JPH1082652A - Navigation apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a navigation apparatus by which an optimum destination can be retrieved easily on the basis of an action purpose intended by an operator and on the basis of a condition related to the purpose. SOLUTION: Out of pieces of information in which a plurality of candidate destinations are registered, the candidate destinations are narrowed down on the basis of an action purpose selected by an operator and on the basis of various conditions related to the purpose. At this time, the distance between every remaining candidate destination and a present position is computed (S102), and the estimated time required for a movement is computed by using data on an average vehicle velocity (S103). Then, time data which is obtained by adding a present time and a prescribed time to the computed time required for the movement is compared with data on the business hours of remaining candidate destination, and candidate destination outside the business hours is excluded (S104, S105).

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

[0001] 1. Field of the Invention [0002] The present invention relates to a navigation device for searching for a route to a selected destination and guiding the route.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art The development of navigation devices using position detection technology based on GPS (Global Positioning System) has been remarkable. In particular, in recent years, not only route guidance to a destination but also, for example,
As disclosed in Japanese Patent No. 138, from a booklet in which information on a plurality of potential destinations (hereinafter, “candidate destinations”) and a barcode representing the candidate destinations are published,
A bar code of an intended candidate destination is read, and the candidate destination is searched from map information stored in advance, and is displayed on a display device.
As disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. H11-264, there has been proposed a navigation device or the like that selects and displays information related to a target in the vicinity of a current position selected by an operator from map information stored in advance.

[0003]

However, in the above-mentioned prior arts, it is necessary to select a specific destination intended by the operator, and there is a problem in operability. Further, even if a specific destination is displayed, it is not always appropriate at the time (current position, time, budget, etc.).

Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a navigation device capable of easily retrieving an optimum destination based on an action purpose intended by an operator and conditions relating thereto.

[0005]

In order to achieve the above object, a navigation device according to the present invention has the following configuration.

That is, a navigation device for selecting and informing the destination point information and the information relating to the point information in accordance with the action purpose of the operator from a plurality of point information stored in advance and the information relating to the point information. And
A field input means for inputting a field corresponding to the action purpose, an area input means for inputting an area including the destination point information, and a category to which the destination point information and information on the point information belong A category input unit for inputting a target, an object input unit for inputting an object corresponding to the action purpose, and a budget input unit for inputting a budget at the destination. Satisfactory spot information and information on the spot information are selected from the plurality of spot information and the information on the spot information, and are notified. As a result, an operator's action purpose and a destination satisfying the conditions related thereto are easily selected from a vast amount of information.

[0007] Preferably, the plurality of spot information and the information on the spot information include business hour information, and the navigation device is further obtained by a clock means for counting time, and the clock means. It is preferable that the information processing apparatus further includes: exclusion means for excluding, based on the current time, point information outside the business hours and information relating to the point information.

[0008] The above-mentioned fields include, for example, restaurants,
By including accommodations, shopping facilities and parking lots, it covers situations often encountered from daily life to travel.

[0009]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment in which the present invention is applied to a typical vehicle, an automobile, will be described below with reference to the drawings. First, a hardware configuration of a navigation device according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG.

FIG. 1 is a system configuration diagram showing an example of a state in which a navigation device according to an embodiment of the present invention is mounted on an automobile.

