JP2004257979A - Navigation apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a navigation apparatus with which a driver easily recognizes advancing direction at an intersection or the like, with no recording medium of a large capacity. <P>SOLUTION: The navigation apparatus is provided with an imaging means for imaging a landscape in the advancing direction, a display means for displaying the image that is imaged by the imaging means, a current position detecting means for detecting a current position, a storage means in which a route calculating map information for indicating connections of roads for searching a route is stored, and a route searching means which reads the route calculation map information out of the storage means to search the route from the current position to a destination. If the distance between the branching point on the route detected by the route detecting means and the current position detected by the current position detecting means comes to be a prescribed value or less, an image for guiding the advancing direction at the branching point is superposed on the image which is imaged by the imaging means, which is then displayed on the display means. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2004,JPO&NCIPI

Description

[0001]
TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a navigation device having a map display function of displaying a current position and a display function of a landscape image captured at a predetermined position on the map.
[0002]
[Prior art]
Conventionally, a navigation device detects the position of a vehicle, reads out map data around the vehicle position on an appropriate scale from a storage medium such as an optical disk, draws and displays a map image on a display device, and displays a vehicle position mark on a map. Draw and display on the image. Then, with the movement of the vehicle, the vehicle position mark on the screen is moved, or the vehicle position mark is fixed at the center of the screen or the like and the map is scrolled, so that the map information around the vehicle position can always be understood at a glance. It has become.
[0003]
By the way, when the navigation apparatus approaches a planned intersection on a planned route within a certain distance, an intersection guidance image including an intersection shape of the guidance target intersection by referring to map data (hereinafter referred to as an enlarged view of the intersection). Is read from a storage medium such as an optical disk, and is drawn on a part of the display device, and in the intersection guide image, a travel direction guide graphic is drawn by an arrow extending from the center of the intersection shape graphic in an intersection escape direction at the intersection shape graphic. In some cases, a driver can know which direction to proceed at an intersection.
[0004]
In order to make it easier for the driver to recognize the shape of the intersection, there is an example in which an enlarged intersection diagram is drawn with a bird's-eye view graphic (three-dimensional graphic) in addition to a map image of a planar graphic (two-dimensional graphic). When recognizing the intersection shape drawn on the display device, the driver must replace the drawn intersection shape with the actual intersection shape that is visually recognized. However, the actual landscape includes buildings and the like, and in order to quickly recognize the intersection shape drawn on the display device as information in the actual landscape, it is desirable to display the map image three-dimensionally as realistically as possible.
[0005]
Therefore, there is an intersection or the like in which the scale of a three-dimensional map is enlarged so that roads, buildings, and the like are made as close as possible to a real scene so that the driver can easily recognize the scale.
[0006]
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
However, storing the three-dimensional shapes of all the buildings and the like in the map image for all the intersections has a problem that the data amount of the map image increases and a large-capacity storage medium is required.
[0007]
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and provides a navigation device that allows a driver to easily recognize a traveling direction at an intersection or the like without requiring a large-capacity storage medium.
[0008]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
In order to achieve the above object, in a navigation device according to the present invention, an imaging unit for imaging a scenery in a traveling direction, a display unit for displaying an image captured by the imaging unit, and a current position for detecting a current position Detecting means, storage means for storing route calculation map information indicating connection relation of roads for route search, and reading the route calculation map information from the storage means to search for a route from a current position to a destination. A route search unit that, when a branch point on the route detected by the route detection unit and a current position detected by the current position detection unit are equal to or less than a predetermined distance, advances to an image captured by the imaging unit at the branch point; An image for guiding the power direction is superimposed and displayed on the display means.
[0009]
BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION
An embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.
[0010]
FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a main part of the embodiment. (1) is a control circuit constituted by a microcomputer or the like, and controls the entire navigation device based on a program written in the ROM (2). A GPS (Global Positioning System) positioning means (3) receives a radio wave from a GPS satellite, measures a current position, and outputs measurement data to a control circuit (1). (4) a map reproducing unit which reads map information from the optical disk on which the map information is written, and outputs the map information to the control circuit (1). The map information stored in the optical disc includes a route calculation map for calculating the own vehicle position and the route, and a map image for displaying a map image to be displayed on a display unit (6) described later. There is a drawing map, and at a predetermined point in the route calculation map, information indicating an attribute such as an intersection or a railroad crossing is stored. (5) is a camera which is attached to the front of a car or the like and captures scenery in the traveling direction. The display unit (6) is a liquid crystal monitor, and displays a map, a current position, and a scene captured by the camera (5) under the control of the control circuit (1). (7) is a RAM for storing information necessary for the operation of the control circuit (1).
[0011]
