JP2007280073A - Guidance system in parking lot, guidance device on parking lot side, guidance device on car side and guidance method in parking lot - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To accurately guide a car 25 entering a parking lot 10 to a vacant parking place 17. <P>SOLUTION: In an entrance 12, a car side guidance device receives information of a section view 30, information of each square 31 in the section view 30 and communication site square information, together with a parking lot image 28 by a DSRC 27 from a road side machine 24. A square number, indicating a position in the view 30, is granted to each square 31. The information of the square 31 determines which of a passage square (corresponding to a passage 16), a vacant square (corresponding to a vacant parking place 17) and an in-used square (corresponding to an in-use parking place 18) has been turned from each square 31. The guidance device searches a guidance route 34, depending on the possibility of tracing, from a communication site square to the vacant square through continuous passage squares to display it on the display of the car navigation device of the car 25. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2008,JPO&INPIT

Description

  TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to a parking lot guidance system, a parking lot guidance device, a vehicle guidance device, and a parking guidance method that guide a vehicle in a parking lot using short-range wireless communication such as DSRC (Dedicated Short Range Communication). It is.

Patent Document 1 uses a two-way narrow area communication such as DSRC to automatically settle a parking fee for a car using a parking lot (paragraph 0025 of Patent Document 1), and within the parking lot. The image processing of the background difference method is performed on the captured image obtained by photographing, the use state of each parking place is determined (paragraph 0028 of Patent Document 1), and information for guiding the vehicle to an empty parking place is provided on the roadside. The in-vehicle device displays a message “There is an empty space in the“ front ”,“ back right ”, or“ left back ”, provides voice guidance, and images (arrows to the front, etc.) Only) is disclosed (paragraph 0031 of Patent Document 1).
JP 2003-58925 A

  In a large parking place, the road in the parking place becomes complicated and the distance from the entrance to the empty parking place is so that the user can get to the empty parking place on the parking lot map in the same way as the guidance route display of the car navigation device. Often it is desired to display a guidance route.

  The in-parking guidance system of Patent Document 1 wirelessly transmits photographic image information in a parking lot from a roadside device to an in-vehicle device, and displays the direction of an empty parking place on a display on the parking lot side, or a situation image of a parking lot However, it does not search for a long guide route to an empty parking place and display it on the parking lot map.

  A known car navigation device can display the location of the parking lot on the area map, but the map of each parking location in the parking lot is not included in the map database and may be displayed on the display. Can not. In addition, the car navigation device does not have information on an empty parking place at the time of entrance of a parking lot where a car enters, and searches for a guide route to an empty parking place or displays it on a parking lot map. I can't do that either.

  In addition, when there are a plurality of vacant parking places, the user may want to park near the entrance of the facility that he uses or at the corner. Can't meet this demand.

  An object of the present invention is to provide a parking lot guidance system, a parking lot guidance device, a vehicle guidance device, and a parking lot that can display an image obtained by adding a guidance route to a vacant parking place to a parking lot image on a display of a vehicle. It is to provide a guidance method.

  The parking lot guidance system of the present invention includes a parking lot guidance device and an automobile guidance device.

The parking lot side guidance apparatus of the present invention includes the following.
Roadside devices that can wirelessly transmit information to the vehicle guidance device,
Image information generating means for generating image information in the parking lot;
Generation means for generating at least detailed information indicating which part of the image in the parking lot corresponding to the image information in the parking lot is an empty parking place, and transmission control means for transmitting the image information in the parking lot and the detailed information from the roadside machine.

The automobile side guidance device of the present invention is provided with the following.
Information receiving means for wirelessly receiving image information and detailed information in the parking lot from the roadside machine,
Guide route search means for searching for a guide route from the current location to an empty parking location based on the detailed information, and display control means for displaying on the display a guide route added to the image in the parking lot generated from the image information in the parking lot.

The parking lot guidance method of the present invention includes the following steps.
A step of generating in-parking image information and detailed information indicating at least which part of the in-parking image related to the parking lot image information is an empty parking place in the parking lot side guidance device;
A step of wirelessly transmitting image information and detailed information in the parking lot from the roadside machine of the parking lot side guidance device to the vehicle side guidance device;
A step of searching for a guidance route from the current location to an empty parking location based on detailed information in the vehicle-side guidance device, and a display in which a guidance route is added to the image in the parking lot generated from the image information in the parking lot in the vehicle-side guidance device is displayed. Step to display.

  According to the present invention, the image information in the parking lot and the detailed information are transmitted wirelessly from the roadside machine of the parking lot side guidance device to the vehicle side guidance device mounted on the automobile. Based on the detailed information, a screen in which a guide route to an empty parking lot is added to the parking lot image is displayed on the display.

  FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram of the parking lot 10. The parking lot 10 is provided adjacent to the store 11 for customers of the store 11. In the parking lot 10, an entrance 12 for entering the automobile 25 into the parking lot 10 and an exit 13 for leaving the automobile 25 from the parking lot 10 are installed at predetermined locations. In the parking lot 10 of FIG. 1, there are one entrance 12 and one exit 13, but there may be a plurality of each. The parking lot 10 is paid for all hours, or only if you purchase more than a certain fee, the parking fee from the admission time to the predetermined time is free, and after that, it is charged, but all time is free It may be a parking lot. Gate devices 20 and 21 are installed at the entrance 12 and the exit 13, respectively. The gate devices 20 and 21 are opened only when the automobile 25 is allowed to enter and leave, respectively.

  In the parking lot 10, along with the parking places 15, a passage 16 is provided for the automobile 25 to enter and leave the parking places 15. The parking place 15 is divided into a parking place that is not in use (hereinafter referred to as “empty parking place”) 17 and a parking place that is in use (hereinafter referred to as “used parking place”) 18. When there are a plurality of vacant parking places 17, the customer parks his / her car 25 in the preferred vacant parking place 17, for example, the vacant parking place 17 near the store 11, or the vacant parking place 17 in the corner. I have hope that I want to make it happen.

  The roadside machine 24 is installed at the entrance 12 and is capable of two-way communication with the vehicle 25 at the entrance 12 by DSRC with an in-vehicle communication device (not shown) of the vehicle 25. The server 26 is connected to the roadside device 24 and transmits / receives data to / from the in-vehicle communication device via the roadside device 24. The car navigation device displays a map image in the parking lot 10 and a guide route to the empty parking place 17 on the display based on the simple map information received from the roadside device 24 via the in-vehicle communication device. ing.

  The simple map information is a parking lot image 28 described in FIG. 3 to be described later. For example, the simple map information is a JPEG image generated by photographing the current parking lot 10 with a digital still camera. The digital still camera captures the situation in the parking lot 10 at predetermined time intervals.

  The detailed information is information related to the simple map information. Specifically, (a) information related to the division diagram 30 and the mesh 31 described in FIG. 4 described later, and (b) the vehicle-mounted communication device is the roadside device 24. Information relating to the number of the cell 31 that receives the simple map information and the detailed information from (c) scale information as the ratio of the actual size of the parking lot 10 to the size of the parking lot image 28, (d) in the parking lot image 28 Information related to the direction and (f) category information of each cell 31 are included.

  With regard to the detailed information related to the division diagram 30 and the cell 31 of (a) described above, each cell 31 can specify the position on the division diagram 30 by the cell number assigned thereto. With respect to the detailed information relating to the number of the cell 31 where the in-vehicle communication device (b) receives the simple map information and the detailed information from the roadside device 24, the current location on the division map 30 at the time of communication can be identified from the cell number. .

  With regard to the category information of each cell 31 in the above (f), the category indicates which one of the cell 31 corresponds to the passage 16, the empty parking place 17, the busy parking place 18, and the like. For convenience of explanation, the cells corresponding to the passage 16, the empty parking place 17 and the in-use parking place 18 will be referred to as a passage cell, an empty cell, and an in-use cell, respectively. When the category is a passage grid, the category information is further given subcategory information corresponding to the branching point of the passage 16 and the direction in which the advanceable direction is the upper, lower, left or right square. The In the search method described later with reference to FIGS. 6 and 7, predetermined subcategory information is also given to empty cells.

  Link information is also added to the category information. The link information is information indicating which cell is vertically and horizontally adjacent to each cell. As will be described later with reference to FIG. 4, each cell is assigned a 2-digit hexadecimal ID indicating the position on the division diagram 30. Accordingly, by checking the link information ID of each cell, the adjacent cell is determined. Then, by referring to the category information of the adjacent cell, it is possible to detect which of the passage 16 and the empty parking place 17 the adjacent cell is.

  FIG. 2 shows the guidance state of the automobile 25 by the parking lot guidance system 22 applied to the parking lot 10. The parking lot guidance system 22 includes an automobile side guidance device (not shown) of the automobile 25 together with the roadside machine 24 and the server 26. The vehicle side guidance device is, for example, a car navigation device equipped with a DSRC communication device as an in-vehicle communication device. The roadside machine 24 and the car navigation device of the automobile 25 can communicate with each other by the DSRC 27 at the entrance 12 when the automobile 25 passes through the entrance 12. The roadside machine 24 push-distributes the above-described simple map information and the above-mentioned vehicle to the car passing through the entrance 12.

