Sonar mapping system
AssigneeJohnson Outdoors Inc.
InventorsPer Pelin, Scott A. Harrington
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A sonar mapping system that includes a sonar transducer assembly configured for mounting on a watercraft, and a display configured to show a topographical chart of a body of water. The sonar mapping system further includes a processor coupled to the sonar transducer assembly and display. The processor is configured to create the topographical chart in real time, and to update the topographical chart in real time, based on sonar data provided by the sonar transducer assembly. The processor is also configured to render the created or updated topographical chart on the display. The sonar mapping system has memory accessible by the processor and configured to store the topographical chart rendered by the processor, and to store the sonar data provided by the sonar transducer assembly.
Claims20
A head unit for a sonar mapping system having a sonar transducer configured to generate sonar data for transmission to the head unit and a GPS receiver configured to provide location information to the head unit, comprising:
- a display;
- a processor operably coupled to the display, the processor configured to convert the sonar data received from the sonar transducer into visual information for rendering on the display;
- wherein the visual information is at least one of topographical contours or bathymetric tints representing at least one of depth or bottom hardness;
- and
- wherein the processor is configured to at least one of construct or update a chart of such visual information corresponding to a path of travel based on the location information received from the GPS receiver while traveling along the path of travel.
A method of creating a chart of a body of water while traveling along a path of travel, comprising the steps of:
- receiving sonar data from a sonar transducer assembly;
- receiving location information from a GPS receiver;
- processing the sonar data received from the sonar transducer assembly and the location information into visual information containing at least one of a topographical contour or a bathymetric tint representing at least one of depth or bottom hardness along the path of travel;
- and
- rendering, while traveling along the path of travel, the visual information on a display.
A method of updating a chart of a body of water while traveling along a path of travel, comprising the steps of:
- retrieving the chart from memory;
- rendering the chart on a display;
- receiving sonar data from a sonar transducer assembly;
- receiving location information from a GPS receiver;
- processing the sonar data received from the sonar transducer assembly and the location information into visual information containing at least one of a topographical contour or a bathymetric tint representing at least one of depth or bottom hardness along the path of travel;
- and
- rendering, while traveling along the path of travel, the visual information on the chart on the display.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.