JP2005267527A - Intersection information reporting system - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a intersection information reporting system capable of improving safety in operation of a vehicle by showing a driver information related to a traffic signal and a intersection existing in a running direction of a vehicle. <P>SOLUTION: A transmitter 100 provided in the intersection generates signal information by obtaining information of a lighted color of the traffic signal, and transmits the signal information with shape information of the intersection to vehicles approaching the intersection. A control unit 201 of an on-vehicle terminal device 200 loaded on the vehicle 300 receives the data from the transmitter 100 through a receiver unit 202, and reads sound data corresponding to the lighted color of the traffic signal from a memory unit, outputs it to a sound source unit 206 to sound through a speaker 207, and outputs the received shape information to a display unit 208 to display the shape information of the intersection. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2005,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to an intersection information notification system for notifying a driver of information on traffic lights when a vehicle is traveling.

  Conventionally, when driving a vehicle, the driver has collected information on traffic lights directly from his / her eyes and ears. However, when the driver directly checks the traffic light in this way, for example in cases where the signal condition is difficult to understand, such as during heavy rain or heavy fog, the driver does not change the signal condition until the vehicle approaches the intersection or pedestrian crossing. In some cases, the driver was forced to make a momentary decision. For this reason, the conventional method has a problem that accidents at intersections and the like are continually caused by a driver's judgment error.

In addition, what is described in patent document 1 is known as a prior art. In this technique, an external transmitter provided in a traffic light or the like transmits the state of the traffic signal to the vehicle-mounted device, and the vehicle-mounted device notifies the driver of the signal change. However, the external transmitter of Patent Document 1 transmits radio waves to the target lane. Therefore, the external transmitter needs to transmit directional radio waves, and the radio waves in a narrow area are also transmitted. It must be highly functional, such as needing to send. Moreover, since Patent Document 1 has a large number of external transmitters installed, a large capital investment is required. Furthermore, the in-vehicle device of Patent Document 1 notifies the driver of the state of the traffic signal by voice.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2003-77093

  The present invention has been made in consideration of the above-described circumstances, and its purpose is to provide information on traffic lights and intersections in the traveling direction of the vehicle to the driver so that intersection information can be further improved. Is to provide a system.

  The present invention has been made to solve the above-described problems. The invention of claim 1 is an intersection information transmission device that transmits intersection information including a current lighting state of a traffic light, and the intersection information installed in a vehicle. A vehicle position detector that detects and outputs at least a current position and a traveling direction of the vehicle, and a vehicle position detector based on information from the vehicle position detector. An intersection information notification system comprising: a control unit that extracts the status of a traffic signal to be transmitted; and an in-vehicle terminal device that includes a musical sound generation unit that generates a musical sound based on the status of the traffic signal extracted by the control unit.

  The invention according to claim 2 is the intersection information notification system according to claim 1, wherein the tone generation unit changes the mode of the tone according to the lighting state of the signal.

  The invention according to claim 3 is the intersection information notification system according to claim 2, wherein the musical tone is a musical tone pitch or volume, music progression speed or timbre. .

  Moreover, invention of Claim 4 is the intersection information alerting | reporting system of any one of Claims 1-3, Comprising: The said vehicle-mounted terminal device is further equipped with the display part which displays an image | video, When the information indicating the shape of the intersection is included in the intersection information, the shape of the intersection is displayed on the display unit.

  The invention according to claim 5 is the intersection information notification system according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein the intersection information changes color when the traffic light is lit in blue. The control unit checks the remaining time until the color of the traffic light changes from blue, and according to the remaining time until the color of the traffic light changes from blue, the tone generation unit It is characterized by generating musical sounds.

  The invention according to claim 6 is the intersection information notification system according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein the control unit is configured to transmit the musical sound generation unit after passing the traffic signal of the vehicle. This is characterized in that the tone generation is stopped.

