JPH05303331A - Map display device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To make a plotted road map easy to see by displaying only character information around the route of a user's vehicle out of character information on the road map but not displaying the other character information by an operation switch. CONSTITUTION:A microcomputer 23 for CD-ROM reads out road map data stored in a CD-ROM 21 through a decoder 22 and transmits it to a main microcomputer 12 through a communication bus 40. Road map data includes picture data for map display, data related to roads, data related to characters expressing the display materials on the map, etc. A microcomputer 33 for location successively calculates the present position of the user's vehicle in accordance with data related to the advance direction inputted from a geomagnetism sensor 32 and data related to the extent of movement inputted from a vehicle speed sensor 31. It is periodically transmitted through the communication bus 40. A main microcomputer 12 sends received picture data to a driver 13 to plot the road map on an LCD display device 14.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a map display device, and more particularly to a map display device used in a vehicle-mounted navigation system to make a drawn map easy to see.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a navigation system, the route of a vehicle to a destination can be set, and the character information displayed on a road map can be displayed by attribute (intersection name, station name, place name, etc.). There are some that can be turned on and off by operating a switch. For example, by operating the switch, only the intersection name, only the station name, only the place name, or the intersection name and station name, the station name and place name, the place name and intersection name, or the intersection name and station name
There is a thing such as a place name that allows the operating side to freely select the character information displayed over the road map.

[0003]

The character information for each attribute selected by the above switch operation is the so-called "map book".
It is displayed over the entire screen drawn like. However, the in-vehicle navigation system requires
It is a road map in which the route of the own vehicle is displayed in detail by the character information, and is not a road map in which the character information is displayed even in a portion unrelated to the route such as the "map book". In the navigation system, the original function of the navigation system is further enhanced by deleting the character information of the portion unrelated to the route so that the drawn screen can be seen easily.

As described above, in the map display device used in the conventional navigation system, although the route of the vehicle to the destination can be set in advance, it is displayed over the road map. Since the character information is displayed on the entire drawn screen, it is difficult to see the screen, and there is a problem that the original function of the navigation system cannot be fully utilized.

The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide a map display device that makes it easy to see the screen drawn by deleting character information other than the vicinity of the route of the vehicle. There is.

[0006]

In order to achieve the above object, in a map display device according to the present invention, a road map holding means for holding image data for displaying a road map, and a road map holding means on the road map. Position holding means for holding position data for displaying the vehicle position, character data holding means for holding characters representing a display object displayed on the road map and data indicating the display position, and a starting point Route setting means for setting a route from a destination, character data selecting means for selecting only characters in the vicinity of the set route when the route is set by the route setting means, and the road based on the data from the respective means. It is characterized in that it is provided with a display means for displaying a map, a vehicle position, characters and a set route in an overlapping manner.

[0007]

As described above, the map display device according to the present invention is
Since the road map holding means, the position holding means, the character data holding means, the route setting means, the character data selecting means and the display means are provided, the route setting means sets the route of the own vehicle. And within a predetermined range from the path by the character selection means (within a predetermined range determined by the magnification of the screen drawn from the path)
Is selected (by attribute) and is displayed on the display screen together with the road map, vehicle position, and route by the display means.

That is, in the map display device according to the present invention, of the character information, only the character information near the route of the own vehicle is displayed, and the character information other than the vicinity of the route of the own vehicle is not displayed. The drawn map is much easier to see than the map display device of FIG. As a result, the route can be easily grasped, and the original function of the navigation system can be further utilized.

[0009]

Embodiments of the map display device according to the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram schematically showing the system configuration of a map display device according to an embodiment.

In the figure, 11 indicates an operation switch, which is connected to a main microcomputer 12, the main microcomputer 12 is connected to a driver 13, and the driver 13 is connected to an LCD display 14. The main microcomputer 12 is also connected to the CD-ROM microcomputer 23 and the location microcomputer 33 via the communication bus 40. The CD-ROM microcomputer 23 is connected to the decoder 22 and the decoder 22 is connected to the CD-ROM 21. Has been done. The location microcomputer 33 is connected to the wheel speed sensor 31 and the geomagnetic sensor 32.

In the above configuration, the CD-ROM microcomputer 23 and the location microcomputer 33 perform the following control functions. The CD-ROM microcomputer 23 reads the road map data stored in the CD-ROM 21 via the decoder 22 and sends it to the main microcomputer 12 via the communication bus 40. The road map data includes image data for displaying a map, data about roads,
It includes data relating to the characters that represent the objects displayed on the map.

The location microcomputer 33 sequentially calculates the current position of the vehicle from the data on the traveling direction input from the geomagnetic sensor 32 and the data on the moving distance input from the wheel speed sensor 31, and the communication bus 40 is set. The data is transmitted to the main microcomputer 12 periodically (for example, every one second) via the CPU. When calculating the current position of the vehicle, the absolute position is calculated by satellite navigation when calculating the current position of the vehicle by a method that combines dead-reckoning navigation and satellite navigation (GPS). However, if the current position of the vehicle is calculated only by dead reckoning as described above, the initial value required for calculation of the current position is the communication bus 40.
Via the main microcomputer 12 to the location microcomputer 33.

FIG. 2 is a flow chart showing the operation of the main microcomputer 12. First, the main microcomputer 12
Image data for displaying a road map is received from the CD-ROM microcomputer 23 via the communication bus 40, and the received image data is sent to the driver 13 and drawn on the LCD display 14. Then, thereafter, the processing shown below is executed in an infinite loop.

