JP3390624B2 - 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 device which is mounted on a vehicle such as an automobile and which guides a travel route searched in advance by image display while detecting the current position of the vehicle.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, for example, JP-A-7-1984.
As shown in the related art No. 01 and the like, a navigation device that performs route guidance based on road network information is used. For route guidance using a navigation device, data such as a starting point, a destination point, and a relay point on the way are input before the vehicle travels, an appropriate route is searched using a method such as the Dijkstra method, and the route is temporarily stored as a guide route. To be done. When the vehicle travels on the guidance route, the route guidance by enlarged display is performed at a guidance point such as an intersection.

[0003] FIG. 8 shows a typical display screen for displaying a three-dimensional (3D) enlarged view of an intersection and displaying a guide route on a road. Road 1 seen vertically in the figure and road 2 seen horizontally
And intersect at intersection 3. The guide route 4 displayed according to the result of the route search is displayed so as to turn right at the intersection 3 from the road 1 to the road 2.

[0004]

Since the display of the guide route 4 in the conventional navigation device as shown in FIG. 8 is performed flat on the roads 1 and 2, it is not always easy to understand. . This is because the driver of the vehicle drives the vehicle from a point of view of a certain height from the road surface, and thus the display of the flat guide route 4 causes a sense of discomfort with the point of view having a height. In particular, in FIG. 8, although the intersection 3 is three-dimensionally displayed by the perspective drawing method, and the intersection 3 is displayed in consideration of the viewpoint of the driver of the vehicle, the viewpoint of the guide route 4 is considered. It has not been caught.

An object of the present invention is to provide a navigation device capable of performing route guidance in consideration of the viewpoint of a vehicle driver.

[0006]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention searches a travel route between points, detects the current position of the vehicle when the vehicle travels on the searched route, and displays a road map near the current position. A navigation device for displaying a guide route on a road while displaying an image, including a guide display unit for displaying the guide route by drawing a shadow so that the guide route has a certain height on the road. It is a device. According to the present invention, when the vehicle actually travels on the travel route searched in advance or when the vehicle artificially travels, the guide route is displayed on the road while displaying the image of the road map near the current position of the vehicle. Since the shadow is drawn so as to have a constant height and is displayed by the guide display means, it is possible to provide a route guidance that is close to the reality and that matches the height of the viewpoint of the driver of the vehicle.

[0007]

Further, in the present invention, the guide display means, when there is a road intersecting with a road through which the guide route passes, if the road crossing is higher than the road through which the guide route passes, the guide route is displayed. The display of a portion passing under the intersecting road is performed in a state different from that of other portions. According to the present invention, the guidance display means, for the road intersecting with the road for which guidance is displayed, according to the discrimination result of the height discriminating means, if the intersecting road is a road at a high position, the guide is displayed below the road. Since the display of the passing portion is performed in a state different from that of the other portions, it is possible to display at a glance that the route is under the elevated road.

Further, according to the present invention, the guide display means displays a portion of the guide route on which the vehicle has already traveled as an indicator on the guide route. When the intersecting road is higher than the road that the route passes through, display the indicator of the part that passes under the road where the guide route intersects,
It is characterized in that it is performed in a state different from that of other portions. According to the present invention, the guide display means not only displays the guide route on the road in the route guidance such as an intersection, but also displays the portion on which the vehicle has traveled on the guide route as an indicator, and further When a part passes under the elevated road, it is displayed in a state different from the other parts, so that it is possible to provide route guidance in which it is easy to understand that the part will pass under the elevated road.

[0010]

[0011]

[0012]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS FIG. 1 shows a schematic electrical configuration of a navigation device 10 which is the basis of the present invention. In the navigation device 10, the processing means 11 causes the guidance display means 12 to display a road map for route guidance. The road network information stored in the CD-ROM 13 is expressed as combination data of nodes and links for roads. The node indicates the coordinates of the position and the connection relationship with other nodes, and the link indicates the length and direction between the nodes. Further, for roads, information indicating the distinction between ordinary roads, highways, toll roads, motorway roads, etc. is stored as a link, and data indicating whether or not the road is an elevated road is also stored. Further, information about roads intersecting with the roads is also stored.