According to the first aspect of the present invention, the driver can recognize the state of the traffic light by the musical sound even when the visual recognition of the traffic light on the road of the vehicle is delayed, so that the safety of the vehicle can be further improved. effective. In addition, notification by musical sound has an advantage that it is more intuitive and easier to understand than notification by voice.
According to the invention of claim 2, since the tone of the in-vehicle terminal device varies depending on the state of the traffic signal, there is an effect that the driver can sensibly recognize the state of the traffic signal.
According to the invention of claim 3, since the tone of the in-vehicle terminal device is clearly different depending on the state of the traffic signal, there is an effect that the driver can recognize the traffic signal state more reliably.
According to the invention of claim 4, since the in-vehicle terminal device displays the shape of the intersection to the driver, the driver can recognize the details of the lane curve before entering the intersection.

Further, according to the invention of claim 5, even when the vehicle enters the intersection at a timing when the signal suddenly changes from blue to yellow, the driver can recognize this in advance and take measures such as slowing down the speed. There is.
According to the invention of claim 6, the driver can avoid an unpleasant state in which the driver must continue to listen to the musical sound within a range in which the radio wave from the transmitting device reaches the vehicle even after the vehicle passes the traffic light. effective.

  Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of an intersection information notification system according to the present embodiment. In this figure, an intersection information transmission device (hereinafter abbreviated as a transmission device) 100 is installed at an intersection, and transmits information on traffic signals at the intersection at regular time intervals. The in-vehicle terminal device 200 mounted on the vehicle 300 receives the radio wave transmitted by the transmitting device 100, and the traffic signal is in the traveling direction to the driver by the sound and the display screen, and what color the signal device lights up. Information such as whether or not. FIG. 2 and FIG. 3 show the configurations of the transmitting device 100 and the in-vehicle terminal device 200, respectively.

  A CPU (Central Processing Unit) 101 of the transmitting device 100 shown in FIG. 3 controls the entire transmitting device 100. Details of this will be described later. In response to a request from the CPU 101, the data acquisition unit 102 checks the color of each of the traffic light 400a and the traffic light 400b, generates signal information (intersection information) including this information, and outputs the signal information to the CPU 101. The storage unit 103 stores shape information (intersection information) that is data representing the detailed shape of the intersection. The transmission part 104 inputs data from CPU101, produces | generates the radio signal based on this, and transmits to the vehicle which approachs an intersection.

  CPU201 of the vehicle-mounted terminal device 200 shown by FIG. 2 controls the whole vehicle-mounted terminal device. Details of this will be described later. The receiving unit 202 receives signal information from the transmitting device 100 via the antenna 203 and outputs the signal information to the CPU 201. The position detection unit 204 is a car navigation function that outputs the position information of the vehicle 300 and the traveling direction of the vehicle 300 to the CPU 201 in response to a request from the CPU 201. The storage unit 205 stores three types of musical sound data corresponding to the color when the traffic light is on. The tone generator 206 receives tone data from the CPU 201, generates a tone signal from the tone data, outputs the tone signal to the speaker unit 207, and generates a sound. The display unit 208 inputs image data representing the intersection, the traveling direction of the vehicle 300, and the intersection from the CPU 201, and displays the state of the intersection. The input unit 209 receives an instruction from a driver or the like.

  Next, the flow of processing in the present embodiment will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. Now, the driver is driving the vehicle 300 (FIG. 1), and the vehicle 300 is approaching the intersection where the traffic signal 400a and the traffic signal 400b are installed. Further, it is assumed that the vehicle 300 is traveling in the lane on which the traffic light 400b is installed. Hereinafter, the process of the transmission device 100 and the process of the in-vehicle terminal device 200 will be described.

