JP2010032243A - Navigation apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a navigation apparatus for calculating and presenting a new guide route on the assumption that a user travels on a road having an indicated point when the guide route is changed based on the point on the road indicated by the user. <P>SOLUTION: When the user desires to change a portion of the route in a state that the guide route to a destination is preset, the navigation apparatus detects a link attribute of the road on the point indicated by the user if the user indicates the arbitrary point on the road, considers a continuous link group having the same attribute as a series of the roads, and causes the route for passing an intersection of each link group and returning to the original guide route to be the new guide route. If the route is improper, the route passing each point is calculated and presented in a conventional manner. When the indicated point is not on the road, the nearest road is selected as the indicated road. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2010,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a navigation device that guides a vehicle to a destination along a guidance route, and in particular, when changing a preset guidance route by designating a new point, the guidance route is changed based on the road at the designated point. The present invention relates to a navigation device that can be used.

  In a general navigation apparatus mounted on a vehicle or the like, a map / information data storage such as a CD-ROM, a DVD-ROM, a hard disk, etc., which stores map data for drawing a map and facility information data for retrieving a facility, etc. A vehicle, a data capture device that captures data from the map / information data storage medium, a monitor that displays a map, etc., a self-contained navigation device that uses a GPS receiver, a mileage sensor, a gyroscope, etc. It has a vehicle position detection device that detects the position and the direction of travel, fetches map data including the current position of the vehicle from a map / information data storage medium, and monitors a map image around the vehicle position based on this map data The vehicle position mark is superimposed on the monitor screen, and the map image is scrolled as the vehicle moves. Le displayed, or moving the fixed vehicle position mark a map image on the screen, the vehicle is to be seen at a glance whether the running where current.

  Map data stored in a map / information data storage medium such as a CD-ROM, DVD-ROM, or hard disk is divided into longitude and latitude widths of appropriate sizes according to various scale levels. A road or the like is stored as a coordinate set of nodes expressed by longitude and latitude. A road is composed of a combination of two or more nodes, and map data displays a road layer consisting of a road list, a node table, an intersection configuration node list, etc., and roads, buildings, facilities, parks, rivers, etc. on the map screen. Map data such as a background layer, and information data for displaying characters, map symbols, etc., such as administrative division names such as municipalities, road names, intersection names, and facility names.

  In addition, this navigation device has a route guidance function for allowing a user to easily travel on a road toward a desired destination or waypoint (hereinafter referred to as “destination”) without making a mistake. Yes. According to this route guidance function, a destination is set by various means, and an appropriate route is calculated and presented in consideration of various conditions among routes connecting these points from the departure point to the destination. It has become. Also, the route selected by the user is stored as a guide route, and while driving, the guide route is drawn on the map image with a different color from other routes and displayed on the screen. When approaching an intersection where the course of course should be changed within a certain distance, the intersection is enlarged and displayed on the screen by drawing an arrow indicating the direction in which the course should be changed, or a right or left turn is guided by voice. In this way, the user can be guided to the destination.

  In such a navigation device, when traveling on a preset guidance route as described above, when you want to travel to another place, by indicating the appropriate location where you want to travel, It is possible to calculate and present a new guide route that travels the point designated by the guide route calculation device and returns to the original guide route.

In the navigation device as described above, a vehicle navigation device having a function of setting a desired passage location that searches for a road corresponding to a desired passage location condition, and selects the searched road as a desired passage location. Is disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 9-126801 (Patent Document 1).
JP-A-9-126801

  In a conventional navigation device, when performing a guidance route changing process for traveling to a point designated by pointing to an arbitrary point from a guidance route set in advance as described above and returning to the original guidance route, for example, FIG. Processing as shown is performed. That is, when a guidance route U1 indicated by a thick line as shown in FIG. 4 (a) is initially set and traveling along this guidance route, the user wants to travel on a road along the sea. In the guidance route change mode of the navigation device, the route change is instructed by the instruction of the travel point.

  At that time, for example, when instructing each of the designated points S1, S2, S3 on the road shown in FIG. 4 (b) in order, traveling on the road R1 along the sea, and instructing the route to return to the original road, The navigation device calculates a new guidance route that returns to the original guidance route U1 through these points. As a result, as shown in FIG. 4 (c), turn right at the intersection C1, pass through the road R1 along the sea, pass through the designated point S1, turn left at the intersection C2, and pass through the designated point S2 through the road R2. Turn left at the intersection C3, turn left at the intersection C4 through the road R4, turn right at the road C5 through the road R5, pass through the designated point S3 through the road R5, and turn right at the intersection C6. A new guide route U2 that returns to the guide route U1 is set.

  Considering such a new guidance route, there may be a case where the user really wants to go to each of the designated points S1, S2, and S3 on the road designated by the user. The point on the designated road is often designated in order to return to the original guidance route through the road.

