JP2008096289A - Navigation device compatible with multiple languages - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a navigation device compatible with multiple languages capable of setting automatically a language to be used. <P>SOLUTION: The navigation device compatible with multiple languages having map information and voice guide information in a plurality of languages, for performing navigation control by a designated language includes a database for preserving the map information and the voice guide information in the plurality of languages, a communication part for communicating with a cellular phone, a used language acquisition part for receiving a used language set in the cellular phone from the cellular phone through the communication part and preserving it, and a navigation control part for performing navigation control by using the map information and the voice guide information of the used language acquired from the cellular phone. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2008,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a multilingual navigation apparatus, and more particularly to a multilingual navigation apparatus that includes map information and voice guidance information in a plurality of languages and performs navigation control in a specified language.

In general, an in-vehicle navigation device detects the current position of the vehicle, reads map data in the vicinity of the vehicle from a data storage medium such as a DVD or an HDD, and displays the map data on a screen. In addition, a vehicle position mark indicating the vehicle position is displayed on the screen, and map data in the vicinity is scrolled as the vehicle progresses around the vehicle position mark, so that map information around the vehicle position is always displayed. It has come to understand.
Also, recent in-vehicle navigation devices are equipped with a route guidance function that allows a user to travel to a desired destination without making a mistake on the road. According to this route guidance function, the lowest cost route connecting from the starting point to the destination using map data is automatically searched through a simulation such as the horizontal search (BFS) method or Dijkstra method. The route is stored as a guidance route. And while driving, draw the guidance route on the map image in a different color from other roads and display it on the screen, or display an enlarged view of the intersection where the next vehicle enters and output guidance voice By this, the user is guided to the destination.
Furthermore, recently, automakers have started their own information services to differentiate themselves from other companies, such as connecting navigation devices and mobile phones to enable external calls and using the above information services. New functions using communication have been proposed.

以上より、利用者の使用言語にかかわらず、地図や音声案内の把握が容易なナビゲーション装置が求められている。従来技術として、ナビゲーション装置の音声案内を車両が走行する国の言語で行なうようにしたものがある(特許文献１参照)。しかし、この従来技術はマニュアル操作により音声案内する使用言語を設定するものである。
特開平8-124092号公報 By the way, in the conventional navigation device described above, the language used is fixed at the time of purchase. For this reason, the language used by the actual user may differ from the language used by the navigation device. In such a case, there is a problem that it is difficult for the user to grasp the contents of the displayed map and the output guidance voice. For example, when a foreigner uses a Japanese navigation system purchased in Japan, the characters on the map displayed by navigation control are in Japanese, and the guidance voice is also in Japanese. Is difficult to grasp.
In addition, when using a navigation device while traveling across borders in Europe, etc., if the navigation device uses a map written in the local language of each country for each country, a user who understands only one language can use the map contents. It becomes difficult to grasp. For example, the name “Germany” changes the name (or notation) of each country as shown in Table 1.

From the above, there is a need for a navigation device that allows easy understanding of maps and voice guidance regardless of the language used by the user. As a prior art, there is one in which voice guidance of a navigation device is performed in the language of the country in which the vehicle travels (see Patent Document 1). However, this prior art sets the language used for voice guidance by manual operation.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 8-124092

Since the above-described prior art is for manually setting the language to be used, there is a problem that the setting operation must be performed one by one and the usability is poor.
In view of the above, an object of the present invention is to automatically set a language to be used.

The present invention is a multilingual navigation device that includes map information and voice guidance information in a plurality of languages and performs navigation control in a specified language, a database that stores map information and voice guidance information in a plurality of languages, a mobile phone, and the like A communication unit that communicates; a use language acquisition unit that receives and stores a use language set in the mobile phone from the mobile phone via the communication unit; map information and voice guidance of the use language acquired from the mobile phone A navigation control unit that performs navigation control using information is provided.
The use language acquisition unit acquires the use language from the mobile phone when communication with the mobile phone becomes possible.
If the map information and voice guidance information of the language used acquired from the mobile phone does not exist in the database, the navigation control unit obtains the map information and voice guidance information of the language used from the external information center via the mobile phone. The information is acquired and stored in the database, and navigation control is performed using the map information and voice guidance information.

