Map display system, method, and program

• US 8,989,997 B2
• Filed: 06/28/2012
• Issued: 03/24/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 07/13/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Aisin AW Company Limited (Aisin Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Aisin AW Company Limited (Aisin Corp.)
• Inventors: Miwa, Daisuke
• Primary Examiner(s): Tran, Khoi
• Assistant Examiner(s): LIN, ABBY YEE
• Application Number:
  US13/536,228
• Publication Number:
  US 20130018571A1
• Time in Patent Office: 999 Days
• Field of Search: 701117-119, 701/409, 701/414, 701/423, 701/431, 701/429, 701/446, 701/451, 701/457, 701/458, 340933-934, 34099513-99514, 340/995.19, 340/995.27
• US Class Current: 701/118
• 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: G01C 21/3694 Output thereof on a road map
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096716 where the received information does not generate an automatic action on the vehicle control
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096775 where the origin of the information is a central station
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096827 where the route is computed onboard
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/0969 having a display in the form of a map

Abstract

A map display system and method are provided. The display system includes a map information acquiring unit that acquires map information and a congestion level acquiring unit that acquires a congestion level for each road section within the map. The system also includes a route line display determining unit that determines whether a route line is displayed superimposed on any road line, the route line representing a planned travel route, each road line representing a road section within the map. The display is controlled such that if the route line is displayed superimposed on any road line a congestion line is displayed at a position by a first off-set distance from the road line on the display part and if the route line is not displayed superimposed on any road line, the congestion line is displayed at a second off-set distance from the road line on the display part.

Claims

1. A map display system comprising:

at least one hardware processor that implements;

a map information acquiring unit that acquires map information indicating a map to be displayed on a display part;

a congestion level acquiring unit that acquires a congestion level for each road section within the map;

a route line display determining unit that determines whether a route line is displayed superimposed on any road line, the route line representing a planned travel route, each road line representing a road section within the map; and

a display controlling unit that,

if the route line is displayed superimposed on any road line, displays, based on the map information, the map including the road line and the route line on the display part,

determines whether a width of the route line is larger than a width of the road line, and if the width of the route line is larger than the width of the road line, displays a congestion line at a position by a first off-set distance from the road line on the display part, the congestion line representing the congestion level, the first off-set distance being a distance between the road line and the congestion line by which the route line is not overlapped with the congestion line,

if the route line is not displayed superimposed on any road line,

displays, based on the map information, the map including the road line on the display part and displays the congestion line at a position by a second off-set distance from the road line on the display part, the second off-set distance being a distance between the road line and the congestion line by which the road line is not overlapped with the congestion line, and

if the route line is displayed superimposed on any road line and the width of the route line is not larger than the width of the road line, displaying the congestion line at a position by a second off-set distance from the road line on the display part.

2. The map display system according to claim 1, wherein

if a planned travel route from a current position to a destination is being set, the route line display determining unit determines that the route line is displayed superimposed on any road line;

and

if the route line is displayed superimposed on any road line, the display controlling unit displays the congestion line at a position by the first off-set distance from the road line for all road sections within the map.

3. The map display system according to claim 1, wherein

a width of the road line is determined according to a scale of the map and a road attribute of the road section represented by the road line, and

a width of the route line is determined according to the scale of the map.

4. The map display system according to claim 1, wherein the display controlling unit,

if the route line is displayed superimposed on any road line, determines, for each road section within the map, a distance between the road line and the congestion line, the distance to display the congestion line at a position where the congestion line is not overlapped but contacts with a line of whichever has a larger width between the road line and the route line, acquires such distance as the first off-set distance for each road section, and displays the congestion line at a position by the first off-set distance, which corresponds to the road section represented by the road line, from the road line on the display part;

and

if the route line is not displayed superimposed on any road line, determines, for each road section within the map, a distance between the road line and the congestion line, the distance to display the congestion line at a position where the congestion line is not overlapped but contacts with the road line, acquires such distance as the second off-set distance for each road section, and displays the congestion line at a position by the second off-set distance, which corresponds to the road section represented by the road line, from the road line on the display part.

5. A map display method, comprising the steps of:

acquiring map information indicating a map to be displayed on a display part;

acquiring a congestion level for each road section within the map;

determining whether a route line is displayed superimposed on any road line, the route line representing a planned travel route, each road line representing a road section within the map; and

if the route line is displayed superimposed on any road line, displaying, based on the map information, the map including the road line and the route line on the display part, deter whether a width of the route line is larger than a width of the road line, and if the width of the route line is larger than the width of the road line, displaying a congestion line at a position by a first off-set distance from the road line on the display part, the congestion line representing the congestion level, the first off-set distance being a distance between the road line and the congestion line by which the route line is not overlapped with the congestion line,

if the route line is not displayed superimposed on any road line, displaying, based on the map information, the map including the road line on the display part and displaying the congestion line at a position by a second off-set distance from the road line on the display part, the second off-set distance being a distance between the road line and the congestion line by which the road line is not overlapped with the congestion line, and

if the route line is displayed superimposed on any road line and the width of the route line is not larger than the width of the road line, displaying the congestion line at a position by a second off-set distance from the road line on the display part.

6. A map display program stored on a non-transitory computer readable medium causing a computer to execute the functions of:

acquiring map information indicating a map to be displayed on a display part;

acquiring a congestion level for each road section within the map;

determining whether a route line is displayed superimposed on any road line, the route line representing a planned travel route, each road line representing a road section within the map; and

if the route line is displayed superimposed on any road line, displaying, based on the map information, the map including the road line and the route line on the display part, determining whether a width of the route line is larger than a width of the road line, and if the width of the route line is larger than the width of the road line, displaying a congestion line at a position by a first off-set distance from the road line on the display part, the congestion line representing the congestion level, the first off-set distance being a distance between the road line and the congestion line by which the route line is not overlapped with the congestion line,

if the route line is not displayed superimposed on any road line, displaying, based on the map information, the map including the road line on the display part and displaying the congestion line at a position by a second off-set distance from the road line on the display part, the second off-set distance being a distance between the road line and the congestion line by which the road line is not overlapped with the congestion line, and

if the route line is displayed superimposed on any road line and the width of the route line is not larger than the width of the road line, displaying the congestion line at a position by a second off-set distance from the road line on the display part.