JP2005326349A - Car navigation device - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a car navigation device capable of guiding a noted place and historic scene or various facilities existing along a route to the destination without requiring a troublesome operation for facility selection to a user. <P>SOLUTION: In this car navigation device, a traveling route to the destination is searched for and the route is guided based on link information of a link connected nodes and connection information between links. A database wherein a facility to be guided during traveling along each link, a guide content and a guide start spot are registered relating with the link is provided. When the own car position agrees with the guide start spot of a facility registered relating with the link during traveling, the guide content of the facility corresponding to the guide start spot is read out from the database, and guidance is performed by a voice, an image or the like. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2006,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to a car navigation device, and more particularly, to a car navigation device having a function of performing sightseeing guides such as famous places, historic sites, sightseeing spots and various facilities existing along a travel route.

Traveling with family members and friends using a private car, like traveling with a sightseeing bus, it is very fun to travel with tourist guides such as sights and historic sites that exist along the route of travel. Become. In addition, it would be convenient if the restaurant, convenience store, gas station, resting place, etc. on the way were guided by voice and images as appropriate.
As a device with this type of function, if you enter the type of facility you want, the location mark of the facility is displayed on the screen along with the road map, and the car that will guide you through the selected facility by voice or image A navigation device is disclosed (for example, see Patent Document 1). Also disclosed is a car navigation device that automatically guides a facility within a predetermined position range according to the set priority when the user sets a priority regarding the notification of the guide for each facility type in advance. (For example, refer to Patent Document 2). The predetermined position range in this case is designated by the user selecting a predetermined range centered on the current position detected using GPS or a map range displayed on the screen.

However, in such a conventional apparatus, the user has to set various conditions such as the type of facility requiring guidance, the location range of facility search, and the guidance priority for each type. Therefore, it is necessary for the user to narrow down the desired guide conditions, and it is often difficult to narrow down the conditions or troublesome to narrow down the conditions, so that the function of the corner cannot be used. For example, it is difficult and practically difficult to set conditions such as guiding only famous tourist spots at the midpoint to the destination and guiding small tourist spots that are close to the area around the destination. In addition, in the prior art, only the type of facility selected by the user, sightseeing spots, etc. are guided, so even if there is a famous facility of the type not selected, it passes without being guided There was also.
JP 61-194473 A JP 2001-153672 A JP 2000-35340 A

  The present invention has been made to solve such problems of the prior art, and the problem is that facilities exist along the route to the destination without requiring the user to perform troublesome facility selection operations. It is an object of the present invention to provide a car navigation device that automatically selects a facility in consideration of a travel point such as an intermediate point to a destination or a vicinity of the destination.

The invention according to claim 1 to achieve the above object is to search for a travel route from a departure point to a destination based on link information of links connecting nodes and connection information between links, and the searched travel In a car navigation device that provides route guidance based on a route,
A database in which the facilities to be guided along the links, the guide contents, and the guide starting points are registered in association with the links, and the position of the vehicle is associated with the links during the route guidance. A car navigation device comprising: guide means for determining that the guide start point is coincident and reading and guiding the facility corresponding to the guide start point and the content of the guide from the database.

Here, the facilities refer to various facilities including tourist spots such as sights, historic sites, rivers, canyons, theaters, art museums, theme parks, stadiums, and tourist facilities (hereinafter the same in this specification).
According to the car navigation device having such a configuration, since the facility to be guided and the guide contents are registered in association with the traveling link, the facility to be guided if the passing link is determined by the route search to the destination. And the contents of the guide are automatically determined. Then, based on the guide start point information registered for each determined facility, the guide contents are read and the guide is executed when the vehicle position matches the guide start point. For this reason, the user can receive a guide for a properly registered facility in consideration of the characteristics of the link such as the length of the link, the short, the town, the mountain, etc. in a timely manner without requiring a troublesome facility selection operation. it can.

In the car navigation device according to claim 1, the guide start point registered in association with the link in the database is registered in association with the traveling direction of the vehicle. It is characterized by.
Thus, even in a facility that is registered in association with the same link, if the guide start position is separately registered according to the traveling direction of the vehicle, the user can receive the guide with good timing.

