JPH08136640A - Gps speedometer - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To install a speedometer to any place in an automobile by displaying car speed data calculated based on GPS positional information by inverting the data right to left. CONSTITUTION: A GPS receiving/arithmetic unit 4 calculates the position, speed, and running direction of an automobile based on data 2 received from a GPS satellite 1 through an antenna 3. A display control section 5 outputs the speed data of the automobile from the unit 4 to a displaying section 6 after converting the data into displaying data. The displaying screen of the section 6 is constituted of LEDs, etc., and displays the speed data (km/h) in a three-digit number by inverting the data right to left. The driver of the automobile can read the data as a normal value indicating the speed of the automobile when the driver reads the number by a rearview mirror. In addition, the start and stop of the display controlling operation of the section 5 against the section 6 are instructed by using display command signals from an infrared remote controller 7 operated by the driver through an infrared receiving section 8.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a speedometer of an automobile, for example, and more particularly to a GPS speedometer which calculates a vehicle speed by using GPS and informs a driver of the vehicle speed based on the calculated vehicle speed data. It is a thing.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, the speedometer of an automobile is always installed right in front of the driver's seat at the most visible position. This is because the performance most emphasized in the history of automobile development is the maximum speed, and the speedometer was a measuring instrument for measuring the maximum speed. Therefore, even at present, the speedometer can be instructed to a speed that cannot be safely reached during normal traveling, and is always instructed.

The structure of a conventional speedometer is such that an electric signal from a tachometer which is interlocked with wheels is transmitted to an indicator and displayed in analog or digital by the indicator. There is an analog indicator that has an optical display method in which only a light guide portion is illuminated by rotating a traditional indicator or a light shielding plate. Further, the digital speedometer indicates the vehicle speed by a numeral.

Recently, from the viewpoint of the speed of enjoying the performance of the automobile itself, the tendency to see the automobile from the viewpoint of how to conveniently use it as one of the means of transportation has rapidly increased. One of them is the rapid spread of car navigation systems (or map navigation systems). This is to guide a driver of a vehicle through a map on a display to efficiently reach a destination.

The principle of the car navigation system is that the GPS antenna attached to the car receives information about the position and time of each satellite transmitted from the 24 GPS satellites managed by the US Department of Defense to the ground. However, the current position of the automobile on the earth is calculated with high accuracy on the basis of information from three or more GPS satellites.

Car navigation systems generally use G
A PS antenna, a receiver, a computer for arithmetic and display control, a remote controller, a display (monitor), a map disc player, and a map disc containing various maps,
It is composed of a power supply.

The radio wave received by the GPS antenna is received by the receiver and converted into a digital signal, which becomes the first input to the computer. Based on this input, the computer calculates the position of the GPS antenna, that is, the position of the automobile at every set time interval Δt (for example, 1 second) by the position calculation program.

On the other hand, the map disc stores a road map nationwide. The map disc player retrieves from various map data stored in the map disc the one relating to the current position of the automobile and gives it as the second input of the computer. The computer displays the designated map on the monitor screen by executing the display program based on this input.

The driver operates the remote controller to give the computer a third input for designating a destination or the like on the map on the monitor screen. The computer selects a map of the optimum scale based on each position data of the current position of the car and the destination, displays this map with a scale scale, direction, etc., and displays the map on the map up to the destination. The optimum route and distance, the current direction of travel, etc. are displayed.

Further, it also has a voice guidance function of notifying the place name of the present location by voice by operating the remote controller.

The computer can calculate the vehicle speed and the traveling direction from the temporal change of the position of the vehicle. However, conventionally, there is no speedometer using this vehicle speed data and it is not displayed on the monitor. This is because conventional speedometers already exist as important measuring instruments, and car navigation systems are considered to be a kind of hobby function like car radios and car televisions. The problem is how to use it.

[0012]

However, in the presently developed car society, the biggest concern for the driver of a car is to reach the destination at the earliest or fastest place in unknown land or in a crowded urban area. What route should be followed to reach safely, not speed.

In reality, the driver sees the speedometer only when he happens to be traveling alone or at the head of the train, and he is concerned about the speed limitation. Normally, it is more important to pay attention to the front of the vehicle. Is. Therefore, it is considered necessary for the driver to have a means for informing the vehicle speed information, such as the speed limit, each time when necessary.

As the name suggests, a future car is ideally a car that will automatically and semi-automatically drive to the destination in the shortest time by simply specifying the destination. In such vehicles, the speedometer is an auxiliary instrument for the driver to occasionally check.

The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned point of view, which is a modification of the conventional fixed idea regarding a speedometer of an automobile, and it can be constructed easily at low cost and in any place in the automobile. Can be installed,
An object of the present invention is to provide a speedometer that informs the driver of the vehicle speed according to the driver's needs, and there is a problem in its configuration.

[0016]

In order to solve the above problems, a GPS speedometer according to the present invention comprises means for calculating a vehicle speed based on position information from GPS and means for displaying the calculated vehicle speed data. The vehicle speed data is displayed in left-right inverted display.

Further, the means for displaying the vehicle speed data is provided with an informing means for informing the vehicle speed; the display of the reversely displayed vehicle speed data is a position visible through a rearview mirror; A speedometer is a GPS speedometer that has its own power supply and is mobile.

[0018]

The GPS speedometer having the above-described structure is
The vehicle speed is calculated from the position and time of the vehicle by a computer using the PS system, and this is displayed or reported.
For example, it is a novel one that gives voice notification. Therefore, various rotary drive sources, wiring, etc., which are the vehicle speed information sources of the conventional speedometer, are not required, and it can be attached to any position of the automobile as a small instrument without wiring.

