Navigation apparatus and method

• US 20050182561A1
• Filed: 08/30/2004
• Published: 08/18/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 09/29/2003
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Aisin AW Company Limited (Aisin Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Aisin AW Company Limited (Aisin Corp.)
• Inventors: Kano, Toshihiro, Ogawa, Satoshi, Yamada, Kunihiro
• Application Number:
  US10/928,258
• Publication Number:
  US 20050182561A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/209
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3608 using speech input, e.g. using speech recognition
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3682 output of POI information on a road map G01C21/3614, G01C21/3685 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/29 Geographical information databases

Abstract

A navigation apparatus, capable of searching for a destination within an area having an informal name, includes an input unit for inputting an area name and a controller. The controller searches for one or more business places having a name which includes the input area name, generates at least one area-based group of the searched for one or more business places, and displays an area corresponding to one of the at least one area-based groups on a display.

Claims

1. A navigation apparatus comprising:

an input unit for inputting an area name; and

a controller that;

searches for one or more business places having a name which includes the input area name;

generates at least one area-based group of the searched for one or more business places; and

displays an area corresponding to one of the at least one area-based groups on a display.

2. The navigation apparatus of claim 1, wherein each business place is at least a branch, a branch office, a sales office, an office, a stop, or a station, of a chain organization.

3. The navigation apparatus of claim 1, wherein the controller searches for the one or more business places using a search term, the search term generated by combining a word indicating a business place and the area name.

4. The navigation apparatus of claim 1, wherein the controller searches for the one or more business places having a name which includes the input area name using backward-match searching.

5. The navigation apparatus of claim 1, wherein the controller generates the at least one area-based group corresponding to a basic local government area by filtering the one or more business places in accordance with address information associated with the one or more business places.

6. The navigation apparatus of claim 1, wherein:

the controller generates a plurality of area-based groups; and

if two or more of the plurality of area-based groups are adjacent, the adjacent two or more area based groups are combined into a single area-based group.

7. The navigation apparatus of claim 1, wherein if there are two or more area-based groups generated by the controller, the controller displays the two or more area-based groups in the form of a list, an order of the list determined in accordance with a predetermined priority.

8. The navigation apparatus of claim 1, wherein the controller determines a center of the area corresponding to the one of the at least one area-based groups based on a centroid of that area-based group and displays the center of the area on the display.

9. The navigation apparatus of claim 8, wherein the centroid is calculated by weighting a location of at least one business place in the one of the at least one area-based groups.

10. A navigation apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the area name is input via a voice.

11. A method for searching for a location, comprising:

inputting an area name;

searching for one or more business places having a name which includes the input area name;

generating at least one area-based group of the searched for one or more business places; and

displaying an area corresponding to one of the at least one area-based groups.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein searching for the one or more business places comprises searching for at least one or more of a branch, a branch office, a sales office, an office, a stop, or a station, of a chain organization.

13. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

generating a search term by combining a word indicating a business place and the area name;

wherein searching for the one or more business places comprises searching for the one or more business places using the search term.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein searching for the one or more business places having a name which includes the input area name comprises searching for the one or more business places having a name which includes the input area name using backward-match searching.

15. The method of claim 11, wherein generating the at least one area-based group of the searched for one or more business places comprises:

generating the at least one area-based group corresponding to a basic local government area by filtering the one or more business places in accordance with address information associated with the one or more business places.

16. The method of claim 11, wherein:

generating the at least one area-based group comprises generating a plurality of area-based groups; and

the method further comprises combining, if two or more of the plurality of area-based groups are adjacent, the adjacent two or more area based groups into a single area-based group.

17. The method of claim 11, wherein if two or more area-based groups are generated, the method further comprises displaying the two or more area-based groups in the form of a list, an order of the list determined in accordance with a predetermined priority.

18. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

determining a center of the area corresponding to the one of the at least one area-based groups based on a centroid of that area-based group; and

displaying the center of the area on the display.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein determining the center of the area corresponding to the one of the at least one area-based groups based on the centroid of that area-based group comprises calculating the centroid by weighting a location of at least one business place in the one of the at least one area-based groups.

20. The method of claim 11, wherein inputting the area name comprises inputting the area name via voice.

21. A storage medium storing a set of program instructions executable on a data processing device and usable for performing the method recited in claim 11.

22. A navigation apparatus comprising:

means for inputting an area name;

means for searching for one or more business places having a name which includes the input area name;

means for generating at least one area-based group by grouping the searched for one or more business places according to a corresponding location, each area-based group including one or more of the searched for business places; and

means for displaying an area corresponding to one of the at least one area-based groups on a display.