In FIG. 1, reference numeral 2 denotes a centralized control unit, which calculates various data (remaining fuel amount, average fuel efficiency, average vehicle speed, etc.) relating to the running state, and generally controls the following components. An in-vehicle LAN unit 3 controls so-called local area network communication between the central control unit 2 and a sensor and a drive unit (not shown) necessary for controlling, for example, an antilock brake system (ABS) and four-wheel drive control. 4 is R
An AM card drive, for example, a data reading / writing device for a RAM card that stores information about a driver such as a seat position and a mirror position. Reference numeral 5 denotes a data drive, which is a device for reading / writing various information stored in a data storage medium such as an FD, an MD, and a PD. Reference numeral 6 denotes an audio guide speaker, and audio information from the navigation controller 17 is output via an audio output interface in the central control unit 2. 7
Is a microphone, and an instruction by an operator's voice is input to the navigation controller 17 via a voice recognition interface (not shown) in the central control unit 2. Reference numeral 8 denotes a display such as a liquid crystal display, which displays a navigation screen, a screen for various input operations, and a state of the vehicle (vehicle speed, air conditioning setting, etc.). Further, on the front surface of the display 8, there is provided an input device such as a capacitance type or an infrared type capable of performing an input operation by a touch operation according to the display.
Note that, among the display information on the display 8, information that is always necessary during driving is a so-called head-up display (not shown).
May be displayed. Reference numeral 9 denotes a mobile phone to which a telephone antenna 13 is connected. An operation switch 10 performs an input operation to the central control unit 2 and the navigation controller 17. Reference numeral 17 denotes a navigation controller, which is designated by the operator using the operation switch 10 or the like based on position information from a GPS (global positioning system) antenna 11 and map information on a CD-ROM mounted on a CD-ROM changer 19. An appropriate route to the ground is searched, and guidance is performed by display on the display 8 and voice output from the voice guidance speaker 6. The map information of the CD-ROM read by the CD-ROM changer 19 is the basic information of the display information on the display 8, and more preferably, the navigation controller 17 is provided with the FM antenna 1 as shown in the figure.
2 and a beacon signal receiver 18 for receiving a beacon signal from a radio beacon antenna 14 and an optical beacon antenna 15 for receiving a VICS-compatible FM multiplex broadcast from the VICS 2. And / or interprets the beacon signal as traffic regulation information, displays it on the display 8, and uses it as a route search condition (restriction condition) at the time of route guidance.
In addition, since the detection method of the own vehicle position by GPS is well-known, description is omitted.

Next, features of software of the navigation device according to one embodiment of the present invention will be described. The software processing according to the present embodiment is the same as the CD-RO described above.
The map information read from the CD-ROM mounted on the M changer 19 and the FD, MD,
This is realized based on information read from a data storage medium such as a PD as shown in FIG.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of an information table of candidate destinations read from a data storage medium according to an embodiment of the present invention.

In the figure, the items include the field to which the candidate destination belongs, the name of the store / facility, the area of the location, the location, the telephone number, the classification of what is being handled, the desired purpose when using it, the budget for one person, the business There are time, holidays, presence / absence of a parking lot, and the like, and it is preferably accompanied by image data on the candidate destination. In the present embodiment, as fields, [food and drink], [accommodation], [shopping], [sports],
The following description will be made using [parking lot] as an example, but it is assumed that an information table (not shown) having the same items is prepared in advance. Note that the information table in FIG. 2 is for convenience of explanation, and information other than image data in an actual information table is coded based on a standard. The data in the information table is obtained by the operator from an information provider (company) at home or the like in advance via communication such as the Internet and stored in the data storage medium, or the mobile phone 9 or the like. Through the navigation controller 17. Considering the utility value, such information is fairly local and detailed information whose contents change in a short period of time. Therefore, it is preferable that the information can be obtained in units of cities or towns.

<Search of Information> Next, a destination search process for each field performed based on the above-described map information and the information table will be described with reference to FIGS.

FIG. 3 to FIG. 8 are transition diagrams of search processing as one embodiment of the present invention. In this field-specific destination search processing, one of the fields of [food and drink], [accommodation], [shopping], [sports], and [parking] displayed on a screen (not shown) on the display 8 is selected. Is started by

[0017] In the figure, when the item of [food and drink] is selected, a screen (not shown) such as [Random SHOP search] and [Category →
SHOP search] and [SHOP search] are displayed (step S1).

At the step S1, [Random SHOP search]
Is selected, the respective areas to which the candidate destinations existing in the information table of FIG. 2 belong are displayed as category 1. Only the candidate destinations belonging to the area selected by the operator are displayed from the displayed areas. An item of the information table (in this case, a code representing an area) is extracted as a key, and is extracted as a subsequent search target (step S2). Similarly, step S
From step 3 to step S5, the search targets are narrowed down to class 2 (category), class 3 (purpose), and class 4 (budget). Next, in the category 5 (business hours) of step S51,
[Business hours], [Regular holidays], and [ALL] are displayed as selectable items. [ALL] means that all of the candidate destinations remaining as search targets are selected when the classification is performed at that time (hereinafter, the same applies to [ALL]). Then, the search targets are narrowed down by classification 7 (parking lot) (step S52), and the finally remaining candidate destinations are displayed as a data list (may be displayed on a map) (step S53). At this time, it is assumed that the operator can develop the data into the individual data display of the remaining candidate destinations and refer to the data (step S54). Here, a search process when the operator selects the item of [business hours] will be described with reference to FIG. It should be noted that in the classification processing other than the classification processing of the classification 5, those which narrow down the candidate destinations by business hours perform the same processing.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart showing a search process based on business hours according to an embodiment of the present invention.

