JP2921409B2 - Vehicle navigation system - 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 system for a vehicle which provides guidance at a branch point.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, various devices for reducing the burden on a driver during driving have been studied and mounted on a vehicle. Among them, there is a route guidance device that guides a road to be passed to the destination by inputting the destination. And in this route guidance device,
It has a function to notify the driver of the route to be selected when passing through a junction such as an intersection, and it is known that the driver displays the route on a display or guides the direction to proceed at the intersection by voice. Have been.

For example, Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open Publication No. 60-13413 discloses that a route to be followed at a branch point is specified by audio expressions in eight directions (fore and aft, left and right, diagonally left and right, etc.) based on an angle with respect to an approach direction, and route guidance is performed. Are shown. According to such route guidance by voice, the driver can perform the route guidance without seeing the display or the like without adversely affecting the driving.

[0004]

However, in the above-described route guidance device, since the determination is made based on the angle with respect to the approach direction, for example, as shown in FIG.
When providing guidance for complicated junctions or intersections,
The driver may not be able to accurately determine which direction to proceed only by instructing the traveling direction. That is,
At a junction where a single road is an underpass, a side road that passes beside the underpass, and a branch that has a complicated shape that branches off into an elevated road, or at an intersection, the direction of travel is represented by voice expressions such as front and rear, left and right, and diagonally right and left. It is difficult to identify.

Accordingly, the present invention is to solve the above-mentioned problems, and a vehicle navigation apparatus capable of guiding a vehicle without error even when a complicated branch point or intersection exists in the middle of a guidance route. The purpose is to provide.

[0006]

Means for Solving the Problems For that purpose, the present invention is claimed.
Item 1. The vehicle navigation device according to item 1, wherein the current position detecting means for calculating the current position of the vehicle, the input means for inputting information necessary for calculating a route, and the output for notifying information for performing route guidance Means, information storage means for storing all data necessary for performing route guidance, route calculation means for calculating a route based on information input by the input means, and route calculated by the route calculation means Guidance control means for reading out the data stored in the information storage means along the line and outputting the data to the output means, wherein the information storage means stores road guidance auxiliary information data, and the guidance control means When the current position detected by the position detecting means is on the route currently being calculated calculated by the route calculating means, a branch point requiring guidance ahead of the current position is determined. Read from the data relating to the route stored data in the information storage means, whether or not to add related <br/> road guidance auxiliary information data in the road to advance from the branch point guidance to about branch point required in the guide the has a determination means or, in the case where the road guidance auxiliary information data is determined to be added to the guidance relating to said branch point by the determining means, the branch point or <br/> et al guidance regarding the branch point It is characterized by adding road guidance auxiliary information data relating to the road to be advanced and outputting it to the output means ,
According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, the current position of the vehicle is calculated.
Enter the position detection means and the information necessary to calculate the route.
Notify the input means to input and the information for route guidance
Output means and all data necessary for route guidance.
Information storage means storing data and input by the input means.
Route calculation means for calculating a route based on the received information;
The information is recorded along the route calculated by the route calculating means.
The data stored in the storage means is read out and output to the output means.
Guidance control means for powering, the information storage means comprising:
Storing road guidance auxiliary information data, wherein the guidance control means comprises:
The current position detected by the current position detecting means is
On the route near the currently guide issued calculated by the route calculation means
The current position ahead of the current position,
Data relating to the path stored in the information storage means.
Read from the data and calculated by the route calculation means.
Of the data on the route stored in the information storage means
Road guidance within a predetermined distance from the junction where the guidance is required
Search for auxiliary information data to determine whether guidance is required
Added the above-mentioned road guidance auxiliary information data to the guidance about the fork point
Determining means for determining whether or not to perform
If there is the road guidance auxiliary information data, the
Add guidance assistance information data to guidance about the junction
If it is determined that there is a road
Add guidance assistive information data and output to the output means
It is characterized by the following.

[0007]

According to the vehicle navigation system of the present invention, the features of the road, such as an elevated road, an underpass or a complicated intersection, are converted into data as road guidance auxiliary information data, and the data is used for the road in the direction from the branch point. When there is data on an overpass or an underpass, or when there is a direction name, the information on the overpass, the underpass, the direction, etc. is provided by voice or the like in addition to a voice guidance output for guiding the traveling direction. Therefore, even when the road to which the vehicle turns right or left is divided into two or a complicated intersection, guidance is reliably provided to the driver without hesitation, and the burden on the driver can be reduced.

