JP2004271335A - Navigation system - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a navigation system for a vehicle for executing a route guide based on schedule information described in an electronic mail. <P>SOLUTION: In this navigation system for the vehicle, the schedule information including place name information and time information of each planned event is read out of the electronic mail by a user, and a content of the event is notified to a driver before a prescribed time on the date when the event is performed, so as to guide a route to a place where the event is performed. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2004,JPO&NCIPI

Description

[0001]
TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a navigation device using a text information recognition technology.
[0002]
[Prior art]
As the vehicle travels, the current position is detected by a GPS (Global Positioning System) and the current position is displayed together with a road map on a display device, and an appropriate route from the current position to the destination is determined. A navigation device that is set and guided by a display device, a voice output device, or the like contributes to efficient and safe driving of the driver.
[0003]
Some navigation devices not only provide route guidance to a destination, but also allow browsing of an Internet homepage and transmission / reception of e-mail in cooperation with a mobile phone. Thereby, it is also possible to create data of a point or a traveling route from a personal computer installed in a home or the like, transmit the data by e-mail, call the data from the navigation device, and set the data as a guidance route. In addition, some have a function of reading out received e-mails by voice.
[0004]
In an example of a cooperative system between a navigation device and a mobile phone, there is a system in which parsing of an electronic mail is performed and exchange of vehicle position information is possible. (See Patent Document 1)
[0005]
Some navigation devices have a schedule function, and when schedule information is input from a portable terminal device, a route is searched and displayed based on a destination included in the schedule information. (See Patent Document 2)
[0006]
[Patent Document 1]
JP 2001-21364 A [Patent Document 2]
JP-A-8-210868
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
When an e-mail is received by the navigation device, if the e-mail includes schedule information including destination information and date and time information for specifying an event to be scheduled, the navigation device is notified of the location. In such a case, a route must be manually set while viewing the mail. This cannot be said to be effectively utilizing the combination of the navigation device and the e-mail.
[0008]
In the example of Patent Document 1, the only information that can be exchanged by e-mail is the position information of the vehicle, and there is a restriction on the format of the e-mail in order to extract the position information.
[0009]
In an example in which data of a point or a travel route is created and transmitted to a navigation device by e-mail, and in an example in which schedule information of Patent Document 2 is transmitted from a portable terminal device to a navigation device, creation of base data is determined manually. Must be done according to the format provided.
[0010]
In view of the above circumstances, an object of the present invention is to provide a navigation device that performs route guidance based on schedule information described in an electronic mail without burdening a driver.
[0011]
Means for Solving the Problems and Effects of the Invention
The present invention provides a navigation device for solving the above-described problem, extracts schedule information including place name information and date and time information of each event scheduled for a user from an e-mail, and retrieves the schedule information on the day when the event is performed. In addition, the navigation apparatus is configured to notify the driver of the content of the event and provide route guidance to a place where the event is performed.
[0012]
Specifically, schedule information including the place name information and the date and time information of each scheduled event is extracted from the e-mail, the destination of the event is specified from the place name information of the event and the road map data, and the current date and time are specified. By comparing the date and time information of the schedule information, if it is determined that the schedule information is to be performed today, a guide route to the destination of the event is determined from the current location of the vehicle and the road map data. It is configured as a navigation device that searches and provides route guidance.
[0013]
With the above-described configuration, the navigation device automatically sets a route to the event location based on the content of the received e-mail. Need not be set, the operation load on the driver is reduced.
[0014]
In addition, if the schedule information of the day is notified a predetermined time before the event start time included in the schedule information, if the driver forgets the event, the driver can be alerted. It is valid.
[0015]
If there is more than one schedule information on the same day, of the received emails, the schedule information included in the highest priority added to the email and included in the last email received The order of notification is determined based on such conditions as schedule information and schedule information with an earlier event start time, thereby reducing the burden on the driver.
[0016]
According to the present invention, by linking an e-mail and a navigation device, the navigation device can expand its application range as an in-vehicle communication device.
[0017]
BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION
Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to examples shown in the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the overall configuration of a navigation device as one embodiment of the present invention. The navigation device includes a position detector 1, a map data input device 6, an operation switch group 7, a remote control (hereinafter referred to as a remote control) sensor 11, a speaker 15 for voice guidance, an external memory 9, a display device 10, a syntax analysis. A unit 17, a mobile phone connection device 18 for communicating with the outside, a control circuit 8 connected to these units, and a remote control terminal 12 are provided.
