JP2822962B2 - Intersection guidance device - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a navigation device mounted on a vehicle and used for guidance of an intersection.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, an in-vehicle navigation device has been used to assist a vehicle traveling on an unfamiliar land. The in-vehicle navigation device has, for example, a direction sensor, a distance sensor, a GPS receiver, a road map memory, a computer, and the like. The direction data input from the direction sensor, the traveling distance data input from the distance sensor, and the GPS reception are provided. It has a function to detect the vehicle position based on the position data input from the machine. Such a navigation device may be provided with a route calculation function of automatically calculating a recommended route from the current position of the vehicle to the destination by a computer in accordance with a destination setting input by a passenger. If this function is used, it is possible to reliably reach the destination by traveling along the calculated route without knowing the road to the destination.

An apparatus for displaying the recommended route as described above is disclosed in, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 6-36191. The device disclosed in this publication, when the distance to the main intersection existing on the recommended route becomes a predetermined value, for example, superimposes the course of the vehicle on a diagram simulating the intersection and displays it on the display device Or output a sound such as "turn right at the next intersection" to provide guidance on the course. By driving according to this guidance, the driver can drive the vehicle without departing from the recommended route.

[0004]

However, there is a case where the field of vision up to this intersection is blocked when guided to the next intersection on the recommended route. For example,
The driver is required to determine the location or size of the building being constructed along the road, the shape of the road on which the vehicle is traveling, such as a climbing road or a curved road. May not be visible to the naked eye.

In such a case, in order to confirm the position of the intersection for which the route guidance is provided, it is necessary to refer to the road map displayed on the display device, and the driver cannot visually recognize the intersection. Can not. For this reason, there is a possibility that the driver may be disturbed, and the timing of the route guidance is not always appropriate. Therefore, an object of the present invention is to solve the above-described technical problem and to provide an intersection guidance device that can report guidance information related to a guidance target intersection at an appropriate timing.

[0006]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided an intersection guidance device for providing a predetermined guidance target on a route when a vehicle travels along a predetermined route. An intersection guidance device for notifying a passenger of a vehicle of guidance information related to an intersection, wherein storage means stores road map data including position data representing a position of a landmark and shape data representing a shape of the landmark. And vehicle position detecting means for detecting the position of the vehicle, based on the vehicle position and landmark position data and shape data detected by the vehicle position detecting means,
Determining means for determining whether at least one of the guidance target intersection and a predetermined landmark near the guidance target intersection substantially enters the driver's field of view; and Notification means for notifying guidance information related to the guidance target intersection when it is determined that at least one of the predetermined landmarks near the guidance target intersection is substantially within the driver's field of view. It is characterized by the following.

[0007] According to the above arrangement, based on the position of the vehicle and the position data and shape data of the landmark,
It is determined whether at least one of the guidance target intersection and the predetermined landmark near the guidance target intersection substantially enters the driver's view. As a result, when the vehicle substantially enters the field of view of the driver, guidance at the guidance target intersection is performed. Therefore, guidance of an intersection can be performed at an appropriate timing.

[0008] The above-mentioned landmark refers to a landmark on a road map representing a building or land, for example, a facility or building such as "building" or "park", or "landmark". It shall represent land such as "fields" and "vacant lots". Further, the preset route is a route that is set manually or automatically.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided the intersection guidance apparatus according to the first aspect, further comprising a distance calculation means for calculating a distance from the current position of the vehicle to the guidance target intersection. On the condition that the distance calculated by the distance calculation means is equal to or less than a predetermined distance, guidance information related to the guidance target intersection is reported.

According to the above configuration, the distance from the current position of the vehicle to the guidance target intersection is calculated, and when the calculated distance is equal to or less than the predetermined distance, the driver is guided to the guidance target intersection. So, for example, if there is no obstacle between the intersection and the vehicle and there is an intersection in the distance,
It is possible to suppress unnecessary guidance of an intersection.

The distance from the current position of the vehicle to the guidance target intersection refers to a distance from the current position of the vehicle to the guidance target intersection or a straight distance from the current position of the vehicle to the guidance target intersection. An intersection guidance device according to a third aspect of the present invention is the intersection guidance device according to the first or the second aspect, wherein the determining means is a guidance target intersection based on the information representing the set route and the position data and the shape data of the landmark. Means for obtaining, as a guidance start point, a point on the route at which at least one of predetermined landmarks near the guidance target intersection substantially enters the field of view of the driver, and the vehicle position detection means Means for determining whether or not the vehicle has reached the guidance start point, based on the position of the vehicle, wherein the intersection guidance device is configured to determine from the vehicle position detected by the vehicle position detection means to the guidance start point. And means for informing at least one of the distance and the time.