[Infinite Loop] First, it is determined whether or not a switch operation for setting a route, selecting character information by attribute, displaying characters near the route, setting a map magnification and the current position of the vehicle, etc. is performed. .. When the switch operation related to the setting of the route is performed by the operation switch 11, the processing described below is performed, and when the switch operation related to the setting of the current position of the vehicle is performed, the processing described below is performed. Done.

When the operator gives data on the current position of the vehicle by operating the operation switch 11,
The main microcomputer 12 transmits the data to the location microcomputer 33 via the communication bus 40. Then, the location microcomputer 33 sequentially calculates the present position of the vehicle thereafter using the received data as an initial value.

When the switch operation related to the setting of the route (and the selection of character information by attribute and the display of characters near the route) is performed, the process is performed according to the flowchart shown in FIG. FIG. 3B is a flowchart showing a switch process relating to selection of a display method of character information. First, it is judged whether or not a route (starting point and destination) is set. If the route is not set, this switch process is not performed. When the route is set, the switch operation is performed according to the set state of the route vicinity character display flag relating to the character display near the route. That is, when it is desired to display the character information on the entire screen, the operation switch 11 is operated to clear the character display flag near the route, and the character selected according to the switch operation of the attribute selection of the character information is displayed on the entire screen. .. On the other hand, when it is desired to display the character information only near the route, the operation switch 11 is operated to set the character display flag near the route to the set state,
The character selected according to the switch operation of the attribute selection of character information is displayed only near the route. FIG. 3A shows a process of displaying a character only in the vicinity of the route if the flag is set and displaying the character on the entire screen if the flag is clear, according to the set state of the route vicinity character display flag. ing. The character display processing when displaying characters only near the route will be described later with reference to the flowchart of FIG. 4 and FIG.

When the judgment regarding the switch operation is completed, the process of the main microcomputer 12 shifts to the judgment of whether or not the coordinates (current position) of the vehicle have been received from the location microcomputer 33. When the coordinates are received from the location microcomputer 33, the following processing is executed. The following processing is executed every time the coordinates are transmitted from the location microcomputer 33 periodically (for example, every one second).

First, it is determined whether the map displayed on the screen needs to be updated. If it is necessary to update it in relation to the coordinates, the road map data most suitable for displaying the coordinates is read from the CD-ROM 21 via the CD-ROM microcomputer 23, and the character of the road map data is read. Data excluding information (background of the map and road) is drawn on the LCD display 14. Next, it is determined whether the character display flag near the travel route is set. If the flag is set, only the characters in the vicinity of the route are displayed according to the attribute selection (described later with reference to FIGS. 4 and 5). If the flag is not set, the characters are displayed on the entire display screen according to the attribute selection. Is displayed. Next, display the map background, roads, and letters in a superimposed manner,
Finally, the vehicle marker is displayed at the position indicated by the coordinates.

FIG. 4 is a flow chart showing a character display process for displaying characters only near the route, and FIG. 5 is a schematic view showing the positional relationship between the route and the displayed characters.
In FIG. 5, reference numeral 100 denotes a route, and boundary line segments 110 are set on both sides of the route 100. Border line segment 110
The interval is different depending on the magnification of the screen to be drawn, but is usually set to about 1/3 of the display screen. In addition, the * mark in the figure indicates a character near the route.

The flowchart of FIG. 4 will be described with reference to the positional relationship diagram between the route and the characters shown in FIG. When drawing a character in the vicinity of the path 100, it is first determined whether the attribute-specific selection switch of the character information is operated to set the attribute display flag. If the flag is not set, this process is performed. I can't. When the flag is set, the line segment closest to the route 100 is searched and the boundary line segment 110 is set. Next, it is determined whether the character selected by the attribute selection is within the boundary line segment 110. If the character is within the boundary line segment 110, it is displayed, and if not, it is not displayed. That is, the character 1 * is not displayed, but the character 2 * is displayed.

As described above, in the map display device according to the embodiment, the route 100 is set and the operation switch 1
When the character display near the route is selected by 1, the boundary line segment 110 is set according to the magnification of the display screen.
Characters not in 10 are not displayed, and only characters in the boundary line segment 110 are displayed. Therefore, the drawn map is easier to see than the conventional map display device, the route can be easily grasped, and the original function of the navigation can be fully utilized.

[0022]

As described in detail above, in the map display device according to the present invention, among the character information displayed on the road map, only the character information near the route of the vehicle is displayed by the operation switch. However, since the character information other than the vicinity of the route of the own vehicle can be prevented from being displayed, the drawn road map can be made much easier to see than the conventional map display device. As a result, the route can be easily grasped and the original function of the navigation can be fully utilized.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram schematically showing an embodiment relating to a system configuration of a map display device according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing the operation of the main microcomputer.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing a switch process relating to selection of a display method of character information.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing a character display process for displaying characters only in the vicinity of a route.

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram showing a positional relationship between a route and characters.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1, 2 Characters 11 Operation switch 12 Main microcomputer 14 LCD display 21 CD-ROM 23 CD-ROM microcomputer 33 Location microcomputer 100 Path 110 Boundary line segment

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A road map holding means for holding image data for displaying a road map, a position holding means for holding position data for displaying a vehicle position on the road map, and the road map on the road map. Character data holding means for holding a character representing a displayed object to be displayed and data indicating its display position, route setting means for setting a route from a starting point and a destination, and a route set by the route setting means. And a character data selection means for selecting only the characters in the vicinity of the setting path,
A map display device comprising: a display unit that displays the road map, the vehicle position, characters, and a set route in an overlapping manner based on the data from the units.