JPH05150719A - Vehicle position display device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide the vehicle position display device which can optionally switch display control where the position of a vehicle is displayed in the center of a screen and display control where the vehicle position is moved on the display screen. CONSTITUTION:When a vehicle center scroll mode is set, a display map is changed at all times through a series of processes of steps 150-220 and a step 260 so as to display the vehicle position in the center of the display map, but when a skip scroll mode is set, the display map is so changed through a series of processes of steps 150-260 so that the vehicle position is moved on the display map when it is in a set frame on the display map and is put in the set frame if it deviates from the set frame. The scroll modes are switched by a scroll mode setting process (step 100) or key operation.

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 detecting a vehicle position and displaying the detected vehicle position on a display device together with a road map.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, for example, Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open No. 64-3040
As disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. 9-9, by sequentially changing the road map displayed on the display device according to the traveling of the vehicle,
There is known a vehicle position display device configured to always display the vehicle position in the center of a display screen.

[0003]

However, in such a conventional device, since the vehicle position is always displayed at the center of the display screen, the driver does not lose sight of the vehicle position on the display screen while the vehicle is traveling. However, there is a problem in that it is difficult for the driver to feel the actual running of the vehicle, and it becomes difficult to know which position on the road map the vehicle is running.

Therefore, the present invention not only prevents the driver from losing track of the vehicle position on the display screen by displaying the vehicle position at a specific position on the display screen as described above, but also, if necessary, the vehicle position. The object of the present invention is to move the vehicle position on the display screen in accordance with the traveling of the vehicle so that the driver can actually feel the traveling of the vehicle and easily grasp the vehicle position on the road map.

[0005]

That is, the present invention made to achieve the above object is, as illustrated in FIG. 1, a display device for displaying a road map and a vehicle position, and a road map on the display device. Map data storing means for storing map data for displaying, vehicle position detecting means for sequentially detecting the vehicle position, and the vehicle position for each time the vehicle position is detected by the vehicle position detecting means. First display control means for reading map data for displaying at a specific position on a display screen of the display device from the map data storage means and displaying a road map and a vehicle position on the display device based on the map data; In a vehicle position display device including: a map data for displaying a road map including the vehicle position detected by the vehicle position detection means on the display screen of the display device. Means for displaying a road map on the display device based on the map data, and the latest detected by the vehicle position detecting device on the road map displayed on the display device by the map display device. Vehicle position display means for displaying the vehicle position, and when the vehicle position displayed by the vehicle position display means deviates from a predetermined area on the display screen, the map data used by the map display means for map display is changed. A second display control means including map data changing means for displaying the vehicle position in a predetermined area on the display screen, and whether to operate the first display control means or the second display control means. According to the input means for giving a selection command from the outside, and the display control to the display device according to the selection command from the outside inputted via the input means. A display control switching means for switching to any of the means and said second display control means, a vehicle position display device, characterized in that the provided is a gist.

[0006]

As described above, in the vehicle position display device of the present invention, two types of display control means are provided as the display control means for displaying the vehicle position and the road map on the display device.
The display control switching means selects the display control by one of the display control means according to the selection command input through the input means, and causes the display device to display the vehicle position and the road map.

When the display control switching means selects the display control by the first display control means, the vehicle position is detected each time the vehicle position is detected by the first display control means. The map data for displaying at a specific position on the display screen of the display device is read from the map data storage means, and the road map and the vehicle position are displayed on the display device based on the read map data. A road map and vehicle position are displayed. Therefore, in this case, the road map is sequentially changed on the display screen as the vehicle travels, and the vehicle position is always displayed at the specific position on the display screen.

On the other hand, when the display control switching means selects the display control by the second display control means, the map display means in the second display control means includes the vehicle position detected by the vehicle position detection means. Display the road map on the display device,
The vehicle position display means displays the latest vehicle position on the displayed road map, so that the road map and the vehicle position are displayed on the display device. When the displayed vehicle position deviates from the predetermined area on the display screen, the map data changing means in the second display control means changes the map data used by the map displaying means for the map display, and the vehicle position is changed. Is returned to a predetermined area on the display screen. Therefore, in this case, the vehicle position moves on the road map displayed on the display device as the vehicle travels, and is displayed on the display device only when the vehicle position deviates from the predetermined area on the display screen. The road map will be changed.

[0009]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. First, FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the overall configuration of a vehicle navigation device of an embodiment to which the present invention is applied.

