JP2001117944A - Vector map distribution system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide information on a landmark to be displayed together with a vector map from Internet only by selecting that landmark. SOLUTION: A server 102 and a provider 104 are connected to Internet 101. Terminal equipment 106 is provided on an automobile 105 and can receive a present location from a GPS satellite 107. The terminal equipment 106 is provided with a portable telephone set and can access Internet 101 by a connection through a telephone network 103 to the provider 104. The server 102 is a map server for providing vector map data corresponding to a request from the terminal equipment 106.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a technology for downloading a vector map from the Internet, and more particularly to a technology for downloading a vector map including landmark information.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art An invention for distributing a map on a network basis is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. H11-25259. In this conventional technique, vector map data is transmitted from a server to a client, a road or a building on the map is designated by the client, and attribute data associated with the data is output.

[0003] As a method of distributing a map or information related to the map on a network basis, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No.
-265398, JP-A-10-103977, JP-A-9-330328
And JP-A-9-160922.

[0004]

In the above prior art,
Some deliver vector maps, but none send location information along with the map. In addition, although there is one that sends point information, the map is not a vector map but an image map. In the case of an image map, every time the map is scrolled or enlarged / reduced, it is necessary to access the server and obtain the result. In the case of an image map, a route search or the like cannot be performed using the received map.
Therefore, it is necessary to provide a mechanism for obtaining additional information while taking advantage of the advantages of the vector map.

[0005]

[Means for Solving the Problems] Internet network 101
, A server 102 and a provider 104 are connected. The terminal device 106 is provided in the automobile 105 and has a GPS
The current location can be received from the satellite 107. The terminal 106 is provided with a mobile phone, and can access the Internet network 101 by connecting to the provider 104 via the telephone network 103. Server 1
Reference numeral 02 denotes a map server for providing vector map data in response to a request from the terminal 106.

[0006]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 shows the overall configuration of the present invention. A server 102 and a provider 104 are connected to the Internet network 101. The terminal 106 is provided in the automobile 105 and can receive the current location from the GPS satellite 107. However, the terminal 106 may be carried by a pedestrian (not shown) in addition to being provided in the automobile 105. The terminal 106 is provided with a portable telephone, and can access the Internet network 101 by connecting to the provider 104 via the telephone network 103. The server 102 is a map server for providing vector map data in response to a request from the terminal device 106.

FIG. 2 shows a hardware configuration of the terminal 106. The terminal device 106 includes a communication device 206
And receives the vector map data from the server 102 through. As the communication device 206, a mobile phone or a PHS (Perso
nal Handy-phone System) is desirable.
The received data is stored in the memory 101 or the external storage device 10.
8 for later use. As the external storage device 108, a small storage medium such as a compact flash card is desirable. The GPS 202 is for grasping the position of the terminal 106 and measures the latitude and longitude of the terminal 106. The display control device 205 sends display data to a display device 208 provided in the automobile 105. The remote controller 203 is used as an input device for the terminal device 106. The audio output device 207 outputs a message from the terminal 106 or the server 102 by audio. However, the display device 208 may be integrated with the terminal device 106 so that the terminal device 106 can be carried by a pedestrian.
An input device integrated with the input device may be used.

FIG. 3 shows the software architecture of the terminal 106. The terminal 106 is an OS
305, communication driver 303, I / O driver 304,
It comprises a browser 302 and a plug-in 301. The browser 302 is software for browsing contents on the Internet. Plugin 301
Is for adding a function to the browser 302, and processes information in a format that cannot be processed by the browser 302. Various types of plug-ins 301 can be prepared according to information to be downloaded.

FIG. 4 shows a software configuration of the server 102 according to the present invention. The terminal device 106
A search keyword for searching a map is input to the server 102.
Send to The communication driver 401 manages communication with the terminal 106 and receives a search keyword transmitted from the terminal 106. Search keywords are, for example, address,
There are telephone numbers, postal codes, landmark names, landmark types, and the like. Search keywords need not be complete. For example, if the search keyword is "Hitachi",
If you send it as a landmark name, a list of all landmark names including "Hitachi" will be created and HTML
The data is converted into HTML by the conversion unit 405 and transmitted to the terminal 106. For example, in this case, a landmark name such as "Hitanaka Community Center" is created. In order to create a list of landmark names, the fuzzy input DB 406 is referred to. The ambiguous input DB 406 stores information for converting an incomplete character string into a complete keyword for searching a map. When the landmark name list is transmitted to the terminal device 106, the user selects a desired landmark name with the remote controller 203 and stores the landmark name in the server 1.
02. After that, the landmark name is input to the latitude / longitude converter 403 through the search keyword generator 402.
Sent to The landmark DB 407 is referred to in order to convert the landmark name into latitude / longitude. The landmark DB 407 stores a correspondence table between landmarks and latitude / longitude. When the latitude / longitude of the landmark is known, the mesh code conversion unit 404 converts the landmark name into a mesh code. Then, the server 10
2 transmits a map including the landmark name to the terminal device 106.

Here, the mesh code will be described a little. In the map handled by the server 102, the whole of Japan is divided into several rectangular regions. The region is called a mesh. Also, a unique code is assigned to each mesh. It is called a mesh code. Since the range of the map included in each mesh is unique to each mesh, if the latitude / longitude is known, the mesh code including the latitude / longitude can be specified. If the mesh code is known, a map is searched from the map DB 408 using the mesh code as a key. After searching the map data, the map data is converted to HTM
The data is converted into HTML data by the L conversion unit 405. HTM
To convert to L data means to convert the map data file to HT
That is, it is designated as an attribute of the <EMBED> tag of the ML, and data including the attribute is created. <EMBE
The D> tag is a tag that activates the plug-in 301 on the terminal device 106. However, this assumes a case where the terminal 106 processes the map data with a plug-in. If the browser 302 has a map data processing function, the plug-in 301 is not activated and may be specified as, for example, an attribute of an <IMG> tag. After creating the HTML data, the data is transmitted to the terminal 106 through the communication driver 401. The terminal device 106 displays the transmitted map data on the display device 208.

This situation will be described a little more with reference to FIGS. FIG. 5 is a keyword input screen for searching a map. The screen 501 includes a text box 50
2, a telephone number button 503, an address button 504, a zip code button 505, a landmark name button 506, and a landmark type button 507 are displayed. When a character string in the text box 502 is input and any one of the above buttons is pressed, a list of landmarks including the character string is transmitted to the terminal 106.

FIG. 6 shows a state in which a search character string is input into a text box 502. Remote control 2
When the 03 is used, a software keyboard 601 is displayed on the screen 501. Software keyboard 601
Is automatically displayed when the focus moves to the text box 502. The user inputs a character string while moving the focus on the software keyboard 601 using the remote controller 203. In the example of FIG. 6, it is assumed that “Hitachi” is input in the text box 502 and the landmark name button 506 is selected. After that, the server 102 searches for a landmark name including “Hitachi”, converts the list into HTML data, and transmits it to the terminal 106.

FIG. 7 shows this state. The list 701 shows the search results. The user selects one of the five search results shown in the list 701. Thereafter, a map containing the selected landmark can be downloaded. For example, "restaurant Hitachi" is selected.

FIG. 8 shows the resulting map 80.
3 is shown. A character string 801 indicates the name of the landmark, and an icon 802 indicates the position of the landmark. Since the map 803 is a vector map, the user can enlarge, reduce, and scroll the map 803 without accessing the server 102 each time. Further, the user can not only download the vector map, but also obtain information on the landmarks displayed on the map 803 from the Internet. This will be described below.

The user uses the remote controller 203 to select a landmark. FIG. 9 is an example in which “restaurant Hitachi” is selected.

To select a landmark, for example, two keys of the remote controller 203 are used. For example, pressing the up key using an up / down key (not shown) moves the focus to an upper landmark, and pressing the down key moves the focus to a lower landmark. Any one of the keys of the remote control 203 is assigned to an “enter” key (not shown),
Pressing the "Enter" key allows information about the landmark to be obtained from the Internet.

When the number of landmarks in the display area is large, not all landmarks are always displayed, but only the focused landmark name is displayed, and other landmark names are not displayed. It may be.

FIG. 10 shows a state in which information on "Restaurant Hitachi" is obtained from the Internet. Select “Restaurant Hitachi” on the map and access the “Restaurant Hitachi” website. As described above, when a landmark on the map is selected, the user can access a homepage on which information on the landmark is posted.

In addition to downloading the map, the terminal 106 can calculate the route to the landmark selected from the list 701. The position of the terminal 106 can be known by the GPS 202. The information on which landmark is designated is stored in the terminal 106 or the server 102
Embedded in the HTML data transmitted from. The route calculation is performed using these two points as a start point and an end point. FIG. 13 shows a display example of the result. The route 1302 from the current location 1301 to “Restaurant Hitachi” is indicated by a bold line.

