Vehicle information display apparatus

• US 7,016,772 B2
• Filed: 08/02/2002
• Issued: 03/21/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 08/03/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Furuno Electric Co, Ltd
• Original Assignee: Furuno Electric Co, Ltd
• Inventors: Yanagi, Katsuyuki
• Primary Examiner(s): Camby, Richard M.
• Application Number:
  US10/209,925
• Publication Number:
  US 20030028294A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,327 Days
• Field of Search: 701/21, 701/200, 701/207, 701/213, 701/301, 701/300, 342/357.01, 342/357.06, 342/357.08, 342/357.09, 342/357.12, 342/357.13, 342/357.14, 342/41
• US Class Current: 701/21
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 13/86 Combinations of radar systems with non-radar systems, e.g. sonar, direction finder
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 13/937 of marine craft
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 7/22 Producing cursor lines and indicia by electronic means
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/0962 having an indicator mounted inside the vehicle, e.g. giving voice messages
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 3/00 Traffic control systems for marine craft marking of navigational route B63B22/16, B63B51/00

Abstract

A vehicle information display apparatus receives multiple pieces of information on mobile vehicles, determines degrees of importance of the individual pieces of information according to specific conditions, and displays symbols of only those mobile vehicles of which importance falls within a predefined range or symbols of only a specific number of mobile vehicles selected according to their importance in graphic form with enhanced visibility.

Claims

1. A vehicle information display apparatus comprising:

a receiver for receiving multiple pieces of information on vehicles;

an indicator for displaying information fed from said receiver; and

a signal processor for producing image data representative of the multiple pieces of information on the vehicles so that pieces of information are displayed with high visibility including displaying at least one vehicle with higher visibility than another vehicle, based on a plurality of predetermined factors including size, position, and velocity of the at least one vehicle, to increase recognition of said at least one vehicle.

2. The vehicle information display apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the indicator device displays the mobile vehicles in a way that a selected one or plurality of selected mobile vehicles are emphasized.

3. The vehicle information display apparatus according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the mobile vehicles are vessels.

11. The vehicle information display apparatus of claim 1, wherein said apparatus is part of a vessel surveillance apparatus and said vehicles are vessels and wherein only a subset of displayed pieces of information are displayed with high visibility.

12. The display apparatus of claim 1, wherein said vehicles are mobile vehicles.

4. A vehicle information display apparatus for installation on a vessel, said apparatus comprising:

a receiver for receiving vehicle information including at least position information indicating the positions of other vessels;

a vehicle information extractor for determining degrees of importance of the vehicle information fed from said receiver according to predetermined conditions and for extracting those pieces of the vehicle information on which degrees of importance fall within a predefined range; and

a display controller for displaying the positions of the vessels corresponding to the extracted pieces of the vehicle information in graphic form including displaying at least one vessel with higher visibility than another vessel, based on a plurality of predetermined factors including size, position, and velocity of the at least one vessel, to increase recognition of said at least one vessel.

5. The vehicle information display apparatus according to claim 4, wherein said display controller graphically displays the positions of the vessels derived from the vehicle information of which degrees of importance fall within the predefined range as extracted by the vehicle information extractor and the positions of the vessels derived from the vehicle information having the other degrees of importance with different levels of visibility.

6. The vehicle information display apparatus according to claim 4 or 5, wherein said vehicle information extractor extracts a predefined upper limit number of pieces of the vehicle information selected in the order of the degrees of importance from the piece of the vehicle information having the highest degree of importance.

8. The vehicle information display apparatus according to claim 4 or 5, wherein said receiver is an automatic radar plotting aid which provides information on target vessels based on a signal fed from a radar for detecting targets around the prime vessel.

10. The vehicle information display apparatus according to claim 4, further comprising a collision risk evaluator for assessing the degree of collision risk based on the position and velocity of each target vessel relative to the prime vessel, wherein the degree of collision risk is employed as said degree of importance.

13. The display apparatus of claim 4 wherein the vessel is a prime vessel.

7. A vehicle information display apparatus for installation on a vessel, said apparatus comprising:

a receiver for receiving vehicle information including at least position information indicating the positions of other vessels;

a vehicle information extractor for determining degrees of importance of the vehicle information fed from said receiver according to predetermined conditions and for extracting those pieces of the vehicle information on which degrees of importance fall within a predefined range; and

a display controller for displaying the positions of the vessels corresponding to the extracted pieces of the vehicle information in graphic form,

wherein said receiver is a universal shipborne automatic identification system for receiving data transmitted from universal shipborne automatic identification systems of other vessels.

9. A vehicle information display apparatus for installation on a vessel, said apparatus comprising:

a receiver for receiving vehicle information including at least position information indicating the positions of other vessels;

a vehicle information extractor for determining degrees of importance of the vehicle information fed from said receiver according to predetermined conditions and for extracting those pieces of the vehicle information on which degrees of importance fall within a predefined range; and

a display controller for displaying the positions of the vessels corresponding to the extracted pieces of the vehicle information in graphic form,

wherein said receiver is a combination of a universal shipborne automatic identification system for receiving data transmitted from other vessels and an automatic radar plotting aid which provides information on target vessels based on a signal fed from a radar for detecting targets around the prime vessel.