JP2004144721A - Route guidance system - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a route guide system capable of eliminating the duplicated indication of a plurality of icons. <P>SOLUTION: This route guide system is provided with a displaying part 7 for displaying the information related to a guidance route, a superimposing detection part 5 for detecting the superimposing state of a plurality of icons displayed on the displaying part 7, a priority judging part 6 for judging the priority related to each icon displayed, and a display control part 2 for controlling so as not to display the icon lower in priority among the icons in which the superimposing is produced when the superimposing detection part 5 judges that the superimposing of the icons displayed is produced. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2004,JPO

Description

[0001]
TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a route guidance device mounted on a vehicle, and more particularly to a technique for eliminating annoyance caused by overlapping icons.
[0002]
[Prior art]
A route guidance device mounted on a vehicle is, for example, disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2001-307121 (hereinafter, referred to as Patent Document 1) on a display screen from a current position of the vehicle to a desired destination. The route information up to is displayed. Further, a facility icon indicating a point of interest existing near the current location or near the guidance route is displayed, and when the operator selects a desired one of the facility icons, information on the point of interest is provided.
[0003]
Further, when the facility icons are crowded, a process of correcting the display position is performed based on the overlapping state of the icons.
[0004]
[Patent Document 1]
JP 2001-307121 A (FIG. 1)
[0005]
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
However, in the route guidance device described in Patent Document 1 described above, when a plurality of points of interest are densely present, the icon position is corrected and displayed, and a space for shifting and displaying is secured. If it is not possible to do so, there is a problem that the overlapping display of the icons cannot be avoided and it is difficult to confirm the display contents of the facility icons.
[0006]
The present invention has been made to solve such a conventional problem, and an object of the present invention is to provide a route guidance device capable of preventing a decrease in visibility due to overlapping of facility icons. It is in.
[0007]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
In order to achieve the above object, the present invention is directed to a route guidance device mounted on a vehicle and guiding a route to a destination of the vehicle, a display unit for displaying information about a guidance route on a screen, and a screen displayed on the display unit. Overlap detecting means for detecting an overlapping state of a plurality of icons to be displayed, priority determining means for determining the priority of each icon displayed on the screen, and the icon displayed on the screen by the overlap detecting means. And a display control unit that controls not to display an icon with a low priority among icons in which the overlap occurs, when it is determined that the overlap occurs.
[0008]
【The invention's effect】
In the route guidance apparatus according to the present invention, a priority is set for each icon, and when a plurality of icons are displayed in an overlapping manner, control is performed so that an icon having a low priority is not displayed. Therefore, even when a large number of icons are displayed in a dense manner, this can be avoided, and the trouble caused by the overlapping display of the icons can be avoided.
[0009]
BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION
Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of an embodiment of a route guidance device according to the present invention. As shown in FIG. 1, the route guidance device 1 is mounted on a vehicle to provide route information to a destination of the vehicle, and includes a map database 3 in which map data relating to route guidance is stored and stored. A display unit (display means) 7 for displaying information on the route to be guided on the screen, an overlap detection unit (overlap detection means) 5 for detecting an overlap state between facility icons (icons indicating points of interest) displayed on the display unit 7; A priority judging unit (priority judging means) 6 for judging the priority of each of the facility icons when a plurality of facility icons are displayed redundantly.
[0010]
Further, map data that is a route from the current position of the vehicle to the destination is read out from the map database 3 and displayed on the display unit 7, and the overlap status of the facility icons obtained from the overlap detection unit 5 and the priority determination unit And a display control unit (display control means) 2 for controlling display of facility icons based on the priority information obtained from the control unit 6.
[0011]
In addition, a search frequency storage unit (search frequency storage means) 8a that counts and stores the number of searches for facility icons selected by the operator in the past, and a drop-in frequency storage that counts and stores the number of times the facility has actually stopped. The memory 8 includes a memory (stopping frequency storage means) 8b and an input unit 4 for inputting various types of operation input information.
[0012]
Next, the operation of the route guidance device 1 according to the present embodiment will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG.
[0013]
First, when the ACC (accessory) of the vehicle is turned on (step ST1), under the control of the display control unit 2, map data serving as a guidance route is read from the map database 3 and displayed on the display unit 7, and further, The overlap detection unit 5 determines whether or not the facility icons included in the map data overlap each other (step ST2).
[0014]