  Upon receipt of the simple map information at the entrance 12, the car navigation device of the automobile 25 switches from the map display on the display based on the map database to the map display based on the parking lot guidance system 22. Based on the received simple map information and the received car navigation device, the car navigation device searches for a guidance route to a predetermined vacant parking place 17 and overlays it on the map image in the parking lot 10 and displays it on the display. The driver of the automobile 25 looks at the map image in the parking lot 10 and the guidance route displayed on the display, moves the automobile 25 to a predetermined empty parking place 17, and parks his own automobile 25 at the empty parking place 17. Let

  FIG. 3 shows a parking lot image 28 for the parking lot 10. In the parking lot image 28, the positions of the parking place 15, the passage 16, the empty parking place 17, and the in-use parking place 18 in the parking lot 10 can be visually recognized. For example, one or more parking places 10 It is created based on a camera image taken from a digital still camera installed at a predetermined location. When a plurality of digital still cameras are used, one parking lot image 28 can be created based on the combination of the captured images captured by the digital still cameras. The latest parking lot image 28 is created at regular time intervals.

  Since the position of the passage 16 in the photographed image of the parking lot 10 is fixed, for example, the road portion is removed from the parking lot image 28 created by photographing at each time, and all the remaining photographed image portions are parked. By performing image processing with the background difference method for the standard parking lot image where the location 15 is an empty parking location 17, the parking location 17 at the time of each shooting becomes either an empty parking location 17 or an in-use parking location 18 It can be detected. The parking lot image 28 shown in FIG. 3 is appropriately color-coded to facilitate identification of the passage 16, the empty parking place 17, and the busy parking place 18.

  In addition, when the vertical / horizontal dimension ratio of the parking lot image 28 and the vertical / horizontal dimension ratio of the display of the car navigation device of the automobile 25 do not coincide with each other, the entire parking lot image 28 fits in the display. When the image is reduced at the vertical / horizontal ratio, an image portion other than the parking lot image 28 may appear on the display. In order to prevent unnecessary parts from being displayed on the display, the car navigation device individually adjusts the vertical and horizontal scales of the parking lot image 28, or the server 26 (FIG. 1) is a standard display of the car navigation device. The vertical and horizontal scales of the parking lot image 28 may be converted to individually adjusted so as to match the vertical / horizontal dimension ratio and transmitted to the automobile 25.

  FIG. 4 is a diagram in which the partition map 30 is superimposed on the parking lot image 28. The overlapped division diagram 30 has a size and a shape that match the parking lot image 28, and is divided into a plurality of cells 31 having the same shape and the same size arranged in a lattice pattern. The numbers of vertical and horizontal grids in the section map 30 are adjusted based on the size of the parking lot image 28.

  Of the detailed information described above, each direction information and each scale information of the parking lot image 28 and the section map 30 are used for accurately superimposing the parking lot image 28 and the section map 30. In addition, if each direction and each scale of the parking lot image 28 and the division | segmentation figure 30 are predetermined between the parking lot side guidance apparatus and the motor vehicle side guidance apparatus, it cannot be overemphasized that transmission of those information is unnecessary. .

  The size of the cells 31 is set such that the positions of the passages 16 and the parking places 15 in the parking lot 10 can be accurately determined by specifying the cells 31 while avoiding being smaller than necessary. Since the parking place 15 is a horizontally long rectangle in FIG. 4, the vertical dimension of the grid 31 is associated with the width of the parking place 15 or less. Further, the horizontal dimension of the mesh 31 is associated with the smaller dimension or less of the width of the passage 16 extending in the vertical direction of the parking lot image 28 and the depth of the parking place 15.

  In order to discriminate each cell 31 in the division diagram 30, each cell 31 is assigned a cell number, and the cell number is, for example, a hexadecimal 2-digit number according to the vertical and horizontal arrangement order in the division diagram 30. A specific example of the cell number is as shown in FIG. 4, and the hexadecimal value of the right digit of the cell number corresponds to the order in the horizontal direction from the reference cell (the cell in the upper left corner in FIG. 4). The hexadecimal value of the digit corresponds to the vertical order from the reference grid. Note that the cell number whose hexadecimal value of the left digit is 0 is entered in FIG. 4 with the 0 omitted.

  The cells 31 are classified into the categories of the passage 16, the empty parking place 17, and the busy parking place 18. In some cases, the dividing line and the outlines of the passage 16, the empty parking place 17, and the busy parking place 18 may be out of alignment. The category of the mesh 31 that is included in any one of the passage 16, the empty parking place 17, and the in-use parking place 18 is the aisle 16, the empty parking place 17, or in use. The category is associated with the parking place 18. The category of the grid 31 that spans the passage 16, the empty parking place 17, and the used parking place 18 corresponds to the passage 16, the empty parking place 17, and the used parking place 18 in which the grid 31 is most widely included. The assigned category. As described above, even if the classification of the cells 31 is rough, the driver in the parking lot 10 can present the guidance route in the parking lot 10 on the display of the car navigation device with an accuracy without any trouble.

  FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram of how to search for a guidance route to a predetermined empty parking place 17 in the parking lot 10. In addition, in order to specify each cell 31, the cell number is given to the cell 31 after the cell. The cell “3F” is the cell 31 at the entrance 12, that is, the cell 31 from which the vehicle-side guidance device of the automobile 25 has received data from the roadside device 24. The cell 31 that enables the vehicle-side guidance device of the vehicle 25 to communicate with the roadside device 24 is the cell “3F”. The current location mark 33 indicates the current location of the automobile 25 in the division diagram 30, and 35 indicates the traveling direction mark in the one-way passage 16. The current location mark 33 also indicates the traveling direction of the automobile 25 depending on its direction. The current location also changes with the movement of the car 25 in the parking lot 10 after entering, but the current position may be detected from GPS information, and the movement of the car 25 from the grid "3F" It can also be detected by tracking using a speedometer.

  In the division diagram 30, the branch cells 31 of the passage 16 are cells “1”, “E”, “31”, “3E”, “71”, “7E”, “C1”, “CE”, “F1”, It is “FE”. The cell “EF” is a cell 31 corresponding to the outlet 13. A description will be given of a procedure for searching for a guidance route 34 for guiding the automobile 25 to a predetermined empty parking place 17 in the parking lot 10 and a guidance format.

S (Step) 40: Routes from the current location “3F” to each branch location “E”, “3E”, “7E”, “CE”, “FE” that can be moved (the route is composed only of passage locations) .)) Is calculated. The movable branch mesh means that the direction in which the passage mesh can travel is taken into consideration. That is, in the one-way portion of the passage 16, traveling in the reverse direction is prohibited, so that among the branch cells, only the first branch cell in the advanceable direction becomes a movable cell.

The number of squares on the route from the current location “3F” to each branch cell “E”, “3E”, “7E”, “CE”, “FE” that can be moved is as follows.

“3F”-“E” cell number: “2F” → “1F” → “F” → “E” 4 cells “3F” — “3E” cell number: “3E” 1 cell “3F” — Number of cells in "7E": "4F"->"5F"->"6F"->"7F"->"7E" 5 cells "3F"-Number of cells in "CE": "4F"->"5F"->"6F “→” 7F ”→“ 8F ”→“ 9F ”→“ AF ”→“ BF ”→“ CF ”→“ CE ”10 squares“ 3F ”−“ FE ”cell count:“ 4F ”→“ 5F ” → "6F" → "7F" → "8F" → "9F" → "AF" → "BF" → "CF" → "DF" → "EF" → "FF" → "FE"

S41: It is determined whether or not there is an empty parking place 17 between each branch cell for which the number of route cells has been calculated in S40 and the next movable branch cell. In order to determine whether or not there is an empty cell (empty parking place 17) between the next movable branch cells, the above-described link information in the category information is used. That is, based on the link information, a maximum of four squares that are adjacent vertically and horizontally to each square 31 are found, and based on the category information of these neighboring squares, whether the neighboring square is a passage square or a branch within the passage square It can be detected whether it is a dot or an empty grid.

  The processing of S41 based on the link information will be specifically described. The link information of the cell “3F” describes the IDs “2F”, “3E”, and “4F” of the adjacent cell. Since the link information is assigned to all the cells, the entire arrangement state of the cells can be grasped by tracing from any one cell. Next, when determining the number of required squares, for example, when calculating the number of path squares in the movement from “3F” to “7E”, “2F”, “3E”, and “4F” that can be moved from “3F” are paths. It is determined whether the mesh is in use or in use (parking place 18 in use). If it is in use, the movement calculation after that is finished. If it is a passage mesh, the movement calculation is continued. When moving to “4F”, “3F”, “4E”, and “5F” are adjacent. Since “3F” has already been passed, it is removed from the next destination cell of “4F”. As a result of similarly extending from “4E” and “5F” to the adjacent cell, “7E” is reached. The smallest number of cells to reach “7E” is determined as the number of cells necessary.

  When there is an empty parking place 17, the number of route squares to the empty parking place 17 is calculated, added to the result of S40, and stored. The added value is the total number of cells from the starting place “3F” of the parking lot 10 to the empty parking place 17. If there is no empty parking place 17, the number of route squares to the next movable branch square is calculated.

  For example, the processing of S41 in the case of the branch cells “E” and “CE” is as follows. First, in the case of the branch cell “E”, there is no empty parking space 17 → the next movable branch cell is “1” → the number of route cells to the branch cell “1” is 13 → the total cell from the current cell The number is 13 + 4 = 17. In the case of the branch cell “CE”, there is “D8” as an empty parking place 17 → the number of route cells to D8 → the total number of cells from the current cell is 10 + 7 = 17.

S41 is repeated until the empty cell is reached or there is no next movable branch cell.

