JPH0916075A - Electronic map system and car navigation system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To provide a car navigation device of which an expression can be changed over in alphabet other than in Kanji by a user himself. CONSTITUTION: A CPU 6 detects a designation of a mode change by user operation of multiple mode designation buttons on a panel 5, and then clears all video RAMs in a video control circuit 7 in order to correspond with the designated mode. Next, the CPU takes the character information applicable to the mode from a character information data stored in a CD medium 9, converts the data into an image data referring to a font ROM 10, expanding it to the video RAM for character information in the video control circuit 7 and indicates on a display 8.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an electronic map system for displaying an electronic map on a display, and more particularly,
The present invention relates to an electronic map system capable of displaying character information in two or more notation modes and a car navigation device using the same.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in a car navigation system, character information such as a place name or road in a map information or a name of a specific building, which is a base for displaying a current position on a screen, is based on kanji or katakana. It is generally fixed by a single notation.

[0003]

However, when a foreigner who does not understand Chinese characters or the like uses it, the character information described in the map becomes useless. In addition, even if you could understand the kanji, there are many unique readings for place names, for example, if "Furukawa City" is displayed,
Sometimes it is unclear whether the pronunciation is "full kawashi" or "kogashi." In other words, whether the kanji is read aloud or read aloud is not constant, but differs from place to place. Also, it's not the distinction of readings of consonances like that,
There are many obfuscated place names that most people cannot read. For example, the pronunciation of “Suizencho” as “Kacomachi” is a completely unexpected reading. Thus, it is often inconvenient to display only kanji.

Even so, if all the characters are written in katakana, the kanji cannot be imagined. Excluding the above-mentioned difficult-to-read place names, it is common for Japanese people to think of place names and the like based on the kanji, which are ideographic characters, so it may be inconvenient to use only kana notation. Therefore, in the present invention, in the electronic map system and the car navigation device, for the character information to be displayed in the map information, the user himself / herself can switch between two or more types of notation modes, such as katakana in addition to kanji. The purpose is to enable notation and improve user convenience.

[0005]

In order to achieve the above object, an electronic map system according to claim 1 is a basic map information storage means for storing basic map information in an electronic form. In an electronic map system including map display control means for extracting map information of a necessary area from the basic map information storage means and displaying it as an image on a display, two types of character information are displayed in the map information. Regarding the notation switching designating means for designating switching of the above notational format, the font storage means for storing the character font for each notational format which can be designated by the notation switching designating means, and the character information in the map information ,
For each of the notation modes in which the switching can be designated, a character information storage unit that stores the character information to be displayed, and the font mode and the character information storage unit are set to the notation mode type switched by the notation switching designation unit. And a character display control means for reading the corresponding character font and character information and displaying it at a predetermined position in the map information.

According to this electronic map system, it is possible to designate switching of two or more types of notation for the character information to be displayed in the map information, and the font storage means can be designated for each notation. Stores a character font, and stores the character information displayed by the character information storage means. Then, the character display control means reads out from the font storage means and the character information storage means a character font and character information corresponding to the notation mode type switched and designated by the notation switching designation means, and displays them at a predetermined position in the map information. Of.

Here, in this electronic map system,
As described in claim 2, it is conceivable to set at least a ideographic character notation and a phonetic character notation as two or more kinds of notations capable of switching designation. Then, in that case, as described in claim 3, as two or more kinds of notation modes in which switching can be designated,
It is conceivable to set a notation style in kanji as an ideographic character and a notation style in kana or alphabet as a phonetic character. A typical example of the notation in the alphabet is the indication in Roman letters.

By doing so, as mentioned as a problem of the prior art, for example, even for a foreigner who cannot understand Kanji, it is possible to understand how to read it by using notation in Kanji but alphabet. Useful for understanding place names. Even Japanese people may not understand how to read the kanji, for example, whether they read it aloud or kanji, or in the case of so-called obfuscated place names. It is convenient when you want to know how to read it if you can write it in katakana or hiragana as phonetic characters or in alphabet.

