JP2007078530A - Navigation device - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To perform regularly by a simple operation, search for a guide route via a specific spot by user definition or via an area in a prescribed range including the specific spot. <P>SOLUTION: A memory spot which is the specific spot by user definition is registered in an external memory 10 in the correlated state with map data in a map database 4. In a control device 2, a route searching function via the memory spot for calculating a guide route via the memory spot registered in the external memory 10 or via the area in the prescribed range including the memory spot is set, and the guide route via the memory spot calculated by the searching function is displayed on a map screen of a display device 5, only when a difference between the route length and a route length of a reference guide route acquired by a regular route searching operation is shorter than a tolerance of the detour distance set by the user. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2007,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a navigation device having a route search function for calculating a guide route from a departure place to a destination.

The car navigation device is provided with a route search function for calculating a guide route from a current position (or a departure place set by the user) to a destination input by the user. The route search function is set by the user. In general, an auxiliary function for calculating a guide route passing through a stop-by point is also added (see, for example, Patent Document 1).
Japanese Patent Application No. 8-17278

  In the conventional car navigation device described above, a user-defined specific point, for example, a specific point that the user always wants to pass (a place with a memory, a place with a good view, etc.) at a position not far away from the guide route to the destination. ) Exists, in order to calculate the guide route that passes through the specific point, an operation to set the specific point as a stop point is required each time, and the operation becomes complicated. there were. In addition, when an operation for setting a specific point as a stop-off point is forgotten at the time of an input operation for performing a route search, an operation for redoing an input for route search from the beginning, or a once calculated guide route An operation for editing is required, and in such a case, there is a problem that the operation becomes complicated.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and a purpose of the present invention is to always search for a guide route through a user-defined specific point or a predetermined range area including the specific point by a simple operation. It is in providing the navigation apparatus which becomes like.

  According to the first aspect of the present invention, if a user-defined specific point (for example, a specific point that the user always wants to pass) is registered in advance in the storage unit, the route search unit can perform the purpose from the departure place. When calculating a guide route to the ground, a guide route that passes through the specific point registered in the storage unit or a predetermined range area including the specific point is calculated, and the display unit calculates in this way. The guide route via the specified point is displayed on the map screen. For this reason, it becomes possible to reliably guide the route via the specific point to the user based on the display content of the display means, and each time the specific point via guide route is calculated, the specific point This eliminates the need to forget to set the stop as a stop point and eliminates the risk of forgetting to set the stop point. As a result, the route search for the specific point can be always performed by a simple operation.

  According to the second aspect of the present invention, the route search means is configured to be able to set an allowable value of the circuitous distance, and the route length of the reference guide route calculated by the route search operation not considering the specific point, as described above Only when the difference from the calculated route length of the specific point route guide route is equal to or smaller than the allowable value of the roundabout distance, the specific point route guide route is validated and displayed on the display means. For this reason, when calculating the guide route via a specific point, the user can set how much roundabout is allowed, and the usefulness of such a route search function via a specific point can be enhanced.

According to the third aspect of the present invention, when the route search function via the specific point is unnecessary, it can be invalidated by the user's operation, which is convenient in actual use.
According to the fourth aspect of the present invention, when moving along a specific point route guidance route displayed on the display unit, when entering an area within a predetermined distance from the specific point, user-defined voice information is Since the sound is output from the sound output means, it is possible to reliably notify the user of the approach to the specific point based on the sound information. In this case, since it becomes possible for the user himself to apply various ideas to the voice information, the added value of the notification function can be improved.

Hereinafter, an embodiment in which the present invention is applied to a car navigation apparatus will be described with reference to the drawings.
In FIG. 1, the overall electrical configuration is schematically shown by a combination of functional blocks. In FIG. 1, a car navigation device 1 has a position detector 3, a map database 4, and a display device 5 (display means) with respect to a control device 2 (corresponding to route search means) having a function of controlling the navigation operation. ), Operation switch group 6, remote control sensor 7, voice controller 8, voice recognition device 9, external memory 10 (corresponding to storage means), VICS receiver 11, audio device 12 (corresponding to voice output means), etc. Configured.

  The control device 2 is constituted by a microcomputer provided with a CPU, ROM, RAM, I / O interface, a bus line connecting these, and the like (all not shown). Among these, the ROM stores a car navigation program and the like, and the RAM stores road map data acquired from the map database 4 and road traffic information received by the VICS receiver 11 in addition to processing data at the time of program execution. Etc. are temporarily stored.