S42: Among the arrival routes that reach the same empty cell 31, the arrival route with the smallest total number of cells is selected as the guide route 34. When there is only one vacant parking place 17, the arrival route with the minimum total number of cells can be simply selected as the guide route 34. When there are a plurality of empty parking places 17, a predetermined one empty parking place 17 is identified based on the category selection of the parking place by the driver, and an empty parking place other than the empty parking place associated with the specified empty parking place 17 17 can be regarded as a parking place 18 in use, and the guide route 34 to the specific empty parking place 17 can be searched for. In addition, guidance to the specific empty parking place 17 based on the category selection of the parking place by the driver will be described later with reference to FIGS.

S43: With respect to the guide route 34, during the search, the passage history information traced from the departure point cell to the empty cell is recorded. Therefore, based on the recorded information, an image in which the guide route 34 is superimposed on the parking lot image 28 is displayed on the display of the car navigation device.

S44: In order to reflect the current location on the parking lot image 28 as the vehicle 25 moves from the cell "3F", if the GPS location is used or GPS information is not available, Then, the information of the gyrometer and the speedometer is used for detection, and the display position of the current position mark 33 is updated to the position of the current position grid.

  As soon as the automobile 25 arrives at the target empty parking place 17, the route guidance ends. In addition, what is displayed on the display of the car navigation device of the automobile 25 is typically only the parking lot image 28 and the guide route 34 in FIG. The division diagram 30, the cell 31 and the cell number are not displayed on the display. However, the division map 30, the cell 31 and / or the cell number may be appropriately displayed on the display.

  Here, for convenience of explanation, as shown in FIG. 5, if there is an empty parking place, a method for searching and displaying the guide route 34 to the empty parking place without regard to any empty parking place is referred to as “unspecified empty parking”. In addition, when there are a plurality of empty parking places 17, the guidance route to the optimum empty parking place for the driver will be referred to as a "specific empty parking place search method".

  FIG. 6 shows an entire facility image 47 relating to simple map information in the specific vacant parking place search method. The entire facility image 47 includes a non-parking area image 48 and a parking area image 49, and is transmitted from the roadside device 24 to the roadside device of the automobile 25 by the DSRC 27. The entire facility image 47 is an image obtained by adding a non-parking range image 48 to the same parking range image 49 as the parking lot image 28 described above.

  The range of the non-parking lot range image 48 may not indicate the entire store 11, but may indicate only the position on the side of the parking lot range image 49 where the entrance of the store 11 is located. The non-parking lot range image 48 and the parking lot range image 49 are typically created by synthesizing a plurality of shot images shot separately, not a single shot image. The non-parking lot range image 48 is scaled in the extending direction of the joining side (the lower side of the non-parking lot range image 48 in FIG. 6) that overlaps the joining side of the parking lot range image 49 for joining with the parking lot range image 49. Needs to match that of the parking lot range image 49, but the scale of the other direction (eg, vertical direction in FIG. 6) does not match that of the parking lot range image 49, and the degree of reduction becomes large. It may be.

  In the detailed information received by the DSRC from the roadside device 24 by the DSRC from the roadside device 24 in the specific vacant parking place search method, sub-category information is further added to the category information in each unspecified vacant parking place search method. . For example, (a1) an empty cell near the entrance of the store 11, (a2) an empty cell near the corner, (a3) an empty cell near the exit, (a4) an empty space dedicated to a light vehicle (A5) There is an empty cell dedicated to welfare cars.

  The driver of the automobile 25 selects a desired empty parking place prior to calculation of the in-parking guidance route in the car navigation device. For example, for each entry of the automobile 25, only the category to which the current vacant parking place 17 belongs is displayed on the display of the car navigation device of the automobile 25 from among (a1) to (a5). The user may select a desired category at this time. Note that multiple categories may be selected. This is because the driver, if any, wishes to park the automobile 25 at the empty parking place 17 according to the category (a1) and (a4), for example.

  In addition, the user as a driver is selected in advance from (a1) to (a5) at a predetermined time before entering the parking lot 10, and when entering the parking lot 10, a selection is made. It may be omitted, and the guide route 34 to the empty parking place 17 of the category desired by the user can be automatically searched.

  FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram for searching for a guide route to a predetermined empty parking place 17 in the specific empty parking place searching method. It is assumed that the driver of the automobile 25 has selected a desired category of the empty parking place 17 that is close to the entrance of the store 11. In the state shown in FIG. 7, there are a total of four empty parking places 17 having the category, and they are in the positions of empty cells “62”, “63”, “E2”, and “E3”. In the specific search method of the guide route 34 in the specific empty parking place search method, the remaining empty parking places 17 are used only in the four empty parking places 17 classified into the category selected by the user, while the other empty parking places 17 are used parking places 18. Then, S40 to S45 in the unspecified empty parking place search method described with reference to FIGS. 3 to 5 are executed to find the guide route 34 and display it on the guide route of the car navigation device.