If the above-mentioned problems such as obfuscated place names are taken into consideration, it is only necessary to be able to switch to one type of notation other than kanji, such as katakana, as kanji, katakana, and hiragana. -It is not necessary to have all four types of alphabet. Of course, the two or more kinds of notation modes in which switching can be designated are not limited to the notation mode using ideographic characters and the notation mode using phonetic characters as described in claim 2. For example, two types, katakana notation and alphabet notation, are possible. Furthermore, since some countries use notation in phonetic characters other than the alphabet, switching to notation in phonetic characters such as Hangul, Arabic, or Russian is also applicable.

Further, a car navigation system according to a fourth aspect of the present invention is equipped with the electronic map system according to any of the first to third aspects, and present position acquisition means for acquiring the present position of the vehicle. The map display control means displays a map of a predetermined range including the current position on the display based on the acquired current position and based on the map information stored in the basic map information storage means. Is characterized by.

The car navigation device can display a map of a predetermined range including the current position on the display, but it is often inconvenient for the user if the name of the surrounding place cannot be understood. Therefore, according to this car navigation device, it is possible to switch to a notation that can be understood by the user, and it is possible to improve the effectiveness of car navigation by understanding the surrounding place names and the like shown on the map. Become.

[0012]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS One embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. First, the configuration of a car navigation apparatus as an embodiment will be described with reference to FIG.

This car navigation device stores map information 11 and character information 12, and a CD medium 9 corresponding to basic map information storage means and character information storage means,
A CPU 6 and a program ROM 1 as a character display control unit and a control unit for the entire apparatus, a RAM 2 as a work area of the CPU 6, a position recognition unit 3 as a current position acquisition unit, and a GPS radio wave reception antenna (hereinafter, simply referred to as GPS). 4), a panel 5 as notation switching designation means, a video control circuit 7 and a display 8 as map display control means, and a font RO as a font memory for storing the character font for each notation mode.
And M10.

On the panel 5, as schematically shown in FIG. 2, a power button 15 for designating power on / off, and three buttons for designating a notation mode of character information to be displayed in the map information. , That is, Kanji mode designation button 16
A Roman character mode designation button 17 and a Katakana mode designation button 18 are provided.

The CPU 6 controls the operation of the entire navigation device. The operation program of the CPU 6 is stored in the program ROM 1.
The video control circuit 7 has the configuration shown in the block diagram of FIG. 3, and includes a video RAM for storing display contents and the video RA thereof.
It is composed of a circuit for periodically reading the contents of M and converting it into a video signal such as an NTSC signal. The video RAM is a video image data storage buffer, and each bit on the video RAM corresponds to a dot forming a video.
The display content is controlled by updating the content of.

In this embodiment, a map image video RAM 20 and a character information video RAM 21 are provided as such a video RAM. As shown in FIG. 4A, the map image video RAM 20 has a topographic image, a road network, a rail network,
This is a buffer for developing image data other than characters such as rivers and map symbols. Also a video RAM for character information
Reference numeral 21 is a buffer for expanding character font data such as a place name, a road name, a railroad name, a building name, etc. when displayed as a map as shown in FIG. 5 (b).

Regarding the contents of the two video RAMs 20 and 21, when the bit of the character information video RAM 21 is set, the corresponding bit on the video is displayed in black, and when the bit is reset. By synthesizing the contents of the map image video RAM 20 so as to directly convert the contents into a video signal, a map information video signal in which character information is overwritten on the map image as shown in FIG. 5C is generated. These two types of video RAM 20, 21
Is read and written by the CPU 6 and the display content is updated.

The data read from these two video RAMs 20 and 21 is output as a video signal via a video synthesizing circuit 22 and a D / A converter 23. Then, the output video signal is displayed on the display 8. The GPS antenna 4 also receives a 1.5 GHz radio wave from a GPS satellite and sends the signal to the position recognition unit 3. The position recognition unit 3 receives radio waves from four or more GPS satellites that can be received among the operating GPS satellites,
The position of the receiving point is acquired based on the known position of the GPS satellite and the distance between each GPS satellite and the receiving point calculated from the received radio wave, and the latitude / longitude data is notified to the CPU 6.

