JPH01195577A - Map information guide device - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] This bulletin contains application data before electronic filing, so abstract data is not recorded.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Technical Field The present invention relates to a map information guide device, typified by a guide device for houses, shops, tourist spots, etc., based on map display.

BACKGROUND ART Conventionally, when searching for map information in this type of map information guide device, it is not possible to easily view a map with the level of detail required.

For example, when you want to know the geographical location of a person, you may be able to find out the town name, but not the following block, street address, etc. In such a case, it is sufficient to search within the known town name, and information based on other town names is not relevant. Also, if you look at the information on only the block in the town name and know the positional relationship of the place where the person lives in relation to prominent objects such as rivers and railways, From these, it is necessary to narrow down the choices to xX block or △△ block.

In such cases, conventional map information guidance devices are inconvenient. In particular, when information ranging from the town name to XX Street and the street address is displayed all at once, it becomes confusing and extremely difficult to understand in areas with high population density.

Purpose The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and an object of the present invention is to provide an efficient and easy-to-use map information guide device.

Structure In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a map information guide device that includes a means for displaying a map, a means for inputting a request, and a means for storing map data, in which place name classifications are hierarchically organized. The present invention is characterized in that a place name classification table is provided for search, and means is provided for moving the focus of the search upward or downward in the hierarchy level in the place name classification table.

Hereinafter, a first embodiment of the present invention will be described based on FIGS. 1 and 2. First, FIG. 2 shows the concept of place name classification used in the present invention. Here, place names are classified hierarchically, and higher-ranking names include lower-ranking ones. Conversely, there is a relationship in which lower-ranking things belong to higher-ranking things.

For example, in the illustrated example, Tokyo is ranked higher than Ota Ward and Shinnai Ward.

This means that Tokyo includes Ota Ward and Shinayo Ward (Ota Ward and Shinayo Ward belong to Tokyo).

A characteristic place name classification table 1 of this embodiment is shown in FIG. 2(a). This system has a unit structure as shown in Figure (a), expresses each place name, combines the no-place name nodes 2, and creates a list structure as a whole, which organizes place name classifications hierarchically and searches. It is served to

Here, the structure of place name node 2 will be explained. first,
■ indicates another place name node of the same classification. ■ indicates place names such as capitals, cities, and towns. ■ indicates map data. ■ indicates a place name node according to a lower level classification. A certain place name node 2
The map data consists only of place names at the next lower level.

For example, in the case of Tokyo, it consists only of information about the next lower wards such as Ota Ward, Shinayo Ward, etc., and does not include information such as lower rank or street address.

Although not particularly shown, the basic configuration of the map information guide device of this embodiment includes means for displaying a map, means for inputting a request, and means for storing map data.

In such a configuration, an example of searching for map information using the place name classification table 1 will be described. This means that when displaying map data for a certain place name node, 1
This method lists the place names at the next level, and when you want to look up more detailed map data, you can select from among them. For example, when map data for Tokyo is displayed, Ota-ku, Shinayo-ku, etc. are displayed as a selection menu as place names one level lower. At this time, if you want to know more about Ota Ward, select Ota Ward from the menu. As a result, the map data for Ota Ward and the place names one level below it, such as Denenchofu, Ground, etc., are displayed in the menu.

In other words, the focus of the search is sequentially moved to lower levels in the hierarchy, and the map data as the search target is displayed in detail according to the request.

Next, in each place name node 2 in the place name classification table 1, a search method may be implemented by following the pointer portion indicating the place name node according to the lower level classification indicated by ■. That is, pick up a certain place name node, call up and display its map data (in the ■ column), check the pointer in the ■ column, and find other place name nodes in the same classification as the map node it points to (in the ■ column). Follow the indicated pointer,
The map data up to the terminal symbol 3 is displayed. Next, when a new place name is selected from a menu or the like, matching is performed among the place name nodes one level lower, and the place name node that matches is set as the new place name node to be displayed.