  For example, it is assumed that the driver has selected two categories: a category near the entrance of the store 11 and a category in which the parking place is a corner portion. In this case, only two empty parking places 17 corresponding to the cells “62” and “E2” remain as empty parking locations 17 in the guidance route search, and two empty spaces corresponding to the cells “63” and “E3”. The parking place 17 is excluded from the vacant parking place, and a search process is performed which is regarded as a busy parking place.

  The rank information can be added to the detailed information for the parking place 15 in the same category. For example, the parking place 15 corresponding to the squares “62”, “63”, “E2”, and “E3”, which are categories close to the entrance of the store 11, includes the parking place 15 corresponding to “62” and “E2”. Rank 1 is assigned to the parking place 15 corresponding to rank 1, “63” and “E3”. And when they become the empty parking place 17, rank information is also transmitted to the motor vehicle side guidance device of the car 25 together with the category information that is close to the doorway of the store 11. In the car navigation device of the automobile 25, when the driver selects category information that is close to the entrance of the store 11 and there are a plurality of empty parking places 17 belonging to the same category, the empty parking having the highest rank The place 17 is left as an empty parking place, the other empty parking places 17 are excluded from the empty parking places, and are considered to be used parking places, and the guide route 34 is searched.

  FIG. 8 is a configuration diagram of the parking lot guidance system 100. The parking lot guidance system 100 includes a parking lot side guidance device 110 installed in a parking lot, and an automobile side guidance device 140 mounted on an automobile. The parking lot side guidance apparatus 110 includes a roadside machine 120 installed near the entrance of the parking lot, and information can be freely transmitted from the roadside machine 120 to the automobile side guidance apparatus 140 via wireless communication 160 such as DSRC. Yes.

  Note that the communication between the roadside device 120 and the vehicle-side guidance device 140 is typically bidirectional communication, but may be one-way communication from the roadside device 120 to the vehicle-side guidance device 140. The parking lot guidance system 22 (FIG. 2) is a specific example of the parking lot guidance system 100. In DSRC, since the communication distance is short, the vehicle-side guidance device 140 can communicate with the road-side device 120 only during a period when the vehicle on which the vehicle-side guidance device 140 is mounted is sufficiently close to the road-side device 120. In addition, the reception position can be limited to a specific small part of the image in the parking lot.

  The place where the automobile receives information from the roadside machine 120 is typically an entrance place, that is, an entrance of a parking lot, but is not limited thereto. It may be a point that enters the parking lot from the entrance or a point on the passage from the entrance to the first branching place.

  FIG. 9 is a block diagram of the parking lot side guidance device 110. The parking lot side guidance device 110 includes a parking lot image generation unit 111, detailed information generation unit 112, and transmission control unit 113 in addition to the roadside machine 120. The roadside machine 120 can freely transmit information to the automobile side guidance device 140 (FIG. 8 or FIG. 10).

  The parking lot image generation means 111 generates parking lot image information. The detailed information generation unit 112 generates detailed information indicating which part of the parking lot image related to the parking lot image information is an empty parking place. The transmission control means 113 causes the image information in the parking lot and the detailed information to be transmitted from the roadside device 120.

  Preferably, the detailed information is information indicating which part of the image in the parking lot is a passage in the parking lot, information indicating which part of the image in the parking lot is an information reception place from the roadside device in the automobile, It includes information on the branch point position of the passage, information on the allowable traveling direction of the automobile in the passage, direction information of the parking lot image, and / or scale information of the parking lot image.

  The detailed information can include category information of each empty parking place. The category of vacant parking places includes, for example, the category of whether each vacant parking place is close to the entrance / exit of a predetermined facility, in a corner, for a light car, and / or for a welfare car.

  FIG. 10 is a block diagram of the automobile side guidance device 140. The vehicle-side guidance device 140 includes information reception means 141, guidance route search means 142, and display control means 143. The information receiving unit 141 wirelessly receives, from the roadside device 120, detailed information indicating at least which part of the image in the parking lot related to the image information in the parking lot is an empty parking place together with the image information in the parking lot.

  The guide route search means 142 searches for a guide route from the current location to an empty parking location based on the detailed information. The display control means 143 displays on the display 144 an image obtained by adding a guide route to the parking lot image generated from the parking lot image information.

  The image in the parking lot is typically a simple figure that simply displays the inside of the parking lot as a graphic, but may alternatively be an image obtained by photographing the inside of the parking lot with a digital camera.