FIG. 14 shows the configuration of the terminal 106 for realizing the above functions. The user uses the remote controller 203 to
The map data is requested to the terminal 106. In the map data request, for example, HTML data linked to the URL of the server 102 is displayed, and the link is transmitted to the remote controller 203.
May be selected. Thereafter, the data request reaches the server 102 via the communication driver 303, and the server 102
Returns the request data to the terminal 106. When the map data is included in the data, the browser 302 activates a plug-in 301 for map processing.

The plug-in 301 includes a control unit 1401, a map data storage unit 1402, a map data drawing unit 1403,
It comprises a drawing library 1404 and a path calculation / drawing unit 1405.

The control unit 1401 controls the entire plug-in 301. When the map data is received, the map data is stored in the map data storage unit 1402. At the same time,
The map data drawing unit 1403 draws the received map data. At that time, a drawing library 1404 is used. The drawing library 1404 may be drawing software itself used in a commercially available car navigation system.
The route calculation / rendering unit 1405 calculates a route from the terminal device 106 to the landmark. When the calculation of the route is completed, the route is drawn using the drawing library 1404.

In the above example, the route is calculated by the terminal device 106, but the route may be calculated by the server 102. When the route is calculated by the server 102, the current position of the terminal 106 is measured by the GPS 202, and the current position data is transmitted to the server 102. The server 102 calculates a route between the designated landmark and the current location of the terminal 106, merges the map data and the route data, and
Reply to. After receiving the data, the plug-in 301 separates the map data portion and the route data portion and sends them to the map data drawing portion 1403 and the route calculation / drawing portion 1405, respectively, to draw the map and the route.

FIG. 11 shows a format of map data sent from the server 102. This is data on one mesh. Display position X1101, display position Y
1102 is a map display coordinate on the display 208. Normally, the origin (0,0) should be specified. The road data flag 1103 indicates the type of road data. For example, when the map data handled by the server is a map used in a car navigation system, the road data includes types such as display road data and route calculation road data. The road data flag 1103 is a flag indicating which data. Map title offset 1104
Represents the position of the map title character string 1110. The map title size 1105 is the map title character string 1110
Represents the length of The map data offset 1106 indicates the position of the map data 1111. The landmark offset 1108 indicates the position of the landmark data 1112. The landmark size 1109 indicates the size of the landmark data 1112. Map title character string 111
0 represents the title of the map. Usually, the name of the landmark requested by the terminal 106 may be used. The map data 1111 is the map data itself. The landmark data 1112 is information about a landmark,
This will be described in detail with reference to FIG.

FIG. 12 shows the format of the landmark data 1112. The format shown in FIG.
This is data per landmark. Therefore, after the map data 1111, the format of FIG. 12 is connected by the number of landmarks included in the mesh.

The record size 1201 indicates the size of the landmark data. The in-mesh coordinates X1202 and the in-mesh coordinates Y1203 indicate the coordinates of the landmark in the mesh. Landmark type 1204
Indicates the type of landmark. For example, codes are assigned to types such as “hospital”, “restaurant”, and “convenience store”, and the codes are indicated. Icon type 120
5 represents the type of the icon displayed on the map. A code is assigned to the icon image and the code is indicated. Name coordinate X1206, name coordinate Y120
Numeral 7 denotes coordinates for displaying the landmark name represented by coordinates in the mesh. Usually, the coordinates X in the mesh
Reference numeral 1202 denotes the vicinity of the coordinate Y1203 in the mesh. The name size 1208 indicates the character string length of the landmark name. The name 1209 is a character string of the landmark name. The URL character string 1210 is a URL character string in which information on the landmark is posted. Usually "http: /
/"start from.

The above embodiment is based on the premise that the terminal device 106 is hardware separate from the display device 208 and the remote controller 203. However, the above-described embodiment can also be realized by hardware in which a display device and an input device are integrated, such as a mobile phone. This will be described with reference to FIG.

FIG. 15 shows an example in which the above embodiment is applied to a portable telephone. The mobile phone 1501 is connected to the first display device 15.
02, a second display device 1503, and a pen 1504 as an input device. In addition, mobile phone 1501
Has a GPS (not shown) therein. The user accesses the server 102 using the mobile phone 1501 to download a map, and downloads the first display device 1502.
Display the map on. At this time, for input of characters and the like, a software keyboard is displayed on the second display device 1503,
A software keyboard may be operated with the pen 1504. Alternatively, a ten-key button may be attached instead of the second display device. When a landmark on the map is selected with the pen 1504, a homepage related to the landmark can be accessed.

