JPS6067818A - On-vehicle navigator - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To effect renewal of road map assuredly, by dividing an area overlapped with an administrative district in correspondence with the area included in this district and when an existing position of a vehicle plunges into the divided district, by effecting indexing of the road map to be displayed. CONSTITUTION:In an navigator image-displaying an existing vehicle position on a road map, the following measures are taken for an accurate selection and display of the road map of an area to be displayed according to the vehicle position. Namely, the road map is divided into a plurality of areas 401-404 and divide these overlapped districts 61-63 according to the area included in this overlapped district. And, when the vehicle plunges into an overlapped district, for instance, A1 district inside 62, the district allotted to this district A1 is selected as a map to be displayed next and perform an indexing of a cassette tape storing the map data. The following procedures are: as the vehicle passes, the (thumb-)indexing of the tape storing the map data corresponding to districts B1, C1 is performed and finally, the tape corresponding to C1 is selected.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Field of Application of the Invention] The present invention relates to an in-vehicle navigator, and particularly relates to a road map,
The present invention relates to an in-vehicle navigator suitable for displaying an image of the current position of a vehicle on a road map.

[Background of the invention]

Conventionally, when selecting and displaying a road map of an adjacent area using an in-vehicle navigator, there is, for example, ``In-vehicle Navigator J'' described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 57-206817.

As shown in Fig. 1, a part of the display map area 10 is divided into areas 1 to 8, one map of the @contact area is associated with each area, and the map is selected and displayed. Configured to change the screen. The correspondence is as follows. That is, area 1 becomes area 11,
Area 2 is in area 12, 1 and below, area 3 is in area 13, and so on. Area 4 is area 14. Area 5 is area 15, area 6 is area 16
, area 7 is associated with area 17, area 8 is associated with area 18, and so on.

However, in the case of the division method shown in Figure 1, when the current location of the vehicle is in areas 2, 4, and 6.8 at the four corners of the display area, there can be multiple districts adjacent to these areas. However, in this method, one specific district is fixed as an adjacent district. For example, the area is adjacent to areas 11 to 13, but the adjacent area is fixed to area 12. Therefore, in the remaining areas, for example, area 2, areas 11 and 13 could not be selected, and the road area could not be changed appropriately.

[Purpose of the invention]

The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned conventional problems.
The object of the present invention is to provide an in-vehicle navigator that can accurately select and display a road map of a district to be displayed according to the position of the vehicle.

[Summary of the invention]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a method for dividing the areas of a plurality of districts based on map data of a road map divided into a plurality of districts with areas adjacent to other districts overlapping with areas of adjacent districts. Divide the overlapping areas according to the districts included in the overlapping areas.

The divided overlapping area is stored in the storage unit as a road map district selection area, and when the current position of the vehicle enters the divided area, the next road map district to be displayed is selected, and the selected area is selected when the screen is changed. An in-vehicle navigator characterized by displaying a district road map on a display.

[Embodiments of the invention]

Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described based on the drawings.

FIG. 2 shows the overall structure of a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

In FIG. 2, reference numeral 21 denotes a microcomputer which controls the operation of the entire navigator system. Reference numeral 22 is capable of outputting an absolute azimuth in the direction of movement of the vehicle, an X component of the azimuth detected by a azimuth sensor that detects the earth's magnetic field, and an X component as an analog signal. 23 is an azimuth sensor such as an optical gyro sensor that outputs the relative heading of the vehicle. Reference numeral 24 denotes a mileage sensor that detects the distance traveled by the vehicle, and is constituted by a vehicle speed pulse sensor that outputs ON/OFF/< pulse according to the vehicle speed.

Reference numeral 25 denotes an operation switch for issuing various commands to the microcomputer 21. Reference numeral 26 denotes an external storage device constituting a storage unit, and this external storage device 26 stores map data of a road map divided into a plurality of districts in which areas adjacent to other districts overlap with areas of adjacent districts. It is retractable. In this embodiment, a cassette tape is used as the external storage device 26, and is controlled by a microcomputer.

Reference numeral 27 is a color CRT that displays an image of a road map of each district and the current position of the vehicle based on map data.

