual indicators common to cathode-ray tube indicators and other visual indicators image data processing or generation, in general G06T

Abstract

Some embodiments provide a mapping application that displays a rotation of a 3D map and corresponding rotation of a set of map labels overlaying the 3D map in response to receiving input to rotate the 3D map. When a particular map label in the set of map labels rotates towards an upside down orientation, the mapping application also replaces the particular map label with a version of the particular map label arranged in a right side up orientation to prevent the particular map label from being displayed in the upside down orientation in the 3D map.

Claims

1. A non-transitory machine-readable medium storing a mapping application which when executed on a device by at least one processing unit of a device provides views of a three-dimensional (3D) map on a touch-sensitive graphical user interface (GUI), the mapping application comprising sets of instructions for:

in response to receiving a touch input, rotating the 3D map and a map label overlaying the 3D map, the 3D map and map label rotation corresponding to a degree of rotation of the touch input;

generating a first vector that originates from a center point of the road label and ends at an end point of the road label;

generating a second vector that originates from the center point of the road label and projects along one of the horizontal axis and the vertical axis of the GUI;

determining that a rotation angle formed between the first vector and the second vector exceeds a threshold angle; and

in response to the determination, replacing the map label with a version of the map label arranged in a right side up orientation to prevent the map label from being displayed in an upside down orientation in the map.

2. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the map label is included within a set of map labels, wherein the set of map labels is a first set of map labels, and wherein the set of instructions for displaying the rotation of the 3D map comprises a set of instructions for displaying a second set of map labels overlaying the 3D map that are maintained in an upright orientation while displaying the rotation of the 3D map.

3. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 2, wherein the first set of map labels comprises a road label.

4. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 2, wherein the second set of map labels comprises at least one of a point of interest (POI) name, a city name, a state name, and a continent name.

5. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 2, wherein the second set of map labels comprises a banner for a point of interest (POI) indicator.

6. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 5, wherein the mapping application further comprises a set of instructions for displaying the banner for the POI indicator upon receiving a selection of the POI indicator.

7. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the set of instructions for replacing the map label with the version of the map label arranged in the right side up orientation comprises a set of instructions for displaying a crossfade effect that fades out the map label while fading in the version of the map label arranged in the right side up orientation.

8. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the mapping application further comprises a set of instructions for determining a location and manner for each character of a plurality of characters in a string of a road label to be placed on a curved road on the 3D map.

9. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 8, wherein at least two of the plurality of characters are placed at a different orientation relative to one another.

10. For a mapping application, a method for providing views of a three-dimensional (3D) map on a touch-sensitive graphical user interface (GUI) of a computing device, the method comprising:

in response to receiving a touch input, rotating the 3D map and a map label overlaying the 3D map, the 3D map and map label rotation corresponding to a degree of rotation of the touch input;

generating a first vector that originates from a center point of the road label and ends at an end point of the road label;

generating a second vector that originates from the center point of the road label and projects along one of the horizontal axis and the vertical axis of the GUI;

determining that a rotation angle formed between the first vector and the second vector exceeds a threshold angle; and

in response to the determination, replacing the map label with a version of the map label arranged in a right side up orientation to prevent the map label from being displayed in an upside down orientation in the map.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the map label is included within a set of map labels, wherein the set of map labels is a first set of map labels, and wherein displaying the rotation of the 3D map comprises displaying a second set of map labels overlaying the 3D map that are maintained in an upright orientation while displaying the rotation of the 3D map.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the first set of map labels comprises a road label.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein the second set of map labels comprises at least one of a point of interest (POI) name, a city name, a state name, and a continent name.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein the second set of map labels comprises a banner for a point of interest (POI) indicator.

15. The method of claim 14 further comprising displaying the banner for the POI indicator upon receiving a selection of the POI indicator.

16. The method of claim 10, wherein replacing the map label with the version of the map label arranged in the right side up orientation comprises displaying a crossfade effect that fades out the map label while fading in the version of the map label arranged in the right side up orientation.

17. The method of claim 10, wherein at least two of the plurality of characters are placed at a different orientation relative to one another.

18. A device comprising:

a set of processing units; and

a non-transitory machine-readable medium storing a mapping application which when executed by at least one of the processing units provides views of a three-dimensional (3D) map on a touch-sensitive graphical user interface (GUI) of the device, the mapping application comprising sets of instructions for;

in response to receiving a touch input, rotating the 3D map and a map label overlaying the 3D map, the 3D map and map label rotation corresponding to a degree of rotation of the touch input;

generating a first vector that originates from a center point of the road label and ends at an end point of the road label;

generating a second vector that originates from the center point of the road label and projects along one of the horizontal axis and the vertical axis of the GUI;

determining that a rotation angle formed between the first vector and the second vector exceeds a threshold angle; and

in response to the determination, replacing the map label with a version of the map label arranged in a right side up orientation to prevent the map label from being displayed in an upside down orientation in the map.

19. The device of claim 18, wherein the map label is included within a set of map labels, wherein the set of map labels is a first set of map labels, and wherein the set of instructions for displaying the rotation of the 3D map comprises a set of instructions for displaying a second set of map labels overlaying the 3D map that are maintained in an upright orientation while displaying the rotation of the 3D map.

20. The device of claim 18, wherein the set of instructions for replacing the map label with the version of the map label arranged in the right side up orientation comprises a set of instructions for displaying a crossfade effect that fades out the map label while fading in the version of the map label arranged in the right side up orientation.

21. The device of claim 18, wherein the device further comprises sets of instructions for determining a location and manner for each character of a plurality of characters in a string of a road label to be placed on the curved road on the 3D map.

22. The device of claim 21, wherein at least two of the plurality of characters are placed at a different orientation relative to one another.