As shown in FIG. 2, the navigation system according to the present embodiment has a GPS antenna 2 for receiving radio waves transmitted from a GPS (Global Positioning System) artificial satellite.
a, frequency-converts and demodulates the received signal to calculate position data representing the position of the receiving point (that is, the vehicle position), and the moving speed (that is, vehicle speed) and moving direction (that is, the vehicle Calculate movement data that represents the direction of travel,
A well-known GPS receiver 2 as a vehicle position detecting means, and an input device 4 as an input means including a keyboard for inputting various data by an external operation, a touch key displayed on a display screen of a display device 14 described later, and the like. And an external storage device 6 as a map data storage means composed of an optical disk, a magnetic disk, etc. storing map data, and a CR for displaying a road map including vehicle positions and various messages.
T, a display device 14 including a liquid crystal display, and a GP
An S receiver 2, an input device 4, a control device 20 for reading various data from the external storage device 6 and controlling the display device 14 based on the data.

The control unit 20 includes a CPU 22 and a ROM.
The display device 14 is configured as a well-known microcomputer including a RAM 24, a RAM 26, an input / output port 28, and a bus line 30 connecting these units, and drives the display device 14 via a display drive device 34. It should be noted that the external storage device 6 has a structure shown in FIG.
As shown in, the map of the whole area to be displayed, such as the whole country, Kanto area, Kansai area, ... Is divided into areas for one screen of the display device 14, and n × m unit map data is stored. The control device 20 has the display device 14
When a road map is displayed on the RAM 26, the unit map data for the nine adjacent sections in the vertical and horizontal directions is read out from the unit map data stored in the external storage device 6 and stored in the RAM 26. The map display corresponding to the vehicle position is performed based on the unit map data (hereinafter, referred to as large map data) for the 9 sections stored in.

The map display process executed by the control device 20 in this way will be described below with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG. As shown in FIG. 4, when this processing is started, first, in step 100, the map display on the display device 14 is performed according to the traveling of the vehicle in order to always display the own vehicle position at the center of the display screen. Is performed in the vehicle center scroll mode in which the vehicle is always scrolled, or the map is fixed on the display screen and the vehicle position is moved on the map according to the traveling of the vehicle, and the vehicle position is displayed on the display screen. Then, a scroll mode setting process is performed that causes the vehicle occupant such as the driver to set whether to perform the skip scroll mode in which the display map is changed when the frame deviates from the preset frame.

In this scroll mode setting process, the scroll mode selection screen shown in FIG. 5A is displayed on the display device 14 as a touch key, and when "skip" on this display screen is touched with a finger, the skip scroll mode is set. It is determined that the vehicle center scroll mode has been selected, and if the "center" on the display screen is touched with a finger, it is determined that the vehicle center scroll mode has been selected.

When it is determined that the skip scroll mode has been selected, the frame setting screen shown in FIG. 5B is displayed on the display device 14 to allow the vehicle occupant to set the frame size. This frame setting screen is +
It is composed of a center position O of the display screen indicated by a mark, a rectangular frame centered on the center position O (shown by a dotted line in the figure), and a cursor K indicated by an X mark in the figure. The size of the frame can be arbitrarily set by moving the cursor K to one corner of the frame by moving the cursor K to the position.

The scroll mode setting process of step 100 is a process executed only once when the power is turned on in the control device 20, but the scroll mode is operated by the operation of the scroll mode change key provided in the input device 4. Further, the frame can be freely changed by the operation of a frame change key provided on the input device 4 even when the power is not turned on.

When the scroll mode is set in step 100 as described above, the process proceeds to step 110, and the current vehicle position is read from the GPS receiver 2.
Then, in the following step 120, the unit map data (hereinafter referred to as central unit map data) Pij of the section including the read vehicle position is searched from the unit map data stored in the external storage device 6, and this search is performed. The unit map data for 9 sections shown in FIG. 6 centering on the central unit map data Pij is read out as large map data and stored in the two map data storage areas preset in the RAM 26.

Next, in step 130, step 120
From the large map data read in, as shown in Fig. 6,
Four pieces of map data for each of the four sections including the central unit map data Pij are created, and these map data D1, D2, D
3 and D4 are respectively created as display map data. It should be noted that the four pieces of map data for display thus created are respectively stored in the two map data storage areas set in advance in the RAM 26, similarly to the large map data.

When the reading of the large map data and the creation of the map data for display are completed in this way, step 14 is carried out this time.
After shifting to 0, the area of map data for displaying the vehicle position read in step 110 at the center of the display screen of the display device 14 is set as a display frame. Then, in the following step 150, the above four pieces of display map data D1 to D are displayed.
The display map data including the set display frame is selected from among 4 and the display map data is set as the display map data actually used for the map display.

Next, in step 160, step 150
By reading the map data in the display frame from the display map data set in step 1, image data for map display centering on the vehicle position is created, and this image data is output to the display drive device 34. , The map is displayed on the display device 14. Next, at step 170, the traveling direction of the vehicle is read from the GPS receiver 2, and step 180
At, for example, as shown in FIG. 9C, the vehicle position including the traveling direction of the vehicle is displayed on the display map displayed on the display device 14.