Further, the invention according to claim 3 is the car navigation device according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the facility associated with the link on the travel route determined by the travel route search is duplicated in the guide means. In the case where the facility is linked, a guide is provided for the facility associated with the link on the side close to the departure place, and no guidance is provided for other overlapping facilities.
With such a configuration, it is possible to prevent the guide for the same facility from being duplicated.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the car navigation apparatus according to any one of the first to third aspects, the guide means is immediately after or after the travel route is determined by searching the travel route. When there is a request from the user, the names of the facilities associated with the links on the travel route are displayed in a list.
If a list of facilities to be guided at the stage where the travel route is determined is displayed in this way, the user can confirm in advance the facilities to be guided during travel.

Further, the invention according to claim 5 is the car navigation device according to claim 4, wherein the guide means deletes the facility designated by the user as not requiring guidance in the facility name list. Features.
If such deletion is possible, the user can avoid receiving a facility guide that is considered unnecessary.

  Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. FIG. 10 is a block diagram showing a configuration example of the car navigation apparatus according to the present invention. As shown in the figure, the car navigation device 1 of the present embodiment includes a GPS receiver 2, a gyroscope 3, a vehicle speed sensor 4, an operation switch group 5, a display device 6, an audio output device 7, a magnetic disk device (hereinafter referred to as HDD). .) 8, the control circuit 10 is provided.

  The GPS receiver 2 receives a signal from the GPS artificial satellite and transmits it to the control circuit 10, and based on the information, necessary arithmetic processing is performed in the control circuit 10, and the current position of the host vehicle (traveling point) ) Is calculated. The gyroscope 3 is a sensor for detecting the traveling direction of the own vehicle. The vehicle speed sensor 4 is for detecting the vehicle speed. For example, the vehicle speed is detected by converting the rotation of the transmission into an electric signal.

  The operation switch group 5 is a means for inputting various information to the control circuit 10, and is composed of, for example, a touch switch or a remote control switch formed on a color liquid crystal display. The display device 6 is for displaying a road map, the current position of the own vehicle, route guidance, a list of facility names to be described later, and the like, and is configured by a color liquid crystal display, for example. The voice output device 7 is used to convey the output information from the control circuit 10 to the driver by voice, and the output information includes facility guide information to be described later.

  In the HDD 8, a map database and a facility guide information database are stored in advance. The map database is a collection of map drawing data, map matching data, road data representing road connections, and the like. The facility guide information database registers guide information of various facilities such as sights, historic sites, sightseeing spots, and tourist facilities existing along the travel route, and the information is stored in association with road data. Details thereof will be described later.

  In addition, various programs for operating the car navigation device 1 are stored in the HDD 8 in advance. This program includes a program for executing a general car navigation function in addition to a program for performing the functions of the present invention, which will be described later, for example, a function for calculating a current position based on a signal from the GPS receiver 2 A map matching processing function that positions the calculated current position on the map, a route search function that searches for a route from the current position to the destination in response to designation of the destination or waypoint, and a guidance route according to the route search result A route guidance function for displaying and guiding on a map screen, a program for executing a function of receiving road traffic information from a vehicle information & communication system (VICS) and notifying a driver, and the like are included.

The control circuit 10 fulfills the function of controlling the overall operation of the car navigation apparatus 1 and is mainly composed of a microcomputer. That is, the control circuit 10 includes a CPU 11, a RAM 12, a ROM 13, an I / O interface (not shown), a bus connecting them, a power supply device, and the like.
Among these, the RAM 12 temporarily stores temporary data at the time of program execution, map data to be displayed on the display device 6, and the like, and reads the above-described various programs stored in the HDD 8 for execution by the CPU 11. Is stored. The ROM 13 stores an initialization program for initializing hardware immediately after power-on, a boot program for reading a program from the HDD 8 onto the RAM 12, important control information, and the like.

  In addition to the devices as described above, the car navigation device 1 is attached with a distance sensor for detecting the moving distance, an acceleration sensor for detecting the longitudinal / vertical acceleration of the vehicle, and the like as necessary.

  Next, with reference to the flow chart, the function of the car navigation device 1 for guiding the sights, historic sites, sightseeing spots, various facilities, etc. existing along the travel route to the target will be described. . FIG. 8 shows an operation and a processing flow until a travel route to a destination is determined and a facility to be guided is determined on the way.

In the first step S 1, the user operates the operation switch group 5 to input the destination and the waypoint to the control circuit 10.
In subsequent step S2, the control circuit 10 searches for the optimum route from the current location to the destination based on the input destination and waypoint information. This route search is performed using the Dijkstra method or a search method according to it based on the road data in the map database.

