JP2012051568A - Sound generating device to outside of vehicle - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To obtain a sound generating device to outside of a vehicle that can control propriety of stopping of beep sound by a user responding to whether the vehicle is moving through a dangerous section.SOLUTION: The sound generating device to outside of vehicle includes: an information acquisition part 1 to acquire information which shows a vehicle condition; a storage part 2-A which stores a criterion condition of the vehicle in which a vehicle condition for determining the traveling area as a dangerous area is described and additional conditions; and a control part 3 which determines whether the traveling area is a dangerous area by adding additional conditions if additional conditions exist in the criterion condition corresponding to the information which shows the vehicle condition, and it determines whether it is dangerous area, when the determination part 2 determines that the vehicle is moving through the dangerous area, does not stop output of a sound generation part, irrespective of a control signal which indicates output stop of sound from outside when the area is determined as the dangerous area.

Description

  The present invention relates to a sound generator for an outside vehicle that is mounted on a motor-driven vehicle such as an electric vehicle and generates a sound outside the vehicle in order to recognize the vehicle.

  A vehicle that operates with a motor, such as an electric vehicle or a hybrid vehicle, has a lower running noise than a vehicle that operates with an engine, and it is difficult for surrounding pedestrians to detect traffic. Therefore, for the purpose of notifying the surroundings of the danger caused by the approach of the vehicle, a movement for generating a warning sound such as a pseudo noise is spreading outside the vehicle.

  On the other hand, a warning sound is generated in the standard state, but provision of a temporary sound generation stop switch is permitted on the premise that it is used when the safety of the surroundings is ensured. When the host vehicle is traveling in an area where there is no pedestrian, the driver can stop the generation of warning sound (pseudo noise) by using the temporary sound generation stop switch.

However, if the driver can freely control the generation and stop of the warning sound, even if the warning sound is necessary, if the generation of the warning sound remains stopped, the warning sound will not be generated when it is important. There is a fear.
In recent years, a system that automatically generates warning sounds under various conditions such as road conditions outside the vehicle, time zones, and the presence or absence of pedestrians has been proposed, but the user has stopped generating the warning sounds. In this case, a time lag is inevitably generated after the stop until the warning sound is automatically output.

  Furthermore, when the user arbitrarily controls the system and stops the warning sound in a situation where safety is not ensured, there is a possibility that a traveling time in which the pedestrian does not notice the approach of the own vehicle may occur. This is dangerous because it does not satisfy the purpose of the original warning sound generator.

For example, in Patent Document 1, when the start of a vehicle (own vehicle) is detected, the alarm is stopped or the output level is reduced even if the distance between the own vehicle and another vehicle is equal to or less than the reference distance. A vehicle alarm device provided with a prohibition prohibiting means is disclosed.
However, this device does not assume that the user can control the generation and stop of the alarm, and is limited to the operation when the vehicle starts.
For this reason, when the own vehicle exists in an area where a warning sound needs to be generated outside the vehicle, the danger of the user stopping the warning sound is not avoided.

JP 2006-264525 A

  The present invention has been made to solve the above-described problems, and can control whether or not a warning sound can be stopped by a user depending on whether or not the vehicle is traveling in a dangerous section. An object is to obtain a sound generating device that can be used outside the vehicle.

    A sound generating device for outside a vehicle according to the present invention is a sound generating device for outside a vehicle that is mounted on a vehicle and outputs sound outside the vehicle, and a sound generating unit that generates sound outside the vehicle, and a traveling district as a dangerous area A storage unit that stores a determination condition and an additional condition in which a vehicle state to be determined is described, an information acquisition unit that acquires information indicating the vehicle state, and information that indicates the vehicle state acquired by the information acquisition unit And the judgment condition and the additional condition read from the storage part, and the output of the judgment part for judging whether or not the vehicle is traveling in the dangerous area and the sound generation part are controlled. Regardless of the control signal instructing to stop the output of the sound, when the determination unit determines that the vehicle is traveling in the dangerous area, the control unit does not stop the output of the sound generation unit, Corresponds to the vehicle status information If the determination condition is additional condition is to determine whether the section is traveling vehicle in consideration of this additional condition is dangerous area.

  According to this invention, when there is an additional condition in the determination condition corresponding to the information indicating the vehicle status, it is determined whether or not the section in which the vehicle is traveling is a dangerous area by taking this additional condition into consideration. Thus, when the vehicle is traveling in the hazardous area, the output of the sound generator is not stopped regardless of the control signal instructing to stop the output of the sound from the outside. By doing in this way, if it is determined from the situation of the vehicle that the vehicle is traveling in the dangerous area, it is possible to prohibit the output stop of any sound by the user. As a result, it is possible to reliably generate a sound in a traveling area where the traveling of the host vehicle should be recognized, and it is possible to improve safety in the area.

1 is a block diagram showing an overall configuration of a system to which a sound generating device for a vehicle outside of the present invention is applied. 1 is a block diagram illustrating an overall configuration of a system to which a sound generator for outside a vehicle according to Embodiment 1 is applied. It is a figure which shows an example (example 1) of the determination table memorize | stored in a memory | storage device. It is a figure which shows the other example (example 2) of the determination table memorize | stored in a memory | storage device. It is a figure which shows the other example (example 3) of the determination table memorize | stored in a memory | storage device. It is a figure which shows the other example (example 4) of the determination table memorize | stored in a memory | storage device. It is a figure which shows the transition of the safe area and danger area accompanying driving | running | working of a vehicle. It is a block diagram which shows the structure of the warning sound off control prohibition apparatus of FIG. It is a block diagram which shows the structure of the warning sound generator of FIG. It is a block diagram which shows the other structure of the warning sound generator of FIGS. 3 is a flowchart showing a flow of operations performed by the sound generating device for outside a vehicle according to the first embodiment. It is a flowchart which shows the interruption routine of a system end. It is a flowchart which shows the flow of the interruption process according to switch operation. It is a flowchart which shows the flow of the other interruption process according to switch operation. It is a block diagram which shows the whole structure of the system to which the sound generator for the vehicle exterior by Embodiment 2 of this invention is applied. 6 is a diagram illustrating an example (Example 1) of a determination table stored in a storage device according to Embodiment 2. FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating an example (example 2) of a determination table stored in a storage device according to Embodiment 2. FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating an example (example 3) of a determination table stored in a storage device according to Embodiment 2. FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating a flow of operations performed by the sound generation device outside the vehicle according to the second embodiment. It is a block diagram which shows the whole structure of the system to which the sound generator for the vehicle exterior by Embodiment 3 of this invention is applied. FIG. 16 is a diagram illustrating an example (Example 1) of a determination table stored in a storage device according to Embodiment 3. FIG. 20 is a diagram illustrating an example (example 2) of a determination table stored in a storage device according to the third embodiment. FIG. 15 is a diagram illustrating an example (example 3) of a determination table stored in a storage device according to the third embodiment. 10 is a flowchart showing a flow of operations performed by the sound generation apparatus outside a vehicle according to the third embodiment. It is a block diagram which shows the whole structure of the system to which the sound generator for the vehicle exterior by Embodiment 4 of this invention is applied. FIG. 20 is a diagram illustrating an example (Example 1) of a determination table stored in a storage device according to a fourth embodiment. FIG. 16 is a diagram illustrating an example (example 2) of a determination table stored in a storage device according to the fourth embodiment. FIG. 19 is a diagram illustrating an example (example 3) of a determination table stored in a storage device according to the fourth embodiment. 10 is a flowchart showing a flow of operations performed by the sound generation device outside the vehicle according to the fourth embodiment. It is a block diagram which shows the whole structure of the system to which the sound generator for the vehicle exterior by Embodiment 5 of this invention is applied. FIG. 20 is a diagram illustrating an example (Example 1) of a determination table stored in a storage device according to a fifth embodiment. FIG. 20 is a diagram illustrating an example (example 2) of a determination table stored in a storage device in a fifth embodiment. FIG. 25 is a diagram illustrating an example (example 3) of a determination table stored in the storage device according to the fifth embodiment. FIG. 25 is a diagram illustrating an example (Example 4) of a determination table stored in the storage device according to the fifth embodiment. 10 is a flowchart showing a flow of operations performed by the sound generation apparatus outside a vehicle according to the fifth embodiment.

Hereinafter, in order to describe the present invention in more detail, modes for carrying out the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings.
Embodiment 1 FIG.
FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the overall configuration of a system to which a sound generator for outside a vehicle according to the invention is applied. In FIG. 1, this system includes a dangerous area information acquisition device (information acquisition unit) 1, a dangerous area determination unit (determination unit) 2, a storage device (storage unit) 2-A, and a warning sound off control prohibition device (control unit). 3, a switch 4, a warning sound generation device (control unit) 5, an outside speaker 6, an in-vehicle speaker (presentation unit) 7, and a display device (presentation unit) 8. In the following description, sound outside the vehicle that warns (recognizes) surrounding pedestrians or the like to the surrounding pedestrians is referred to as warning sound. Even if it is called a warning sound, it does not necessarily have to be a sound reminiscent of an emergency situation, such as a siren, but any sound can be used as long as it can be recognized by a pedestrian, etc. Good. The warning sound is preferably a continuous sound reminiscent of the running state of a vehicle such as a gasoline vehicle, diesel vehicle or motorcycle powered by a conventional internal combustion engine. But you can.
The dangerous area information acquisition device 1 is a device that acquires section information while the host vehicle is traveling, and includes at least one of a navigation device, a sensor unit, a camera unit, and an in-vehicle device. These aspects will be described later in this embodiment and Embodiments 2 to 5.

The dangerous zone determination unit 2 determines the road zone in which the host vehicle travels based on the running zone information acquired by the dangerous zone information acquisition device 1 and the predetermined determination condition stored in the storage device 2-A. It is a component part which determines whether it is a dangerous area.
The warning sound off control prohibiting device 3 is a device that outputs a warning sound off control prohibiting signal to the switch 4 and the warning sound generating device 5 when the dangerous zone determination unit 2 determines that the traveling section of the vehicle is a dangerous zone. It is.
The switch 4 is a switch (temporary sound generation stop switch) for the user to turn on / off the warning sound. That is, the operation of the switch 4 corresponds to a predetermined operation instructing to stop the output of a warning sound (sound outside the vehicle) from the outside. When the switch 4 receives the warning sound off control prohibition signal, the switch 4 controls the output signal so that the user cannot arbitrarily stop the warning sound.

  The warning sound generation device 5 that is a sound generation unit is a device that controls the generation of the warning sound, and outputs a warning sound through the outside speaker 6. The warning sound is a pseudo noise output outside the vehicle for the purpose of notifying the surroundings of danger due to the approach of the host vehicle. Further, when receiving the warning sound off control prohibition signal from the warning sound off control prohibiting device 3, the warning sound generating device 5 prohibits the warning sound off control regardless of the control signal from the switch 4.

  Further, when a warning sound off control prohibiting signal is input to the warning sound generating device 5 or when it is determined that the traveling section of the vehicle is in a dangerous area, the warning sound off control prohibiting device 3 outputs a warning sound off control. A prohibition notification signal is output to the in-vehicle speaker 7 and the display device 8. As a result, the user is notified through the in-car speaker 7 or the display device 8 that the warning sound off control is prohibited and the reason for the prohibition.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating an overall configuration of a system to which the sound generating apparatus for outside a vehicle according to the first embodiment is applied. The system shown in FIG. 2 uses a navigation device 1-A as the dangerous area information acquisition device 1 of FIG.
The navigation apparatus 1-A includes a map information database, a GPS receiver, and a communication unit that receives information on a traveling road. The current time information, current position information, and traveling road information (road types such as road width, general / highway, and the like) , Speed limit, intersection, curve, etc.), accident-prone district information, neighboring facility information, etc. are acquired and notified to the dangerous district determination unit 2.
The dangerous area determination unit 2 may constantly monitor the content of the information acquired by the navigation device 1-A and acquire the information from the navigation device 1-A when the content changes. .

  Further, the content of the information acquired by the navigation device 1-A is not always monitored, but the dangerous area determination unit 2 starts from the navigation device 1-A every certain time or every time the vehicle travels a certain distance. You may make it acquire the said information. The fixed time and the travel distance may be dynamically changed according to an environmental change in at least one of the inside and outside of the vehicle. This environmental change includes changes in time zone, vehicle speed, weather, facilities around the driving section, and the like. For example, when the time zone is from 8:00 to 20:00, the number of times of information acquisition is increased by shortening the fixed time and travel distance, and during the time zone from 20:00 to 8:00, the fixed time and travel distance are increased. The number of times of information acquisition may be reduced by lengthening. Further, a mechanism such as a switch that can set a fixed time and a traveling distance may be provided, and may be changed by a user operation. Thus, efficient processing can be performed by changing the timing of dynamically acquiring information.

