JP2005189060A - Car navigation device - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a car navigation device wherein display is kept off before an engine key switch is operated, and the display and execution of a car navigation function program are started just as the key switch is on-operated without any waiting time. <P>SOLUTION: An activation process is started on background by receiving the input of a trigger signal precedent to the on-operation of the engine key switch. When the key switch has turned to an on state, information display is immediately started on foreground on a display for indication. Subsequently, the completion of the activation process is checked to start the execution of the car navigation function program. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2005,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to a car navigation apparatus mounted on a vehicle, and more particularly to a car navigation apparatus characterized by its start timing and start-up operation.

  In general, the activation operation of the car navigation device is started when the engine key switch is switched from the OFF position to the ACC (accessory) position. Initialization of hardware and software is first performed when the start-up starts. However, since the configuration of the car navigation apparatus is complicated, this initialization takes a considerable time. In the meantime, the user will be kept waiting, so if you are in a hurry to obtain information, you will have a mentally frustrated feeling.

  As a conventional technique for eliminating such a waiting time, there is a technique in which an operation of turning on an engine key switch is not used as a start trigger signal, but a door lock release signal preceding that is used as a start trigger signal (for example, Patent Document 1). reference). However, when this technology is applied to a car navigation device, the display device of the car navigation device is immediately put into a display state at the moment when the door lock is released. At the same time, the software is initialized, and when the software initialization is completed, the execution of the main program for car navigation is started to display map information, current position information, and the like.

However, even if the user unlocks the door, it may have been temporary for taking things left behind in the car, or may be for opening the door for ventilation purposes. Even when the door lock was released for purposes other than the start of driving, the display of the car navigation device turned on each time to display some information, and the execution of the car navigation program was started. So users can't help feeling uncomfortable.
JP 2000-38032 A

  The present invention has been made to solve such problems of the prior art, and its problem is to display a dark state without displaying anything on the display until the engine key switch is turned on. The display becomes bright for the first time at the moment when the engine key switch is turned on. In addition, the start operation is completed until the engine key switch is turned on, and the program for the car navigation function is started without waiting time from the moment when the engine key switch is turned on. An object of the present invention is to provide a car navigation device capable of displaying.

  The invention according to claim 1 for achieving the above object is a car navigation device having a display device, which receives a trigger signal preceding an operation of turning on an engine key switch and performs a starting process in the background. Start and start displaying information on the display in the foreground when the engine key switch is turned on, and then confirm that the startup process is complete and start executing the car navigation function program It is characterized by.

Here, the car navigation function program is a program for executing functions inherent in car navigation such as a function for calculating a current position based on a signal from a GPS receiver, a map matching processing function, a route search function, and a route guidance function. Means.
According to such a configuration, nothing is displayed on the display unit before the engine key switch is turned on, but immediately when the engine key switch is turned on, the screen becomes bright and display is started. The At this stage, since the start-up process is almost completed, the car navigation function program is immediately executed without waiting time. Therefore, conventionally, there is an effect that the waiting time until the completion of activation experienced by the user is shortened.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the car navigation device according to the first aspect, the trigger signal is a door unlock detection signal or a door open detection signal of the vehicle.
In such a configuration, the startup process can be started in advance from when the door lock is released or the door is opened until the engine key switch is turned on, and the engine key switch is turned on. After that, there is an effect of shortening the waiting time until the start is completed.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the car navigation device according to the first or second aspect, the fact that the engine key switch is turned on is also treated as the trigger signal, and the activation process is started. It is characterized by.
According to such a configuration, even when the engine key switch is turned off in the vehicle and the door is turned on again without releasing the door lock or opening the door, the start process is started.

  According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the car navigation device according to any one of the first to third aspects, the engine key switch is turned on within a predetermined time after receiving the trigger signal. If not, the information display on the display in the foreground and the execution of the car navigation function program are not started, and the state before the start-up process in the background is started is characterized by To do.

  According to such a configuration, when the door lock is released, the door is opened, etc., but the engine key switch is not operated, the car navigation device returns to the state before the start of activation after a predetermined time has elapsed. Play.

According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, in the car navigation device according to any one of the first to fourth aspects, the car navigation device is returned from the suspended state to the original state before the start-up process is started. Processing is performed.
According to such a configuration, there is an effect that the apparatus can stand by in a power saving state while the car navigation device is not used, and can quickly return to the original state when the trigger signal is input.

