JP2005147707A - Navigation system and method - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a navigation system for easily recognizing an advancing direction. <P>SOLUTION: A plurality of photograph images 34, 36, 38 for a guide point 32 at one location are stored at a mass storage 26. When an automobile 17 approaches the guide point 32, a control section 22 compares a current position 40 of the automobile 17 with the position of the guide point 32, and specifies from which direction the automobile 17 approaches the guide point 32. A photograph image photographed from a specified direction is selected from a plurality of photograph images 34, 36, 38, and is displayed on an LCD 12. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2005,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to a navigation system mounted on a vehicle, and more particularly to a navigation system in which a driver can easily recognize a traveling direction.

  A navigation system that searches a travel route from an input starting point and destination and guides a vehicle along the route is generally popular. In the navigation system, by guiding the current position of the vehicle with GPS (Global Positioning System), guidance guidance according to the traveling position can be provided.

  For example, at a guide point such as an intersection, a two-dimensional map is enlarged and displayed on a liquid crystal monitor (LCD) to inform the driver of the traveling direction. However, the two-dimensional map has a problem that it is difficult to understand the traveling direction at a complicated intersection or a three-dimensional intersection.

  In order to solve the above problem, Patent Document 1 discloses a navigation system that displays roads and buildings in the vicinity of a guide point in three dimensions. In this navigation system, a 3D image of the vicinity of the guide point is created with virtual reality, and if the direction of travel is visually blocked by the building, the building is not displayed or blinked, etc. Is visible. In addition, in the navigation system of Patent Document 2, a photographed image near the guide point is used as a three-dimensional image in order to convey a more realistic image to the driver.

JP-A-9-318381 JP 2000-2221044 A

  However, the navigation system described in Patent Document 2 has problems that it is difficult to recognize the traveling direction or the building that serves as a mark is difficult to find when the captured direction of the captured image is different from the traveling direction of the vehicle.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above-described problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide a navigation system capable of easily recognizing a traveling direction and a landmark building while displaying a photographed image near a guidance point.

  The present invention is a navigation system that guides a route on the basis of an input starting point and destination and an intermittently detected current position of the vehicle mounted on a vehicle and when the current position approaches the guidance point. , An image reading means for reading a plurality of photographed images taken from a plurality of directions at the guidance position, an approach direction detecting means for detecting the approaching direction of the vehicle from the positional relationship between the current position and the guidance point, and the same direction as the approaching direction Display means for displaying a photographed image taken from the display panel on a display panel.

  The photographed images are taken from all the routes to the guide point, and the number of photographed images at one guide point matches the number of routes to the guide point.

  Of the plurality of photographed images at one guide point, one is designated as the default image in advance, and when the approaching direction of the vehicle cannot be detected, the default image is displayed on the display panel. When the default image is displayed on the display panel, a captured image other than the default image can be displayed.

  According to the navigation system of the present invention, when the current position approaches the guidance point, a plurality of photographed images obtained by photographing the guidance position from a plurality of directions are read out and photographed from the same direction as the approaching direction of the vehicle. Since the image is displayed on the LCD, the driver can easily find a building or the like as a landmark and can easily recognize the traveling direction.

  Furthermore, when the approaching direction of the vehicle cannot be detected, a default image is displayed on the LCD, so that a captured image is always displayed in any case.

  In FIG. 1, the navigation system 10 includes a liquid crystal monitor (LCD) 12, a GPS antenna (GPS) 14, and a navigation device 16. The LCD 12 and the GPS 14 are mounted on a dashboard 18 in the automobile 17, and the navigation device 16 is mounted on an audio control panel 20.

  FIG. 2 shows an electrical configuration of the navigation system 10. The navigation device 16 includes a control unit 22, a position / orientation detection unit 24, a mass storage device 26, an operation unit 28, a speaker 30, a RAM 32, and a ROM 34. The control unit 22 reads and executes a predetermined program recorded in the ROM 34, and comprehensively controls the operation of the navigation system 10. The position / orientation detection unit 24 analyzes the satellite radio wave signal from the GPS 14 and detects the current position of the automobile 17.

  For example, map data is recorded in advance in a mass storage device 26 such as a DVD or HDD. The two-dimensional map data is used to determine an appropriate travel route from the departure point to the destination input by the operation unit 28. In addition, the control unit 22 generates a map image 31 (see FIG. 3) from the map data and outputs it to the LCD 12. While the automobile 17 is traveling, a map image 31 near the current position of the automobile 17 is displayed on the LCD 12 at an appropriate scale, and the driver is guided and guided along with sound from the speaker 30.

  The large-capacity storage device 26 stores a plurality of photographed images for one guide point. The number of photographed images at a certain guide point is the same as the number of routes to that guide point. Specifically, if a T-shaped intersection as shown in FIG. 3 is a guide point 32, the guide point 32 can be reached from three directions A, B, and C. Therefore, three frames shown in FIGS. 4A to 4C are prepared as captured images of the guide point 32. Here, the captured images 34, 36, and 38 in FIGS. 4A to 4C are captured from the directions indicated by AC in FIG. 3, and are associated with each azimuth information. . When the car 17 approaches the guide point 32, the photographed image 34, 36, 38 that is associated with the direction closest to the direction of the car 17 is selected and displayed on the LCD 12.

  Next, the operation of the navigation system 10 will be described using the flowchart of FIG. In step S10, the driver inputs a starting point and a destination from the operation unit 28. Information on the departure point and the destination is sent to the control unit 22, and the control unit 22 reads the map data from the large-capacity storage device 26 and determines an appropriate travel route (S11). Next, the control unit 22 generates a map image 31 near the departure point from the map data and displays it on the LCD 12 at an appropriate scale. An example of the map image 31 displayed on the LCD 12 is shown in FIG. Furthermore, since voice guidance guidance is started through the speaker 30 (S12), the driver starts traveling according to the guidance guidance (S13).

