JP2023101775A - Display control unit, display control method and program - Google Patents

Abstract

To appropriately prevent a misunderstanding such as a possibility of arriving close to a periphery of a cruisable range even if an expressway is used.SOLUTION: A display control unit includes: a current position acquisition part configured to acquire a current position of a mobile body; a map information acquisition part configured to acquire map information including multiple types of roads; and a display control part configured to display, on a display part, a cruisable range being a reachable range for the mobile body from the current position, according to a residual energy amount possessed by the mobile body, together with the map information. The display control part prevents at least part of a road of a predetermined road type existing within the cruisable range from being displayed on the display part.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 3

Description

The present invention relates to the technical field of displaying a cruising range.

Conventionally, there is known a technique for estimating a cruising range based on the remaining battery capacity of an electric vehicle and displaying the cruising range (reachable range) on a map (see, for example, Patent Document 1).

JP 2011-217509 A

By the way, when an electric vehicle runs on an expressway, the electric fuel consumption tends to drop significantly, so there is a possibility that it will not be possible to reach a place using an expressway that can be reached using an ordinary road. Usually, the cruising range includes such a place that can be reached using general roads but not reachable using highways. For example, there is a high possibility that a place near the outer periphery in the reachable range can be reached by using a general road, but not by using an expressway. However, the conventional cruising range display may lead to a misunderstanding that the vehicle can reach a place near the outer periphery of the cruising range even if it uses a highway.

Examples of the problems to be solved by the present invention include the above. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The main object of the present invention is to provide a display control device and the like that can appropriately suppress the occurrence of misunderstandings such as that a vehicle can reach the vicinity of the outer periphery of a cruising range even when using an expressway.

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a display control device, comprising: a display control unit for displaying a cruising range, which is a reachable range from the current position of the moving object, on a display unit based on the remaining amount of energy held by the moving object; and a notification unit that, when the display control unit causes the display unit to display the cruising range together with the map information, informs the user that if the moving object travels on a road of a predetermined road type, it may not be possible to reach even a place within the cruising range. and a control unit.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a display control method executed by a display control device, comprising: a display control step of displaying, on a display unit, a cruising range, which is a reachable range from the current position of the moving object, based on the remaining energy of the moving object; and when the display control step causes the display unit to display the cruising range together with the map information, a notification unit notifies the user that there is a possibility that the moving object may not be able to reach even a place within the cruising range if the moving object travels on a road of a predetermined road type. and a notification control step of notifying.

According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a program executed by a display control device having a computer, wherein a display control unit displays a cruising range, which is a reachable range from the current position of the moving object, on a display unit based on the remaining energy level of the moving object, and when the display control unit causes the display unit to display the cruising range together with the map information, a notification unit informs the user that the moving object may not be able to reach even a place within the cruising range if the moving object travels on a road of a predetermined road type. It is characterized by functioning the computer as a notification control unit that notifies the.

1 shows a schematic configuration of a navigation device according to an embodiment; 1 shows an example of a conventional cruising range display image. 4 shows an example of a cruising range display image according to the present embodiment. 4 shows an example of a cruising range display image according to Modification 1. FIG. 11 shows an example of a range display image according to Modification 2. FIG. 12 shows a schematic configuration of a system according to Modification 3. FIG.

In one aspect of the present invention, a display control device includes: a current position acquisition unit that acquires the current position of a mobile object; a map information acquisition unit that acquires map information including a plurality of types of roads; don't let

In the display control device described above, the current position acquisition unit acquires the current position of a mobile object (for example, an electric vehicle), and the map information acquisition unit acquires map information including multiple types of roads (roads of a predetermined road type and roads other than a predetermined road type). Then, the display control unit obtains the cruising range based on the remaining amount of energy possessed by the mobile object, and causes the display unit to display the cruising range together with the map information. In this case, the display control unit hides at least part of the roads of the predetermined road type existing within the cruising range. For example, the road of the predetermined road type is a national expressway or a motorway. According to the display control device described above, it is possible to appropriately suppress the misunderstanding that any type of road can be used to reach a place within the cruising range. For example, it is possible to appropriately suppress the occurrence of misunderstanding that a place near the outer periphery of the cruising range can be reached even if a highway is used.

Preferably, in the above display control device, the map information includes a first layer storing information about roads of the predetermined road type and a second layer storing information about roads other than the predetermined road type, and the display control unit does not display at least part of the information stored in the first layer when displaying the cruising range.

