JP5580577B2 - Map printing device - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a map printing apparatus that prints a map of a route from a departure place to a destination.

  In recent years, a user who uses map information is more likely to use a map software or a web service that provides map information via the Internet than a mobile map as a book, from a departure place to a destination. Opportunities to search for routes and print and use search results are increasing.

  For example, in Patent Document 1, the information is laid out on one screen and printed out based on the map information including the route to the destination transferred from the server of the route guidance system and the information at each intersection / branch point.

  Further, as a web service that provides map information, for example, there is a Google (registered trademark) map, and a route is searched by inputting a starting point and a destination on the Internet, and a map including the route is printed. It can be done.

JP 2006-337192 A

  In a conventional system, when printing a map that includes the route from the starting point to the destination, if the map is larger than the paper size, change it to a larger scale so that it fits in the paper, or print the map. A plurality of divided maps are printed by dividing.

However, there is a problem that detailed information corresponding to a small scale is reduced when printing is performed with a large scale.
Further, when the map of the search result is divided and printed, detailed information is printed, but there is a problem that printing of useless pages that do not include any route increases.

  The present invention has been made in consideration of the above-described circumstances, and provides a map printing apparatus that prints a map with a minimum number of sheets when printing a map including a route by dividing it into a plurality of sheets. The purpose is to do.

In order to solve the above problems, a map printing apparatus of the present invention includes a map image data including a route from a departure point to a destination, a map information storage unit for storing route data, and an input for inputting a paper size to be printed. A division unit that divides the map image data into pages of the paper size, a determination unit that determines a page including a route based on the route data, and a route-attached route that combines a route with the map image data A printing unit that cuts out and prints only the page including the route from the map image data, and prints a map in which the route from the departure point to the destination is synthesized.
Then, for the map image data obtained by reducing the map image data at a predetermined reduction rate, when the number of pages including the route is reduced than before reduction, an inquiry is made as to whether or not to print the reduced map image data. The reduced map image data or the map image data before reduction is printed according to the user's designation.

  In the printing unit, a connection mark indicating an adjacency relationship between pages to be printed is combined and printed on each adjacent page edge of the map image data with the route, and the entire map in which the connection of pages is difficult to understand is printed. It becomes easy to restore.

According to the present invention, when a map including a route is divided into a plurality of sheets and printed, a page that does not include a route is not printed. Therefore, the map can be printed with a minimum number of sheets, and paper or toner can be printed. (Ink) can be saved.
In addition, since a mark for indicating the connection between the pages is added, the printed map can be used conveniently.

It is a figure explaining the coordinate system of a map, and page division. It is a figure which shows the printing image when a map is divided and printed. It is a block diagram which shows the function structure of the map printing apparatus which concerns on embodiment. It is a figure explaining the content of the division | segmentation page information storage part. It is a figure explaining the content of the divided page information storage part which set the connection number. It is a flowchart which shows operation | movement of the map printing apparatus which concerns on embodiment. It is a figure which shows the printing image when a map is reduced and divided and printed.

  Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the map printing apparatus of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

(Outline of processing)
An outline of processing of the map printing apparatus of the present invention will be described.
In advance, the user performs a route search by setting a departure point, a destination, a waypoint, and the like using an existing route search system and stores the map information as a result in the storage unit of the map printing apparatus.
In this route search system, a map image image including route points, route data, and the like are output as map information.

When the user instructs the map printing apparatus to print the map information stored in the storage unit, for example, the map printing apparatus divides the map image into a plurality of pages with a printing paper size as shown in FIG. Only the pages including the route and the destination are extracted, and the connection marks are synthesized and printed so that the connection of each page can be understood. This connection mark is a mark indicating which page is adjacent at which page end, and the same connection number is attached to the mark (see FIG. 2).
To do.

In the case of FIG. 1, since pages 1, 2, and 8 do not include any of the starting point, route, and destination, pages 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7 are printed as shown in FIG. Is done. On each printed page, a connection mark indicating that an adjacent page is printed is added and printed.
For example, since page 3 and page 4 are adjacent to each other, a connection mark having the same connection number (3) is printed on the connecting portion at the edge of the page.

In this way, since a page that does not include a path is not printed, a map can be printed with the minimum required number of sheets, and paper and toner (ink) can be saved.
Moreover, since a connection mark for indicating the connection of each page is added, it is convenient for using the map after printing.

(Hardware configuration of map printing device)
As shown in FIG. 3, the map printing apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention includes a control unit 1, an operation unit 2, a storage unit 3, and a printing unit 4, and each unit is connected via a bus.

