JP2007322282A - Navigation device for vehicle - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a navigation device for vehicle facilitating search for another institution in such a case that it is required to search for the other institution due to some reasons even when the desired institution is reached. <P>SOLUTION: In a search result screen indicating information on a plurality of institutions, when one institution is set as the selected destination, the search result screen is stored. When a vehicle arrived at the destination institution, an engine stop time after an engine of the vehicle is turned off until it is turned on again is compared with a prescribed time to estimate the staying time of the user at the destination institution. When the staying time of the user at the destination institution is too short to utilize the institution, it is assumed that there is high probability of searching for another institution, and the stored search result screen is displayed. Accordingly, the user can easily search for the institution as an alternative to the initial destination institution without performing complicated operations. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2008,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a vehicle navigation apparatus.

For example, Patent Document 1 discloses a vehicle navigation device that can know a facility existing around a desired getting-on / off interchange by a simple operation. This conventional vehicle navigation apparatus creates a route from the current position to the destination based on the map data and the current position data, and further creates a list of getting-on / off interchanges included in the created route. When the created list of boarding / exiting interchanges is displayed on the display unit, the selection unit can select one interchange in the displayed boarding / exiting interchange list. Then, when one of the entry / exit interchanges is selected by the selection unit and the genre to be searched is specified, the facility that exists in the vicinity of the selected entry / exit interchange and corresponds to the designated search genre is searched. Display on the display.
JP 2004-317205 A

  In the vehicle navigation device of Patent Document 1 described above, it is assumed that, for example, a restaurant is searched as a search genre, and a peripheral facility of a boarding / exiting interchange is searched, a plurality of restaurants are searched. When one of the plurality of restaurants is set as a destination (stopping place) and arrives at the destination (stopping place), for example, if the restaurant is crowded or is closed, the user You might want to find a restaurant.

  In such a case, it is necessary for the user to repeat the operation for causing the vehicle navigation apparatus to search the surrounding facilities while designating the search genre as a restaurant. The operation for performing this search is relatively complicated, and the user may feel such an operation troublesome.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above-described points, and when it is necessary to search for another facility for some reason even when it arrives at a desired facility, it is possible to easily search for another facility. An object of the present invention is to provide a possible vehicle navigation device.

In order to achieve the above object, the vehicular navigation device according to claim 1 starts an operation in accordance with the activation of a power source for running the vehicle,
Display means for displaying a predetermined screen at the start of operation;
A search means for searching for a facility corresponding to the search information input by the user, and displaying information of the searched facility on the display means;
Route guidance means for executing route guidance when the facility searched by the search means is set as the destination;
Detection means for detecting the start and stop of a power source for running the vehicle;
When a plurality of facilities are searched by the search means, and the route guidance means performs route guidance using the facility selected from the plurality of facilities as a destination, and the vehicle reaches the destination, the power source of the vehicle is stopped. If it is started after that, the stop start time from the stop to the start is compared with a predetermined time, and if the stop start time is shorter than the predetermined time, information on the facility instead of the destination facility is displayed as a predetermined screen. And a display control means for displaying the alternative facility information screen to be displayed on the display means.

  When the user arrives at the original destination facility, if for some reason, he / she tries to find another alternative facility, it is rare that he / she stays at the initial destination facility for a long time. From such a point of view, the vehicle navigation device according to claim 1 has a stop activation time that is a time from when the vehicle arrives at the destination facility and the power source of the vehicle is stopped until it is activated again. By comparing with the predetermined time, the time staying at the destination facility of the user is estimated. If the user's stay time at the destination facility is too short to use the facility, it is assumed that there is a high possibility of searching for another alternative facility, and the facility information that replaces the original destination facility is indicated. Display the alternative facility information screen. Accordingly, the user can easily search for a facility that is a substitute for the original destination facility without performing a complicated operation.

  As described in claim 2, the display control means stores the search information input by the user, and is stored in the search means when the power source of the vehicle is activated at the destination facility. Preferably, the facility corresponding to the retrieved information is retrieved, and the retrieved facility information is displayed on the display means as an alternative facility information screen. In this way, for example, when searching for surrounding facilities based on the search information, it is possible to search for facilities in the vicinity based on the current location of the vehicle, so that appropriate alternative facility information can be displayed. .

