Navigation apparatus with enhanced positional display function

• US 5,617,319 A
• Filed: 05/23/1995
• Issued: 04/01/1997
• Est. Priority Date: 02/18/1992
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Pioneer Electronics (USA) Incorporated (Pioneer Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Pioneer Electronics (USA) Incorporated (Pioneer Corporation)
• Inventors: Arakawa, Takeharu, Araki, Morio, Yamanaka, Kiyoshi, Nobe, Kenichi
• Primary Examiner(s): Teska, Kevin J.
• Assistant Examiner(s): NGUYEN, TAN QUANG
• Application Number:
  US08/447,882
• Time in Patent Office: 679 Days
• Field of Search: 364/444, 364/449, 364/451, 364/460, 364/462, 340/990, 340/995
• US Class Current: 701/207
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/343 Calculating itineraries, i.e. routes leading from a starting point to a series of categorical destinations using a global route restraint, round trips, touristic trips travelling salesman problem G06Q10/04; optimisation of routes G06Q10/047
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3611 using character input or menus, e.g. menus of POIs character input methods in general G06F3/0233
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3617 using user history, behaviour, conditions or preferences, e.g. predicted or inferred from previous use or current movement
• 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: G01C 21/3682 output of POI information on a road map G01C21/3614, G01C21/3685 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/0969 having a display in the form of a map

Abstract

A navigation apparatus including a position detector for detecting an vehicle'"'"'s position and outputting vehicle'"'"'s position data, a memory for storing map data, a display unit for displaying a variety of information, and a display controller for displaying a map on the display unit based on the map data and superimposing the vehicle'"'"'s position on the map displayed on the display unit based on the vehicle'"'"'s position data. The apparatus further includes a commander for specifying an arbitrary position on the map displayed on the display unit; a coordinate calculator for calculating the latitude and longitude as the coordinates of the actual location corresponding to the specified position on the map and outputting the same as coordinate data; and a coordinate display controller for superimposing the coordinates of the actual location in numerical values on the displayed map based on the coordinate data.

Claims

1. A navigation system comprising:

a position detector which detects a vehicle position and outputs vehicle position data;

a storage device which stores map data;

a display;

a display controller which displays a map on said display based on said map data and superimposes the vehicle position on said map displayed on said display based on said vehicle position data;

a position selector which enables a user to select an arbitrary position on said map displayed on said display;

a coordinate calculator which calculates latitude and longitude values as coordinates of an actual location corresponding to said selected position on said map and outputs said values as coordinate data; and

a coordinate display controller which displays said coordinates of said actual location in numerical values in an area superimposed on said map being displayed by said display controller, based on said coordinate data calculated by said coordinate calculator.

2. An apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein said arbitrary position is different from said vehicle position when selected.