Data processing: vehicles – navigation – and relative location – Navigation – Employing position determining equipment
Reexamination Certificate
2000-03-16
2001-11-27
Hernandez, Olga (Department: 3661)
Data processing: vehicles, navigation, and relative location
Navigation
Employing position determining equipment
C701S211000, C340S990000, C345S423000, C345S441000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06324469
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to map display technology, especially to three-dimensional map display method which is useful for applying to a navigation apparatus for displaying roads and buildings around the driving vehicle and near the cross way as three-dimensional images in a perspective map viewed in a designated angle with respect to the ground surface.
In the present invention, the term designated as structure represents structural objects, buildings, road and railways comprising the map. The term designated as decomposition structure represents a single structure existing on the plural mesh regions defined in the map data base and formed as a set of decomposed units each corresponding to the individual mesh regions, and the term designated as non-decomposition structure represents a single structure located and bound within a single mesh region.
Such a navigation apparatus is well known as an apparatus which supports the driver by displaying maps containing buildings and roads on a display screen by reading the digital map data stored on a memory device such as CD-ROM and DVC, and displaying the present position of the driving vehicle detected by the position detection sensor and the navigation guidance to the driver's designation location on the map.
In the recent map data in which street maps are stored, the detail information such as shapes, positions and the number of floors of residential houses and buildings can be displayed on the navigation apparatus. In addition, there is such an apparatus as using a method for displaying the buildings for providing landmark information in a three-dimensional view in the detail map information in order to present maps around the driving vehicle, the destination location and the cross way to be visited along the driving visually in more familiar manner.
The map data store the map information containing roads and buildings as decomposed meshes with designated intervals for the latitude and the longitude. As, in this kind of map data, the map information regarding the roads and buildings existing on the mesh boundaries is stored as plural sets of information decomposed by the mesh boundaries, there is such a problem that mesh boundary lines are displayed and super positioned on the structures such as residential houses and buildings existing on the mesh boundaries in the conventional method in which the map is displayed by reading the map data mesh by mesh.
As, In case of mapping textures such as windows on the side wall of the decomposed structure, the mapped textures are displayed discontinuously at the mesh boundaries, the mesh boundaries are displayed more explicitly than the case of displaying the map in a two-dimensional view, which results in the unexpected image for the user attempting to recognize the actual structures, and even leads to such a problem that the primitive objective for presenting the informative navigation guidance map in a familiar manner with three-dimensional view may not be attained.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
An object of the present invention is to provide a navigation method for reducing the discontinuous drawing of the structure due to the existence of the mesh boundaries and providing realistic townscape images, a navigation apparatus for executing this method, and a map data providing a structure good for this method, in a navigation apparatus for reading a map information including roads and buildings decomposed by the mesh boundaries from the map data base and displaying a three-dimensional townscape viewed from a designated view point.
In order to achieve the above object, the present invention is characterized as a map display method in which a map is decomposed into a mesh area having a predefined size, and from a map data base storing an information representing a structure existing on an individual mesh area with respect to said individual mesh area, an information representing said structure is read in, and a perspective map viewed in a predefined angle with respect to a ground surface is displayed with a coordinate transformation, comprising a decomposition structure drawing step for drawing a single-bodied structure before decomposition by using an information defined when a structure originally formed as a single body existing over plural mesh areas of said map data base is decomposed for individual mesh areas, and representing a structure (hereinafter referred to as decomposition structure) stored so as to correspond to each of said plural mesh areas; a non-decomposition structure drawing step for drawing a structure (hereinafter referred to as non-decomposition structure) which does not exist over plural mesh areas; and an identifying step for identifying whether said structure information read from said map data base corresponds to said decomposition structure, wherein said decomposition structure drawing step uses plural sets of structure information originated from an identical single-bodied structure before decomposition which is judged to correspond to said decomposition structure by said identifying step, and draws plural decomposition structure corresponding to said plural sets of structure information as a unified body so as to reconstruct said single-bodied structure before decomposition.
In the decomposition structure drawing structure, it is allowed to configure the method, for example, in such a structure that (a) a closing line other than the closing line on the mesh area boundary (hereinafter referred to as tangential line) in the closing lines of the side wall of the decomposition structure is drawn, (b) the tangential line on the mesh area boundary is drawn with color, line style and pattern defined to be transparent color, identical to the color of the side wall of the structure, tint lines or broken lines so that the tangential line may not be seen distinctly, (c) the structure data are reconstructed and drawn with the points not located on the mesh area boundary and the points as defined as the end points of the structure and located on the mesh area boundary, or (d) the drawing start position and end position for the pattern are revised so that the pattern for the window and such to be drawn on the sidewall of the structure may looks continuous at the mesh boundary.
In order to achieve the above object, the present invention is characterized as a navigation apparatus having at least a means for reading a map information from a map data base storing a map information of a structure in terms of a decomposed mesh having a predefined size and displaying in a three-dimensional view, comprising a couple of drawing means for drawing a decomposition structure formed by decomposing a single-bodied structure existing over plural mesh areas and a non-decomposition structure which does not exist over plural mesh areas; and an identifying means for identifying whether structure data contained in said structure information read from said map data base corresponds to said decomposition structure, wherein said drawing means for drawing a decomposition structure uses plural sets of structure data originated from an identical single-bodied structure before decomposition among structure data which are judged to correspond to said decomposition structure by said identifying means, and draws plural decomposition structures corresponding to said structure data as a unified body so as to reconstruct said single-bodied structure.
In order to achieve the above object, the present invention is characterized as a storage medium used for displaying a map by a computer and storing a map data containing a map information formed in terms of a decomposed mesh having a designated size, wherein said map data stores structure data corresponding to a decomposition structure formed by decomposing a originally single-bodied structure existing over plural mesh areas in terms of a mesh area; structure data corresponding to a non-decomposition structure existing on a single mesh area; and identification data used for identifying whether each of said structure data corresp
Endo Yoshinori
Hiroshige Hideo
Nakamura Kozo
Okude Mariko
Crowell & Moring LLP
Hernandez Olga
Hitachi , Ltd.
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