  The road data used for route search is obtained by defining road intersections, turning points, dead ends, etc. as nodes, roads between the nodes as links, and connecting the links to form a road map. Each link stores information such as connection information with previous and subsequent links and road regulations as attributes.

  FIG. 2 shows an example of the data structure of the road data. The road data 20 has a hierarchical structure divided into upper, middle, and lower layers based on the information amount of the road network. The upper road data represents a road map mainly composed of main highways such as expressways and national roads. The middle road data represents a road map including branch roads such as prefectural roads and city roads that connect to these main trunk roads. It represents a simple road map.

  The road data is divided into hierarchies in this way when there are many nodes and links that are subject to route search when the distance from the departure point to the destination is long or when the density of the road network is high. This is because the calculation time required for the search and the memory capacity used for the search process increase.

  Selection of road data divided into hierarchies for route search is automatically performed. For example, when searching for a route from the departure point in Osaka city to a destination in Tokyo, the route to the entrance of the expressway in Osaka city near the departure point is the middle and lower detailed road data. Based on. The route search from the entrance of the expressway to the expressway exit near the destination in Tokyo via the waypoint is performed based on the upper road data, and then the middle and lower road data in Tokyo again. Based on. In such a case, the transition of the road data from the lower level to the middle level and from the middle level to the higher level is performed by determining that the nodes or links included in both road data match.

As illustrated in the upper map data 21 in FIG. 2, the road data of each hierarchy is a collection of link IDs that specify links and attribute data that is information about the links. The attribute data includes link information, start side connection information, and end side connection information as shown in attribute data 22.
As shown in the link information 23 in FIG. 3, the link information includes the start and end coordinates of the link, the link length that is the length of the link (road), the road type, the road width, and the like. Further, the start side connection information is configured by the number of start side connection links connected to the start side node, the link ID of the link to be connected, and the traffic regulation thereof, as indicated by the start side connection information 24 in FIG. Similarly, the termination-side connection information 25 is also configured by the number of termination-side connection links connected to the termination-side node, the link ID of the link to be connected, and its traffic restrictions.

In the route search by the Dijkstra method, the route cost from the departure point to each node is calculated based on the road data 20 having such a structure, and the cost is minimized when the calculation of all the route costs to the destination node is completed. The driving route is determined by connecting the links.
In the subsequent step S3, the searched travel routes are collected as a passing link order table 26 in which the link IDs of passing links as shown in FIG.

  In the subsequent step S4, guide information of facilities that guide the determined travel route while traveling is collected and a list is created. The car navigation device 1 according to the present embodiment includes a facility guide information database in which facility names, guide contents, and the like of facilities to be guided when passing each link are registered as guide information for the links. FIG. 5 shows the data structure of the guide information 27 for one link. The guide information 27 has a configuration in which the number of facilities to be guided when passing the link, the facility ID, the facility name, the guide file name, the upstream travel guide start point, and the downstream travel guide start point for each facility are collected. ing.

  Here, the guide file name is a name of a file in which guide contents by sound, image, and the like regarding the facility are stored, and the file is stored in the facility guide information database. Further, the up travel guide start point represents a guide start point when traveling up the link, and the down travel guide start point represents a guide start point when traveling down. In this case, ascending / descending travel is easily understood by adding the node ID on the travel start side of the link to the head of the guide start point information.

  Since the guide information 27 for each link is stored in the facility guide information database in this way, when the passing link order 26 illustrated in FIG. 4 is determined by the route search described above, it corresponds to each link ID. By extracting the guide information 27 to be extracted from the guide information 27, the guide information 27 for the entire process can be collected. The relationship between the collected guide information 27 and the passing link order 26 is summarized in the form of a guide information list 28 shown in FIG.

  In the next step S5, the guide information related to the overlapping facilities in the guide information list 28 shown in FIG. 1 is deleted. Duplication of facilities occurs for the following reasons. The guide information 27 is provided in association with the link. Therefore, for example, as shown in FIG. 6, it is assumed that there is a famous shrine 30 and there are links and nodes as shown in the figure. Since the links 3 and 5 pass near the shrine 30, it is necessary to guide the shrine 30 when the vehicle passes the links 3 and 5. Accordingly, guide information related to the shrine 30 is registered in the guide information 27 of both the links 3 and 5.

