JPH08278749A - Map display device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To easily make visible the advancing direction of a route and the road type of the route even only by partial viewing of the route when the route is displayed on the map. CONSTITUTION: This device is provided with a CD block 5 loading a CD-ROM storing the map data containing road information, an antenna 1 inputting the information on the route in the map data, e.g. the information of present positions in respective points of time and a GPS block 2 and a CPU 9 continuously developing marks of a shape having a directional property and a gap based on the information of the present positions in respective points of time obtained from the GPS block 2 on the map data read out from the CD-ROM and displaying them on a monitor block 6.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a map display device applied to, for example, a car navigation system.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, GPS (Global Posi)
2. Description of the Related Art Navigation devices for automobiles, which utilize the Tioning System), have become widespread. In this type of navigation device, latitude information and longitude information of the current position are calculated based on signals from a plurality of artificial satellites received by a GPS antenna, and road information and place name information read from a recording medium such as a CD-ROM. It is designed to be displayed on the display together with map data such as.

In navigation devices, a route guidance function is becoming essential. This function is a recommended road (route) from the starting point (current position) to the destination
-Calculate and set according to the calculation conditions based on the road information included in the map data recorded in the ROM etc., and
When the vehicle approaches the branch point while traveling on the recommended route, a direction or the like to turn is guided by voice or display, thereby guiding the user to the destination.

[0004]

In such a conventional navigation device, the route is displayed in the state as shown in FIG. That is, in the figure, a part of the set route is displayed, where C is a route, HW is a highway, and NR is a general national road.

Normally, the route C is displayed in a color different from that of the highway HW and the general national road NR, and is displayed in place of the color of the original road by using the entire width of the road. Therefore,
In particular, as shown in FIG. 6, when only the middle of a route without an end such as a starting point, a destination or the current position is displayed and the route is in a complicated state, the displayed route C is In addition to not knowing which direction to go from, the route C is displayed with the highway HW and general national road NR below it being filled, so whether the road is the highway HW or not. There was a problem that I did not know if there was.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and an object thereof is to show the traveling direction of a route even when only partially viewing the route when displaying the route on a map. An object of the present invention is to provide a map display device capable of easily visually recognizing the type of road that is a route.

[0007]

Means for Solving the Problems That is, the present invention provides (1) a map data storage means in which map data including road information is stored, and a route for inputting a route in the map data stored in the map data storage means. An input means and a display control means for continuously developing and displaying a mark having a directional shape based on the route input by the route input means on the map data read from the map data storage means. It was done like this.

(2) Map data storage means for storing map data including road information, route input means for inputting a route in the map data stored in the map data storage means, and read from the map data storage means. Display control means for continuously developing and displaying marks having a shape having a gap based on the route input by the route input means on the map data.

[0009]

With the structure as described in the above item (1), the traveling direction of the route can be displayed by only partially viewing the route when displaying the guide route or the traveling route on the map. Can be seen very easily.

With the configuration as described in the above item (2), when the route showing the guide route or the traveling locus etc. is displayed on the map, it becomes a route even if the route is partially viewed. It is very easy to see the type of road on which it is located.

[0011]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment in which the present invention is applied to an automobile navigation system utilizing GPS will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 shows a circuit configuration of the entire apparatus. An antenna 1 installed on the roof of a vehicle body and an L1 band (1.57542GH from the satellite received by the antenna 1
It has a GPS block 2 which demodulates and decodes the C / A code of z) by a despreading LSI to determine the latitude, longitude, height, time, etc. of the present location.

The GPS block 2 is connected to a graphic block 3, and the graphic block 3 records KEY block 4 mainly composed of a remote control unit 20 which will be described later in detail, map data including road information and place name information. A CD block 5 in which a CD-ROM as a recording medium is mounted and a monitor block 6 having a display device composed of a CRT or an LCD panel are respectively connected.

The graphic block 3 is provided with a CPU 9 for controlling the entire apparatus on the basis of an operation program stored in the ROM 7 and various data stored in the RAM 8. In addition to the operation program, the ROM 7 fixedly stores a plurality of standard highway background patterns to be described later.

When the latitude / longitude data of the current location, that is, position data is sent from the GPS block 2 during normal traveling on a general road, the CPU 9 sends it via the CPU peripheral circuit gate array (G / A) 10. The map data and road data around the current location are called from the CD block 5, and the information is recorded in the video (VIDEO) RAM 1
Via the graphic controller 12 to which 1 is connected,
It operates so as to send it as a video signal to the monitor block 6. As a result, a road map or the like is displayed on the display screen of the monitor block 6.