In this embodiment, the map data is stored in the RAM 26.
Since they are respectively stored in the two map data storage areas, the steps 150 and 160 are executed using the map data stored in one of the areas. When the road map and the vehicle position are initially displayed on the display device 14 in this way, the process proceeds to step 190 and the current vehicle position is read from the GPS receiver 2. Then, at 200, it is determined whether the vehicle position is within the central unit map data of the large map data currently used for map display. If the vehicle position is within the central unit map data, the process proceeds to step 210. Then, the currently set scroll mode is read, and in the following step 220,
It is determined whether the current scroll mode is the skip scroll mode.

If it is determined in step 220 that the currently set scroll mode is the skip scroll mode, the currently set frame is read in step 230 and the vehicle position is determined in step 240. It is determined whether or not it is within the frame on the displayed map. If it is determined in step 240 that the vehicle position is within the frame, the process proceeds to step 170 again, and in steps 170 and 180, the vehicle position on the displayed map is read in step 190 last time. The vehicle position is changed to the latest vehicle position, and the processing from step 190 is executed again.

On the other hand, if it is determined in step 240 that the vehicle position is not within the frame, the process proceeds to step 250 and the display frame changing process is executed as follows. That is, in this step 250, as shown in FIG. 7, first, the map coordinates (x1, y1) of the center position S1 of the display frame G1 defining the area of the current display map and the map on this display map are displayed. Current vehicle position S out of the frame indicated by the dotted line
The map coordinates (x2, y2) of No. 2 are read and the deviation (Δx, Δy) is calculated. And this calculated deviation (△
x, Δy) and the center coordinates (x1, y1) of the display frame G1 using the following equations (1) and (2), the coordinates (x3, y3) are obtained, and the coordinates (x3, y3) are obtained. The display frame G2 centered on the position S3 of is set as a new display frame.

X3 = x1 + 2Δx (1) y3 = y1 + 2Δy (2) When a new display frame is set in step 250, the process moves to step 150 and this display frame is changed. The display map data including the data is set, and the processes from step 150 are executed.

As a result, the map displayed on the display device 14 is a road map as shown in FIG. 9A, and when the vehicle moves from the point A in the frame indicated by the dotted line in the figure to the point B out of the frame. , The display map is changed to the display map as shown in FIG. 9B, in which the vehicle position B is a point target position with respect to the center position O of the display map indicated by + in the figure.

Next, when it is determined in step 220 that the current scroll mode is not the skip scroll mode but the vehicle center scroll mode,
In step 260, in order to display the vehicle position read in step 190 in the center of the display screen of the display device 14, the display frame is changed according to the vehicle position, and the process proceeds to step 150 again. That is, in this step 220,
As shown in FIG. 8, when the vehicle position detected by the GPS receiver 2 changes from S11 to S12, a display frame is displayed from the display frame G11 for displaying the vehicle position S11 at the center of the display map.
Display frame G12 for displaying the vehicle position S12 in the center of the display map
By changing to, as shown in FIG.
The latest vehicle position B detected by the receiver 2 is always displayed in the center of the display map.

Next, when it is determined in step 200 that the vehicle position is not within the central unit map data of the large map data currently used for display, the process proceeds to step 270 and the well-known multitasking is performed. By the operation, a map data update process that can be executed in parallel with the map display process is activated, and the process proceeds to step 210.

This map data update process is a process for updating the map data on the side not currently used for display, out of the two map data storage areas in the RAM 26. The map data is changed so that the vehicle position is included in the central unit map data, and four map data are recreated using the changed large map data. And when the map data update by this map data update processing is completed,
When the next map data for display is changed, the map data storage area used for display is changed by reading the map data used for display from the map data storage area in which this updated map data is stored. ..

As described above, in the present embodiment, the scroll mode is set to the skip scroll mode and the vehicle center by the scroll mode setting process executed when the power is turned on or the operation of the scroll mode change key provided in the input device 4. It has been made possible to choose between scroll mode and either.

When the skip scroll mode is selected, if the vehicle position is within the frame on the displayed map, the vehicle position is displayed on the displayed map as the vehicle travels by the processing of steps 170 to 190. If it is displayed as moving and the vehicle position is out of the frame, steps 250, 150, 160
By the processing of 1, the display map is changed so that the vehicle position can be displayed in the frame.

On the contrary, when the vehicle center scroll mode is selected, step 260 and step 15
Through the processing of 0 to step 190, the latest vehicle position detected by the GPS receiver 2 is always displayed at the center of the displayed map. For this reason, for example, the skip scroll mode is selected as the scroll mode, and the display device 14 is displayed.
When the scroll mode is changed to the vehicle center mode in the state where the map is displayed as shown in (b), the display map is changed so that the vehicle position B becomes the center position O of the display map, and thereafter the vehicle is displayed. The position is always displayed at the center position O of the displayed map, and when the scroll mode is changed to the skip scroll mode in this state, the vehicle position moves on the displayed map.

