JPH07218275A - Position measuring device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To easily understand the position relationship between a current position and a retrieval position by simultaneously displaying the current position and the retrieval position (destination) on a screen and at the same time selecting map information so that both positions are separated most greatly. CONSTITUTION:A reading means 2 stores a CD-ROM for storing a plurality of pieces of map information with different scales and position information corresponding to a plurality of names of places and facility names. When retrieval execution is instructed by an input means 6, a retrieval means 3 retrieves the same name of a place (facility name) as the specified name (destination) from the stored names. further selects one name (destination) corresponding to a desired position information out of them, and allows the reading means 2 to read desired position information. A control means 5 simultaneously displays 4 the current position calculated by a GPS signal 1 and a position (destination) corresponding to the selected name on a screen, and selects and displays 4 a map with a proper scale so that the distance between the current position and the destination is the longest on the screen.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a positioning device suitable for a moving body such as an automobile, and particularly to a GPS (GROBALPOSITIONIN)
G SYSTEM) related to the positioning device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Recently, a GPS positioning system has been widely used as a positioning device for an own position (current position) for an automobile, a ship, etc., and a display portion of this GPS positioning system is a CD-ROM or the like. The calculated own position is displayed so as to be superimposed on the map information stored in the storage means.

In some positioning devices of this type, a search is performed from a name such as a place name and a desired position, for example, a destination is displayed on the screen of the display unit.

[0004]

However, in the conventional positioning device described above, as shown in FIG. 11, only the searched points are displayed on the map screen after the search as described above, so that the user can easily perform the search. It was difficult to understand the positional relationship between the current position and the searched point.

An object of the present invention is to solve the above problems, and an object thereof is to provide a positioning device which allows a user to easily grasp the positional relationship between the current position and the searched point.

[0006]

According to the present invention, a current position calculating means for calculating the current position, a plurality of map information with different scales, and a position corresponding to each name such as a place name and a facility name in the map information. Read-out means for reading out each of the above-mentioned information from the medium storing the information, searching means for searching among the names of the above-mentioned medium for the one including the same name as the input name, and name for searching by the above-mentioned searching means Input means for selecting one of the retrieved names, and control means for instructing the reading means to read the position information corresponding to the name selected by the input means. The display means for displaying the map information in the medium, the calculated current position, and the search position obtained from the reading means, and the control means The present position and the searched position are simultaneously displayed on the screen of the indicating means, and the map information is selected so that the distance between the present position and the searched position is the longest. .

Further, the control means causes the line segment connecting the current position and the searched position to be displayed so as to be positioned at the center of the screen of the display means, and further, the current position calculation means causes the satellite to detect the line segment. Is received and the current position is calculated.

[0008]

In the present invention, the control means simultaneously displays the calculated current position and the position corresponding to the retrieved and selected name on the screen of the display means, and displays the current position on the screen of the display means. An appropriate map is selected from maps of a predetermined scale so that the distance to the corresponding position becomes the longest. Further, the line segment connecting the current position and the corresponding position is located at the center of the screen.

[0009]

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

In FIG. 1, 1 is a current position calculating means for receiving a signal transmitted from GPS and calculating a current position, 2
C is a storage medium that stores map information and position information corresponding to a plurality of place names and facility names in the map information.
The reading means 3 for reading the above information from the D-ROM searches for a name having the same name as the designated name from the above names, and selects one of the searched names corresponding to the desired position information. Is a search unit that causes the read unit 2 to read desired position information.

Reference numeral 4 is a display means for displaying the read-out information and the obtained current position. Reference numeral 5 is a control means for displaying the current position calculated by the current position calculating means 1 and the desired position obtained by the above search on the same screen of the display means 4. Reference numeral 6 is an input means for inputting each instruction.

FIG. 2 shows a circuit configuration of a positioning device according to an embodiment of the present invention. Reference numeral 11 is a CPU that controls the entire system of the apparatus, 12 is a ROM in which the programs of the system are stored, 13 is a RAM used as a work area of the system, and 14 is a user's instruction for various operations to the apparatus. An input unit 15 for displaying the map information and the like, a display unit 15 for displaying the map information and the like, and a CD-ROM controller 17 for controlling the CD-ROM and reading the map information and the like.

Therefore, CP which is a microcomputer
The U11 operates according to a program stored in the ROM 12, and uses the RAM 13 as a main memory. RO
The program stored in M12 receives a user's instruction from the input unit 14, and drives the CD-ROM control unit 17 in accordance with the information on the current position obtained from the GPS unit 16 to obtain necessary map information from the CD-ROM. The information is read out, and the information is processed and displayed on the display unit 15.

The present embodiment is realized by the above-mentioned structure. Next, the information stored in the CD-ROM will be described.

As shown in FIG. 3, the reading means 2 has
A CD-ROM, which is a medium for storing digital map information for drawing a map and search information for searching a place name, a facility name, etc., is stored.

The digital map information is digital information for displaying a map, has absolute positions of longitude and latitude, and drawing information, and can access arbitrary latitude and longitude information.

On the other hand, the search information is, as shown in FIG.
“Yomi” is a record that becomes a search keyword,
"Hiragana" and "numbers" are adopted as the search keywords, and the records are arranged in ascending order. This search information has areas of "name", "attribute", and "position" other than "reading".

A general name is stored in this name. For example, a place name is "Tenjin, Chuo-ku, Fukuoka", and a facility name is "Fukuoka Prefectural Museum". In addition, as the attribute, the type of “administrative place name” or “facility name” is described in a character string.

Further, as the position, latitude and longitude information is stored numerically as an absolute position. Next, with reference to FIG. 5, an operation when a place name search of a destination is performed during positioning while the device of the present embodiment is actually mounted on an automobile and traveling will be described.

