JP2000163689A - Navigation system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a navigation system which allows the operator to easily find the number of facilities existing in the circumference, the temporal margin required for visiting the facilities, and the time required for visiting a displayed facility. SOLUTION: The operator of a navigation system respectively inputs an arbitrary position, the temporal margin the operator has, and a usable traveling means to a position inputting section 6, a temporal margin inputting section 9, and a traveling means inputting means 10. A facility reaching time acquiring section 11 finds the time required for visiting a facility contained in circumferential information from the inputted arbitrary position by using the traveling means inputted to the inputting section 10 from the information stored in a RAM 4 storing the circumferential information obtained from a circumferential information acquiring section 10 and map information obtained from a map information acquiring section 7. A time comparing section 12 retrieves the facility which can be reached within the temporal margin inputted to the inputting section 9 by comparing the time acquired by means of the acquiring section 11 with the temporal margin and displays the retrieved facility on a displaying section 5.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

[0001] 1. Field of the Invention [0002] The present invention relates to a navigation system, and more particularly to a navigation system for presenting peripheral information.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art There have been many inventions related to navigation systems that display a current position, map information around a destination, and route information from a current position to a destination by inputting a current position and a destination. . Regarding the provision of information related to the vicinity of the current position, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 5-102906 discloses a technique for searching for service information related to the position of a mobile station and transmitting service information of the search result to the mobile station. It has been disclosed. this is,
The mobile station knows its own position based on base station information provided in advance by the mobile communication system, searches for necessary service information from road congestion information or road map information collected by the mobile communication service center, and obtains position information of the mobile station. Is transmitted from the mobile communication service center to the mobile station.

[0003] Also, JP-A-6-20197 discloses that
When searching for a predetermined facility, there is disclosed a technique of searching for a facility that is present within a range of a displayed map and also searching for a facility that is included around a map on a display device. This is because when there is no facility desired by the operator on the map displayed on the display means, the software for searching for additional information in the ROM is driven and exists around the map displayed on the display means. A desired facility is searched, and the search result indicates how many facilities are present in which direction in the displayed map.

[0004] Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. Hei 10-30932 discloses an in-vehicle navigation system that allows a user to know desired facilities located around a road according to his / her preference. This involves setting priorities for facilities around the road, searching for stored facilities according to the set priorities, and displaying information on the searched facilities.

[0005]

In each of the above-mentioned prior arts, the user knows his / her own position, and obtains and displays peripheral information based on the known own position. JP-A-5-1029
Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 06-2006 only uses information such as traffic congestion information and road map information aggregated by a mobile communication service center as peripheral information, which allows detailed information centered on its own position. You can get it, but you don't know the information about the peripherals that are not displayed. Further, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 6-20197 discloses a technique of searching for specific map data existing in a range that is not displayed on the display means on the basis of position information, and outputting the search result to the display means. A desired facility in a range including the department can be searched. However, this also only searches for the existence of the desired facility not only in the display range but also in the vicinity, and does not know the time to go to the facility. Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 10-30932 discloses a method of setting priorities for facilities around a road, searching for stored facilities according to the set priorities, and displaying the results. The user can search for a desired facility according to his / her preference and display information on the desired facility. As a result, it is possible to roughly grasp the distance to the displayed facility. That is, by giving higher priority to facilities located within the range of the predetermined distance, it is possible to know whether or not the facility is within the predetermined distance. However, the present invention is intended to preferentially display facilities existing along the traveling direction of a car, and to display services such as facilities that can be accessed by actively detouring. is not. Further, it is not known how much time can be reached to the displayed facility.

In any case, according to the above-described prior art, how long is required to go to the location of the information displayed as the peripheral information, and on the contrary, how long is the displayed information (displayed information). Including information that is not
It is unknown if you can go to the location. That is, it cannot be said that the information displayed as the peripheral information has been fully utilized.

[0007] The present invention solves the above-mentioned problems, and allows the user to easily know how much time there is a facility that can be reached in the vicinity and how long it takes to go to the displayed facility. It is an object of the present invention to provide a navigation system that can perform the navigation. Another object of the present invention is to provide a navigation system capable of easily grasping facilities that can be obtained if there is sufficient time before going to a destination. A further object of the present invention is to provide a navigation system that indicates a facility or the like to visit if there is enough time according to the preference of each operator.

