Night mode

• US 9,536,325 B2
• Filed: 10/17/2013
• Issued: 01/03/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 06/09/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Bray, Cdric, Moore, Christopher D., Piemonte, Patrick S., Vulcano, Emanuele, van Os, Marcel, Chen, Billy P., Pylappan, Seejo K., O'Beirne, Justin
• Primary Examiner(s): Augustine, Nicholas
• Assistant Examiner(s): Patel, Parmanand
• Application Number:
  US14/056,924
• Publication Number:
  US 20140365965A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,174 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3632 Guidance using simplified or iconic instructions, e.g. using arrows G01C21/365 takes precedence
• 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: G06F 3/0482 Interaction with lists of selectable items, e.g. menus
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 11/001 Texturing; Colouring; Generation of texture or colour inpainting G06T5/77

Abstract

A device that provides a map and/or navigation application that displays items on the map and/or navigation instructions differently in different modes. The applications of some embodiments provide a day mode and a night mode. In some embodiments the application uses the day mode as a default and activates the night mode when the time is after sunset at the location of the device. Some embodiments activate night mode when multiple conditions are satisfied (for example, when (1) the time is after sunset at the location of the device and (2) the ambient light level is below a threshold brightness).

Claims

1. A device comprising:

a set of processing units for executing sets of instructions;

a non-transitory machine readable medium for storing a program for displaying map data, the program comprising sets of instructions for;

determining whether a current time at a current location of the device is before a time specified for sunset at the current location;

when the current time at the current location of the device is before the time specified for sunset at the current location, displaying the map data in a day mode without regard to an ambient light level;

when the current time at the current location of the device is after the time specified for sunset at the current location and the ambient light level at the current location of the device is above a threshold level, displaying the map data in the day mode; and

when the current time at the current location of the device is after the time specified for sunset at the current location and the ambient light level at the current location of the device is below the threshold level, displaying the map data in a night mode,

wherein the displayed map data comprises a first set of location identifiers displayed for a particular map region when the current time at the current location of the device is before a particular time and a second, different set of location identifiers displayed for the same particular map region when the current time at the current location of the device is after the particular time.

2. The device of claim 1, wherein the sets of instructions for displaying the map in the day mode comprise a set of instructions for displaying the map using a first set of colors and the set of instructions for displaying the map in the night mode comprises a set of instructions for displaying the map using a second set of colors.

3. The device of claim 1, wherein the program further comprises sets of instructions for:

using a first style template to define colors for displaying instances of a data type in the day mode; and

using a second style template to define colors for displaying instances of the data type in the night mode.

4. The device of claim 3, wherein the program further comprises a set of instructions for transitioning from the day mode to the night mode by animating a change from displaying instances of the data type using the colors defined by the first style template to displaying instances of the data type using the colors defined by the second style template.

5. The device of claim 1, wherein the program further comprises sets of instructions for determining whether the device is set to override the current time and/or ambient light condition when displaying the map data in one of the day mode and the night mode based on an override setting regardless of the current time and ambient light level.

6. The device of claim 1,

wherein the first set of location identifiers for a first set of displayed locations are overlaid on the particular map region and the second set of location identifiers for a second set of displayed locations are not overlaid on the particular map region when the current time is before the particular time, and the second set of location identifiers for the second set of displayed locations are overlaid on the particular map region and the first set of location identifiers for the first set of displayed locations are not overlaid on the particular map region when the current time is after the particular time.

7. The device of claim 6, wherein the first and second sets of location identifiers comprise images of pins.

8. The device of claim 6, wherein the program further comprises a set of instructions for displaying text adjacent to at least one location identifier, wherein the text describes the location identified by the location identifier.

9. The device of claim 6, wherein when the current time is earlier than the particular time, a third set of location identifiers for the second set of displayed locations are overlaid on the particular map region, wherein the third set of location identifiers are visually distinguishable from the first set of location identifiers, and when the current time is later than the particular time, a fourth set of location identifiers for the first set of displayed locations are overlaid on the particular map region, wherein the fourth set of location identifiers are visually distinguishable from the second set of location identifiers.

10. The device of claim 9, wherein the location identifiers of the third set of location identifiers are each smaller than the location identifiers of the first set of location identifiers, and the location identifiers of the fourth set of location identifiers are each smaller than the location identifiers of the second set of location identifiers.

11. The device of claim 1, wherein the program further comprises sets of instructions for:

displaying a first set of search results for a particular location search query when the current time is after the particular time of day; and

displaying a second set of search results for the particular location search query when the current time is before the particular time of day.

12. The device of claim 11, wherein the program further comprises sets of instructions for:

displaying images representing the first set of search results for the particular location search query with the displayed map data when the current time is after the particular time of day; and

displaying images representing the second set of search results for the particular location search query with the displayed map data when the current time is after the particular time of day.

13. The device of claim 11, wherein the first set of search results comprises a reordering of the second set of search results.

14. The device of claim 11, wherein the first set of search results comprises at least one search result not in the second set of search results.

15. The device of claim 1, wherein the program further comprises a set of instructions for presenting an animated transition between two modes of a map, said set of instructions comprising sets of instructions for:

identifying a first map style template for a first map mode display;

identifying a second map style template for a second map mode display; and

presenting a plurality of different map mode displays that gradually transition from the first map mode display to the second map mode display, said presenting comprising interpolating values specified in the first map style template and values specified in the second map style template and successively applying the interpolated values to the plurality of different map mode displays, wherein the first map mode is one of day mode and night mode and the second map mode is the other of day mode and night mode.

16. The device of claim 15, wherein the particular time is sunset at the current location.

17. A method for displaying location identifiers for map locations on a display of a device, the method comprising:

identifying whether a current time at a location of the device is before or after a particular threshold time;

displaying a first set of location identifiers within a particular map region when the current time is after the particular threshold time; and

displaying a second, different set of location identifiers within the particular map region when the current time is before the particular threshold time.

18. The method of claim 17 further comprising displaying text adjacent to at least one location identifier, wherein the text describes the location identified by the location identifier.

19. The method of claim 17, wherein the threshold time is sunset at a current location of the device.

20. The method of claim 17, wherein the first and second sets of location identifiers comprise images of pins at different locations in the particular map region.

21. The method of claim 17 further comprising:

displaying a first set of search results for a particular location search query when the current time is after the particular threshold time; and

displaying a second set of search results for the particular location search query when the current time is before the particular threshold time.

22. A non-transitory machine readable medium storing a program which when executed by at least one processing unit displays map data on a device, the program comprising sets of instructions for:

determining whether a current time at a current location of the device is before a time associated with sunset at the current location;

when the current time at the current location of the device is before a time specified for sunset at the current location, displaying the map data in a day mode without regard to an ambient light level;

when the current time at the current location of the device is after the time specified for sunset at the current location, and the ambient light level at the current location of the device is above a threshold level, displaying the map data in the day mode; and

when the current time at the current location of the device is after the time specified for sunset at the current location, and the ambient light level at the current location of the device is below the threshold level, displaying the map data in a night mode,

wherein the displayed map data comprises a first set of location identifiers displayed for a particular map region when the current time at the current location of the device is before a particular time and a second, different set of location identifiers displayed for the same particular map region when the current time at the current location of the device is after the particular time.

23. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 22, wherein the program further comprises a set of instructions for, when the device is interfaced with a vehicle, displaying the map data in a mode specified by the vehicle.

24. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 23, wherein the set of instructions for displaying the map data in a mode specified by the vehicle comprises sets of instructions for:

when the vehicle specifies night mode, displaying the map data in the night mode; and

when the vehicle specifies day mode, displaying the map data in the day mode.