JP2006317286A - Onboard navigation device - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To enhance possibility of accurate recognition of a road along which a vehicle travels by increasing an opportunity for determining whether the present position of the vehicle is on an ordinary road or on a highway. <P>SOLUTION: It can be determined whether the present position of the vehicle is on an ordinary road or on a highway, based on the fact whether an ordinary road specification image for specifying that the vehicle is traveling along the ordinary road or a highway specification image for specifying that the vehicle is traveling along the highway is included in an image around the vehicle photographed by a camera 80, or not. Thus, the opportunity for determining whether the present position of the vehicle is on an ordinary road or on a highway can be increased. Resultantly, the possibility of accurate recognition of the road along which the vehicle is traveling can be improved. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2007,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to an in-vehicle navigation device.

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, an in-vehicle navigation device having a map matching function that can detect and correct a current position of a host vehicle with higher accuracy by using image information around the vehicle obtained by a CCD camera or the like has been proposed (for example, , See Patent Document 1). According to the in-vehicle navigation device disclosed in Patent Document 1, for example, when the device collects a surrounding video of a vehicle and a traffic light or a stop line that characterizes an intersection can be identified from the peripheral video, The device was able to determine that the current position of the vehicle was on a general road.
JP 09-152348 A

  However, in the above-described conventional apparatus, for example, when a general road that does not have a traffic light characterizing an intersection or a stop line is close to a highway, the vehicle is displayed on the display while the vehicle is traveling on the general road. It is conceivable that the vehicle mark displayed on is erroneously displayed on the expressway. In this case, the general road that is close to the expressway on which the vehicle mark is displayed does not have a traffic light or a stop line that characterizes the intersection, so the vehicle mark displayed on the display is the expressway. The state of being erroneously displayed above will continue. For this reason, the conventional apparatus may mistakenly recognize that the road on which the vehicle is traveling is an expressway. That is, the conventional device may not be able to accurately recognize the road on which the vehicle is traveling.

  Such a problem could have occurred because it was only possible to determine that the current position of the vehicle was on a general road only when the traffic lights that characterize the intersection, the temporary stop line, etc. could be identified from the surrounding video of the vehicle. . In other words, such a problem may occur because there are few opportunities to determine whether the current position of the vehicle is on a general road or an expressway.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and by increasing the opportunity to determine whether the current position of the vehicle is on a general road or an expressway, the road on which the vehicle is traveling is increased. An object of the present invention is to provide an in-vehicle navigation device capable of improving the possibility of accurate recognition.

In order to achieve the above object, an in-vehicle navigation device according to claim 1,
Current position detecting means for detecting the current position of the vehicle;
Road map data storage means for storing road map data including road type information for classifying at least an expressway and a general road;
Photographing means for photographing the situation around the vehicle;
First storage means for storing a general road specifying image for specifying that the vehicle is traveling on a general road;
Second storage means for storing a highway identification image for specifying that the vehicle is traveling on a highway;
It is determined whether the current position of the vehicle is on a general road or on a highway based on whether or not the general road specific image or the highway specific image is included in the captured image around the vehicle A determination means;
A travel road recognition means for recognizing a road on which the vehicle is traveling is provided according to a determination result of the determination means.

  As described above, in the in-vehicle navigation device according to claim 1, in the captured image around the vehicle, the general road specifying image for specifying that the vehicle is traveling on the general road, or the vehicle is a highway. Whether the current position of the vehicle is on a general road or on a highway is determined based on whether or not a highway identification image for specifying that the vehicle is traveling is included. By doing in this way, the opportunity to determine whether the present position of a vehicle exists on a general road or a highway can be increased. As a result, the possibility of accurately recognizing the road on which the vehicle is traveling can be improved.

  According to a second aspect of the present invention, the determination unit determines whether or not the object in the captured image around the vehicle is pattern-matched with any one of the general road specific image and the highway specific image. It is preferable to have pattern matching determination means and determine whether the current position of the vehicle is on a general road or on an expressway based on the determination result of the pattern matching determination means. In this way, it is possible to determine whether the current position of the vehicle is on a general road or an expressway.

  As described in claim 3, the general road identification image and the highway identification image are obtained by capturing an image including a feature specific to the general road and the highway, and performing noise removal processing, binary processing on the captured image. It is preferable that the data is generated by performing at least one of the conversion processing and the edge detection processing. By doing in this way, a general road specific image and a highway specific image are produced | generated.

