JPH04314085A - Position display device for vehicle - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To display a guiding target appearing next at accurate timing without forcing complex operation to a driver and to surely guide a vehicle. CONSTITUTION:Map information in a wide range including the current position of the vehicle concerned is displayed by a 1st map display means 10 based upon map information stored in a 1st storage means 9 and the current position and advancing azimuth of the vehicle which are measured by a measuring means CN. A guiding target on a traveling route up to a proposed destination set up by a route setting means 1 is extracted from the map information and stored in a 2nd storing means 5. A 2nd map display means 10 selects a map including a guiding target appearing next on the route from the means 5 and displays the selected map. A distance between the guiding target appearing next and the current position is calculated by a target distance calculating means 1, and when the distance is less than a previously set value, map display is switched from the 1st map display means 10 to the 2nd map display means 10.

Description

[Detailed description of the invention]

0001

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a vehicle position display device for displaying a map to a destination on a display device to guide the vehicle to the destination.

0002

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION In recent years, vehicles such as automobiles display a map that includes the area in which the vehicle is traveling, and also display the vehicle's current location, travel trajectory, departure point, destination, etc. on this map. Various types of vehicle position display devices, such as vehicle navigation devices, have been developed and are now installed in vehicles.

[0003] As these conventional vehicle navigation devices, there is one disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 194599/1983. This conventional vehicle navigation device uses a display switching means to store map information of a wide area including the destination, and a wide area map storage means for storing map information of a wide area including the destination. The map is displayed on the display device by appropriately switching the information from the stored destination and surrounding map storage means.

0004

However, through actual use, it has become clear that there is room for improvement in the usability of this conventional vehicle navigation system in several respects. First, switching between a wide-area map and a simple map is performed manually, so if there are many destinations or guidance targets in a narrow area, the switching operation may become complicated.

[0005] Secondly, since only one piece of map information regarding guide targets around a destination is stored for each detailed map around one destination, the route to the destination is long and complicated. In this case, it is necessary to rely on wide-area map information for the middle of the route, so it may be difficult to obtain information about guidance targets that exist along the route.

Thirdly, even when multiple pieces of simplified map information for guidance are provided for one destination, there is no means for determining whether or not the own vehicle has passed a guidance target. It is not possible to easily select a simplified map for guidance.

The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned conventional problems, and displays the next guiding target at an accurate timing without forcing the driver to perform complicated operations, thereby ensuring that the vehicle is steered. It is an object of the present invention to provide a position display device for a vehicle that can be guided.

[0008]

[Means for Solving the Problems] In order to achieve the above object, the vehicle position display device of the present invention includes a first storage means 9 for storing map information and a current position of the vehicle, as shown in FIG. and/or a positioning means CN for measuring the heading, and a first map display means 10 for displaying a wide range of map information including the current position of the vehicle measured by the positioning means CN.
a route setting means 1 for setting a travel route to a scheduled destination; and a route setting means 1 for extracting guidance targets on the route set by the route setting means 1 from map information stored in a first storage means 9. A second storage means 5 stores information about the existence of a guidance target on the route that will appear next based on the current position and traveling direction of the vehicle detected by the positioning means CN. a second map display means 10 that selects and displays a map to be displayed; and a target that calculates the distance between the current position and a guiding target that appears next on the map selected by the second map display means 10. Distance calculation means 1 and map display switching for switching the map display from the first map display means 10 to the second map display means 10 when the distance obtained by the target object distance calculation means 1 is less than a preset value. The gist is to have means 1.

[0009]

[Operation] The vehicle position display device of the present invention has a first storage means 9 for storing map information as shown in FIG. Based on the current position and traveling direction of the vehicle measured by the positioning means CN, the first map display means 10 displays map information over a wide range including the current position of the vehicle. Also,
Guidance targets on the travel route to the scheduled destination set by the route setting means 1 are extracted from the map information stored in the first storage means 9 and stored in the second storage means 5.

[0010] The second map display means 10 selects and displays a map in which a guiding target on the route that will appear next is present from the second storage means 5. At this time, the positioning means CN
The map is selected based on the vehicle's current position and traveling direction detected by the vehicle.

Furthermore, the distance between the next guiding target and the current position on the map selected by the second map display means 10 is calculated by the target distance calculation means 1, and this distance is calculated in advance. When the value falls below the set value, the map display switching means switches the map display from the first map display means 10 to the second map display means 10.

0012

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings.

First, the configuration when a vehicle position display device is applied to a vehicle navigation device will be explained with reference to the block diagram of FIG.