According to the present invention, the use language set in the mobile phone is received and stored from the mobile phone, and the navigation control is performed using the map information and the voice guidance information of the acquired use language. If the mobile phone is a mobile phone owned by the driver, the language used by the driver can be automatically set in the navigation device.
Also, if the map information and voice guidance information of the language used obtained from the mobile phone does not exist in the navigation device, the map information and voice guidance information of the language used are obtained from the external information center via the mobile phone and navigation is performed. Since the control is performed, the map display and voice guidance can be surely performed using the language used by the driver.

(A) Outline of the Invention Conventionally, multilingual mobile phones have been commercially available in Europe. In recent years, with the globalization of mobile phones, multilingual mobile phone models are increasing in Japan. Due to the characteristics of mobile phones, there is no private use of a single mobile phone by multiple people. Personal data such as phone books, display and incoming call settings, operability, etc. Most of them are customized and used for convenience. That is, it may be considered that the mobile phone and the user are associated with each other one to one. In the case of a multilingual mobile phone, if the language can be set to a language (native language) that the user can understand most, the user sets the language to the mobile phone.
Therefore, the present invention provides a navigation device that transmits language information (language used) set by a user to a multilingual mobile phone to the navigation device when the navigation device and the mobile phone are communicably connected. Is set automatically.
FIG. 1 is a schematic explanatory diagram of the present invention, in which a navigation device 10, a mobile phone device 50, and an external information center 70 are shown. The navigation device 10 includes a database (not shown) that stores map information and voice guidance information in a plurality of languages, and has a multilingual function for performing navigation control using the map information and voice guidance information in a set language. ing. The mobile phone device 50 has a multilingual function that displays various menus, setting information, and the like in a language selected from a number of languages. The information center 70 holds multilingual map information and voice guidance information in the database MDB.
The mobile phone device 50 includes a language information storage unit LGM that stores a language used by the mobile phone owner. When communication with the navigation device is enabled, the language information is obtained by a request from the language information acquisition unit LGE of the navigation device. The language used stored in the storage unit LGM is transmitted to the language information acquisition unit LGE. The navigation device 10 performs navigation control using the map information and voice guidance information of the language used that the language information acquisition unit LGE has acquired from the mobile phone 50. At this time, if the acquired map information and voice guidance information of the language used does not exist in the database, navigation control is performed by acquiring the map information and voice guidance information of the language used from the information center 70 by Internet communication via a mobile phone. I do.

(B) System Configuration The stem configuration as one embodiment of the present invention is as shown in FIG. 1, and includes a multilingual navigation device 10, a multilingual mobile phone 50, and an information center 70. The navigation device 10 and the mobile phone 50 are connected by a wireless link using Bluetooth, and data is transmitted and received according to the Bluetooth procedure. Of course, it is also possible to configure the communication by connecting with a cable. Communication between the mobile phone 50 and the information center 70 is possible through a known Internet connection.