If the facility icons do not overlap (NO in step ST2), the display is performed as it is (step ST4). On the other hand, if the facility icons overlap (YES in step ST2), the priority determination unit 6 performs the overlap display based on the past search frequencies stored in the search frequency storage unit 8a. A process of setting priorities for a plurality of facility icons is performed, and facility icons having a high priority are selected. Then, the display control unit 2 superimposes and displays the selected facility icon on the map data displayed on the display unit 7 (step ST3). That is, when there are a plurality of facility icons that overlap with each other, a process of displaying the highest priority icon and not displaying the low priority icon is performed.
[0015]
In this process, the priority of the facility icon may be determined based on the number of times of visits stored in the visit frequency storage unit 8b. The priority can be determined using both the contents and the contents stored in the drop-in frequency storage unit 8b.
[0016]
Here, the number of stops stored in the stop frequency storage unit 8b can be counted as the number of times the ignition is turned off when the vehicle is actually present at the facility.
[0017]
When the guidance route information is displayed on the display unit 7 by the above-described processing (step ST5), it is monitored whether or not there is a change in the map display (step ST6). (NO in step ST6), it is determined whether or not ACC is off (step ST8). If it is off (YES in step ST8), the process ends.
[0018]
On the other hand, if there is a change in the map display (YES in step ST6), it is determined whether or not the facility icons superimposed and displayed on the changed map data overlap each other (step ST7).
[0019]
If the facility icons do not overlap (NO in step ST7), the display is performed as it is (step ST10). If the facility icons overlap (YES in step ST7), the priority determination unit 6 performs the overlap display based on the past search frequencies stored in the search frequency storage unit 8a. A process of setting priorities for a plurality of facility icons is performed, and facility icons having a high priority are selected. Then, the display control unit 2 superimposes and displays the selected facility icon on the map data displayed on the display unit 7 (step ST9).
[0020]
In this process, similarly to step ST3, the priority of the facility icon can be determined based on the number of times of visit stored in the visit frequency storage unit 8b. The priority can be determined using both the storage content of the search frequency storage unit 8a and the storage content of the drop-in frequency storage unit 8b.
[0021]
Then, the map display is continued (step ST11), and when ACC is on (NO in step ST12), the processing from step ST6 is repeated, and when ACC is off (YES in step ST12, ST13), The process ends.
[0022]
Thus, display control of a suitable facility icon according to the priority of the facility icon is performed.
[0023]
In this way, in the route guidance device 1 according to the present embodiment, when a plurality of facility icons are displayed in an overlapping manner, only the facility icon having the highest priority among the facility icons is displayed. Thus, the problem that a plurality of facility icons are displayed overlapping each other can be solved. Therefore, the operator can visually recognize only the facility icon with a high priority, so that the visibility and the operability can be improved.
[0024]
In addition, the number of times of searching for facility icons in the past is stored and stored in the search frequency storage unit 8a, and the priority is determined based on the stored data, so that the priority can be set with high accuracy.
[0025]
Further, the number of times the user has actually visited the facility in the past is stored and stored in the visit frequency storage unit 8b, and the priority can be set with high accuracy by determining the priority based on the stored data. Become. In addition, the number of stops stored in the drop-in frequency storage unit 8b can be extremely easily counted by counting the number of times the ignition is turned off when the vehicle is actually present at the facility. .
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a route guidance device according to an embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing a processing operation of the route guidance device according to one embodiment of the present invention.
[Explanation of symbols]
Reference Signs List 1 route guidance device 2 display control unit 3 map database 4 input unit 5 overlap detection unit 6 priority determination unit 7 display unit 8 memory 8a search frequency storage unit 8b drop-in frequency storage unit

Claims (4)

In a route guidance device mounted on a vehicle and guiding a route to a destination of the vehicle,
Display means for displaying information on the guidance route on a screen,
Overlap detection means for detecting an overlap state of a plurality of icons displayed on the screen by the display means,
Priority determining means for determining the priority of each icon displayed on the screen,
In the overlap detection means, when it is determined that the icons displayed on the screen overlap, display control means for controlling not to display a low priority icon among the icons in which the overlap occurs,
A route guidance device comprising: A search frequency storage unit that counts and stores the number of searches by the operator for each of the icons,
2. The route guidance device according to claim 1, wherein the priority determining unit determines that an icon having a large number of searches stored in the search frequency storage unit is an icon having a high priority. Each of the icons is an icon indicating a point of interest existing near the route, and includes a drop-in frequency storage unit that counts and stores the number of times of actual drop-in at the point of interest corresponding to the icon,
2. The route guidance apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the priority determining unit determines that an icon with a large number of visits stored in the visit frequency storage unit is an icon with a high priority. The route guidance device according to claim 3, wherein the count of the number of stops to the point of interest by the stop frequency storage unit is obtained as the number of times the ignition is turned off at the point of interest.

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