Preferably, the above-described display control device further includes a notification control unit that causes the notification unit to notify the user that there is a possibility that the moving object may not be able to reach even a place within the cruising range when traveling on the road of the predetermined road type. As a result, it is possible to more effectively suppress the occurrence of a misunderstanding that the vehicle can reach the vicinity of the outer periphery of the cruising range even when using the expressway.

In another aspect of the present invention, the server device includes a current position acquisition unit that acquires the current position of a mobile object, a map information acquisition unit that acquires map information including a plurality of types of roads, a calculation unit that calculates a cruising range, which is a range that the mobile object can reach from the current position, based on the remaining amount of energy held by the mobile object, and an image generation unit that generates image information excluding at least part of road information of a predetermined road type existing within the cruising range from an image of the map information displaying the cruising range. and a transmission unit configured to transmit image information generated by the image generation unit to a terminal device.

In another aspect of the present invention, a display control method executed by a display control device comprises a current position obtaining step of obtaining a current position of a moving object, a map information obtaining step of obtaining map information including a plurality of types of roads, and a display control step of displaying, on a display unit, a cruising range, which is a reachable range of the moving object from the current position, together with the map information, based on the remaining amount of energy possessed by the moving object. Do not display on the display unit.

In another aspect of the present invention, a program executed by a display control device comprising a computer causes the computer to function as current position obtaining means for obtaining the current position of a moving body, map information obtaining means for obtaining map information including a plurality of types of roads, and display control means for displaying a cruising range, which is a reachable range of the moving body from the current position, on a display together with the map information, based on the remaining amount of energy held by the moving body, and the display control means causes at least part of a road of a predetermined road type existing within the cruising range. is not displayed on the display unit.

Preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

<Device configuration>
FIG. 1 shows the configuration of a navigation device 1 according to this embodiment. The navigation device 1 can be, for example, a stationary navigation device installed in a vehicle, a PND (Portable Navigation Device), or a mobile phone such as a smart phone. In a preferred example, the navigation device 1 is mounted on an electric vehicle (EV vehicle). Below, the case where the navigation apparatus 1 is applied to an electric vehicle is mentioned as an example. An electric vehicle is sometimes simply called a "vehicle".

As shown in FIG. 1, the navigation device 1 mainly includes an autonomous positioning device 10, a GPS receiver 18, a system controller 20, a disk drive 31, a data storage unit 36, a communication interface 37, a communication device 38, a display unit 40, an audio output unit 50, and an input device 60.

The self-supporting positioning device 10 has an acceleration sensor 11 , an angular velocity sensor 12 and a distance sensor 13 . The acceleration sensor 11 is composed of, for example, a piezoelectric element, detects acceleration of the vehicle, and outputs acceleration data. The angular velocity sensor 12 is composed of, for example, a vibrating gyro, detects the angular velocity of the vehicle when the vehicle changes direction, and outputs angular velocity data and relative azimuth data. The distance sensor 13 measures a vehicle speed pulse, which is a pulse signal generated as the wheels of the vehicle rotate.

The GPS receiver 18 receives radio waves 19 carrying downlink data including positioning data from a plurality of GPS satellites. The positioning data is used to detect the absolute position (current position) of the vehicle from latitude and longitude information. The current position used in various controls and processes is not limited to the value obtained from the GPS receiver 18, and a value obtained based on the value obtained from the GPS receiver 18 and/or the value obtained from the self-supporting positioning device 10 may be used.

The system controller 20 includes an interface 21 , a CPU (Central Processing Unit) 22 , a ROM (Read Only Memory) 23 and a RAM (Random Access Memory) 24 , and controls the entire navigation device 1 .

The interface 21 performs interface operations with the acceleration sensor 11 , the angular velocity sensor 12 , the distance sensor 13 and the GPS receiver 18 . From these, the vehicle speed pulse, acceleration data, relative direction data, angular velocity data, GPS positioning data, absolute direction data, etc. are input to the system controller 20 . The CPU 22 controls the system controller 20 as a whole. For example, the CPU 22 obtains a guidance route (guidance route) to the destination based on map information or the like stored in the data storage unit 36, and provides route guidance based on the guidance route. The details of the processing and control performed by the CPU 22 in this embodiment will be described later. The ROM 23 has a non-illustrated non-volatile memory or the like storing a control program or the like for controlling the system controller 20 . The RAM 24 readablely stores various data such as route data preset by the user through the input device 60 and provides a working area for the CPU 22 .

