JP3008839B2 - Navigation device - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a navigation apparatus suitable for application to, for example, an apparatus mounted on an automobile for displaying a road map near a current position.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, various navigation devices to be mounted on automobiles and the like have been developed. This navigation device is, for example, a CD-RO storing road map data.
It comprises a large-capacity data storage means such as M, a current position detection means, and a display device for displaying a road map near the detected current position based on the data read from the data storage means. In this case, as a means for detecting the current position, a means using a positioning system (hereinafter simply referred to as GPS) using a positioning satellite called a GPS (Global Positioning System), a traveling direction of the vehicle, and a traveling direction are used. There is an autonomous navigation method that tracks a change in the current position from a departure point based on information such as speed.

[0003] The data of a road map near the current position detected by the current position detecting means is stored in a CD.
Reading out from a large-capacity data storage means such as a ROM, creating a video signal for displaying a road map, supplying this video signal to a display device, and displaying a road map near the current position;

[0004]

However, in the case of such a conventional navigation device, there is an inconvenience that only a road map prepared in advance in road map data storage means such as a CD-ROM can be displayed. . That is,
Roads that are newly established after the road map data is created or roads that are not input as road map data (such as forest roads in mountainous areas) are not displayed as a road map. In order to solve such a problem, for example, a CD-ROM or the like in which road map data is stored is created periodically (for example, every year), and information such as newly established roads can be sequentially obtained. Although it is conceivable to do so, it is inconvenient that it takes cost and time to re-create the original map data itself, and thus it is not very preferable.

[0005] Further, in the conventional navigation device, it is premised that there is road map data of the area where the vehicle travels in advance, and no map can be displayed when traveling in an area where map data is not prepared.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In view of the foregoing, it is an object of the present invention to provide a navigation device which can cope with a case where the vehicle travels on a newly established road or a region where map data is not available.

[0007]

In order to solve such a problem, a navigation device according to the present invention comprises a storage means for storing information of a trajectory formed by a change in position information detected by a current position detection means. In addition, a map can be displayed based on the information stored in the storage means. In this case, a predetermined trajectory information input means is provided.
Detection means detects the trajectory information input to the input means.
Modified by the trajectory formed by the change in the position information
In the storage means.

According to the present invention, the trajectory detected by traveling or the like becomes a road newly registered as map information, and when displaying a road map, this road can be displayed on the map. In this case, the specified trajectory information
Trajectory information input to the input means
Into a trajectory formed by changes in location information
By memorizing, the route is predicted in advance and
Traveled route and store it as accurate road information.
Can be.

[0009]

An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing the overall configuration of the present embodiment. In this embodiment, the navigation device 10 is mounted on an automobile (not shown).
Is equipped with a GPS antenna 11a.
a, receives the positioning signal from the GPS satellite
The signal receiving unit 11 performs reception processing, and receives
Is supplied to the positioning calculation unit 12. The GPS positioning calculation unit 12 analyzes the supplied reception data to calculate a current coordinate position and its altitude, and also calculates a moving speed and a traveling direction of a car on which the navigation device 10 is mounted. . Here, the data of the current coordinate position is, for example, latitude and longitude data which is absolute position information, and the altitude data is altitude data.

Then, various information such as the current coordinate position calculated by the GPS positioning calculation unit 12 is supplied to a central control unit (CPU) 13 for controlling the operation of the navigation device. The central control unit 13 has a CD ROM
A driver 14 is connected. The CD-ROM driver 14 has a CD ROM in which road map data is stored.
(Optical disk) is set, and a reproduction process for reading data stored in the CDROM is performed under the control of the central control device 13. In this case, in the CDROM of this example, road data as information for displaying a road map of a predetermined area is stored in vector data for each road (specifically, the coordinate positions of the starting point and the ending point of each road). Data (vector data as data of the shape of the road connecting the two coordinate positions) is stored (recorded).

When the GPS positioning calculation unit 12 calculates the current position coordinates, the central control unit 13 performs control to read data of a road map in the vicinity of the coordinate position from the CD-ROM. The map data is stored in a memory in the graphic processing unit 15. Then, the central control unit 13 uses the road map data in the range to be displayed in the road map data stored in the graphic processing unit 15 to generate road map display graphic data (for example, bit map data). . Then, the graphic data is read and supplied to the video signal generation circuit 16 to generate a video signal of a predetermined format for displaying the road map as a video, and the video signal is transmitted to the display device connected to the navigation device 10. The display device 31 performs image receiving processing based on the video signal, and displays a road map or the like on the screen of the display device 31.

