JP4188098B2 - Car navigation system - Google Patents

Description

[0001]
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a vehicle-mounted navigation device, and more particularly to a technique for changing a display mode according to time and weather when a map is displayed in a plane.
[0002]
[Prior art]
In the in-vehicle navigation system, as a method for displaying a map on a display screen, there are a planar display for displaying a map image planarly and a bird's eye view for displaying a building image and the like three-dimensionally as shown in FIG. . In the case of bird's-eye view display, the display screen includes an image 103 of a road 101 and a building 102 as well as a region 103 that looks like the sky. In the case of bird's-eye view display, the sky region 103 is changed to orange in the evening to give an evening atmosphere (for example, Patent Document 1). In flat display, the tone of the entire screen is changed in the evening or at night (for example, Patent Document 2).
[0003]
[Patent Document 1]
JP 2002-310689 A [Patent Document 2]
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 10-221093
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
However, in the flat display, since there is no display area indicating the sky in the display screen, a change in time such as evening is not expressed. In addition to this, there is no display that gives an image of the outside world.
[0005]
Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a technique for expressing the atmosphere of the outside world on a screen when a map is displayed in a plane.
[0006]
Another object of the present invention is to provide a navigation device that changes the output mode of a map screen according to time, weather, or the like when a map is displayed in a plane.
[0007]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
The vehicle-mounted navigation device according to one embodiment of the present invention has a means for acquiring map data of an area including the vehicle position, and the vehicle position is near the center of the display screen based on the acquired map data. The display control means for displaying a planar map image and the means for determining whether or not the headlight is lit , the display control means when the headlight is lit, A map image of an image in which an area including the position and the traveling direction of the host vehicle is illuminated with a headlight is displayed, and when the headlight is not lit , a display color is determined according to time, and the display screen The peripheral area is colored and displayed in the display color.
[0008]
In a preferred embodiment, the information processing apparatus may further include means for receiving information about weather near the vehicle position, and the display control unit may determine the display color according to the weather near the vehicle position. .
[0009]
In a preferred embodiment, the display color may be darker than a color near the center .
[0010]
An in- vehicle navigation device according to another embodiment of the present invention has a means for acquiring map data of an area including the vehicle position, and the vehicle position is near the center of the display screen based on the acquired map data. Display control means for displaying a planar map image , wherein the display control means displays the vicinity of the center of the display screen and the peripheral area in different colors, and the color of the peripheral area is The color is darker than the color near the center .
[0011]
An in-vehicle navigation device according to another embodiment of the present invention includes means for acquiring map data of an area including a vehicle position, and a shadow of an object related to the facility when a predetermined facility exists in the area. And a display control means for displaying a shadow of the specified shape superimposed on the image of the map data .
[0012]
In a preferred embodiment, the predetermined facility may be an aerodrome, and the shadow of an object related to the facility may be an image of an airplane shadow .
[0013]
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
Hereinafter, an in-vehicle navigation system according to an embodiment to which the present invention is applied will be described with reference to the drawings.
[0014]
An overall configuration diagram of this system is shown in FIG. The system includes a navigation device 1, an input device 2 that receives an operation from a user, a display device 3 such as a liquid crystal display, a GPS (Global Positioning System) receiver 4, a vehicle speed sensor 5, a direction sensor 6, A wireless receiver 7 and a drive device 8 for reading data from a disk 9 or the like are provided.
[0015]
The navigation device 1 is configured by, for example, a computer system including a microprocessor and a memory, and each component or function described below is realized by executing a computer program, for example.
[0016]
The navigation device 1 includes a current position calculation unit 11, a weather information storage unit 12, a headlight lighting detection unit 13, a display control unit 14, a map data acquisition unit 15, and a layer data storage unit 16.
[0017]
