Navigation system for processing information about adjacent position and method thereof

• US 6,438,488 B2
• Filed: 01/31/2001
• Issued: 08/20/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 05/26/2000
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. (Samsung Group)
• Original Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. (Samsung Group)
• Inventors: Lee, Ho-seok
• Primary Examiner(s): Cuchlinski, Jr., William A.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Hernandez, Olga
• Application Number:
  US09/774,012
• Publication Number:
  US 20010047240A1
• Time in Patent Office: 566 Days
• Field of Search: 701/208, 701/201, 701/205, 701/209, 701/200, 340/988, 340/989, 340/990, 340/995, 731/78.R
• US Class Current: 701/208
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3682 output of POI information on a road map G01C21/3614, G01C21/3685 take precedence

Abstract

A navigation system for downloading adjacent position information of a current user position using a wireless network to display the downloaded information on a screen and method thereof are provided. The method includes the steps of: setting a starting point, a destination, and specific information to be displayed on a screen; calculating a current user position based on position information received from a wireless network and identification (ID) information; displaying a user movement based on information stored in a database, or, alternatively, requesting a server to send specific information about the adjacent position which is set in the setting step; and downloading only the specific information to display the downloaded result on a screen while displaying a user movement on the corresponding screen. According to the navigation system and method thereof, only necessary information about the adjacent position is downloaded, thereby improving the efficiency of the navigation system.

Claims

1. A method of processing navigation information in a navigation system including a database, the method comprising the steps of:

(a) setting a starting point, a destination, and specific information to be displayed on a screen;

(b) calculating a current user position based on position information received via a wireless network and identification (ID) information;

(c) displaying a user movement, if information about a position adjacent to the current user position calculated in the step (b) is stored in the database, based on the stored information, and if not, requesting a server to send specific information about the adjacent position which is set in the step (a); and

(d) downloading only the specific information to display a downloaded result on a screen while displaying a user movement on a corresponding screen, if the specific information about the position adjacent to the current user position, which is requested in the step (c), is searched for by the server.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of resetting the specific information about the adjacent position after displaying the user movement.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the specific information about the adjacent position includes one or more of position information, route calculation information, guidance information, and graphical feature and object information.

4. A navigation system comprising:

a navigation unit which transmits current user position information to a server after calculating the current user position using position information received from a wireless network to request only specific information about a position adjacent to the current user position, and which displays a user movement based on the specific information about the adjacent position after downloading the specific information about the adjacent position from the server; and

a server which searches for only the specific information about the adjacent position with respect to the current position according to the current user position and the request for the specific information about the adjacent position received ii from the navigation unit and transmits the searched result to the navigation unit.

5. The navigation system of claim 4, wherein the navigation unit comprises:

a receiver for receiving position information via a public network; and

a processing unit for calculating a current user position using position information received by the receiver and stored identification (ID) information and for requesting the server for specific adjacent position information based on the current position information to download the same.

6. The navigation system of claim 5, wherein the navigation unit further comprises:

a map database for storing map data;

a display unit for displaying position information; and

an interface unit for interfacing map information received from the server and navigation information sent to the server.

7. The navigation system of claim 4, wherein the position information received from the wireless network is global positioning system (GPS) data.