  According to a third aspect of the present invention, the display control means stores a facility information screen including a plurality of facilities searched based on the search information input by the user, and the power of the vehicle at the destination facility is stored. When the source is activated, the stored facility information screen may be displayed on the display means as an alternative facility information screen. Even in this case, it is possible to display information on an alternative facility that can replace the original destination facility.

  In addition, as search information in which an alternative facility exists, information indicating the type of facility as described in claim 4, keyword information corresponding to at least a part of the facility name as described in claim 5, etc. There is.

  Hereinafter, a vehicle navigation apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of the vehicle navigation apparatus according to the present embodiment.

  As shown in the figure, the vehicle navigation device of the present embodiment includes a position detector 1, a map data input device 6, an operation switch group 7, a TV receiver 10, a VICS device 11, a display device 12, and a voice input / output device. 13, a non-volatile memory 14 and a control circuit 8 connected thereto.

  The control circuit 8 is configured as a normal computer, and includes a well-known CPU, ROM, RAM, I / O, and a bus line for connecting these configurations. In the ROM, a program to be executed by the control circuit 8 is written, and a CPU or the like executes predetermined arithmetic processing according to this program. The control circuit 8 also receives a detection signal from an ignition switch (IGSW) 9 that detects on / off of the engine of the vehicle on which the navigation device is mounted.

  The position detector 1 includes a known geomagnetic sensor 2, a gyroscope 3, a distance sensor 4, and a GPS receiver 5 for GPS (Global Positioning System) that measures the position of a vehicle based on radio waves from a satellite. Have. Since these have errors of different properties, they are configured to be used while being complemented by a plurality of sensors. That is, data (current position coordinates and traveling direction) relating to the current position of the vehicle is measured by hybrid navigation that combines radio wave navigation by GPS and self-contained navigation by the geomagnetic sensor, gyroscope 3 and distance sensor 4. Depending on the accuracy of each sensor, the position detector 1 may be configured as a part of the above-described ones, and a steering rotation sensor (not shown), a vehicle speed sensor for each rolling wheel, or the like may be used.

  The map data input device 6 is a device for inputting map data including road data, background data, and character data. As a storage medium for storing the map data, a CD-ROM or a DVD-ROM is generally used because of the amount of data, but a memory card, a hard disk, or the like may be used.

  In addition to the map data described above, facility information for searching for various facilities on the map is stored in the storage medium of the map data input device 6. For example, the storage medium of the map data input device 6 stores the name, address, telephone number, genre, etc. of each facility as facility information.

  The operation switch group 7 includes, for example, a touch switch or a mechanical switch integrated with a display device 12 described later, and is used for various inputs. For example, it is possible to input information for searching for a destination facility using the operation switch group 7. When the search information is input and the facility search is performed in this way, the facility corresponding to the search information is displayed on the display device 12. At this time, when a desired facility among the displayed facilities is set as a destination by the operation switch group 7, an optimum route from the current position to the destination is automatically selected and displayed on the display device 12. The Thus, the vehicle navigation apparatus according to the present embodiment has a so-called route guidance function.

  In addition, in order to search for a desired facility, the search information input by the operation switch group 7 corresponds to genre information indicating the type of facility and the name of the facility, in addition to the facility address and telephone number. There is keyword information to do. Among these, when genre information and keyword information are input as search information, a plurality of facilities corresponding to the search information are searched and displayed on the display device 12.

  Furthermore, when searching for facilities by genre information or keyword information, area information for designating a search target area can also be input by the operation switch group 7. As this search target area, for example, an area around the current value of the vehicle can be specified, or an area can be specified in units of prefectures or municipalities.

  The TV receiver 10 is a device for selecting and receiving a television broadcast signal, and is configured to be able to allocate a broadcast signal having a predetermined frequency to a so-called preset memory. Then, if the user designates the preset memory number, the television broadcast signal of the corresponding broadcast station can be received. The received television image is displayed on the display device 12.

  The vehicle navigation apparatus according to the present embodiment reproduces a TV receiver 10, a radio receiver that receives radio broadcasts, and a CD that records music data and a DVD that records video and audio data. A device or the like may be provided.

  The VICS device 11 receives information such as road traffic information distributed from the VICS center via beacons laid on the road and FM broadcast stations in various places, and transmits information from the vehicle side to the outside as necessary. It is a device to do. The received information is processed by the control circuit 8. For example, traffic jam information, regulation information, and the like are displayed on the road map displayed on the display device 12.

