JPH07114698A - Route guiding method - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To improve the visibility of the route from a current position to a destination or passing point by the navigation device which displays the route on a map display. CONSTITUTION:The navigation device which updates and displays the current position on the map screen through a central processor corresponding to the azimuth, travel distance, etc., of a vehicle found by an earth magnetism sensor and a wheel speed sensor or displays the current position together with the route up to the destination or passing point as shown in a figure (1) displays an enlarged figure of the periphery of a guide spot together with an indicator such as an arrow indicating the direction that should be taken as shown in a figure (3) when the guide spot such as an intersection in the route is approached. Further, when even a next guide spot can also be displayed, the precedent guide spot is shifted from the center of the enlarged figure and displayed as shown in a figure (5). Consequently, the driver can recognizes the shape of the guide spot and its travel direction immediately and this method contributes to safe driving.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method for displaying a route to a destination or a waypoint on a map screen and providing guidance, which is suitably implemented in a so-called navigation device or the like.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art The navigation device is mounted on a vehicle and displays the vehicle position of the vehicle on a map screen.
It is a device that updates its display as the vehicle travels. Also, in recent years, in this navigation device, by inputting the current location and destination or waypoint,
From the current location to the destination or waypoint, for example, a route having the shortest distance is calculated, and a route search function for displaying the route as a recommended route is also added.

In the typical prior art, the route searched as described above or the road on the route arbitrarily set by the operator is displayed in a color different from that of the remaining roads. In addition, a marker indicating the current location is displayed on the route. In such a conventional technique, the map screen is displayed in the typical conventional technique so that the marker, that is, the current position is at the center of the screen.

[0004]

In the above-mentioned prior art,
The roads on the route are displayed in a different color from the rest of the road, so the user can recognize the route, but when making repeated right and left turns in urban areas, etc., the direction to go is accurate from the map screen, In addition, it is difficult to read quickly, which is not desirable from the viewpoint of safe driving.

On the other hand, as a map screen display method, there has been proposed a device capable of switching between so-called north-up display for displaying north in the upward direction and head-up display for displaying an azimuth close to the traveling direction in the upward direction. There is. Therefore, in the case of such a device, for example, when traveling from north to south in the state where the north-up display is selected, the traveling direction is from the upper side to the lower side on the screen, which may cause erroneous recognition. is there.

In still another conventional technique, the marker, that is, the current position is shifted to the upstream side in the traveling direction of the vehicle on the map screen, and a so-called front wide area is displayed so as to display a large area in the traveling direction. The display method called is also adopted. However, even with this method, if the route becomes complicated, it is difficult to immediately read the direction in which to proceed.

An object of the present invention is to provide a route guidance method which allows a driver to accurately and promptly recognize a route to proceed.

[0008]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention provides a method for displaying a preset route of a vehicle to be traveled on a map screen to provide guidance, such that the vehicle position is preset to a point requiring guidance such as an intersection. When it comes to a point within the specified distance, an enlarged view at a predetermined scale centering on the guide point, with an index showing the traveling direction of the vehicle at that point, together with the corner portion of the map screen, Alternatively, the route guidance method is characterized by displaying the map screen instead of the map screen.

Further, according to the present invention, when it is possible to display from the guide point to the next guide point at the predetermined scale in the enlarged view, the previous guide point is shifted from the center and these two It is characterized in that a guidance point is displayed.

[0010]

According to the present invention, in a navigation device or the like which displays a preset route to a destination or a waypoint on a map screen and guides the vehicle, the position of the vehicle is moving and the position is an intersection. When it comes to a point within a predetermined distance to a point requiring guidance such as, in addition to the corner of the map screen or instead of the map screen, an enlarged view at a predetermined scale centered on the guide point is displayed. indicate. At this time, an index such as an arrow indicating the traveling direction of the vehicle at that point is also displayed.

Therefore, regardless of the complicated left / right turn of the route or the display state such as displaying the north of the direction above the screen, the driver can see the detailed direction of the traveling direction and the guide point. Can be recognized accurately and instantly, and safety can be improved.

Further, preferably, in the enlarged view, from the guide point to the next guide point can be displayed at the reduced scale, that is, when two points are present in the map screen of the reduced scale, the enlarged view of the enlarged view is displayed. These two guide points are displayed by shifting the above guide point from the center.

Therefore, when it is necessary to make a right or left turn immediately after making a right or left turn at the previous intersection,
The driver can quickly recognize the direction in which to proceed and deal with it easily.

