Navigation system and program of route search method

• US 20040158395A1
• Filed: 12/22/2003
• Published: 08/12/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 12/26/2002
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Aisin AW Company Limited (Aisin Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Aisin AW Company Limited (Aisin Corp.)
• Inventors: Ogawa, Satoshi, Yamada, Kunihiro
• Application Number:
  US10/740,849
• Publication Number:
  US 20040158395A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/202
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/20 Instruments for performing navigational calculations G01C21/24, G01C21/26 take precedence

Abstract

A navigation system has an information acquisition processing unit for acquiring search data including network data of networks formed for individual transportation methods, a search processing unit for searching acquired search data for routes based on the network data beginning with a network of a highest priority, and a route connection processing unit for connecting the routes found as a result of the search. Since the routes of all the transportation measures are not searched in each network and only routes of a transportation method corresponding to a network are searched, it becomes easier to search for routes in route search processing.

Claims

1. A navigation system, comprising:

an information acquisition processing unit for acquiring search data, including network data of networks formed for individual transportation measures;

a search processing unit for hierarchical searching of acquired search data for routes based on the network data beginning with a network of a highest priority; and

a route connection processing unit for connecting routes found as a result of the search.

2. The navigation system as claimed in claim 1, wherein each of the network data includes layer data of a plurality of hierarchical layers from a highest layer to a lowest layer, and the search processing unit searches for a route on each layer.

3. The navigation system as claimed in claim 2, wherein layer data on a higher layer is formed by search data of a broader range and layer data on a lower layer is formed by search data of a narrower range.

4. The navigation system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the priority of the networks is set in advance.

5. The navigation system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the priority of the networks can be changed by an operator.

6. A navigation system, comprising:

a network data acquisition processing unit for reading out network data of networks formed for individual methods of transportation beginning with a network of a highest priority;

a search processing unit for searching for routes on each network on the basis of the network data;

a route connection processing unit for connecting the routes found as a result of the search; and

a route guide data transmission processing unit for transmitting route data of the connected routes to a terminal device.

7. A storage medium for storing a set of instructions executable on a data processing device and usable to search for a navigation route causing a computer to function as an information acquisition processing unit, comprising:

instructions for acquiring search data including network data of networks formed for individual transportation measures, respectively;

instructions for searching for routes based on the network data in order from a network of the highest priority, of the acquired search data; and

instructions for connecting routes found as a result of the search.