JP4554379B2 - Navigation device - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to an in-vehicle navigation device that searches for a recommended route to a set destination and guides the host vehicle to the destination according to the recommended route.

  A navigation device that sets a facility genre and a search area specified by a user as a facility search condition, searches a facility corresponding to the search condition from map data, and sets it as a destination is widely known (for example, Patent Document 1).

JPO Standard Technology Collection “Car Navigation Device User Interface” Main Category 3-C

  In a conventional navigation device as disclosed in Non-Patent Document 1, the user selects a search area by selecting one of the regions whose ranges are determined in advance, such as administrative districts such as prefectures and municipalities. It is set. For this reason, for example, a search area that extends over multiple administrative districts, or a search area that is different from a predetermined region, such as setting only a part of the administrative district as a search area, is set. There is a problem that the facility cannot be searched by setting the area.

The navigation apparatus according to the first aspect of the present invention includes a genre setting means for setting a facility genre, a boundary line creating means for creating a boundary line on a map displayed on the screen based on an input operation from a user, and a boundary line creation Search area setting means for setting the area enclosed by the boundary line created on the map by means as the search area, and the search areas set by the search area setting means are classified and registered for each type, and the registered search Search area registration means for assigning flag information to facilities in the area for each type of the search area, and a search corresponding to the facility genre set by the genre setting means registered by the search area registration means Search means for searching in the area based on flag information is provided.
According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the navigation device of the first aspect, the boundary line creating means displays a rectangular boundary line on the map with two points designated on the screen by the input operation from the user as diagonal vertices. To create.
According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the navigation device of the first aspect, the boundary line creating means has one of the two points indicated on the screen by the input operation from the user as a central point and the other as a point on the circumference. A circular boundary line is created on the map.
According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the navigation device of the first aspect, the boundary line creating means focuses on two of the three points indicated on the screen by the input operation from the user, and the remaining one point is a circle. An elliptical boundary line as a point on the circumference is created on the map.
According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, in the navigation apparatus of the first aspect, the boundary line creating means creates a boundary line having a shape traced on the screen by an input operation from a user.

  According to the present invention, a facility genre is set and, based on an input operation from a user, boundary lines having various shapes are created on a map displayed on the screen, and an area surrounded by the boundary lines is searched as a search area. Set to. The facility corresponding to the set facility genre is searched in the set search area. Since it did in this way, a search area different from a predetermined area can be set and a facility can be searched.

  A configuration of a navigation apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention is shown in FIG. This navigation device is mounted on a vehicle and used. When a user sets an arbitrary search area, a facility is searched in the search area and route guidance to the searched facility is performed. The navigation device 1 shown in FIG. 1 includes a control circuit 11, a ROM 12, a RAM 13, a current location detection device 14, an image memory 15, a display monitor 16, an input device 17, and a disk drive 18. The disc drive 18 is loaded with a DVD-ROM 19 in which map data is recorded.

  The control circuit 11 includes a microprocessor and its peripheral circuits, and performs various processes and controls by executing a control program stored in the ROM 12 using the RAM 13 as a work area. In the control circuit 11, based on the map data recorded in the DVD-ROM 19, a facility search process as described later, a recommended route search process to a set destination, and the like are performed.

  The current location detection device 14 is a device that detects the current location of the host vehicle. For example, a vibration gyro 14a that detects the traveling direction of the host vehicle, a vehicle speed sensor 14b that detects a vehicle speed, and a GPS sensor that detects a GPS signal from a GPS satellite. 14c and the like. The navigation device 1 can determine a route search start point when searching for a recommended route based on the current location of the host vehicle detected by the current location detection device 14.

  The image memory 15 temporarily stores image data to be displayed on the display monitor 16. The image data includes road map drawing data for displaying a road map, various graphic data, and the like, and is created by the control circuit 11 based on the map data recorded on the DVD-ROM 19. A road map is displayed on the display monitor 16 using the image data stored in the image memory 15.

  The input device 17 has various input switches for the user to set facility search conditions and select a destination facility from the searched facilities, and this is realized by an operation panel, a remote controller, or the like. That is, the user operates the input device 17 according to the screen instruction displayed on the display monitor 16 to input search conditions to the navigation device 1 to search for facilities corresponding to the search conditions, and to search for the searched facilities. You can select one of them and set it as your destination.

  The disk drive 18 reads map data for displaying a road map from the loaded DVD-ROM 19. This map data represents route calculation data used for route search to the destination, route guidance data used to guide the vehicle to the destination according to the recommended route, such as intersection name and road name, and roads Includes road data. The map data also includes background data representing map shapes other than roads such as rivers, railways, various facilities on the map (landmarks), and the like.

  In the road data, the minimum unit representing a road section is called a link, and each road is composed of a plurality of links. A point connecting the links is called a node, and each node has position information (coordinate information). The link shape, that is, the shape of the road is determined based on the position information of the node. Although an example using a DVD-ROM is described here, the map data may be read from a recording medium other than the DVD-ROM, such as a CD-ROM or a hard disk.

