JP2006214777A - Navigation device - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a navigation device capable of understanding easily at a glance of a screen whether a presented guide route is proper or not in consideration of a present congestion state or the like. <P>SOLUTION: When guide processing of the guide route is performed by a guide route guide processing part 30, if the guide route is operated by a guide route operation part 31, a road-classified vehicle speed information taking instruction part 35 instructs so that a road-classified vehicle speed information taking part 24 takes information of present average traveling speed on each road on the guide route. A road-classified traveling speed line width guide route display part 36 displays the guide route with the width corresponding to the average traveling speed relative to each road on the operated guide route according to the information. When the average traveling speed is changed on each road, the guide route may be displayed with the line width corresponding to the average traveling speed, or the guide route may be displayed with the line width corresponding to the congestion state of each road also at an ordinary traveling time. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2006,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to a navigation device that guides a vehicle to a destination, and more particularly to a navigation device that can display the traveling speed of each road in an easy-to-understand manner on a guidance route to the destination.

  In a navigation apparatus mounted on a vehicle or the like, a map / information data storage medium such as a CD-ROM, a DVD-ROM, a hard disk, etc., which records map data for drawing a map and facility information data for searching for a facility, , A data capturing device that captures data from the map / information data storage medium, a monitor that displays a map, etc., and a self-contained navigation device that uses a GPS receiver, a mileage sensor, a gyroscope, A vehicle position detection device that detects a heading in the traveling direction, takes in map data including the current position of the vehicle from a map / information data storage medium, and displays a map image around the vehicle position based on the map data on a monitor screen The vehicle position mark is superimposed on the monitor screen, and the map image is scrolled as the vehicle moves. And, or to move the fixed vehicle position mark a map image on a screen, so that seen whether the vehicle is traveling where the current at a glance.

  Map data stored in a map / information data storage medium such as a CD-ROM, DVD-ROM, or hard disk is divided into longitude and latitude widths of appropriate sizes according to various scale levels. A road or the like is stored as a coordinate set of nodes expressed by longitude and latitude. A road is composed of a combination of two or more nodes, and map data displays a road layer consisting of a road list, a node table, an intersection configuration node list, etc., and roads, buildings, facilities, parks, rivers, etc. on the map screen. Map data such as a background layer, and information data for displaying characters, map symbols, etc., such as administrative division names such as municipalities, road names, intersection names, and facility names.

  In addition, this navigation device has a route guidance function for allowing a user to easily travel on a road toward a desired destination or waypoint (hereinafter referred to as “destination”) without making a mistake. Yes. According to this route guidance function, a destination is set by various means, and an appropriate route is calculated and presented in consideration of various conditions among routes connecting these points from the departure point to the destination. It has become. Also, the route selected by the user is stored as a guide route, and while driving, the guide route is drawn on the map image with a different color from other routes and displayed on the screen. When approaching an intersection where the course of course should be changed within a certain distance, the intersection is enlarged and displayed on the screen by drawing an arrow indicating the direction in which the course should be changed, or a right or left turn is guided by voice. In this way, the user can be guided to the destination.

  In the navigation device as described above, when the calculation result of the guidance route is presented to the user for confirmation and displayed, and when the fixed guidance route is displayed, for example, as shown in FIG. Is displayed. That is, in the example shown in FIG. 9, the destination M is set and the guidance route from the current location P is calculated. As a result, the A interchange (AIC) rides on the expressway from the current location P through the “prefectural road” and the B interchange. Get off at (BIC), travel on “city road”, and then reach the destination M through “bypass road”. For roads on the map, the line thickness corresponding to each road should be The roads are appropriately changed, and each road is displayed in an appropriate color so as to be identifiable, and the guidance route is displayed on each road with a specific color and a predetermined width.

  In this way, when displaying the guidance route, it is necessary to confirm with the user after calculating the guidance route, especially by simply changing the thickness and color at the time of display depending on the type of road such as national road, prefectural road, municipal road, and expressway. When displaying for prompting, the user does not know the current traffic congestion status of each road that constitutes the guide route, that is, the current average traveling speed of each road, so that it is assumed that there is no traffic jam. Considering the type or the like or referring to the expected required time presented from the navigation device, it is estimated whether or not the guidance route is appropriate.

