JP2002286487A - Navigation device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To perform guidance at a branch point easily underandably a navigation device. SOLUTION: An area name display 40 is performed at a part of a guidance display 41 at the branch point. A road name 45 of a road to proceed and a route mark 47 corresponding to the road name 45 as well as an area name 46 are displayed in the area name display 40. The road name 45 is expressed in such a way as to include an attribute such as a national road and a loop high way which indicate the type of road and a road number on the road to proceed after passage through the branch point along a guided route. The route mark 47 is displayed in the combination of a diagram corresponding to the type of road and the numeric character of the road number.

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 guiding a driver or the like of a vehicle on a route, and a navigation device having a function of guiding a traveling direction at a junction.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Hitherto, a navigation device has been used which provides driving assistance such as route guidance to a vehicle traveling on a road based on road information such as road map data. If the departure point and the destination point are designated, the route to be guided can be searched and set in advance. In navigation devices, the Global Positioning System
Based on a satellite navigation system abbreviated as PS, autonomous navigation, or the like, the position of the own vehicle during travel is detected, displayed on a road map, or guided to travel along a preset route. Driving support such as.

[0003] The route on which a vehicle travels may include a road other than a general road, such as an expressway, a toll road, or a motorway. In such a road, there is a branch point where the user must select whether to continue traveling on the road or to escape from the road and travel. In addition, there is a branch point that enters a road other than a general road from a general road. At the junction of the actual road, the main destination is "Direction"
It is often displayed with a. The driver of the vehicle
The branch point corresponding to the destination of traveling is selected while looking at the display to which "direction" is attached. Some navigation devices have a function of providing guidance by displaying such a “direction”.

[0004]

The guidance of a branch point with the name "direction" is easy to understand when the course desired by the driver matches the place name indicated with the "direction". However, when the course is a route change from the traveling road to another road, and the destination arrives after traveling on the other road, the destination is not directly related to the destination. Therefore, guidance with the name of “direction” is not always effective driving support.

An object of the present invention is to provide a navigation device which can provide guidance at a branch point in an easily understandable manner.

[0006]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention provides a function of guiding a traveling direction by displaying a direction name based on a place name when a branch point exists on a route to be guided while referring to road map data. In a navigation device having a name, a name extracting means for extracting a road name indicating a road existing in a direction (track) to be followed after passing through the branch point from road map data, and a road name extracted by the name extracting means,
A navigation device characterized by including name guidance means for indicating and guiding together with a direction name.

According to the present invention, the navigation device comprises:
When there is a branch point in the route to be guided while referring to the road map data, the route guidance unit has a function of guiding the traveling direction by displaying a direction name based on the place name, and the name extracting unit and the name guiding unit are provided. Including. The name extracting means extracts, from the road map data, a road name indicating a road to go after passing through the branch point. The name guidance means guides the road name extracted by the name extraction means together with the direction name. At a junction, a road name indicating the road to go after passing the junction is displayed along with a direction name that indicates the traveling direction based on the place name, so even if the destination on the route does not match the direction name, the road The guidance of the branch point can be easily understood from the name.

[0008] The present invention is further characterized by further comprising display selection means for selecting whether or not to display the road name by the name guidance means in accordance with an operation input from a user.

According to the present invention, it is possible to select whether or not to display the road name by the name guide means in accordance with an operation input from the user to the display selection means. It is possible to determine whether or not to add a road name display to the guidance.

In the present invention, the road name includes an attribute representing a type of the road and a road number assigned in correspondence with the type of the road.

According to the present invention, the road name includes an attribute representing the type of road and a road number assigned in correspondence with the type of road. The attribute based on the jurisdiction, the attribute based on the function of the road such as “ring” or “radiation” and the number of the attribute can be combined and displayed as “National Highway No. 1”.

[0012] Further, the present invention also provides a graphic storage means for preliminarily associating a graphic with each road type and storing graphic data for generating the graphic, and a guide for the road name by the name guide means. In some cases, the apparatus further comprises graphic display means for reading graphic data corresponding to the type of road to be guided from the graphic storage means and displaying the graphic together with the road number.

