JP2009168780A - Information-providing device for vehicle - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an information-providing device for a vehicle that can provide a user with detailed information while cutting down a communication cost. <P>SOLUTION: The information-providing device 1 for the vehicle providing information regarding the degree of traffic congestion of each road section comprises: a communication means 40 for acquiring information on the road sections having the predetermined degree of traffic congestion, from a facility outside the vehicle; and an information-complementing means 56 for complementing information with road sections that do not have the information received by the communication means, as the ones with the degrees of traffic congestion other than the predetermined degree of traffic congestion. The user is provided with information on the degrees of traffic congestion, including the information complemented by the information-complementing means. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2009,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a vehicular information providing apparatus that provides information related to the degree of congestion for each road section.

  Conventionally, a free information communication system that transmits traffic information such as traffic congestion, travel time (referred to as travel time in a certain section), traffic regulations, etc. edited and processed at an information center, which is an off-vehicle facility, to a vehicle in real time is VICS. (Registered trademark; Vehicle Information and Communication System). In VICS, information transmission to a vehicle is performed via a beacon or FM multiplex broadcasting. In addition, automobile manufacturers provide a service for providing traffic information similar to VICS to vehicles via a radio network of mobile phones and FM multiplex broadcasting. Such traffic information is displayed to the occupant by a liquid crystal display device in the passenger compartment or a HUD (Head Up Display).

An invention relating to a traffic information display device that displays traffic information about road congestion supplied from an out-of-vehicle facility for each link that is a predetermined section of a road is disclosed (for example, see Patent Document 1). In this apparatus, the traffic information is classified and displayed as “traffic jam”, “congested”, “no traffic jam”, and “unknown”. Further, by displaying the “no traffic jam” link separately from other links, the user can easily select a route.
JP-A-9-133537

  By the way, in recent years, various data (current position, speed, weather, etc.) acquired by in-vehicle devices, etc. are transmitted from a plurality of vehicles, collected at an information center and managed by adding statistical processing, etc. A system that provides a vehicle or the like as service information such as weather information or the like is called a probe information system or the like and is put into practical use. When such a probe information system is applied to the provision of traffic jam information, it becomes possible to provide information on a more detailed road section.

  On the other hand, there is a problem that the amount of information transmitted from the information center to the vehicle becomes enormous and the communication cost increases. In the above conventional technique, such a problem is not taken into consideration.

  The present invention is for solving such problems, and a main object of the present invention is to provide a vehicle information providing apparatus capable of providing detailed information to a user while suppressing communication costs.

In order to achieve the above object, one embodiment of the present invention provides:
An information providing device for a vehicle that provides information on the degree of congestion for each road section,
A communication means for acquiring information on a road section having a predetermined traffic congestion degree from an outside vehicle facility;
A road section not included in the information received by the communication means includes information complementing means for complementing the information as having a congestion degree other than the predetermined congestion degree,
It is an information providing device for vehicles which provides a user with information about the degree of traffic congestion including information supplemented by the information complementing means.

  According to this aspect of the present invention, it is possible to reduce the amount of information received from the facility outside the vehicle by the amount of information supplemented by the information complementing means, so that the communication cost can be suppressed. As a result, detailed information can be provided to the user for the amount of communication.

In one embodiment of the present invention,
The predetermined congestion level is, for example, a part of the congestion level classified into a plurality of stages.

In one embodiment of the present invention,
The road section that is not included in the information received by the communication means is, for example, a road section that is not congested.

  ADVANTAGE OF THE INVENTION According to this invention, the information provision apparatus for vehicles which can provide a user with detailed information, suppressing communication cost can be provided.

  Hereinafter, the best mode for carrying out the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

  Hereinafter, the vehicle information provision apparatus 1 which concerns on one Example of this invention is demonstrated.

[Constitution]
FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating an example of the overall configuration of the vehicle information providing apparatus 1. The vehicle information providing apparatus 1 includes, as main components, a GPS receiver 10, an INS sensor 15, an HMI (Human Machine Interface) 20, a storage device 30, a communication device 40, and a navigation device ECU (Electronic). Control Unit) 50. Note that the arrows in the figure indicate the flow of information communication between devices performed using an appropriate communication protocol such as CAN (Controller Area Network), BEAN, AVC-LAN, or FlexRay via multiple communication lines.

  The GPS receiver 10 receives a radio wave signal including satellite orbit and time data from a GPS satellite and outputs the radio signal to the navigation device ECU 50. The INS sensor 15 includes, for example, a gyro sensor and a vehicle speed sensor, and outputs a sensor output value to the navigation device ECU 50.

  The HMI 20 includes, for example, a display device 22 configured to allow various input operations by a user as a touch panel, a microphone, a speaker, a buzzer, and the like for voice input / output. The display device 22 detects a change in voltage caused by a user touching the surface of the display device 22 and recognizes the position where the touch operation is performed. Thereby, a GUI (Graphical User Interface) switch can be set at a predetermined position on the screen. The output content of the HMI 20 is determined by the navigation device ECU 50, and the input content made to the HMI 20 is transmitted to the navigation device ECU 50.