Map information 11 stored in the CD medium 9
In the image data, which is composed of major roads, railroad tracks, etc. nationwide, is divided into predetermined blocks and stored. The method of this division will be described. In this embodiment,
As shown in FIG. 5, the range displayed on the display 8 is 9
Blocks of equal size (..., 30, 31, 32, 3
3, ..., 50, 51, 52, 53, ...). Numbers are assigned in block units to all blocks in the area covered by the car navigation device.

On the other hand, the character information 12 is a collection of character information data such as place names, road names and other names displayed on the map, and FIG. 6 shows the data format of one character string. The block address 25 indicates the number of the map information block whose character string should be overwritten. Display start position 2 on the block
6 is information indicating the position in the block where the character string should be displayed. The character information data 27 for Kanji mode is
It is the character code string data that specifies the display character when the notation mode of the character information on the map is the Kanji mode.
For example, when the character information is “Ichinomiya”, the character code of “Ichi” is “306C” and the character code of “Miya” is “3”.
55C "and a code" 0 "indicating the end of the character string
000 ”is stored in order. Similarly, the Roman character mode character information data 28 is character code string data when the notation mode is the Roman character mode, and the katakana mode character information data 29 is character code string data when the notation mode is the Katakana mode. is there.

The font ROM 10 stores a conversion table for converting a character code into character image data. As shown in FIG. 7, the character code and the character image data are stored in association with each other. Next, the operation of the car navigation system of this embodiment will be described.

The car navigation system of this embodiment starts the map display process when the power is turned on. First, the current position of the own vehicle is acquired by the position recognition unit 3 so that the block including the current position of the own vehicle becomes the central block (block indicated by the number “41”) of FIG. 5A. The map information of the block where the current position is and the eight blocks around it is read from the map information 11 of the CD medium 9. Subsequently, the read map information around the current position is expanded in the map image video RAM 20 (see FIG. 3) of the video control circuit 7, and the current position mark P is also expanded in the character information video RAM 21 of the video control circuit 7. Thus, the map around the current position and the current position mark P are displayed on the display 8.

Next, a procedure for displaying character information will be described. Character information having the same block address 25 as the block number of the 9 blocks to be displayed is searched from the character information 12 of the CD medium 9. Regarding the character information acquired by this search, first, the character information data 27 for Kanji mode which is the default character information display mode is referred to. The character code string forming the character information data is converted into image data by referring to the font ROM 10. The character image data generated by the above operation is stored in the block specified by the block address 25.
It is developed in the area on the character information video RAM 20 corresponding to the position designated by the block display start position 26.
By this operation, character information such as a place name is displayed on the display 8 in Kanji which is the default character information display mode. Further, when the current position is periodically read from the position recognition unit 3 in units of several seconds and the current position of the own vehicle moves to an adjacent block, the block where the own vehicle exists is always shown in FIG.
Update the map display by the above procedure so that it becomes the central block of. With the above processing, the current position mark P and the map display can be automatically updated with the movement of the vehicle.

An example of displaying such map information on the display 8 is shown in FIG. FIG. 8A shows an example of display in the kanji mode in which the character information is written. Current position mark P
Indicates the point where the present car navigation device is currently located, and the current position mark P
Also automatically moves on the map displayed on the screen. FIG. 6B is a display example in which the writing mode of the character information is the Roman character mode. FIG. 6C is a display example in which the notation mode of the character information is katakana mode. Switching between these modes
Mode designating buttons 16, 17, 1 on the panel 5 shown in FIG.
It is performed by pressing 8.

When the user operates the mode designating buttons 16, 17, 18 on the panel 5 to detect the switching designation of the mode, the character information display mode corresponding to the newly designated character information display mode is set. RA
Clear all M21. Next, the character information corresponding to the block currently being displayed is acquired, the character string data in the specified character information display mode is referenced, and the font ROM 1
Convert to image data by referring to 0. The converted image data is expanded in the area of the character information video RAM 21 determined by the position of the block to be overwritten and the block display start position 26 (see FIG. 6). With this, the notation mode of the character information can be switched to the designated mode.