According to the above configuration, at least one of the guidance target intersection and the predetermined landmark near the guidance target intersection is determined based on the information representing the set route, the position data and the shape data of the landmark. A point on the above route where one of them substantially enters the field of view of the driver can be determined as a guidance start point. Then, when the vehicle reaches the guidance start point, guidance at the guidance target intersection can be performed.

Further, at least one of the distance and the time from the position of the vehicle to the guidance start point can be notified. Therefore, the driver can know how far or how long the guidance of the intersection is performed. According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the intersection guide device according to any one of the first to third aspects, the landmark shape data stored in the storage means is a two-dimensional shape representing a cross-sectional shape of the landmark. It is characterized by being data.

According to the above configuration, since the landmark shape data is two-dimensional data representing the cross-sectional shape of the landmark, it is determined whether or not the intersection to be guided substantially enters the field of view of the driver. The processing of the discriminating means, etc., is facilitated. An intersection guidance device according to a fifth aspect is the intersection guidance device according to any one of the first to third aspects, wherein the road map data stored in the storage means includes three-dimensional shape data of the road and each part of the road. And data representing the three-dimensional shape of the landmark.

According to the above configuration, the road map data is
Since it contains the three-dimensional shape data of the road, the data of the height of each part of the road, and the data representing the three-dimensional shape of the landmark, it is determined whether or not the guidance target intersection substantially enters the driver's view. The discriminating process of the discriminating means can be performed more accurately.

[0016]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Embodiments of the present invention will be described below.
This will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. <First Embodiment> FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of an intersection guidance device which is a navigation device according to one embodiment of the present invention.

The present intersection guide device includes a position detecting section 5 for detecting a running position of the vehicle by a distance sensor 1 and a direction sensor 2 for detecting the amount of movement and the amount of change in the direction of the vehicle, respectively. In the position detection unit 5, the sensors 1, 2
The current position data of the vehicle is calculated by the so-called self-contained navigation based on the moving amount data and the azimuth change amount data of the vehicle output from. Further, the position detection unit 5 calculates traveling locus data based on the current position data of the vehicle, and corrects the vehicle position based on a comparison between the traveling locus data and a road pattern stored in the disk D. It has a function (so-called map matching method,
No. 4-42000).

The current position of the vehicle is detected by the GPS receiver 4 connected to the position detecting unit 5.
A GPS navigation system in which a radio wave transmitted from the S satellite is received by the GPS receiver 4 via the GPS antenna 3 and the position of the vehicle is detected based on the propagation delay time of the radio wave may be applied. Further, the current position of the vehicle obtained by the self-contained navigation may be corrected based on the current position of the vehicle obtained by the GPS navigation (see Japanese Patent Publication No. 7-39960).

The current position data of the vehicle detected by the position detecting section 5 is given to the control section 6. The control unit 6 functions as a control center of the navigation device.
PU 61, RAM 62, route calculation unit 63 for calculating a recommended route, traveling monitoring unit 64 for monitoring whether a vehicle has deviated from the recommended route, and route guidance unit 65 for searching for an intersection on the recommended route to be guided. And so on.

When various calculation conditions such as a destination are input from the remote control key 10, the route calculation unit 63 stores the input destination data and the like in the RAM 62,
The road map data for route calculation is read from a disk D described later. Then, the route calculation unit 63 calculates a recommended route between the destination and the current location detected by the position detection unit 5 using, for example, the Dijkstra method or the potential method. The calculated recommended route is superimposed on the road map displayed on the display device 9 by, for example, a broken line.

The control unit 6 is connected to a man-machine interface unit 8 for controlling an interface with a driver or a passenger. The man-machine interface unit 8 is connected to a display device 9 having a display screen including, for example, a liquid crystal display device, a CRT, a plasma device, or the like. Further, the man-machine interface unit 8 is provided with a remote control key 1 composed of a joystick
0, a voice output device 11 that notifies a driver of route guidance at an intersection by voice is connected.

