Information display apparatus, information display method, program, and storage medium

Abstract

To enable a user to easily refer to information on an arbitrary facility on an expressway in a highway mode.SOLUTION: An information display device includes a display control part for displaying a part of a plurality of pieces of expressway facility information on an expressway on which a vehicle travels on a display screen. The display control unit changes a display area of the high-speed facility information on the display screen according to a user's operation.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 3

Description

[Technical Field]

[0001] The present invention relates to a technique for displaying facility information on expressways. [Background technology]

[0002] In car navigation devices and the like, a highway mode display is known that displays interchanges, service areas, and other highway facilities when a vehicle is traveling on a highway. Patent Document 1 describes an example of the highway mode display. [Prior art documents] [Patent documents]

[0003] [Patent Document 1] Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2006-17601 Summary of the Invention [Problem to be solved by the invention]

[0004] Conventionally, the area where highway mode information is displayed on the display screen of a car navigation system or the like is fixed. Therefore, if there are many facilities on the way to the highway exit, it is not possible to display all of the information about them due to the limited display space. However, there are cases where users want to check the locations of specific facilities they plan to pass on the way to the highway exit.

[0005] The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned problems, and its main object is to provide an information display device that allows a user to easily refer to information about any facility on a highway in highway mode. [Means for solving the problem]

[0006] The invention described in the claims is an information display device that includes a display control unit that displays on a display screen a portion of information on multiple highway facilities on the highway on which a vehicle is traveling, and the display control unit changes the display area of ​​the highway facility information on the display screen in response to user operation.

[0007] The invention described in the claims is an information display method executed by an information display device, which includes a display step of displaying on a display screen a portion of information on multiple highway facilities on the highway on which a vehicle is traveling, and the display step changes the display area of ​​the highway facility information on the display screen in response to user operation.

[0008] The invention described in the claims is a program executed by a computer, which causes the computer to function as a display control unit that displays on a display screen some of the information on multiple highway facilities on the highway on which a vehicle is traveling, and the display control unit changes the display area of ​​the highway facility information on the display screen in response to user operation. [Brief explanation of the drawings]

[0009] [Figure 1] FIG. [Figure 2] 2 shows a schematic configuration of a terminal device. [Figure 3] An example of a display in highway mode is shown. [Figure 4] 10 is a flowchart of a highway mode process. [Figure 5] 10 shows an example of the configuration of a system according to a modified example. [Figure 6] 2 shows a schematic configuration of a server device. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0010] According to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the information display device includes a display control unit that displays on a display screen a portion of information on a plurality of highway facilities on the highway on which the vehicle is traveling, and the display control unit changes the display area of ​​the highway facility information on the display screen in response to user operation.

[0011] The information display device includes a display control unit that displays on a display screen a portion of information about a plurality of highway facilities on the expressway on which the vehicle is traveling. The display control unit changes the display area of ​​the highway facility information on the display screen in response to a user operation, thereby allowing the user to easily view any portion of the highway facility information.

[0012] In one aspect of the information display device, the display control unit displays map information including the current position of the vehicle outside the display area of ​​the highway facility information on the display screen, allowing the user to view the highway facility information and the map information simultaneously.

[0013] Another aspect of the information display device includes a route acquisition unit that acquires a route to a destination of the vehicle, and the display control unit displays route guidance information on the display screen based on the route and changes the display area of ​​the expressway facility information in an area of ​​the display screen excluding the display area of ​​the route guidance information. In this aspect, the display of the route guidance information necessary for route guidance is maintained regardless of the change in the display area of ​​the expressway facility information.

[0014] In another aspect of the information display device, the expressway facility information includes exit information indicating facilities at which the vehicle will exit the expressway according to the route, and the display control unit displays only the exit information as the expressway facility information when the user operates to minimize the display area of ​​the expressway facility information. In this aspect, when the user wants to prioritize viewing map information while traveling on the expressway, only the exit information is displayed as the expressway facility information.

[0015] In another aspect of the information display device, the highway facility information includes a facility list displaying a plurality of facility information in driving order, and the display control unit scrolls the facility list in response to a user operation. In this aspect, the user can scroll to display highway facilities that are not displayed as highway facility information.

