Other

Aisin Aw Co., Ltd.

Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha

Yasuhiro Tooyama

Hiroshi Takeuchi

Hidenobu Suzuki

Isao Ogawa

Hironobu Sugimoto

Masahiro Kimura

Tomoyuki Zaitsu

Hidetoshi Fujimoto

Atsushi Ichimura

Toshio Inoguchi

Toshiaki Minami

Yoshimasa Furuike

Naoko Aoyanagi

Mamoru Kainuma

An on-vehicle information providing device for providing information to a driver based on information sent from an information providing center is disclosed. When a vehicle leaves an off-street facility having multiple exits to enter a road, the on-vehicle information providing device performs a first process of sending the information providing center vehicle-side information including information obtained based on starting time and exiting time of the vehicle and information identifying one of the exits selected for the vehicle to leave the facility; and performs a second process of receiving from the information providing center exit status information including exit time lengths calculated for the respective exits by the information providing center based on the vehicle-side information received from multiple vehicles and providing information to the driver based on the received exit status information.

On-vehicle information providing device, information providing center, and information providing system

When a display map information is reduced to a specified scale for a wide area, items of congestion information are extracted which have a congestion level of 'congested or busy', and an overlap determination area is created for a congestion link of each item of extracted congestion information. The overlap determination area extends both transversely and longitudinally for a specified distance from the congestion link. Also, for each group of congestion information items having overlapping determination areas, an equal congestion level area is created by connecting the overlap determination areas and displayed in a color that corresponds to the congestion level. Equal congestion level areas are also created in the same manner for the congestion information items with congestion levels of 'congested' and &#x201c;not congested&#x201d;, and displayed in different colors that correspond to their respective congestion levels.

Navigation system

Branch-point image data has coordinates added thereto according to the distance from a branch point such as an intersection. When the vehicle is within a predetermined distance from a branch point on a suggested route, the coordinates of the present position of the vehicle and the coordinates added to the branch-point image data are compared to locate the present position on the image data, and a present-position mark is displayed superimposed on the branch-point image data. The displayed present-position mark moves according to the distance between the vehicle and the branch point.

Navigation system and storage medium

Map data is divided into meshes of a prescribed size. Treating four meshes as one group, mesh numbers are assigned to the meshes following an N pattern. After numbers are assigned to the four meshes, these four meshes are collected as one, and numbers are assigned to respective meshes following an N pattern. The map data storage medium stores the map data according to mesh number. As a result, data portions for areas located in close proximity are positioned in close proximity in the map database (storage medium), to thereby improve access efficiency.

Map data storage medium

Growing community of inventors

Okazaki, Japan

Yasuhiro Tooyama