[0018]
The position detector 1 includes a well-known geomagnetic sensor 2, a gyroscope 3, a distance sensor 4, and a GPS receiver 5 for GPS that detects the position of the vehicle based on radio waves from satellites. Each of these sensors 2, 3, 4, and 5 has an error having a different property, and is configured to be used while complementing each with a plurality of sensors. Note that, depending on the accuracy, a part of the sensors described above may be used, and a rotation sensor of the steering wheel or a wheel sensor of each rolling wheel may be used.
[0019]
The map data input device 6 is a device for inputting, from a storage medium, various data including so-called map matching data for improving the accuracy of position detection and road data representing road connections. As a storage medium, a CD-ROM or a DVD is generally used because of its data amount, but another medium such as a memory card may be used.
[0020]
As the operation switch group 7, for example, a touch switch or a mechanical switch integrated with the display device 10 is used. The touch switch is composed of an infrared sensor that is finely arranged vertically and horizontally on the screen of the display device 10. For example, when the infrared ray is interrupted by a finger or a touch pen, the interrupted position becomes a two-dimensional coordinate value (X, Y). Various instructions can be input by the operation switch group 7 and the remote control terminal 12.
[0021]
The display device 10 is constituted by a color liquid crystal display. On the screen of the display device 10, the vehicle current position mark input from the position detector 1, the map data input from the map data input device 6, and the map Buttons for setting route guidance, performing guidance during route guidance, and switching screens are displayed on the screen while superimposing the additional data such as the guidance route displayed above.
[0022]
The transceiver 13 is a device for receiving information from an information center 14 of a VICS (Vehicle Information and Communication System) system and transmitting information to the outside. Information received from outside via the transceiver 13 is processed in the control circuit 8.
[0023]
The syntax analysis unit 17 extracts event data such as date and time and location from the read electronic mail. The parsing unit 17 may be incorporated in the control circuit 8.
[0024]
The control circuit 8 is configured as a normal computer, and includes a well-known CPU 81, a ROM 82, a RAM 83, an I / O 84, and a bus line 85 connecting these components, as shown in FIG.
[0025]
The CPU 81 controls according to programs and data stored in the ROM 82 and the RAM 83. As shown in FIG. 5, the ROM 82 stores an operating system (hereinafter, referred to as an OS) 82s and a navigation program (hereinafter, referred to as a navigation program) 82p that operates on the OS 82s. The navigation program 82p operates on the OS 82s in such a manner that the work memory 83w for the navigation program is used as a work area. Further, a work memory 83s of the OS 82s is formed in the RAM 83.
[0026]
Further, the schedule information 91 is stored in the external memory 9 as shown in FIG. As shown in FIG. 3B, the schedule information 91 stores data such as the event name, the date and time of the event, the location of the event, the guidance start time, the date of receiving the mail, and the priority of the mail (details will be described later). The external memory 9 stores information and data necessary for the operation of the navigation device. Note that the stored contents of the external memory 9 are retained even when the ignition switch of the vehicle is turned off.
[0027]
With this configuration, when the navigation program 82 p is started by the CPU 81 of the control circuit 8, the driver operates the operation switch group 7 or the remote control terminal 12 to display on the display device 10. When the route guidance process for displaying the destination route on the display device 10 is selected from the displayed menu, the following process is performed. That is, when the driver inputs the destination based on the map on the display device 10, the current position of the vehicle is obtained based on the satellite data obtained from the GPS receiver 5, and the current position from the current position to the destination is determined by the well-known Dijkstra method or the like. Is performed to determine the optimal route of Then, the guidance route is superimposed and displayed on the road map on the display device 10 to guide the driver to an appropriate route.
[0028]
In addition, the present navigation device connects a mobile phone to the mobile phone connection device 18 or connects a dedicated communication device to the navigation device to connect to an external network such as the Internet or to create an e-mail. And transmission and reception.
[0029]
The above operation and the following embodiment are controlled by the navigation program 82p.
[0030]
The method of extracting the schedule information will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. 4 and the example of the e-mail of FIG. When an e-mail is received, the parsing unit 17 (FIG. 1) reads the e-mail (S1), analyzes the subject and body of the e-mail, and includes schedule information such as date and time, place, and event name. Is determined (S2).
[0031]
As a result of the analysis, when schedule information is included in the electronic mail, each data is extracted from the electronic mail (S4: YES). If the date and time, place, and event name data are not included, the analysis process ends (S4: NO).
