JPH11295082A - Navigation system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To enable efficient visual recognition of a route by a user, by changing the scales of a map automatically according to either a remaining distance on the route or the kind of road of the route. SOLUTION: Based on the remaining distance information and kind-of-road information on a recommended route, the scale of a map to be displayed on a liquid crystal panel 30 is determined in accordance with the determining criteria fixed beforehand. Necessity of a scale change of the map is judged by comparing the scale of a map being currently displayed on the liquid crystal panel 30 with this determined map scale. If it is judged that a scale change is necessary, a range of map data necessary for displaying a map of a changed scale is determined, Map data in this determined range and data (route information) to be drawn being lapped over the map are obtained. And a map is drawn in a memory area being an object of drawing, using this obtained data. After the completion of the drawing, a display of the liquid crystal panel 30 is changed over to the newly drawn map, and a map having been drawn in a displaying memory is eliminated. Since scales of the map is automatically changed in this way in accordance with a remaining distance and the kind of road, it becomes possible for a user to see a recommended route efficiently, without being forced to perform troublesome operation.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a navigation device, and more particularly to a navigation device capable of efficiently showing a searched route to a user without forcing the user to perform a special operation.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Generally, a car navigation system using a GPS (Global Satellite Positioning System) searches for a desired route based on a user inputting a departure place, a destination, and the like, and the user finds the searched route. When the vehicle is driven along the (recommended route), the vehicle has a function of scrolling the map displayed on the liquid crystal panel along the recommended route. Some car navigation systems have a function of changing the scale of a map displayed on a liquid crystal panel based on a user operating a remote controller or the like.

Therefore, according to the conventional car navigation system, when a map is scrolled along a recommended route and displayed along a road, a user can use a remote controller or the like to efficiently view the recommended route. It is possible to change the scale by operation.

[0004]

However, in such a conventional car navigation system, the scale of the map cannot be changed without operating a remote controller or the like. Complicated operation was required during the operation.

[0005] The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and aims to provide a navigation device that can efficiently show a recommended route to a user without forcing the user to perform a complicated operation. It is.

[0006]

According to the present invention, there is provided a navigation apparatus having a function of scrolling and displaying a map along a searched route along a searched route, as in the above-described conventional car navigation system. And a scale changing means for changing a scale of the map in accordance with at least one of a remaining distance on the route and a road type of the route.

According to this navigation device, when a map is scrolled along a searched route and displayed along a road, at least one of a remaining distance on the route and a road type of the route is displayed. , The scale of this map is automatically changed by the scale changing means.

Here, it can be said that the scale suitable for efficiently showing the route to the user has a close relationship with the remaining distance on the route and the type of the road of the route. That is, as an example, when the remaining distance is less than a certain distance at which the destination is relatively close, the scale is increased (to make a detailed map), and when the remaining distance is more than this certain distance (that is, the comparison from the destination is made). If the scale is small (in the middle of a route that is far away), the route can be seen more efficiently by reducing the scale (to make a wide area map).

Further, as an example, when the route of the route is an expressway, the moving speed is generally high, so the scale is reduced (wide area map). When the road is a general road, the moving speed is generally small, so the scale is increased ( The more detailed the map, the more efficient the route can be.

Accordingly, by automatically changing the scale of the map in accordance with at least one of the remaining distance on the route and the road type of the route, the route can be reduced without complicating the user. Can be shown to the user efficiently.

[0011]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an example of a hardware configuration of a car navigation system to which the present invention is applied. This system includes a D / A converter 28 and a speaker 29 for outputting guidance information such as a traveling direction by voice, and a liquid crystal panel 30 for displaying a map or the like.
A CD-ROM drive 31 for reproducing a CD-ROM 32 such as map software; a GSP controller 34 and a GSP antenna 35 for receiving radio waves from a satellite for detecting an absolute position; (Remote receiver 36 for receiving signals in the far infrared region) and gyro sensor 38 for detecting relative position
(A vehicle speed pulse from a vehicle speed sensor not shown is also used for relative position detection), and a peripheral control device 27 and a sub CPU 33 for managing these peripheral devices.
Main CPU 21, DRAM 22, mask ROM 2
3, a memory such as a flash ROM 24 and an SRAM 25, and an FM tuner 26.

The flash ROM 24 has a main CPU
21 stores software to be executed. This software transfers the flash ROM 24 from the DRAM 22
To be executed by the main CPU 21. The hardware configuration of this car navigation system is the same as that of an existing car navigation system.
However, the software in the flash ROM 24 includes software for processing unique to the present invention, as will be described later with reference to FIGS.

