JPH09160487A - Navigation device for vehicle - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To display a vehicle mark with a solid shape corresponding to a looking-down angle from a visual point in the case of displaying a road map in a bird's-eye view. SOLUTION: Plural kinds of vehicle marks having respectively different shapes are sorted in every looking-down direction from a visual point and previously stored in a vehicle mark storing memory 10. When a looking-down angle from the visual point is determined at the time of displaying a road map as a bird's-eye view, a vehicle mark corresponding to the looking-down angle is read out and composited with the bird's-eye view and the composited view is displayed. Consequently, the bird's-eye view with presence can be displayed and the looking-down angle from the visual point can be grasped only by looking at the vehicle mark.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a vehicle navigation device capable of displaying a road map from the vicinity of a vehicle position toward a destination.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art There is known a vehicle navigation device that displays a road map in a so-called bird's-eye view display format, which displays a road map around a vehicle position in an enlarged manner compared to a distant place (for example, JP-A-2-244188). reference). The device disclosed in the above publication places a viewpoint behind a vehicle position and displays on the display device a state in which the vehicle's traveling direction is looked down from this viewpoint. When such a bird's eye view display is performed,
The map information around the vehicle position can be enlarged and displayed, and a wide range road map from the vehicle position to a distant place can be displayed, so that it becomes easy to visually grasp the connection state of the road.
In addition, it is possible to display a realistic road map as if the driver were looking down at the road map.

[0003]

In the conventional vehicle navigation device, an arrow mark M as shown in FIG. 5 is displayed at the vehicle position on the map so that the vehicle position and the traveling direction of the vehicle can be confirmed. . However, if you use this kind of flat mark also when displaying a bird's eye view,
There is a risk that the sense of presence, which is a characteristic of the bird's-eye view, may be lost.
On the other hand, it is also possible to prepare a three-dimensional vehicle mark in advance for displaying the bird's-eye view and display this mark at the vehicle position. However, if the angle of looking down the vehicle from the viewpoint changes, the three-dimensional shape of the vehicle observed at the viewpoint position should change accordingly, nevertheless, the same three-dimensional mark is always displayed This is not preferable because it may give the user a feeling of strangeness or misunderstanding.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a vehicle navigation device capable of displaying a vehicle mark having a shape corresponding to a view angle from a viewpoint when a road map is displayed in a bird's eye view.

[0005]

The present invention will be described with reference to FIG. 1 showing an embodiment of the present invention. The present invention is based on a road map storage means 3 for storing road map data relating to a road map, and a road map storage means 3. Road map data in a predetermined range from the road map storage means 3 so that a bird's-eye view of the road map viewed from a viewpoint placed in the sky around the vehicle position on the map in a predetermined downward direction and a downward angle is displayed on the display device 9. Is a bird's-eye view data conversion means for reading out and converting to a bird's-eye view data, and is a vehicle mark storage means 10 for storing a plurality of types of vehicle marks having different shapes according to the down-looking angle from the viewpoint, and a bird's-eye view data converting means. Display control means for selecting a vehicle mark according to the looking-down angle from the vehicle mark storage means 10 and displaying it in a superimposed manner on the bird's-eye view. More, the above-described object can be attained. According to the first aspect of the invention, as shown in FIG. 2, vehicle marks having different shapes are prepared in advance for each viewing angle from the viewpoint. Then, when the looking-down angle of the bird's-eye view is determined, a vehicle mark corresponding to the looking-down angle is selected and displayed in an overlapping manner on the bird's-eye view. This makes it possible to display a bird's-eye view with a realistic feeling.

Incidentally, in the section of means for solving the above problems for explaining the constitution of the present invention, the drawings of one embodiment of the present invention are used for the sake of easy understanding of the present invention. Is not limited to the one embodiment.

[0007]

1 is a block diagram of an embodiment of a vehicle navigation device according to the present invention. FIG.
In the figure, 1 is a vehicle speed sensor for detecting the traveling speed of the vehicle, which is attached to, for example, a transmission of the vehicle and outputs a predetermined number of pulse signals according to the vehicle speed. Reference numeral 2 denotes an azimuth sensor that detects the traveling direction of the vehicle, and detects the traveling azimuth (direction) of the vehicle by detecting the geomagnetism at the vehicle position, for example. Reference numeral 3 denotes a map storage memory for storing road network data relating to road maps and character data such as place names (hereinafter collectively referred to as road map data).
It is composed of a large-capacity recording medium such as a D-ROM. Reference numeral 4 is a control circuit for controlling the entire apparatus, which includes a microprocessor and its peripheral circuits. Reference numeral 5 is a ROM for storing a processing program of the control circuit 4, 6 is a RAM used by the control circuit 4 for work, 7 is an input device for inputting a destination of the vehicle, map scale, etc., and 8 is a display device 9 for displaying. An image memory for storing image data for Reference numeral 10 denotes a vehicle mark storage memory for storing vehicle marks having different shapes depending on the angle of looking down from the viewpoint. FIG. 2 is an example of a vehicle mark stored in the vehicle mark storage memory 10 and shows vehicle marks corresponding to four types of looking-down angles.