According to the present invention, a figure is previously associated with each type of road, and figure data for generating the figure is stored in the figure storage means. At the time of guidance of the road name by the name guidance means, the graphic display means reads the graphic data corresponding to the type of the road to be guided from the graphic storage means,
Display the figure with the road number. If a figure is a road sign provided along an actual road, for example, and the road is shaped like a figure used when displaying "National Highway No. 1," etc., a display that makes it easy to understand the correspondence relationship with the road can be obtained. It can be carried out.

Further, the present invention is a computer-readable recording medium in which a program for causing a computer to operate as any one of the navigation devices described above is recorded.

According to the present invention, by causing a computer to read a program recorded on a recording medium, the computer can be operated as a navigation device capable of providing easy-to-understand guidance at a branch point.

Further, the present invention includes attribute data representing the type of road, road number data assigned to the type of road, and data for providing direction guidance for a branch point provided on the road. This is a computer-readable recording medium on which road map data is recorded.

According to the present invention, on the recording medium, direction guidance is provided for the attribute data indicating the type of road, the road number data assigned corresponding to the type of road, and the branch point provided on the road. And road map data including the data for recording. If the computer reads the road map data from the recording medium, the road to which the vehicle should proceed after passing through the branch point is guided by the attribute representing the type of road and the road number assigned to the type of road. Can be displayed.

[0018]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS FIG. 1 shows a schematic electrical configuration of a navigation device 1 having a function of providing a direction guidance at a branch point on a route as an embodiment of the present invention. The route to be guided is set between points input based on settings from a user of the navigation device 1 such as a driver of a vehicle.

The navigation apparatus 1 detects the current position of the vehicle, that is, the autonomous navigation using the direction sensor 2 and the distance sensor 3 or the GPS4. As the azimuth sensor 2, a gyro sensor that integrates a gyro signal that detects a change in the azimuth of the vehicle as a yaw rate, or the like can be used. The distance sensor 3 is realized by a combination of a magnet that detects the traveling distance of the vehicle and rotates together with the axle, and a magnetic sensor that includes a reed switch or the like that switches a connection state according to a change in a magnetic field. In the autonomous navigation, the azimuth detected by the azimuth sensor 2 and the travel distance detected by the distance sensor 3 are combined to display the travel locus of the vehicle as a combination of vectors, and the relative current position with respect to the starting point Is calculated. The GPS 4 receives radio waves from a plurality of artificial satellites launched around the earth, and can absolutely detect the position of the vehicle as coordinates represented on the earth's surface by latitude and longitude. Also, using the receiver 5, the Vehicle Information and Communication System
It is also possible to receive road traffic information abbreviated as VICS from m.

The navigation device 1 inputs signals from the direction sensor 2, the distance sensor 3, the GPS 4 and the receiver 5 to the processing device 7 via the interface 6. The processing device 7 includes a CPU 8, a ROM 9, and a RAM.
10 and the like. The CPU 9 provides guidance for driving assistance of the vehicle according to a program stored in the ROM 9 or a program developed in the RAM 10.
A user of the navigation device 1 such as a driver of the vehicle,
By operating the input device 11, an input to the processing device 7 is performed. The driving support from the processing device 7 to the driver is output from the output device 1.
2 is performed. The output device 12 includes a display device 13 such as a liquid crystal display device (LCD), a graphic memory 14 for expanding image data displayed on the display device 13,
A graphic controller 15 that performs a drawing process of image data to be developed in the graphic memory 14;
And a display controller 16 for controlling the display state of the image displayed in step 3. The support for the driver of the vehicle is also provided by voice via the voice conversion device 17. Voice conversion device 1
Reference numeral 7 denotes a D / A 18 which is a digital / analog converter for converting digital data output from the processing device 7 into an analog signal, and a sound which amplifies the analog signal converted by the D / A 18 and outputs it as an acoustic signal. And a playback device 19.

The processing device 7 converts the road map data into Digita data.
l Reads from the Versatile Disk from the DVD-ROM 20 or the like as an optical large-capacity recording medium, abbreviated as DVD, and performs processing for driving assistance. The program developed in the RAM 10 can be read from a large-capacity recording medium. The DVD-ROM 20 is a DVD-ROM driver 2
1 and can be attached to and detached from the DVD-ROM 20.
When mounted on the OM driver 21 and rotated at high speed, optically recorded data can be read. The read data is decoded by the DVD-ROM decoder 22 and input to the processing device 7.

