Apparatus and method for map data management

• US 8,612,153 B2
• Filed: 12/23/2008
• Issued: 12/17/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 01/25/2008
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: DENSO Corporation
• Original Assignee: DENSO Corporation
• Inventors: Nomura, Daisuke, Nakano, Mikiya
• Primary Examiner(s): Khatib, Rami
• Application Number:
  US12/318,188
• Publication Number:
  US 20090192706A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,820 Days
• Field of Search: 701 23- 26, 701200-203, 701207-212, 701/400, 701/532, 701/540, 340/988, 340990-994, 3409951-99512, 34099514-99516, 340/995.18, 340/995.24, 340/996, 717168-178
• US Class Current: 701/540
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3859 Differential updating map data

Abstract

In a course of updating old map data on a hard disk drive to new map data, a low-priority portion of the old map data that has less importance/necessity is deleted to create a vacant area, and a high-priority portion of the new map data is copied to the vacant area as an update of the map data. Then, the high-priority portion of the old map data is deleted to create another vacant area, and a low-priority portion of the new map data is copied to the vacant area. During the update of the map data, restrictions on the usage of the map data are avoided at all efforts by having the high-priority portion of at least one of the new map data and the old map data maintained on the hard disk drive, while maximizing the utilization of storage resources in a map data management apparatus.

Claims

1. A map data management apparatus comprising:

a storage for storing map data;

a data acquisition unit for acquiring data as first map data that is to be used in the apparatus; and

an update unit for performing update of the data in the storage by replacing a second map data in the storage with the first map data acquired by the data acquisition unit, wherein

the first map data includes at least a high-priority portion and a low-priority portion,

the second map data includes at least a high-priority portion and a low-priority portion,

the update unit replaces the low-priority portion of the second map data with the high-priority portion of the first map data as a first replacement, replacement of the low-priority portions of the second map data with the high-priority portion of the first map data being performed by storing the high priority portion of the first map data for the update in the storage, thereby allowing co-existence of the high-priority portion of the first map data and the high-priority portion of the second map data in the storage, and

the update unit thereafter replaces the high-priority portion of the second map data with the low-priority portion of the first map data after the first replacement.

2. The map data management apparatus of claim 1, wherein

the data priority has multiple priority levels from a lowest priority data portion to a highest priority data portion,

the update unit replaces one of sub-highest priority data portions in the second map data with a highest priority data portion from the first map data,

the update unit subsequently replaces the other sub-highest priority data portions in the second map data with the data portions from the first map data in an order of descending priority levels, and

the update unit finally replaces a highest priority data portion in the second map data with a lowest priority data portion from the first map data.

3. The map data management apparatus of claim 2, wherein

the map data management apparatus is disposed in a vehicle,

the map data is used for route guidance of a navigation system for use in the vehicle,

the map data includes a basic data used for a basic route guidance function, an area data used for search function, and an additional data used for optional functions,

the basic data has a highest data priority level,

the area data has a second highest data priority level, and the additional data has a lowest data priority.

4. The map data management apparatus of claim 1, wherein

a portion of the first and second map data for displaying map on an information display device has a higher priority than other portion of the data.

5. The map data management apparatus of claim 1, wherein

the data priority of each data element in the first and second map data is determined according to a data size of the each data element.

6. The map data management apparatus of claim 1 further comprising:

a priority recognition unit for identifying a data priority of a data element, wherein

the update unit performs the update of the data based on the identified data priority of the data element.

7. The map data management apparatus of claim 1 further comprising:

a priority setting unit for setting a data priority of a data element.

8. The map data management apparatus of claim 1,

wherein a first status that indicates that the first replacement of the update unit replacement is complete is stored in a predetermined memory,

wherein a second status that indicates that the update unit completed the replacement of the high priority portion of the second map data with the low-priority portion of the first map data is stored in the predetermined memory and replaces the first status, and

wherein when the update of the data in the storage is interrupted, the update unit resumes the update process based on whether the stored information is one of the first status and the second status.

9. The map data management apparatus of claim 1, wherein

the high-priority portion of the first map data and the second map data is data used for displaying a map, and

the low-priority portion of the first map data and the second map data is data not used for displaying the map.

10. The map data management apparatus of claim 1, wherein

the high-priority portion of the first map data and the second map data is geographical data, and

the low-priority portion of the first map data and the second map data is non-geographical data.

11. The map data management apparatus of claim 1, wherein

in the first map data and the second map data, a first portion of the map data representing a first area that is close to a current object position is designated as the high-priority portion, and a second portion of the map data representing a second area other than the first area is designated as the low priority data.

12. The map data management apparatus of claim 11, wherein the current object position is a current vehicle position.

13. A map data management apparatus comprising:

a storage for storing map data;

a data acquisition unit for acquiring data as first map data that is to be used in the apparatus; and

an update unit for performing update of the data in the storage by replacing a second map data in the storage with the first map data acquired by the data acquisition unit, wherein

a data element in the first map data and the second map data has a higher data priority in proportion to closeness of a geographical area represented by the data element to a current vehicle position,

the update unit replaces a low-priority portion of the second map data with a high-priority portion of the first map data as a first replacement, and

the update unit replaces a high-priority portion of the second map data with a low-priority portion of the first map data after the first replacement.

14. A method for updating map data in a map data management apparatus that has a storage for storing map data, a data acquisition unit for acquiring map data, and a controller, the method comprising:

performing, by the controller, a map data update that replaces older, second map data stored in the storage with newer, first map data acquired by the data acquisition unit, wherein

a low-priority portion of the second map data is replaced, by the controller, with a high-priority portion of the first map data as a first replacement, and a high-priority portion of the second map data is replaced, by the controller, with a low-priority portion of the first map data after the first replacement.