JP2001141481A - Automobile navigation system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To eliminate a plurality of searches for every point of many search points because of the need of searching for every data in a predetermined range of each point required in conventional automobile navigation system when searching for facilities of the same type. SOLUTION: When longitudes/latitudes of a plurality of points and data of a search range are input from a clipping point position/range designation part 123 of a clipping region search part 122 according to a command from the outside, the data is registered to a memory part for every point in a clipping point registration part 124. At a search time, position data and search range data of each search point are read out from the clipping point registration part 124 corresponding to the point inputted to the search designation part 125. A search part 126 accesses a facility information storage part of a DVD- ROM 116 according to the data and a search type designated from the search designation part 125, executes searching and outputs the result to a display part 127.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a navigation device capable of searching for a facility of a predetermined genre existing in an area of a predetermined range at a specific point, and more particularly to a navigation apparatus capable of searching for a predetermined range at a plurality of points independent of each other. The present invention relates to a navigation device capable of searching for facilities existing in an area collectively by one search operation.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a conventional navigation device,
A map / information storage medium, such as a DVD-ROM, on which map data for drawing a map and facility information data for searching for a facility, etc., a reproducing device for reading data from the map information storage medium, and a map, etc. Display device to display, self-contained navigation device such as distance sensor and gyro, and GP
A vehicle position detecting device for detecting the current position and the direction of travel of the vehicle by an S receiver or the like; reading map data including the current position of the vehicle from a map / information storage medium; The map image around the vehicle is drawn on the screen of the display device, the vehicle position mark is superimposed on the display screen and displayed, and the map image is scroll-displayed according to the movement of the vehicle, or the map image is fixed on the screen and the vehicle is By moving the position mark, the user can see at a glance where the vehicle is currently traveling.

[0005] Map data stored in a map / information storage device such as a DVD-ROM is divided into longitude and latitude widths of appropriate sizes according to various scale levels.
Roads and the like are stored as a coordinate set of nodes represented by longitude and latitude. A road is composed of a connection of two or more nodes, and the map data displays a road layer including a road list, a node table, an intersection configuration node list, and the like, and roads, buildings, facilities, parks, rivers, and the like on a map screen. Data such as background layer for the administrative section name such as municipalities name, road name, intersection name and facility name, etc.
It is composed of information data for displaying characters, map symbols, and the like.

[0004] The navigation device also has a route guidance function for enabling a user to easily travel to a desired destination without making a mistake on a road. According to this route guidance function, from the starting point to the destination using map information, and if necessary, specifying a stopover, the route with the lowest cost connecting these points is automatically searched, and the searched route Is stored as a guidance route, and during driving, the guidance route is displayed on the map image in a different color from the other routes and is drawn thicker, or at an intersection where the vehicle should change the course on the guidance route. When approaching within a certain distance, the intersection is enlarged and displayed, and an arrow or the like indicating the direction in which the course should be changed is drawn and displayed on the screen. I can guide you.

[0005] In specifying the destination or the waypoint, various methods such as a method of setting by address and a method of setting by telephone number are used. For example, it is desired to set the destination or waypoint. There has also been developed one in which a map of a portion is displayed, and when a cursor is positioned at a predetermined position and an input operation is performed, the point is registered as a destination or a waypoint. In the point registration operation, when the cursor is positioned at a predetermined position on the map and the input operation is performed, the navigation device reads the latitude / longitude data of the point where the input operation is performed, and inputs the position data to the memory. By doing so.

[0006] Various facilities are called "restaurant", "convenience store", "gas station", "park", "hot spring",
Categorized into genres, etc., and the location information including the latitude and longitude of each facility and the detailed information of the facility are used as a database for DVD-
When stored in a ROM or the like and a user sets a search range and a genre, a navigation device having a facility search function of searching for a facility of a specified genre existing in the search target range is also used. According to this type of navigation device, for example, when the user sets Nagano Prefecture as a search range and sets “hot spring” as a genre, the navigation device uses a database in a DVD-ROM to search all hot springs in Nagano Prefecture. Searching, displaying the location of the hot spring on the display screen based on the search result, and moving the cursor to the displayed location of the hot spring and performing an input operation, the point can be registered as a destination or a waypoint. Something like that has also been developed.