Furthermore, in the enlarged view, the traveling direction of the branch destination may be displayed broadly so that the driver can quickly recognize the previous information. Further, the enlarged view may be a head-up display in which the azimuth toward the guide point is always directed upward, and thereby it is possible to reduce the error in the direction of right / left turn.

[0015]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an electrical configuration of a navigation device 1 in which a guidance method according to an embodiment of the present invention is used. The navigation device 1 is mounted on an automobile to display a current location and display a route guidance to a destination, and is useful for a driver's route determination and the like.

Therefore, roughly in the navigation device 1, in response to the input operation to the operation keys 2, the central processing unit 3 realized by a microcomputer or the like, via the communication bus 10, the CD-ROM device. 4 is instructed to read the map information of the desired area. In response to the instruction, the processing circuit 5 reads the map information of the corresponding area from the map information recorded on the CD-ROM disk 7 which is a recording medium via the decoder 6. Thus the processing circuit 5
In response to the map information input from the above through the communication bus 10, the central processing unit 3 drives the display driving circuit 8 to display-drive the display device 9 realized by a liquid crystal display device or the like, The map screen display of the desired area is realized.

When the present location is set, as will be described later, the central processing unit 3 responds to the detection results of the geomagnetic sensor 12 and the wheel speed sensor 13 input from the processing circuit 11 via the communication bus 10. Then, the azimuth and distance traveled by the vehicle are calculated, the map information on the map screen corresponding to the current location is read from the CD-ROM device 4, and the map screen is scrolled and displayed together with the current location.

Further, the traveling locus of the own vehicle is compared with the road shape obtained from the map information at every predetermined cycle, and the current position is corrected so that the traveling locus matches the road shape when turning right or left at an intersection, for example. Perform matching process. Thus, as indicated by reference numeral P1 in FIG. 2 (1), markers indicating the current position and the traveling direction of the vehicle are updated and displayed along with the traveling of the vehicle along with the map screen.

Further, as described above, the present position is input, and then the map screen is scrolled to allow the operator to search for a destination, set the position of the destination, and select the route search function. Thus, as shown in FIG. 2 (2), the recommended route having the shortest distance, for example, from the current location indicated by the reference mark P1 to the destination indicated by the reference mark P2 is calculated and displayed. Further, the operator can arbitrarily set a route by setting a desired waypoint.

The operation key 2 is the present position setting key 2a.
, Destination setting key 2b, waypoint setting key 2c, cursor key 2d, setting key 2e, route search key 2f
And a scale switching key 2g. The route display operation using these keys 2a to 2g will be described in detail below with reference to FIG.

When the present location setting key 2a of the operation keys 2 is operated and the present location can be set, a cursor is displayed on the map screen, and the cursor is moved to a desired position by operating the cursor key 2d. By operating the setting key 2e, the current position can be set as shown in FIG. 2 (1). Similarly, the destination and the waypoint can be set by operating the cursor key 2d and the setting key 2e after the operation of the destination setting key 2b and the waypoint setting key 2c.

Further, the scale of the display screen is the scale switching key 2g.
By operating, for example, on the screen of the display device 9, from the state of displaying all over Japan, 1/15000
Switching can be performed in 8 steps up to the scale. Further, as described above, when the route search key 2f is operated after the current position and the destination or the waypoint are set, for example, the recommended route having the shortest distance is automatically calculated and the route shown in FIG. It is displayed as shown in 2). It should be noted that this route can be set as desired by the operator, for example, by setting a destination for each intersection that makes a right or left turn.

Further, when the current position is not selected and the current position obtained from the detection results of the geomagnetic sensor 12 and the wheel speed sensor 13 changes as the vehicle travels, in response to the input from the processing circuit 11, The current location on the map screen is also updated and displayed.

Furthermore, in the present invention, in the state where the route is set as shown in FIG. 3A, the current position is a predetermined distance from the next intersection P11 which is a guidance point, for example, 5
When approaching the point up to 00m, as shown in FIG. 3B, the intersection P11 is displayed at the corner portion of the map screen display.
An enlarged view of is displayed. At this time, in the enlarged view, an arrow, which is an index indicating the route and the direction in which to proceed, is displayed as indicated by reference numeral P21.