Further, in order to determine whether or not the road guidance auxiliary information data is to be added to a voice guidance output or the like for guiding the traveling direction, data relating to a road that exits from a branch point is searched within a predetermined distance range. If there is data indicating an overpass or an underpass in the meantime, the data is output by voice or the like. Therefore, especially when there is an elevated or underpass or a complicated intersection immediately after turning right and left and there is not enough time to judge which road to proceed, you should advance before entering the intersection where you should turn right and left in advance Road information can be obtained.

[0009]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 shows a vehicle navigation device 1 according to the present invention.
FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an embodiment. A vehicle navigation device according to the present invention includes an input / output device 1 for inputting and outputting information relating to route guidance, a current position detection device 2 for detecting information relating to a current position of a vehicle, navigation data necessary for calculating a route, and guidance. And a central processing unit 4 that executes a route search process and a display guide process necessary for route guidance and controls the entire system. First, each configuration will be described.

The input / output device 1 performs navigation processing according to the driver's intention so that the driver can output guidance information from at least one of a voice and a screen when necessary. 4 and a function to print out the processed data and the like. As means for realizing the function, the input unit has a touch switch 11 or an operation switch for inputting a destination by a telephone number or coordinates, or requesting route guidance, and an output unit. A display 12 for displaying input data on a screen or automatically displaying route guidance on a screen in response to a driver's request; and printing out data processed by the central processing unit 4 and data stored in the information storage device 3. A printer 13 and a speaker 16 for outputting route guidance by voice are provided.

The display 12 comprises a color CRT or a color liquid crystal display, and is necessary for navigation such as a route setting screen, a section map screen, an intersection map screen based on map data and guidance data processed by the central processing unit 4. In addition to outputting all screens in color display, buttons for setting route guidance, performing guidance during route guidance, and switching screens are displayed on this screen. In particular, the passing intersection information such as the passing intersection name is displayed in color in a pop-up on the section map screen at any time.

The display 12 is provided in the instrument panel near the driver's seat, and the driver checks the present location of the vehicle by looking at the displayed map.
In addition, it is possible to obtain information on a route from now on. The display 12 is provided with a touch panel 11 corresponding to the display of the function buttons, and is configured to execute the above-described operation based on a signal input by touching the button. The input signal generating means constituted by the buttons, the touch panel and the like constitutes the input section, but a detailed description thereof is omitted here.

The current position detecting device 2 includes a GPS receiving device 21 and a beacon receiving device 22 using a satellite navigation system (GPS), for example, a data transmitting and receiving device 2 for receiving a GPS correction signal using a cellular phone or an FM multiplex signal.
3. an absolute direction sensor 24 composed of a geomagnetic sensor and the like;
A relative direction sensor 25 including a wheel sensor, a steering sensor, a gyro, and the like, a distance sensor 26 that detects a moving distance from the number of pulses output in proportion to the rotation of the wheel, and the like are provided.

The information storage device 3 stores map data, intersection data, node data, road data, destination data, guide point data, road name data, branch point name data, guide road data, shape data, It is a database consisting of guidance data, destination data, and other data files, in which all data necessary for the navigation device are recorded.

The central processing unit 4 executes C
PU40, a program for performing processing such as route search, a display control required for route guidance, a program for performing voice output control required for voice guidance, and a first ROM 41 storing data necessary for the program, a set purpose Point coordinates of the ground, road code No. RAM 42 for temporarily storing searched route guidance information and data during arithmetic processing, etc., a second ROM 43 for storing display information data necessary for route guidance and map display, image data used for screen display on a display Memory 44 storing CPU
The image processor 45 extracts image data from the image memory based on the display control signal from the CPU, performs image processing and outputs the image data to the display, the voice read from the information storage device 3 based on the voice output control signal from the CPU, the phrase, An audio processor 46 that synthesizes a single sentence, sound, etc., converts it into an analog signal, and outputs it to a speaker;
A communication interface 47 for exchanging input / output data by communication, a sensor input interface 48 for capturing a sensor signal of the current position detection device 2, a clock 49 for writing date and time in internal diagnostic information, and the like are provided. Here, the route guidance is configured so that the driver can select either the screen display or the voice output.