  When causing the navigation device 1 to execute the facility search process, the user first sets the search condition by operating the input device 17 and inputting the search condition. Here, a facility genre and a search area are set as search conditions. The facility genre is set by the user selecting one of various types of facilities such as “hotel”, “restaurant”, and “department store”, for example. On the other hand, the search area is set by designating an arbitrary area on the map displayed on the screen based on an input operation from the user. The user can designate a map area to be set as a search area by creating boundary lines of various shapes such as a rectangle, an ellipse, and a circle on the map.

  The manner in which the user sets search conditions for the navigation device 1 will be described below with reference to FIGS. First, the user selects a facility genre set as a search condition on the facility genre selection screen of FIG. In FIG. 2, “hotel” is selected from the facility genres “restaurant”, “department store”, “retail store”, “hotel” and “transportation” displayed in the list 21. Show. The type of facility genre shown here is an example, and other facility genres may be included in the options.

  When the facility genre is selected as described above, the user next designates a map area as a search area. Here, an arbitrary map area can be designated on the map. For example, when the user designates the positions of the points 22 and 23 on the screen as shown in FIG. 3 by operating the touch panel or the remote control, a rectangular boundary line having the two points as diagonal vertices is displayed on the map. Created. A region surrounded by the boundary line is set as a search area.

  Although FIG. 3 shows a state in which a map area to be set in the search area is specified using a rectangular boundary line, a map area as a search area may be specified by another boundary line. For example, as shown in FIG. 4, by indicating the positions of the points 24 and 25 on the screen, a circular boundary line having one point 24 as the center and the other point 25 as a point on the circumference is formed. An area that is created on a map and surrounded by the boundary line may be set as a search area. Alternatively, as shown in FIG. 5, by indicating the positions of the points 26, 27 and 28 on the screen, an elliptical boundary line having the points 26 and 27 as the focal points and the remaining points 28 as the points on the circumference. Can be created on the map, and the area surrounded by this border can be set as the search area. Further, as shown in FIG. 6, a boundary line having an arbitrary shape may be created on the map by tracing the boundary line 29 on the screen, and an area surrounded by the boundary line may be set as a search area. . In addition to these methods, a map area to be set as a search area can be specified by various methods.

  When the facility genre and the search area are set as described above, the facility corresponding to the search condition, that is, the hotel existing in the search area is searched based on the map data recorded on the DVD-ROM 19. The At this time, whether or not it exists in the search area is determined by position information of each facility. And the thing selected by the user among the searched hotels is set as the destination, and the recommended route to the hotel is searched. In accordance with the recommended route searched in this way, route guidance to the destination hotel is performed in the navigation device 1.

  It should be noted that once set search areas may be registered so that search areas registered in the past can be called up when setting search conditions. In this way, the registered search area does not need to be designated again on the map, so the user can quickly set the search conditions. Furthermore, at this time, search areas are registered by classifying such as “business district” and “shopping street”, and flag information for each type of the search area is included in the facilities in the registered search area. Can also be given. In this way, when searching for facilities corresponding to the set search conditions from the map data, it is not determined whether or not each facility exists in the search area from the location information of the facility, but flag information It can be judged by the presence or absence of. Therefore, the processing speed can be improved.

  FIG. 7 shows a flowchart of processing executed in the control circuit 11 when the search condition is set as described above and a corresponding facility is searched. In step S1, the facility genre selection screen of FIG. 2 is displayed. In the next step S2, it is determined whether or not any facility genre has been selected by the user on the facility genre selection screen displayed in step S1. If any facility genre is selected, the process proceeds to the next step S3, and if any facility genre is not selected, step S2 is repeated until it is selected. In step S3, the facility genre selected in step S2 is set as a search condition. Thus, the facility genre as a search condition is set.

  In step S4, it is determined whether or not the search area is designated on the map. This determination is performed according to the user's operation content. If it is determined that the search area is designated on the map, the process proceeds to step S5, and a search area designation screen as shown in FIGS. By accepting an input operation from the user on this search area designation screen, a map area boundary line as a search area is created on the map displayed on the screen using various methods as described above. In the next step S6, it is determined whether or not a search area is specified on the map by creating a boundary line on the search area specifying screen. When the area surrounded by the boundary created by any method is designated as a search area on the map, the process proceeds to the next step S8.

  On the other hand, if it is determined in step S4 that the search area is not designated on the map, the process proceeds to step S7. In this case, a search condition selected from the registered search areas is selected. In step S7, any one of the search areas registered so far is selected. At this time, as described above, the registered search area may be called and one of them may be selected, or the type of the search area such as “business district” or “shopping street” may be designated. Further, a plurality of search areas may be selected. When one of the registered search areas is selected, the process proceeds to the next step S8.

  In step S8, the search area designated on the map in step S6 or the search area selected in step S7 is set as a search condition. Thereby, the search area in the search condition is set. In step S9, it is determined whether or not to register the search area set in step S8. This determination is performed according to the user's operation content. When registering, it progresses to step S10, and after registering the search area set in step S10, it progresses to step S11. On the other hand, if not registered, the process proceeds to step S11 without executing step S10. If the search area has been set by executing step S7, the search area has already been registered. Therefore, it may be determined that the search area is not automatically registered in step S9.

