JP3064752B2 - Route guidance device for vehicles - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a vehicle route guidance device mounted on a vehicle and guiding a route to a destination by voice and display.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, various devices aimed at reducing the burden on a driver have been studied and mounted on a vehicle. Among them, guidance is provided along a route to a destination. There is a route guidance device. The route guidance device has a function of notifying a driver of a route to be selected when passing through a junction such as an intersection, and a display is provided on an instrument panel of the vehicle as being currently provided for practical use. There is a route guidance device which provides an image display device according to the above, and notifies the driver of the route.

[0003] In addition, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 62-267900 also discloses an apparatus that performs route notification by voice in addition to such notification by image display. The timing for generating a voice when the vehicle reaches 30 m before the intersection to be turned left is calculated in relation to the current position, and an appropriate voice pattern is selected from the voice patterns stored in the voice pattern selection unit, and “Next Please turn left at the intersection. " According to such route guidance by voice, the driver can reduce the number of times and time for viewing the display and the like, and can concentrate on monitoring ahead.

[0004]

Not only the above-mentioned prior art but also a general vehicle guidance system uses an intersection name when instructing a driver to make an intersection to turn right or left by voice. In addition, when it exists, a signal mark, a national road number, a pedestrian bridge, and the like are displayed on a display screen to provide guidance.

[0005] Therefore, when voice guidance is given for an intersection to be turned left or right, even if there is a mark such as a pedestrian bridge which is easier to find than the intersection name and which is efficient for guidance, voice guidance is provided uniquely using the intersection name. There was a problem that it was difficult for the elderly to find the intersection to turn left and right. In addition, there is also a problem that it is difficult for the driver to grasp the intersection information at a glance because all the guide marks of the intersection to be turned right and left are displayed on the screen.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned problems of the related art, and has as its object to provide a vehicle route capable of performing appropriate voice guidance and display guidance according to a junction (intersection) where a right or left turn is to be made. It is to provide a guidance device.

[0007]

In order to achieve the above object, a vehicle route guidance device of the present invention provides guidance by voice and display according to a preset route, and guides a route to a destination. A route guidance device for a vehicle, comprising: a map information storage unit; a guide landmark information storage unit; a route calculation unit that searches for a route to a destination using the map information stored in the map information storage unit; Reading out the guide landmark information about the branch point to be turned right and left on the route obtained from the guide landmark information storage means, and calculating an evaluation value of the guide for each guide landmark; Guidance selecting means for selecting a guide mark to be voice-guided and a guide mark to be displayed and displayed according to the evaluation result, wherein voice guidance or display guidance is performed according to the guide evaluation value of the guide mark. That.

[0008]

As described above, according to the present invention, the guide mark is evaluated from the viewpoint of the importance of the guide, and it is determined whether to provide voice guidance or display guidance in accordance with the evaluation result.

As described above, when there is a guide mark such as a pedestrian bridge at an intersection to be turned right or left, it is easier for the driver to recognize the pedestrian bridge by voice than the name of the intersection. Therefore, the evaluation of the guidance is performed for each guidance landmark. For example, the evaluation value of the pedestrian bridge is set to be high, while the evaluation value of the intersection name is set to be relatively low, and the voice with the high evaluation result is guided. In that case, the pedestrian bridge will be selected as a voice guidance landmark rather than the intersection name,
Can provide accurate guidance.

[0010]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Preferred embodiments of a vehicle route guidance apparatus according to the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of this embodiment. A map information storage unit 10 for storing information such as roads, place names, building names, and river names is provided so that the stored map information can be read as needed. Further, a GPS receiver 14 using a satellite navigation system (hereinafter, referred to as GPS) for measuring the current position of the vehicle, an azimuth sensor 16 for detecting the traveling direction of the vehicle based on geomagnetism, and a steering angle of the steering wheel Sensor 17 that detects a change course by using
And a distance sensor 18 for detecting the traveling distance based on the number of rotations of the wheels, and the current position measuring unit 12 determines the current position of the vehicle based on the detection results of these sensors.