A system controller 20 , a disk drive 31 such as a CD-ROM drive or DVD-ROM drive, a data storage unit 36 , a communication interface 37 , a display unit 40 , an audio output unit 50 and an input device 60 are interconnected via a bus line 30 .

Under the control of the system controller 20, the disk drive 31 reads and outputs content data such as music data and video data from a disk 33 such as a CD or DVD. The disk drive 31 may be either a CD-ROM drive or a DVD-ROM drive, or may be a CD and DVD compatible drive.

The data storage unit 36 is configured by, for example, an HDD and the like, and is a unit that stores map information (map data), information necessary for determining the cruising range, and the like. For example, the map information is information including link (road) data, node (intersection, etc.) data, and road type (general road, expressway, etc.) data for each road.

The communication device 38 is composed of, for example, an FM tuner, a beacon receiver, a mobile phone, a dedicated communication card, etc., and receives various information. The interface 37 performs an interface operation of the communication device 38 and inputs information received by the communication device 38 to the system controller 20 or the like.

The display unit 40 displays various display data on a display such as a display under the control of the system controller 20 . Specifically, the system controller 20 reads map information from the data storage unit 36 . The display unit 40 displays a map image or the like corresponding to the map information read from the data storage unit 36 by the system controller 20 on the display screen. The display unit 40 includes a graphic controller 41 that controls the entire display unit 40 based on control data sent from the CPU 22 via the bus line 30, a buffer memory 42 that temporarily stores image information that can be displayed immediately, and that includes a memory such as a VRAM (Video RAM). The display 44 functions as an image display unit, and is composed of, for example, a liquid crystal display device having a diagonal size of about 5 to 10 inches, and is mounted near the front panel in the vehicle.

The audio output unit 50 is configured with a D/A converter 51 that performs D/A (Digital to Analog) conversion of audio digital data sent from the CD-ROM drive 31, the DVD-ROM 32, or the RAM 24 or the like via the bus line 30 under the control of the system controller 20, an amplifier (AMP) 52 that amplifies the audio analog signal output from the D/A converter 51, and a speaker 53 that converts the amplified audio analog signal into audio and outputs the audio into the vehicle.

The input device 60 is composed of keys, switches, buttons, a remote control, a voice input device, etc. for inputting various commands and data. The input device 60 is arranged around the front panel and the display 44 of the main body of the in-vehicle electronic system installed in the vehicle. Moreover, when the display 44 is of a touch panel type, the touch panel provided on the display screen of the display 44 also functions as the input device 60 .

<Display control method>
Next, a display control method performed by the CPU 22 in the navigation device 1 in this embodiment will be described. In this embodiment, the CPU 22 determines the cruising range, which is the reachable range of the electric vehicle from the current position, based on the remaining energy of the battery of the electric vehicle, and superimposes the cruising range on the map image. In this embodiment, when displaying the cruising range on the map image in this way, the CPU 22 hides the highways in the map image and displays only the general roads.

In addition, general roads correspond to "roads other than a predetermined road type" in the present invention, and mean roads other than expressway national highways and expressway roads. In addition, the expressway corresponds to the "predetermined road type road" in the present invention, and means a national expressway or an exclusive road for automobiles.

The reason why the above display control is performed will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 2 shows an example of an image 70 in which a cruising range is displayed on a map image (hereinafter referred to as a "cruising range display image"). Here, a typical cruising range display image 70 is shown. As shown in FIG. 2, in the cruising range display image 70, a cruising range 72 from the current position 73 is superimposed on a map image 71 based on the current position 73 and displayed. The map image 71 includes general roads and highways. In FIG. 2, general roads are indicated by solid lines and expressways are indicated by dashed lines, but the present invention is not limited to displaying general roads and expressways in this way, and general roads and expressways may be displayed in different colors.

Here, electric vehicles tend to have a significant decrease in electric fuel consumption when traveling on expressways, in other words, the cruising distance tends to be considerably shorter when traveling on expressways. Normally, the cruising range 72 includes such a place that can be reached using general roads but not reachable using expressways. In other words, the cruising range 72 includes places that can be reached using general roads even if they cannot be reached using expressways. For example, in the vicinity of the outer periphery of the cruising range 72, a location overlapping with general roads and highways (see the dashed line area Ar1) can be reached when using general roads, but it is highly likely that it cannot be reached when using highways. However, the cruising range display image 70 as shown in FIG. 2 may lead to misunderstanding that the vehicle can reach the place indicated by the dashed line area Ar1 even if the expressway is used.