FIG. 2 is a functional block diagram showing a portion related to the present invention in the system of FIG. Of the functional blocks in the figure, the double-framed blocks are realized by the hardware in FIG. That is, the remote controller 1
The remote control light receiving unit 2 is realized by the remote controller 37 and the remote control light receiving unit 36 shown in FIG. 1, respectively, and the display controller 9 and the display device 12 are respectively provided by the peripheral controller 2 shown in FIG.
7. The display memory 10 is realized by the liquid crystal panel 30, and the display memory 10 is realized by the DRAM 22 of FIG.

On the other hand, the single-frame blocks in FIG. 2 are realized by software executed by the main CPU 21. Next, each block by the software will be described. a) State management device 3 The state management device 3 receives the output of the remote control light receiving unit 2 that has received the optical signal from the remote controller 1 (that is, a trigger from a user as a key code for the system). Then, by interpreting the trigger according to its type and the state of the system, the trigger is transmitted to other software blocks such as the map display control device 4 and the route search device 8. The state management device 3 also receives a trigger from these other software blocks.

B) Map Display Controller 4 The map display controller 4 manages the number of scales that can be displayed, the range that can be displayed, the type of map that is currently being displayed, and the like.
Then, a trigger for instructing scrolling of the map or changing the scale of the map is received from the state management device 3, and a trigger for instructing necessary drawing is sent to the map drawing control device 5 by interpreting the trigger. .

C) Map drawing control device 5 The map drawing control device 5 manages the map currently displayed. Then, based on a trigger from the map display control device 4, a request for obtaining necessary map data is sent to the map information management device 6.
Send to When data is sent from the map information management device 6,
The map image is drawn on the display memory 10 via the display controller 9.

D) Map Information Management Apparatus 6 The map information management apparatus 6 reads out the map data requested to be obtained from the map drawing control apparatus 5 from the map data 11 (if necessary, converts the read data into a format that can be drawn). At the same time, the data to be superimposed on the map is read from the route information 7 and the data is sent to the map drawing control device 5. The map information management device 6 releases the unnecessary map data.

E) Route Information 7 The route information 7 is information on a recommended route searched by the route searching device 8 (data in a format sufficient to uniquely determine the recommended route). f) Route Searching Device 8 The route searching device 8 issues an instruction for searching for a recommended route from the state management device 3 and information therefor (departure point, waypoint, destination,
In response to a trigger having search conditions, the recommended route is searched. g) Map Data 11 The map data 11 is map image information including data in a format that can be linked with the route information 7 (that is, information on recommended routes).

Next, in this car navigation system, each block in FIG. 2 executes the map displayed on the display device 12 (the liquid crystal panel 30 in FIG. 1) to scroll along the recommended route along the recommended route. The processing is shown in FIGS.
This will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing an example of the entire process. When the user performs an operation of turning on the power using the remote controller 1 in FIG. 2, the process starts (step S1), and waits until an instruction to start a roadside scroll is issued (step S2).

Then, when the user performs an operation of selecting the start of the road scrolling with the remote controller 1, the trigger of the road scrolling start is transmitted from the remote controller 1 to the remote control light receiving unit 2 and the state management device 3 of FIG.
Is sent to the map display control device 4 of FIG. 2 through the step S2.
Step 7 is entered.

In this loop, processing for scrolling the map visually smoothly is performed. In other words, provided that there is no instruction to end the roadside scroll (step S3), a predetermined time (for example, several seconds) along the recommended route
The moving point of each map is subdivided into moving points for each shorter unit time (here, 1/60 second), and the map displayed on the liquid crystal panel 30 is moved to the first 1/60 second moving point. (Step S4). Then, a moving point 1/60 seconds after that point is obtained (step S5), and the condition is that the next original moving point (moving point several seconds later) has not been reached (step S6). After waiting for / 60 seconds to elapse (step S7), the map is moved to the movement point determined in step S5 (step S4).

After repeating the movement to the moving point every 1/60 second after the subdivision as described above, when reaching the next original moving point (after several seconds), it is determined as YES in step S6. Leave this loop. And step S
After steps S8 to S11 (the processing of steps S8 to S11 will be described later), the “moving point calculation processing” of step S12
Proceed to.

