JP2011106840A - Car navigation device - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To enhance the operability of a car navigation device on the occasion of retrieving spot information not having latitude and longitude data, when information on a destination or a place being displayed in the device is retrieved through the Internet. <P>SOLUTION: A retrieval region intended to be a retrieval object is set, to perform retrievals at general sites on the Internet as to a place to be a retrieval object, and a place-name character string of a spot contained in the designated retrieval region is extracted. The extracted place-name character string is set in a browser as a retrieval keyword of a retrieval site, and retrievals are performed at general sites. In the designation of the retrieval region, the hierarchy of a place name is changed so as to be at a prefecture-name level to widen the retrieval region, if it is far from a user's own house, and to be at a city level to narrow the retrieval region if it is near the house. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2011,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a car navigation apparatus that can cooperate with information on the Internet.

  Car navigation devices (hereinafter abbreviated as “car navigation”) have already been developed that have a built-in communication function and can be connected to the Internet, and those that have a built-in browser that is an application for browsing Internet web information. As these car navigation systems, there is an invention described in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2001-356019, and it is possible to access an information center and search for information on an arbitrary point in an arbitrary area from point information held by the information center. It is.

  In addition, as a method for retrieving point information from the general Internet, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 11-272687 describes an invention in which characters displayed on a map display screen are used as browser search keywords instead of latitude and longitude search conditions. Has been. According to the present invention, since the search keyword can be designated by characters, text information such as a general blog recorded on the WEB can be searched.

  Alternatively, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2000-337911 discloses an invention in which web information on the Internet is browsed by a browser, character information extracted from the web information is converted into position information and provided to a car navigation device.

JP 2001-356019 A JP-A-11-272687 JP 2000-337911 A

  However, the point information search system described in Patent Document 1 adds latitude and longitude data to the information in advance, and when the car navigation system specifies the latitude and longitude of the location to be searched, the information center extracts data corresponding to the search condition. It is a way to transfer to the car navigation system. For this reason, since the information to be searched is required to have latitude / longitude data, the information to be searched is limited to that held by a specific information center.

  In the method of Patent Document 2, information other than characters displayed on the display screen cannot be searched. Therefore, in order to search for information regarding a place that is not displayed, an operation for switching the display area of the map every time the search is required becomes complicated.

  Also, depending on the scale of the map being displayed, it may not always be displayed on the map where the place name or address desired to be searched is displayed, and when the desired place name or address is not displayed on the map. Can't search. For this reason, when searching for information about the destination area in order to find a place to stop by when moving to the main destination that has already been determined, the main destination is far away from the starting point of the home or travel and is accompanied by accommodation. In this case, an area that can be a selection range of places to stop by is larger than that in the case of a short distance. Therefore, when a wide-area map is displayed, there is a possibility that a desired stop location cannot be found.

  Similarly, in the invention described in Patent Document 3, since it is limited to the WEB information of the Internet browsed by the browser, in order to search for information regarding the WEB information that is not displayed, the WEB information is retrieved every time the search is performed. Switching operation is necessary, and the operation becomes complicated.

  In order to solve the above problem, first, latitude / longitude information of a search target point is converted into a place name character string by means for converting latitude / longitude data into a place name character string. If it is far from home, the character string is changed to the prefecture name level to widen the search area, and if it is close to home, the place name hierarchy is changed so that the character string is set to the city level to narrow the search area. Thereafter, the character string is set in the browser as a search key for the search site.

  It is also possible to select a method for designating a search area on the screen using a touch panel. Furthermore, a method for designating the size of a circle indicating the search area on the screen can be selected.

  ADVANTAGE OF THE INVENTION According to this invention, when searching the internet information relevant to the destination periphery and display place of a car navigation apparatus in a search site, a search character string can be set to a browser with easy operation. Further, when the place to be searched is far from the home or travel start position, the search area can be automatically enlarged as compared with the case where the place is near. Furthermore, it is possible to specify a search area by an easy operation.