  Actually, when the point indicated by the user as shown in FIG. 4 (b) indicates the road to be passed, the new guidance route obtained as shown in FIG. 4 (c) is the road R1 along the sea. Obtained when the designated point S2 is designated in order to indicate R2 as a road to stop and return on the road along the sea after traveling, but not directed to travel at that point. The new guidance route is a detour guidance route that passes through the road R3. For this reason, in order to obtain a new guidance route according to the user's intention, the current technology cannot be solved, and a new method must be developed.

  Therefore, in the present invention, when changing from a preset guide route to a new guide route, when changing based on a point on the road instructed by the user, the point on the road instructed by the user is determined by the user. A main object is to provide a navigation device that can calculate and present a new guidance route as an instruction to travel on the road.

  In order to solve the above problems, a navigation device according to the present invention indicates a guide route calculation unit that calculates a guide route to a destination, and a guide route preset by the guide route calculation unit, indicating a point on the road. A road-specific guidance route calculation unit based on the designated point, and the road-specific guidance route computation unit based on the designated point passes through the designated point when the user designates a point on the road. A road to be identified is specified, and a calculation is performed in which a route that returns to the preset guide route through the specified road is used as a changed guide route.

  Another navigation device according to the present invention is characterized in that, in the navigation device, when a road passing through the designated point is identified, the road is identified as a road passing through a road closest to the designated point.

  Another navigation device according to the present invention, in the navigation device, calculates a route that returns to the preset guidance route through all points designated by the user when the user does not determine the changed guidance route. And an all-instructed point passage guidance route calculation unit.

  In the navigation device according to the present invention, in the navigation device, when specifying the road passing through the designated point, the road link passing through the designated point is obtained, and has the same attribute as the road link, A road is identified by obtaining a road link group connected to the road link.

  Another navigation device according to the present invention is characterized in that, in the navigation device, when calculating the change guide route, the calculation is performed based on an extraction result of an adjacent passing road change extraction unit that obtains an intersection of a passing road link group. To do.

  Since the present invention is configured as described above, when changing from a preset guide route to a new guide route, when changing based on a point on the road indicated by the user, This point can be calculated and presented as a new guidance route, assuming that the user has instructed the vehicle to travel on the road, and an appropriate change guidance route intended by the user can be presented.

  When a change is made based on a point on the road designated by the user, the point on the road designated by the user is calculated by assuming that the user has traveled on the road and calculating a new guide route. An instruction to change the problem of the navigation to be presented to the guidance route computation unit that computes the guidance route to the destination and the guidance route preset by the guidance route computation unit by indicating a point on the road A road specific type guidance route calculation unit by point, and when the user specifies a point on the road, the road specific type guidance route calculation unit by the indicated point specifies a road that passes by the specified point, This is realized by performing a calculation using a route that returns to the preset guide route through the specified road as a changed guide route.

  FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram showing various functional units, particularly a processing unit for changing a guidance route, in the navigation apparatus according to the present invention. In the navigation apparatus shown in FIG. 1, as in the prior art, a ROM in which software for comprehensively performing various predetermined functions is recorded in the system control unit 10, a CPU and a RAM for processing the software, etc. And each functional unit connected thereto is controlled. In the illustrated navigation apparatus, a vehicle position detection unit 13 is connected to the system control unit 10 and position data of the GPS receiver 11 is input. Further, if necessary, a travel distance / orientation detection unit using a vehicle speed sensor or an angle sensor. By inputting the movement data of the vehicle from 12, the current position of the vehicle is accurately detected.

  In addition, a VICS information input unit 14 including a VICS receiver is provided, and VICS information is taken in from beacons, FM broadcasts, and the like. In the instruction signal input unit 17, an instruction signal for a remote controller or the like by a user in the navigation device is input. Further, a signal from the voice recognition unit 16 that inputs a user instruction signal through a process of recognizing the user's voice as necessary is also input to the instruction signal input unit 17.

  The data fetching unit 19 fetches necessary map data and facility information from a map / information data recording medium 18 such as a CD-ROM, DVD-ROM, or hard disk, and the data recording medium is like a hard disk. When data can be easily written, data can be input to the data recording medium so that data imported from outside or data processed by other functional units can be read and used later. I have to. Further, in the illustrated navigation apparatus, a map image or the like from the image output unit is displayed on the monitor 20, and various guidance voices from the voice output unit 23 can be output from the speaker 22.

  In the guidance route calculation processing unit 24, a destination and a waypoint are set by various means, and a route from the current location detected by the vehicle position detection unit 13 to the destination is calculated in the same manner as in the past. Various processes are performed. The guide route calculation processing unit 24 includes a guide route change processing unit 29 as shown in the drawing for the guide route change processing proposed by the present invention, in addition to the usual guide route calculation. .