Therefore, in this embodiment, a cruising range display image that can suppress the occurrence of misunderstandings as described above is displayed. Specifically, in this embodiment, when displaying the cruising range on the map image, the expressway is not displayed in the map image, considering that misunderstandings may occur by displaying the cruising range.

Here, the control performed by the CPU 22 in realizing the display as described above will be specifically described. First, the CPU 22 obtains the cruising range, which is the reachable range of the electric vehicle from the current position, based on the remaining energy of the battery of the electric vehicle. On the other hand, the map information is composed of a first layer in which information on expressways is stored and a second layer in which information on general roads is stored, and such map information is stored in a data storage unit 36. - 特許庁In other words, map information about highways and map information about general roads are stored as separate layers. Then, when the cruising range obtained as described above is displayed on the map image, the CPU 22 refers to the map information stored in the data storage unit 36, hides the expressway information stored in the first layer, and displays only the general road information stored in the second layer.

Thus, the CPU 22 corresponds to an example of the "current position acquisition unit", the "map information acquisition unit", and the "display control unit" in the present invention. That is, the CPU 22 corresponds to an example of the "display control device" in the present invention.

Note that the CPU 22 can obtain the cruising range by, for example, the following method. First, the CPU 22 searches for a plurality of reachable points that the electric vehicle can reach from its current position, based on the map information, the remaining energy of the battery of the electric vehicle, and the energy consumed when the electric vehicle travels. In this case, the CPU 22 determines the energy consumed when the electric vehicle is running, based on, for example, the energy consumed when the electric vehicle is stopped while the driving source of the electric vehicle is in operation, the energy consumed and recovered during acceleration and deceleration of the electric vehicle, and the energy consumed by the resistance generated when the electric vehicle is running. In obtaining these energies, the CPU 22 uses various parameters such as the characteristics of the electric vehicle (vehicle weight, motor generator standards, etc.), the deterioration state of the battery, the use state of electrical components in the electric vehicle, the use state of the air conditioner, the number of occupants of the electric vehicle, the slope of the road, the road type, the presence or absence of traffic congestion, and the manner of driving of the driver. Then, based on the plurality of reachable points searched as described above, the CPU 22 identifies whether or not the electric vehicle can reach each of the plurality of areas (mesh areas) obtained by dividing the map, and determines the cruising range of the electric vehicle according to the identification result. It should be noted that the cruising range is not limited to this method, and various other known methods can be applied.

Basically, the cruising range described above is obtained using information on both general roads and expressways. In other words, the cruising range is required in consideration of using not only general roads but also highways. However, the cruising range is not limited to using information on both general roads and expressways, and the cruising range may be calculated using only general road information. In other words, the cruising range in the case of traveling only on general roads without using expressways may be obtained. However, the cruising range obtained using only general road information tends to have substantially the same shape as the cruising range obtained using both general road and expressway information.

FIG. 3 shows an example of a cruising range display image 80 according to this embodiment. As shown in FIG. 3, in the cruising range display image 80 according to the present embodiment, a cruising range 82 from the current position 83 is superimposed on a map image 81 based on the current position 83, similarly to the cruising range display image 70 described above. However, in the cruising range display image 80 according to the present embodiment, unlike the cruising range display image 70, the map image 81 does not include a highway. That is, in this embodiment, the map image 81 displays only general roads (indicated by solid lines) and does not display expressways. It should be noted that the expressway is not displayed in FIG. 3, but is indicated by a dashed line when the expressway is displayed. However, the present invention is not limited to showing general roads with solid lines and highways with dashed lines, and general roads and expressways may be displayed in different colors.

According to such a cruising range display image 80, it is possible to appropriately suppress the occurrence of a misunderstanding that a place near the outer periphery of the cruising range 82 can be reached even when using a highway.

<Modification>
Modifications suitable for the above embodiment will be described below. In addition, the following modified examples can be combined arbitrarily and applied to the above embodiment.

(Modification 1)
Modification 1 is to display, when the cruising range display image 80 shown in the above embodiment is displayed, that there is a possibility that even a place within the cruising range 82 cannot be reached when traveling on a highway (hereinafter simply referred to as "warning"). In other words, in Modification 1, the user is warned that there is a possibility that even a place within the cruising range 82 cannot be reached when traveling on a highway.