The central control unit 13 is supplied with operation information of a key input unit 19 which is an operation key of the navigation device, and in addition to the above-described processing for displaying a road map near the current position, key input operation is performed. A road map or the like at a position instructed by the central control device 13 by the operation of the unit 19 or the like can be displayed based on the control of the central control device 13.

The navigation apparatus 10 of the present embodiment includes an autonomous positioning calculation unit 23, and the autonomous positioning calculation unit 23 performs positioning by autonomous navigation. That is, a pulse signal corresponding to the vehicle speed, which is supplied to the terminal 21 from an engine control computer or the like on the automobile side, is transmitted to the pulse counter 2.
It counts at 2, and supplies the count data to the autonomous positioning calculation unit 23. The output of the gyro unit 24 is supplied to the autonomous positioning calculation unit 23. Then, the autonomous positioning calculation unit 23
In the arithmetic processing within, the traveling speed of the vehicle is detected from the count data, the traveling direction of the vehicle is detected based on the gyro output, and based on the detected speed and traveling direction, autonomous movement from a predetermined position is performed. The current position is determined by navigation. For example, when the GPS positioning calculation unit 12 cannot perform positioning (for example, when a signal from a satellite cannot be received for some reason), the GPS positioning calculation unit 1 ends.
From the position measured in 2, the positioning is performed by the autonomous navigation.

The navigation device 10 of the present embodiment includes a large-capacity memory unit 17 capable of storing and reading data. In this case, the memory unit 17 of the present example
A magneto-optical disk which is detachable from the apparatus is used as a storage medium, and various data can be stored and read out under the control of the central controller 13. The data to be stored using the memory unit 17 includes, for example, data relating to a newly registered road.

That is, when a new road registration mode is set by operating the key input unit 19 connected to the navigation apparatus 10, the data of the coordinate positions of the start point and the end point of the road and the start point and the end point are connected. The data of the trajectory (vector data) and the data associated with the data of the road are stored in the memory unit 17. At this time, the data of the coordinate position of the road and the data of the trajectory to be newly registered are stored in the respective positioning calculation units 12 and 2 when the vehicle is actually driven.
This is data determined by the central control device 13 based on the positioning coordinates of No. 3. The detailed processing will be described later.

The road data registered in the memory unit 17 is used when the graphic processing unit 15 creates data for displaying a road map including the coordinate positions of the registered roads. Read from 17,
The registered road is displayed on the road map displayed on the display device 31.

Further, in the case of the present embodiment, an audio processing unit 18 is connected to the memory unit 17, and a microphone 32 and a speaker 33 are connected to the audio processing unit 18. The sound picked up by the microphone 32 under the control of the central control unit 13 can be recorded as digital data on a magneto-optical disk in the memory unit 17. in this case,
When voice data is recorded as data accompanying the data of the newly registered road, when the vehicle travels on the newly registered road, the voice data is read out under the control of the central controller 13. , And output from the speaker 33.

Further, a video camera 34 is connected to the navigation device 10 of the present embodiment. The video camera 34 is set so as to capture, for example, an image of a vehicle ahead. For example, when a new road is registered, an image of the road is captured as needed. And
The video signal obtained by the video camera 34 is supplied to the memory unit 17 via the graphic processing unit 15, and can be recorded as still image data on a magneto-optical disk in the memory unit 17. This still image data is also recorded as data accompanying the newly registered road data.

In addition to such voices and images, the key input unit 19 also displays symbols and characters to be displayed on the display device 31 at the same time as newly registered roads.
Based on the above operation, data can be recorded in the memory unit 17 as data accompanying the road data.

