Weather information notification apparatus and program storage medium

• US 20090109059A1
• Filed: 10/28/2008
• Published: 04/30/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 10/30/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: DENSO Corporation
• Original Assignee: DENSO Corporation
• Inventors: Mizuno, Tomoaki
• Granted Patent: US 7,961,114 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 340/905
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3694 Output thereof on a road map
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/093 Data selection, e.g. prioritizing information, managing message queues, selecting the information to be output
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/0962 having an indicator mounted inside the vehicle, e.g. giving voice messages

Abstract

In a vehicular navigation system, a control circuit acquires weather information and displays (i) a map containing a present position and (ii) weather information relative to a position outside a display range of the map, among the acquired weather information.

Claims

1. A weather information notification apparatus comprising:

a weather information acquisition section configured to acquire weather information; and

a notification section configured to display (i) a map containing a present position of a user and (ii) weather information relative to a position outside a display range of the map, among the acquired weather information.

2. The weather information notification apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

a scheduled route calculation section configured to calculate a scheduled route for the user; and

an extraction section configured to extract a point in a zone except a display range of the map along the scheduled route,

wherein the notification section notifies the user of weather information relative to the point extracted by the extraction section.

3. The weather information notification apparatus according to claim 1, comprising:

a scheduled route calculation section configured to calculate a scheduled route for the user; and

an extraction section configured to extract a change point of a weather type in the weather information along the scheduled route,

wherein the notification section notifies the user of weather information relative to the change point extracted by the extraction section.

4. A weather information notification apparatus comprising:

a scheduled route calculation section configured to estimate a scheduled route for a user without accepting direct specification of a destination from the user;

a weather information acquisition section configured to acquire weather information along the scheduled route;

an extraction section configured to extract a point in a zone along the scheduled route, the zone excluding a present position of the user; and

a notification section configured to notify the user of, among the acquired weather information, weather information relative to the point in the zone extracted by the extraction section.

5. The weather information notification apparatus according to claim 4,

wherein the scheduled route calculation section calculates an estimated destination for the user;

and

wherein the extraction section recognizes an end point of the zone, the end point being one of (i) the estimated destination and (ii) a point by a predetermined reference distance away from the present position, the one being farther from the present position than an other.

6. A weather information notification apparatus comprising:

a scheduled route calculation section configured to calculate a scheduled route for a user;

a weather information acquisition section configured to acquire weather information along the scheduled route;

an extraction section configured to extract a change point of a weather type in the weather information along the scheduled route; and

a notification section configured to notify the user of weather information relative to the change point extracted by the extraction section, among the acquired weather information.

7. A program storage medium containing instructions readable and executable by a computer, the instructions for causing the computer to function as:

a weather information acquisition section configured to acquire weather information; and

a notification section configured to display (i) a map containing a present position of a user and (ii) weather information relative to a position outside a display range of the map, among the acquired weather information.

8. A program storage medium containing instructions readable and executable by a computer, the instructions for causing the computer to function as:

a scheduled route calculation section configured to estimate a scheduled route for a user without accepting direct specification of a destination from the user;

a weather information acquisition section configured to acquire weather information along the scheduled route;

an extraction section configured to extract a point in a zone along the scheduled route, the zone excluding a present position of the user; and

a notification section configured to notify the user of, among the acquired weather information, weather information relative to the point in the zone extracted by the extraction section.

9. A program storage medium containing instructions readable and executable by a computer, the instructions for causing the computer to function as:

a scheduled route calculation section configured to calculate a scheduled route for a user;

a weather information acquisition section configured to acquire weather information along the scheduled route;

an extraction section configured to extract a change point of a weather type in the weather information along the scheduled route; and

a notification section configured to notify the user of weather information relative to the change point extracted by the extraction section, among the acquired weather information.

10. A method for notifying a user of weather information, the method comprising:

acquiring weather information;

displaying a map containing a present position of the user; and

notifying the user of weather information relative to a position outside a display range of the map, among the acquired weather information by displaying the weather information relative to the position on the map.

11. A method for notifying a user of weather information, the method comprising:

estimating estimate a scheduled route for the user without accepting direct specification of a destination from the user;

acquiring weather information along the scheduled route;

extracting a point in a zone along the scheduled route, the zone excluding a present position of the user; and

notifying the user of, among the acquired weather information, weather information relative to the point in the extracted zone.

12. A method for notifying a user of weather information, the method comprising:

calculating a scheduled route for the user;

acquiring weather information along the scheduled route;

extracting a change point of a weather type in the weather information along the scheduled route; and

notifying the user of weather information relative to the extracted change point, among the acquired weather information.