  The control unit 1 includes a CPU (Central Processing Unit), a RAM (Random Access Memory), a ROM (Read Only Memory), etc., and reads the various control programs and setting information from the storage unit 3 and executes them to execute the map printing. Implement various functions of the device.

  The operation unit 2 includes a plurality of operation keys for receiving user operation inputs, an LCD (Liquid Crystal Display), and the like, and a print instruction, a selection instruction, and various settings for printing are performed using the operation keys. In the middle of the process, the progress and processing results are displayed on the LCD.

The storage unit 3 includes a large-capacity storage device such as a hard disk, and includes various control programs for the map printing device, fixed information used in the various control programs, map information to be printed (described later), the map printing device. The setting information set by the user when using or the status information in the execution state of the map printing apparatus is stored.
The printing unit 4 includes a printer or the like, and prints a map divided into a plurality of pages generated by the control unit 1 on a sheet.

(Functional configuration of map printing device)
Hereinafter, a map printing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail.
Note that the map printed in this embodiment is divided into a plurality of pages as shown in FIG. 1, and the page numbers are assigned in order from left to right and from top to bottom. Shall.
In the coordinate system, the upper left corner of the map image to be printed is the origin coordinate (0, 0), the right direction is the positive direction of the X axis, and the downward direction is the positive direction of the Y axis.
The paper size and orientation are specified by the user, but the paper orientation is expressed as the vertical direction, the paper size as horizontal w pixels, and vertical h pixels.

  As shown in FIG. 3, the functional configuration of the map printing apparatus according to the present embodiment includes a route information acquisition unit 1a, a map division unit 1b, a connection mark calculation unit 1c, a map printing unit 1d, a map information storage unit 3a, and divided page information. A storage unit 3b is provided.

First, the contents stored in the storage unit 3 will be described.
The map information storage unit 3a stores the map information acquired by the user from the route search system. This map information includes the image of the entire map to be printed, the number of pixels in the image's height and width, the scale of the map, the latitude and longitude of the upper left corner of the map image, the latitude and longitude of the lower right corner of the map image, the departure It is route data including the place and the destination. This route data includes, for example, a list of information on pairs of start points and end points represented by latitude and longitude.

  The divided page information storage unit 3b has a coordinate value indicating a page area of each page, a flag for whether or not to print a page, and the map image image when the map image image is divided according to the print paper size according to the print paper size. It is a table for managing pages adjacent to the page, and stores the following data items (see FIG. 4).

ID: A number corresponding to a divided page, and in this embodiment, the numbers are assigned sequentially from left to right and from top to bottom.
Page area: X and Y coordinate values of the upper left corner of the page and X and Y coordinate values of the lower right corner. This coordinate value is a pixel value represented by a relative coordinate value from the origin of the coordinate system of the map image.
Flag: 1 is set when the page includes any of the starting point, route, and destination, and zero is set when none of the pages.
Adjacent page ID: IDs of pages adjacent in the four directions (up, down, left, right) of the page are set. When this value is zero, it indicates that there is no adjacent page or a page that is not printed. Also, the connection number assigned to the connection mark is calculated using the adjacent page ID and flag.

Next, the function of each processing unit of the control unit 1 will be described.
The route information acquisition unit 1a includes map information including a route from a departure point to a destination that the user wants to print, a print paper size (for example, A6, A5, A4, B5, etc.), a paper orientation (vertical or horizontal), and Specifies the output resolution (dpi).

  The map dividing unit 1b stores the map image image division result in the divided page information storage unit 3b based on the map information designated by the route information acquisition unit 1a, the designated paper size, orientation, and output resolution (dpi). To do.

In the division, the number of vertical and horizontal pixels of the map image is divided by the number of vertical and horizontal pixels of the printing paper to calculate the number of pages required in the vertical and horizontal directions.
Based on this number of pages, page numbers are assigned as IDs in order from left to right, top to bottom, starting from 1, and the upper left corner coordinate value and lower right corner coordinate value of each page are calculated and divided. It memorize | stores in the page information storage part 3b.

For each divided page, IDs of pages adjacent in the four directions (up, down, left, and right) of the page are set, and zero is set when there is no adjacent page.
Next, 1 is set to the flag of the page including the X and Y coordinate values corresponding to the latitude and longitude representing the start point and end point of the route from the route data, and zero is set to the flag of the page not including the route.
As described above, the divided page information storage unit 3b is set as shown in FIG. 4 for the map data of FIG.