Next, using this navigation device, road data not recorded on the CD ROM disk mounted on the CD ROM driver 14 is stored in the memory unit 1.
The process for recording data on the magneto-optical disk mounted on the disk 7 will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

The registration processing of the new road data is performed under the control of the central control unit 13. First, the central control unit 13 determines whether or not a mode for registering the road by operating the key input unit 19 is set. (Step 10
1). And when this mode is set,
The central control unit 13 determines the current position measured by the GPS positioning calculation unit 12 (or autonomous positioning calculation unit 23 when positioning cannot be performed by the positioning calculation unit 12). At this time, the position determined is the CD mounted on the CD ROM driver 14.
It is determined whether or not the position on the road recorded on the ROM disk (or a position very close to the road) (step 102). If the position is on the road recorded on the CD ROM disk, it is determined whether or not the traveling direction of the automobile has changed by an angle equal to or greater than a predetermined angle (here, 60 °) from the road on the map. Judgment (Step 10
3) If the traveling direction changes at an angle equal to or greater than the predetermined angle (that is, when the vehicle turns at an angle of 60 ° or more from the road), the current position measured by the GPS positioning calculation unit 12 or the autonomous positioning calculation unit 23 is determined. It is determined as the starting point (step 104).

If it is determined in step 102 that the current position measured is not a position on the road recorded on the CD ROM disk, the flow directly proceeds to step 104, where the current position measured is determined to be the starting point of the road on which the registered current position is to be registered. I do.

After the start point is determined in step 104, the central control unit 13 monitors a change in the current position measured by the GPS positioning operation unit 12 or the autonomous positioning operation unit 23, and determines that the start point is obtained. The traveling locus from the position is determined (step 105).

Next, it is determined whether or not the vehicle has stopped based on the positioning position monitored by the central controller 13 (step 106). When it is determined that the vehicle has not stopped, it is determined whether or not the traveling direction of the vehicle has changed by an angle equal to or greater than a predetermined angle (here, 60 °) (step 107). Further, if no change in the traveling direction by more than the predetermined angle is detected, it is determined whether or not the vehicle is traveling on the road position recorded on the CD ROM disk (step 108). If it is determined in step 108 that the vehicle is not traveling on the road in the map data, the process returns to step 105, and the traveling locus determination process is continuously performed.

Then, when it is determined in step 106 that the vehicle has stopped, when it is determined in step 107 that the traveling direction has changed by an angle equal to or more than a predetermined angle (60 °), and when it is determined in step 108 that the vehicle is traveling on a road in the map data. When it is determined that the determination is made, the current position measured at the time when the determination is performed is determined to be the end point of the road to be registered (step 109).

The road data obtained by the processing up to this point, that is, the data of the coordinate position of the start point and the coordinate position of the end point,
The vector data of the locus connecting the two coordinate positions is recorded on the magneto-optical disk mounted on the memory unit 17 under the control of the central control unit 13.

After recording this one unit of road data in the memory unit 17, the process returns to step 101,
It is determined whether or not the mode for registering a road is continuing, and as long as this mode is continuing, the processing after step 102 is repeatedly performed.

FIG. 3 shows a display example of a road newly registered in this manner. For example, as shown in FIG. 3A, a road displayed on a map in a road registration mode is set. It is assumed that the vehicle starts traveling on a road r0 that is not shown in this map by changing the traveling direction by about 90 ° from a certain point a. At this time, the point a where the traveling direction has been changed is registered as a starting point, and a trajectory from the starting point to the current position is displayed by a broken line. The mark m in the map display indicates the vehicle position, and the protruding part m1 in the mark m indicating the vehicle position indicates the traveling direction at that time. In this navigation device, the display range of the map is set so that the position of the vehicle is displayed substantially at the center of the map.

Then, as shown in FIG. 3B, when the traveling position of the automobile at this time returns to another road on the map and starts traveling on this road, a point b which has returned to this road is a new point. The travel locus from the start point a to the end point b is registered as the end point of the road registered in.

[0031] A CD for a newly established road or the like in this manner.
By traveling on a road that is not registered in the ROM disk, the data of this road is stored (recorded) in the memory unit 17, and the road is thereafter displayed on the map.
Therefore, even when a new road is established, it can be dealt with without replacing the CD ROM disk which is the main map data. The registration work is performed only by traveling on the relevant road, and the registration can be easily performed.

Up to this point, only the operation of registering a road has been described. However, when displaying a newly registered road, various data associated with the road can be simultaneously recorded. If the accompanying data is audio data picked up by the microphone 32, the audio is output from the speaker 33 when traveling on the registered road.
By being able to record and play back audio in this way, the state of the road and points to be aware of when traveling on the road are recorded in audio, so that when traveling on the road again, the audio can be recorded. Is automatically reproduced, and voice guidance is provided.

