Navigation apparatus, facility information searching method, program thereof, and a recording medium with the program recorded therein

• US 20030225510A1
• Filed: 05/23/2003
• Published: 12/04/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 05/28/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Pioneer Corporation
• Original Assignee: Pioneer Corporation
• Inventors: Ono, Kouichi, Kamiyama, Kazuyoshi
• Granted Patent: US 6,947,836 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/207
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3679 Retrieval, searching and output of POI information, e.g. hotels, restaurants, shops, filling stations, parking facilities G01C21/3611 takes precedence

Abstract

The input operation recognizing section 13 recognizes an input operation to execute re-search in the operating section 4. The facility search control section 10 makes the facility search section 9 execute re-search. The re-search by the facility search section 9 is carried out by searching, from facilities belonging to the same group as that of those detected in the previous search, facilities other than those detected in the previous search. With the present invention, when the re-search as described above is to be performed, user'"'"'s operation for specifying a facility is not required, which improves the convenience in facility search.

Claims

1. A navigation apparatus comprising:

a facility information fetching section for fetching facility information including group information concerning a plurality of groups of facilities, each group including a plurality of facilities belonging to a category and positional information concerning positions of said facilities;

a facility search section for searching facilities belonging to a specified group based on said facility information; and

a control section for controlling said facility search section so that, when re-searches the facility, said facility search section searches, from the same group of facility as that of selected in the previous search, facility other than previously selected.

2. The navigation apparatus according to claim 1 further comprising:

a current position recognizing section for recognizing a current position of a mobile body, wherein said control section determines, when re-searches facility, based on a current position of said moving body and positional information included in the facility information, whether said moving body is within a specified area including the facilities detected in the previous search, and when it is determined that said moving body is within said specified area, controls the facility search section so that the facility search section searches facilities other than those detected previously.

3. The navigation apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the facility information includes accommodation space information relating to an accommodation space belonging to the facility and capable of accommodating mobile body;

said navigation apparatus further comprising;

a current position recognizing section for recognizing a current position of the mobile body, wherein the control section determines, when re-searches the facility, based on a current position of said moving body and the accommodation space information included in said facility information, whether said moving body is within an accommodation space of the facility detected in the previous search, and, when it is determined that said moving body is within said accommodation space, controls the facility search section so that the facility search section searches facilities other than that detected in the previous search.

4. The navigation apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the facility search section searches facilities within a specified area around a current position of said moving body and enlarges said specified area until at least one facility is detected.

5. The navigation apparatus according to claim 2 further comprising:

an input section for specifying execution of re-search by means of input operation, wherein the control section makes the facility search section search facility in an area around a current position of the moving body when the control section recognizes that execution of re-search has been specified by the input section, and further makes the facility search section again search, based on the facility information obtained in the search above, facility other than those detected in the previous search.

6. The navigation apparatus according to claim 1 further comprising:

an input section for specifying execution of re-search by means of input operation; and

a facility information recording section for recording facility information concerning the facilities searched by the facility search section, wherein the control means makes the facility search section again search, based on the facility information recorded in said facility information recording section, facilities other than those detected in the previous search when the control section recognizes that execution of re-search has been specified by said input section.

7. A facility searching method for searching facilities with a computing unit comprising the steps of:

searching searches facilities belonging to a specified group based on the group information concerning a plurality of groups of facilities, each group including a plurality of facilities belonging to a category, and the positional information concerning positions of said facilities by the computing unit; and

searching facilities other than those searched previously from the same group as that of the facilities detected in the previous search, when re-searches the facility.

8. The facility searching method according to claim 7, wherein the computing unit recognizes a current position of the moving body, and, when re-search is to be performed, based on the current position of the moving body recognized previously and the positional information included in the facility information, determines whether said moving body is within a specified area including the facilities detected in the previous search or not, and when it is determined that said moving body is within said specified area, searches facilities other that those detected in the previous search.

9. The facility searching method according to claim 7, wherein the computing unit recognizes a current position of said moving body, and when re-search is to be performed, based on the current position of the moving body recognized previously and the accommodation space information concerning accommodation spaces each belonging to a facility and capable of accommodating moving bodies therein, determines whether said moving body is within an accommodation space of any of the facilities detected in the previous search or not, and, when it is determined that said moving body is within said accommodation space, searches facilities other than those detected in the previous search.

10. The facility searching method according to claim 8, wherein the computing unit searches, when re-search is to be performed, facilities located within a specified area around a current position of the moving body, and concentrically enlarges said specified area until at least one facility is detected.

11. The facility searching method according to claim 8, wherein the computing unit searches, facilities in an area around a current position of the moving body, when the computing unit recognizes that execution of re-search has been specified by means of input operation, and re-searches the facility, based on the facility information obtained in the search, facilities other than those previously searched.

12. The facility searching method according to claim 7, wherein the computing unit makes the facility information concerning searched facilities recorded, and again searches, when it recognizes that execution of re-search has been specified by means of input operation, based on the recorded facility information, facilities other than those searched previously.

13. A facility search program making the computing unit execute the facility searching method according to claim 7.

14. A recording medium for recording the facility search program therein, wherein the facility search program according to claim 13 is readably recorded in the state readable by the computing unit.