First, when the user instructs the input means 6 to execute a search, the search program stored in the search means 3 is executed.

When the search program is executed,
A search screen as shown in FIG. 6 is displayed on the display means 4 (step 1).

On the screen of FIG. 6, the place name or facility name to be searched, for example, "tenjin" is input (step 2). Next, when the search execution is instructed on the same screen, as shown in FIG. 7, the record having the same reading is searched for by the input reading (step 3),
The corresponding item is displayed on the screen of the display means 4 (step 4).

Next, when a plurality of relevant items are searched,
When one of them is selected by the input means 6 (step 5), position information regarding latitude and longitude corresponding to the item is obtained from the search table of FIG. 4 (step 6).

Here, the latitude and longitude information of the search position,
Based on the latitude / longitude information of the current position from the current position calculation means 1, an area including both positions is selected on the map having the smallest scale (step 7). Further, the control means 5 changes to a map having a large reduction scale so that the line segment between the search position and the current position becomes the longest on the screen of the display means 4 (step 8).

The operation of the control means in steps 7 and 8 will be described in more detail below. As shown in FIG. 8, the CD-ROM stores three types of maps (Map 1, Map 2, and Map 3) having different display magnifications, so-called “map leaves”. The horizontal axis of the graph in the figure is the longitude range, and
The vertical axis shows the latitude range.

As shown in FIG. 9, each of these maps corresponds to the maps of (a), (b), and (c) in order, and the scale becomes smaller as the display area of the map becomes wider, and the display area becomes smaller. Is spreading.

Here, referring to FIG. 10, two points A (Xa, Ya) and B (Xb, Yb) on the map
The longitude difference and the latitude difference between the points A and B are Xab and Yab. That is, Xab = absolute value (Xa-Xb) and Yab = absolute value (Ya-Yb).

Therefore, in order to display both points on the map 1,
To satisfy the conditions of 0 ≦ Xab ≦ X01 and 0 ≦ Yab ≦ Y01, and to be displayed on the map 2, 0 ≦ Xa
To satisfy the conditions of b ≦ X02 and 0 ≦ Yab ≦ Y02, and to be displayed on the map 3, 0 ≦ Xab ≦ X0.
3 and 0 ≦ Yab ≦ Y03 should be satisfied.

Therefore, in order to select an area including two points of the search position and the current position on the map 3 having the widest area, it is sufficient to obtain the longitude / latitude information of those two points. Next, the latitude and longitude of the midpoint of the line segment connecting the search position and the current position are obtained, and the midpoint is made to substantially coincide with the center of the map screen.

Next, a method of selecting a map to be displayed will be described with reference to FIGS.

As shown in FIG. 9B, assuming that point A indicates the vehicle position and point B is the destination (search position), as described above, the difference in latitude and longitude between the two points. Xab, Yab
, 0 ≦ Xab ≦ X02, 0 ≦ Yab ≦ Y02. ． ． When the condition A is satisfied, the map 2 is changed to a larger scale.

Further, the points A and B are 0 ≦ Xab ≦ X1, 0 ≦ Yab ≦ Y1. ． ． When the condition B is further satisfied, the map 3 is changed to a larger scale.

Here, when changing the map, points A and B are used.
Since the midpoint position of the point is changed to the center of the map, the center of the midpoint of the line segment connecting the search position and the current position is always located on the screen of the display unit 4.

In the case of the present embodiment, the condition A is satisfied, but the condition B is not satisfied. Therefore, in FIG.
Will be displayed (Map 2).

[0035]

In the present invention, the search function is executed,
When a place name such as a destination or a facility name is searched, the current position and the position corresponding to the selected name are displayed as a search result on the same screen at an appropriate scale. Since the line segment connecting the current position and the corresponding position is displayed in the center of the display screen, the operation of enlarging or reducing the displayed map to confirm the positional relationship between the current position and the search position, which was necessary up to now Are unnecessary, and the direction and distance from the current position to the destination can be immediately grasped, and the convenience of the positioning device can be improved.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a positioning device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a circuit configuration of a positioning device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a configuration of stored information in a storage unit used in the positioning device according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a configuration of search information in a storage unit used in the positioning device according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating the operation of the positioning device according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an input screen for a search operation of the positioning device in the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram illustrating a display method when searching for a positioning device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is an explanatory diagram illustrating a display method of the positioning device according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 9 is an explanatory diagram of a display screen of the positioning device according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 10 is an explanatory diagram illustrating a display method of the positioning device according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 11 is a diagram showing a display screen of a conventional positioning device.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Current Position Calculation Means 2 Readout Means 3 Search Means 4 Display Means 5 Control Means 6 Input Means

─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁶ Identification code Internal reference number FI Technical display location G08G 1/0969 7740-3H

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A current position calculating means for calculating a current position, a plurality of pieces of map information having different scales, and a medium for storing position information corresponding to each name such as a place name and a facility name in the map information. By a reading means for reading out information, a searching means for searching among the names of the medium for a name including the same name as the name input from the input means, and selecting one from the searched names, Control means for instructing the reading means to read position information corresponding to the selected name; map information in the medium; and the calculated current position;
Display means for displaying the searched position obtained from the reading means, the control means simultaneously displays the current position and the searched position on the screen of the display means, and A positioning device that selects the map information so that the distance between the current position and the searched position is the longest. 2. The positioning device according to claim 1, wherein the control means controls the line segment connecting the current position and the searched position to be displayed so as to be positioned at the center of the screen of the display means. 3. The positioning device according to claim 1, wherein the current position calculating means is a current position calculating means for receiving a signal from a satellite and calculating the current position.