  However, in actuality, the actual speed of traffic on each road is often different from the driving speed according to the type of road as described above. Therefore, the user is sure that the presented guidance route is really appropriate. It cannot be accurately determined by this method.

As a countermeasure, Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open No. 8-1584 discloses an average traveling speed pre-recorded for each road at the time of presentation of a guidance route by color-coded for each road and lists the average traveling speed corresponding to each color. It is also proposed to provide information that takes into account the current average travel speed by displaying the traffic information such as VICS information on the other hand, and correcting and displaying the average travel speed recorded in advance as described above. Has been.
Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 8-1584

  When displaying the guidance route, as shown in Patent Document 1, the traffic information is a problem that the user does not know the actual average traveling speed simply by displaying a predetermined color or the like on the traveling road. For roads that have been imported and displayed according to the average traveling speed of each road, the problem can be solved, but the roads on the guide route according to the average traveling speed displayed on the map It is necessary to understand the average speed of each road by comparing each color with the display of the list displayed separately from the map display.

  For this reason, it is difficult for the user to immediately understand the average traveling speed of each road, and it takes a lot of time to determine whether or not the guide route is appropriate. It is not possible to select an appropriate guidance route due to misunderstandings.

  Therefore, the present invention can easily understand whether or not the guide route presented by simply looking at the road map is appropriate in consideration of the current traffic situation when displaying the guide route. The main purpose is to provide a navigation device.

  In order to solve the above problems, the navigation device according to the present invention captures the current average travel speed for each road for the guide route calculation means for calculating the guide route to the destination and the guide route obtained by the guide route calculation means. Based on the road-specific vehicle speed information capturing means and the current vehicle speed information captured by the road-specific vehicle speed information capturing means, the guide route is displayed on the road on the map screen with a line width corresponding to the average traveling speed for each road. It is characterized by comprising road-specific travel speed line width guidance route display means.

  According to another navigation apparatus of the present invention, in the navigation apparatus, the road-specific travel speed line width guide route display means responds to the average travel speed when the average travel speed is changing on each road. The guide route is displayed by the line width.

  According to another navigation apparatus of the present invention, in the navigation apparatus, the guidance route calculation means calculates a plurality of guidance routes, and the line width corresponding to the average traveling speed is calculated for each road on the same map screen. A plurality of guidance routes are displayed.

  Another navigation device of the present invention is characterized in that, in the navigation device, the determined guidance route displays the same display as the guidance route presented at the time of the guidance route calculation.

  Another navigation device of the present invention is characterized in that, in the navigation device, the determined guide route is displayed while being updated with a line width corresponding to the average traveling speed for each road updated as appropriate. .

  Another navigation device of the present invention is characterized in that the navigation device also displays the average traveling speed itself for each road captured by the road-specific vehicle speed information capturing means.

  Since the present invention is configured as described above, when displaying a guide route, it is easy to determine whether or not the guide route presented by simply looking at the road map is appropriate in consideration of the current road congestion situation and the like. When a plurality of guide routes are presented, it is possible to appropriately determine which guide route is appropriate. In addition, since such guidance route display can be performed during traveling, it is possible to drive while grasping the current congestion on the guidance route and changes in traffic conditions.

  In the present invention, when displaying a guide route, it is possible to easily understand whether or not the guide route presented by simply looking at the road map is appropriate in consideration of the current road congestion situation or the like. A guide route calculating means for calculating a guide route to the destination, and a vehicle speed information capturing means for each road that captures the current average traveling speed for each road for the guide route obtained by the guide route calculating means; The road speed guidance for each road that displays the guidance route on the road on the map screen with the line width corresponding to the average running speed for each road according to the current vehicle speed information fetched by the road speed information fetching means for each road Realized by providing route display means.

  Embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram centering on a functional unit that performs guidance route display processing in consideration of the current average traveling speed on each road in the navigation device according to the present invention. In the functional block diagram, each functional unit that performs each function can also be referred to as a unit that performs each function.

  In the navigation apparatus shown in FIG. 1, as in the prior art, a ROM in which software for comprehensively performing various predetermined functions is recorded in the system control unit 10, a CPU and a RAM for processing the software, etc. And each functional unit connected thereto is controlled. In the illustrated navigation apparatus, a vehicle position detection unit 13 is connected to the system control unit 10 and position data of the GPS receiver 11 is input. Further, if necessary, a travel distance / orientation detection unit using a vehicle speed sensor or an angle sensor. By inputting the movement data of the vehicle from 12, the current position of the vehicle is accurately detected.

