JPS61151418A - Guiding apparatus for vehicle traveling - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To enable display of a piace name fit for the requirement of a user on a display apparatus, by judging the stored place name whether it is related to a range or fixed point and changing the comparing range with the current position of a vehicle corresponding to said distinction. CONSTITUTION:When a stored place name indicates a range covering city, town, village, etc., a position data storing means 1 storing position co-ordinates of the representing place is installed and when a fixed point is indicated, that storing the position co-ordinates of the fixed place is set, and out of the position data, on input means 6 in which selected storing point and destination are introduced, a display apparatus 7 provided with display screen and position co-ordinates, and a vehicle current position calculating unit 16 are set. When an output from a comparing means 17 comparing co-ordinates of the vehicle current position calculated by the calculating unit 16 with position co-ordinates of the stored place name stored in the position data storing means 1 falls within the specified value, characters representing the position of the stored place name are displayed on the display apparatus.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION (Field of Industrial Application) The present invention relates to a travel guidance device that displays travel guidance information on a display device installed in the interior of a vehicle to guide the vehicle to a destination point. This invention relates to a display device that displays a starting point and a destination point, as well as text displaying the names of places near the current location of the vehicle.

(Prior Art) Conventionally, as shown in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 57-144589, a driving guidance device for a vehicle of this type has been equipped with a display having a display surface and a surface thread on the display surface. A figure storage memory for storing figures such as maps to be displayed, and a character memory for storing characters or symbols to be displayed on the figures and their positions on the figures, and displaying the figures and characters on the screen. There is a known system that guides the vehicle to its destination.

(Problem to be Solved by the Invention) However, in this conventional system, in addition to displaying place names near the current location of the vehicle, place names of locations unrelated to the driving route are also displayed. Therefore, the display of place names, station names, etc. on the screen became small, or many of them were displayed on the same screen, making it difficult to immediately recognize the current location of the vehicle from the screen. .

In addition, since figures such as maps are displayed on the display surface of the display unit, a storage device of Jinyousha is required to store the figures.
Furthermore, in the case of a type in which a film-like map is inserted into a display and displayed, a fixing device for fixing the map is required, which increases the scale of the entire device.

The main object of the present invention is to omit the storage device that stores maps and the like as in the above-mentioned conventional system, and instead store only position coordinates such as place names in the storage device, and to use the pre-stored position data such as place names, etc. and the location data of the current location of the vehicle, and only when the current location of the vehicle reaches a predetermined range from the above point, etc., the location and characters of the place name etc. are displayed on the screen. This makes it possible to easily and accurately guide the vehicle to the destination point by making the display content on the display easy to see.

However, in that case, if the range of comparison between the position data of the stored place name stored in advance and the position data of the vehicle's current position is constant, the stored place name does not indicate a fixed point such as a famous historical site or an expressway interchange. In some cases, the location name may be displayed on the display even if the location of the fixed point is quite far from the vehicle's current location, resulting in inappropriate travel guidance information for the vehicle. Furthermore, when the stored place name indicates an area such as a ward, town, village, etc., it is natural and preferable to widen the comparison range with the position coordinates of the vehicle's current position.

Therefore, the present invention further determines whether the memory place name indicates an area or a fixed point, and changes the range of comparison with the vehicle's current position depending on the type, so that the display device The purpose is to display place names that meet the needs of vehicle users.

(Means for Solving the Problems) In order to achieve the above object, the solving means of the present invention, as shown in FIG. A position data storage means 1 is provided for storing the position coordinates of a point such as a government office representing the area, and the position coordinates of the fixed point itself when indicating a fixed point such as a famous place or historic site. Further, an input means 6 for selecting and inputting a starting point and a destination point from among the position data stored in the position data storage means 1, a display 7 having a display surface and position coordinates, and a direction sensor. 8 and a vehicle position W1 calculation unit 16 that calculates the current position of the vehicle based on the output from the distance sensor 11. Furthermore, the coordinates of the current vehicle position calculated by the vehicle current position calculating section 16 are compared with the position coordinates of the stored place name stored in the position data storage means 1, and the comparison is performed by comparing the stored place name indicating the area. Comparison means 17 for performing a range wider than a storage location name indicating a fixed point, and said comparison means 1
7 is within a predetermined value, control means 18 is provided for causing the display 7 to display characters representing the location of the stored place name.