  The display device 12 is configured by, for example, a liquid crystal display, and is input to the screen of the display device 12 from the own vehicle mark that displays the traveling direction while corresponding to the current position of the vehicle, and the map data input device 6. A road map around the vehicle generated by the map data can be displayed. Furthermore, when a destination is set, a guidance route from the current position to the destination can be displayed on the road map in an overlapping manner.

  The voice input / output device 13 includes an input device and an output device (not shown). Among these, the input device recognizes the user's utterance content input via the microphone and outputs a corresponding command to the control circuit 8. Therefore, various operation instructions can be given by voice. On the other hand, the output device includes a speaker, an audio amplifier, and the like, and is used for voice guidance and the like in the vehicle navigation device.

  The non-volatile memory 14 is formed of a storage medium that can read and write data, such as an EEPROM, a memory card, and a hard disk, and can retain stored contents even when power supply is stopped. The nonvolatile memory 14 stores various data such as text data, image data, and audio data stored by the user. Further, as will be described later, data such as a desired facility search result screen, a flag indicating that the vehicle has arrived at the destination, and the time when the vehicle engine is turned off are also stored.

  Next, characteristic parts of the vehicle navigation device according to the present embodiment will be described based on the flowcharts of FIGS. At that time, in order to facilitate understanding, the screen display examples shown in FIGS. 2 is a flowchart for performing a normal navigation operation, FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing processing when the vehicle engine is turned off and the navigation device stops its operation, and FIG. It is a flowchart which shows a process when the engine of a vehicle is turned on and a navigation apparatus starts the operation | movement.

  First, the normal operation of the navigation device shown in the flowchart of FIG. 2 will be described. In step S110, the current position of the vehicle is displayed on the display device 12, as shown in FIG. More specifically, the current vehicle position detected by each sensor of the position detector 1 and the map data from the map data input device 6 are used to indicate the traveling direction of the vehicle while corresponding to the current position of the vehicle. And a road map around the vehicle is displayed on the display device 12.

  In a succeeding step S120, it is determined whether or not a switch operation or a voice operation is performed on the operation switch group 7 by the user. If an operation by the user is performed, the process proceeds to step S130, and it is determined whether the operation is a predetermined search operation such as a genre search or a keyword search in which a plurality of facilities are to be searched. If it is determined in step S130 that the user operation is not a predetermined search operation, the process proceeds to step S140, and processing corresponding to the user operation is executed. On the other hand, if it is determined in step S130 that the user operation is a predetermined search operation, the process proceeds to step S150.

  In step S150, it is determined whether the type of search by the user operation is a genre search or a keyword search. If it is determined that the search is a genre search, the process proceeds to step S160, and if it is determined that the search is a keyword search. The process proceeds to step S190.

  In step S160, the facility corresponding to the genre designated by the user is searched. In this facility search, if all areas are targeted, the number of corresponding facilities becomes too large, and accordingly, the area to be searched is appropriately limited based on the user's instruction. Specifically, an area around the current location of the vehicle is set as a search target area, or an area near the destination is set as a search target area for each prefecture or municipality.

  However, if a genre search is performed for all areas and the searched facilities are sorted and displayed according to the distance from the current location, the search result screen is substantially the same as when the search target area is limited to the vicinity of the current location. can get.

  In the subsequent step S170, a search result screen for displaying information on a plurality of found facilities on the display device 12 is stored in the nonvolatile memory 14. In step S180, the search result is displayed on the display device 12. FIG. 5B shows an example in which information about a plurality of facilities corresponding to the search genre is displayed on the display device 12 when the search genre is a restaurant.

  On the other hand, in step S190, the facility that includes the keyword input by the user in the facility name is searched. Also in this keyword search, there are cases where the number of corresponding facilities increases, so it is possible to specify a search target area. In step S200, a search result screen for displaying a plurality of facility information searched by the keyword search is stored. In step S210, the search result is displayed on the display device 12.

  Thus, when the search result is displayed on the display device 12 by the processing of step S180 or step S210, the user can designate a desired facility therein and set the facility as a destination. Become. In step S220, it is determined whether or not a desired facility is selected from the retrieved facilities by the user and set as a destination. If the user does not execute destination setting, the process returns to step S110. On the other hand, if the destination is set, the process proceeds to step S230.

  In step S230, route guidance for guiding the vehicle to the set destination is performed. Specifically, the guidance route is highlighted on the map on the display device 12, and the guidance intersection to be turned right or left is voice-guided or enlarged. Such route guidance allows the user to smoothly reach the destination.