The control unit 6 includes, for example, a CD-RO
M, a disk control unit 7 to which a disk D composed of a magneto-optical disk or the like is loaded is connected. Disk D
Is used to divide a road map (including highway national roads, motorways, general national roads, prefectural roads, city roads of designated cities, and other local roads) into meshes, and for each mesh unit, for example, intersections of roads Alternatively, it stores road map data, road map data for route calculation, and the like, which are composed of a combination of nodes corresponding to bending points and the like and links connecting the nodes.

When the current position data of the vehicle is given from the position detection unit 5, the control unit 6 drives the disk control unit 7 and outputs road map data around the current position of the vehicle to the disk D via the disk control unit 7. Read from Thereafter, the read road map data and the current vehicle position data are provided to the control unit 6. When the control unit 6 provides the display data to the display device 9 via the man-machine interface unit 8, the current position of the vehicle is displayed by the car mark together with the road map.

Here, the node is generally a coordinate position for specifying a road intersection or a turning point.
A node representing an intersection is referred to as an intersection node, and a node representing a road bending point (excluding an intersection) is referred to as an interpolation point node. The vector connecting the nodes is a "link". The link data includes the link number, the address of the start node of the link and the address of the end node of the link, the distance of the link, the direction of passing through the link, the required time in that direction, the type or type of road, the road width, one-way, and right turn. Includes data on prohibition, left turn prohibition, and toll roads.

The disc D contains guidance information corresponding to coordinate positions on a road map, such as major intersections, expressway exits, and destinations. The guidance information includes right / left turn guidance information or straight-ahead guidance information at an intersection, arrival guidance information at a destination, and the like. For example, the left / right turn guidance information indicates that the vehicle is approaching a main intersection,
Is the route information for indicating the route of the recommended route in a display imitating the intersection on the display screen, or for generating a sound such as "turn right at the next intersection" from the sound output device 11.

Further, the disc D has landmark information such as marks on a road map such as "buildings", "parks", "department stores", "parking lots", and "gas stations". It is stored in the form of a table. Table 1 is an example of a landmark information table in which landmark position information is stored.

[0027]

[Table 1]

The landmark information table includes a run
Center position of landmark as demark position information
Stores data representing the cross-sectional shape of landmarks and landmarks.
Have been. The cross-sectional shape of the landmark is shown in FIG.
As shown, multiple position coordinates and two adjacent position coordinates
Can be represented by a plurality of line segments connecting. for example
If "landmark A" is the point P₁(X₁, Y₁),point
P_Two(X_Two, Y_Two), Point P_Three(X_Three, Y_Three), Point P
_Four(X_Four, Y_Four), Point P_Five(X_Five, Y_Five) And neighbor
Line segment P connecting two points₁P_Two, P_TwoP_Three, P_ThreeP_Four, P_FourP
_Five, P_FiveP₁The shape can be represented by each formula
it can. For example, point P₁And point P_TwoA line segment P connecting ₁P
_TwoIs y = ax + b (where x₁≦ x <x_Two)
It is. Similarly, the line segment P_TwoP_Three, Line segment P_ThreeP_Four, Line segment P _Four
P_Five, Line segment P_FiveP₁Can also be represented by line segment formulas
it can.

As described above, the shape of the “landmark A” can be represented by a plurality of position coordinates and a plurality of line segments. As shown in Table 1, the landmark information table stores position information representing the shape of each landmark. FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating a control process for performing route guidance at the time when the intersection enters the field of view of the driver when performing route guidance at a major intersection on the recommended route.

First, the route calculation section 63 calculates a recommended route when a driver inputs a destination (step S1). During traveling of the vehicle, the traveling monitoring unit 64 monitors whether the vehicle is traveling outside the recommended route (step S2). The route guidance unit 65 searches for an intersection on the recommended route to be guided along with the progress of the vehicle (step S3). An intersection to be guided is an intersection where a vehicle mainly turns left or right on a recommended route. When an intersection to be route-guided is found (step S4), the route guide unit 65 gives the fact to the CPU 61. The CPU 61
The current position data of the vehicle is updated to the data provided by the position detection unit 5 (step S5). Further, the CPU 61
Calculates an equation for a line segment connecting the current position of the vehicle and the center point of the intersection from the updated current position data of the vehicle and the position coordinate data of the intersection (step S6).

Next, the CPU 61 reads out the position information of the landmark near the intersection from the landmark information table stored in the disk D, that is, the coordinate position and the line segment expression representing the cross-sectional shape, and stores them in the RAM 62 ( Step S7). The landmark near the intersection is, for example, as shown in FIG. 4, a radius between the current position of the vehicle and the center point of the intersection S, and a predetermined center angle centered on the center point of the intersection S (for example, as shown in FIG. 4). This is a landmark having a center position coordinate in a fan-shaped area (90 to 120 degrees) (within a dotted frame in the drawing). In the case of FIG. 4, “landmark A” and “landmark B” correspond.

Then, the CPU 61 compares the equation of the line segment connecting the current position of the vehicle and the center point of the intersection with the equation of the line segment representing the shape of the landmark read from the landmark information table. It is determined whether the line segments intersect with each other (step S8). As a result, if it is determined that the line segments intersect, the process returns to step S5 to update the current position data of the vehicle.

On the other hand, if it is determined in step S8 that the line segments do not intersect each other, a notification of the route guidance at the intersection is given at that time (step S9). Specifically, for example, the route of the recommended route and the name of the intersection are displayed on the display screen of the display device 9, and a sound such as “turn right at the next intersection” is generated from the sound output device 11.

FIG. 5 is an illustrative view showing a positional relationship between the vehicle, the intersection S and the “landmark A”. According to FIG. 5A, a line segment connecting the current position of the vehicle and the center point of the intersection S intersects with a line segment representing the shape of the “landmark A”. Therefore, in this state, the intersection S to be guided is blocked by the “landmark A” from the driver in the vehicle.

FIG. 5B shows a case where the line connecting the current position of the vehicle and the center point of the intersection S and the line representing the shape of the "landmark A" no longer intersect. In other words, the driver can see the intersection S to be guided without being obstructed by the “landmark A”. As described above, in this embodiment, the intersection to be guided in the driver's field of view depends on whether the line connecting the current position of the vehicle and the position of the intersection intersects with the line representing the shape of the landmark. It is determined whether to enter. Then, at the time when the line segments no longer intersect, in other words, at the time when the intersection enters the field of view of the driver, the driver can be provided with the route guidance of the intersection. Therefore, guidance of the intersection can be performed at an appropriate timing, and the driver does not stop.

The point on the recommended route when the intersection enters the field of view of the driver, that is, the guidance start point at which the route guidance of the intersection can be started may be obtained as described below. That is, for example, as shown in FIG. 6, a half line (indicated by a dotted line in the figure) having the center point of the intersection S as one end is a point P ₂ representing the shape of the landmark.
, It is assumed that it is in contact with the landmark shape. In this case, at the point E at which the vehicle passes first among the intersections of the half-line and the recommended route, the intersection S enters the driver's view.

Therefore, if the position coordinates of the guidance start point E are calculated in advance and registered in the road map data, the route guidance of the intersection S can be performed when the vehicle passes through the guidance start point E. . Further, since the position coordinates of the guidance start point E can be obtained any time after the recommended route is determined, the distance L (see FIG. 6) between the guidance start point E and the current position of the vehicle is obtained. The value of the distance L may be displayed to the driver or notified by voice. By doing so, the driver can know how far the vehicle should travel to find the route guidance for the intersection S, and can give a sense of security to the driver traveling on a road with poor visibility, for example.

Further, by calculating the traveling speed of the vehicle and dividing the distance L by the traveling speed, the time required for the vehicle to reach the guidance start point E from the current position is calculated, and the time is reported to the driver. Is also good. <Second Embodiment> Next, a second embodiment of the present invention will be described. Also in this embodiment, since the intersection guidance device having the same configuration as that of the first embodiment is used, the above-described FIG. 1 is referred to again.

However, it is assumed that the link (road) data described in the first embodiment includes three-dimensional azimuth data, and the node data includes altitude data at the coordinate position. The three-dimensional direction data is, for example, data in which the direction of the link is represented by a three-dimensional direction vector. It is assumed that the landmark position information stored on the disk D includes landmark height data (described later).