The DVD-ROM 20 used in the navigation apparatus 1 according to the present embodiment includes an end point such as an entrance road or an exit road in relation to a road different from a general road, such as an expressway, a toll road, or a motorway. At a branch point serving as a starting point, data for guiding by a direction name, attribute data indicating a type of road, road number data assigned to the type, and the like are recorded in advance. The user of the navigation device 1, such as the driver of the vehicle, has a DVD
-By attaching the ROM 20 to the DVD-DVD driver 21, it becomes possible to receive guidance including the direction name and the road name based on the attribute and number of the road at the branch point. The data for guidance at the branch point and the road map data include not only DVD-ROM 20 but also CD-ROM.
-It may be recorded on another type of recording medium such as a ROM. Further, a large-capacity hard disk device can be mounted on the navigation device 1 and stored in the hard disk device.

FIG. 2 shows a configuration of functions of the navigation device 1 realized based on a program operation of the processing device 7 of FIG. The navigation device 1 includes a map storage medium 20 corresponding to the DVD-ROM 20 of FIG. 1 and includes a point registration device 23, a route search device 24, a route guidance device 25, a drawing / display control device 26, and a vehicle position detection device 27. Including functions. The point registration device 23 registers a point input from the input device 11 of FIG. 1 in a storage area set in advance in a storage device that is the RAM 10. The route search device 24 searches for a route from the departure place to the destination among the points registered in the point registration device 23. The route guidance device 25 performs guidance for assisting the driver so that the vehicle travels along the route searched by the route search device 24. In the present embodiment, route guidance accompanied with direction guidance is also performed at the junction. Drawing / display control device 26
Controls the output device 12 when the route guidance device 25 provides guidance by image display via the display device 13. The own-vehicle position detecting device 27 detects the own-vehicle position based on the outputs from the direction sensor 2, the distance sensor 3, and the GPS 4, as described above. The host vehicle position detection device 27 also has a function of performing map matching using the road map data read from the DVD-ROM 20 so that the detected host vehicle position exists on the road.

In the navigation device 1 of the present embodiment,
A function of displaying a direction name based on a place name or providing voice guidance when a branch point exists in a route to be guided, while referring to road map data stored in the map storage medium 20 in advance. And the route guidance device 2
5 includes a name extracting means 28, a name guiding means 29, and a database 30. The name extracting means 28 extracts, from the road map data, a road name indicating a road to which the vehicle should proceed after passing through the branch point. The name guidance unit 29 provides guidance by indicating the road name extracted by the name extraction unit together with the direction name. At the branch point, a road name indicating a road to go after passing through the branch point is displayed together with a direction name indicating the traveling direction based on the place name. Further, voice guidance using a road name may be performed. Even if the destination on the route does not match the direction name, guidance of the branch point can be easily understood from the road name. The database 30 is set on the RAM 10 of FIG. 1 and stores in advance the direction name for each branch point, the road attribute and the road number of the road to which the entering or leaving road is connected at each branch point.

FIG. 3 shows a schematic configuration of the database 30 shown in FIG. FIG. 3A shows a branch point 31 (from A to B
FIG. 3B shows the contents stored in the database 30 for the branch point 31. FIG. 3 (a)
At the branch point 31 shown in FIG. 1, a guideway 34 between a road 33 and a road 33 that crosses the road 32 at an elevated level is provided. It is assumed that the road 32 is a general road, and the road 33 is a circular highway 1 of an urban expressway. In the part of the database 30 shown in FIG. 3B corresponding to the branch point 31, the main place name when the vehicle escapes from the road 32 at the branch point 31 is stored as "direction" data. Separately, “road type” data and “road number” of the road 33
"Metropolitan Expressway" and "Circular Route 1" are stored as data, respectively. The "road number" is a name for specifying a route, and includes not only a numeral but also an alphabetic character or a route name such as "Kobe Line" and "Wangan Line" in "Hanshin Expressway".

FIG. 4 shows the database 3 shown in FIG.
5 shows an example of a guidance display 41 to which a direction name display 40 based on 0 is added. In the guidance display 41, a display including an enlarged map 42 near the junction 31, a vehicle position 43, and a route display 44 is performed using the display screen of the display device 13 in FIG. The direction name display 40 includes a road name 45, a direction name 46, and a route mark 47. The road name 45 is displayed by combining the “road type” data and the “road number” data shown in FIG. Area name 4
No. 6 is displayed with “direction” added to the “direction” data shown in FIG. The route mark 47 is displayed by combining the figure corresponding to the attribute of the road represented by the “road type” data with the numeral of the “road number” data.

