Apparatus and method for displaying a map
AssigneeEtak, Inc.
InventorsGeorge E. Loughmiller, Jr., Stanley K. Honey, Kenneth A. Milnes
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A computer hardware and software system and method for displaying a map of streets corresponding to an area over which a vehicle may move to assist a driver to navigate, the system displaying the map on a display based on a scale-dependent street prioritization scheme, providing on the display a vehicle position symbol indicating the current position and heading of the vehicle and a moving map which moves in translation and rotation as the vehicle moves, selectively and dynamically labelling streets on the display as the vehicle moves, and providing a destination symbol on the display indicating a desired destination or the direction to a desired destination.
Claims37
Apparatus for displaying at selected scale levels a map of streets corresponding to an area over which a vehicle may move to assist a driver to navigate, comprising:
- (a) a stored map data base having data identifying the location of streets of the area, a code identifying each street by a predetermined priority category and labels for the streets;
- (b) means for selecting the scale levels;
- (c) means, responsive to the data, for selecting certain streets of the map to display in dependence on one of the selected scale levels and said code;
- (d) means, responsive to the data, for selecting certain labels to display in accordance with an ordering scheme dependent on the certain streets to display;
- and
- (e) means for producing a map display showing the certain streets and the certain labels for the streets.
Apparatus for displaying a map of streets corresponding to an area over which a vehicle may move and information indicating a desired destination of the vehicle to assist the driver to navigate, comprising:
- (a) a stored map data base having data identifying the location of streets of the given area and data identifying the desired destination;
- (b) means, responsive to the location data of the streets, for providing a map display of selected streets of the given area;
- (c) means for selecting from said desired destination data a desired destination of the vehicle;
- and
- (d) means, responsive to the selected destination data, for controlling said map display providing means to display a destination symbol at a location on the map corresponding to the desired destination.
A computer system for displaying a map of streets corresponding to an area over which a vehicle may move to assist the driver to navigate, comprising:
- (a) a display;
- (b) means for displaying the map on said display based on a scale-dependent street prioritization scheme;
- (c) means for providing a vehicle position symbol indicating the current position and heading of the vehicle and a moving map on said display as the vehicle moves, the moving map being movable in translation and rotation;
- (d) means for selectively and dynamically labelling streets on said display as the vehicle moves;
- and
- (e) means for providing a destination symbol on said display indicating a desired destination.
A method of displaying on a display a map of streets corresponding to an area over which a vehicle may move to assist the driver to navigate, comprising:
- (a) displaying the map on the display based on a scale-dependent, street prioritization scheme;
- (b) providing on the display a vehicle position symbol indicating the current position and heading of the vehicle and a moving map as the vehicle moves, the moving map being movable in translation and rotation;
- (c) selectively and dynamically labelling streets on the display as the vehicle moves;
- and
- (d) providing a destination symbol on the display indicating a desired destination or the direction to a desired destination.
Apparatus for displaying a map of streets corresponding to an area over which a vehicle may move to assist the driver to navigate, comprising:
- (a) a stored map data base having data identifying the location of the streets of the given area;
- (b) means for generating data identifying the position and heading of the vehicle;
- (c) means for selecting a scale level of the map display;
- (d) means, responsive to the map data base, the position and heading data of the vehicle and the selected scale level, for providing a map display and a symbol on said map display of the position and heading of the vehicle, the map display moving in translation and rotation in dependence on the movement of the vehicle, wherein said symbol is fixed and said map display is a heading-up display in which said symbol points upwardly irrespective of the orientation of the vehicle and said map display is rotated to correspond to the vehcle heading;
- and
- (e) means for generating PAN commands to cause said map display to translate in a selected direction while the vehicle is stationery.
