MAP DISPLAY SYSTEM AND MAP DISPLAY METHOD

• US 20090105945A1
• Filed: 10/14/2008
• Published: 04/23/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 10/17/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: OM Digital Solutions Corporation
• Original Assignee: Olympus Corporation, Olympus Imaging Corporation (Olympus Corporation)
• Inventors: Nonaka, Osamu
• Granted Patent: US 8,725,399 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/208
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/29 Geographical information databases
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/58 Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 11/206 Drawing of charts or graphs

Abstract

A map display system according to the present invention includes: a search section searching for a reference point where a map has not changed for approximately the same period as a period during which a map or a landscape of a base point has not changed; and a display section displaying information which represents the searched reference point. Further, a map display method according to the present invention includes: searching for a reference point where a map has not changed for approximately the same period as a period during which a map or a landscape of a base point has not changed; and displaying information which represents the searched reference point.

Claims

1. A map display system, comprising:

a search section searching for a reference point on a map where the map has not changed for a given period; and

a display section displaying information which represents the searched reference point.

2. The map display system according to claim 1, wherein

the search section searches for a reference point where the map has not changed from a time before the given period to the present.

3. The map display system according to claim 1, wherein

the given period is a period during which a map of a base point has not changed.

4. The map display system according to claim 3, wherein

information representing the base point is a shooting position or an image.

5. The map display system according to claim 3, wherein

the search section compares respective chronological maps of the base point and the reference point with each other, and, according to this comparison result, searches for the reference point where the map has not changed for approximately the same period as a period during which the map of the base point has not changed.

6. The map display system according to claim 3, further comprising:

a server including a transmission-and-reception section which transmits and receives information between the search section and the outside; and

a mobile information device including a transmission-and-reception section which transmits and receives information between the display section and the outside, wherein

information of the base point is transmitted from the mobile information device to the server.

7. A map display method, comprising the steps of:

searching for a reference point where a map has not changed for approximately the same period as a period during which a map or a landscape of a base point has not changed; and

displaying information which represents this searched reference point.

8. A map display method in a mobile device, comprising the steps of:

transmitting at least one of a reference image representing a landscape of a base point and positional information of the base point;

receiving a search result of a reference point where a map has not changed for approximately the same period as a period during which a map of the base point has not changed; and

displaying information which represents the searched reference point.

9. A server, comprising:

a search section inputting information regarding a base point and searching for a reference point where a map has not changed for approximately the same period as a period during which a map or a landscape of the base point has not changed; and

an output section outputting information which represents the searched reference point.

10. The server according to claim 9, further comprising:

a communication section communicating with an external apparatus; and

a database storing maps chronologically, wherein

the search section searches for the reference point according to the information regarding the base point input from the communication section with reference to the maps stored in the database.

11. The server according to claim 9, wherein

the search section estimates a date, when the landscape of the base point changed, according to an image or a name of the base point, and searches for the reference point where the map has not changed from approximately the same date as the date when the landscape changed, to the present.

12. The server according to claim 9, wherein

the search section compares respective chronological maps of the base point and the reference point with each other, and searches for the reference point where the map has not changed for approximately the same period as the period during which the map of the base point has not changed, according to this comparison result.

13. A computer-readable medium storing a computer program, the computer program causing a computer device to execute a map display method comprising the steps of:

searching for a reference point where a map has not changed for approximately the same period as a period during which a map or a landscape of a base point has not changed; and

displaying information which represents this searched reference point.