  The position detector 3 includes, for example, a GPS receiver 13 that receives a signal from a GPS artificial satellite, a gyro sensor 14 that detects a yaw rate, a distance sensor 15 that detects a travel distance of the vehicle, and a pitching direction of the vehicle It includes a tilt angle sensor 16 for detecting the tilt angle of the vehicle, and is a part for calculating the current position information of the vehicle.

  The map database 4 is constructed using a large-capacity information recording medium such as a CD-ROM, DVD-ROM, HDD, or non-volatile semiconductor memory, and is a map drawing data for displaying a map. In addition to road data necessary for various processing such as map matching, route search, route guidance, intersection data consisting of detailed data of intersections, background data for background layers, place name data for displaying place names, Various map data are stored, such as a facility name database in which facility names are arranged in the order of 50 tones, and a telephone number database indicating correspondence between telephone numbers and facilities.

  The display device 5 includes, for example, a color liquid crystal display for displaying a map screen and the like, and is installed in the vicinity of the driver's seat of the vehicle. On the screen of the display device 5, a road map whose scale can be changed in a plurality of stages in normal times is displayed, and a pointer indicating the current position and traveling direction of the vehicle is displayed so as to be superimposed on the display. It has become. Also, when executing the route guidance function based on the route calculation result to the destination performed using the well-known Dijkstra method, the guidance route (guidance route) to be traveled in a state superimposed on the road map is displayed. It has become. In addition, various menu screens and input screens for searching and inputting a destination by a user (generally a vehicle driver), various message information, help screens, and the like are also displayed. Yes.

  The operation switch group 6 includes mechanical switches arranged around the display device 5 and touch panel switches formed on the display of the display device 5. Various functions (related to the car navigation device 1 ( For example, various operation commands for instructing execution of map scale change, menu display selection, destination setting, route search, route guidance start, current position correction, display screen change, volume adjustment, and the like are generated to the control device 2. It is a configuration to give.

  The remote control sensor 7 is provided to give the control device 2 a remote control signal from the remote control 7a, that is, a signal including various operation commands for instructing execution of various functions related to the car navigation device 1 described above. .

  The voice controller 8 includes a voice synthesis circuit and an amplifier. The voice controller 8 controls the voice recognition device 9 and provides a voice input to a driver or the like through a speaker 8a (corresponding to voice output means). Talkback output control (audio output). Further, the voice information from the control device 2 (message for route guidance, guidance related to screen operation, etc.) is output from the speaker 8a, and a process of giving the voice recognition result by the voice recognition device 9 to the control device 2 is executed. .

  The voice recognition device 9 includes a voice extraction unit that converts voice input from the microphone 9a into digital data, a voice recognition unit that includes a comparison pattern candidate dictionary for voice recognition, and the like. The recognized result is provided to the control device 2 via the voice controller 8. The voice recognition device 9 is configured to be able to identify voice commands corresponding to various operation commands by the operation switch group 6, and instructing the execution of the various functions related to the car navigation device 1 by the voice commands. It can be done.

  The external memory 10 is configured by a rewritable nonvolatile memory such as a flash memory or an HDD, and stores specific data that must not be erased even when the power is turned off, or frequently used data is a map database. It is provided for uses such as copying from and using. The external memory 10 may be constituted by a removable medium.

  The VICS receiver 11 includes a VICS sensor unit and an FM multiplex broadcast receiver (both not shown). For example, road traffic information or FM by optical / radio wave beacons received by the VICS sensor unit from the VICS station. The road traffic information from the FM multiplex broadcast received by the multiplex broadcast receiver is provided to the control device 2.

  The audio device 12 includes a sound source unit, a tuner, an amplifier, a multi-channel speaker, and the like. An operation for reproducing and outputting an audio signal from the sound source unit or the tuner from the multi-channel speaker is used as a command from the control device 2. Run accordingly. The sound source unit is provided with a multi-series CD changer, HDD, MD, etc. In particular, when the map database 4 is constituted by an HDD, or the external memory 10 is constituted by an HDD. In this case, the HDD can be used as a sound source unit. The speaker 8a can also be configured using one channel of a multi-channel speaker of an audio device.

