NAVIGATION APPARATUS AND METHOD OF CONTROLLING NAVIGATION APPARATUS

• US 20090005969A1
• Filed: 05/23/2008
• Published: 01/01/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 06/26/2007
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: TAMURA, Tadashi
• Application Number:
  US12/126,662
• Publication Number:
  US 20090005969A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/202
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3423 Multimodal routing, i.e. combining two or more modes of transportation, where the modes can be any of, e.g. driving, walking, cycling, public transport
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3476 using point of interest [POI] information, e.g. a route passing visible POIs
• 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

A navigation apparatus includes a map data controller adapted to read map information from a map data supply apparatus disposed outside the navigation apparatus and store the map information in the storage unit, and a control unit adapted to control a position measurement unit, a storage unit, and the map data controller. The control unit obtains a current position via the position measurement unit, and detects a unique place reachable from the current position on the basis of information associated with a transport system and the unique place supplied from the map data supply apparatus. The control unit determines map information of an area necessary in providing route guidance to the unique place from the current position, and controls the map data controller so as to read the map information of the area from the map data supply apparatus and store the map information in the storage unit.

Claims

1. A navigation apparatus adapted to provide route guidance to a destination point, comprising:

a position measurement unit adapted to measure a position;

a storage unit adapted to store map information;

an image display unit adapted to display the map information in the form of a visual image;

a map data controller adapted to read the map information from a map data supply apparatus disposed outside the navigation apparatus and store the map information in the storage unit; and

a control unit adapted to control the position measurement unit, the storage unit, and the map data controller,

the control unit being adapted to control the position measurement unit to obtain a current position, detect one or more unique places reachable from the current position on the basis of information supplied from the map data supply apparatus in terms of a transport system and in terms of the unique places, determine map information of an area for use in providing route guidance to the unique places from the current position, and control the map data controller to read the determined map information of the area from the map data supply apparatus and store the map information in the storage unit.

2. The navigation apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

the unique places include a landmark, and the information associated with the unique places includes information indicating a location of the landmark and information indicating a typical trip time needed to make a trip around the landmark,

the information associated with the transportation system includes route information of the transport system to the landmark and time information of the transport system, and

the map information of the area includes map information of an area including the current position and a departure point of the transportation system, and map information of an area including the landmark and an arrival point of the transportation system.

3. The navigation apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

the unique places include a getting-on/off point which is located close to a first destination point and at which the transportation system is available,

the information associated with the transportation system includes route information from the getting-on/off point of the transportation system and time information of the transportation system, and

the control unit displays, on the image display unit, a route reaching a second destination point via the first destination point and a predicted time at which the first destination point or the second destination point will be reached, on the basis of the route information, the time information, and the current position measured by the position measurement unit.

4. A method of controlling a navigation apparatus adapted to read map information from a map data supply apparatus disposed outside the navigation apparatus, store the map information in a storage unit disposed in the navigation apparatus, and provide route guidance associated with a route to a destination point in accordance with the map information, comprising the steps of:

measuring a current position;

detecting one or more unique places reachable from the current position, on the basis of information associated with a transportation system; and

reading map information of an area for use in providing route guidance from the current position to the one or more unique places from the map data supply apparatus and storing the map information in the storage unit.