JPH05173473A - Running path display device for vehicle - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide the running part display device for a vehicle, by which the advance direction in an intersection which becomes a running path can be known simply and surely, on a road map displayed on a display device. CONSTITUTION:A road map is displayed on a display device (steps 110, 120), and when an intersection on its road map is designated (step 140), a coordinate of its designated intersection Pi is registered as intersection data of a running scheduled path. Subsequently, in the case its registered intersection Pi and the previous registered intersection Pi-1 are adjacent through a road, the advance direction of a vehicle in the registered intersection Pi-1 is calculated from the coordinates of each intersection, and stored in advance (step 180). Also, when the vehicle runs, an arrow mark for showing the advance direction of the vehicle is displayed in each registered intersection position on the displayed map, based on its stored advance direction.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a vehicle travel route display device for displaying a road map, a vehicle position, and a preset travel route of a vehicle on a display device such as a CRT or a liquid crystal display.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, as a device of this type, for example, as disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 1-134210, a road map is displayed on a display device, and an intersection number on the displayed road map is displayed. There is known a device configured such that a driver can drive the vehicle by relying on the display of the intersection when the vehicle is traveling, by identifying and displaying the preset intersection position by inputting the intersection or the like.

[0003]

However, in such a conventional device, only the position of an intersection which is a preset traveling route is displayed, so that the traveling direction at each intersection is determined by the vehicle driver on the map. It was dangerous because I had to make my own judgment by looking at the position of the next intersection. In addition, when the vehicle position enters an intersection at the end of the road map displayed on the display device as the vehicle progresses, the next intersection is not displayed on the display device. There is also a problem that the direction of travel cannot be determined.

The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and a vehicle traveling method capable of easily and reliably knowing a traveling direction at an intersection which is a traveling route on a road map displayed on a display device. It is intended to provide a route display device.

[0005]

Means for Solving the Problems That is, the present invention made to achieve the above object is, as illustrated in FIG. 1, map data storage means for storing map data representing a road map,
An intersection designating means for designating an intersection which is a traveling route of a vehicle on the road map from outside, a designated intersection designated by the intersection designating means, and map data stored in the map data storage means. Based on the traveling direction calculation means for calculating the traveling direction of the vehicle at each designated intersection, the traveling direction storage means for storing the traveling direction of the vehicle at each designated intersection calculated by the traveling direction calculation means, and the road Display means for displaying a map, vehicle position detection means for detecting the current position of the vehicle, and a road map displayed on the display means based on the map data stored in the map data storage means, and displayed. A map display control means for displaying the vehicle position detected by the vehicle position detection means on the road map, and a road map displayed on the display means by the map display control means. The traveling direction display control means for reading the traveling direction of the vehicle at the designated intersection from the traveling direction storage means, and displaying the identification symbol indicating the traveling direction of the vehicle at each designated intersection position displayed on the display means. The gist is a traveling route display device for a vehicle, which is characterized by being provided.

[0006]

In the traveling route display device of the present invention configured as described above, when an intersection which becomes a traveling route of the vehicle is designated from the outside through the intersection designating means,
The traveling direction calculation means calculates the traveling direction of the vehicle at each designated intersection based on the designated designated intersection and the map data stored in the map data storage means, and the traveling direction storage means calculates the traveling direction. The traveling direction of the vehicle at each designated intersection is stored. On the display means, the map display control means displays the road map and the current position of the vehicle, and the traveling direction display control means indicates the traveling direction of the vehicle at each designated intersection position on the displayed road map. The identification symbol is displayed.

Therefore, according to the present invention, the vehicle driver
By the identification symbol at each designated intersection displayed on the road map, it is possible to easily and surely know the traveling direction at the intersection which is the traveling route, and it is possible to improve the safety when the vehicle is traveling.
In particular, in the present invention, since the identification symbol indicating the traveling direction is displayed for each designated intersection, it is possible to know the traveling direction even if the display means does not display the next intersection, which is very convenient. is there.

Further, in the present invention, since the identification symbol indicating the traveling direction is displayed for each designated intersection, the memory (traveling direction storage means) for storing the display data can have a small storage capacity. In addition, the route can be displayed in a short time.