The feature of this embodiment is that a landmark is represented as a three-dimensional object taking height data into consideration, and it is determined whether or not the three-dimensional object obstructs the driver's line of sight.
The point is that guidance is provided for intersections when it is determined that the line of sight is not blocked. First, the range of the driver's line of sight (field of view) from inside the vehicle will be considered separately when the vehicle is viewed from above and when the vehicle is viewed from the side.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing the range of the driver's line of sight from inside the vehicle when the vehicle is viewed from above.
The position of the driver's eyes is assumed to be the position when the driver is seated in the center of the front seat of the vehicle. The range of the driver's line of sight from inside the vehicle is a range from the left end to the right end of the windshield of the vehicle. FIG. 8 is an explanatory diagram in which the range of the driver's line of sight in the case of FIG. 7 is represented by a vector. A vector defined in a direction from the driver's eye position to the leftmost end of the windshield and a vector defined in a direction from the rightmost end of the windshield to Q '(hereinafter, alphabetic characters with "'" And R ').

On the other hand, the CPU 61 reads the direction vector of the link corresponding to the road on which the vehicle is currently traveling from the road map data. This azimuth vector is generally
Since it coincides with the traveling direction of the vehicle, the angle formed by the azimuth vector and the vector Q ′ and the vector R ′ may be considered to be constant. Therefore, as the vehicle advances, if the vehicle enters a link having a different direction and the direction vector changes, the directions of the vector Q 'and the vector R' also change based on the direction vector. That is, along with the change in the traveling direction of the vehicle, the directions of the vector Q ′ and the vector R ′ also change.

Here, the vector Q 'and the vector R'
Is expressed by using the unit vectors E′q and E′r, Q ′ = QE′q R ′ = RE′r (where Q and R indicate the magnitudes of the vectors Q ′ and R ′). (See FIG. 8).

The inner product of the unit vectors included in the above two equations can be expressed by E'q · E'r = cos θr (1). Here, θr is the angle between the unit vectors E′q and E′r. Next, based on the position coordinates of the intersection S to be guided and the position coordinates of the current position of the vehicle, the position of the driver's eyes (here, the position of the driver's eyes is assumed to be equal to the current position of the vehicle). A vector up to the intersection S is obtained. Now, this vector is X '
X ′ = XE′x (X represents the size of the vector X ′) when expressed using the unit vector E′x in the same manner as described above. Considering the inner product between the unit vectors of the vector X 'and the vector Q', the following equation is obtained: E'q.E'x = cos θx (2). Here, θx is the angle between the unit vectors E′q and E′x.

The values of the angles θr and θx are respectively obtained based on the above equations (1) and (2). When the obtained angles θr and θx have a relation of 0 ≦ θx ≦ θr (3), When the vehicle is viewed from above, it can be said that the intersection S is within the range of the driver's line of sight. However, the angles θr and θx are angles with the clockwise direction being a positive direction with respect to the vector Q ′.

Next, considering the case where the vehicle is viewed from the side, as shown in FIG. 9, it is assumed that the driver's eyes are located at the center of the height of the windshield of the vehicle. The range of the line of sight from inside the vehicle is a range between the upper end and the lower end of the windshield. FIG.
FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram in which the range of the line of sight in the case of is represented by a vector. The vectors defined in the direction of the uppermost end of the windshield from the driver's eye position and the vectors defined in the direction of the lowermost end of the windshield are represented by T 'and U', respectively.

The CPU 61 reads out the azimuth vector of the link corresponding to the road on which the vehicle is traveling. Since this azimuth vector generally coincides with the traveling direction of the vehicle, as in the case where the vehicle is viewed from above, the angles formed by this azimuth vector and the above-mentioned vectors T ′ and U ′ are constant. You can think about it. Therefore, as the vehicle advances, if the vehicle enters a link having a different direction and the direction vector changes, the directions of the vector T ′ and the vector U ′ also change based on the direction vector. Therefore, as the traveling direction of the vehicle changes, the directions of vector T 'and vector U' also change.

In the same manner as when the vehicle is viewed from above, these vectors are represented using unit vectors E't and E'u, respectively. Considering the inner product of the unit vectors, E't.E'u = Cos θu (4). Here, θu is an angle formed by the unit vectors E′t and E′u. Next, a vector Z 'from the position of the driver's eye to the intersection S is obtained from the position coordinates of the intersection S to be guided and the position coordinates of the current position of the vehicle, and this vector Z' and the aforementioned vector T 'are obtained. Considering the inner product of the unit vectors of the following, E't · E'z = cos θz (5) is obtained. Here, θz is the angle formed by the unit vectors E′t and E′z.

The values of the angles θu and θz are obtained based on the above equations (4) and (5), and when the obtained angles θu and θz have a relation of 0 ≦ θz ≦ θu (6), When the vehicle is viewed from the side from the side, it can be said that the intersection S is within the range of the driver's line of sight.