Therefore, according to the present embodiment, by displaying the vehicle position at a specific position (center) on the display screen as in the conventional case, it is possible to prevent the driver from losing sight of the vehicle position on the display screen. By moving the vehicle position on the display screen according to the running of the vehicle, the driver can feel the running of the vehicle,
Moreover, it becomes possible to easily grasp the vehicle position on the road map.

In the present embodiment, steps 150-
The series of processing of steps 190 and 260 corresponds to the first display control means, the series of processing of steps 150 to 190 and steps 230 to 250 corresponds to the second display control means, and the processing of step 220. The process corresponds to the display control switching means. In addition, of the series of processes of steps 150 to 190 and steps 230 to 250 that realize the second display control means,
Step 160 corresponds to map display control means, steps 170 to 190 correspond to vehicle position display means,
The processing of steps 230 to 250 and step 150 corresponds to map data changing means.

Further, in this embodiment, when the vehicle position deviates from the frame while operating in the skip scroll mode, the display map is changed to a position where the vehicle position is point-symmetric with respect to the center of the display map. As a result, not only it becomes easier to understand where the vehicle is running on the road map, but also it becomes easier to check the planned future route from the displayed map.

Furthermore, in this embodiment, when displaying the vehicle position on the display map, the traveling direction of the vehicle is read,
Since the vehicle position is displayed by the symbol (triangle symbol shown in FIG. 9) indicating the traveling direction, even when the map is displayed in the vehicle center scroll mode,
It becomes easy to understand the traveling direction of the vehicle on the displayed map.

In the present embodiment, four pieces of display map data are stored in the RAM 26, and when changing the display map, the map data to be used is selected from the four pieces of display map data. As compared with the conventional device that directly reads the map data for display from the external storage device 6 such as an optical disk, the time required to change the displayed map is extremely short, and the latest vehicle position is always displayed. Is possible.

[0036]

As described above in detail, in the vehicle position display device of the present invention, the display control by the first display control means for displaying the vehicle position at the center of the display screen and the predetermined display area on the display screen. When the vehicle position can be displayed on the display map, the display map is not changed, and any one of the display control by the second display control means for moving the vehicle position on the display map can be arbitrarily selected. Therefore, according to the present invention,
In addition to preventing the driver from losing track of the vehicle position on the display screen by displaying the vehicle position at a specific position on the display screen as in the past, moving the vehicle position on the display screen as the vehicle travels As a result, it becomes possible for the driver to feel the traveling of the vehicle and easily grasp the vehicle position on the road map.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the overall configuration of the vehicle navigation device of the embodiment.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram illustrating a configuration of map data stored in an external storage device.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing a map display process.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram illustrating a selection screen displayed on the display device when the scroll mode is set.

FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram illustrating a procedure of reading large map data and creating map data for display, which is executed in steps 120 and 130 of FIG. 4;

FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram illustrating an operation of changing a display frame when the skip scroll mode is set.

FIG. 8 is an explanatory diagram illustrating an operation of changing a display frame when the vehicle center scroll mode is set.

FIG. 9 is an explanatory diagram illustrating a display state of a road map and a vehicle position on a display device.

[Explanation of symbols]

2 ... GPS receiver 4 ... Input device 6 ... External storage device 14 ... Display device 20 ... Control device 22 ... CPU 24 ... ROM
26 ... RAM 28 ... Input / output port 30 ... Bus line 34 ... Display drive device

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (72) Inventor Shigemitsu Toriyama 80 Shinano, Asada, Nisshin-cho, Aichi-gun, Aichi Maspro Electric Works Co., Ltd.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A display device for displaying a road map and a vehicle position, map data storage means for storing map data for displaying the road map on the display device, and a vehicle position for sequentially detecting the vehicle position. Detecting means, and each time the vehicle position is detected by the vehicle position detecting means, map data for displaying the vehicle position at a specific position on the display screen of the display device is read from the map data storage means, A vehicle position display device comprising: first display control means for displaying a road map and a vehicle position on the display device based on the map data; and a road map including a vehicle position detected by the vehicle position detection means. A map table for reading the map data for displaying on the display screen of the display device from the map data storage means and displaying a road map on the display device based on the map data. Means, vehicle position display means for displaying the latest vehicle position sequentially detected by the vehicle position detection means on the road map displayed on the display device by the map display means, and displayed by the vehicle position display means. When the vehicle position deviates from the predetermined area on the display screen, the map data changing means changes the map data used for the map display to display the vehicle position in the predetermined area on the display screen. No. 2 display control means, input means for externally instructing whether to operate the first display control means or the second display control means, and input via the input means. Display control switching means for switching display control to the display device to either the first display control means or the second display control means according to a selection command from the outside. Vehicle position display device comprising a.