JP2003269967A - Navigation device and its map displaying method - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To allow a driver to surely grasp an intersection for turning. <P>SOLUTION: When the distance from a present position of an automobile to the intersection (left-turning or right-turning intersection) 10 on a guide route, becomes less than a predetermined distance, a scale size that can simultaneously display driver's own car position and the intersection is determined, the map is enlarged and drawn on the basis of the scale size, further the guide route 11 is displayed on the map, and a land mark 12 is displayed along the guide route. The scale size is changed as approaching the intersection 10 to display enlarged views 102-104 including the own car position and the intersection. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2003,JPO

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a navigation device and a map display method thereof, and more particularly to a navigation device and a map display method thereof when a vehicle approaches an intersection on a guide route.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A navigation device detects the position of a vehicle, reads out map data around the vehicle position from a map storage medium such as a CD-ROM, a DVD, draws a map image on a display screen, and draws a predetermined image on the map image. Draw the vehicle mark on the spot. As the current position changes due to the movement of the vehicle, the vehicle mark is fixed at a predetermined position on the screen and the map is scrolled so that the map information around the vehicle position can always be seen at a glance. In addition, the navigation device searches for an optimum route from the starting point to the destination as a guide route, displays the guide route on the screen, and guides the driver to the destination. According to this route guidance function, when the vehicle reaches the vicinity of the intersection, an enlarged view of the intersection is displayed with the arrow indicating the traveling direction of the vehicle, and the traveling direction is indicated by voice so that the vehicle does not move in the wrong direction at the intersection. I have to.

FIG. 8 shows an example of a conventional enlarged view of an intersection.
The navigation device divides the display screen into two and displays a normal map MP on one screen (the left half screen in the figure) when the vehicle approaches a right-left intersection on the guide route (route) during route guidance, and the other Enlarged view of intersection on half screen of CPE
Displays L to inform the user of intersection information in an easy-to-understand manner. That is, in the conventional intersection guidance method, the distance to the intersection by voice from several hundred meters ahead, guidance in the turning direction at the intersection, the enlarged map 1 near the target intersection, the guidance route 2, the turning direction in the lane 3, Information on the intersection is transmitted by displaying the intersection name 4, etc., displaying a bar graph of the remaining distance 5 from the current location to the intersection, and displaying the landmark 6 at the intersection when there is a landmark. . As a result, it becomes possible to smoothly turn right and left at the intended intersection.

[0004]

By the way, in the conventional intersection enlarged display, the display screen is divided into two, and the normal map and the intersection enlarged view are displayed respectively. However, on the normal screen, only the landmark specified by the user is displayed.
(In FIG. 8, only landmarks of banks are displayed.) Also, although an arbitrary landmark is displayed on the intersection enlarged map screen, only the landmark at the intersection is displayed.

However, in such a display method, there are several similar intersections from the start of the intersection guidance to the actual right / left turn intersection, and if there is no landmark information at the right / left turn intersection, the actual display will only be from the enlarged intersection display. It will be difficult to know the intersection that should turn. Further, even if the map is displayed on the left half screen, if the scale ratio is large, it becomes difficult to grasp the intersection to actually turn. In addition to the above, GPS
Since the accuracy of the vehicle is not accurate, the vehicle position accuracy in the enlarged view is poor, and it becomes difficult to grasp the intersection that should actually turn in the conventional enlarged intersection display / normal map display, and there is a problem of going straight at the intersection. . Further, since the display screen is divided into two parts to display the normal map and the enlarged view of the intersection, there is a problem that the display area becomes half and the screen is difficult to see.

In view of the above, an object of the present invention is to ensure that an intersection to be turned can be grasped. Another object of the present invention is to enable display of an enlarged map of a map without halving the display screen and to improve visibility of intersections.

[0007]

The navigation device according to the present invention is designed so that the next intersection on the guide route from the current position of the vehicle is reached.
When the distance to the (left turn or right turn intersection) is less than or equal to the set distance, determine the scale at which the vehicle position and the intersection can be displayed at the same time, draw the map at the scale and display the guide route on the map, and , A landmark is displayed along the guide route, the scale is changed as the vehicle approaches the intersection, and an enlarged view including the vehicle position and the intersection is displayed.

