Car navigation system

• US 7,660,653 B2
• Filed: 10/27/2004
• Issued: 02/09/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 12/19/2003
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Mitsubishi Denki Kabushiki Kaisha (Mitsubishi Electric Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Mitsubishi Denki Kabushiki Kaisha (Mitsubishi Electric Corporation)
• Inventors: Koga, Yasutaka
• Primary Examiner(s): Tran; Khoi H.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Mancho; Ronnie
• Application Number:
  US10/545,292
• Publication Number:
  US 20060136120A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,931 Days
• Field of Search: 701200-214, 701/36, 701/29, 701/35, 340/988, 340/426, 340/139, 340/576, 342/457
• US Class Current: 701/36
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/26 specially adapted for navigation in a road network
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096838 where the user preferences are taken into account or the user selects one route out of a plurality

Abstract

A car navigation system includes: a vehicle-information acquiring means 14 for acquiring the vehicle information held by a vehicle 2; a setting-information generating means 15, 16 for generating setting information to be set in a processing program 19 based on the vehicle information acquired by the vehicle-information acquiring means; a setting-information notification means 17 for notifying the setting information generated by the setting-information generating means 15, 16 to the processing program 19; and a setting-information switching means 18, included in the processing program 19, for switching the internal setting state of the processing program 19 according to the setting information given by the setting-information notification means, wherein the processing program 19 performs a navigation function in the setting state switched by the setting-information switching means 18.

Claims

1. A navigation system including a processing program for controlling functions of the navigation system, the navigation system configured to communicate with a vehicle on which the navigation system is mounted to obtain vehicle information identifying the vehicle, and configured to adjust the processing program in accordance with the vehicle information;

the navigation system comprising;

an information acquiring unit for acquiring the vehicle information transmitted from the vehicle via a vehicle-mounted LAN;

an information determining unit for determining whether the vehicle information acquired by the information acquiring unit exists in an internal memory provided in the information determining unit;

an information generating unit for generating, when the information determining unit determines that the vehicle information acquired by the information acquiring unit exists in the internal memory, setting-information of the processing program based on the vehicle information; and

an adjusting unit for adjusting the processing program according to the setting-information generated by the information generating unit;

wherein the navigation system operates under the processing program adjusted by the adjusting unit.

2. A navigation system according to claim 1, wherein the adjusting unit adjusts when the acquired information does not exist in the internal memory, the processing program according to predetermined setting-information.

3. A navigation system according to claim 1 further comprising:

an information comparing unit for comparing the vehicle information with previously acquired vehicle information;

wherein the information generating unit generates the setting-information based on the previously acquired vehicle information when the vehicle information acquired by the information acquiring unit is different from the previously acquired vehicle information.

4. A navigation system according to claim 1, wherein the vehicle information includes information of a dealer of vehicles or a manufacturer of vehicles, and the processing program controls the navigation system so as to display a logo of the dealer or the manufacture according to the information.

5. A navigation system according to claim 1, wherein the vehicle information includes information indicating a language used in a region in which the vehicle is used, and the processing program controls the navigation system so as to display information in the language indicated by the information.

6. A navigation system according to claim 1, wherein the vehicle information includes steering information indicating a steering-wheel position among left-hand drive and right-hand drive, and the processing program controls the navigation system to display information to a driver by rotating the displayed information according to the steering information.

7. A navigation system according to claim 1, wherein the vehicle information includes locator information, and the processing program includes a location detecting program which detects vehicle position based on locator information.

8. A navigation system according to claim 7, wherein the locator information comprises a circumference of a tire of the vehicle.