In addition, when performing a search like this, you can not only move from a higher place name to a lower place name in the hierarchy, that is, look up more detailed information, but also move from a lower place name to a higher place name. To learn more about global content,
It is sufficient to add a new part to the place name node 2 shown in FIG. 1(a) that indicates a place name node according to a higher level classification of the place name node. That is, it is sufficient to provide a pointer with the inverse of (.).To implement this, it is sufficient to extract the place name node pointed to by the pointer and display the map data of that place name node.

In this way, according to the present embodiment, it is possible to perform a search while changing the level of detail of the display, and it becomes easy to provide map information guidance in response to requests. This result is easy to understand (
(Easy to understand) You can search for map data.

Next, a second embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. 3 to 5. Generally speaking, when considering searching for map information,
The total amount of map information is enormous. Therefore, in a system with limited data storage capacity, only a portion of the data can be stored. Also, the range of map information you want to know in detail,
Generally, it is often in a very limited area. The present embodiment focuses on these points, and in contrast to the above embodiments, extracts map information only for the requested area, so that even if another map information guide device with a small data storage capacity has the same functions as the above embodiments. This makes it possible to divide map information so that it can be used in multiple ways.

First, the basic principle for realizing this embodiment will be explained with reference to FIGS. 3 and 4. FIG. 3(b) shows how the place name classification table 4 is stored when a portion is extracted.

That is, instead of having a physical address in the address pointer part, a relative address on the memory is used.

At this time, the place name node 5 serving as the basic unit is as shown in FIG. 3(a). This is done by writing the storage relative position number in the column indicated by ■, in addition to the case of the place name node 2 shown in FIG. That is, the relative position number is recorded in the place name data expressed in the list structure so that the contents of the pointer relation do not depend on the physical address where the place name data is actually stored. Note that the storage position of the map data in the ■ column in the place name node 5 is indicated by the relative position number of the stored map data from the map data start address.

When accessing, please use (map data storage start address)
It is sufficient to access the map data in +(capacity of one map data) x (value in the ■ column - 1).

On the other hand, Figure 4 shows the entire map data as a place name classification table 4.
The method for storing data in A is shown below. The above-mentioned FIG. 3(b) shows a storage method when extracting a portion of map data for a specific area, for example, the Tokyo area and below, from such an overall place name classification table 4A. .

In this manner, when extracting map information for a requested area, for example, Tokyo, first, the place name node of the requested area is searched for and the place name node is extracted. Next, the value in the ■ column of the Tokyo place name node, that is, the storage relative position number of the place name node according to the lower level classification, is checked, and all place name nodes pointed to by that number are extracted. When extracting these place name nodes and newly transferring and storing them, numbers are sequentially written in the part indicating the map data in the ■ column in the order in which they were stored. When the extracted place name node data is stored, the next storage physical address is stored as the map data storage start address. Next, select the place name node (
In this case, the map data of the value in the ■ column of the place name node is transferred and stored while searching for Tokyo (Tokyo) and tracing the place name nodes in the order in which they were transferred and stored.

An example of the configuration of the map information guide device according to this embodiment based on such a principle is shown in the block diagram of FIG.

Figure (a) shows the case of a map information guide device in which the entire map information is stored, and has a memory 6A including a place name classification table 4A in addition to the arithmetic control section 5A, and a system bus 7A. . On the other hand, FIG. 6B shows a case of a map information guide device in which a part of the map information is stored, and similarly includes a memory 6 including a place name classification table 4 in addition to the arithmetic and control unit 5. It also has a system bus 7. however,
In comparison with FIG. 5(a), the capacity of the memory 6A is larger than that of the memory 6. In these device configurations, the system bus 7A,
7, map data is transferred and stored from the system in FIG. 5(a) to the system in FIG. 5(b).

In this way, according to this embodiment, even with a compact device with limited memory capacity as shown in FIG. The range expands. As a result, only one device as shown in FIG. 5(a), which requires a huge capacity of memory to store all the map information, is required, making it economical. Furthermore, even in a device like the one shown in Figure 5(b), which extracts map information for only a part of the region, the method of searching for map information is the same as in the case of a general device, and is efficient and easy to use. Search becomes possible.

Furthermore, a third embodiment of the present invention will be explained with reference to FIGS. 6 to 8. In this embodiment, the location of a specific area on a map is made easier to understand.