<Processing of transmitting device 100>
The CPU 101 of the transmission device 100 outputs a data acquisition request to the data acquisition unit 102. The data acquisition unit 102 receives a data acquisition request from the CPU 101, requests the traffic lights 400a and 400b to notify the currently lit color, and obtains it. Then, the data acquisition unit 102 outputs the currently lit color of the traffic light 400a and the traffic light 400b to the CPU 101.
Next, the CPU 101 inputs data from the data acquisition unit 102, generates signal information based on the color of the traffic light 400 a and the traffic light 400 b currently lit, reads out shape information from the storage unit 103, and transmits the transmission device 100. The signal information and the shape information are transmitted via the transmitting unit 104 and the antenna 105 to the vehicle approaching the intersection where is installed.

<Processing of in-vehicle terminal device 200>
The CPU 201 of the in-vehicle terminal device 200 attempts to receive information on the intersection via the receiving unit 202 and the antenna 203 (step S01 in FIG. 4). Even when the radio wave is not received, the CPU 201 repeatedly tries to receive the radio wave (step S01 in FIG. 4 is “No”).
Thereafter, the vehicle 300 approaches the intersection where the traffic signal 400a and the traffic signal 400b are installed, and the CPU 201 receives the radio wave from the transmitting device 100 (step S01 in FIG. 4 is “Yes”). The CPU 201 detects reception of radio waves from the transmitting device 100, requests the position detection unit 204 for the current position information of the vehicle 300 and the traveling direction of the vehicle 300 (step S02 in FIG. 4).
Next, the CPU 201 obtains the detailed shape of the intersection from the received shape information, and collates it with the position information of the vehicle 300. The traffic light 400b is on the traveling road on which the vehicle 300 travels, and the vehicle 300 becomes the traffic light 400b. Detect approaching. Further, the CPU 201 detects the color of the traffic light 400b being lit from the received signal information (step S03 in FIG. 4).

  Next, in order to inform the driver that the traffic light 400 b is in the traveling direction, the CPU 201 reads out musical tone data corresponding to the color of the traffic light 400 b that is lit from the storage unit 205 and outputs it to the sound source 206. The tone generator 206 receives the musical tone data from the CPU 201, generates a musical tone signal based on the musical tone data, outputs the musical tone signal to the speaker unit 207, and produces a sound (step S04 in FIG. 4).

Next, the CPU 201 outputs the detailed shape of the intersection obtained from the shape information received earlier, the lighting color of the traffic light 400b, and the traveling direction of the vehicle 300 to the display unit 208 (step S05 in FIG. 4). . The display unit 208 receives data from the CPU 201, sets the traveling direction of the vehicle 300 upward as viewed from the driver, and displays the shape of the intersection and the signal color.
Next, the CPU 201 detects from the position information of the vehicle 300 input from the position detection unit 204 that the position of the vehicle 300 is in front of the traffic light 400b, and determines that the vehicle 300 has not yet passed the intersection (FIG. Step S06 of No. 4 is “No”), and the processing after Step S02 of FIG. 4 is executed again. When the vehicle 300 passes through the intersection (step S06 in FIG. 4 is “Yes”), the CPU 201 ends the process for the traffic light 400b and again detects whether another traffic light is nearby (see FIG. 4). Step S01 in FIG.

  The embodiment of the present invention has been described in detail above with reference to the drawings. However, the specific configuration is not limited to this embodiment, and includes design changes and the like within a scope not departing from the gist of the present invention. . For example, in the present embodiment, the in-vehicle terminal device 200 stores three types of musical sound data in the storage unit corresponding to the color of the traffic light being lit, but for these musical sounds, the driver is lighting the traffic light. It may be possible to make a difference in speed and pitch, or in volume and tone so that the color of the sound can be easily understood. For example, as shown in FIG. 5, the in-vehicle terminal device 200 is a place where the vehicle 300 is far from the intersection, and the in-vehicle terminal device 200 does not receive radio waves from the transmitting device 100 (state 1 in FIG. 5). If it is after passing an intersection, it is silent (state 6 in FIG. 5). Further, the in-vehicle terminal device 200 has a low pitch when the traffic light is lit in blue, and reproduces a slow sound (state 2 and state 5 in FIG. 5), and gradually when the traffic light is lit in yellow. A musical tone having a high pitch and gradually increasing in speed is reproduced (state 3 in FIG. 5). If the traffic light is lit red, the pitch is high, and a high-speed musical tone is reproduced (in FIG. 5). State 4). This is effective because the driver can know the state of the traffic light sensuously even if the visibility of the traffic light itself is delayed.