  The storage device 30 is, for example, a storage device such as an HDD (Hard Disk Drive), a DVD drive, or a CD-ROM drive. The storage medium of the storage device 30 stores map data 32, traffic information 34 that is partially acquired from the information center 100 and supplemented by a complement processing unit 56 as will be described later, and other information.

  The map data 32 expresses a road shape as a set of a plurality of node coordinates indicating intersections and the like and links connecting them. Each link stores road width, the number of lanes, curvature, and the like. Further, the map data 32 includes typical facility information (point information).

  The traffic information 34 includes the degree of congestion for each road section. Here, the “road section” may be the same section as the link of the map data 32 or may be different. When these are different, the process of associating the link of the map data 32 with the road section received from the information center may be performed. Hereinafter, description will be made on the assumption that the section is the same as the link of the map data 32. The degree of traffic congestion is classified into, for example, four levels of “traffic jam”, “crowded”, “no traffic jam”, and “unknown” (it goes without saying that this is not limitative).

  The communication device 40 performs transmission / reception with the center side communication device 140 of the information center 100 via the radio base station 80 or the network 90, for example. Wireless communication using a mobile phone network, a PHS (Personal Handy-phone System) network, a wireless LAN, WiMAX (Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access), a satellite phone, or the like is performed between the communication device 40 and the wireless base station 80. The network 90 connecting the radio base station 80 and the information center 100 is a wired network such as a public switched telephone network (PSTN), a digital communication network (ISDN), or an optical fiber. The communication device 40 may include an FM multiplex broadcast receiver or a beacon receiver, and may acquire information via an FM wave or a beacon.

  The information center 100 is a facility operated by, for example, an automobile manufacturer, and includes a VICS (registered trademark; Vehicle Information and Communication System) information acquisition unit 110, a probe information acquisition unit 120, a server 130, a center side communication device 140, Is provided. The VICS information acquisition unit 110 acquires traffic information from the VICS center. The VICS Center generates traffic information including the presence / absence and degree of traffic congestion, section travel time, traffic regulations, and the like based on information input from databases such as police and road managers, and provides it to vehicles and the like.

  The probe information acquisition unit 120 receives various information from the probe car. The probe car in the present embodiment has a current position specifying device and a communication device like the in-vehicle navigation device 1 of the present embodiment, calculates the section travel time in each road section, and uploads this to the information center. A possible vehicle. Therefore, the vehicle on which the in-vehicle navigation device 1 is mounted may behave as a probe car, or a probe car that exclusively collects traffic information may be present.

  The server 130 integrates the traffic information acquired by the VICS information acquisition unit 110 with the section travel time for each lane acquired by the probe information acquisition unit 120, and the like as traffic information including traffic jam information for each road section. The center side communication device 140 is controlled so as to be provided.

  The navigation device ECU 50 is, for example, a computer unit in which a ROM, a RAM, and the like are connected to each other via a bus with a CPU as a center, and includes a flash memory, an I / O port, a timer, a counter, and the like. The ROM stores programs and data executed by the CPU.

  The navigation device ECU 50 includes a destination setting unit 51, a current position specifying unit 52, a recommended route generating unit 53, and main function blocks that function when the CPU executes a program stored in the ROM. A voice control unit 54, a communication control unit 55, an information complementing unit 56, and a display control unit 57 are provided.

  The destination setting unit 51 prompts the user to set a destination by the HMI 20 at a predetermined timing, and when the user sets the destination by voice or touch input, the destination is searched from the map data 32 and the coordinates of the destination are obtained. The data is output to the recommended route generation unit 53. Note that “output” is a convenient expression, and a process of writing to a shared memory such as a flash memory may be performed.

  The current position specifying unit 52 specifies the current position (latitude, longitude) of the host vehicle based on signals input from the GPS receiver 10 and the INS sensor 15. Specifically, for example, the current position of the host vehicle is specified by calculation based on the time difference of the radio signal received by the GPS receiver 10 in principle, and correction based on the output of the INS sensor 15 outside the GPS receiver 10 reception area. To estimate the current position of the vehicle. Further, a process of periodically checking whether or not the current position of the identified own vehicle is accurate by matching with the map data 32 may be performed, or may be received via an FM multiplex broadcast receiver or a beacon receiver. The current position of the host vehicle may be corrected based on various information. The current position of the host vehicle identified by the current position identifying unit 52 is output to the recommended route generating unit 53.

  When the destination is set by the destination setting unit 51, the recommended route generating unit 53 generates a recommended route from the current position specified by the current position specifying unit 52 to the destination using the Dijkstra method or the like.

  The voice control unit 54 performs voice guidance by the HMI 20 so that the host vehicle can travel along the recommended route generated by the route generation unit 53. More specifically, by referring to the map data 32 using the current position of the host vehicle specified by the current position specifying unit 52, guidance for turning left and right at an intersection, usage guidance for an expressway, and a destination approach. The speaker etc. are controlled so as to give guidance to the effect.

