JPH05262163A - Warning device against long time drive - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To improve the safety in traveling by warning a driver to take an effective rest. CONSTITUTION:The traveling time of a vehicle is measured by using a timer 1, and when the traveling time reaches a specified time, the geographical position of the vehicle is detected by using a self vehicle position detector 8, and the map information including the facilities for rest is searched from a data memory part 9, and the map information and the geographical position of the vehicle are given to a driver by an alarm means 12 such as a display device 10 and sound output device 11.

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 suitable for use in vehicles.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Generally, human concentration is limited, and it is said that resting every two hours is a necessary condition for safe driving, especially when a vehicle travels a long distance. There is. When the driver has traveled for more than 2 hours or feels tired, he / she will look for a facility where he / she can rest and take a rest, but the travel time has actually exceeded 2 hours. Even if it is known, there are cases in which the vehicle continues to run without taking a rest spontaneously, or when the driver concentrates on driving the vehicle and forgets the lapse of time, the vehicle may be driven for an extremely long time. Further, when the driver feels tired and tries to take a rest, his / her fatigue is already considerably advanced, which may lead to an accident or the like.

[0003] Therefore, even if an alarm such as a buzzer, a voice generator, or a long-time driving warning display is issued every time the running time has passed for two hours to encourage a rest, at that time, there is a rest nearby. In some cases, it may not be possible to find a feasible facility, and in such a case, the vehicle will be forced to continue traveling, and it is not always in a state where it is easy to take a rest when an alarm is issued.

[0004]

In the above-mentioned prior art,
Even if an alarm for rest is generated at regular intervals, it is not an effective means for the driver to take a rest. Therefore, a trouble such as an accident occurs due to fatigue caused by running for an excessively long time.

An object of the present invention is to provide a driver with an effective rest, that is, to provide information on facilities in the vicinity where rest is possible when trying to take a rest, thereby improving driving safety. It is to provide a long-time driving warning device capable of achieving the above.

[0006]

According to the present invention, a vehicle position detecting means for detecting a geographical position of a vehicle, a time measuring means for measuring a traveling time of the vehicle, and map information including restable facilities are stored. Corresponding to the measurement of the predetermined time by the storage means and the timekeeping means, the restable facility near the own vehicle position is searched from the storage means based on the detection output of the own vehicle position detecting means, And a notifying means for notifying at least one of temporal and geographical relations between the vehicle position and the vehicle position.

[0007]

According to the present invention, the running time of the vehicle is measured using the time measuring means, and when the running time reaches a predetermined time, the own vehicle position detecting means is used to determine the geographical position of the vehicle. The map information including the restable facility is detected and retrieved 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]

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

When the traveling time of 2 hours has passed, the information is transmitted from the timer 7 to the control unit 6. Further, the control unit 6 takes in information on the current own vehicle position from the own vehicle position detection device 8, and based on this, information on the resting place is taken out from the data storage unit 9 which will be described later. The information on the own vehicle position and the information on the resting place are provided to the driver as output in the image display device 10 installed in the front center of the vehicle interior and the voice output device 11 for outputting voice by the voice synthesis technology. To be done. The display device 10 and the voice output device 11 constitute an alarm means 12.

The present embodiment comprises the above-mentioned components and constitutes the vehicle control unit 1. The configuration for controlling the vehicle control unit 1 is roughly divided into four means. First, the first means is a timer means that operates when the engine is started and measures time, and a vehicle position detecting means (vehicle position detecting device 8) that detects the current position of the vehicle. ), Storage means (data storage unit 9) for storing map information including restable facilities, and notifying means 12 for notifying the geographical relationship between the own vehicle position and the facility.

First, the timer means 7 detects the engine start signal and measures the running time from the timing as described above. Next, regarding the own vehicle position detection means, a system that displays where the vehicle is currently traveling on a map is called a navigation system, and what is used as a method for detecting the own vehicle position in this embodiment is: It is called GPS (Global Positioning System). FIG. 2 is a satellite map of GPS. GPS is a system developed by the United States of America that can find the current position anytime, anywhere, 24 hours around the world. It has 18 six orbital planes af above the earth 21. Satellite 22
However, three orbits a to f are arranged at equal intervals, and the orbit information and time are continuously transmitted.

