JP4014435B2 - Navigation device - Google Patents

Description

[0001]
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a navigation device that displays a current position of a vehicle and a map around the vehicle, and more particularly to a navigation device that can provide character information required by a user among character information displayed on a map.
[0002]
[Prior art]
Conventionally, a navigation apparatus has a vehicle position detection means for detecting a vehicle position, a map data storage means for storing map data, a CPU, a memory, and a display, and a vehicle position detected by the vehicle position detection means. Corresponding map data is read from the map data storage means, a map is displayed based on the read map data, and the display means displays the vehicle position detected by the vehicle position detection means.
[0003]
FIG. 9 shows map display processing in the above-described conventional navigation apparatus. In FIG. 9, the scale of the map to be displayed on the display is selected in step 51. In step 52, the map display data of the selected scale is read from the map data storage means. In step 53, a map is drawn on the display based on the data read from the map data storage means. Next, in step 54, the road network data stored in the road layer is read from the map data storage means, and the current position and direction of the vehicle are determined from the road network data and the current position data obtained by calculation by the CPU (step 55) In step 56, the vehicle mark is displayed on the map displayed on the display means. FIG. 10 shows a map display example in the conventional example, and the vehicle mark CM and the map MP around the vehicle position are displayed on the display means at the selected scale SC.
[0004]
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
However, in the conventional navigation apparatus, as shown in FIG. 10, the character information displayed on the map is the character information in the map display data of the selected scale, and the scale information is previously reduced when creating the map data. It was set according to. For this reason, in the map of the scale which the user selected, the character information which a user needs was not necessarily displayed on the map.
[0005]
Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a navigation apparatus that can easily display character information required by a user on a map.
[0006]
According to the present invention, the above-described problem is detected by display means for displaying information, map data storage means for storing map data, vehicle position detection means for detecting the current position of the vehicle, and the vehicle position detection means. Map data corresponding to the vehicle position is read from the map data storage means, and a display control means for displaying a map around the vehicle position on the display means based on the read map data, and is displayed on the map of the display means. The character information switching means for switching the character information, the display control means, when the character information is switched by the character information switching means, the character information is different from the previously displayed character information , read from the map data storage means the character information corresponding to one step more detailed scale than the map scale has been selected, arranged so as to read the character information do not overlap each other, display It is solved by displaying to the stage.
[0007]
Thereby, since the character information which is not displayed on the map at the selected scale is displayed, more character information can be provided to the user.
[0008]
Further, according to the present invention, the above-described problem is detected by display means for displaying information, map data storage means for storing map data, vehicle position detection means for detecting the current position of the vehicle, and the vehicle position detection means. The map data corresponding to the vehicle position read out from the map data storage means, a display control means for displaying a map around the vehicle position on the display means based on the read map data, and a display on the map of the display means Genre selecting means for selecting the genre of the character information to be displayed, and when the genre is switched by the genre selecting means, the display control means is the character scale information that belongs to the selected genre and the selected map scale. read from the map data storage means the character information corresponding to the more one step detailed scales, arranged so as to read the character information do not overlap each other, display It is solved by displaying to the stage.
[0009]
As a result, only the character information belonging to the genre required by the user is displayed, so that the character information required by the user can be provided.
[0010]
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a basic configuration of a vehicle navigation apparatus according to an embodiment to which the present invention is applied. In FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 denotes an azimuth sensor, and the azimuth sensor 1 uses a geomagnetic sensor that detects an absolute traveling azimuth of the vehicle and an optical gyro that detects a relative traveling azimuth of the vehicle. Reference numeral 2 denotes a distance sensor that generates a pulse corresponding to the number of rotations of the wheel.
[0011]
Reference numeral 4 denotes a sensor signal processing unit for processing sensor signals such as the azimuth sensor 1 and the distance sensor 2, and 5 denotes a GPS (Global Positioning System) receiver. The GPS receiver 5 receives radio waves transmitted from a plurality of satellites. Thus, the absolute position (latitude and longitude) of the reception point can be obtained by calculating. Reference numeral 6 denotes a ROM drive. The ROM drive 6 reads map data from a ROM disk 7 on which map data is recorded.