When performing route guidance to a destination, a destination is instructed on a screen of a display unit to be described later by an input unit 19, or is input by a place name or the like, and the current position calculated by the current position measuring unit 12 is calculated. Calculation unit 2 calculates the route from the position to the destination
The calculated route is stored in the route storage unit 24 by the route calculation unit 22 included in 0.

After inputting the destination and determining the route, actual route guidance is performed. The route guidance control unit 26 included in the calculation unit 20 reads map information around the own vehicle from the map information storage unit 10 and superimposes the current position and traveling direction of the own vehicle on the route stored in the route storage unit 24. Is displayed on the display unit 28. Here, the guide landmark information selection control unit 33 in the route guidance control unit 26, when the position of the own vehicle approaches the intersection to change the route, among the guide landmark information stored in the guide landmark information storage unit 32, Which landmark is to be displayed is selected by a method described later, and the obtained guide landmark information is supplied to the display creating unit 31. The display creation unit 31 superimposes the selected guide mark, the current position and traveling direction of the own vehicle and the route stored in the route storage unit 24, and displays them on the display unit 28. The display unit 28 is provided on an instrument panel near the driver's seat, and the driver checks the display unit 28 to confirm the position of the own vehicle and obtain information on a future course.

When the position of the vehicle approaches an intersection to be changed, the guide mark information selection control section 33 in the route guide control section 26 stores the guide mark information stored in the guide mark information storage section 32. Among them, which landmark is to be voice-guided is selected by a method described later, and the obtained guide landmark information is supplied to the front speech synthesizer 31. The voice synthesizer 30 voice-synthesizes the selected guide information and drives the speaker 34.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing the operation of this embodiment. First, the guide landmark information selection control unit 3
3 reads all the landmark information related to the next intersection to be guided from the guidance landmark information storage unit 32 (S102). The content to be read is attribute data of each mark information, and FIG. 3 shows an example of the attribute data. As the guide mark information, for example, a signal, an intersection name, a railroad crossing, a destination guide sign, a convenience store (convenience store), a stop sign, and the like are used. As the attribute, the distance between the guide landmark and the intersection (x
1), guide mark discoverable distance (x2), guide mark uniqueness (x3), additional items (x4), etc. are used. The distance (x1) between the guide mark and the intersection is 0 m or more, and the smaller this value is, the easier it is to specify the intersection to be turned right or left. The discoverable distance (x2) of the guide mark is also 0 m or more, and the larger this value is, the sooner it is possible to find the intersection to turn right or left. The uniqueness (x3) of the guide landmark indicates the probability that the same landmark does not exist, that is, the rarity.
The rate at which the same landmarks appear is low, making it difficult to mistake an intersection to turn left or right. In this embodiment, the uniqueness is 1, 2, 2,
It is performed in a four-point scale of 3, 4 (the higher the number, the higher the rarity). The additional items are other attributes that are not included in the above-described x1 to x3. For example, in a place where a stop sign is present, the vehicle always stops, so that the sign can be easily recognized. In the present embodiment, the additional items are evaluated with integers 0, 1, and 2. The higher the number, the more difficult it is to mistake an intersection to be turned left or right. These guide mark information and its attributes may be measured or surveyed on site for each intersection and stored in the guide mark information storage unit 32, and a general value can be set according to the guide mark information. In that case, the value can be uniformly set and stored. For example, for signals, x1 = 0m and x2 = 200m can be uniformly set.

