Navigation device and direction detection method therefor

Abstract

The navigation device includes vehicle condition discriminating unit for discriminating whether the vehicle is stopped or not, angular velocity detecting unit for detecting change of direction of the vehicle and producing angular velocity data on the basis of the detected change of direction, absolute direction detecting unit for detecting geomagnetism and producing absolute direction data on the basis of the detected geomagnetism, offset processing unit for producing corrected angular velocity data from the angular velocity data and a first reference value, and offset reset unit for renewing the first reference value. The offset reset unit renews the first reference value with the angular velocity data which is obtained when the vehicle is discriminated to be stopped, a change rate of the angular velocity data is within a predetermined second reference value and a change rate of the absolute direction data is within a predetermined third reference value.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.