JP2975475B2 - Long-time driving warning device - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a long-time driving warning device suitably implemented in a vehicle or the like.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In general, there is a limit to human concentration, and it is considered that resting every two hours is a necessary condition for safe driving, especially when traveling a long distance in a vehicle. I have. When the driver has traveled for 2 hours or when he / she feels tired, he / she will seek rest and take a rest, but actually the travel time has passed for 2 hours. Even if it is known, the driver may continue driving without taking a rest spontaneously, or may concentrate on driving the vehicle and forget the passage of time. In addition, when the driver feels fatigue and tries to take a rest, the fatigue has already advanced considerably, which may lead to an accident or the like.

[0003] Therefore, every time the traveling time exceeds 2 hours, a warning such as a buzzer, a sound generator, or a long-time driving warning display is generated to urge the user to take a rest. In some cases, it is not possible to find a possible facility, and in such a case, the traveling is unavoidably continued, and it is not always easy to take a rest when an alarm occurs.

[0004]

In the above-mentioned prior art,
Even if a warning for rest is issued at regular time intervals, it is not an effective means for resting the driver. Therefore, troubles such as an accident occurring due to fatigue due to excessively long running time and the like occur.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide a driver with an effective rest, that is, to provide information on nearby facilities where he / she can take a rest when trying to take a rest, thereby improving driving safety. It is an object of the present invention to provide a long-time operation warning device capable of achieving the following.

[0006]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention stores a vehicle position detecting means for detecting a geographical position of a vehicle, a time measuring means for measuring a running time of the vehicle, and map information including restable facilities. And searching for the restable facility near the own vehicle position from the storing means based on the detection output of the own vehicle position detecting means in response to the measurement of the predetermined time by the timing means. And a notifying means for notifying at least one of a temporal and a geographical relation between the vehicle and the position of the own vehicle.

[0007]

According to the present invention, the running time of the vehicle is measured by using the time measuring means, and when the running time reaches a predetermined time, the geographical position of the vehicle is determined by using the own vehicle position detecting means. The map information including the restable facilities is searched by the storage means, and the map information and the geographical position of the vehicle are provided to the driver by the notification means.

[0008]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a vehicle control device 1 of an embodiment including a long-time driving warning device according to the present invention.
First, an ignition device 3 is added to the fuel injected from the fuel injection unit 2.
And the engine is started. Next, in the long-time operation warning device 4 of the present embodiment, the signal of the engine start is detected by the engine-on signal detection unit 5 and transmitted to the control unit 6 such as a microcomputer. Thereby, the timer 7 for measuring the running time starts operating.

When two hours have elapsed, the information is transmitted from the timer 7 to the control unit 6. Further, the control unit 6 fetches information on the current vehicle position from the vehicle position detection device 8, and based on the information, fetches information on the resting place from a data storage unit 9 described later. The information on the position of the host vehicle and the information on the resting place are provided to the driver as an output on a display device 10 based on an image installed in the front center of the vehicle cabin or a sound output device 11 for outputting a sound by a voice synthesis technology. Is done. The display device 10 and the audio output device 11 constitute the notification means 12.

The present embodiment is constituted as described above and constitutes the vehicle control device 1. The configuration for controlling the vehicle control device 1 is roughly divided into four means. First, the first means
A time-measuring means (timer 7) which operates when the engine starts and measures time; a vehicle-position detecting means (vehicle-position detecting device 8) for detecting the current position of the vehicle; And a notifying means 12 for notifying the geographical relationship between the vehicle position and the facility.

First, the timer 7 is a timer 7 for detecting a signal for starting the engine as described above and measuring the running time from the timing. Next, regarding the vehicle position detection means, a system that displays on the map where the vehicle is currently traveling is called a navigation system, and the one used as a method of detecting the vehicle position in the present embodiment is: This is called GPS (global positioning system). FIG. 2 is a GPS satellite constellation diagram. GPS is a system developed by the United States that can determine the current position anytime, anywhere, around the world, 24 hours a day. Eighteen orbit planes a to f above the earth 21 are provided. Satellite 22
However, three orbits are provided at equal intervals for each of the orbits a to f, and the orbit information, the time, and the like are constantly transmitted.

As a method of measurement using this system, for example, four out of 18 satellites 22 are used, and the distance from the satellite 22 to the vehicle by three of them is (radio wave propagation time × radio speed). Is measured, and the own vehicle position is calculated by longitude and latitude. The three-dimensional speed is
It is obtained by measuring the Doppler effect on the radio wave from the satellite 22. Next, the fourth satellite 22 is the ground and the satellite 2
Used to match the clock with 2. By using this method, measurement with an accuracy of more than ten meters is always possible, and the obtained data of the current position is collated with the map information. However, in the shadows of buildings in the city center and in tunnels, satellites 22
It is necessary to use dead reckoning together because the radio wave cannot be received from.

