JP2000076593A - Navigation system utilizing visual information - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a navigation system capable of utilizing information visually captured from a traveling vehicle thereby improving the accuracy of present vehicle position detection and route search. SOLUTION: The video images of a camera 11 loaded on the traveling vehicle are image-processed in an image processing means 12, a processing result is made to correspond to present vehicle position information measured in a navigation device 21 and recorded in a recording part 13 and the visual information is made into data. The correlation of the information and the video images of the camera loaded on the traveling vehicle is identified, the present vehicle position information is obtained from the visual information and a link cost and a node cost used for the route search are corrected based on a congestion condition and the shake of a present vehicle recorded as the visual information.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a navigation device for specifying a position of a vehicle and guiding a route to a destination, and more particularly to a roadside scene, a road condition, and a traffic which can be visually recognized from a traveling vehicle. Information such as a situation can be used for specifying a vehicle position and providing route guidance to a destination.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A conventional navigation apparatus is based on position information calculated from a signal received from a GPS satellite, azimuth information from a gyro mounted on a vehicle, and speed information obtained from a vehicle signal such as a vehicle speed pulse. It has a function of calculating the current position of the vehicle and guiding the optimum route to the destination.

[0003]

However, in the conventional navigation apparatus, information obtained from the vehicle through visual perception, that is, information such as a traveling position where a specific building can be seen, and information on traffic congestion on the opposite lane which can be observed from the vehicle window. Nothing to use has been made.

[0004] When driving on the same road, a driver looks at the same building, advertisement, or the like at the same position. Also, if the road surface has irregularities, the vehicle body vibrates at the same position, and the driver visually recognizes the vertical movement of the scenery every time it passes there.
When another person runs on this road, they see the same thing and observe the vertical movement of the same scenery, so if such visually perceivable information can be recorded as objective data, Can be used for a navigation device of another vehicle to improve the detection accuracy of the traveling position.

[0005] In addition, traffic congestion occurs on the same road at substantially the same time, and the driver experiences traffic congestion in the traveling lane or traffic congestion in the opposite lane every time the vehicle travels on the road. Looking. By recording such information as objective data, it can be used for route selection by the navigation device.

The present invention is based on such a new idea, and provides a navigation system which realizes the improvement of the accuracy of detecting the position of the own vehicle and searching for a route by using information which can be visually recognized from a traveling vehicle. It is intended to provide.

[0007]

Therefore, in the navigation system of the present invention, the image of the camera mounted on the traveling vehicle is image-processed and recorded in association with the measured own-vehicle position information, thereby obtaining the visual information. We are working on data conversion.

[0008] Further, by correlating the visualized information in the form of data with the image of a camera mounted on the traveling vehicle, vehicle position information is obtained from the visual information. The link cost and the node cost used for the route search are corrected based on the vibration of the own vehicle.

Therefore, it is possible to improve the accuracy of detecting the position of the vehicle, and prevent a situation in which a congested road or a road with undeveloped road surface is selected in a route search.

[0010]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The present invention according to a first aspect of the present invention provides a navigation system in which an image of a camera mounted on a traveling vehicle is image-processed, and the processing result is measured by a navigation device. By recording the information in association with the information, the visual information is converted into data, and the navigation device can use the visual information.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in this image processing, a fixed object, a traffic congestion state, or a shaking of the vehicle is extracted from the image of the camera. It can be used for vehicle position detection and route search.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, the visual information recorded every time the vehicle travels on the same route is averaged and converted into data, and the accuracy of data can be improved by the averaging.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, when recording the visual information, the photographing state of the camera is also recorded, so that the recorded visual information can be made compatible.

According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, the vehicle position information is obtained from the visual information by identifying the correlation between the visualized information that is digitized and the image of the camera mounted on the traveling vehicle. Therefore, the detection accuracy of the own vehicle position can be improved.

According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, the vehicle position information is obtained by using the information of the fixed object or the shaking of the vehicle as the visual information. Therefore, it is possible to specify the traveling position using the position where the vehicle shakes greatly as an index.

According to a seventh aspect of the present invention, a link cost or a node cost used for a route search is corrected based on a traffic congestion state or a shaking of a vehicle of visualized information which is digitized. Searching for roads without traffic jams,
The road whose road surface is maintained is selected.

According to an eighth aspect of the present invention, the recording of the visualized information in the form of data is distributed and distributed, so that the driver who runs on the first road can use the visual information. .

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

(First Embodiment) In the first embodiment,
A system for recording information visually perceivable from a traveling vehicle as objective data will be described.

