Displaying closely located points of interest on a navigation device more clearly by displacing them around a reference centre

摘要

A method of displaying points of interest (POI) 31 on the map display 20 of a personal navigation device (PND) includes displaying the POI near the location 15 of a touch input as icons / symbols 30. The icons are spread out around the touched position to separate them from each other and connected to their true locations with a lead-line 32. The icons are positioned such that there is no constant proportional relationship between lead-line lengths and distances of POI from the touched position; the resulting pattern may be a circle, spiral, polygon, straight line or ellipse. Displacement distances may increase with increasing numbers of POI and icons may shift to avoid overlap or prevent lead-lines from intersecting. Icons may fade away or `pop' and disappear after a predetermined time period has elapsed.