  The detailed information received by the vehicle-side guidance device 140 includes at least which part of the image in the parking lot corresponding to the image information in the parking lot is an empty parking place, and which part of the image in the parking lot is a passage in the parking lot. , Information indicating which part of the image in the parking lot is the information receiving location from the roadside device in the car, information on the branch point position of the passage, information on the allowable traveling direction of the car in the passage, in the parking lot The direction information of the image and / or the scale information of the image in the parking lot can be included. The guide route searching means 142 can search the guide route in more detail, precision, or rationally using the added detailed information.

  The detailed information received by the automobile-side guidance device 140 can further include category information of each vacant parking place. In this case, when there are a plurality of vacant parking places, the guidance route searching unit 142 can search for a guidance route to the vacant parking place selected based on the category information. As a result, the driver is guided to his / her favorite empty parking place from among a plurality of empty parking places.

  In general car navigation devices, information about where the parking lot is located in the area map is stored in the database, but information related to the location of each parking place assigned to each car in the parking lot is stored. It is not possible to display a map in the parking lot indicating the position of each parking place, and it is also impossible to display which parking place is currently empty. In the parking lot guidance system 100, an image in the parking lot that can be used as a map inside the parking lot is displayed on the display 144 of the vehicle guidance device 140 by transmitting the image information in the parking lot from the roadside device 120 to the vehicle guidance device 140. And a guide route to an empty parking place is displayed on the image in the parking lot.

  Preferably, the parking lot image is divided into grids in the lattice arrangement, and each part of the parking lot image is associated with the grid (for example, FIG. 4). In this case, the guidance route searching means 142 uses the route that can reach the empty square (the square corresponding to the empty parking place) by following the continuous passage square from the reception point square.

  Typically, each cell has an equal shape and an equal size. When a plurality of guide routes to the same empty cell are found and / or when a plurality of guide routes to different empty cells are found, the guide route search means 142 determines each guide route from the total number of cells of each guide route. Is determined, and a final guide route (a guide route to be presented to the driver this time) is determined based on the determined length. For example, the guide route having the minimum length is set as the guide route of the final result. In some cases, the guide route having the maximum length may be the guide route closest to the exit of the parking lot, so that the guide route can be the final guide route.

  The vehicle-side guidance device 140 can also include a current location detection unit 148 and a current location part detection unit 149. The current location detection means 148 detects the current location. The current location can be detected by using GPS information, or equipped with a gyrometer and a speedometer, and tracking the moving route from the receiving point based on the moving direction and moving distance.

  The current location at the start of the guidance route search is typically an information reception point, but is not limited to this. This is because the driver may instruct a route search from a point where the vehicle is moved a little further from the reception point. In that case, the location of the image in the parking lot corresponding to the current location can be detected based on the reception point and the GPS information or the movement trajectory record. The movement trajectory from the reception point can be appropriately measured using a gyrometer or a speedometer.

  Based on the current location detected by the current location detection unit 149 and the information reception location included in the detailed information, the current location detection unit 149 detects a location corresponding to the current location in the parking lot image. The display control means 143 may display a current location mark (eg, current location mark 33 in FIG. 5) at the current location site in the parking lot image on the display.

  FIG. 11 is a flowchart of the parking lot guidance method 170. In S171, the parking lot side guidance device generates the parking lot image information and at least detailed information indicating which part of the parking lot image related to the parking lot image information is an empty parking place. In S172, the image information in the parking lot and the detailed information are wirelessly transmitted from the roadside machine 120 of the parking lot side guidance apparatus to the automobile side guidance apparatus.

  In S173, the vehicle side guidance device searches for a guidance route from the current location to an empty parking location based on the detailed information. In S174, the vehicle-side guidance device displays on the display 144 an image obtained by adding the guidance route to the parking lot image generated from the parking lot image information.

  The specific example of the detailed information applied to the parking lot guidance system 100 can also be applied as a specific example of the detailed information in the parking lot guidance method 170. In S173, the search route can be searched more appropriately using the specific information.

  The specific example of the guidance route search process applied to the parking lot guidance system 100 can also be applied as a specific example of the guidance route search process in S173 of the parking lot guidance method 170.

  The parking lot guidance method 170 includes a step of detecting the current location and a step of detecting a current location portion on the image in the parking lot corresponding to the current location based on the information reception location of the detailed information with the detected current location before and after S173. Or may be added in parallel. And in S174, a present location mark can be displayed on the present location site | part in the image in the parking lot of the display 144. FIG.

  Although the present invention has been described with reference to various embodiments, the present invention is not limited to this, and can be embodied by modifying each component in the various embodiments without departing from the spirit of the invention. Further, various inventions can be formed by combining or adding a plurality of components for convenience or deleting some components without departing from the scope of the invention.

It is explanatory drawing of a parking lot. It is a figure which shows the guidance condition of the motor vehicle by the parking lot guidance system applied to a parking lot. It is a figure which shows the parking lot image about a parking lot. It is a superimposition of the section map on the parking lot image. It is explanatory drawing about the method of searching for the guidance route to the predetermined empty parking place in an unspecified empty parking place search system.