In the figure, in a step S101, it is determined whether or not a search instruction for the item of [business hours] is given. In the case of YES in step S101, the distance or the distance from the current position is calculated for all of the candidate destinations remaining as search targets when performing the classification processing (classification 5 in this case). This processing is calculated based on the current position information detected by the known GPS function and the position information of each candidate destination obtained from the above-mentioned map information and the information table (step S102). In this case, it is preferable to perform a route search, that is, a route search, in order to increase the accuracy of the calculated value. However, if high-speed processing is desired, a distance between two points (the current position and the candidate destination) is calculated. Just do it. Then, an estimated travel time is calculated based on the calculated distance (or road) data to each of the candidate destinations and the average vehicle speed data obtained from the central control unit 2 (step S10).
3) The current time (supposed to be obtained from the navigation controller 17 or the central control unit 2) and a predetermined time are added to the calculated required moving time (step S104). Here, predetermined time (changeable)
Is the time that the operator or the like will need at the candidate destination, such as 1 hour for [food and drink] (2 hours for [shopping] and 3 hours for [sports]). I do. Then, the time data obtained in step S104 is compared with the business hours of the currently remaining candidate destinations, and candidate destinations outside business hours are excluded (step S10).
5).

It is to be noted that, in the case where the route (route) data is calculated in step S102, the navigation controller 17 can obtain the VICS signal via the FM tuner 16 and / or the beacon signal via the beacon signal receiver 18. In such a case, it is advisable to refer to the traffic regulation information obtained thereby and to exclude candidate sites having restrictions such as traffic regulations. When the obtained traffic regulation information includes the current required time information of each route, the travel time of the calculated route may be calculated as step S103 based on the traffic regulation information.

Next, at step S1, [category → SH
When the item of [OP search] is selected, the search target is narrowed down by category 2 (category) in step S6, and then in step S7, the operator inputs 50 candidate destinations as category 6 in category 6, In step S8, the candidate destination is searched from among the candidate destinations remaining as search targets, and is displayed as individual data in step S54.
Further, in step S55, a nearby parking lot search is performed, and the result is displayed in an area targeted in step S44 described later.

When the item "SHOP search" is selected in step S1, the operator is asked to input the desired candidate destination in step S7, and thereafter the case of "category → SHOP search" is set. Performs the same processing.

When the item "Accommodation" is selected, "Search for accommodation facility" and "Search for accommodation facility name" are displayed on a screen (not shown) (step S11). In this case as well as in the case of [food and drink], in the case of [search for accommodations to choose], category 11 (by area), category 12 (category),
After narrowing down the search targets in order of classification 13 (purpose) and classification 14 (budget), search processing of classification 5 (business hours) and classification 7 (parking lot) is performed, and individual data can be displayed in step S54. I do. Further, in the case of [accommodation facility name search], in step S17, a search is made for accommodation facilities for which 50 sounds have been input in category 15, and individual data can be displayed in step S54. In any case, a search for a nearby parking lot is performed in step S55, and the result is referred to in step S4 described later.
Displayed in the target area in step 4.

When the item of "shopping" is selected, "auto search SHOP search" and "SHOP name search" are displayed on a screen (not shown) (step S21). In this case, as in the case of [food and drink], in the case of [Random Search SHOP], the classification 21 (by area), the classification 22 (to be purchased),
After narrowing down search targets in order of classification 23 (category) and classification 24 (budget), search processing of classification 5 (business hours) and classification 7 (parking lot) is performed, and individual data can be displayed in step S54. I do. In the case of [SHOP name search], a search is made for an accommodation facility in which 50 sounds have been input in category 25 in step S27, and individual data can be displayed in step S54. In either case, a search for a nearby parking lot is performed in step S55, and the result is displayed in the target area in step S44 described later.

