NAVIGATION DEVICE

• US 20110015857A1
• Filed: 03/05/2009
• Published: 01/20/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 05/27/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Mitsubishi Electric Corporation
• Original Assignee: Mitsubishi Electric Corporation
• Inventors: Hayami, Katsuro, Uotani, Kazushi
• Granted Patent: US 8,234,060 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/201
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/0969 having a display in the form of a map
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 29/106 using electronic means

Abstract

A navigation device includes: an along-route scroll mode determining unit 44 for determining whether or not a cursor on a screen is placed on a guidance route; a thick line highlight processing unit 45 for, when the cursor is placed on the guidance route, making a transition to an along-route scroll mode to highlight a line segment of the cursor indicating a direction of a destination and another line segment of the cursor extending in a direction opposite to that of the line segment; and a scroll processing unit 46 for, when a direction key indicating the direction of the thick-highlighted line segment indicating the direction of the destination, scrolling the map toward the direction of the destination, and for, when a direction key indicating the direction of the other line segment, scrolling the map toward the direction of a place of departure.

Claims

1. A navigation device comprising:

a route search processing unit for searching for a guidance route leading from a place of departure to a destination;

a display unit for displaying the guidance route which is searched for by said route search processing unit on a map;

an along-route scroll mode determining unit for determining whether or not a cursor having a plurality of line segments extending respectively in a plurality of directions formed on a screen of said display unit is placed on the guidance route which is searched for by said route search processing unit;

a highlight processing unit for, when said along-route scroll mode determining unit determines that the cursor is placed on the guidance route, making a transition to an along-route scroll mode to highlight both a line segment of said cursor extending in a direction of the destination and a line segment of said cursor extending in a direction opposite to that of said line segment;

an input unit having a plurality of direction keys indicating a plurality of directions respectively;

a scroll processing unit for, when a direction key of said input unit indicating a same direction as the line segment of the cursor extending in the direction of the destination which is highlighted by said highlight processing unit is pushed down, scrolling the map toward the direction of the destination along the guidance route, and for, when a direction key of said input unit indicating a same direction as the line segment of the cursor extending in the direction opposite to that of the line segment of the cursor extending in the direction of the destination, scrolling the map toward the direction of the place of departure along the guidance route; and

a display processing unit for displaying the map on which the scroll process is performed by said scroll processing unit on said display unit.

2. The navigation device according to claim 1, wherein said navigation device includes an along-route scroll mode enable/disable switching unit for enabling or disabling the along-route scroll according to an operation on the input unit, and the along-route scroll mode determining unit determines whether or not the cursor is placed on the guidance route only when the along-route scroll is enabled by said along-route scroll mode enable/disable switching unit.

3. The navigation device according to claim 1, wherein the scroll processing unit includes an on-guidance-route scroll processing unit continues the along-route scroll while a direction key disposed in the input unit is pushed down, and, when a key other than the direction keys is operated, releases the along-route scroll mode to stop the scroll long the guidance route.

4. The navigation device according to claim 1, wherein the display processing unit includes an along-route scroll mode notifying unit for, when the navigation device is operating in the along-route scroll mode, displaying a text or icon notifying that the navigation device is operating in the along-route scroll mode on the map displayed on the display unit.

5. The navigation device according to claim 1, wherein the display processing unit includes a cursor display form control unit for displaying both the line segment of the cursor extending in the direction of the destination and the line segment of the cursor extending in the direction opposite to that of the line segment of the cursor extending in the direction of the destination, which are highlighted by the highlight processing unit, in different forms respectively.