Bird's-eye view forming method, map display apparatus and navigation system

• US 6,654,014 B2
• Filed: 05/11/2001
• Issued: 11/25/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 04/20/1995
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Clarion Co., Ltd. (Faurecia SA)
• Original Assignee: Hiroshi Shojima, Hiroyuki Satake, Masaki Watanabe, Motoki Hirano, Norimasa Kishi, Toshio Fujiwara, Yoshinori Endo
• Inventors: Endo, Yoshinori, Satake, Hiroyuki, Watanabe, Masaki, Shojima, Hiroshi, Hirano, Motoki, Fujiwara, Toshio, Kishi, Norimasa
• Primary Examiner(s): Vo, Cliff N.
• Assistant Examiner(s): MANCUSO, HUEDUNG XUAN CAO
• Application Number:
  US09/853,547
• Publication Number:
  US 20010022585A1
• Time in Patent Office: 928 Days
• Field of Search: 345/427, 345/418, 345/419, 345/421, 345/853, 345/357, 701/28, 701/209
• US Class Current: 345/427
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3635 Guidance using 3D or perspective road maps
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/367 Details, e.g. road map scale, orientation, zooming, illumination, level of detail, scrolling of road map or positioning of current position marker
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3673 Labelling using text of road map data items, e.g. road names, POI names
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 29/106 using electronic means

Abstract

In a navigation system using a bird'"'"'s-eye view display mode, map data on a plan view map are subjected to a perspective projection conversion to obtain drawing data on a bird'"'"'s-eye view map. In this case, an input of the position of a view point is accepted, and a projection plane for a bird'"'"'s-eye view is determined on the basis of the coordinates of a current position and a destination and the position of the view point so that the display positions of the two points which have been subjected to perspective-projection conversion are coincident with predetermined positions. Alternatively, an input of a scale is accepted, and the position of the view point and the projection plane are determined on the basis of the coordinates of the two points and the scale so that the display positions of the two points after the perspective projection conversion are coincident with predetermined positions and the drawing scale is coincident with the input scale. Or, as a further alternative, an input of the projection angle is accepted, and the projection plane is determined on the basis of the projection angle and the position of the view point.

Claims

1. A map display apparatus comprising:

an image display device;

a storage medium having map data;

an input device for accepting a user'"'"'s instruction;

a processor configured to switch, in response to designation of a point in the map data, a display on the image display device to a plan view from a bird'"'"'s eye view.

2. A map display apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the at least one processor configured for drawing specified objects, if the birds'"'"' eye view is displayed on the image display device when accepting the designation, switches the display of the image display device from the birds'"'"' eye view to the plan view.

3. The map display apparatus of claim 1 further comprising at least one processor configured to determine a position of a view-point and a projection plane from two predetermined points contained in map data.

4. The map display apparatus according to claim 1 further comprising at least one processor configured to change a scale of a map displayed on the image display device in response to an input via a scale changing key unit.

5. The map display apparatus according to claim 1 further comprising at least one processor configured to scroll a map displayed on the image display device in response to an input via a scroll key unit.

6. The map display apparatus according to claim 1 further comprising at least one processor configured to change a map displayed on the image display device in response to an input via a voice input/output device.

7. The map display apparatus according to claim 1 further comprising at least one processor configured to determine at least one bird'"'"'s eye view map corresponding to projection angle greater than 0 and less than a target projection angle.

8. The map display apparatus according to claim 7 further comprising at least one processor configured to change the projection angle in response to an input via a projection angle changing key unit.

9. The map display apparatus according to claim 7 further comprising at least one processor configured to perform enlargement/reduction processing.

10. The map display apparatus according to claim 9 further comprising at least one processor configured to determine an intersection angle between a vector of a travel direction and a bottom side of a map mesh.

11. The map display apparatus according to claim 10 further comprising at least one processor configured to perform an affine transformation on map data to rotate the data by the intersection angle.

12. The map display apparatus according to claim 11 further comprising at least one processor configured to determine a projection angle and a visual position.

13. The map display apparatus according to claim 12 further comprising at least one processor configured to perform projection processing corresponding to the projection angle to generate the bird'"'"'s eye view map.

14. The map display apparatus according to claim 13 further comprising at least one processor configured to perform projection processing corresponding to the projection angle on a coordinate value of a drawing start point of a character string while generating the bird'"'"'s eye view map.

15. The map display apparatus according to claim 14 further comprising at least one processor configured to not perform projection processing corresponding to the projection angle on the character string while generating the bird'"'"'s eye view map.