As shown in FIG. 1, the apparatus of this system acquires one or a plurality of cameras 11 mounted on a vehicle and information such as a photographing direction and a magnification of the cameras 11, an installation position of the cameras 11, and the like. Shooting condition data acquisition unit 10 and camera 11
Image processing means 12 for processing the image of the image to output information on the image of the fixed object, the traffic congestion state, and the shaking of the vehicle, and storage media 14, 15, 16 for recording the information output from the image processing means 12.
, An averaging means 17 for averaging the recorded information, a GPS receiver 18 for receiving a signal from a GPS satellite to detect position and time information, and detecting a running direction. A gyro 19, a vehicle signal output section 20 for outputting a signal such as a vehicle speed pulse, a GPS receiver 18, a gyro 19
And a navigation device 21 for obtaining the position of the host vehicle based on a signal from the vehicle signal output unit 20.

One or a plurality of cameras 11 of this apparatus are installed inside or outside the vehicle so as to monitor the front or side of the vehicle. Information such as the photographing direction and photographing magnification of the camera 11 and the installation position of the camera 11 is transmitted to the photographing situation data acquiring unit 10, and the photographing situation data acquiring unit 10 outputs this information to the recording unit 13.

The image of the camera 11 is output to the image processing means 12.

On the other hand, the navigation device 21 obtains current position information, time information, azimuth information, and traveling speed information based on information from the GPS receiver 18, the gyro 19, and the vehicle signal output unit 20, and performs image processing. Output to the means 12 and the recording unit 13.

The image processing means 12 obtains a difference of the image input from the camera 11 at every predetermined time (Δt),
As viewed from the camera 11, the moving distance and moving direction of the moving object are detected, and the moving distance is divided by Δt to calculate the moving speed of the moving object. Next, this is compared with the traveling speed and traveling direction of the vehicle input from the navigation device 21, and a fixed object whose traveling direction is opposite to the traveling direction and whose traveling speed is the same as the traveling speed is detected. Alternatively, a fixed object having a size equal to or larger than a predetermined value is selected, and the image data is output to the storage medium 14 of the recording unit 13.

The storage medium 14 of the recording unit 13 has image processing means
The image data of the fixed object output from 12 is recorded in association with the position information output from the navigation device 21 and the data transmitted from the imaging situation data acquisition unit 10.

In the same manner, the image processing means 12
The traveling speed of the vehicle traveling in the oncoming lane is determined from the difference image for each t, and the vehicle speed input from the navigation device 21 is added to this to determine the traveling speed of the oncoming lane. Then, when the traveling speed is equal to or less than the predetermined value, the traffic congestion rank value associated with the traveling speed is output to the storage medium 15 of the storage unit 13.

The storage medium 15 of the storage unit 13 has image processing means
The traffic congestion rank value output from 12 is
It is recorded in association with the position information and time information output from 21.

In the same manner, the image processing means 12
From the difference image for each t, the vertical moving distance of an adjacent subject (a row of trees on the roadside, a guardrail, or the like) is detected, and when the moving distance exceeds a predetermined value, the moving distance is associated with the vertical moving distance. The swing rank value is output to the storage medium 16 of the storage unit 13.

The storage medium 16 of the storage unit 13 has image processing means
The shaking rank value output from 12 is
It is recorded in association with the position information output from 21.

The recording in the recording unit 13 is performed every time the vehicle runs. As a result, each of the storage media 14, 15,
In 16, data of the same road is redundantly stored. The averaging means 17 reads out overlapping data of the same road from the recording unit 13 and averages them. For example, with respect to the fixed object recorded on the storage medium 14, the position information associated with the fixed object is averaged and stored in the storage medium 14 again.
As for the traffic jam rank value recorded in the storage medium 15, the traffic jam rank value corresponding to the time is averaged and stored in the storage medium 15 again. As for the swing rank value recorded in the storage medium 16, both the position information and the swing rank value are averaged and stored in the storage medium 16 again.

The data stored in each of the storage media 14, 15, 16 is used for a route search of the navigation device and for detecting the position of the vehicle.

Although the description has been given of the case where the information of the traffic congestion is obtained from the oncoming lane, the information of the traffic congestion of the traveling lane of the own vehicle may be converted into data and recorded.

(Second Embodiment) In the second embodiment,
A navigation device using data (visual information) created in the first embodiment will be described.

As shown in FIG. 2, this apparatus includes one or a plurality of cameras 11 mounted on a vehicle and a photographing condition for acquiring information such as a photographing direction and a photographing magnification of the cameras 11 and an installation position of the cameras 11. A data acquisition unit 10, an image processing unit 12 for performing image processing on an image of a camera 11, a GPS receiver 18 for receiving a signal from a GPS satellite and detecting position and time information,
A gyro 19 for detecting a traveling direction, a vehicle signal output unit 20 for outputting a signal such as a vehicle speed pulse, a visual information reading means 22 for reading data from storage media 14, 15, and 16 storing visual information, and a GPS receiving unit Machine 18, a gyro 19, a vehicle signal output unit 20, an image processing unit 12, and a navigation device 21 that obtains the position of the vehicle based on data output from the visual information reading unit 22, and performs a route search. .