[0012]
Reference numeral 8 denotes a display / operation unit installed in the passenger compartment. The display / operation unit 8 includes a liquid crystal display 8A that displays a map around the vehicle and the current traveling position and direction of the vehicle, and a front surface of the liquid crystal display 8A. The touch panel 8B is provided with buttons and the like for the user to operate. Reference numeral 9 denotes a navigation device main body, and the navigation device main body 9 is installed in a center console section in a passenger compartment, under a passenger seat, in a trunk room, and the like.
[0013]
Next, the configuration of the navigation device body 9 will be described. 10 is a CPU that performs various arithmetic processes, 11 is a program ROM that stores programs for various arithmetic processes performed by the CPU 10, 12 is acquired from the azimuth sensor 1, distance sensor 2, GPS receiver 5, ROM drive 6, and the like. A memory (DRAM) for performing arithmetic processing on the CPU 10 and storing the arithmetic results, etc., 13 is a backup memory for holding necessary data even when the power supply to the navigation device body 9 is stopped (SRAM).
[0014]
14 is a memory (kanji, font ROM) in which patterns such as characters and symbols to be displayed on the liquid crystal display 8A are stored; 15 is an image processor for forming a display image based on map data, vehicle current position data, and the like; Reference numeral 16 denotes a memory (VRAM) for storing an image to be displayed on the liquid crystal display 8A by combining map data, current position data and kanji characters output from the image processor 15, kanji characters such as place names and road names output from the font ROM 14, and fonts. , 17 is an RGB conversion circuit for converting the output data of the VRAM 16 into color signals, and the converted color signals are output from the RGB conversion circuit 17 to the liquid crystal display 8A. Reference numeral 18 denotes a communication interface. The liquid crystal display 8A displays a road map around the current position of the vehicle, and also displays place names, intersection names, road names, and the like. Furthermore, a vehicle mark for displaying the current position of the vehicle is displayed in the display map. This vehicle mark indicates the current position and traveling direction of the vehicle.
[0015]
FIG. 2 shows a format of data stored in the ROM disk 7, 20 is a disk label, 21 is a drawing parameter, 22 is a leaf management information, and 23 and 24 are leafs. Character data, road data, and the like are stored, and data for each unit map obtained by dividing a topographic map of Japan by longitude and latitude is stored.
[0016]
From the leaf (level 2) that roughly describes a wide area to the leaf, the leaf (level 0) that describes a narrow area in detail is set. Each leaf is composed of unit management information 25 and a plurality of units 26. The unit 26 describes a divided area obtained by dividing the area of each figure into a plurality of parts. Each unit 26 includes a unit head 27, a character layer 28, a background layer 29, a road layer 30, an option layer 31, and the like. Is done. In the character layer 28, place names, road names, facility names, etc. displayed on the map are numbered from # 0 to #L, and the position coordinate data to be displayed on the screen and the genre name to which the name belongs are displayed. To be recorded. In the background layer, data for drawing terrain, roads, facilities, etc. are recorded. In the road layer, as shown in FIG. 3, coordinate points (nodes) and lines (links) describing a road including an intersection. For example, the node number and absolute longitude and latitude of the node, the link number and link distance of the link, and the cost are stored. In FIG. 3, circles (◯) indicate nodes, and lines between the nodes indicate links. A black circle (●) of node number 4 indicates an intersection node. Note that the data recorded in the road layer is not directly involved in the map display and is used as road network information such as map matching.
[0017]
The operation of the embodiment of the present invention having the above-described configuration will be described below. In FIG. 1, the output of the azimuth sensor 1 and the output of the distance sensor 2 are sent to the CPU 10 via the sensor processing unit 4. The CPU 10 calculates the current position of the vehicle and obtains the longitude and latitude of the current position. Further, the current position is corrected based on data from the GPS receiver 5. Based on the current position calculated in this way, the map data of the unit corresponding to the current position is read from the ROM disk 7 by the ROM drive 6, and this map data is stored in the memory (DRAM) 12 via the communication interface 18. Is done.
[0018]
A part of the map data stored in the DRAM 12 is read by the CPU 10, converted into image data by the image processor 15, and written in the image memory (VRAM) 16. The image data stored in the VRAM 16 is converted into a color signal by the RGB conversion circuit 17 and sent to the liquid crystal display 8A, and a map in a predetermined range with the current position as the center is displayed. If the map data read from the DRAM 12 includes character codes and symbol codes, patterns corresponding to these character codes and symbol codes are read from the kanji / font ROM 14, and the place name and the like are displayed on the liquid crystal display 8A along with the map. Landmarks (symbols) such as characters and convenience stores are displayed. Further, the current position displayed on the liquid crystal display 8A is sequentially updated based on the traveling speed and traveling direction sequentially obtained as the vehicle travels.