In the display example of FIG. 3 (2), the enlarged map of the intersection P11 is displayed with the displayed map screen as it is, that is, the upper part of the screen is displayed in the north. The map screen is enlarged and displayed. Therefore, it may be difficult for the driver to immediately determine whether to make a right or left turn. Therefore, in the present embodiment, so-called head-up display is performed in which the approach direction to the guide point is displayed upward, as shown in FIG.

Further, in the present invention, there is an intersection P13 which is the next guidance point in the vicinity of the intersection P12 which is the previous guidance point, and these two intersections P12 and P1.
3 can be displayed within the scale of the enlarged view,
As shown in (5), two intersections P12 and P13 are displayed together.

Therefore, as shown in FIG. 3 (5), when it is necessary to make a right / left turn at the previous intersection immediately after making a right / left turn at the previous intersection, the driver makes a right / left turn at the previous intersection. At that point, preparations for changing lanes, etc. can be made for the next intersection, and driving can be performed along the route that has been set accurately.

The number of intersections displayed in the enlarged view may be three or more when the intersections are extremely close to each other. Further, even if two intersections cannot be displayed at the same time, as shown in FIG. 3 (4), the enlarged view display may be performed by the front wide display that widely displays the downstream side in the traveling direction.

FIG. 4 is a functional block diagram for explaining the route guidance operation as shown in FIG. When the current position and the destination or waypoint are input from the input unit 21 such as the operation keys 2 or the processing circuit 11, the route search unit 2
2, the map information is read from the CD-ROM device 4 or the like as indicated by the reference numeral 23, the read map information is stored in the storage unit 24, and the data operation unit 25 performs the calculation. The route calculated so that the distance is the shortest or the route selected by the operator is output to the route guidance unit 26.

On the other hand, the output of the current position detecting section 27 realized by the geomagnetic sensor 12 and the wheel speed sensor 13 is given to the route guiding section 26. The enlarged view data creation unit 28 of the route guidance unit 26 uses the route search unit 22.
Map information regarding an intersection to be passed after the current position detected by the current position detection unit 27 is extracted from the route searched in (3), and enlarged map data is created.

The route guidance unit 26 normally outputs a map screen corresponding to the current location detected by the current location detection unit 27 from the map screen stored in the storage unit 24 to the output unit 3
No. 0 is displayed on the map screen display unit 30a, and the marker output unit 30b and the direction indication marker output unit 30c together with the vehicle marker indicating the traveling direction at the position corresponding to the current position, as shown in FIG. 3 (1). Display.

On the other hand, when the output timing determination unit 29 determines that the current location detected by the current location detection unit 27 is close to the intersection P11 to be guided, it is created by the enlarged map data creation unit 28. The enlarged view is output by the enlarged view output unit 30d as shown in FIG.

FIG. 5 is a flow chart for explaining the route guidance operation as described above. In step n1,
The route from the present location to the destination or the waypoint is set based on the input operation from the operation keys 2 and the output from the processing circuit 11. In step n2, the map screen display is performed in which the road section of the set route is drawn in a color different from that of the other road sections. At step n3, guidance points such as intersections on the route are extracted.

At step n4, the geomagnetic sensor 12
The vehicle position obtained based on the detection result of the wheel speed sensor 13 and the like is read. At step n5, the distance from the vehicle position obtained at step n4 to the next guide point closest to the guide points obtained at step n3 is calculated. In step n6, in step n
The distance calculated in 5 is a predetermined value, for example 50
It is determined whether or not it is within 0 m. If not, the process returns to step n4, and if so, the process proceeds to step n7.

At step n7, in performing the enlarged map display as described above, whether or not it is possible to display from the current position to the next guide point through the next guide point within the scale of the enlarged display screen. If it is determined, that is, if the next guide point and the next guide point are relatively close to each other, the process proceeds to step n8, where the display position of the next guide point in the enlarged view is It is set to the displayable position of the guide point. On the other hand, step n7
When the display up to the next guide point is impossible, that is, when the guide points are relatively distant from each other, the process proceeds to step n9, and it is determined whether or not the front wide display is selected. Sometimes at step n10, the guide point is set so that the preceding traveling direction can be seen broadly, and otherwise, at step n11, the next guide point is set at the center of the enlarged view.

After steps n10 and n11, the process moves to step n12, and the enlarged view is rotated so that the approach direction to the guide point is upward, and then, in step n13, the enlarged view of the set point is displayed. In step n14, the direction in which the vehicle should travel is indicated by an arrow in the enlarged view. When the enlarged view of the guide point is displayed in this way, it is determined in step n15 whether or not the vehicle has arrived at the destination. If not, the process returns to step n4, and if so, the operation ends.

