Christopher A Grabowski

US Patent:

8521411, Aug 27, 2013

Filed:

May 28, 2005

Appl. No.:

10/593138

Inventors:

Christopher T. Grabowski - New York NY, US
Thomas Zamojdo - New York NY, US

Assignee:

Making Virtual Solid, L.L.C. - New Milford NJ

International Classification:

G01C 21/00

US Classification:

701200

Abstract:

In an en-route navigation system such as for a vehicle, an image of a cable is presented as a navigation object in a head-up display to indicate a route that the vehicle should follow. In particular embodiments the cable appears to an observer to be a real cable existing in the landscape and extending higher than the head of the observer as would, for example, a trolley cable. The cable is illustratively displayed volumetrically and with an optic flow that is consistent with the optic flow of the landscape when the vehicle is moving, thereby creating the impression that it is real. As a result, the cable can be displayed without any accompanying images that correlate points on the cable with locations in the landscape and yet nonetheless serve as a very useful tool for indicating to a driver the route over which the vehicle should go. The cable may be in any of a number of forms including a continuous line, a line with non-closely-spaced gaps, a line having non-closely-spaced segments that have a different luminance from the rest of the line or a string of closely-spaced objects.