That is, the road name 45 includes an attribute representing the type of the road and a road number assigned in correspondence with the type of the road. The type of road can be represented using attributes based on the jurisdiction of the road, such as "National highway" or "Prefectural road", or the name of an expressway such as "Highway", "Metropolitan expressway", or "Hanshin Expressway". it can.

FIG. 5 shows an example of graphic data for displaying the route mark 47 shown in FIG. The graphic data is stored in advance in the ROM 9 of FIG. 1 together with the program, or is read out from the ROM 9 or the DVD-ROM 20 and expanded on the RAM 10. That is, the RAM 10
Stores, as a figure storage means, a figure in advance in which a figure is associated with each type of road, and figure data for generating the associated figure is stored. The stored graphic data is read out in correspondence with the type of the road to be guided when the road name is guided by the name guiding means 29, and is displayed together with a number or symbol representing the road number. The combination of a figure and a number or symbol is displayed by the drawing / display control device 26 in FIG. 2 as a figure display means.

If the graphic is a road sign provided along an actual road, for example, and the road is made to have a shape close to the graphic used when displaying "National Highway No. 1," etc., the correspondence with the road can be understood. Easy display can be performed.

FIG. 6 shows another example of the direction guidance accompanied by the display of the road name at the branch point. It should be noted that the road names are for convenience of explanation and do not have a direct relationship with the actual road names. In FIG. 6A, a branch point 51 of a road 50 that is “National Highway 1” is an intersection with a road 52 that is “National Highway 2”. It is assumed that the guidance by the route display 54 is performed so as to branch to the road 53 of "." Junction 51
Then, the road that should proceed after the branch is road 53,
“National highway No. 3” indicating the road name of the road 53 is displayed. In FIG. 6B, a branch point 61 of the road 60 which is “National Highway 1” escapes to the road 62, and further, “National Highway 2”.
It is assumed that the guidance by the route display 64 is performed so as to branch to the road 63 which is. At the intersection 65 between the road 60 and the road 63, the road crosses over and is not directly connected. Therefore, in order to change the route from the road 60 to the road 63, the road 62 must be passed once. At the branch point 61 in this case, since the road to be advanced after the branch is the road 63, “National Highway 2” indicating the road name of the road 63 is displayed.

In the embodiment described above, the navigation device 1 performs the direction name guidance with the display of the road name as the driving assistance when the vehicle runs.
There may be no need for road name guidance. For example, at a branch point, a point indicated by a direction name may be a destination. Further, even when the driver of the vehicle passes the same route many times, there is a possibility that guidance for branching may be sufficient. In such a case, for example, by allowing the input device 11 of FIG. 1 to input whether or not road name guidance is possible, a navigation device that is easy for the user to use can be provided. Further, when a plurality of branch points are to be provided for guidance, permission / inhibition may be individually settable for each branch point, or permission / inhibition may be set collectively as a whole.

[0032]

As described above, according to the present invention, at the branch point of the route to be guided, the road name indicating the road to which the vehicle should proceed after passing through the branch point, together with the direction name indicating the traveling direction based on the place name Is displayed, the guidance of the branch point can be easily understood.

Further, according to the present invention, it is possible to select whether or not to display the road name in the guidance of the junction according to the operation input from the user at the discretion of the user. The user
When it is determined that it is easier to understand that the direction guidance at the junction is accompanied by the display of the road name, the display of the road name can be performed.

According to the present invention, the road name includes an attribute indicating the type of the road and a road number assigned in correspondence with the type of the road. And guide you in a way that is easy to understand.

Further, according to the present invention, since a figure previously associated with each type of road is displayed with a road number attached thereto, a display in which the correspondence with the road can be easily understood can be performed.

Further, according to the present invention, it is possible to operate a computer as a navigation device, and to provide guidance that is easy to understand at a branch point.

