Method for displaying background sky in navigation system and apparatus thereof

• US 8,229,667 B2
• Filed: 01/26/2007
• Issued: 07/24/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 04/27/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Thinkware Systems Corporation
• Original Assignee: Thinkware Systems Corporation
• Inventors: Kim, Hak Soo
• Primary Examiner(s): Bayat, Bradley B.
• Application Number:
  US12/298,482
• Publication Number:
  US 20090088970A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,006 Days
• Field of Search: 701/400, 701/408
• US Class Current: 701/408
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3635 Guidance using 3D or perspective road maps
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/367 Details, e.g. road map scale, orientation, zooming, illumination, level of detail, scrolling of road map or positioning of current position marker
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/0969 having a display in the form of a map

Abstract

A method of displaying a background sky in a navigation system, the method including: storing and maintaining map data and background sky image data with respect to one or more directions of the map data in a database; detecting a driving direction angle of a vehicle; computing a position of a background sky image corresponding to the detected driving direction angle; extracting background sky image data corresponding to the computed position of the background sky image from the database; and displaying the extracted background sky image data as a background sky with respect to the map data.

Claims

1. A method of displaying a background sky in a navigation system, the method comprising:

storing and maintaining map data and background sky image data with respect to one or more directions of the map data in a database of the navigation system;

detecting a driving direction angle of a vehicle;

computing a position of a background sky image corresponding to the detected driving direction angle, wherein the computing comprises;

computing a start position (SP) of the background sky image corresponding to the detected driving direction angle and computing an end position (EP) of the background sky image corresponding to the detected driving direction angle;

extracting background sky image data corresponding to the computed position of the background sky image from the database, wherein the extracting extracts background sky image data corresponding to an area from the SP of the background sky image to the EP of the background sky image from the background sky image data stored in the database; and

displaying the extracted background sky image data as a background sky with respect to the map data on a navigation screen of the navigation system.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the storing and maintaining divides a background sky panorama image of 360°

into data of an N number of images, stores and maintains the data of the N number of images in the database, and the extracting extracts the background sky image data by combining image data corresponding to the computed position of the background sky image from among the data of the N number of images.

3. An apparatus for displaying a background sky in a navigation system, the apparatus comprising:

a background sky image storage unit storing and maintaining map data and background sky image data in the navigation system with respect to one or more directions of the map data;

an angle detection unit for detecting a driving direction angle of a vehicle;

an image position computation unit for computing a position of a background sky image corresponding to the detected driving direction angle, wherein the image position computation unit computes a start position (SP) of the background sky image corresponding to the detected driving direction angle, and computes an end position (EP) of the background sky image corresponding to the detected driving direction angle;

an image extraction unit for receiving the computed position of the background sky image from the image position computation unit and extracting background sky image data corresponding to the computed position of the background sky image, wherein the image extraction unit extracts background sky image data corresponding to an area from the start SP of the background sky image to the EP of the background sky image from the background sky image data stored in the database; and

a display unit for receiving the extracted background sky image data from the image extraction unit and displaying the extracted background sky image data as a background sky with respect to the map data on a navigation screen of the navigation system.

4. The apparatus of claim 3, wherein the background sky image storage unit stores a background sky panorama image data of 360°

by dividing the background sky panorama image data of 360°

into data of an N number of images, and the image extraction unit extracts the background sky image data by combining image data corresponding to the computed position of the background sky image from among the data of the N number of images.

5. A non-transitory computer-readable recording medium storing a program including executable instructions for implementing a method comprising:

storing and maintaining map data and background sky image data with respect to one or more directions of the map data in a database;

detecting a driving direction angle of a vehicle;

computing a position of a background sky image corresponding to the detected driving direction angle, wherein the computing comprises;

computing a start position (SP) of the background sky image corresponding to the detected driving direction angle; and

computing an end position (EP) of the background sky image corresponding to the detected driving direction angle;

extracting background sky image data corresponding to the computed position of the background sky image from the database, wherein the extracting extracts background sky image data corresponding to an area from the SP of the background sky image to the EP of the background sky image from the background sky image data stored in the database; and

displaying the extracted background sky image data as a background sky with respect to the map data on a navigation screen of a navigation system.

6. The non-transitory computer-readable recording medium according to claim 5, wherein the storing and maintaining divides a background sky panorama image of 360°

into data of an N number of images and stores and maintains the data of the N number of images in the database, and the extracting extracts the background sky image data by combining image data corresponding to the computed position of the background sky image from among the data of the N number of images.