[0008]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a navigation system for inputting an arbitrary reference position, acquiring surrounding information of the input arbitrary position, and displaying the acquired information. A spare time input means for inputting a spare time possessed by the operator, a moving means input means for inputting or selecting a moving means which can be used when moving from any input position; A facility arrival time acquiring means for acquiring a time required to go to a facility included in the information acquired as the peripheral information, using the moving means input or selected by the moving means input means, and the facility arrival time acquiring means Is provided with a time comparing means for comparing the time acquired by the above with the time inputted by the extra time input means.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a spare time dividing means for dividing the spare time input by the spare time input means into a plurality of spare times, and the spare time dividing means divides the spare time into plural pieces. Compared with the time obtained by the facility arrival time acquisition means for each of the times, the facilities that can be reached by the divided spare time are displayed separately, and the owner can more finely indicate the spare time. It is one that can be used effectively.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the first or second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a current position obtaining means, wherein the obtained current position is used as the arbitrary position, and a margin around the current position is provided. Effective use of time was made possible.

[0011] The invention according to claim 4 is the invention according to claims 1 to 3.
In the invention according to any one of the above, the departure place, the departure time, the destination, and the time at which the user wants to arrive at the destination are inputted, and the necessary time from the departure place to the detour point around the departure place, and the departure point to the destination After determining the required time to reach the destination, if it is determined that you can reach the destination by the time you want to arrive at the destination, the above detour point will be displayed, and from the point of departure to the destination In addition, it is possible to know facilities, famous places, historic sites, etc., which can be detoured on the way according to the spare time.

[0012] The invention according to claim 5 provides the invention according to claims 1 to 4.
In the invention according to any one of the first to third aspects, a preference input means for inputting a field, a preference, and the like, which the operator is interested in, is further provided, and a facility matching the preference input by the preference input means is searched and displayed. Among the facilities that can be accessed according to the spare time, the facilities according to the interests and preferences of the operator can be known.

[0013]

(Embodiment 1) FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a navigation system according to a first embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 1, a navigation apparatus 1 includes a CPU 2 for controlling the entire apparatus, a ROM 3 for storing control software and the like to be described later, a RAM 4 for storing a work area, input data, and the like, a display unit 5, and an arbitrary reference. Input part 6, CD-RO for inputting the point of
A map information acquisition unit 7 for acquiring map information via a medium such as M or communication, a peripheral information acquisition unit 8 for acquiring information about the periphery of the position input from the position input unit 6 via communication, etc., owned by the operator A spare time input unit 9 for inputting a spare time, a moving unit input unit 10 for inputting a moving unit that can be used from a position input by the operator through the position input unit 6, and a moving unit input unit The time required to travel from the position input by the position input unit 6 to the facility or the like obtained by the map information obtaining unit 7 or the peripheral information obtaining unit 8 using the moving means input at 10 is obtained. Facility arrival time acquisition unit 11 and facility arrival time acquisition unit 1
The time comparison unit 12 compares the time required to go to the facility obtained in 1 with the margin time input by the margin time input unit 9.

FIGS. 2 and 3 are flowcharts showing the processing operation of the navigation system of FIG. For example, a case where the navigation device 1 is used by a person who has three hours to transfer a train to Tokyo Station will be described with reference to this flowchart. The person first inputs "Tokyo Station" at the position input unit 6, "3 hours" at the extra time input unit 9, and "walk" at the transportation means input unit 10 (step S1). Here, as a means of transportation, it is conceivable to rent a car, for example, but a case in which the user travels on foot will be described. The position, the spare time, and the moving means input in step S1 are stored in the RAM 4 respectively.
It is stored in the position storage unit 41, the spare time storage unit 42, and the moving means storage unit 43 (step S2). At this time, you need to return to your starting point for extra time,
A half value of the input data (1 hour and 30 minutes in this example) is stored in the spare time storage unit 42. The map information including the position stored in the position storage unit 41 is obtained by using the map information obtaining unit 7, and the information around the position stored in the position storage unit 41 is obtained by using the peripheral information obtaining unit 8, respectively. (Step S3), and store them in the acquired map information storage section 44 and the acquired peripheral information storage section 45 in the RAM, respectively (step S4). Here, map information refers to place names, facilities,
An ordinary map that describes roads, railroads, etc., and the surrounding information includes information about the facility, such as the location of the facility, the distance and required time from major points, attractions, business days, etc. And is linked to the above map information. This linking method is an existing technique, and can be performed based on the location (latitude and longitude information) of the information. This peripheral information is transmitted from the center by contacting the center when the peripheral information is acquired from the moving means stored in the moving means storage unit 43, by contacting the center. Next, the facility arrival time acquisition unit 11 uses the transportation means stored in the transportation means storage unit 43 from the position stored in the position storage unit 41 to use the transportation information stored in the transportation information storage unit 43 in the peripheral information acquisition unit 8. The arrival time to the facility included in the information is checked (step S5).