As described above, in the route guidance method according to the present invention, the road section of the set route is displayed in a color different from that of the remaining road sections, and when the vehicle approaches a guide point such as an intersection as the vehicle travels, An enlarged view near the guide point,
Since it is displayed in the corner of the map screen together with the arrow indicating the direction of travel at the guide point, the driver can quickly recognize the shape and direction of travel of the guide point and improve safety. .

When performing the enlarged display, when the next guide point and the next guide point are close to each other and can be displayed in the same enlarged view, both of them are displayed together. In 3 (5), when it is necessary to make a left turn immediately after making a right turn, a smooth driving can be performed on the traveling route provided for the next guide point such as changing the lane to the left lane after making a right turn. Also, FIG.
As shown in (3) to FIG. 3 (5), since the approach direction to the guide point is always displayed upward, the direction in which the vehicle should turn is not mistaken.

Although the enlarged view is displayed in the corner portion of the map screen in the above-mentioned embodiment, as another embodiment of the present invention, when the guide point is approached, the map shown in FIG. Instead of the screen display, this enlarged view display may be performed on the entire screen.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a display example of a map screen for explaining a route guidance method according to another embodiment of the present invention.
In this embodiment, in addition to the marker display indicated by reference numeral P1 in FIG. 2 (1), a direction indicating marker indicating the direction of the next waypoint indicated by reference numeral P31 and the final destination indicated by reference numeral P32 are displayed. A direction indicating marker indicating the direction is displayed. This also allows the driver to easily recognize the traveling direction.

Further, in the above embodiment, the vehicle position and the vehicle direction are determined by the geomagnetic sensor 12 and the wheel speed sensor 13.
However, as yet another embodiment of the present invention, a so-called GPS (G) that receives signals from satellites orbiting the earth and measures the current position by triangulation is used.
The current position may be measured by using a lobal positioning system), and in addition to the geomagnetic sensor 12, another direction sensor such as a vibration gyro sensor or an optical fiber gyro sensor may be used.

[0042]

As described above, according to the present invention, when displaying a route to a destination, a waypoint, etc., when the vehicle position approaches a point requiring guidance such as an intersection, an enlarged view near the guidance point. Is displayed together with the corners of the map screen with an index such as an arrow indicating the traveling direction of the vehicle at that point, or displayed instead of the map screen, so that the route repeats right and left turns in a complicated manner. The driver can recognize the shape and route of the guide point accurately and promptly regardless of the display state such as displaying the north of the direction above the screen. It is possible to improve.

Further, preferably, when the guide point is closer to the next guide point and can be displayed in the enlarged view of a predetermined scale, the previous guide point is shifted from the center of the enlarged view. Since these two guide points are displayed, the driver can easily deal with a complicated route such as turning left or right at the previous guide point and then turning right or left again at the next guide point. be able to.

Furthermore, in the enlarged view, the traveling direction of the branch destination may be displayed broadly so that the driver can quickly recognize the previous information. Further, the enlarged view may be a head-up display in which the azimuth toward the guide point is always directed upward, and thereby it is possible to reduce the error in the direction of right / left turn.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an electrical configuration of a navigation device 1 in which a guidance method according to an embodiment of the present invention is used.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a display example of a current location and a recommended route in the navigation device 1.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a display example by a route guidance operation according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a functional block diagram for explaining the route guidance operation shown in FIG.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart for explaining the route guidance operation shown in FIG.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a display example by a route guidance operation of another embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 navigation device 2 operation key 2a present position setting key 2b destination setting key 2d cursor key 2f route search key 3 central processing unit 4 CD-ROM device 5, 11 processing circuit 9 display device 12 geomagnetic sensor 13 wheel speed sensor

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A method for displaying a preset route of a vehicle to be traveled on a map screen to provide guidance, wherein the vehicle position is within a predetermined distance to a point requiring guidance such as an intersection, An enlarged view at a predetermined reduced scale centered on the guide point is displayed with an index indicating the traveling direction of the vehicle at the point, together with the corner of the map screen or in place of the map screen. A route guidance method characterized by: 2. In the enlarged view, when the guide point to the next guide point can be displayed at the predetermined scale, the previous guide point is shifted from the center,
The route guidance method according to claim 1, wherein these two guidance points are displayed.