  When the warning sound is generated only when traveling at a low speed, the danger zone determination unit 2 always collects only the vehicle speed information from the navigation device 1-A, and within a predetermined low vehicle speed range, Of these, other information on the vehicle speed information may be acquired, and information other than the vehicle speed information may not be acquired outside the low vehicle speed range (during high-speed driving, etc.). Further, the information that is always collected may be information other than the vehicle speed information as long as it is information that can grasp the traveling speed of the host vehicle.

The dangerous area determination unit 2 uses the information acquired from the navigation device 1-A and the predetermined determination condition stored in the storage device 2-A to check the degree of danger in the section in which the vehicle is traveling, When the user arbitrarily turns off the warning sound, it is determined whether or not it is a dangerous danger area.
When it is determined as a dangerous area, the dangerous area determination unit 2 notifies the warning sound off control prohibition device 3 that the traveling section is a dangerous area.

  FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an example (Example 1) of a determination table stored in the storage device 2-A. The determination table that summarizes the conditions for determining the traveling section of the vehicle as a dangerous area is shown in FIG. This is shown together with the determination result of 2. Based on the information acquired from the navigation device 1-A, the dangerous area determination unit 2 determines the dangerous area based on whether or not the condition content of the determination table shown in FIG. In the example of FIG. 3, the contents of the conditions are determined in the order of numbers for identifying the determination conditions, and a case where the traveling section of the own vehicle matches the condition of “Is traveling at an intersection?” In this way, when any condition in the determination table is satisfied, the traveling section of the own vehicle is determined as the dangerous area.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing another example (example 2) of the determination table stored in the storage device 2-A. For the determination table that summarizes the conditions for determining the traveling section of the vehicle as a dangerous area, What added the conditions regarding the travel time of the own vehicle is shown with the determination result of the danger zone determination part 2. FIG.
Based on the information acquired from the navigation device 1-A, the risk zone determination unit 2 determines the risk zone based on whether or not the condition contents of the determination table shown in FIG. judge.

In the example of FIG. 4, the contents of the conditions are determined in the order of numbers for identifying the determination conditions, and the traveling section of the own vehicle matches the condition “Is there an elementary school in the vicinity?” It also shows a case that matches “during school attendance”. As described above, when any one of the conditions in the determination table and the additional conditions are satisfied, the traveling section of the own vehicle is determined as the dangerous area.
In addition, even if it matches the condition of “Is there an elementary school in the vicinity?” Of the decision 2, if the running time of the vehicle does not match the additional condition “during school attendance”, it is not determined as a dangerous area.

  FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating another example (example 3) of the determination table stored in the storage device 2-A. For the determination table that summarizes the conditions for determining the traveling section of the vehicle as a dangerous area, What added the score (risk degree) which shows the degree of danger corresponding to condition contents is shown with the judgment result of danger district judgment part 2. FIG. For example, the risk level is 10 when the risk is high, and 1 when the risk is low, and levels 2 to 9 are assigned therebetween.

  The risk area determination unit 2 determines the contents of the conditions in the order of numbers for identifying the determination conditions, and when the risk level associated with the condition contents that match the traveling section of the host vehicle is equal to or greater than a predetermined threshold, If it is less than the predetermined threshold value, it is determined that it is not a dangerous area. In addition, when the traveling section of the host vehicle satisfies a plurality of condition contents, if the sum of the respective risk levels corresponding to these condition contents is equal to or greater than a predetermined threshold value, the vehicle is determined to be a dangerous area, and the predetermined threshold value is determined. If it is less than that, it is determined that the area is not in danger.

  In the example of FIG. 5, the threshold relating to the degree of risk is “8”, and the traveling section of the vehicle is in the condition of “Is traveling at an intersection” in the determination 3 and “Do you make a right or left turn?” In the determination 4 It meets the conditions of In this case, “9”, which is the sum of the risk “4” corresponding to the condition content of determination 3 and the risk “5” corresponding to the condition content of determination 4, is equal to or greater than the threshold value “8”. It is determined that it is a “dangerous area”.

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating another example (example 4) of the determination table stored in the storage device 2-A. For the determination table that summarizes the conditions for determining the traveling section of the vehicle as a dangerous area, The additional condition regarding the traveling time zone of the own vehicle and the risk corresponding to the condition content are shown together with the determination result of the dangerous area determination unit 2.
In the determination table shown in FIG. 5, for example, the risk level “5” is given to the condition content “Is there an elementary school in the vicinity?”, But in the time zone when there is less traffic outside the school hours. The risk level is excessive.
Therefore, as shown in FIG. 6, even in the condition content “Is there an elementary school in the vicinity?” As an additional condition, if the time zone is “outside school hours”, the risk is set to “3”. If it is “during school attendance”, the traffic is expected to increase, so the risk is set to the highest “10”.

  In the example of FIG. 6, the threshold regarding the degree of risk is “8”, and the traveling section of the own vehicle is the condition of “Is there an elementary school in the vicinity” of the determination 2 and the additional condition “during school attendance” As well as the condition of “Is traveling at an intersection?” In this case, “15”, which is the sum of the risk “10” corresponding to the condition of determination 2 and the additional condition and the risk “5” corresponding to the condition of determination 4, is equal to or greater than the threshold “8”. , It is determined to be a “dangerous area”.

Moreover, the following example is mentioned as the condition content which determines the driving | running | working area of the own vehicle as a dangerous area.
First, when the road width of the vehicle road specified from the road information is narrow (below a predetermined road width), when the vehicle travels an intersection or a curve, or when making a right / left turn, the vehicle travels The section may be determined as a dangerous area.
Further, it may be determined that the highway is not traveling in the dangerous area, and the service area may be determined to be traveling in the dangerous area.
In addition, if the speed limit of the road on which the vehicle is traveling is low, there is a high possibility that it is a district with many pedestrians such as a residential area. You may determine that it is in the middle.

  If the road on which your vehicle is traveling is an accident-prone area, or if there are facilities such as an elementary school or a shopping street in the vicinity, there is a high risk of jumping out of children or many pedestrians nearby. It may be determined that the vehicle is traveling in the danger zone.

When the current time information is used, it may be determined that the vehicle is traveling in a dangerous area during a time period in which traveling in a warning sound stop state is determined to be dangerous.
For example, during a time period when ambient noise is high, it is difficult to hear the traveling sound of the vehicle. Further, in the time zone in which the surroundings are dark, the viewing angle of the driver is narrowed, so it may be determined that the danger area is being traveled. In this case, if the light is turned on, it is easy to visually recognize the surroundings, so it may be determined that the vehicle is not traveling in the dangerous area.

Further, instead of determining the dangerous area based on only one condition, it may be determined whether the section in which the vehicle is traveling is a dangerous area by combining the surrounding facility information and the current time information. .
For example, even if there is a shopping street in the vicinity, if the store closes, the traffic will decrease, so in combination with the current time information, it will be judged as a dangerous area during the opening hours, and after the closing time it will be judged as not a dangerous area May be.

In addition, if the conditions for judging from the safe area to the dangerous area are the same as the conditions for judging from the dangerous area to the safe area, unnecessary judgment results are frequently generated while driving the boundary between the dangerous area and the safe area. It may change.
Regarding this, when updating the judgment from the dangerous area to the safe area, instead of judging the risk area as a result of a single judgment, the safety area will be You may make it update to a dangerous area.

  FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a transition between a safe area and a dangerous area due to driving of a vehicle, and shows a difference between a threshold value of a risk level used for judging a safe area and a threshold value of a danger level used for judging a dangerous area. The case where is given is shown. As shown in Fig. 7, the risk threshold used for judging the safe area and the judgment of the dangerous area are used to eliminate the above-mentioned problem that the judgment result frequently changes while driving on the boundary between the dangerous area and the safe area. The threshold value of the risk level to be determined is made different, and the determination is performed according to a predetermined rule in the boundary region.

  In the example of FIG. 7, as the predetermined rule, once the vehicle risk level exceeds the start threshold value of the dangerous area, the risk area determination is continued until the risk area falls below the start threshold value of the safe area. Even if the risk level of the vehicle to be exceeded exceeds the start threshold of the safe area, it is determined as a safe area. Accordingly, it is possible to prevent the determination result from frequently changing in the risk area corresponding to the difference between the risk threshold used for the safety area determination and the risk threshold used for the risk area determination.

FIG. 8 is a block diagram showing a configuration of the warning sound off control prohibiting device of FIGS. As shown in FIG. 8, the warning sound off control prohibiting device 3 includes a warning sound off control prohibiting signal generation unit 3a, a notification signal generation unit 3b, a display signal processing unit 3c, and an audio signal processing unit 3d.
The warning sound off control prohibition signal generation unit 3a generates a signal for prohibiting the warning sound off control when the travel area is determined to be a dangerous area by the dangerous area determination unit 2, and the switch 4 or the warning sound generator 5 It is a component to notify to.

The notification signal generation unit 3b constantly monitors the state of the warning sound off control, and generates a warning sound off control prohibition notification signal when there is a change in the state of the warning sound off control according to the determination result of the new dangerous area. This is a component that notifies the display signal processing unit 3c and the audio signal processing unit 3d.
The warning sound off control prohibition notification signal notifies the user of the state of the warning sound off control such as the start or stop of the warning sound off control prohibition, the start or stop of the dangerous area, the start or stop of the unavailability of the switch 4, for example. It is a signal for.

  The display signal processing unit 3c and the audio signal processing unit 3d convert the warning sound off control prohibition notification signal notified from the notification signal generation unit 3b into a signal that can be output by the in-vehicle speaker 7 or the display device 8, and the in-vehicle speaker 7 or output to the display device 8 respectively.

  Note that the notification signal generation unit 3b is in the danger zone where the warning sound off control is prohibited, even when the switch 4 is pressed while the warning sound off control is prohibited, and the switch is unavailable. A warning sound off control prohibition notification signal indicating that there is an alarm is generated. Even in this case, the display signal processing unit 3c and the audio signal processing unit 3d convert the warning sound off control prohibition notification signal notified from the notification signal generation unit 3b into a signal that can be output by the in-vehicle speaker 7 or the display device 8. And output.

The switch 4 is a switch that turns off at least a warning sound by a user's arbitrary operation. Note that the switch 4 may be one that performs only warning sound off control by an operation such as pressing, or may perform both warning sound on control and off control.
When the warning sound off control prohibiting device 3 receives the warning sound off control prohibiting signal, the warning sound off control prohibiting device 3 can turn off the warning sound even if the user turns off the warning sound using the switch 4. I can't do it. For example, a mechanism that cannot be turned off by locking in the on state.
In addition, by attaching a display device such as an LED (Light Emitting Diode) to the switch 4 and directly displaying the state of whether the warning sound off control is prohibited or off control is possible, the user bothers to bother the in-car speaker 7 and the display device 8. The warning sound off control state can be confirmed simultaneously with the operation of the switch 4 without confirmation.

FIG. 9 is a block diagram showing a configuration of the warning sound generating device of FIGS. In FIG. 9, the warning sound generating device 5 is a device constituting a warning sound generating system, and includes a warning sound stop control unit 5a, a warning sound generation determination unit 5b, a warning sound generation unit 5c, and a speaker output processing unit 5d.
The warning sound stop control unit 5a determines whether the switch 4 is turned on or off when the switch 4 is pressed, and uses the warning sound on signal or the warning sound off signal as a warning sound generation determination unit. 5b is a component that notifies the user 5b.

When the warning sound generation determination unit 5b obtains the warning sound on signal from the warning sound stop control unit 5a, the warning sound generation determination unit 5b outputs an instruction to generate the warning sound to the warning sound generation unit 5c. This is a component that instructs the warning sound generator 5c to stop generating the warning sound.
When the warning sound off control prohibiting device 3 is notified of the warning sound off control prohibition signal, the warning sound generation determination unit 5b warns regardless of the presence or absence of the warning sound off signal according to the operation of the switch 4. It is determined that sound generation is not stopped. That is, the warning sound off control prohibition signal notified from the warning sound off control prohibiting device 3 has a higher priority for the determination of the generation of the warning sound than the operation signal (warning sound off control signal) of the switch 4.

