JPH0850450A - Map display device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To display names on maps in an easily visible manner by storing the character data for displaying the names on the maps together with priority and displaying the names of the higher priority in the case the name displays are overlapped by rotation of the maps. CONSTITUTION:A map data memory medium 5 stores the character data for displaying the names on the maps together with the information indicating the ranking of the priority. A controller 4 calculates a present position in accordance with the signals from a vehicle signal generating section 1 and a GPS signal receiver 2 and converts the map data from the map data memory medium 5 in such a manner that the progressing direction comes above the present position as a center when a vehicle turns at a prescribed angle or above. The data is stored in a plotting memory 4a. The character patterns are stored as the data to make name display in the specified direction regardless of the rotation of the maps. The controller 4 reads the data out of the plotting memory 4a and displays the data as a map on a display section 6. The name of the higher priority is preferentially displayed if the name displays are overlapped by the rotation of the maps.

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 for displaying a map, and can be used as a map display device for a vehicle for displaying a map of a traveling area of the vehicle.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Heretofore, various devices of this type for displaying a current position on a road map have been proposed. In this device, the display of the current position is fixed and the map display is changed as the vehicle travels. In that case, there are one that displays the map with the north side of the map facing up, and one that rotates the map as the vehicle rotates with the traveling direction of the vehicle facing upward. The latter is disclosed in JP-A-60-1512.

[0003]

Here, in this type of map display device, not only the road pattern is displayed, but also the names of buildings and the like on the map are displayed. In such a name display, in the case where the map is displayed with the traveling direction of the vehicle above, even if the map is rotated by the rotation of the vehicle, the name display is in a fixed direction from the viewpoint of its visibility. Need to show.

In this case, if the names are displayed close to each other, there is a problem in that the names are overlapped with the rotation of the map and the displays are difficult to see. That is, even if the name is displayed in a certain direction, the relative display position of the name changes due to the rotation of the map, and as a result, the name display overlaps and becomes difficult to see. The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and it is an object of the present invention to make it easier to see the name display on a map when the map is rotated.

[0005]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a display means (6) for displaying a map and a storage means (5) for storing map data in the invention according to claim 1. And a display for rotating the map displayed on the display means (6) at a predetermined timing while displaying a map of a predetermined area on the display means (6) based on the map data from the storage means (5). In a map display device including a control means (4), the storage means (5)
Stores the character data for displaying the name on the map together with priority information indicating the level of priority. The display control means (4) displays the name on the map by the character data. When the name display overlaps with another name display due to the rotation of the map, the name having the priority information with the higher priority is displayed prior to the other name display.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect of the present invention, the display control means (4) partially deletes the name display having the priority information of the lower priority, The name display including the deleted display area and the priority information having the higher priority is performed.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the first or second aspect of the invention, the display means (6) displays a map of a traveling area of the vehicle, and the display control means ( 4) is characterized in that the map is rotated and displayed based on the rotation of the vehicle. According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the invention according to any one of the first to third aspects, the storage means (5) defines coordinate data that defines a position of the name on the map. The display control means (4) stores
When the map is rotated and displayed, the coordinates are converted into display coordinates by the rotation and the name is displayed in a fixed direction on the rotated map.

The reference numerals in parentheses of the above-mentioned means indicate the correspondence with the concrete means described in the embodiments described later.

[0009]

According to the invention of claim 1, when a name is displayed on a map by character data and the name display overlaps with another name display due to the rotation of the map,
Since the name having the priority information with the higher priority is displayed in preference to other name displays, it is possible to reliably display the name with the higher priority when rotating the map to make the name display easier to see. it can.

According to the second aspect of the invention, the name display having the priority information of the lower priority is partially deleted,
Since the name display having the priority information of the higher priority including the deleted display area is displayed, the sights of the lower priority can be partially displayed and recognized. it can. According to the third aspect of the present invention, since the rotation display of the map is performed based on the rotation of the vehicle, for example, in the map with the traveling direction of the vehicle facing upward, the name of The display is constant regardless of the rotation, and the name display can be easily seen even when the vehicle is driving.

According to the invention described in claim 4, based on the coordinate data defining the position of the name on the map, the map is rotated to convert the coordinates into display coordinates and the name is displayed in a fixed direction on the rotated map. Since this is done, the name display position on the rotation map can be accurately associated.

[0012]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is an overall configuration diagram of a vehicle navigation device showing an embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 1, a vehicle signal generator 1 outputs, as a vehicle signal, a signal from a direction sensor, a gyro or the like indicating a traveling direction of the vehicle and a signal corresponding to a traveling distance of the vehicle. The GPS receiver 2 outputs a GPS signal indicating the current position of the vehicle based on the received signal from the GPS satellite. The operation unit 3 is operated by an occupant and outputs various instruction signals necessary for navigation such as designation of a display map. The map data storage medium 5 stores map data for displaying a road map or the like.