In addition, even if the types of landmarks to be displayed in the normal map display are limited, the navigation device guides all or a predetermined type of landmarks in the enlarged intersection view display. Display the landmarks of facilities existing along the route. Further, when the number of landmarks to be displayed is equal to or more than the set number, the navigation device preferentially displays landmarks at other intersections that intersect with the guide route in addition to the intersections. By doing so, it will be possible to surely grasp the intersection that should turn, it is not necessary to divide the display screen into two, and moreover, the enlarged map of the map is displayed without any discomfort and the visibility of the intersection is improved. You can

[0009]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION (A) Outline of the present invention The present invention displays a magnified map with a reduced scale when intersection guidance starts, and displays all or a predetermined number of landmarks on a guide route. As a result, intersection guidance is smoothly performed. That is, in the normal map display, the map is displayed at the scale specified by the user, and only the landmark specified by the user is displayed. In such a state, when the car approaches the target intersection to be turned up to the set distance, the scale is automatically changed so that the current location and the target intersection are displayed at the same time in the upper and lower parts of the screen with a margin, and the enlarged map is displayed. , Display all or a specified number of landmarks along the guide route in the map database. Thereafter, the scale of the map is dynamically changed within a range in which the current location and the target intersection are simultaneously displayed on the screen according to the degree of approach to the target intersection, and a more enlarged map is displayed. And
After turning the intersection, the normal scale map and the landmark display specified by the user are displayed.

FIG. 1 is a schematic explanatory view of the present invention.
Is a display example of a normal map (200 m / cm) with a large scale, 102-
Reference numeral 104 is a display example of an enlarged intersection map when approaching the target intersection 10 for turning right and left.
02 is the largest and the intersection enlarged map 104 is the smallest in scale, and is displayed in the largest scale. In addition,
200m / cm means that 1cm on the display screen corresponds to the actual 200m.

When the vehicle approaches the intersection 10 and reaches the point A (refer to the normal map screen 101) and the distance between them becomes, for example, 300 m or less, the navigation device displays the scale of the vehicle and the intersection 10 at the same scale ( (100 m / cm in the figure) is obtained, and the enlarged map 102 is drawn at the reduced scale. Further, the navigation device displays the guide route 11 on the enlarged map and also displays the landmarks 12 existing along the guide route.
The navigation device also displays a vehicle mark 13 indicating the position of the vehicle on the enlarged map.

Thereafter, as the vehicle approaches the intersection 10 by running, the navigation device changes the scale and displays the enlarged maps 103 and 104 including the vehicle position and the intersection. That is, when the vehicle approaches the intersection by traveling and reaches the point B, the navigation device obtains a scale (50 m / cm in the figure) at which the vehicle position and the intersection 10 can be displayed at the same time, draws a map at the scale, and further the intersection 10 is displayed. When the vehicle approaches the point C and reaches the intersection C, the vehicle position and the intersection 10 can be displayed at the same scale (2 in the figure.
5 m / cm) and draw a map at the scale. As described above, the scale is changed as the vehicle approaches the intersection 10 and the enlarged map 102 including the vehicle position and the intersection is displayed.
Since 103 and 104 are displayed and all or a predetermined number of landmarks 12 existing along the guide route 11 are displayed, what is similar to the intersection from the start of the intersection guidance to the actual intersection to turn left or right? Even if there is a location, or even if there is no landmark information at the destination intersection, the position of the destination intersection can be easily grasped, and it will not go too far.

(B) Configuration of Navigation Device FIG. 2 is a configuration diagram of the navigation device of the present invention. In the figure, 51 is a map storage medium for storing map information, for example,
DVD, 52 is a DV that controls the reading of map information from the DVD
D control unit, 53 is a position measuring device such as GPS for measuring the current vehicle position, 54 is a map information memory for storing map information around the vehicle position read from the DVD, and 55 is a landmark position read from the DVD It is a landmark position information memory. The map information is a rectangular map part (figure leaf) where a map of a predetermined scale is separated by a predetermined longitude width and latitude width.
The landmark position information is created for each item and specifies the position of the landmark included in the map leaf.

Reference numeral 56 is a remote controller for performing various settings and instructions by menu selection, and 57 is a remote controller interface. 58 is a CPU that controls the entire navigation device
(Navigation control unit) 59 is a ROM that stores various software and fixed data, and includes software for guiding route search SF1, route guiding software SF2, intersection guidance software SF3, and the like. Reference numeral 60 is a work RAM for temporarily storing the guide route data and various processing results, 61 is a display controller for generating a map image / guide route, and 62 is a video RA for storing an image generated by the display controller.
M and 63 are landmark generating units that generate landmark images, 64 is a menu / list generating unit that generates various menus and lists, 65 is an image combining unit that combines and outputs various images, and 66 is an image combining unit. A display device (monitor) for displaying an output image, 67 is a transparent touch panel unit, which is arranged on the front surface of the display screen, 6
Reference numeral 8 is a voice guidance unit that provides voice guidance about the distance to the intersection and the direction of travel.

As shown in FIG. 3, in the guide route storage unit of the work RAM 60, the latitude and longitude information and the intersection indicating whether or not the intersection is a right / left turn intersection for all the nodes from the start node to the destination node forming the guide route. The correspondence of flags is stored. In addition, as shown in FIG. 4, the landmark position information memory 55 stores, for each map leaf, the correspondence between the type of the landmark included in the map leaf and its latitude / longitude information.

