System for digital map labeling

• US 8,880,343 B2
• Filed: 03/21/2012
• Issued: 11/04/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 03/22/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Harman Becker Automotive Systems GmbH (Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Harman Becker Automotive Systems GmbH (Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.)
• Inventors: Spindler, Carsten-Christian, Ivanov, Vladimir, Fischer, Martin, Schtz, Simon, Pryakhin, Alexey
• Primary Examiner(s): Cheung, Mary
• Assistant Examiner(s): BRUSHABER, FREDERICK M
• Application Number:
  US13/426,228
• Publication Number:
  US 20120245848A1
• Time in Patent Office: 958 Days
• Field of Search: 701/532
• US Class Current: 701/532
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3673 Labelling using text of road map data items, e.g. road names, POI names

Abstract

A navigation system may display a segment of a digital map including a map element and a label corresponding to the map element. A portion of the digital map where no labeling shall occur may be determined based on coordinate values of the map element. The label may be displayed such that the portion of the digital map where no labeling shall occur is not occupied by any portion of the label.

Claims

1. A method for displaying a label on a digital map, the label corresponding to a map element of the digital map, the method comprising:

displaying on a display device at least a segment of the digital map;

determining a boundary of a region of the digital map where no labeling shall occur based on first coordinate values of a point of the map element, the region of the digital map where no labeling shall occur comprising at least a portion of the map element, where the region of the digital map where no labeling shall occur is determined by a distance defined relative to the first coordinate values of the point of the map element;

retrieving from a database stored second coordinate values defining the boundary of the region of the digital map where no labeling shall occur; and

based on the retrieved stored second coordinate values, displaying on the display device the label on the digital map such that the region of the digital map where no labeling shall occur is not occupied by any part of the label.

2. The method of claim 1, where the digital map is a three-dimensional map.

3. The method of claim 1, where the label is a three-dimensional label comprising a three-dimensional representation of a character.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the region of the digital map comprises using one or more distances relative to the first coordinate values to identify the boundary around the first coordinate values that defines the region of the digital map where no labeling shall occur.

5. The method of claim 1, where the label is given by a vector graphic object.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising;

representing the map element by at least one spline comprising a plurality of vertices, where third coordinate values derived from coordinate values of at least one of the plurality of vertices of the at least one spline are stored in the database;

displaying on the display device the map element; and

displaying on the display device the label in the digital map based on the stored third coordinate values such that the label is adapted to a geometric form of the map element.

7. The method of claim 1, where displaying at least a segment of the digital map comprises displaying the segment of the digital map on the display device of a vehicle navigation system, displaying the label comprises displaying the label on the display device of the vehicle navigation system, and the method further comprises providing guidance information to a user of the navigation system.

8. The method of claim 1, where the map element comprises a junction, and displaying at least a segment of the digital map comprises displaying a three-dimensional animated junction view of the junction.

9. The method of claim 1, where the map element comprises a landmark, the region of the digital map where no labeling shall occur comprises at least a portion of the landmark, and the portion of the landmark remains unobstructed by the label for orientation of a user of the digital map.

10. The method of claim 1, where the label is displayed such that a second portion of the map element positioned outside of the region of the digital map where no labeling shall occur is occupied by at least a part of the label.

11. A non-transitory computer readable medium comprising a plurality of instructions executable by a processor, the tangible computer readable medium comprising:

instructions executable to display a segment of a digital map, the segment of the digital map comprising a map element;

instructions executable to determine a boundary of a region of the digital map where no labeling shall occur based on first coordinate values of a point of the map element and a distance relative to the first coordinate values of the point of the map element;

instructions executable to retrieve stored second coordinate values defining the boundary of the region of the digital map where no labeling shall occur; and

instructions executable to display the label on the digital map based on the retrieved stored second coordinate values, where the label is displayed such that the region of the digital map where no labeling shall occur is not occupied by any portion of the label.

12. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 11, where the digital map is a three dimensional map.

13. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 11, where the label is a three-dimensional label comprising a three-dimensional representation of a character.

14. A method for labeling a map element of a digital map of a navigation system for use in a vehicle, the method comprising:

determining a location of the vehicle in which the navigation system is installed;

displaying on a display device a segment of the digital map comprising a surrounding area of the determined location of the vehicle, the segment of the digital map comprising an item that represents a 3-dimensional object being displayed as a corresponding vector graphic in a 3-dimensional perspective view;

determining a boundary of a region of the digital map where no labeling shall occur by retrieving from a database stored coordinate values of the boundary of the region of the digital map where no labeling shall occur, wherein at least part of the item is within the region of the digital map; and

labeling the item with a label such that the region of the digital map is not occupied by any portion of the label.

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising determining coordinate values of a point of the item, and where the region of the digital map where no labeling shall occur is determined based on the determined coordinate values of the point of the item.

16. The method of claim 15, where the region of the digital map where no labeling shall occur is determined by a radius defined about the determined coordinate values of the point of the item, the radius defining the boundary of the region of the digital map.

17. The method of claim 14, where retrieving the stored coordinate values is performed before labeling the item with the label.

18. The method of claim 14, further comprising providing guidance information to a user of the navigation system.

19. A navigation database comprising data stored on a tangible computer readable medium, the data comprising:

digital map data comprising data of a map element that represents a 3-dimensional object to be displayed as a corresponding vector graphic in a 3-dimensional perspective view;

map element data comprising coordinate values of a point of the map element and a label for the map element; and

label data comprising data indicating a boundary of a region of a digital map where no labeling shall occur, the digital map corresponding to the digital map data, and the region of the digital map defined based on the coordinate values of the point of the map element.

20. The navigation database of claim 19, where the label data comprises coordinate values of the region of the digital map where no labeling shall occur.

21. A navigation system for use in a vehicle, the navigation system comprising:

a navigation database comprising;

digital map data comprising data of a map element that represents a 3-dimensional object to be displayed as a corresponding vector graphic in a 3-dimensional perspective view,

map element data comprising coordinate values of a point of the map element and a label for the map element, and

label data comprising data indicating a boundary of a region of a digital map where no labeling shall occur, the digital map corresponding to the digital map data, and the region of the digital map defined based on the coordinate values of the point of the map element; and

a display configured to display the digital map based on data of the navigation database such that the map element is labeled by the label with at least one of characters, symbols, and icons without covering the region of the digital map where no labeling shall occur.