JPH10123945A - Area definition method on map, and definition device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a block definition method and a device therefor capable of easily define areas such as blocks forming areas for sales and visits by using a road vector map. SOLUTION: This area definition device comprises an input device 1 to input data from a mouse and a keyboard, a road vector map input device 2 to input road vector map, a display means to display the road vector map on a screen, a link selection means 4 to select areas such as blocks forming areas for sales and visits while selecting routes displayed on the screen by a pointing device, a block definition means 5 to define blocks by adding block codes to secured links, and an output device 7 to output block codes of road vector map routes and already defined blocks.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method and a method for defining a plurality of areas having a predetermined use and management purpose, such as a block or an area on an administrative section, using a road vector map. It concerns the device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A map information system for managing sales or visiting areas has been developed. These are characterized in that an area is formed by combining areas such as towns and streets. Therefore, a vector map including the vector information of the area is necessary. However, a vector map created by the Geographical Survey Institute of Japan or a cartographic maker includes a vector map including an area for some regions. I'm just creating. Therefore, in order to develop a map information system for the whole country, it is necessary to create vector information of the area by the map information system developer. Obviously, this will take a lot of time.

[0003] As an example using a vector map, there is a route guidance apparatus described in, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 4-72513.

On the other hand, in order to improve the efficiency of creating vector information of an area such as a block, which is a unit of the area configuration, vector map creation support software such as GISCore / DG (product catalog in October 1995) has been developed. Have been. The feature of these software is that while displaying the original drawing of the road, etc., the pointing device such as a mouse is used to point-by-point and input the boundary vector separately from the road vector to create vector information for the area such as a block. It is characterized by doing.

In Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Nos. 6-59624 and 6-59625, a topographic map is read by an image scanner, the read image data is displayed on a monitor, and a block on a screen is designated by operating a mouse. By doing so, an apparatus for creating an electronic map in which the coordinate data is stored in a storage device and the base number of the block is automatically created is shown.

[0006]

The above-described vector map creation support software is for pointing a map data point by point with a pointing device and inputting a boundary vector separately from a road vector. The amount is very large, and it naturally takes time and effort to input.

On the other hand, the methods described in JP-A-6-59624 and JP-A-6-59625 are for reading and inputting a topographic map with an image scanner. Lack of accuracy, and it is also necessary to newly input route attributes such as one-way traffic, distance, and number of lanes.

An object of the present invention is to define a plurality of areas having a predetermined purpose such as a block, a sales area and a visiting area on a map using a map information system. It is an object of the present invention to provide a region definition method and a definition device which can easily and inexpensively create a vector map obtained by vectorizing the region.

Another object of the present invention is to reduce a newly required map data capacity in defining a plurality of areas having a predetermined purpose, such as a block, a sales area, and a visiting area, using a map information system. It is another object of the present invention to provide an area definition method and an area definition device that save time and effort for input.

[0010]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION A feature of the present invention is a method of defining a plurality of regions having a predetermined purpose on a map, the method comprising enclosing the region in a route of a road vector map displayed on a display means. By selecting a route as a link and selecting an intersection of the route as a node, the region is defined, and road vector information of the defined region is stored in a storage unit.

Another feature of the present invention resides in that the area is defined by selecting a route and an intersection of a road vector map displayed on the display means with a pointing device.

Another feature of the present invention is that the area is a block provided by section adjustment of a municipal or the like, and a line surrounding the block is selected as a link using the road vector map. To define a block.

Another feature of the present invention is that the area is an area constituting a small area for sale or visit, and a line surrounding the area is selected as a link using the road vector map, so that the area is selected. Is to define.

Another feature of the present invention is that a route in which the up and down links of a road vector map are displayed by a single line is selected by a pointing device, and only the links necessary for defining an area such as a block are selected. It is characterized by having a link selecting means for performing the operation.

Another feature of the present invention is that a road vector map input device for inputting a road vector map, an output device for displaying routes and intersections of the input road vector map, and a selection instruction for the displayed route. An input device, a link selecting unit for selecting a link constituting a route based on the selection instruction, a unit for defining an area based on the selected link, the input road vector map and the defined Storage means for storing road vector information of an area, wherein a plurality of areas having a predetermined purpose are defined on a map.

Another feature of the present invention resides in having a block defining means for defining a block by adding a block code to a plurality of selected links.

According to the present invention, an area such as a block is defined by using data and information of a commercially available road vector map as it is. Therefore, unlike conventional vector map creation support software or an image scanner input method, map data is not used. In addition to reducing the capacity of the system, it is possible to provide a vector map in which the small areas constituting the sales and visiting areas are vectorized by reducing the trouble of inputting.