[0032]
First, date and time data is extracted to specify the date and time (S5). This is obtained by searching for characters representing the date and time, such as year, month, day, day of the week, hour, minute, and “:”. In the example of FIG. 5, date and time data “March 1, 2003” and “9:00” are included in the text, so that the date and time can be specified by extracting these data.
[0033]
If the e-mail has words such as "tomorrow" and "next Saturday" instead of specific date and time data, the date and time can be specified by referring to the mail transmission date and time data in FIG. is there.
[0034]
At this time, in order to notify the driver a predetermined time before the event start time of the day, a guidance start time of the event, for example, one hour before the event start time, is set. The data for setting the timing for performing the guidance start time is stored in the external memory 9 (FIG. 1), and an arbitrary value (for example, 30 minutes before) can be set.
[0035]
When the specification of the date and time is completed, the location data is extracted (S6), and the destination is specified (S7). In the example of FIG. 5, since the text includes place data of “citizen ground”, the destination can be searched based on this data.
[0036]
The destination is specified by using map data and route search data of the navigation device. A method for searching from the extracted location data using the name displayed on the map, and searching using the search functions of the navigation device, such as facility search, telephone number search, Japanese syllabary search, address search, postal code search, etc. There is a way to do.
[0037]
If the extracted location data includes a telephone number, address, and postal code, the destination can be specified based on the information. Searching is possible if there are telephone number information including the area code, prefecture, municipal, large and small letters, street address information, and seven-digit postal code information.
[0038]
If the destination cannot be specified by the above method, a method of searching for the destination by accessing the map database of the VICS center 14 (FIG. 1) via the transceiver 13 (FIG. 1), or a method of connecting to a mobile phone A method of accessing a map database server on an external network via a mobile phone connected to the device 18 (FIG. 1) or the like or a communication device connected to the navigation device to search for a destination may be adopted. Good.
[0039]
Finally, the event name data is extracted (S8). In the extraction method, the event name is stored in advance in the external memory 9 (FIG. 1) or the ROM 82 (FIG. 2) as keyword information, and if the e-mail data includes the phrase stored in the keyword information, There is a method of judging the phrase as an event name, or a method of extracting a noun that is considered to be an event name from the context before and after the date and time data and the location data in the e-mail data. In the example of FIG. 5, since the subject has event name data of “softball tournament”, this can be extracted.
[0040]
When the extraction of the event name is completed, the destination data, date and time data, event name data, guidance start time, e-mail reception date data, and the like are stored in the schedule information 91 (FIG. 3B) (S9).
[0041]
At this time, the event information may be displayed on the display device 10 (FIG. 1). Also, if the navigation device has a voice notification function such as a function of reading out an e-mail by voice, the speaker 15 (FIG. 1), such as "There will be a softball tournament at citizens' grounds from 9:00 on March 1". May be adopted.
[0042]
Before storing the destination data, the date and time data, and the event name data in the schedule information 91 (FIG. 3B), the data is displayed on the screen of the display device 10 (FIG. 1) and stored. Alternatively, a method of confirming whether or not it is acceptable may be adopted. Here, if there is an error in the extracted data or the destination search result, the operation switch group 7 (FIG. 1) or the remote control terminal 12 (FIG. 1) is operated to correct the data and search the destination again. You may do so.
[0043]
In the present embodiment, the schedule information is extracted from the subject and the body of the e-mail. However, the target for extracting the schedule information may include an attached file of the e-mail.
[0044]
The schedule information 91 (FIG. 3B) can display a list on the screen of the display device 10 (FIG. 1). In this case, the display method can be rearranged by parameters such as the order of event date and time, the order of email reception date, the order of email priority, and the like. Further, it may be possible to delete the specified schedule information in the state of the list display.
[0045]
A method of notifying the schedule information will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. First, if there is an event to be performed on that day (S21: YES) and the guidance start time comes (S22: YES), the event information is stored according to the data content stored in the schedule information 91 (FIG. 3B). Is notified (S23). In the example of FIG. 5, a notification such as “There is a softball tournament at the citizen's ground from 9 o'clock” is performed by the display device 10 (FIG. 1) and the speaker 15 (FIG. 1).