The connection mark calculation unit 1c resets the adjacent page ID of the divided page information storage unit 3b so that the connection numbers assigned to the connection marks are the same so that the adjacent pages can be easily understood.
In this resetting, for the page whose flag in the divided page information storage unit 3b is 1, the adjacent page ID of the page adjacent to the left and right and the adjacent page ID of the page adjacent to the top and bottom are respectively the page numbers with the smaller page numbers. Replace with (ID). At this time, if the adjacent page is not to be printed, the adjacent page ID is set to zero.

For example, since page 3 and page 4 are adjacent to each other on the left and right, their left and right adjacent page IDs are set to 3. Similarly, since page 3 and page 7 are adjacent to each other in the vertical direction, the upper and lower adjacent page IDs are set to 3.
Thereby, the divided page information storage unit 3b is reset as shown in FIG.

  When resetting by the above method, the upper and lower connection numbers and the left and right connection numbers become the same, so different numbers may be assigned. In this case, when the printing paper is square, it becomes easy to restore the entire map.

  The map printing unit 1d writes a route in the map image image based on the route data, refers to the divided page information storage unit 3b, cuts out a portion corresponding to the page area with the flag of 1, and adjacent page ID (connection number) A connection mark having a connection number in a preset format is combined with the connected portion of the page edge in a direction (either up, down, left, or right) that is not zero, and is printed on the printing paper by the printing unit 4.

  Since the connection numbers are combined with the connection marks in this way, the map before division can be reproduced by connecting the connection marks with the same numbers.

Next, the operation of the map printing apparatus according to the present embodiment will be described using the flowchart of FIG.
First, map information including a route that the user wants to print, print paper size, paper orientation, and output resolution (dpi) are designated (step S1).

  Based on the specified map information, paper size, orientation, and output resolution (dpi), the map image image is divided, and the coordinates of the area where each page exists in the map image image and the adjacency relationship of the pages are set (step) S2).

Next, for the start point and end point of all routes, a page including the start point and end point is determined (step S3).
For the page including the route, the connection number assigned to the adjacent pages is replaced with the same number (step S4).
All routes are written in the map image, all pages including the routes are cut out, connection marks having connection numbers are combined on these pages, and printed on printing paper (step 5).

By configuring the embodiment as described above, since a page that does not include a path is not printed, a map can be printed with the minimum necessary number of sheets, and paper and toner (ink) can be saved.
In addition, since a connection mark for indicating the connection between the pages is added, the entire map can be easily restored after printing.

<Modification>
The present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments, and it is needless to say that various changes and modifications can be made without departing from the gist of the present invention. For example, the following modifications are possible.

  Modification 1: In the case of the above embodiment, in the example of FIG. 1, a part of the path is printed on the page 4 as shown in FIG. 2, but if it is slightly reduced as shown in FIG. A part of the path printed on page 4 is included in another page (in this case, page 3), and the number of printed pages may be reduced.

  In this case, processing similar to that of the map dividing unit 1b is performed on a map image image obtained by reducing the map image image designated by the user at a predetermined reduction ratio (for example, a fixed value of 90% or designated by the user). To divide into pages, calculate the number of printed pages including the route, and print a divided map with a small number of printed pages.

  Alternatively, if the number of printed pages after reduction is less than the number of printed pages before reduction, the difference between the number of printed pages and the entire map after reduction are displayed, and the map to be printed is inquired and specified. Either a divided map before or after reduction may be printed.

  Modification 2: A map image image with a route and route data may be received from the user, and a page including the route may be cut out and printed based on the route data.

  Modified example 3: In the above embodiment, the route search is performed outside the apparatus. However, the route search may be performed in the apparatus including the route search.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Control part, 1a ... Route information acquisition part, 1b ... Map division part, 1c ... Connection mark calculation part, 1d ... Map printing part, 2 ... Operation part, 3 ... Storage part, 3a ... Map information storage part, 3b ... Print page information storage unit, 4... Print unit.

Claims (2)

Map image data including a route from the departure point to the destination and a map information storage unit for storing the route data, an input unit for inputting a paper size to be printed, and a division for dividing the map image data into pages of the paper size A determination unit that determines a page including a route based on the route data, and a printing unit that cuts out and prints only the page including the route from map image data with a route obtained by combining the map image data with the route and, with a,
Against the map image data obtained by reducing the map image data at a predetermined reduction ratio, if the number of pages comprising path is reduced than before reduction, the query Rukoto whether to print the map image data obtained by the reduced A map printing device that prints a map that synthesizes the route from the starting point to the destination.   2. The map printing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the printing unit synthesizes and prints connection marks indicating adjacency relationships between pages to be printed on adjacent page edges of the map image data with a route.

Images