In general, map guides do not have a means of indicating where a designated area is at various levels (e.g., country level on a world map, state level within a country); , there is no way to quickly know the area of a given location at various levels. Therefore, in this embodiment, in the hierarchical relationship of place name classification, the included place name data also has data indicating the area coordinates in the map data of the included place name, so that the area of the specified place name is located on the map. It is also designed to display whether there is any.

First, the place name classification table 8 in this embodiment is shown in Figure 6 (
The place name node 9 as a unit structure is shown in FIG. 3(a). This embodiment shows to which position a lower-level place name actually belongs in the area defined by the higher-level place name, and coordinate nodes indicated by ■ are added. This coordinate node represents a position in the upper level map information. In other words, each place name node has a pointer that points to the map information that expresses that place name, and at the same time it has a pointer that points to a set of coordinate nodes that expresses in which region that place name is located in the map data of the higher place name node. It is characterized by having

FIG. 7 shows the relationship between the place name node 9 and the coordinate node 1o (=■). First, each coordinate node 10 is shown in FIG. 7(a).
As shown in , it consists of: (1) a pointer pointing to a distant area, (2) a pair of coordinate values (that is, a pair of values on the ordinate and abscissa), and (2) a pointer pointing to a coordinate node of another coordinate point. That is, the region is represented by a polygon, and the coordinate points of each coordinate node are connected to each other. For example, considering that some place names may have the same name but are located far away, such as on islands, a pointer indicating a remote area is provided as shown in the ■ column. This is because even in the case of Tokyo, there is Oshima, for example. A certain place name node 9 is expressed as a set of a plurality of coordinate nodes 10 as shown in FIG. 7(b).

The example shown is for Tokyo.

As a result, specifically, as shown in FIG. 8, in the case of Tokyo, it is expressed in the Japanese map data of its upper place name node (shown in black).

As a specific area guidance method, for example, a place name classification table 8 that hierarchically represents place name nodes as shown in FIG. 6 is used, and place name node data of the place name of interest,
For example, the map data of Japan (according to FIG. 6(a), the data in column ■) is extracted and displayed. Next, the place name nodes according to the lower level classification (according to FIG. 6(a), the data in the ■ column) are extracted and, for example, all place names are listed. In this example, Tokyo, Kyoto, etc. correspond. This enumeration follows pointers indicating other place name nodes of the same classification (according to FIG. 6(a), the data in the ■ column) and enumerates until the terminal symbol 3 is encountered. Select one place name of particular interest from among the place names listed as in step 2. For example, if you want to display Tokyo, search for the place name node for Tokyo, and use the pointer (see Figure 6 (a)
), the set data of coordinate nodes is extracted as shown in FIG. 7(b) using the data in the column (■). At this time, the area is determined by first tracing the coordinate nodes shown in the square box in FIG. 7(a) and connecting the coordinate points until the square column meets the terminal symbol 3. Follow the pointers in the ■ column that point to areas away from this one by one.

Again, the process continues until the terminal symbol 3 is encountered.

In addition, display methods include blinking all sides of the polygon formed by connecting the coordinate points, displaying it in a different color, or blinking the internal area of the polygon or displaying it separately. The specific area can be indicated by displaying it in the color of the area.

In this way, according to this embodiment, it is possible to specifically know where a certain area is located on the map, and to perform an efficient search.

Further, a fourth embodiment of the present invention will be explained with reference to FIGS. 9 and 10. This embodiment is configured as a sales area management system based on map display by adding a function to display sales information (number of sales) by region in addition to the above embodiments.

Generally, customer management is important in sales information management. However, with conventional sales information management, it is difficult to intuitively grasp information regarding customer sales within a region.

On the other hand, there is a demand for efficiently grasping the sales situation at a certain regional level, such as the sales situation at the basic level within a region. In the sales profession, it is important to know regional information such as how many products have been sold in which regions.

Regarding this point as well, according to the conventional method, regional information is given by the name of the place, which is inconvenient for grasping the sales situation such as which region has a good sales record.

Focusing on these points, in this embodiment, sales data is stored in memory along with map data, and sales information is included in place name data, or data indicating the relationship between place name data and sales information is added. By having
Sales information is displayed in relation to the location of a specified area on a map.