Further, according to the present invention, if the computer reads the road map data, the road to which the vehicle should proceed after passing through the branch point is assigned in correspondence with the attribute indicating the type of road and the type of road. It is possible to display such that guidance is provided along with the road number, so that guidance at a branch point can be performed easily.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a schematic electrical configuration of a navigation device 1 as one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a functional configuration of the navigation device 1 of FIG.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an example of a branch point and an example of a database 30 in FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a display screen of a direction name display 40 based on the database 30 of FIG.

FIG. 5 is a diagram schematically showing an example of graphic data included in a direction name display 40 of FIG. 4;

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an example of a branch point at which a direction name display accompanied by a road name display is performed by the navigation device 1 of FIG. 1;

[Explanation of symbols]

REFERENCE SIGNS LIST 1 navigation device 7 processing device 8 CPU 9 ROM 10 RAM 11 input device 12 output device 13 display device 17 audio device 19 audio reproduction device 20 DVD-ROM 23 point registration device 24 route search device 25 route guidance device 26 drawing / display control Device 27 Own-vehicle position detection device 28 Name extraction means 29 Name display means 30 Database 31, 51, 61 Junction point 32, 33, 50, 52, 53, 60, 62, 63 Road 40 Direction name display 41 Guide display 44, 54 , 64 Route display 45 Road name 46 Direction name 47 Route mark

 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continuing on the front page (71) Applicant 000005821 Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. 1006 Kadoma, Oji, Kadoma, Osaka (71) Applicant 000100768 Aisin AW Co., Ltd. 10 Takane, Fujiicho, Anjo, Aichi, Japan (72 ) Inventor Masatsugu Uemura Fujitsu Ten Co., Ltd. 1-2-28 Goshodori, Hyogo-ku, Kobe-shi, Hyogo Prefecture (72) Inventor Jun Atsushi Ichimura 1-2-28 Goshodori, Hyogo-ku, Kobe-shi, Hyogo Fujitsu Ten Limited (72) Inventor Hidenobu Suzuki 1 Toyota Town, Toyota City, Aichi Prefecture Inside Toyota Motor Corporation (72) Inventor Toru Kurita 1-1-1 Showacho, Kariya City, Aichi Prefecture Denso Corporation (72) Inventor Nagaoka Hiroki Kanagawa Prefecture Yokohama City Kohoku-ku 4-3-1 Amishima Higashi Matsushita Communication Industrial Co., Ltd. (72) Inventor Ryuji Yaegashi Kanagawa Matsushita Communication Industrial Co., Ltd., 3-3-1 Amishimahigashi, Kohoku-ku, Yokohama-shi (72) Inventor Yukihiro Nagata 6-18 Okamachi Harayama, Okazaki-shi, Aichi Aisin AW Co., Ltd. (72) Inventor Nakajima Hideki 6-18 Harayama, Okamachi, Okazaki City, Aichi Prefecture F-term (reference) 2C032 HC08 HC21 HD07 2F029 AA02 AB01 AB07 AB13 AC02 AC09 AC13 AC16 AC18 5H180 AA01 BB13 CC12 FF04 FF05 FF13 FF24 FF25 506 CC07 FF04 HH05

Claims (6)

[Claims] 1. A navigation device having a function of guiding a traveling direction by displaying a direction name based on a place name when a branch point exists on a route to be guided while referring to road map data. Name extraction means for extracting a road name indicating a road existing in the direction to be traveled after passing the point from the road map data, and name guidance means for indicating and guiding the road name extracted by the name extraction means. A navigation device characterized by the above-mentioned. 2. The navigation apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a display selection unit that selects whether or not to display the road name by the name guidance unit in accordance with an operation input from a user. 3. The navigation device according to claim 1, wherein the road name includes an attribute representing a type of the road and a road number assigned to the type of the road. 4. A graphic storage means for preliminarily associating a graphic with each of the types of roads and storing graphic data for generating the graphic, and a guide for guiding the road name by the name guide means. 4. The navigation apparatus according to claim 3, further comprising: graphic display means for reading graphic data corresponding to the type of road to be read from the graphic storage means and displaying a graphic together with the road number. 5. A computer-readable recording medium in which a program for causing a computer to operate as the navigation device according to claim 1 is recorded. 6. Road map data including attribute data representing a type of road, road number data assigned to the type of road, and data for providing direction guidance for a branch point provided on the road. A computer-readable recording medium having recorded thereon.