The current position calculation unit 11 is based on the GPS data from the GPS receiver 4, each data measured by the vehicle speed sensor 5 and the direction sensor 6, and the current position (own vehicle position) and progress of the vehicle on which this system is mounted. Calculate the bearing.
[0018]
The weather information storage unit 12 stores information related to the weather near the vehicle position received by the wireless receiver 7. This weather information can also be acquired via the Internet, for example. The weather information includes, for example, sunny, rainy, cloudy, snow and the like.
[0019]
The headlight lighting detection unit 13 determines whether or not the headlight of the host vehicle is turned on, and detects headlight lighting. For example, the headlight lighting detection unit 13 detects that the headlight is turned on and turned off. The detection result regarding turning on / off the headlight is notified to the display control unit 14.
[0020]
The map data acquisition unit 15 drives the drive device 8 to read map data from the disk 9. For example, the map data acquisition unit 15 reads out map data including at least the current position of the host vehicle calculated by the current position calculation unit 11 and a region ahead of the current position.
[0021]
The layer data storage unit 16 stores image data (layer data) to be displayed superimposed on the map image. The layer data will be described later.
[0022]
The display control unit 14 generates image data for displaying an image on the display device 3. For example, the map data acquisition unit 15 generates image data based on the map data read from the disk 9 and displays the map image on the display screen of the display device 3. The map image displayed on the display device 3 includes a plane display (plan view) for drawing all roads and buildings in a plane, and a bird's eye view (bird view) for drawing buildings and the like in a three-dimensional image. Hereinafter, the case of flat display will be described.
[0023]
The display control unit 14 acquires the current time from a time measuring unit (not shown), and changes the display mode of the display screen according to the time. A specific example is shown in FIG.
[0024]
Here, the display control unit 14 displays the map image so that the vehicle position 10 is near the center of the display screen 31. Further, the display control unit 14 displays the vicinity of the center of the display screen 31 and the peripheral area 32 in different colors. For example, the peripheral area 32 is colored and displayed to make the driver feel a change in time. If the vehicle position 10 is near the center of the display screen 31, the map information of the peripheral region 32 of the display screen 31 is not so important, so this portion is colored. The color of the peripheral region 32 may be darker than that near the center. In the example of FIG. 2, the display color is determined for each stage by dividing into five stages according to the time. Here, each stage is before dawn (5 to 6 o'clock), early morning (6 to 7 o'clock), daytime (7 to 16 o'clock), evening (16 o'clock to 17 o'clock), night (from 17 o'clock to next) 5 o'clock). The display color of the peripheral area 32 may be, for example, blue-violet before dawn, yellow-green in the early morning, ivory in the daytime, orange in the evening, and blue in the night. Furthermore, the display color is translucent, and gradation can be applied from the center to the periphery.
[0025]
Note that the number of stages, how to divide stages, the time at which each stage is separated, the display color of each stage, and the like are not limited to those described above. Furthermore, you may make it change the time slot | zone of each stage according to a season.
[0026]
Further, when the headlight lighting detection unit 13 receives a notification indicating that the headlight is turned on or off, the display control unit 14 may further change the display mode. For example, when the headlight is turned on at night, as shown in FIG. 3, a map image is displayed on the display screen as if the vehicle position 10 and the travel direction area of the vehicle were illuminated by the headlight. When it is turned off, it returns.
[0027]
Next, the display control unit 14 may refer to the weather information storage unit 12 and change the display mode according to the weather near the vehicle position. For example, as shown in FIG. 4, when the daytime weather is cloudy or rainy, the display color of the peripheral area 32 can be gray, or when it is snow, it can be white. The weather determination may be performed using weather information acquired wirelessly from the outside, or using measured values of a raindrop sensor, an illuminance sensor, and an outside air temperature sensor (not shown). For example, when raindrops are detected, the outside air temperature is compared with a predetermined threshold value to determine whether it is rain or snow. When no raindrop is detected in the daytime, it is determined as sunny or cloudy depending on the illuminance.
[0028]
In order to display an image as shown in FIG. 2 on the display screen 31, the display control unit 14 can use layered image data superposition as described below. An example of hierarchical image superimposition will be described with reference to FIG.
