JP4884689B2 - Navigation device and method and program thereof - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a navigation technology for displaying a facility mark indicating a facility on a map, and more particularly to a navigation technology that can directly select a facility mark displayed on a map.

  In general, navigation devices such as those for in-vehicle use detect the position of the vehicle as the current location, and search for a guidance route from this location to the designated destination. The route search is performed by using a route search algorithm such as the Dijkstra method while reading road data from a storage medium such as a CD-ROM, and from the detected vehicle position to the specified destination. An optimum route is calculated based on the road data, and route data for the guide route is created.

  Subsequently, the guidance route toward the destination and the position of the vehicle are superimposed and displayed on the display, the guidance route is guided based on the route data, and the direction guidance is performed by the synthesized voice from the speaker. By using such a navigation device, the user can reliably reach the destination from the departure place by following the guidance route.

  By the way, in the navigation device, not only road data is displayed on the display screen, but also marks of various facilities (hereinafter referred to as facility icons) such as restaurants, accommodation facilities, and parking lots are displayed. Like the road data, these facility icon data are stored in a storage medium such as a CD-ROM, and will be displayed on the map when searching for the vehicle's position or destination and searching for the route side of the route. It has become. By displaying the facility icon, it is possible to accurately present to the user what kind of facility is located around the vehicle position and the destination, or what kind of facility is on which side of the guidance route.

The conventional example described in Patent Document 1 is characterized in that, in a navigation device that displays facilities existing around a guidance route, facility display is performed in consideration of the traveling direction of the host vehicle. According to this prior art, it is possible to display only the facilities that can be used when viewed from the traveling direction of the host vehicle, and to hide the facilities where the host vehicle is difficult to stop by. Therefore, the display screen is simplified, the visibility of the facilities is increased, and only the facilities that can be used are displayed.
JP 2001-116565 A

  By the way, in the prior art including the conventional example described in Patent Document 1, when setting the facility icon displayed on the map as a destination or waypoint of the own vehicle, that is, a destination, the facility icon It was necessary to perform the setting work after switching to the destination setting screen instead of the display screen. Alternatively, the destination can be set on the facility icon display screen, but even in this case, it is necessary to adjust the position of the cursor to the target facility icon by scrolling. It was. In addition, information on facilities includes a wide range of information such as basic location information, telephone numbers, business hours, usage fees, etc. For these detailed information, scroll the cursor to the desired facility icon. Even if they were combined, the information could not be displayed, and it was not displayed without switching to another search screen.

  As described above, in the prior art, when a user sets a facility icon as a destination or obtains detailed information about a facility, the user can directly select the displayed facility icon and immediately work. Instead, it was necessary to adjust the cursor position and switch the screen. However, since the facility icons are displayed on the map and can be seen there, these operations are troublesome, and improvement of operability for the facility icons has been strongly demanded.

  The present invention has been proposed in order to solve such problems, and its purpose is to directly specify a facility mark displayed on a map and enable setting of a destination, thereby improving operability. It is an object of the present invention to provide a navigation apparatus and method, and a program that simplify the above.

In order to achieve the above object, the invention of claim 1 is a facility mark storage means for storing a facility mark indicating a facility on a map , and a user designated in the facility mark stored in the facility mark storage means In the navigation apparatus comprising facility mark acquisition means for acquiring a facility mark in a predetermined area, and facility mark display means for displaying the facility mark acquired by the facility mark acquisition means on a map, the facility mark acquisition means Obtained from the facility mark on the map converted into a simple graphic by the simple graphic display means, and a simple graphic display means for converting the surrounding map into a simple graphic and displaying the map . A facility mark specifying means for acquiring a specified facility mark, and the facility mark acquired by the facility mark specifying means as a destination of the moving object It is characterized by comprising: a destination setting means for constant for, a.

