JP3471940B2 - Map display device for vehicles - Google Patents

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a vehicle map display device capable of displaying on a display device a road map within a set range from a present location to a destination.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art When a road map is displayed on a display device, a road map is displayed in a so-called bird's-eye view display format in which the road map around the vehicle's current location is displayed in an enlarged manner compared to a distance. Are known (for example, see Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 3-225391). The device disclosed in the above publication places a viewpoint behind the current position of the vehicle and displays a state in which the traveling direction of the vehicle is looked down from this viewpoint on the screen of the display device. When such a bird's-eye view display is performed, the map information around the current location can be enlarged and displayed, and a wide range from the current location to the distant area can be displayed, so that the connection status of the road map can be visually easily grasped. Further, when the display direction is the traveling direction of the vehicle, there is an advantage that an intersection or the like on the traveling route of the vehicle can be observed in detail, and when the traveling route is a straight traveling route, the road map becomes very easy to understand.

[0003]

However, when the traveling direction of the vehicle is set as the display direction, for example, when the traveling route is greatly curved, the display direction of the road map is greatly changed accordingly, which direction the vehicle is facing. It's hard to tell if you're making progress. In order to solve the above problem, it is possible to set the destination direction to be the display direction, or to set the waypoint direction in the middle of the current location and the destination to be the display direction.
When there is a large difference between the traveling direction of the vehicle and the direction of the destination or the waypoint, the road map becomes difficult to understand.

An object of the present invention is to provide a vehicle map display device capable of accurately grasping a display direction of a bird's-eye view when a road map is displayed in the bird's-eye view, for example.

[0005]

The invention according to claim 1 is a vehicle
It is applied to a map display device for road and acquires road map data.
Road map data acquisition means and the current state of vehicles traveling on the road
Current location detection means for detecting the location and the direction of travel of the vehicle, and acquisition
Of detected vehicles based on the road map data
Inclining the traveling direction of the vehicle detected from the upper viewpoint around the ground
Generates map image data for the top-down map
Displaying the image on the display device and the top-down map generation means
Image data storage means for storing image data for
The direction of looking down the map is the top edge of the display screen of the display device.
Image data that is generated so that it will face to the side
Stored in the storage means and correspond to the detected current location of the vehicle
Cars to show the vehicle mark at the position on the map looking down
Image data of both marks is stored in the image data storage means,
An azimuth marker that represents the azimuth based on the looking-down direction of the map.
So that it is displayed on the upper side of the display screen of the display device.
Table for storing mark image data in the image data storage means
The display control means is provided. Contract
The invention of claim 2 is applied to a map display device for a vehicle,
Road map data acquisition means for acquiring map data and roads
To detect the current location of the vehicle
Based on the location detection means and the acquired road map data,
The detected vehicle is detected from an upper viewpoint around the current location.
The land of the top-down map that looked down at the vehicle
Top-down map generating means for generating figure image data and display
Image that stores the image data for displaying the image on the device
Shows the data storage means and the direction in which the map looks down
Map image generated to face the upper side of the device display screen
The image data is stored in the image data storage means, and the detected vehicle is detected.
The vehicle marker is located at the position on the top-down map corresponding to the current location of both vehicles.
Image data of the vehicle mark to display
Stored in the data storage means, and empty on the upper side of the display screen of the display device.
The image data of the empty image is
Stored in the data storage means and based on the top-down direction of the top-down map.
Display an orientation mark that indicates the orientation to be displayed on a part of the empty image
Image data of the orientation mark to the image data storage means
Characterized by comprising display control means for storing
Is.