[0007] Further, when the user designates a specific point and a genre to be searched such as "restaurant", a navigation device which can search for and present a restaurant existing within a predetermined range centered on the point. Research and development for performing various searches using facility information have been rapidly conducted. On the other hand, with the development of speech recognition technology in recent years, a speech recognition device that performs various instructions to a navigation device by voice has been mounted. By using this voice recognition device and inputting a voice such as "Where is a nearby restaurant?" Into the microphone by voice, the navigation device recognizes the word and uses the facility search function to center the vehicle position. Some restaurants have been developed that search for restaurants located within a predetermined distance and display them on a map, or can notify by voice that "Denny's is 500 meters away."

[0008]

As described above, although various facility search methods have been developed in the past, all of these searches are performed within a predetermined distance centered on one point or in "Nagano prefecture". Only a search within a single area was performed. Therefore, in order to search for a facility within a predetermined range centered on each point scattered over a wide range, the same search operation is repeated once for each point, and the respective search results are stored or stored on paper or the like. It had to be noted, especially when there were many search points, and the repetition of the search was very cumbersome.

As described above, when searching for facilities within a predetermined range centered on each of a plurality of points, a large number of restaurant information was obtained by repeatedly searching for restaurants at each point as described above. Sometimes, it is necessary to further narrow down the data. For example, when it is necessary to extract a specific store such as Denny's from the restaurant group at each point, the conventional apparatus narrows down the data from the search result. Was not able to be performed, and it was necessary to search only for Denny's for each point again, which was extremely troublesome.

Accordingly, it is a primary object of the present invention to provide a navigation device capable of searching for facilities within a predetermined range of a plurality of independent points under a unified search condition.

[0011]

According to the present invention, in order to solve the above-mentioned problems, a plurality of points on a map and a clipping point position for designating a search range around the points are provided. A range designation unit, a clipping point registration unit that stores the positions of a plurality of designated points and a search range, a search designation unit that designates a search point and a search genre, position data of a point designated by the search designation unit, A search unit that inputs search range data from the clipping point registration unit, and searches a facility information storage medium for a facility of a search genre designated by the search designation unit within a search range corresponding to the input data; According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a navigation device including a display unit for displaying a search result.

[0012] According to a second aspect of the present invention, the search specifying section specifies a search time, selects one search point close to the specified search time, and the search section searches the selected search point for a search range. 2. The navigation apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a facility of a designated search genre is searched from facility data in the apparatus.

[0013] In the invention according to claim 3, the search specifying section specifies a search mileage, selects one search point close to the specified search mileage, and the search section specifies the search mileage. The navigation apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a facility of a designated search genre is searched from facility data within a search range.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, there is provided the navigation apparatus according to the first aspect, further comprising means for automatically designating a plurality of main points along the guidance route and a search range of each point. .

In the invention according to claim 5, in the clipping point registration unit, data of a previously registered point and data of a series of newly specified search points are registered so as to be identifiable. It is a navigation device.

[0016] In the invention according to claim 6, the search designation section can use data already registered in the clipping point registration section as data of a series of newly designated search points. A navigation device according to item 1.

According to a seventh aspect of the present invention, there is provided the navigation device according to the first aspect, wherein a specified route to the search facility is searched and displayed by designating a specific search facility displayed.

In the invention according to claim 8, the designated search range is set to an arbitrary shape along the guidance route.
It is the navigation device described.

[0019]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram of a navigation control device 100 embodying the present invention.
The GPS receiver 102 processes the signal received from the satellite from the GPS receiver 102, and stores the vehicle position data based on the signal from the satellite in the data storage unit 103. On the other hand, an angle sensor 104 provided in the vehicle for detecting a traveling direction of the vehicle, and a distance sensor 1
The signal from the self-contained navigation sensor 106 composed of the self-contained navigation sensor 105 is input to the vehicle position / azimuth calculation unit 107 to obtain position data from the self-contained navigation sensor.