  That is, in the guidance route calculation processing unit 24 shown in FIG. 1, as in the example shown in FIG. 4A described as the prior art, the current location and destination position data input from the current location / destination input unit 27. Thus, the guidance route calculation unit 28 calculates the guidance route similar to the conventional one to determine the guidance route, and the guidance route stores the data in the guidance route storage unit 25. When the user wants to go to another point in this state, the guidance route change processing unit 29 gives an instruction to change the guidance route from the instruction signal input unit 17 to the guidance route change instruction input unit 30. The subsequent guidance route change processing is performed.

  In the instruction point input unit 31, after the instruction from the user is input by the guidance route change instruction input unit 30, an instruction signal of a desired point as shown in FIG. When this is performed from the unit 17, this is input by the designated point input unit 31. The input state of FIG. 4B as a conventional example is shown as FIG. 3A showing an example of the present invention. That is, in the example shown in the figure, in the state where the guide route U1 is currently set, the designated points S1, S2, and S3 on the road are instructed, and after traveling on the road R1 along the sea, the original guide route U1 is set. An example of indicating a return route is shown.

  The designated point position data fetching unit 32 fetches the data recorded in the map / information data recording medium 18 via the data fetching unit 9 for the position data of the point input by the designated point input unit 31 as described above. In addition, in the designated point nearest connection link extraction unit 33, the point designated by the user is normally designated on the road as shown in the figure, but it is not always indicated correctly on the road in many cases. Considering that, even when the designated point is not on the road, it is assumed that the designated point indicates the nearest road, and a link about the road is extracted. In addition, a road link having the same attribute as the extracted road link and directly or indirectly connected to the road link is extracted.

  The adjacent passing road intersection extraction unit 34 performs processing for obtaining an intersection between the link group of the i-th passing road that has passed and the i−1, i + 1-th link group. As a result, in the case of designated points S1, S2, and S3 as shown in FIG. 3 (a), roads R1, R2, and R3 indicated by broken lines in FIG. 3 (b) are detected, and the user indicates these roads. Then, the adjacent passing road intersection extraction unit 34 obtains intersections of these roads, that is, intersections.

  The guidance route change computation unit 35 that performs computation to change the guidance route performs computations for changing the guidance route by various methods. The all-instruction point passage guidance route computation unit 36 performs the above-described conventional example. As shown in FIG. 4 (c), when a guidance route that actually passes through the designated points S1, S2, and S3 is calculated, and road-specific guidance route computation using the designated point according to the present invention to be described later is not desired. Similarly to the conventional method, a process of calculating a new guidance route that returns to the original guidance route U1 via the designated point is performed.

  In the road specific type guidance route calculation unit 37 by the designated point, for example, when a point is designated as shown in FIG. 3A, the designated point nearest connection link extracting unit 33 as shown in FIG. It is assumed that the roads R1, R2, and R3 are instructed, and a process of calculating the shortest new guide route that returns to the original guide route U1 through those roads is performed. At this time, in addition to calculating the order of the designated points, that is, the guidance route passing in the order of the designated road, it is also possible to calculate the guidance route that efficiently passes through those points without sticking to the order. good.

  As a result of the guidance route changing process, a guidance route U2 as shown in FIG. 3C is calculated and presented. As apparent from comparing FIG. 3C with FIG. 4C of the conventional example, the user travels along the road R1 along the sea intended by the user and returns to the original guide route U1. It can be seen that a simple guidance route U2 is presented and the problems caused by the conventional method can be solved.

  In the apparatus that calculates and presents the guide route composed of the functional blocks of FIG. 1, it can be operated and executed in order, for example, according to the operation flow shown in FIG. 2. That is, in the example of the guidance route presentation process shown in FIG. 2, the first guidance route is calculated and stored (step S1), and then it is determined whether or not the user has instructed the guidance route change (step S2). If it is determined that there is no instruction to change the guidance route, the process proceeds to step S14 to determine whether the destination has been reached. If it is determined in this determination that the vehicle has not yet arrived at the destination, the process returns to step S2 and travels according to the previously obtained guidance route. When it is determined in step S14 that the vehicle has arrived at the destination, the operation flow process is terminated.

  When it is determined in step S2 that there is a guidance route change instruction, that is, when a user's guidance route change instruction is input by the guidance route change instruction input unit 30 of the guidance route change processing unit 29 in FIG. It is determined whether or not to change the expression guidance route (step S3). Here, when it is determined that the guidance route change of the road point indication type is not performed, that is, when the route is changed by, for example, specifying a specific facility as a new waypoint, the process proceeds to step S13 and the method instructed by the user To calculate the guidance route and present it. This calculation process is performed by a function unit (not shown) of the guidance route change calculation unit 35.

