WO1987001209A1

WO1987001209A1 - Display device

Info

Publication number: WO1987001209A1
Application number: PCT/JP1985/000464
Authority: WO
Inventors: Katsuichi Murayama; Hideki Takei
Original assignee: Nagano Nihon Musen Kabushiki Kaisha
Priority date: 1985-08-22
Filing date: 1985-08-22
Publication date: 1987-02-26

Abstract

A display device having radar function to display information necessary for preventing collisions and for navigation, such as azimuth, velocity, direction of the wind, speed of the wind, depth of water or altitude, radar display, and the like. The display unit is equipped with an optical display panel (41) in which a number of electrooptical segments such as liquid crystalline display cells are arranged in the form of polar coordinates. The display panel (41) displays the input data from the sensors that obtain various information, the input data being processed into an easy-to-see form through a processing system which utilizes a microcomputer and the like.

Description

Damage

Title of invention Display device

Technical field

According to the present invention, information such as direction, speed, water depth or altitude, radar image, etc. necessary for navigation of a ship, an aircraft, etc. can be multiple-displayed by an electro-optical segment arranged in polar coordinates with images, characters, etc. Regarding display devices.

Background technology

Conventionally, a radar brown tube has been widely used as a display device of this type installed in ships and the like.

However, such a radar brown tube has the following problems.

First, due to the shape, the depth is long, and the size and weight of the entire device are large. For this reason, the installation space is relatively large in a limited space such as a ship or an aircraft, and the degree of freedom for the installation place is limited, such as floor installation. In addition, it consumes a large amount of electricity and requires a large power source, which is economically disadvantageous.In addition, even if multiple brown tubes are installed in different places and operated in parallel, a high voltage circuit is used. It is difficult to use (high-voltage line).

Secondly, multiple display on the Braun tube display surface, that is, the synthesis of images requires a complicated and large-scale electronic circuit, which is disadvantageous in terms of cost. For this reason, speed, water depth, altitude, etc. are displayed on a separate instrument, and it is difficult to understand the overall situation.

Thirdly, there is a demand for a collision prevention device that prevents the collision of ships and the like in advance. Predictions were made by plotting or using radar as a sensor and processing by a computer. The method using this computer requires the work of selecting and identifying the same target from a large number of input target position information over time, and then obtaining the predicted position of the target in the next scan. The method in (1) is a linear prediction method, but it uses a method generally called a tracker. However, although such a conventional anti-collision device can display the distance (D-CPA) between the own ship and another ship when it is closest, and the time (T-CPA) until it is closest to the present, It takes a lot of time for processing, and it is up to humans to decide whether or not they will eventually collide. In addition, it is difficult to grasp the trends of multiple targets instantaneously, and the tracking target is limited by the memory capacity, so the target of a certain area such as land must be forced. Furthermore, the software will become more complicated and the overall equipment will become larger.

The present invention solves the problems of the conventional display device, and an object of the present invention is to provide a display device that is small (thin), lightweight, and consumes very little power.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a display device capable of easily displaying all the information necessary for navigation such as heading, speed, etc. in a multiplex manner. <The present invention further has its own collision prevention function. An object of the present invention is to provide a display device that can do this, can instantly grasp the trends of multiple targets, and can determine whether or not there is a collision and generate an alarm or the like based on this.

Invention indication

That is, the display device according to the present study has a data input section for bearing, speed, wind direction, wind speed, water depth or altitude, radar image, other information necessary for navigation, and a small amount of data for each data input facing the data input section. A data processing unit with extremely polar processing capability, a storage unit that stores the output data of each data processing unit, and one or more of the stored data are selected and the selected data are mixed and output. A data output section, an optical display panel in which many electro-optical segments are arranged in polar coordinates, and a display section including a drive circuit for displaying the output data of the data output section on the optical display panel. Is configured. As a result, the azimuth, speed, wind direction, wind speed, water depth or altitude, radar image, etc. are displayed in multiple layers on the optical display panel, and the information to be displayed can be selected as necessary.

The present invention uses a liquid crystal display cell as an electro-optical segment to achieve low power consumption and a small size and thinness.

In this study, radar data based on a fixed azimuth is stored in the storage unit at a fixed time interval, and the data output unit synthesizes the radar image for each time with changes in shading or color. This enables the radar image to display a track that shows the passage of time so that the risk of a collision can be checked at a glance and the direction to avoid can be easily determined.