  In the instruction signal input unit 16, an instruction signal for the remote controller 14 or the like by the user in this navigation device is input. Further, a signal from the voice recognition unit 15 for inputting a user instruction signal by processing for recognizing the user's voice as necessary is also input to the instruction signal input unit 16.

  The data fetching unit 18 fetches necessary map data, facility information, etc. from a map / information data recording medium 17 such as a CD-ROM, DVD-ROM, or hard disk, and the data recording medium is like a hard disk. When data can be easily written, data can be input to the data recording medium so that data imported from outside or data processed by other functional units can be read and used later. I have to. In this data, a traveling average speed set in advance according to the type of each road, the road width, etc. is recorded along with the road data.

  An image from the image output unit 21 is displayed on the monitor 20, and a guidance route described later is displayed on the road by a predetermined method in addition to roads, various facilities, and character data. The speaker 22 outputs the sound from the sound output unit 23, thereby guiding the guidance route and the like.

  In the vehicle-specific vehicle speed information capturing unit 24, the current traffic congestion / congestion information is captured from the VICS that has been widely used in the past, or the vehicle-to-vehicle communication that exchanges various information between vehicles that are expected to be widely used in the future. Also, the vehicle speed information for each road can be captured by mutually transmitting and receiving the current average traveling speed of vehicles traveling on each road.

  The guidance route calculation unit 31 in the guidance route guidance processing unit 30 takes in the current location of the vehicle detected by the vehicle position detection unit 13 and scrolls the map by operating a cursor displayed on the screen or by inputting an address. Furthermore, destinations set by various methods such as entering telephone numbers are imported, and one or more appropriate guidance routes are selected for various conditions such as the shortest required time, shortest distance, and general road priority. Calculate and present the route.

  The guidance route display processing unit 32 performs processing for appropriately displaying the guidance route calculated by the guidance route calculation unit 31 on the map on the monitor 20 as will be described later. In the guide route storage unit 33, the user confirms the guide route displayed on the monitor 20 in the display mode calculated by the guide route calculation unit 31 and processed by the guide route display processing unit 32, and when the user confirms the guide route, Memorize the guidance route.

  In the guide route guide unit 34, an enlarged display of an intersection is displayed on the screen of the monitor 20 from the image output unit 21 so that the vehicle can travel reliably and safely along the guide route stored in the guide route storage unit 33. Guidance is displayed by various methods, and guidance is performed by voice from the voice output unit 23 through the speaker 22.

  In the vehicle speed information import instruction unit 35 by road in the guide route display processing unit 32, for the guide route calculated and presented by the guide route calculation unit 31, an instruction to capture the average travel speed for each type of road traveling on the route To the road-specific vehicle speed information capturing unit 24. The road-specific travel speed line width guide route display unit 36 performs display with a line width corresponding to the travel speed for each road based on the information captured as described above when displaying the guide route.

  That is, a line proportional to the average traveling speed based on the current average traveling speed for each road, which is taken in by the road-specific vehicle speed information capturing section 24 according to the instruction from the road-specific vehicle speed information capturing instruction section 35 as described above. Display the guidance route by width. In the display process, for example, each road may be displayed in various modes such as gradually changing the thickness of the line in accordance with a state in which the traffic congestion gradually increases or the traffic congestion is gradually resolved. good.

  In the navigation device having the above-described configuration, for example, the navigation device can be operated sequentially according to the operation flow shown in FIG. The operation flow of FIG. 2 will be described below with reference to the functional block diagram of FIG. 1 and the display examples of FIGS. In the guidance route display process corresponding to the average traveling speed for each road shown in FIG. 2, the current location is fetched from the vehicle position detector 13 in FIG. 1 (step S1), and the user operates the cursor displayed on the screen. The destination is set by various methods such as scrolling the map or inputting an address, and further inputting a telephone number, and this is input from the instruction signal input unit 16 (step S2). ).