16. The map display apparatus according to claim 14 further comprising at least one processor configured to not display the character string following projection processing.

17. The map display apparatus according to claim 15 further comprising at least one processor configured to not display the character string following projection processing in response to determining that drawing start point of the character string is greater than a predetermined height on a display frame in the image display device.

18. The map display apparatus according to claim 15 further comprising at least one processor configured to not display the character string following projection processing in response to determining that a display priority rank of the character string is within a range of display ranks of character strings to be displayed.

19. The map display apparatus according to claim 18 wherein the display priority rank of the character string corresponds to an attribute of the character string.

20. The map display apparatus according to claim 15 further comprising at least one processor configured to determine whether to display a data item contained in map data in the image display device.

21. The map display apparatus according to claim 20 further comprising at least one processor configured to determine whether to display a plane data contained in map data in the image display device.

22. The map display apparatus according to claim 20 further comprising at least one processor configured to determine whether to display a line data contained in map data in the image display device.

23. A map display apparatus comprising:

an image display device;

a storage medium for storing map data therein;

at least one processor configured for drawing specified objects for displaying a plan view and a birds'"'"' eye view prepared based on the map data by switching these maps;

an input device for accepting designation of a point on the map in a state where the plan view is displayed on the image display device; and

a processor configured to switch, in response to designation of the point in the map data, a display on the image display device to the plan view from the bird'"'"'s eye view.

24. A process unit for a map display apparatus comprising:

at least one processor configured for drawing specified objects for displaying a plan view based on map data;

at least one processor configured for drawing specified objects for displaying a birds'"'"' eye view based on the map data; and

at least one processor configured for switching the display of the image display device to the plan view, if the birds'"'"' eye view is displayed on the image display device when accepting designation of a point on the map.

25. A navigation system comprising:

an image display device;

an input device;

a storage medium for storing map data therein;

at least one processor configured for drawing specified objects for displaying a plan view based on the map data on the image display device;

at least one processor configured for drawing specified objects for displaying a birds'"'"' eye view based on the map data on the image display device; and

at least one processor configured for switching, if the birds'"'"' eye view is displayed on the display device, the display of the image display device to the plan view when accepting designation of a point on a map.

26. A map display apparatus comprising:

a display device;

a storage medium for storing therein character string data, position data indicative of a position for disposing the character string, and map data;

at least one processor configured for drawing specified objects for displaying a birds'"'"' eye view on the display device by perspectively projecting the map data, wherein the at least one processor configured for drawing specified objects for displaying displays the character string on the birds'"'"' eye view at a position as indicated by the position data that has been perspectively projected; and

a processor configured to switch, in response to designation of a point in the map data, a display on the image display device to a plan view from the bird'"'"'s eye view.

27. A map display apparatus comprising:

a display device;

a storage medium for storing therein character string data, position data indicative of a position for disposing the character string, and map data;

at least one processor configured for drawing specified objects for displaying a birds'"'"' eye view prepared by using the map data on the display device, wherein the at least one processor configured for drawing specified objects for displaying displays the character string on the birds'"'"' eye view; and

a processor configured to switch, in response to designation of a point in the map data, a display on the image display device to a plan view from the bird'"'"'s eye view.

28. A processing unit for map display apparatus comprising:

a storage medium for reading character string data, position data indicative of a position for disposing the character string and map data;

at least one processor configured for drawing specified objects for drawing maps for perspectively projecting said map data to output a map from birds'"'"' eye view wherein at least one processor configured for drawing specified objects disposes the character string on the birds'"'"' eye view at a position as indicated by the position data that has been perspectively projected; and

a processor configured to switch, in response to designation of a point in the map data, a display on the image display device to a plan view from the map from birds'"'"' eye view.

29. A map display apparatus comprising:

a display device;

a storage medium for storing map data and character string data; and

at least one processor configured for drawing specified objects for drawing maps for displaying an image of map on the display device by using the map data, wherein the storage medium stores, as the character data, vector data for recognizing a position of the character string and image data for recognizing an image of the character strings;

the at least one processor configured for drawing specified objects for drawing maps perspectively projects coordinate data included in the map data to produce drawing data for a birds'"'"' eye view onto a predetermined projection plane with a view point at a predetermined position, while the perspective projection is not performed as to the image data; and

a processor configured to switch, in response to designation of a point in the map data, a display on the image display device to a plan view from the bird'"'"'s eye view.