(Function) With the above configuration, in the present invention, the position data storage means 1
After the starting point and destination point of the vehicle are selected and input by the input means 6 from among the place names stored in the , when the vehicle starts traveling from the starting point toward the destination point, the direction sensor 8 The current position of the vehicle is calculated by the vehicle current position calculation section 16 which receives each output from the sensor 11, and the comparison means 17 calculates the coordinates of the current position and the place name stored in the position data storage means 1. The location coordinates are compared with each other, and when the distance between both locations is within a predetermined value, characters representing the location of the stored place name are displayed on the screen of the display 7.

At that time, the comparison range of the vehicle's current location with the stored place name changes depending on the type of stored place name, and when the stored place name to be compared indicates an area such as a ward, town, village, etc., the comparison range becomes wider and the vehicle Even if the distance between the open positions reaches a predetermined value and the memorized place name is displayed in text on the display 7 even if the memorized place name is relatively far away from the position of the memorized place name, when the memorized place name indicates a fixed point such as a famous place or historic site, The distance between the open positions reaches a predetermined value only when the comparison range narrows and the vehicle approaches the position (fixed point) of the stored place name, and the stored place name is displayed on the display 7. Therefore, the display of the storage place name is performed appropriately according to the type, and usability is improved.

(Example) Hereinafter, an example of the present invention will be described in detail based on the drawings from FIG. 2 onwards.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the overall circuit configuration of a vehicle travel guidance system according to an embodiment of the present invention, and 1 is a place name and point data ROM as a position data storage means;
For example, as illustrated in the table below, Pi ROM 1 includes:
The main place names throughout Japan, the longitude and latitude as the coordinates representing the location of the place name, and the comparison level (used for comparison with the current vehicle position described) according to the type of place name are stored. In other words, when storing the above location coordinates, when the place name indicates an area such as a ward, town, village, etc., the main point representing the area is stored; in the table, when the place name is ``Hiroshima City'', it is the longitude of ``Hiroshima City Hall''; When the latitude indicates a fixed point such as a famous place or historical site, the longitude and latitude of the fixed point are respectively stored. In addition, the comparison level is level 5 when the place name indicates a wide area such as a municipality, level 2 when it indicates a narrow area such as a station, and level 2 when it indicates a fixed point such as a famous place or historic site. Keyboard installed in 3
is a key matrix encoder for encoding the output of the keyboard 2, and the encoder 3 has 110 chips 4
and the above place name point data RO via the system bus 5.
An input means 6 is connected to the input terminal M1, and is configured to select and input a starting point and a destination point from among the place names stored in the ROM 1 by operating the keyboard 2.

Further, 7 is a cathode ray tube as a display having a display surface 7a and having coordinates on the screen 7a. , the characters of a predetermined place name near the route connecting both points, etc. are displayed.

Further, reference numeral 8 denotes a direction sensor consisting of a geomagnetic sensor or the like that detects the running direction of the vehicle with respect to a predetermined reference direction.The output thereof is amplified by an amplifier 9 and then converted into a digital signal by an A/DtL converter 10.

Further, 11 is a distance sensor that detects the traveling distance of the vehicle based on, for example, the rotational speed of the wheels, and its output is connected to the I10 chip 12. Then, the A/D converter 1
The 0 and I10 chips 12 are connected via the system bus 5 to a data processing section 16 consisting of a main CPU 13, a program ROM 14, 15, and a RAM 15, and this data processing section 16 generates a signal from the distance sensor 11. a vehicle current position calculation unit 17 that calculates the current position of the vehicle by extracting the output signal from the A/D converter 10 and accumulating it every time the vehicle travels a predetermined distance; The vehicle current position calculation unit 17
The locus IJ (latitude and latitude) of the vehicle's current position calculated by Comparing means 18 for making the comparison range of memory place names indicating areas wider than the comparison range of memory place names indicating fixed points based on the comparison level; A control means 19 is configured to display the position and characters representing the position on the display surface 7a of the cathode ray tube 7.

The processing functions of the comparison means 18 and control means 19 will be explained in detail.The processing operations are performed according to the flowchart shown in FIG. That is, in step S1 of the start trigram, a place name within a predetermined range including the current position of the vehicle calculated by the vehicle current position ml calculation unit 17 is selected from among a large number of stored place names stored in the place name point data ROM1. In the next step S2, it is first determined whether the comparison level of each of these place names is level 1 or not. If this determination is YES, the process moves to step S3, and checks whether the location of the place name is within a distance of 40'' from the vehicle's current position in the longitude and latitude directions.
In other words, 2kII in the east-west direction centered on the vehicle's current position,
It is determined whether or not it is within a rectangular range of 2.4 km in the north-south direction, and if this determination is YES, the process moves to step S4, and after writing the data of the stored place name retrieved above into the search memory of level 1, the determination is made again. If the answer is NO, the process directly advances to step S12.

