Magellan Dis, Inc.

Mitac International Corporation

Anthony Albert Slominski

Jeffrey Alan Millington

Yongle Lou

Chandiran Palanisamy

Rhonda Marie Paprocki

A method and apparatus of utilizing waypoints for a vehicle is provided. A first waypoint relating to a first vehicle position is added to a second waypoint relating to a second vehicle position. The waypoints are saved as a route. Waypoint information relating to the waypoints and route information relating to the route may be manipulated. The method also includes displaying at least a portion of the route on a display screen and indicating a desired direction of vehicle travel from a current vehicle location to one of the waypoints. According to the present invention, the drive may be alerted when the vehicle has come within a particular distance of the waypoint or if the vehicle has veered from the route by a particular distance.

Vehicle navigation system with off-road navigation

A vehicle navigation system provides a zoomed maneuver instruction view which displays a magnified view of the upcoming maneuver. Display of the zoomed maneuver instruction view is preferably related to the complexity of the road segments adjacent the upcoming maneuver. In one embodiment, the zoomed maneuver instruction view is displayed if more than N numbers of shape points are within a predetermined distance along the recommended route. In another embodiment, the zoomed maneuver instruction view is displayed if the recommended route includes an upcoming complex maneuver adjacent a road segment with more than N number of shape points. Preferably, the CPU will continue to magnify the complex maneuver in the zoomed maneuver instruction view as the vehicle and associated vehicle icon progresses through the complex maneuver.

Navigation system with zoomed maneuver instruction

A navigation system displays a recommended route on a map display of road segments with a plurality of arrows arranged on the recommended route toward the destination. The recommended route is highlighted in a color different from other road segments on the map display and arrows of yet another color are also displayed along the recommended route oriented toward the destination.

Navigation system with route indicators

A navigation system that enables a user to search for points of interest across categories is provided. The user may enter a character string of a desired destination into the navigation system using a user input device. The navigation system will search for points of interest in the database for the character string. The character string may be from the first portion of the name of the point of interest or somewhere in the middle of the name of the point of interest. In this manner, the user will be able to locate a point of interest from the database while having a partially incorrect name. Additionally, the navigation system may relate the points of interest to the vehicle location, such as by vehicle direction or proximity of the points of interest to the vehicle.

Points of interest for a navigation system

A navigation system includes a display displaying a map of roads from a road database. The navigation system utilizes a palette of colors to display the road and background on the display. The palette preferably includes a plurality of shades for each of a plurality of colors to be displayed including the background color and the road color. The roads on the display are preferably anti-aliased by indexing a different intensity of the shade of the object based upon the relative position of the pixel and an ideal object area.

Navigation system with anti-alias map display

The invention relates to a vehicle location display for a navigation system. The vehicle location display operates in either a graphical display mode or a textual display mode. In the graphical display mode the vehicle location display automatically scales the display to display the current location of the vehicle on the street currently being traveled, the previous cross street, the next cross street, and other vehicle information. When traveling on a freeway, the graphical display mode displays the current location of the vehicle on the freeway being traveled, the previous cross street and the next cross street. In the textual display mode the vehicle location display provides the current vehicle location by street or freeway name, city, county, state, latitude and longitude coordinates. In addition, the current compass heading, the previous cross street and the next cross street are provided. Icons displayed in the textual display mode enable a user to rapidly access emergency information and general information.

Growing community of inventors

Harrison Township, MI, United States of America

Anthony Albert Slominski