[0016] According to another preferred embodiment of the present invention, an information display method executed by an information display device includes a display step of displaying on a display screen some of a plurality of pieces of highway facility information on a highway on which a vehicle is traveling, the display step changing a display area of ​​the highway facility information on the display screen in response to a user operation, thereby allowing the user to easily view any part of the highway facility information.

[0017] According to another preferred embodiment of the present invention, a program executed by a computer causes the computer to function as a display control unit that displays, on a display screen, a portion of information about a plurality of highway facilities on the expressway on which a vehicle is traveling, and the display control unit changes the display area of ​​the highway facility information on the display screen in response to a user operation. By executing this program on a computer, the above-mentioned information display device can be realized. This program can be stored in a storage medium and used. [Example]

[0018] Preferred embodiments of the present invention will now be described with reference to the drawings. [Overall configuration] 1 shows a front view of a terminal device 100 to which an information display device according to the present invention is applied. The terminal device 100 is a portable terminal that can be carried by a user, and has a display 110 on which a touch panel 120 is laminated. The terminal device 100 provides route guidance to a specified destination for pedestrians, vehicles, etc.

[0019] Fig. 2 shows a schematic configuration of the terminal device 100. As shown in Fig. 2, the terminal device 100 includes an output unit 11, an input unit 12, a storage unit 13, a communication unit 14, a GPS receiver 16, and a control unit 17. The elements of the terminal device 100 are interconnected via a bus 10, and are configured to enable transmission of necessary information between the elements.

[0020] The output unit 11 includes a display 110, a speaker 111 for outputting audio, and the like, and outputs information in response to operations by the user of the terminal device 100 under the control of the control unit 17. The input unit 12 includes a touch panel 120, and is an interface that accepts input of necessary commands and information by the terminal user to the terminal device 100, i.e., operations. For example, the input unit 12 accepts input specifying a destination, input specifying conditions for route search, and the like. Note that the input unit 12 may have, in addition to the touch panel 120, keys, switches, buttons, audio input devices, and the like for inputting various commands and data.

[0021] The storage unit 13 stores programs for controlling the operation of the terminal device 100 and holds information necessary for the operation of the terminal device 100. For example, the storage unit 13 stores various data used in navigation processing, such as map data. The map data includes road data represented by links corresponding to roads and nodes corresponding to road junctions (intersections), facility information on each facility, and the like.

[0022] The communication unit 14 transmits and receives data to and from other devices in accordance with a predetermined protocol. For example, the communication unit 14 receives screen information to be displayed on the display 110 from a server device via a network such as the Internet under the control of the control unit 17. The GPS receiver 16 receives radio waves carrying downlink data including positioning data from multiple GPS satellites, thereby generating information on the current location of the terminal device 100 and transmitting the information to the control unit 17.

[0023] The control unit 17 includes a central processing unit (CPU), a read only memory (ROM), a random access memory (RAM), and the like (not shown), and performs various controls on the components within the terminal device 100.

[0024] For example, the control unit 17 receives an input specifying a destination via the input unit 12 and sets a route to the specified destination (also called a "guided route"). Then, the control unit 17 displays a map with the current position as the base point and provides route guidance based on the guided route. The control unit 17 is an example of a route acquisition unit, a display control unit, and a computer.

[0025] In addition to the components shown in FIG. 2, the terminal device 100 may include various stand-alone positioning devices such as an acceleration sensor, an angular velocity sensor, and a distance sensor.

[0026] [Highway Mode] Next, the highway mode will be described. When a vehicle equipped with the terminal device 100 is traveling on an expressway, the terminal device 100 displays a list of information (hereinafter referred to as "expressway facility information") about facilities on the expressway (hereinafter referred to as "expressway facilities"). The mode in which the list of expressway facility information is displayed is called "highway mode." Examples of expressway facilities include interchanges (ICs), junctions (JCTs), service areas (SAs), and parking areas (PAs). In this specification, the term "expressway" is used to refer to a concept that includes so-called toll roads and expressways, regardless of whether the speed limit is high or not.

[0027] Normally, in highway mode, the display area of ​​highway facility information on the display screen is fixed. However, if there are many highway facilities before the highway exit, the user may want to view any of them.