  The control device 2 uses a known map display function, route calculation function, route guidance function, telephone number based on an operation command input through the operation switch group 6 or the remote control sensor 7 or a voice command input from the voice recognition device 9. Search function, postal code search function, search function using unique code such as map code (registered trademark), 50 sound search function, search function by genre, nearest facility search function, destination registration function, point registration function, etc. Although it is configured to execute processing related to a wide variety of support functions, as a function directly related to the gist of the present invention, a route search function via “memory point” (corresponding to a route search function via a specific point) Is set.

Therefore, in the following, the route search function via “memory point” will be described with reference to FIGS.
That is, in order to make the route search function via the “memory point” work, a user-defined memory point is registered (stored) in the external memory 10 in advance. This registration is performed, for example, from a main menu screen displayed on the display device 5. FIG. 4 shows an example of a “detail setting” screen that can be transferred from the main menu screen.

  In this "Detailed Settings" screen, the title of "Memories Location Detailed Settings" is displayed, and "New Registration", "Long Distance Setting", "Music Settings", "Voice Memo Settings", "Voice Guide Settings" , “Stop at the memory point”, “Ignore the memory point”, and “Back” buttons a to h for returning to the main menu screen are displayed. When registering the memory point, The “new registration” button a is operated.

  When the “new registration” button a is operated in this way, the mode shifts to the memory location registration mode. In the state shifted to the registration mode, the same as a well-known destination setting operation in a general car navigation apparatus. In addition to registering an arbitrary point on the map screen displayed on the display device 5 as a memory location by the operation of, the title of the registered memory location is obtained by the same operation as the well-known memory location name input operation in the car navigation device. (User-defined arbitrary name) is registered.

  Further, the route search function via “memory point” works only when “stop setting to memory point” is enabled, and the “stop setting to memory point” is “detailed setting” in FIG. The screen is validated when the “stop to memory point” button f is operated on the screen, and is invalidated when the “ignore memory point” button g is operated on the screen.

On the other hand, when the “distance setting” button b is operated on the “detail setting” screen, the display screen on the display device 5 is switched to the “distance setting” screen shown as an example in FIG.
In this “circular distance setting” screen, the title “memory point long circuit distance setting” is displayed, and a numeric button group a, “clear” button b, “decision” button c, and “ A “return” button d for returning to the “detailed setting” screen is displayed, and an input window e for displaying the input numerical value (circular distance (km)) is displayed.

  In this “detour distance setting” screen, the numerical value input by the number button group a is displayed in the input window e, and when the “decision” button c is operated in the display state, the input numerical value is set as the long-distance distance. Will be set. However, a default value (for example, 20 km) is set for the circuitous distance, and this default value is valid in a state where the circuiting distance setting operation as described above is not performed. The input numerical value in the input window e can be cleared by operating the “clear” button b. Further, the set round trip distance is stored and held in, for example, the external memory 10.

When the “music setting” button c is operated on the “detailed setting” screen, the display screen on the display device 5 is switched to the “music setting” screen shown in FIG.
In this “music setting” screen, the title of “memory point music setting” is displayed and, for example, the titles of three memory points registered in the memory point registration mode described above (in this example, “first date date” "Location", "Proposed place", "Place where the sea is beautiful") is displayed, and a "Song" button a is displayed in a state of one-to-one correspondence with each title, and further to the "Detailed setting" screen A “return” button b for returning is displayed.

  When the “Song” button a is operated on the “Music setting” screen, the display screen on the display device 5 is switched to the “Music selection” screen shown as an example in FIG. This “music selection” screen shows a display example when the “song” button a corresponding to “place of first date” is operated on the “music setting” screen.

  This “music selection” screen is a screen for selecting a music to be played back (hereinafter referred to as “reminiscence music”) from the sound source unit (multiple CD changer, HDD, MD) of the audio device 12. On the screen, a screen related to the multiple CD changer is displayed. Specifically, on the “music selection” screen in this case, the title “memory point music selection (place of first date)” is displayed, and the numeric button group a constituting the numeric key switch and the “clear” button b, a “decision” button c, a “mode switching” button d, a “return” button e for returning to the “music setting” screen, and an input numerical value (CD channel and song number) are displayed. Input windows f and g are displayed.

  In this “music setting” screen, the numerical value input by the button group a is displayed in the input window f, and when the “decision” button c is operated in the display state, the input numerical value is set as the CD channel. At the same time, the numerical value input by the numerical button group a is displayed in the input window g, and when the “decision” button c is operated in the display state, the input numerical value is set as the music number. When the “mode switch” button d is operated, the memory point music is switched to a screen for selecting from the HDD constituting the sound source unit of the audio device 12, and thereafter the “mode switch” button d is operated. The memory point music is switched to the screen for selecting from the MD constituting the sound source unit of the audio device 12, and when the “mode switching” button d is operated after that, the music selection as shown in FIG. Switch to the screen. The input numerical values in the input windows f and g can be cleared by operating the “clear” button b. The setting contents on the “music setting” screen are stored in the external memory 10.

