JP2002277261A - Navigation apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a navigation apparatus for easily grasping the position relationship between the position of an own vehicle in a map image and each kind of information without sacrificing the ease of seeing the map image. SOLUTION: For generating map image data required for displaying a map image around the position of the own vehicle, a map-drawing section 14 divides a drawing region in upper and lower directions corresponding to each of the upper and lower regions of the display screen in a display 6, and arranges map images that are nearly symmetrical in upper and lower directions. Also, the map-drawing section 14 secures a string of region where no map images are displayed between the upper and lower regions, and arranges information (current time, direction, and the like) for changing the display position arbitrarily at the strip of region. Also, the map-drawing section 14 arranges information (place name, facility mark and the like) whose display positions have been nearly determined while being dispersed to the upper and lower regions based on the arrangement state that is set by an arrangement state-setting section 16.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

The present invention relates to a navigation device for displaying a map image around a vehicle position.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In general, an on-vehicle navigation device has a map display function of displaying a map around a vehicle position on a screen, and a route search for searching for a route specified by a user to a destination or a waypoint. It has a function, a route guidance function for guiding the traveling of the vehicle along the route set by the route search, and the like.

[0003] A map image displayed by a navigation device includes character strings indicating place names and road names, traffic information (for example, arrows indicating traffic congestion information) obtained by FM multiplex broadcasting, and various types of information such as convenience stores. Various information such as a facility mark indicating the location of the facility is included, so that useful information for driving can be obtained.

[0004]

By the way, in the conventional navigation device, a character string such as a place name as described above,
When various types of information, such as traffic information and facility marks, are displayed in a one-screen map image, the amount of information becomes so large that the information becomes too crowded, thereby degrading the readability of the map image.

On the other hand, a display screen may be divided into two parts in the left-right direction, and map images may be displayed in respective areas, and each piece of information may be dispersedly arranged on one of the left and right map images. In this case, since two map images are displayed side by side, there has been a problem that it is difficult to grasp the positional relationship between the position of the vehicle and various information around the vehicle.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and an object of the present invention is to make it easier to see the map image and to easily determine the positional relationship between the own vehicle position and various information in the map image. Another object of the present invention is to provide a navigation device that can be grasped.

[0007]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, in a navigation device according to the present invention, map data required for drawing a map image is stored by a map data storage means, and based on the map data, The map drawing means draws a vertically symmetric map image in a drawing area corresponding to each of the upper area and the lower area of the display screen, and various types of information corresponding to the map image are displayed in the upper area and the lower area. Each of them is distributed and arranged, and the map image drawn by the map drawing means is displayed by the map display means.

[0008] By drawing a map image symmetrical in the vertical direction, a map image obtained by mirroring the map image in the lower area is displayed in the upper area, and the vehicle position displayed on the map image is displayed. Can be aligned vertically. This makes it possible to intuitively recognize the positional relationship between the own vehicle position and the various information, so that the positional relationship between the various information and the own vehicle position can be easily grasped. In addition, since various types of information are distributed and arranged in the upper and lower regions of the display screen, the amount of various types of information included in the upper and lower map images can be reduced, so that the map images can be easily viewed. It doesn't hurt.

In addition, a band-like area where a map image is not displayed is secured between the upper region and the lower region of the display screen described above, and the map drawing means transmits information capable of arbitrarily changing the display position to the band-like region. It is desirable to arrange in the area. Providing the band-shaped area makes it easier to see the boundaries between the upper and lower map images. Conventionally, information whose display position can be changed arbitrarily has been displayed on a map image in a dispersed manner in a peripheral area of the display screen. However, by arranging these in a band-like area, the map image is hidden. And the visibility of the map image can be further improved.

It is desirable that the area of the lower region of the display screen is set to be larger than the area of the upper region. This makes it easier to see the map image in the lower area, so that information placed on this map image is also easier to see. For this reason, for example, information that is considered to have higher priority is placed on the map image in the lower region, and information that is considered to have less priority is placed on the map image in the upper region. Thus, the arrangement state of each information can be set according to the priority.

An arrangement state setting means for setting the information to be arranged in the lower area and the information to be arranged in the upper area in accordance with a user's instruction, among the above various information, and operated by the user. Accordingly, it is desirable to further include input means for instructing the arrangement state to the arrangement state setting means. Thereby, each user can determine the priority of each information according to his / her preference and customize the arrangement state of various information according to this priority.

