NAVIGATION DEVICE

• US 20100253775A1
• Filed: 11/18/2008
• Published: 10/07/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 01/31/2008
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Mitsubishi Electric Corporation
• Original Assignee: Mitsubishi Electric Corporation
• Inventors: Nakagawa, Takashi, Miyazaki, Hideto, Matsubara, Tsutomu, Kitano, Toyoaki, Yamaguchi, Yoshihisa
• Application Number:
  US12/742,416
• Publication Number:
  US 20100253775A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 348/135
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3647 Guidance involving output of stored or live camera images or video streams
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 29/003 Maps

Abstract

A navigation device includes a last shot determining unit 6 for, when a distance from the current position to a guidance object is equal to or shorter than a fixed distance and a distance from a current position calculated on the basis of map data to the guidance object is equal to or shorter than the fixed distance, determining to switch to a last shot mode, a video image storage unit 11 for storing, as a last shot video image, a video image acquired by a video image acquiring unit 10 at the time when it is determined to switch to the last shot mode, a video image composite processing unit 24 for superimposing a content existing in the stored last shot video image on the last shot video image to generate a composite video image, and a display unit 13 for displaying the composite video image.

Claims

1. A navigation device comprising:

a map database holding map data;

a position and heading measuring unit for measuring a current position;

a video image acquiring unit for acquiring a video image;

a last shot determining unit for, when a distance from the current position acquired by said position and heading measuring unit to a guidance object is equal to or shorter than a fixed distance and a distance from a current position calculated on a basis of map data acquired from the map database to the guidance object is equal to or shorter than the fixed distance, determining to switch to a last shot mode in which a video image acquired by said video image acquiring unit at that time is fixedly and continuously outputted;

a video image storage unit for storing, as a last shot video image, a video image acquired by said video image acquiring unit at a time when said last shot determining unit determines to switch to the last shot mode;

a video image composite processing unit for reading the last shot video image stored in said video image storage unit, and for superimposing a content including a graphic, a character string or an image for explaining the guidance object existing in said last shot video image on said read last shot video image to generate a composite video image; and

a display unit for displaying the composite video image generated by said video image composite processing unit.

2. The navigation device according to claim 1, wherein said navigation device has a camera for capturing a video image of a frontal area, and said video image acquiring unit acquires the video image of the frontal area captured by said camera as a three-dimensional video image.

3. The navigation device according to claim 2, wherein the last shot determining unit changes the fixed distance according to a size of the guidance object.

4. The navigation device according to claim 2, wherein the last shot determining unit changes the fixed distance according to conditions of a road.

5. The navigation device according to claim 2, wherein the last shot determining unit changes the fixed distance according to a traveling speed of the navigation device itself.

6. The navigation device according to claim 2, wherein the last shot determining unit changes the fixed distance according to surrounding conditions.

7. The navigation device according to claim 1, wherein said navigation device includes a guidance object detecting unit for detecting whether or not a guidance object is included in the last shot video image acquired from the video image storage unit, and, when the distance from the current position acquired by said position and heading measuring unit to the guidance object is equal to or shorter than the fixed distance and the distance from the current position calculated on the basis of the map data acquired from the map database to the guidance object is equal to or shorter than the fixed distance, and said guidance object detecting unit detects that the guidance object is included in the last shot video image, the last shot determining unit determines to switch to the last shot mode.

8. The navigation device according to claim 1, wherein said navigation device includes a stationary determining unit for determining whether or not the navigation device is stationary, and the last shot determining unit determines to release the last shot mode when said stationary determining unit determines that the navigation device is stationary, the video image storage unit sends out a video image newly acquired by said video image acquiring unit just as it is when said last shot determining unit determines to release the last shot mode, and the video image composite processing unit superimposes a content for explaining a guidance object existing in said video image sent thereto from said video image storage unit on said video image to generate a composite video image.