The invention according to claim 3 is the vehicle according to claim 2.
In the map display device for display, the display control means is a direction mark.
On the image showing the sky on the left edge of the display screen of the display device.
Image data of orientation mark is stored as shown
It is characterized in that it is stored in the means. Claim 4
Is a vehicle land according to any one of claims 1 to 3.
In the diagram display device, the display control means displays the map looking down.
Every time the look down direction changes, at least the bearing mark
Update the image data of and store it in the image data storage means
It is characterized by that. The invention of claim 5 is a claim
The vehicle map display device according to any one of items 1 to 4
And the azimuth mark is a letter indicating the azimuth and an arrow indicating the north direction.
A mark or a symbol of a magnet
It The invention of claim 6 is the vehicle map according to claim 5.
In the display device, the display control means has an azimuth mark of a magnet.
When it is a symbol, it is divided into 45 by dividing 360 degrees into 8
Symbol of magnet to display position or 360 degree divided into 36
Image data of the symbol of the magnet that displays the direction in units of 10 degrees
Is stored in the image data storage means.
Of. The invention of claim 7 is any of claims 1 to 6.
In the map display device for a vehicle described in (1), display control means
On the map overlooking the destination mark that further represents the destination
The image data of the destination mark is displayed as
The data is stored in a data storage means.

The configuration of the present invention has been described above.
But the present invention is not limited to the examples.

[0008]

1 is a block diagram of an embodiment of a vehicle map display device according to the present invention. In FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 denotes a current position detection device for detecting the current position of the vehicle, for example, a direction sensor for detecting the traveling direction of the vehicle, a vehicle speed sensor for detecting the vehicle speed, and a GPS signal from a GPS (Global Positioning System) satellite. It is composed of a GPS sensor and the like. Reference numeral 2 is a map storage memory for storing road map data, which is composed of, for example, a CD-ROM and its reading device. The road map data stored in the map storage memory 2 mainly includes road data, name data, background data, and the like. The map storage memory 2 also stores road map data of a plurality of map scales.

Reference numeral 3 is a control circuit for controlling the entire apparatus,
It consists of a microprocessor and its peripheral circuits. Reference numeral 4 is an input device for inputting the destination of the vehicle. An image memory 5 stores image data to be displayed on the display device 6, and the image data stored in the image memory 5 is appropriately read and displayed on the display device 6.

2 and 3 are flowcharts showing the main processing of the control circuit 3, and the operation of this embodiment will be described below with reference to this flowchart. The control circuit 3 is
When the key is operated to the ignition on position, the processing of FIGS. 2 and 3 is started. In step S1 in FIG. 2, the current position detection device 1 is used to detect the current position and traveling direction of the vehicle. For example, when a GPS sensor is provided inside the current location detection device 1, the current location is detected by so-called GPS navigation using the GPS sensor, and when a vehicle speed sensor and a direction sensor are provided instead of the GPS sensor, The present location is detected by so-called self-contained navigation that determines the travel path of the vehicle. Alternatively, the current position may be detected by combining GPS navigation and self-contained navigation. On the other hand, the traveling direction of the vehicle is detected using an azimuth sensor, a geomagnetic sensor (neither is shown), or the like.

In step S2, the display direction of the bird's-eye view is determined based on the direction of travel of the vehicle detected in step S1 in order to display the bird's-eye view of the direction of travel of the vehicle. Step S3
Then, the current position detected in step S1 and step S
Road map data around the current location is read from the map storage memory 2 based on the display direction determined in 2. For example, the road map data of several 10 km square including the current location is read.
In step S4, the data used for displaying the bird's-eye view is selected from the road map data read in step S3.

FIG. 4 is a flow chart showing details of the processing in step S4. In step S101 shown in the figure,
From the road map data read in step S3 of FIG. 2, data that has not been subjected to the processing of step S102 and subsequent steps shown below is selected. In step S102, the data type of the data selected in step S101 is the display device 6
It is determined whether or not it should be displayed in. For example, when the data selected in step S101 is road data, it is determined whether or not the road type has a higher priority than a national road. By the process of step S102, the amount of road map data displayed on the display device 6 can be reduced.

If the determination in step S102 is affirmative, the flow advances to step S103 to determine whether the data selected in step S101 is within the range displayed on the display device 6. That is, it is determined whether the data selected in step S101 is within the range displayed on the display device 6. If the determination in step S103 is positive, step S
In step 104, the data selected in step S101 is selected as data for converting into a bird's-eye view. When the process of step S104 ends, or step S10
When the determination of No. 2 is denied, or when the determination of step S103 is denied, the process proceeds to step S105, and steps S101 to S1 are performed for all the data read from the map storage memory 2 in step S4 of FIG.
It is determined whether the processing up to 04 has been performed. If the determination is affirmative, the process returns, and if the determination is negative, a step S1
Return to 01.

