JPH11304526A - Current position guiding navigation device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a navigation device for easily understandably guiding the current position. SOLUTION: This navigation device guides the current position by voice by using the station name 42 of a nearest railroad station and a railroad line name 43 and the current position is easily recognized through the railroad station. The current position is guided by saying 'It is near the X station of a Y line' for instance by using the station name of the nearest railroad station and the railroad line name. People normally recognize a rough position by listening to the station name. Thus, by guiding the current position with the station name as an indicator, the current position is easily understood.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a navigation device having a guidance function, and more particularly to a navigation device for guiding a current position in an easy-to-understand manner.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in a navigation apparatus, in addition to displaying a current position and a route to a destination on a display map, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 7-44796,
JP-A-8-94368, JP-A-9-61180, JP-A-9-61187, JP-A-9-62994, JP-A-9-9
For example, there is proposed a device that displays detailed characteristics of a turning intersection on a screen or provides voice guidance by using direction guidance or the like so that a user of the device does not mistake the position of the turning intersection. .

[0003]

However, the conventional navigation apparatus has a main purpose of providing a route to a destination in an easy-to-understand manner, and there is not much improvement from the viewpoint of providing a current position in an easy-to-understand manner. Not. For this reason, a driver who is traveling in an area without a sense of land cannot expect an easy-to-understand answer from the navigation device even when he wants to know where the present location is. In such a case, at present, a wide area map is displayed on the screen, or a paper map is opened to check in which direction and how far the current position is from a point that the driver can understand. .

In some cases, a driver informs another person outside the vehicle of his / her current position by telephone from inside the vehicle. When the vehicle is traveling in an unfamiliar area, the driver informs another person of the current position. It is quite difficult.

An object of the present invention is to solve such a conventional problem, and an object of the present invention is to provide a navigation device capable of guiding a current position in an easy-to-understand manner.

[0006]

Therefore, the navigation device of the present invention uses the station name of the nearest railway station and the name of the railway line to say, for example, "Near the station XX on the 〇〇 line". It has a configuration to guide the current location.

[0007] Usually, a person can grasp the approximate position by hearing the station name. Therefore, by guiding the current location using the station name as an index, the current location can be easily understood.

[0008]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The invention according to claim 1 of the present invention is a navigation device for guiding a current location using a station name of a nearest railway station and a railway line name,
The current location can be easily grasped.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in this navigation device, the distance or direction from the railway station to the current location is guided together, so that the current location can be understood in more detail.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, in this navigation apparatus, the train station to be guided is limited to the main station, and the use of a small unknown station name makes it difficult to understand. The disadvantages are prevented.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in this navigation apparatus, either a main station or all the stations can be selected as a train station to be guided. All stations can be targeted, and in areas where there is no intuition of land, only major stations can be selected.

According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, the railway station to be guided is all the stations within a certain distance from the set point, and switches to the main station when the railway station is out of this range. By setting and registering a point with a sense of land, in a region with a sense of land, guidance for all stations is automatically performed, and when you depart from that area, only the main station is automatically Switch to guidance for.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

As shown in FIG. 2, the navigation apparatus according to the embodiment includes a position information acquisition unit 13 for acquiring information for obtaining a current position, and a storage unit 11 for storing map information including position information of a railway station. A voice output unit 14 including a speaker, an earphone output device, and the like; a control unit 15 for controlling a voice display of a current location using a railway station as an index; and a selection unit 16 for selecting and operating by a driver.

The position information acquiring means 13 comprises a GPS, a gyro sensor, a vehicle speed pulse, a reverse, etc., and the storage means 11 comprises a CD-ROM, a DVD-ROM, a DVD-R.
It consists of an AM, a mini disk, a hard disk, a semiconductor storage device, and the like. Further, the control means 15 includes a ROM, a RAM,
It is composed of a CPU and the like.

FIG. 1 shows a data configuration of map information stored in the storage means 11. The map information is composed of a plurality of map information 3a, 3, 3n for each area, and each map information 3n includes road position information 31 indicating a road position, map display information 32 such as a landmark to be displayed on a map, It comprises train station information 33 on the train station. The train station information 33 includes a train station record which is data of each train station in the area.
4a, ‥, and 4m are included, and each railway station record contains location information (eg, latitude and longitude) 41 of the station, a railway line name 42, and a railway station name.
43, a main flag for discriminating whether or not the station is an express stop station (1 for a main station where an express stops, 0 for a non-main station).