Next, how the above-described control processing is specifically executed will be further described with reference to the flowcharts of FIGS. FIG. 9 shows the main processing in the car navigation system of the embodiment. The first step S1 is an initialization process immediately after energization of this apparatus, which initializes the work area and the like. Work area PO that stores the acquired information about the current position
Initialize SI_X and POSI_Y to zero. In addition, the work CHAR and the work area BTM that manage the current character information display mode are also initialized to zero, and it is specified that the default display mode after the power is turned on is the Chinese character notation.

In subsequent S2, the longitude X and the latitude Y of the current position are read from the position recognition section 3. In S3, the subroutine SUB1 is called in order to display the map information around the current position on the display 8. This subroutine SU
The process of B1 will be described based on the flowchart of FIG.

First step S of subroutine SUB1
In the reference numeral 21, the map information file of the block including the current position and the map information file of the eight blocks around it are recorded on the CD based on the work areas X and Y indicating the current position information.
It is read from the map information 11 of the medium 9. As described above, the map information is filed in blocks each having a size obtained by dividing the display screen into nine equal parts as shown in FIG. 5, and in the example of FIG. 5A, the block 41 including the current position is The map information file for 9 display blocks is read so as to be displayed in the middle display block, and is expanded in the map image video RAM 20 of the video control circuit 7. After the map information expansion processing is completed, the process proceeds to S22.

In step S22, the subroutine SUB2 is called in order to display the read character information of the area of 9 blocks on the display 8. This subroutine S
The processing of the UB2 will be described based on the flowchart of FIG.

First step S of subroutine SUB2
At 31, first, in order to erase and initialize the character information currently being displayed, the entire character information video RAM 21 is cleared to zero. After the processing is completed, the process proceeds to S32. S
In 32, the character information having the same block address 25 as the block number of the 9 blocks being displayed is retrieved from the character information 12 of the CD medium 9 and acquired. After the end of this search processing, the process proceeds to S33.

In S33, the work area CHAR that manages the current character information display mode is referenced, and its value is CH.
If AR = 0, the process proceeds to S34. CHAR = 0
If not, the process proceeds to S35. In S34, CHAR =
Since it is 0, it is determined to be in the kanji mode and is displayed in the kanji notation mode. Therefore, the character code string is acquired by referring to the kanji mode character information data 27 for all the previously searched character information. , Converted to image data by font ROM10, and further start display position on block 2
Processing for expanding the character display video RAM 21 at a position corresponding to 6 is performed. After the completion of this character information expansion processing, S
Move to 38.

On the other hand, in S35, the work area CHAR for managing the current character information display mode is referred to, and if the value is CHAR = 1, the process proceeds to S36. Also CHA
If R is not 1, the process proceeds to S37. In S36, CH
Since AR = 1, it is determined to be in the Roman character mode and is displayed in the Roman character notation mode. Therefore, all the character information previously searched for is referred to and the character code string for the Roman character mode is referred to for the character code string. It is acquired and converted into image data by the font ROM 10, and further the character display video RA corresponding to the block start display position 26.
A process of expanding to a position on M21 is performed. After the completion of the character information expansion processing, the process proceeds to S38.

In S37, the value of the work area CHAR that manages the current character information display mode is neither 0 nor 1, so it is determined to be in katakana mode and displayed in the katakana notation mode. For the character information of, the character code string is acquired by referring to the character information data 29 for katakana mode, and the font ROM
In step 10, the image data is converted into image data, and the image data is expanded to a position on the character display video RAM 21 corresponding to the block display start position 26. After the completion of the character information expansion processing, the process proceeds to S38.

In S38, which is executed after the processing of S34, S36, and S37, the image of the current position mark P is
It is expanded to the position of the character information video RAM 21 corresponding to the work areas X and Y of the current position information. And S39
To update the current position mark. After the end of the processing, the subroutine SUB2 ends.