[0029]
Here, an example of n (an integer of 2 or more) layers as a whole is shown. A map image generated from the map data is arranged in layer 1 which is the lowest layer. Then, an image 161 for coloring the peripheral area of the display screen is inserted into the layer m which is the mth (integer, 1 <m ≦ n) layer. The image 161 is generated from the layer data acquired from the layer data storage unit 16.
[0030]
Here, an image based on other layer data stored in the layer data storage unit 16 may be inserted into the layer m. For example, an image reflecting the shadow of a cloud or an image reflecting the shadow of an airplane flying in an area near the airport can be inserted. An example when these images are displayed in an overlapping manner is shown in FIG. Thereby, even if it is a planar map image, the viewer can be given a feeling of looking down from the sky.
[0031]
A processing procedure for displaying images in a hierarchical manner will be described with reference to FIG.
[0032]
First, the current position calculation unit 11 calculates the current position of the host vehicle (S11). And the map data acquisition part 15 acquires the map data of the area | region containing the own vehicle position calculated | required here (S12). The display control unit 14 generates a map image of layer 1 based on the map data (S13). The display control unit 14 acquires layer data in accordance with the display mode determined in the manner already described from the layer data storage unit 16 (S14). And the display control part 14 produces | generates the image of the layer m based on this layer data (S15), and displays the image of each layer on the display apparatus 3 (S16).
[0033]
As described above, in the present embodiment, the evening and night atmosphere is given, the surroundings that are not necessary for traveling are darkened, and the information in the vicinity of the important vehicle position is relatively brightened. For this reason, when the screen is viewed in a short time during traveling, information in the vicinity of the vehicle position can be easily read and reflected in the driving quickly. In this respect, the visibility is improved as compared with the conventional method that does not distinguish between the vicinity of the vehicle position and the periphery.
[0034]
The above-described embodiments of the present invention are examples for explaining the present invention, and are not intended to limit the scope of the present invention only to those embodiments. Those skilled in the art can implement the present invention in various other modes without departing from the gist of the present invention.
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an overall configuration of a navigation system according to an embodiment to which the present invention is applied.
FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an example of a change in display mode according to time.
FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an example of a change in display mode according to a lighting state of a headlight.
FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an example of a change in display mode according to weather.
FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating an example of a screen having a hierarchical structure.
FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating a screen display example when various layer data are inserted.
FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing a screen display processing procedure;
FIG. 8 is a diagram showing a display during bird's-eye view display;
[Explanation of symbols]
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Navigation apparatus, 2 ... Input device, 3 ... Display apparatus, 4 ... GPS receiver, 5 ... Vehicle speed sensor, 6 ... Direction sensor, 7 ... Wireless receiver, 8 ... Drive apparatus, 9 ... Disk, 10 ... Own vehicle Position, 11 ... Current position calculation unit, 12 ... Weather information storage unit, 13 ... Headlight lighting detection unit, 14 ... Display control unit, 15 ... Map data acquisition unit, 16 ... Layer data storage unit, 31 ... Display screen, 32 ... peripheral area.

Claims (3)

Means for obtaining map data of an area including the vehicle position;
Display control means for displaying a planar map image based on the acquired map data so that the vehicle position is near the center of the display screen;
Means for determining whether the headlight is turned on,
When the headlight is turned on, the display control means displays a map image of an image in which the area including the vehicle position and the traveling direction of the vehicle is illuminated by the headlight, and the headlight is turned on. If not, a display color is determined according to the time, and the peripheral area of the display screen is colored in the display color and displayed. Means for receiving information about weather near the vehicle position;
The in-vehicle navigation device according to claim 1, wherein the display control means determines the display color according to the weather near the vehicle position.   The in-vehicle navigation device according to claim 1, wherein the display color is darker than a color near the center.

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