Facility display unit

• US 7,623,045 B2
• Filed: 04/21/2004
• Issued: 11/24/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 04/21/2004
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Mitsubishi Electric Corporation
• Original Assignee: Mitsubishi Electric Corporation
• Inventors: Matsubara, Tsutomu
• Primary Examiner(s): Lee; Benjamin C
• Assistant Examiner(s): NWUGO, OJIAKO K
• Application Number:
  US10/589,345
• Publication Number:
  US 20070176795A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,043 Days
• Field of Search: 340/995.1, 340/990, 701/208, 701/202, 701/211, 701/212, 701/204
• US Class Current: 340/995.1
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 29/00 Maps; Plans; Charts; Diagrams, e.g. route diagram star maps G09B27/04; devices for holding or supporting maps A47B97/02; for computing purposes G06G1/14, G09B1/16; display boards G09F

Abstract

A facility display unit three-dimensionally displays an image of the facilities identified by a facility identifying section 6 on a wide-area map according to a display mode set by a setting accepting section 1, and zooms in on the image of the facilities. The facility display unit also rotates the image of the facilities simultaneously with the zoom in or after completing the zoom in. This enables a user to roughly check the position of the facilities, and then to grasp an overall image of the facilities.

Claims

1. A facility display apparatus comprising:

a setting unit for setting a display mode of facilities selected by a user from a plurality of selectable display modes, the selectable display modes including a mode for displaying facilities as a moving picture and a mode for displaying facilities as a still picture;

a facility identifying unit for identifying facilities at a point of interest selected by the user from a plurality of selectable points of interest, the facilities being identified to be displayed; and

a display unit for displaying on a map at least one of a moving picture and a still picture of the facilities identified by said facility identifying unit in accordance with the display mode set by said setting unit,

wherein;

the map illustrates a route from a present geographical location of the user to the point of interest,

when the user selects the mode for displaying facilities as a moving picture, said display unit displays the moving picture of the identified facilities on the map, the moving picture automatically rotating a three-dimensional image of the identified facilities by a preset amount to provide multiple views of the identified facilities from multiple directions, the three-dimensional image being automatically rotated the same amount regardless of which facilities are identified by the facility identifying means and regardless of the user'"'"'s geographical location while the moving picture is displayed, and

the identified facilities comprises at least one physical object having a fixed geographical location at the selected point of interest.

2. The facility display apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said facility identifying unit identifies the facilities to be displayed by recognizing speech of a user.

3. The facility display apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said facility identifying unit identifies the facilities to be displayed according to operation of input keys by a user.

4. The facility display apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

said display unit three-dimensionally displays an image of the facilities identified by said facility identifying unit on a wide-area map, and zooms in on the image of the facilities, and

the current position of the user is different than the location of the identified facilities with respect to the wide-area map.

5. The facility display apparatus according to claim 4, wherein said display unit rotates the image of the identified facilities simultaneously with the zoom in, or after completing the zoom in, when the mode for displaying facilities as a moving picture is selected by the user.

6. The facility display apparatus according to claim 5, wherein said display unit zooms in on or rotates the image of the identified facilities at a zoom-in rate or rotation speed set by said setting unit.

7. The facility display apparatus according to claim 5, wherein when receiving a redisplay request of the identified facilities from a user, said display unit three-dimensionally displays the image of the identified facilities on a wide-area map again, and zooms in on the image of the identified facilities and rotates the image of the identified facilities.

8. The facility display apparatus according to claim 4, wherein said display unit zooms in on the image of the identified facilities while maintaining a whole body of the facilities within a display area on a display.

9. The facility display apparatus according to claim 4, wherein when receiving an enlarged display request of the identified facilities from the user, said display unit further zooms in on the image of the facilities which has been zoomed in.

10. The facility display apparatus according to claim 1, wherein when receiving a detailed display request of the identified facilities from a user, said display unit displays an image of a destination in the identified facilities.

11. The facility display apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said display unit identifies a direction of the facilities identified by said facility identifying unit when viewed from a present position, and three-dimensionally displays the image of the identified facilities in accordance with the direction.

12. The facility display apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said display unit deemphasizes a display tone of surroundings of the facilities identified by said identifying unit as compared with a display tone of the facilities identified by said facility identifying unit.

13. The facility display apparatus according to claim 12, wherein said display unit displays semitransparently or in monochrome an image of facilities surrounding the facilities identified by said facility identifying unit.

14. The facility display apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said display unit displays an enlarged image of the facilities identified by said facility identifying unit, and displays an image of facilities surrounding the facilities at a reduced or original ratio.

15. The facility display apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said display unit blinkingly displays the image of the facilities identified by said facility identifying unit.

16. The facility display apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said display unit changes a color of display of the facilities identified by said facility identifying unit in accordance with a present time zone or weather, and changes a color of display of surroundings of the facilities in accordance with a present season.