Brief description of the drawings

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a block circuit configuration of a preferred display device according to the present invention, FIG. 2 is a front view of an optical display panel used in the device, and FIG. 3 is a display state. Figure 4 is a front view of the same display panel, and Figures 4 to 6 show the radar image of the device, the image in the memory, and the memory map in the memory. , Fig. 7 and Fig. 8 are flowcharts showing the processing procedure for each subroutine in the same device, and Fig. 9 is a flowchart showing the direction data processing step of Fig. 7. Figure, No. 10 Fig. And Fig. 11 show the optical display panel in principle to explain Fig. 9, and Fig. 12 shows the radar data processing step of Fig. 7 as a flowchart. Fig. 13 shows a radar image to explain Fig. 12; Fig. 14 shows the contents of the memory and compares them with Fig. 13; Fig. 15 shows Fig. Fig. 7 is a flow chart showing the speed data processing step, Fig. 16 is a diagram showing a part of the optical display panel, and Fig. I 7 is a diagram for explaining Fig. 15. Figures showing the movement of the ship for explaining the collision prevention function, Figures 18 to 21 show the radar image and the corresponding image in the storage section concerning the movement of the ship in Figure 17 , Fig. 22 shows a case where the image in the storage section is displayed on the optical display panel, and Fig. 23 shows a part of the optical display panel based on the collision detection processing function. The figure is a flowchart showing the collision detection process step in Fig. 8. 'The best mode for carrying out the invention

The best mode of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

First, the hardware configuration of the display device 1 will be described with reference to FIG.

Reference numeral 2 indicates a data input section. This data input section 2 is provided with an input terminal not shown in the figure. Each input table has azimuth data S 1, radar data S 2, wind direction wind speed data S 3, Depth data S 4, position data S 5, and speed data S 6 are input from each sensor. The data input unit 2 includes temporary storage circuits 1 to 15 which are connected to the input terminals to temporarily store the data S 1 to S 6 described above. For the image paths 10 to 15, for example, a shift register, .RAM (Random Access Memory) or the like can be used. • The data input section 2 is further connected to the data processing section 3. In this processing unit 3, data processing of the data read from the temporary storage circuits 10 to 15 is performed. This processing is executed according to a predetermined program corresponding to each data 1 to S5 as described later. This processing function section is indicated by 20 to 25 in the figure, but it is specifically processed by software such as a microcomputer. Therefore, the CPU (central processing unit) that configures the microcomputer as the data processing unit 3 and the ROM (read-only memory) that stores the program for executing the data processing. Memory), RAM and other hardware. The data processing unit 3 converts the input data into the corresponding polar coordinate address for displaying on the optical display panel. The data processing unit 3 has at least this polar coordinate conversion processing capability and can execute various processes as necessary.

The data processing unit 3 is connected to the storage unit 4. -The output data processed by the data processing unit 3 is stored in the storage unit 4. This storage unit 4 is composed of storage image paths 30 to 3δ corresponding to each data. Here, the memory circuit 31 is provided with a plurality of, for example, four dynamic circuits RA 1 to M 4. Each dynamics A M is controlled by the main timing circuit unit 7 and stores the data at a predetermined time in R A M units. Note that the memory circuit 31 may use one RAM and four bit output terminals may be used instead of M1 to M4. In this case, synthesis can be performed simply and easily.

In addition, the collision risk judgment unit 8 is provided, and M l ~! The radar data stored in 14 is automatically detected when it is arranged under certain conditions and an alarm is issued. This is the part related to the collision prevention function, and will be described in detail later. The storage unit 4 is further connected to the data output unit 5. Data output section

Reference numeral 5 includes a selection circuit for selecting which of the data is to be displayed, and a mixing circuit for mixing the selected data and applying it to the display section 6. The selection circuit is given a select control word S c from the selection switch, which can be arbitrarily selected from the outside. Such a data output section can be formed by software using the microcomputer, or can be formed by a hardware such as a switching element. On the other hand, the mixing circuit can be composed of software, or can be composed of hardware such as logic circuit.

The selected and mixed data are given to the display unit 6. The display unit 6 is composed of a drive unit 40 and an optical display panel 41, and the drive unit 40 further includes a display data storage unit 42 for storing data from the data output unit 5 and a display data storage unit 42. The display element drive circuit 4 3 for operating the display panel 4 1 corresponding to the display data read from the display data storage section 4 2 and the display data storage section 4 2 and the display element drive circuit 4 3 described above. It consists of a display timing circuit 4 4 which controls the operating timing.