The microcomputer that constitutes the control unit receives map data for each area from an external storage device 26, determines the current position of the vehicle on the road map from the detection outputs of the vehicle speed pulse sensor 24 and the direction sensor 22, and calculates this position. The current location data and the map data of the area corresponding to the current location of the vehicle are given to the color CRT 27, and the road map of this area and the current location of the vehicle can be displayed on the color CRT 27.

FIG. 3 i'lJ: The specific configuration of the microcomputer 21 is shown.

In FIG. 3, 31 is a microprocessor, which controls the operation of the microcomputer 21. 32 is a RAM (volatile memory) which serves as a temporary storage means during the process in which the microprocessor 31 performs calculations and operation control.
It is. The power source of this RAM 32 is a separate system from the system power source, and even when the system power source is OFF, power is always supplied from the vehicle battery, and the stored contents are guaranteed.

33 is a ROM (nonvolatile memory) in which programs for various control operations and arithmetic processing operations of the microprocessor 31 are stored; 34 is an interface 36 to 3;
The various data input from 9 are processed by the microprocessor 31.
This is an input/output control LSI that inputs to the 36-3
9 constitutes an interface section, which converts signal level;
It is configured to perform waveform shaping. The interface section 36 includes a direction sensor 32 and an interface section 37.
A direction sensor 23 is connected to the directional sensor 23 , a vehicle speed pulse sensor 24 is connected to the interface section 38 , and an operation switch section 25 is connected to the interface section 39 .

35 is a small magnetic tape device control for controlling the input/output of control signals and data (road map information, various driving conditions, etc.) between the device and the microprocessor 31 when the external storage device 26 is a small magnetic tape device. It is an LSI (hereinafter referred to as CMTC). The interface 40 is
It performs signal processing to ensure the transmission and reception of signals between the CMTC 35 and the small magnetic tape device.

Reference numeral 41 denotes an LSI (hereinafter referred to as CRTC) that forms the core of the circuit section that transmits various display data to the color CRT 27.
Yes, all display data contents are controlled by the CRTC.

42i-j, which generate a reference clock signal of the CRTC, a clock signal of a serial signal sent to the video controller 53, and a timing signal for controlling the gate opening/closing of the multiplexer 43.

43, the address signal of the microprocessor 31 and the CR
The timing signal generator 42 receives the address signal from the TC.
This is a multiplexer that has the function of switching according to a timing signal.

44 to 46, each color element of color Cn, T'27, red +
f++ This is a graphic memory for green display data, and can read and write from the microprocessor 31 and the pixel of the CRTC 41 via the multiplexer 43, and with the combination of the above three primary colors, eight types of data colors can be generated. Minutes can be displayed.

47 is a memory dedicated to character data for displaying character information on the color CRT 27;
This is a character memory that allows read/write operations from the microprocessor 31 and the pixel elements of the CRTC 41 via the character memory.

48 is a character generator that patterns and stores character information such as alphanumeric characters, symbols, and katakana;
By the output of CRTC41 and character memory 47,
Various accumulated character turns are selected and output to ]. Converters 49 to 52 convert parallel data output from the graphic memories 44 to 46 and the character generator 48 into serial data in synchronization with the timing signal generated from the timing signal generator 42.

Reference numeral 53 denotes a video controller that performs level conversion and waveform shaping processing on the outputs of the converters 49 to 52 that convert parallel data into serial data in accordance with the required specifications of the color CRT 27. is connected and data is being sent.

Embodiment V' From the above configurations, the operation will be explained next.

In explaining the operation of this embodiment, if a road map is divided into districts 401 to 409 as shown in FIG. 401
Areas 61 to 68 overlap with the areas of districts 402 to 409 adjacent to the area.

Here, in this embodiment, in order to change the road map displayed on the color CRT 27 to a road map of an appropriate district according to the course of the vehicle when the current position of the vehicle moves within the area 62. As shown in FIG. 5, area A-1 is obtained by dividing area 62 into four parts corresponding to the districts included in this area.

Bl, CI, and DI are stored in the external storage unit 26 as district selection areas of the road map. Then, when the current position of the vehicle enters the divided area, the next road map to be displayed is selected, and the display is changed to the road map by a screen change command. The specific operation will be explained below based on the flowchart of FIG.