  The warning sound generation unit 5c is a component that generates warning sound data. When the generation of the warning sound is instructed from the warning sound generation determination unit 5b, the warning sound generation unit 5c outputs the warning sound data to the speaker output processing unit 5d, When the sound generation determination unit 5b instructs to stop the warning sound, the generation of the warning sound data is stopped and nothing is output to the speaker output processing unit 5d. The speaker output processing unit 5d is a configuration unit that performs acoustic processing such as amplification of the number of channels and volume so that the warning sound data received from the warning sound generation unit 5c can be appropriately output by the speaker 6 outside the vehicle.

  FIG. 10 is a block diagram showing another configuration of the warning sound generator of FIGS. The warning sound generator 5 shown in FIG. 10 has an output gain value determination unit 5e added to the configuration shown in FIG. The output gain value determination unit 5e is a component that sets the gain value of the warning sound to be output in accordance with the degree of risk checked by the dangerous area determination unit 2. The speaker output processing unit 5d adjusts the volume of the warning sound to be output using the gain value set by the output gain value determination unit 5e.

The outside speaker 6 is one or a plurality of speakers attached outside the vehicle, and is used for generating a warning sound. The in-vehicle speaker 7 is one or a plurality of speakers provided in the vehicle.
The display device 8 is a display device such as a display provided in the vehicle, and includes display devices for car navigation, LEDs, and an instrument panel.
The in-vehicle speaker 7 or the display device 8 receives the warning sound off control prohibition notification signal from the warning sound off control prohibition device 3, and notifies the user that the warning sound off operation is not executed by the switch 4 or the warning sound cannot be stopped. . If the user accidentally presses the switch 4 to turn off the warning sound while traveling in the danger zone, the user is notified that the switch 4 is not turned off or that the warning sound cannot be stopped. Note that the above notification to the user is performed by at least one of the in-vehicle speaker 7 or the display device 8.

Next, the operation will be described.
FIG. 11 is a flowchart showing a flow of operations performed by the sound generation device outside the vehicle according to the first embodiment, and includes warning sound generation processing including determination of prohibition of warning sound off control in accordance with the danger level of the traveling area of the vehicle. Details are shown.
First, when the key switch of the vehicle is turned on, the navigation apparatus 1-A is activated by being supplied with power from a battery as a main power source. Subsequently, the navigation device 1-A acquires current time information by the GPS receiver (step ST1-1a), and acquires current position information (step ST1-1b). As the vehicle travels, the navigation apparatus 1-A acquires travel road information, accident-prone district information, and peripheral facility information from the map information database based on the current position information (step ST1-1c, step ST1c). ST1-1d, step ST1-1e). These pieces of information are output from the navigation device 1-A to the dangerous area determination unit 2.

The danger zone determination unit 2 is based on the travel section information of the own vehicle input from the navigation device 1-A and the predetermined determination condition read from the storage device 2-A, and the degree of risk of the road section on which the host vehicle travels. Is output to the output gain value determination unit 5e.
The output gain value determination unit 5e determines a gain value for outputting a warning sound according to the degree of risk input from the dangerous area determination unit 2, and sets the gain value in the speaker output processing unit 5d. Thereby, the speaker output processing unit 5d changes the output volume of the warning sound according to the output gain value set by the output gain value determination unit 5e (step ST1-2).
For example, the output gain value determination unit 5e controls the gain value to be increased if the risk level input from the dangerous area determination unit 2 is greater than a predetermined threshold value, and decreases to be lower if the risk level is lower than the predetermined threshold value.

  The dangerous area determination unit 2 may output the degree of risk to the output gain value determination unit 5e according to the number of times that the condition for determining the dangerous area held in the storage device 2-A is satisfied. For example, when the number of times that the condition for determining a dangerous area is met exceeds a predetermined threshold, the degree of risk is output to the output gain value determining unit 5e.

  Further, the dangerous area determination unit 2 determines the degree of risk according to the score of each information or the sum of the scores of a plurality of information by using the degree of risk of each information acquired by the navigation device 1-A as a score. Also good. For example, a point indicating the degree of danger is given according to whether or not the current time information is a busy time zone such as “school attendance time”, and a large number of people whose current position information is “elementary school” etc. A score indicating the degree of danger is given by whether or not it is located around the facility to be accommodated, and a score indicating the degree of danger is given by whether or not the traveling road information is a road facing the facility as described above. It gives a score indicating the degree of danger to the accident-prone area information indicating that accidents frequently occur in the traveling district, and whether there is a facility that accommodates a large number of people in the surrounding facility information. A score indicating the degree is given. The score of each information may be used as the risk level as it is, or the sum of the scores of a plurality of information may be set as the risk level.

  In the above description, the warning sound generation device 5 includes the output gain value determination unit 5e. However, as illustrated in FIG. 9, the warning sound generation device 5 has a warning when the configuration does not include the output gain value determination unit 5e. The process for changing the sound output volume (step ST1-2) is omitted.

  Next, the risk zone determination unit 2 includes information on the travel section of the own vehicle acquired from the navigation device 1-A (current time information, current position information, travel road information, accident-prone district information, neighboring facility information), and Based on the information indicating the degree of risk determined with reference to the travel section information and a predetermined determination condition read from the storage device 2-A, it is determined whether or not the section in which the vehicle is traveling is a dangerous area. (Step ST1-3). Here, if it is determined that it is a dangerous area (step ST1-3; YES), the dangerous area determination unit 2 outputs a determination result indicating that it is a dangerous area to the warning sound off control prohibition device 3, and if it is not a dangerous area. When it determines (step ST1-3; NO), the determination result that it is a safe area is output to the warning sound off control prohibition apparatus 3.

  When the warning sound off control prohibiting device 3 receives the determination result indicating that the warning sound off control prohibiting device 3 is a dangerous zone from the dangerous zone determining unit 2, the warning sound off control prohibiting signal generating unit 3a in the warning sound off control prohibiting device 3 has already warned If the sound off control prohibition signal is generated, the warning sound off control is prohibited (step ST1-4; prohibited), and the process returns to step ST1-1a.

  Further, when the judgment result indicating that the area is a dangerous area is inputted, if the warning sound off control prohibition signal is not generated and the warning sound can be turned off (step ST1-4; control is possible). The warning sound off control prohibition signal generation unit 3a generates a warning sound off control prohibition signal and outputs it to the switch 4 or the warning sound generator 5. When the switch 4 or the warning sound generator 5 receives the warning sound off control prohibition signal, the switch 4 or the warning sound generator 5 starts prohibiting the warning sound off control by operating (pressing) the switch 4 (step ST1-5).

When the notification signal generation unit 3b recognizes a change in the warning sound off-control state (change to off-control prohibition) after inputting the determination result indicating that it is a dangerous zone from the dangerous zone determination unit 2, a warning sound is generated. An off control notification signal is generated and output to the display signal processing unit 3c and the audio signal processing unit 3d.
The notification signal generation unit 3b recognizes a change in the state of the warning sound off control based on, for example, whether or not the switch 4 receives the warning sound off control prohibition signal.

  The display signal processing unit 3c and the audio signal processing unit 3d convert the warning sound off control prohibition notification signal input from the notification signal generation unit 3b into a signal that can be output by the display device 8 and the in-vehicle speaker 7, and display the display device 8 and Output to the in-car speaker 7 respectively. Thus, the user is notified from the in-car speaker 7 and the display device 8 that the prohibition of the warning sound off control has been started (step ST1-6).

  At this time, when the warning sound generation unit 5c is not instructed to generate warning sound data by pressing the switch 4 before being instructed to generate the warning sound by the warning sound generation determination unit 5b (step ST1- 7; YES), alarm sound data is immediately generated and output to the speaker output processing unit 5d. Thereby, the speaker output processing unit 5d generates a warning sound from the outside speaker 6 (step ST1-8). Thereafter, the process returns to step ST1-1a.

  On the other hand, when it is determined in step ST1-3 that it is not a dangerous area (it is a safe area) and the warning sound off control prohibition signal generation unit 3a inputs a determination result indicating that it is not a dangerous area from the dangerous area determination unit 2, If the warning sound off control prohibition signal has not been generated and the warning sound can be turned off (step ST1-9; control is possible), the process returns to step ST1-1a.

  Further, when the notification signal generation unit 3b inputs the determination result indicating that it is not a dangerous zone (safe zone) from the dangerous zone determination unit 2, and then recognizes that the off control of the warning sound is prohibited (step) ST1-9; during prohibition), a warning sound off control notification signal indicating the end of prohibition of the warning sound off control is generated and output to the display signal processing unit 3c and the audio signal processing unit 3d.

The display signal processing unit 3c and the audio signal processing unit 3d convert the warning sound off control prohibition notification signal notified from the notification signal generation unit 3b into a signal that can be output by the in-vehicle speaker 7 or the display device 8, and 7 or display device 8 respectively. As a result, the user is notified from the in-car speaker 7 or the display device 8 that the prohibition of the warning sound off control has ended (step ST1-10).
It should be noted that the warning sound off control is always prohibited while the warning sound off control is prohibited, instead of notifying the user only at the start and stop of the warning sound off control prohibition. The user may continue to be notified from the speaker 7 or the display device 8.

  When the warning sound off control prohibition signal generation unit 3a receives the determination result indicating that it is not in the dangerous area from the dangerous area determination unit 2, the warning sound off control prohibition signal generation unit 3a stops outputting the warning sound off control prohibition signal to the switch 4 or the warning sound generator 5. When the output of the warning sound off control prohibition signal by the warning sound off control prohibition signal generation unit 3a is stopped, the switch 4 or the warning sound generator 5 ends the prohibition of the warning sound off control (step ST1-11). . Thereafter, the process returns to step ST1-1a.

  FIG. 12 is a flowchart showing a system termination interrupt routine. While the sound generation apparatus outside the vehicle according to the first embodiment is executing the above-described processing of FIG. 11, the processing is continued or terminated in the state of the key switch (step ST1a-1). If the key switch of the vehicle is on (step ST1a-1; ON), the sound generation device to the outside of the vehicle continues the process of FIG. When the key switch of the vehicle is turned off by the user (step ST1a-1; YES), an interrupt occurs during the process of FIG. 11, and the system is terminated.

FIG. 13 is a flowchart showing the flow of interrupt processing according to the switch operation, and shows the interrupt processing when only the operation of turning off the generation of the warning sound by the switch 4 can be performed.
First, when the operation signal (warning sound off control signal) by pressing the switch 4 is input, the notification signal generation unit 3b outputs a warning sound off control prohibition signal to the switch 4 (step ST1b-1). A warning sound off control notification signal indicating that warning sound off control is prohibited, and outputs it to the display signal processing unit 3c and the audio signal processing unit 3d.
As a result, the in-vehicle speaker 7 and the display device 8 notify the user that the warning sound off control is prohibited by the control of the audio signal processing unit 3d and the display signal processing unit 3c (step ST1b-2), and interrupts. Ends.
As a reason why the danger zone determination unit 2 should not turn off the warning sound with the switch 4, the warning sound off control is performed based on the condition (determination item that matches the situation of the vehicle) determined as the dangerous zone. You may make it show to a user via the speaker 7 or the display apparatus 8 via the prohibition apparatus 3. FIG.

  On the other hand, the warning sound stop control unit 5a in the warning sound generating device 5 outputs a warning sound off signal instructing to stop the generation of the warning sound to the warning sound generation determination unit 5b when an operation signal by pressing the switch 4 is input. To do. The warning sound generation determination unit 5b does not receive the warning sound off control prohibition signal from the warning sound off control prohibition device 3 when the warning sound off signal is input from the warning sound stop control unit 5a (step ST1b-1). Controllable) to instruct the warning sound generation unit 5c to stop generating the warning sound. The warning sound generation unit 5c stops generating the warning sound data in accordance with the instruction from the warning sound generation determination unit 5b, so that the output of the warning sound is stopped (step ST1b-3), and the interruption ends.

FIG. 14 is a flowchart showing the flow of another interrupt process according to the switch operation, and shows the interrupt process in the case where both the operation to turn off the alarm sound and the operation to turn it on can be performed by the switch 4. Yes.
First, the warning sound stop control unit 5a determines whether it is off-controlled or on-controlled based on the operation content of the switch 4 (step ST1c-1). This determination result is output from the warning sound stop control unit 5a to the warning sound generation determination unit 5b.