Further, the device 1 is provided with the main timing circuit section 7 to control the entire timing and also with a necessary circuit section such as a power supply circuit section (not shown).

Next, the optical display panel 41 will be specifically described with reference to FIG.

The display panel 4 1 is composed of a number of electro-optical segments, that is, liquid crystal display cells (L CD) 50 ···, arranged in polar coordinates. The display panel 41 like this can be configured by a printing means such that a large number of display cells 50 are arranged on a transparent plate having a disk shape. Display In the inner area A 1 of the panel 41, 60 are arranged in the circumferential direction around the central circle 51 and in 5 steps in the radial direction. In the rear A 2, 180 pieces are arranged in the circumferential direction and 35 steps are arranged in the radial direction. As a result, a polar display screen with a total of 6600 dots is configured.

Next, a display mode of the optical display panel 41 will be described with reference to FIG. The figure illustrates the case of a ship. First, 60 is a speed display, and the length corresponding to the speed is displayed in the radial direction from the upper circumference of the central circle 51. 6 1 indicates the water depth (depth from the ship to the bottom of the sea), which is displayed at the position corresponding to water ^ in the central circle 5 1 and the lower square in the radial direction. For aircraft, the water depth will be altitude. 6 2, 6 3, 6 4 and 6 5 are directions indicating north, east, south and west, respectively, and these directions are changed according to the angle by setting the traveling direction of the ship to the upper end of the display panel 41. It will be displayed graphically. In this case, for example, north can be clearly identified by changing its shape and size with respect to other directions. 6 6 is the apparent wind direction measured on the ship · Wind speed display, 6 7 is the actual wind direction obtained by considering the speed and direction of the ship · Wind speed display, and these are the maximum wind directions It is indicated by the shading corresponding to the wind speed from the outer cell 50 toward the center. 6 8 is the display of the current position of the ship, which is indicated by letters. 6 9 shows an image of, for example, an island shadow by a radar. Next, the address relationship between the display panel 4 1 and the storage unit 4 regarding the radar image will be described. Fig. 4 shows the data D l, D 2 on the radar image address, and Fig. 5 shows the data D l, D 2 on the memory address in the memory 4. As is clear from each figure, the address of D 1 becomes (r 38, Θ 137) and the address of D 2 becomes (r 36, Θ 131) on the radar image. On the other hand, in the data on the memory address, D 1 becomes (38, 140), and D 2 becomes (36, 134). In this way, the address on the radar image moves to the address in RAM by a predetermined conversion process, but in this case, the movement is only in the circumferential direction (hereinafter referred to as the direction), and in the radial direction ( In the following,) "is fixed). As a result, the memory map becomes as shown in Fig. 6. This conversion uses the following radar image as a reference for a fixed bearing even if the vessel changes course. This is because the north direction is converted to address 0 in the 0-direction address.

Next, the simple display and the collision prevention display of the information necessary for the navigation of the ship, which is the whole operation, will be explained.

The simple display is displayed by the flow chart shown in Fig. 7, and each step shows the subroutine of each information unit. In the figure, 7 0 is a processing chip for azimuth data, 7 1 is a processing step for radar data, 7 2 is a wind direction, a processing step for wind speed data, 7 3 is a processing step for depth data, and 7 4 is a position. A data processing step, 7 5 is a speed data processing step, and 7 6 is a processing step for transferring the processed display data to the storage unit 4.

On the other hand, the collision prevention display is interrupted by the flowchart shown in Fig. 8. In this interrupt processing, the processing step 70 for azimuth data and the processing step 71 for radar data are set to H, and the processing step 80 for collision detection is performed.

Next, in each such processing step, a typical processing step will be picked up and further described in detail.

. (Direction data)

The contents from the compass (sensor) input according to the flow chart of Fig. 9 which is the azimuth data (for example, the data corresponding to the azimuth). Tal signal) is converted to the direction address SN (north direction) on the display panel 41. In other words, as shown in Fig. 10, the bearing data is expressed by dividing it by 2 deg units in the clockwise direction (to the right) with the traveling direction of the ship as the origin ^ 0 (5 N: 0 to 179). Therefore, Ν is determined by the angle between the north direction and the origin Θ 0 as shown in Fig. 1.1. Now, if the angle between the north direction and the origin is ø deg, then Ν = / 2.