As described above, in the processing of FIG. 4, only the road map data read from the map storage memory 2 is extracted, and only the data whose data type satisfies the predetermined condition is extracted, and the bird's eye view is further extracted from the extracted data. Select data for display.

Returning to FIG. 2, in step S5, the road map data selected in step S4 is converted into bird's-eye view data. FIG. 5 is a diagram for explaining conversion to bird's-eye view data, and shows an example in which a road map is an XY plane, a viewpoint M is placed on a Z axis orthogonal to the XY plane, and a downward angle from the viewpoint M is φ. The illustrated rectangle abcd shows the display range of the display device 6 as enlargedly displayed in FIG. 6, and the trapezoidal area ABCD of FIG. 5 shows the road map range displayed on the display device 6. In step S5, all of the road map data in the trapezoidal area ABCD can be displayed on the display device 6,
After the height Z of the viewpoint M, the down-looking angle φ from the viewpoint M, and the spread angle θ from the viewpoint are determined, bird's-eye view data projected on the rectangular area abcd in FIG. 4 is created using these parameters. At this time, the looking down angle φ is set so that the vicinity of the center line connecting the midpoints of the upper side and the lower side of the display screen of the display device 6 is the traveling direction of the vehicle.

In step S6, the bird's-eye view data converted in step S5 is converted into final map image data to be displayed on the display device 6.

FIG. 7 is a flow chart showing details of the processing in step S6. In step S201 of FIG. 7, data not yet converted into map image data is selected from the bird's-eye view data obtained by the process of step S6 of FIG. In step S202, the display range of the display device 6 is divided into a plurality of areas, and the number of divided areas is assigned to the variable N.

In this embodiment, as shown in FIG. 8, the display range of the display device 6 is divided into four areas. In FIG. 8, 500 dots in the X-axis direction of the display screen of the display device 6,
An example is shown in which the Y-axis direction is 400 dots and the lower left corner of the screen is the origin of the coordinates. In FIG. 8, among the four areas, the first area has a Y-axis coordinate range of 0 to 200 dots, the second area has a Y-axis coordinate range of 200 to 300 dots, and the third area has a Y range. Axial coordinate is 300-350
In the dot range, the fourth region has coordinates in the Y-axis direction of 350 to 4
The range is 00 dots.

In step S203 of FIG. 7, step S203
It is determined whether the display position of the data selected in 201 belongs to the Nth area. If the determination is negative, step S20.
4, the value obtained by subtracting 1 from the variable N is set as a new N, and the process returns to step S203. If the determination in step S203 is affirmative, the process advances to step S205 to convert the bird's-eye view data into map image data based on the value of the variable N. For example,
The road data in the first area has a line width of 4 points, the road data in the second area has a line width of 2 points, and the road data in the third area has a line width of 1 point. Further, since an image showing the sky is displayed in the fourth area, all road map data included in the fourth area is deleted, and blue-colored image data is created instead. The display color of the fourth area may be changed depending on day and night.

In step S206, it is determined whether or not all the bird's eye view data has been converted into map image data. If the determination is negative, the process returns to step S201, and if the determination is affirmative, the process returns.

As described above, in the processing of FIG.
Since the display range of is divided into a plurality of areas and the display format of the bird's-eye view data is changed for each area, a more stereoscopic bird's-eye view can be displayed and the sense of distance can be easily grasped. In particular, since the image showing the sky is displayed in the fourth region closest to the upper side of the display screen without displaying the road map, the bird's-eye view can have a greater depth.