According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, in the car navigation device according to any one of the first to fourth aspects, the process of returning the car navigation device from the hibernation state to the original state before the start-up process is started. It is characterized by performing.
According to such a configuration, it is possible to wait for the input of the trigger signal in a smaller power state than in the case of the invention described in claim 5.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a hardware configuration of an embodiment of a car navigation apparatus according to the present invention. As shown in the figure, the car navigation device 1 includes a GPS receiver 2, a map data input device 3, an operation switch group 4, a display device 5, a hard disk 6, and a control circuit 7.
The control circuit 7 fulfills the function of controlling the overall operation of the car navigation apparatus 1 and is mainly composed of a microcomputer. That is, the control circuit 7 includes a CPU, a ROM, a RAM, an I / O interface, a bus for connecting them, a power supply device, and the like (all not shown).

  The hard disk 6 stores a program for operating the car navigation apparatus 1. This program includes a program for executing a car navigation function, such as a function for calculating a current position based on a signal from the GPS receiver 2, a map matching processing function for positioning the calculated current position on a map, A route search function that searches for a route from the current position to the destination by receiving a route specification, a route guidance function that displays a guidance route on the map screen according to the route search result, VICS (Vehicle Information & Communication System) A program for executing a function of receiving road traffic information from the vehicle and notifying the driver is included. In this specification, these programs for executing the original functions of car navigation are called car navigation function programs. These programs are read on the RAM in the control circuit 7 and executed.

A part of the RAM is backed up by a battery, and is used to store the OS, application programs, and application data while the control circuit 7 is suspended in a power-saving suspend state.
The ROM in the control circuit 7 has an initialization program for initializing hardware immediately after power-on, a display preparation program for displaying the title screen, and a boot program for reading the program from the hard disk 6 onto the RAM. Important control information is stored.

The GPS receiver 2 receives a signal from a GPS artificial satellite and transmits it to the control circuit 7. Based on the information, necessary arithmetic processing is performed in the control circuit 7 to calculate the current position of the vehicle.
The map data input device 3 is for reading data from an information recording medium such as a CD-ROM, DVD-ROM, or HDD (hard disk drive). Various data such as various types of map drawing data, map matching data, and facility name data are read and stored in the hard disk 6 via the map data input device 3. The stored data is referred to by the car navigation function program.

The display 5 is for displaying information such as a map, the current position of the vehicle, and driving support information, and is composed of a color liquid crystal display, for example.
The operation switch group 4 is a touch switch, a remote control switch or the like formed on the color liquid crystal display, and is used for inputting various information to the control circuit 7.
In addition, the car navigation device 1 includes a communication device for acquiring road traffic information using VICS, an angular velocity sensor for detecting the rotational speed of the vehicle body, a vehicle speed sensor for detecting the vehicle speed, and a moving distance. A distance sensor for detecting, a gyroscope for detecting the vehicle body direction, and the like (both not shown) are attached as necessary.

Further, the key position signal of the engine key switch 8 and the door lock release detection signal of the door lock detection switch 9 are input to the control circuit 7 of the present embodiment. These signals are used as a program start trigger signal and a status signal as described below.
Next, processing contents performed at the time of activation by the control circuit 7 will be described with reference to a flowchart. FIG. 2 is a processing flow chart at the time of activation performed by the control circuit 7. As described above, the control circuit 7 is configured using a microcomputer, and most of the control operation including the activation process is executed by software.

The control circuit 7 executes necessary programs by dividing them into foreground jobs and background jobs. In the foreground, the car navigation function program described above is executed. In the background, a startup process required until the car navigation function program can be immediately started is executed.
The activation process includes a hardware activation process and a software activation process. The activation process related to hardware includes power-on operation and initialization operation of the hardware of the hard disk 6, the GPS receiver 2, and the operation switch group 4, which are peripheral devices of the control circuit 7. Includes initialization of a memory area used by the program.

  When the engine key switch 8 is set to the OFF position, power supply to almost all electric devices of the vehicle is normally stopped. In this case, it is conceivable that the power of the car navigation device 1 is also completely turned off. However, when the car navigation device 1 is started up next time, the engine key switch 8 is switched to the ACC (accessory) position. Until the car navigation device 1 completes the start-up process, it will wait for a long time. The present invention eliminates the user waiting time resulting from such activation processing. For this reason, even when the engine key switch 8 is turned off, the power of the car navigation device 1 is not completely turned off, and power is continuously supplied to some circuits to trigger from the outside. When there is a signal input, it should be in a state where it can rise quickly.

  As a form for maintaining the state where the external trigger signal is received and quickly rising, the control circuit 7 and the hard disk 6 are continuously supplied with power and other peripheral devices are turned off. There is a form in which the power supply of 6 is stopped and the control circuit 7 is put in a suspended state or a hibernation state.