  On the other hand, the notification signal generation unit 3b, when the operation for turning off the warning sound is performed with the switch 4 (step ST1c-1; OFF), the switch 4 is sent from the warning sound off control prohibiting device 3 to the warning sound off control prohibiting signal. Is recognized and the warning sound off control is prohibited (step ST1c-2; prohibited), a warning sound off control notification signal indicating that the warning sound off control is prohibited is generated. The data is output to the display signal processing unit 3c and the audio signal processing unit 3d.

The display signal processing unit 3c and the audio signal processing unit 3d convert the warning sound off control prohibition notification signal notified from the notification signal generation unit 3b into a signal that can be output by the in-vehicle speaker 7 or the display device 8, and 7 or display device 8 respectively. Thereby, the user is notified from the in-vehicle speaker 7 or the display device 8 that the off control of the warning sound is prohibited (step ST1c-3), and the interruption ends.
As a reason why the dangerous zone determination unit 2 should not operate the warning sound off control with the switch 4, the condition (determination item that matches the situation of the vehicle) determined as the dangerous zone is indicated as a warning sound. You may make it show to a user via the in-vehicle speaker 7 or the display apparatus 8 via the OFF control prohibition apparatus 3.

  The warning sound generation determination unit 5b prohibits the warning sound off control from the warning sound off control prohibition device 3 at the time when the determination result that the operation of the warning sound off control is performed with the switch 4 (step ST1c-1; OFF). If no signal is received, it is determined that the warning sound can be turned off (step ST1b-1; controllable), and the warning sound generation unit 5c is instructed to stop generating the warning sound. . The warning sound generation unit 5c stops generating the warning sound data in accordance with the instruction from the warning sound generation determination unit 5b, so that the output of the warning sound is stopped (step ST1c-4), and the interruption ends.

  Further, when the warning sound generation determination unit 5b inputs the determination result that the warning sound ON control operation is performed with the switch 4 from the warning sound stop control unit 5a (step ST1c-1; ON), the warning sound generation determination unit 5b inputs the warning sound generation unit 5c. Instructs to generate a warning sound. The warning sound generation unit 5c generates warning sound data according to an instruction from the warning sound generation determination unit 5b and outputs the warning sound data to the speaker output processing unit 5d, so that a warning sound is output (step ST1c-5), and the interruption ends. .

As described above, according to the first embodiment, the storage device 2-A that stores the determination condition in which the situation of the vehicle that determines the traveling area as the dangerous area is stored, and the information that indicates the condition of the vehicle are acquired. A navigation device 1-A that is an information acquisition unit, the time zone acquired by the navigation device 1-A, the road width, the speed limit, accident-prone areas and road type information, peripheral facility information, and the storage device 2 Even if the operation of the switch 4 for instructing to stop the output of the warning sound is performed from the outside by comparing with the determination condition read from -A, it is determined whether or not the vehicle is traveling in the dangerous area. If it is determined that the vehicle is traveling in a hazardous area, the warning sound output is not stopped.
By doing in this way, if it is determined from the situation of the vehicle that the vehicle is traveling in a dangerous area, it is possible to prohibit the user from stopping the output of any warning sound. As a result, it is possible to reliably generate a warning sound in a traveling area where the traveling of the host vehicle should be recognized, and it is possible to improve safety in the area.
Moreover, as the navigation apparatus 1-A, it is possible to use an existing vehicle-mounted device.

Embodiment 2. FIG.
FIG. 15 is a block diagram showing the overall configuration of a system to which a sound generating apparatus for an outside vehicle according to Embodiment 2 of the present invention is applied. In FIG. 15, the sound generating device outside the vehicle in the second embodiment includes a sensor unit 1 -B instead of the navigation device 1 -A in the configuration of FIG. 2 described in the first embodiment. Also, the same components as those in FIGS. 1 and 2 or the components corresponding thereto are denoted by the same reference numerals, and the description thereof is omitted.

The sensor unit 1-B is configured to include sensors such as an ultrasonic sensor and a millimeter wave radar, and one or a plurality of the sensors are attached to any or all of the front, side, and rear of the vehicle body. Yes. In addition to the active sensor as described above, the sensor also includes a passive sensor that determines the type of obstacle (pedestrian, light vehicle / motorcycle, other vehicle, etc.) by image analysis of an image captured around the vehicle. It is.
The sensor unit 1-B detects obstacles such as pedestrians, light vehicles, motorcycles, and other vehicles around the vehicle, and acquires information indicating the type of the obstacle and distance information between the obstacle and the vehicle. An information processing unit is also provided. The information acquired by the sensor unit 1-B in this way is notified to the dangerous area determination unit 2.

  Note that the timing at which the sensor unit 1-B notifies the risk zone determination unit 2 is not that the risk zone determination unit 2 always monitors the sensor unit 1-B, but at any given time or any given distance. The danger area determination unit 2 may collect information from the sensor unit 1-B every time the vehicle travels. The arbitrary time and travel distance may be dynamically changed according to an environmental change in at least one of the inside and outside of the vehicle. This environmental change includes changes in surrounding obstacles. For example, in a section with many obstacles in the surrounding area, the number of times of information acquisition is increased by shortening the fixed time and travel distance, and in a section with few obstacles in the surrounding area, the number of times of information acquisition is increased. May be reduced. Further, a mechanism such as a switch that can set a fixed time and a traveling distance may be provided, and may be changed by a user operation. By changing the timing for dynamically acquiring information in this way, efficient processing can be performed.

  The dangerous area determination unit 2 uses the information acquired from the sensor unit 1-B to check the degree of danger in the running section, and whether the dangerous area is dangerous if the user arbitrarily turns off the warning sound. Determine. When it is determined as a dangerous area, the dangerous area determination unit 2 notifies the warning sound off control prohibition device 3 that the traveling section is a dangerous area.

FIG. 16 is a diagram illustrating an example (Example 1) of a determination table stored in the storage device 2-A according to the second embodiment. The determination table summarizes conditions for determining the traveling section of the vehicle as a dangerous area. This is shown together with the determination result of the dangerous area determination unit 2.
Based on the information acquired from the sensor unit 1-B, the dangerous area determination unit 2 determines the dangerous area depending on whether or not the condition content of the determination table shown in FIG. . For example, FIG. 16 shows a case where the contents of the conditions are determined in the order of numbers for identifying the determination conditions, and the traveling section of the vehicle matches the condition of “Is there a pedestrian nearby?” .
In this way, when any condition in the determination table is satisfied, the traveling section of the own vehicle is determined as the dangerous area.

  FIG. 17 is a diagram illustrating another example (example 2) of the determination table stored in the storage device 2-A according to the second embodiment. The determination is a summary of conditions for determining the traveling section of the vehicle as a dangerous area. What added the score (risk degree) which shows the degree of danger corresponding to condition contents to a table is shown with the judgment result of dangerous district judgment part 2. FIG. As in the first embodiment, the risk level is, for example, 10 when the risk is high and 1 when the risk is low, and levels 2 to 9 are assigned therebetween.

  The risk area determination unit 2 determines the contents of the conditions in the order of numbers for identifying the determination conditions, and when the risk level associated with the condition contents that match the traveling section of the host vehicle is equal to or greater than a predetermined threshold, If it is less than the predetermined threshold value, it is determined that it is not a dangerous area. In addition, when the traveling section of the host vehicle satisfies a plurality of condition contents, if the sum of the respective risk levels corresponding to these condition contents is equal to or greater than a predetermined threshold value, the vehicle is determined to be a dangerous area, and the predetermined threshold value is determined. If it is less than that, it is determined that the area is not in danger.

  In the example of FIG. 17, the threshold regarding the degree of risk is “8”, and the traveling section of the own vehicle matches the condition of “Is there a pedestrian in the vicinity?” In this case, since the degree of risk “8” corresponding to the condition content of determination 1 is equal to or greater than the threshold value “8”, it is determined as “dangerous district”.

FIG. 18 is a diagram illustrating another example (example 3) of the determination table stored in the storage device 2-A according to the second embodiment. The determination is a summary of the conditions for determining the traveling section of the vehicle as a dangerous area. The table shows the additional conditions related to the distance between the obstacle and the vehicle and the degree of danger corresponding to the contents of the conditions together with the determination result of the dangerous area determination unit 2.
In the determination table shown in FIG. 17, for example, the risk level “8” is given to the condition content “Is there a pedestrian in the vicinity?”, But the pedestrian and the vehicle are separated by a predetermined distance range or more. In some cases, the risk is excessive.
Therefore, as shown in FIG. 18, in the condition content “Is there a pedestrian in the vicinity?” As an additional condition, the sensor of the sensor unit 1-B that detects the pedestrian is the distance between the pedestrian and the vehicle. If the radius is 3m to 5m at the center, the risk is "5". If the distance between the pedestrian and the vehicle is within 3m, the risk of contact with the pedestrian is expected. The degree is “9”.

  In the example of FIG. 18, the threshold regarding the degree of risk is “8”, and the traveling section of the vehicle is in the condition of “Is there a pedestrian in the vicinity” of the determination 1 and the additional condition “within a radius of 3 m”. In addition to the above, the condition of “Is there a light vehicle or motorcycle in the vicinity?” And the additional condition “radius 5 m to 7 m” of the determination 2 are met. In this case, “13”, which is the sum of the risk “9” corresponding to the condition of the determination 1 and the additional condition and the risk “4” corresponding to the condition of the determination 2 and the additional condition, is equal to or greater than the threshold “8”. Therefore, it is determined as a “dangerous area”.

Moreover, the following example is mentioned as the condition content which determines the driving | running | working area of the own vehicle as a dangerous area.
First, when the obstacle detected by the sensor unit 1-B is close to the vehicle (the radius of the sensor unit 1-B detecting the obstacle is within a predetermined distance), the obstacle In the case where there are a plurality of vehicles, when the distance between the obstacle and the own vehicle is approaching as time elapses, the traveling section of the own vehicle may be determined as a dangerous area.

If the conditions for judging from the safe area to the dangerous area are the same as the conditions for judging from the dangerous area to the safe area, the judgment result may change unnecessarily frequently while driving the boundary between the dangerous area and the safe area. There is sex. About this, when updating the judgment from the dangerous area to the safe area, it is not judged as the dangerous area by one judgment result, but when it is judged as the dangerous area continuously several times, You may make it update to a dangerous area.
Further, as described with reference to FIG. 7 in the first embodiment, there may be a difference between the threshold value of the risk level used for the determination of the safe area and the threshold value of the risk level used for the determination of the risk area. Absent.

In the second embodiment, the configuration of the warning sound off control prohibiting device 3 is the same as the configuration of FIG. 8 shown in the first embodiment. The configurations and functions of the switch 4, the outside speaker 6, the inside speaker 7, and the display device 8 are the same as those described in the first embodiment. Furthermore, the configuration of the warning sound generator 5 is the same as the configuration of FIG. 9 or FIG. 10 shown in the first embodiment.
In the following description, in addition to FIG. 15, FIGS. 8 to 10 will be referred to for the configuration of the sound generation device outside the vehicle in the second embodiment.

Next, the operation will be described.
FIG. 19 is a flowchart showing the flow of operations performed by the sound generator outside the vehicle according to the second embodiment, and includes warning sound generation processing including determination of prohibition of warning sound off control in accordance with the danger level of the traveling area of the vehicle. Details are shown.
First, when the key switch of the vehicle is turned on, a sensor that constitutes the sensor unit 1-B, one or more sensors attached to any or all of the front, side, and rear of the vehicle body, is a pedestrian around the vehicle. Or, an obstacle such as a light vehicle / motorcycle or another vehicle is detected, and information indicating the type of the obstacle and distance information between the obstacle and the vehicle are acquired (step ST2-1). The information acquired by the sensor unit 1-B is notified to the dangerous area determination unit 2.

The danger zone determination unit 2 travels based on the distance information between the obstacle input from the sensor unit 1-B and the own vehicle and the predetermined determination condition read from the storage device 2-A. The risk level of the road section is checked and output to the output gain value determination unit 5e.
The output gain value determination unit 5e determines a gain value for outputting a warning sound according to the degree of risk input from the dangerous area determination unit 2, and sets the gain value in the speaker output processing unit 5d. Thereby, the speaker output processing unit 5d changes the output volume of the warning sound according to the output gain value set by the output gain value determining unit 5e (step ST2-2).
For example, the output gain value determination unit 5e controls the gain value to be increased if the risk level input from the dangerous area determination unit 2 is greater than a predetermined threshold value, and decreases to be lower if the risk level is lower than the predetermined threshold value.