The operation of the facility arrival time acquisition section 11 will be described in more detail. FIG. 4 shows an example of information acquired by the peripheral information acquisition unit 8. As is clear from this figure, the information of each facility is composed of information unique to each facility such as the name, the nearest station, the distance from the nearest station, the time required from the nearest station, other closed days, and the standard viewing time. ing. Using this peripheral information, the required time from the position stored in the position storage unit 41 to each facility when using the transportation means stored in the transportation means storage unit 43 is calculated. That is, it is determined whether or not the nearest station portion of each data matches the position storage unit 41 (step S51). If the location storage unit 41 and the nearest station match (in this example, the data of Tokyo Tower corresponds to this), it is returned as the arrival time from the nearest station to the facility for which the required time is obtained (step S52). Position storage unit 4
1 and the nearest station do not match (in this example, the data of the Ueno Art Museum and the building correspond to this), the database of the server is accessed using communication, and the location storage unit 41 is used.
The required time between the position of the station and the nearest station in the surrounding information data is obtained (step S53). The calculated required time and the required time from the nearest station to the facility in the peripheral information data are totaled (step S54). The total is returned as the arrival time to the facility for which the sum is to be obtained (step S55). For example, if it is determined that the required time from Tokyo Station to Ueno Station is 15 minutes by connecting to a database, the required time from Tokyo Station to Ueno Museum is 25 minutes (= 10 + 15). Similarly, if it is found that the required time from Tokyo Station to the XX Line △△ Station is 45 minutes, the required time from Tokyo Station to the XX Building is 55 minutes (= 45 + 10). At this time, there may not be a database on the required time from the place name stored in the location storage unit to the nearest station, and the required time may not be obtained. The nearby station is obtained from the peripheral information acquisition unit, the distance to this station is measured, and the required time to this station is calculated. Thereafter, by considering this station as the input position in the above example, the required time to the facility is obtained.

By performing the above method on all the data acquired as the peripheral information, the required time from the position stored in the position storage unit 41 to each facility can be obtained. The obtained required time is all stored in the RAM 4, and then the required time to the determined facility and the time stored in the spare time storage unit 42 are compared with the time comparison unit 12.
(Step S6), and the spare time storage unit 42
If the time stored in is larger, it is determined that the user can go to the facility, and the facility is displayed on the map stored in the acquired map information storage unit 44 (step S).
7) If the time stored in the spare time storage unit 42 is smaller, it is determined that the facility cannot be reached, and the facility is not displayed. Steps S6 and S7 above
Is performed for all the facilities acquired in step S5, it is possible to search for and display facilities to which the user can go according to the situation (the extra time) of each user.

Embodiment 2 FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a navigation system according to a second embodiment. This diagram is different from the block diagram of FIG. 1 in that the spare time division unit 13 divides the spare time input by the spare time input unit 9 into a plurality of spare times, and the divided spare time storage unit that stores the divided spare times. All are the same as FIG. 1 except that 46 has been added. Here, the number of times to divide the spare time is arbitrarily determined according to the inputted spare time, and the method is based on the spare time stored in the spare time storage unit as shown in FIG. 6, for example. This can be achieved by owning a table of the appropriate shape. In this figure, how much the spare time is divided and how it is divided according to the value stored in the spare time storage unit (half the value of the spare time actually input by the user) is shown. ing.
For example, when the value of the spare time storage unit is 1 hour to 1.5 hours, the dividing time includes two values of 1 hour and 30 minutes. Until,
And more than three. The times to be divided are stored in order from the larger one for the sake of convenience when described later.