Further, according to the present invention, a road vector map and a route are displayed on an interactive input screen, and the displayed route is selected by a pointing device such as a mouse, so that a sales area and a visiting area such as a block can be selected. Since an area to be configured can be defined, a link to a necessary area can be easily and accurately secured and defined.

[0019]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS One embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 shows an example of a functional configuration of a block defining device according to the present invention. The block defining device is an input device 1 for inputting position information such as coordinate information and character information.
A road vector map input device 2 for inputting road vector information, a block setting device 3 for setting a block of the input road vector map, and a storage device for storing the road vector map and information of the set block. And an output device 7 for outputting the road vector map. The block setting device 3 includes a link selecting unit 4 for selecting a link of the input road vector map and a block defining unit 5 for defining a block by the selected link. The road vector map includes road vector information, for example, intersection (hereinafter, referred to as a node) and route (hereinafter, referred to as a link) vector information stored in a storage medium such as a magneto-optical disk or a floppy disk.

FIG. 2 shows an example of a hardware configuration of a main part of the block defining apparatus of FIG. The input device 1 is realized by a pointing device such as a mouse 1A or a light pen 1B, and the road vector map input device 2 is realized by a magneto-optical disk drive or a floppy disk drive 2A.
Further, the block setting device 3 includes a CPU 3A, a ROM 3B storing a block setting processing program, a RAM 3C storing and holding road vector information and the like, and an I / O controlling input / output.
It is composed of a personal computer or a workstation equipped with O3D. The block setting processing program is a program that performs processing corresponding to the link selecting unit 4 and the block defining unit 5. Further, the storage device 6 for storing a large amount of data is realized by an external storage device 6A such as a hard disk, and the output device can be realized by a bitmap display 7A or the like. The bitmap display 7A is a part of an interactive input / output device, and includes a road vector map display section 4A for displaying a road vector map, and the road vector map display sections 4A and X
And a link input unit 4B for selecting a link of a road vector map and defining a block, using a common Y coordinate system. The left click 4C of the mouse 1A is used to select a link on the road vector map, and the right click 5A is used.
Is used to define and define a block.

FIG. 3 shows an example of a link table as an example of road vector information. For example, a route (hereinafter, referred to as a link) L0 is composed of intersections (hereinafter, referred to as nodes) X0, X1 and supplementary points I1, I2,... Between them, and the table includes intersections X0, X1, and supplementary points. Includes coordinate values and vector information 0, 1 between intersections X0, X1.
The attributes of the route include information such as one-way traffic, distance, and number of lanes.

FIG. 4 shows the road vector map input device 2.
5 shows an example in which the road vector information of the city area A input from the display unit 4A of the output device 7 is displayed on the road vector map display unit 4A. In this display example, black circles indicate nodes, solid lines connecting the nodes indicate links, and rectangles indicate the outline of the house.

FIG. 5 shows an enlarged view of the position circled in FIG. As can be seen from this enlarged view, nodes in the normal road vector map are displayed as dots. Also, one link originally goes up the route,
And two routes, which should be displayed as two effective vectors, but are displayed as one solid line from the viewpoint of improving visibility. The alphabets in the figure are added for convenience of the following description.

One object of the present invention is to use the road vector map displayed as shown in FIG. 5 to easily define an "area" on the map by the input device 1 realized by a mouse or the like. In this way, an area such as sales or a visit where an area is one of the constituent units can be handled on a computer. The “region” in the present invention is:
In addition to the number of "what town, what number, what number" established by land readjustment of municipalities that are generally recognized, that is, "blocks", including "smallest blocks that compose the area" such as sales and visits , A route, that is, an area surrounded by links is broadly defined as an “area”.

Hereinafter, a method of defining an area using the road vector map displayed as shown in FIG. 5 will be described.

FIG. 6 shows an example of detailed data of a road vector map displayed on the output device 7 as shown in FIG. The node information of the road vector map includes a node number for identifying the node. In FIG. 6, the numbers in the circles are the node numbers. Also, a link is defined by two nodes, and as described above, there are upstream and downstream routes, so two links are defined between one node pair, and each link has A link number for identification is given. FIG.
In, the numbers in parentheses are the link numbers. Here, in the case of one-way traffic or the like, a flag indicating that no traffic is allowed is set as an attribute of the link, and a link in only one direction can be used as information processing. When the link is curved, an interpolation point is defined between the links, and the link is defined by connecting the nodes to each other.