The invention of claim 7 captures the invention of claim 1 from the viewpoint of a method, and uses a computer to store a facility mark storing a facility mark indicating a facility on a map, and the facility mark A facility mark acquisition step for acquiring a facility mark in a predetermined area designated by the user among the facility marks stored in the storage step , and the facility mark acquired in the facility mark acquisition step are displayed on a map. In the navigation method including the facility mark display step, the facility mark acquired in the facility mark acquisition step, a simple graphic display step for converting the surrounding map into a simple graphic and displaying the map, and the simple graphic display step facility to get the facility mark designated by the user from the lodging in mark on the map that has been converted into a simple graphic And click designating step is characterized by including a destination setting step for setting the destination of the moving object acquired the facility mark at the facility mark designation step.

Further, the invention of claim 8 relates to the navigation apparatus and method according to the inventions of claims 1 and 7, which are grasped from the viewpoint of a program, and shows a facility on a map by using a computer. A facility mark storage function for storing a mark, a facility mark acquisition function for acquiring a facility mark in a predetermined area designated by a user among the facility marks stored by the facility mark storage function, and the facility mark acquisition function In the navigation program for realizing the facility mark display function for displaying the facility mark acquired on the map on the map, the facility mark acquired by the facility mark acquisition function and the map around it are converted into a simple figure. a simplified graphic display function for displaying the map Te, before the map that has been converted into simple shapes in the simplified graphic display function A computer realizes a facility mark designation function for obtaining a facility mark designated by a user from among the facility marks, and a destination setting function for setting the facility mark obtained in the facility mark designation step as a destination of a mobile object It is characterized by that.

In the inventions of claims 1, 7 , and 8 having the above-described configuration, the user directly designates the facility mark displayed on the map, receives the input from the user, and the facility mark designation means requests the facility desired by the user. The mark can be acquired, and the facility mark designated by the user can be set as the destination of the moving object by the destination setting means for the acquired facility mark. Therefore, it is not necessary to adjust the position of the cursor with respect to the facility mark or to switch to the destination setting screen, and the destination can be set only by performing a simple operation on the facility mark. Further, according to the present invention, which can display a plurality of facility marks simultaneously, compared to the case where facility marks are displayed one by one in order, the location of each facility can be clearly compared and examined, and the desired facility can be reliably confirmed. Can be set.
Furthermore, since the simple graphic display means converts the facility mark and its surrounding map into a simple graphic and displays it, it is possible to obtain excellent visibility and further improve the operability.

  The invention of claim 2 is characterized in that the facility information storage means for storing information relating to the facility of the facility mark, the facility information acquisition means for acquiring the facility information stored in the facility information storage means, and the facility information acquisition means A facility information display means for displaying information relating to the facility, and when the facility mark designated by the user is acquired by the facility mark designation means, the facility information display means displays information relating to the facility. It is characterized by becoming.

  In the invention of claim 2 as described above, if the facility mark designation means acquires the facility mark desired by the user from the facility marks displayed on the map, the facility information display means displays the information regarding the facility. Therefore, the facility information can be easily obtained only by the designated operation of the facility. Therefore, even when considering whether to set a facility as a destination, this can be determined quickly.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the navigation device according to the first or second aspect , at least one of the facility mark display means and the simple graphic display means includes a touch panel in which the displayed facility mark is an operation position. The facility mark designating means designates the facility mark corresponding to the operation position on the touch panel. In such invention of claim 3 , since the facility mark can be directly designated by a simple operation using the touch panel, an intuitive and reliable operation is realized.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the navigation device according to any one of the first to third aspects, the facility mark display means displays a facility existing within a predetermined distance from a predetermined point. It is characterized by being. According to the fourth aspect of the present invention, it is possible to accurately meet the user's need to see only the facilities located in the vicinity of the predetermined point. Further, the configuration of the display screen is simplified and the visibility is improved.

According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, in the navigation device according to the fourth aspect , the predetermined point is a current position of a mobile body or a preset destination. In the invention of claim 5 , since only the facility mark near the current position of the mobile object or the preset destination is displayed, what kind of facility is present around the current position or the destination. It is possible to grasp for sure.

The invention of claim 6 is the navigation device according to any one of claims 1 to 5 , wherein the facility mark display means can set the size of the facility mark. In the invention of claim 6 , the facility mark display means can freely set the size of the facility mark, so that the facility mark can be identified easily and the size can be easily specified. It is possible to adjust to.

