Depth highlight, depth highlight range, and water level offset highlight display and systems

• US 8,463,458 B2
• Filed: 07/09/2010
• Issued: 06/11/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 09/03/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Johnson Outdoors Marine Electronics Incorporated (Johnson Outdoors, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Johnson Outdoors Marine Electronics Incorporated (Johnson Outdoors, Inc.)
• Inventors: Wood, Michael Wesley, Smith, Jeffrey Earl
• Primary Examiner(s): Tarcza, Thomas
• Assistant Examiner(s): Dunn, Alex C
• Application Number:
  US12/833,919
• Publication Number:
  US 20110054785A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,068 Days
• Field of Search: 701/209, 367/99, 43/449.8
• US Class Current: 701/2
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/203 Specially adapted for sailing ships
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3848 Data obtained from both position sensors and additional sensors
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/14 specially adapted for specific applications
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 11/203 Drawing of straight lines or curves
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 11/206 Drawing of charts or graphs
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 29/006 Representation of non-cartographic information on maps, e.g. population distribution, wind direction, radiation levels, air and sea routes

Abstract

A digital mapping display and related system for fishing, and other applications.

Claims

1. A method to graphically output a depiction of one or more selected areas of a body of water together with adjacent contiguous land surface areas above the water surrounding said water body to a GPS Display Device, the display being coupled to a GPS device, the method comprising:

providing at least one chart out of a plurality of charts of one or more regions of a body of water, the chart comprising a plurality of bottom depths below a surface of the one or more regions of the body of water, the chart being configured to be output on the display;

selecting at least one depth to be highlighted simultaneously with the chart on the display;

processing information associated with the selected depth with information from the chart to identify a contour line at the selected depth; and

outputting one or more indications associated with at least the contour line on the display to highlight the contour line at the selected depth.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the one or more indications are associated with one or more shaded lines, one or more flashing lines, one or more broken contour lines, one or more flashing contour lines, one or more solid lines, one or more broken lines, or one or more series of symbols.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the one or more indications are associated with one or more contour lines differentiated from the remaining contour lines or wherein the one or more indications are associated with one or more shaded regions differentiated from the remaining regions, or wherein the one or more indications are associated with one or more colored regions differentiated from the remaining regions.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the one or more indications are associated with first alarms signaling a departure from the selected depth.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the one or more indications are associated with one or more first separate routes independent from the selected.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the one or more indications are associated with one or more colored contour line labels, one or more shaded contour line labels, one or more flashing contour line labels, or one or more differentiated contour line labels.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the outputting is provided in two dimensions or three dimensions;

wherein the GPS Display Device is provided on a combo unit consisting of SONAR and GPS; and

further comprising retrieving positional information from a global position system or from user positional inputs.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the chart comprises information associated with the plurality of bottom depths;

wherein the plurality of charts are provided in a library, the library is provided on a media card, the plurality of charts being in respective raster formats.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein the chart comprises information associated with the plurality of bottom depths;

wherein the plurality of charts are provided in a library, the library is provided on a media card, the plurality of charts being in respective vector formats.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein the contour line is a change in composition of a bottom region of the body of water.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein outputting of the one or more indications is provided simultaneously with the chart.

12. The method of claim 1 wherein the selecting of the depth comprises at least inputting the depth through a user interface provided on the display, moving a slide bar on a user interface provided on the display, using a key pad or toggle on the GPS device, inputting the depth through a user interface to allow one or more voice commands, or inputting the depth through a user interface provided through a key pad or toggle separate from the GPS device.

13. The method of claim 1 wherein the contour line is contiguous.

14. The method of claim 1 wherein the body of water is selected from a lake, an ocean, a bay, a river, a reservoir, an impoundment, a pond, and a stream.

15. The method of claim 1 wherein the chart comprises at least information selected from a hardness of the bottom of the water body, a content of the bottom of the water body, a weed content of the water body, or a current present in the water body.

16. The method of claim 1 wherein the chart further comprises at least one or more spot depths or at least one continuous depth contour line at a selected depth.

17. The method of claim 1 wherein the selected depth comprises a thermocline region.

18. The method of claim 1 wherein the surface of the contour line is representative of a portion of the body of water free from a sheet of ice.