It is a block diagram which shows the system configuration | structure which concerns on this Embodiment. It is the figure which showed the example of a structure of the coordinate / place name conversion table. The example of a structure of a surrounding municipality table is shown. It is the figure which showed the example of a screen which a navigation processing part and a browser cooperate and search the information of the internet. It is the figure which showed the example which the browser displays the search result in a search site. It is a flowchart of the place name character string extraction process which changes a search area | region according to the distance to the place of the search object from home, and extracts a place name. It is the figure which showed the example which selects a search area | region and a keyword with a menu. It is the figure which showed the example which designates a search area with a finger. It is a flowchart of the process which determines a search area | region on a map. It is a flowchart of the process which determines the search area | region in the case of searching around a path | route. It is the figure which showed the example which determines a search area | region from a figure display screen. It is a flowchart of the process which determines a search area | region with the magnitude | size of the circle on a screen. It is a figure explaining the determination method of the search area. It is a flowchart of the determination process of a search area. It is the figure which showed the example which registers a stop point out of a search result. It is a flowchart of a stop point registration process.

  Embodiments of an in-vehicle terminal that operates as a car navigation device using the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

  FIG. 1 shows the overall system configuration of an in-vehicle terminal 10 connected to an information center 40 and a search site 30 via a network 20 by communication. The in-vehicle terminal 10 has a display 100 that displays a map and a search result, a display control unit 130 that controls display of the display 100, and a location specified by a touch panel configured on the surface of the display 100 as coordinates on the screen. From the touch panel control unit 110 for conversion, the browser 120 for browsing and displaying WEB information on the Internet, the navigation processing unit 150 for realizing the function as a car navigation device, the navigation / browser cooperation control unit 140, the browser 120 and the navigation processing unit 150 The communication unit 170 is connected to the network 20 typified by the Internet by wireless communication according to the above request. The browser 120 can connect to the search site 30 through the network 20 by the communication unit 170 and display the search result there.

  The navigation processing unit 150 includes a map DB (database) 1510, a locator function that measures the current position of the in-vehicle terminal 10 using a GPS (Global Positioning System) 160, a map display function, a destination search function, and a destination to destination Functions as a car navigation device such as a route search function to the ground and a guidance function for guiding the in-vehicle terminal 10 according to the route searched by the route search function are realized. Further, the information center 40 is requested to search for point information via the communication unit 170.

  The navigation / browser cooperation control unit 140 is a place name character string that is used as a search key in order to search the network 20 for information on the location displayed by the navigation processing unit 150 on the display device 100 and information about the destination or the vicinity of the waypoint. And transfer this character string to the browser 120. For this purpose, the search area control unit 1460 of the navigation / browser cooperation control unit 140 performs overall control for determining a search area. Further, the place name character string extracting means 1410 uses the distance determination unit 1420 for calculating the straight line distance between points, the home registration position storage unit 1430, the coordinate / place name conversion table 1440, and the surrounding municipality table 1450 to obtain the search character string. Generate. Further, if the home position is not registered in the home registration position storage unit 1430, if the route is set in the navigation processing unit 150, the departure place is acquired from the navigation processing unit 150 and used instead of the home position. To do. In the following, information on the location, the destination, or the vicinity of the waypoint displayed by the navigation processing unit 150 on the display device 100 will be referred to as destination information.

  In response to a request from the in-vehicle terminal 10, the information center 40 searches the point information database 50 for point information serving as destination information and transmits it to the in-vehicle terminal 10. The search site 30 searches a large number of WEB sites (not shown) connected to the network 20 according to a search key.

  FIG. 2 shows a configuration example of the coordinate / place name conversion table 1440. The prefectural name corresponding to the municipality as the administrative division and the subsequent municipality name are associated with a polygon coordinate sequence which is coordinate point sequence information representing the administrative boundary on the map corresponding to each municipality with a polygonal line. It is remembered. The vertex of the polygonal line is expressed in latitude and longitude coordinates, and by determining which polygon a specific point expressed in latitude and longitude is in, you can find the name of the prefecture and city of that point .