30. A navigation system comprising:

an image display device;

a storage medium for storing character string data, position data indicative of a position for disposing the character string, and map data;

at least one processor configured for drawing specified objects for displaying a map of a birds'"'"' eye view on the display device by perspectively projecting the map data, wherein the at least one processor configured for drawing specified objects displays the character string on the birds'"'"' eye view at a position as indicated by the position data that has been perspectively projected; and

a processor configured to switch, in response to designation of a point in the map data, a display on the image display device to a plan view from the bird'"'"'s eye view.

31. A map display apparatus comprising:

a display device;

storage medium for storing map data and character string data;

at least one processor configured for drawing specified objects for displaying an image of a map on the display device by using the map data, wherein the storage medium stores, as the character data, position data for recognizing a position of the character string and image data of the character strings;

the at least one processor configured for drawing specified objects executes instructions for perspectively projecting coordinate data included in the map data to produce drawing data for a birds'"'"' eye view onto a predetermined projection plane with a view point at a predetermined position;

the instructions for perspectively projecting coordinate data perspectively project the position data of the character data while skipping the perspective projection as to the image data of the character string; and

a processor configured to switch, in response to designation of a point in the map data, a display on the image display device to a plan view from the bird'"'"'s eye view.

38. The computer readable medium of claim 31, wherein if the birds'"'"' eye view is displayed on the image display device, the display of the image display device is switched to the plan view in the displaying step.

32. A map display apparatus comprising:

a display device;

storage medium for storing map data and character string data;

at least one processor configured for drawing specified objects for displaying an image of a map on the display device by using the map data, wherein the at least one processor configured for drawing specified objects excludes character data from drawing data, if it is not a drawing target, among those character data corresponding to a position to be contained in the map; and

a processor configured to switch, in response to designation of a point in the map data, a display on the image display device to a plan view from a bird'"'"'s eye view.

33. A map display apparatus according to claim 32, wherein the at least one processor configured for drawing specified objects determines the drawing target among the character string data by comparing a height of display position from a bottom side of display screen with a predetermined reference value.

34. A map display apparatus according to claim 32, wherein at least a part of the character string data has a preliminarily defined attribute and the at least one processor configured for drawing specified objects determines the drawing target that will fit to an attribute preliminarily determined for respective display regions of the display screen of the display device, among the character string data and the character strings that will not fit to the attribute will be excluded from the drawing target.

35. A map display apparatus comprising:

a display device;

a storage medium for storing map data therein; and

at least one processor configured for drawing specified objects for preparing drawing data of a map using the map data to display it on the display screen, wherein the at least one processor configured for drawing specified objects comprises instructions for changing an angle of a projection plane in accordance with a distance between two predetermined points contained in said map data, perspectively projecting said map data to produce said drawing data of a birds'"'"' eye view on the projection plane, and switching, in response to designation of a point in the map data, a display on the image display device to a plan view from a bird'"'"'s eye view.

36. A computer readable medium having processor executable instructions for carrying out a map display method comprising the step of:

accepting designation of a point on a map, wherein a display of an image display device is switched to a plan view if a bird'"'"'s eye view is displayed on the image display device.

37. A computer readable medium having processor executable instructions for carrying out steps of a map display method comprising the steps of:

accepting designation of a point on a map; and

displaying a plan view and a birds'"'"' eye view prepared based on map data by switching to the plan view from the bird'"'"'s eye view in response to accepting the designation of the point in a state where the plan view is displayed on the image display device.

39. A computer readable medium having processor executable instructions for carrying out a map display method in which character data, position data indicative of a position for disposing the character string and a map data are read and the map data is perspectively projected for displaying a birds'"'"' eye view on a display device, wherein the character data is not perspectively projected;

and the bird'"'"'s eye view is switched to a plan view in response to accepting designation of a point in a state where the bird'"'"'s eye view is displayed on an image display device.

40. A computer readable medium having processor executable instructions for carrying out a map display method for displaying a map from a birds'"'"' eye view on a display device by perspectively projecting map data, wherein a character string is displayed on the birds'"'"' eye view at a position as indicated by position data that has been perspectively projected.

41. A computer readable medium having processor executable instructions for carrying out a map display method for displaying a birds'"'"' eye view on a display screen by perspectively projecting map data, wherein if a display height of a character string from the bottom side of the display device is more than a predetermined reference value, the character string is not to be a drawing target;

and switching from the bird'"'"'s eye view to a plan view in response to a designation.

42. A computer readable medium having processor executable instructions for carrying out a map display method for displaying a map of birds'"'"' eye view on a display screen by perspectively projecting map data, wherein a character string at a location whose distance from a view point is longer than a predetermined reference value is not to be a drawing target.