When the above equations (3) and (6) are both satisfied, it can be said that the intersection is within the range of the driver's line of sight from inside the vehicle. In the present embodiment, it is determined whether or not the intersection S falls within the range of the line of sight by using the method described above. This determination is made each time the link (or road) during travel changes.

FIG. 11 is a diagram showing a situation where the vehicle is traveling on a slope. For example, the vehicle C ₁ is in a state in which up the hill. In this case, the vehicle C ₁ reads the orientation vector of the road from the road map data, determine the range of sight from the driver of the vehicle based on the orientation vector. In this case, the vector Z from inclusive current position height data of the vehicle to the intersection S _'1 is vector T represents the line of sight range from the vehicle driver' outside the _first and the angle between vector U _'1 At the intersection S
Is determined to be out of the range of the driver's line of sight.

The vehicle C ₂ is traveling down a hill.
Since the vector Z ′ ₂ from the current position including the vehicle height data to the intersection S is between the vector T ′ ₂ and the vector U ′ ₂ representing the range of the driver's line of sight from inside the vehicle, the intersection S is Is determined to be within the range of the driver's line of sight. Next, as a result of the above-described determination processing, if it is determined that the intersection is within the range of the driver's line of sight,
Further, a determination process is performed to determine whether or not there is a landmark that blocks the view from the driver's eye position to the intersection. Thereby, it is determined whether or not the driver can actually see the intersection. Specifically, a landmark is defined as an object having a width, depth, and height, and by checking whether this object collides with a line segment from the position of the driver's eyes to the intersection, the driver can actually determine the landmark. To see if you can see the intersection.

More specifically, for example, as shown in FIG. 12, the bottom of one building is divided by a fine mesh, and a rectangular parallelepiped having a height is defined for each mesh, and a plurality of these rectangular parallelepipeds are gathered. Can be defined as Then, a distance between a line segment having a length h (see FIG. 13) extending vertically from the center coordinate position of the fine mesh and a line segment from the driver's eye position to the intersection is obtained.
If the distance is equal to or less than a predetermined distance, it is determined that the object collides with a line segment from the driver's eye position to the intersection.

Actually, for example, distances are obtained for all the line segments extending in the vertical direction from the center coordinate position of the fine mesh and the line segments from the driver's eye position to the intersection.
When the minimum value of the obtained distance is equal to or smaller than a predetermined distance, it is determined that the driver's line of sight is blocked by the landmark and the intersection is not visible.

Specifically, for example, a line segment extending in the vertical direction from the bottom surface of the mesh can be represented by x = x ₁ y = y ₁ z = z (0 ≦ z ≦ h).

The line segment from the driver's eye position to the intersection is represented by coordinates (x ₀ , y ₀ ,
z ₀ ), and the position coordinates of the intersection are (x ₂ , y ₂ , z ₂ ),

[0057]

(Equation 1)

Can be represented by Now, consider a case where a line segment extending vertically from the bottom surface of the mesh and a line segment extending from the position of the driver's eyes to the intersection are projected on the xy plane. In this case, as shown in FIG. 14, a line segment extending vertically from the bottom surface of the mesh is represented by a point F, and a line segment from the driver's eye position to the intersection is represented by a line segment K. At this time, the length of the perpendicular drawn from the point F to the line segment K is equal to the distance d between the line segment corresponding to the point F and the line segment in the three-dimensional space corresponding to the line segment K.

In this way, the distance d between the line segment extending from each central coordinate position of the fine mesh in the vertical direction and the line segment from the position of the driver's eye to the intersection is equal to all the line segments extending from the fine mesh. Asked about. Then, the minimum value ds of the obtained distance is set to a predetermined distance ε
And ds ≦ ε, it is assumed that a landmark exists between the driver's eye position and the intersection. Therefore, it is determined that the intersection is not visible from the driver due to the landmark. It is also assumed that when ds> ε, no landmark exists between the driver's eye position and the intersection. Therefore, it is determined that the intersection is visible from the driver, and guidance of the intersection is performed.

As described above, it is determined whether or not an intersection to be guided is included in the range of the driver's line of sight from inside the vehicle, and the landmark is further expressed as a three-dimensional object taking into account height data. By determining whether or not a three-dimensional object blocks the driver's line of sight, it is possible to determine whether or not the driver can see the intersection. Therefore, when the intersection enters the field of view of the driver, the route guidance of the intersection can be provided to the driver. Therefore, guidance of an intersection can be performed at an appropriate timing.