Here, in order to define a "block" which is a kind of "region", in FIG. 6, (1), (3), (6), (4) It suffices if the link in ()) can be secured as a block definition link.

FIG. 7 is a block diagram of a block definition processing program corresponding to the block definition means 5 of the present invention. Hereinafter, the block definition method of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. In the present invention, the link displayed on the output device 7 is clicked by the input device 1 realized by a pointing device such as a mouse as shown in FIG. 5 (step A). Here, since a car, a motorcycle, or the like is used for visits, sales, and the like, a link surrounding the block around the left is repeatedly (left) clicked 4C (step B), with attention to left-hand traffic.
In FIG. 5, for example, the user clicks on the input device 1 in the order of a, b, c, and d. After clicking the required link,
By double-clicking, that is, performing two consecutive quick clicks or pressing the (right) click button 5A, a trigger for completing selection of a link defining a block is generated. At this time, in the present invention, the block code input screen 7B shown in FIG. 8 is displayed on the output device 7, the block code for uniquely identifying the block is input, and the OK button located at the lower part of the block code input screen. Is selected to define a street code (step C).

The operation shown in FIG. 7 is repeated by the number of blocks that need to be defined, thereby realizing the block definition using the road vector map.

FIG. 9 is a processing flow showing the method of securing the clicked link in step A of FIG. 7 corresponding to the link selecting means 4 of the present invention. Hereinafter, a link securing process required for defining a block by clicking a link displayed as shown in FIG. 5 will be described with reference to FIG.

First, when a link is clicked by the input device 1, the coordinates can be represented by (l, m). Here, the coordinates of the start point and the end point node of the link, which is originally an effective line segment, are represented by (x0, y0), (x1, y
1). FIG. 10 is an example illustrating the clicked position and the coordinates of the start point and end point nodes of a certain link. Next, paying attention to the X coordinate of the coordinates of the clicked position, a link that satisfies x0 <l <x1 or x0>l> x1 is selected from the road vector map and secured as a candidate for a link to be selected. (Step A1
0). Next, a straight line formula of the candidate link is obtained by using the coordinates of the secured start point and end point nodes (step A).
15). This linear equation can be defined below.

Y = (y1-y0) / (x1-x0) (X−x1) + y1 (Expression 1) Next, the X coordinate of the clicked position is substituted into X in Expression 1, and
The value of Y is calculated (step A20). Next, the calculated Y value is compared with the Y coordinate of the clicked position (step A2).
5) If they are equal, the link is temporarily secured as a link considered as a block definition link (step A30).
If the link is curved, a straight line formula composed of nodes constituting the link, interpolation points, and adjacent interpolation points is obtained, and the link at the clicked position is temporarily determined as a link that can be considered as a block definition link. Secure. The processing from step A15 to step A30 is repeated for the number of link candidates to be selected (step A35), and temporarily reserved as block definition link candidates. For example, FIG.
When link a is clicked, links (0) and (1) in FIG. 4 are secured as block definition link candidates. Next, the number of clicks is checked (step A4).
0) If it is the first click, keep the temporarily secured link as it is. If it is the second or subsequent click, the node number of the end point node of the link temporarily secured by the previous click is compared with the node number of the start point node of the temporarily secured link (step A45). A matching link is secured as a block definition link (step A50).

FIG. 11 shows an example of a link number secured as a block definition link by each click. By clicking the block definition link starting from the link a in FIG. 5, (0) and (1) are changed by the first click,
In the second click, it can be seen that (1) and (3) are secured as block definition links.

FIG. 12 shows an example of block definition data when the block definition in FIG. 5 is completed. In FIG. 8, since 1 is set as the block code, 1 is set in the block code field, and (1), (3),
(6) and (4) are secured.

FIG. 13 shows an example of display on the output device 7 when all the blocks or “regions” have been defined using the road vector map. It can be seen that the block code of the defined block is displayed.

Although FIG. 13 shows an example in which no link or node exists in a block, a plurality of lines or intersections may exist in a block. In this case, a block can be defined in the same manner as in the above embodiment by selecting information on an intersection link or node defining the outer edge of the block and information on a link or node of the intersection serving as a supplementary point.

Also, as another example of the "area", when defining the "minimum section constituting the area" such as sales and visits, the link and the node of the intersection defining the outer edge of the area and the complement point are provided. By selecting the information of the intersection link and the node, the definition can be made in the same manner as in the above embodiment.