  FIG. 3 shows a configuration example of the surrounding municipality table 1450. The surrounding municipality table 1450 is a table in which the municipality name and the name of the municipality adjacent to the municipality are stored in association with each other. For example, the municipalities adjacent to “Y Prefecture Y City” are “A Prefecture BB City”, “A Prefecture MM City”, and “B Prefecture XX City”. From the surrounding municipality table 1450, the names of municipalities around the designated municipality can be known.

  Next, FIG. 4 shows a screen example in which the navigation processing unit 150 and the browser 120 cooperate to search for information on the network 20. FIG. 4A shows an example in which the navigation / browser cooperation control unit 140 displays the information search window 200 at the bottom of the map screen displayed on the display device 100 by the navigation processing unit 150. When any one of the destination button 2010, the route surrounding button 2020, and the display location button 2030 displayed in the information search window 200 is selected, the set destination, searched guidance route, or current Information of the network 20 related to the location corresponding to the displayed map range can be searched. The wide area button 220 and the detail button 210 are buttons for controlling enlargement / reduction of a map to be displayed.

  FIG. 4B is an example of a screen on which the extracted search character string is displayed when the display location button 2030 is pressed. When the display location button 2030 is pressed, a search instruction window 300 is displayed. In the search instruction window 300, a window 3010 for displaying a search character string and a search button 3020 are displayed. In addition, a search character string to be transmitted to the search site is displayed in the window 3010. When the search button 3020 is pressed, the search character string is transmitted to the search site 30 as a search key, and a search is performed.

  FIG. 5 is an example of a screen on which the browser displays the result of searching on the search site 30. A window 400 for displaying the search character string used for the search and a search button 410 for performing the search again are displayed at the top of the screen. The search character string in the window 400 can be freely edited. A search area correction button 420 is displayed at the bottom of the screen. When this button is pressed, the screen returns to the screen of FIG.

  Next, processing for determining a search area will be described. In the search in this case, it is assumed that the main destination has already been determined, and a secondary stop is searched on the way to the destination. In such a case, if the main destination is a distance of a day trip from the reference point, that is, if it is close to the home or travel start point, it does not go too far from the destination, and it is a long trip that accompanies accommodation from home Are often more likely to drop in even if they are some distance away from their main destination. In other words, when the travel distance from the reference point to the main destination is usually short, the travel distance from the travel route to the main destination to a location that stops secondary on the way is usually short. It is thought that there are many. In addition, it is considered that the home point is often the base point of movement so that many car navigation systems have a home point registration function.

  FIG. 6 is a flowchart of a place name character string extraction process for extracting a place name character string by changing the search area according to the distance from the home to a designated place to be searched when assuming a home as a reference point. is there. In this process, as described above, information on a wider area is set as a search target as the designated place is farther from the home or the departure point. As the designated place, a point such as a destination or waypoint can be set. However, in the following description, when the destination button 2010 is selected in FIG. 4A and the destination is set as the designated place. The destination information is searched.

  First, the search area control unit 1460 of the navigation / browser cooperation control unit 140 acquires the latitude / longitude information of the destination set from the navigation processing unit 150 as the latitude / longitude of the designated location in accordance with the input from the touch panel control unit 110. . Further, the latitude / longitude information of the home position is acquired from the home registration position storage unit 1430. As described above, when the home position is not registered in the home registration position storage unit 1430, the travel start position is used instead. Then, the place name character string extracting means 1410 converts the latitude and longitude of the destination and the latitude and longitude of the home position into place name character strings each consisting of a prefecture name and a city name (S100). At this time, the place name character string extraction unit 1410 refers to the coordinate / place name conversion table 1440 and combines the prefecture name and the city name where the point specified by the latitude and longitude exists in the polygon specified by the polygon coordinate string. Is returned to the search area control unit 1460.

  Next, the search area control unit 1460 compares the converted place name character string of the designated place with the place name character string of the home position to determine whether or not they are in the same prefecture (S110). If the designated place is in the same prefecture as the home, it is determined that the place is relatively close to the home, and the process proceeds to step S160.