[0009]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. First, FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the overall configuration of a vehicle navigation device of an embodiment to which the present invention is applied.

As shown in FIG. 2, the navigation system according to the present embodiment has a GPS antenna 2 for receiving radio waves transmitted from a GPS (Global Positioning System) artificial satellite.
a, the received signal is frequency-converted and demodulated to calculate latitude data, longitude data and altitude data representing the position of the receiving point (ie vehicle position), and the moving speed (ie vehicle speed) of the receiving point is calculated. A well-known GPS receiver 2 as vehicle position detecting means for calculating the speed data represented, a keyboard for inputting various data such as an intersection position forming a traveling route by an external operation, and a display of a display device 14 described later. An input device 4 as an intersection designating means including touch keys displayed on the screen, an external storage device 6 as a map data storing means including an optical disk and a magnetic disk storing map data, and a road map including a vehicle position. And a display device 14 as a display means such as a CRT for displaying various messages, a liquid crystal display, a GPS receiver 2, and an input device 4. Read various data from the external storage device 6, etc., and a control unit 20 for displaying a road map on the display device 14 based on the data.

Here, the external storage device 6 includes a display device 14
In addition to the map data for displaying the road map, the intersection data shown in FIG. 3A and the node data shown in FIG. 3B are stored in order to display the travel route. The intersection data is data preset for each intersection on the road map, and includes the intersection address attached to the intersection, the longitude (x coordinate) data and the latitude (y coordinate) data representing the position of the intersection. , An address of an adjacent intersection adjacent to the intersection, and a node address representing an inflection point on the road between the intersection and the adjacent intersection. Further, the node data is data set in advance for an inflection point on the road when a road connecting two intersections is bent, and includes a node address attached to the inflection point and an inflection point. It is composed of longitude (x coordinate) data and latitude (y coordinate) data representing the position of a point.

Next, the control unit 20 includes a CPU 22 and a ROM.
24, RAM 26, input / output port 28, and a well-known microcomputer provided with a bus line 30 connecting these parts. When the vehicle driver inputs a travel route setting command via the input device 4, it will be described later. When the travel route display process is executed and a travel route display command is input, the travel route display process described below is executed. Hereinafter, the control device 20
The travel route input processing and the travel route display processing executed by will be described with reference to the flowcharts shown in FIGS.

First, FIG. 4 shows a travel route input process executed when the vehicle driver inputs a travel route setting command. As shown in the figure, when the travel route input processing is started, the current vehicle position Ps is detected by the GPS receiver 2 in step 110, and in the following step 120, one screen including the detected vehicle position Ps is displayed. Minute map data is read from the external storage device 6, and based on the read map data, a road map is displayed on the display device 14 as shown in FIG. At this time, the current position Ps of the vehicle is highlighted on the road map of the display device 14, and
A cursor K for designating an intersection is displayed.

Next, at step 130, the value of the counter i representing the number of intersections registered as the traveling route is initialized to a value of 0, and at the following step 140, it is determined whether or not the vehicle driver has designated the intersection. In this embodiment, the vehicle driver moves the cursor K on the road map by using the arrow keys provided on the input device 4, and further the input device 4
Since the intersection is designated by operating the confirmation key provided in, it is determined here whether or not the intersection is designated by determining whether or not the confirmation key is operated. ..

When it is determined that the enter key is operated and the intersection is designated, the process proceeds to the following step 150,
The cursor position on the displayed map is read, the coordinates (x, y) of the intersection on the map that coincides with the cursor position or is within a predetermined error range are read from the intersection data, and the coordinates (x, y) are traveled. Intersection Pi as a route (note that the subscript i is a counter value and represents a registered intersection number)
Register as the coordinates of.

If there is no intersection within the predetermined error range around the cursor position, an error message is displayed on the display device 14 and step 140 is executed again. The coordinates of the intersection Pi are as shown in FIG.
It is stored in the registered intersection data storage area preset in the RAM 26 in the order of registered intersection numbers.