The CPU 1 includes a route setting means, a calculation means, and a control means, and is connected to a ROM 3, a RAM 5, an interface circuit 7, and a display means 10 via a bus, and is further connected to a positioning means CN via the interface circuit 7. It is connected to the operation switch SW and the CD-ROM 9. Also,
The CPU 1 calculates the moving direction and moving distance of the vehicle based on the azimuth information and moving distance information obtained from the positioning means CN, and stores the calculated moving direction and moving distance of the vehicle in the CD-ROM 9. A map matching method is used to determine which road the vehicle is traveling on in correspondence with road data based on map information, and data in which the current position is superimposed on the road data is displayed on the display means 10.

The ROM 3 mainly stores programs for the CPU 1.

The RAM 5 is a second storage means for storing the route calculation results as a simple map file. The structure of the simple map file is shown in Figure 5. One set of data consists of the distance from the beginning of the address to the starting point, the coordinates of the guiding target, simplified map information around the target, etc. The size is fixed.

As mentioned above, via the interface circuit 7, the positioning means CN and the operation switches SW and CD-
Connected to ROM9.

[0018] At least one positioning means CN is installed to obtain azimuth information related to the moving direction of the vehicle, and includes a beacon receiver CN1, a GPS receiver CN3, a gyro CN5,
It is composed of a direction sensor CN7 and a distance sensor CN9.

The beacon receiver CN1 is a receiver for performing radio navigation by receiving omnidirectional radio waves from a transmitting station.

[0020] GPS (Global Position)
The receiver CN3 is a satellite-based positioning system that determines the position by receiving radio waves from four of the 18 satellites orbiting in a circular orbit.

The gyro CN5 utilizes the characteristics of a gyroscope so that its axis of rotation points to the true meridian on the earth, and detects the traveling direction of the vehicle.

The direction sensor CN7 detects the direction in which the vehicle is traveling and outputs a signal corresponding to the direction in which the vehicle is traveling. As the direction sensor CN7, there is a geomagnetic sensor that has an annular core made of a high magnetic permeability material such as permalloy, which is a high magnetic permeability alloy, and windings perpendicular to each other are wound around the permalloy core. In the case of such a geomagnetic sensor, by applying the geomagnetism to the winding that is energized until just before the permalloy core is saturated, a detection voltage corresponding to a component of the geomagnetism at right angles to the winding can be obtained.

The distance sensor CN9 uses a photoelectric, electromagnetic, or mechanical contact type wheel speed sensor to generate a pulse signal every time the vehicle travels a predetermined distance. It is configured to output a proportional pulse signal, and therefore, by counting this pulse signal, the travel distance of the vehicle can be detected.

The operation switch SW is made up of a plurality of push button switches arranged as shown in FIG. The three operation switches SWI in the frame labeled "input" as input switches are a target input switch SWI1, a destination input switch SWI3, and a current position input switch SW.
Consisting of I5. Further, as operation switches related to the present invention, there are three operation switches SWM in a frame labeled "map". Automatic/manual SWM1 is a switch for selecting whether to switch the display of wide area map information/simplified map information automatically or manually.
WM3 is a switch for selecting wide area map information, and simple switch SWM5 is a switch for selecting simple map information.

The switches for moving the cursor are a cursor key SWR, a set key SWS, and a cursor switch SW.
The cursor switch SWC is composed of nine push button switches arranged in three rows and three columns, each of which is marked with an arrow pointing in a different direction. By pressing a push button switch with an arrow pointing in a desired direction among the push cursor switches SWC, a cursor displayed on the display screen of the display unit 15, which will be described later, can be moved in the desired direction. Note that the set switch SWS is a switch for inputting the final position of the cursor moved using the cursor switch SWC.

At the right end, from the top, there are a power switch PW,
A guide display switch GD and a map switch MP are arranged.

[0027] The CD-ROM 9 is a first storage means for storing wide area map information, and is a folder in which, for example, 1/100,000 scale road map information, 1/25,000 scale road map information, etc. are preset. - Recorded according to the mat.

[0028] The CRT drive section 11a is a CRT (Cathedral RT) installed in the instrument panel or console box of the vehicle.
od Ray Tube) 15a,
The current position of the vehicle, travel trajectory, etc. are displayed on the display screen of the display unit 9 together with road map information.

The HUD driving unit 11b controls the HUD (He
It drives the ad Up Display) 15b, and projects and displays the vehicle's traveling speed, traveling distance, simplified map, etc. on the windshield.

Each drive section 11a, 11b and image memory 13
a, 13b, CRT 15a, and HUD 15b constitute display means 10.