The dangerous area determination unit 2 may output the degree of risk to the output gain value determination unit 5e according to the number of times that the condition for determining the dangerous area held in the storage device 2-A is satisfied.
For example, when the number of times that the condition for determining a dangerous area is met exceeds a predetermined threshold, the degree of risk is output to the output gain value determining unit 5e.

Also, the risk zone determination unit 2 may determine the risk level according to the score of each information or the sum of the scores of a plurality of information by using the risk level of the information acquired by the sensor unit 1-B as a score. Good.
For example, the score indicating the degree of danger is given so as to increase as the distance from the obstacle acquired by each sensor becomes shorter.

  In the above description, the warning sound generation device 5 includes the output gain value determination unit 5e. However, as illustrated in FIG. 9, the warning sound generation device 5 has a warning when the configuration does not include the output gain value determination unit 5e. The process of changing the sound output volume (step ST2-2) is omitted.

  Next, the dangerous area determination unit 2 determines the distance information between the obstacle and the vehicle acquired by the sensor unit 1-B, and the type of the obstacle (pedestrian, light vehicle / motorcycle, other vehicle, etc.). The risk level is determined with reference to a predetermined determination condition read from the storage device 2-A, and the section in which the vehicle is traveling is a risk zone based on the information indicating the risk level. Is determined (step ST2-3). Here, if it is determined that it is a dangerous area (step ST2-3; YES), the dangerous area determination unit 2 outputs a determination result indicating that it is a dangerous area to the warning sound off control prohibition device 3, and if it is not a dangerous area. When it determines (step ST2-3; NO), the determination result that it is a safe area is output to the warning sound off control prohibition apparatus 3.

  Thereafter, the processing from step ST2-4 to step ST2-11 is the same as the processing from step ST1-4 to step ST1-11 described with reference to FIG. 11 in the first embodiment. Further, if the vehicle key switch is turned off while the sound generating device to the outside of the vehicle according to the second embodiment performs the processing of FIG. 19, the system of FIG. 12 described in the first embodiment is terminated. Interrupt occurs. Further, FIG. 14 in the case where both the interrupt processing of FIG. 13 in the case where only the operation of turning off the generation of the warning sound with the switch 4 can be performed and the operation of performing the off control and the on control of the generation of the warning sound in the switch 4 can be performed. This interrupt processing can also be applied to the configuration of the second embodiment.

As described above, according to the second embodiment, the storage device 2-A that stores the determination condition in which the state of the vehicle traveling in the dangerous area is described, and the information acquisition unit that acquires information indicating the state of the vehicle The sensor unit 1-B, the pedestrians around the vehicle acquired by the sensor unit 1-B, the presence or absence of obstacles such as motorcycles / light vehicles, other vehicles, and distance information between the obstacles and the vehicle, Even if the operation of the switch 4 for instructing the output stop of the warning sound from the outside is performed by comparing with the determination condition read from the storage device 2-A to determine whether or not the vehicle is traveling in the dangerous area. If it is determined that the vehicle is traveling in a hazardous area, the warning sound output is not stopped.
By doing in this way, if it is determined from the situation of the vehicle that the vehicle is traveling in a dangerous area, it is possible to prohibit the user from stopping the output of any warning sound. As a result, it is possible to reliably generate a warning sound in a traveling area where the traveling of the host vehicle should be recognized, and it is possible to improve safety in the area.
Further, as the sensor unit 1-B, it is possible to use a sensor such as a corner sensor mounted in advance on the vehicle.

Embodiment 3 FIG.
FIG. 20 is a block diagram showing the overall configuration of a system to which a sound generating apparatus for an outside vehicle according to Embodiment 3 of the present invention is applied. In FIG. 20, the sound generating device for outside the vehicle in the third embodiment includes a camera unit 1 -C instead of the navigation device 1 -A in the configuration of FIG. 2 described in the first embodiment. Also, the same components as those in FIGS. 1 and 2 or the components corresponding thereto are denoted by the same reference numerals, and the description thereof is omitted.

The camera unit 1-C includes a device that captures and records images attached to the outside or inside the vehicle, such as a rear camera, a drive recorder, and an infrared camera. The number of camera devices constituting the camera unit 1-C may be one or a plurality. The information acquired by the camera unit 1-C is notified to the dangerous area determination unit 2.
In addition, the camera unit 1-C performs image analysis on video data taken outside the vehicle, whether there are obstacles such as pedestrians, light vehicles / motorcycles, other vehicles around the vehicle, distance information between the obstacles and the vehicle, An information processing unit that acquires sign information, traveling road information, weather and time zone information is provided.
The traveling road information is information indicating a road width, a road type such as a general road or a highway, a speed limit, an intersection, a curve, and the like, and is determined from a photographed road form, a sign, and the like.
Also, the weather and time zone are determined by identifying the sky condition and the change in the amount of sunlight in the captured video outside the vehicle by image analysis.

  Note that the timing at which the camera unit 1-C notifies the risk zone determination unit 2 is not that the risk zone determination unit 2 always monitors the camera unit 1-C, but at any given time or any given distance. The danger area determination unit 2 may collect information from the camera unit 1-C every time the vehicle travels. The arbitrary time and travel distance may be dynamically changed according to an environmental change in at least one of the inside and outside of the vehicle. This environmental change includes changes in time zone, vehicle speed, weather, facilities around the driving section, and the like. For example, in a time zone where the surroundings are bright, the number of times of information acquisition is increased by shortening the fixed time and travel distance, and in a time zone such as midnight when the periphery is dark, information acquisition can be performed by increasing the fixed time and travel distance. The number of times may be reduced. Further, a mechanism such as a switch that can set a fixed time and a traveling distance may be provided and changed by a user operation. By changing the timing for dynamically acquiring information in this way, efficient processing can be performed.

  When a warning sound is generated only when traveling at a low speed, the danger zone determination unit 2 always collects only the speed limit information from the camera unit 1-C, and within the predetermined low speed limit speed range in the school zone, etc. Of the information used for risk zone determination, other information on the speed limit information is also acquired, and information other than the vehicle speed information may not be acquired outside the speed limit range (high speed limit speeds such as highways). . Further, the information that is always collected may be information other than the speed limit information as long as it is information that can grasp the traveling speed of the host vehicle.

  The dangerous zone determination unit 2 uses the information acquired from the camera unit 1-C to check the degree of danger in the traveling section, and whether the dangerous zone is dangerous if the user arbitrarily turns off the warning sound. Determine. When it is determined as a dangerous area, the dangerous area determination unit 2 notifies the warning sound off control prohibition device 3 that the traveling section is a dangerous area.

FIG. 21 is a diagram illustrating an example (Example 1) of a determination table stored in the storage device 2-A according to the third embodiment. The determination table summarizes conditions for determining the traveling section of the vehicle as a dangerous area. This is shown together with the determination result of the dangerous area determination unit 2.
Based on the information acquired from the camera unit 1-C, the dangerous area determination unit 2 determines the dangerous area based on whether or not the condition content of the determination table shown in FIG. . For example, FIG. 21 shows the case where the contents of the conditions are determined in the order of the numbers for identifying the determination conditions, and the traveling section of the vehicle matches the condition of “Is there an obstacle around?” Yes.
In this way, when any condition in the determination table is satisfied, the traveling section of the own vehicle is determined as the dangerous area.

  FIG. 22 is a diagram illustrating another example (example 2) of the determination table stored in the storage device 2-A according to the third embodiment. The determination is a summary of the conditions for determining the traveling section of the vehicle as a dangerous area. What added the score (risk degree) which shows the degree of danger corresponding to condition contents to a table is shown with the judgment result of dangerous district judgment part 2. FIG. As in the first embodiment, the risk level is, for example, 10 when the risk is high and 1 when the risk is low, and levels 2 to 9 are assigned therebetween.

The risk area determination unit 2 determines the contents of the conditions in the order of numbers for identifying the determination conditions, and when the risk level associated with the condition contents that match the traveling section of the host vehicle is equal to or greater than a predetermined threshold, If it is less than the predetermined threshold value, it is determined that it is not a dangerous area.
In addition, when the traveling section of the host vehicle satisfies a plurality of condition contents, if the sum of the respective risk levels corresponding to these condition contents is equal to or greater than a predetermined threshold value, the vehicle is determined to be a dangerous area, and the predetermined threshold value is determined. If it is less than that, it is determined that the area is not in danger.

  In the example of FIG. 22, the threshold regarding the degree of risk is “8”, and the traveling section of the vehicle is a condition of “Is the road narrow?” It matches. In this case, “9”, which is the sum of the risk “5” corresponding to the condition of determination 3 and the risk “4” corresponding to the condition of determination 4, is greater than or equal to the threshold “8”. It is determined that it is a “district”.

FIG. 23 is a diagram illustrating another example (example 3) of the determination table stored in the storage device 2-A according to the third embodiment. The determination is a summary of the conditions for determining the traveling section of the vehicle as a dangerous area. The table shows the additional conditions related to the distance between the obstacle and the vehicle and the road width, and the degree of danger corresponding to the condition contents together with the determination result of the dangerous area determination unit 2.
In the determination table shown in FIG. 22, the risk level “5” is assigned to the condition content “Would the road width be narrow?” On the basis of a certain road width (for example, 10 m). However, if the road width is sufficient to allow a sufficient distance from the pedestrians on the side of the road, the degree of risk is excessive.
Therefore, as shown in FIG. 23, even in the condition content “Is the road width narrow?” As an additional condition, if the distance from the pedestrians on the roadside is sufficiently “5 m to 10 m”, the degree of risk is increased. The risk level is “6” when “3” is set and “within 5 m” where the vehicle is expected to travel with a distance from a pedestrian beside the road.

  In the example of FIG. 23, the threshold value related to the degree of danger is “8”, and the traveling section of the vehicle is determined by the condition of “Is there an obstacle in the vicinity” and the additional condition “radius 3 m to 5 m” ”And the additional condition“ 5 m to 10 m ”and the additional condition“ 5 m to 10 m ”. In this case, “8”, which is the sum of the degree of risk “5” corresponding to the condition of the determination 1 and the additional condition and the degree of risk “3” corresponding to the condition of the determination 3 and the additional condition, is greater than or equal to the threshold “8”. Because there is, it is determined to be a “dangerous area”.

Moreover, the following example is mentioned as the condition content which determines the driving | running | working area of the own vehicle as a dangerous area.
First, when the obstacle detected by the camera unit 1-C is close to the vehicle (the radius of the camera unit 1-C detecting the obstacle is within a predetermined distance), the obstacle In the case where there are a plurality of vehicles, when the distance between the obstacle and the own vehicle is approaching as time elapses, the traveling section of the own vehicle may be determined as a dangerous area.

From the travel road information, when the road is narrow, when the vehicle travels an intersection or a curve, or when making a right / left turn, it is determined that the danger zone is traveling.
It may be determined that the highway is not traveling in the dangerous area, and the service area may be determined to be traveling in the dangerous area.
If the speed limit of the road on which the vehicle is traveling is low, it is likely that the area has many pedestrians, such as a residential area, so if the speed limit is below a certain threshold, the vehicle is traveling in a hazardous area. You may determine that there is.

  If it is judged from the sign information that there are facilities such as elementary schools and shopping streets in the vicinity, the risk of jumping out of the children and many pedestrians in the surrounding area is high. Also good.

In the case of using time zone information, it may be determined that the vehicle is traveling in the dangerous area when traveling in a time zone in which traveling by the warning sound stop state is dangerous. For example, during a time period when ambient noise is high, it is difficult to hear the traveling sound of the vehicle.
Further, in the time zone in which the surroundings are dark, the viewing angle of the driver is narrowed, so it may be determined that the vehicle is traveling in the dangerous area. In this case, if the light is turned on, it is easy to visually recognize the surroundings, so it may be determined that the vehicle is not traveling in the dangerous area.

  The surrounding facility information and the current time information may be combined to determine whether or not it is a dangerous area. For example, even if there is a shopping street in the vicinity, if the store closes, the traffic will decrease, so in combination with the current time information, it is determined as a dangerous area during the opening hours, and after the closing time it is determined not to be a dangerous area. May be.

  Weather information may be used for determination. For example, when it is raining, there is a possibility that the running sound becomes more difficult to hear due to rain. Therefore, when rain is detected or when the amount of rain equal to or greater than an arbitrary threshold is recognized, it may be determined that the vehicle is traveling in the dangerous area.

