Navigation apparatus with enhanced positional display function

• US 5,938,719 A
• Filed: 10/22/1996
• Issued: 08/17/1999
• Est. Priority Date: 02/18/1992
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Pioneer Electronic Corporation (Pioneer Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Pioneer Electronic Corporation (Pioneer Corporation)
• Inventors: Arakawa, Takeharu, Araki, Morio, Yamanaka, Kiyoshi, Nobe, Kenichi
• Primary Examiner(s): NGUYEN, TAN QUANG
• Application Number:
  US08/734,778
• Time in Patent Office: 1,029 Days
• Field of Search: 364/443, 364/444.1, 364/444.2, 364/449.1, 364/449.2, 364/449.3, 364/449.5, 364/449.7, 364/44.1, 340/990, 340/988, 340/995, 701/200, 701/201, 701/202, 701/207, 701/208, 701/209, 701/211, 701/213
• 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 a vehicle'"'"'s position and outputting vehicle 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.

Claims

1. A map display system comprising:

a first storage which stores map data;

a display;

a map display controller which displays a map on said display based on said map data;

a second storage which segregates into different categories location data representing a plurality of locations and coordinate data corresponding to said plurality of locations and stores said location data of different categories into consecutive memory addresses of said second storage, so that access to location data of a second category can be made by incrementing or decrementing a currently selected address of a first category when location data of the first category is being displayed, said categories including at least one of the following;

a location name list data category which includes that of said location data which represents names of locations;

a user registered location data category which includes that of said location data which represents locations pertinent to a user;

a destination data category which includes that of said location data which represents a destination identified by a user; and

a route point data category which includes that of said location data which represents intermediate destinations identified by a user which are along a path of travel to said destination;

a location name display device which determines location names to be displayed from said location data of a plurality of categories and displays the selected location names on said display based on said stored location data; and

a selector which selects one of said location names displayed on said display and causes said map display controller to read a portion of said map data representing a portion of said map proximate to a location associated with said coordinate data corresponding to said location name selected by said selector and to display said portion of said map based on said portion of said map data.

2. A navigation system as claimed in claim 1 wherein said categories includes all of the following:

a location name list data category which includes that of said location data which represents names of locations;

a user registered location data category which includes that of said location data which represents locations pertinent to a user;

a destination data category which includes that of said location data which represents a destination identified by a user; and

a route point data category which includes that of said location data which represents intermediate destinations identified by a user which are along a path of travel to said destination.

3. A map display system as claimed in claim 1 wherein said categories occupy said memory addresses consecutively in the following order:

said location name list data category;

said user registered location data category;

said destination data category; and

said route point data category.

4. A map display system as claimed in claim 1, further comprising a second selector which sequentially accesses said consecutive addresses in a numerically increasing or decreasing order, and causes said display to consecutively display information represented by said location data stored in said accessed addresses.

5. A map display system comprising:

a first storage which stores map data;

a second storage which segregates into different categories, location data representing a plurality of locations;

a display;

a map display controller which displays, on said display, a map based on said map data and menu screens for searching said location data, said menu screens include a location data display screen for displaying a plurality of items of said location data;

a selector for selecting one item of said location data displayed on said display; and

a control means operable to cause, when said location data display screen is being displayed, said map display controller to display items of said location data which are classified into at least two different categories on the display at the same time, to allow said selector to select one item from items of said location data which are classified into said categories, in response to an operation by a user.