It is a figure which shows the whole facility image which concerns on the simple map information in a specific empty parking place search system. It is explanatory drawing which searches the guidance route to a predetermined empty parking place in a specific empty parking place search system. It is a block diagram of a parking lot guidance system. It is a block diagram of a parking lot side guidance device. It is a block diagram of a motor vehicle side guidance device. It is a flowchart of the parking lot guidance method.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 100: Parking lot guidance system, 110: Parking lot side guidance device, 111: Image information generation means, 112: Detailed information generation means, 113: Transmission control means, 120: Roadside machine, 140: Car side guidance apparatus, 141: Information Receiving means, 142: guidance route search means, 143: display control means, 144: display, 148: current location detection means, 149: current location detection means, 160: wireless communication, 170: guidance method in parking lot.

Claims (10)

A parking lot guidance system comprising a parking lot guidance device and an automobile guidance device,
The parking lot side guidance device is:
A roadside machine capable of wirelessly transmitting information to the vehicle-side guidance device;
Image information generating means for generating image information in the parking lot;
Generation means for generating at least detailed information indicating which part of the image in the parking lot corresponding to the image information in the parking lot is an empty parking place, and transmission control for transmitting the image information in the parking lot and the detailed information from the roadside device means,
With
The vehicle side guidance device is:
Information receiving means for wirelessly receiving the image information in the parking lot and the detailed information from the roadside machine,
Guide route search means for searching for a guide route from the current location to an empty parking location based on the detailed information, and display control for displaying on the display a result of adding the guide route to the image in the parking lot generated from the image information in the parking lot means,
A parking lot guidance system comprising: Roadside devices that can wirelessly transmit information to the vehicle guidance device,
Image information generating means for generating image information in the parking lot;
Generation means for generating detailed information indicating which part of the image in the parking lot corresponding to the image information in the parking lot is an empty parking place, and transmission control means for transmitting the image information in the parking lot and the detailed information from the roadside machine ,
A parking lot side guidance device comprising:   The detailed information is information indicating which part of the image in the parking lot is a passage in the parking lot, information indicating which part of the image in the parking lot is an information reception place from the roadside device in the automobile 3. The parking lot side according to claim 2, further comprising: information on a branch point position of the passage, information on an allowable traveling direction of the vehicle in the passage, direction information of the image in the parking lot, and / or scale information of the image in the parking lot. Guidance device.   4. The parking lot side guidance device according to claim 2, wherein the detailed information includes category information of each empty parking place.   The category information of each vacant parking place is information related to whether each vacant parking place is close to the entrance / exit of a predetermined facility, in a corner, for a light car, and / or for a welfare car. The parking lot side guidance device according to claim 4. Information receiving means for wirelessly receiving, from a roadside device installed in a parking lot, detailed information indicating which part of the image information in the parking lot and at least the portion of the image in the parking lot related to the image information in the parking lot is an empty parking place ,
Guide route search means for searching for a guide route from the current location to an empty parking location based on the detailed information, and display control for displaying on the display a result of adding the guide route to the image in the parking lot generated from the image information in the parking lot means,
A vehicle-side guidance device comprising: The detailed information is information indicating which part of the image in the parking lot is a passage in the parking lot, information indicating which part of the image in the parking lot is an information reception place from the roadside device in the automobile Including information on the branch point position of the passage, information on the allowable traveling direction of the vehicle in the passage, direction information of the image in the parking lot, and / or scale information of the image in the parking lot,
The vehicle-side guidance device according to claim 6, wherein the guidance route search unit searches for the guidance route based on the detailed information. The detailed information includes category information of each empty parking place,
8. The vehicle side guidance device according to claim 7, wherein, when there are a plurality of empty parking places, the guidance route searching means searches for a guidance route to an empty parking place selected based on the category information. Current location detection means for detecting the current location;
Based on the detected current location and the information reception location included in the detailed information, current location detection means for detecting a location corresponding to the current location in the parking lot image, and displaying a current location mark on the current location location in the parking lot image of the display Display control means,
The automobile side guidance device according to claim 7 or 8 characterized by things. A step of generating in-parking image information and detailed information indicating at least which part of the in-parking image related to the parking lot image information is an empty parking place in the parking lot side guidance device;
Transmitting the image information in the parking lot and the detailed information wirelessly from the roadside machine of the parking lot side guidance device to the vehicle side guidance device;
In the vehicle-side guidance device, searching for a guidance route from the current location to an empty parking location based on the detailed information, and in the vehicle-side guidance device, the guidance route is added to the parking lot image generated from the parking lot image information. A step of displaying the addition on the display;
A parking lot guidance method comprising:

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