Since the GPS system is used,
The accuracy of vehicle speed is very high, and the error is within 1 km / h.

Instead of the conventional speedometer installed in front of the driver's seat, the driver can use the L installed at the rear of the vehicle.
The vehicle speed is confirmed by looking at the ED display in the rearview mirror, listening by voice, or by displaying it on the monitor of the car navigation system.

Therefore, the space where the conventional instrument is installed in front of the driver's seat becomes wide, the driver's front view is opened, and the driver can easily drive, and the driver does not need to look around the instrument and concentrates on the operation. You will be able to drive safely.

[0022]

Embodiments of the GPS speedometer according to the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

As shown in FIG. 1, the GPS speedometer of this embodiment receives the position information of each satellite transmitted from the GPS satellite 1 to the ground and the data 2 indicating the time G.
The GPS receiving / calculating unit 4 for calculating the position, speed and traveling direction of the vehicle based on the data received by the PS antenna 3 and the GPS antenna 3, and the vehicle speed data calculated by the GPS receiving / calculating unit 4 as display data. The display control unit 5 for converting, the display unit 6 for displaying the vehicle speed, the infrared remote controller 7 operated by the driver, and the infrared signal from the infrared remote controller 7 are received to turn on / off the operation of the display control unit 5. An infrared receiver 8 to control,
It is composed of a battery 9.

The GPS antenna 3, the GPS receiving / calculating unit 4, the display control unit 5, the display unit 6, the infrared receiving unit 8 and the battery 9 are housed together in a small box-shaped GPS speedometer body. ing. A display portion 6a as shown in FIG. 2 is provided on one surface of the main body. On the display portion 6a, for example, a number "123" can be displayed in a state of being horizontally inverted.

This main body is installed on the rear tray of the automobile with the display surface facing forward. GPS antenna 3
For example, a microstrip plane antenna.

The GPS receiving / arithmetic unit 4 is composed of a microcomputer, and updates the positioning, for example, about every 1 second, and based on this, calculates the vehicle speed every few seconds. The calculated vehicle speed data are collectively output in units of 1 km / h to the display control unit 5.

The display control unit 5 converts the vehicle speed data received from the GPS receiving / calculating unit 4 into display data and outputs it to the display unit 6. This display data is
This is for designating ON / OFF of seven LED elements forming one numeral of the display unit 6 which will be described later.

The display surface 6a of the display unit 6 is composed of an LED or the like, and is configured to display the vehicle speed (Km / h) in a left-right inverted form with three-digit numbers as shown in FIG. The driver can read it as a normal value indicating the vehicle speed by looking at the display surface with the rearview mirror.

Further, the display unit 6 by the display control unit 5
The start and stop of the display control operation of 1 are instructed via the infrared receiver 8 by a display command signal from the infrared remote controller 7 operated by the driver.

That is, when the driver wants to know the vehicle speed, he operates the infrared remote controller 7 to instruct the display of the vehicle speed, and the display control unit 5 operates to display the vehicle speed on the display unit 6. After confirming the vehicle speed, the driver operates the infrared remote controller 7 to turn off the display on the display unit 6.

In this embodiment, since the GPS speedometer main body is small and there is no wiring between the outside and the outside, it does not interfere with the visual recognition of the rear even if it is installed on the rear tray of the automobile.
Further, the vehicle speed is displayed according to the driver's need, and the display is turned off when it is not necessary, so that the power consumption of the power source of the battery is small.

The second embodiment of the GPS speedometer according to the present invention is, as shown in FIG. 3, a GPS receiving / calculating unit 4, a voice signal generating section 10 and a speaker similar to those of the first embodiment. 11 and 11.

The voice signal generator 10 is adapted to generate voice information relating to the vehicle speed based on the vehicle speed data from the GPS receiving / calculating unit 4 and transmit it to the driver through the speaker 11.

Further, by combining the car navigation system and the second embodiment described above, the voice information can be used as a warning message such as a speed limit exceeded. In this case, it is necessary to record the speed limit of each road on the map map of the car navigation system.

[0035]

As described above, the GP according to the present invention
The S speedometer displays the vehicle speed data by reversing the display based on the position information from GPS, so that you can easily check the accurate speed and know other data through the rearview mirror. It has an extremely excellent effect that can be achieved.

Further, by installing the unique power source, it can be installed anywhere in the vehicle and at the most visible place for the driver, which is a very excellent effect.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram showing a configuration of a first embodiment of a GPS speedometer according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram showing a display surface of a display unit in the embodiment.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing the configuration of a second embodiment of the GPS speedometer according to the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 GPS Satellite 2 GPS Data 3 GPS Antenna 4 GPS Reception / Calculation Unit 5 Display Control Section 6 Display Section 6a Display Area of Display Section 7 Infrared Remote Controller 8 Infrared Reception Section 9 Battery 10 Voice Signal Generation Section 11 Speaker

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Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A speedometer comprising means for calculating a vehicle speed based on position information from GPS and means for displaying the calculated vehicle speed data, wherein the display of the vehicle speed data is left-right inverted display. GPS speedometer featuring. 2. The GPS speedometer according to claim 1, wherein the means for displaying the vehicle speed data is provided with notifying means for notifying the vehicle speed. 3. The display of the highlighted vehicle speed data is as follows:
The GPS speedometer according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the position is visible through a rearview mirror. 4. The GPS speedometer according to claim 1, wherein the speedometer has its own power source and is movable.