  According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, the first storage means includes, as a general road specific image, a traffic signal, a general road dedicated sign, which is a symbol and a character written on the road surface of the general road, a general road dedicated sign board, and a light Preferably, a beacon image is stored. Traffic lights, signs and characters written on the road surface of general roads, general road markings, road marking boards, and optical beacons are unique to general roads. When an object in an image around the vehicle is pattern-matched, it can be considered that the current position of the vehicle is on a general road.

  As described in claim 5, the second storage means includes an ETC gate, a toll gate, a sign and a character written on the road surface of the expressway, an expressway dedicated sign, and an expressway dedicated sign as the expressway specific image. It is preferable to store the image of the board and the radio beacon. Since ETC gates, toll gates, highway markings, highway markings, and radio beacons, which are symbols and characters written on the road surface, are specific to highways, these ETC gates, etc. When an image and an object in an image around the captured vehicle pattern match, it can be considered that the current position of the vehicle is on the highway.

  According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, the display unit and the display unit include a display control unit that displays a road map based on the road map data and the current position of the vehicle. However, if the road type of the road where the current position of the vehicle is displayed is different, the determination means, except when the current position of the vehicle is displayed at the position where the general road and the highway overlap. It is preferable that the current position of the vehicle is changed and displayed on the road of the road type determined by. As a result, when the current position of the vehicle is displayed incorrectly when the expressway and the general road are close to each other, the current position of the vehicle is automatically accurately determined without any operation by the driver. Can be set.

  According to the seventh aspect of the present invention, the route guidance is performed according to the guidance route searched by the guidance route search means and the guidance route search means for searching the guidance route for guiding the vehicle to the destination using the road map data. When the current position of the vehicle is changed by the display control means during the route guidance by the route guidance means and the route guidance means, the guidance route search means is searched to search for the guidance route from the current position after the change. The display control means can also display on the display section the current position after the change and the guidance route searched by the instruction from the instruction means. As a result, when the current position of the vehicle is erroneously displayed during route guidance, the current position of the vehicle is automatically set accurately without any operation by the driver, and the accurate current position is You can search for a guide route from.

  Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a schematic configuration of an in-vehicle navigation device 100 according to the present embodiment. Hereinafter, the in-vehicle navigation device according to the present embodiment will be described in detail.

  As shown in FIG. 1, the in-vehicle navigation apparatus 100 includes a position detector 10, a digital road map database 20, a computer 30, a display unit 40, an operation switch group 50, an audio output unit 60, an audio input unit 70, a camera 80, One storage device 90 and a second storage device 91 are provided.

  The computer 30 includes a known CPU, ROM, RAM, I / O, and a bus line for connecting these components. In the ROM, a program to be executed by the computer 30 is written, and a CPU or the like executes predetermined arithmetic processing according to this program.

  The position detector 10 includes a GPS receiver 11 for a global positioning system (GPS) that measures the position of a vehicle based on radio waves from a satellite, a geomagnetic sensor 12 for detecting the absolute direction of the vehicle, and a relative direction of the vehicle. Has a steering sensor 13 for detecting. Further, the position detector 10 includes a vehicle speed sensor 14 for detecting a travel distance from the travel speed of the vehicle.

  As described above, the position detector 10 includes the GPS receiver 11 for vehicle position measurement by radio wave navigation, and the geomagnetic sensor 12, the steering sensor 13, and the vehicle speed sensor 14 for vehicle position estimation by self-contained navigation. ing. Further, the radio navigation is not limited to the GPS, but, for example, a VICS optical beacon may be used. Further, in order to detect the relative orientation of the vehicle in the self-contained navigation, a gyro sensor or wheel speed sensors provided on the left and right wheels of the vehicle may be used instead of the steering sensor 13.

  The digital road map database 20 is a device for inputting digital map data including road data, background data, character data, facility data, and the like to the computer 30. The digital road map database 20 has an information storage medium 21 for storing digital map data. As the information storage medium 21, a CD-ROM or a DVD-ROM is generally used depending on the data amount. A card, a hard disk, or the like may be used.

  Here, the configuration of road data will be described. The road data is composed of data such as a link ID with a unique number for each road, link coordinate data, node coordinate data, road type data indicating a road type such as an expressway and a general road, and road width data. Yes. The link in the road data is obtained by dividing each road on the map into a plurality of nodes by nodes indicating intersections, branching points, etc., and defining a link between the two nodes. The link coordinate data describes the start and end coordinates of this link. When a node is included in the middle of the link, the node coordinates are described in the node coordinate data. In addition to displaying a map, this road data is used to give the shape of a road when performing map matching processing, or used when searching for a guide route to a destination.