When the destination is set by the user, the navigation device 21 searches for an optimum route from the current position to the destination, and guides the vehicle along the optimum route. The operation of this route search is basically the same as that of the conventional navigation device, and uses the network data representing the road network by nodes (intersections) and links (roads) to calculate the cost (node A route that minimizes the accumulated value of the cost) and the cost assigned to the link (link cost) is searched.

At this time, the navigation device 21 obtains the congestion rank value of each road in the future time zone from the storage medium 15 through the visual information reading means 22, and determines the link cost of each road or intersection according to the congestion rank value. And node costs. Further, the swing rank value of each road is obtained from the storage medium 16, and the cost of a road or an intersection having a large swing rank value is increased in accordance with the rank value.

After performing such preprocessing, a route search is executed to search for an optimum route. By this preprocessing, a route that avoids a congested road or a road with rough road surface conditions can be obtained.

Further, the image processing means 12 of this device performs image processing on the video taken by the camera 11 during traveling, and when a fixed object having a height or size equal to or larger than a predetermined value is detected, the fixed object is detected by the navigation device 21. Output to In addition, when a vertical row of roadside trees or guardrails is detected, a swing rank value corresponding to the vertical movement distance is output to the navigation device 21.

The navigation device 21 includes the image processing means 12
When the data of the fixed object is output from, the data is compared with the data of the fixed object recorded in the storage medium 14, and when they match, the position information corresponding to the fixed object is obtained from the storage medium 14. . Further, when a swing rank value is output from the image processing means 12, position information on a swing position is obtained in association with data recorded in the storage medium 16.

As described above, the navigation device 21 has the G
In addition to the data output from the PS receiver 18, the gyro 19, and the vehicle signal output unit 20, the own vehicle position can be detected using the visual information stored in the storage media 14, 16.
The position can be obtained with high accuracy.

The visual information stored in the storage media 14 to 16 is
It is possible to collect and distribute via communication and recording media, and a user who has obtained visual information through these means can use the visual information even on a road on which he runs for the first time. Note that even in such a case, since the imaging condition data is also recorded on the storage medium, the compatibility of the images is maintained.

[0042]

As is apparent from the above description, the navigation system of the present invention can obtain the position of the vehicle accurately by taking in the visual information.
It is possible to perform a route search in consideration of actual traffic congestion conditions and road surface maintenance conditions.

Therefore, even when traveling in an area where a traffic information infrastructure such as VICS is not provided, the driver can be safely and accurately guided to the destination by using the visual information.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a navigation system according to a first embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a navigation system according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 10 Photographing situation data acquisition unit 11 Camera 12 Image processing unit 13 Recording unit 14-16 Storage medium 17 Averaging unit 18 GPS receiver 19 Gyro 20 Vehicle signal output unit 21 Navigation device 22 Visual information reading unit

 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page F term (reference) 2C032 HB05 HB22 HC08 2F029 AA02 AB03 AB07 AB12 AC02 AC14 5H180 AA01 BB04 CC04 CC12 FF04 FF05 FF12 FF13 FF22 FF32 FF33

Claims (8)

[Claims] The present invention is characterized in that visual information is converted into data by processing an image of a camera mounted on a traveling vehicle by image processing and recording the processing result in association with own vehicle position information measured by a navigation device. Navigation system. 2. The navigation system according to claim 1, wherein in the image processing, a fixed object, a traffic congestion state, or a shaking of the own vehicle is extracted from an image of the camera. 3. The navigation system according to claim 1, wherein the visual information recorded each time the vehicle travels on the same route is averaged and converted into data. 4. The navigation system according to claim 1, wherein when recording the visual information, a photographing state of the camera is also recorded. 5. The vehicle position information is obtained from the visual information by identifying a correlation between the visualized data that has been converted into data and an image of a camera mounted on a traveling vehicle. 3. The navigation system according to 2. 6. The navigation system according to claim 5, wherein the own vehicle position information is obtained by using information on a fixed object or a shake of the own vehicle as the visual information. 7. The navigation system according to claim 2, wherein a link cost and a node cost used for a route search are corrected based on a traffic congestion state or a shaking of the own vehicle of the visualized visual information. . 8. The navigation system according to claim 1, wherein the visualized record of the visual information is distributed and distributed.