  On the other hand, if the designated place is outside the prefecture, the latitude and longitude of the designated place and the home position are passed to the distance determination unit 1420, and the distance from the home to the designated place corresponds to the middle range or the far range. It is determined whether or not the designated place is far from the home by comparing with a threshold value for distinguishing between the two. Here, it is determined whether or not the distance is within 100 km as the threshold value. If the distance is within 100 km, it is determined that the distance falls within the day trip area (medium distance area). 1420 returns the determination result to the search area control unit 1460. Based on the determination result by the distance determination unit 1420, the search area control unit 1460 proceeds to the process S140 when it is determined as the middle-range area, and proceeds to the process S130 when it is determined as the far-range area. (S120).

  If it is determined in step S110 that the designated place is relatively close to the home, the search area is combined to combine the prefecture name and the municipality name of the designated place received from the place name character string extraction unit 1410 to narrow the search area. A character string is set (S160). If it is determined in step S120 that the designated place is the middle-range area, the search area is assumed to be equivalent to the middle-range area, and the prefecture name and city name of the designated place are combined and set in the search character string. (S140) The search character string is passed to the place name character string extraction means 1410, and the names of the municipalities around the designated place are added to the search character string (S150). At this time, the place name character string extraction unit 1410 uses the place name combined with the prefecture name and the city name of the designated place, which is set in the search character string received from the search area control unit 1460, as a key. By referencing, the names of the surrounding municipalities corresponding to the designated place are extracted, combined with the search character string, and returned to the search area control unit 1460 (S150). When the search area is a plurality of municipalities, a character string obtained by connecting the names of the municipalities with OR characters is the search character string. On the other hand, when it is determined that the designated place corresponds to the long-distance area, the prefecture name of the designated place is set as a search character string to widen the search area (S130).

  The search character string generated as described above is displayed in the window 3010 that displays the search character string shown in FIG. 4B (S1470). Further, a search keyword for determining what information is searched for the place name designated by the search character string is added (S1480). As this character, a character string stored in a setting information storage unit to be described later is used, and FIG. 4B shows a display example when the character “event” is set as an example. As described above, when the search button 3020 is selected, the search character string displayed in the window 3010 is sent to the browser 120 as a search key, and the search key is transmitted from the browser 120 via the communication unit 170 and the network 20. To the search site 30.

  According to the above processing, since the place name to be searched changes according to the distance from the destination to the home, the search area can be automatically selected, and the operation of specifying the area becomes easy.

  Next, an example in which a search area or a search keyword is previously selected from the menu will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 7A shows a menu screen for selecting a default search area in advance. By selecting the button 430 at the head of the search area displayed in the list, the default search area is selected. In the first line of the menu, the search area is determined according to the distance from the home by the method shown in the flowchart of FIG. The second line of the menu uses the map area displayed on the screen as the search area. In this case, in order to change the search area, for example, the map range displayed on the screen is changed by changing the scale with the wide-area button 220 and the detail button 210 on the display screen of FIG. Do that. The third line of the menu uses a range directly designated on the map as a search area. An advantage of the method of using the area displayed on the screen as the second line of the menu as a search area is that the area can be selected without being affected by the display scale of the displayed map. Details of this method will be described later. The fourth line of the menu is fixed at the designated prefecture level. The fifth line of the menu is fixed at the municipal level of the designated point. The setting information of these search areas is stored in the setting information storage unit 1470.

  FIG. 7B is a display screen when a search keyword for specifying a genre to be searched is set. The search keyword is selected from, for example, “Highlight”, “Event”, “Festival”, and “Topic Spot”. If “<< user definition >>” is selected, a search keyword defined by the user can be input. As a method of inputting the search keyword, for example, there is a method of inputting characters by displaying a software keyboard on the display device 100. Information about these search keywords is also stored in the setting information storage unit 1470.