[Supplementation of traffic information]
For example, the communication control unit 55 controls the communication device 40 so as to acquire traffic information around the recommended route at the timing when the route generation unit 53 generates the recommended route. In addition, the communication device 40 may be controlled so as to acquire traffic information about the area around the host vehicle at regular intervals.

  In the present embodiment, the information received from the information center 100 is limited to information about links whose congestion degree is “congested”, “congested”, or “unknown” (“predetermined in the claims” Information about road segments with a traffic jam level "). As a result, the information regarding the “no traffic jam” link, which is considered to have the largest number of links, is usually omitted, and the amount of communication can be reduced.

  The complement processing unit 56 performs a complement process on a road section not included in the information received from the information center 100 and stores it as traffic information 34 in the storage medium of the storage device 30. The interpolation processing unit 56 supplements the information that the traffic degree is not given by the information received from the information center 100 as “no traffic jam” and stores the link in the storage medium of the storage device 30. FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing a flow of the complement processing executed by the complement processing unit 56.

  First, a link around the recommended route (or around the host vehicle) is extracted from the map data 34 (S100).

  Then, the extracted links are read in the order of the link numbers given in advance (S102), and it is determined whether or not the degree of congestion is given for the links (S104). No processing is performed when the degree of traffic congestion is assigned, and “no traffic jam” is assigned when no traffic congestion degree is assigned (S106).

  Thereafter, the processing of S102 to S106 is repeatedly executed until the processing is completed for all links (S108).

[Display of traffic information, etc.]
The display control unit 57 controls navigation display by the display device 22. Specifically, a road image ahead of the host vehicle is generated by referring to the map data 32 using the current position of the host vehicle specified by the current position specifying unit 52. The road image may be a bird's-eye view image viewed from above or an image imitating the driver's field of view. In the following description, it is assumed that a bird's-eye view image viewed from above is displayed. Then, a mark indicating the current position of the host vehicle is displayed superimposed on the road image, or an arrow is displayed at a place where the course is changed.

  Further, the display control unit 57 superimposes and displays the degree of traffic congestion on the road image based on the traffic information 34. The degree of traffic congestion is indicated on the screen by, for example, arrows of respective colors (red: traffic jam, orange: congestion, green: no traffic jam, blue: unknown, etc.). FIG. 3 shows a case in which the degree of congestion is displayed based only on the information received from the information center 100 (FIG. 3A), and the degree of congestion based on the traffic information 34 after the complement processing by the complement processing unit 56. It is the figure which compared (when FIG. 3 (B)) is displayed. As shown in the figure, the user can obtain detailed information on the degree of traffic congestion around the recommended route (or around the host vehicle) even though the traffic is suppressed.

  In addition, when the traffic information includes information other than the traffic jam information, in addition to the arrows of each color indicating the traffic jam level, a mark indicating an accident / construction, a mark indicating traffic regulation such as a road closure may be superimposed on the road image. .

  According to the vehicle information providing apparatus 1 of the present embodiment, detailed information can be provided to the user while suppressing communication costs.

  The best mode for carrying out the present invention has been described above with reference to the embodiments. However, the present invention is not limited to these embodiments, and various modifications can be made without departing from the scope of the present invention. And substitutions can be added.

  The present invention can be used in the automobile manufacturing industry, the automobile parts manufacturing industry, and the like.

It is a figure which shows an example of the whole structure of the information provision apparatus 1 for vehicles. 6 is a flowchart showing a flow of a complement process executed by a complement processor 56. It is the figure which compared the case where a congestion degree is displayed based only on the information received from the information center 100, and the case where a congestion degree is displayed based on the traffic information 34 after performing the complementation process by the complementation process part 56. .

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Vehicle information provision apparatus 10 GPS receiver 15 INS sensor 20 HMI
22 Display device 30 Storage device 32 Map data 34 Traffic information 40 Communication device 50 ECU for navigation device
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 51 Destination setting part 52 Current position specific | specification part 53 Recommended route production | generation part 54 Voice control part 55 Communication control part 56 Information complementing part 57 Display control part 80 Wireless base station 90 Network 100 Information center 110 VICS information acquisition part 120 Probe information acquisition part 130 server 140 center side communication device

Claims (3)

An information providing device for a vehicle that provides information on the degree of congestion for each road section,
A communication means for acquiring information on a road section having a predetermined traffic congestion degree from an outside vehicle facility;
A road section not included in the information received by the communication means includes information complementing means for complementing the information as having a congestion degree other than the predetermined congestion degree,
A vehicular information providing apparatus that provides a user with information related to a degree of traffic congestion including information supplemented by the information complementing means. The predetermined congestion level is a part of the congestion level classified into a plurality of stages.
The vehicle information providing apparatus according to claim 1. Road sections not included in the information received by the communication means are road sections that are not congested.
The vehicle information providing device according to claim 1 or 2.

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