In the above embodiment, the data of the height of the landmark is defined as the length of a line segment which divides the landmark with a fine mesh and extends vertically from the mesh, but instead of the data of the height. , The wall surface of the landmark is expressed by the expression of a plane, and whether or not there is an intersection to be guided in the driver's line of sight depends on whether or not there is an intersection between the plane and a line segment from the position of the driver's eyes to the intersection. May be determined.

The landmark defined in the above embodiment defines a rectangular parallelepiped having a height for each mesh, and is defined as a collection of a plurality of these rectangular parallelepipeds. The shape may be represented. Further, as described in the first embodiment, the position coordinates of the guidance start point on the recommended route when the intersection enters the driver's field of view may be calculated in advance and registered in the road map data. By doing so, the route guidance of the intersection can be performed when the vehicle passes this guidance start point.

Further, the distance between the guidance start point and the current position of the vehicle or the time required for the vehicle to reach the guidance start point from the current position is obtained, and the value or time of the distance is displayed to the driver or reported by voice. You may do so. In addition, in the first embodiment and the second embodiment, when the route guidance of the intersection is performed, the line segment between the coordinate position of the center point of the intersection and the current position of the vehicle is obtained. Instead of the coordinate position of the point, the coordinate position of a predetermined landmark around the intersection is adopted, a line segment connecting the coordinate position of the landmark and the current position of the vehicle is obtained, and the line segment is used as another landmark. May be determined based on whether or not it intersects with a line segment representing the shape of, or collides with an object representing another landmark. For example, if a line segment connecting the coordinate position of the landmark and the current position of the vehicle does not intersect with a line segment representing the shape of another landmark, the route guidance for the intersection indicates the individual name of the landmark around the intersection. For example, if the landmark is XX Bank, a message such as "Please turn right at the intersection with XX Bank" may be notified to the driver. Such a message is particularly effective because the driver can more clearly understand the features of the intersection than a normal message such as "turn right at the next intersection".

In the above embodiment, the coordinate position representing the intersection is the center point of the intersection, but is not limited to the center point. This is because the driver may be able to confirm the intersection by seeing, for example, a stop line or a signal of the vehicle, even if the center point of the intersection is not visible. Further, even when the center point of the intersection is within the field of view of the driver, the intersection may be substantially blocked. In the first embodiment, when the line of sight is obstructed by the landmark, and in the second embodiment, the line of sight is a certain distance from a line extending vertically from a mesh that finely divides the bottom surface of the landmark represented in three dimensions. Even when passing through the inside, there is a case where a part of the intersection is blocked by the landmark and cannot be seen by the driver. For such a case, the coordinate position representing the intersection may be set to a position other than the center point of the intersection.

In each of the above embodiments, when selecting a landmark near the intersection (see FIG. 4), the coordinates of the center position of the landmark are used as the coordinate positions representing the landmark. It is not limited to.
Further, the route guidance at the intersection may be performed under the condition that the distance or the straight distance from the intersection to be route guided to the current position is equal to or less than a predetermined distance. With this configuration, when the vehicle approaches the intersection by the above-described predetermined distance, the route guidance of the intersection can be performed. For example, there is no obstacle between the intersection and the vehicle, so that the vehicle cannot be seen by the naked eye. When there is an intersection, guidance of the intersection can be suppressed.

In the present embodiment, the recommended route is obtained by the route calculation function. However, the travel route may be set in advance by, for example, manually inputting a stopover or the like before traveling by the driver. If the traveling route is set in advance, the intersection existing on the traveling route can be automatically selected as described above. In addition, various modifications can be made within the scope of the technical matters described in the claims.

[0067]

As described above, according to the first aspect of the present invention, guidance at the guidance target intersection can be performed when the guidance target intersection enters the driver's field of view. Guidance can be provided. Also,
According to the second aspect of the present invention, it is possible to suppress unnecessary guidance of an intersection that is invisible or visible to the naked eye.