  When the travel route travels along the link 3 from the node 1 to the node 2 as indicated by an arrow and turns right at the node 2 and enters the link 4, the shrine 30 is guided only once during the travel of the link 3. However, when the travel route turns left at the node 2 and passes through the link 5, the shrine 30 is guided twice while passing through the link 3 and passing through the link 5. In order to avoid such a duplication guide, in step S5, the duplication facility is deleted. In the case of the guide information list 28 illustrated in FIG. 1, the facility (XX shrine) with the facility ID (145) is included in the guide information 27 of both the link ID (lower 3) and the link ID (lower 5). It is. Therefore, in this case, the guide information 27 of the facility ID (145) in the link ID (lower 5) whose order in the travel route is the rear side is deleted.

  In subsequent step S6, the names of the facilities to be guided are listed in the order of guides based on the guide information list 28 that has been deleted, and displayed on the display device 6 in a screen as shown in FIG. The reason for displaying in this way is to delete the guide information of the facility that the user determines that the guide is unnecessary. Since a delete button is provided on the right side of the facility name column on the screen, the user presses the button of the facility to be deleted. Thereby, the guide information of the pushed facility is deleted from the guide information list 28 (step S8). As described above, the guide information list 28 of the facilities to be guided during the entire process up to the destination is determined (step S9). It should be noted that when the user makes a request by operating the operation switch group after that, the determined guide information list 28 may be displayed each time and the guide unnecessary facility may be deleted.

Next, the facility guide operation after completing the above preparation and starting traveling to the destination will be described with reference to the flow of FIG.
In the first step T1 after the start of traveling, the traveling link ID is acquired. When traveling is started, route guidance is executed by the route guidance function of the car navigation apparatus 1 according to the passing link order table 26 illustrated in FIG. In the program for executing the route guidance function, the running link ID is held, so that the running link ID can be known by reading it.

  In subsequent step T2, guide information 27 corresponding to the acquired traveling link ID is acquired from the facility guide information database using the relationship of the guide information list 28 of FIG. 1 described above. As a result, the facility ID, facility name, and the like to be guided in the traveling link are found. Next, the current position of the own vehicle is acquired (step T3). The current position of the host vehicle is a value calculated by the control circuit 10 based on the received signal of the GPS receiver 2.

If the current position is found, it is determined in subsequent step T4 whether or not the current position matches any travel guide start point of the guide facility found in step T2. In this case, in consideration of the error of the current position, if the distance between the current position and the travel guide start point is within a predetermined distance, it is determined that they match.
If there is a matching facility, the guide content of the facility is acquired (step T5). The guide contents are extracted from the facility guide information database with reference to the guide file name in the guide information 27 of the facility. If the guide content is acquired, the guide is immediately implemented according to the content (step T6). The guide is implemented by sound, image, video, etc. according to the guide contents. In the case of voice, for example, “What I have seen in front is XX Temple ----.” Is performed.

  If the guide for one facility is completed, and if there is no travel guide start point that matches the current position in step T4, the process proceeds to step T7. In step T7, it is determined whether or not the guidance for all facilities for the traveling link has been completed. If all the processes are completed, the process proceeds to step T8, waits until the own vehicle enters the next link, returns to the first step T1, and moves to the facility guide belonging to the new travel link.

  If there is a facility that has not finished the guide in step T7, the process proceeds to step T9. In step T9, it is determined whether or not the next link has been entered as in step T8. If the next link has been entered, the process returns to step T1. If the next link has not been entered, the process returns to step T3 and the remaining facility guides are executed. When the guides for all facilities are completed, the process returns from step T8 to step T1 to move to the guide for facilities belonging to the next travel link. According to such a processing flow, guides for all facilities are executed according to the guide information list 28 of FIG. 1 until arrival at the destination.

  In the car navigation device 1 of the present embodiment, the link that travels to the destination is determined based on the road data 20 having a three-level hierarchical structure of upper / middle / lower as shown in FIG. At that time, the driving links are determined based on the middle and lower detailed road data in the vicinity of the starting point and the destination, and the intermediate links traveling on the main roads are converted into the upper road data 21 including the upper main roads. To be determined. Accordingly, a starting link, a fine link in the vicinity of the destination, and a rough link in the middle of traveling on a main road are determined. On the other hand, guided facilities are registered for each individual link. Therefore, small facilities closely attached to the area registered in the fine link are guided near the starting point and the destination, and only famous facilities are guided when traveling on a rough link such as a main road.

