JP2002039771A - Navigation system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a navigation system by which a user can know in which area he is running by changing the character of a present-position mark according to a running area. SOLUTION: When it is judged that a vehicle crosses an administrative district, the present-position mark which is displayed on a display device is changed to a character according to a new administrative district. When the vehicle enters, e.g. Okayama Prefecture, the present-position mark is changed to a character 92 expressing the feature of Okayama Prefecture from a character 91 expressing an administrative district up to that point.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a navigation device for displaying a current position mark indicating a current position on a map.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in a vehicle navigation apparatus, a current position of a vehicle is detected, a current position mark indicating the current position is displayed on a map, and a display and voice are provided when a route guidance to a destination is provided. Is used to guide the route.

[0003]

In the navigation apparatus described above, the current position mark is usually fixed in a triangular shape or a wedge shape, and only the current position mark rotates when the traveling direction of the vehicle changes. Therefore, there is a problem that the user lacks interest.

[0004] Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 7-270174 discloses a technique in which a user is given a fresh interest by changing the current location mark to a character corresponding to the running speed of the vehicle. However, in this case, the character of the current position mark is changed during normal running. For this reason, the character is changed in the same pattern regardless of which area the vehicle is traveling.

[0005] It is an object of the present invention to change the character of the current location mark according to the traveling area so that the user can know which area is traveling.

[0006]

In order to achieve the above object, according to the first aspect of the present invention, in a navigation device displaying a current position mark indicating a current position on a map, whether a crossing of an administrative section has occurred is performed. Cross-border determining means for determining whether or not the current position mark is changed to a character corresponding to a new administrative division when the cross-border determining means determines the crossing. I have.

According to the present invention, the user can know that the administrative division has changed due to the change of the character of the current location mark, and can understand which administrative division has been entered by the character.

[0008] In this case, as in the invention according to the second aspect, means for determining whether or not the change of the current location mark is permitted by the operation of the user, and / or the invention according to the third aspect. In addition, it is preferable that the user can set the level of the administrative division used for the determination of the crossing border.

[0009]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS FIG. 1 shows an overall configuration of a vehicle navigation device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

This navigation device has a position detector 1 for detecting the current position of the vehicle. This position detector 1 includes a geomagnetic sensor 2, a gyroscope 3,
It comprises a distance sensor 4 and a GPS receiver 5. The navigation device includes a map data input device 6 for reading map data from a map storage medium, a group of operation switches 7 for performing various operations required for navigation, and a control circuit 8 for executing various processes required for navigation. ,
A display device 9 for displaying a map or the like and a remote control sensor 10 for receiving a signal from a remote control 11 are provided.

The control circuit 8 detects the current position of the vehicle on the basis of the signal from the position detector 1 as in the prior art,
A function of displaying a current position mark (own vehicle mark) indicating the current position together with a map on the display device 9 and performing route guidance using the display device 9 and voice generating means (not shown) when performing route guidance to the destination. It has.

Further, the control circuit 8 changes the current location mark to be displayed on the display device 9 according to the new administrative section when the vehicle crosses an administrative section such as a prefecture, a municipal or the like, that is, when the vehicle passes through the boundary of the administrative section. It has a function to change to a character. For this reason, the storage means (the internal memory of the control circuit 8 or the above-mentioned map storage medium) stores character data for displaying the character of the current location mark expressing the characteristics of each area for each prefecture and municipalities. The control circuit 8 reads out the character data from the storage means and causes the display device 9 to display the current location mark with a character corresponding to the administrative division in which the vehicle is traveling.

The control circuit 8 displays a setting screen (not shown) on the display device 9 in response to the process of changing the character of the current position mark, and determines whether or not the user is permitted to change the current position mark. Information is obtained as to whether or not to perform at the division level (that is, at the prefectural level or the municipal level). The user uses the operation switch group 7 and / or the remote controller 11 to set and input the above information on the setting screen.

FIG. 2 shows a current position mark changing process by the control circuit 8.

First, it is determined whether or not the vehicle has crossed an administrative section of the level set by the user (step 101). When it is determined that the vehicle has crossed the border, it is determined whether or not the current position mark change permission mode is set (step 102). When the user has made a setting for permitting the change of the current position mark using the setting screen described above, the mode is the permission mode for changing the current position mark. If it is determined that the current position mark change permission mode is set, the current position mark displayed on the display device 9 is changed to a character corresponding to the new administrative division (step 10).
3). In this case, the character data of the new administrative division is read from the storage means, and the character is displayed on the display device 9.
To be displayed.

The processing in step 103 will be described with reference to an example of a display screen of the display device 9 shown in FIG. In FIG.
This shows the vehicle entering Okayama Prefecture. Step 10
By the process of 3, the current location mark is changed from the character 91 of the administrative division up to that time to the character 92 expressing the characteristics of Okayama prefecture. Immediately after the border is crossed, the characters of the administrative division up to that point are also displayed so that the user can recognize the change of the character of the current location mark. In the figure, a flag “Bye” is attached to the character 91 of the previous administrative division, and the current location mark is changed to the character 9.
This indicates that the character is changed from 1 to a peach character 92. Further, in order to more clearly indicate that the user has entered the new administrative division, a characteristic screen of the new administrative division (in the figure, Momotaro's screen showing the characteristics of Okayama Prefecture) is displayed in the predetermined area 93 at the upper right of the screen. The characteristic screen of the new administrative division is also displayed on the display device 9 for a predetermined time (during a predetermined time or a predetermined distance), together with the character display of the previous administrative division.

As described above, according to the above-described embodiment, when it is determined that the vehicle has crossed the administrative division, the current position mark displayed on the display device 9 is changed to a character corresponding to the new administrative division. Therefore, the user can know that the administrative division has changed due to the change of the character of the current location mark, and can understand which administrative division has been entered by the character.

In the above-described embodiment, the processing of step 101 corresponds to a crossing border judging means for judging whether or not the administrative section has been crossed, and the processing of step 103 sets the current location mark according to the new administrative section. The processing in step 102 corresponds to a means for determining whether or not the change of the current position mark is permitted by the user's operation.

Further, the present invention is applicable not only to a vehicle navigation device but also to a portable type navigation device.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an overall configuration of a vehicle navigation device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing a current location mark changing process by a control circuit 8;

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of a display screen of a display device 9;

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Position detector, 2 ... Geomagnetic sensor, 3 ... Gyroscope, 4 ... Distance sensor, 5 ... GPS receiver, 6 ... Map data input device, 7 ... Operation switch group, 8 ... Control circuit, 9 ...
Display device, 10 remote control sensor, 11 remote control.

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁷ Identification code FI Theme coat ゛ (Reference) G09B 29/10 G09B 29/10 A F-term (Reference) 2C032 HB05 HB22 HC08 HC15 HC27 HC31 HD03 HD16 2F029 AA02 AB01 AB07 AB09 AC02 AC04 AC13 AC14 5B050 AA10 BA17 EA07 FA02 FA13 5H180 AA01 FF04 FF05 FF22 FF32 5J062 AA05 BB01 CC07 FF04 FF06 HH05

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A navigation device in which a current position mark indicating a current position is displayed on a map, wherein a crossing border judging means for judging whether or not a crossing of an administrative section has occurred, and wherein the crossing judging means has judged the crossing border. And a current position mark changing means for changing the current position mark to a character corresponding to a new administrative division. 2. The navigation device according to claim 1, further comprising means for determining whether or not the change of the current location mark is permitted by a user operation. 3. The navigation device according to claim 1, wherein a user can set a level of an administrative section used for the determination of the crossing border.