The vehicle position signal generator 108 corrects the vehicle position data by GPS in the data storage 103 with the position data in the vehicle position / azimuth calculator 107 to obtain accurate vehicle position data. The vehicle position signal obtained by the vehicle position signal generating unit 108 is output to various functional units in the navigation control device 100 to be described later via the vehicle position data line 109 and used by each unit.

Remote control 1 attached to navigation device
10, touch panel 111 provided on the display,
In addition, user operation signals from various operation switches 112 are input to the operation signal input unit 113. The signal is output to various functional units in the navigation control device 100 via the operation signal data line 114, and is used as a user's instruction signal. The microphone 120 is a voice recognition unit 121
The voice recognition unit 121 recognizes a user's voice input from a microphone, and connects to the operation signal data line 114 as an operation signal by voice in the same manner as the operation signal input unit 113. This is an instruction signal of the unit.

Based on the vehicle position data and the operation signal, the ROM read control unit 115 controls the DVD-ROM or CD-ROM storing a large amount of map data and information data on facilities and the like.
Predetermined map data and various information are read out from a map storage medium (hereinafter abbreviated as “DVD-ROM”) 116 such as a ROM and stored in a map buffer 117. In searching for facility information to be described later, the searched data can be output through the data. Various data temporarily stored in the map buffer 117 are output to various functional units in the navigation control device 100 via the map data line 118, and are used for various purposes described later. In particular, the selected map data in the map buffer 117 is input to the map memory 138 in response to the vehicle position from the vehicle position signal generator 108 or a display instruction from the operation signal input unit 113. In the above embodiment, when searching for facility information described later,
An example is shown in which a search is performed by directly reading facility information recorded on a DVD-ROM. For example, the map buffer 117 may be a buffer capable of temporarily storing facility information, or a facility similar to the map memory 138 may be used. By arranging the information memories side by side, it is possible to store the facility information of one designated point during traveling along the guidance route, and improve the search speed.

By inputting such various kinds of data, the navigation control device 100 can perform various operations by using various functional parts provided therein. For example, the navigation route calculation unit 131 generates a vehicle position signal. The current position data is input from the unit 108, and a search instruction such as designation of a destination and a stopover, expressway priority is input from the operation signal input unit 113, and various cost calculations are performed to calculate an optimal guidance route. The result is stored in the guidance route memory 132, and the guidance route output unit 133 creates data for guiding the guidance route in various forms. The image data is output to the image synthesizing unit 152, and can be displayed on the image display device 130 while being superimposed on the map. In addition, the voice output unit 133 outputs the voice to the voice conversion unit 160 to generate and synthesize guidance voice for guidance, and outputs the voice from the speaker 162 via the voice output unit 161 to perform voice guidance for vehicle travel guidance.

In the intersection guidance output unit 135, in particular, the vehicle position from the vehicle position signal generation unit 108, the map data from the information / map buffer 117, and the guidance route memory 13
Based on the guidance route information from 2, it is determined whether or not the current position of the vehicle has reached the vicinity of the right / left turn intersection on the guidance route, and when it has reached the vicinity, an intersection guidance map is created with the specified screen configuration. Output to the image synthesizing unit 152 and output to the audio conversion unit 160, and output the voice of intersection guidance from the speaker 162 in the same manner as described above.

In the map drawing section 140, the map memory 138
Based on the map data of a predetermined scale
In response to designation of, for example, a bird's-eye view display, 3D display, or the like from the operation signal input unit 113 input via the control unit 2, a predetermined map is calculated and created based on the vehicle position.
The related information data such as the place name information data and the facility name from the place name memory 122 are superimposed on the map as necessary and displayed, and output to the image synthesizing unit 152 as a map image.

The navigation control device 100 further includes
The clipping area search unit 122 includes a clipping point position / range specification unit 123, a clipping point registration unit 124, a search specification unit 125, a search unit 126, and a display unit 12 as illustrated.
7 and the like.