[0028] Therefore, in this embodiment, the user can arbitrarily change the display area of ​​the highway facility information displayed in the highway mode. That is, the user can arbitrarily change the size of the display area of ​​the highway facility information on the display screen.

[0029] (Display example) 3 shows an example of a display in highway mode according to this embodiment. FIG. 3(A) is an example of a default display in highway mode. That is, when a vehicle equipped with the terminal device 100 enters a highway, the terminal device 100 first displays the display shown in FIG. 3(A) in highway mode. In the example of the default display in highway mode shown in FIG. 3(A), map information 31, guide plates 32, and highway facility information 33 are displayed on the display screen of the display 110.

[0030] The map information 31 is map information about the area around the current location of the vehicle, and includes a vehicle position mark 31x that indicates the current location of the vehicle. The guide plate 32 is displayed during route guidance, and includes guidance information for the next guidance point. In the example of FIG. 3(A), the guide plate 32 includes the distance to the next guidance point, the direction of travel at the next guidance point, the name of the next guidance point, and guidance information for the next guidance point after that. Note that the guide plate 32 is not displayed when route guidance is not in progress. The guide plate 32 is an example of "route guidance information."

[0031] The expressway facility information 33 is a list of expressway facilities that will be passed in the future according to the guidance route, based on the current position of the vehicle (hereinafter also referred to as "own vehicle position"). Specifically, in the example of FIG. 3(A), the expressway facility information 33 includes exit information 33a and a plurality of expressway facilities 33b. The exit information 33a is information on the point (exit) at which to exit the expressway currently being traveled if traveling according to the guidance route. Note that when route guidance is not in progress, the exit information 33a is not displayed.

[0032] The expressway facilities 33b are those located ahead of the vehicle's position, and those closest to the vehicle's position are displayed at the bottom. In the example of FIG. 3(A), the next expressway facility the vehicle will pass through is "Itabashi JCT," and the next one is "Bijogi JCT." After passing "Bijogi JCT," there are still several expressway facilities between the exit and "Kanuma IC," but in the example of FIG. 3(A), due to display space limitations, only two expressway facilities 33b closest to the vehicle's position are displayed. Note that the sizes of the exit information 33a and expressway facilities 33b displayed within the display area of ​​the expressway facility information 33 are fixed, and in this embodiment, the sizes of the exit information 33a and expressway facilities 33b themselves are not changed.

[0033] As shown in Figure 3(A), in the default display example of highway mode, the highway facility information 33 is about half the size of the entire display screen, with map information 31 displayed on about half of the display screen and highway facility information 33 displayed on the remaining half.

[0034] If the user wants to see information about an expressway facility 33b that is not currently displayed, the user can enlarge the display area of ​​the expressway facility information 33 by dragging the upper end 33x of the display area of ​​the expressway facility information 33 upward. Fig. 3(B) shows an example of a display in which the display area of ​​the expressway facility information 33 is maximized upward, i.e., the display area of ​​the expressway facility information 33 is made as wide as possible. In the example of Fig. 3(A), when the display area of ​​the expressway facility information 33 is maximized, the map information 31 becomes invisible, as shown in Fig. 3(B).

[0035] Because the size of the expressway facilities 33b displayed in the display area of ​​the expressway facility information 33 is a predetermined fixed size, the position of the upper end of the display area of ​​the expressway facility information 33 when the user maximizes the display area of ​​the expressway facility information 33 is determined by the number of expressway facilities 33b included in the expressway facility information 33. In the example of FIG. 3(B), because the expressway facility information 33 includes a large number of expressway facilities 33b, when the user maximizes the display area of ​​the expressway facility information 33, the upper end 33x of the display area of ​​the expressway facility information 33 reaches just below the guide plate 32, and the map information 31 is not visible. On the other hand, when the number of expressway facilities 33 included in the expressway facility information 33 is small, even if the user maximizes the display area of ​​the expressway facility information 33, the upper end 33x of the display area of ​​the expressway facility information 33 does not reach just below the guide plate 32, and the map information 31 is displayed in the area above the upper end of the display area of ​​the expressway facility information 33. For example, in the example of Figure 3(B), if it is assumed that there are only two expressway facilities 33b included in the expressway facility information 33, exit information 33a will be displayed at the location of the expressway facility "Hasuda SA," and map information 31 will be displayed in the area above that, including exit information "Kanuma" and expressway facility "Sano Fujioka JCT."

