Route navigation system, client terminal, server, route navigation method, and route identicalness determination method

A route navigation system which performs a route navigation for a user of a client terminal from a place of departure to a destination, comprising:

• a server that includes a server database and determines a server route, which is a route from the place of departure to the destination, along with guiding points using information in the server database;
• and
• a client terminal that includes a client terminal database, communicates with the server and determines a client route, which is a route from the place of departure to the destination, along with guiding points using information in the client terminal database, wherein
• the client terminal obtains information concerning guiding points of the determined server route from the server and, taking one of adjoining guiding points specified in the obtained information concerning the guiding points as an outgoing-side guiding point, and the other one of the adjoining guiding points as an incoming-side guiding point, determines the client route therebetween using the information in the client terminal database, and
• the client terminal determines whether or not the server route between the adjoining guiding points and the determined client route are identical, and if identical, the client terminal performs the route navigation of a route between the adjoining guiding points using the information in the client terminal database, and if not identical, the client terminal obtains information concerning one or more sections or entire sections of the route between the adjoining guiding points from the server and performs the route navigation of the route between the adjoining guiding points based on the obtained information.

A client terminal which, communicating with a server which determines a server route which is a route from a place of departure to a destination using information in a server database, performs route navigation for a user from the place of departure to the destination, comprising:

• a client terminal database;
• and
• a controller that obtains information concerning guiding points of the determined server route from the server and, taking one of adjoining guiding points specified in the obtained information concerning the guiding points as an outgoing-side guiding point and the other one of the adjoining guiding points as an incoming-side guiding point, determines a client route therebetween using information in the client terminal database;
• and
• the controller further determines whether or not the server route between the adjoining guiding points and the determined client route are identical, and, if identical, the controller performs the route navigation of a route between the adjoining guiding points using the information in the client terminal database, and, if not identical, the controller obtains information concerning one or more sections or entire sections of the route between the adjoining guiding points from the server and performs the route navigation of the route between the adjoining guiding points based on the obtained information.

A server that communicates with a client terminal that determines a client route which is a route from a place of departure to a destination of a user along with guiding points and which performs route navigation of the route from the place of departure to the destination selectively using information in a client terminal database concerning the determined client route and information received from the client terminal database, comprising:

• a server database;
• a controller that determines a server route which is a route from the place of departure to the destination along with guiding points using information in the server database;
• and
• a transmitter that transmits information concerning one or more sections or entire sections of the server route to the client terminal based on a comparison between a position of the guiding point of the server route and a position of the guiding point of the client route.

A route identicalness determination method, which determines whether or not server route data including information concerning guiding points, determined by a server having a server database using information therein, and client route data including information concerning guiding points, determined by a client terminal having a client terminal database using information therein, are identical, comprising the steps of:

• determining whether or not a position of an outgoing-side guiding point of the server route and a position of an outgoing-side guiding point of the client route are identical;
• determining whether or not a position of an incoming-side guiding point of the server route which adjoins the outgoing-side guiding point thereof and a position of an incoming-side guiding point of the client route which adjoins the outgoing-side guiding point thereof are identical;
• and
• determining that the route datum are identical when both of the determinations are satisfied.

A route navigation system which performs a route navigation for a user of a client terminal from a place of departure to a destination, comprising:

• a server that includes a server-side database, determines a server route, which is a route from the place of departure to the destination using information in the server-side database based on information for specifying the place of departure and the destination which information is transmitted from the client terminal, and transmits information regarding a guiding point included in the server route obtained to the client terminal;
• and
• the client terminal that transmits at least the information for specifying the place of departure and the destination to the server, obtains a point that can be a first guiding point that is a guiding point adjacent to the place of departure as a first guiding candidate point by searching information stored in a client terminal-side database, and receives information regarding the guiding point of the server route obtained and determines whether the first guiding candidate point includes a point identical to the first guiding point specified by the received information regarding the guiding point of the server route, and performes the route navigation regarding a segment from the place of departure to the first guiding point using the information stored in the client terminal-side database if there is a first guiding candidate point identical to the first guiding point, and performs the route navigation by acquiring information regarding a segment from the place of departure to the first guiding point from the server if there is not a first guiding candidate point identical to the first guiding point,
• wherein the route navigation is performed while the information from the server-side database and the information from the client terminal-side database are selectively used.