The clipping area search unit 122 includes a clipping point position / range designation unit 123. For example, on a map screen displayed on the image display device 130, a cursor point displayed movably by a remote controller or the like can be used. While detecting that the position confirmation operation was performed,
By inputting the latitude and longitude on the map of the point where the position determination operation has been performed from the map information in the map buffer 117, a clipping point position signal is obtained. Then, an operation signal for setting the search range to 1 km or the like is input to the clipping point, and this signal is used as a clipping point range designation signal, and together with the clipping point position signal, the memory No. The latitude / longitude and the search range data are stored and registered in the empty memory units in the registration areas 1 to n.

The memory configuration in the clipping point registration section 124 can be variously set. For example, each of the input registration points can be set to be independently stored in memory, or one clipping operation can be performed. A new registered point group memory unit for storing the specified registered point group in one place at the time is provided, and in the next clipping operation, a new registered point group is stored here, and the previous one is moved to an independent memory unit. You can also do so. In addition, by assigning the same clipping operation number to each of the clipping registration point groups specified at the time of each clipping operation and storing the same, the clipping point of each time can be independently searched later. It is also possible to collectively read a group of registered points specified at the time.

Further, a flag setting unit is provided in the memory of each registered point to be inputted, and when the registered point is included in the current clipping point group for search, a flag is set in the memory of the point. The memory configuration can be set so as to indicate that it is the current search point. By doing so, at the time of setting a point and a search range at the time of this facility search, only a point with a flag is selected from the already stored points and that point is set as a search target clipping point. Settings, making it easy to set search locations, and
It is also possible to eliminate the need to specify a new search range for the point.

The clipping point registration unit 124 has n registration units within the range of its memory capacity, and has a memory capacity of at least one time when traveling along the traveling route from the current position to the destination. In addition, it is necessary to have a registration unit for the number of points where the facility search needs to be performed, for example, five.
As described above, the data to be registered is only the data of latitude and longitude, 1 km, etc. for one location, so the amount of data is extremely small, and therefore, a large amount of data can be registered even in a memory of about several tens of kilobytes. can do. Therefore, when a flash memory or the like is conventionally provided in a navigation device, the clipping area search system can be used only by using a part of the flash memory and changing the software of the navigation control device.

The operation signal input unit 11 is provided in the search designation unit 125.
3 is input to the search point designating section and the search genre designating section, and based on the signal of the search point designating section among them, the latitude / longitude data of the point is obtained from the clipping point registering section 124. , And search range data input in advance, and the data is output to the search unit 126. As the designated point input to the search designation unit 125, for example, a method of collectively designating the latest or previously searched clipping registration point group can be adopted, and if the registered point is already registered, It is also possible to display the point on the map and input the search point by moving the cursor to the vicinity of the desired point and specifying it by the user.

In the search point designating section 125 of the search designating section 125, when a search time or another search condition such as a search travel distance is input, when the designated search time comes, or when the designated travel time is reached, When the distance is reached, the search point closest to the point where the vehicle is located is selected from among the plurality of specified search points, and the clipping point registration unit 12
4 can also designate the selected point. Also,
The designation signal of the genre designation section in the search designation section 125 is directly input to the search section 126.

[0033] The search section 126 is based on the latitude / longitude and the search range of the point designated by the search from the clipping point registration section 124 and the search genre from the search designation section 125 via the DVD readout control section 115 via the DVD. -Access the ROM and store the data that meets the above search conditions on the DVD-
A search is made for facilities that meet each condition of reading from the ROM and directly inputting. When a plurality of pieces of search data exist, the pieces of data are rearranged in an appropriate order such as an order determined to be appropriate, output to the display unit 127, and converted into image data. The image data of the display unit 127 is input to the image synthesizing unit 152,
The image is synthesized with various images and displayed on the image display device 130. Further, the search result in the search unit 126 can be output to the voice conversion unit 160 as necessary, and voice guidance can be provided from the speaker 162 via the voice output unit 161.

A clipping area search unit 12 having the above-described functional components and performing input and output of data with each other.
In the navigation device having the number 2, the following series of operations are performed when searching for the clipping region. There are various embodiments as described above for searching for the clipping region in the navigation device of the present invention. The most typical example is that when the user intends to travel by car, the current position, a plurality of transit points, and the destination And set
An example is shown in which these are set as a clipping point group and a batch search is performed using the clipping point group as a search point at the time of clipping search. Hereinafter, the operation will be described with reference to FIG. 2 showing an operation basic flow and a screen display example, and the configuration of the functional blocks in FIG.

When the clipping search operation of the navigation apparatus of the present invention is performed, first, as shown in FIG. 2A, the position of the clipping point which is the most basic data of the search is specified (step S1). At the time of this designation, for example, as shown in a clipping point registration screen of the same figure, the cursor 2 is moved to a desired point on the map screen 1 and an operation screen is displayed. Since "Clipping" is displayed on the operation screen as shown in the figure, when this is selected, the fact that the selection is made is displayed by, for example, enclosing it with a bold frame as shown in the figure or performing colored display.
The display frame includes “500 m” as shown in the figure.
A search range specification field such as “1 km” or “3 km” is displayed. The user specifies a search range that is deemed appropriate from these (step S2). At the time of the designation, the input can be made by moving the cursor or operating the touch panel by touching the display screen with a finger.

With this designation, the latitude / longitude data of the point where the cursor is located is read, and the radial distance data centering on the designated point is fetched and registered in the registration unit of the clipping point registration unit 124 in FIG. (Step S3). This operation is performed a plurality of times for necessary points, and each is registered in the clipping point registration unit 124.
Upon registration, as described above, a series of clipping designations can be stored as a current designation group.

When a clipping area search is performed using the clipping point / search range information registered as described above, first, a search target point is designated as shown in FIG. 2B (step). S11). In this embodiment, as the search target point, a group of points for which clipping point registration has been performed first is automatically selected.
At this time, the operation screen includes operation keys or a touch panel for operating various search functions provided as one of the functions of the navigation device, as shown as a clipping search operation screen in FIG. 2B. By inputting a search in, the screen display state of “search” is displayed. From the various search functions of this "search", "clipping search"
Select "Name" and "Genre" as shown
Is displayed, a desired condition is selected (step S12).

When "genre" is selected on the screen for designating the search condition, more typical genres, for example, "restaurant", "convenience store", "gas station"
"Bank", "amusement park", etc. are displayed. When there is any other genre than those shown in the figure, it is displayed by scrolling the screen, and a necessary one can be selected from many genres. When “name” is selected from the search conditions, by inputting a specific restaurant name such as “Denny's” or “Seven-Eleven” by key operation or the like, a convenience store name,
The shop with that name can be searched from the search range of a plurality of clipping points.

In the search designating section 125 of FIG. 1, for example, a point designation such as "a series of search places designated first" is made, and the latitude / longitude data and search range data of each corresponding point are registered from the clipping point registration section 124. Is read and output to the search unit 126 (step S13). The search unit 126 accesses the DVD-ROM 116 based on the data of the genre such as “restaurant” specified as described above, the read search point, and the search range. A search operation of searching for a suitable facility and outputting all the suitable data is performed (step S14). As the search result, a plurality of restaurants are displayed, for example, as shown as a clipping search result display screen in FIG. 2B, and the user can select a desired one from these (step S15). In the illustrated example, it can be seen that three corresponding facilities exist in the clipping area 1. Thereafter, if necessary, by designating one of the facilities in the search result, the facility may be set as an additional transit point, and a navigation system for providing guidance to the facility may be provided. it can.

In the navigation apparatus of the present invention which performs the above-described basic operations, the search shown in FIGS. 3 to 5 can be performed by using the clipping search function. That is, when planning a trip, for example, as shown in FIG. 3, the current location is Shizuoka, the final destination is Nagano, and Odawara (via 1), Urayasu (via 2), and Karuizawa (via Suppose that you stop at the location 3) and that you travel with priority on general roads up to the transit point 2 and then make a travel plan with priority on the expressway. Alternatively, place the cursor on each point in the partial enlarged view of each place, and in accordance with an operation screen such as the clipping point registration screen shown in FIG. Then, these are registered in the clipping point registration unit. Each point and the search range at that time are as shown in FIG. 3, for example. When setting a point, if the point is a registered point that has been registered before, the fact that the point is a registered point and the registered search range is displayed. It is checked whether it is good or not, and if it is good, the point is set as the new registration point this time, and if the search range is changed, it is corrected and newly stored.

When a clipping search is performed on the clipping area registered in this way, for example, FIG.
The operation can be performed according to the operation flow shown in FIG. That is, at the start of the clipping region search, first, as in the basic operation flow shown in FIG. 2, a target point to be searched is specified from the clipping points already registered in the clipping point registration unit. (Step S2
1) As described above, the points clipped for the future travel plan are collectively managed by the clipping point registration unit. Therefore, unless otherwise specified, a group of points where the clipping position is specified first is designated. It becomes a search target point automatically.

Next, as in FIG. 2, the position information and the search range of the clipping point designated as the search target point are read from the clipping point registration unit 124 of FIG. 1 (step S22), and the search conditions such as the genre are specified. (Step S23). When specifying the search conditions, for example, as shown in a search mode explanatory diagram in FIG. Since it is necessary to drop in the travel funds as soon as possible at the bank, at around 10 o'clock when the bank opens, it searches for a bank at a transit point near the point where you are. 2. In order to have lunch at a family restaurant that is relatively inexpensive and easily available, search for a nearby family restaurant at about 1 pm at a transit point near where you are. 3. The gasoline is about 300 km away from the current location, so gasoline is going to be exhausted. When a plan such as is made, conditions such as time and distance in accordance with the plan are input to the navigation device and set. When time or mileage is set as a search condition as described above, it is necessary to predict and plan the transit time and accumulated mileage of each point before traveling due to traffic conditions and unscheduled actions on the way. Since it is not always appropriate to perform the search, it is preferable to perform the above-described search at the time or the traveling distance while the vehicle is actually traveling as described above.

When the above various search settings are made,
For example, if the user wants to search in advance from the current location before the vehicle to see if there is a Seven-Eleven near each transit point, and if so, where, etc., a clipping area search is immediately performed. For example, a clipping search operation shown in FIG. A screen is displayed, and a "name" in "clipping search" is selected, and a search condition is designated by inputting "seven eleven" by key input or selection in candidate display (step S23).

Thereafter, when a search is executed, in this case, since there are no conditions such as time and distance, the process immediately proceeds to step 27, and the above-mentioned search condition, ie, the clipping search area, is set search from the waypoint 1 to the waypoint 3 The range and the genre are accessed under the condition of “Seven-Eleven” to access the facility information recording section of the DVD-ROM to perform a search. The search results are arranged in an appropriate order, for example, in order of being closer to the current location, and are displayed on the screen (step S28), so that various examinations can be performed based on the search results. When the search is further continued (step 29), the process returns to the search condition specification in step S23, and the same operation and operation are repeated to continue various searches for the entire clipping region under various conditions. It can be carried out.

When the vehicle starts running from the current position after the search conditions such as time and distance are set as described above, it is determined as "Yes" by determining whether or not there are conditions such as time and distance (step). S24). At this time, the current time and the traveling distance are checked and compared with each condition in the search designation unit 125 of FIG. 1, and when, for example, the time is about 10 am (step S25), the vehicle position at that time Clipping point registration unit 1
One is selected from all the points to be searched in 24 (step S26). At this time, in the above embodiment, as shown in FIG. 5, the point is selected because it is within the clipping range of the waypoint 1.

Next, the position data and the search range data of the point selected as described above are read out, a storage medium such as a DVD-ROM is accessed, and facilities matching the search conditions are searched from the facility data recorded therein. A search and extraction are performed (step S27), and the display is rearranged as appropriate and displayed on the screen (step S28). In the case of the above embodiment, the banks existing within the clipping range at the waypoint 1 are extracted and displayed on the screen. At this time,
When a program of the navigation device selects a bank that appears appropriate from the screen displayed on the screen, it is set as a temporary stopover, and it may be set to guide the vehicle to this point it can.