Returning to FIG. 2, in step S7, the type of orientation mark displayed in the fourth area on the display screen is selected. Here, the azimuth mark means a quadrilateral mark indicating the display direction of the bird's eye view, and the following 8
One of the symbols for the type is displayed. Displaying the north direction N Displaying the northeast direction NE Displaying the east direction E Displaying the southeast direction SE Displaying the south direction Displaying the south direction S indicating that it is displayed SW indicating that it is displaying the SW direction SW indicating that it is displaying the W direction N indicating that displaying the NW direction

In step S8, where in the fourth area the symbol selected in step S7 is displayed is set. In the present embodiment, as shown in FIG. 8, the left end portion M1 of the fourth region,
An azimuth mark is displayed on either the central portion M2 or the right end portion M3. For example, when the road map in the direction of arrow A in FIG. 9 is displayed, the azimuth mark N is displayed in the central portion M2 of the fourth area (see FIG. 10A). On the other hand, when displaying the road map in the direction of arrow B in FIG. 9, the azimuth mark N is displayed at the left end M1 of the fourth area (FIG. 10).
(See (b)). When displaying the road map in the direction of arrow C in FIG. 9, the azimuth mark N is displayed at the right end M3 of the fourth area (see FIG. 10C).

In step S9 of FIG. 2, the fourth screen on the display screen is displayed.
The azimuth information image data is created to display the azimuth mark in the area. In step S10, vehicle information image data is created so that marks indicating the current location and destination of the vehicle are displayed on the display device 6.

FIG. 11 is a flow chart showing details of the processing in step S10. In step S301 of FIG. 11, vehicle position mark data is created so that the triangular mark shown in FIG. 10 is displayed at the display position corresponding to the current position G of the vehicle. In step S302, the current position G of the vehicle
And the distance GP to the destination P is obtained. Step S303
Then, it is determined whether or not the distance GP is equal to or less than the predetermined distance L.

If the determination in step S303 is affirmative, the flow advances to step S304 to create destination mark data to display the flag mark shown in FIG. If the determination in step S303 is negative, the process proceeds to step S305, in which destination mark data is created so as to display a flag mark at the boundary between the third region and the fourth region, and the process returns. Further, in steps S304 and S305, the size of the flag mark is changed depending on the display position of the destination. For example, when the destination is in the first area, the flag mark is the largest, and in the following, the flag mark is the second largest in the second area and the smallest in the third area.

As described above, in the processing of FIG. 11, when the destination is within the range displayed on the display device 6, the flag mark is displayed at the display position corresponding to the destination, and the destination is displayed within the display range. If not, the flag mark is displayed at the display position that is toward the destination and is closest to the destination on the display screen. As a result, the flag mark can always be displayed regardless of the distance from the current position to the destination, and the driver can always grasp the direction of the destination. Also, because the size of the flag mark is changed according to the display position on the display screen,
The flag mark does not interfere with the display of other map information.

Returning to FIG. 2, in step S11, the map image data, the azimuth information image data, and the vehicle information image data created in steps S6, S9, and S10 are stored in the image memory 5. Next, step S12 in FIG.
Then, drawing on the display device 6 is performed based on the data stored in the image memory 5. As a result, the bird's-eye view as shown in FIG. 10 is displayed on the display device 6. In addition, the roads shown by diagonal lines in FIG. 10 indicate recommended routes.

Returning to FIG. 3, in step S13, the current position and heading of the vehicle are detected as in step S2. In step S14, it is determined whether the vehicle has traveled a predetermined distance or more. If the determination is affirmative, the process returns to step S2 in FIG. 2, and if the determination is negative, the process proceeds to step S15. In step S15, it is determined whether the traveling direction of the vehicle has changed. If the determination is affirmative, the process proceeds to step S16, and the vehicle mark and the direction mark are rewritten without updating the road map, and the process returns to step S13. That is, the display position of the vehicle mark is changed according to the current position of the vehicle, and the type of the symbol inside the direction mark and the display position of the direction mark are changed according to the traveling direction of the vehicle.

When the determination in step S15 is negative, the process proceeds to step S17, and only the display position of the mark indicating the current position of the vehicle is changed according to the traveling distance of the vehicle. Then, the process returns to step S13.

In summary of the processing of FIGS. 2 and 3 described above, when the vehicle starts traveling, the control circuit 3 detects the current position and the traveling direction of the vehicle and sets the direction to look down from the viewpoint. Next, the road map data is read from the map storage memory 2 based on the current location and the looking down direction, the data whose data type satisfies a predetermined condition is extracted from the read road map data, and the extracted data is used as bird's-eye view data. Convert.