Specifically, in Modification 1, the CPU 22 causes a warning to be displayed when a highway is included in the obtained cruising range 82 . For example, a plurality of reachable points are searched for obtaining the cruising range 82 as described above, and the CPU 22 displays a warning when a node of an expressway (such as an interchange) is included in the searched reachable points. On the other hand, the CPU 22 does not display a warning if the searched reachable points do not include a highway node. Thus, the CPU 22 corresponds to an example of the "notification control unit" in the present invention.

FIG. 4 shows an example of a cruising range display image 80a according to Modification 1. As shown in FIG. As shown in FIG. 4, in the cruising range display image 80a according to Modification 1, a message box 85 is displayed on the cruising range display image 80 shown in the above embodiment to the effect that "When using the expressway, the battery may run out even within the cruising range." By displaying such a message box 85, it is possible to more effectively suppress the occurrence of a misunderstanding that a place near the outer periphery of the cruising range 82 can be reached even if the expressway is used.

Although FIG. 4 shows an example in which the message box 85 is displayed on the image showing the map image 81 and the cruising range 82, only the message box 85 may be displayed without displaying the map image 81 and the cruising range 82.

Further, the warning is not limited to being displayed as described above, and the warning may be output by voice. For example, it is possible to output an audible warning such as "Battery may run short even within the cruising range when using a highway."

(Modification 2)
In the above-described embodiment, when the cruising range 82 is displayed on the map image 81, all the expressways in the map image 81 are hidden (see FIG. 3), but only part of the expressways in the map image 81 may be hidden. For example, only highways included in the cruising range 82 can be hidden, and highways not included in the cruising range 82 can be displayed.

FIG. 5 shows an example of a cruising range display image 80b according to Modification 2. As shown in FIG. As shown in FIG. 5, in the cruising range display image 80b according to Modification 2, only some expressways are hidden. Specifically, only the expressways included in the cruising range 82 are hidden in the map image 81b, and the expressways not included in the cruising range 82 are displayed in the map image 81b.

In still another example, only the part of the expressway that can be used within the cruising range 82 (the part of the expressway determined to be drivable in obtaining the cruising range 82) can be displayed, and the remaining parts of the expressway can be hidden.

(Modification 3)
In the embodiment described above, an example in which the present invention is applied to the navigation device 1 was shown, but the present invention is not limited to this. The present invention can also be applied to a server device that can communicate with a predetermined terminal device.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of a system according to Modification 3. As shown in FIG. As shown in FIG. 6 , the system includes a server device 200 and terminal devices 300 . The server device 200 is configured to be able to communicate with the terminal device 300, and includes a CPU 200a and the like. For example, the terminal device 300 corresponds to a mobile terminal such as a smart phone, a navigation device, a head-up display, and the like. Also, the terminal device 300 is mounted on a moving object such as a vehicle.

In Modification 3, the CPU 200a in the server device 200 acquires the current position of the vehicle from the terminal device 300 or the like, and acquires map information including multiple types of roads from the terminal device 300 or a storage unit (not shown) in the server device 200. In addition, the CPU 200a acquires the remaining energy level of the vehicle (such as the remaining energy level of the battery of an electric vehicle), and calculates the cruising range based on the remaining energy level. Then, the CPU 200a generates image information in which at least a part of the expressway within the cruising range is hidden from the image in which the cruising range is displayed on the map image, and transmits the image information to the terminal device 300. As described above, when the present invention is applied to the server device 200, the CPU 200a in the server device 200 functions as the "current position acquisition unit", the "map information acquisition unit", the "calculation unit", the "image generation unit", and the "transmission unit" in the present invention.

It should be noted that the configuration elements according to the present invention are not limited to being realized by one server device 200, and the configuration elements according to the present invention may be realized by a plurality of server devices cooperatively performing processing and control.

(Modification 4)
The present invention is not limited to application to electric vehicles. The present invention can be applied to various moving bodies other than electric vehicles. For example, the present invention can also be applied to vehicles that use fossil fuels. In that case, the cruising range may be obtained based on the amount of fossil fuel remaining in the mobile body.

1 navigation device 22 CPU
36 data storage unit 44 display

Claims (1)

a display control unit that causes a display unit to display a cruising range, which is a reachable range from the current position of the mobile object, together with map information, based on the remaining amount of energy possessed by the mobile object;
a notification control unit that causes a notification unit to notify a user that, when the display control unit causes the display unit to display the cruising range together with the map information, the moving body may not be able to reach even a place within the cruising range if it travels on a road of a predetermined road type;
A display control device comprising:

Images