[0031] Note that the CRT 15a and HU as display units
The D15b may include any display medium, such as an LCD (Liq
uid Crystal Display), ELD(
Electroluminescence Displ
ay ), PDP (Plasma Display P
anel) etc. can be used as appropriate.

Next, the processing procedure in this embodiment will be explained according to the flowcharts shown in FIGS. 3 and 4. After power is turned on, in step S1, system state variables and hardware are initialized. Here, the state variable n indicating the set number of the simplified map file is set to 1.
is written.

In step S3, the current position is input and set by manually operating the current position input switch SWI5 and the like. After setting the current position, cumulative distance data ΣL
is initialized (ΣL=0), so-called cleared. In addition,
If there is no current position input at this time, the process of step S3 is skipped.

[0034] In step S5, the destination is manually input and set by operating the destination input switch SWI3 and the like. Note that if there is no destination input at this time, the process of step S5 is skipped.

In step S7, a route is calculated according to the input data of the current position and destination input and set in steps S3 and S5. Note that if there is no change in either the current position or the destination in step S3 and step S5, the process in step S7 is skipped.

In step S9, as an input process, each data input from each sensor of the positioning means CN via the interface circuit 7 is converted into a control variable, distance pulses are measured, and distance data is generated.

In step S11, the vehicle speed is calculated from the distance pulse sampling period based on the distance data generated in step S9, and is temporarily stored in the RAM 5 as a variable name v.

In step S13, the distance data is integrated to calculate the own vehicle position, and this integrated value is expressed as R with the variable name ΣL.
Temporarily stored in AM5.

In step S17, it is determined whether to switch between the first map display means and the second map display means, that is, display switching between wide area map information and simplified map information in this embodiment, and the process returns to step S3.

Next, the display switching in step S17 mentioned above will be explained in detail with reference to FIG. First, in step S21, the distance data from the starting point on the simple map file and the cumulative distance data ΣL are compared in magnitude. If the cumulative distance data ΣL is large, the process advances to step S23 and the simple map file is 1 is added to the state variable n indicating whether it is a set, and the process in step S21 is repeated until the cumulative distance data ΣL becomes smaller than the distance data from the starting point on the simple map file (step S
21-S23). For example, in the process of step S21 after the power is turned on, since n=1, the search is started from the first data.

After that, the value of n indicates the data set of the simplified map to be displayed next, so the search can be performed in a short time. In addition, in consideration of other processing, even if the user passes a point on the simplified map to be displayed next, the next data set is searched based on the cumulative distance data, so there is no possibility of erroneous display.

In step S25, the distance to the next guidance target is calculated and temporarily stored as a variable name L2.

In step S27, the automatic/manual SWM 1 on the operation panel determines whether automatic or manual is selected, and if the automatic switch is selected,
Proceeding to step S29, the selection of wide area map display/simplified map display is automatically performed.

On the other hand, if the manual switch is selected in step S27, the process advances to step S31, where it is determined whether the wide area switch SWM3 or the simple switch SWM5 is selected, and the selection of wide area map display/simplified map display is made. conduct.

In step S29, the distance (f(v)) given as a monotonically increasing function of the vehicle speed v and the distance L2 to the guided target are compared in magnitude, and wide area map display/simplified map display is selected.

In step S33, the simplified map data to be displayed next is loaded from the RAM, and in step S35, the data is transferred to each driving section 11a, 11b, and the simplified map is displayed on the display devices 15a, 15b.

[0047] In step S37, wide area map information around the current position is loaded from the CD-ROM, and in step S39
The data is transferred to each drive unit 11a, 11b, and a map based on the simplified map information is appropriately displayed on the display devices 15a, 15b.

Next, the display screens displayed on the display devices 15a and 15b will be explained. Referring to FIG. 7, in the simplified map display for guidance near the target, what is shown in the upper left box is the name of a signal or the name of an intersection. Note that if there is no signal name or intersection name at this time, this column will be blank. Furthermore, the distance to the guidance target is sequentially displayed in the upper right box. The circled S displayed at the center of the intersection indicates that the intersection is equipped with a signal. The direction of travel is displayed as moving from a white triangular arrow to a black arrow.

First, on a screen displaying a map based on wide-area map information (hereinafter referred to as wide-area map screen), wide-area map information including the current location is displayed as shown in FIG. On this screen, operate the cursor on the operation panel,
Set your current location, destination, and target.

For example, after pressing the current position SWI5, move the cursor on the screen to the current position (starting point),
Press the set SWS. After the process is completed, in step S3, the coordinates of the current position are temporarily stored in the RAM, and the total travel distance Σ
L is cleared.