FIGS. 2 to 4 show examples of the configuration of main data files stored in the information storage device 3 according to the present invention shown in FIG. FIG. 2A shows a guide road data file in which data necessary for calculating a route and performing route guidance by the route calculating means is stored. For each of the number n of roads, a road number, a length, a road Address of attribute data, shape data, address of size and guidance data,
It consists of each data of size. The road number is set for each direction (outbound and return) for each road between the branch points. As shown in FIG. 3A, the road attribute data as the road guidance auxiliary information data is data indicating information on whether the road is an elevated road, next to an elevated road, an underpass, a side of an underpass, or the number of lanes. is there. As shown in FIG. 2B, when each road is divided into a plurality of nodes (nodes), the shape data has coordinate data including east longitude and north latitude for each of the number m of nodes.

As shown in FIG. 2C, the guide data includes an intersection (or branch point) name, caution data, road name data, an address and size of road name voice data, and an address and size of destination data. It consists of each data. As shown in FIG. 4 (A), the caution data is data indicating information such as a railroad crossing, a tunnel entrance, a tunnel exit, a width reduction point, or a missing point. Is data for calling attention to the driver. As shown in FIG. 3B, the road name data includes information on road types such as expressways, urban expressways, toll roads, and general roads (national roads, prefectural roads, and others), and expressways, urban expressways, and toll roads. Data indicating information indicating whether a road is a main line or an attachment road, and is composed of road type data and a type number which is individual number data for each road type.

As shown in FIG. 2D, the destination data includes a destination road number, a destination name, an address of destination name voice data, a size and a destination direction data, and a travel guidance data. The destination direction data is invalid (does not use destination direction data), unnecessary (does not guide), straight ahead, right direction, diagonally right direction, return right direction, left direction, diagonally left direction, left return direction information Is the data indicating The travel guidance data is, as shown in FIG.
If there are multiple lanes, it stores data to guide which lane to drive, from the right, from the left,
It is data indicating information from the center or not.

Next, the processing flow of the vehicle navigation device of the present invention will be described. FIG. 5 is a flowchart for explaining the flow of the entire system of the vehicle navigation device according to the present invention. CPU 40 of central processing unit 4
Starts the route guidance system program,
First, the current position is detected by the current position detection unit 2 and a map around the current position is displayed around the current position.
The name of the current position is displayed (step S1). next,
A destination is set using a telephone number, an address, a facility name, a registered point, and the like (step S2), and a route search from the current position to the destination is performed (step S3). When the route is determined, the route guidance / display is repeated until the vehicle arrives at the destination while tracking the current position by the current position detecting device 2 (step S4).

According to the present invention, the route guidance /
The display relates to route guidance at a branch point, and FIGS. 6, 7, 9, 10, and 12 are flow charts showing the flow of the processing. The route to the destination is set as a connection of roads between the branch points as shown in FIG. 8A, and the road numbers to be guided are listed in the order of guidance as shown in FIG. 8B. It is held as the arranged guide road number data.

FIG. 6 is a basic flowchart showing the route guidance processing at a branch point in the present invention. First, step S
At 11, the guide road (entering road) data of FIG. 2A connected to the branch point is acquired. Next, in step S12, FIG.
From the destination data of (D), "unnecessary" of the destination direction data of the road (outgoing road) exiting from the branch point is checked to determine whether guidance is unnecessary. If the guidance is unnecessary, in step S13, the road name data shown in FIG. 3B is checked, the types of the approach road and the exit road are checked, and guidance in steps S14 to S19 is executed according to the type. For example,
If the approach road is a general road, a high-speed main line or an attachment road and the approach road is a general road, guidance to enter the general road is executed (step S14), and the approach road is a general road. Is a high-speed main line or a mounting road, guidance to enter a high-speed main line or a mounting road from a general road is executed (step S15). In addition, guidance according to the types of the approach road and the exit road is executed (steps S16 to S19).