  Here, the suspend state is one of the power saving functions of the microcomputer device. It saves the power consumption by turning off the power of peripheral devices that do not need to include the hard disk by saving the work in progress to the memory. It means a lowered state. In addition, the hibernation state is one of the power-saving functions of microcomputer devices. In addition to saving the operation details during work to the hard disk, the power to all peripheral devices including the hard disk is turned off. This means a state where power consumption is zero. In either state, the original state is restored by an operation called resume. In the case of resume from the hibernation state, it is necessary to return the contents saved in the hard disk to the memory, so that it takes more time than the resume from the suspend state, but it can be started faster than the cold start. Since the power consumption is large when the hard disk is operated, it is preferable to set the suspend or hibernation state when the engine key switch 8 is turned off.

From the state in which the engine key switch 8 is in the OFF state and the door is locked to the state in which the user opens the door and operates the engine key switch 8 to make the car navigation device 1 usable. The processing flow will be described with reference to FIG.
The user unlocks the door to open the door. When the door lock is released, a door lock release detection signal is input from the door lock detection switch 9 to the control circuit 7 as a trigger signal. When this trigger signal is input, the execution of the program stored in the ROM included in the control device 7 is started in the background step B1. First, initialization processing of hardware and software necessary for executing a program built in the ROM is performed. The initialization performed here is different from the startup process for operating the car navigation function program, and the process is completed in an instant.

When step B1 ends, the process proceeds to step B2, and the activation process completion flag is set to the OFF state.
Next, the process proceeds to step B3. In step B3, the timer is activated to start measuring the elapsed time. This timing is checked in step B9.
In the subsequent step B4, display preparation processing is executed. This display preparation process refers to a preparation process necessary for immediately displaying a simple display such as a title on the display 5 when the engine key switch 8 is turned on later. However, even if this display preparation process is completed, nothing is displayed on the screen of the display 5 and the screen is left dark. The time required for the display preparation process is extremely short. The display preparation process is included in the activation process in this specification.

When the display preparation process is completed, the process proceeds to step B5, and the display preparation completion flag is turned ON. This display preparation state flag is secured in a memory area that can be accessed from a foreground job.
Subsequently, the process proceeds to step B5a, and a return operation (resume) from the suspended state or the hibernation state is executed.

Subsequently, the process proceeds to step B6, and the activation process is executed. The activation processing here refers to processing such as hardware initialization and memory area initialization required for the car navigation function program to execute. The car navigation apparatus 1 is ready to start executing the car navigation function program at the end of the activation process.
In the following step B7, the activation process completion flag is turned on. This activation process completion flag is also secured in a memory area accessible from the foreground job.

In the subsequent step B8, it is checked whether or not the engine key switch 8 is in the on state. If it is in the on state, the background job is finished as it is. If not, the process proceeds to step B9.
In step B9, the time measured by the time measuring timer that has started measuring in step B3 is checked. If the timed time has not reached the predetermined time, the process returns to step B8 to check the state of the engine key switch 8 again. If the predetermined time has been reached, the process proceeds to step B10. Here, the predetermined time is set to a time longer than the time required for the startup process executed in step B6.

In step B10 and subsequent steps, processing for returning to the state before the background job is started is executed. This is done because it is not preferable to keep waiting in the start-up process completion state when the engine key switch 8 has not been put into the on-state for a long time although the start-up process has been completed.
In step B10, the display process completion flag is returned to the OFF state, and in step B11, the activation process completion flag is returned to the OFF state. In step B12, an end process is executed to return the process executed in the start process in step B6 to the previous state. In step B13, a suspend state or hibernation state is entered, and the background job is terminated.

  In normal operation, the user enters the vehicle after releasing the door lock and turns on the engine key switch 8. This on state refers to a state in which the engine key switch 8 is in one of the ACC, ON, and START positions, and power is supplied to each electrical device in the vehicle including the car navigation device 1. When the key position signal confirms that the engine key switch 8 is turned on, the foreground job is started.

In the first step F1, it is checked whether or not the display preparation state flag is ON. If it is not in the ON state, the process returns to Step F1 again, repeats the same check, and waits for the ON state. If it is determined to be ON, the process proceeds to step F2.
In step F2, display on the display 5 is started and the screen of the display 5 becomes bright. However, the content displayed at this stage is only simple information such as the title prepared in the display preparation process in step B4. It takes a short time for the display completion flag to be turned on after the trigger signal is input in the background job. Also, the time from when the engine key switch 8 is turned on in the foreground job until the start of display in step F2 is very short. Therefore, if the resume from the suspended state or hibernation state is completed after the door lock is released and before the engine key switch 8 is turned on, the engine key switch 8 is almost turned on. At the same time, the screen of the display 5 becomes bright and simple information such as a title is displayed.

  After the display is started, the process proceeds to step F3, and it is checked whether or not the activation process completion flag is ON. If it is in the OFF state, the same check is repeated, and after confirming that it is in the ON state, the process proceeds to the next step F4. The fact that the activation process completion flag is in the ON state means that the activation process in step B6 is completed and the car navigation function program can be started at any time. Accordingly, in step F4, the execution of the car navigation function program is immediately started. For example, the current position of the vehicle is calculated based on a signal from the GPS receiver 2 and displayed on the display 5, and map information centered on the current position is immediately displayed. Also, provision of services such as route search and route guidance in accordance with user instructions is started.