Next, the display screen of the display device 6 is divided into a plurality of areas, and the bird's-eye view data is processed for each area and converted into map image data. For example, the road line width in the area on the lower side of the display screen is thick, and the road line width in the area on the upper side is thin. Next, the symbol indicating the display direction of the bird's-eye view is selected, and the display position of the azimuth mark is selected to create azimuth information image data. Next, vehicle information image data for displaying marks indicating the current location and destination of the vehicle is created. When the creation of the map image data, the azimuth information image data, and the vehicle information image data is completed, the data are displayed on the display device 6, and the current position of the vehicle is detected again.

As described above, when the bird's-eye view is displayed on the display device, the azimuth mark indicating the display direction of the bird's-eye view is displayed. Therefore, for example, when the traveling direction of the vehicle is displayed, the vehicle turns in a sharp curve or the like. The direction on the road map is not lost even if the direction of travel of the vehicle changes suddenly and the display direction of the bird's-eye view changes accordingly.

In the above embodiment, 8 is used as the symbol indicating the direction.
Although types are provided, more types may be provided. For example, 360 degrees may be divided into 36, and the azimuth may be detected and displayed in units of 10 degrees. In the above-described embodiment, the example in which the azimuth mark is displayed at any of the three positions on the upper side of the screen has been described, but the azimuth mark may be displayed at more places. Further, the orientation mark may be displayed simultaneously at a plurality of places on the screen. By displaying the azimuth marks at a plurality of locations at the same time, the viewing angle when displaying the bird's-eye view can be known. In the above-mentioned embodiment, the azimuth mark is the one in which the symbol indicating the azimuth is put in the rectangular frame,
The form of the orientation mark is not limited to the embodiment. For example,
An arrow indicating the north direction may be displayed, or a magnet may be displayed. In the above-described embodiment, the example in which the road map in the traveling direction of the vehicle is displayed in the bird's-eye view is shown, but the direction in which the bird's-eye view is displayed is not limited to the traveling direction of the vehicle. For example, the present invention can be applied to a bird's-eye view display of a road map in the direction of a destination or in the direction of a waypoint in the middle of the destination.

In step S5 of FIG. 2, the data within the range of the trapezoidal area ABCD of FIG. 5 is extracted as bird's-eye view data. However, in order to improve the processing speed, as shown in FIG. It is also possible to extract the data of a square area (hatched area shown in the drawing) including the above as bird's-eye view data, and coordinate-convert the entire range of the extracted square area. Figure 1
2 (b) shows an example of coordinate conversion of the square area of FIG. 12 (a). A rectangular area abcd in the central portion of FIG.
Indicates the range that is actually displayed on the display device 6. In this way, when the road map data in a range wider than the display range of the display device 6 is converted into the bird's-eye view data, if the vehicle moves after the display and the vehicle is within the square range shown in FIG. 2 without performing the process of step S6 of FIG.
Since it is only necessary to shift the rectangular area of (b) and display it, the rewriting speed of the bird's-eye view is improved.

In the embodiment constructed as described above, the map storage memory 2 serves as road map storage means, the control circuit 3 serves as display control means, the current location detection device 1 serves as vehicle position detection means, and the steps shown in FIG. S5 corresponds to the bird's-eye view data conversion means, steps S7 to S9 of FIG. 2 correspond to the direction information creating means, and steps S202 to S205 of FIG. 7 correspond to the dividing means.

[0037]

As described in detail above, according to the present invention, for example, when displaying a bird's-eye view, the direction of the bird's-eye view is displayed.
Since the azimuth mark is displayed, even if the azimuth of the bird's-eye view changes suddenly, the azimuth will not be lost.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an embodiment of a vehicle map display device according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing main processing of a control circuit.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart following FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing details of the process of step S4 of FIG.

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating a method of converting to bird's-eye view data.

6 is an enlarged view of the rectangular area abcd shown in FIG.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing details of the process of step S6 of FIG.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing an example of a bird's-eye view display.