  The background data is data for displaying the facility shape, natural terrain, and the like to be displayed other than the road when the road map is displayed on the display unit 40. The character data is for displaying place names, facility names, road names, and the like on the road map, and is configured as data in which coordinates on the map corresponding to the display positions are associated.

  The display unit 40 is configured by, for example, a liquid crystal display, and the vehicle generated by the vehicle position mark corresponding to the current position of the vehicle on the screen of the display unit 40 and the map data input from the digital road map database 20. The surrounding road map can be displayed. When a destination is set, a guide route from the current position to the destination is displayed on the road map in an overlapping manner.

  The operation switch group 50 includes, for example, a touch panel switch integrated with the display unit 40 or a mechanical switch provided around the display unit 40, and is used for various inputs.

  The voice output unit 60 includes a speaker or the like, and outputs a guidance voice when route guidance is being performed, or outputs a guidance related to an input voice at the time of voice recognition. The voice input unit 70 is composed of a microphone or the like, and takes in a voice uttered by the user and inputs it to the computer 30. The computer 30 performs a process for recognizing the input voice, and executes various controls based on the recognition result.

  The camera 80 is, for example, a CCD camera provided in the vicinity of the door mirror of the door on the passenger seat side, and is for photographing the situation around the vehicle. The camera 80 has an infrared irradiator for photographing the situation around the vehicle when the vehicle travels at night.

  The first storage device 90 stores a general road identification image. This general road specific image is obtained by capturing an image including features specific to general roads (for example, traffic lights, general road signs, general road signs, optical beacons, etc.), and edge detection is performed on the captured images. It is generated by processing. The edge detection process is a process for calculating the contour of an object based on a change in image brightness. Moreover, a general road specific image is also generated by performing at least one of a noise removal process and a binarization process. By doing in this way, a general road specific image is generated.

  The second storage device 91 stores an expressway specific image. This highway specific image is obtained by taking an image including features specific to the highway (for example, ETC gate, toll gate, highway sign, highway sign, radio beacon, etc.) And generated by performing edge detection processing. The edge detection process is a process for calculating the contour of an object based on a change in image brightness. In addition, the highway specific image is also generated by performing at least one of noise removal processing and binarization processing. In this way, a highway specific image is generated.

  In addition, in the in-vehicle navigation device 100 of the present embodiment, when the highway and a general road are close to each other around the current position of the vehicle, the camera 80 captures the situation around the vehicle, and the captured vehicle Whether the object in the surrounding image is pattern-matched with one of the general road specific image stored in the first storage device 90 and the highway specific image stored in the second storage device 91 A current position determination function for determining whether the current position of the vehicle is on a general road or an expressway based on whether or not the vehicle is present is also provided.

  Furthermore, when the position of the destination is input by the operation switch group 50 or voice recognition, the in-vehicle navigation device 100 according to the present embodiment automatically selects the optimum route from the current position to the destination and guides the route. A so-called route guidance function is also provided. As a method for automatically setting an optimum route, a known method such as the Dijkstra method is known. In addition, for example, a search function for searching for the position of a facility or the like from an address, a facility name, a telephone number, or the like input by the user is also provided.

  These functions are executed mainly by the computer 30 performing various arithmetic processes. That is, when the destination is input, the computer 30 calculates a route using the map data in the digital road map database 20 and displays the route. In addition, the computer 30 displays the own vehicle position mark indicating the position of the vehicle and the surrounding road map on the display unit 40, or changes the scale of the road map.

  Next, the current position changing process in the present embodiment will be described in detail with reference to the flowcharts of FIGS. FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing a main routine for current position change processing, and FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing a routine for current position determination processing.

  First, in step S10 of FIG. 2, the current position of the vehicle is detected. At this time, the position data by the GPS receiver 11 is acquired in the same form as the coordinate data (latitude and longitude) of the road data described above. In addition, the geomagnetic sensor 12, the steering sensor 13, and the vehicle speed sensor 14 acquire data related to the traveling direction and travel distance of the host vehicle, and calculate the coordinate data of the current position based on the vehicle position calculated or determined in the past. Perform (calculation of coordinate data by self-contained navigation). The current position is basically obtained based on coordinate data calculated by self-contained navigation. However, when the position data by the GPS receiver 11 is acquired, the two are compared, and when the difference is equal to or greater than a predetermined distance, the position data by the GPS receiver 11 is adopted as the current position.