(A) Multilingual Navigation Device FIG. 2 is a block diagram of the multilingual navigation device 10, which includes an interface unit (I / F) 11, a navigation controller 12, a map / voice guidance information database (DB) configured with Bluetooth devices. 13) A language information storage unit 14 for storing the language used, an operation unit 15, a GPS receiver 16, an autonomous navigation sensor 17, an audio unit 18 for outputting guidance voice, and a display device 19 for displaying a map and a menu. Has been.
The interface unit 11 is connected to the interface unit of the mobile phone 50 via Bluetooth, and transmits / receives mobile phone setting information (language information etc.) and other information to / from the interface unit. The navigation controller 12 performs various controls for realizing a predetermined navigation operation, and the map / voice guidance information DB 13 stores map information and voice guidance information corresponding to each of multiple languages. The navigation controller 12 reads map information and guidance voice information corresponding to the language used from the DB 13 and executes navigation control. Further, the navigation controller 12 communicates with the information center 70 via the mobile phone 50, acquires map information and voice guidance information of a desired language from the information center, and registers them in the map / voice guidance information DB 13, or A part of the map / voice guidance information DB 13 is changed, so that selectable languages can be increased or changed.
The language information storage unit 14 acquires the language information selected by the user using the mobile phone 50 from the mobile phone 50 and stores it. The navigation controller 12 reads the map and voice guidance information corresponding to the language information stored in the language information storage unit 14 from the map / voice guidance information DB 13 and performs navigation control, and displays the map in the language on the display device 19. In addition, voice guidance is performed from the audio unit 18 in the language. The operation unit 15 is a part that operates the navigation controller 12, and sends various commands to the navigation controller 12. The GPS receiver 16 receives radio waves sent from multiple GPS satellites, performs 3D positioning processing or 2D positioning processing, calculates the absolute position and direction of the vehicle, and outputs these together with the positioning time To do. The autonomous navigation sensor 17 includes an angle sensor such as a vibration gyro that detects the vehicle rotation angle as a relative direction, and a distance sensor that outputs one pulse for each predetermined travel distance, and determines the relative position and direction of the vehicle. To detect. The display device 19 displays map information around the host vehicle based on the drawing data output from the navigation controller 12, or displays a guide route, a predetermined guide image, etc. on the map. The audio unit 18 performs audio output such as intersection guidance audio based on the audio data output from the navigation controller 12.

(B) Multilingual mobile phone FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a multilingual mobile phone. The antenna 51 receives a signal transmitted from a base station by radio and is directed from the mobile phone to the base station. Send the signal wirelessly. The transmitter 52 outputs the voice of the user, and the receiver 53 outputs the voice of the communication partner. The transmission / reception unit 54 operates when the power switch is on, and at the time of reception, converts the radio signal received via the antenna into a baseband signal, inputs the audio data included in the received signal to the handset 53, and controls data Or communication data is input to the control unit 54. Further, at the time of transmission, the transmission / reception unit 54 transmits the control data and communication data input from the control unit 54 and the voice data input from the transmitter 52 from the antenna 51 as radio signals.
The control unit 55 controls the entire mobile phone, and communicates with the in-vehicle device via Bluetooth when communication with the in-vehicle device 10 becomes possible, and transmits use language information set by the owner of the phone to the in-vehicle device 10. When there is an incoming call, the ring tone sending unit 56 outputs a melody set by the owner to notify the incoming call. The system memory 57 stores a program for controlling the entire mobile phone, language information LNG set by the owner, and the like. The operation unit 58 is provided with numeric keys and function keys for performing various settings and inputs. By operating this operation unit, the function name displayed on the display unit by the mobile phone and the language of the message can be set, and the set language information LNG is registered in the system memory 57.
The telephone directory memory 59 stores a telephone number corresponding to a name, and can make a call to the other party only by selecting the name of the other party to be called instead of inputting the telephone number. The display control unit 60 generates function names and messages with the set language information and displays them on the display unit 61. For example, when English is selected as the language used, the display control unit 60 displays the function name and message in English. An interface unit (I / F) 62 is connected to the interface unit 11 of the in-vehicle device 10 via Bluetooth, and transmits and receives data to and from each other wirelessly.

(C) Information Center The information center 70 (see FIG. 1) has a multilingual database MDB. When the navigation device 10 does not have the map / voice guidance data corresponding to the language information set in the mobile phone 50, the information center 70 can send the navigation device 10 via the mobile phone 50 in response to a request from the navigation device 10. Send map / voice guidance data corresponding to.

(C) Information exchange method between the mobile phone and the navigation device When the mobile phone 50 and the navigation device 10 are connected via Bluetooth and can communicate with each other, the communication between the mobile phone 50 and the navigation device 10 conforms to the information exchange standard called AT command. Data and commands are sent and received at. FIG. 4 shows an example of an AT command. For example, when an incoming call is received by the mobile phone 50, an “AT command (RING) indicating an incoming call” is sent from the mobile phone 50 to the navigation device 10. Conversely, when navigation device 10 wants to know the dial lock state of mobile phone 50, “AT command (+ CLCK) indicating dial lock state notification request” is sent from navigation device 10 to mobile phone 50, and then mobile phone 50. Then, the “AT command (LOCK, UNLOCK) indicating the dial lock state” is sent to the navigation device 10. Thereby, the navigation device 10 can know the status of the mobile phone 50.
FIG. 5 is a procedure explanatory diagram for the navigation device 10 to obtain language information set in the multilingual mobile phone 50. When the owner purchases the multilingual mobile phone 50, the owner operates the operation unit 58 of the mobile phone 50 to set the language used so that the screen is displayed in a language familiar to the owner. The set language information is stored in the system memory 57 of the mobile phone 50. The navigation device 10 acquires the set language used in the procedure of FIG. In FIG. 5, + LANG? Is an AT command for requesting the use language information to the mobile phone 50, and LANGn is an AT command for notifying the navigation device 10 of the use language.

