Navigation apparatus

• US 20080040033A1
• Filed: 07/31/2007
• Published: 02/14/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 08/11/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: DENSO Corporation
• Original Assignee: DENSO Corporation
• Inventors: Mutoh, Shigehiro
• Granted Patent: US 7,937,218 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/209
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/367 Details, e.g. road map scale, orientation, zooming, illumination, level of detail, scrolling of road map or positioning of current position marker

Abstract

A navigation apparatus provides a route guidance that selectively displays guidance information of a navigation route when the navigation route branches from a branch point. That is, for example, when the navigation route goes through two branch points in a series and the second branch point has plural branch roads respectively having guidance information, the navigation apparatus displays the guidance information of one of the branch roads relevant to the navigation route when a vehicle having the navigation apparatus approaches the first branch point.

Claims

1. A navigation apparatus comprising:

a map information database that stores information of a map;

a route setting unit that sets a guidance route to a destination;

a display unit that displays an image;

a position detector that detects a current position of a vehicle; and

a control unit that controls a display of a guidance image for providing for an occupant of the vehicle the guidance route based on the current position of the vehicle detected by the position detector and information stored in the map information database,

wherein the map information database stores information on at least one of a travelable road from a branch point and a connected road that lies ahead of the travelable road as road information relevant to each of the travelable roads from the branch point as well as road information associated to the branch point in the map, and

when, in a case where the vehicle travels toward a branch point (i.e., an approaching branch point hereinafter) in the guidance route, the control unit displays on the display unit the road information of the connected road that lies ahead of a road that extends from the approaching branch point along the guidance route from among the road information in association with the approaching branch point stored in the map information database on a condition that the road information to be displayed comes in plural pieces, the control unit retrieves road information of a road along the guidance route as well as in association with one of subsequent branch points that lie ahead of the approaching branch point in the guidance route from among the road information stored in the map information database, and selectively displays on the display unit the road information (i.e., common road information hereinafter) that is found in common with the retrieved road information from among the road information that comes in the plural pieces.

2. The navigation apparatus as in claim 1,

wherein one of the subsequent branch points comes as a next branch point subsequent to the first branch point in the guidance route.

3. The navigation apparatus as in claim 1,

wherein, when the vehicle approaches the approaching branch point, the control unit displays a branch point image on the display unit as well as displaying the common road information on the branch point image, and

the control unit further displays on the branch point image each piece of the road information in a manner that designates a correspondence of the road information with a specific road in an area that is recognizable by a user of the apparatus in addition to displaying on the branch point image the road information relevant to a road that is not included in the guidance route from among the road information in association with the approaching branch point in the map information database.

4. The navigation apparatus as in claim 3,

wherein the area for displaying the road information (i.e., a road information display area hereinafter) occupies plural sections in the branch point image with an order of precedence that abides by a predetermined rule,

the control unit assigns to each of the travelable roads from the approaching branch point in the branch point image the order of precedence that abides by the predetermined rule,

the control unit associates each of the travelable roads from the approaching branch point with each of the road information display areas according to the order of precedence assigned thereto, and

the control unit displays the road information of each of the travelable roads in the road information display area that is associated to each of the travelable roads.

5. The navigation apparatus as in claim 4,

wherein the road information display area in plural pieces has an order of precedence in a circular direction from a predetermined point in the branch point image, and

the control unit assigns to each of the travelable roads from the approaching branch point the order of precedence in the circular direction from the predetermined point in the branch point image.