  In step S240, it is determined whether the vehicle has reached the destination facility based on the current position of the vehicle and the position of the destination. As shown in FIG.5 (c), when a vehicle arrives at the destination, it determines with Yes in the determination process of this step S240, and complete | finishes route guidance. In step S250, the destination arrival flag is turned on. The fact that the destination arrival flag is turned on is stored in the nonvolatile memory 14 described above.

  It should be noted that the destination arrival flag is turned off when the vehicle is away from the destination facility by a predetermined distance or more, and the fact is stored in the nonvolatile memory 14. Therefore, the state where the destination arrival flag is on means that the vehicle remains in the vicinity of the destination facility.

  Next, the operation of the vehicle navigation device when the vehicle engine is turned off will be described based on the flowchart of FIG.

  First, in step S310, it is determined based on the detection signal of the IGSW 9 whether or not the vehicle engine has been turned off. If it is determined in step S310 that the engine is turned off, the time when the engine is turned off is stored in the nonvolatile memory 14 in step S320. The vehicle navigation device has an internal clock (not shown), can acquire time information by a GPS signal, and can specify an engine off time from the time information.

  In step S330, a shutdown process including storage of the current position of the vehicle and storage of the type of screen displayed on the display device 12 is executed. Thereafter, the vehicle navigation device is cut off from power supply, Stop operation. At this time, nothing is displayed on the screen of the display device 12 as shown in FIG.

  Next, the operation of the vehicle navigation device when the vehicle engine is turned on will be described based on the flowchart of FIG.

  First, in step S410, it is determined based on the detection signal of the IGSW 9 whether or not the vehicle engine has been turned on. If it is determined that the engine is turned on, an initialization process is executed in step S420 to start the operation of the vehicle navigation device. In this initialization process, map data necessary for displaying the current location is read based on the current location of the vehicle stored in the shutdown process. During this initialization process, for example, an initial screen as shown in FIG.

  In subsequent step S430, the information stored in the nonvolatile memory 14 is read. That is, information on the search result screen, the destination arrival flag, and the engine off time is read from the nonvolatile memory 14.

  In step S440, the time during which the vehicle engine is stopped is calculated from the difference between the read engine-off time and the current time. In step S450, it is determined whether the destination arrival flag read from the nonvolatile memory 14 is on. In this determination process, if it is determined that the destination arrival flag is on, the process proceeds to step S400. If it is determined that the destination arrival flag is off, the process proceeds to step S110 in the flowchart of FIG.

  If it is determined that the destination arrival flag is on, it means that the engine has been stopped and started while the vehicle remains in the vicinity of the facility set as the destination. For this reason, in step S460, the engine stop time calculated in step S440 is compared with a predetermined time (for example, 10 minutes), so that the user stays at the destination facility for a short time or a long time. Determine whether.

  In the determination process of step S460, when it is determined that the engine stop time is longer than the predetermined time, it can be estimated that the user stayed at the destination facility for a long time and reached the purpose of stopping at the facility. Accordingly, in this case, the process proceeds to step S110 in the flowchart of FIG. 2, and the vehicle navigation device displays a screen for displaying the current position of the vehicle on the display device 12 as shown in FIG. Let

  On the other hand, in the determination process of step S460, when it is determined that the engine stop time is equal to or shorter than the predetermined time, the user has not been able to achieve the purpose of stopping at the facility because the staying time of the user at the destination facility is short. Guessed. For example, if the destination facility is a restaurant and the vehicle engine stop time is short, the user may not have eaten yet because the restaurant is congested or closed. . In this case, the user is likely to search for another alternative facility in place of the facility initially set as the destination.

  For this reason, when it is determined in step S460 that the engine stop time is equal to or shorter than the predetermined time, the process proceeds to step S470, and the genre search result screen is stored in the nonvolatile memory 14, and the information is read in step S430. It is determined whether or not it was possible. If it is determined No in step S470, it is determined in step S480 whether or not the keyword search result screen is stored in the nonvolatile memory 14 and the information can be read in step S430. To do.

  If any one of the search result screens is stored in the nonvolatile memory 14 and the information can be read out, step S180 or step S180 in the flowchart of FIG. 2 is performed depending on the type of the stored search result screen. In step S210, the corresponding search result is displayed on the display device 12. FIG. 5G shows the genre search result screen displayed in this way.