Next, the operation of the embodiment of the present invention will be described.
[0012]
FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing the operation of the control circuit (1).
[0013]
When the power of the navigation device is turned on, the GPS receiver (3) calculates a current position based on a signal from a GPS satellite and outputs the result to the control circuit (1). The control circuit (1) reads a current position and a planned traveling route to the destination input by the driver via input means (not shown) from the map reproducing unit and stores the read route in the RAM (7). The calculated travel route is calculated using the map and is superimposed on the drawing map read from the map reproducing unit (4) and displayed on the display unit (6) (step S1). The map to be displayed may be either a plane figure or a bird's-eye figure, and it is desirable that the map can be selected according to the driver's preference.
[0014]
With the movement of the navigation device, the current position and the distance from the current position on the planned route to the nearest intersection are monitored with reference to the route calculation map stored in the RAM (7). Is smaller than or equal to a predetermined distance (for example, 50 m) (step S2). When the distance to the nearest intersection to the current position becomes equal to or less than the predetermined distance (Y in step S2), the camera (5) is activated to capture an image of the scenery ahead (step S3). Then, the captured image is used as a background image and an arrow indicating the traveling direction at the intersection is superimposed and displayed on the display unit (6) (step S4). The background image may be displayed on a part of the display unit (6) so as to be superimposed on the map for drawing, or may be displayed on the entire display unit (6). A method of superimposing an arrow indicating a traveling direction on an image captured by the camera (5) will be described later.
[0015]
When it is determined that the current position has passed the intersection, the camera (5) is stopped, and the scenery image in front is deleted from the display unit (6) (step S6).
[0016]
The above steps S1 and S2 are repeated to provide route guidance from the departure place to the destination.
[0017]
In the above-described embodiment, the camera is activated when the distance to the intersection becomes equal to or less than the predetermined distance, and the captured scene is displayed on the display unit. However, the camera is always activated to capture the landscape. Then, when the distance to the intersection becomes equal to or less than a predetermined distance, the information may be displayed on the display unit.
[0018]
Next, a method of superimposing an arrow indicating a traveling direction on an image captured by the camera (5) will be described.
[0019]
The control circuit (1) recognizes the traveling road section (32) from the image (31) (see FIG. 3) captured by the camera (5), and the vertical position in the road section (32). It has a function of superposing the traveling direction and the like in the image (31) by calculating the actual distance from the current position to each position in the road section (32) based on H.
[0020]
In recognition of the road portion (32) from the image (31), the contour of each image element such as a road and a building in the image (31) is extracted. The detection is performed by detecting the contours (33) on both the left and right sides of the road extending vertically in the center of the extracted image (31). The recognition of the road portion (32) may be performed by detecting the center line (34) of the road, or the lane that is traveling by combining the detection result of the contour (33) and the center line (34). May be detected.
[0021]
The relationship between the height position H of each part of the road section (32) in the image (31) and the actual distance is as follows: each section in the road section (32) is from the current position to each position on the road to which the corresponding section corresponds. The longer the distance is, the higher it is located in the image (31). The relationship between the height position H on the image (32) and the actual distance is stored in the ROM (2) in advance. By doing so, the distance to each position on the road corresponding to each part in the road part (32) can be recognized. Then, the distance from the current position detected by the GPS receiving unit (3) to the intersection is calculated with reference to the route calculation map, and the position in the image (31) is the intersection using the calculated distance. You can see it. Then, the control circuit (1) superimposes on the image (31) an arrow indicating a direction to go on the intersection in the image (31) according to the scheduled traveling route calculated by the control circuit (1), and displays the arrow on the image (31). (See FIG. 4).
[0022]
【The invention's effect】
According to the present invention, since the arrow indicating the direction to go to the actual image is superimposed and displayed, the driver can intuitively grasp the traveling direction at the intersection without using a detailed line drawing map. The storage capacity of the storage medium for storing the map can be reduced.
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a main part of a navigation device according to the present invention.
FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing an operation of a control circuit of the navigation device of the present invention.
FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an image captured by a camera.
FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a state in which an arrow occupying a traveling direction is superimposed on an image captured by a camera.
[Explanation of symbols]
1 control circuit 2 ROM
3 GPS receiving unit 4 Map reproducing means 5 Camera 6 Display unit 7 RAM

Claims (1)

Imaging means for capturing the scenery in the traveling direction; display means for displaying an image captured by the imaging means; current position detection means for detecting the current position; and a route calculation for indicating a road connection relationship for a route search. Storage means for storing map information, route search means for reading the route calculation map information from the storage means and searching for a route from a current position to a destination, and a branch point on the route detected by the route detection means And when the current position detected by the current position detection unit is equal to or less than a predetermined distance, superimposing an image for guiding the direction to proceed at the branch point on the image captured by the imaging unit, and displaying the image on the display unit. A featured navigation device.

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