Car navigation system

• US 5,897,602 A
• Filed: 08/26/1996
• Issued: 04/27/1999
• Est. Priority Date: 03/06/1996
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Mitsubishi Denki Kabushiki Kaisha (Mitsubishi Electric Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Mitsubishi Denki Kabushiki Kaisha (Mitsubishi Electric Corporation)
• Inventors: Mizuta, Masaharu
• Primary Examiner(s): NGUYEN, TAN QUANG
• Application Number:
  US08/702,946
• Time in Patent Office: 974 Days
• Field of Search: 701/201, 701/202, 701/204, 701/206, 701/207, 701/208, 701/209, 701/210, 701/211, 701/213, 701/217, 701/35, 340/988, 340/990, 340/995, 340/438, 340/439
• US Class Current: 701/201
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/0858 wherein the data carrier is removable

Abstract

A car navigation system equipped with an interface for a detachable memory card that stores travel tracks and the like of cars and the like, comprises a data collector that collects, once at every given time interval or at every given distance interval, the travel date, starting position, destination, passing position, starting time, passing time, arrival time, travel distance and the like, a data recorder that stores the travel data collected by the data collector in the memory card, and a data printing processor that reads out data specified by the user from the travel records stored in the memory card to output the travel data to a printer.

Claims

1. A vehicle navigation system having an interface for a detachable external storage medium that stores travel data including travel tracks of the vehicle, said vehicle navigation system comprising:

an input means for inputting at least one of a predetermined distance interval and a predetermined time interval at which travel data is to be collected;

a data collecting means for collecting the travel data at every predetermined time interval or at every predetermined distance interval, the travel data including travel dates, starting positions, destinations, passing positions, departure time, passing time, arrival time, and travel distance;

a data recording means for recording the travel data collected by said data collecting means on said external storage medium; and

a printing means for extracting pieces of travel data specified by a user from the travel data recorded on said external storage medium and for printing out the specified travel data in a predetermined format so as to provide a travel track of a completed trip of the vehicle at a plurality of intervals corresponding to at least one of the predetermined time interval and the predetermined distance interval.

2. The vehicle navigation system defined in claim 1, wherein said printing means edits the travel data recorded on said external storage medium in order of passing positions to print out travel dates, passing positions, passing time, and travel distance in the predetermined format.

3. The vehicle navigation system defined in claim 1, wherein said printing means is equipped with an interface means that converts an output signal into a Fax signal.

4. The vehicle navigation system defined in claim 1, wherein said external storage medium provides recorded travel data to an information processing apparatus having an interface for said external storage medium.

5. The vehicle navigation system defined in claim 1, wherein the travel track includes travel dates, starting positions, destinations, passing positions, departure time, passing time, arrival time, and travel distance corresponding to the completed trip.

6. A vehicle navigation system comprising:

input means for inputting a trip starting position, a trip destination position, and trip recording conditions;

data collecting means for collecting travel data based on the trip recording conditions;

data recording means for recording the collected travel data on an external storage medium in a recording format;

data printing processing means for extracting trip data from the recorded collected travel data stored on the external storage medium based on the recording format; and

printing means for printing the extracted trip data in a printing format so as to provide a travel track of a completed trip of the vehicle at a plurality of intervals corresponding to the inputted trip recording conditions.

7. The vehicle navigation system of claim 6, wherein

the plurality of intervals corresponds to at least one of an inputted recording condition time interval and an inputted recording condition distance interval, and

said data collecting means collects data if a measured time is greater than or equal to the inputted recording condition time interval or if a measured distance is greater than or equal to the inputted recording condition distance interval.