Data processing: vehicles – navigation – and relative location – Navigation – Employing position determining equipment
Utility Patent
1998-02-27
2001-01-02
Issing, Gregory C. (Department: 3662)
Data processing: vehicles, navigation, and relative location
Navigation
Employing position determining equipment
Utility Patent
active
06169956
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a vehicle navigation system suitable for use in driving across the border of the area for which data is stored in a CD-ROM.
2. Description of the Related Art
A vehicle navigation system stores data necessary for route guidance, such as map data, etc., in a CD-ROM, searches for a travel route to a destination by reading that stored data as occasion demands, and guides a vehicle along the travel route.
In previous navigation systems, it has been difficult to store data for a large area in one CD-ROM because a great amount of data must be stored to provide the requisite accuracy for the route search and sufficient guidance information. The current single CD-ROM is incapable of storing sufficient data for route guidance covering a wide area. For example, with regard to Europe, with the current state of the art, it is very difficult to store map data for the whole of Europe in a single CD-ROM and still provide appropriate route guidance. Therefore, the amount of data necessary for route guidance to be stored in a single CD-ROM is limited to one country or a few countries.
Thus, the previous vehicle navigation systems can only set a route in a restricted area because the data range of each CD-ROM is limited. Accordingly, such systems have proven inadequate in cases where a user often drives across a border, into an area outside the area covered by in one CD-ROM.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention is designed to solve the above-described problem, and to provide an easier to use vehicle navigation system which responds when a user drives outside the area for which data is stored in one CD-ROM.
The present invention sets a crossing point on a border line of a map area and calculates a route from a present position to a destination even if a route to a destination cannot be obtained within the area covered by a single information memory element, e.g. CD-ROM. Given the ability of the present invention to calculate a route to a destination across a plurality of map areas, in a case where the data for a map area is too large to store in one information memory element, the present invention can calculate a route from a present position to a destination and offer guidance information by using a plurality of information memory elements, e.g. CD-ROMS. For example, when countries are contiguous with each other as is the case in Europe and each CD-ROM stores data for one country only, the present system can perform guidance beyond the area stored in one CD-ROM. Therefore, the utility of a vehicle navigation system is improved because of the enhancement of the accuracy of route search as well as the quality of guidance information due to the increase in utilizable data information.
By storing in a CD-ROM not only data for route guidance within a limited geographical area, data for border points shared with an adjacent geographical area outside the limited area, when a destination is set outside the limited geographical area, the present invention can execute route guidance for outside of the limited geographical area because of its ability to search for and locate a border point relating to the destination through the use of border point data and can calculate a route based on the located border point. Conversely, if the installed CD-ROM, likewise containing border point data correlated with locations outside its geographical area, is for a geographical area which includes the destination but does not include the present position or starting point, the system can search for, locate and identify a border point relating to the present position or starting point.
REFERENCES:
patent: 5778333 (1998-07-01), Koizumi et al.
patent: 5845228 (1998-12-01), Uekawa et al.
patent: 6029112 (2000-02-01), Nam et al.
Coenen Peter
Diels Ole
Fukaya Takaharu
Morimoto Kyomi
Ogawa Satoshi
Aisin Aw Co. Ltd.
Issing Gregory C.
Lorusso & Loud
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