Patent ID: 8040343

Claim:
A map display device for displaying map data that are composed of vector data in a display means, said map display device comprising: means for creating a plane figure for a bird's-eye view, shift amount storage means, building position determination means, and figure data duplication means; the means for creating a plane figure for a bird's-eye view creates bird's-eye-view plane figures of buildings in sequence from the building positioned farthest away in a bird's-eye view on the basis of a building position determined by the building position determination means, and draws a first layer of plane data; and said figure data duplication means duplicates and draws said first layer of plane data while shifting the first layer of plane data upward on a screen according to said shift amount on the basis of the shift amount stored by said shift amount storage means, and displays said bird's-eye view, characterized in that said map data composed of vector data include building data to which height information relating to a height of a building is added, a bird's-eye-view plane figure is duplicated and drawn a number of times that is in accordance with said height information while being shifted upward on said screen by said shift amount, said buildings are divided into a plurality of groups having different heights on the basis of the height information, a number of times in accordance with said height information is determined for each group, bird's-eye-view plane figures of buildings that have portions at a common height among buildings in a bird's-eye view are grouped, and said grouped bird's-eye view plane figures are duplicated and drawn while said grouped bird's-eye-view plane figures are shifted in sequence from said first layer said determined number of times upward on said screen according to a shift amount.