  In step S20, map data of the surrounding map including the current position of the vehicle is read from the digital road map database 20 and displayed on the display unit 40. In step S30, a map matching process is performed. For example, if a road within a predetermined distance from the current position calculated in step S10 or a road already matched on the road is identified as a road on which the vehicle may travel To do. Then, the travel locus is calculated by connecting the plurality of current positions calculated in the past in step S10 and the latest current position. The shape of the travel locus is compared with the shape of the road on which the vehicle may travel, and the road with the highest correlation is estimated as the road on which the vehicle is traveling. Thereby, the road which should display the present position acquired in Step S10 is determined.

  The calculation of the current position in step S10 and the calculation of the travel locus described above may be performed only from the position data of the GPS receiver 11, or may be performed only from the position data of the self-contained navigation.

  In step S40, it is determined whether the highway and the general road are close to each other around the current position of the vehicle. Specifically, for example, a highway and a general road are running side by side. If not, the process ends. On the other hand, if it is close, the process proceeds to step S50.

  In step S50, a current position determination process is executed. This current position determination process will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

  In the flowchart of FIG. 3, first, in step S <b> 210, the camera 80 captures the situation around the vehicle, and the captured image around the vehicle is output to the computer 30.

  In step S <b> 220, it is determined whether the object in the image around the vehicle photographed in step S <b> 210 matches the general road specifying image stored in the first storage device 90. Specifically, for example, the computer 30 performs edge detection processing on an image around the vehicle. In the image around the vehicle on which the edge detection process has been performed, an object in the image is specified. It is determined whether or not the specified object and the general road specifying image stored in the first storage device 90 match or are similar. If it is determined that they match or are similar, the process proceeds to step S230. In step S230, it is determined that the current position of the vehicle is on a general road. Then, the computer 30 recognizes that the road on which the vehicle is traveling is a general road. Specifically, for example, the computer 30 stores “general road” in the RAM of the computer 30 as the road type of the road on which the vehicle is traveling. Traffic lights, signs and characters written on the road surface of ordinary roads, signs for ordinary roads, signboards for ordinary roads, and optical beacons are specific to ordinary roads. When an object in an image around the vehicle is pattern-matched, it can be considered that the current position of the vehicle is on a general road.

  If it is determined in step S220 that they do not match or are not similar, the process proceeds to step S240. In step S240, in the same manner as in step S220, the object in the identified image and the second storage device 91 are stored in the image around the vehicle on which the edge detection processing has been performed in step S210. It is determined whether or not the highway specific image matches or is similar. If it is determined that they do not match or are not similar, the process returns to step S40. On the other hand, if it is determined that they match or are similar, the process proceeds to step S250. In step S250, it is determined that the current position of the vehicle is on the highway. The computer 30 recognizes that the road on which the vehicle is traveling is an expressway. Specifically, for example, the computer 30 stores “highway” in the RAM of the computer 30 as the road type of the road on which the vehicle is traveling. Since ETC gates, toll gates, highway markings, highway markings, and radio beacons, which are symbols and characters written on the road surface, are specific to highways, these ETC gates, etc. When an image and an object in an image around the captured vehicle pattern match, it can be considered that the current position of the vehicle is on the highway.

  Thus, by executing the current position determination process, it is possible to determine whether the current position of the vehicle is on a general road or an expressway.

  Returning to the flowchart of FIG. 2, the process proceeds to step S60. In step S60, it is determined whether the road types are the same. That is, it is determined whether or not the road type of the road displaying the current position determined in step S30 is different from the road type of the road where the current position determined in step S50 is to be displayed. If it is determined that the road types are the same, the process proceeds to step S110. In step S110, it is determined whether route guidance is being performed. If it is determined that route guidance is not being performed, the process is terminated. On the other hand, if it is determined that route guidance is being performed, the process proceeds to step S120. In step S120, route guidance is continued.

  On the other hand, if it is determined in step S60 that the road type is different, the process proceeds to step S65. In step S65, it is determined whether or not the highway and the general road overlap on the road map around the current position of the vehicle. If it is determined that they do not overlap, the process proceeds to step S70. In step S70, the current position is changed based on the result determined in step S50. Specifically, for example, in the display unit 40, the current position of the vehicle is changed on a general road with a different road type that is close to the highway on which the current position of the vehicle is displayed. As a result, when the current position of the vehicle is displayed incorrectly when the expressway and the general road are close to each other, the current position of the vehicle is automatically accurately determined without any operation by the driver. Can be set.

