Navigation apparatus and navigation method

• US 7,650,237 B2
• Filed: 07/27/2006
• Issued: 01/19/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 08/29/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Alpine Electronics Incorporated (Alps Alpine Co., Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Alpine Electronics Incorporated (Alps Alpine Co., Ltd.)
• Inventors: Aoto, Hidekazu
• Primary Examiner(s): Tran; Khoi
• Assistant Examiner(s): SAMPLE, JONATHAN L
• Application Number:
  US11/494,277
• Publication Number:
  US 20070061070A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,272 Days
• Field of Search: 701/209, 701/200, 701/207, 701/208
• US Class Current: 701/212
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/30 Map- or contour-matching

Abstract

There are provided a navigation apparatus and a navigation method capable of performing a character display reflecting the operation result of a user. The navigation apparatus includes a facility search section that searches for a facility fulfilling a set search condition; a display flag changing section that sets a character string, which is displayed at a position corresponding to the facility searched by the facility search section, as a character string indicating the facility; a map drawing section that draws a map image including the location of the facility searched by the facility search section and the character string set by the display flag changing section; and a display processing section and a display device, which display the map image drawn by the map drawing section.

Claims

1. A navigation apparatus, comprising:

a storage medium storing, for at least one display position on a map image, a plurality of different character strings associated with a plurality of display scales;

facility search means for searching for a facility that fulfills a set search condition, where the facility searched by said facility search means is one of a plurality of facilities located in a building or place at one of said at least one display position, and one of said character strings indicates the searched facility while another of said character strings indicates the building or place at the display position;

displayed character string setting means for setting a character string which is displayed at said one display position, where in a non-facility search state the character string set for display is responsive to display scale, and in a facility search state the character string set for display is the character string indicating the searched facility regardless of display scale;

map drawing means for drawing a map image including the location of the facility searched by said facility search means and the character string set by said displayed character string setting means; and

display means for displaying the map image drawn by said map drawing means.

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

route search means for performing a route search by setting the facility searched by said facility search means as a destination.

3. The navigation apparatus according to claim 2, wherein

regarding the character string displayed at said one display position corresponding to the facility searched by said facility search means, contents responsive to display scale are set in a non-facility search state and the contents are changed to the character string indicating the searched facility in a facility search state.

4. The navigation apparatus according to claim 2, wherein

regarding the character string displayed at said one display position corresponding to the facility searched by said facility search means, contents responsive to display scale are set in a non-facility search state and both the contents responsive to said display scale and the character string indicating the searched facility are included in a facility search state.

5. The navigation apparatus according to claim 4, wherein

the display position of at least one of the two types of character strings included in said facility search state is changed so as not to overlap.

6. The navigation apparatus according to claim 5, wherein

if said two types of character strings are displayed, a character string indicating a facility searched by said facility search means is highlighted.

7. The navigation apparatus according to claim 5, wherein

if said two types of character strings are displayed, the display position of the character string indicating the facility searched by said facility search means is changed so as to indicate its relationship with the location of the facility.

8. The navigation apparatus according to claim 7, wherein

said map drawing means, in drawing a map image highlighting a travel route determined by said route search means, includes in the image character strings corresponding to right/left turn intersections on said travel route.

9. The navigation apparatus according to claim 8, wherein

the character strings corresponding to right/left turn intersections on said travel route are character strings to be displayed corresponding to the display scale when displaying said travel route if there is any such character string, and are character strings corresponding to buildings or place names that are displayed when the display scale is changed in the case of no character string to be displayed.

10. A navigation method, comprising:

storing, for at least one display position on a map image, a plurality of different character strings associated with a plurality of display scales;

searching for a facility that fulfills a set search condition, where the searched facility is one of a plurality of facilities located in a building or place at one of said at least one display position, and one of said character strings indicates the searched facility while another of said character strings indicates the building or place at the display position;

setting a character string which is displayed at said one display position, where in a non-facility search state the character string set for display is responsive to display scale, and in a facility search state the character string set for display is the character string indicating the searched facility regardless of display scale;

drawing a map image including the location of the searched facility and the character string; and

displaying the drawn map image.

11. The navigation method according to claim 10, further comprising:

performing a route search by setting the searched facility as a destination.

12. The navigation method according to claim 11, wherein regarding the character string displayed at said one display position corresponding to the searched facility, contents responsive to display scale are set in a non-facility search state and the contents are changed to the character string indicating the searched facility in a facility search state.

13. The navigation method according to claim 11, wherein

regarding the character string displayed at said one display position corresponding to the searched facility, contents responsive to display scale are set in a non-facility search state and both the contents responsive to said display scale and the character string indicating the searched facility are included in a facility search state.

14. The navigation method according to claim 13, wherein

the display position of at least one of the two types of character strings included in said facility search state is changed so as not to overlap.

15. The navigation method according to claim 14, wherein

if said two types of character strings are displayed, a character string indicating the searched facility is highlighted.

16. The navigation method according to claim 14, wherein

if said two types of character strings are displayed, the display position of the character string indicating the searched facility is changed so as to indicate its relationship with the location of the facility.

17. The navigation method according to claim 16, wherein

in drawing a map image highlighting the determined travel route, the image includes character strings corresponding to right/left turn intersections on said travel route.

18. The navigation method according to claim 17, wherein

the character strings corresponding to right/left turn intersections on said travel route are character strings to be displayed corresponding to the display scale when displaying said travel route if there is any such character string, and are character strings corresponding to buildings or place names that are displayed when the display scale is changed in the case of no character string to be displayed.