First, the place name classification table 10 in this embodiment is shown in FIG. 9(b), and the place name node 11 as its unit structure is shown in FIG. 9(a). In this embodiment, the column indicated by [phase] in each name node 11 contains sales information about the name of the place, that is, the sales area, for example, data about the number of sales.

Of course, the sales information is not limited to the number of sales, but may be appropriate information such as sales amount, sales person, and daily sales amount. Considering the hierarchical point, in the case of the number of sales, the number of sales of a higher place name node is the sum of the number of sales of each of its lower nodes. For example, U, S.

The number of sales of place name node A is the sum of the number of sales of all the states of place name nodes below it.

With this configuration, in this embodiment, when displaying the sales region data of a certain place name node, the place names in the next lower order are listed, and when you want to check even more detailed sales region data, you can select one of the place names. You will be asked to choose from. For example, when displaying sales area data for Tokyo, place names one level lower, such as Ota Ward, Shinyo Ward, etc., are listed and displayed as a menu. If you want to obtain sales information about Ota Ward from this menu, select Ota Ward from the menu, and indicate the location of Ota Ward's sales area on the map with a blinking display or color change display, as well as a numerical display, etc. Shows sales data. Next, if you want to know more about Ota Ward, you will be instructed to display the map data for Ota Ward, and the menu will display Denenchofu, ground level,... with map data for the entire Ota Ward displayed. You can select from the lower place name data of Ota Ward such as .

As a concrete implementation method, the following method may be used using the hierarchically expressed place name classification table 11 as shown in FIG. First, data on the place name node of the place name of interest, such as sales area data in Japan (Figure 9 (a)
) and display the data in the ■ column). Next, the column ``■'' of the place name node is traced and displayed as a place name node extraction menu based on the classification at one lower level. If you want to follow the ■ column in the Japanese place name node, Tokyo,
Kyoto Prefecture, etc., and list all the place names. Figure 10 shows this situation and also shows a map of Japan, with menu options such as Hokkaido, Aomori Prefecture,
Akita-kei, Tokyo, etc. are shown. Such enumeration follows pointers indicating other place name nodes of the same classification, and enumerates until the terminal symbol 3 is encountered.

In response to such a menu display, one of the listed place names is selected. In FIG. 10, a frame C indicates that Tokyo has been selected. If you select to display Tokyo in this way, you will find the place name node for Tokyo, and the pointer indicating the coordinate node for that area (according to Figure 9(a)
As in the previous example, the set data of the coordinate nodes is extracted (see Figure 7), and the number of sales as sales information for the selected place name node, here Tokyo, is shown in Figure 10. It should be displayed along with the Tokyo metropolitan area.

This allows you to easily know the sales status while looking at the map. In other words, it is possible to intuitively grasp sales-related information by region based on the location on the map, which is advantageous in the sales profession.

Effects As described above, the present invention includes a place name classification table that hierarchically organizes and stores place name classifications and provides for searching, and focuses the search upwards or downwards at the hierarchical level in this place name classification table. Since the search can be performed by moving the map, efficient and user-friendly searches can be achieved by showing the map to be searched in detail according to individual requests.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram of a place name classification table showing a first embodiment of the present invention, Fig. 2 is a conceptual diagram of hierarchical place name classification, and Fig. 3 is a partial diagram showing a second embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram of an overall place name classification table, FIG. 5 is a block diagram of its configuration, and FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram of a place name classification table showing a third embodiment of the present invention. 7 is a schematic diagram of coordinate nodes, FIG. 8 is a map showing a specific display example, FIG. 9 is a schematic diagram of a place name classification table showing the fourth embodiment of the present invention, and 10vJ is a specific diagram. It is a map showing a display example. 1.4, 8.11...Place name classification table, y36 diagram

Claims (1)

[Claims] In a map information guide device comprising a means for displaying a map, a means for inputting a request, and a means for storing map data, a place name classification table is provided in which place name classifications are hierarchically arranged and provided for search, A map information guide device comprising means for moving the focus of a search upward or downward in the hierarchy level in the place name classification table.