Navigation device

A navigation device comprising:

• map data storage means for storing map data;
• map data reading means for reading the map data from said map data storage means;
• goal storage means for storing data descriptive of a plurality of goals and data related to a plurality of goals in relation to the each other;
• first search reference data storage means for storing a range of designated contents for distinguishing the plurality of goals;
• first search reference data reading means for reading the range of the designated contents from said first search reference data storage means;
• second search reference data storage means for storing a geographical range including a present position or a designated reference position as second search reference data;
• second search reference data reading means for reading the geographical range from said second search reference data storage means;
• goal data reading means for searching and reading from said goal storage means the data descriptive of the plurality of goals that conform to the range of the designated contents read by said first search reference data reading means and the geographical range read by said second search reference data reading means;
• priority order determining means for determining an order of priority for the data of the plurality of goals read by said goal data reading means according to the geographical range or the range of the designated contents;
• display means for displaying information;
• goal indication means for indicating the plurality of goals read by said goal data reading means on the information displayed on said display means;
• priority order indication means for indicating, on the information displayed on said display means, information related to the order of priority determined by said priority order determining means in relation to the plurality of goals indicated by said goal indication means;
• goal selection means for enabling user selection of a desired goal from the plurality of goals indicated by said goal indication means;
• goal storage means for storing data indicative of the desired goal selected via said goal selection means;
• route setting means for setting a route to the desired goal represented by the data stored by said goal storage means;
• route indication means for indicating the route set by said route setting means on the information displayed on said display means;
• and
• guide means for guiding the route indicated by said route indication means.

A navigation device comprising:

• map data storage means for storing map data;
• goal storage means for storing data descriptive of a plurality of goals and data related to a plurality of goals in relation to each other;
• first search reference data generating means for generating first search reference data that serves as a search reference for the data descriptive of the plurality of goals, or for the data related to the plurality of goals, for searching for candidate goals of the plurality of goals stored in said goal storage means;
• second search reference data generating means for generating second search reference data that serves as a search reference of a present position or of a designated reference position;
• goal data reading means for searching and reading as the candidate goals the data descriptive of the plurality of goals from said goal storage means according to the first and second search reference data generated by said first and second search reference data generating means;
• reduced scale determining means for automatically determining a reduced scale of a map picture which indicates a predetermined number of, or not less than a predetermined number of, the data of the plurality of goals read by said goal data reading means;
• and
• goal indication means for displaying the map picture at the reduced scale determined by said reduced scale determining means by using map data read from said map data storage means and for indicating on the map picture the data descriptive of the plurality of goals read by said goal data reading means.

A navigation device comprising:

• map data storage means for storing map data;
• map data reading means for reading the map data from said map data storage means;
• goal storage means for storing data descriptive of a plurality of goals and data related to a plurality of goals in relation to each other;
• first search reference data storage means for storing a range of designated contents for distinguishing the plurality of goals;
• first search reference data reading means for reading the range of the designated contents from said first search reference data storage means;
• second search reference data storage means for storing a geographical range including a present position or a designated reference position as second search reference data;
• second search reference data reading means for reading the geographical range from said second search reference data storage means;
• goal data reading means for searching and reading from said goal storage means the data descriptive of the plurality of goals that conform to the range of designated contents read by said first search reference data reading means and the geographical range read by said second search reference data reading means;
• relative position calculation means for finding a relative positional relationship for the present position or for the designated reference position in relation to the data of the plurality of goals read by said goal data reading means;
• reduced scale determining means for automatically determining a reduced scale of a map picture which indicates a predetermined number of, or not less than a predetermined number of, the data of the plurality of goals read by said goal data reading means depending upon the relative positional relationship of the plurality of goals determined by said relative position calculation means;
• display means for displaying an image;
• goal indication means for indicating on the image displayed on said display means the map picture of the reduced scale determined by said reduced scale determining means by using the map data read by said map data reading means and for indicating on the map picture the data descriptive of the plurality of goals read by said goal data reading means;
• goal selection means for enabling user selection of a desired goal from the plurality of goals indicated by said goal indication means;
• goal storage means for storing data indicative of the desired goal selected via said goal selection means;
• route setting means for setting a route to the desired goal represented by the data stored by said goal storage means;
• route indication means for indicating the route set by said route setting means on the image displayed on said display means;
• and
• guide means for guiding the route indicated by said route indication means.

A navigation device comprising:

• map data storage means for storing map data;
• goal storage means for storing data descriptive of a plurality of goals and data related to a plurality of goals in relation to each other;
• first search reference data generating means for generating first search reference data that serves as a search reference for the data descriptive of the plurality of goals or the data related to the plurality of goals during searching of the plurality of goals stored in said goal storage means;
• second search reference data generating means for generating second search reference data that serves as a search reference of a present position of a designated reference position;
• goal data reading means for searching and reading the data descriptive of the plurality of goals from said goal storage means according to the first and second search reference data generated by said first and second search reference data generating means;
• reduced scale determining means for automatically determining a reduced scale of a map picture which indicates a predetermined number of, or not less than a predetermined number of, the data of the plurality of goals read by said goal data reading means;
• goal indication means for displaying the map picture at the reduced scale determined by said reduced scale determining means by using map data read from said map data storage means and for indicating on the map picture the data descriptive of the plurality of goals read by said goal data reading means;
• priority order determining means for determining an order of priority of the plurality of goals based on a relationship between the data of the plurality of goals read by said goal data reading means and the second search reference data generated by said second search reference data generating means;
• and
• display means for displaying a plurality of goals according to the first search reference data with information related to the order of priority determined by said priority order determining means.