In this way, even if the user forgets at 10:00 am, the navigation device performs the above-mentioned guidance display, so that the user can surely stop at the most appropriate bank. When the navigation device is set so that the search result can also be provided by voice guidance, the search result is output as voice, so that the operation state of the clipping search and the search result can be known more reliably. it can.

After displaying the above search results, it is determined whether or not to continue the clipping search (step S29), and it is determined whether or not all the searches for the preset search items have been completed. If there are more search conditions, such as time and distance, as in (1), the clipping search is continued, and the process returns to step S23. Here, since the search condition is already specified and the search has conditions such as time and distance (step S24), it is immediately determined whether or not the search time or distance has been reached (step S24).
25). When returning to step S23 as described above, it is also possible to set a new search genre and additionally perform a search for various facilities.

In this embodiment, a setting is made to search for a family restaurant at 1:00 pm.
In the search designation section, the current time and the traveling distance are checked again in the same manner as above, and when it is close to 1:00 pm (step S25), the clipping point closest to the own vehicle position at that time is searched in the clipping point registration section. A selection is made from among the target points (step S26). At this time, in the above embodiment, this point is selected because it is close to the clipping range of the waypoint 2 as shown in FIG.

Thereafter, in the same manner as described above, the position data and the search range data of the selected point are read, and a storage medium such as a DVD-ROM is accessed and searched (step S27).
This is displayed on the screen (step S28). In the case of the above embodiment, a family restaurant existing within the clipping range at the stopover 2 is extracted and displayed on the screen, so that an appropriate one can be selected and the user can go to the family restaurant. When the family restaurant is crowded and the waiting time is likely to be long, it is possible to change the use facility to another family restaurant displayed earlier and go there.

Thereafter, in the case of this embodiment, the traveling distance is 30
Since it is set to search for a gas station at a nearby stopover when the vehicle is near 0 km, it is determined whether or not to continue the clipping search (step S29).
In particular, when a new search is not performed, it is determined whether or not the search specified time / distance has passed through steps S23 and S24 as described above (step S25).
When the vehicle approaches km, the clipping point closest to the own vehicle position at that time is selected from the search target points in the clipping point registration unit, as in the case described above. At this time, in the above embodiment, as shown in FIG.
This point is selected because the position of the own vehicle is close to the clipping range of.

Also in this case, the same search as described above is performed, and gas stations existing within the clipping range at the waypoint 3 are extracted and displayed on the screen, so that an appropriate one is selected therefrom. You can stop by a gas station and fill it with gas. In this way, by setting the mileage to fill gasoline in advance, the navigation device automatically detects this,
In addition, he / she presents an appropriate gas station, so he / she can drive with peace of mind. It should be noted that the genre automatically searched when the predetermined search mileage is reached is not limited to the gas station as described above, and various facilities such as various facilities for rest can be set.

It should be noted that in the above embodiment, the waypoint is
Although the setting was made by manual input by the location user and this transit point was set as the clipping point, it was shown that as many clipping points as possible in the memory should be registered in order to perform a more detailed search. Is preferred. In order to facilitate this work, for example, when driving on a general road, a relatively large city is registered as a clipping point by automatic input along a guidance route, and when driving on a highway, major service areas and interchanges are registered. Can be set in the clipping area by automatic input, and an arbitrary clipping range corresponding to each point can be automatically set.

In the above embodiment, the clipping range is set within a circle at a predetermined distance from the clipping point. For example, the clipping range may be an elliptical shape or a rectangular shape along a guidance route, or may be a clipping range. It can also be set in various shapes such as a sector extending in the traveling direction with the point as the center.

In the above embodiment, the facility information is
Although an example of searching from a facility information storage portion in a storage medium such as a VD-ROM has been described, a system for transmitting facility information from an information center or the like will often be used due to recent improvements in communication technology and related facilities. When the vehicle is equipped with facilities using such a system, the present invention can also search for various facility information using an external facility information storage medium using a communication line.