  Next, in this example, various guidance route search conditions such as the shortest required time, the shortest distance, and general road priority are input (step S3), and then the guidance route search is executed (step S4). This is performed by the guidance route calculation unit 31 in the guidance route guidance processing unit 30 of FIG. Next, for the roads on the guidance route, the current average travel speed is captured for each road (step S5). This processing is performed by the road-specific vehicle speed information import instruction unit 35 in the guidance route display processing unit 32 in FIG. 1 according to the calculation result data of the guidance route calculation unit 31 for each road on the guidance route. The vehicle speed information capturing unit 24 for each road is instructed to capture, and the vehicle speed information capturing unit 24 for each road is based on the VICS information and the information captured by inter-vehicle communication. This is done by capturing data.

  Thereafter, the guidance route is displayed for each road with a width corresponding to the current average traveling speed. This processing is performed in the road-specific travel speed line width guidance route display unit 36 in the guidance route display processing unit 32 of FIG. In the display, for example, as shown in FIG. 3, on the same map screen as the description of the conventional display example shown in FIG. 9, the “prefectural road” traveling from the current location P has a low average traveling speed of about 20 km, for example. Sometimes, the guidance route displayed on the prefectural road display is displayed narrowly in correspondence with the average traveling speed, and the user can see that this section is currently congested. FIG. 4 shows the guidance route display of FIG. 3 in an enlarged manner for easy understanding.

  Next, by entering the “highway” at the A interchange (AIC), for example, it is possible to travel at a speed of about 100 km / h, for example, so that the guidance route display of the highway part is shown thick corresponding to the average traveling speed, It is easy to understand that the road is currently running smoothly and that you can drive faster. Next, the “city road” traveling from the B interchange (BIC) is displayed on this city road when it is currently in a state where it can travel at a speed of 60 km / h, for example, because the number of traveling vehicles is small regardless of a relatively narrow road. The width of the guide route is displayed relatively widely corresponding to the average traveling speed, and the user can understand at a glance that there is no particular problem in using this city road because this part of the road can travel faster. The

  The “bypass road” that runs next is currently running at a speed of, for example, 30 km per hour, and the road speed is relatively slow for the original purpose of bypassing narrow streets and running smoothly. It turns out that it is crowded now. The user can determine whether or not the guidance route is appropriate in view of the current average traveling speed by simply looking at these displays.

  Thereafter, it is determined whether or not the user has confirmed the displayed guidance route (step S7). When the user sees the display of the guidance route as described above, and determines that the vehicle can travel relatively smoothly as a whole and inputs that the route is to be used, the guidance route is confirmed, and the confirmed guidance is confirmed. A route is displayed. When the determined guidance route is displayed, it may be displayed with a guidance route display width corresponding to the current traveling speed as shown in FIG. 3, or the conventional guidance route display may be performed when the screen is difficult to see. .

  When the guidance route is displayed after the guidance route is determined, when the guidance route display width corresponding to the current traveling speed is displayed as described above, each guidance route is again displayed at an appropriate time interval during the traveling of the guidance route. If the average travel speed is taken in, and the display width of the guide route is changed based on the result, the latest travel speed information can always be seen at a glance.

  When it is determined in step S7 that the guide route displayed by the user has not been confirmed, in the illustrated example, the search returns to step S3 in order to search for another guide route, and the guide route search condition is changed as appropriate, thereby The re-search is executed (step S4), and thereafter the same operation is repeated.

  In the above embodiment, when the average traveling speed is displayed, the guide route is displayed with a certain width for each road type. For example, as shown in FIG. 5, the vicinity of the highway B interchange (BIC) In the case of congestion for some reason, the average travel speed gradually slows down as the guide route display width gets closer to the BIC, and the city roads that run after the BIC are averaged as a whole. Although the speed is fast, the average speed is slow because there is congestion in the vicinity of the BIC, and when it runs smoothly for a while after the congestion is eliminated, it is displayed so as to gradually become thicker as shown in the figure. The state can be indicated by changing the guidance route display width.

  In the example of the operation flow shown in FIG. 2, when searching for a guidance route, an example is shown in which a guidance route from the current location to the destination is shown on the map by only one optimum guidance route by a user's search condition input. In addition, the present invention can be used effectively when a plurality of searches including various conditions are performed and the results are displayed as in the operation flow shown in FIG.