On the other hand, if the determination in step S2 is No, it is determined in step S5 whether or not there has already been a level 1 search, and if this determination is YES, the searched place name data of level 1 is prioritized and the above is performed as is. The process moves to step 312.

If the determination in step S5 is No, then in step S6 it is determined whether or not the comparison level of the stored place name is level 2. If this determination is YES, the process moves to step S7 and the position of the place name is determined. Whether the vehicle is located within a distance of 80'' in the longitude and latitude directions from the vehicle's current location, that is, 4 km east-west around the vehicle's current location.
, it is judged whether or not it is within the rectangular range of 4.8k111 in the north-south direction, and if this judgment is YES, step S
After moving to step a and writing the data of the place name in the search memory of level 2, if the judgment is No, the process directly proceeds to step S12. Further, if the judgment in step S6 is No, the process moves to step S9. Determine whether or not there has already been a level 2 search, and if this determination is YES, level 2
Give priority to the place name data and continue with the above step S12.
to move to. When the judgment in step S9 is No, that is, when the comparison level is level 5, step S +
o, whether the location of the stored place name is within a distance of 200'' from the vehicle's current location in the longitude and latitude directions, respectively;
In other words, approximately 10kI1 in the east-west direction centered on the vehicle's current position.
1. It is determined whether or not the vehicle is within a rectangular range of about 12 kl in the north-south direction, and if this determination is YES, step S t+
The process moves to the level 5 search memory (the sliding door in which the data has been written), and if the determination is No, the process directly proceeds to step S12.

In step S12, it is determined whether the data search for all stored place names within a predetermined range including the vehicle's current position has been completed, and if this determination is NO, the process returns to step S1 to read the place name data described above. and further repeat writing to the search memory. On the other hand, step S
If the judgment in step S12 is YES, the process moves to step S+a to judge whether there is a level 1 search, and if this judgment is YES, the level 1 search memory is checked in step S14, and then the process moves to step S19. . Further, when the judgment in step S13 is No, the process moves to step S15 to judge whether or not there is a level 2 search, and when this judgment is YES, the process moves to step S+s to check the level 2 search memory. After that, the process moves to the above step S+s. Furthermore, if the judgment in step S+s is No, the process moves to step Sy to judge whether or not there is a level 5 search, and if this judgment is YES, the level 5 search memory is checked in step S+a and then the above The process moves to step S19, but if the determination is No, it is assumed that there are no stored place names (near the vehicle's current position) to be displayed on the cathode ray tube 7, and the process is terminated.

Then, in the above step S+a, the above step S+
-8+a, it is determined whether the number of searched memory place names is one, and if this judgment is YES, in step S24, the searched memory place name is added to the vehicle passing place name display position in the image memory. Finish the written mock process. On the other hand, if the determination in step S+s is NO after multiple place name searches, the distance between the vehicle's current position and the searched place name position is calculated in step S20, and then in step S21 the calculated distance is Based on this, it is determined whether the place name is closest to the vehicle's current location. If this judgment is YES, step S
After writing the data of the place name in the nearest place memory in step S22, if the judgment is No, the process directly moves to step S23 to judge whether the data has been completed, and if this judgment is No, the process goes to step S5Pfi mentioned above. ~S22
repeat. If the determination in step s23 is YES, the invasion process via step S24 is ended. Through the processing operations described above, one stored place name nearest to the vehicle's current position is retrieved.

Further, the data processing section 16 includes a video display controller 20. It is connected to the cathode ray tube 7 via a video RAM 21 and a CRT drive circuit 22,
This video display controller 20. Video RA
M21 and the CRT drive circuit 22 make the comparison means 1
When the output from 8 is within a predetermined value, image data such as the position of the memory location name and the characters representing it are displayed on the cathode ray tube 7.
is configured to be displayed.