As a measuring method using this system, for example, four satellites 22 out of 18 are used, and the distance from the satellite 22 to the vehicle by three satellites 22 out of them (radio wave propagation time x radio wave speed) Is measured, and the position of the vehicle is calculated in terms of longitude and latitude. Also, the three-dimensional speed is
It is obtained by measuring the Doppler effect on the radio waves from the satellite 22. Next, the fourth satellite 22 is on the ground and satellite 2
Used to match the clock with two. By using this method, it is possible to measure with a precision of a dozen meters at all times, and the obtained data of the current position is collated with the map information. However, in the shadow of buildings and tunnels in the city center, satellite 22
It is necessary to use the dead reckoning together because the radio wave from the can not be received.

As an example of this dead reckoning navigation, a heading signal obtained from a geomagnetic sensor that detects the magnetic field of the earth and knows the direction of the vehicle, and a traveling distance obtained by sensing the rotational speed of the wheel by the vehicle speed sensor. The calculation is performed from the signal and the current position is obtained, that is, the position where the vehicle speed sensor has traveled in the direction indicated by the geomagnetic sensor from the initial vehicle position is obtained, and this operation is repeated as a new vehicle position.

The navigation system uses this GPS
In addition to the current position obtained by the dead reckoning, the CD-RO
A gyro (swing) that detects the turning speed of the vehicle without using a geomagnetic sensor except for the map matching method that matches the map data of M (compact disc read-only memory) Measurement device), the direction and angle of turning from the left and right wheel rotation speed differences, and is used in combination with the method using a geomagnetic sensor. At the distance, in the suburbs, the installation point code is constantly transmitted from transmitters installed on the road at intervals of 5 to 10 km, and when passing under the sign post that is the radio sign, the position is known from the received point code, There is a method used to correct the error by dead reckoning. Any of these may be used in this embodiment.

As a storage means for storing map information including restable facilities, a CD-ROM system using the CD as a digital memory for storing data such as images is used. The map screen consists of topographical 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 and displayed on the screen by the notifying means, or guidance is given by voice.

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

FIG. 4 is a flow chart showing the operation of the vehicle control device 1 performed by receiving the signals and information from the above four means. First, in step a1, in the waiting state until the engine start signal is detected by the engine on signal detection unit 5, when the engine on signal is detected, the time when the engine is started is stored in step a2. .. Next, at step a3, each time that elapses during traveling is fetched from the timer 7, and at step a4, the time stored at the time of engine start is compared with the current time, and the difference, that is, the traveling time. A determination is made whether two hours have passed. When the traveling time has passed 2 hours, data of the own vehicle position is fetched from the own vehicle position detecting device 8 in step a5, and the data storage unit 9 is searched based on the own vehicle position in step a6. , Map information near the current position can be obtained. Further, in step a7, the display of the map information near the present position and the voice guidance to the resting facility are displayed on the display device 1 of the alarm means 12, respectively.
0 and audio output device 11 as described above,
The process returns to the first detection 5 of the engine start signal. next,
If the running time does not exceed 2 hours in the determination in step a4, the above-described steps a5 to a7 are not performed, and it is determined whether the engine is stopped as shown in step a8. .. If the engine is not stopped, it means that the vehicle is traveling and the traveling time has not passed 2 hours. Therefore, the current time is continuously taken in and the time stored at the time of engine start and the current time are stored. The process proceeds to the comparison with the time. When the running time is less than 2 hours and the engine is stopped, the process returns to the first detection of the engine start signal.

In this way, the position of the vehicle can be detected and the map information according to the current position can be obtained. Therefore, it is more effective than notifying only that the running time has passed 2 hours, but also obtaining information about restable facilities from the map information near the running position at that time, which is more effective than giving the driver a rest. It becomes a means and can improve the safety of running.

[0019]

As described above, according to the present invention, when a running time has passed a certain time and it is necessary to take a rest, not only a warning for prompting a rest is given but also a rest near the current position. By providing information on possible facilities, it will be possible to take a rest more reliably. Therefore, the safety during traveling is improved.

[Brief description of drawings]

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

FIG. 2 is a GPS satellite map.

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

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

[Explanation of symbols]

 7 timer 8 vehicle position detection device 9 data storage unit 10 display device 11 voice output device 12 alarm means

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A vehicle position detecting means for detecting a geographical position of a vehicle, a time measuring means for measuring a traveling time of the vehicle, a storage means for storing map information including restable facilities, and the time measuring means. Corresponding to the measurement of the predetermined time, the rest of the resting facilities near the own vehicle position is searched from the storage means based on the detection output of the own vehicle position detecting means, and the time between the facility and the own vehicle position And a notifying means for notifying at least one of geographical relations, and a long-time operation warning device.