  That is, in the guidance route display process corresponding to the average traveling speed for each road shown in FIG. 6, first, the current location is input (step S11) and the destination is set in the same manner as the operation float of FIG. After that, a plurality of guidance routes are searched according to various search conditions (step S13). Next, the current average traveling speed is taken in for each road on each guidance route (step S15). Thereafter, each guidance route is displayed for each road with a width corresponding to the current average traveling speed.

  As a result, for example, a display as shown in FIG. 7 is performed. In the example shown in FIG. 7, the same guide route as that of FIG. 3 is displayed as the guide route 1, and the guide route 2 is also displayed. Here, it is shown that the guidance route 1 has a traffic jam immediately after entering the A interchange, and the guidance route 2 shows that both the “prefectural road” and the “bypass road” can be driven relatively smoothly. It is possible to determine that the guide route 2 that can travel relatively smoothly even if the travel distance is long is selected without using the highway that is being used. As shown in FIG. 7, when a plurality of guidance routes are displayed on the same map screen, the user can easily discriminate by performing appropriate color coding as is conventionally done.

  Based on the display as described above, the guide route is selected by the user (step S16), and then the guide route is determined and displayed. In this case, for example, as shown in FIG. 8, when the guide route 2 is selected from among the plurality of guide routes shown in FIG. 7, the line width corresponding to the current average traveling speed is determined only for the guide route 2. May be displayed. However, here, the same guidance route display as in the prior art may be performed as in the above example.

  In the navigation device having the function of capturing the current traveling speed for each road as described above and displaying the guide route, when searching for the shortest time guide route to the destination when searching for the guide route, It is also possible to add a function of taking in the data of the current average traveling speed of each road in the same manner as described above and presenting the optimum guidance route based on the data.

  In addition to searching for the guidance route first when the vehicle is traveling, when a traffic jam occurs during the traveling of the vehicle, the detour is displayed in the same way when calculating and displaying the detour. Anyway. At that time, a plurality of detours can be displayed in the same manner, and the user can select an appropriate one.

  In addition to the guide route display of the width according to the traveling speed of each road as described above, a list display as shown in the prior art may be separately performed. For example, speed display of 20 km, 60 km, etc. may be performed.

  The navigation device according to the present invention is used not only for a navigation device mounted on a vehicle as described above, but also for a portable personal computer or portable information terminal that is expected to be widely used in the future and that is used by bringing it into a vehicle. It can also be used effectively as a navigation device for various mobile objects that can travel on the road.

It is a functional block diagram of the Example of this invention. It is an operation | movement flowchart of the Example of this invention. It is a figure which shows the example of a guidance path | route display of the Example. It is the figure which took out and expanded and showed the guidance route part in the example of the guidance route display. It is a figure which shows the other example of a display of the same guidance route. It is an operation | movement flowchart of the other Example of this invention. It is a figure which shows the example of a guidance path | route display of the Example. It is a figure which shows the guidance route decided after the same guidance route display. It is a figure which shows the example of a conventional guidance route display.

Explanation of symbols

24 Guided vehicle speed information capture unit 30 Guided route guidance processing unit 31 Guided route calculation unit 32 Guided route display processing unit 33 Guided route storage unit 34 Guided route guide unit 35 Road-specific vehicle speed information capture instruction unit 36 Road-specific travel speed line Width guidance path display

Claims (6)

Guidance route computing means for computing the guidance route to the destination;
For the guidance route obtained by the guidance route calculation means, vehicle speed information capturing means for each road that captures the current average traveling speed for each road;
The road-specific travel speed line width guide route for displaying the guide route on the road of the map screen with the line width corresponding to the average travel speed for each road according to the current vehicle speed information captured by the road-specific vehicle speed information capturing means. A navigation device comprising display means.   The road-specific travel speed line width guide route display means displays the guide route with a line width corresponding to the average travel speed when the average travel speed is changing on each road. The navigation device described.   2. The guide route calculating means calculates a plurality of guide routes and displays the plurality of guide routes with a line width corresponding to an average traveling speed for each road on the same map screen. Navigation device.   2. The navigation device according to claim 1, wherein the determined guidance route is also displayed in the same manner as the guidance route presented at the time of the guidance route calculation.   The navigation apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the guide route after confirmation is displayed while being updated with a line width corresponding to the average travel speed for each road updated as appropriate. The navigation apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the average traveling speed for each road captured by the road-specific vehicle speed information capturing means is also displayed.

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