Next, an evaluation value of the read all guide landmark information is calculated (S103). The evaluation value Z is: Zi = -b.log (x1) + c.log (x2) + d
X3 + x4 where b, c and d are calculated as positive constants. Here, i is a suffix representing the guide landmark information. As is clear from this equation, as x1 is smaller, x2, x3, and x4 are larger, Z
The value of i increases and the evaluation value increases. Then, the guide mark information selection control unit 33 compares the calculated evaluation value Zi with the predetermined value a (S104). If any of the evaluation values Zi is smaller than the predetermined value a, it is determined that the guide mark does not become a meaningful guide mark by the driver, and no voice guide or display guide is performed for any guide mark (S105). On the other hand, when the evaluation value Zi is equal to or larger than the predetermined value a, the guide mark information selection control unit 33 selects the highest guide mark and outputs it to the voice synthesizing unit 30 for voice guidance (S106). Also,
With the guide mark information other than the voice guide, the top two guide marks having a high evaluation value Zi are output to the display creating section 31 to perform the display guide (S107).

After selecting a guide landmark and performing voice guidance and display guidance, it is determined whether the vehicle has passed an intersection to be guided (S108). If it is determined that the vehicle has passed the guidance intersection based on comparison with the current location, Furthermore, it is determined whether or not the vehicle has reached the destination (S109), and the above-described processing is repeated until the vehicle reaches the destination.

As described above, in the present embodiment, for each guide mark at an intersection to be guided, its attributes are quantified to evaluate the effectiveness of guidance, and the guide mark with the highest evaluation value is voice-guided. Since the evaluation values other than the voice-guided landmarks indicate and display the top two guidance landmarks, if there is a landmark that is effective for route guidance such as a pedestrian bridge in addition to the intersection name, the guidance landmark is voice-guided, and You can turn right and left at the intersection without fail. In addition, only two effective guide marks for display guidance are displayed on the display unit 28, so that the guide marks can be easily grasped.

In this embodiment, the evaluation value is Zi = -b.log (x1) + c.log (x2) + d
-Calculated by x3 + x4, but it is also possible to evaluate by other calculation formulas. Further, although the upper two guide marks excluding the voice guide mark are displayed and guided, it is also possible to display and guide one or three higher guide marks.

Further, in the present embodiment, as the attributes of the guide mark, the distance between the guide mark and the intersection (x1), the discoverable distance of the guide mark (x2), the uniqueness of the guide mark (x3), and the additional item (x4) are set. In addition to this, it was also used for voice guidance (x
5) or display orientation (x6).
When determining the rank of the evaluation value Zi, it is also conceivable to perform evaluation in consideration of these values. For example, a guide mark such as an intersection name is suitable for voice guidance, but a guide mark such as a signboard is more suitable for display guidance than a voice guide. It is also conceivable to make an evaluation so that As a result, an output device according to the nature of the guide mark is selected and notified to the driver, so that the driver can surely grasp the intersection where the driver should make a right or left turn.

[0021]

As described above, according to the route guidance apparatus for a vehicle of the present invention, guidance marks at a branch point such as an intersection are individually evaluated, and voice guidance and display guidance are performed according to the evaluation result. Therefore, it is possible to reliably inform the driver of the guide mark.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration block diagram of an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a control flowchart of the embodiment.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing attributes of guide mark information according to the embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

 Reference Signs List 10 map information storage unit 12 current position measurement unit 20 calculation unit 22 route calculation unit 26 route guidance control unit 30 voice synthesis unit 31 display creation unit 32 guidance landmark information storage unit 33 guidance landmark information selection control unit

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page (58) Fields investigated (Int. Cl. ⁷ , DB name) G01C 21/00 G08G 1/0969 G09B 29/00-29/10 G10L 13/00

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] 1. A vehicle route guidance device that provides guidance by voice and display according to a preset route and guides a route to a destination, comprising: a map information storage unit; a guide mark information storage unit; Route calculating means for searching for a route to a destination using the map information stored in the map information storage means; and guide mark information relating to a branch point to be turned on the route obtained by the search. An evaluation unit that reads from the information storage unit and calculates an evaluation value of guidance for each guidance landmark; and a guidance that selects a guidance landmark to be audio-guided and a guidance landmark to be displayed and displayed according to the evaluation result of the evaluation unit. A route guidance device for a vehicle, comprising: selection means; and performing voice guidance or display guidance according to a guidance evaluation value of a guidance mark.