If guidance is unnecessary at step S12, travel guidance data storing data for guiding which lane to travel when there are a plurality of lanes on the outgoing road from the destination data at step S20 (FIG. 4B) Is checked, and if there is travel guidance data, a travel guidance from right, left, or center is executed in step S21. If there is no travel guidance data, at step S22, a railroad crossing other than a branch point,
It is checked whether or not caution data (FIG. 4 (A)) for calling the driver's attention in a tunnel or the like is present in the guidance data. , The travel guidance of the exit of the tunnel or the point of width reduction is executed. If there is no cautionary point data, the road name data (FIG. 3 (B)) of the outgoing road is checked from the destination data in step S24. If the vehicle enters a highway, a city highway or a toll road, the toll entrance guidance is provided in step S25. Execute.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing the flow of the guidance process for entering a general road in, for example, step S14 in FIG. First, in step S31, a road number exiting from a branch point is obtained. This means that, for example, as shown in FIG. 8 (A), the approach road number 4 is obtained for the approach road number 1 and the approach road number 5 is acquired when the approach road number is 4, as shown in FIG. 8 (B). Guide road number data that sequentially stores the road sequence to be guided is created. Next, the destination data of the road exiting in step S32 is searched from FIG. 2 (D). Then, a direction determination process is performed in step S33, and an auxiliary guidance setting process is performed in step S34. The processing of steps S33 and S34 will be described below.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart showing the flow of the direction determination process in step S33 of FIG. Note that steps S31 and S32 in FIG. 7 are shown overlapping. In step S42, destination direction data in the destination data (FIG. 2)
(E)). Here, the destination direction data is stored in the road data of the road exiting from the junction, corresponding to the road entering the junction, and the auxiliary guidance is performed based on the positional relationship between the road entering the junction and the road exiting from the junction. To determine the direction to go to, or "unnecessary"
When the direction is determined by the calculation without the need for the auxiliary guidance, the data is stored as "invalid". In step S43, it is determined whether or not the destination direction data in FIG. 2E is "unnecessary". If "unnecessary" (guidance is unnecessary), the process proceeds to another process without performing anything. If not, it is determined in step S44 whether or not the destination direction data is "invalid". If "invalid", the determination process based on the direction in step S45 is performed. This process is a conventional method. If the angle difference between the approach direction and the approach direction is within a predetermined angle with reference to the direction of the approach road, it is determined that the vehicle should go straight, and the angle difference is determined to be the predetermined angle. Is determined to be a right or left turn when the vehicle exceeds the threshold. If the destination direction data is not “invalid” in step S44, then in step S46, the destination direction data of FIG. 2E is used to calculate straight ahead, rightward, diagonally rightward, return to right, leftward, diagonally leftward, and leftward. Get the traveling direction of returning to.

FIG. 10 is a flowchart showing the flow of the auxiliary guidance setting process in step S34 of FIG. 7, and FIG. 11 is a diagram for explaining an example of the process. First, step S5
At 1, the destination name of the road exiting from the branch point is searched from the destination data of FIG. 2D, and if there is a destination name, the destination name voice is set to the auxiliary voice at step S55. If there is no destination name, the process proceeds to step S52, and the road attribute of the road exiting from the branch point is obtained from the guide road data of the destination road (departure road) in FIG. 2A as the road guidance auxiliary information data in FIG. Obtained from road attribute data. For example, in FIG. 11, the road attribute of the road with the road number 3 exiting from the guidance junction is acquired. Next, in step S53, it is verified whether or not the road attribute data includes flyover or underpass data. If there is flyover or underpass data, the process proceeds to step S54 to perform processing of flyover / underpass guide setting.

On the other hand, if the data of the elevated or underpass is not present on the road currently being verified, the process proceeds to step 56, where the guidance junction is connected to the end point of the road currently being verified (in FIG. 11, the end point side of the arrow of the guide road row). It is checked whether or not the distance to ()) is equal to or longer than a predetermined distance. If the distance is equal to or longer than the predetermined distance, the process proceeds to another process. If the distance is not equal to or longer than the predetermined distance, in step 57, the next guide road sequence connected to the end point of the road currently being verified (in FIG. If the current road row is road number 3, guidance road data of road number 6) is acquired.

