Pioneer Electronic Corporation

Kenichi Nobe

Morio Araki

Takeharu Arakawa

Kiyoshi Yamanaka

Junichi Nishida

Jun Shinohara

Toshiharu Baba

Michihiro Kaneko

Masahiko Sakaguchi

Yasushiro Ayukai

Tessho Ishida

Toshihiko Shimizu

A navigation system includes a device for extracting map data and location name data of different locations and their corresponding coordinate data; a position detector which detects the vechile position; a map display controller which displays map data on a display, and a calculating device for determining a straight-line distance from the vehicle position to the different locations thereby producing distance values. A location name display device displays location names on the display in ascending order based on the distance values, and a user selects a desired location from among the location names displayed. The extracting device may segregate the different locations based on different categories, and the map display controller retrieves map data around a location represented by coordinate data corresponding to the desired location selected by the user.

Navigation apparatus with enhanced positional display function

A navigation apparatus including a position detector for detecting a vehicle's position and outputting vehicle position data, a memory for storing map data, a display unit for displaying a variety of information, and a display controller for displaying a map on the display unit based on the map data and superimposing the vehicle's position on the map displayed on the display unit based on the vehicle's position data.

A route setting method in a navigation system for obtaining a shortest route from a starting position to a destination position, includes the steps of: selecting, out of links each corresponding to a partial route connecting two route positions adjacent to each other on a route, candidacy links each connected to one of confirmed links which include a link corresponding to the partial route connected to the starting position and which have been confirmed; judging whether or not each of the candidacy links selected by the selecting step is able to pass therethrough according to link judgement information, which corresponds to a connection relationship between each of the candidacy links and the confirmed link connected to each of the candidacy links and which is set in advance; confirming one of the candidacy links judged to be able to pass therethrough by the judging step, which has the shortest integrated route distance from the starting position, as a new confirmed link; and repeating the selecting, judging and confirming steps with respect to the confirmed links including the new confirmed link confirmed by the confirming step.

Route setting method and route setting apparatus in navigation system,

A navigation apparatus including a position detector for detecting an vehicle's position and outputting vehicle's position data, a memory for storing map data, a display unit for displaying a variety of information, and a display controller for displaying a map on the display unit based on the map data and superimposing the vehicle's position on the map displayed on the display unit based on the vehicle's position data. The apparatus further includes a commander for specifying an arbitrary position on the map displayed on the display unit; a coordinate calculator for calculating the latitude and longitude as the coordinates of the actual location corresponding to the specified position on the map and outputting the same as coordinate data; and a coordinate display controller for superimposing the coordinates of the actual location in numerical values on the displayed map based on the coordinate data.

A navigation apparatus for a movable body is provided with: a measurement device for measuring a present position of the movable body; a setting device for setting route position information corresponding to a plurality of scheduled route positions which are scheduled to be passed on a route to a destination; a memory device for storing the present position at predetermined time intervals as passed position information between a start time, which is a time when the setting device starts to set the route position information, and an end time, which is a time when the setting device ends to set the route position information; a judgement device for judging whether or not the movable body has passed the scheduled route positions between the start time and the end time on the basis of the passed position information stored in the memory device, after the end time; and a guidance device for generating a message to guide the movable body from the measured present position to the destination on the basis of the scheduled route positions which the movable body has not passed yet according to a judgement result of the judgement device.

Navigation apparatus and navigation method

A navigation apparatus equipped in a movable body, is provided with: a position measuring device for measuring a self-position of the movable body; an input device for inputting a destination position; a displaying device for displaying a present position, which is measured by the position measuring device, and an optimum course from the present position to the destination position; a memory device for storing map information including course data beforehand; and an optimum course searching device coupled to the memory device and the displaying device, for evaluating various courses from the present position to the destination position by use of the map information stored in the memory device, and searching the optimum course by selecting a course, which evaluation is the best one among the evaluated various courses, as the optimum course.

Navigation apparatus

A method of processing information of a recording disc among a plurality of recording discs having different standards or recording formats, includes the steps of: selecting and exchanging an objective recording disc to be reproduced among the plurality of recording discs; executing a recording information reproducing operation on the basis of an application program of the selected objective recording disc; and selecting and exchanging the objective recording disc only with respect to the recording discs, having the standard or recording format reproducible by the application program, among the plurality of recording discs after executing the recording information reproducing operation.

Method of processing information of recording disc and apparatus for

An on-board navigation apparatus in which one of a plurality of service facilities displayed on a display is designated by an operator input, the position coordinate data corresponding to the designated one service facility is registered as a user position into a memory. When the map is displayed on the display, the position coordinate data which has been user position registered is read out from the memory. The position on the map indicated by the position coordinate data is multiplexed onto the map by a predetermined pattern and displayed on the display. The positions of the service facilities such as restaurants, hotels, or the like, which are necessary for each user, consequently, can be easily confirmed on the displayed map.

On-board navigation apparatus having user registering function

A navigation system is provided with: a position measuring device for measuring a current position of a movable body to which the navigation system is equipped; a storing device for storing aerial photograph data; a displaying device; and a display controlling device coupled to the position measuring device, the storing device, and the displaying device, for making the displaying device display a mark indicating the measured current position on an aerial photograph image on the basis of the measured current position and the stored aerial photograph data.

Navigation system with position measuring device and aerial photographic

A navigation device includes measurement unit for measuring a current position of a vehicle and generating a current position data, route collection unit for generating route data on the basis of the current position data, place name extraction unit for extracting place name information with a predetermined interval from a map information in accordance with the current position data, storage unit for storing the route data and the place name information, the stored route data comprising a plurality of block route data each sectioned by the place name information, edit unit for editing the block route data stored in the storage unit, and display unit for extracting the route data from the storage unit and displaying the extracted route data together with the map information.

Navigation device

An on-vehicle navigation apparatus in which destination coordinate data stored in a memory is erased when the distance from the present location to a destination is equal to or smaller than a predetermined value at the time the engine of a vehicle is started. The destination coordinate data will not therefore be erased while the vehicle is actually running toward the destination. The arrangement prevents display of navigation information such as the direction and distance from being stopped before the vehicle arrives at the destination.

On-vehicle navigation apparatus with automatic re-initialization function

An on-board navigation apparatus in which coordinate data of formerly set designations are held in a memory, the destination coordinate data stored in the memory are read out at the time of destination setting, and one piece of destination coordinate data is selected from the read designation coordinate data in accordance with an operation input to thereby set a destination according to the selected one piece of destination coordinate data. The arrangement can allow a user to easily set the same destination as a formerly set destination only by a simple selecting operation.

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Kawagoe, Japan

Kenichi Nobe