The "moving point calculation process" is a process for calculating a new original (several seconds later) moving point. FIG. 6 shows an example of the "moving point calculation process". First, based on the moving speed of the map displayed on the liquid crystal panel 30, the moving distance of the map in a predetermined time (several seconds) (the liquid crystal panel 30 is calculated (step S).
41). Then, from the center position of the map displayed on the liquid crystal panel 30 (that is, the current position of the host vehicle), a point on the recommended route that is separated by this movement distance is obtained, and this point is set as a new original (after several seconds). ) Set as a moving point (step S4)
2).

Then, returning to step S3 of FIG. 3 again, the loop processing of steps S3 to S7 is performed for this new moving point. In this way, the map is smoothly scrolled and displayed along the recommended route along the road.

In steps S8 to S11, processing which is a feature of the present invention is performed. In step S8, when the vehicle arrives at the original (every several seconds) moving point, information on the remaining distance on the recommended route and the type (attribute) of the road of the recommended route
And get the information.

Here, the remaining distance means the distance from the center position of the map displayed on the liquid crystal panel 30 (that is, the current vehicle position) to the destination when scrolling in the traveling direction. This is the distance on the recommended route. If scrolling is performed in the direction of the departure point (the direction of the own vehicle), the distance from the center position of this map (current position of the own vehicle) to the departure point is Distance. The type of road is, for example, whether the road is an expressway or a general road, or whether the road is a main road or a narrow street other than the general road. Again, this type is determined for the road at the center position of the map (ie, the current vehicle position).

The "display level acquisition process" of the subsequent step S9 is a process of determining the level (scale) of the map to be displayed on the liquid crystal panel 30 based on the remaining distance information and the road type information acquired in step S8. FIG. 4 and FIG. 5 each show an example of the “display level acquisition process”.

Of these, in the processing of FIG.
The level (scale) of the map is determined based on the road type information obtained in step (step S21). Here, as an example, when the road is an expressway, the scale is made smaller (wide area map), and when the road is a main road among general roads, the scale is made larger than that of the expressway (made detailed map). This decision is made based on a decision criterion such that the scale is made larger (to make a detailed map) when the main road is a narrow street among general roads.

On the other hand, in the process of FIG. 5, the map level (scale) is determined based on the remaining distance information acquired in step S8 (step S31). Here, as an example, when the remaining distance is less than a certain distance such that the destination (the starting point in the case of scrolling in the direction of the own vehicle) is relatively close, the scale is increased (to a detailed map), and When the remaining distance is equal to or longer than this fixed distance (that is, when the route is on the recommended route that is relatively far from the destination (the starting point in the case of scrolling in the direction of the own vehicle)), the scale is reduced (wide area map) This decision is made based on the following decision criteria.

The processing shown in FIGS. 4 and 5 includes a table in which road types and map levels (scales) are stored in correspondence with the above-described determination criteria, a remaining distance (or a recommended distance). It is preferable to prepare a table in which the ratio of the total distance of the route to the remaining distance) and the level (scale) of the map are stored in correspondence with the above-described determination criteria, and refer to the table. . Alternatively, as another example, a calculation formula for making a determination based on the above-described determination criterion based on the road type information or the remaining distance information may be created, and the calculation may be performed by executing the calculation.

Returning to FIG. 3, in step S10 following step S9, the level (scale) of the map currently displayed on the liquid crystal panel 30 and the level (scale) of the map determined in the "display level acquisition process" in step S9. Then, it is determined whether or not the level (scale) of the map needs to be changed. If the current scale is the same as the scale determined in the “display level acquisition process”, it is determined to be “no” and the process directly proceeds to step S12 described above. On the other hand, if they do not match, it is determined to be yes and the “level change processing” in step S11.
Proceed to.

The "level change process" is a process for changing the level (scale) of the map displayed on the liquid crystal panel 30.
FIG. 7 shows an example of the "level change process". First, a range of map data necessary for displaying a map on a reduced scale after the change is determined (step S51). More specifically, this determination is based on the rotation angle, longitude and latitude of the currently displayed map in the east-west-north-south direction, the memory area to be rendered in the display memory 10 in FIG. This is performed in consideration of parameters such as the type of the target data.

Subsequently, map data in the determined range is obtained (if necessary, the obtained map data is converted into a drawable format), and data (route information) to be drawn on the map is obtained. (Step S52). Then, using this acquired data, a map is drawn in a memory area (designated area) to be drawn (Step S).
53).

Subsequently, after waiting for a drawing completion trigger, the display on the liquid crystal panel 30 is switched to the newly drawn map (step S54). Then, the map drawn in the display memory 10 to be displayed on the liquid crystal panel 30 until immediately before is deleted from the display memory 10 (step S5).
5) Release the map data necessary for the drawing.