FIGS. 7 and 8 are flowcharts showing the processing operation of the navigation system of the second embodiment. As in the case of the first embodiment, a case where there is a three-hour margin at Tokyo Station will be described using this flowchart. FIG. 7 is basically the same as FIG. 2 and FIG. 3, and only different parts will be described. The process up to step S4 is the same as that of FIG. 2.
(Step S41) (in this example, since the value stored in the spare time storage unit is one hour and thirty minutes, one hour until one half hour) The divided values are stored in the spare time storage unit 46 (step S42). Here, the division spare time storage unit 46 stores the number of divisions and the time for division, and is controlled as follows. From the position stored in the position storage unit, the required time to each facility when using the transportation means stored in the transportation means storage unit 43 is obtained (step S5). The determined required time is compared with the time stored in the spare time storage unit (step S6). If the spare time is long, the facility is displayed in the map information in step S7. If the spare time is short, the facility proceeds to step S86 without displaying the facility in the map information. Next, the number of divisions stored in the spare time storage unit 46 is read (step S81), and it is determined whether the number of divisions is 1 (step S82). When the number of divisions is 1, the process proceeds to step S86 because the spare time is not divided. When the division number is not 1, the division time stored in the division margin time storage unit 46 is read, and the division time is compared with the required time to the facility (step S83). If the division time is long, the facility is displayed on the map in a different form (color, line shape, etc.) than that displayed in step S7 (step S84). If the time to split is small,
Proceed to step S86.

The above steps S83 and S84 are continued until there is no time to divide (step S85). next,
In step S86, it is determined whether or not the above contents have been performed for all the facilities in the peripheral information acquired in step S5, and if so, the process ends.
Returning to step S6, the process of comparing the required time with the spare time for the remaining facilities is continued. In this way,
The spare time is divided into a plurality of times, and each divided time can be compared with the time required for the facility. The comparison result here is shown as a display example in FIG.

(Embodiment 3) FIG. 10 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a navigation system according to a third embodiment of the present invention. In this figure, the navigation device 1
Is a current position acquisition unit 14 for acquiring a current position instead of the position input unit 6 for inputting an arbitrary position serving as a reference in FIG.
Is added. That is, instead of the user inputting the reference position, the GPS or the communicating P
The current position is acquired using the base station information of the HS, and the acquired current position is used as reference position information.

FIG. 11 is a flowchart showing the processing operation of the navigation system according to the third embodiment. This will be described in detail with reference to this flowchart. The current position is obtained by the current position obtaining means (step S10).
The acquired current position information is transmitted to the center, and the station name closest to the current position and the distance to it are acquired (step S11). The required time to the nearest station is measured from the acquired distance to the nearest station (step S12).
In this measurement, considering the case of moving on foot, since the user can move at a speed of about 4 km / hour on foot, the required time can be roughly calculated by dividing the distance to the nearest station by 4 km. The required time from the current position obtained here to the nearest station, and the nearest station are stored in the required time storage unit to the nearest station and the nearest station storage unit, respectively (step S13).

After that, basically the same control as the flow shown in FIGS. 2 and 3 is performed, and a search and display are performed for facilities that can be moved within a margin time from the current position. That is, the nearest station stored in the nearest station storage unit is regarded as the position input by the user in FIGS. 2 and 3 and the time required to reach the nearest station is stored in the required time storage unit before moving to the position input by the user. Since the same processing as in FIGS. 2 and 3 is performed except that the stored required time is required (it takes extra time), detailed description is omitted here.

In the above embodiment, only the reference position is input, the required time required to go to a certain facility centering on this position is determined, and the time required for reciprocating within a margin time is displayed. But
By entering both the departure place and the destination, and entering the time you want to reach the destination, the extra time from the departure place to the destination can be calculated, and the time required from the departure place to a certain facility, The time required from a departure point to a destination via a certain facility is determined by calculating the required time from a certain facility to the destination, and the total time is calculated. The invention described in claim 4 of the invention can be realized. It is needless to say that, if the user's personal information is input as information to be input by the user, the facility can be searched using this information.

[0024]

As has been described in detail, according to the present invention, the spare time input by the spare time input means and the time required to reach the facility acquired by the facility arrival time acquiring means are required. Compare the time and if the spare time is longer than the facility arrival time, the facility will be displayed,
Owners can use their time more effectively and can easily identify the facilities they want to visit.

