Facility search apparatus and method

• US 7,536,416 B2
• Filed: 06/29/2005
• Issued: 05/19/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 07/14/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Alpine Electronics Incorporated (Alps Alpine Co., Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Alpine Electronics Incorporated (Alps Alpine Co., Ltd.)
• Inventors: Abe, Koichi
• Primary Examiner(s): Breene; John E
• Assistant Examiner(s): Sweeney; Patrick E
• Application Number:
  US11/172,430
• Publication Number:
  US 20060020373A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,420 Days
• Field of Search: 707/104.1, 701/207, 701/208
• US Class Current: 1/1
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096716 where the received information does not generate an automatic action on the vehicle control
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096741 where the source of the transmitted information selects which information to transmit to each vehicle
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096775 where the origin of the information is a central station
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096838 where the user preferences are taken into account or the user selects one route out of a plurality
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096861 where the immediate route instructions are output to the driver, e.g. arrow signs for next turn
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096894 where input is assisted by the navigation device, i.e. the user does not type the complete name of the destination, e.g. using zip codes, telephone numbers, progressively selecting from initial letters

Abstract

A server stores facility information about a plurality of facilities to be searched for, in association with categories representing the facilities, and performs a search to determine whether or not each category contains any facility located within a predetermined area including the search point. A navigation system displays, based on search results from the server, the categories serving as search conditions in a manner such that whether or not there is any facility within each category is identifiable. For example, an image representing a category may be set not to be displayed when there is no facility within the category. Thus, based on the display status of each category, the user can identify whether or not there is any facility within each category at the time when categories to be searched are displayed.

Claims

1. A facility search apparatus comprising:

a facility-information storing unit for storing facility information about a plurality of facilities to be searched for, in association with categories representing the facilities;

a search-point identification unit identifying the location of a search point;

an in-category-facility search unit configured to perform a search to determine whether or not a category contains any facility located within a predetermined area including the search point when a request is received to display the plurality of search categories, wherein the first search is performed prior to any of the displayed categories being selected; and

a category display unit configured to display, based on search results from the in-category-facility search unit, images representing categories serving as search conditions, wherein the shape of the images representing the categories is changed according to whether or not a facility is found within the predetermined area for each category, and wherein the images are displayed in a list arrangement without displaying the search results on a map.

2. The facility search apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

a facility-list display unit displaying, when a category is selected from the categories displayed by the category display unit, a list of the descriptions of facilities under the selected category; and

a facility-information display unit displaying, when a facility is selected from the list displayed by the facility-list display unit, detailed information about the selected facility.

3. The facility search apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the facility-information display unit displays a map image of the area around the selected facility.

4. The facility search apparatus according to claim 1, wherein when the in-category facility search unit finds at least one facility located within the predetermined area including the search point, the category display unit displays images representing the categories in a plurality of colors corresponding to the non-zero number of facilities found within each category.

5. The facility search apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the category display unit displays the categories in such a manner that the number of facilities within each category is visually identifiable.

6. The facility search apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the category display unit sets an image representing a category not to be displayed when there is no facility under the category.

7. The facility search apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the category display unit displays images representing the categories in different colors according to the distance from the search point to a facility within each category.

8. The facility search apparatus according to claim 1, wherein an area to be searched by the in-category-facility search unit is within a predetermined distance in a straight line from the search point.

9. The facility search apparatus according to claim 1, wherein an area to be searched by the in-category-facility search unit is within a predetermined longitudinal and latitudinal distance from the search point.

10. The facility search apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the search-point identification unit and the category display unit are included in a terminal device that the user can operate;

and the facility-information storing unit and the in-category-facility search unit are included in a server connected via a communication line to the terminal device.

11. The facility search apparatus according to claim 10, wherein the terminal device is installed in a vehicle and the server is placed outside the vehicle.

12. The facility search apparatus according to claim 11, wherein a communication line connecting the terminal device and the server is a switched line using a mobile phone.

13. The facility search apparatus according to claim 12, wherein communication between the terminal device and the server via the communication line is charged for in proportion to line connection time.

17. The facility search apparatus according to claim 1, wherein if more than one facility is located within the area searched by the in-category-facility search unit, the shape of the images representing the categories is changed according to the number of facilities found by the in-category-facility search unit.

18. The facility search apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the category display unit also displays an expand category option, and when the expand category option is selected after the categories are displayed by the category display unit, the in-category-facility search unit automatically expands the predetermined area used to determine whether or not there is any facility within each category and performs a second search using the automatically expanded predetermined area to determine whether or not a category contains any facility located within the automatically expanded predetermined area including the search point.

20. The facility search apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the shape of the images representing the categories is changed according to the non-zero number of facilities found within each category when the in-category facility search unit finds at least one facility located within the predetermined area including the search point.

14. A facility search method comprising:

identifying the location of a search point;

performing a first search to determine whether or not a category contains any facility located within a predetermined area including the search point when a request is received to display a plurality of search categories, wherein the first search is performed prior to any of the displayed categories being selected;

displaying, on a display unit based on the first search results, images representing each of a plurality of displayed categories serving as search conditions in different colors according to the distance from the search point to a facility within each category at the time the search is performed;

displaying an expand category option after the plurality of categories are displayed by the category display unit;

automatically expanding the predetermined area for performing a search if the expand category option is selected;

performing a second search to determine whether or not a category contains any facility located within the automatically expanded predetermined area including the search point, if the expand category option is selected; and

displaying, based on the second search results, images representing each of a plurality of categories serving as search conditions in different colors according to the distance from the search point to a facility found within each category at the time the search is performed within the automatically expanded predetermined area, wherein the images representing each of the plurality of categories are displayed in different colors based on the second search results prior to any category being selected, and wherein the images are displayed in a list arrangement without displaying the first and second search results on a map.

15. The facility search method according to claim 14, wherein an image representing a category is set not to be displayed when there is no facility within the category.

16. A facility search apparatus comprising:

a facility-information storing unit configured to store facility information about a plurality of facilities to be searched for, in association with categories representing the facilities;

a search-point identification unit configured to identify the location of a search point;

an in-category-facility search unit configured to perform a first search to determine whether or not a category contains any facility located within a predetermined area including the search point when the in-category-facility search unit receives a request to display a plurality of categories, wherein the first search is performed prior to any of the displayed categories being selected; and

a category display unit configured to display an expand category option, and display images representing each of the plurality of categories in a plurality of colors corresponding to the non-zero number of facilities found within each category when the in-category facility search unit finds at least one facility located within the predetermined area including the search point,

wherein, when the expand category option is selected after the plurality of categories are displayed by the category display unit, the in-category-facility search unit automatically expands the predetermined area used to determine whether or not there is any facility within each category and performs a second search using the automatically expanded predetermined area to determine whether or not a category contains any facility located within the automatically expanded predetermined area including the search point, wherein prior to any category being selected each of the plurality of categories are displayed in a plurality of colors corresponding to the non-zero number of facilities found in the second search, and wherein the images are displayed in a list arrangement without displaying the search results on a map.

19. The facility search apparatus according to claim 16, further comprising:

a facility-list display unit displaying, when a category is selected from the categories displayed by the category display unit, a list of the descriptions of facilities under the selected category; and

a facility-information display unit displaying, when a facility is selected from the list of facilities displayed by the facility-list display unit, detailed information about the selected facility,

wherein the facility-information display unit displays the images representing the plurality of categories in a plurality of colors corresponding to the non-zero number of facilities found in the first and second search.