If the accompanying data is video data captured by the video camera 34, the video is displayed on the display device 31 as a still image when traveling on the registered road. is there. Since the video can be recorded and played back in this way, when the vehicle travels on the road again, a video or the like obtained by imaging the periphery of the road is automatically displayed on the screen of the display device 31, and guidance by the video is performed.

A description will be given of accompanying data relating to a symbol mark or a character to be displayed on the display device 31 at the same time as a newly registered road. The display of the symbol mark or the character is performed based on the operation of the key input unit 19. Is entered. FIG. 4A shows an example of a display screen of the display device 31 when a symbol mark in this case is selected, and symbol marks Sa, Sb, Sc, and the like indicating various intersection states are displayed on the screen. Simultaneously, symbol marks Sa, Sb, Sc and the like indicating target objects such as a gas station, a bank, and a railroad crossing are displayed. By operating the key input unit 19 in a state where this display is performed, a predetermined mark is selected from the displayed symbol marks, and the display position of the selected mark on the map is indicated. As shown in FIG. 4B, for example, a mark S indicating a gas station is provided at a predetermined position on a newly registered road r1.
1 and the intersection c can be displayed. It is also possible to set so that marks, intersections, and the like are displayed at places other than the newly registered roads. In FIG. 4B,
This shows a case where the display position of the mark S2 is registered so that the mark S2 indicating the bank is displayed beside a newly registered road.

If there is a section such as a tunnel in the middle of a newly registered road, the position may be determined by, for example, reciprocating on the road. That is, for example, as shown in FIG. 5A, positioning cannot be performed by the GPS positioning calculation unit 12 in the middle of the road r1 to be newly registered (that is, signals from satellites cannot be received).
When there is a section, when the vehicle first travels on this road from only one side, this section is displayed as a dashed road r2. In this case, the position e1 at the timing when the positioning cannot be performed is determined as one entrance of the tunnel. The trajectory during the traveling of the tunnel is obtained based on the positioning result of the autonomous positioning calculation unit 23.

When the vehicle travels on the registered road r1 in the reverse direction, when the GPS positioning calculation unit 12 cannot perform positioning in the middle of the road, the position e2 at the timing when the positioning cannot be performed is determined by: Confirm the other entrance. Then, when the determined data is stored in the memory unit 17 and the road map is displayed, FIG.
As shown in B of FIG. 7, a symbol mark indicating the entrance of the tunnel or the like is displayed at the positions e1 and e2.

In the above description, the road actually driven is displayed on the map. However, a road predicted in advance is displayed, and the displayed predicted road is corrected by actual driving. You may do it.

That is, as shown in FIG. 6A, for example, a rough trajectory of a predicted road from a certain point P1 to another point P2 is input by a cursor operation using the key input unit 19 or the like. This predicted route is stored in the memory unit 17 and displayed on the screen of the display device 31. Then, the vehicle travels on the predicted route in this state (the approximate position of the vehicle may be displayed on a map at this time), and the predicted trajectory is corrected using the positioning data obtained during the travel. Then, a process of storing the corrected data in the memory unit 17 (erasing the data of the predicted route) and displaying the corrected data on the screen of the display device 31 as shown in FIG. 6B is performed.

In the example of FIG. 6, the predicted route almost coincides with the actual road. However, as shown in FIG. 7, when the predicted route is substantially different from the actual road. Can also deal with. That is, when a route is predicted as shown in FIG.
As shown in B, even when the route is significantly different from the predicted route, the trajectory of the road obtained by the actual traveling is stored in the memory unit 17 as a newly registered road.

In the above description, the case where the navigation device is mounted on the automobile has been described.
For example, the navigation device may be made compact so that it can be carried, and a route may be recorded when climbing a mountain or the like. For example, the key input unit 19 is configured to be small enough to be held by hand, and the navigation device body is used by being fixed to an appropriate part of the body.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing the structure of an input device which is a key input unit in this case. The input device 40 is for selecting a symbol mark or the like, and an up key for moving the selected symbol mark up and down. 41, down key 42,
A key 43 for confirming the symbol mark selected by the keys 41 and 42 and a liquid crystal display panel 44 on which the selected mark is displayed in order are connected to the navigation apparatus main body by a signal line 45. By operating the keys 41 or 42, the symbol marks displayed on the liquid crystal display panel 44 are sequentially changed. Here, three symbol marks Sx, Sy, Sz are displayed, and key 43
By pressing, the symbol mark S displayed at the center
It is registered that y is at the current position. In this way, a route or the like can be registered even when walking such as mountain climbing.