In FIG. 6, the control operation is started in step 601, and in step 6, the current position of the vehicle is calculated. After step 602, the process moves to step 603, where it is determined whether the current position of the vehicle is within the overlap area 62. It is assumed that there is no need to change the screen unless it is within the overlap area 62, and the current position is calculated again (step 60).
Return to 21.

On the other hand, if it is within the overlapping area 62, the process moves to step 604;
Make the adjacent area the area set as the divided area. Thereafter, the process moves to step 605, where the map data of the cross-border light road map is displayed on the cassette tape in which it is stored.

Next, in step 606, the current position of the vehicle is further calculated, and the process moves to step 607. In step 607, it is determined whether or not the vehicle has entered another area. If it does not enter another area, the process returns to step 606 to calculate the current position.

On the other hand, when entering another area, it is determined whether the area is different from the currently displayed area, and if it is the currently displayed area, there is no need to change the image. Return to step 603. If the area is different from the area being displayed, the process moves to step 609, where road map data of the adjacent area is loaded from the cassette tape.
Update the screen on the color CRT 27 (step 6)
10) is performed, and the display screen change process ends at step 611.

The above control operation will be explained along with an example of movement of the current position of the vehicle shown in FIG.

First, when a vehicle is initially located at point X in area 401 and moves along line segment XY, vehicle U first
Then, the district drawn in this area A1 is selected as the next road map to be displayed, and the beginning of the cassette tape storing the map data is searched. Next, area B
1, the district assigned to area B1 is selected and the beginning of the cassette tape storing the map data of this district is searched. That is, when entering B1 from area A1, the cue of the cassette tape is changed to the cue of the cassette tape assigned to area B1.

Also, the next time the area C1 is entered, the area assigned to the area C1 is selected, and the beginning of the cassette tape storing the map data allocated to the area C1 is searched. After this, when entering an area 62 that is different from the road map of the district currently displayed, the overlapped area C that was last passed through
The map data of the road map of the area selected in step 1 is loaded from the cassette tape and the screen of the color IT 27 is changed.

In this embodiment, by separating the beginning of the cassette tape from the loading in terms of time, the time required to retrieve the beginning of the tape for changing the screen is shortened.

The screen change time can be shortened.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As explained above, according to the present invention, an overlapping area in which areas of multiple districts overlap is divided in correspondence with the districts included in the overlapping area, and the divided overlapping area is selected as an area on a road map. Defined as an area.

When the current position of the vehicle enters the divided area, the area of the road map to be displayed next is selected, so there is an excellent effect that the road map can be changed reliably.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a diagram for explaining the conventional layout of map data, FIG. 2 is an overall configuration diagram for explaining an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 3 is a specific configuration diagram of the microcomputer shown in FIG. 2. , FIG. 4 is a diagram for explaining the allocation of map data according to the present invention, FIG. 5 is a diagram for explaining the entire structure of the overlapping area 62 shown in FIG. 4, and FIG. 6 is a diagram for explaining the operation according to the present invention. It is a flowchart for explaining. 21...Microcomputer, 22.23...Direction 3rd figure 4-

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A mileage sensor that detects the distance traveled by the vehicle, a direction sensor that detects the direction of travel of the vehicle, and an area adjacent to other areas that overlaps with the area of the adjacent area and is divided into multiple areas. A storage unit that stores map data of a road map, a display unit that displays an image of the road map of each district and the current position of the vehicle based on the map data, and a display unit that displays the road map of each district based on the map data and the current position of the vehicle. The current position of the vehicle on the road map is determined by the detection output, and this current position data is given to the display unit as map data of the district corresponding to the current position of the vehicle, and the road map of this district and the current position of the vehicle are displayed on the display unit. and a display control unit, which divides overlapping areas in which areas of multiple districts overlap in the map data gold thread corresponding to the districts included in the overlapping areas, and divides the divided overlapping areas into districts of the road map. It is stored in the storage unit as a selection area, and when the current position of the vehicle enters the divided area, the area of the road map to be displayed next is selected, and when the screen is changed, the road map of the selected area is displayed on the display unit. An in-vehicle navigator characterized by: