Navigation system

• US 7,058,507 B2
• Filed: 10/15/2002
• Issued: 06/06/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 10/29/2001
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Matsushita Electric Industrial Company Limited (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Matsushita Electric Industrial Company Limited (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Saiki, Masahiro
• Primary Examiner(s): Black, Thomas G.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Behncke, Christine M.
• Application Number:
  US10/493,766
• Publication Number:
  US 20040254721A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,330 Days
• Field of Search: 701/207, 701/209, 340/995.19, 342/357.13, 709/211
• US Class Current: 701/207
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3438 Rendez-vous, i.e. searching a destination where several users can meet, and the routes to this destination for these users; Ride sharing, i.e. searching a route such that at least two users can share a vehicle for at least part of the route
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3685 the POI's being parking facilities
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/0969 having a display in the form of a map
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/127 to a central station ; Indicators in a central station

Abstract

A navigation system, which can determine a place suitable for meeting as a meeting place, is disclosed. This navigation system obtains positional information of mobile units, and extracts candidates for a meeting place from adequate meeting places registered in advance. The navigation system automatically selects or a user manually selects one place from the extracted candidates, and determines the selected one as the meeting place. The navigation system transmits the information about the meeting place to the other mobile units, so that the mobile units can meet each other at the right meeting place free from any place-caused inconvenience.

Claims

1. A navigation system that configures a navigation device as a master and another navigation device as a slave, the master and the slave connected to each other via a network, said master comprising:

positional information obtaining means for obtaining positional information of said slave;

extracting means for extracting candidates for a location from a plurality of registered locations based on the obtained positional information, the plurality of registered locations are each of a plurality of types of locations, the extracted candidates including at least one of the plurality of the types of locations;

location determining means for selecting the location from the extracted candidates; and

transmitting means for transmitting the selected location to said slave,

wherein each one of the registered locations is assigned with a priority, and the location determining means selects the location from the extracted candidates according to the priorities.

2. The navigation system of claim 1, wherein the priority is determined by taking into account an availability of a parking lot and an expected arrival time for each of the extracted candidates.

3. The navigation system of claim 1 further comprising:

display means for displaying the extracted candidates together with the respective priorities; and

operating means for manually selecting the meeting place.