Patent 10514268 was granted and assigned to Clarion (company) on December, 2019 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
An in-vehicle terminal sends a speech input from a voice input unit as a voice signal to a relay server using a short-range wireless communication unit. The relay server converts the voice data received from the in-vehicle terminal into a string with a voice recognition unit, and makes an inquiry, via a communication unit, to an address database of a database server as to whether the string is a geographical condition. If the string converted by the voice recognition unit is a geographical condition based on the inquiry result of the communication unit, a POI data base is searched based on the geographical condition and a stored non-geographical condition, and the geographical condition is stored in a search history. If the string is a non-geographical condition, the POI database is searched based on the non-geographical condition and the geographical condition stored in the search history, and the non-geographical condition is stored in the search history.