  As described above, according to the navigation apparatus, method, and program of the present invention, the facility mark displayed on the map is directly specified, and the destination can be easily set, thereby simplifying the operability. Can be planned.

  Next, the best mode for carrying out the present invention (hereinafter referred to as “embodiment”) will be specifically described with reference to the drawings. In addition, although this embodiment is realizable by controlling the computer provided with the peripheral device by the program, the realization aspect of the hardware and program in this case can be changed variously, and also for map data and route calculation The algorithm can also be selected as appropriate.

  In addition to the navigation apparatus and method, the present invention can be grasped as the above-mentioned program and a computer-readable recording medium recording the program. This program is a physical program such as a CPU and various chipsets incorporated in the navigation apparatus. The effect of this invention is implement | achieved by utilizing a processing apparatus.

[1. Constitution〕
[1-1. Overall configuration)
Each element of this embodiment is demonstrated using the functional block diagram of FIG. Each element includes an absolute position / orientation detection unit 1, a relative orientation detection unit 2, a vehicle speed detection unit 3, a main CPU and its peripheral circuit 4, a memory group M, an output unit 10, and an input unit 11. A disk control unit 12, an FM multiplex reception and processing unit 13, and an optical / beacon reception and processing unit.

  Among them, the absolute position / orientation detection unit 1 receives the GPS radio wave transmitted from the GPS satellite with an antenna, a receiver, or the like, so that the position of the vehicle that is the current location of the vehicle on which the present apparatus is mounted on the ground surface. This is the part that calculates absolute position coordinates and direction. The relative orientation detection unit 2 is a part that detects the relative orientation of the host vehicle using a gyro sensor or the like. The vehicle speed detection part 3 is a part which calculates the speed of the own vehicle by processing the vehicle speed pulse obtained from the own vehicle.

  Further, the main CPU and its peripheral circuit 4 are parts that serve as a control circuit for controlling the entire apparatus of the present embodiment. The memory group M is provided with ROM 5, DRAM 6, SRAM 7, and VRAM 8. Among these, the ROM 5 stores a BIOS, a boot-up program, and the like in advance, and is accessed by the main CPU and its peripheral circuit 4 when the apparatus is activated. The DRAM 6 is used for a work area and the like.

  The SRAM 7 is a non-volatile memory, and retains the memory contents by being backed up by a battery or the like even when the main power source of the apparatus such as an accessory power source of the own vehicle is turned off. The SRAM 7 also serves as a facility icon and facility information storage unit, which is one of the features of the present embodiment. The VRAM 8 is a memory for performing video display on the output unit 10.

  The output unit 10 is a part that displays the searched guidance route, the item at the time of genre search, the name of the facility, the name of the spot, and the like on the screen and notifies the guidance direction at the guidance point on the guidance route. The input unit 11 is a part for the user to input various information such as commands and destinations to the apparatus using a remote controller, a touch panel, or the like. The user interface unit 9 is a user interface that connects the output unit 10 and the input unit 11 to the main CPU and its peripheral circuit 4 using an I / O control circuit, a driver, or the like.

  The disk control unit 12 is means for reading various data such as navigation programs, intersection information, and genre-specific map information from a database recorded on a disk such as a hard disk or a CD-ROM. The FM multiplex reception and processing unit 13 receives a FM broadcast wave of radio by switching a plurality of antennas according to the reception state, and obtains VICS information from this broadcast wave, an optical / beacon reception and processing unit 14 Is the part that receives the light / beacon signal and processes this signal.

[1-2. Role of main CPU and its peripheral circuits]
Further, the main CPU and its peripheral circuit 4 include a host vehicle position specifying unit 40, a destination specifying unit 41, a route calculating unit 42, a guidance control unit 43, an icon information acquiring unit 44, an icon display unit 45, and a facility icon specifying unit 46. , Destination setting unit 47, facility information acquisition unit 48, facility information display unit 49, and simple graphic display unit 50.