It is desirable that the map drawing means described above draws a map image by bird's-eye view display. By performing the bird's-eye view display, a map image that can be seen far away is displayed, so that the traveling direction of the vehicle can be easily checked. Further, the sense of depth generated by performing the bird's-eye view display makes it easier to grasp the positional relationship between the position of the vehicle and various kinds of information in a map image displayed symmetrically in the vertical direction.

[0013]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS A navigation device according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a detailed configuration of the navigation device of the present embodiment. 1 includes a navigation controller 1, a DVD 2, a disk reader 3, a remote control (remote control) unit 4, a vehicle position detector 5, a display device 6, a beacon transceiver 7, and an FM multiplex broadcast receiver 8. It is composed of

The navigation controller 1 controls the entire operation of the navigation device. The navigation controller 1 includes a CPU, ROM, RA
The function is realized by executing a predetermined operation program using M or the like. The detailed configuration of the navigation controller 1 will be described later.

The DVD 2 is an information storage medium storing map data necessary for map display, route search, and the like.
The disk reading device 3 includes one or more DVDs 2
Can be loaded, and the map data is read from any of the DVDs 2 under the control of the navigation controller 1. The loaded disc is not necessarily DVD
It does not need to be, and may be CD. Alternatively, both a DVD and a CD may be selectively loaded.

The remote control unit 4 is provided with various operation keys such as a joystick for specifying up, down, left, and right directions, a numeric keypad, and a decision key for confirming various settings.
Signals corresponding to the operation contents are sent to the navigation controller 1
Output to The vehicle position detection unit 5 includes, for example, a GPS receiver, a direction sensor, a distance sensor, and the like, detects a vehicle position (longitude, latitude) at a predetermined timing, and outputs a detection result.

The display device 6 displays various information such as a map image around the position of the vehicle based on the image data output from the navigation controller 1.
The beacon transceiver 7 performs two-way communication via radio waves mainly with a radio beacon installed on an expressway, and optically communicates with an optical beacon transceiver mainly installed on a general road. VI communication through two-way communication
It receives traffic information sent from a CS (road traffic information communication system) center. The FM multiplex broadcast receiver 8 receives traffic information included in multiplexed data superimposed on general FM broadcast. The traffic information received by the beacon transceiver 7 and the FM multiplex broadcasting receiver 8 includes traffic congestion information indicating how much traffic is congested at a specific location on the road, event information indicating an accident or freezing of the road, traffic closure or meeting Information such as traffic regulation is included.

Next, a detailed configuration of the navigation controller 1 will be described. The navigation controller 1 shown in FIG.
2, map drawing unit 14, arrangement state setting unit 16, VRAM1
8, vehicle position calculation unit 20, route search processing unit 22, guidance route memory 24, guidance route drawing unit 26, input processing unit 28,
It is configured to include an operation screen generation unit 30, an image synthesis unit 32, and a reception data buffer 34.

The map buffer 10 includes the disk reader 3
, The map data read from the DVD 2 is temporarily stored. The map readout control unit 12 includes a vehicle position calculation unit 2
In response to the vehicle position calculated by 0, a request from the input processing unit 28, and the like, a read request for map data in a predetermined range is output to the disk reading device 3.

The map drawing section 14 displays a map image including various information such as place names and traffic information based on the map data stored in the map buffer 10 and the traffic information stored in the reception data buffer 34. Generate map image data for The map drawing unit 14 of the present embodiment vertically divides the drawing area corresponding to each of the upper area and the lower area of the display screen of the display device 6 and draws a substantially symmetric map image in the vertical direction. I have.

FIG. 2 is a diagram schematically showing a map image drawing method. As shown in FIG. 2A, the map drawing unit 14
First draws a map image corresponding to the lower area (1). In the present embodiment, the map image is generated as a bird's-eye view in which a viewpoint is set at a predetermined position behind the vehicle position. Next, as shown in FIG. 2B, the map drawing unit 14 inverts the map image in the lower area (1) in the vertical direction and further reduces the map image in the vertical direction to correspond to the upper area (2). Generate a map image to be created.

Further, between the lower area (1) and the upper area (2), a strip area (3) where a map image is not displayed is secured. In the band-shaped area (3), information (for example, time, direction, address corresponding to the current vehicle position, and the like) in which the display position can be arbitrarily changed is arranged.

Further, place names, traffic information, facility marks, etc.
Information for which the display position is substantially fixed is distributed and arranged in each of the lower area (1) and the upper area (2) based on the arrangement state set by the arrangement state setting unit 16. In the following description, information for which the display position is substantially fixed is referred to as “position designation information”.