[0036] As described above, when the user sets the display area of ​​the expressway facility information 33 to an arbitrary size, the number of expressway facilities 33b displayed in the display area of ​​the expressway facility information 33 corresponds to the predetermined size of the expressway facilities 33b. If all of the expressway facilities 33b are not displayed, the user can display the expressway facilities 33b that are not currently displayed by scrolling the area in the display area of ​​the expressway facility information 33 where the expressway facilities 33b are displayed. For example, in the example of FIG. 3(B), the user can scroll the area in which the expressway facilities 33b are displayed downward to display the expressway facilities 33b beyond the "Sano Fujioka JCT."

[0037] Even when the display area of ​​the expressway facility information 33 is maximized, the display of the guide plate 32 remains the same. This is because the guide plate 32 displays information about the next guide point, and so it is preferable to keep it displayed at all times. When route guidance is not in progress, the guide plate 32 is not displayed, so the user can expand the display area of ​​the expressway facility information 33 to the area of ​​the guide plate 32 in Figure 3(B).

[0038] FIG. 3(C) shows a display example in which the display area of ​​the expressway facility information 33 is minimized downward, i.e., the display area of ​​the expressway facility information 33 is narrowed to its narrowest. As shown in FIG. 3(C), when the display area of ​​the expressway facility information 33 is minimized, the display area of ​​the map information 31 becomes larger, and only the exit information 33a of the expressway facility information 33 is displayed. In other words, when the display area of ​​the expressway facility information 33 is minimized, the display of the expressway facility 33b included in the expressway facility information 33 is omitted. In this way, if the user prefers to display the map information 31 rather than the expressway facility information 33 during highway mode, the user can minimize the display area of ​​the expressway facility information 33. Note that even when the display area of ​​the expressway facility information 33 is minimized, the display of the guide plate 32 remains the same. Furthermore, when route guidance is not in progress, the guide plate 32 is not displayed.

[0039] Specifically, the user can change the size of the display area of ​​the expressway facility information 33 to any size by moving the upper end 33x of the display area of ​​the expressway facility information 33 to any position in the vertical direction of the display screen. If the user wants to enlarge the display area of ​​the expressway facility information 33, the user can simply move the upper end 33x of the display area of ​​the expressway facility information 33 upward in the vertical direction of the display screen, and if the user wants to reduce the display area of ​​the expressway facility information 33, the user can simply move the upper end 33x of the display area of ​​the expressway facility information 33 downward in the vertical direction of the display screen.

[0040] 3(B), when the expressway facility information 33 includes a large number of expressway facilities 33b and the user maximizes the display area of ​​the expressway facility information 33, the map information 31 is displayed together with the expressway facility information 33 unless the upper end 33x of the display area of ​​the expressway facility information 33 reaches just below the guide plate 32. In this case, the terminal device 100 adjusts the range and scale of the map to be displayed as necessary so that the vehicle position mark 31x is included near the center of the display area of ​​the map information 31.

[0041] In the above example, as a display example in the default state shown in FIG. 3(A), the top edge 33x of the display area for the expressway facility information 33 is set near the center (middle) in the vertical direction of the display screen. However, the top edge 33x of the display area for the expressway facility information 33 in the default state is not limited to the center in the vertical direction of the display screen, and can be set to any position, such as a position about one-quarter of the way down from the bottom. Furthermore, once the user has moved the top edge 33x of the display area for the expressway facility information 33 to a desired position, the terminal device 100 may store that position and use that position as the default position when the highway mode is subsequently activated.

[0042] (Processing flow) Fig. 4 is a flowchart of the highway mode process. This process is realized by the control unit 17 shown in Fig. 2 executing a program prepared in advance. This process is repeatedly executed at predetermined time intervals.