  Among these, the own vehicle position specifying unit 40 is a means for specifying the own vehicle position by sequentially calculating the own vehicle position by combining GPS navigation positioning and autonomous navigation positioning. The destination designation unit 41 is a part for designating a destination input by the user via the input unit 11 as a destination. The destination designation unit 41 is configured to designate the displayed facility name or spot name as the destination when the search history display unit 46 to be described later displays the facility name or spot name as the search history. .

  The route calculation unit 42 performs a route search using a route search algorithm such as the Dijkstra method, and from the own vehicle position specified by the own vehicle position specifying unit 40 to the destination specified by the destination specifying unit 41. This is a part for creating route data representing the guidance route by calculating the guidance route based on map data read from a disk such as a CD-ROM using the disk control unit 12.

  The guidance control unit 43 is a means for controlling the guidance guidance by determining elements such as a portion to be displayed on the guidance route and flashing emphasis, and using combined speech. Based on the map data read from the disk control unit 12, the host vehicle position specifying unit 40, the destination specifying unit 41, the route calculating unit 42, and the guidance control unit 43 described above, from the host vehicle position to the specified destination. The navigation means for searching for and guiding the guidance route is configured.

[1-3. Characteristic part of this embodiment]
Subsequently, characteristic portions of the present embodiment will be described. Characteristic parts of the present embodiment include the icon information acquisition unit 44, the icon display unit 45, and the SRAM 7 serving as the facility mark storage unit and the facility information storage unit, as well as the main CPU and its peripheral circuit 4. A facility icon designation unit 46, a destination setting unit 47, a facility information acquisition unit 48, a facility information display unit 49, and a simple map display unit 50. 3 to 6 are examples of display screens of the present embodiment. In each figure, as the facility icons, gas station G (fuel machine mark), parking lot P (P mark), restaurant R (with knife) Fork mark) and Super S (building mark) are displayed.

  The icon information acquisition unit 44 and the icon display unit 45 are portions for displaying the facility icon and the facility information acquired by the icon information acquisition unit 44 on the display screen of the output unit 10 according to the search result of the destination or waypoint by the user. is there. That is, the icon display unit 45 displays the icon of the facility that is the target of the destination or waypoint on the map screen as shown in FIG. 4 in accordance with the data acquired by the icon information acquisition unit 44. In this case, icons displayed on the map by the icon display unit 45 are displayed in a certain number of areas on a certain area by a method of searching for a destination or waypoint in the navigation system, for example, a method such as address search or genre search. It is.

  The facility icon designation unit 46 recognizes the facility icon as the designated icon when the user touches the fingertip on the touch panel functioning as the input unit 11 and selects the desired facility icon. That is, FIG. 4 shows a state where the user designates an icon with the fingertip F.

  The facility information acquisition unit 48 is a part that acquires facility information stored in the SRAM 7, and the facility information display unit 49 is a part that displays the facility information acquired by the facility information acquisition unit 48 on the display screen of the output unit 10. . That is, the facility information display unit 49 acquires the facility information corresponding to the acquired facility icon when the facility icon specifying unit 46 acquires the facility icon specified by the user, and the vicinity of the facility icon specified by the user A screen W such as a pop-up is displayed, and destination setting, waypoint setting and facility information (address, telephone number, guide information) are displayed there.

  The destination setting unit 47 allows the user to select a destination setting or waypoint setting display part in the pop-up screen W displayed by the facility information display unit 49 by touching the touch panel to select the facility icon as the destination or waypoint. Is set to

  The simple map display unit 50 converts the facility icon and its surrounding map into a simple map by split switching means on a screen (not shown) and displays it on a part of the display screen of the output unit 10 (example of display screen) (See FIG. 6). This screen two-division switching means is widely used in a known navigation system, and in conjunction with a user's screen division instruction or facility icon display command, a simple map screen M2 is placed beside the normal map screen M1. The facility icon is displayed on the simple map screen M2.

[2. Action)
Then, the effect | action of this embodiment is demonstrated. FIG. 2 is a flowchart relating to the display and designation of facility icons, and the process of setting facility icons as destinations.