FIG. 2 shows an external structure of a remote control unit 20 which mainly comprises the KEY block 4.
2A is a left side view and FIG. 2B is a top view.

The remote control unit 20 is a wired remote controller in which the remote control body case 21 is connected to the KEY block 4 by a cable, and FIG.
As shown in, a power switch 22 for turning on / off the power by a slide switch is provided on the left side surface of the remote control body case 21.

Further, as shown in FIG. 2B, the power source LED 23, NAVI /
CD key 24, TV key 25, FM DATA key 2
6, MENU key 27, cursor key 28, ENTER
Key 29, Position key (shown as "POS" in the figure)
30, scale change / tuning key 31, MARK key 32, POINT key 33, HOME key 34 and VI
A DEO key 35 is provided.

The power LED 23 is the power switch 22.
Lights up in red when the power is turned on.

The NAVI / CD key 24 is a key which is operated when the navigation operation is carried out by the present apparatus or when a music CD is mounted on the CD block 5 for listening to music although the description thereof is omitted in this embodiment. is there.

Although not described in this embodiment, the TV key 25 is a key to be operated when a television tuner (not shown) is connected to the graphic block 3 to watch TV on the monitor block 6, and the FM DATA key. Similarly, although not described in this embodiment, reference numeral 26 is a key operated when an FM tuner (not shown) is connected to the graphic block 3 to display character data or the like by FM data multiplex broadcasting on the monitor block 6.

The MENU key 27 is a key for instructing the display of a menu screen, and the cursor key 28 is a ring-shaped for instructing the cursor displayed on the display screen of the monitor block 6 in the up, down, left and right directions on the menu screen or the like. Key, EN
The TER key 29 is a key for operating the icon or the like pointed to by the cursor on the display screen by moving the cursor key 28.

The position key 30 is a key for displaying the latitude, longitude, etc. of the current position indexed by the antenna 1 and the GPS block 2, and the scale change / tuning key 31 is the scale of the map displayed during the navigation operation. Key for instructing up / down tuning during television or radio reception operation.

Further, the MARK key 32 is a key for marking an arbitrary point on the map data, the POINT key 33 is a key for instructing the destination setting and screen scrolling to the destination side when the route guidance function is operating, and HOME. Similarly, the key 34 is a key for instructing setting of the present location and screen scrolling to the present location side when the route guidance function is operated.

Although not described in this embodiment, the VIDEO key 35 is a key operated when a video camera (not shown) or the like is connected to the graphic block 3 and the video is viewed on the monitor block 6.

Next, the operation of displaying the traveling locus that has been traveled on the map on the map according to the above embodiment will be described.

In FIG. 3, the CPU 9 mainly receives the latitude / longitude information of the current position from the GPS block 2,
It shows a series of control processing contents until the traveling locus that has been traveling until then is displayed on the map.

First, the latitude / longitude data of the current position is received from the GPS block 2 via the CPU peripheral circuit G / A10 based on the radio wave received by the antenna 1 at the beginning of the processing and stored in the RAM 8 (step S1).

CP that received the latitude and longitude data of the current position
The U9 then calculates a display area for expanding the map from this current position with a preset value (step S
2).

Then, based on the calculated latitude and longitude of the display area, it is judged whether or not there is a change from the display area that has been displayed until then (step S3), and only when there is a change, the CD is calculated from the calculated latitude and longitude of the display area. CD-ROM that is installed in CD block 5 by accessing block 5
All road data and place name data in the corresponding display area are read out from the map data of No. 1, and are expanded in the video RAM 11, and a part of the area is displayed and output by the monitor block 6 (step S4).

Thereafter, for example, it is determined whether or not to display the locus based on whether or not the current position is separated from the position where the locus is displayed last time by a predetermined distance or more (step S5). The process returns to step S1 again.

When it is determined that the locus is to be displayed, information indicating the traveling direction is calculated from the latitude / longitude information indicating the current position and the immediately preceding latitude / longitude information stored in the RAM 8, and the traveling direction is calculated. The information shown and the latitude / longitude information indicating the current position are newly stored in the RAM 8 as locus data (step S6), and then at the position on the map data expanded in the video RAM 11 linked to the latitude / longitude information indicating the current position, The dot patterns of the trajectory marks in the direction matching the traveling direction information are overlapped and developed together with the trajectory marks up to then, and displayed on the monitor block 6 (step S7), and then the processing from step S1 is performed again. Return.

