Map display apparatus

• US 5,283,562 A
• Filed: 04/23/1993
• Issued: 02/01/1994
• Est. Priority Date: 04/17/1990
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Pioneer Electronics (USA) Incorporated (Pioneer Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Pioneer Electronics (USA) Incorporated (Pioneer Corporation)
• Inventors: Kimura, Toshiyuki, Kaneko, Kenji, Hayama, Akira, Sato, Hitoshi, Nishida, Junichi, Endo, Fumio, Furukawa, Kiyoshi
• Primary Examiner(s): Weldon, Ulysses
• Assistant Examiner(s): CHOW, DOON Y
• Application Number:
  US08/051,257
• Time in Patent Office: 284 Days
• Field of Search: 340/731, 340/709, 340/723, 340/798, 340/799, 340/995, 340/990, 364/443, 364/449
• US Class Current: 345/671
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 29/106 using electronic means

Abstract

A map display apparatus for displaying a wide area map and an enlarged map is disclosed. When a display mode is shifted from the mode of displaying the enlarged map to the mode of displaying the wide area map, a cursor frame is displayed on a position on a parent screen corresponding to the divided area which has been displayed in an enlarged manner just before the shift of the display mode, so that the position on the parent screen of the area which has been displayed in the enlarged manner so far can be easily discriminated.

Claims

1. A map display apparatus comprising:

reading means for reading a map data group corresponding to a predetermined wide are, said wide area map data group including in addition to data for generating a wide area map, position information indicative of the absolute position of each one of a plurality of divisional maps on said wide area map, and a plurality of divisional map data groups corresponding to a plurality of divisional areas which are obtained by dividing the wide area map into divisional areas, each of said plurality of divisional data groups including in addition to data for generating an enlarged map, position information corresponding to that stored in said wide area map data group indicative of an absolute position of the divisional area on said wide area map;

display means for displaying an image according to a display information signal;

means for obtaining one of said plurality of divisional map data groups from said reading means for providing said one divisional map data group as the display information signal, thereby allowing display of an enlarged map corresponding to the divisional area represented by said one division map data group;

holding means for extracting and holding said position information included in the divisional map data group indicative of the absolute position of the enlarged map which is being displayed on said wide area map in response to a wide area display command which is generated during the display of the enlarged map;

means for obtaining the wide area map data group from the reading means in response to the wide area display command, for supply as the display information signal to the display means, thereby allowing display of said wide area map; and

means for supplying from said holding means, as a further display information signal, a position display signal to display the absolute position of the enlarged map which was being displayed when said wide area display command was given on the display of the wide area map, based upon the position information held in the holding means.

2. An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said means for supplying is operative to supply said position display signal to said display means as a signal for displaying the absolute position on the display means corresponding to the position information as a cursor frame, using a predetermined color, or a blinking of a display area.