As described above, the subroutine SUB2
Then, among the map displays displayed on the display 8, the purpose is to output the character information in the notation mode according to the current character information display mode. Subroutine SU
Returning to the description of B1, when the process returns from the subroutine SUB2 in S22, the process of the subroutine SUB1 ends. As described above, in the subroutine SUB1,
In order to display a map on the display 8, the map information of 9 blocks around the current position is read out, developed in the video RAM 20 for map image, and the character information in the 9 blocks to be displayed is output according to the current character display mode. Is intended.

Returning to the description of the main processing in FIG. 9, when the process returns from the subroutine SUB1 in S3, the process proceeds to S4. In S4, the longitude X and the latitude Y of the current position are read from the position recognition unit 3. In subsequent S5, the current position data X and Y acquired in S4 are compared with the works POSI_X and POSI_Y storing the previous current position data, and it is checked whether or not the current position has changed. X and POSI_
If X and Y and POSI_Y are the same, the current position has not changed, so the process proceeds to step S9. If not, the process proceeds to step S6.

In S6, the character information of the video control circuit 7 is updated in order to update the display position on the screen of the current position mark P in the map display example of FIG. 8 in accordance with the current position newly detected in S4. Video RAM 21 (see FIG. 3)
The image data of the present position mark P is updated by updating the expanded position on the video RAM by the amount of movement detected, and the display is moved. Also, the current position data storage work PO
SI_X and POSI_Y are updated with the current position data X and Y newly acquired in S4.

In S7, it is checked whether or not the current position mark P updated in S6 goes out of the area 41 of the middle block in the display screen block diagram of FIG. FIG.
In the example of (a), it is checked whether the current position data (latitude, longitude) acquired in S4 is outside the area 41 which is the display block in the middle. If the current position mark P is in the area 41, the process proceeds to step S9, and if not, the process proceeds to step S8.

In S8, the subroutine SUB1 is called to update the map display for the video control circuit 7. Since the processing contents of the subroutine SUB1 have been described above, the outline thereof will be described with an example of the display screen block in FIG. If the current position acquired in step S4 moves from block 41 to block 42 in FIG.
The map display is updated as shown in (b). That is, FIG.
The map information of the block 42 displayed in the display block in the right middle section in (a) is necessary block information so that the map information of the block 42 is displayed in the middle display block as shown in FIG. 8B. CD media 9 with 43 and 53 files
Then, the video control circuit 7 updates the display. When the above map display updating process is completed, the process proceeds to S9.

At S9, one of the three mode designating buttons provided on the panel 5 shown in FIG. 2, that is, the Kanji mode designating button 16, the Roman character mode designating button 17, or the Katakana mode designating button 18, is pressed. Check if If neither button is pressed, the process proceeds to S4, but if any button is pressed, the process proceeds to S10.

In S10, the work area BTM is set according to the type of the pressed button. Specifically, BTM ← 0 for the Kanji mode designating button 16, BTM ← 1 for the Roman character mode designating button 17, and BTM ← 2 for the Katakana mode designating button 18. After the processing of S10 is completed, the process proceeds to S11.

At S11, the work area CHAR indicating the current character information display mode is compared with the work area BTM for which the value (either 0, 1, or 2) is set at S10. Since the same mode as the character information display mode is designated, there is no need to update the display and the process proceeds to S4. On the other hand, if they do not match, the process proceeds to S12.

In step S12, the value of the currently set work area BTM is assigned to CHAR in order to update the work area CHAR for managing the current character information display mode to the newly designated mode. After the same process is completed, S1
Move to 3. In S13, the subroutine SUB2 is called in order to update the currently displayed character information display.
As described above, in the subroutine SUB2, the character information video RAM 21 is updated to convert the character information on the map display into the character display in the mode designated by the work area CHAR. When the process returns from the subroutine SUB2, the process proceeds to S4, and the above process is repeated while the power is on.

As described above, according to the car navigation system of the present embodiment, the current position is superposed on the map display of the display 8 by receiving the radio waves from the GPS satellites and acquiring the current position. The display of the map and the current position mark P is automatically updated with the movement of.
And for the character information indicating the place name displayed on the map, the mode designation buttons 16, 17, 1 on the panel 5 are displayed.
It is possible to switch to a display in a notation mode (any of Kanji, Roman, or Katakana) designated by any of the eight.

By doing so, for example, even if the user of the car navigation system is a foreigner who does not understand Kanji, it is possible to use Romaji notation in addition to Kanji notation, so that the way of reading the place name etc. can be understood. , Useful for understanding map information. In addition, even Japanese people may not know whether to read the kanji by reading or reading the kanji, or may not know the reading at all like so-called obfuscated place names. It can be written in katakana or romaji as well, which is convenient when you want to know how to read the place name.

Although one embodiment of the present invention has been described above, the present invention is not limited to this embodiment and various modes can be adopted. For example, in the above-described embodiment, three kinds of notation modes of Kanji, Roman, and Katakana can be selected, but two kinds of Kanji and Roman may be selected. This is because it is possible to know how to read difficult-to-read names in Roman letters. However, the time from recognizing a character to recognizing its content is considered to be shorter in Katakana notation for ordinary Japanese than in Roman alphabet, so a combination of Kanji notation and Katakana notation may be used. . In any case, these settings may be changed and adopted depending on the target user.

The phonetic characters used outside Japan include, for example, Hangul characters, Arabic characters, or Russian characters in addition to the Roman characters. Therefore, if it is intended for a user who needs such notation in characters, the character information data in the phonetic characters may be provided.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a car navigation device according to an embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a schematic external view of a panel in the car navigation device of the embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a video control circuit in the car navigation device of the embodiment.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram of a map display screen according to the embodiment.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram of display screen block division in the embodiment.

FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram of a character information data file format in the embodiment.

FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram of a conversion table for converting a character code into character image data in the embodiment.

8A and 8B are explanatory views of a map display screen in the embodiment, where FIG. 8A is a display in kanji mode, FIG. 8B is a display in romaji mode, and FIG. 8C is a display diagram in katakana mode. Is.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart of a main process in the embodiment.

FIG. 10 is a flowchart of a subroutine SUB1 process in the example.

FIG. 11 is a flowchart of a subroutine SUB2 process in the example.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 ... Program ROM 2 ... RAM 3 ... Position recognition unit 4 ... GPS radio wave receiving antenna (GPS antenna) 5 ... Panel 6 ... CPU 7 ... Video control circuit 8 ... Display 9 ... CD medium 10 ... Phone TR
OM 11 ... Map information 12 ... Character information 15 ... Power button 16 ... Kanji mode designation button 17 ... Romaji mode designation button 18 ... Katakana mode designation button 20 ... Map image video RAM 21 ... Character information video RAM 22 ... Video synthesis circuit 23 ... D / A converter 26 ... Block display start position 27 ... Kanji mode character information data 28 ... Roman character mode character information data 29 ... Katakana mode character information data

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A basic map information storage means for storing basic map information in electronic form, and map display control for extracting map information of a necessary area from the basic map information storage means and displaying it as an image on a display. In the electronic map system including means, notation switching designation means for designating switching of two or more types of notation for the character information to be displayed in the map information, and notation capable of switching designation by the notation switching designation means. A font storage unit that stores the character font for each mode; a character information storage unit that stores the character information to be displayed for each of the notation modes in which the switching can be specified for the character information in the map information; From the storage means and the character information storage means,
An electronic map system comprising: a character font and character information corresponding to the type of notation switched and designated by the notation switching and designating means, and character display control means for displaying at a predetermined position in the map information. . 2. The electronic map system according to claim 1, wherein at least two typographical notations and phonographic notations are set as the two or more types of notations that can be designated for switching. An electronic map system characterized by. 3. The electronic map system according to claim 2, wherein the two or more types of notations that can be designated for switching are notations in Chinese characters as ideographic characters and notations in kana or alphabet as phonetic characters. An electronic map system characterized in that and are set. 4. The electronic map system according to claim 1, further comprising: a current position acquisition unit that acquires a current position of the vehicle, wherein the map display control unit includes the acquired current position. A car navigation device characterized by displaying a map of a predetermined range including the current position on a display based on the position based on the map information stored in the basic map information storage means.