(D) Language Setting Procedure in the Navigation Device of the Present Invention FIG. 6 is a language setting process flow in the navigation device of the present invention.
When the navigation device 10 and the mobile phone 50 come close to each other so that they can communicate with each other via Bluetooth, connection processing by the Bluetooth procedure is started and communication is possible (step 101).
When the mobile phone 50 and the navigation device 10 are connected, a connection establishment process such as authentication is performed between the two and it is checked whether the connection establishment is completed (step 102). If the authentication cannot be obtained and the connection is not established, the navigation device 10 displays an error message such as “cell phone connection failed” and ends the process (step 103).
On the other hand, when the connection is established in step 102, the navigation apparatus 10 obtains the language information (language used) stored in the system memory 57 of the mobile phone 50 using the information exchange standard (AT command) described in FIG. Then, it is checked whether the map / voice guidance information of the language used is stored in the map / voice guidance information DB 13 (step 105).
The navigation device 10 communicates with the information center 70 via the mobile phone 50 if the map / voice guidance information in the language used is not stored in the map / voice guidance information DB 13 (step 106). Map / voice guidance information corresponding to the language used is obtained from the database MDB (step 107). Next, the navigation device 10 stores the obtained map / voice guidance information in the map / voice guidance information DB 13 and updates the contents of the database DB (step 108).

After the processing of step 108 or if the map / voice guidance information of the language used is originally stored in the map / voice guidance information DB 13 in step 105, the navigation device 10 can obtain the language information (step 104) from the mobile phone 50 in step 104. Language) is stored in the language information storage unit 14 (step 109). Thereafter, the navigation apparatus 10 performs map display and voice guidance using the language map information and voice guidance information stored in the language information storage unit 14 (step 110). With the above procedure, the language setting of the navigation device can be automatically set to the language desired by the user without requiring any user operation.
According to the present invention, user convenience can be improved. That is, since map display and voice guidance can be performed in the user's language, the user can grasp the map and voice guidance reliably and easily. Further, according to the present invention, the user's desired language can be automatically set in the navigation device without any particular operation.

It is a schematic explanatory drawing of this invention. It is a block diagram of a multilingual navigation device. It is a block diagram of a multilingual mobile phone. An example of an AT command. It is a procedure explanatory drawing for a navigation apparatus to acquire the linguistic information set to the multilingual mobile phone. It is a language setting processing flow in the navigation device of the present invention.

Explanation of symbols

10 Navigation device 50 Mobile phone device 70 Information center
MDB multilingual database
LGM language information storage
LGE Language Information Acquisition Department

Claims (3)

In a multilingual navigation device that has map information and voice guidance information in multiple languages and performs navigation control in a specified language,
A database for storing map information and voice guidance information in multiple languages;
A communication unit that communicates with a mobile phone;
A used language acquisition unit for receiving and storing a used language set in the mobile phone from the mobile phone via the communication unit;
A navigation control unit for performing navigation control using the map information and voice guidance information of the language used acquired from the mobile phone;
A multilingual navigation device characterized by comprising: If the map information and guidance information of the language used acquired from the mobile phone does not exist in the database, the navigation control unit acquires the map information and voice guidance information of the language used from the external information center via the mobile phone. And performing navigation control using the map information and voice guidance information,
2. The multilingual navigation device according to claim 1, wherein: 2. The multilingual correspondence according to claim 1, wherein the language used acquisition unit acquires the language used from the mobile phone when communication with the mobile phone becomes possible. Navigation device.

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