Therefore, in the above embodiment, place name point data R
Input means 6 from among the many place names stored in OM1
When the starting point and destination point of the vehicle are selected and input by operating the keyboard 2, the inputted starting point Ps and destination point are displayed at predetermined positions on the display surface 7a of the cathode ray tube 7, as shown in FIG. Po is displayed. Thereafter, when the vehicle travels, the vehicle current position is calculated by the vehicle current position v4 rod section 17 every time the vehicle travels a predetermined distance, and based on the output of the vehicle current position calculation section 17, the current position of the vehicle is calculated on the screen 7a of the cathode ray tube 7. The vehicle's current position P is displayed, and the coordinates of the vehicle's current position and the above place name point data RO are displayed.
The comparison means 18 compares the position coordinates of each memory place name stored in M1, searches for the place name closest to the vehicle's current position from among the memory place names, and calculates the position PM and characters of the searched place name. It is displayed on the display surface 7a of the cathode ray tube 7 together with marks Ps, Po, and P of the starting point, destination point, and current position of the vehicle. Therefore, even when the distance between the departure point and the destination point is long and the scale of the screen 7a is small, the location where the vehicle is currently traveling can be immediately recognized by displaying the place name near the vehicle's current location. This makes it possible to accurately and easily guide the vehicle.

Furthermore, when comparing the position coordinates between the vehicle's current position and the stored place name, the comparison range changes depending on the type of stored place name, as illustrated in Figure 5, and the stored place name covers a wide area such as a ward, town, village, etc. When the comparison level is 5 and the comparison range is widened, as shown in A of the figure, the output of the comparing means 17 reaches a predetermined value even if the vehicle is relatively far from the location of the stored location name. While the characters representing the location are displayed on the display surface 7a of the cathode ray tube 7, the comparison level changes as the memorized place name changes from a narrow area such as a station to a fixed point such as a famous place or historic site, as shown in B and C of the same figure. The comparison range is narrowed to 2°1, and the place name is displayed on the cathode ray tube 7 only when the vehicle approaches the memorized place name position. the result,
The start time of displaying the stored place name on the CRT 7 changes naturally depending on the type of memorized place name, so that the CRT 7 displays a place name that meets the needs of the vehicle user and provides vehicle travel guidance information appropriately. can do.

In the above embodiment, a stored place name is searched by determining whether or not the position of each stored place name is within a rectangular range centered on the vehicle's current position. It may be modified to determine whether or not the stored place name is within a rectangular range centered on the position of the stored place name, and to search for the stored place name when it is within the range, and the same effect as in the above embodiment can be achieved. I can do it.

Furthermore, in the above embodiment, the location coordinates of place names, etc. stored in the place name point data ROM1 are two-dimensional coordinates whose coordinate components are latitude and longitude. Of course, two-dimensional coordinates having a Y coordinate axis in the direction may also be used.

Furthermore, it goes without saying that the place name and point data ROM 1 may be replaced with other data storage devices such as a magnetic tape or an optical disk.

(Effects of the Invention) As described above, according to the vehicle travel guidance device of the present invention, there is a gap between the approximate position of the vehicle calculated every time the vehicle travels a unit distance and the position of the place name stored in advance. The position data of the memory location name is compared by changing the comparison range depending on the type of memory location name, and when the comparison value reaches a predetermined value, the location data of the memory location name is not displayed on the display surface of the display, but characters are displayed. is displayed, the names of places the vehicle passes while traveling from the starting point to the destination point can be appropriately displayed in accordance with the user's needs, thereby increasing the practical effectiveness of the vehicle's travel guidance system. be able to.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a vehicle travel guidance system according to the present invention. 2 to 5 show embodiments of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the overall circuit configuration, FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing the processing operation for searching a storage location name, and FIG. 4 is a CRT. FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram illustrating an example of a display of . 1... ROM of place name point data, 6... Input means,
7... Braun tube, 7a... Display surface, 8... Direction sensor, 11... Distance sensor, 16... Vehicle current position calculation section, 17... Comparison means, 18... Control means.

Claims (1)

[Claims] (1) A position data storage means for storing a place name, and when the place name indicates an area, the position coordinates of a point representing the area, and when it indicates a fixed point, the position coordinates of the fixed point, and the position an input means for inputting a departure point and a destination point from among the position data stored in the data storage means; a display having a display screen and position coordinates; a vehicle current position calculation unit that calculates the current position;
The coordinates of the current vehicle position calculated by the vehicle current position calculating section are compared with the position coordinates of the stored place name stored in the position data storage means, and the comparison range of the stored place name indicating the area is determined from the stored place name indicating the fixed point. and a control means for displaying characters representing the location of the stored place name on the display when the output from the comparison means is within a predetermined value. A driving guidance system for vehicles.