  First, as with known navigation systems, when a destination or waypoint search process is performed using a method such as address search or genre search, destination and relay point candidates are identified within a certain area designated by the user. Will be listed. In this list-up process, candidates such as destinations are conventionally displayed in a list by their names on the screen, but in this embodiment, the listed facilities are displayed as facility icons on the map as shown in FIG. Is displayed.

  That is, for the facilities listed by the search process, the icon information acquisition unit 44 acquires information about the shape of the icon together with the coordinates regarding each facility, and the icon display unit 45 displays the information on the map. In addition, the facility information acquisition unit 48 acquires information such as an address, a telephone number, and a guide for each facility, and prepares information to be presented to the user when the user selects the facility.

  This process will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. 2. First, the icon information acquisition unit 44 confirms whether or not the facility icon information has been acquired. If it has been acquired (Yes in step 1), the facility information acquisition unit It is confirmed whether 48 acquired facility information. If the facility information has been acquired (Yes in step 2), the icon display unit 45 displays the facility icon on the map screen displayed on the display constituting the output unit 10 (step 3, state of FIG. 3).

  Next, when the user touches a desired facility icon from among a plurality of icons displayed on the map screen using the touch panel (in FIG. 4, the user's fingertip F touches the icon of the gas station G). ), The facility icon designating unit 46 acquires the facility icon corresponding to the operation position of the touch panel as the user designated icon (step 4).

  When the facility icon designated by the user is acquired, the facility information display unit 49 receives this and displays a pop-up screen W close to the facility icon acquired by the facility icon designating unit 46, where the destination setting, The waypoint setting and facility information are displayed (step 5). Then, when the user selects a destination setting or waypoint setting display portion from the displayed information (Yes in step 6), the destination designation unit 47 selects the facility displayed by the facility icon as the destination or A transit point is set (step 7).

  If the user does not select the destination setting or waypoint setting display part from the pop-up screen (No in step 6), the process returns to step 4 to select another facility icon again. In this case, the pop-up screen W may be automatically closed when the user does not select the destination setting or waypoint setting within a certain time, or the icon that has been selected until now when a new facility icon is selected. The pop-up screen W may be closed to display a new icon screen.

[3. effect〕
According to the present embodiment as described above, this facility can be directly specified by touching the facility icon displayed on the map using the touch panel, and immediately specified using the setting screen displayed at this time. Can be set as the destination. Therefore, there is no need to adjust the position of the cursor with respect to the facility icon or to switch to the destination setting screen, and the destination can be set only by performing a simple operation on the facility icon.

  Moreover, since the facility information can be easily obtained with the designation of the facility icon, it can be quickly determined whether or not to set the facility as the destination. In addition, in this embodiment, since the facility icons can be selected while comparing the facility icons, the locations of the facilities can be clearly compared and examined as compared with the case where the facility icons are displayed one by one in order. Even in this case, it is possible to reliably select a desired facility.

[4. Other embodiments]
The present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment. As shown in FIG. 5, the icon display unit 45 is enclosed within a predetermined distance from the vehicle position or a preset destination, that is, surrounded by a dotted line in FIG. You can also display only the facilities that exist in the ellipse. In this case, the configuration of the display screen is simplified and the visibility is improved. In addition, it is possible to see only the facilities in the range desired by the user, and it is possible to flexibly respond to user needs.

  As shown in FIG. 6, it is also possible to divide the display screen into left and right parts, display a normal map on the left side, and display a simple map by the simple map display unit 50 on the right side. Thereby, the outstanding visibility can be obtained and operativity improves further. Furthermore, since the icon display unit 45 can freely set the size of the facility icon, the facility icon can be identified more easily and can be easily adjusted to a size that facilitates the designation operation.

  In the present invention, when the facility mark display means displays only facilities existing within a predetermined distance from a predetermined point, the predetermined point may be the vehicle position or a preset destination. If the user can recognize the facility icon as well as the type of facility icon, the color, shape, size, etc. can be selected as appropriate. In addition, the icon display unit 45 can change the size of the facility icon on the display as appropriate according to the scale of the map displayed on the display and the display range of the map on the display screen.

