NIGHT MODE

• US 20140365965A1
• Filed: 10/17/2013
• Published: 12/11/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 06/09/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Moore, Christopher D., Piemonte, Patrick S., Vulcano, Emanuele, van Os, Marcel, Chen, Billy P., Pylappan, Seejo K., Bray, Cdric, O'Beirne, Justin
• Granted Patent: US 9,536,325 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/810
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3632 Guidance using simplified or iconic instructions, e.g. using arrows G01C21/365 takes precedence
• 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: G06F 3/0482 Interaction with lists of selectable items, e.g. menus
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 11/001 Texturing; Colouring; Generation of texture or colour inpainting G06T5/77

Abstract

A device that provides a map and/or navigation application that displays items on the map and/or navigation instructions differently in different modes. The applications of some embodiments provide a day mode and a night mode. In some embodiments the application uses the day mode as a default and activates the night mode when the time is after sunset at the location of the device. Some embodiments activate night mode when multiple conditions are satisfied (for example, when (1) the time is after sunset at the location of the device and (2) the ambient light level is below a threshold brightness).

Claims

1. A method for displaying map data on a device, the method comprising:

when a current time at a current location of the device is before sunset, displaying the map data in a day mode without regard to an ambient light level;

when the current time at the current location of the device is after sunset and the ambient light level at the current location of the device is above a threshold level, displaying the map data in the day mode; and

when the current time at the current location of the device is after sunset and the ambient light level at the current location of the device is below the threshold level, displaying the map data in a night mode.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein displaying the map in the day mode comprises displaying the map using a first set of colors and wherein displaying the map in the night mode comprises displaying the map using a second set of colors.

3. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

using a first style template to define colors for displaying instances of a data type in the day mode; and

using a second style template to define colors for displaying instances of the data type in the night mode.

4. The method of claim 3 further comprising transitioning from the day mode to the night mode by animating a change from displaying instances of the data type using the colors defined by the first style template to displaying instances of the data type using the colors defined by the second style template.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein displaying the map data in a mode determined by the current time and/or the ambient light is dependent on the device not being set by an override command entered on a control of the device to override the current time and/or ambient light condition, the method further comprising selectively displaying the map data in one of the day mode and the night mode based on the override command regardless of the current time and ambient light level.

6. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

wherein the displaying the map data comprises displaying a first set of locations and a second set of locations;

when the current time is later than a particular time, overlaying a first set of location identifiers for the first set of displayed locations and not overlaying a second set of location identifiers for the second set of displayed locations; and

when the current time is earlier than the particular time, overlaying the second set of location identifiers for the second set of displayed locations and not overlaying the first set of location identifiers for the first set of displayed locations.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the first and second sets of location identifiers comprise images of pins.

8. The method of claim 6 further comprising displaying text adjacent to at least one location identifier, wherein the text describes the location identified by the location identifier.

9. The method of claim 6 further comprising:

when a current time is later than the particular time of the day, overlaying a third set of location identifiers for the second set of displayed locations on the displayed map, wherein the third set of location identifiers are visually distinguishable from the first set of location identifiers; and

when the current time is earlier than the particular time of the day, overlaying a fourth set of location identifiers for the first set of displayed locations on the displayed map, wherein the fourth set of location identifiers are visually distinguishable from the second set of location identifiers.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the location identifiers of the third set of location identifiers are each smaller than the location identifiers of the first set of location identifiers, and the location identifiers of the fourth set of location identifiers are each smaller than the location identifiers of the second set of location identifiers.

11. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

displaying a first set of search results for a particular location search query when the current time is after a particular time of day; and

displaying a second set of search results for the particular location search query when the current time is before the particular time of day.

12. The method of claim 11 further comprising:

displaying images representing the first set of search results for the particular location search query with the displayed map data when the current time is after the particular time of day; and

displaying images representing the second set of search results for the particular location search query with the displayed map data when the current time is after the particular time of day.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein the first set of search results comprises a reordering of the second set of search results.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein the first set of search results comprises at least one search result not in the second set of search results.

15. The method of claim 1 further comprising presenting an animated transition between two modes of a map, the method comprising:

identifying a first map style template for a first map mode display;

identifying a second map style template for a second map mode display;

presenting a plurality of different map mode displays that gradually transition from the first map mode display to the second map mode display, said presenting comprising interpolating values specified in the first map style template and values specified in the second map style template and successively applying the interpolated values to the plurality of different map mode displays.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the first map mode comprises one of the day mode and the night mode and the second map mode comprises the other of the day mode and the night mode.

17. A method for displaying icons on a display of a device, the method comprising:

identifying first and second arrangements of icons;

displaying the first arrangement of icons when a current time is after a particular time of day; and

displaying the second arrangement of icons when the current time is before the particular time of day.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the first arrangement of icons comprises a reordering of the second arrangement of icons.

19. The method of claim 17, wherein the first arrangement of icons comprises at least one icon not in the second arrangement of icons.

20. The method of claim 17, wherein the first and second arrangements of icons are multipage arrangements of icons.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein a first page of the first arrangement of icons comprises at least one icon not present on the corresponding page of the second arrangement of icons.

22. The method of claim 17, wherein at least one icon in the first and second arrangements of icons comprises an application launch icon.

23. A non-transitory machine readable medium storing a program which when executed by at least one processing unit displays map data on a device, the program comprising sets of instructions for:

when the device is not interfaced with a vehicle and a current time at a current location of the device is before sunset, displaying the map data in a day mode without regard to an ambient light level;

when the device is not interfaced with the vehicle, the current time at the current location of the device is after sunset, and the ambient light level at the current location of the device is above a threshold level, displaying the map data in the day mode; and

when the device is not interfaced with the vehicle, the current time at the current location of the device is after sunset, and the ambient light level at the current location of the device is below the threshold level, displaying the map data in a night mode.

24. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 23, wherein the program further comprises sets of instructions for, when the device is interfaced with a vehicle, displaying the map data in a mode specified by the vehicle.

25. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 24, wherein the program further comprises sets of instructions for:

when the vehicle specifies a night mode, displaying the map data in the night mode; and

when the vehicle specifies a day mode, displaying the map data in the day mode.