[0030]

As described above, the vector map data can be downloaded from the Internet, and it is possible to access the homepage relating to the landmark included in the vector map data.

[Brief description of the drawings]

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

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a hardware configuration of a terminal device 106.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a software architecture of the terminal device 106.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a software configuration of a server 102.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a map request screen.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a map request screen.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a landmark search result.

FIG. 8 is a display example of map data.

FIG. 9 is an example of selecting a landmark on a map.

FIG. 10 is a display example of information regarding a landmark.

FIG. 11 shows a format of map data.

FIG. 12 shows a format of landmark data.

FIG. 13 is an example of a route display on a map.

14 shows a software configuration of the terminal device 106. FIG.

FIG. 15 is an example of application to a mobile phone.

[Explanation of symbols]

101: Internet network, 102: Vector map server, 103: Telephone network, 104: Provider, 105: Car, 106: Internet terminal, 107: GPS
satellite.

 ────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continued on the front page (72) Katsuaki Tanaka Inventor 7-1-1, Omika-cho, Hitachi City, Ibaraki Prefecture F-term in Hitachi Research Laboratory, Hitachi, Ltd. UU16 5B089 GA11 GA25 HA10 HA12 JB03 JB22 JB24 KA02 KA03 KB04 KC59 LB17 5H180 AA01 AA21 AA30 BB05 BB12 FF05 FF13 FF22 FF25 FF32

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. An Internet system comprising a server and a client terminal, wherein the terminal transmits a destination to the server and transmits a vector map including the destination and point information including Internet connection information from the server. A vector map distribution system, wherein the point information is downloaded, superimposed on the vector map, and the point information is displayed. When one of the point information is selected, information corresponding to the point information is downloaded from the Internet. 2. An Internet system comprising a server and a client terminal, wherein the terminal transmits a destination to the server and stores a vector map including the destination and point information including Internet connection information. A vector map distribution system, wherein the point information is downloaded from a server, superimposed on the vector map, the point information is displayed, and when one of the point information is selected, information corresponding to the point information is downloaded from the Internet. The terminal sends the destination and the current location to the server, the server calculates a route from the current location to the destination,
The terminal downloads the vector map including the destination, the point information including the Internet connection information, and the route information from the destination to the current location from the server, and the terminal displays the vector map at the same time as displaying the vector map. A vector map distribution system, wherein the point information and the route information are displayed on a vector map, and when one of the point information is selected, information corresponding to the point information is downloaded from the Internet. 3. An Internet system comprising a server and a client terminal, wherein the terminal transmits a destination to the server and stores a vector map including the destination and point information including Internet connection information. A vector map distribution system, wherein the point information is downloaded from a server, superimposed on the vector map, the point information is displayed, and when one of the point information is selected, information corresponding to the point information is downloaded from the Internet. The terminal transmits a destination to the server, and the terminal downloads a vector map including the destination and point information including Internet connection information from the server, and determines a route from the current location to the destination. Calculate and display the point information and the route information over the vector map, one of the point information Is selected, information corresponding to the point information is downloaded from the Internet. 4. An Internet system comprising a server and a client terminal, wherein the terminal transmits a destination to the server and stores a vector map including the destination and point information including Internet connection information. A vector map distribution system, wherein the point information is downloaded from a server, superimposed on the vector map, the point information is displayed, and when one of the point information is selected, information corresponding to the point information is downloaded from the Internet. The terminal transmits a destination to the server, downloads a vector map including the destination and point information including Internet connection information from the server, and extracts necessary information from the point information. When displayed on the vector map and one of the point information is selected, information corresponding to the point information is displayed. A vector map distribution system that downloads information from the Internet. 5. An Internet system comprising a server and a client terminal, wherein the terminal transmits a destination to the server and stores a vector map including the destination and point information including Internet connection information. A vector map distribution system, wherein the point information is downloaded from a server, superimposed on the vector map, the point information is displayed, and when one of the point information is selected, information corresponding to the point information is downloaded from the Internet. The terminal transmits a destination to the server, and the server extracts a vector map including the destination and necessary information from point information regarding points included in the vector map to the terminal. Transmitting, the terminal displays the vector map, superimposes and displays the point information on the vector map, A vector map distribution system characterized in that when one of them is selected, information corresponding to the point information is downloaded from the Internet.