Patent ID: 6567746
Filing Date: 2003-05-20
Classification: G01C

Abstract:
A map information providing apparatus comprising:a detecting unit configured to detect a position of a user's vehicle; a memory unit configured to store information including a map information therein; a control unit connected to the detecting unit and communicated with the memory unit thereby to select the map information in the circumferences of the position of the user's vehicle detected by the detecting unit; and an onboard display unit connected to the control unit and configured to display the map information selected by the control unit; wherein the map information includes information about target objects forming landmarks on a route for a user's destination; and the control unit comprises: a searching part configured to search a target object for the moment with reference to the information stored in the memory unit, on the basis of the position of the user's vehicle and information about the user's destination inputted by a user; a positional relationship analyzing part connected to the searching part and configured to analyze a positional relationship between the target object searched by the searching part and the user's vehicle; a reduced scale calculating part connected to the positional relationship analyzing part and configured to calculate a reduced scale of the map information to be displayed on the onboard display unit, on the basis of the positional relationship analyzed by the positional relationship analyzing part and a display format of the onboard display unit; and a map information acquiring part connected with both of the reduced scale calculating part and the onboard display unit and configured to acquire the map information with the reduced scale calculated by the reduced scale calculating part, from the memory unit and further transmit the map information to the onboard display unit.