  FIG. 8 shows an example of designating an area by tracing the displayed map with a finger as an example of designating a search area on a map. When “designate on map” is selected as a default search area on the menu screen for selecting a search area in FIG. 7A, an information search window 200 on the lower side of the map display screen displays a button near the display location. 2031 is displayed. When the display location vicinity button 2031 is selected, the user can specify a search area by tracing the screen with a finger 450. A municipality that intersects with a portion surrounded by the locus 460 traced by the user with the finger 450 is set as a search area. According to this method, since the search area can be designated intuitively, the search area designation operation can be facilitated.

  FIG. 9 is a flowchart in a case where a search area is designated on a map and a map area displayed on the screen. FIG. 9A is a process of extracting a place name character string that uses a municipality that intersects with a portion surrounded by the locus 460 traced with the finger 450 as a search area, as in the example shown in FIG. . The search area control unit 1460 of the navigation / browser cooperation control unit 140 converts the XY coordinates on the screen of the locus 460 traced by the finger 450 sent from the touch panel control unit 110 into a latitude / longitude point sequence (S200). . Then, the converted point string of latitude and longitude is passed to the place name character string extraction means 1410.

  The place name character string extracting means 1410 intersects or intersects the polygons included in the polygon designated by the latitude / longitude point sequence from the polygon coordinate sequence stored in the coordinate / place name conversion table 1440. Polygons are extracted (S210). A place name character string obtained by listing and combining the prefecture name and the city name corresponding to the polygon coordinate string extracted in this way is returned to the search area control unit 1460 as a search character string (S220).

  In addition, as a method for determining the inclusion relation between polygons in the process S210, there is a method disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 10-31746, but a rough determination may be made to speed up the determination process. . For example, the coordinates of a rectangle circumscribing the polygon specified by the locus 460 are obtained, and the rectangular area is designated as the search area. When a search area is designated as a rectangular area, it can be processed in the same manner as the process S240 of the flowchart shown in FIG.

  Next, FIG. 9B shows processing when “screen display area” is selected as the default search area on the menu screen for selecting the search area in FIG. 7A. In this process, first, the search area control unit 1460 of the navigation / browser cooperation control unit 140 acquires the rectangular vertex coordinates of the map area displayed from the navigation processing unit 150, and converts them into latitude and longitude (S230). Then, the converted latitude and longitude rectangle information is passed to the place name character string extraction means 1410.

  In the place name character string extracting means 1410, the polygons included in the rectangle specified by the latitude and longitude received from the search area control unit 1460 from the polygons based on the polygon coordinate strings stored in the coordinate / place name conversion table 1440. Or intersecting polygons are extracted (S240). A place name character string obtained by listing and combining the prefecture name and the municipality name corresponding to the polygon coordinate string of the extracted polygon is returned to the search area control unit 1460 as a search character string (S221).

  Next, FIG. 10 shows a flowchart in the case where a route area is used as a search area. When the route periphery button 2020 in FIG. 4A is selected, a search using the region around the route as a search region can be performed. The route data is stored in the navigation processing unit 150 as broken line data of node point sequences in which road link nodes constituting the route are continuous. Therefore, the search area control unit 1460 acquires the latitude and longitude of the node corresponding to the vertex of the polygonal line data from the navigation processing unit 150 as a point sequence (S300). Next, the broken line of the latitude / longitude point sequence corresponding to the route thus obtained is passed to the place name character string extraction means 1410.

  The place name character string extracting unit 1410 extracts a polygon coordinate string that intersects the polygonal line of the received point string from the municipal coordinate strings stored in the coordinate / place name conversion table 1440 (S310). Then, list the place name character string connecting the prefecture name and the municipality name corresponding to the extracted polygon coordinate string, and if there are multiple place name character strings listed, combine them excluding the duplicate place name string, It returns to the search area control part 1460 as a search character string (S320). According to this process, by generating a place name where a route intersects, information around the route can be searched from the network 20 with an easy operation.

