Navigation apparatus, facility information searching method, program thereof, and a recording medium with the program recorded therein

• US 6,947,836 B2
• Filed: 05/23/2003
• Issued: 09/20/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 05/28/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Pioneer Corporation
• Original Assignee: Pioneer Corporation
• Inventors: Ono, Kouichi, Kamiyama, Kazuyoshi
• Primary Examiner(s): Black, Thomas G.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Gibson, Eric M.
• Application Number:
  US10/443,981
• Publication Number:
  US 20030225510A1
• Time in Patent Office: 851 Days
• Field of Search: 701/201, 701/202, 701/207, 701/208, 701/209, 340/988, 340/995.1, 340/995.13, 340/995.19, 340/995.24, 705/5, 705/13, 705/14, 705/26
• US Class Current: 701/207
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3679 Retrieval, searching and output of POI information, e.g. hotels, restaurants, shops, filling stations, parking facilities G01C21/3611 takes precedence

Abstract

The input operation recognizing section 13 recognizes an input operation to execute re-search in the operating section 4. The facility search control section 10 makes the facility search section 9 execute re-search. The re-search by the facility search section 9 is carried out by searching, from facilities belonging to the same group as that of those detected in the previous search, facilities other than those detected in the previous search. With the present invention, when the re-search as described above is to be performed, user'"'"'s operation for specifying a facility is not required, which improves the convenience in facility search.

Claims

1. A navigation apparatus comprising:

a facility information fetching section for retrieving facility information including group information concerning a plurality of groups of facilities, each group including a plurality of facilities belonging to a category and positional information concerning positions of said facilities;

a facility search section for searching and retrieving facilities belonging to a specified group based on said retrieved facility information; and

a control section for controlling said facility search section so that, when re-searches for facilities are carried out, said facility search section searches, from the same group of facilities as that searched in the previous search, facilities other than any facility previously selected from the previously retrieved facilities, wherein said control section determines whether a mobile body is within a specified area associated with any of the facilities retrieved in the previous search, and when it is determined that said mobile body is within said specified area, controls the facility search section so that the facility search section searches facilities other than the facility having the associated specified area in which said mobile body was determined to be within.

2. The navigation apparatus according to claim 1 further comprising:

a current position recognizing section for recognizing a current position of a mobile body, wherein said control section determines, when re-searches for facilities are carried out, based on a current position of said mobile body and positional information included in the retrieved facility information, whether said mobile body is within a specified area associated with any of the facilities retrieved in the previous search.

3. The navigation apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the facility information includes accommodation space information relating to an accommodation space belonging to the facility and capable of accommodating a mobile body;

said navigation apparatus further comprising;

a current position recognizing section for recognizing a current position of the mobile body, wherein the control section determines, when re-searches for facilities are carried out, based on a current position of said mobile body and the accommodation space information included in said retrieved facility information, whether said mobile body is within an accommodation space associated with any of the facilities retrieved in the previous search, and, when it is determined that said mobile body is within any said accommodation space, controls the facility search section so that the facility search section searches facilities other than the facility having the associated accommodation space in which said mobile body was determined to be within.

4. The navigation apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the facility search section searches for facilities within a specified area around a current position of said mobile body and enlarges said specified area until at least one facility is detected.

5. The navigation apparatus according to claim 1 further comprising:

an input section for specifying execution of a re-search by means of an input operation, wherein the control section makes the facility search section search facilities in an area around a current position of a mobile body when the control section recognizes that execution of the re-search has been specified by the input section, and further makes the facility search section again search, based on the facility information obtained in the previous search, facilities other than those retrieved in the previous search.

6. The navigation apparatus according to claim 1 further comprising:

an input section for specifying execution of a re-search by means of an input operation; and

a facility information recording section for recording facility information concerning the facilities retrieved by the facility search section, wherein the control means makes the facility search section again search, based on the facility information recorded in said facility information recording section, facilities other than those retrieved in the previous search when the control section recognizes that execution of the re-search has been specified by said input section.

7. A facility searching method for searching facilities with a computing unit comprising the steps of:

searching facilities belonging to a specified group based on the group information concerning a plurality of groups of facilities, each group including a plurality of facilities belonging to a category, and positional information concerning positions of said facilities by the computing unit; and

searching facilities other than those searched previously from the same group as that of the facilities retrieved in the previous search, when re-searches for facilities are carried out, wherein the computing unit determines whether a mobile body is within a specified area associated with any of the facilities retrieved in the previous search, and when it is determined that said mobile body is within said specified area, searches facilities other than the facility having the associated specified area in which said mobile body was determined to be within.

8. The facility searching method according to claim 7, wherein the computing unit recognizes a current position of the mobile body, and, when a re-search is to be performed, based on the current position of the mobile body recognized previously and the positional information included in the facility information, determines whether said mobile body is within a specified area associated with any of the facilities retrieved in the previous search.

9. The facility searching method according to claim 8, wherein the computing unit searches, when a re-search is to be performed, facilities located within a specified area around a current position of the mobile body, and concentrically enlarges said specified area until at least one facility is retrieved.

10. The facility searching method according to claim 8, wherein the computing unit searches, in an area around a current position of the mobile body, when the computing unit recognizes that execution of a re-search has been specified by means of input operation, and re-searches, based on the facility information obtained in the search, facilities other than those previously retrieved.

11. The facility searching method according to claim 7, wherein the computing unit recognizes a current position of said mobile body, and when a re-search is to be performed, based on the current position of the mobile body recognized previously and an accommodation space information concerning accommodation spaces associated with a facility and capable of accommodating mobile bodies therein, determines whether said mobile body is within an accommodation space associated with any of the facilities retrieved in the previous search, and, when it is determined that said mobile body is within any said accommodation space, searches facilities other than the facility having the associated accommodation space in which said mobile body was determined to be within.

12. The facility searching method according to claim 7, wherein the computing unit provides for recording the facility information concerning retrieved facilities, and, when it recognizes that execution of a re-search has been specified by means of an input operation, again searches facilities other than those searched previously, as determined with use of said recorded facility information.

13. A facility search program stored in a recording medium, for controlling the computing unit to execute the facility searching method according to claim 7.

14. The facility search program stored in the recording medium according to claim 13, wherein the facility search program is readable by the computing unit.