  If it is determined in step S65 that they overlap, the process proceeds to step S80. In step S80, it is determined whether route guidance is being performed. If it is determined that route guidance is not being performed, the process is terminated. On the other hand, if it is determined that route guidance is being performed, the process proceeds to step S90.

  In step S90, the guidance route is searched again. Specifically, for example, the current position of the vehicle changed in step S70 is set as a new start point, and an optimum guide route from the start point to the destination is searched by a method such as a known Dijkstra method. The As a result, when the current position of the vehicle is erroneously displayed during route guidance, the current position of the vehicle is automatically set accurately without any operation by the driver, and the accurate current position is You can search for a guide route from. In step S100, route guidance is started based on the guidance route searched in step S90.

  As described above, according to the present embodiment, as described above, the image around the vehicle photographed by the camera 80 is a general road specifying image for specifying that the vehicle is traveling on a general road, or the vehicle is a highway. It is possible to determine whether the current position of the vehicle is on a general road or on a highway based on whether or not a highway specific image for specifying that the vehicle is traveling is included I made it. By doing in this way, the opportunity to determine whether the present position of a vehicle exists on a general road or a highway can be increased. As a result, the possibility of accurately recognizing the road on which the vehicle is traveling can be improved.

It is a block diagram which shows schematic structure of the vehicle-mounted navigation apparatus 100 by this embodiment. It is a flowchart which shows the main routine of the present position change process in this embodiment. It is a flowchart which shows the routine of the present position determination process in this embodiment.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 ... Position detector 11 ... GPS receiver 12 ... Geomagnetic sensor 13 ... Steering sensor 14 ... Vehicle speed sensor 20 ... Digital road map database 21 ... Information recording medium 30 ... Computer 40 ... Display part 50 ... Operation switch group 60 ... Sound output part 70 ... voice input unit 80 ... camera 90 ... first storage device 91 ... second storage device

Claims (7)

Current position detecting means for detecting the current position of the vehicle;
Road map data storage means for storing road map data including road type information for classifying at least an expressway and a general road;
Photographing means for photographing the situation around the vehicle;
First storage means for storing a general road specifying image for specifying that the vehicle is traveling on a general road;
Second storage means for storing a highway identification image for specifying that the vehicle is traveling on a highway;
It is determined whether the current position of the vehicle is on a general road or on a highway based on whether or not the general road specific image or the highway specific image is included in the captured image around the vehicle A determination means;
A vehicle-mounted navigation device comprising travel road recognition means for recognizing a road on which the vehicle is traveling according to a determination result of the determination means. The determination means includes
Pattern matching determination means for determining whether or not the object in the image of the periphery of the photographed vehicle and any one of the general road specific image and the highway specific image match;
The in-vehicle navigation device according to claim 1, wherein it is determined whether the current position of the vehicle is on a general road or an expressway based on a determination result of the pattern matching determination unit.   The general road specifying image and the expressway specifying image are images that include features specific to general roads and highways, and noise removal processing, binarization processing, and edge detection processing are performed on the captured images. The vehicle-mounted navigation device according to claim 1, wherein the vehicle-mounted navigation device is generated by performing at least one of the processes.   The first storage means stores, as the general road specific image, a signal, a general road dedicated sign, a general road dedicated sign board, and an optical beacon image, which are symbols and characters written on the road surface of the general road. The in-vehicle navigation device according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein:   The second storage means includes, as the expressway specific image, an ETC gate, a toll booth, an expressway dedicated sign that is a symbol and a character written on the road surface of the expressway, an expressway dedicated sign board, and an image of a radio beacon The vehicle-mounted navigation device according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein the vehicle-mounted navigation device is stored. A display unit;
In the display unit, comprising a display control means for displaying a road map based on the road map data and a current position of the vehicle,
When the determination result of the determination means is different from the road type of the road on which the current position of the vehicle is displayed, the display control means determines the current position of the vehicle at the position where the general road and the highway overlap. The vehicle current position is changed and displayed on the road of the road type determined by the determination means, except when the vehicle is displayed. In-vehicle navigation device. Guidance route search means for searching for a guidance route for guiding the vehicle to the destination using the road map data;
Route guidance means for performing route guidance according to the guidance route searched by the guidance route search means;
When the current position of the vehicle is changed by the display control means during route guidance by the route guidance means, the guidance route search means is instructed to search for a guidance route from the current position after the change. Instructing means to
The in-vehicle navigation device according to claim 6, wherein the display control unit displays the changed current position and a guide route searched by an instruction from the instruction unit on the display unit.

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