Navigation apparatus
AssigneeAlpine Electronics, Inc.
InventorsKoutaro Wakamatsu, Takayuki Watanabe
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A navigation apparatus includes a GPS receiver, an error-circle-radius calculating subunit, and a vehicle-position calculating unit. The GPS receiver receives radio waves transmitted from a plurality of GPS satellites and produces a GPS position. The error-circle-radius calculating subunit detects elevation angles of the plurality of GPS satellites used for calculating the GPS position and a center-of-gravity position of the plurality of GPS satellites, and determines an error range around the GPS position on the basis of the detected elevation angles and the center-of-gravity position. The vehicle-position calculating unit calculates a current position using the GPS position obtained from the GPS receiver and the error range determined by the error-circle-radius calculating subunit.
Claims14
A navigation apparatus comprising:
- a GPS receiver that receives radio waves transmitted from a plurality of GPS satellites and produces a GPS position;
- an elevation-angle detecting unit that detects elevation angles of the plurality of GPS satellites used for calculating the GPS position;
- a center-of-gravity-position detecting unit that detects a center-of-gravity position of the plurality of GPS satellites used for calculating the GPS position;
- an error-range determining unit that determines an error range around the GPS position using the elevation angles detected by the elevation-angle detecting unit and the center-of-gravity position detected by the center-of-gravity-position detecting unit;
- and
- a current-position calculating unit that calculates a current position using the GPS position produced by the GPS receiver and the error range determined by the error-range determining unit.
A method of operation in a navigation apparatus comprising;
- using a GPS receiver, receiving radio waves transmitted from a plurality of GPS satellites and calculating a GPS position;
- detecting elevation angles of the plurality of GPS satellites used for calculating the GPS position;
- detecting a center-of-gravity position of the plurality of GPS satellites used for calculating the GPS position;
- determining an error range around the GPS position using the detected elevation angles and the detected center-of-gravity position;
- and
- calculating a current position using the GPS position calculated by the GPS receiver and determined error range.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.