FIG. 9 is a diagram showing a display direction of a bird's-eye view.

FIG. 10 is a diagram showing a display example of an orientation mark.

FIG. 11 is a flowchart showing details of the process of step S10 of FIG.

FIG. 12 is a diagram showing a road map range for conversion into bird's-eye view data.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 Current location detector 2 map storage memory 3 control circuit 4 input device 5 image memory 6 Display device

─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁷ identification code FI G09B 29/00 G09B 29/00 AC (58) Fields investigated (Int.Cl. ⁷ , DB name) G09B 29/00-29 / 14 G01C 21/00 G06T 17/40 G06T 17/50 G08G 1/0969

Claims (7)

(57) [Claims] [Claim 1] Road map data for obtaining road map data
The acquisition means and the current position of the vehicle traveling on the road and the traveling direction of the vehicle are detected.
Based on the acquired road map data and the present location detection means
The detected vehicle from an upper point of view around the current location of the vehicle.
A map image of a top-down map that looks down diagonally in both directions
A top-down map generating means for generating image data and image data for displaying an image on a display device are stored.
Image data storage means, and the downward direction of the downward map is displayed on the display device.
The generated map image data is directed to the upper side of the screen.
Stored in the image data storage means, and
The vehicle at the above-mentioned map on the map corresponding to the current location of the vehicle
Image data of the vehicle mark so that both marks are displayed
Is stored in the image data storage means, and the top-down map is stored.
The azimuth mark indicating the azimuth based on the looking down direction of
The azimuth marker is displayed on the upper side of the display screen of the display device.
A table for storing the image data of the image in the image data storage means.
Vehicle map display, characterized by comprising:
apparatus. 2. Road map data for obtaining road map data
The acquisition means and the current position of the vehicle traveling on the road and the traveling direction of the vehicle are detected.
Based on the acquired road map data and the present location detection means
The detected vehicle from an upper point of view around the current location of the vehicle.
A map image of a top-down map that looks down diagonally in both directions
A top-down map generating means for generating image data and image data for displaying an image on a display device are stored.
Image data storage means, and the downward direction of the downward map is displayed on the display device.
The generated map image data is directed to the upper side of the screen.
Stored in the image data storage means, and
The vehicle at the above-mentioned map on the map corresponding to the current location of the vehicle
Image data of the vehicle mark so that both marks are displayed
Is stored in the image data storage means, and the table of the display device is stored.
The empty image so that the empty image is displayed on the upper side of the display screen.
The image data of the
An azimuth marker that represents the azimuth based on the looking-down direction of the map.
The azimuth marker so that it is displayed as part of the sky image.
The image data of the talk in the image data storage means.
A vehicle map chart comprising display control means
Indicating device. 3. The vehicle map display device according to claim 2.
The display control means displays the azimuth mark on the display device.
It is displayed on the image showing the sky at the left end of the display screen.
Image data of the direction mark is stored in the image data.
A map display device for a vehicle, characterized by being stored in a means. 4. A vehicle according to any one of claims 1 to 3.
In the map display device, the display control means is a direction of looking down the downlooking map.
Image of the orientation mark at least every time
Updating the data and storing it in the image data storage means.
A map display device for a vehicle characterized by: 5. The vehicle according to any one of claims 1 to 4.
In the map display device, the direction mark is a character indicating a direction, an arrow indicating a north direction,
Or vehicle map table characterized by a magnet symbol
Indicating device. 6. The vehicle map display device according to claim 5.
In the display control means, the orientation mark is a symbol of a magnet.
When 360 degrees, 360 degrees is divided into eight and the direction is displayed in 45 degree units
The symbol of the magnet to use, or 10 divided into 360 degrees
Image data of the magnet symbol that displays the direction in degrees
For vehicles characterized by storing in image data storage means
Map display device. 7. A vehicle according to any one of claims 1 to 6.
In the map display device, the display control means further includes a destination mark indicating a destination.
The above-mentioned destination mar
The image data of the image can be stored in the image data storage means.
And a map display device for a vehicle.