Information display apparatus and navigation apparatus

• US 6,762,772 B1
• Filed: 06/26/2000
• Issued: 07/13/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 06/29/1999
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: DENSO Corporation
• Original Assignee: DENSO Corporation
• Inventors: Imamura, Yasuji, Kako, Hiroshi
• Primary Examiner(s): Luu, Sy D.
• Application Number:
  US09/604,043
• Time in Patent Office: 1,478 Days
• Field of Search: 345/700, 345/704, 345/705, 345/764, 345/782, 345/810, 345/835, 345/853-855, 701/200, 701/201, 701/208, 701/211, 340/988, 340/990, 340/995
• US Class Current: 715/700
• 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

Abstract

A navigation apparatus, which can reduce time to restore a display condition as much as possible, even when it becomes necessary to restart during executing software, by omitting several initializing processes when the apparatus restarts. In a navigation apparatus, at a time of startup, a display controller is initialized and an initial picture is displayed, so that other initializing process is performed. After that, a present position is displayed and normal navigation process is performed. When a control is complicated as a result of executing plural programs at same time, improper exception occurs and then restarts. In this time, as a pre-process, a map display picture of the present position is stored in an external memory. At a restart process, the display controller firstly displays the map display regarding the present position, and the restart process is performed under this condition so as to restore a normal condition. A display condition can be restored without user'"'"'s recognition, because there is no black picture condition in the display unit.

Claims

1. An information display apparatus comprising:

control means for controlling display means to display several types of information based on a program, and for interrupting an execution of the program so as to perform a restart process when it becomes necessary to restart the program during execution of the program;

storing means for storing display picture information at restart timing to be displayed on the display unit during the restart process of the program; and

display control means for reading out the display picture information at restart timing from the storing means during the restart process of the program, and for displaying the display picture information at restart timing.

2. An information display apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the control means controls the display means to display the information via the display control means, and omits an initializing process for the display control means at the restart process of the program.

3. An information display apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising detecting means for detecting occurrence of an improper process during execution of the program,

wherein the control means interrupts the program to execute the restart process when the detecting means detects the improper process.

4. An information display apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the storing means stores the display picture information on the display means when it becomes necessary to restart the program.

5. An information display apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the storing means previously stores a predetermined specific picture information as the display picture information at restart timing.

6. An information display apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the specific picture information is guidance information.

7. An information display apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the specific picture information is a menu display picture for selectively setting a display content.

8. An information display apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the control means stores an occurrence condition of the restart process as historical information, and then performs the restart process when it becomes necessary to restart the program.

9. A navigation apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the control means performs the restart process when runaway of a program is generated.

10. A navigation apparatus according to claim 9, wherein the runaway of a program includes one of an improper access, an undefined interruption, and an undefined command.

11. An information display apparatus comprising:

control means for controlling display means to display several types of information based on a program, and for interrupting an execution of the program so as to perform a restart process when it becomes necessary to restart the program during execution of the program,

wherein the control means omits an initializing process for external inputting means, which inputs external information, at the restart process.

12. An information display apparatus according to claim 11, wherein the external inputting means is an input unit of an information storing medium in which information is stored in a disk.

13. A navigation apparatus according to claim 11, wherein the control means performs the restart process when runaway of a program is generated.

14. A navigation apparatus according to claim 13, wherein the runaway of a program includes one of an improper access, an undefined interruption, and an undefined command.

19. A navigation apparatus according to claim 11, wherein the storing means stores a predetermined attention attraction picture as the display picture information at restart timing.

15. A navigation apparatus comprising:

control means for controlling display means to display a route to a destination based on present position data from a position sensor and map data, and for interrupting execution of a program to perform a restart process when it becomes necessary to restart the program during execution of the program;

storing means for storing display picture information at restart timing to be displayed on the display unit during the restart process of the program; and

display control means for reading out the display picture information at restart timing from the storing means during the restart process of the program, and for displaying the display picture information at restart timing.

16. A navigation apparatus according to claim 15, wherein the storing means stores the display picture information on the display unit when it becomes necessary to restart the program.

17. A navigation apparatus according to claim 15, wherein the storing means stores a map display picture indicating the present position when it becomes necessary to restart during execution of the program as the display picture information at restart timing.

18. A navigation apparatus according to claim 15, wherein the storing means stores a menu picture as the display picture information at restart timing.

20. A navigation apparatus according to claim 15, wherein the control means performs the restart process when runaway of a program is generated.

21. A navigation apparatus according to claim 20, wherein the runaway of a program includes one of an improper access, an undefined interruption, and an undefined command.