Next, in step S58, it is checked from the guide road data of the road to be connected whether guidance is unnecessary. That is, when the road with the road number 6 is connected to the road with the road number 3 as shown in FIG. 11, whether the guidance of the road with the road number 6 is necessary at the junction between the road number 3 and the road number 6 is determined. Find out what. When guidance is not required, that is, when guidance is required, the process proceeds to the next process. When guidance is not required,
Returning to step 53, the road attribute data in the guide road data of road number 6 is searched. As described above, when performing the auxiliary guidance setting for the guidance junction shown in FIG. 11, the road exiting from the guidance junction, the road number 3 → 6 → 8 →... Tests are performed in order until there is a row of roads that need guidance, or there is elevated / underpass data. In step 56, it is tested whether or not the distance from the guidance junction to the road end point is equal to or greater than a predetermined distance. However, the predetermined distance may be a linear distance or the actual distance of the guide route. . The processing shown in FIG. 10 indicates the processing contents of the determination means for determining whether or not to add the road guidance auxiliary information data (road attribute data) as the auxiliary guidance for the junction guidance to the junction guidance.

FIG. 12 is a flow chart showing the flow of the process of setting the elevated / underpass guidance in step S54 of FIG. In step S61, an overpass / underpass is determined from the road attribute data in FIG. 3A. If it is determined in step S62 that the guide road is "overpass", a voice saying "enter the overpass" is output in step S63 as an auxiliary voice. Set to. If it is determined in step S62 that there is no “elevation”, step S
At 64, it is determined that the guide road is "next to an elevated road". If yes, at step S65, a voice saying "Do not enter the elevated road" is set as the auxiliary voice. If it is determined in step S64 that there is no “next to the elevated side”, then in step S66 “underpass”
The presence is determined, and in the case of presence, the voice of "entering the underpass" is set as the auxiliary voice in step S67. If it is determined in step S66 that there is no "underpass", it is determined that "beside the underpass" is present in step S68, and if so, a voice saying "will not enter the underpass" is set as the auxiliary voice in step S69.

Note that the above-mentioned auxiliary voice is the main voice, which is voice guidance determined by the angle difference.
The voice guidance is performed based on the determination based on the guide road data.

FIG. 13 is a diagram showing a specific guide scene of a viaduct and an underpass, and a guide expression. FIG. 13A shows a case where there is one branch point within a predetermined distance (for example, 300 m).
The voice guidance of "Pawn, about 300 meters ahead, left direction, underpass (elevation)" is given, followed by the audio guidance of "Soon left, underpass (elevation). Please be careful." Will be FIG. 13B shows a case where there are a plurality of branch points within a predetermined distance.
0 meters ahead, left. Followed by a voice guidance of "Soon to the right, ahead of the left. Underpass (overpass). Please be careful."

FIGS. 13 (C) to 13 (E) show a case in which branch points within a predetermined distance are continuous. In the case of FIG. 13 (C), "pawn, about 300 meters ahead, rightward. Followed by the voice guidance of "Soon to the right. Go ahead, 500 meters to the left. Underpass (overpass). Please be careful."
In the case of Fig. 13 (D), voice guidance of "Pawn, about 300 meters ahead, right direction. Underpass (elevation)" is given, followed by "Soon right, underpass (elevation). Go ahead at 500 meters to the left. Please be careful. " In the case of Fig. 13 (E), voice guidance of "Pawn, about 300 meters ahead, right direction. Underpass (elevation)" is given, followed by "Soon right, underpass (elevation). Go ahead at 500 meters to the left. Underpass (elevated). Please be careful. "

FIG. 14 is a diagram for explaining voice guidance at a branch point according to a specific screen example. FIG.
(A) shows a guide example in the case where there is an overpass immediately in the direction of going straight from the intersection, and FIG. 14 (B) shows a guide example in the case where there is a tunnel immediately in the direction of turning left from the intersection.

Next, another embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 15 is a diagram illustrating an example of a complicated intersection, specifically, an “Iidabashi” intersection having six intersections. In such a complicated intersection, it is difficult to understand the guidance only by the left and right guidance. Therefore, after guiding the traveling direction by voice, the area name displayed at the intersection is supplementarily guided by voice. If there is no direction indication at the intersection, the user is notified by voice that there is no direction name. This direction name is converted into data as a destination name in the destination data of FIG. Note that →, →, →,
→ indicates that entry is prohibited, and → and → do not require any voice guidance because they do not get lost.