FIG. 3 is a flow chart showing the bird's-eye view display processing performed by the control circuit 4 of the present embodiment. Control circuit 4
Performs the processing of FIG. 3 when the main switch of the navigation device is turned on and the bird's-eye view display mode is selected via the input device 7. In step S1 of FIG. 3, the vehicle position is detected using the vehicle speed sensor 1, a GPS sensor (not shown), or the like. In step S2, based on the vehicle position detected in step S1, the viewpoint position, the direction of looking down and the angle of looking down from the viewpoint when the bird's-eye view is displayed are detected.
For example, the viewpoint position and the looking-down direction are set according to the vehicle position and the vehicle traveling direction, and the looking-down angle is set according to the scale of the bird's-eye view set by the user via the input device 7. Specifically, when the wide area (small scale) bird's-eye view display is selected, the look-down angle is decreased, and when the detailed (large scale) bird's-eye view display is selected, the look-down angle is increased.

In step S3, the road map data used when displaying the bird's-eye view is read from the map storage memory 3 based on the processing result in step S2. Step S
In step 4, the road map data read in step S3 is coordinate-converted to generate bird's-eye view data.

In step S5, the vehicle mark corresponding to the look-down angle set in step S2 is read from the vehicle mark storage memory 10. In step S6, image data for mark display is generated based on the read vehicle position mark. In step S7, the data generated in steps S4 and S6 is stored in the image memory 8. Image memory 8
The data stored in is read at a predetermined cycle, converted into a video signal, and sent to the display device 9. As a result, FIG.
A bird's-eye view as shown in is displayed on the display device 9.

In step S8, it is determined whether or not the looking down angle is changed. If the looking down angle is changed, the process returns to step S3. If the looking down angle is not changed, the process proceeds to step S9. In step S9, the vehicle position is detected again. In step S10, the processing results of steps S1 and S9 are compared to determine whether the vehicle has moved a predetermined distance or more. If it has moved by a predetermined distance or more, the process returns to step S2, and if it has moved less than the predetermined distance, the process proceeds to step S11. Step S11
Then, the display position of the vehicle mark is changed and the process returns to step S8.

As described above, in the present embodiment, a plurality of types of vehicle marks having different shapes depending on the viewing angle from the viewpoint are stored in the vehicle mark storage memory 10 in advance, and any one of them is selected according to the viewing angle from the viewpoint. Since the vehicle mark of is selected and the selected vehicle mark is displayed in an overlapping manner on the bird's-eye view, a more realistic bird's-eye view can be displayed.

FIG. 4 is a view showing a bird's-eye view display example in the present embodiment. FIG. 4 (a) has the largest looking down angle, and the looking down angle is made smaller in the order of FIG. 4 (b) → FIG. 4 (c) → FIG. 4 (d). As shown in the figure, the vehicle mark is displayed at the vehicle position according to the look-down angle, so it is possible to estimate the look-down angle from the shape of the mark, which not only gives a sense of presence but also a sense of distance. Easier to do.

Although FIG. 4 shows an example in which one of four types of vehicle marks is displayed at the vehicle position, the type and shape of the vehicle mark are not limited to those shown in FIG. For example, a plurality of types of vehicle marks may be provided for each vehicle type such as passenger cars and trucks. Further, even with the same looking down angle, the display size of the vehicle mark may be changed depending on the distance from the viewpoint or the scale of the bird's eye view.

In one embodiment configured as described above, the map storage memory 3 serves as road map storage means, steps S3 and S4 of FIG. 3 serve as bird's-eye view data conversion means, and the vehicle mark storage memory 10 serves as vehicle mark storage means. The storage means and step S7 of FIG. 3 correspond to the display control means, respectively.

[0016]

As described in detail above, according to the present invention, a vehicle mark having a shape corresponding to the view angle from the viewpoint is displayed in a superimposed manner on the bird's-eye view, so that a more realistic bird's-eye view is displayed. it can. In addition, since it is possible to infer what the looking down angle is just by looking at the shape of the vehicle mark, it becomes easier to grasp the sense of distance.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an embodiment of a vehicle navigation device according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of a vehicle mark stored in a vehicle mark storage memory.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing a bird's-eye view display process performed by a control circuit.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a bird's-eye view display example according to the present embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a view showing a display example of a conventional vehicle mark.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 vehicle speed sensor 2 direction sensor 3 map storage memory 4 control circuit 5 ROM 6 RAM 7 input device 8 image memory 9 display device 10 vehicle mark storage memory

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A road map storage means for storing road map data relating to a road map, and a bird's-eye view of the road map viewed from a viewpoint placed in the sky around the vehicle position on the road map in a predetermined direction and angle. A vehicle navigation device comprising: a bird's-eye view data conversion unit that reads out the road map data in a predetermined range from the road map storage unit and converts the road map data into bird's-eye view data so that the device can display the device. Vehicle mark storage means for separately storing a plurality of types of vehicle marks having different shapes, and display control means for selecting the vehicle mark according to the view angle from the viewpoint from the vehicle mark storage means and displaying the vehicle mark in an overlapping manner on the bird's-eye view. A vehicle navigation device comprising: