JP2910511B2 - Navigation device - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a navigation apparatus suitable for use in, for example, an automobile navigation apparatus.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, various navigation devices have been developed for use in automobiles. For example,
GPS (Global Positioning Sy)
Various navigation devices using a positioning device of a current position by a positioning system using an artificial satellite called a "stem" have been put to practical use. In such a navigation device, the current position detected by the positioning device is displayed on a map displayed on the monitor receiver, so that the current traveling position and the like can be determined.

[0003] The display mode of such a navigation device will be described. For example, as shown in Fig. 4, a road map is displayed on a screen of a display device, and a current position on the road map is provided with a mark Pa indicating a traveling direction. Is displayed. Then, every time a predetermined time (for example, 5 minutes) elapses, the current position may be plotted on a map at a point Pb or the like to display a traveling locus. In this way, by sequentially following the plotted points Pb, it is possible to easily determine which road the vehicle has traveled through from the road map.

[0004]

However, according to the conventional display form of the traveling locus, it is not possible to quickly determine which point has passed which point, even if the road that has passed from the plotted point is known. It was difficult. That is, for example, when the plotted points are displayed every 10 minutes, if the number of the plotted marks is sequentially traced, the point 10 minutes before, 20
It can be understood in order of the point before the minute and the point ３０ 30 minutes before. In actuality, such a screen of the navigation device may be viewed in a state such as when the vehicle is temporarily stopped at a traffic light or the like while driving. In many cases, it is necessary to understand the situation only by looking at the screen for a short time. For example, when it is desired to know the point one hour before, there is no time to count the number of plotted points in order.

If the vehicle has been stopped at a certain point for a long time on the way, the points are plotted on the same point on the map, so that the number of points plotted is counted sequentially as described above. However, the actual running time may not always match.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In view of the foregoing, it is an object of the present invention to provide a navigation apparatus of this kind which allows a transit time to be easily determined from a display of a traveling locus.

[0007]

According to the present invention, as shown in FIG. 1, for example, a vehicle position detecting means 1, a map data storing means 4, and map data stored in the map data storing means 4 are used. Display means 6 for displaying a map near the position detected by the detection means 1 based on the detection means 1, and a navigation device for displaying the own vehicle position detected by the detection means 1 on the map displayed by the display means 6. first accumulating vehicle position detecting unit 1 detects at predetermined time intervals, with displays on the map displayed by the display unit 6 the vehicle position, respectively that this accumulation, each of the vehicle and the accumulated The position display mode is longer than the first predetermined time.
Every time the second predetermined time elapses,
The display mode of the car position is the previous car position
Is changed from the display mode .

[0008] In this case, the display color is changed as a display mode.

[0009]

According to the present invention, it is possible to easily determine how many hours (minutes ago) the displayed position is a passing point by changing the display mode of the own vehicle position.

[0010]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS One embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS.

In this embodiment, the navigation device is mounted on an automobile, and is configured as shown in FIG. In FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 denotes a positioning unit, and the positioning unit 1 measures a current position. In the case of this example, this positioning unit 1
It is assumed that positioning is performed using a positioning system using an artificial satellite called GPS, and an antenna 2 for receiving a signal from the artificial satellite is attached.

The data of the current position measured by the positioning unit 1 is sequentially supplied to the system controller 3.
The system controller 3 is composed of a microcomputer and controls the operation of each section of the navigation device.

In the figure, reference numeral 4 denotes a disk drive.
This disk drive 4 has a C on which map data is recorded.
DROM is pre-installed. When data of the current position is supplied from the positioning unit 1 to the system controller 3, map data around the position indicated by the data is read from the CD ROM mounted on the disk drive 4, and the image processing unit 5 To be supplied.

The image processing unit 5 performs a process of creating a video signal for displaying a map from the supplied map data under the control of the system controller 3.
At this time, a process of displaying various characters and graphics on the map is performed based on the data supplied from the system controller 3. The characters and graphics displayed on the map include a mark indicating the current position and the traveling direction of the vehicle, a mark indicating a point where the vehicle has passed in the past, and the like. Then, the video signal created by the image processing unit 5 is supplied to the display device 6. The display device 6 is installed, for example, near the driver's seat of an automobile, and displays a road map or the like in a color image by a video signal supplied from the image processing unit 5.

Operation information from the operation keys 7 is supplied to the system controller 3, and various operation modes such as switching of display modes are set based on the operation of the keys 7.

Further, a memory 8 and a timer 9 are connected to the system controller 3, and each time a predetermined time t ₀ (for example, about 5 minutes to 10 minutes) counted by the timer 9 elapses, the memory 8 To store the data of the current position. Then, when the image processing unit 5 creates a road map near the current position, the system controller 3 reads out the data of the past position stored in the memory 8 and supplies the data to the image processing unit 5, so that To display the past own vehicle position as a point.

Then, the connection to the system controller 3 is made.
In the timer 9, the time t ₀Much longer than
Time t₁(Eg, tens of minutes to one hour)
The time t₁Every time
The display color of the point indicating the vehicle position displayed on the road map
Is changed. However, the point at each position
Once the display color is set, do not change it.
You. Therefore, it is newly displayed on the map as the vehicle travels.
The color of the point₁It changes every time. in this case,
For example, two colors are available as the color of the point to display the vehicle position
And time t₁Alternate between these two colors each time, or
Prepares three or more colors, and the time t₁Change the color of each time
You may make it.

Next, the operation of the navigation apparatus having the above configuration when displaying the position of the vehicle will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

First, when a map display near the own vehicle position is started by operating the operation keys 7, the system controller 3 starts counting the time t _{1 by} the timer 9 (step 101), and at the same time, starts the time t ₀ . The counting is started (step 102). Here, the time t
₁ is one hour, and time t ₀ is ten minutes.

Then, the positioning unit 1 uses the GPS position data.
Data acquisition to obtain the current vehicle position data
(Step 103). Then, the detected vehicle position
Map data of the neighborhood is stored in a CD ROM by the disk drive
And read it out and supply it to the image processing unit 5.
The map is displayed on the device 6 (step 104). This and
As shown in FIG. 3, the current vehicle position on the road map
Mark P indicating the direction of travel ₀Is displayed. And this
The data of the vehicle position obtained first is stored in the memory 8 and
Good. At this time, the color data for displaying
Data is also stored at the same time. Here, the current position of the vehicle
Display the road map so that is almost centered on the road map
Let it.

[0021] Then, according to the travel of the vehicle equipped with this navigation system, changing the display position on the map mark P ₀ indicating the current vehicle position and the traveling direction (actually a map of the current vehicle position , So the display range of the map changes.)

The count time of the timer 9 is equal to the time t.
₀ (here 10 minutes) to determine whether it is (step 105), if not time t _0, the step 103
Return to the step of taking in the current vehicle position data. If it is determined that it is time t _0, then the count time of the timer 9 is determined whether it is time t ₁ (1 hour in this case) (step 106), if not time t ₀ is now After the data of the own vehicle position is stored in the memory 8 together with the data of the display color, the data of the own vehicle position stored in the memory 8 is read out and displayed on the map as a point in the color designated by the stored data. (Step 107). However, only the position data within the range that can be displayed on the currently displayed map is processed.

Next, the count time t _{0 of the} timer 9 is calculated.
Is reset to count from 0 (step 10
8) Returning to step 103, the data of the current vehicle position is taken in.

If it is determined in step 106 that the time t ₁ has come, a process of changing the display color data, which is simultaneously stored when the vehicle position data is stored in the memory 8, to another color is performed (step 106). 109), the count time t ₁ of the timer 9 is reset to the count 0 (step 110), after stored in the memory 8 together with the display color data data for the current vehicle position proceeds to step 107, the memory The data of the own vehicle position stored in 8 is read out and displayed on the map as a dot in the color indicated by the stored data.

By performing the display processing in this manner, as shown in FIG. 3, the points P ₁ , P ₂ , P ₃ indicating the past vehicle position together with the mark P ₀ indicating the current vehicle position. Is displayed as a traveling locus. In this case, time t _{0 is set} to 10 here.
Having set the minute, with the point indicating the past positions every 10 minutes is plotted, so setting the predetermined time t ₁ hour, the color of the points to be newly displayed is changed every hour.
Therefore, for example, as shown in FIG. 3, the display point P of the passing point every 10 minutes from the current point P ₀ up to one hour before is displayed.
_The display color changes between ₁ and the display point P2 of the passing point every 10 minutes up to one hour before that (however, the color cannot be shown in the drawing, so it is distinguished as a white circle and a black circle). . Further, the display color of the display point P ₃ of the passing point of every 10 minutes until a further 1 hour before it even, the point P ₁ in the case of changing the display color of the point P ₂ (the display color is provided three or more colors ,
To different colors with both the display color of the P _2).

In this way, the point indicating the past traveling position
The display color changes every hour, so that the past
Just look at the display status of the point at
You can see the outline of the running time. That is, for example, the display state shown in FIG.
Point P₁Is a passing point or point about 1 hour before
P_TwoIs a passing point from about 1 hour to about 2 hours ago, P _Three
Is a passing point about 2 hours or more ago. Also on the way
Even if you stop for a long time,
Due to the change of the display color of the point, how long did you stop
You can get the idea.

In the above-described embodiment, the color of the point indicating the past passing point is changed, but another display mode may be changed. For example, the colors of the displayed points may be all the same, and the size and shape of the points may be changed.

In the above-described embodiment, the display mode such as the display color is changed every time the predetermined time t ₁ elapses with reference to the traveling start point. the difference between the passing time of the past passing point is, each time exceeds a predetermined time t _1, may be changing the display mode of a display color of the past passing point. By doing so, the display mode of a point that has passed before the current time t ₁ before and the display mode of the point that has passed before the predetermined time t ₁ or more changes.

Further, in the above-described embodiment, the present invention is applied to a device that performs navigation by measuring the current position using GPS, but it is needless to say that the present invention can be applied to a navigation device of another system.

[0030]

According to the present invention, it is easy to outline how many hours ago (minutes ago) the displayed position is due to a change in the display mode (display color, etc.) of the traveling locus of the own vehicle position. In addition, when the vehicle is stopped halfway, it is easy to determine how long the vehicle has been stopped based on the change in the display mode of the traveling locus before and after the stop point.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a system configuration diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart for explaining one embodiment.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing a display example according to one embodiment.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram showing a conventional display example.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Positioning part 3 System controller 4 Disk drive 5 Image processing part 6 Display device 8 Memory 9 Timer

Claims (3)

(57) [Claims] 1. A vehicle position detecting means, a map data storing means, and a display means for displaying a map near the position detected by the detecting means based on the map data stored in the map data storing means. A navigation device for displaying the vehicle position detected by the detection means on a map displayed by the display means, wherein the vehicle position detected by the detection means is stored every first predetermined time; the accumulated each vehicle position with is displayed on the map displayed by the display means, as the accumulated each display mode of the vehicle position, the upper
Passing a second predetermined time longer than the first predetermined time
Each time, the display mode of the vehicle position newly displayed
A navigation device characterized by changing the display mode of the vehicle position displayed on the navigation device. 2. The navigation device according to claim 1, wherein a display color is changed as the display mode. 3. The navigation device according to claim 2, wherein the display color is changed sequentially at predetermined time intervals using two or three colors.