  As a result, in a situation where it is assumed that the user will look for another alternative facility, the vehicular navigation device replaces the current location display screen (FIG. 5 (f)) displayed at the normal time with the original destination facility. The search result screen (FIG. 5 (g)) when searching can be automatically displayed. For this reason, the user can obtain a search result for selecting an alternative facility in place of the original destination facility without performing any operation for performing a similar search again. As a result, the user can easily find a facility that is a substitute for the original destination facility without performing complicated operations.

  The preferred embodiments of the present invention have been described above. However, the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments, and various modifications can be made without departing from the spirit of the present invention.

  For example, in the above-described embodiment, when a plurality of facilities are searched by the search information input by the user, the search result screen is stored. However, instead of the search result screen, search information input by the user may be stored. In this case, when the vehicle engine is turned on, if it is determined that the destination arrival flag is on and the engine stop time is equal to or shorter than the predetermined time, the stored search information is used at that time. Then, the facility corresponding to the search information is automatically searched. That is, depending on the type of stored search information, the process proceeds to step S160 or step S190 in the flowchart of FIG. 2, and genre search and keyword search are performed again. Then, in step S180 or step S210, the display device 12 is caused to display a search result indicating information on the searched plurality of facilities.

  This makes it possible to search for nearby facilities based on the current location of the vehicle, particularly when searching for surrounding facilities based on the search information, so that appropriate alternative facility information is displayed. Will be able to.

  In the above-described embodiment, an example has been described in which the engine engine stop time is compared with a common predetermined time regardless of the type of facility set as the destination. However, this predetermined time may be changed according to the facility type. If the type of facility is different, the time required for the user to achieve the purpose of stopping at the facility is also different in each facility. For this reason, by changing the predetermined time compared with the engine stop time according to the facility type, it is possible to more accurately estimate whether or not the user has stopped at the destination facility. .

  Further, in the above-described embodiment, an example has been described in which, when the vehicle navigation device starts operating in response to the start of the engine, a current location screen indicating the current location of the vehicle is displayed in principle. However, when the vehicle navigation device includes the TV receiver 10 and other audio devices and displays the video screen and the operation screen when the vehicle engine is turned off, The same type of screen as when the engine is off may be displayed as the screen.

It is a block diagram which shows schematic structure of the navigation apparatus for vehicles which concerns on this embodiment. 5 is a flowchart showing a process for performing a normal navigation operation in the vehicle navigation apparatus. It is a flowchart which shows the process when the engine of a vehicle is turned off and a vehicle navigation apparatus stops the operation | movement. It is a flowchart which shows the process when the engine of a vehicle is turned on and the navigation apparatus for vehicles starts the operation | movement. (A)-(g) is drawing which shows the example of various screen displays by the navigation apparatus for vehicles.

Explanation of symbols

1 Position Detector 6 Map Data Input Device 7 Operation Switch Group 8 Control Circuit 9 IGSW
12 Display device 14 Non-volatile memory

Claims (5)

A vehicle navigation device that starts operation in accordance with activation of a power source for running a vehicle,
Display means for displaying a predetermined screen at the start of operation;
A search unit for searching for a facility corresponding to the search information input by the user, and displaying information of the searched facility on the display unit;
Route guidance means for executing route guidance when the facility searched by the search means is set as a destination;
Detecting means for detecting start and stop of a power source for running the vehicle;
When the plurality of facilities are searched by the search means, the route guidance means performs route guidance using a facility selected from the plurality of facilities as a destination, and when the vehicle reaches the destination, the vehicle When the power source is stopped and then started, the stop start time from the stop to start is compared with a predetermined time, and if the stop start time is shorter than the predetermined time, the facility as the predetermined screen as the predetermined screen A vehicle navigation apparatus comprising: a display control unit that causes a display unit to display an alternative facility information screen that indicates information about a facility that replaces the facility.   The display control means stores search information input by the user, and when the power source of the vehicle is activated in the facility set as the destination, the search control means stores the search information stored in the search means. 2. The vehicle navigation apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a corresponding facility is searched, and information on the searched facility is displayed on the display unit as the alternative facility information screen.   The display control means stores a facility information screen including a plurality of facilities searched based on the search information input by the user, and the power source of the vehicle is activated in the facility as the destination 2. The vehicle navigation apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the stored facility information screen is displayed on the display unit as the alternative facility information screen.   The vehicle navigation apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the search information is information indicating a type of facility.   The vehicle navigation device according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the search information is keyword information corresponding to at least a part of a facility name.

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