  The time from when the engine key switch 8 is turned on and the foreground job is started until this step F4 is reached is very short if there is no waiting time at steps F1 and F3. Accordingly, if the background activation process is completed before the foreground job is started, that is, after the door lock is released and until the engine key switch 8 is turned on, the engine key switch At the moment when 8 is turned on, the screen of the display 5 becomes bright and the title is displayed, and then the display of the current position and map information is immediately started. That is, the provision of the service by the car navigation function program is started almost at the same time as the engine key switch 8 is turned on, and there is an effect that the waiting time of the user becomes zero.

  In this case, the screen of the display 5 remains dark before the engine key switch 8 is turned on, even if the startup process in the background is being executed and nothing is displayed. Therefore, as described in “Background Art”, even if the user releases the door lock to remove a forgotten item in the vehicle, the screen of the display 5 is not bright and nothing is displayed unless the engine key switch 8 is turned on. . For this reason, when the screen is unnecessary, the screen of the display 5 is brightened and information is displayed, so that the user feels uncomfortable.

After the execution of the car navigation function program is started in step F4, step F5 is executed in the middle thereof. In step F5, it is checked whether or not the engine key switch 8 is turned off. If not, the execution of the car navigation function program in step F4 is continued.
If it is detected that the engine key switch 8 is turned off, the foreground job is terminated. In step F6, the execution of the car navigation function program is stopped, the information display on the display 5 is stopped, and the screen is darkened. In step F7, the activation process completion flag is turned off, in step F8, the display completion flag is turned off, and in step F9, the process enters the suspend state or hibernation state and ends. Whether to end in the suspended state or in the hibernation state is determined in advance in the program.

  In the above description, the background job has been described as being started only by a trigger signal called a door lock release detection signal. However, the background job is also triggered by the engine key switch 8 being turned on. As a result, the job is started. Otherwise, when the user turns off the engine key switch 8 and then turns on and operates the engine key switch 8 without releasing the door lock, the background job is not started, and the car navigation device 1 This is because does not start.

(Modified embodiment)
In the above-described embodiment, the background job has been described as being triggered by two signals of the input operation of the engine key switch 8 and the door lock release detection signal preceding it. However, the signal preceding the operation of turning on the engine key switch 8 is not limited to the door lock release detection signal. Instead, a physical door open detection signal, a door unlock command signal by radio means, and radio means. Engine start command signal, operation command signal to other devices by wireless means, user approach detection signal to vehicle, seat seating detection signal, trunk opening signal, door knob contact detection signal, etc. Any signal that can confirm the willingness to use can be used. Even when such a signal is used, the same effect as in the above embodiment can be obtained.

  In addition, for the operation of turning on the engine key switch 8 that is handled as trigger signals for both foreground jobs and background jobs, instead of a physical handle grip detection signal, shift lever grip detection signal, shift lever movement detection signal, sheet Any signal that can confirm the user's intention to use the vehicle, such as a belt wearing detection signal, a contact signal to the display 5, and an input signal from the operation switch group 4, can be used. Even when such a signal is used, the same effect as in the above embodiment can be obtained.

It is an example of the hardware constitutions of the car navigation apparatus which concerns on this invention. FIG. 5 is a process flow chart at the time of start-up performed by a control circuit in the car navigation device according to the present invention

Explanation of symbols

In the drawings, 1 is a car navigation device, 5 is a display, 7 is a control circuit, 8 is an engine key switch, and 9 is a door lock detection switch.

Claims (6)

  A car navigation device including a display device, which receives a trigger signal preceding an operation of turning on an engine key switch, starts a start-up process in the background, and in the foreground when the engine key switch is turned on A car navigation device characterized in that information display is started on a display device, and then the execution of a car navigation function program is started after confirming that the start-up process has been completed.   The car navigation device according to claim 1, wherein the trigger signal is a door unlock detection signal or a door open detection signal of a vehicle.   3. The car navigation device according to claim 1, wherein the engine key switch is turned on is also handled as the trigger signal, and the activation process is started. 4.   If the engine key switch is not turned on within a predetermined time after receiving the trigger signal, information display on the display and execution of the car navigation function program in the foreground are started. The car navigation device according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the vehicle is returned to a state before the start-up process in the background is started.   The car navigation device according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein a process of returning the car navigation device from a suspended state to an original state is performed before the start-up process is started. 5. The car navigation device according to claim 1, wherein a process of returning the car navigation device from the hibernation state to the original state is performed before the start-up process is started.

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