Method of generating map update process data, map update method, and map update apparatus

• US 20060190507A1
• Filed: 02/07/2006
• Published: 08/24/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 02/10/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Alpine Electronics Incorporated (Alps Alpine Co., Ltd.), Mobilemedia Brain Association,Inc.
• Original Assignee: Alpine Electronics Incorporated (Alps Alpine Co., Ltd.), Mobilemedia Brain Association,Inc.
• Inventors: Sekine, Minoru, Ohira, Masaaki
• Granted Patent: US 7,490,006 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3859 Differential updating map data
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 29/10 Map spot or coordinate position indicators; Map reading aids optical projection apparatus per se G03B

Abstract

A method of generating map update process data used for updating old map data including a great number of files to new map data includes the steps of using an old map file to be updated and a new map file to generate differential data; calculating a relative size of the differential data; and using the new map file if the relative size is higher than a predetermined value and using the differential data if the relative size is lower than the predetermined value to form the map update process data.

Claims

1. A method of generating map update process data used for updating old map data including a great number of files to new map data, the method comprising the steps of:

using an old map file to be updated and a new map file to generate differential data;

calculating a relative size of the differential data; and

using the new map file if the relative size is higher than a predetermined value and using the differential data if the relative size is lower than the predetermined value to form the map update process data.

2. The method of generating the map update process data, according to claim 1, further comprising the step of:

generating data indicating whether a map update process file in the map update process data is based on the new map file or on the differential data and including the generated data in the map update process data.

3. The method of generating the map update process data, according to claim 1, further comprising the step of:

writing the map update process data for all the old map files to be updated in a recording medium to form an update recording medium.

4. The method of generating the map update process data, according to claim 3, further comprising the step of:

setting the predetermined value on the basis of a capacity of the update recording medium.

5. The method of generating the map update process data, according to claim 1,

wherein the relative size is the relative size of the differential data with respect to the size of the new map file.

6. The method of generating the map update process data, according to claim 4,

wherein the predetermined value is set such that the entire map update process data is recorded in one recording medium.

7. The method of generating the map update process data, according to claim 2,

wherein the map update process data is structured in a directory structure, and

wherein the map update process file in the directory structure includes the data indicating whether the map update process file is based on the new map file or on the differential data.

8. A map update method for a navigation apparatus that uses map update process data used for updating old map data including a great number of files to new map data to update a map, the map update method comprising the steps of:

determining whether a map update process file in the map update process data is based on a new map file or differential data;

replacing an old map file stored in a map data storage unit in the navigation apparatus with the new map file if the map update process file is based on the new map file; and

generating the new map file by using the differential data and the old map file to replace the old map file stored in the map data storage unit with the new map file if the map update process file is based on the differential data.

9. The map update method according to claim 8, further comprising the steps of:

reading out the map update process file based on the new map file, among the map update process files in the map update process data, from a recording medium and replacing the old map file stored in the map data storage unit in the navigation apparatus with the new map file; and

reading out all the map update process files based on the differential data, among the map update process files, from the recording medium and storing the readout map update process files in a memory,

wherein, subsequently, the map update process files based on the differential data and the old map file are used to generate the new map file, and the old map file stored in the map data storage unit is replaced with the new map file.

10. The map update method according to claim 8, further comprising the steps of:

acquiring the map update process file from the recording medium and acquiring the old map file from the update data storage unit;

writing the updated data in the map update process file after an update process is finished and counting the number of updated files; and

determining that the update process is completed if the counted number of updated files coincides with the total number of updated files recorded in the recording medium.

11. An apparatus for generating map update process data used for updating old map data including a great number of files to new map data, the apparatus comprising:

a map file input unit that receives an old map file and a new map file; and

a processing unit that generates differential data between the old map file to be updated and the new map file, that calculates a relative size of the differential data, that uses the new map file to generate a map update process file if the relative size is higher than a predetermined value and uses the differential data to generate the map update process file if the relative size is lower than the predetermined value, and that uses the generated map update process files to form the map update process data.

12. The apparatus for generating the map update process data, according to claim 11, further comprising:

an update-recording-medium forming unit that writes the map update process data in a recording medium to form an update recording medium.