The control device 4 calculates the current position based on the vehicle signal from the vehicle signal generator 1 and the GPS signal from the GPS receiver 2 and reads the map data from the map data storage medium 5 to center the current position. The map data is created, and the road map is displayed on the display unit 6 together with the current position by the created map data. In the vehicular navigation system according to this embodiment, the traveling direction of the vehicle is indicated by the display unit 6.
The heading-up display is directed upward on the map display in. Therefore, as shown in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 60-1512, the display map is rotated every time the vehicle rotates by a predetermined angle. Specifically, when the control device 4 determines that the vehicle has rotated by a predetermined angle or more,
The map data from the map data storage medium 5 is converted so that the traveling direction of the vehicle is upward with the current position of the vehicle as the center, and the converted map data is stored in the drawing memory (so-called video RAM) 4a.

In the drawing memory 4a, a background pattern, a road pattern, and a character pattern are stored on different planes for displaying a map. Here, the background pattern and the road pattern are stored as data rotated according to the rotation of the map, and the character pattern is stored as data for displaying the name in a fixed direction regardless of the rotation of the map. There is. The background pattern, road pattern, and character pattern data stored in the drawing memory 4a are read by the display control unit in the control device 4, output to the display unit 6, and displayed as a map in which they are superimposed. .

Here, the feature of this embodiment is that
The point is that the names displayed on the map of the display unit 6 are not overlapped with respect to the rotation of the map. For this reason, in the present embodiment, priority information is added to the names to be displayed, the names having a high priority are displayed preferentially, and the names having a low priority are given a high priority. The display part overlapping the name display is not displayed.

In order to provide such a priority order, as the character data stored in the map data storage medium 5, the number of character strings (for example, XX kindergarten and XX city hall,
The number of character strings is 2), the presence / absence of a priority flag ("1" for high priority and "0" for low priority) as priority information for each character string, and the number of characters (for example, XX City Hall) 5), the coordinate data of the central character (for example, XX)
In the case of city hall, it is composed of coordinate data of the city) and name data for displaying the name. Such character data is stored in association with each predetermined area.

A process of displaying a name using such character data will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG. Here, for the sake of explanation, the explanation will be made using two types of a low priority xx kindergarten and a high priority XX city hall. First, a name drawing process of a character string having a low priority is performed. First,
A character string having a low priority is searched for in a predetermined area including the display area. Then, the character string having the priority flag of "0", in this case, XX kindergarten is searched, and the coordinate of "kindergarten" at the center of the character string is converted into the coordinate on the display map. According to this conversion, the name of XX kindergarten is written in the drawing memory 4a. The character pattern in this case is shown on the right side of the figure. The name drawing process of the character string having the low priority is repeated for all the character strings.

After that, a name drawing process of a character string having a high priority is performed. First, a character string having a high priority is searched for in a predetermined area including the display area. Then, a character string whose priority flag is "1", in this case, XX city hall is searched, and the coordinate of the "city" at the center of the character string is converted into the coordinate on the display map. Based on these converted coordinates,
White display is performed in a display area corresponding to the number of characters (data that does not display anything is written in the drawing memory 4a). Therefore, the part that overlaps with the previous XX kindergarten is erased as shown in the character pattern in the figure. After this erase
Write the character data for displaying the city office in the drawing memory 4a. Therefore, as the character pattern, the XX city hall and the XX kindergarten are overlaid with priority over the XX city hall, and the superimposed display is performed on the display unit 6.

In the above embodiment, when displaying the names with high priority, the white display is used to transform the name display with low priority. However, such white display is not performed and the name display is not performed. When overlapping is detected, the low-priority name and the high-priority name are transformed and displayed in such a manner that the high-priority name does not overlap. ), And a name display with a high priority may be displayed.

When the name displays overlap, the name display with the lower priority may not be displayed. Further, regarding the priority, the priority may be set not only in the two stages of presence and absence but also in another stage. Further, the coordinate data is not limited to the central character, but the coordinate data may be set for the first or last character.

Further, in the above-mentioned embodiment, the application of the present invention to the vehicular navigation device has been described. However, the present invention is applicable to any map display device for displaying a map and rotating the map display. Can be applied.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is an overall configuration diagram of an embodiment in which the present invention is applied to a vehicle navigation device.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing a process of displaying a name.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Vehicle Signal Generation Unit 2 GPS Receiver 3 Operation Unit 4 Control Device 4a Drawing Memory 5 Map Data Storage Medium 6 Display Unit

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A display unit for displaying a map, a storage unit for storing map data, a map of a predetermined area displayed on the display unit by the map data from the storage unit, and the display unit at a predetermined timing. In a map display device comprising display control means for rotating and displaying the map displayed in FIG. 1, the storage means stores character data for displaying a name on the map together with priority information indicating high or low priority. The display control means displays the name on the map by the character data, and when the name display overlaps with another name display due to the rotation of the map, the priority information of the higher priority is displayed. A map display device, wherein a name that the user has is displayed in preference to another name display. 2. The display control means partially deletes the name display having the priority information of the lower priority, and includes the deleted display area, the name having the priority information of the higher priority. The map display device according to claim 1, wherein the map display device is for displaying. 3. The display means displays a map of a traveling area of the vehicle, and the display control means causes the map to be rotated and displayed based on the rotation of the vehicle. The map display device according to claim 1 or 2. 4. The storage means stores, in the character data, coordinate data defining a position of a name on a map, and the display control means rotates the map during rotation display. The map display device according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the coordinate is converted into a display coordinate by and the name is displayed in a fixed direction on a rotating map.