[0056]

The invention according to claim 1 of the present application is configured as described above, so that facilities within a predetermined range of a plurality of points independent of each other can be searched under a unified search condition. In addition, since only the position data and the search range of the designated point are registered in the clipping point registration unit, a large number of search points and search ranges can be registered with a small memory, and many search points are unified. It becomes possible to search using search conditions. In addition, by storing a large number of data of previously registered points, it is possible to use the stored point data again as a new search point,
In that case, it is not necessary to input a search range or the like, and it is easy to specify a search point.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, when a search time designated in advance is reached, a search point which is close to the search point is automatically selected,
Since a facility within the search range of the point can be searched, an appropriate facility can be surely searched.

According to the third aspect of the present invention, when a search mileage specified in advance is reached, a search point close to the search point can be automatically selected, and facilities within the search range of the point can be searched. In addition, an appropriate facility can be searched.

According to the fourth aspect of the present invention, the main points along the guidance route and the search range of each point can be automatically designated as the search range, so that a detailed search can be performed without requiring extra trouble. You can set the location.

According to the fifth aspect of the present invention, a series of search point data can be newly registered while the previously registered point data is registered, and a new search can be performed using the data in the range. The previously registered data can be left as it is without any hindrance to the new search, and the old data can be used again.

According to the present invention, the data already registered in the clipping point registration section can be used as data of a series of search points newly designated, so that the search points can be utilized by utilizing the accumulation of the previous search. Can be easily registered.

According to the seventh aspect of the present invention, by specifying a specific search facility among the displayed search facilities, a guide route to the search facility can be searched for and displayed, so that it is highly convenient. It can be a navigation device.

According to the eighth aspect of the present invention, the designated search range can be set to an arbitrary shape such as an elliptical shape or a rectangular shape as needed along the guidance route, so that the designated search range is more appropriate than the one set to a circular shape. Search range can be set.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram of a navigation control device embodying the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an operation flowchart of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of designating an arbitrary search point and a search range along a guide route on a map according to the present invention.

FIG. 4 is an operation flowchart showing an application example of the present invention.

5 is an explanatory diagram of a search mode schematically showing a relationship between a search point along the guidance route in FIG. 3 and an operation flow in FIG. 4;

[Explanation of symbols]

 109 Vehicle position data line 114 Operation signal data line 118 Map data line 122 Clipping area search unit 123 Clipping point position / range specification unit 124 Clipping point registration unit 125 Search specification unit 126 Search unit 127 Display unit

Claims (8)

[Claims] 1. A clipping point position / range specifying unit for specifying a plurality of points on a map and a search range around the point, and a clipping point registration unit for storing the positions and the search ranges of the specified plural points. , A search designation unit for designating a search point and a search genre, and position data and search range data of the point designated by the search designation unit are input from the clipping point registration unit, and a search is performed within the search range corresponding to the input data. A navigation device comprising: a search unit for searching a facility information storage medium for a facility of a search genre designated by a designation unit; and a display unit for displaying search results of the search unit. 2. A search designating section designates a search time, selects one search point close to the designated search time, and a search section designates one of the facility data within the search range of the selected search point. 2. The navigation device according to claim 1, wherein a facility of a search genre is searched. 3. The search specifying section specifies a search mileage,
2. The navigation device according to claim 1, wherein one of the search points close to the specified search mileage is selected, and the search unit searches for the facility of the specified search genre from the facility data within the search range of the selected search point. . 4. The navigation apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising means for automatically designating a plurality of main points along the guidance route and a search range of each point. 5. The navigation apparatus according to claim 1, wherein data of a previously registered point and data of a series of newly specified search points are registered in the clipping point registering section so as to be identifiable. 6. The navigation device according to claim 1, wherein the search designation section can use data already registered in the clipping point registration section as data of a series of search points newly designated. 7. The navigation device according to claim 1, wherein a designated route to the search facility is searched for and displayed by designating the displayed specific search facility. 8. The navigation device according to claim 1, wherein the designated search range is set to an arbitrary shape along the guidance route.