Apparatus for displaying a map of streets corresponding to an area over which a vehicle may move to assist the driver to navigate, comprising:
- (a) a stored map data base having data identifying the location of the streets of the given area;
- (b) means for generating data identifying the position and heading of the vehicle;
- (c) means for selecting a scale level of the map display;
- (d) means, responsive to the map data base, the position and heading data of the vehicle and the selected scale level, for providing a map display and a symbol on said map display of the position and heading of the vehicle, the map display moving in translation and rotation in dependence on the movement of the vehicle, wherein said symbol is fixed and said map display is a heading-up display in which said symbol points upwardly irrespective of the orientation of the vehicle and said map display is rotated to correspond to the vehicle heading;
- and
- (e) means for converting said map display to a north up map display in which said display is oriented with true north directed upwardly and said vehicle symbol rotated to indicate the true heading of the vehicle.
Apparatus for displaying at selected scale levels a map of streets corresponding to an area over which a vehicle may move to assist a driver to navigate, the map having a computable center and orientation comprising:
- (a) a stored map data base having data identifying the location of streets of the area and a code identifying each street by a predetermined priority category;
- (b) means for generating data identifying the position and heading of the vehicle;
- (c) means for selecting the scale levels;
- (d) means for computing the map center and orientation from said vehicle position and heading data;
- (e) means, responsive to said map data, for selecting certain streets of the map to display in dependence on one of the selected scale levels and said code;
- and
- (f) means, responsive to said one of said selected scale levels, the computed map center and the computed orientation for generating a map window to said selected streets for producing a map containing only those selected streets or parts of the selected streets that fall within the map window.
Apparatus for displaying a map of streets corresponding to an area over which a vehicle may move to assist a driver to navigate, comprising:
- (a) a stored map data base having data identifying the location of streets of the area and labels for the streets;
- (b) means, responsive to the data, for selecting certain streets to display;
- (c) means, responsive to the data, for selecting certain labels to display in accordance with a predetermined ordering scheme, in which the predetermined ordering scheme selects a subset of the certain streets to display to be labeled with the certain labels;
- and
- (d) means for providing a moving map display showing the certain streets and the certain labels in relation to the subset of the certain streets, and wherein said means for selecting certain labels includes means for determining the orientation of the certain labels for ease of reading said moving map display.
Apparatus for displaying a map of streets corresponding to an area over which a vehicle may move to assist a driver to navigate, comprising:
- (a) a stored map data base having data identifying the location of streets of the area and labels for the streets;
- (b) means, responsive to the data, for selecting certain streets to display;
- (c) means, responsive to the data, for selecting certain labels to display in accordance with a predetermined ordering scheme, in which the predetermined ordering scheme selects a subset of the certain streets to display to be labeled with the certain labels;
- and
- (d) means for providing a moving map display showing the certain streets and the certain labels in relation to the subset of the certain streets, and wherein said means for selecting certain labels includes means for determining if each of the certain labels to be displayed in accordance with the predetermined ordering scheme can be positioned along a corresponding street.
Apparatus for displaying a map of streets corresponding to an area over which a vehicle may move to assist a driver to navigate, comprising:
- (a) a stored map data base having data identifying the location of streets of the area and labels for the streets;
- (b) means, responsive to the data, for selecting certain streets to display;
- (c) means, responsive to the data, for selecting certain labels to display in accordance with a predetermined ordering scheme, in which the predetermined ordering scheme selects a subset of the certain streets to display to be labeled with the certain labels, and
- (d) means for providing a map display showing the certain streets and the certain labels in relation to the subset of the certain streets, and wherein said means for selecting certain labels includes means for determining if any one of the certain labels can be displayed without overlapping another of the certain labels to be displayed.
Apparatus for displaying a map of streets corresponding to an area over which a vehicle may move to assist a driver to navigate, comprising:
- (a) a stored map data base having data identifying the location of streets of the area and labels for the streets;
- (b) means, responsive to the data, for selecting certain streets to display;
- (c) means, responsive to the data, for selecting certain labels to display in accordance with a predetermined ordering scheme, in which the predetermined ordering scheme selects a subset of the certain streets to display to be labeled with the certain labels;
- (d) means for providing a moving map display showing the certain streets and the certain labels in relation to the subset of the certain streets;
- and
- (e) means for selecting different scale levels of said map display, and wherein the side of the certain labels that are displayed is independent of the different scale levels.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.