The data stored in the CD-ROM 13 is electrically read by the CD-ROM driver 14. The data stored in the CD-ROM 13 is
Since information is added that makes it easy to correct errors,
The data is converted by the CD-ROM decoder 15 into data to be processed by the processing means 11. The starting point, the target point, which the navigation device 10 needs when performing the route search,
Input of a relay point or the like can be performed from the input device 16. The input device 16 is realized by a keyboard of a remote controller or the like. The detection circuit detects a power-on state. The power supply voltage is stabilized by the regulator 18 and supplied to each part of the navigation device 10. A power switch 19 is provided between a power source such as a vehicle battery and the regulator 18.

In the navigation device 10, in order to detect the current position of the vehicle, the azimuth sensor 21, the angle sensor 22, and the distance sensor 23 via the interface 20.
And the GPS device 24 and the like are connected. Direction sensor 2
1 detects the traveling direction of the vehicle as an absolute azimuth from, for example, an indicator. The angular velocity sensor 22 detects a change in the traveling direction of the vehicle as an angular velocity by using, for example, a vibration gyro. The distance sensor 23 detects the traveling distance of the vehicle. The GPS device 24 receives radio waves from a plurality of GPS artificial satellites and detects the current position of the vehicle as absolute position coordinates. The current position of the vehicle can be detected even with only a part of them. For example, the current position can be detected only by the GPS device 24. Also, a combination of the direction sensor 21 and the distance sensor 23, or the angular velocity sensor 22
With the combination of the distance sensor 23 and the distance sensor 23, the current position of the vehicle can be relatively detected by dead reckoning.

The interface 20 includes a processing means 11 and a guide display means 12 via a system bus line 25.
Connected to. In the processing means 11, a CPU 26, RO
The M27, the RAM 28 and the like are included and the route search and route guidance processing is performed according to a program stored in advance in the ROM 27. The guide display means 12 is provided with a display device 30 such as a liquid crystal display device or a cathode ray tube, and is controlled by a display controller 31. The graphic image displayed on the display device 30 is the graphic controller 32.
Then, the image is once drawn on the graphic memory 33, and an image is displayed on the display device 30 via the display controller 31.

FIG. 2 shows an equivalent logical configuration when the processing means 11 of FIG. 1 operates as a route search device 40 and a route guidance device 41 which are basic functions of the navigation device 10. Input data such as a starting point or a destination point of a route to be searched, or a passing point on the way is given to the point setting means 42 from the input unit of the input device 16 of FIG. The route searching means 43 refers to the map data stored in the CD-ROM 13 on the condition that each point set by the point setting means 42 is passed, and determines a guide route satisfying conditions such as the shortest distance, Search results are stored in the search result storage means 44.
Remember. The search result stored in the search result storage means 44 is realized by the display device 30 of the guide display means 12 when the vehicle actually travels along the guide route or as a pseudo drive simulation function without actually traveling. Can be displayed in the output section. When the vehicle actually travels, the azimuth sensor 21 and the angular velocity sensor 2
2. While detecting the current position of the vehicle by the own vehicle position search device including the distance sensor 23 or the GPS 24, it can be displayed on the display device 30 together with the road map near the current position.

FIG. 3 shows a first embodiment of the present invention.
Guide route 54 at intersection 53 where roads 51 and 52 intersect
6 shows a state in which a shadow 55 is added and a certain height is added to the guide route so that the guide is displayed from the viewpoint of the driver of the vehicle in an easy-to-understand manner. Shadow 55
Even if the guide route 54 is not attached, the guide route 54 appears to be three-dimensional to some extent because it is floating from the road 52 therebelow. If the shadow 55 is added, a more stereoscopic effect can be seen, and when the roads 51 and 52 are displayed in stereoscopic display by the perspective drawing as shown in FIG. 3, route guidance can be performed more effectively.

FIG. 4 shows a procedure for performing the display as shown in FIG. The process starts from step a1, and then step a2
Now, add "height" to the guide route. At step a3, it is determined whether or not the guide route is on an elevated road. When it is determined that the vehicle is on an elevated road, "height" is added to the guide route in step a4. When step a4 is completed, or when it is determined that the road is not an elevated road in step a3, the guide route with the height added is displayed in step a5. At step a6, it is determined whether or not the display of the guide route is completed. When it is determined that the height is not finished, the process returns to step a2, and when it is finished, the process of adding the height is finished in step a7.
The roads 51 and 52 in FIG. 3 are drawn before the height is added in FIG.