  When it is determined in step S3 that the road on-point instruction type guidance route has been changed, the user then instructs on the road on-point (step S4), and it is determined whether or not the point instruction has ended (step S5). For example, when the user has not yet instructed the input of the designated point, or whether or not a predetermined time such as 5 seconds has elapsed since the point on the road has been designated, 5 seconds have yet passed. If not, the process returns to step S4, waits for the user to specify the next point on the road, and by repeating this operation, an arbitrary number of points on the road desired by the user are designated. This operation is input by the designated point input unit 31 in the guidance route change processing unit 29 of FIG.

  When it is determined in step S5 that all point instructions have been completed, that is, in the above example, when there is an instruction to end the instruction point input by the user, or when it is determined that five seconds have passed since the previous instruction point input, step S6. Proceed to, for each of the designated points, the road nearest to each designated point is detected, the road attribute data of the road is read, and the roads at all designated points are specified. In this operation, the guidance route change processing unit 29 in FIG. 1 fetches the position data by the designated point position data fetching unit 32, and then the road link on the designated point or the designated point is designated by the designated point nearest connection link extracting unit 33. Even when the point is not on the road, this operation is performed by detecting the nearest road, reading the road attribute, and recognizing a series of road attribute links as the same road.

  Thereafter, a guide route that travels on the identified road and returns to the original guide route is calculated and presented (step S8). This operation is performed in the road specific type guidance route calculation unit 37 at the indicated point in FIG. 1, and the presentation as shown in FIG. Next, it is determined whether or not the user has confirmed and decided (step S9). When the user confirms that this is the case, the process proceeds to step S12 to store the calculated guide route, and thereafter the step is performed. Returning to S2, the operation is repeated until arrival at the destination while checking whether or not there is an instruction to change the next guidance route.

  If the user confirms that the route is not the desired route as a result of the confirmation work in step S9, the guidance route is not fixed, and the process proceeds to step S10. As shown in the conventional example shown in FIG. Calculate and present a guidance route that passes through all of. That is, in a normal navigation device, when a point on a map is indicated and calculation of a guidance route is performed, there is a case where calculation of a guidance route that actually passes through the point may be desired. In some cases, the guidance route obtained assuming that is designated is not preferable. Therefore, in consideration of this, the guidance route that passes through all the designated points is calculated and presented in step S10.

  Thereafter, in step S13, when the guide route is not changed as described above, the guide route is changed, and at the same time, the process proceeds to step S11 to determine whether or not the user confirms and decides. When it is confirmed that the guide route is acceptable, the calculated guide route is stored (step S12), and the above operation is repeated until returning to step S2 and arriving at the destination. Even when it is determined that the guidance route presented in step S11 is not appropriate, the process returns to step S2 and the operation is repeated. Such an operation shown in FIG. 2 is an example, and the present invention can be implemented by various methods.

It is a functional block diagram of the Example of this invention. It is an operation | movement flowchart of the example of a guidance route presentation process in the Example. It is a figure which shows the operation example in the Example. It is a figure which shows the operation example of a prior art example.

Explanation of symbols

24 Guidance Route Change Calculation Processing Unit 25 Guidance Route Storage Unit 26 Guidance Route Guide Unit 27 Current Location / Destination Input Unit 28 Guidance Route Calculation Unit 29 Guidance Route Change Processing Unit 30 Guidance Route Change Instruction Input Unit 31 Instruction Point Input Unit 32 Instruction Point Position data capture unit
33 Instructed point nearest connection link extraction unit 34 Adjacent passing road intersection extraction unit 35 Guidance route change calculation unit 36 All indication point passage guidance route calculation unit 37 Road specific type guidance route calculation unit by instruction point

Claims (5)

A guide route calculator for calculating the guide route to the destination;
A road specific type guidance route calculation unit by an indicated point, which is changed by instructing a point on the road, by changing the guidance route set in advance by the guidance route calculation unit,
In the road specific type guide route calculation unit based on the designated point, when the user designates a point on the road, the road passing by the designated point is identified, and the preset guide route is passed through the identified road. A navigation device that performs a calculation using a route that returns to the change guidance route.   The navigation apparatus according to claim 1, wherein when a road passing by the designated point is identified, the road is identified as a road that passes through a road closest to the designated point.   An all-instructed point passing guidance route calculation unit that calculates and presents a route that passes through all points designated by the user and returns to the preset guidance route when the user does not determine the changed guidance route; The navigation device according to claim 1.   When identifying the road that passes through the designated point, the road is identified by obtaining a link of the road that passes through the designated point and obtaining a group of road links having the same attribute as the road link and connecting to the road link. The navigation device according to claim 1, wherein:   5. The navigation apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the change guide route is calculated based on an extraction result of an adjacent passing road change extraction unit that obtains an intersection of a road link group that passes therethrough.

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