A client terminal which communicates with a server that has a server-side database, determines a server route which is a route from the place of departure to the destination using information stored in the server-side database when information specifying a place of departure and a destination is given, and transmits information regarding a guiding point included in the server route obtained to an external device, and which performs a route navigation for a user from the place of departure to the destination, the client terminal comprising:

• a client terminal-side database;
• and
• a controller that transmits at least information specifying the place of departure and the destination to the server, obtains a point that can be a first guiding point that is a guiding point adjacent to the place of departure as a first guiding candidate point by searching information stored in the client terminal-side database, acquires information regarding a guiding point of the obtained server route through transmission from the server, determines whether the obtained first guiding candidate point includes a point identical to the first guiding point specified by the acquired information regarding the guiding point of the server route, and performs the route navigation regarding a segment from the place of departure to the first guiding point using the information stored in the client terminal-side database if it is determined that there is a first guiding candidate point identical to the first guiding point, and for performing the route navigation by acquiring information regarding a segment from the place of departure to the first guiding point from the server if it is determined that there is not a first guiding candidate point identical to the first guiding point.

A route navigation system which performs a route navigation for a user of a client terminal from a place of departure to a destination, comprising:

• a server that determines a server route that is a route from the place of departure to the destination using information stored in a server-side database based on information for specifying the place of departure and the destination which information is transmitted from the client terminal and transmits guiding point information regarding a guiding point included in the server route obtained to the client terminal;
• and
• the client terminal that transmits at least the information for specifying the place of departure and the destination to the server, acquires the guiding point information of the server route from the server, obtains a point that can be an adjacent guiding point that is a guiding point adjacent to an arbitrary guiding point of guiding points specified by the acquired guiding point information, at a destination side of the arbitrary guiding point, as an adjacent guiding candidate point by searching information stored in a client terminal-side database, determines whether the adjacent guiding candidate point includes a point identical to an adjacent guiding point of the server route which is a guiding point adjacent to the destination side of the arbitrary guiding point and which is specified by the acquired guiding point information, performs the route navigation regarding a segment from the arbitrary guiding point to the adjacent guiding point of the server route using the information stored in the client terminal-side database if there is an adjacent guiding candidate point identical to the adjacent guiding point of the server route, and performs the route navigation by acquiring information regarding a segment from the arbitrary guiding point to the adjacent guiding point of the server route from the server if there is not an adjacent guiding candidate point identical to the adjacent guiding point of the server route,
• wherein the route navigation is performed while the information from the server-side database and the information from the client terminal-side database are selectively used.

A client terminal which communicates with a server that has a server-side database, determines a server route which is a route from the place of departure to the destination using information stored in the server-side database when information specifying a place of departure and a destination is given, and performs a route navigation for a user from the place of departure to the destination, the client terminal comprising:

• a client terminal-side database;
• and
• a controller that transmits at least information specifying the place of departure and the destination to the server, searching guiding point information regarding a guiding point of the obtained server route, obtaining a point that can be an adjacent guiding point that is a guiding point adjacent to an arbitrary guiding point of guiding points specified by the received guiding point information, at a destination side of the arbitrary guiding point, as an adjacent guiding candidate point by searching information stored in a client terminal-side database, determining whether the adjacent guiding candidate point includes a point identical to an adjacent guiding point of the server route which is a guiding point adjacent to the destination side of the arbitrary guiding point and which is specified by the received guiding point information, and performs the route navigation regarding a segment from the arbitrary guiding point to the adjacent guiding point of the server route using the information stored in the client terminal-side database if there is an adjacent guiding candidate point identical to the adjacent guiding point of the server route and performs the route navigation by acquiring information regarding a segment from the arbitrary guiding point to the adjacent guiding point of the server route from the server if there is not an adjacent guiding candidate point identical to the adjacent guiding point of the server route.