[0043] First, the control unit 17 determines whether the vehicle has entered an expressway based on the vehicle position of the vehicle equipped with the terminal device 100 and map information (step S11). If the vehicle has not entered an expressway (step S11: No), the process ends. On the other hand, if the vehicle has entered an expressway (step S11: Yes), the control unit 17 displays the expressway facility information 33 in a default size (step S12). As a result, for example, a default size display such as that shown in FIG. 3(A) is performed.

[0044] Next, the control unit 17 determines whether or not the user has issued an instruction to change the size of the display area of ​​the expressway facility information (step S13). Specifically, the control unit 17 determines whether or not the position of the upper end 33x of the display area of ​​the expressway facility information 33 shown in FIG. 3(A) has been moved in the vertical direction. If an instruction to change the size has been issued (step S13: Yes), the control unit 17 changes the size of the display area of ​​the expressway facility information 33 in accordance with the instruction to change the size (step S14). On the other hand, if an instruction to change the size has not been issued (step S13: No), the process proceeds to step S15.

[0045] Next, the control unit 17 determines whether the vehicle has exited the expressway based on the vehicle's own position and the map information (step S15). If the vehicle has not exited the expressway (step S15: No), the process returns to step S13 and the highway mode process continues. On the other hand, if the vehicle has exited the expressway (step S15: Yes), the highway mode process ends.

[0046] [Variations] Preferred modifications of the above-described embodiment will now be described, and these modifications can be applied to the above-described embodiment in any combination.

[0047] (Variation 1) Instead of the terminal device 100, a server device connected via a network may execute part of the processing of the control unit 17.

[0048] Fig. 5 shows an example of the configuration of a system according to a modified example. As shown in Fig. 5, a terminal device 100 is connected to a server device 200 via a network 150. The terminal device 100 receives information necessary for route guidance from the server device 200 to provide route guidance.

[0049] Fig. 6 shows a schematic configuration of the server device 200. As shown in Fig. 6, the server device 200 has a communication unit 202, a storage unit 203, and a control unit 204. The communication unit 202, the storage unit 203, and the control unit 204 are connected to each other via a bus line 201.

[0050] The communication unit 202 transmits and receives various data via the network 150 under the control of the control unit 204. The storage unit 203 is configured, for example, with an HDD or the like, and stores data necessary for route search, such as map data. The control unit 204 has memories such as a CPU, ROM, and RAM, and performs overall control of the server device 200 by executing programs stored in the memory.

[0051] In this case, when the communication unit 202 receives information indicating route search conditions, including destination information and departure point information such as the current location, from the terminal device 100, the control unit 204 determines a guide route and transmits the guide route information to the terminal device 100. The control unit 17 of the terminal device 100 provides route guidance based on the guide route information received from the server device 200. The control unit 204 also receives, from the terminal device 100, information on the current location of the vehicle and an instruction to resize the display area of ​​the expressway facility information entered by the user, executes highway mode processing to generate information necessary for the display shown in Fig. 3, and transmits the generated information to the terminal device 100 via the communication unit 202. In this case, the control unit 17 causes the display 110 to display a display screen such as that shown in Fig. 3, based on the information necessary for the display received from the server device 200.

[0052] In this way, even when the server device 200 executes part of the processing of the control unit 17, the terminal device 100 can perform the above-mentioned highway mode display control. Note that the processing of the server device 200 may be executed by a server system consisting of multiple server devices. In this modification, the server device 200 is an example of the "information display device" of the present invention, and the control unit 204 is an example of the "computer" of the present invention.

[0053] (Variation 2) The terminal device 100 is not limited to a portable terminal such as a smartphone as shown in Fig. 1, but may also be a stationary navigation device installed in a vehicle. In this case, the control unit of the navigation device performs display control similar to that of the control unit 17 on the display of the navigation device. [Explanation of symbols]

[0054] 10 Bus 11 Output section 12 Input section 13 Storage section 14 Communications Department 16 GPS receivers 17 Control Unit 100 Terminal Device 110 Display 120 Touch Panel 150 Network 200 Server device

Claims

[Claim 1] a display control unit that displays on a display screen a portion of information on a plurality of expressway facilities on the expressway on which the vehicle is traveling; The display control unit is an information display device that changes a display area of ​​the expressway facility information on the display screen in response to a user operation.

Images