  Further, when the traffic light 400a and the traffic light 400b are lit in blue, the remaining time until the traffic light 400 changes to yellow may be included in the signal information and output to the transmission device 100. The CPU 201 gives an instruction to gradually increase the speed when playing the musical sound data to the sound source 206 according to the length of time until the traffic light 400b changes to a yellow signal. The driver can hear the gradually increasing musical tone and know the time from the green signal to the yellow signal.

  Further, the CPU 201 may read out musical tone data corresponding to blue from the storage unit 205 and output it to the sound source 206 when the time until the traffic light 400b changes to a yellow signal is shorter than a predetermined time. The driver can sensuously know that the time from the green light to the yellow light is not long.

  In this embodiment, transmitting device 100 manages two traffic lights, but the number of traffic lights may be one or three or more. Moreover, the transmission device 100 does not need to be installed at every intersection or every pedestrian crossing, and one transmission device may be installed regarding a plurality of intersections or pedestrian crossings, and information on a plurality of places may be transmitted simultaneously. If it carries out like this, the transmission apparatus 100 will be one with respect to several traffic lights, an intersection, or a pedestrian crossing, and can suppress capital investment.

It is a block diagram which shows the structure of the intersection information alerting | reporting system in one Embodiment of this invention. It is a block diagram showing the structure of the vehicle-mounted terminal device in one Embodiment of this invention. It is a block diagram showing the structure of the transmission device in one Embodiment of this invention. It is a flowchart showing the flow of a process of the vehicle-mounted terminal device in one Embodiment of this invention. It is a figure showing the change of the musical tone sounded by the vehicle-mounted terminal device in one Embodiment of this invention.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 100 ... Intersection information transmission apparatus, 101 ... CPU, 102 ... Data acquisition part, 103 ... Memory | storage part, 104 ... Transmission part, 105 ... Antenna, 200 ... In-vehicle terminal device, 201 ... CPU (control part), 202 ... Reception part, DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 203 ... Antenna, 204 ... Position detection part, 205 ... Memory | storage part, 206 ... Sound source (musical sound production | generation part), 207 ... Speaker part, 208 ... Display part, 209 ... Input part, 300 ... Vehicle, 400a, 400b ... Traffic light

Claims (6)

An intersection information transmission device for transmitting intersection information including the current lighting state of the traffic light;
Installed in the vehicle,
A receiving unit for receiving the intersection information;
A vehicle position detector for detecting and outputting at least a current position and a traveling direction of the vehicle;
A control unit that extracts a traffic signal status related to the vehicle travel in the intersection information based on information from the vehicle position detection unit;
An in-vehicle terminal device comprising a musical sound generation unit that generates musical sound based on the traffic signal status extracted by the control unit;
Intersection information notification system consisting of   The intersection information notification system according to claim 1, wherein the musical sound generation unit changes a musical sound according to a lighting state of a signal.   The intersection information notification system according to claim 2, wherein the musical tone is a musical tone pitch or volume, music progression speed, or tone color. The in-vehicle terminal device is
A display unit for displaying images;
The intersection according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein when the information indicating the shape of an intersection is included in the intersection information, the shape of the intersection is displayed on the display unit. Information reporting system. The intersection information includes information on the remaining time until the color changes when the traffic light is in blue.
The control unit checks the remaining time until the color of the traffic light changes from blue, and causes the musical sound generation unit to generate a musical sound according to the remaining time until the color of the traffic light changes from blue. The intersection information notification system according to any one of claims 1 to 4. The intersection information notification system according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein the control unit stops the tone generation of the tone generation unit after passing through the traffic light of the vehicle.

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