In addition to the creation of such a flat map, a display related to altitude may be performed.
That is, for example, when climbing a mountain, based on the current position data and the altitude data calculated by the GPS positioning calculation unit 12, FIG.
As shown in FIG. 7, the correspondence between the travel distance (walking distance) from the departure place X to the destination Y and the altitude may be displayed.

When a navigation device is mounted on a vehicle such as an automobile, in addition to the above-described walking such as mountain climbing, in addition to the above-described registration as flat map data, the altitude of each point is also determined. The data may be registered so that a corresponding map display or the like can be performed.

In this embodiment, the data of the roads to be newly registered is used as the memory unit 17 for recording (storing) the removable magneto-optical disk as a recording medium. By reloading the registered disk in another navigation device or the like, the registered data can be used in another navigation device. Instead of re-attaching the recording medium itself, a terminal for data input / output (or communication means) is provided in the navigation device, and the central control unit is connected to another navigation device via this terminal or the like. Under the control of the device 13, data stored in the memory unit 17 may be read and data such as a road registered in another navigation device may be transferred.

In the above embodiment, the memory section 17 is configured as a storage means using a magneto-optical disk.
Of course, other storage means such as a storage means using a semiconductor memory may be used.

In the above-described embodiment, the present invention is applied to a navigation apparatus using a positioning system called GPS, but it is needless to say that the present invention can be applied to a navigation apparatus using another positioning system. Further, such a positioning system can also be applied to a map display device that is a separate body. For example, a personal computer in which software for displaying a road map on a monitor display screen is incorporated, The present invention can be applied to a case where the apparatus is combined with the apparatus.

[0047]

According to the navigation device of the present invention,
The trajectory detected by driving etc. becomes a road registered as new map information, and when displaying a road map, this road can be displayed on the map, as a newly established road or as map information Even when there is a road that has not been registered, or when traveling in an area where no road map exists, navigation can be performed.

[0048]

[0049]

[0050]

[0051]

[0052]

Further, a predetermined trajectory information input means is provided,
By correcting and storing the trajectory information input to the input means with the trajectory formed by the change in the position information, a route is predicted in advance, and the predicted route is traveled and stored as accurate road information. This makes it possible to provide rough guidance when traveling on a newly registered road.

[0054]

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram showing one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing processing at the time of road registration according to one embodiment;

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram illustrating a display example when driving on a new road according to one embodiment;

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram illustrating a display example at the time of setting a symbol according to an embodiment;

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram showing a display example during traveling in a tunnel according to one embodiment.

FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram showing a display example by a prediction route correction process according to one embodiment;

FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram showing a display example by a correction process of a predicted route (an example of incorrect prediction) according to one embodiment;

FIG. 8 is a perspective view showing an example in which an operation unit according to one embodiment is provided separately.

FIG. 9 is an explanatory diagram showing a display example of an altitude map according to one embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

 Reference Signs List 10 navigation device 11 GPS signal receiving unit 12 GPS positioning calculation unit 13 Central control unit (CPU) 14 CD-ROM driver 15 Graphic processing unit 16 Video signal generation unit 17 Memory unit 18 Voice processing unit 19 Key input unit 23 Autonomous positioning calculation Unit 31 display device 32 microphone 33 speaker

────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (56) References JP-A-1-155209 (JP, A) JP-A-7-77955 (JP, A) JP-A-7-286854 (JP, A) JP-A-2- 8712 (JP, A) JP-A-6-4023 (JP, A) JP-A-9-33267 (JP, A) JP-A 8-338737 (JP, A) JP-A-9-53946 (JP, A) (58) Field surveyed (Int.Cl. ⁷ , DB name) G01C 21/00 G01C 7/04 G08G 1/0969 G09B 29/00-29/10

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] A first storage unit for storing map information; a second storage unit for storing trajectory information formed by a change in position information detected by the detection unit; Control means for controlling storage in the second storage means; display signal creation means for creating a display signal for displaying a map based on the information stored in the first and second storage means ; A predetermined trajectory information input means, and the detection means detects the trajectory information input to the input means.
Trajectory formed by the change in the position information
A navigation device which is stored in the second storage means .