  In FIG. 11, as another method for determining the search area from the map display screen, the search area is determined based on the size of the circle set on the screen, instead of using the entire displayed map range as the search area. It is a figure which shows a method. The search area is a municipality included in the circle 480 and a municipality that intersects with the circle 480. On the screen, a circle 480 representing a selected area and a slide button 470 for determining the size of the circle 480 are displayed. When the size of the circle 480 is changed, the size is reduced by moving the slide button 470 to the left with the finger 450, and the size is increased by moving the slide button 470 to the right.

  FIG. 12 is a flowchart of processing for determining a search area based on the size of a circle on the screen. First, the search area control unit 1460 determines the size of the circle 480 in accordance with the position of the slide button 470 sent from the touch panel control unit 110, and the information (center coordinates and size) of the circle 480 is used as the place name character string. It passes to the extraction means 1410 (S400). The place name character string extraction means 1410 extracts a polygon coordinate string that intersects the received circle from the municipal coordinate coordinates stored in the coordinate / place name conversion table 1440 (S410). The extraction method is possible by calculating a linear distance between the center of the circle 480 and each vertex of the polygon coordinate sequence of each municipality, and extracting a polygon having a distance equal to or less than the radius of the circle 480. . Then, list the place name character string connecting the prefecture name and the municipality name corresponding to the extracted polygon coordinate string, and if there are multiple place name character strings listed, combine them excluding the duplicate place name string, It returns to the search area control part 1460 as a search character string (S420). According to this method, the search target area can be confirmed with the circle 480 on the screen, and the search area of the network 20 can be determined by an easy operation.

  FIG. 13 shows a method for determining a search area for a stop point. If the distance from the home to the destination is short, the area is a short distance that can be reached from the destination in a short time. If the distance is far, an area far from the destination is set. It is a figure explaining the example to do. FIG. 13A shows an example of a case where the home 510 is close to the destination 530. If the length of the route 520 from the home 510 to the destination 530 is less than 100 km, the size of the search area 540 near the destination 530 is large. In this example, the search area is a range that can be reached from the destination 530 by a straight line distance of 30 km or from the destination in one hour. Here, the range of the straight line distance of 30 km is determined as an outline of the range that can be reached in about one hour when traveling on a general road at an average of 30 km / h. On the other hand, FIG. 13B shows an example in which the distance from the home 510 to the destination 530 is as long as the path 520 from the home 510 to the destination 530 has a length of 100 km or more. In this example, the search area is a circle having a size of 540 and a straight line distance of 90 km from the destination 530, or a circle that can be reached in 3 hours. Here, the range of the straight distance of 90 km is determined as an outline of the range that can be reached in about 3 hours when traveling on an ordinary road at an average of 30 km / h. If the interchange of the highway 550 is included in the circle 540 of the search area, the distance that can be reached in 3 hours is increased for the portion along the highway 550. Therefore, these portions expand the search area like areas 560 and 570.

  FIG. 14 shows a flowchart of processing for obtaining a place name character string used as a search character string based on the search area determination method described in FIGS. 13 (a) and 13 (b). First, the search area control unit 1460 of the navigation / browser cooperation control unit 140 acquires the latitude / longitude information of the destination from the navigation processing unit 150. Further, the latitude / longitude information of the home position is acquired from the home registration position storage unit 1430. Then, the distance determination unit 1420 calculates a route distance from the home or the departure point to the destination (S600), determines whether the calculated route distance from the home or the departure point to the destination is 100 km or more, and The result is returned to the search area control unit 1460 (S610). In the search area control unit 1460, if the returned determination result is that the route distance from the home or the departure place to the destination is 100 km or more, a circle area having a radius of 90 km centered on the destination is set as the search area. Then, the latitude / longitude information of the destination and the radius of the circle are passed to the place name character string extracting means 1410, and a place name character string of a circle area having a radius of 90 km centered on the destination is extracted (S620). The reason why the radius of the circle is 90 km is that the circle of the search area is set as an outline of the range that can be reached in about 3 hours when traveling on an average road at an average of 30 km / h as described above. . Extraction of the names of municipalities included in or intersecting with the circle of the search area may be performed in the same manner as the processing S410 and processing S420 of FIG.