  Furthermore, the simple map may be displayed as a simplified graphic, and the division configuration of the display screen can be changed as appropriate. A medium for storing the facility mark and facility information is not limited to a disk such as a CD or DVD, but a portable memory card can also be used.

The functional block diagram which shows the structure of embodiment which concerns on this invention. The flowchart of the genre search of this embodiment. The example of a display screen in this embodiment. The example of a display screen in this embodiment. The example of a display screen in this embodiment. The flowchart of the conventional genre search.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Absolute position and direction detection part 2 ... Relative direction detection part 3 ... Vehicle speed detection part 4 ... Main CPU and its peripheral circuit 5 ... ROM
6 ... DRAM
7 ... SRAM
8 ... VRAM
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 9 ... User interface part 10 ... Output part 11 ... Input part 12 ... Disk control part 13 ... FM multiplex reception and processing part 40 ... Own vehicle position specification part 41 ... Destination designation part 42 ... Route calculation part 43 ... Guidance control part 44 ... Icon information acquisition part 45 ... Icon display part 46 ... Facility icon designation part 47 ... Destination setting part 48 ... Facility information acquisition part 49 ... Facility information display part 50 ... Simple map display part M ... Memory group

Claims (8)

Facility mark storage means for storing a facility mark indicating a facility on a map;
Facility mark acquisition means for acquiring a facility mark in a predetermined area designated by a user among the facility marks stored in the facility mark storage means;
In a navigation apparatus comprising facility mark display means for displaying the facility mark acquired by the facility mark acquisition means on a map,
The facility mark acquired by the facility mark acquisition means, and a simple graphic display means for converting the map around the facility mark into a simple graphic and displaying the map,
Facility mark designation means for acquiring a facility mark designated by the user from among the facility marks on the map converted into a simple figure by the simple figure display means ;
Destination setting means for setting the facility mark acquired by the facility mark specifying means as a destination of a moving object;
A navigation device characterized by comprising: Displays facility information storage means for storing information related to the facility of the facility mark, facility information acquisition means for acquiring the facility information stored in the facility information storage means, and information about the facility acquired by the facility information acquisition means Facility information display means for
2. The facility information display unit displays information about the facility when the facility mark designating unit acquires a facility mark designated by a user from the facility mark. Navigation device. At least one of the facility mark display means and the simple graphic display means includes a touch panel in which the displayed facility mark is an operation position,
The navigation apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the facility mark designation unit acquires the facility mark corresponding to a user operation position on the touch panel.   The navigation apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the facility mark display means displays a facility existing within a predetermined distance from a predetermined point.   5. The navigation apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the predetermined point is a current position of the mobile body or a preset destination.   The navigation apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein the facility mark display means can set a size of the facility mark. A facility mark storage step for storing a facility mark indicating a facility on a map by using a computer;
A facility mark acquisition step of acquiring a facility mark in a predetermined area designated by the user among the facility marks stored in the facility mark storage step;
In a navigation method including a facility mark display step of displaying the facility mark acquired in the facility mark acquisition step on a map,
The facility mark acquired in the facility mark acquisition step, and a simple graphic display step for converting the map around the facility mark into a simple graphic and displaying the map,
A facility mark designation step for acquiring a facility mark designated by the user from among the facility marks on the map converted into a simple graphic in the simple graphic display step ;
A destination setting step for setting the facility mark acquired in the facility mark designation step as a destination of a moving object;
A navigation method comprising: A facility mark storage function for storing a facility mark indicating a facility on a map by using a computer;
A facility mark acquisition function for acquiring a facility mark in a predetermined area designated by a user among the facility marks stored by the facility mark storage function;
In a navigation program for causing a computer to realize a facility mark display function for displaying the facility mark acquired by the facility mark acquisition function on a map,
The facility mark acquired by the facility mark acquisition function, and a simple graphic display function for displaying a map of the surrounding map converted into a simple graphic,
A facility mark designation function for acquiring a facility mark designated by the user from among the facility marks on the map converted into a simple figure by the simple figure display function ;
A destination setting function for setting the facility mark acquired in the facility mark designation step as a destination of a moving object;
A navigation program characterized in that a computer is realized.