Patent ID: 8359159

Claim:
A system which mediates providing of map information comprising a plurality of map information providing systems and a server which mediates providing of map information and which is connected to said map information providing systems, the map information providing systems having a map information providing server in which a predetermined area is used as a service-providing area and which is provided with map data storage means for accumulating map data of the area, and a terminal device connected to said map information providing server and provided with display means for displaying a map image on the basis of map information, the system which mediates providing of map information characterized in that: said terminal device comprises map acquisition judgment means for judging whether acquisition of map information is required, spot information calculation means for calculating spot position information for specifying map information to be acquired, and map synthesis means; and, in a case where said map acquisition judgment means has judged that map information must be acquired, transmits spot position information calculated by said map information calculation means to said server which mediates providing of the map information, via a first map information providing server in which the area in which the terminal device is positioned is used as the map information providing service area; said server which mediates providing of map information comprises area judgment means for judging a service area which provides map information including the spot on the basis of said spot position information, and map information providing system judgment means for judging the map information providing system which will provide map information in the service area judged by the area judgment means; and requests providing of map information that includes the spot on the basis of said spot position information from a second map information providing server constituting the map information providing system judged by said map information providing system judgment means; and said terminal device synthesizes the map information held by the terminal device and the map information provided by said second map information providing server using said map synthesis means and displays the synthesized map information on said display means.