  The position / orientation detection unit 24 detects the current position of the automobile 17 based on the satellite radio wave signal received by the GPS 14 (S14). Next, in step 15, it is determined whether the detected current position is within a predetermined range from the guide point 32. If the current position is not in the vicinity of the guide point, the map image 31 near the current position is displayed on the LCD 12 (S16), and the detected current position 40 is plotted on the map image 31 on the LCD 12 as shown in FIG. Is done.

  On the other hand, when it is determined in step S15 that the current position 40 is within the predetermined range from the guidance point 32, the control unit 22 compares the current position 40 of the automobile 17 with the position of the guidance point 32, From which direction the car 17 is approaching the guide point 32 is specified (S17). Then, of the plurality of photographed images 34, 36, and 38, one photographed from the specified direction is selected (S18) and displayed on the LCD 12 (S19).

  For example, when the automobile 17 is at the position shown in FIG. 6, it can be seen from the comparison between the current position 40 and the position of the guidance point 32 that the automobile 17 is approaching the guidance point 32 from the direction A. Then, the control unit 22 displays the photographed image 34 photographed from the direction A among the three photographed images 34, 36, and 38 on the LCD 12 (see FIG. 7). Since the arrow 41 indicating the traveling direction is superimposed on the captured image 34, the driver can easily recognize the traveling direction.

  Thereafter, the position / orientation detection unit 24 detects the current position again (S20), and determines whether or not the automobile 17 has passed the guide point 32 (S21). If it is determined that the car 17 has passed the guidance point 32, the process proceeds to step S22, and it is determined whether the car 17 has reached the destination. If it is determined that the destination has been reached, the navigation operation is terminated; otherwise, the process returns to step S14. Conversely, if it is determined that the vehicle has not yet passed through the guide point 32, the flow returns to step S19, and the selected photographed image 34 is continuously displayed.

  In the above embodiment, it may not be possible to detect from which direction the automobile 17 is approaching the guide point 32 for some reason. In this case, a default image (for example, the photographed image 36) selected in advance from the plurality of photographed images 34, 36, 38 is displayed. As shown in FIG. 8, a message indicating that the default image is displayed is displayed below the default image 36.

  When the default image 36 is not a photographed image photographed from the traveling direction of the automobile 17, the driver may switch the display to other photographed images 34 and 38 by operating the operation unit 28. In this way, even when the traveling direction of the automobile 17 cannot be detected, a desired captured image can be displayed.

  In the above embodiment, only the photographed image is displayed on the LCD 12 when the automobile 17 is in the vicinity of the guide point 32. However, as shown in FIG. 9, the captured image 34 may be displayed so as to overlap a part of the map image 31. Conversely, the map image 31 may be displayed so as to overlap a part of the captured image 34. In this way, the driver can see both the map image 31 and the captured image 34 at the same time, so that the travel route can be recognized more easily.

  In the above embodiment, the LCD is used as the display means, but the present invention is not limited to this. As the display means, for example, a CRT, PDP, organic EL, or the like may be used.

  In the above embodiment, the map data and the captured image are stored in advance in the large-capacity storage device 26. However, map data and captured images may be stored in the server. In this case, the car navigation system includes a wireless communication device, and the map data and the captured image are transmitted to the navigation system via the wireless communication device. Thus, if the map data and the captured image are unified, the update of the data becomes easy, and each user can always use the latest map data and the captured image transmitted from the server.

It is a perspective view which shows the inside of the motor vehicle carrying the navigation system of this invention. It is a block diagram which shows the electric constitution of a navigation system. It is explanatory drawing explaining the imaging | photography direction of the captured image in a guidance point. It is explanatory drawing which shows the picked-up image in a guidance point, and Fig.4 (a)-(c) each shows the picked-up image image | photographed from direction AC of FIG. It is a flowchart of a navigation operation. It is explanatory drawing which shows an example of the map image displayed on LCD. It is explanatory drawing which shows the state by which the selected picked-up image was displayed on LCD. It is explanatory drawing which shows an example of the default image displayed on LCD. It is explanatory drawing in the case of displaying a picked-up image on a part of map image.

Explanation of symbols

10 Navigation system 34, 36, 38 Captured image 36 Default image

Claims (5)

In a navigation system that guides the route from the departure point to the destination based on the current position of the vehicle,
Storage means for storing a plurality of photographed images obtained by photographing a guide point from a plurality of directions;
An approach direction detecting means for detecting an approach direction of the vehicle from a positional relationship between the current position and the guide point when the current position approaches the guide point;
A navigation system comprising: control means for selecting the photographed image photographed from the direction closest to the approaching direction and displaying it on a display.   The navigation system according to claim 1, wherein the number of the captured images at the guide point coincides with the total number of the routes that reach the guide point.   3. The navigation system according to claim 1, wherein when the approach direction of the vehicle cannot be detected, the control unit selects a predetermined designated image from the plurality of captured images at the guidance point. 4. .   The navigation system according to claim 3, wherein when the designated image is displayed on the display, the captured image other than the designated image can be displayed. In a navigation method that guides the route from the departure point to the destination based on the current position of the vehicle,
A plurality of captured images obtained by photographing a guide point from a plurality of directions are stored, and when the current position approaches the guide point, an approach direction of the vehicle is detected from a positional relationship between the current position and the guide point. A navigation method comprising: selecting and displaying the photographed image photographed from a direction closest to the approaching direction on a display.

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