In this apparatus, the selection means 16 is selected from the driver.
When instructed to display the current position through, the control means 15 acquires information on the current position from the position information acquisition means 13, and based on the information on the current position, from the storage means 11, The map information 3n of the area where the vehicle is located is read, and the railway station information 33 is obtained therefrom.

Then, the control means 15 examines the position information 41 of each railway station from the railway station records 4a, 4m, 4m included therein, and as shown in FIG.
The distance and direction from 22 to 26 are calculated, and the nearest railway station from the current position 21 is obtained.

At this time, if the driver designates the current location display using the main station as an index from the selecting means 16, the control means 15 selects only the railway stations 23 and 24 whose main flags are 1 as targets. The distance and direction from the current position 21 are calculated, and the nearest railway station 24 from the current position 21 is determined. Also,
If there is no such designation, the main flags are 1 and 0
For all the railway stations 22 to 26, calculate the distance and direction between the current position 21 and the nearest railway station from the current position 21.
Ask for 26.

The control means 15 outputs the station name of the railway station, the name of the railway line, and information on the distance and direction from the current position to the voice output means 14, and upon receiving the information, the voice output means 14 transmits the information to the "Tokyu Toyoko Line". It is near the Tsunashima Station, or "It is a point about 1 km northeast of Tsunashima Station on the Tokyu Toyoko Line."

As described above, the driver using the navigation device can know the current location using the railway station as an index only by operating the selection means 16. Normally, a person can know the approximate location by listening to the station name. Therefore, even when the driver informs a person outside the vehicle of the current position by telephone from inside the vehicle, the current position can be easily understood by the partner by notifying the name of the nearest railway station obtained by voice guidance and the distance and direction therefrom. be able to.

However, in an area where there is no intuition of the land, there is a case where the name of the station is too small to be understood. In such a case, the driver changes the setting to voice guidance for the main station via the selection means 16. By doing so, the current location is voice-guided using a well-known main station as an index where an express stops, so that the position can be grasped.

It is also possible to automatically switch between voice guidance for all railway stations and voice guidance for only major stations according to the current position. In this case, the driver registers in advance the home or a point where there is a sense of land through the selection means 16. The control unit 15 obtains a distance between the current position acquired from the position information acquiring unit 13 and the registered position, and performs voice guidance for all railway stations if the distance is within a predetermined range. . On the other hand, if the distance is out of the predetermined range, the voice guidance is switched to the main station.

By doing this, in areas where there is a sense of land, such as near homes, the current location is voice-guided for all railway stations, and in areas where there is no sense of land, the main stations are targeted. The current location is voice-guided.

In the above, the description has been given centering on voice guidance. However, the guidance method is not limited to voice only, and the content of voice guidance may be displayed on the display means 12. In this case, the audio output means 14 may be omitted.

[0026]

As is apparent from the above description, the navigation device of the present invention can easily indicate the current location using the name of the railway station. A driver using this device can easily know the current position during traveling through guidance. In the case where the guidance of the current location is provided by voice, the information on the voice guidance is transmitted by telephone from inside the vehicle, so that the other party can immediately know the current location.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a data structure stored in a navigation device according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a navigation device according to the embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an operation of searching for a nearest railway station from a current location.

[Explanation of symbols]

 11 Storage means 12 Display means 13 Location information acquisition means 14 Voice output means 15 Control means 16 Selection means 21 Current location 22, 25, 26 Non-main stations 23, 24 Main stations 3a-3n Map information 31 Road location information 32 Map display information 33 Railway station information 4a ~ 4m Railway station record 41 Location information 42 Railway line name 43 Railway station name 44 Main flags

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. A navigation device for guiding a current location using a station name of a nearest railway station and a railway line name. 2. The navigation device according to claim 1, wherein guidance is provided together with a distance or a direction from the railway station to a current location. 3. The navigation device according to claim 1, wherein the train station to be guided is limited to a main station. 4. The navigation device according to claim 1, wherein any one of a main station and all stations can be selected as the railway station to be guided. 5. The train station to be guided is all the stations within a certain distance from a set point, and switches to the main station when the train station is out of the range. 5. The navigation device according to 4.