The arrangement state setting section 16 arranges various kinds of position designation information in a drawing area corresponding to either the upper area or the lower area of the display screen in accordance with a user's operation instruction using the remote control unit 4. Or set. For example, in the present embodiment, place names, traffic information, and the like are arranged in a drawing area corresponding to a lower area, and a facility mark or the like indicating the location of a facility such as a convenience store is arranged in a drawing area corresponding to an upper area. Assuming that the placement status is set to
The following will be described.

The VRAM 18 temporarily stores map image data output from the map drawing unit 14. The vehicle position calculation unit 20 calculates the own vehicle position and the own vehicle direction based on the detection data output from the vehicle position detection unit 5, and when the calculated own vehicle position is not on the road of the map data, A map matching process for correcting the own vehicle position is performed.

The route search processing unit 22 searches for a traveling route connecting a departure point and a destination (or a waypoint) specified by the user under predetermined conditions. For example, the shortest distance,
Under various conditions such as the shortest time, a traveling route that minimizes the cost is set as the guidance route. The guidance route data indicating the content of the guidance route set by the route search processing unit 22 is stored in the guidance route memory 24.

The guide route drawing unit 26 includes a route search processing unit 2
2 is selected from the guidance route data stored in the guidance route memory 24 set in step 2 and included in the map drawn in the VRAM 18 at that time, and a guidance route for displaying the guidance route over the map. Generate image data.

The input processing unit 28 outputs a command for performing an operation corresponding to various operation instructions input from the remote control unit 4 to each unit in the navigation controller 1. The operation screen generation unit 30 creates image data for displaying various operation screens (for example, an operation screen for setting the above-described arrangement state) according to an instruction from the input processing unit 28.

The image synthesizing section 32 superimposes the map image data read from the VRAM 18 corresponding to the position of the vehicle and the image data output from the operation screen generating section 30 to perform image synthesis. Output to the display device 6. The reception data buffer 34 stores traffic information received by the beacon transceiver 7 and the FM multiplex broadcast receiver 8.

The above-mentioned map buffer 10 serves as map data storage means, the map drawing section 14 serves as map drawing means, the display device 6, VRAM 18, and image synthesizing section 32 serve as map display means, and the placement state setting section 16 serves as placement state setting. The remote control unit 4 and the input processing unit 28 correspond to the input means.

The navigation device of this embodiment has such a configuration. Next, the operation of the navigation device when displaying a map image around the position of the vehicle will be described. FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing an operation procedure of the navigation device. It is assumed that a series of processing shown in FIG. 3 is repeatedly performed at predetermined time intervals.

[0032] The map reading control unit 12 includes a vehicle position calculation unit 2
A request to read map data in a predetermined range is sent to the disk reading device 3 based on the own vehicle position calculated by 0. As a result, map data in a predetermined range is read from the DVD 2 by the disk reader 3 and stored in the map buffer 10 (step 100).

Next, the map drawing unit 14 stores the map buffer 1
Using the map data stored in 0, map image data for displaying a map image in a drawing area corresponding to the lower area of the display screen is generated and stored in the VRAM 18 (step 101). As described above, the map image corresponding to the lower region is generated as a bird's-eye view in which the viewpoint is set at a predetermined position behind the own vehicle position.

After generating the map image data corresponding to the lower area, the map drawing section 14 uses this map image data to generate a map image for displaying the map image in the drawing area corresponding to the upper area. Data is generated and stored in the VRAM 18 (step 102). As described above, the map image data corresponding to the upper region is generated by inverting the map image data corresponding to the lower region in the vertical direction, and further performing a reduction process in the vertical direction.

Next, the map drawing section 14 acquires the setting of the arrangement state of the position designation information from the arrangement state setting section 16 and, based on this setting, places the position designation information in either the upper area or the lower area. Generate image data to be distributed and displayed and store it in the VRAM 18 (step 10).
3). As described above, in the present embodiment, place names, traffic information, and the like are arranged in the drawing area corresponding to the lower area, and facility marks indicating the locations of facilities such as convenience stores are arranged in the drawing area corresponding to the upper area. The arrangement state is set as follows.