When the intersection Pi is thus registered, the process proceeds to step 160 and, as shown in FIG. 8B, the display color of the intersection Pi (P2 in the figure) registered this time is changed or the brightness is changed. It is highlighted by a well-known method such as raising, and in the following step 170, the intersection Pi registered this time is displayed.
It is determined whether or not and the previously registered intersection Pi-1 are adjacent to each other. Incidentally, this judgment is executed by judging whether or not the address of the previously registered intersection Pi-1 is included in the adjacent intersection addresses of the intersection data of the intersection Pi registered this time.

When it is determined in this step 170 that the intersection Pi registered this time and the intersection Pi-1 registered last time are not adjacent to each other, the process directly proceeds to step 190, and in step 170, the registration is carried out this time. When it is determined that the intersection Pi and the previously registered intersection Pi-1 are adjacent to each other, the traveling direction calculation process described below is executed in step 180, and then the process proceeds to step 190. Then, in step 190, the value of the counter i is incremented, and the process proceeds to step 140 again.

Next, when it is judged at step 140 that the intersection is not designated, the routine proceeds to step 200, where it is judged whether or not a map change command is inputted by the operation of the input device 4 by the vehicle driver. to decide. And step 2
When it is judged that the map change command is input at 00,
In step 210, according to the change command, for example, as shown in FIG.
As shown in FIG. 8C from FIG. 8B, the road map displayed on the display device 14 is changed, and the process proceeds to step 140 again.

When it is determined in step 200 that the map change command has not been input, the process proceeds to step 220, and it is determined whether or not a route input end command has been input by the vehicle driver's operation of the input device 4. To judge. Then, if the route input end command is input, the process is ended, and if the route input end command is not input, the process proceeds to step 140 again.

Next, the traveling direction calculation process of step 180 is executed as shown in FIG. That is, first step 3
At 10, it is determined whether or not there is an inflection point (node) on the road connecting the intersection Pi registered this time and the intersection Pi-1 registered last time, based on the intersection data shown in FIG. ..

When it is determined in this step 310 that there is a node on the road, the process proceeds to step 320, and the address of the node closest to the previously registered intersection Pi-1 is selected from the intersection data. Read the coordinates of the node corresponding to the read node address, as shown in FIG.
It is read from the node data shown in (b). Then, in the following step 330, based on the coordinates of the read node and the coordinates of the previously registered intersection Pi-1, the intersection Pi-
Calculate the vehicle's heading in 1.

That is, for example, as shown in FIG. 7, the intersection Pi registered this time is the intersection Cn, the intersection Pi-1 registered last time is the intersection Cm, and 2 on the road between them.
When the number of nodes Nm, Nn is set, the node Nm close to the intersection Cm is selected, its coordinates are read, and the angle θ of the straight line connecting the coordinates and the coordinates of the intersection Cm.
And set this as the direction of travel.

On the other hand, if it is judged at step 310 that there is no node on the road connecting the intersection Pi registered this time and the intersection Pi-1 registered last time, that is, if the road connecting these intersections is a straight line. Then, in step 340, the traveling direction of the vehicle at the intersection Pi-1 is calculated based on the coordinates of the intersections Pi-1 and Pi similarly to the above. In the present embodiment, the processing of steps 310 to 340 corresponds to the above-mentioned traveling direction calculation means.

Then, step 330 or step 340
When the traveling direction of the vehicle at the intersection Pi-1 is calculated at
The process proceeds to step 350, and the calculated traveling direction is stored in the registered intersection data storage area shown in FIG. 3C which is preset in the RAM 26 as the traveling direction storage means, and in the following step 360. , As shown in FIG.
The arrow along the calculated traveling direction is displayed at the intersection Pi-1 position on the road map, and this process is ended.

As a result, at the time of inputting the traveling route, every time the intersection Pi that is the traveling route is registered, the traveling direction at the intersection Pi-1 registered before that is calculated, and the RAM 2
6 will be stored. Also, for example, in FIG.
As shown in, when the intersection next to the intersection P3 is designated and the traveling route input processing is completed, the designated intersection is highlighted as the target intersection PE and the traveling route from the current position Ps of the vehicle to the target intersection PE is displayed. At each of the intersections, an arrow indicating the traveling direction is displayed.