As an example of this dead reckoning navigation, an azimuth signal obtained from a terrestrial magnetism sensor which detects the magnetic field of the earth and detects the direction of the vehicle with respect to the terrestrial magnetic field, and a travel distance obtained by sensing the rotational speed of the wheels by the vehicle speed sensor The operation is performed from the signals and the current position is obtained, that is, a point which is advanced from the initial vehicle position by the distance of the vehicle speed sensor in the direction indicated by the geomagnetic sensor is obtained, and the operation of setting this as a new vehicle position is repeated.

The navigation system includes the GPS
In addition to the current position obtained by the dead reckoning, the CD-RO
A gyro (oscillation) that detects the turning speed of a vehicle without using a geomagnetic sensor and integrates it to obtain the azimuth (oscillation) Measuring device) The direction and angle of turning are determined from the difference between the rotational speeds of the left and right wheels, and the rotational speed difference method used in combination with the method using a geomagnetic sensor, or the sign post method, is 2 to 5 km in urban areas. The installation location code is always transmitted from the transmitter installed on the road at intervals of 5 to 10 km in the suburbs, and when passing under the signpost which is the radio sign, the location is known from the received location code, There is a method used for correcting errors by dead reckoning. In this embodiment, any of these may be used.

A CD-ROM system using the CD as a digital memory for storing data such as images is used as storage means for storing map information including restable facilities. The map screen is composed of topographic data such as roads and coastlines, and character data such as place names and map symbols. The map data is stored as a set of line segments,
The character data is stored as a set of a code string representing each character and position data of a position to be displayed on the screen. Necessary parts of these data are searched, displayed on the screen by the notification means, or guided by voice.

FIG. 3 shows a display example of a map screen. In this figure, a road 32 located near the own vehicle and public facilities such as a post office 33 are displayed. The own vehicle position is indicated by an arrow 35, and when the driving time of the driver has passed 2 hours, information is provided to guide the restaurant 31 which is the restable facility closest to the own vehicle position. You. As an example of this information providing operation, when driving on a general road, first, a map of the vicinity of the own vehicle is displayed by a video,
The synthesized voice provides guidance such as, for example, "If you are currently driving near XX, turn right at the next intersection to find a restaurant." When the vehicle is traveling on a highway or the like, the guidance by voice synthesis is, for example, "Currently passing near XX, there is a service area 1 km later".

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing the operation of the vehicle control device 1 performed in response to the signals and information of the above four units. First, in step a1, the engine start signal is detected by the engine-on signal detection unit 5 in a standby state. When the engine-on signal is detected, in step a2, the time at which the engine was started is stored. . Next, at step a3, each time that elapses during running is taken from the timer 7, and at step a4, the time stored at the time of starting the engine is compared with the current time, and the difference between them, that is, the running time is obtained. A determination is made whether two hours have elapsed. If the traveling time has elapsed for 2 hours, data of the vehicle position is taken in from the vehicle position detecting device 8 in step a5, and the data storage unit 9 is searched based on the vehicle position in step a6. , Map information near the current position can be obtained. In step a7, the display of the map information near the current position and the voice guidance to the resting facility are performed by the display device 1 of the notification means 12, respectively.
0 and performed by the audio output device 11 as described above,
The process returns to the initial engine start signal detection step a1. Next, if the running time does not exceed 2 hours as determined in step a4, the processing in steps a5 to a7 is not performed, and it is determined whether the engine is stopped as shown in step a8. Is made. If the engine is not stopped, the vehicle is running and the running time has not passed 2 hours.
Subsequently, the current time is captured, and the process proceeds to a comparison between the time stored at the time of starting the engine and the current time.
If the running time is less than two hours and the engine is stopped, the process returns to the initial detection of the engine start signal.

As described above, the position of the vehicle can be detected and map information corresponding to the current position can be obtained. Therefore, it is possible to obtain not only information that the traveling time has passed for 2 hours but also information about facilities that can be rested from map information near the traveling position at that time, which is more effective than letting the driver take a rest. It becomes a means and can improve the safety of traveling.

[0019]

As described above, according to the present invention, when a certain period of time has elapsed and rest is required, not only a warning to prompt rest is given but also a rest near the current position. Providing information on possible facilities also makes it possible to rest more reliably. Therefore, safety during traveling is improved.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a GPS satellite arrangement diagram.

FIG. 3 is a display example of a map screen.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart of one embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 REFERENCE SIGNS LIST 7 timer 8 own vehicle position detecting device 9 data storage unit 10 display device 11 sound output device 12 notification means

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] 1. self-vehicle position detecting means for detecting a geographical position of a vehicle; time measuring means for measuring a traveling time of the vehicle; storage means for storing map information including restable facilities; In response to the measurement of the predetermined time, based on the detection output of the vehicle position detecting means, the storage means searches for the restable facilities near the vehicle position from the storage means, and the time between the facility and the vehicle position is searched. And a notifying means for notifying at least one of a geographical relationship.