If the conditions for judging from the safe area to the dangerous area are the same as the conditions for judging from the dangerous area to the safe area, the judgment result may change unnecessarily frequently while driving the boundary between the dangerous area and the safe area. There is sex. About this, when updating the judgment from the dangerous area to the safe area, it is not judged as the dangerous area by one judgment result, but when it is judged as the dangerous area continuously several times, You may make it update to a dangerous area.
Further, as described with reference to FIG. 7 in the first embodiment, there may be a difference between the threshold value of the risk level used for the determination of the safe area and the threshold value of the risk level used for the determination of the risk area. Absent.

In the third embodiment, the configuration of the warning sound off control prohibiting device 3 is the same as the configuration of FIG. 8 shown in the first embodiment. The configurations and functions of the switch 4, the outside speaker 6, the inside speaker 7, and the display device 8 are the same as those described in the first embodiment. Furthermore, the configuration of the warning sound generator 5 is the same as the configuration of FIG. 9 or FIG. 10 shown in the first embodiment.
In the following description, in addition to FIG. 20, FIGS. 8-10 are referred about the structure of the sound generation apparatus outside a vehicle in Embodiment 3. FIG.

Next, the operation will be described.
FIG. 24 is a flowchart showing the flow of operations performed by the sound generator outside the vehicle according to the third embodiment, and includes warning sound generation processing including determination of prohibition of warning sound off control in accordance with the danger level of the traveling area of the vehicle. Details are shown.
First, when the key switch of the vehicle is turned on, the camera unit 1-C acquires obstacle information around the vehicle (step ST3-1a) and acquires sign information (step ST3-1b).
Furthermore, the camera unit 1-C obtains at least one of travel road information, weather, and time zone (step ST3-1c and step ST3-1d). These pieces of information are output from the camera unit 1-C to the dangerous area determination unit 2.

The dangerous area determination unit 2 examines the degree of risk of the road section where the host vehicle travels based on the information input from the camera unit 1-C and the predetermined determination condition read from the storage device 2-A, and outputs gain It outputs to the value determination part 5e.
The output gain value determination unit 5e determines a gain value for outputting a warning sound according to the degree of risk input from the dangerous area determination unit 2, and sets the gain value in the speaker output processing unit 5d. Thereby, the speaker output processing unit 5d changes the output volume of the warning sound according to the output gain value set by the output gain value determination unit 5e (step ST3-2).
For example, the output gain value determination unit 5e controls the gain value to be increased if the risk level input from the dangerous area determination unit 2 is greater than a predetermined threshold value, and decreases to be lower if the risk level is lower than the predetermined threshold value.
The dangerous area determination unit 2 may output the degree of risk to the output gain value determination unit 5e according to the number of times that the condition for determining the dangerous area held in the storage device 2-A is satisfied.
For example, when the number of times that the condition for determining a dangerous area is met exceeds a predetermined threshold, the degree of risk is output to the output gain value determining unit 5e.

Also, the risk zone determination unit 2 may determine the risk level according to the score of each information or the sum of the scores of a plurality of information by using the risk level of the information acquired by the camera unit 1-C as a score. Good.
For example, the score indicating the degree of danger is given so as to increase as the distance from the obstacle acquired by each sensor becomes shorter.

  In the above description, the warning sound generation device 5 includes the output gain value determination unit 5e. However, as illustrated in FIG. 9, the warning sound generation device 5 has a warning when the configuration does not include the output gain value determination unit 5e. The process of changing the sound output volume (step ST3-2) is omitted.

Next, the risk area determination unit 2 determines the risk level with reference to a predetermined determination condition read from the storage device 2-A based on the information acquired by the camera unit 1-C, and indicates the risk level. Based on the above, it is determined whether or not the section in which the vehicle is traveling is a dangerous area (step ST3-3).
Here, if it is determined that it is a dangerous area (step ST3-3; YES), the dangerous area determination unit 2 outputs a determination result indicating that it is a dangerous area to the warning sound off control prohibition device 3, and if it is not a dangerous area. When it determines (step ST3-3; NO), the determination result that it is a safe area is output to the warning sound off control prohibition apparatus 3.

  Thereafter, the processing from step ST3-4 to step ST3-11 is the same as the processing from step ST1-4 to step ST1-11 described with reference to FIG. 11 in the first embodiment. Further, if the vehicle key switch is turned off while the sound generating device for outside the vehicle according to the third embodiment is executing the process of FIG. 24, the system of FIG. 12 described in the first embodiment is terminated. Interrupt occurs. Further, FIG. 14 in the case where both the interrupt processing of FIG. 13 in the case where only the operation of turning off the generation of the warning sound with the switch 4 can be performed and the operation of performing the off control and the on control of the generation of the warning sound in the switch 4 can be performed. This interrupt processing can also be applied to the configuration of the third embodiment.

As described above, according to the third embodiment, the storage device 2-A that stores the determination condition in which the state of the vehicle traveling in the dangerous area is described, and the information acquisition unit that acquires information indicating the state of the vehicle The camera unit 1-C is a real-time information such as the presence or absence of obstacles acquired by the camera unit 1-C, distance information between obstacles and vehicles, sign information, travel road information, weather, time zone, and the like. And the determination condition read out from the storage device 2-A, it is determined whether or not the vehicle is traveling in the dangerous area, and the switch 4 is instructed to stop outputting the warning sound from the outside. However, if it is determined that the vehicle is traveling in a hazardous area, the output of the warning sound is not stopped.
By doing in this way, if it is determined from the situation of the vehicle that the vehicle is traveling in a dangerous area, it is possible to prohibit the user from stopping the output of any warning sound. As a result, it is possible to reliably generate a warning sound in a traveling area where the traveling of the host vehicle should be recognized, and it is possible to improve safety in the area.
In addition, as the camera unit 1-C, a camera such as a drive recorder or a rear camera mounted in advance on the vehicle can be used.

Embodiment 4 FIG.
FIG. 25 is a block diagram showing the overall configuration of a system to which a sound generating apparatus for an outside vehicle according to Embodiment 4 of the present invention is applied. In FIG. 25, the sound generating device to the outside in the fourth embodiment includes an in-vehicle device 1-D instead of the navigation device 1-A in the configuration of FIG. 2 described in the first embodiment. Also, the same components as those in FIGS. 1 and 2 or the components corresponding thereto are denoted by the same reference numerals, and the description thereof is omitted.

  The in-vehicle device 1-D includes a vehicle speed sensor that detects a vehicle speed signal, a back signal that indicates that a reverse gear has been engaged, a device that acquires an operation signal that indicates that a light, a winker, and a wiper are operated, and an ETC (Electronic Toll Collection (registered trademark; description is omitted below) and road-to-vehicle communication devices such as optical beacons. Information acquired by the in-vehicle device 1 -D is notified to the dangerous area determination unit 2.

  It should be noted that the timing at which the in-vehicle device 1-D notifies the risk zone determination unit 2 is not that the risk zone determination unit 2 always monitors the in-vehicle device 1-D, but at any given time or any given distance. The danger area determination unit 2 may collect information from the in-vehicle device 1-D every time the vehicle travels. The arbitrary time and travel distance may be dynamically changed according to an environmental change in at least one of the inside and outside of the vehicle. This environmental change includes changes in time zone, vehicle speed, weather, and the like. For example, when the vehicle speed is slower than a certain speed, the number of times of information acquisition is increased by shortening the certain time and traveling distance, and when the vehicle speed is faster than the certain speed, information is acquired by increasing the certain time and traveling distance. The number of times may be reduced. Further, a mechanism such as a switch that can set a fixed time and a traveling distance may be provided, and may be changed by a user operation. By changing the timing for dynamically acquiring information in this way, efficient processing can be performed.

  When the warning sound is generated only when traveling at a low speed, the danger zone determination unit 2 always collects only the vehicle speed signal from the in-vehicle device 1-D, and within the predetermined vehicle speed range, Other information on the vehicle speed signal may also be acquired, and other than the vehicle speed signal may be acquired outside the predetermined vehicle speed range (during high-speed traveling). Further, the information that is always collected may be information other than the vehicle speed signal as long as it is information that can grasp the traveling speed of the host vehicle.

  The dangerous area determination unit 2 uses the information acquired from the in-vehicle device 1-D to check the degree of danger in the traveling section, and whether the dangerous area is dangerous if the user arbitrarily turns off the warning sound. Determine. When it is determined as a dangerous area, the dangerous area determination unit 2 notifies the warning sound off control prohibition device 3 that the traveling section is a dangerous area.

FIG. 26 is a diagram illustrating an example (Example 1) of a determination table stored in the storage device 2-A according to the fourth embodiment. The determination table summarizes conditions for determining the traveling section of the vehicle as a dangerous area. This is shown together with the determination result of the dangerous area determination unit 2.
The danger zone determination unit 2 is based on vehicle speed information acquired from the in-vehicle device 1-D, whether or not the lights are turned on, whether or not the winker is operating, whether or not the wiper is operating, information indicating whether or not the vehicle travels back, and the like. The dangerous area is determined based on whether or not the condition contents of the determination table shown in FIG. For example, in FIG. 26, the contents of the conditions are determined in the order of numbers for identifying the determination conditions, and the traveling section of the own vehicle matches the condition of “Does the vehicle travel at a low speed (below an arbitrary threshold)?” Shows the case.
In this way, when any condition in the determination table is satisfied, the traveling section of the own vehicle is determined as the dangerous area.

  FIG. 27 is a diagram illustrating another example (example 2) of the determination table stored in the storage device 2-A according to the fourth embodiment. The determination summarizes the conditions for determining the traveling section of the own vehicle as a dangerous area. What added the score (risk degree) which shows the degree of danger corresponding to condition contents to a table is shown with the judgment result of dangerous district judgment part 2. FIG. As in the first embodiment, the risk level is, for example, 10 when the risk is high and 1 when the risk is low, and levels 2 to 9 are assigned therebetween.

The risk area determination unit 2 determines the contents of the conditions in the order of numbers for identifying the determination conditions, and when the risk level associated with the condition contents that match the traveling section of the host vehicle is equal to or greater than a predetermined threshold, If it is less than the predetermined threshold value, it is determined that it is not a dangerous area.
In addition, when the traveling section of the host vehicle satisfies a plurality of condition contents, if the sum of the respective risk levels corresponding to these condition contents is equal to or greater than a predetermined threshold value, the vehicle is determined to be a dangerous area, and the predetermined threshold value is determined. If it is less than that, it is determined that the area is not in danger.

  In the example of FIG. 27, the threshold regarding the degree of risk is “8”, and the traveling section of the vehicle is in the condition of “Is the light turned on” in the determination 2 and “Is the blinker operating? Is met. In this case, “8”, which is the sum of the risk “4” corresponding to the condition of determination 2 and the risk “4” corresponding to the condition of determination 3, is equal to or greater than the threshold “8”. It is determined that it is a “district”.

FIG. 28 is a diagram illustrating another example (example 3) of the determination table stored in the storage device 2-A according to the fourth embodiment. The determination is a summary of the conditions for determining the traveling section of the own vehicle as a dangerous area. The table shows the additional conditions related to the vehicle speed and the degree of danger corresponding to the contents of the conditions, together with the determination result of the dangerous area determination unit 2.
In the determination table shown in FIG. 27, the degree of risk “8” is given to the condition content of “Do you run at low speed?” With an arbitrary threshold (for example, 30 km / h) as a reference. Even in the case of the vehicle speed, if the vehicle speed is within a certain fast range where it is expected that there are few scenes that allow the pedestrian to recognize the presence of the vehicle, the risk is excessive.
Therefore, as shown in FIG. 28, even in the condition content “Is traveling at a low speed?”, As an additional condition, it is expected that there are few scenes that allow the pedestrian to recognize the existence of the vehicle. ", The risk level is set to" 4 ", and the risk level is set to" 9 "for" within 20 km / h "where it is expected that there are many scenes in which pedestrians recognize the presence of the vehicle.

  In the example of FIG. 28, the threshold regarding the degree of risk is “8”, and the traveling section of the vehicle is the condition of “Is traveling at low speed?” And the additional condition “20-30 km / h” of the determination 1 And the condition of “Is the wiper operating?” Of the judgment 4 is met. In this case, since “8” which is the sum of the risk “4” corresponding to the condition of the determination 1 and the additional condition and the risk “4” corresponding to the condition of the determination 4 is equal to or greater than the threshold “8”, It is determined that it is a “dangerous area”.

Moreover, the following example is mentioned as the condition content which determines the driving | running | working area of the own vehicle as a dangerous area.
An electric vehicle has a very low noise during low-speed driving and is not easily recognized by the surroundings.
Therefore, using the traveling speed information obtained from the vehicle speed signal, when the traveling speed is smaller than an arbitrary threshold, it is determined that the dangerous area is traveling.
On the contrary, since the degree of danger increases as the speed increases during high-speed traveling, it may be determined that the vehicle is traveling in the dangerous area when the traveling speed is equal to or greater than an arbitrary threshold.

When traveling backward, the driver's field of view is narrower than when traveling forward, which is very dangerous.
Therefore, when the vehicle travels backward from the back signal, it may be determined that the vehicle is traveling in the dangerous area.

Information indicating whether or not the light is turned on is obtained from the light operation signal.
When the light is lit, it may be determined that the vehicle is not traveling in the dangerous area because the surroundings are visually noticeable.
Conversely, when the light is on, the surroundings of the vehicle are dark and it becomes difficult for the driver to recognize obstacles.

Information indicating a left turn or a right turn of the vehicle is obtained from the operation signal of the winker.
When turning left or right, it is very dangerous to travel with many blind spots and no warning sound.
Therefore, when the left turn or right turn of the vehicle is recognized by the operation signal of the winker, it may be determined that the vehicle is traveling in the dangerous area.
Lane change information can also be obtained from the winker operation signal.
When changing lanes, it is necessary to have other vehicles in the vicinity notice the presence of the vehicle, so it may be determined that the vehicle is traveling in a dangerous area.

Information on whether or not it is raining outside the vehicle can be obtained from the operation signal of the wiper.
When it is raining, the running sound may be more difficult to hear due to rain.
Therefore, when the wiper is activated, it may be determined that the vehicle is traveling in the danger zone.
Further, it may be determined whether or not the vehicle is traveling in a dangerous area according to the speed of the wiper.

From the road-to-vehicle communication device including ETC and optical beacon, the type of road on which the vehicle is traveling, such as an expressway or a general road, can be obtained.
In this case, since there is no pedestrian on the highway, it is determined that the vehicle is not traveling in the dangerous area.
However, since there are pedestrians in the service area, it may be determined that the vehicle is traveling in the dangerous area.

If the conditions for judging from the safe area to the dangerous area are the same as the conditions for judging from the dangerous area to the safe area, the judgment result may change unnecessarily frequently while driving the boundary between the dangerous area and the safe area. There is sex. About this, when updating the judgment from the dangerous area to the safe area, it is not judged as the dangerous area by one judgment result, but when it is judged as the dangerous area continuously several times, You may make it update to a dangerous area.
Further, as described with reference to FIG. 7 in the first embodiment, there may be a difference between the threshold value of the risk level used for the determination of the safe area and the threshold value of the risk level used for the determination of the risk area. Absent.

In the fourth embodiment, the configuration of the warning sound off control prohibiting device 3 is the same as the configuration of FIG. 8 shown in the first embodiment. The configurations and functions of the switch 4, the outside speaker 6, the inside speaker 7, and the display device 8 are the same as those described in the first embodiment. Furthermore, the configuration of the warning sound generator 5 is the same as the configuration of FIG. 9 or FIG. 10 shown in the first embodiment.
In the following description, in addition to FIG. 25, FIGS. 8-10 are referred about the structure of the sound generator outside a vehicle in Embodiment 4. FIG.

Next, the operation will be described.
FIG. 29 is a flowchart showing a flow of operations performed by the sound generator outside the vehicle according to the fourth embodiment, and includes a warning sound generation process including determination of prohibiting off control of a warning sound according to the danger level of the traveling area of the own vehicle. Details are shown.
First, when the key switch of the vehicle is turned on, the in-vehicle device 1-D acquires a vehicle speed signal (step ST4-1a) and acquires a back signal (step ST4-1b).
Further, the in-vehicle device 1-D acquires light information, blinker information, wiper information, and road-to-vehicle communication information (step ST4-1c, step ST4-1d, step ST4-1e, step ST4-1f). These pieces of information are output from the in-vehicle device 1-D to the dangerous area determination unit 2.

The risk zone determination unit 2 checks the risk level of the road section where the host vehicle travels based on the information input from the in-vehicle device 1-D and the predetermined determination condition read from the storage device 2-A, and outputs gain It outputs to the value determination part 5e.
The output gain value determination unit 5e determines a gain value for outputting a warning sound according to the degree of risk input from the dangerous area determination unit 2, and sets the gain value in the speaker output processing unit 5d. Thereby, the speaker output processing unit 5d changes the output volume of the warning sound according to the output gain value set by the output gain value determination unit 5e (step ST4-2).
For example, the output gain value determination unit 5e controls the gain value to be increased if the risk level input from the dangerous area determination unit 2 is greater than a predetermined threshold value, and decreases to be lower if the risk level is lower than the predetermined threshold value.
The dangerous area determination unit 2 may output the degree of risk to the output gain value determination unit 5e according to the number of times that the condition for determining the dangerous area held in the storage device 2-A is satisfied.
For example, when the number of times that the condition for determining a dangerous area is met exceeds a predetermined threshold, the degree of risk is output to the output gain value determining unit 5e.

Further, the risk area determination unit 2 may determine the risk level according to the score of each information or the sum of the scores of a plurality of information by using the score of the risk of information acquired by the in-vehicle device 1-D as a score. Good.
For example, the score indicating the degree of danger is given so as to increase as the distance from the obstacle acquired by each sensor becomes shorter.

  In the above description, the warning sound generation device 5 includes the output gain value determination unit 5e. However, as illustrated in FIG. 9, the warning sound generation device 5 has a warning when the configuration does not include the output gain value determination unit 5e. The process of changing the sound output volume (step ST4-2) is omitted.

Next, the risk area determination unit 2 determines the risk level with reference to a predetermined determination condition read from the storage device 2-A based on the information acquired by the in-vehicle device 1-D, and indicates the risk level. Based on the above, it is determined whether or not the section in which the vehicle is traveling is a dangerous area (step ST4-3).
Here, if it is determined that it is a dangerous area (step ST4-3; YES), the dangerous area determination unit 2 outputs a determination result indicating that it is a dangerous area to the warning sound off control prohibition device 3, and if it is not a dangerous area. When it determines (step ST4-3; NO), the determination result that it is a safe area is output to the warning sound off control prohibition apparatus 3.

  Thereafter, the processing from step ST4-4 to step ST4-11 is the same as the processing from step ST1-4 to step ST1-11 described with reference to FIG. 11 in the first embodiment. Also, if the vehicle key switch is turned off while the sound generation device for outside the vehicle according to the fourth embodiment is executing the processing of FIG. 29, the system of FIG. 12 described in the first embodiment is terminated. Interrupt occurs. Further, FIG. 14 in the case where both the interrupt processing of FIG. 13 in the case where only the operation of turning off the generation of the warning sound with the switch 4 can be performed and the operation of performing the off control and the on control of the generation of the warning sound in the switch 4 can be performed. This interrupt processing can also be applied to the configuration of the fourth embodiment.

As described above, according to the fourth embodiment, the storage device 2-A that stores the determination condition in which the state of the vehicle traveling in the dangerous area is described, and the information acquisition unit that acquires information indicating the state of the vehicle Whether or not the vehicle is traveling in a dangerous area by comparing the information acquired by the on-vehicle device 1-D with the determination condition read from the storage device 2-A. Even if the switch 4 is instructed to stop the output of the warning sound from the outside, if it is determined that the vehicle is traveling in the dangerous area, the output of the warning sound is not stopped.
By doing in this way, if it is determined from the situation of the vehicle that the vehicle is traveling in a dangerous area, it is possible to prohibit the user from stopping the output of any warning sound. As a result, it is possible to reliably generate a warning sound in a traveling area where the traveling of the host vehicle should be recognized, and it is possible to improve safety in the area.
Further, as the in-vehicle device 1-D, a vehicle speed sensor that detects a vehicle speed signal mounted on the vehicle in advance, a back signal that indicates that the reverse gear is engaged, and an operation signal that indicates that the light, winker, and wiper are operated. It is possible to use a device for acquiring the vehicle and a road-to-vehicle communication device.

Embodiment 5 FIG.
FIG. 30 is a block diagram showing an overall configuration of a system to which a sound generating apparatus for an outside vehicle according to Embodiment 5 of the present invention is applied. In FIG. 30, the sound generating device outside the vehicle in the fifth embodiment is the navigation device 1-A described in the first embodiment and the sensor unit 1 described in the second embodiment as a dangerous area determination information acquisition device. -B, the camera unit 1-C described in the third embodiment and the in-vehicle device 1-D described in the fourth embodiment. Also, the same components as those in FIGS. 1 and 2 or the components corresponding thereto are denoted by the same reference numerals, and the description thereof is omitted.

  The dangerous area determination information acquisition device according to the fifth embodiment performs the same operation as in the first to fourth embodiments, so that the current time information, the current position information, and the traveling road information (road width, road type such as general or expressway) , Speed limit, intersection, curve, etc.), accident-prone area information, neighboring facility information, presence / absence of obstacles around the vehicle, distance information between obstacles and vehicles, etc., and notifies the dangerous zone determination unit 2.

  Note that the timing at which the risk zone determination information acquisition device notifies the risk zone determination unit 2 is not that the risk zone determination unit 2 always monitors the risk zone determination information acquisition device. The dangerous area determination unit 2 may collect information from the dangerous area determination information acquisition device for every arbitrary distance traveled. The arbitrary time and travel distance may be dynamically changed according to an environmental change in at least one of the inside and outside of the vehicle. This environmental change includes a change in time zone, vehicle speed, weather, facilities around the driving section, and the like. For example, when the time zone is from 8:00 to 20:00, the number of times of information acquisition is increased by shortening the fixed time and travel distance, and when the time zone is from 20:00 to 8:00, the fixed time and travel The number of times of information acquisition may be reduced by increasing the distance. Further, a mechanism such as a switch that can set a fixed time and a traveling distance may be provided and changed by a user operation. By changing the timing for dynamically acquiring information in this way, efficient processing can be performed.

  When a warning sound is generated only when traveling at a low speed, the dangerous zone determination unit 2 always collects only vehicle speed information from the dangerous zone determination information acquisition device, and is used for the above dangerous zone determination within a predetermined vehicle speed range. Among them, other information on the vehicle speed information may be acquired, and information other than the vehicle speed information may not be acquired outside the predetermined vehicle speed range (during high-speed traveling). Further, the information that is always collected may be information other than the vehicle speed information as long as it is information that can grasp the traveling speed of the host vehicle.

  The risk zone determination unit 2 uses the information acquired from the risk zone determination information acquisition device of the fifth embodiment to check the degree of danger in the traveling section, and if the user arbitrarily turns off the warning sound, it is dangerous. Determine if it is a dangerous area. When it is determined as a dangerous area, the dangerous area determination unit 2 notifies the warning sound off control prohibition device 3 that the traveling section is a dangerous area.

FIG. 31 is a diagram illustrating an example (Example 1) of a determination table stored in the storage device 2-A according to the fifth embodiment. The determination table summarizes conditions for determining the traveling section of the vehicle as a dangerous area. This is shown together with the determination result of the dangerous area determination unit 2.
Based on the information acquired from the dangerous area determination information acquisition device of the fifth embodiment, the dangerous area determination unit 2 determines whether or not the condition contents of the determination table shown in FIG. Determine the hazardous area.
For example, in FIG. 31, the contents of the conditions are determined in the order of numbers for identifying the determination conditions, and the traveling section of the vehicle is determined based on the information acquired by the sensor unit 1-B according to the determination 11 “Is there a pedestrian around? ? "Is met, and the information acquired by the camera unit 1-C matches the condition of" Is there an obstacle around? " That is, the pedestrian detected by the sensor unit 1-B is detected as an obstacle by the camera unit 1-C.
In this way, when any condition in the determination table is satisfied, the traveling section of the own vehicle is determined as the dangerous area.

FIG. 32 is a diagram illustrating another example (example 2) of the determination table stored in the storage device 2-A according to the fifth embodiment. The determination summarizes the conditions for determining the traveling section of the own vehicle as a dangerous area. What added the condition regarding the travel time of the own vehicle to the table is shown together with the determination result of the dangerous area determination unit 2.
Based on the above information acquired from the dangerous area determination information acquisition device of the fifth embodiment, the dangerous area determination unit 2 determines whether the condition contents of the determination table shown in FIG. Judgment of dangerous area based on failure.

  In the example of FIG. 32, the contents of the conditions are determined in the order of numbers for identifying the determination conditions, and the traveling section of the vehicle is determined based on the information acquired by the navigation device 1-A as “Whether there is an elementary school in the vicinity” ? "And the additional condition" during school attendance ", and the condition of" running in the school zone? "In the determination 22 based on the information acquired by the camera unit 1-C And the additional condition “during school attendance” is also met. As described above, when any one of the conditions in the determination table and the additional conditions are satisfied, the traveling section of the own vehicle is determined as the dangerous area.

  FIG. 33 is a diagram illustrating another example (example 3) of the determination table stored in the storage device 2-A according to the fifth embodiment. The determination is a summary of the conditions for determining the traveling section of the vehicle as a dangerous area. What added the score (risk degree) which shows the degree of danger corresponding to condition contents to a table is shown with the judgment result of dangerous district judgment part 2. FIG. As in the first embodiment, the risk level is, for example, 10 when the risk is high and 1 when the risk is low, and levels 2 to 9 are assigned therebetween.

The risk area determination unit 2 determines the contents of the conditions in the order of numbers for identifying the determination conditions, and when the risk level associated with the condition contents that match the traveling section of the host vehicle is equal to or greater than a predetermined threshold, If it is less than the predetermined threshold value, it is determined that it is not a dangerous area.
In addition, when the traveling section of the host vehicle satisfies a plurality of condition contents, if the sum of the respective risk levels corresponding to these condition contents is equal to or greater than a predetermined threshold value, the vehicle is determined to be a dangerous area, and the predetermined threshold value is determined. If it is less than that, it is determined that the area is not in danger.

  In the example of FIG. 33, the threshold value regarding the degree of risk is “8”, and the condition that the traveling section of the own vehicle is “the speed limit is 20 km / h or less” of the determination 05 according to the information acquired by the navigation device 1 -A. And according to the information acquired by the in-vehicle device 1 -D, the condition of “Is traveling at a low speed?” Of the determination 31 is met. In this case, “11”, which is the sum of the risk “3” corresponding to the condition of determination 05 and the risk “8” corresponding to the condition of determination 31, is equal to or greater than the threshold “8”. It is determined that it is a “district”.

FIG. 34 is a diagram illustrating another example (example 3) of the determination table stored in the storage device 2-A according to the fifth embodiment. The determination summarizes the conditions for determining the traveling section of the vehicle as a dangerous area. The table shows the additional conditions related to the travel time zone, the distance between the obstacle and the vehicle, the road width, and the vehicle speed, and the risk corresponding to the condition contents together with the determination result of the dangerous area determination unit 2.
In the determination table shown in FIG. 33, the risk level “8” is given to the condition content “Do you run at low speed?” With an arbitrary threshold (for example, 30 km / h) as a reference, Even in the case of the vehicle speed, if the vehicle speed is within a certain fast range where it is expected that there are few scenes that allow the pedestrian to recognize the presence of the vehicle, the risk is excessive.
Therefore, as shown in FIG. 34, even in the condition content “Is traveling at a low speed?”, As an additional condition, it is expected that there are few scenes that allow the pedestrian to recognize the existence of the own vehicle “20 to 30 km per hour” ", The risk level is set to" 4 ", and the risk level is set to" 9 "for" within 20 km / h "where it is expected that there are many scenes in which pedestrians recognize the presence of the vehicle.

  In the example of FIG. 34, the threshold regarding the degree of risk is “8”, and the traveling section of the vehicle is in the condition of “Is there an elementary school in the vicinity?” Furthermore, the condition of “Is traveling in school zone?” In the determination 22 and the additional condition “outside school attendance hours” are met, and the condition of “Is traveling at low speed?” And the additional condition in the determination 31 It conforms to “20-30 km / h”. In this case, the risk “3” corresponding to the condition of the determination 2 and the additional condition, the risk “3” corresponding to the condition of the determination 22 and the additional condition, and the risk “4” corresponding to the condition of the determination 31 and the additional condition Since “10”, which is the sum of “and”, is equal to or greater than the threshold value “8”, it is determined as a “dangerous area”.

If the conditions for judging from the safe area to the dangerous area are the same as the conditions for judging from the dangerous area to the safe area, the judgment result may change unnecessarily frequently while driving the boundary between the dangerous area and the safe area. There is sex. About this, when updating the judgment from the dangerous area to the safe area, it is not judged as the dangerous area by one judgment result, but when it is judged as the dangerous area continuously several times, You may make it update to a dangerous area.
Further, as described with reference to FIG. 7 in the first embodiment, there may be a difference between the threshold value of the risk level used for the determination of the safe area and the threshold value of the risk level used for the determination of the risk area. Absent.

In the fifth embodiment, the configuration of the warning sound off control prohibiting device 3 is the same as the configuration of FIG. 8 shown in the first embodiment. The configurations and functions of the switch 4, the outside speaker 6, the inside speaker 7, and the display device 8 are the same as those described in the first embodiment. Furthermore, the configuration of the warning sound generator 5 is the same as the configuration of FIG. 9 or FIG. 10 shown in the first embodiment.
In the following description, in addition to FIG. 30, about the structure of the sound generation apparatus outside a vehicle in Embodiment 5, refer to FIGS.

Next, the operation will be described.
FIG. 35 is a flowchart showing a flow of operations performed by the sound generator outside the vehicle according to the fifth embodiment, and includes a warning sound generation process including determination of prohibiting off control of a warning sound according to the danger level of the traveling area of the own vehicle. Details are shown.
First, when the key switch of the vehicle is turned on, the navigation device 1-A acquires current time information by a GPS receiver, acquires current position information, travel road information, accident-prone district information, and peripheral facility information. Obtain (step ST5-1a).
In addition, the sensor unit 1-B detects obstacles such as pedestrians around the vehicle, light vehicles / motorcycles, other vehicles, etc., and information indicating the type of the obstacle, between the obstacle and the vehicle. The distance information at is acquired (step ST5-1b).
The camera unit 1-C acquires obstacle information around the vehicle, acquires sign information, and acquires at least one of travel road information, weather, and time zone (step ST5-1c).
The in-vehicle device 1-D acquires a vehicle speed signal, acquires a back signal, and acquires light information, blinker information, wiper information, and road-to-vehicle communication information (step ST5-1d).
These pieces of information are used as dangerous area determination information from the dangerous area determination information acquisition apparatus according to the fifth embodiment from the navigation apparatus 1-A, the sensor unit 1-B, the camera unit 1-C, and the in-vehicle apparatus 1-D. It is output to the determination unit 2.

The risk zone determination unit 2 determines the risk of the road section where the host vehicle travels based on the information input from the risk zone determination information acquisition device of the fifth embodiment and the predetermined determination condition read from the storage device 2-A. The degree is checked and output to the output gain value determination unit 5e.
The output gain value determination unit 5e determines a gain value for outputting a warning sound according to the degree of risk input from the dangerous area determination unit 2, and sets the gain value in the speaker output processing unit 5d. Thereby, the speaker output processing unit 5d changes the output volume of the warning sound according to the output gain value set by the output gain value determining unit 5e (step ST5-2).
For example, the output gain value determination unit 5e controls the gain value to be increased if the risk level input from the dangerous area determination unit 2 is greater than a predetermined threshold value, and decreases to be lower if the risk level is lower than the predetermined threshold value.
The dangerous area determination unit 2 may output the degree of risk to the output gain value determination unit 5e according to the number of times that the condition for determining the dangerous area held in the storage device 2-A is satisfied.
For example, when the number of times that the condition for determining a dangerous area is met exceeds a predetermined threshold, the degree of risk is output to the output gain value determining unit 5e.

Further, the risk zone determination unit 2 uses the risk level of the information acquired by the risk zone determination information acquisition device of the fifth embodiment as a score, and determines the risk according to the score of each information or the sum of the scores of a plurality of information. The degree may be determined.
For example, the score indicating the degree of danger is given so as to increase as the distance from the obstacle acquired by each sensor becomes shorter.

  In the above description, the warning sound generation device 5 includes the output gain value determination unit 5e. However, as illustrated in FIG. 9, the warning sound generation device 5 has a warning when the configuration does not include the output gain value determination unit 5e. The sound output volume changing process (step ST5-2) is omitted.

Next, the risk zone determination unit 2 determines the risk level with reference to a predetermined determination condition read from the storage device 2-A based on the information acquired by the risk zone determination information acquisition device of the fifth embodiment, Based on the information indicating the degree of danger, it is determined whether or not the section in which the vehicle is traveling is a dangerous area (step ST5-3).
Here, if it is determined that it is a dangerous area (step ST5-3; YES), the dangerous area determination unit 2 outputs a determination result indicating that it is a dangerous area to the warning sound off control prohibition device 3, and if it is not a dangerous area. When it determines (step ST5-3; NO), the determination result that it is a safe area is output to the warning sound off control prohibition apparatus 3.

  Thereafter, the processing from step ST5-4 to step ST5-11 is the same as the processing from step ST1-4 to step ST1-11 described with reference to FIG. 11 in the first embodiment. Also, if the vehicle key switch is turned off while the sound generation apparatus outside the vehicle according to the fifth embodiment is executing the process of FIG. 35, the system of FIG. 12 described in the first embodiment is terminated. Interrupt occurs. Further, FIG. 14 in the case where both the interrupt processing of FIG. 13 in the case where only the operation of turning off the generation of the warning sound with the switch 4 can be performed and the operation of performing the off control and the on control of the generation of the warning sound in the switch 4 can be performed. This interrupt processing can also be applied to the configuration of the fifth embodiment.

As described above, according to the fifth embodiment, the storage device 2-A that stores the determination condition in which the state of the vehicle traveling in the dangerous area is described, and the information acquisition unit that acquires information indicating the state of the vehicle A navigation device 1-A, a sensor unit 1-B, a camera unit 1-C, and an in-vehicle device 1-D. The navigation device 1-A, the sensor unit 1-B, the camera unit 1-C, and the in-vehicle device The information acquired in 1-D is compared with the determination condition read from the storage device 2-A to determine whether or not the vehicle is traveling in a dangerous area, and the warning sound output is stopped from the outside. Even if the switch 4 to be instructed is operated, if it is determined that the vehicle is traveling in the dangerous area, the output of the warning sound is not stopped.
By doing in this way, if it is determined from the situation of the vehicle that the vehicle is traveling in a dangerous area, it is possible to prohibit the user from stopping the output of any warning sound. As a result, it is possible to reliably generate a warning sound in a traveling area where the traveling of the host vehicle should be recognized, and it is possible to improve safety in the area.

  Since the sound generating device to the outside of the vehicle according to the present invention can control whether or not the warning sound can be stopped by the user depending on whether or not the vehicle is traveling in a dangerous section, the traveling sound is small. It is suitable for an apparatus for generating simulated running sound such as an electric vehicle.

Claims (3)

An external sound generator that is mounted on a vehicle and outputs sound outside the vehicle,
A sound generator for generating sound outside the vehicle;
A storage unit that stores a determination condition in which a situation of a vehicle that determines a traveling area as a dangerous area and an additional condition are described;
An information acquisition unit for acquiring information indicating the status of the vehicle;
The information indicating the vehicle status acquired by the information acquisition unit is compared with the determination condition and the additional condition read from the storage unit to determine whether the vehicle is traveling in a dangerous area. A determination unit to perform,
While controlling the output of the sound generation unit, regardless of a control signal instructing to stop the output of sound from the outside, when the determination unit determines that the vehicle is traveling in a dangerous area, A control unit that does not stop the output of the sound generation unit,
When there is an additional condition in the determination condition corresponding to the information indicating the state of the vehicle, the determination unit determines whether or not the section in which the vehicle is traveling is a dangerous area in consideration of the additional condition. A sound generator outside the vehicle.   The determination unit determines that the vehicle has entered the danger zone from the safety area when it is determined that the zone where the vehicle is traveling is a safety zone and is continuously determined as the danger zone a plurality of times. The sound generating device to the outside of a vehicle according to claim 1.   The determination unit determines that a safety zone has been entered from the danger zone when it is determined that the zone in which the vehicle is traveling is a danger zone, and the zone is determined to be a safety zone continuously multiple times. The sound generating device to the outside of a vehicle according to claim 1.

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