FIG. 16 shows a modification of the present invention, and is a flowchart showing the flow of processing for changing the voice expression when a distance shift occurs. In the vehicle navigation device according to the present invention, when route guidance is performed, when the vehicle turns right or left at an intersection, the vehicle position on the map is corrected by turning judgment and map matching is performed. If the section where the guidance is not performed continues for a long time, there is no chance to perform the correction. Therefore, if the section where the guidance is not performed for a predetermined distance or more continues, the vehicle position on the map may be shifted.

Therefore, when a section in which guidance is not performed for a predetermined distance or more continues, it is determined that "distance deviation" has occurred, and the audio output content can be changed. For this purpose, as shown in FIG. 16, the guidance voice is divided into phrases such as a pawn (guidance sound), a guidance distance, an intersection name, and a traveling direction, and can be changed for each phrase excluding the “pawn” phrase. Then, it is determined whether or not to output a voice for each phrase. In particular, a guidance voice is created by removing phrases related to the guidance distance such as "approximately 700 m ahead" and "approximately 300 m ahead". In addition, as a condition for determining the “distance deviation”, in addition to a case where a section where guidance is not performed for a predetermined distance or more, and a case where the vehicle travels on a search route from a place not stored in the database (for example, a parking lot). In this case, the guidance voice is generated as "distance shift" until the next intersection is turned right and left to perform position correction.

As described above, according to the present invention, before the current position of the vehicle on the searched route reaches the junction or the intersection where guidance is required, the proceeding to be performed next at the junction or the intersection is required. The direction is notified by voice and display. At this time, if there is a branch point or the like on the guidance route that has a complicated shape in which the traveling direction cannot be specified by voice expressions such as front and rear, left and right, and diagonal left and right, By informing whether to proceed, the driver can surely proceed on the road to be followed. That is,
At the branch point, there is an elevated road and a road beside it, or an underpass and a road beside the underpass exist in parallel, or a complex shaped branch point as shown in FIG. 17 exists. In some cases, road information of the road to be taken on the guidance route, for example, an overpass, an underpass, or a tunnel, such as "go on the overpass" or "go on the underpass", is a complex junction with many branches. Can be reliably performed.

In particular, at a complicated branch point or intersection as shown in FIG. 17 or FIG. 14 (B), when a more complicated branch point exists immediately after turning right or left as shown in FIG. If there is a branch point with a complex shape while traveling straight ahead (in the case of traveling straight ahead, it is possible to visually see the presence of an elevated or underpass, It is difficult for the driver to know the existence of underground passages, overpasses, etc., as compared to the case where it is possible to confirm whether to proceed in the direction by the display. By notifying the driver of the existence of the point by voice in advance, reliable guidance can be provided without causing the driver to panic.

In this embodiment, road information data such as an elevated road, an underpass, and a tunnel are stored in the information storage device as road data. May be stored in the information storage device as branch point data. However,
Storing road information data as road data
Data indicating a connection state between roads, such as information on prohibition of entry from one road to another road, can be easily stored, and the data amount can be reduced as compared with the case where the data is stored as branch point data.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of a vehicle navigation device according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a configuration example of a main data file according to the present invention shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a configuration example of a main data file according to the present invention shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a configuration example of a main data file according to the present invention shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 5 is a flowchart for explaining a flow of the entire system of the vehicle navigation device according to the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a basic flowchart showing a process of route guidance at a branch point in the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing a flow of a process of guiding to enter a general road in FIG. 6;

8 (A) is a diagram for explaining a road number exiting from a branch point in FIG. 7, and FIG. 8 (B) is a diagram showing a configuration of guide road number data.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart showing a flow of a direction determination process in FIG. 7;

FIG. 10 is a flowchart showing a flow of an auxiliary guidance setting process of FIG. 7;

FIG. 11 is a diagram for explaining the processing in FIG. 10;

FIG. 12 is a flowchart showing the flow of processing for setting an elevated / underpass guidance in FIG. 10;

FIG. 13 is a diagram showing a specific guide scene of a viaduct and an underpass, and a guide expression.

FIG. 14 is a diagram for describing voice guidance at a branch point according to a specific screen example.

FIG. 15 is a diagram showing another embodiment of the present invention and showing an example of a complicated intersection.

FIG. 16 is a flowchart showing a modification of the present invention and showing a flow of processing for changing a voice expression when a distance shift occurs.

