JPH04287084A - Method for display area enlarging operation for electronic map display device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To offer a method for enlargement operation for electronic map display device whose magnification rotis is easily recogniged by an operater. CONSTITUTION:A first displayed map 8 is reduced and displayed in a display frame 6 by the magnification increasing operation. When the map is enlarged furthermore, it is displayed in a display frame 7 by the magnification increasing operation. An enlarged map 9 is finally displayed through a series of reduction display for the map 8.

Description

[Detailed description of the invention]

0001

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method for enlarging a display area in an electronic map display device such as an in-vehicle navigation system.

0002

2. Description of the Related Art In electronic map display devices such as in-vehicle navigation systems, it is essential to enlarge the display area (to see a wide area) and reduce it (to see details). When operating the display area reduction function, the area to be viewed in detail was directly displayed as a frame within the currently displayed map, making the operation easier to understand visually. However, the display area enlargement function has been limited to a function such as displaying the area that has been displayed in a frame after drawing an enlarged map.

[0003] In addition, there are also formats in which the hierarchical level of map data (the scale level at which level and how much area a single map covers) is left to the discretion of the map data creator. Therefore, it is necessary to provide a user interface that is easy to use and understand on the display device side.

0004

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention provides a method for enlarging a display area of an electronic map display device, which allows an operator to easily recognize at what magnification the display area is to be enlarged.

[0005]

[Means for Solving the Problem] When performing an operation to enlarge a display area, the present invention displays in advance how large the current display area will be when enlarged, and also displays a frame within the display frame. The system displays the entire map by displaying a screen that reduces the current display area and selects the necessary magnification.

[0006]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS FIG. 2 shows an example of an in-vehicle navigation system that can employ the electronic map display area enlargement operation method of the present invention. In the figure, a map of a specific area is read out as needed from a map data storage device 1 containing map information, for example, a dedicated CD-ROM, and the read map data is transferred to a RAM or the like of a graphic controller (CPU). , displays a map of the required level on the display device and provides map information to the driver. In addition, GPS (Glo
bal Positioning System)
In a vehicle equipped with the receiver 4, the location information received from the GPS satellite is compared with the map information read from the CD-ROM, and the current location is marked on a map displayed on the display device for use.

Next, the electronic map display area enlargement operation method of the present invention will be explained with reference to FIG. Suppose now that the user wants to view a wider area map 8 from the initial state in which a map of the area as shown in A in FIG. 1 is displayed and viewed. When the operator presses the display area enlargement function key on the keyboard 5, the area is enlarged at a magnification determined by the hardware, or at a magnification such that the wide area map one level above that is stored as data in the CD-ROM is displayed. 1, the map shown in A in FIG. 1 is reduced within the display frame 6 and displayed as shown in B in FIG. 1. As the data necessary to display B in FIG. 1 can be used as is, the data in A in FIG. 1 can be used as is, so there is no need for time to load data such as accessing the disk during this time. Note that since there is no map data outside the frame, nothing is displayed.

[0008] When the operator wants to further increase the magnification from the state shown in B in FIG. 1, by pressing the display area enlargement key, the current area is displayed within the display frame 7 as shown in C in FIG. Ru. If the operator wants to select the magnification in this state, the selection is executed by pressing the execution key or by not performing any key operations for a certain period of time, for example, about 1 second.・The data is loaded into the controller 2, and the entire map 9 is shown as D in Figure 1.
The map is redrawn as shown in FIG. 1 and displayed as rougher data than the map 8 at the beginning of A in FIG. In this way, through the series of operations A in FIG. 1, B in FIG. 1, and C in FIG.

[0009] If the map data is such that pictures and text can be distinguished, the display would be quite dense in the state before selecting B in Figure 1 and C in Figure 1, so the characters and symbols could be omitted. It is effective to display

FIG. 3A shows an example of a flowchart of the enlargement operation, which is the main process. In this main process, the fixed rate in step 40 means a fixed rate or a rate calculated by layering the map data. Further, in step 60, the determination may be made based on whether or not an execution key has been pressed. In step 40, a map such as B in FIG. 1 or C in FIG. 1 is displayed in the frame, and in step 7
0, a new wide-area map like D in Figure 1 is displayed. In addition, in order to monitor the usage status of a large number of keys, a key scanning routine is periodically performed by such interrupt processing. B in FIG. 3 shows the flow of the interrupt processing, which is activated every several milliseconds to several tens of milliseconds.

[0011]

[Effects of the Invention] According to the present invention, the operator can easily visually recognize at what magnification the area will be enlarged by a series of enlarging operations, and can select the display area enlargement magnification. Since it can be used as a time guide, its operation becomes easy, and it has a remarkable effect in situations where the operation environment of an in-vehicle navigation system is poor.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram of a display area enlargement operation according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a configuration diagram of an in-vehicle navigation system.

FIG. 3 is an example of a flowchart of an enlargement operation according to the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

1. Storage device for map data 2. Graphics.
Controller 3... Display device 4... GPS receiver 6, 7... Reduced display frame

Claims (1)

[Claims] Claim 1: In an electronic map display device, when enlarging the display area, the size of the current display area when enlarged is displayed in advance in a frame, and the current display area is displayed within the display frame. A display area enlargement operation method in an electronic map display device that displays an entire map by selecting a necessary enlargement magnification through a screen that displays a reduced display area.