  When the “voice memo setting” button d is operated on the “detailed setting” screen, a display example on the display device 5 is not specifically shown, but a “voice memo” for registering a voice uttered by the user as a voice memo. A “setting” screen is displayed. Through this screen, any voice information related to the user's utterance can be registered in the external memory 10 as a voice memo.

  Further, when the “voice guide setting” button e is operated on the “detailed setting” screen, a display example on the display device 5 is not specifically shown, but a voice guide corresponding to the hiragana string input by the user is displayed. A “voice guide setting” screen including a hiragana keyboard for registration is displayed. Through this screen, voice information corresponding to a user-defined character string can be registered as a voice guide in the external memory 10. ing.

The flowchart of FIG. 2 shows an example of control related to the route search function via “memory point” set in the control device 2, which will be described below.
That is, the route search function via “memory point” is started when a well-known destination setting operation is performed in the car navigation device (“YES” in step A1). A reference guidance route is calculated by executing a route calculation to the ground in a search mode (recommended mode, distance priority mode, etc.) preset for the route search function (step A2).

Next, it is determined whether or not there is a memory location registered (step A3). If there is a registration, it is determined whether or not "stop-to-memory location setting" is activated (step A4). . If “YES” is determined in this step A4, that is, if there is a memory point registered and “stop to memory point designation” is activated, the route to the destination by the Dijkstra method is calculated. By searching for a route passing through the memory point, a route through the memory point is calculated (step A5).
If the memorized point is in a place where the vehicle is not allowed to pass, in step A5, a memorized point route guidance route that passes through a predetermined area including the memorized point is calculated.

  After the execution of step A5, the circuitous distance when passing through the memorized point route guidance route calculated in step A5, that is, “the extended distance of the memorized point route guidance route calculated in step A5”? It is determined whether or not the distance calculated in “the extension distance of the reference guidance route calculated in step A2” is equal to or less than the set circuitous distance (step A6).

  When “YES” is determined in Step A6, the memorized point route guidance route is validated (Step A7), and when “NO” is judged, the reference guidance route is validated (Step A8). In this case, the step A8 for validating the reference guidance route is determined when “NO” is determined in the step A3 (when no memory point is registered), and when “NO” is determined in the step A4 (“ This is also executed when the “stop-to-remember setting” is disabled.

  After step A7 or step A8 is executed, the process waits until either a guidance start operation or a cancel operation is performed (steps A9 and A10). When there is a guidance start operation, the process returns after executing step A11 for emphasizing the guidance route (the memorized point route guidance route or the reference guidance route) on the map screen being displayed on the display device 5, If there is a cancel operation, the process returns after executing step A12 for initializing the calculated guide route.

On the other hand, the flowchart of FIG. 3 shows an example of control when the vehicle travels along the memorized point route guidance route, which will be described below.
That is, the control device 2 determines whether or not the current position of the host vehicle has been updated (whether or not the vehicle has traveled more than a preset unit distance) (step B1). Here, when it is determined “NO” (when the vehicle is stopped), the process returns as it is, but when it is determined “YES”, has the vehicle approached within a predetermined distance to the memory point? It is determined whether or not (step B2). If the host vehicle is not approaching the memory point, the process returns to step B1. If the host vehicle is approaching, the voice guide (the voice guide corresponding to the hiragana string input by the user) is registered. Is determined (step B3).

  When a voice guide is registered, a user-defined character string corresponding to the registered voice guide is converted into voice information by a voice synthesis circuit in the voice controller 8, and the voice information is used as a synthesized voice guide for the speaker 8a. (Step B4), and then the process proceeds to step B5. If no voice guide is registered, the process jumps to step B4 and proceeds to step B5.

  In step B5, it is determined whether or not a voice memo (voice information related to user generation) is registered. If registered, voice information corresponding to the voice memo is sent from the voice controller 8 through the speaker 8a. Output (step B6), and then move to step B7. If there is no voice memo, the process jumps to step B6 and proceeds to step B7.

  In step B7, it is determined whether or not the memory location music is set. If there is a setting, the music corresponding to the memory location music is output from the speaker of the audio device 12 (step B8). ), Return after this. If there is no memory location music setting, the process jumps to step B8 and returns.