According to the third aspect of the present invention, the distance or time from the guidance target intersection to the guidance start point can be reported, so that the driver's anxiety can be eliminated. According to the fourth aspect of the present invention, the control processing of the device is facilitated. According to the fifth aspect of the present invention, it is possible to provide guidance at a timing when an intersection surely enters the driver's field of view.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of an intersection guidance device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing position coordinates representing the shape of a landmark.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing a control procedure of the intersection guidance device according to one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is an illustrative view showing one example when a landmark near an intersection is selected;

FIG. 5 is an illustrative view showing a positional relationship between a vehicle, an intersection, and a landmark; In particular, FIG. 5A shows a case where the line segment between the vehicle and the intersection intersects with a line segment representing the shape of the landmark, and FIG. 5B shows that the line segments do not intersect. Show the case.

FIG. 6 is an illustrative view showing a positional relationship between a recommended route, an intersection, and a landmark;

FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating a case where the range of the driver's line of sight is viewed from above the vehicle.

8 is an explanatory diagram in the case where the range of the line of sight of the driver shown in FIG. 7 from inside the vehicle is represented by a vector.

FIG. 9 is a diagram illustrating a case where the range of the driver's field of view is viewed from the side of the vehicle.

FIG. 10 is an explanatory diagram in the case where the range of the line of sight of the driver shown in FIG. 9 from inside the vehicle is represented by a vector.

FIG. 11 is a diagram showing a relationship between an azimuth vector and a range of a driver's line of sight when the vehicle runs on a slope.

FIG. 12 is an illustrative view showing a case where a landmark is represented by a rectangular parallelepiped for each mesh;

FIG. 13 is an illustrative view showing a line segment extending in a vertical direction from a central coordinate position of a fine mesh;

FIG. 14 is a diagram illustrating a case where a distance between a line segment extending in a vertical direction from a central coordinate position of a mesh and a line segment from an eye position of a driver to an intersection is obtained.

[Explanation of symbols]

 Reference Signs List 5 position detection unit 6 control unit 8 man-machine interface unit 9 display device 11 sound output device 61 CPU 62 RAM 63 route calculation unit 64 running monitoring unit 65 route guidance unit D disk

────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of front page (56) References JP-A-9-152354 (JP, A) JP-A-7-324940 (JP, A) JP-A-4-172215 (JP, A) JP-A-7-152 98800 (JP, A) JP-A-6-36191 (JP, A) JP-A-64-42000 (JP, A) JP-B-7-39960 (JP, B2) (58) Fields investigated (Int. Cl. ^6, DB name) G08G 1/0969 G01C 21/00 G09B 29/10

Claims (5)

(57) [Claims] An intersection guidance device for notifying a passenger of a vehicle of guidance information related to a predetermined guidance target intersection on the route when the vehicle travels along a preset route. Storage means for storing road map data including position data representing the position of the landmark and shape data representing the shape of the landmark; vehicle position detecting means for detecting the position of the vehicle; Based on the position of the vehicle and the position data and the shape data of the landmark, it is determined whether at least one of the guidance target intersection and the predetermined landmark near the guidance target intersection substantially enters the driver's view. A determining means for determining, and a predetermined landmark in the vicinity of the guidance target intersection and the guidance target intersection by the determination means. And a notifying unit for notifying the guidance information related to the guidance target intersection when it is determined that at least one of the intersections substantially enters the field of view of the driver. 2. The vehicle according to claim 1, further comprising a distance calculating means for calculating a distance from the current position of the vehicle to the guidance target intersection, wherein said notifying means is provided on condition that the distance calculated by said distance calculating means is equal to or less than a predetermined distance. 2. The intersection guidance device according to claim 1, wherein the guidance information related to the guidance target intersection is reported. 3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the determining means is configured to determine at least one of a guidance target intersection and a predetermined landmark near the guidance target intersection based on the information indicating the set route and the position data and shape data of the landmark. Means for obtaining, as a guidance start point, a point on the route that substantially enters the field of view of the driver; and, based on the position of the vehicle detected by the vehicle position detection means, whether the vehicle has reached the guidance start point. Means for determining whether or not the intersection guidance device further includes means for informing at least one of a distance and a time from the position of the vehicle detected by the vehicle position detection means to the guidance start point. The intersection guidance device according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the intersection guidance device is included. 4. The intersection guidance according to claim 1, wherein the landmark shape data stored in the storage means is two-dimensional data representing a cross-sectional shape of the landmark. apparatus. 5. The road map data stored in the storage means includes three-dimensional shape data of a road, data of the height of each part of the road, and data representing a three-dimensional shape of a landmark. The intersection guidance device according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein