Navigation system for a vehicle
First Claim
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1. A navigation system for a vehicle, comprising:
- (a) first means for storing map data;
(b) second means for detecting geomagnetic North;
(c) third means for deducing the current position of the vehicle on the basis of the sensed output of the said second means;
(d) fourth means for manually selecting a starting point and a destination;
(e) fifth means for selecting a travel course of the vehicle between said starting point and said destination on the basis of said map data from said first means and displaying the travel course of the vehicle on a display with the current position of the vehicle deduced by said third means, and the starting point and the destination selected by way of said fourth means also displayed thereon; and
(f) sixth means for comparing the current position of the vehicle deduced by said third means with said stored map data from said first means to determine if the vehicle is travelling on a freeway, said sixth means further changing the travel course display image on the display unit from a diagrammatic map to a road-name display while the vehicle is travelling on a freeway.
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Abstract
A navigation system for a vehicle generates a guide display in the form of a diagrammatic roadmap during travel on surfaces roads and in the form of a textual road-name display exclusively during travel on freeways. In addition, the navigation system has a manual reset switch which triggers the change of the display image back to the diagrammatic roadmap after freeway travel and replacement of a deduced vehicle position with the known position of a road feature at which a driver is prompted to push the reset switch.
59 Citations
10 Claims
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1. A navigation system for a vehicle, comprising:
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(a) first means for storing map data; (b) second means for detecting geomagnetic North; (c) third means for deducing the current position of the vehicle on the basis of the sensed output of the said second means; (d) fourth means for manually selecting a starting point and a destination; (e) fifth means for selecting a travel course of the vehicle between said starting point and said destination on the basis of said map data from said first means and displaying the travel course of the vehicle on a display with the current position of the vehicle deduced by said third means, and the starting point and the destination selected by way of said fourth means also displayed thereon; and (f) sixth means for comparing the current position of the vehicle deduced by said third means with said stored map data from said first means to determine if the vehicle is travelling on a freeway, said sixth means further changing the travel course display image on the display unit from a diagrammatic map to a road-name display while the vehicle is travelling on a freeway. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3)
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4. A method for navigating a vehicle, comprising the steps of:
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(a) storing image data on roadmap; (b) displaying diagrammatically the map image stored in said step (a); (c) searching an optimum travel course of the vehicle according to data on a selected starting point and selected destination; (d) displaying the diagrammatic map image on which the searched optimum travel course of the vehicle in said step (c) is superposed; (e) displaying the current position of the vehicle along the optimum travel course on the basis of the detected output of a magnetic direction sensor for detecting a direction of the vehicle with respect to the geomagnetic North; (f) determining whether the vehicle has reached a junction to a freeway through which the vehicle will reach the destination on the basis of the current travel position of the vehicle; and (g) changing the travel course display image from the diagrammatic map displayed in said step (d) to a road-name display when determining that the vehicle has reached the junction in said step (f). - View Dependent Claims (5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
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Specification