FIG. 5 shows a second embodiment of the present invention.
A process of expressing a height by adding a shadow 55 to the guide route 54 as shown in FIG. 3 is shown. The process is started from step b1, and it is determined in step b2 whether or not the guide route 54 is on an elevated road. When it is judged that it is on an elevated road,
In step b3, "height" is added to the shadow of the guide route. When step b3 ends, or when it is determined in step b2 that the guide route 54 is not on the elevated road, a shadow 55 of the guide route 54 is displayed in step b4. At step b5, it is determined whether or not the drawing regarding the guide route 54 is completed. Step b when not completed
Returning to step 2, if completed, the process of drawing in step b6 ends.

FIG. 6 shows a third embodiment of the present invention.
The three-dimensional display when passing under the elevated road is shown. Figure 6
As shown in (a), a portion of the guide route 54 on the road 51 that passes under the elevated road 56 is displayed differently from other portions such as hatching. The portion that passes under the elevated road 56 is hatched with a pattern such as diagonal lines, or is colored lighter or darker than other portions so that it can be seen at a glance that it passes under the elevated road 56. indicate. FIG. 6B shows a state in which the general road 52 exists under the elevated road 56, and the guide route 58 turns left at the intersection 57 in the direction of the lower road 52. The guide route 58 of the portion below the elevated road 56 is displayed in a state different from other portions such as hatching.

FIG. 7 shows a fourth embodiment of the present invention.
The planar guidance display for enlarging and guiding the vicinity of the intersection 53 is shown. In FIG. 7A, an indicator 60 indicating a portion where the vehicle has already traveled is displayed on the guide route 59. As shown in FIG. 7B, when the indicator 60 also passes under the elevated road 56, if it is displayed in a state different from other portions, for example, by hatching, the indicator 60 can be displayed under the elevated road 56. It is possible to make the display easy to understand when passing through. The display of the indicator 60 can also be performed for a stereoscopic display as shown in FIG.

[0022]

As described above, according to the present invention, the guide route for displaying the route searched in advance on the road is displayed by drawing a shadow so that the route has a certain height from the road. It is possible to provide guidance that is easier for the driver of the vehicle to understand than when it is displayed in a flat state on the road.

[0023]

Further, according to the present invention, when the guide route passes under the elevated road, it is possible to provide a display that is easy to understand at a glance.

Further, according to the present invention, when displaying a portion where the vehicle has already passed on the guide route as an indicator,
It is possible to easily display the part that passes under the elevated road.

[0026]

[0027]

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a schematic electrical configuration of a basic embodiment of the present invention.

2 is a block diagram showing a logical configuration for route search and route guidance by the navigation device 10 of FIG.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an intersection guidance screen according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing a treatment procedure of the embodiment of FIG.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing a processing procedure according to the second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a guide screen at an intersection according to a third embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a guidance screen at an intersection as a fourth embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is an enlarged view of an intersection of a conventional navigation device.

[Explanation of symbols]

10 Navigation device 11 Processing means 12 guidance display means 13 CD-ROM 16 Input device 21 Direction sensor 22 Angular velocity sensor 23 Distance sensor 24 GPS device 26 CPU 27 ROM 28 RAM 30 display 31 Display controller 32 graphic controller 33 graphic memory 40 Route Search Device 41 Route guidance device 42 Point setting means 43 Route Search Means 44 Search Result Storage Means 51,52 road 53,57 intersection 54,58,59 Guide route 55 Shadow 56 elevated road 60 indicator

Continuation of the front page (56) Reference JP-A-8-261778 (JP, A) JP-A-10-232605 (JP, A) JP-A-10-253380 (JP, A) (58) Fields investigated (Int .Cl. ⁷ , DB name) G01C 21/00 G08G 1/0969 G09B 29/10 G09G 5/36

Claims (3)

(57) [Claims] 1. A travel route between points is searched, and when a vehicle travels on the searched route, the current position of the vehicle is detected and a road map near the current position is displayed as an image on the road. A navigation device for displaying a guide route, characterized by including guide display means for displaying the guide route by drawing a shadow so that the guide route has a certain height. 2. The guide display means, when there is a road intersecting with a road along which the guide route passes, if the road intersecting is higher than the road through which the guide route passes, the guide route intersects. The navigation device according to claim 1, wherein the display of the portion passing under the road is performed in a state different from that of the other portions. 3. The guide display means displays a portion of the guide route on which the vehicle has already traveled as an indicator on the guide route, and when there is a road intersecting with the road on which the guide route passes, the guide route is displayed. When the intersecting road is higher than the passing road, the indicator of the portion passing under the intersecting road of the guide route is displayed in a state different from other portions. The navigation device according to item 1.