A navigational aid including an intelligent display mode and a communication system communicates with a vehicle's sensor system and/or historical- or time-based information to reduce the number of businesses that are displayed on the map by filtering out unneeded or less preferred services. When the vehicle's fuel level sensor detects that the fuel tank is almost empty, a message can be sent from the sensor system to the navigational aid such that the navigational aid can then begin showing a visual indication (e.g., text or graphical information such as an icon) of the location of fuel stations on the screen. Additionally, the location receiver indicates to the filter when the navigational aid is close to the programmed destination. At that point, the filter can be informed that it should start showing garages or areas where the vehicle can be parked without having cluttered the screen with parking garages that were not close to the destination. Similarly, when in need of other services (e.g., hotel or restaurant services), the navigational aid can display preferred brands (while omitting non-preferred brands) and make reservations when a communication system is included which is capable of communicating with the service provider. Additionally, prices or relative prices for the services may also be indicated.

A control apparatus for a vehicle, is mounted on an automobile that has a motor for traveling and a power storage apparatus for exchanging electric power with the motor. The control apparatus is configured to execute external charging for charging the power storage apparatus by using electric power from an external power supply, and is configured to perform a route guidance for a planned travel route to a destination. When operation information on a charging spot of the destination is not obtainable and it is predicted that the charging spot of the destination is not usable, it is recommended to execute the external charging at a charging spot around the planned travel route.

A device may receive geospatial data identifying roads and buildings in a geographical region, and may transform the geospatial data into geospatial objects for the roads and the buildings. The device may correlate shelter data with the geospatial objects to generate correlated data that includes the geospatial objects and the shelter data. The device may process the correlated data to add bounding boxes around the geospatial objects corresponding to the shelters to generate modified correlated data. The device may correlate road weight and type data with the modified correlated data to generate final geospatial data, and may convert the final geospatial data into a directed graph. The device may receive event data identifying an event and inaccessible roads caused by the event, may update the directed graph based on the event data to generate an updated directed graph, and may provide a representation of the updated directed graph for display.

A method in an electronic device includes receiving, with an audio capture device such as a microphone, a request for navigational information. One or more processors of the electronic device then identify a transit mode. The one or more processors also detect, with one or more sensors, one or more contextual cues from an environment about the electronic device. The contextual cues can include a geo-location, transit mode, bearing, or other factors. The one or more processors then provide a navigation information response that is a function of the transit mode and the one or more contextual cues to a user interface of the electronic device.

An electronic device offers acquired location information to a point-of-interest (POI) management server when a predetermined condition is satisfied. The POI management server offers POI identification information to the electronic device when the location information is matched to one of registered POIs. When the POI identification information is received from the POI management server, the electronic device performs a certain action.

Embodiments of the present invention provide a method of providing information associated with a point of interest (POI), comprising: communicating location information indicative of a determined geographic location of a portable device to a server computer; receiving at least one POI-map from the server computer based on the location information, wherein each POI-map is associated with at least one POI and comprises segments representative of navigable elements of a navigable network; determining a segment of a received POI-map corresponding to the determined geographic location of the portable device; and outputting a notification associated with a POI of the received POI-map based on the navigable segment.

Described are systems and methods for generating and displaying ratings for points of interest in a region. A method for generating ratings includes receiving transaction data from a plurality of points of interest, the transaction data representing financial transactions between a plurality of individuals and each point of interest of the plurality of points of interest. A method also includes automatically generating, for each point of interest of the plurality of points of interest, at least one point of interest rating based at least partially on the transaction data for the point of interest. A method further includes, in response to a selection of a chosen point of interest of the plurality of points of interest, providing to at least one user the at least one point of interest rating associated with the chosen point of interest.

A navigation system includes: a search unit; an acquisition unit; a storage unit; a collection unit configured to collect one or more types of popularity information for specifying a popularity level indicating a level of popularity of each POI; a calculation unit configured to calculate the popularity level of each POI on the basis of the collected popularity information; a specification unit configured to specify the POIs having high popularity levels located within a predetermined distance from the route searched for by the search unit; and a presentation unit configured to present one POI specified by the specification unit before traveling near the corresponding POI, and the calculation unit calculates the popularity level on the basis of a deviation value calculated on the basis of the one or more types of popularity information and popularity information on other POIs included within a first predetermined range from the corresponding POI.

A method of inputting a series of characters into an electronic device (1) comprising a display (11), the method comprising detecting a first input associated with a first one of a plurality of discrete areas (53) of the display (11) for entering char-deters on the display (11); and recognizing the first input in the first one of the plurality of discrete areas (53) as a character input (59) while a second one of the plurality of discrete are as (53) is operable to detect a second input for recognition as a second character input (59), the. recognition of the second character input (59) occurring separately to the recognition of the first character input (59).

A real-time multimodal travel estimation and routing system having a first mode for air-based travel and a second mode for ground-based travel, and a method for estimating a time of arrival to a ground-based destination having a first mode for air-based travel and a second mode for ground-based travel is disclosed. The real-time multimodal travel estimation and routing system is configured to receive an input designating a ground-based destination, a request for an available ground-based travel option, and display an estimated time of arrival to the ground-based destination based on first data stored on-board the aircraft for the second mode and real-time flight information for the aircraft for the first mode. The system is further configured to receive an update of real-time information for the available ground-based travel option and update the first data stored on-board the aircraft.