  In short, according to the car navigation apparatus 1 according to the present embodiment, if a user-defined specific point, for example, a memory point that the user wants to pass through is registered in advance, from the current position (departure point) to the destination When searching for a route to calculate the guide route, the guide route via the memorized point via the registered memorized point (or the area of the predetermined range including the memorized point) is now calculated. The specific point route guidance route is displayed on the map screen of the display device 5. For this reason, it becomes possible to reliably guide the route through the memory point to the user based on the display content of the display device 5, and each time the route search as described above is performed, the memory point is stopped by the stop point. As a result, it becomes unnecessary to forget the setting operation of the stop point, and as a result, the route search through the specific point can be always performed by a simple operation.

  In this case, the car navigation device 1 is configured so that the circuitous distance can be set by a user's operation, and a normal guide route (reference guide route) calculated by a route search operation that does not take into account the memory point is used. Only when the difference between the route length and the route length of the specific point route guidance route calculated as described above is equal to or less than the allowable value of the circuitous distance, the specific point route guide route is validated and the display device 5 It will be used for display. For this reason, when calculating the guide route via a specific point, the user can set how much roundabout is allowed, and the usefulness of such a route search function via a specific point can be enhanced.

  In addition, if the route search function via a specific point is unnecessary, the search function can be activated by operating the “ignore memory point” button g on the “detailed setting” screen (see FIG. 4) related to the memory point. Since it can be invalidated, it becomes convenient in actual use.

  Further, when the vehicle travels along the memorized point route guidance route displayed on the display device 5, when entering an area within a predetermined distance from the memorized point, user-defined voice information (voice guide, voice memo, memorized point music) ) Is output from the speaker 8a or the audio device 12, so that the user can be surely notified of the approach to the memory location based on the audio information. In this case, as the source of the audio information, a voice guide input by the user in hiragana, a voice memo recording the voice generated by the user, or all or a part of the music obtained from the sound source unit of the audio device 12 can be selected. It becomes possible for the user himself to make various contrivances for the voice information, and as a result, the added value of the notification function as described above can be improved.

In addition, the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments, and can be modified or expanded as follows, for example.
The present invention is not limited to a car navigation device, and can also be applied to a portable navigation device used by pedestrians or the like, a mobile phone with a navigation function, a PDA, and the like. Although the map database 4 for storing map data is provided, the map data may be acquired from an external map database through communication means.
Although the external memory 10 is configured to be used as the storage means in the present invention, when the map database 4 is configured by means capable of rewriting and storing data such as an HDD, the map database 4 is used. It is also possible to function as the storage means.

1 is a functional block diagram showing the electrical configuration of the entire apparatus showing an embodiment of the present invention. Flow chart showing contents of control by control device (part 1) Flow chart showing contents of control by control device (part 2) The figure which shows the example of a display screen in a display apparatus (the 1) FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of a display screen on a display device (part 2) The figure which shows the example of a display screen in a display apparatus (the 3) The figure which shows the example of a display screen in a display apparatus (the 4)

Explanation of symbols

  1 is a car navigation device, 2 is a control device (route search means), 3 is a position detector, 4 is a map database, 5 is a display device (display means), 8a is a speaker (voice output means), and 10 is an external memory ( Reference numeral 12 denotes an audio device (audio output means).

Claims (4)

Route search means for calculating a guide route from the departure point to the destination using map data;
Display means for displaying the guide route calculated by the route search means on a map screen;
In a navigation device comprising
A storage means configured to be able to register a user-defined specific point in a state associated with the map data is provided,
The route search means is set with a specific point route search function for calculating a guide route passing through the specific point registered in the storage means or an area of a predetermined range including the specific point. Navigation device.   The route search means is configured to be able to set an allowable value of a circuitous distance, a route length of a reference guide route calculated by a route search operation not considering the specific point, and a specific point calculated by the route search function via the specific point The specific route route guidance route is validated and used for display on the display means only when the difference from the route length of the route guidance route is equal to or less than a set allowable value of the circuitous distance. The navigation device according to 1.   The navigation device according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the route search function via the specific point set in the route search means is configured to be invalidated by a user operation. Provided with audio output means capable of outputting audio information,
The user-defined voice information is output from the voice output means when entering an area within a predetermined distance from the specific point when moving along the guide route via the specific point. The navigation device according to any one of the above.

Images