After pressing the destination SWI3, move the cursor on the screen to the destination and press the set SWS. After the process is completed, the coordinates of the destination are temporarily stored on the RAM 5 in step S5.

[0052] Next is the route setting procedure. Normally, once the starting point and destination are set, there are many published algorithms that calculate the optimal route between them, and this method can also be used. , a method for the driver to set waypoints in advance using a cursor is shown.

First, press the target object SWI1 from the point shown in FIG. 7, and then move the cursor on the screen to the point shown in FIG. After pressing the target object SWI1 again, move the cursor on the screen to the point shown in FIG. After pressing the target object SWI1 again, move the cursor on the screen to the point shown in FIG. After pressing the target object SWI1 again, move the cursor on the screen to the point shown in FIG. After pressing the target object SWI1 again, move the cursor on the screen to the point shown in FIG. Press the set SWS.

After the above processing is completed, in step S7 map information near the waypoints (targets), ie, FIGS. 8 to 12, is extracted, and the distances on the route from the starting point to each target,
The coordinates of each target object are added and temporarily stored in a simple map file on the RAM 5.

Next, a description will be given of the screens that actually appear while the vehicle is running.

[0056] If the target is far away, a wide area map is displayed. Next, when approaching the point shown in FIG. 8, the screen changes to the one shown in FIG. The screen shown in FIG. 8 is displayed until the point shown in FIG. 8 is passed, and during this time the numbers at the top right of the screen sequentially display the distance to the target. After passing through the point shown in FIG. 8, the screen switches again to the wide area map screen.

Next, when approaching the point shown in FIG. 9, the screen changes to the one shown in FIG. Thereafter, the above display switching is repeated until the point (destination) shown in FIG. 12 is reached, and at the point shown in FIG. 12, a display saying "This is the destination" is added.

[0058] The wide area map is displayed on the CRT 15a,
It is even better to display the simplified map on the HUD 15b.

As described above, according to this embodiment,
First, the wide area map and simple map will be automatically switched according to the distance to the guidance target, and the simple map information will be a pair of distance to the guidance target and simplified map data around the guidance target. The system consists of multiple pieces of data, and the actual distance along the route is successively integrated, compared with the distance to the guided target, and the next simplified map data to be displayed is selected.

Furthermore, when the vehicle speed is high, in order to be able to quickly display the next guidance target, the distance to the guidance target, which is the reference for display switching, is set to be longer as the vehicle speed is higher.

[0061] Although this embodiment has been explained using automatic switching as an example, automatic/manual switching can be performed as necessary.
Manual switching was set using WM1, making it possible to display only a wide area map or only a simplified map for guidance.

[0062]

[Effects of the Invention] As explained above, according to the present invention, the next guidance target that will appear is displayed at an accurate timing and the vehicle can be reliably guided without forcing the driver to perform complicated operations. Can be done.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a panel of the operation switch shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating the overall operation of this embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating in detail the display switching shown in FIG. 3;

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing the structure of a simplified map file stored in RAM.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a map displayed on a display screen.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a map displayed on a display screen.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing a map displayed on a display screen.

FIG. 9 is a diagram showing a map displayed on a display screen.

FIG. 10 is a diagram showing a map displayed on a display screen.

FIG. 11 is a diagram showing a map displayed on a display screen.

FIG. 12 is a diagram showing a map displayed on a display screen.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 CPU 3 ROM 5 RAM 7 Interface circuit 9 CD-ROM 11a CRT drive section 11b HUD drive unit 13a Image memory 13b Image memory 15a CRT 15b HUD R1 Beacon receiver R3 GPS receiver SN1 Gyro SN3 Direction sensor SN5 distance sensor SW Operation switch

Claims (1)

[Claims] Claim 1: A first storage means for storing map information; a positioning means for measuring the current position and/or heading of a vehicle; A first map display means for displaying map information, a route setting means for setting a travel route to a scheduled destination, and a first storage means for storing guiding targets on the route set by the route setting means. a second storage means for extracting and storing stored map information, and from this second storage means,
a second map display means for selecting and displaying a map in which a guidance target on the next appearing route exists based on the current position and traveling direction of the vehicle detected by the positioning means;
target distance calculation means for calculating the distance between the current position and the next guidance target on the map selected by the map display means; and the distance obtained by the target distance calculation means is set in advance. 1. A vehicle position display device comprising: map display switching means for switching the map display from the first map display means to the second map display means when the value falls below the above value.