  The operation required for the user to select and determine such a guide facility is only the input of the destination and waypoint that have been conventionally performed for the route search to the destination, and no special operation is required. . In other words, it is only necessary to delete on the screen the name of the facility that the user determines that the guide is unnecessary among the automatically selected facilities.

  As described above, according to the car navigation device of the present invention, facility selection is automatically performed in consideration of travel points such as intermediate points and destinations without requiring the user to perform troublesome facility selection operations. There is an effect that the facility guide is automatically performed.

  As shown in the guide information 27 of FIG. 5, the guide information of each facility includes two start point information, that is, an up travel guide start point and a down travel guide start point, either one of which is omitted. You should be able to register. This is because if the guide content is “You can see on the right hand in the XX valley”, the one that appeared to be “right hand” when going up is “left hand” when going down. Guide content cannot be used in common for up and down.

  In such a case, the down travel guide start point is omitted and the guide content is not used in the down travel. Then, a separate guide with the content “You can see on the left side in the XX canyon” is created for downhill travel and registered in the same link ID as another facility ID. Since the guide contents cannot be used for upward traveling, the upstream traveling guide start point is omitted and registered. In this way, facilities that do not have the ascending travel guide start point are not guided in ascending travel, and facilities that do not have the descending travel guide start point are not guided in descending travel. Will be guided.

  Further, when there are facilities that are guided by the traveling direction and facilities that are not guided, the guide information list 28 shown in FIG. 1 is created in step S4 of the flow of FIG. It is recommended not to extract facilities that do not. That is, if the passing link order table 26 is determined by route search, the direction in which each link travels is also determined. Therefore, when extracting the guide information 27 corresponding to the passing link, if the travel guide start point corresponding to the travel direction of the link is not registered in the extracted guide information 27 of the facility, the facility The guide information of is deleted. In this way, since the guide information 27 of the facility that is not guided is deleted first, there is an advantage that the facility name that is not guided is not displayed on the guide list screen shown in FIG.

  In this embodiment, the guide means described in the claims causes the control circuit 10, the HDD 8, the display device 6, the audio output device 7, the operation switch group 5, and the flow shown in FIGS. 8 and 9 to be executed. It is realized by the program.

It is an example of a guide information list. It is an example of the data structure of road data. It is a structural example of link information. It is an example of a passing link order table. It is a data structural example of the guide information about one link. It is an example of the positional relationship of the facility to guide and a link. It is an example of the screen which displays the list of facilities to guide. It is a flowchart which determines the driving | running route and the facility to guide. It is a flow of guide operation after the start of traveling. It is a block diagram of the structural example of the car navigation apparatus which concerns on this invention.

Explanation of symbols

  In the drawings, 1 is a car navigation device, 2 is a GPS receiver, 5 is an operation switch group, 6 is a display device, 7 is an audio output device, 8 is an HDD, 10 is a control device, 20 is road data, and 23 is link information. , 26 is a passing link order table, 27 is guide information, and 28 is a guide information list.

Claims (5)

In a car navigation device that searches for a travel route from a departure point to a destination based on link information of links connecting nodes and connection information between links, and performs route guidance based on the searched travel route.
A database in which the facilities to be guided along the links, the guide contents, and the guide starting points are registered in association with the links, and the position of the vehicle is associated with the links during the route guidance. A car navigation device comprising guide means for determining that the guide start point is coincident and reading and guiding the facility corresponding to the guide start point and the content of the guide from the database.   2. The car navigation device according to claim 1, wherein the guide start point registered in association with the link in the database is registered in association with a traveling direction of the vehicle.   The car navigation device according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the guide means is close to a departure place when the facilities associated with a link on the travel route determined by the search of the travel route overlap. A car navigation apparatus characterized in that a guide is provided for a facility associated with a link on the side and no guidance is provided for other overlapping facilities.   The car navigation device according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the guide means receives the travel route immediately after the travel route is determined by searching for the travel route or when a user requests it. A car navigation device, characterized in that the names of the facilities associated with the upper link are displayed in a list. 5. The car navigation device according to claim 4, wherein the guide means deletes a facility designated as a guide unnecessary by the user in the facility name list.

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