JP2002071368A - Image information processor - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To solve the problem that conventionally the navigator indicates certain spots, certain buildings, etc., on a certain scale of a navigation map, without showing details of the spots, etc., and it is necessary for traveling to a specified destination but is difficult to manually retrieve and indicate the specified destination on an adequate scale of the map. SOLUTION: The processor comprises a means for displaying associated images from a navigation map received from the outside, and a means for displaying the navigation map on an adequate scale, utilizing geographical information including the scale given to the images by each frame or each object.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a processing apparatus for processing image data, and more particularly to an image information processing apparatus having a map and graphic processing function.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, as described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. H11-174950, a map is displayed and a predetermined place in the map is designated so that numerical information, graphic information, image information, and voice information relating to the place are displayed. Output hyperlink information. In addition, a landscape image created by computer graphics is displayed, and information is managed in correspondence with a predetermined subject, and information is managed in association with coordinates that describe a geographical space. There is something. In the former case, if the subject is a person, for example, the name,
There is an example of managing information such as gender and age. In the latter case, there are examples of managing the longitude and latitude of a designated place, and managing information such as an address, a place name, and a store name stored in correspondence with the longitude and latitude. The invention of the above-mentioned publication solves the problem when video is used with a video camera instead of computer graphics. In other words, it addresses the problem that the correspondence between the coordinate system of the video image and the coordinate system of the geographical space changes due to the movement, zooming, and panning of the video camera. As a solution, a coordinate correspondence means for associating a coordinate system for defining the pixel position of the video image signal with a coordinate system on the map is provided.

[0003]

What has been described above merely describes the general technique of storing information about a location on a map.

[0004] In a navigation device, a navigation map displays places, buildings, and the like at a certain scale. In addition, details such as a certain place are not shown, and in order to go to a specific destination, a map of an appropriate scale must be searched and displayed manually, but this is difficult, and it is difficult for the user. Put a strain. Therefore, we want to automatically select the map type and scale as much as possible. Further, certain displayed maps are themselves uniquely determined, and there was no idea of associating them with appropriate geographic information.

Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to obtain relevant video information from a map, and to obtain a navigation map of an appropriate scale without manual intervention using geographical information given to the video information.

[0006]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An image related to a navigation map is externally received. Geographic information including a scale is added to the video for each frame or each object. Using this geographic information, a navigation map of an appropriate scale is displayed.

[0007]

FIG. 1A shows an example of a guide video displayed on an image information processing apparatus. here,
A guide video of a hot spring will be described as an example. Specific examples of the image information processing device include a car navigation device, a digital reproduction television, and a PC. The process for displaying this video will be described later. Display 7
000, a hot spring guide image 7050 is displayed. Onsen 7800, Mt. Fuji 7810, and Sun 7820 are MPs standardized by ISO / IEC14496-2.
The object is compressed and transferred by the image compression method of EG-4. Here, the hot spring inn is represented by a thick line. This indicates that position information and other user data are added to this object.

When an object of a hot-spring inn is selected with the cursor 7900, the attribute of the object is embedded in this object, and one of the geographic information, that is, the information of latitude, longitude, map type, and scale (scale) is read. It is. How to hold the geographic information will be described later. Then
The map information of the appropriate scale 7710 is automatically selected.
Then, the map of the reduced scale is displayed on the navigation screen 7100. A current position 7400 and a route 7600 to a hot-spring hotel 7700 are shown on the map. Such a route display is realized by a conventional navigation technology.

The above is the feature of the embodiment of the present invention. That is, the guide video is displayed by an image compression method according to MPEG-4, can be specified in units of objects, and information can be embedded in the objects. Also, the scale of the map information is automatically selected.

FIG. 2 shows the hardware and software configuration of the image processing apparatus. CPU1000
Is used to control the overall operation.
0 connects to another device. Memory 2000
Are OS1 and OS2, and their OSs
A program 2300 called an MPEG-4 player operating on S and a program 2500 called a navigation processing unit are stored. The MPEG-4 player is for inputting data represented by MPEG-4, decoding the data, and displaying the decoded data. Navigation has functions such as displaying a map, searching for a route, and displaying a route. The graphics processor 3000 displays the image stored in the graphics memory 4000 on the display 7000 via the display signal line 9000. The graphics memory 4000 is provided with a foreground frame buffer 4100 and a background frame buffer (where map information for navigation is stored) 4200.