[Radar data processing]

The radar data is processed by the flow chart shown in Fig.12. Now, assuming that the radar is ΡΡ I (Plan Position Indication) method, the input data will be the swept trigger pulse from the radar and the detection output for display. As an input method, this detection output is compared with the clock synchronized with the swept trigger pulse, and for example, a peak hold circuit (not shown) is reset at the rising edge of the clock. And read on the falling edge. The input scan starts when the sweep trigger is entered. However, this starts from the 5 Νth trigger pulse force. In other words, the 5Νth data is read into memory at address 0 of the 5-way address: and. Also, depending on the timing of the clock, it is read in the direction of 7 "for each address. If there is an image, it will be" 1 ", and if there is no image, it will be: ', 0". That is, the scan is radial from the center.

In this case, all addresses (X = 39, Y = 179) are scanned from the address 0 (X = 0, Y = 0) of the storage unit 4 as shown in Fig. 12. In the figure, Y is the direction address and X is the address number in the r direction.

Next, the above-mentioned input method will be described in a concrete row with reference to FIGS. 13 and 14. Figure 13 shows the image Ε reflected on the radar. In this case, the traveling direction of the ship is the direction of arrow HI in the figure. Also, in the figure, the north direction is proceeding clockwise from the 0 direction (travel direction) of the Θ direction address by 5 N, and the image E is in the north direction. Address ρ is proceeding counterclockwise.

On the other hand, the radar image shown in Fig. 13 is read into the memory address of the storage unit 4 shown in Fig. 14. In this case, the north direction is always stored in memory at address 0 of the direction address. In other words, image acquisition (scan of image data) to the memory always starts from the north direction.

[Speed data processing]

The velocity data is processed by the flow chart shown in Fig.15. .. Now, assuming that the speed V of the ship is 14 knots, according to the flow chart in the figure, the addresses (τ · X, 179), (r X, <90 ₀ ), (r X ₌ β 1). Are converted into 1 dot and 1 dot, respectively, and displayed as integers as shown in Fig. 16.

[Collision detection processing] ：: ₁

Next, the collision detection function will be specifically described with reference to FIGS. 17 to 23. This collision detection function is based on the principle of φ that radar data is always kept in a certain direction (north) so that the relative positional relationship with other ships does not change even if the ship's direction changes suddenly, as described above. Is used as a reference.

Now, it is assumed that own ship F 1 and another ship F 2 are in the positions shown at times t 1, t 2, t 3 and t, respectively, as shown in FIG. Own ship F 1 travels at 10 knots, -other ship F 2 travels at 20 knots, and own ship F 1 changes its course by about 90 'at P 1 point and own ship F 1 at P 2 point. 1 and It is assumed that another ship F 2 may collide. The direction of the north is the arrow H 2.

In this case, as shown in Fig. 18 (A), at time t 1, the position of the other ship F 2 on the radar image is in the traveling direction of the own ship F 1 (arrow H 3), and L from the center Q. 1 away. At this time, the north position is indicated by the arrow H4, which is to the right of the direction of travel of own ship F1. Therefore, as shown in Figure (B), since the north direction is set as the 0th address in the direction address on the memory address, the corresponding'Image G is at 135th address in the direction address.

On the other hand, at time t2, the own ship F1 changes its course by about 90 ', so the position and north direction of the other ship F2 are shown in Fig. 19 on the radar image.

It moves about 90 'to the right as shown in (A), and it is located L 2 away from the center Q. Therefore, on the memory address, the direction address is 135 as shown in Fig. (B). Similarly, at times t 3 and t, the position of own ship F 1 is as shown in Fig. 20 (A) and Fig. 21 (A) on the radar image, and from the center Q, respectively. L 3 and L 4 are separated. In addition, the memory address is as shown in Figure 20 (B) and Figure 21 (B), respectively.

As described above, if the radar data at times t 1 to t 4 are stored in the above-mentioned radar data storage circuit 3 1 in M 1 to M '4, respectively, as shown in Fig. 22 (A). They are arranged in a straight line in the r direction. Therefore, if the data in the memory circuit 31 is read out at the same time and displayed on the display panel 41, the result is as shown in (B) of the figure.

In this way, when the image trajectories are arranged on a straight line, that is, on the same line in the 7 "direction, it indicates that another ship is approaching the direction of collision with its own ship. Therefore, in this state, Fig. 22-2. (B) As described above, when another ship F 2 enters the boundary line R that represents a certain dangerous area on the display panel 41, for example, by issuing an alarm, a collision can be prevented in advance.

There is a danger of collision when the image loci 90 are arranged on the same 5 Y in the r direction as shown in Fig. 23. If the image trajectory 91 is as shown, there is no danger of collision, and this identification is performed by the collision risk determination unit 8.