  Next, the coordinate information of the expressway and interchange around the destination is obtained from the navigation processing unit 150, and it is determined whether or not the interchange exists in the circle in the search area (S630). If there is an interchange in the circle, first run the expressway from the destination through the interchange, and then estimate the points that can be reached within 3 hours on the expressway. Is used to calculate the straight line distance from the destination to the target interchange. Assuming that this linear distance travels at a speed of 30 km / h, the time required to reach the interchange from the destination is considered as the time required to reach the interchange. Find a point you can reach when you run at 80km. Then, an area along the expressway from the interchange to this point is designated, and the place name character string extracting means 1410 extracts the place name character string. This place name character string is combined with the place name character string obtained in step S620, and duplicate place names are omitted to obtain a place name character string for a range that can be reached in 3 hours including when driving on a highway ( S640). The extraction of the place name that intersects the road may be performed in the same manner as the processing when the area along the route shown in FIG.

  On the other hand, if the determination result returned in step S610 is that the route distance is less than 100 km, a place name character string of a circle region having a radius of 30 km centered on the destination is extracted in the same manner as in step S620 (S650). The reason why the radius of the circle is 30 km is that the circle of the search area is set as an outline of the range that can be reached in about 1 hour when traveling on an average road at 30 km / h as described above. .

  Next, the coordinate information of the expressway and interchange around the destination is obtained from the navigation processing unit 150, and it is determined whether or not the interchange exists in the circle in the search area (S660). If there is an interchange in the circle, first run the expressway from the destination through the interchange, and then estimate the points that can be reached within one hour on the expressway. Is used to calculate the straight line distance from the destination to the target interchange. Assuming that this linear distance travels at a speed of 30 km / h, the time required to reach the interchange from the destination is regarded as the time required to reach the interchange. Find a point you can reach when you run at 80km. Then, an area along the expressway from the interchange to this point is designated, and the place name character string extracting means 1410 extracts the place name character string. This place name character string is combined with the place name character string obtained in step S650, and duplicate place names are omitted to obtain a place name character string for a range that can be reached in 3 hours including when driving on a highway ( S670).

  FIG. 15 is an example of a screen showing an example in which a stop point is selected from the result of searching for WEB information in the network 20 and is registered in the navigation processing unit 150. One of the search results is displayed on the display device 100 by the browser 120, and a destination search window 490 and a search button 500 are displayed at the bottom of the display screen. FIG. 15 shows an example of setting a stop for “XX Botanical Garden” among the contents displayed by the browser 120. If the finger 450 is used to trace the character “XX Botanical Garden”, the character “XX Botanical Garden” is displayed in the destination search window 490, and then the search button 500 is selected to display the character string “XX Botanical Garden”. Is registered in the navigation processing unit 150 as a stopover point.

FIG. 16 is a flowchart of the processing shown in FIG. First, the search area control unit 1460 of the navigation / browser cooperation control unit 140 extracts the character string traced by the finger 450 from the characters displayed on the browser 120 based on the coordinate information from the touch panel control unit 110. (S500). Therefore, the touch coordinate value on the screen traced by the finger is compared with the coordinates of the circumscribed rectangle for each character of the character string displayed on the screen by the browser 120, and the circumscribed rectangle including the touch coordinates is supported. The character string in the range traced by the finger is obtained by repeating the extraction of the characters to be performed. Next, the search area control unit 1460 passes the acquired character string to the display control unit 130, and the display control unit 130 displays the passed character string on the destination search window 490 (S510). Next, the process waits until the search button 500 is pressed (S520). When the search button 500 is pressed, the in-vehicle terminal 10 transmits the character string to the information center 40 (S530). The information center 40 collates the character string transmitted from the in-vehicle terminal 10 with the point information database 50 and searches for a match (S540). The point information database 50 has latitude and longitude information corresponding to each point name. The search result is sent from the information center 40 to the in-vehicle terminal 10 (S550). The in-vehicle terminal 10 displays on the map based on the latitude and longitude information of the search result transmitted from the information center 40 (S560).
As described above, according to the present embodiment, when searching for a stopover location near the destination from the network 20, the search area can be automatically set according to the distance from the home or easily set by the user. There is an effect that the operation becomes easy.

