Data processing: vehicles – navigation – and relative location – Navigation – Employing position determining equipment
Reexamination Certificate
1998-08-07
2001-07-31
Cuchlinski, Jr., William A. (Department: 3661)
Data processing: vehicles, navigation, and relative location
Navigation
Employing position determining equipment
C340S988000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06269303
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to a vehicle navigation system and a recording medium for execution of a route search to identify a guidance route from a departing point or the present position of a vehicle to a destination, and which provides route guidance for the identified guidance route.
Vehicle navigation systems search for a route from a departing point or the present position of the vehicle to the designated destination and provide route guidance for the thus identified “guidance route.” To accomplish this, the vehicle navigation system has a functional capability allowing the driver to designate a road preference and provides for search for a route including the designated road. In addition, some navigation systems allow for selection of a desired road from a list of the roads traversing the entire country and for search of a route with the selected road given priority. Further, some navigation systems operate to search for the shortest distance route, the shortest time route, or the minimum cost (weighted) route and to display respective routes distinguished from each other (see, for example, Japanese Patent Publication No. 130299/89).
In a conventional system which searches for a route by giving priority to main roads, i.e., roads of wide width, routes passing through relatively congested city areas are likely to be included in the search. This results in a problem with the quality of the identified “guidance route” in that the travel time for the vehicle may be excessively long relative to the distance of the route.
Further, some of the conventional systems have a functional capability allowing for designating a road to be avoided; however, this capability complicates their operation since these systems require designation of a road that the driver desires to avoid for every route search. When the route from a starting point to a destination is long, the number of the roads to be selected tends to be huge and the selection operation becomes very difficult. Even if the roads to be selected are classified as highways, toll ways, interstates, local roads, etc., still each road classification contains a huge number of roads. As a result, a difficulty arises in that several operations taking into account classification and hierarchy are required to designate a road the driver desires to avoid and this complicates operation of the system. Further, in the case where the road to be designated has no name or the name of the road is unknown, the system can't select a road.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
An object of the present invention is to provide for easy selection of a road segment which is less crowded, as part of a guidance route, in order to solve the above problems.
In order to attain the above object, there is provided a vehicle navigation system which searches for a route from a departing point or a present position to a destination and provides route guidance for thus identified route, and wherein the navigation system determines whether or not a road is in an urban area and searches for a route to a destination based on that determination.
According to another aspect of the invention, there is provided a vehicle navigation system, comprising information memory means for storing map information and road data for each road segment, route search means for searching for a route from a present position to a destination based on map information stored in the information memory means, decision means for determining whether or not the road to be searched by the route search means is in an urban area and wherein the route search means searches for a route giving a weighted value to the roads, which are determined to be in the urban area by the decision means, in order to give lower preference for urban area roads. The vehicle navigation system further includes condition setting means for setting predetermined conditions, and wherein the decision means makes its determination based on the conditions set by said condition setting means. The information memory means contains road information including information which identifies roads as either in a city area or not in a city area. Alternatively, the information memory means may store information defining city areas and the decision means determines whether or not a given road segment is within or runs through an area identified as a city area.
In another aspect the invention provides a vehicle navigation system including an information memory means for storing map data and other guidance data relating to route search and route guidance, input means for inputting geographical points such as a point of departure or a present position and a destination, etc., and for inputting designation of priorities for different types and/or locations of roads, output means for outputting said points, a guidance route determined by search route, and route guidance for the guidance route, and route search means for searching for a route to a destination based on information input through said input means. The route search means controls the search cost for each road within an area based on a designation, input through the input means, which gives priority to certain areas and/or roads. The route search means executes a route search taking into account the designation input assigning priority designation to either suburban areas or urban (city) areas. To this end, the information memory means may contain road information which includes information identifying roads as either suburban or city.
REFERENCES:
patent: 5410485 (1995-04-01), Ichikawa
patent: 5774073 (1998-06-01), Maekawa et al.
patent: 5878368 (1999-03-01), DeGraff
patent: 5911773 (1999-06-01), Mutsuga et al.
patent: 5977885 (1999-11-01), Watanabe
Fukaya Takaharu
Tomioka Norihiro
Watanabe Kazuyuki
Aisin Aw Co. Ltd.
Cuchlinski Jr. William A.
Lorusso & Loud
Pipala Edward
LandOfFree
Vehicle navigation system and recording medium does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.
If you have personal experience with Vehicle navigation system and recording medium, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Vehicle navigation system and recording medium will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-2549562