19. A system for displaying a graphical output of one or more selected areas of a body of water, the system comprising one or more computer readable memories including:

one or more codes directed to at least one chart of one or more regions of a body of water, the chart comprising a plurality of bottom depths below a surface of the one or more regions of the body of water, the chart being configured to be output on the display;

one or more codes directed to receiving information associated with at least one depth to be highlighted on the display simultaneously with the chart;

one or more codes directed to processing information associated with the selected depth with information from the chart to identify at least a contour line at the selected depth; and

one or more codes directed to outputting one or more indications associated with the contour line on the display to highlight.

20. A method to graphically output a depiction of one or more selected areas of a body of water together with adjacent contiguous land surface areas above the water surrounding said water body to a GPS Display Device, the display being coupled to a GPS device, the method comprising:

providing at least one chart out of a plurality of charts of one or more regions of a body of water from a computer readable memory or memories, the chart comprising a plurality of bottom depths below a surface of the one or more regions of the body of water, the chart being configured to be output on the display;

selecting a range of depths to be highlighted simultaneously with the chart on the display;

processing information associated with the selected depth range with information from the chart to identify the selected depth range; and

outputting one or more indications associated with the one or more regions on the display to highlight the selected depth range.

21. A method to graphically output a depiction of one or more selected areas of a body of water together with adjacent contiguous land surface areas above the water surrounding said water body to a GPS Display Device, the display being coupled to a GPS device, the method comprising:

providing at least one chart of one or more regions of a body of water, the chart comprising a plurality of bottom depths below a surface of the one or more regions of the body of water together with a land surface adjacent to the body of water, the chart being configured to be output on the display; and

selecting a value consisting of either a positive off-set or a negative off-set by which to modify at least one depth label of the bottom depths and to modify a display of the land surface adjacent to the body of water on the display.

22. The method of claim 21 further comprising outputting a resulting chart representative of the modified display of the land surface adjacent to the body of water on the display and the modified depth label of the bottom depths.

23. The method of claim 21 wherein the selecting of the positive off-set or a negative off-set comprises a user input consisting of at least inputting the positive or negative off-set value through a user interface provided on the display, moving a slide bar on a user interface provided on the display, using a key pad or toggle on the GPS device, inputting the depth through a user interface to allow one or more voice commands, or inputting the depth through a user interface provided through a key pad or toggle separate from the GPS device.

24. The method of claim 21 further comprising adjusting all the depth labels on each contour line of a resulting chart based upon the positive or negative off-set value.

25. The method of claim 21 further comprising outputting a resulting chart incorporating the modified depth label within a determined time of less than a few seconds of selecting the value.

26. The method of claim 21 wherein the off-set value is negative causes an output of a resulting shoreline characterized by a second zero depth contour line that is below a first zero depth contour line of the chart to be modified and an output of each of the other depth labels other than the second zero depth contour lines that scales to the second zero depth contour line.

27. The method of claim 21 wherein the off-set value is positive causes an output of a resulting shoreline characterized by a second zero depth contour line that is above a first zero depth contour line of the chart to be modified and an output of each of the other depth labels other than the second zero depth contour lines that scales to the second zero depth contour line.

28. A mapping system comprising a display device coupled to a GPS, the display device comprising one or more computer readable memories, the one or more computer readable memories including:

a code directed to selecting a chart from a plurality of charts to be displayed, the selected chart including a representation of a body of water and a plurality of labels indicative of a plurality of depths for the representation of the body of water, at least one of the plurality of labels being a first zero depth label representing a first shoreline for the body of water;

a code directed to highlight a contour line from a plurality of contour lines on the selected chart;

a code directed to highlight a range of contour lines or a portion of contour lines from the selected chart; and

a code directed to output a resulting chart representative of a second zero depth label representing a second shoreline for the body of water, the second shoreline being indicative of a change in height of a surface of the body of water.

29. A system for mapping coupled to a GPS, the system comprising a computer readable memory, the computer readable memory including:

a code directed to retrieving a chart in a first format having a first set of attributes corresponding to a first water level of the body of water;

a code directed to receiving a value representative of off-set in a positive or negative direction, the off-set being indicative of a change in a water level of the body of water;

a code directed to process the value with information from the chart; and

a code directed to output a second chart in a second format having a second set of attributes corresponding to a second water level representative of the value of the off-set.

30. The system of claim 29 wherein the second set of attributes comprises a second set of depth labels indicative of the second water level.

31. The system of claim 29 wherein the output of the second chart comprises modifying one or more indications representative of the second water level.