10 in-vehicle terminal 20 network 30 search site 40 information center 50 point information database 100 display 110 touch panel control unit 120 browser 130 display control unit 140 navigation / browser cooperation control unit 150 navigation processing unit 160 GPS
170 Communication Unit 1410 Place Name Character String Extraction Unit 1420 Distance Judgment Unit 1430 Home Registration Location Storage Unit 1440 Coordinate / Place Name Conversion Table 1450 Neighborhood Municipal Table

Claims (9)

A browser that accesses a search site that searches for information, a navigation processing unit that searches for a route to a specified point and guides it, a point registration unit that registers a point as a reference of the route, and position information specified by coordinates A car navigation device comprising a place name conversion means for generating a place name character string from a browser link means for setting a place name character string generated by the place name conversion means as a search keyword by a search site,
The browser cooperation means includes a place name conversion table that stores the correspondence between coordinates and place names,
The place name conversion unit determines a distance between the designated point and a point registered in the point registration unit, and determines a size of an area to be searched according to the distance when the distance is separated. Is a car navigation device characterized in that the area including the designated point is set to be large, the place name corresponding to the set area is obtained from the place name conversion table, and a place name character string is generated.   In the determination of the distance between the designated point and the point registered in the point registration unit, the place name conversion unit is configured such that the designated point and the point registered in the point registration unit are within the same prefecture. In this case, if the distance is equal to or less than a predetermined threshold, the same municipality as the designated point is set as the area.   The place name conversion means may be arranged so that the designated place and the place registered in the place registration means are not within the same prefecture, and if the distance is equal to or less than a predetermined threshold, The car navigation device according to claim 3, wherein a municipality of the administrative boundary is included in the area. The place name conversion means sets the size of the area to be searched to be a range determined by a travel time at a predetermined average travel speed from the designated point, and the designated point and the point registered in the point registration means In the distance determination, when the distance is less than a predetermined threshold, the search area is set so that the travel time is shorter than when the distance is greater than or equal to the threshold. The car navigation apparatus according to 1.   The car navigation device according to claim 1, wherein the reference point registered in the point registration unit is a point registered as a home. A process for accessing a search site for searching for information by a browser, a navigation process for searching for a route to a specified point with reference to a registered point, and a navigation guide for guiding and generating a place name character string from position information specified by coordinates A search keyword setting method in a car navigation device that performs browser cooperation processing for setting a place name character string generated by a place name conversion process and a place name conversion process as a search keyword by a search site,
The car navigation device includes a place name conversion table that stores correspondence between coordinates and place names,
In the place name conversion process, the distance between the designated point and the registered point is determined, and the size of the area to be searched according to the distance is determined. A search keyword setting method in a car navigation device, wherein a process is performed for generating a place name character string by obtaining a place name corresponding to the set area from the place name conversion table. .   In the determination of the distance between the designated point and the registered point, the place name conversion process is performed when the designated point and the registered point are within the same prefecture, and the distance is equal to or less than a predetermined threshold. The search keyword setting method in the car navigation device according to claim 6, wherein the same municipality as the designated point is set as the area.   In the place name conversion process, when the designated point and the registered point are not in the same prefecture, if the distance is equal to or smaller than a predetermined threshold, the municipality of another administrative boundary adjacent to the converted place name is the region. The search keyword setting method in the car navigation device according to claim 7, further comprising: In the place name conversion process, the size of the area to be searched is determined by a travel time based on a predetermined average travel speed from the designated point, and in the determination of the distance between the designated point and the registered point, the distance 7. The car navigation device according to claim 6, wherein when the distance is less than a predetermined threshold, the search area is set so that a travel time is shorter than when the distance is equal to or greater than the threshold. Search keyword setting method in.

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