Next, FIG. 6 shows a traveling route display process executed when the vehicle driver inputs a traveling route display command. As shown in the figure, when the travel route display process is started, the current vehicle position Ps is detected by the GPS receiver 2 in step 410, and one screen including the detected vehicle position Ps is detected in step 420. Minute map data is read from the external storage device 6, and based on the read map data, processing as map display control means for displaying a road map on the display device 14 is executed as shown in FIG. 9A. At this time, the current position Ps of the vehicle is displayed on the road map of the display device 14 by an identification symbol (triangle mark) indicating the traveling direction.

Next, at step 430, the traveling direction at the registered intersection existing on the displayed road map is stored in the RAM2.
6 is read from the registered intersection data, and in the next step 440, an arrow is displayed at the registered intersection position on the road map according to the read traveling direction, as shown in FIG. 9A. This step 430 and 440
This process corresponds to the above-mentioned traveling direction display control means.

Next, in step 450, the current vehicle position Ps is detected by the GPS receiver 2 as in step 410 above. Then, in the following step 460, it is determined whether or not the vehicle position is within a preset frame on the display screen (shown by the dotted line in FIG. 9B), and the vehicle position is within the set frame. If there is, the process proceeds to step 470, the vehicle position on the road map is changed to the latest vehicle position detected in step 450, and the process proceeds to step 450 again.

On the other hand, when the vehicle position deviates from the set frame as shown in FIG. 9 (b) as the vehicle advances, a negative determination is made in step 460, and step 48 is performed.
Move to 0. Then, in step 480, the road map displayed on the display device 14 is changed based on the vehicle position, for example, as shown in FIGS. 9B to 9C, and the process proceeds to step 430 again.

As described above, in the navigation system of this embodiment, the traveling direction of the vehicle at the intersection is automatically calculated by sequentially designating the intersections to be the traveling route before the vehicle travels. , In the RAM 26. When the traveling route is displayed while the vehicle is traveling, the traveling direction at each intersection position on the traveling route is displayed as an arrow along with the traveling direction at the current position of the vehicle. Therefore, the vehicle driver can easily and surely know the traveling direction at each intersection on the road map displayed on the display device 14, and can improve the safety while the vehicle is traveling.
Further, in this embodiment, since the arrow indicating the traveling direction is displayed for each designated intersection, a memory having a small storage capacity can be used as the memory (that is, the RAM 26) for storing the data, and the traveling direction can be displayed. It can be done in a short time.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the overall configuration of the vehicle navigation device of the embodiment.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram illustrating a configuration of various data (intersection data, node data, registered intersection data) used for inputting and displaying a travel route.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing a travel route input process executed by the control device 20.

5 is a flowchart showing a traveling direction calculation process executed in step 180 shown in FIG.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing a travel route display process executed by the control device 20.

FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram illustrating an operation of calculating a traveling direction and a display state of the traveling direction when a node is set between registered intersections.

FIG. 8 is an explanatory diagram showing a display screen of the display device 14 when a travel route input process is executed.

FIG. 9 is an explanatory diagram showing a display screen of the display device 14 when a travel route display process is executed.

[Explanation of symbols]

2 ... GPS receiver 4 ... Input device 6 ... External storage device 14 ... Display device 20 ... Control device 22 ... CPU 24 ... ROM
26 ... RAM

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A map data storage means for storing map data representing a road map, an intersection designation means for externally designating an intersection which is a traveling route of a vehicle on the road map, and the intersection designation means. Based on the designated intersection designated by the above and the map data stored in the map data storage means, the traveling direction calculation means for calculating the traveling direction of the vehicle at each designated intersection, and the traveling direction calculation means A traveling direction storage unit that stores the traveling direction of the vehicle at each of the designated intersections, a display unit that displays a road map, a vehicle position detection unit that detects the current position of the vehicle, and a storage unit that stores the map data in the map data storage unit. A map display for displaying a road map on the display means based on the displayed map data and displaying the vehicle position detected by the vehicle position detection means on the displayed road map. The control means and the designated intersections displayed on the display means by reading out the traveling direction of the vehicle at the designated intersection existing on the road map displayed on the display means by the map display control means from the traveling direction storage means. A traveling route display device for a vehicle, comprising: a traveling direction display control means for displaying an identification symbol indicating a traveling direction of the vehicle at a position.