JPH0933269A - Navigation apparatus for vehicle - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To make it possible to grasp the present position to mane extent even it the reception from a satellite is not sufficient by displaying the name of the present position when a GPs receiver becomes incapable for reception, and displaying the traveled distance of a vehicle from the time when the incapability of reception occurred. SOLUTION: When a control means 3 detects the fact that the receiving state of a GPS receiver 1 cannot out put the signal representing the present position, the traveled distance from the time when this state has occurred and the name of the present position are displayed on a display means 4 together based on the signal representing the traveled distance of a vehicle. Therefore, even if the state, wherein the reception of the signal from an artificial satellite cannot be performed sufficiently, has occurred, the driver and the like can grasp the present position to some extent by the display of the name of the present position and the traveled distance.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a vehicle navigation device that displays the name of the current location of a vehicle using a GPS receiver.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, various proposals have been made for detecting the current position of a vehicle using only a GPS receiver and displaying the current position on a map or displaying the names of points near the current position. ing.

[0003]

However, in the above-mentioned ones, when a vehicle enters a tunnel or the like, or radio waves are diffusely reflected in a city building or the like, reception from an artificial satellite cannot be sufficiently performed. Since the current location cannot be specified, the display of the last received current location is held.

However, if such a state continues for a long time, it is difficult to say that the display is suitable for navigation. The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and an object of the present invention is to enable the current location to be grasped to some extent even when a situation in which reception from an artificial satellite cannot be sufficiently performed occurs.

[0005]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In the invention described in claim 1, the GP
When the current position name is displayed based on the signal indicating the current position from the S receiver and the GPS receiver cannot output the signal indicating the current position, the vehicle travels from the time when such a condition occurs. The feature is that the distance is displayed together with the current place name.

Therefore, even if a situation in which reception from the artificial satellite cannot be sufficiently performed occurs, it is possible to allow the driver or the like to grasp the present location to some extent by displaying the present location name and the traveling distance. The invention according to claim 2 is characterized in that the traveling distance is displayed with a character associated with the current place name. Therefore, it is possible to make it easier to grasp the position of the current location by displaying the current location name and the traveling distance display having the characters associated therewith.

In the invention described in claim 3, the GPS
The feature is that even if the reception state of the receiver cannot output a signal indicating the current position, the display until then continues for a predetermined period. The current place name is displayed on the display means, and it does not cause the driver or the like to feel uncomfortable even if the display is not changed immediately when the above condition occurs, so it is displayed by continuing the display until then. It is possible to reduce discomfort caused by the change.

[0008]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention shown in the drawings will be described. FIG. 1 shows the overall configuration of a vehicle navigation device. In FIG. 1, the GPS receiver 1 is
GPS antenna 1a, amplifier 1b, GPS reception processing unit 1
c, it receives radio waves from an artificial satellite, performs positioning processing, and outputs current position coordinate data of latitude and longitude indicating the current position of the vehicle.

The key input unit 2 is operated by a vehicle occupant or the like, and outputs various operation signals necessary for navigation. The control device 3 includes a CPU 3a, a ROM 3b, and a RAM 3
c, etc., the present position coordinate data from the GPS receiver 1 and the key input signal from the key input unit 2 are taken in, and the arithmetic processing for displaying the present place name described later is executed. Further, when the destination is set using the key input unit 2, a direction to the destination and a distance to the destination are obtained, and calculation processing for displaying the obtained directions is also executed.

As shown in FIG. 2, the ROM 3b stores point coordinates and place name or name data of a place name for each of a plurality of places, and executes the arithmetic processing for displaying the present place name. At this time, the data in the ROM 3b is searched. Further, the CPU 3a has a vehicle speed sensor 5
The vehicle speed pulse corresponding to the traveling speed from is input.

The display device 4 is installed in the passenger compartment and displays information such as the name of the current location, the direction to the destination, and the distance. A liquid crystal display device can be used as the display device 4. Specific configurations of the display device 4 and the key input unit 2 are shown in FIG. As shown in the figure, on the display surface of the display device 4, the current place name is displayed on the display unit 4a, the direction of the destination is displayed on the display unit 4b with an arrow, the distance to the destination is displayed on the display unit 4c, and the GPS is displayed. The number of satellites that can be received by the receiver 1 is displayed on the display unit 4d. Also, a key input unit 2
Is provided outside the display frame of the display device 4.

A display example on the display device 4 is shown in FIG. FIG. 4A is an example in which a place name of an area including the present place is displayed as the present place name, and FIG. 4B is an example in which a place name of a point near the present place is displayed as the present place name. The number of artificial satellites that can be received is indicated by a small square display on the display unit 4d. In the above-mentioned configuration, the calculation process for displaying the current place name among the calculation processes performed by the CPU 3a will be described based on the flowchart shown in FIG.

First, according to the signal from the GPS receiver 1,
It is determined whether the GPS receiver 1 can receive from three or more satellites (step 101). This is because the current location can be identified by receiving from three or more satellites. Then, if this determination is YES, the current place name is displayed (102). In this case, GPS receiver 1
Using the current position coordinate data from and the point coordinates of each point stored in the ROM 3b, the distance between the current position and each point is calculated, and the point with the smallest distance is set as the near point, and the name data of that point is used to calculate the current The place name is displayed on the display device 4.

After that, the process proceeds to step 103, in the same manner as step 101, the reception state of the GPS receiver 1 is determined,
If the reception state is good, the process of proceeding from step 103 to step 104 to step 102 is repeated, and the name of the point close to the current location is displayed on the display device 4 as the current location name. After that, when the vehicle enters a tunnel or the like and the GPS receiver 1 cannot receive from three or more satellites, the determination in step 103 becomes NO, and the vehicle speed pulse is counted from the vehicle speed sensor 5 and cannot be received. Calculate the distance traveled after the condition is reached (step 10
5). Thereafter, it is determined whether or not three minutes have elapsed since the reception disabled state has been reached (step 106), and it is also determined whether the traveling distance after the reception disabled state has exceeded 1 km (step 106). Step 107). If either of the judgments is NO, the display state shown in FIG. 3 is continued.

When the judgments are YES,
The unreceivable mode is displayed as shown in FIG. 6 (step 108). That is, the current place name display is moved to the display unit 4e, and the traveling distance after the reception disabled state is displayed below the display unit 4e. By displaying this mileage display with the character "kara" associated with the current place name display at the top, such as "from XX km run", the current place is roughly recognized in association with the current place name. You can

After that, when the reception state is recovered, the process returns from step 103 to step 104, the traveling distance is reset (step 104), and the current place name is displayed as shown in FIG. 3 (step 1).
02). It should be noted that, for a predetermined period of time from when the vehicle is in the unreceivable state and when the vehicle travels for 1 km,
The reason why the display of No. is continued is that the current place name display as shown in FIG. 3 does not cause a feeling of strangeness even if the display state is not changed, and conversely, the reception mode shown in FIG. This is because the display will make the driver feel uncomfortable. Further, the time and distance may be set arbitrarily according to the conditions used.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is an overall configuration diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a storage configuration of point coordinates and name data.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing configurations of a display device 4 and a key input unit 4 in FIG.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a display example of a display device 4.

5 is a flowchart showing a calculation process for displaying a current location name by a CPU 3a in FIG.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a display state in an unreceivable display mode.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 ... GPS receiver, 2 ... Key input part, 3 ... Control device, 4
... display device.

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A GPS receiver (1) for outputting a signal indicating the current position of a vehicle based on a received signal from an artificial satellite,
A vehicle navigation device comprising: a control means (3) for displaying a current location name on a display means (4) based on a signal indicating the current location, wherein the control means (3) is the GPS receiver (1). ) Is detected in a state in which the signal indicating the current position cannot be output, the traveling distance from the time when the state occurs based on the signal indicating the traveling distance of the vehicle is displayed together with the name of the current place and the display means ( 4) A vehicle navigation device characterized by being displayed in 4). 2. The vehicle navigation device according to claim 1, wherein the display means (4) displays the traveled distance with a character associated with the current location name. 3. The control means (3) has means (106, 107) for continuing the display until a predetermined period after the occurrence of the state.
Or the vehicle navigation device according to 2.