When the item [Sports] is selected, the category 3
The items of [sports center], [tennis court], and [ski area] are displayed as 1 (category) (step S31), and if the item of [tennis court] or [ski area] is selected, step S33 is performed. move on. Also,
When the item of [sports center] is selected, in step S32, specific search targets are narrowed down according to the sport type by the classification 32 (category), and step S32 is performed.
Go to 33. Then, similarly to the case of [food and drink], the search targets are narrowed down by the classification 33 (by area) and the classification 34 (business hours), and the finally remaining candidate destinations are displayed on a data list (displayed on a map). May be displayed) (step S35). At this time, it is assumed that the operator can develop the data into individual data displays of the remaining candidate destinations and refer to the data (step S36), and step S37.
To search for nearby parking lots, and display the results in an area targeted in step S44 described later.

When the item "parking lot" is selected, classification 41 (by area) is performed in step S41. Next, classification 42
Then, the area selected in step S41 is displayed on the display 8 as a simple map, and the operator specifies a desired district (step S42). And classification 43
In (business hours), the search processing shown in FIG. 9 is performed for the parking lot existing in the district specified in step S42 (step S43), and the remaining candidate destinations (parking lots) are set as the target areas. It is displayed on the represented map (step S44). At this time, if the operator selects any of the candidate destinations (parking lots) displayed on the map, the operator can refer to the individual data of the parking lot.

It is needless to say that the information on the vehicle speed may be calculated based on the movement amount per unit time of the position information obtained by the GPS function.

[0029]

As described above, according to the present invention,
According to the present invention, it is possible to provide a navigation device capable of easily searching for an optimal destination based on an action purpose intended by an operator and a condition related thereto. Thus, for example, even in a daily life area or when going out to an unfamiliar place with no guesswork, it is possible to easily extract the most suitable information from the vast amount of information at that time.

[0030]

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a system configuration diagram illustrating an example of a state in which a navigation device according to an embodiment of the present invention is mounted on an automobile.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an example of an information table of candidate destinations read from a data storage medium according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a transition diagram of a search process as one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a transition diagram of a search process according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a transition diagram of a search process according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a transition diagram of a search process as one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a transition diagram of a search process as one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a transition diagram of a search process according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart illustrating a search process based on business hours according to an embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Body 2 Central control unit 3 In-vehicle LAN unit 4 RAM card drive 5 Data drive 6 Speaker for voice guidance 7 Microphone 8 Display 9 Mobile phone 10 Operation switch 11 GPS antenna 12 FM antenna 13 Telephone antenna 14 Radio beacon antenna 15 Optical beacon antenna 16 FM tuner 17 Navigation controller 18 Beacon signal receiver 19 CD-ROM changer

Claims (8)

[Claims] 1. A navigation device for selecting, from a plurality of pre-stored pieces of point information and information on the point information, information on the point information serving as a destination and information on the point information in accordance with the action purpose of the operator, and reporting the information. Field input means for inputting a field corresponding to the action purpose, area input means for inputting an area including the destination point information, and the destination point information and the point information A category input unit for inputting a category to which information belongs; a purpose input unit for inputting an object corresponding to the action purpose; and a budget input unit for inputting a budget at the destination. Point information that satisfies the specified conditions and information about the point information are selected from the plurality of pieces of point information and the information about the point information. And, a navigation device, characterized in that the notification. 2. The plurality of point information and the information on the point information include business hour information, the navigation device further includes a clock unit for measuring time, and a current time obtained by the clock unit. 2. The navigation device according to claim 1, further comprising: exclusion means for eliminating point information out of the range of the business hours and information on the point information based on the information. 3. The apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising: a position detecting means for detecting a current position; and a moving state obtaining means for obtaining information on a moving state, wherein said removing means detects the current position detected by said position detecting means and said moving state. Based on the traveling state information obtained by the obtaining means, the information on the plurality of point information and the information on the point information, calculates an estimated required time to a point left as a candidate for the destination, Based on the required time, the current time, and the time spent at the destination according to the action purpose, excluding point information outside the business hours and information about the point information, 3. The navigation device according to claim 2, wherein 4. The navigation device according to claim 1, wherein the field includes a restaurant. 5. The navigation device according to claim 1, wherein the field includes an accommodation facility. 6. The navigation device according to claim 1, wherein the field includes a shopping facility. 7. The navigation device according to claim 1, wherein the field includes a parking lot. 8. A location name search means for inputting a specific location name and searching for the location name as the destination from the plurality of location information and information related to the location information. The navigation device according to claim 1.