Next, the map drawing section 14 generates image data for displaying information (information in which a display position can be arbitrarily set) arranged in a band-shaped area secured between the upper area and the lower area. Generated and stored in the VRAM 18 (step 1
04). In this manner, the image data generated by the map drawing unit 14 and stored in the VRAM 18 is read by the image synthesis unit 32 and output to the display device 6. The display device 6 displays a map image based on the image data output from the image combining unit 32 (Step 105). Then, step 10 described above is performed.
After returning to 0, the subsequent processing is repeated.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a specific example of the map image displayed in step 105. As shown in FIG. 4, a map image on which a bird's-eye view is displayed is displayed in the lower area, and a vehicle position mark 100 indicating the own vehicle position is displayed.
The traffic jam information 102 indicated by an arrow of a predetermined color, “XX
Position designation information such as a place name such as "town 3" is arranged. In the upper area, a map image obtained by inverting and reducing the map image of the lower area in the vertical direction is displayed. On the map image, a vehicle position mark 100 indicating the own vehicle position is displayed. A facility mark indicating the location of various facilities such as a parking lot, a convenience store, a gas station, and a parking lot (for example, a facility mark 120 indicating a parking lot) is arranged. A clock 1 indicating the current time is provided in the belt-shaped area.
10, a drive guide 112 indicating information useful for a drive (for example, a remaining distance to a destination, etc.), a compass 114 indicating a direction, and various other “information that can change the display position arbitrarily” are arranged.

As described above, in the navigation device of the present embodiment, a vertically symmetric map image is drawn.
Since the map image obtained by mirroring the map image of the lower region is displayed in the upper region, the positional relationship between the position designation information and the position of the vehicle can be easily grasped. In addition, since the position designation information is dispersedly arranged in the upper area and the lower area of the display screen, the amount of information included in the upper and lower map images can be reduced, and the legibility of the map image is improved. There is no loss.

Also, a predetermined band-shaped area is provided between the upper area and the lower area of the display screen, and the information whose display position can be changed arbitrarily is concentrated in this band-shaped area. The boundaries between the images can be easily understood, and the map images are not hidden by the information, so that the visibility of the map images can be further improved.

The present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment, and various modifications can be made within the scope of the present invention. For example, the setting of the arrangement state of the position designation information is not limited to the above-described contents, and the user can freely set it according to his / her preference. For example, in the above-described embodiment, the facility marks indicating the locations of facilities such as convenience stores are arranged on the map image in the upper area. However, for some users, these facility marks have a higher priority than other information. In some cases, the facility mark may be considered to be high, and in such a case, the facility mark may be set to be arranged in the lower area.

Further, in the above-described embodiment, the areas of the upper region and the lower region are made different, but the areas may be equal. In this case, the map image of the upper region can be generated simply by inverting the map image of the lower region in the vertical direction, so that the processing can be simplified.

In the above-described embodiment, the map image is displayed as a bird's-eye view. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and may be a flat map image.

[0043]

As described above, according to the present invention, since a map image obtained by mirroring the map image of the lower area is displayed in the upper area, the positional relationship between the vehicle position and various information is displayed. Can be intuitively recognized, and the positional relationship between the vehicle position and various information can be easily grasped. In addition, since various types of information are distributed and arranged in the upper and lower regions of the display screen, the amount of various types of information included in each of the upper and lower map images can be reduced, making the map images easier to read. There is no loss.

[Brief description of the drawings]

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

FIG. 2 is a diagram schematically showing a map image drawing method.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing an operation procedure of the navigation device.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a specific example of a map image displayed in step 105.

[Explanation of symbols]

 REFERENCE SIGNS LIST 1 navigation controller 2 DVD 3 disk reader 4 remote control (remote control) unit 5 vehicle position detector 6 display 7 beacon transceiver 8 FM multiplex broadcast receiver 10 map buffer 12 map readout controller 14 map drawing unit 16 arrangement state setting Unit 18 VRAM 20 vehicle position calculation unit 28 input processing unit 32 image synthesis unit 34 reception data buffer

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. A map data storage means for storing map data required for drawing a map image, and a map data storage means for vertically storing a drawing area corresponding to each of an upper area and a lower area of a display screen based on the map data. Map drawing means for drawing the symmetrical map image and dispersing various information corresponding to the map image in each of the upper area and the lower area; and the map image drawn by the map drawing means And a map display means for displaying a navigation device. 2. The display device according to claim 1, wherein a band-like area in which the map image is not displayed is secured between an upper area and a lower area of the display screen, and the map drawing means arbitrarily sets a display position. A navigation device, wherein changeable information is arranged in the band-shaped area. 3. The navigation device according to claim 1, wherein the lower region has a larger area than the upper region. 4. The method according to claim 1, wherein, among the various types of information, information to be arranged in the lower area and information to be arranged in the upper area are set in accordance with a user's instruction. A navigation device, comprising: an arrangement state setting unit; and an input unit that, when operated by a user, instructs the arrangement state setting unit to indicate an arrangement state. 5. The navigation device according to claim 1, wherein the map drawing means draws the map image by a bird's-eye view display.