The specific processing procedure explained above is shown in the flowchart in Fig. 24. In the figure, the address number in the r direction is X, the address number in the S direction is γ, the display data of each address after radar data composition is D, and the boundary line R shown in Fig. 22. In the case of the innermost address, if the address number in the r direction located at the outermost contour is Z, first the sequential scanning is performed from the center of the radar image, and the memory inside the boundary line R is first scanned. Read the contents. In this case: If the image 9 0 a is strongly present and D = l-, the image is fixed in the ^ direction address θ ϊ where it exists, and scanning is performed from the image 9 Q a outward in the r direction, If there are 4 dots of image locus 90 on the same θ Y, an alarm is issued. If they are not arranged on the same 6 Y as in the case of the image locus 91 shown in Fig. 23, the first detected image 9 1a of the image locus 9 1 is re-started from the next direction address. Start scanning. Note that N in Fig. 24 represents the number of address addresses scanned in the r direction after the image is first detected. Therefore, Z + N is the address address in the r direction.

The image on the display panel 41 is displayed in different gradations or gradations such that the brightness increases as t 1 to t 4 in order to distinguish past data. By providing such a collision prevention function, the number of tracking targets is unlimited within the number of pixels. In addition, since the tracking target can display several levels of gradation, It is possible to visually recognize the recognition of "elapsed time of traces" etc. with the naked eye, and it is possible to easily determine in which direction to avoid. In addition, the judgment can be easily done by reading with a microcomputer or the like. In other words, the risk determination unit 8 takes in radar data that are sequentially stored at regular time intervals, and it is confirmed that there is data that heads toward the ship or the aircraft according to the time passage in those data. By reading it, it is possible to automatically predict the collision risk. Furthermore, the software and the device can be simplified, and the device itself can be made smaller and lighter. ,

Although each display function has been exemplified above, other various display data such as water depth and position are processed in the same manner and displayed as shown in FIG.

Since such a display panel 41 uses 6600 segments, for example, the storage capacity of each storage unit 4 may be 6.6 kb i t e '. Therefore, the storage capacity is 1/3 or less compared to the radar video memory used for the well-known radar single-brown tube. -In the example, the optical display panel was explained as being composed of many segments of the liquid crystal display cell, but the segments include the liquid crystal display cell and the optical display tube. , An electroluminescence display cell, a light emitting diode, a plasma display display cell, etc. may be used.The optical display panel when using these, the It can operate with low current consumption, and can be made lightweight and thin. The display panel 41 in the example is a circular display with a diameter of 7 inches.Compared with a similar 7-inch brown tube, the volume is about 1/7 and the weight is about 1%. Becomes

As described above, according to the present invention, the azimuth, speed, wind direction, wind speed, water depth or altitude, radar image, current position, etc. are set to the length, angle, The information required for ships and aviation can be simultaneously displayed on a single screen using figures and characters, so that the navigation status of a ship or aircraft can be grasped at a glance, and the display is a liquid crystal display cell. Since it is composed of an electro-optical segment, it can operate at low voltage and low current consumption, and it can be made lighter and thinner.

Therefore, it is possible to use a dry cell or a battery as a power source for easy handling, and if it is formed as a wall-mounted type, it is extremely convenient to use in multiple places.

Industrial availability i

As described above, the display device according to the present invention is suitable as a radar to be mounted on a ship, an aircraft, etc., and is also suitable as a collision prevention radar for displaying general navigation information.

Claims

The scope of the claims

Data input section from the sensor that obtains direction, speed, wind direction, wind speed, water depth or altitude, radar image, and other information necessary for navigation, and at least polar coordinates for each data input corresponding to the data input section. A data processing unit that has conversion processing capability, a storage unit that stores the output data of each data processing unit, and one or more of the stored data are selected and the selected data are mixed and output. A data output section, an optical display panel having a large number of electro-optical segments arranged in polar coordinates, and a display section including a drive circuit for displaying output data of the data output section on the optical display panel. Display device.

The display device according to claim 1, characterized in that the data input section has a temporary storage function.

The display device according to claim 1, characterized in that the data can be arbitrarily selected from the outside.

. The display device according to claim 1, wherein the electro-optical segment is composed of a liquid crystal display cell.

The storage unit sequentially stores radar data based on a fixed azimuth at fixed time intervals, and the data output unit has a function to combine the radar images for each time with gradation changes depending on shades or colors. The display device according to claim 1, characterized in that