(C) Map Enlargement Display Processing FIG. 5 is a map enlargement display processing flow of the present invention. The navigation control unit (CPU) 58 displays a map around the automobile and the guide route at a scale set by the user, and displays only the landmark set by the user (landmark of the gas station in FIG. 1) (step 101). . In parallel with the display processing, the navigation control unit 58
An intersection that turns right or left next to the guidance route data (target intersection)
And the position of the vehicle from the position measuring device 53, calculate the distance from the vehicle position to the target intersection,
It is monitored whether or not the distance to the target intersection is less than or equal to the set distance (step 102).

If the distance to the target intersection is not less than the set distance, the normal map display is continued in step 101 (see 101 in FIG. 1). On the other hand, if the distance to the target intersection is less than or equal to the set distance, the navigation control unit 58 calculates the scale at which the vehicle position and the target intersection simultaneously enter with a predetermined margin above and below one screen (step 103). If it is possible to display 50 km / 25 km / 800 m 200 m / 100 m / 50 m / 25 m / 10 m per 1 cm, the navigation control unit 58
From these scales, find the scale that fits on one screen. Then, the map is enlarged and displayed at the calculated scale, the guide route is displayed on the map, and further all landmarks or a predetermined number of landmarks along the route are obtained and displayed.
(Step 104, see 102 in FIG. 1).

Thereafter, it is checked whether or not it is necessary to change the scale to display the enlarged view (step 105), and if the scale does not need to be changed, the map enlargement display is continued (step 10).
6) Then, it is monitored whether the vehicle has passed the intersection (step 107). If it does not pass through the intersection, the processing from step 105 onward is repeated.
As a result of the car getting closer to the intersection, if it is necessary to further change the scale and display the enlarged map in step 105, calculate a new scale where the car position and the target intersection are in one screen and calculate the map at that scale. The image is further enlarged (see 103 in FIG. 1, step 108). After that, it is monitored whether the intersection has passed (step 107). If it does not pass through the intersection, the processing from step 105 onward is repeated.

After that, by repeating the above processing,
As the vehicle approaches the intersection, a larger map is displayed (see 102, 103, 104 in FIG. 1), and finally the maximum map is displayed at a predetermined scale. In the maximum map display state, if the vehicle passes the target intersection in step 107, the navigation control unit 58 returns to the normal display in step 101 (step 109). That is, the map around the automobile and the guide route are displayed at the scale set by the user, and only the landmark set by the user is displayed. In the above, the turning direction is not shown by the arrow, but the turning direction is displayed by the arrow, the intersection name is displayed,
It is also possible to display the remaining distance to the intersection as a bar graph. The voice guidance unit 68 also provides voice guidance at intersections as in the conventional case.

(D) Displaying all landmarks or a predetermined number of landmarks along the route in the priority display processing step 104 when there are many landmarks, the number of landmarks displayed is very large and difficult to see. May be. In such a case, it is necessary to display the truly necessary landmark and omit the unnecessary landmark display. FIG. 6 is a flow chart of such landmark display processing. Calculate the number of landmarks displayed along the guide route (step 201),
It is checked whether the number of landmarks is larger than the set value M (step 202). If the number is less than the set value, all the landmarks or a predetermined number of landmarks are displayed and the process ends (step 203). However, if the number of landmarks is larger than the set value M, in addition to the target intersection, the landmarks at all intersections existing from the vehicle position to the target intersection are preferentially displayed (step 204). Next, it is checked whether the displayed number of landmarks is equal to or larger than the set value (step 205), and if it is larger than that, the landmark processing is terminated.

On the other hand, if the number of displayed landmarks is less than the set value in step 205, the landmarks set by the user are set in the first priority order until the number of displayed landmarks reaches the set number (= M). The other landmarks are displayed in the preset priority order, and the process ends (step 206). If the landmarks are displayed as described above, the number of landmarks to be displayed can be surely limited, and moreover, the correspondence between the enlarged view of the intersection and the actual scenery can be easily grasped, and the target intersection can be surely bent in the designated direction. be able to.

(E) Another configuration of the navigation device FIG. 7 is another configuration diagram of the navigation device. The distance calculation unit 71 calculates the distance D to the destination intersection from the own vehicle position detected by the own vehicle position detection unit 72 and the position of the next right / left turn intersection (target intersection) obtained from the guide route memory 73. . The intersection approach / passage monitoring unit 74 compares the distance D to the target intersection with a set distance R (for example, 300 m). If D ≦ R, an intersection approach signal is generated and the distance D becomes negative (minus). For example, it is considered that the car has passed the intersection and the intersection passage signal is generated. Using the distance D and the screen size, the scale calculation unit 75 calculates the scale at which the vehicle position and the target intersection enter at the same time above and below one screen with a predetermined margin. 50km per cm
If it is possible to display / 25km / 800m 200m / 100m / 50m / 25m / 10m, the navigation control unit asks for the scale to fit within one screen.