FIG. 17 is a diagram for explaining the problem of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

REFERENCE SIGNS LIST 1 input / output device, 2 current position detection device, 3 information storage device 4 central processing device, 11 touch switch, 12 display 16 speaker, 40 CPU, 41 first ROM, 4
2 RAM 43 Second ROM 44 Image memory 45 Image processor 46 Audio processor 47 Communication interface 48 Sensor input interface

────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (56) References JP-A-2-6713 (JP, A) JP-A-5-93631 (JP, A) JP-A-7-192193 (JP, A) (58) Field (Int.Cl. ⁶ , DB name) G01C 21/00

Claims (6)

(57) [Claims] 1. A current position detecting means for calculating a current position of a vehicle; an input means for inputting information necessary for calculating a route; an output means for notifying information for performing route guidance; An information storage unit storing all data necessary for performing the operation, a route calculation unit for performing a route calculation based on the information input by the input unit, and the information along the route calculated by the route calculation unit. Guidance control means for reading data stored in a storage means and outputting the data to the output means, wherein the information storage means stores road guidance auxiliary information data, and the guidance control means detects the current position detection means. When the determined current position is on the route currently being calculated calculated by the route calculation means, the data relating to the branch point requiring guidance ahead of the current position is stored in the information storage. Read from the data relating to the route stored in the stage advances from the branch point the guidance regarding branch points required in the guide
A determination unit for determining whether to add road guidance auxiliary information data on the road; and when the determination unit determines that the road guidance auxiliary information data is to be added to the guidance on the branch point, said the guide on
Vehicle navigation system and outputs to the output unit by adding the road guidance auxiliary information data relating to the road to advance or branch points, et al. 2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the determining unit searches the data on the route calculated by the route calculating unit and stored in the information storage unit within a predetermined distance from the branch point requiring guidance. 2. The vehicular navigation device according to claim 1, wherein when the data includes the road guidance auxiliary information data, it is determined that the road guidance auxiliary information data is added to the guidance regarding the branch point. 3. The information storage means stores data necessary for performing the route guidance corresponding to each of the roads connecting each branch point, and uses the route calculated by the route calculation means as a road sequence. The determination means stores the data of the road sequence that is within a predetermined distance from the branch point requiring guidance or the road sequence up to the road that crosses the predetermined distance from the data stored in the road sequence of the route. 3. The vehicular navigation apparatus according to claim 2, wherein when the road guidance auxiliary information data is present, it is determined that the road guidance auxiliary information data is to be added to the guidance relating to the branch point. 4. A current position detecting means for calculating a current position of a vehicle.
Steps and input means for inputting information necessary for calculating the route
When, information stored and output means for notifying the information for route guidance, all data necessary for route guidance
Information storage means, and a route calculation based on information input by the input means.
Route calculating means for performing, and the information along the route calculated by the route calculating means.
The data stored in the storage means is read out to the output means.
Output guidance control means, wherein the information storage means stores road guidance auxiliary information data.
The guidance control means is provided by the current position detection means.
The detected current position is calculated by the route calculating means.
If the vehicle is on the route currently being guided,
The information storage means stores data relating to a junction requiring guidance.
From the data on the route stored in the
Calculated by the road calculation means and stored in the information storage means.
Is the turning point for which guidance is required in the data on the route
Whether there is road guidance auxiliary information data within a predetermined distance from
Search for the guidance about the junction that needs guidance
Judgment method for determining whether to add guidance auxiliary information data
A step, and the road guidance auxiliary information data
Data is searched for, and the road guidance auxiliary information data is
If it is determined to be added to the guidance about the fork point,
Road guidance auxiliary information data is added to the guidance related to the junction.
Output to the output means in the vehicle navigation system.
Gating device. 5. The method according to claim 1, wherein the determining means searches the road guidance auxiliary information data in order from the nearest to the branch point, and determines that the first searched road guidance auxiliary information data is added to the guidance relating to the branch point. The vehicle navigation device according to any one of claims 2 to 4, wherein Wherein said road guidance auxiliary information data is elevated, horizontal elevated, underpass claim 1 or請 characterized in that it is a face name of the advancing direction in the horizontal, or branch points underpass
The vehicle navigation device according to claim 4 .