Here, the locus mark has a shape having directionality and a gap, for example, the symbol ">" is used. The mark is rotated according to the traveling direction, and then ">" is displayed on the map. By continuously displaying such as ">> ... >>>>", it is possible to represent the traveling direction of the own vehicle, and the state of the road at the position where the track mark is displayed is not filled. It is what is displayed.

Similar to that shown in FIG. 6, FIG. 4 shows a state in which a part of the traveling locus is displayed.
Is a traveling locus, HW is an expressway expressway, and NR is a general national road. In this case, since the traveling locus CN is continuously developed on the highway HW or the general national road NR by the shape having the directionality and the gap, it is easy to determine from which direction the traveling locus CN advances. In addition to being visually recognizable, it can be easily visually ascertained whether the area under the traveling track CN is the highway HW or the general national road NR.

In the above embodiment, the case where the traveling locus CN is displayed as the vehicle travels has been described, but the present invention is not limited to this. It is needless to say that even when displaying the guide route, the route can be expressed by a shape having the same directionality and gap, and can be applied when the "route" in a broad sense is displayed on the map. Yes.

Further, in the above-mentioned embodiment, it is explained that the symbol ">" is used continuously to indicate the route, but the symbol ">" is continuously displayed after being rotated according to the traveling direction. Compared with the display method, the display method in which all the roads corresponding to the route such as the route C shown in FIG. 6 are filled with different colors so as to fill the width of the road is simpler in processing.

Therefore, if the route can be displayed by a shape having a directionality and a gap similar to the method of displaying the route C shown in FIG. 6, the process concerning the display of the route can be simplified. Become.

FIG. 5 exemplifies another route mark which is considered in response to such a request. In this case, a new route mark CN2 is displayed by repeatedly and continuously using a plurality of three or more rectangles whose lengths along the traveling direction are stepwise different from each other at regular intervals. In this case, from the rectangle with the longest side along the traveling direction to the rectangle with the shortest side along the traveling direction via a rectangle adjacent to this rectangle with a medium side length along the traveling direction. It indicates that the vehicle runs in the direction of.

In the above embodiment, as the means for obtaining the current position, only the absolute position by GPS using artificial satellites is used, but the present invention is not limited to this.
The relative position is calculated by calculating the moving direction and its distance using a vehicle speed sensor that detects the speed of the car from the number of rotations of the tire and a piezoelectric vibration gyro, and the current position is calculated even after GPS positioning becomes impossible. A means called dead-reckoning for guessing may be used.

Furthermore, by incorporating a method called map matching, which determines the position of a road that has passed by comparing the traveling locus obtained by this dead reckoning and the shape of the road on the map. In particular, in the case of displaying the trajectory that has been traveled up to that point on the route, the display content can be made accurate according to the road position.

[0041]

As described above in detail, according to the present invention, when displaying a guide route or a route indicating a traveling locus on a map, it is possible to determine the traveling direction and the route of the route by only partially viewing the route. It is possible to provide a map display device capable of extremely easily visually recognizing the type of road that has become a road.

[Brief description of drawings]

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

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an external configuration of a remote control unit included in the KEY block of FIG.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing the processing contents of the operation according to the embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating a display screen according to the embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating another display screen according to the embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a diagram exemplifying a display screen of a route in a general navigation device.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 ... Antenna 2 ... GPS block 3 ... Graphic block 4 ... KEY block 5 ... CD block 6 ... Monitor block 7 ... ROM 8 ... RAM 9 ... CPU 10 ... CPU peripheral circuit gate array (G / A) 11 ... Video (VIDEO) RAM 12 ... Graphic controller 20 ... Remote control unit

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A map data storage means for storing map data including road information, a route input means for inputting a route in the map data stored in the map data storage means, and a map data storage means for reading the map data. A map display device comprising: display control means for continuously expanding and displaying marks having a directional shape based on the route input by the route input means on the map data. 2. A map data storage means for storing map data including road information, a route input means for inputting a route in the map data stored in the map data storage means, and a map data storage means for reading the route. A map display device comprising: display control means for continuously expanding and displaying marks having a shape having a gap on the map data based on the route input by the route input means. 3. The map display device according to claim 1, wherein the mark is formed of a plurality of rectangles whose sides have different lengths in the traveling direction.