The selector 76 selects and outputs the scale set by the user if the intersection approach signal is not generated, and selects and outputs the scale output from the scale calculator 75 if the intersection approach signal is generated. . Map / guide route display 77
Uses the map information read out from the DVD and stored in the map information memory 78 to generate a map at the input scale, and also generates a guide route using the guide route data. From the above, the map / guidance route display unit 77 displays the map at the scale set by the user if the intersection approach signal is not generated, and if the intersection approach signal is generated, indicates the degree of approach to the intersection. Display the enlarged view at the appropriate scale.

If the intersection approach signal is not generated, the landmark generator 79 uses the landmark position information stored in the landmark position information memory 80,
Only landmarks set by the user occur. But,
If an intersection approach signal is generated, all landmarks existing along the guide route or a predetermined number of landmarks are read from the landmark position information memory 80 and generated. The combining unit 81 combines the map image generated from the map / guide route display unit 77 and the landmark image generated from the landmark generation unit 79, and the display unit 82 displays the combined image on the display screen (see FIG. 1). .

[0025]

As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to realize the intersection guidance on one map screen by dynamically changing the scale of the map. The visibility is improved compared with the simultaneous display method of the enlarged map of the intersection. Further, according to the present invention, in addition to the dynamic scale change, by displaying all or a predetermined number of landmarks along the route, even if there is no landmark at the target intersection, it is possible to confirm the landmark on the route, GPS Even if the positioning of the vehicle is unstable and the vehicle position is displaced, the positional relationship of the target intersection can be easily grasped from the landmark position. That is, according to the present invention, it becomes possible to surely grasp an intersection to turn, and it is not necessary to divide the display screen into two parts, and moreover, the enlarged map of the map is displayed without any discomfort and the visibility of the intersection is improved. be able to.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic explanatory view of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a configuration diagram of a navigation device of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is an example of guide route data in a guide route storage unit.

FIG. 4 is a correspondence explanatory diagram of the types of landmarks included in the map leaf and their latitude and longitude information.

FIG. 5 is a map enlarged display processing flow of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a landmark display processing flow.

FIG. 7 is another configuration diagram of the navigation device.

FIG. 8 is a display example of a conventional enlarged view of an intersection.

[Explanation of symbols]

10 crossroads 11 guide route 12 landmarks 13 vehicle mark 101 Normal map 102-104 Enlarged map

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Claims (8)

[Claims] 1. In a map display method of a navigation device for displaying a guide route to a destination on a map, when a distance from a current vehicle position to an intersection on the guide route is equal to or less than a set distance, Obtaining a scale at which the intersection can be displayed at the same time, drawing a map at the scale, displaying the guide route on the map, and displaying landmarks along the guide route, and changing the scale as the intersection approaches. Then, an enlarged view including the position of the vehicle and the intersection is displayed, and a map display method. 2. The map display method according to claim 1, wherein the intersection is a left turn or a right turn intersection. 3. Even if the types of landmarks to be displayed in the normal map display are limited, when the distance to the intersection becomes equal to or less than the set distance, all or predetermined types of landmarks are displayed. The map display method according to claim 1, wherein landmarks of facilities existing along the guide route are displayed on the target. 4. When the number of landmarks to be displayed is equal to or more than a set number, landmarks at other intersections intersecting the guide route in addition to the intersection are preferentially displayed. The map display method described in 2. 5. The map display method according to claim 1, wherein when the vehicle passes through the intersection, the normal map display is restored. 6. A navigation device for displaying a guide route to a destination on a map, a route memory for storing guide route information, a vehicle position detection unit for detecting a vehicle position, and a current vehicle position on the guide route. A distance calculation unit that calculates the distance to the intersection, an intersection approach monitoring unit that monitors whether the distance to the intersection is less than or equal to a set distance, and a scale that calculates the vehicle position and the scale at which the intersection can be displayed at the same time based on the distance. A calculator is provided, which draws a map at the scale and displays a guide route on the map, and displays a landmark along the guide route, and the scale is changed as the intersection is approached. A navigation device, which displays an enlarged view including the position of the vehicle and the intersection. 7. The landmark display means, even when the type of landmarks to be displayed in the normal map display is set, when the distance to the intersection becomes less than or equal to the set distance, all or predetermined. 7. The navigation device according to claim 6, wherein landmarks of facilities existing along the guide route are displayed for landmarks of the type. 8. The navigation device according to claim 6, further comprising: means for monitoring that a vehicle has passed through the intersection and returning to a normal map display by passing.