By the processing in steps S8 to S11 described above, the scale of the map displayed on the liquid crystal panel 30 is automatically reduced when the destination (the starting point in the case of scrolling toward the own vehicle) is relatively close. This scale is automatically reduced when the recommended route is relatively far away from the destination (the starting point in the case of scrolling in the direction of the host vehicle). Become).

When the road on which the vehicle is currently traveling is a highway (ie, when the traveling speed is generally high), the scale is automatically reduced (in a wide area map). When the road is a general road (ie, when the traveling speed is generally low), the scale is automatically increased (a detailed map is obtained). When the traveling road is a narrow street (ie, the traveling speed is generally lower). ) Automatically increases the scale (to a more detailed map).

As described above, according to the car navigation system, when the map is scrolled and displayed on the liquid crystal panel 30 along the recommended route, the remaining distance on the recommended route and the recommended route are displayed. Since the scale of the map is automatically changed according to the road type, the recommended route can be efficiently shown to the user without forcing the user to perform a complicated operation.

In the above example, in the "display level acquisition process", the map level (scale) is determined based on one of the road type information and the remaining distance information as shown in FIGS. ing. However, the present invention is not limited to this. Based on a combination of the remaining distance information and the road type information (for example, a table in which three types of road types, remaining distances, and scales are stored and prepared is referred to. (By doing so).

In the above example, when the scale is changed in accordance with the type of road, the scale is changed in three stages depending on whether the road is an expressway, a main road, or a narrow street. However, the present invention is not limited to this. For example, the scale may be changed to only two levels or the scale may be changed to four or more levels depending on whether the road is an expressway or a general road.

In the above example, when the scale is changed in accordance with the remaining distance, the remaining distance is a fixed distance such that the destination (the starting point in the case of scrolling in the direction of the own vehicle) is relatively close. The scale is changed depending on whether it is less than or not. However, the present invention is not limited to this. For example, when there is a stopover, the scale may be changed depending on whether the stopover is relatively close (when the stopover is relatively close, the scale may be increased). .

In the above example, only the scale of the map is automatically changed in accordance with the remaining distance on the recommended route and the type of road of the recommended route. However, as another example, depending on the remaining distance on the recommended route and the road type of the recommended route,
The moving speed of the map displayed on the liquid crystal panel 30 as well as the scale of the map is automatically changed (more specifically, based on the remaining distance information and the road type information acquired in step S8 in FIG. 3). In the "moving point calculation process" of step S12 in FIG. 3, the original moving point after several seconds and the moving speed up to that point may be calculated. Further, the present invention is not limited to the above-described example, and it is needless to say that various other configurations can be adopted without departing from the gist of the present invention.

[0042]

As described above, according to the navigation apparatus of the present invention, when the map is scrolled and displayed along the searched route, the remaining distance on the route and the remaining distance on the route are displayed. Since the scale of the map is automatically changed according to at least one of the road type of the route, the searched route can be efficiently shown to the user without forcing the user to perform a complicated operation. .

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a hardware configuration of a car navigation system to which the present invention has been applied.

FIG. 2 is a functional block diagram showing a part related to the present invention in the system of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a process for road scrolling.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a display level acquisition process of FIG. 3;

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing another example of the display level acquisition processing of FIG. 3;

FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a moving point calculation process in FIG. 3;

FIG. 7 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a level change process of FIG. 3;

[Explanation of symbols]

1, 37 remote controller, 2, 36 remote control light receiving unit, 3 status management device, 4 map display control device, 5 map drawing control device, 6 map information management device, 7 {Route information, 8} Route search device, 9} Display controller, 10} Display memory, 11} Map data, 12} Display device, 21} Main CPU, 22
{DRAM, 24} Flash ROM, 30} Liquid crystal panel

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A navigation device having a function of scrolling and displaying a map along a route along a searched route, wherein the navigation device displays a map according to at least one of a remaining distance on the route and a road type of the route. And a scale changing means for changing the scale of the map. 2. The navigation device according to claim 1, wherein the scale changing unit is configured to: when the remaining distance on the route is less than a certain value, more than when the remaining distance is not less than the certain value. A navigation device characterized by increasing the scale. 3. The navigation device according to claim 1, wherein the scale change unit reduces the scale of the map when the road of the route is an expressway, compared to when the road is an ordinary road. Navigation device.