Method and apparatus for displaying a night-view map

• US 7,761,230 B2
• Filed: 03/14/2005
• Issued: 07/20/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 03/26/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Alpine Electronics Incorporated (Alps Alpine Co., Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Alpine Electronics Incorporated (Alps Alpine Co., Ltd.)
• Inventors: Kurosawa, Takeshi, Yuasa, Mizuki
• Primary Examiner(s): Black; Thomas G
• Assistant Examiner(s): Behncke; Christine M
• Application Number:
  US11/080,366
• Publication Number:
  US 20050228586A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,954 Days
• Field of Search: 340/995.15, 340/995.24, 340/995.1, 340/995.27, 340/995.14, 340/995.4, 340/995.271, 345/629, 345/630, 345/636, 345/592, 345/617, 701/200, 701/207, 701/211, 701/212
• US Class Current: 701/212
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/0969 having a display in the form of a map
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 29/106 using electronic means

Abstract

A navigation apparatus including a memory for storing building data of buildings; a display; a decimating unit for decimating the building data based on the unit of the bar scale of a map appearing on the display; and a display controller for displaying the buildings on a map on the display based on the building data decimated by the decimating unit.

Claims

1. An electronic device having a navigation function comprising:

a display;

memory configured to store building data associated with buildings to be displayed on the display, the building data including plane data having two-dimensional coordinates and further including height data;

a judging section that judges whether a mode is a daytime mode or a nighttime mode;

a display controlling section that controls the display such that, when the judging section judges that the mode is the daytime mode, a building is displayed on a display map based on the building data, and when the judging section judges that the mode is the nighttime mode, the display controlling section controls the display to display light spots of pixels in place of the building, wherein the light spots correspond to the plane data of the building data on the display map and have a shape that is distinct from a shape of the building; and

a decimating section that decimates the building data based on the unit of a bar scale of a map appearing on the display,

wherein, when the map scale is not greater than a predetermined threshold value, the decimating section causes a first number of pixels corresponding to the plane data of the building data to light up, and

wherein, when the map scale is greater than the predetermined threshold value, the decimating section causes a second number of pixels corresponding to the plane data to light up, the second number of pixels being smaller than the first number of pixels.

2. The electronic device according to claim 1, wherein the first number is the number of all pixels included in a plane defined by the coordinates of the plane data;

and the second number is the number of pixels corresponding to corners of the plane data.

3. The electronic device according to claim 1, wherein the first number is the number of pixels corresponding to corners of the plane data;

and the second number is the number of pixels corresponding to the center of the plane data.

4. The electronic device according to claim 1, wherein a scale that is not greater than the threshold value is a narrow area scale;

a scale that is greater than the threshold value is a wide area scale; and

a ratio of the first number to the second number is determined on the basis of a ratio of the narrow area scale to the wide area scale.

5. An electronic device having a navigation function, comprising:

memory that stores building data pertaining to a building, the building data including plane data having two-dimensional coordinates and further including height data;

a judging section that judges whether a mode is a daytime mode or a nighttime mode;

a display;

a display controlling section that controls the display such that, when the judging section judges that the mode is the daytime mode, a building on a display map is displayed based on the building data, and when the judging section judges that the mode is the nighttime mode, the display controlling section controls the display to display light spots of pixels in place of the building, wherein the light spots correspond to the plane data of the building data on the display map and have a shape that is distinct from a shape of the building; and

a decimating section that decimates the building data in accordance with a scale of a map displayed on the display,

wherein, when the map scale is not greater than a predetermined threshold value, the decimating section causes one light spot corresponding to at least a portion of the plane data of each building data to light up, and

wherein, when the map scale is greater than the predetermined threshold value, the decimating section groups a plurality of building data together and assigns one light spot to each group, wherein the one light spot is displayed for the plurality of building data and the decimating section causes the one light spot to light up when the building data is displayed on the display.

6. The electronic device of claim 5, wherein the plurality of building data grouped together comprises building data that is to be displayed adjacent each other on the display.