The example of FIG. 14 is an example of display on the output device 7 when the "area" as the "minimum section constituting the area" such as a sale or a visit has been defined. Bold lines and black circles indicate links and nodes at intersections, and thin lines and white circles indicate links and nodes at intersections that are complementary points.

[0039]

According to the present invention, it is possible to provide an area definition method and an area definition apparatus which can easily and inexpensively create a vector map in which areas constituting a small area for administrative block sales and visits are vectorized. it can.

That is, according to the present invention, since the data and information of a commercially available road vector map are used, the capacity of the vector map information of the newly added block diagram can be reduced. Therefore, according to the present invention, it is possible to reduce the amount of map data and save time and effort for input, as compared with conventional input methods using vector map creation support software or an image scanner.

According to the present invention, data of a commercially available road vector map is displayed on a screen of an interactive input type, and the route is selected by using the screen with a pointing device such as a mouse, so that a necessary area can be obtained. Can be easily and accurately secured and defined.

Further, according to the present invention, it is possible to create a definition information of a block by adding a block code to the secured link. Further, according to the present invention, even if there is a block diagram that is not prepared for a part of the whole country, a vector map can be easily prepared.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a functional configuration diagram of a map area definition device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a hardware configuration diagram of the map area definition device of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is an example of a data structure of a link table.

FIG. 4 is a display example of a road vector.

FIG. 5 is an example of an enlarged view of a part of the road vector map of FIG. 4;

FIG. 6 is an example of displaying detailed data of a part of a road vector map.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing an example of a processing flow of the map area definition device of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is an example of a block code input screen.

FIG. 9 is a diagram showing an example of a block definition link securing flow.

FIG. 10 is a coordinate diagram of a start point, an end point, and a clicked position of a link.

FIG. 11 is an example of securing the number of link clicks and a block definition link candidate.

FIG. 12 is an example of a data structure of a block defined by the map area defining device of the present invention.

FIG. 13 is a display example of a block defined by the method of the present invention.

FIG. 14 is an example of a data structure of a visited area defined by the method of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

REFERENCE SIGNS LIST 1 input device 2 road vector map input device 3 block setting device 4 link selection means 5 block definition means 6 storage device 7 output device

 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continuing on the front page (72) Akira Yoshikawa, 3-2-1, Sachimachi, Hitachi City, Ibaraki Prefecture Inside Hitachi Engineering Co., Ltd.

Claims (10)

[Claims] 1. A method for defining a plurality of areas having a predetermined purpose on a map, wherein a line surrounding the area is selected as a link from among the lines of a road vector map displayed on a display means, and A method for defining an area, comprising defining an area by selecting an intersection as a node, and storing road vector information of the defined area in a storage unit. 2. The area defining method according to claim 1, wherein said area is defined by selecting a route and an intersection of a road vector map displayed on said display means with a pointing device. . 3. The area defining method according to claim 1, wherein the area is a block provided by division adjustment such as a municipal village, and a line surrounding the block is linked using the road vector map. A region is defined by selecting the area as the area. 4. The area defining method according to claim 1, wherein the area is an area constituting a small area for sale or visit, and a line surrounding the area is used as a link using the road vector map. An area definition method, wherein the area is defined by selecting the area. 5. The road vector map according to claim 1, wherein the road vector map has an identifier capable of identifying the node and node information having intersection coordinates in the map, and a link having an identifier capable of identifying uplink and downlink. An area definition method comprising information. 6. The area definition method according to claim 1, wherein the area is defined by sequentially selecting the links of the road vector map to the left or right. 7. The road vector map display according to claim 1, wherein when the up and down links are displayed as one line segment on the road vector map display, the routes are sequentially selected in a counterclockwise or clockwise direction. In this case, a region definition method characterized by securing a link adjacent to the region from among uplink and downlink as a link for defining the region. 8. An area defining method according to claim 1, wherein a link of the road vector map is selected and an identifier for identifying the block is set when the block is defined. 9. A road vector map input device for inputting a road vector map, an output device for displaying lines and intersections of the input road vector map, and an input device for inputting a selection instruction for the displayed line. Link selection means for selecting a link constituting a route based on the selection instruction, means for defining an area by the selected link,
Storage means for storing the input road vector map and road vector information of the defined area, and defining a plurality of areas having a predetermined purpose on the map. 10. The link selecting means according to claim 9, wherein said link selecting means selects a route in which an up link and a down link of said road vector map are indicated by a single line by a pointing device, and defines a link necessary for defining an area. An area definition device configured to select only an area.