The input / output control device 5000 includes a mouse 5100
And an input device such as a keyboard 5200. These input devices are examples when realized by using a PC, and when applied to a car navigation device, they are simpler input devices. For example, it is realized by a remote controller. The input / output control unit 5000 is also used for digital communications and digital broadcasting (including terrestrial and satellite communications)
Wireless communication device 5300 having an antenna for receiving The reading device 5400 is a CD-ROM or DVD player that stores map data. In addition,
This does not need to be fixed map data that cannot be rewritten, and is constituted by a rewritable recording medium,
The map information updated by the communication may be received and stored. Further, a GPS 5500 that receives information indicating the current position from a GPS satellite and provides the information to the input / output control device 5000 is provided. Although not shown, an auxiliary storage device is connected to the input / output control device. These are smart media, compact flash (registered trademark), and multimedia cards that store personal information, digital images, and data received by digital broadcasting. The input / output control unit controls the CPU according to the input from these devices.
An interrupt signal line 6000 for causing the 1000 to perform processing is provided.

FIG. 3 shows an MPEG-4 player processor 230.
0 shows the details. The memory 2000 has MP
Area 2020 for storing EG-4 compressed data and MPEG
-4 There is an area 2060 for storing decompressed data. MPE
The G-4 player processing unit 2300 is a program for handling and displaying data compressed by MPEG-4. The MPEG-4 display library 2301 has an address for the foreground frame buffer 4100.
Further, the MPEG-4 display library 2301 includes a color conversion table 2311. The MPEG-4 player processing unit 2300 receives compressed data at the MPEG-4 input unit 2380, decodes the compressed data at the MPEG-4 decoding unit 2370, and outputs the foreground frame buffer in the graphics memory 4000 indicated by the MPEG-4 display library. 41
The data is transferred to the address 00.

A technique for coexisting two OSs with one CPU and a memory is known and will not be described in detail here. 2
A program for coexisting two OSs is the OS coexistence technology 2700. Shared memory 2800 within OS coexistence technology
And the inter-process communication between the MPEG-4 player processing unit 2300 and the navigation processing unit 2500 is possible.

FIG. 4 explains the operation of the MPEG-4 player processing section. MPEG-4 compressed data 202
0 in the MPEG-4 decoding unit 2370
PEG-4 decompressed data 2060 is obtained. Next, MPEG-
The color conversion table 2311 is searched with reference to the color information included in the four data (2070), and the video signal (RG
B) Obtain 2080. This is provided to the graphics processor 3000 for display.

FIG. 5 illustrates a portion for taking the previously described MPEG-4 compressed data into the memory 2000. By digital broadcasting or digital communication using the satellite 1000, for example, MPEG-2TS and audio P
Data is transmitted by mounting a unit divided into block units on a standard transmission format standardized by ISO / IEC13818-1 called ES. That is, the data of the unit divided into blocks is the satellite 1000
It will be transmitted repeatedly from 0. In addition, satellite 10
From 000, data type and information are described. DI
I (Download Info Indicatio)
n) are transmitted together.

The wireless communication device 5300 holds the blocks and DII transmitted from the satellite 10000 in a data holding format of a data carousel 5310. When acquiring specific MPEG-4 compressed data for the user, if the video data acquisition location is a data carousel based on the ID of the table in FIG. Use to get information about units divided into blocks. If the unit is a unit divided into a desired block, the block is acquired. By constructing the acquired plural blocks, desired MPEG-4 compressed data is acquired.

FIG. 5 shows an opportunity to acquire data, or FIG.
How to acquire and display this image will be described with reference to FIGS. Based on a request from the user, navigation map information 7100 as shown in FIG. In the figure, reference numeral 7175 denotes a cross cursor. As shown in FIG.
Set to 00. Then, a message "Selection" appears and a message "Video exists" appears. Here, for example, when a decision operation such as clicking the left button of a mouse is performed, as shown in FIG. 8, a hot spring town represented by MPEG-4 shown in FIG. 7200 (corresponding to FIG. ) Is obtained. Here, if you specify a hot-spring inn with a hot-spring resort, a map and route to reach it will be displayed.

FIG. 9 shows a processing flow of the processing from FIG. 6 to FIG. First, a map at a scale of 1/20000 is displayed based on the car navigation map information (9001). Next, the cross cursor is moved to a landmark of the hot spring town 7300 on the navigation map (9010). It is determined whether there is video information at the landmark (9020), and if not, the cross cursor is moved to another landmark. If there is an image signal, the character display "image is available" is displayed (903
0). A landmark designated by a certain cross cursor on the navigation map, for example, a hot spring town is selected (9040). If there is video information (9050), video information is acquired from the data carousel 5310 (9060). The video signal is expanded by the MPEG-4 player 2300 (907).
0). Then, for example, an introduction video of the hot spring town is displayed (9
080). As described above, when a desired object is selected and designated from the video information of the hot spring town, the information embedded in the object is read. When the display of the detailed map is completed, the user selects the video stop menu (9090), and the display of the video ends (9100).
This video display processing ends (9110).

FIG. 10 shows a table provided in the memory 2000. Information about whether each place on the navigation map, a building, etc. has an image of the place, and where it is located is provided. It is stored and is referred to during the processing of FIG.

FIG. 11, FIG. 12, FIG. 13, FIG. 14, FIG.
Shows another embodiment. In the above embodiment, the video information is displayed when the user selects it,
This is to automatically display image information when a car comes near a place or a building having image information.

FIG. 11 shows a map of 1/20000 of the navigation screen. My car is still triangle 7400 on the map
Assume that you are in the position indicated by.

Next, the vehicle moves to the position shown in FIG.
The position shown in FIG. 13 is reached. Then, the video information 7050 is automatically displayed when it comes near the place called the hot spring town 7300.

The vicinity means the own vehicle position 74 as shown in FIG.
In some cases, a circle 7510 having a certain radius centered on 00 is shown. Further, as shown on the right side of FIG. 14, the inside of a triangle 7500 opened at an angle in the traveling direction of the vehicle may be shown.

The above processing will be described with reference to FIG. When the processing of the video display program 2 is started (1500
0) First, the position of the own vehicle is measured by the GPS 5500 (15010). Next, a mark 7400 indicating the own vehicle position is displayed on the navigation map. It is determined whether there is a landmark such as a place or a building near the own vehicle, for example, whether there is a hot spring town (15030). If not, the car will continue. If there is, the process proceeds to the next step, and it is determined whether video information exists (1504).
0). If not, the own vehicle position 7400 is displayed as it is.
If there is, video data is acquired from the data carousel 5310 (15050). Then, the video information is displayed in place of the display of the navigation map (15060). Here, it is possible to perform processing such as specifying an object and reading information embedded in the object.
If the vehicle passes through the place or the building without doing anything (15070), the display of the image is stopped (1508).
0), the video display processing ends (15090).

FIGS. 16 to 21 show two embodiments of what kind of processing is performed when video information is displayed.

FIG. 16 shows a case where attribute information is embedded in frame units of video information, unlike the above description. When this frame is selected by the cursor 7900, route information with a scale of 1/2000 is displayed on the navigation according to the embedded attribute information as shown in FIG.

FIG. 18 shows a case where a cursor 7900 is designated for each object of video information.
Also at this time, as shown in FIG.
The route information is displayed on one thousandth of the map information.

FIG. 22 shows a data structure defined by the MPEG-4 standard. The video sequence (13000) at the top is a group of video sequences (13000). Hereinafter, information on each object (13001), information on image quality (13002), and a random access unit (13003) indicating a difference between a certain frame and a moving image are shown. )When,
It is divided into a playback screen (13004) at a certain moment.
These are not directly related to the present invention,
4 are only shown. What is noted here is that there is a user data area. By utilizing this, it is possible to embed position data, data of an appropriate scale of a map, and the like.

FIG. 23 shows the data structure of the user data area. The user data format is user_data_start_c defined in the MPEG-4 video standard.
ode (10000) and end with a user data end code (10007). Meanwhile, user data is set. First, the manufacturer identifier (100
01) is stored. This is not directly related to the present invention. Next, the information type (10002) is recorded. This records information type such as geographic information or URL. In this embodiment, Ox1 (hexadecimal 1) is set. Next, information of latitude (10003) and longitude (10004) is recorded. Next is the map type, which includes the type of house map and road map (10005). In this embodiment, Ox2 indicating a road map is recorded. Next is the scale (10
006), and one optimal scale is designated. In this way, the latitude and longitude information and the information for designating the optimal map scale are embedded in the MPEG-4 video.

FIG. 20 is a flowchart relating to the processing of FIGS. Video / Navigation Map Linkage Program 1
Is started (20000), it is automatically requested by specifying the acquisition of video information with the cursor described above, or by being near a certain place or a building, and transmitted by digital broadcasting or digital communication. MPEG
-4 is received (20010), and video information 7050 is displayed (20020). The frame of this video screen is selected (20030). Then, MPEG
-4 The frame number is obtained from the player (2004
0). Based on the acquired frame number, refer to a video frame generated from the position information embedded in the frame shown in FIG. 23 (written in the MPEG-4 user information area) and a position information related table (not shown). (2005
0). It is determined whether or not the position information exists.
Is notified of the location information via (2070). Similarly, map type selection information is obtained from the user information area shown in FIG. 23 (20080). Similarly, the scale of the map is selected from the user information area shown in FIG. 23 (20090). Based on this, the navigation processing unit 2500 displays a map (20100), and performs a route search from the own vehicle position and target position information in the video (20110). Then, the route search result 7600 is displayed on the displayed map (2012).
0), and terminates the processing of this program (2013)
0).

FIG. 21 shows a processing flow when an object is specified, while FIG. 20 shows a processing flow when a frame is selected, and is basically the same.

When the image / navigation map linking program 2 is started (21000), the acquisition of image information is designated by the above-mentioned cursor, or the image / navigation map association program 2 automatically comes in contact with a certain place or near a building. The video information according to MPEG-4 requested and transmitted by broadcasting is received (2101).
0), the video information 7050 is displayed (21020). When the position information exists in the MPEG-4 information of the existing object (21030), the outline of the object is highlighted (21040). Then, the user data in the object is checked (21050). That is, the contents of the user area (specifically, FIG. 23) shown in the 13001 hierarchy of FIG. When a specific destination such as a hot spring inn object 7800 in the video screen is selected (21060), it is determined whether or not the object has position information (21070). The location information is notified via 2800 (21080). Map type selection information is obtained from the user information area shown in FIG.
0). Similarly, the map scale is selected from the user information area shown in FIG. 23 (21100). The navigation processing unit 2500 displays a map based on this (2111).
0), a route search is performed from the own vehicle position and target position information in the video (21120). Then, the route search result 760
0 is displayed on the displayed map (21130), and the processing of this program ends (21140).

As described above, in the present embodiment, if there is a place or a building where the details are desired to be displayed during the display of the navigation map,
By specifying it, it can be handled in object units, and user data can be embedded in image information.
PEG-4 image data is received by broadcasting. Then, the navigation system displays the map according to the map type and the scale of the map display specified and written in the object or frame on the MPEG-4 image,
Search the route and display it.

In this manner, the navigation map at the optimum scale is displayed during traveling without any human operation.

[0035]

According to the present invention, in navigation, a map to a selected destination at an appropriate scale is displayed without human intervention.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram for explaining an outline of an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a configuration of an embodiment of an image information processing apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing details of an MPEG-4 player processing unit.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing the operation of an MPEG-4 player processing unit.

FIG. 5 is a detailed view of a portion that captures MPEG-4 compressed data.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an example of a navigation map.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a state in which a cross cursor is positioned on a landmark and selected.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing image information according to MPEG-4.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart of processing from FIG. 6 to FIG. 8;

FIG. 10 is a view showing a table indicating whether video information exists for each object provided in a memory.

FIG. 11 is a diagram showing an example of a map screen for navigation.

FIG. 12 is a diagram showing an example of a map screen for navigation when a car moves.

FIG. 13 is a view for explaining that video information is automatically displayed when it comes near a landmark.

FIG. 14 is a diagram illustrating a range near an image information processing apparatus.

FIG. 15 is a flowchart showing processing from FIG. 11 to FIG. 13;

FIG. 16 is a diagram showing an example of a video screen in which attribute information is embedded in frame units.

FIG. 17 is a diagram showing a state in which a navigation screen is displayed at a reduced scale embedded in attribute information.

FIG. 18 is a diagram illustrating an example of a video screen in which attribute information is embedded in object units.

FIG. 19 is a diagram showing a state in which a navigation screen is displayed at a reduced scale embedded in attribute information.

FIG. 20 is a flowchart relating to the processing in FIGS. 16 and 17;

FIG. 21 is a flowchart relating to the processing of FIGS. 18 and 19;

FIG. 22 is a diagram showing a data structure defined by the MPEG-4 standard.

FIG. 23 shows a data structure of a user data area.

[Explanation of symbols]

1000: CPU, 2000: memory, 3000: graphics processor, 4000: graphics memory, 5000: input / output control device, 6000: interrupt signal line, 7000: display, 8000: CPU bus.

──────────────────────────────────────────────────の Continued on the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁷ Identification symbol FI Theme coat ゛ (Reference) G09B 29/10 G09B 29/10 A 5H180 H04N 5/445 H04N 5/445 Z (72) Inventor Mariko Okude 7-1-1, Omika-cho, Hitachi City, Ibaraki Prefecture F-term in Hitachi Research Laboratory, Hitachi Ltd. F-term (reference) 2C032 HB11 HB22 HB23 HC05 HC08 HC23 HC24 HC32 HD03 2F029 AA02 AB07 AC02 AC13 AC14 AD07 5B049 CC02 EE05 FF04 5B075 ND06 ND06ND NK10 PP03 PP13 PQ02 PQ22 PQ32 5C025 BA14 CA02 CA10 CA11 DA04 DA05 5H180 AA01 BB13 FF05 FF22 FF32 FF38

Claims (10)

[Claims] 1. A means for displaying a navigation map, a means for obtaining an image to which geographic information including a scale corresponding to a landmark of the navigation map is added, and a means for displaying a navigation map according to the scale added to the image An image information processing apparatus comprising: 2. The image includes an MPE including a user data area.
2. The image information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the image is a video utilizing the video compression technology of G-4. 3. The image information processing apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the object to which the geographic information in the video is added is highlighted. 4. The apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising means for reading out geographical information added to a certain object selected from the obtained video.
The image information processing apparatus according to any one of the preceding claims. 5. The image information processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising: means for reading out geographical information added to a certain frame selected from the obtained video. 6. The image information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said video is received by external communication. 7. A means for displaying a navigation map, a means for obtaining an image to which geographic information including a scale is added in response to being near a landmark on the navigation map, and a scale added to the image Means for displaying a navigation map according to the following. 8. A means for displaying a navigation map, a means for obtaining an image to which geographic information including a scale corresponding to a landmark of a navigation map designated by a cursor is added, and navigation according to the scale added to the image. An image information processing apparatus comprising: means for displaying a map. 9. A means for displaying a navigation map, a means for displaying a picture, a related information managing means for managing map picture related information for associating information related to the picture with map information related to the navigation map, and the related information. Means for selecting a map related to the video based on the related information managed by the management means. 10. A means for displaying a navigation map,
Means for displaying a video, related information management means for managing map video related information associating information related to the video with map information related to the navigation map, and map video related information managed by the related information management means, An image information processing apparatus comprising: a video selection unit that selects a video related to a map.