A navigation device comprising:

• map data storage means for storing map data;
• map data reading means for reading the map data from said map data storage means;
• goal storage means for storing data descriptive of a plurality of goals and data related to a plurality of goals in relation to each other;
• first search reference data storage means for storing a range of designated contents for distinguishing the plurality of goals;
• first search reference data reading means for reading the range of the designated contents from said first search reference data storage means;
• second search reference data storage means for storing a geographical range including a present position or a designated reference position as second search reference data;
• second search reference data reading means for reading the geographical range from said second search reference data storage means;
• goal data reading means for searching and reading from said goal storage means the data descriptive of the plurality of goals that conform to the range of the designated contents read by said first search reference data reading means and the geographical range read by said second search reference data reading means;
• relative position calculation means for finding a relative positional relationship for the present position or for the designated reference position in relation to the data of the plurality of goals read by said goal data reading means;
• reduced scale determining means for automatically determining a reduced scale of a map picture which indicates a predetermined number of, or not less than a predetermined number of, the data of the plurality of goals read by said goal data reading means depending upon the relative positional relationship of the plurality of goals determined by said relative position calculation means;
• priority order determining means for determining an order of priority for the data of the plurality of goals read by said goal data reading means depending upon correspondence with the geographical range or the range of the designated contents;
• display means for displaying an image;
• goal indication means for indicating, on the image displayed on said display means, the map picture at the reduced scale determined by said reduced scale determining means by using map data read by said map data reading means and for indicating on the map picture the data descriptive of the plurality of goals read by said goal data reading means;
• priority order indication means for indicating, on the image displayed on said display means, information related to the order of priority determined by said priority order determining means in relation to the plurality of goals indicated by said goal indication means;
• goal selection means for enabling user selection of a desired goal from the plurality of goals indicated by said goal indication means;
• goal storage means for storing data indicative of the desired goal selected via said goal selection means;
• route setting means for setting a route to the desired goal represented by the data stored by said goal storage means;
• route indication means for indicating the route set by said route setting means on the image displayed on said indication means;
• and
• guide means for guiding the route indicated by said route indication means.

A navigation system comprising:

• a memory for storing map data and descriptive data of a plurality of navigation goals;
• display means for displaying map images;
• reference point selection means for enabling user selection of a reference point;
• reference data input means for enabling user selection of reference data indicative of a desired category of navigation goals;
• and
• control means for retrieving from said memory navigation goals which correspond to the user selected reference data, prioritizing the retrieved navigation goals to provide priority data and generating the map images in accordance with the stored map data,
• the displayed map images being centered at the user selected reference point, the retrieved navigational goals being illustrated on the displayed map images with the corresponding priority data.

A storage media which stores computer programs comprising:

• first processing means for generating search reference data that serves as a reference for search during searching of a plurality of goals stored in a goal storage unit which stores data descriptive of the plurality of goals and data related to the plurality of goals in relation to each other;
• second processing means for searching and reading the data descriptive of the plurality of goals or the data related to the plurality of goals from said goal storage unit according to the search reference data generated by said first processing means;
• third processing means for reading reference position data from a reference position storage unit which stores data of reference positions used during searching of the plurality of goals stored in said goal storage unit;
• fourth processing means for determining an order of priority of the plurality of goals based on a relationship between the data of the plurality of goals read by said second processing means and the reference position data read by said third processing means;
• and
• fifth processing means for displaying the plurality of goals according to the search reference data with information related to the order of priority determined by said fourth processing means.

A storage media which stores computer programs comprising:

• first processing means for reading map data from a map data storage unit which stores map data;
• second processing means for reading a range of designated contents from a first search reference data storage unit which stores the range of designated contents for distinguishing a plurality of goals;
• third processing means for reading a geographical range from a second search reference data storage unit which stores the geographical range including a present position or a designated reference position as second search reference data;
• fourth processing means for searching and reading from a goal storage unit which stores data descriptive of a plurality of goals and data related to a plurality of goals in relation to each other, the data descriptive of the plurality of goals that conform to the range of the designated contents read by said second processing means and the geographical range read by said third processing means;
• fifth processing means for determining an order of priority for the data of the plurality of goals read by said fourth processing means according to the geographical range or the range of the designated contents;
• sixth processing means for indicating the plurality of goals read by said fourth processing means on a display which displays information;
• seventh processing means for indicating, on the information displayed on said display, information related to the order of priority determined by fifth processing means in relation to the plurality of goals indicated by said sixth processing means;
• eighth processing means for enabling user selection of a desired goal from the plurality of goals indicated by said sixth processing means;
• ninth processing means for setting a route to the desired goal represented by the data stored by said goal storage unit which stores data indicative of the desired goal selected via said eighth processing means;
• tenth processing means for indicating the route set by said ninth processing means on the information displayed on said display;
• and
• eleventh processing means for guiding the route indicated by said tenth processing means.

A storage media which stores computer programs comprising:

• first processing means for generating first search reference data that serves as a search reference for data descriptive of a plurality of goals, or for data related to a plurality of goals, and for searching for candidate goals of the plurality of goals stored in a goal storage unit which stores data descriptive of the plurality of goals and data related to the plurality of goals in relation to each other;
• second processing means for generating second search reference data that serves as a search reference of a present position or of a designated reference position;
• third processing means for searching and reading as the candidate goals the data descriptive of the plurality of goals from said goal storage unit according to the first and second search reference data generated by said first processing means and said second processing means;
• fourth processing means for automatically determining a reduced scale of a map picture which indicates a predetermined number of, or not less than a predetermined number of, the data of the plurality of goals read by said third processing means;
• and
• fifth processing means for displaying the map picture at the reduced scale determined by said fourth processing means by using map data read from a map data storage unit which stores map data and for indicating on the map picture the data descriptive of the plurality of goals read by said third processing means.