13. The apparatus for generating the map update process data, according to claim 12,

wherein the processing unit sets the predetermined value on the basis of a capacity of the update recording medium.

14. The apparatus for generating the map update process data, according to claim 11,

wherein the processing unit includes:

a differential data generator that generates the differential data by using the old map file and the new map file;

a relative size calculator that calculates the relative size of the differential data; and

a map-update-process file generator that uses the new map data to generate the map update process file if the relative size is higher than the predetermined value and uses the differential data to generate the map update process file if the relative size is lower than the predetermined value.

15. The apparatus for generating the map update process data, according to claim 11,

wherein the processing unit calculates the relative size of the differential data with respect to the size of the new map file as the relative size.

16. The apparatus for generating the map update process data, according to claim 11,

wherein the processing unit generates data indicating whether the map update process file is based on the new map file or on the differential data and includes the generated data in the map update process data.

17. The apparatus for generating the map update process data, according to claim 11,

wherein the processing unit sets the predetermined value such that the entire map update process data is recorded in one recording medium.

18. The apparatus for generating the map update process data, according to claim 16,

wherein the processing unit structures the map update process data in a directory structure, and includes the data indicating whether the map update process file is based on the new map file or on the differential data in the map update process file in the directory structure.

19. A navigation apparatus that uses map update process data used for updating old map data including a great number of files to new map data to update a map, the navigation apparatus comprising:

a map data storage unit that stores the old map data;

a map data reading-writing control unit that reads out the old map data from the map data storage unit and writes the new map data in the map data storage unit;

a map-update-process data input unit that receives the map update process data; and

a map update processing unit that determines whether a map update process file in the map update process data is based on a new map file or on differential data, that replaces an old map file stored in the map data storage unit with the new map file if the map update process file is based on the new map file, and that uses the differential data and the old map data stored in the map data storage unit to generate the new map file and replaces the old map file stored in the map data storage unit with the new map file if the map update process file is based on the differential data.

20. The navigation apparatus according to claim 19,

wherein, after an update process is finished for one map update process file, the map update processing unit writes the updated data in the map update process file, counts the number of updated files, and completes the update process if the counted number of updated files coincides with the total number of updated files recorded in a recording medium.

21. A map data update method for updating old map data including a great number of files to new map data, the map data update method comprising the steps of;

using an old map file to be updated and a new map file to generate differential data;

calculating a relative size of the differential data;

using the new map file if the relative size is higher than a predetermined value and using the differential data if the relative size is lower than the predetermined value to form the map update process data;

writing the map update process data in a recording medium to form an update recording medium; and

replacing the old map file stored in a map data storage unit in a navigation apparatus with the new map file if a map update process file read out from the update recording medium is based on the new map file, and generating the new map file by using the differential data and the old map file to replace the old map file stored in the map data storage unit with the new map file if the map update process file is based on the differential data.

22. The map data update method according to claim 21,

wherein data indicating whether the map update process file is based on the new map file or on the differential data is included in the update recording medium storing the map update process data.

23. A map data update system that updates old map data to new map data, the map data update system comprising:

an apparatus for generating map update process data used for updating the old map data including a great number of files to the new map data; and

a navigation apparatus for using the map update process data to update a map,

wherein the apparatus for generating the map update process data includes;

a map file input unit that receives an old map file and a new map file;

a processing unit that generates differential data between the old map file to be updated and the new map file, that calculates a relative size of the differential data, that uses the new map file to generate a map update process file if the relative size is higher than a predetermined value and uses the differential data to generate the map update process file if the relative size is lower than the predetermined value, and that uses the generated map update process files to form the map update process data; and

an update-recording-medium forming unit that writes the map update process data in a recording medium to form an update recording medium, and

wherein the navigation apparatus includes;

a map data storage unit that stores the old map data;

a map data reading-writing control unit that reads out the old map data from the map data storage unit and writes the new map data in the map data storage unit;

a map-update-process data input unit that receives the map update process data; and

a map update processing unit that determines whether the map update process file in the map update process data is based on the new map file or on the differential data, that replaces the old map file stored in the map data storage unit with the new map file if the map update process file is based on the new map file, and that uses the differential data and the old map data stored in the map data storage unit to generate the new map file and replaces the old map file stored in the map data storage unit with the new map file if the map update process file is based on the differential data.