Patent ID: 8649972
Filing Date: 2014-02-11
Classification: G01C,G08G

Abstract:
1. A car navigation method, implemented using a car navigation apparatus, for searching facilities in a vicinity of an intersection which exists on a route comprising: detecting a current position of a car using a GPS receiver; determining a route to a user-identified destination by searching map data that includes road data, said map data further including intersection information identifying various roads along said route and roads intersecting therewith and facility information identifying various types of facilities within a geographic region of said map data, said determined route including a route to be followed by the car from the current position to the user-identified destination and comprising a combination of a plurality of road sections to be traveled from said current position of said car to said user-identified destinations; searching intersections within a predefined vicinity of the current position of the car from among intersections which exist on the route ahead of the current position of the car and along the route to the user-identified destination; providing route guidance to a user along the route to the user-identified destination including displaying a route guidance screen including interactively receiving, during route guidance, a physical designation, from the user, of an individual one of the listed intersection names; in response to receiving the physical designation of the individual intersection, searching, during route guidance, for facilities which exist in a vicinity of the individual intersection physically designated by the user by referring to the map data; outputting, as a result of the search for facilities, a facility category listing including a plurality of facility categories corresponding, respectively, to the facilities determined by the search to exist in the vicinity of the individual intersection physically designated by the user; updating the route guidance screen to include the plurality of outputted facility categories which correspond to the facilities which exist in the vicinity of the individually designated intersection, wherein facility category listing is displayed as a list on a separate portion of the updated guidance screen than the portion where the map indicating the guided route, or a portion of the guided route based on the scale of the map is displayed, and facility categories for facilities existing in the vicinity of non-designated intersections are not displayed, such that the user can visually associate the plurality of facility categories with the individual intersection that has been interactively designated by the user, and continuously updating the route guidance screen based on the current position of the car as determined by said GPS receiver by removing one or more displayed intersection names in the ordered sequence list of displayed intersection names that are no longer ahead of the current position of the car along the guided route, wherein the map indicating the guided route, or a portion of the guided route based on the scale of the map, is displayed on a first portion of the screen and the ordered sequence list of intersection names is displayed on a second portion of the screen, wherein the first portion of the screen and the second portion of the screen are side-by-side such that the user can visually associate the ordered sequence list of upcoming intersections as displayed on the second portion of the screen in relation to the map indicating the guided route or a portion of the guided route displayed on the first portion of the screen.