  In step S11, the facility corresponding to the facility genre set in step S3 is searched in the search area set in step S8. When the facility corresponding to the search condition set in this way is searched, the flowchart of FIG. 7 is ended. Thereafter, when one of the searched facilities is selected by the user, the facility is set as a destination, and a recommended route is searched. Then, route guidance to the set destination is performed according to the searched recommended route.

According to the embodiment described above, the following operational effects can be obtained.
(1) The facility genre in the search condition is set by selecting any facility genre by the user on the facility genre selection screen (step S3). Further, on the search area designation screen, boundary lines having various shapes are created on the map displayed on the screen based on the input operation from the user (step S5), and the area surrounded by the boundary lines is set as the search area. Set (step S8). When the facility genre and the search area are set in this way, the facility corresponding to the facility genre is searched in the search area (step S11). Since it did in this way, a search area different from a predetermined area can be set and a facility can be searched.

(2) When creating a boundary line on the map displayed on the screen in step S5, the boundary line can be created as shown in any of FIGS. FIG. 3 shows an example in which a rectangular boundary line having two points 22 and 23 designated on the screen by an input operation from the user as vertices on a diagonal line is created on the map. FIG. 4 shows a map of a circular boundary line having one point 24 as a central point and the other point 25 as a point on the circumference of two points designated on the screen by an input operation from the user. The example created above is shown. FIG. 5 shows an elliptical boundary line on the map with the points 26 and 27 among the three points designated on the screen by the input operation from the user as the focal point and the remaining points 28 on the circumference. An example of creation is shown. FIG. 6 shows an example in which the boundary line of the shape is created on the map by the line 29 traced on the screen by the input operation from the user. Since it did in this way, the user can designate the area | region set to a search area by arbitrary shapes on a map.

  In the above embodiment, an example has been described in which the navigation apparatus searches for facilities that meet the set search conditions based on map data recorded on a storage medium such as a DVD-ROM. The invention is not limited to this content. For example, the present invention can be applied to a communication navigation apparatus that downloads map data from an information distribution center using wireless communication using a mobile phone or the like.

  In this case, the search condition setting process as described above is performed in the navigation device, and the set search condition is transmitted from the navigation device to the information distribution center. Based on this information, a facility corresponding to the search condition set in the information distribution center is searched, and a list of search results is transmitted to the navigation device. In the navigation apparatus, a list of facility search results transmitted from the information distribution center is displayed and the user is made to select, and the selection result is transmitted to the information distribution center. Thereafter, a route search to the facility selected in the information distribution center is performed, and a map along the route is distributed to the navigation device. In this way, the present invention can be applied. That is, the navigation apparatus has means for setting the facility genre and the search area, which are search conditions, and the information distribution center has means for searching for facilities that meet the search conditions set in the navigation apparatus. .

  In the above embodiment, each means described in the claims is realized by the processing of the control circuit 11. However, the present invention is not limited to the above embodiment, and the technical aspects of the present invention are not limited thereto. Other aspects conceivable within the scope of the idea are also included within the scope of the present invention.

It is a block diagram which shows the structure of the navigation apparatus by one Embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows a facility genre selection screen. It is a figure which shows a mode that a rectangular-shaped boundary line is produced on a map in a search area designation | designated screen. It is a figure which shows a mode that a circular boundary line is produced on a map in a search area designation | designated screen. It is a figure which shows a mode that an elliptical boundary line is produced on a map in a search area designation | designated screen. It is a figure which shows a mode that the boundary line of arbitrary shapes is produced on a map in a search area designation | designated screen. It is a flowchart of the process performed when a search condition is set and a corresponding facility is searched.

Explanation of symbols

1 Navigation device 11 Control circuit 12 ROM
13 RAM
14 Current location detection device 15 Image memory 16 Display monitor 17 Input device 18 Disk drive 19 DVD-ROM

Claims (5)

Genre setting means for setting the facility genre;
Boundary line creating means for creating a boundary line on the map displayed on the screen based on an input operation from the user,
Search area setting means for setting, as a search area, an area surrounded by the boundary line created on the map by the boundary line creating means;
Register classifies the search area that is set by the searching area setting means for each type, a search area registration means for applying a flag information for each type of the search area with respect to facilities in the search area registered,
A navigation apparatus comprising: search means for searching for a facility corresponding to the facility genre set by the genre setting means based on the flag information in a search area registered by the search area registration means. The navigation device according to claim 1.
The boundary line creating means creates a rectangular boundary line having two vertices on a diagonal line designated on a screen by an input operation from a user on a map. The navigation device according to claim 1.
The boundary line creating means creates a circular boundary line on the map with one of the two points designated on the screen by the input operation from the user as a central point and the other as a point on the circumference. A navigation device characterized by the above. The navigation device according to claim 1.
The boundary line creating means focuses on an elliptical boundary line on the map with two of the three points designated on the screen by the input operation from the user as a focal point and the remaining one point on the circumference as a point. A navigation device characterized by being created. The navigation device according to claim 1.
The navigation apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the boundary line creating means creates a boundary line having a shape traced on the screen by an input operation from a user.

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