7. The electronic device according to claim 5, wherein a scale that is not greater than the threshold value is a narrow area scale;

a scale that is greater than the threshold value is a wide area scale; and

the number of building data grouped together is determined on the basis of a ratio of the narrow area scale to the wide area scale.

8. An electronic device having a navigation function, comprising:

memory that stores building data pertaining to a building, the building data including plane data having two-dimensional coordinates and further including height data;

a judging section that judges whether a mode is a daytime mode or a nighttime mode;

a display;

a display controlling section that controls the display such that, when the judging section judges that the mode is the daytime mode, a building is displayed on a display map based on the building data, and when the judging section judges that the mode is the nighttime mode, the display controlling section controls the display to display light spots of pixels in place of the building, wherein the light spots correspond to the plane data of the building data on the display map and have a shape that is distinct from a shape of the building; and

a decimating section that decimates the building data in accordance with a scale of a map displayed on the display,

wherein, when the map scale is not greater than a predetermined threshold value, the decimating section causes light spots corresponding to the plane data of the building data to light up, and

wherein, when the map scale is greater than the predetermined threshold value, the decimating section divides a screen of the display into a plurality of blocks and causes one light spot to light up for each block, the one light spot for each block being weighted based of the number of light spots corresponding to the plane data of building data disposed in each of the divided blocks.

9. The electronic device according to claim 8, wherein a color of the one light spot for each block is changed based on the weighting.

10. An electronic device having a navigation function, comprising:

memory that stores building data pertaining to a building, the building data including plane data having two-dimensional coordinates and further including height data;

a judging section that judges whether a mode is a daytime mode or a nighttime mode;

a display comprising a plurality of even and odd numbered vertically and horizontally oriented lines;

a display controlling section that controls the display such that, when the judging section judges that the mode is the daytime mode, a building is displayed on a display map based on the building data, and when the judging section judges that the mode is the nighttime mode, the display controlling section controls the display to display light spots of pixels in place of the building, wherein the light spots correspond to the plane data of the building data on the display map and have a shape that is distinct from a shape of the building; and

a decimating section that decimates the building data in accordance with a scale of a map displayed on the display,

wherein, when the map scale is not greater than a predetermined threshold value, the decimating section causes light spots corresponding to the plane data of the building data that lie on odd-numbered lines and the building data that lie on even-numbered lines to light up, and

wherein, when the map scale is greater than the predetermined threshold value, the decimating section causes light spots corresponding to the plane data of either the building data that lie on the odd-numbered lines or the building data that lie on the even-numbered lines to light up.

11. The electronic device of claim 10, wherein, lines upon which the light spots lie are either the horizontal lines on the display screen, the vertical lines on the display screen, or both the horizontal and the vertical lines on the display screen.

12. An electronic device having a navigation function, comprising:

memory that stores building data pertaining to a building, the building data including plane data having two-dimensional coordinates and further including height data;

a judging section that judges whether a mode is a daytime mode or a nighttime mode;

a display;

a display controlling section that controls the display such that, when the judging section judges that the mode is the daytime mode, a building is displayed on a display map based on the building data, and when the judging section judges that the mode is the nighttime mode, the display controlling section displays light spots of pixels in place of the building, wherein the light spots correspond to the plane data of the building data on the display map and have a shape that is distinct from a shape of the building; and

a decimating section that decimates the building data in accordance with a scale of a map displayed on the display,

wherein the decimating section divides a screen of the display into odd-numbered blocks and even-numbered blocks,

wherein, when the map scale is not greater than a predetermined threshold value, the decimating section causes light spots corresponding to the plane data of the building data that lie in the odd-numbered blocks and the building data that lie in the even-numbered blocks to light up, and

wherein, when the map scale is greater than the predetermined threshold value, the decimating section causes light spots corresponding to the plane data of either the building data that lie in the odd-numbered blocks or the building data that lie in the even-numbered blocks to light up.