According to the first aspect of the present invention, a margin time and travel means are inputted, the surrounding information and the required time to the obtained facility are acquired, and the required time and the margin time are compared to obtain the margin. Since only the data with the longest time is displayed, it is possible to easily know the information on the surrounding area that can be moved within the extra time when a certain point is set as a reference, so that the extra time can be used effectively. A navigation system that can be provided can be provided.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, a spare time dividing means for further dividing the inputted spare time is provided, and the required time to the facility obtained as the peripheral information is obtained according to the divided time. Therefore, it is possible to provide a navigation system that can further divide the display of facilities that can be moved within the spare time when a certain point is used as a reference, and can use the spare time with a margin.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, a current position is obtained, a required time to peripheral information based on the obtained current position is obtained, and the input margin time is compared with the required time. As a result, it becomes possible to easily know information on the surroundings that can be moved within a margin time based on the current position.

[0028] The invention according to claim 4 is characterized in that:
Enter the destination and the arrival time to the destination, calculate the required time from the departure point to the facility obtained as surrounding information and the required time from this facility to the destination, and compare this with the spare time As a result, it is possible to search for peripheral information according to the time to reach the destination and easily know the information.

Further, in the invention according to the fifth aspect, the user inputs a field of interest, tastes, and the like, and searches for facilities that match the input tastes. It is possible to easily obtain the peripheral information in consideration of the user's preference.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a navigation system according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing a processing operation of the system of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing a processing operation of the system of FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of data acquired by a peripheral information acquisition unit of the navigation system according to the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a navigation system according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a spare time division table used when dividing the spare time according to the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing a processing operation of the system of FIG. 5;

FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing a processing operation of the system of FIG. 5;

FIG. 9 is a diagram showing a display example of a required time to a facility when a spare time is divided according to the present invention.

FIG. 10 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a navigation system according to a third embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 11 is a flowchart showing a processing operation of the system of FIG. 10;

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Navigation apparatus, 2 ... CPU, 3 ... ROM, 4
... RAM, 5 display unit, 6 position input unit, 7 map information acquisition unit, 8 peripheral information acquisition unit, 9 spare time input unit, 1
0: transportation means input unit, 11: facility arrival time acquisition unit, 12
... Time comparison unit, 13 spare time division unit, 14 current position acquisition unit, 41 position storage unit, 42 spare time storage unit, 4
3 ... Transportation means storage unit, 44 ... Acquired map information storage unit, 45
... Acquisition peripheral information storage unit, 46.

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. A navigation system for inputting an arbitrary position serving as a reference, acquiring information around the inputted arbitrary position, and displaying the acquired information, a margin for inputting a margin time possessed by an operator. Time input means, moving means input means for inputting or selecting a moving means which can be used when moving from any input position, and moving means input or selected by the moving means input means from any input position A facility arrival time acquisition means for obtaining a time required to reach a facility included in the information acquired as the peripheral information, and a time acquired by the facility arrival time acquisition means and the margin time input means. It has a time comparing means for comparing with the input time, and searches for and displays a facility which can be reached within the extra time input by the extra time input means. Navigation system, wherein the door. 2. A spare time dividing means for dividing the spare time input by the spare time input means into a plurality of spare times, wherein the time acquired by the facility arrival time acquiring means is obtained for each of the divided times. 2. The navigation system according to claim 1, wherein the facilities that can be reached for each of the divided spare times are distinguished and displayed. 3. The navigation system according to claim 1, further comprising a current position acquisition unit, wherein the acquired current position is used as the arbitrary position. 4. A departure place, a departure time, a destination, and a time at which the user wants to arrive at the destination are input, and the time required from the departure place to the detour point around the departure point is reached, and the destination is reached from the departure point. The departure point is displayed when the required time until the destination is determined and it is determined that the user can arrive at the destination by the time when the user wants to arrive at the destination. 4. The method according to claim 1, wherein the detour point is displayed. Navigation system. 5. An operator further comprising a preference input means for inputting a field of interest, a preference, and the like, wherein a facility matching the preference input by the preference input means is searched for and displayed. The navigation system according to claim 1.