17. The facility display apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said display unit displays guidance on the facilities identified by said facility identifying unit.

18. The facility display apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising speech output unit for outputting speech guidance on the facilities identified by said facility identifying unit.

19. The facility display apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said display unit displays a route from the present position to the destination or a parking lot of the destination besides the image of the facilities identified by said facility identifying unit.

20. The facility display apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

a facility data storing unit for storing image data and position data of the facilities,

a map data storing unit for storing map data,

wherein

the facility identifying unit retrieves the image data and position data of the identified facilities from the facility data storing unit,

the display unit displays the map according to map data retrieved from the map data storing unit, and displays the image data retrieved by the facility identifying unit on the displayed map.

21. A computer-implemented method for displaying facilities in a facility display apparatus, the method comprising:

receiving via an input device a user selection of a display mode of facilities from a plurality of selectable display modes, the selectable display modes including a mode for displaying facilities as a moving picture and a mode for displaying facilities as a still picture;

receiving via an input device a user selection of a point of interest from a plurality of selectable points of interest,

identifying facilities at the selected point of interest selected, and retrieving image data from a storage device of the identified facilities;

displaying a map on a display device; and

displaying on the map at least one of a moving picture and a still picture of the identified facilities in accordance with the set display mode,

wherein;

the map illustrates a route from a present geographical location of the user to the selected point of interest;

when the user selects the mode for displaying facilities as a moving picture, said display means displays the moving picture of the identified facilities on the map, the moving picture automatically rotating a three-dimensional image of the identified facilities by a preset amount to provide multiple views of the identified facilities from multiple directions, the three-dimensional image being automatically rotated the same amount regardless of which facilities are identified and regardless of the user'"'"'s geographical location while the moving picture is displayed, and

the identified facilities comprises at least one physical object having a fixed geographical location at the selected point of interest.

22. The method according to claim 21, wherein said identifying step identifies the facilities to be displayed by recognizing speech of the user.

23. The method according to claim 21, wherein said facility identifying step identifies the facilities to be displayed according to operation of input keys by the user.

24. The method according to claim 21, further comprising:

three-dimensionally displaying an image of the facilities identified by said identifying step on a wide-area map, and zooming in on the displayed image of the facilities,

wherein the current position of the user is different than the location of the identified facilities with respect to the wide-area map.

25. The method according to claim 24, wherein the displayed image of the identified facilities simultaneously with the zoom in, or after the zoom in is completed, when the mode for displaying facilities as a moving picture is selected by the user.

26. The method according to claim 25, wherein said zoom in or rotation of the image of the identified facilities at a zoom-in rate or rotation speed selected by the user.

27. The method according to claim 25, further comprising:

when receiving a redisplay request of the identified facilities from the user, repeating the steps of three-dimensionally displaying the image of the identified facilities on a wide-area map, zooming in on the image of the identified facilities, and rotating the image of the identified facilities.

28. The method according to claim 24, wherein a whole body of the facilities is maintained within a display area on the display device while the displayed image of the identified facilities is zoomed in.

29. The method according to claim 24, further comprising:

when receiving an enlarged display request of the identified facilities from the user, further zooming in on the image of the facilities which has been zoomed in.

30. The method according to claim 21, further comprising:

when receiving a detailed display request of the identified facilities from the user, displaying an image of a destination in the identified facilities.

31. The method according to claim 21, further comprising:

identifying a direction of the identified facilities when viewed from a present position, and three-dimensionally displaying the image of the identified facilities in accordance with the direction.

32. The method according to claim 21, further comprising:

deemphasizing a display tone of surroundings of the identified facilities as compared with a display tone of the identified facilities.

33. The method according to claim 32, further comprising:

displaying semitransparently or in monochrome an image of facilities surrounding the identified facilities.

34. The method according to claim 21, further comprising:

displaying an enlarged image of the identified, and displaying an image of facilities surrounding the facilities at a reduced or original ratio.

35. The method according to claim 21, further comprising:

blinkingly displaying an image of the facilities identified by said facility identifying unit.

36. The method according to claim 21, further comprising:

changing a color of display of the identified facilities in accordance with a present time zone or weather, and changing a color of display of surroundings of the facilities in accordance with a present season.

37. The method according to claim 21, further comprising:

displaying guidance on the identified facilities.

38. The method according to claim 21, further comprising:

outputting speech guidance on the identified facilities.

39. The method according to claim 21, further comprising:

displaying a route from the present position to the destination or a parking lot of the destination besides an image of the identified facilities.

40. The method according to claim 21, further comprising:

storing image data and position data of the facilities in a facility data storing unit;

storing map data in a map data storing unit;

retrieving image data and position data of the identified facilities from the facility data storing unit; and

displaying the map according to map data retrieved from the map data storing unit, and displaying the image data retrieved by the facility identifying unit on the displayed map.