[0019]
Next, the map display process of the present invention will be described. FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing the first map display process, FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing the character data arrangement process which is an internal process of the first map display process, and FIG. 6 is a character in the first map display process. It is an example of a display of information. FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing the second map display process, and FIG. 8 shows a display example of character information in the second map display process.
[0020]
In FIG. 4, when the scale of the display map is selected via the touch panel 8B (step 1), the CPU 10 selects a leaf corresponding to the selected scale, and further selects a unit corresponding to the vehicle position, and the road. Map data including data, background data, character data and the like is read from the ROM disk 7 to the DRAM 12 via the ROM drive 6 (step 2). The image processor 15 draws a map from the read background data and road data (step 3), and draws the character data at a predetermined position on the drawn map (step 4). That is, a map around the vehicle position is displayed on the liquid crystal display 8A as shown in FIG.
[0021]
Next, the CPU 10 determines whether or not the character information switching is selected from the touch panel 8B by the user (step 5), and waits if not selected. If the user selects to switch the character information, the CPU 10 selects all the leaves corresponding to one scale detailed scale from the map scale selected in Step 2, and selects the unit corresponding to each leaf. Then, all the character data is read from the ROM disk 7. Here, the read character data is stored in the DRAM 12 (step 6).
[0022]
Then, the CPU 10 sets a variable N of a display group #N, which will be described later, to N = 0 for convenience (step 7), and performs a process of placing character data stored in the DRAM 12 in the display group #N (character data placement process: described later) ( Step 8). After this processing is completed, the image processor 15 draws the character data of the display group #N in the VRAM 16 (step 9), and this drawing data is displayed on the liquid crystal display 8A. That is, in these steps 8 to 9, character data drawing processing for displaying character information different from the character information previously displayed (for example, in step 2) on the liquid crystal display 8A is performed. Specifically, when switching of character information is selected, as shown in FIG. 6B, character information that was not displayed in FIG. 6A is displayed.
[0023]
Next, the CPU 10 determines again whether or not character information switching has been selected from the touch panel 8B (step 10). If it is not selected, the process waits. If character information switching is selected, the CPU 10 sets the display group variable N to N = N + 1 so that the next display group is selected (step 11). Next, it is determined whether or not there is character data of display group #N created in the character data arrangement process (described later) in step 8 (step 12). If there is character data, the process proceeds to step 9 to display group #N ( = 1) Character data drawing processing is performed. If there is not, there is no next new display group, so the display group variable N is set to N = 0 (step 13), and the process proceeds to step 9 to repeat the drawing process of the character data of display group # 0. . As a result, as described above, the liquid crystal display 8A displays character information that was not displayed in FIG. 6B, as shown in FIG. 6C. In the above description, when there is no display group #N in step 12, the character information display is repeated by setting N = 0, but this is not the only case, and this process is terminated and originally selected. You may return to the character information display at a certain scale.
[0024]
Next, the character data arrangement process will be described. First, the display group #N is a group of image data obtained by grouping character data to be displayed on the liquid crystal display 8A. The display group #N is divided into a plurality of groups so that the character data to be displayed do not overlap each other. It is what is done. Details will be described below. In FIG. 5, first, the CPU 10 sets L = 0 for convenience in order to initialize the variable L (step 21), and acquires character data assigned number #L among the character data stored in the DRAM 12 in step 6. (Step 22).
[0025]
The image processor 15 temporarily arranges the #L character data obtained in step 22 at a predetermined position (based on a display position preset in the character data) of the display group #N using the kanji / font ROM 14 and the VRAM 16. (Step 23), it is determined whether or not the #L character data temporarily arranged can be arranged without overlapping the previously arranged character data (Step 24). Here, if the character data of #L overlaps with the character data temporarily arranged, the CPU 10 sets the variable N of the display group #N to N = N + 1 (step 25), and proceeds to step S23. That is, in the display group #N, the #L character data that overlaps the character data temporarily arranged previously is temporarily arranged in the display group # N + 1.
[0026]
If the temporary arrangement is possible without overlapping the previously arranged character data in step 24, the CPU 10 sets the variable L to L = L + 1 and the variable N of the display group #N to N = 0 (step 26). ), It is determined whether or not #L character data is stored in the DRAM 12 (step 27). If it is stored, the process proceeds to step 22 to perform arrangement processing for the next character data. If not stored, the relationship between the display group #N created in the previous processing and the character data arranged in each display group #N is stored in the DRAM 12, and the process proceeds to step 9 of the map display processing 1. Then, the subsequent processing is performed. By doing so, the character information that is not displayed on the liquid crystal display 8A can be displayed at the scale selected by the user, so that more character information can be provided to the user.
[0027]
Further, in Step 5, Step 6 and Step 10 of the first map display process described above, each is changed to Step 35, Step 36 and Step 40 as shown in the second map display process of FIG. When the user selects to switch the character information, the genre name of the character information desired to be displayed is selected in step 35. In step 36, only the character data belonging to the selected genre is read from the ROM disk 7 and the same as described above. If displayed, as shown in FIGS. 8B to 8C, if the genre of “hot spring name” is selected, only the character information belonging to the hot spring genre is displayed on the map of the liquid crystal display 8A. If the genre of “station name” is selected, character information belonging to the station genre is also displayed on the liquid crystal display 8A. It is possible to display on the map. In step 40, if the “next display” button provided in the remote control device is selected, the character information of the selected genre that has not been displayed at once is displayed on the liquid crystal display 8A. In this way, even if character information of a genre that the user wants to see is not displayed on the map of the liquid crystal display 8A, it can be easily displayed.
[0028]
As mentioned above, although this invention has been demonstrated based on the Example, this invention can be variously deformed according to the main point of this invention described in the claim, and this invention does not exclude these.
[0029]
【The invention's effect】
As described above, according to the present invention, character information different from the displayed information can be displayed on the scale map set by the user, so that more character information can be provided to the user.
[0030]
Further, according to the present invention, only the character information belonging to the genre displayed by the user can be displayed, so that only the character information of the genre required by the user can be provided.
[0031]
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a basic configuration of a vehicle navigation apparatus according to an embodiment to which the present invention is applied.
FIG. 2 is a format of data stored in a ROM disk 7;
3 is a configuration diagram of road data stored in a ROM disk 7. FIG.
FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing a first map display process.
FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing a character data arrangement process that is an internal process of the first map display process;
FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a display example of character information in the first map display processing.
FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing a second map display process.
FIG. 8 is a diagram showing a display example of character information in the second map display processing.
FIG. 9 is a flowchart showing map display processing in a conventional navigation device.
FIG. 10 is a diagram showing a conventional map display example.
[Explanation of symbols]
1: Direction sensor, 2: Distance sensor, 3: Output from other sensors,
4: sensor signal processing unit, 5: GPS receiver, 6: ROM drive,
7: ROM disk, 8: display / operation unit, 8A: liquid crystal display,
8B: Touch panel, 9: Navigation device body, 10: CPU,
11: Program ROM, 12: D-RAM, 13: S-RAM,
14: Kanji / font ROM, 15: Image processor, 16: V-RAM,
17: RGB conversion circuit, 18: Communication interface

Claims (2)

Display means for displaying information;
Map data storage means for storing map data;
Vehicle position detection means for detecting the current position of the vehicle;
Display control means for reading out map data corresponding to the vehicle position detected by the vehicle position detection means from the map data storage means, and displaying a map around the vehicle position on the display means based on the read map data; ,
Character information switching means for switching character information displayed on the map of the display means,
When the character information is switched by the character information switching unit, the display control unit is different in character information from the previously displayed character information, and has a scale that is one step more detailed than the selected map scale. Corresponding character information is read from the map data storage means , arranged so that the read character information does not overlap each other, and displayed on the display means. Display means for displaying information;
Map data storage means for storing map data;
Vehicle position detection means for detecting the current position of the vehicle;
Display control means for reading out map data corresponding to the vehicle position detected by the vehicle position detection means from the map data storage means, and displaying a map around the vehicle position on the display means based on the read map data; ,
Genre selection means for selecting a genre of character information displayed on the map of the display means,
When the genre is switched by the genre selection unit, the display control unit is configured to display character information corresponding to a scale that is one step more detailed than the selected map scale in the character information that belongs to the selected genre. A navigation apparatus characterized in that it is read from the data storage means and arranged so that the read character information does not overlap each other and displayed on the display means.

Images