[0046]
Next, whether or not to provide route guidance to the destination of the event is selected in accordance with the screen of the display device 10 (FIG. 1) (for example, buttons “execute” and “do not execute” are displayed) (S24). ). When the route guidance is selected (S24: YES), a route search from the current location to the destination of the event is performed, and the result is displayed on the display device 10 (S25). At this time, when the button operation is not performed within a predetermined time, it may be determined that the route guidance is “performed” and the route search may be performed.
[0047]
If it is selected not to perform the route guidance (S24: NO), it is checked whether or not other schedule information of the day is stored in the schedule information 91 (FIG. 3B) (S27). If there is no other event on that day (S27: NO), the process is terminated and the normal navigation device process is performed.
[0048]
If there is another event on that day (S27: YES), as described above, the content of the corresponding schedule information is notified (S23), and a selection is made as to whether to provide route guidance (S24).
[0049]
When there are a plurality of events of the day, the notification order of the schedule information is determined and notified in such a manner that the start time of the event is earlier, the priority of the received mail is higher, or the mail receiving date is newer. . The method of determining the priority of the event notification can be set in advance in the external memory 9 (FIG. 1), and the setting content can be changed.
[0050]
The notification of the schedule information of the day is, other than the method of notifying a predetermined time before the event start time, other than the method of notifying the schedule information of the day based on the priority of the set notification when the navigation device is activated. May be adopted.
[0051]
It is also possible to send the schedule information 91 (FIG. 3B) to another navigation device. In this case, a list of schedule information 91 is displayed on the screen of the display device 10 (FIG. 1), and if schedule information to be transmitted and a destination are specified, an e-mail is automatically generated and transmitted to the destination. If the text of the e-mail at that time has a format as shown in FIG. 7, it becomes easy to extract the schedule information in the navigation device of the destination.
[0052]
When it is desired to send new schedule information not stored in the schedule information 91 (FIG. 3B) by e-mail, the user operates the operation switch group 7 (FIG. 1) or the remote control terminal 12 (FIG. 1). When an event mail transmission screen is displayed on the screen of the display device 10 (FIG. 1) and each data is input in an interactive format in the order of the destination, the event name, the date and time, and the place, the e-mail having the format shown in FIG. May be automatically generated and transmitted to the destination. In the screen display in this case, in addition to the interactive format, a sub-screen for inputting each data may be sequentially displayed, and the corresponding data may be input.
[0053]
Thus, if the format of the event mail is determined, the schedule information can be more easily extracted.
[0054]
Although the embodiments of the present invention have been described above, these are merely examples, and the present invention is not limited to these, and may be understood by those skilled in the art without departing from the scope of the claims. Various modifications based on the above are possible.
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the overall configuration of a vehicle-mounted navigation device as one embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a configuration of a control circuit.
FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a configuration of an external memory.
FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing a method for extracting and registering information from an electronic mail.
FIG. 5 is an example of a received e-mail.
FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing a method of notifying an event.
FIG. 7 is an example of an event mail to be transmitted.
[Explanation of symbols]
7 operation switch group 8 control circuit 9 external memory 10 display device 11 remote control sensor 12 remote control 17 syntax analysis unit 18 mobile phone connection device

Claims (6)

From the e-mail, the schedule information including the place name information and the date and time information of each event scheduled for the user is extracted, and on the day of the event, the driver is notified of the content of the event, and the place where the event is performed A navigation device characterized by providing route guidance to a vehicle. Extracting means for extracting schedule information including place name information and date and time information of each scheduled event from the e-mail;
Map data storage means for storing road map data;
Position detection means for detecting the current position of the vehicle,
Destination specifying means for specifying a destination of the event from the place name information of the event and the road map data;
Determining means for comparing the current date and time and the date and time information of the schedule information to determine whether or not an event according to the schedule information has been held;
Route search means for searching for a guide route from the current position of the vehicle to the destination of the event, for an event determined to be held on that day;
Route guidance means for performing route guidance by the guidance route,
Navigation device including. 3. The navigation device according to claim 2, further comprising a notifying unit for notifying schedule information including an event determined to be held on that day a predetermined time before the event start time. 4. The navigation device according to claim 3, wherein when there are a plurality of pieces of schedule information on the same day, the schedule information included in the highest priority added to the received e-mail is reported. 4. The navigation device according to claim 3, wherein when there are a plurality of pieces of schedule information on the same day, the schedule information included in the last received e-mail is notified. 4. The navigation device according to claim 3, wherein when there are a plurality of pieces of schedule information on the same day, the notification is made from the schedule information with the earlier event start time.

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