JP3085483B2 - 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 car navigation system used for a moving object, for example, an automobile. The present invention relates to a guidance device for providing voice information about traffic information and destination guidance.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Heretofore, a car navigation system has been provided as a guide device for transmitting driver position information and route guidance information to a driver. This system is equipped with a geomagnetic sensor, a direction sensor such as a gyro, a mileage sensor for measuring the mileage, a map memory, and a display. The system detects the current position of the vehicle and displays the detected position and the vector of the traveling direction on the display. This is superimposed and displayed on the displayed map.

Further, a system for wirelessly transmitting information to a running automobile has been considered. The information to be sent includes, for example, current vehicle position information, traffic regulations,
There are timely information such as traffic congestion information and road destination information. FIG. 7 shows an example of a system configuration for displaying such information guidance on the above-mentioned navigation display.
Shown in

[0004] In the figure, reference numeral 1 denotes a transmitting antenna provided on a utility pole on the side of a road. Since the current position information of the vehicle can be transmitted only to the vehicle passing by the side of the telephone pole, an antenna having a high directivity is used so that the radio wave does not reach an unnecessary range. Reference numeral 2 denotes a receiving antenna, which is provided on the vehicle 100. Reference numeral 3 denotes a receiver, which demodulates the received radio wave and transmits the transmitted information to the display control unit 5.

Reference numeral 9 denotes a wheel speed sensor, and 10 denotes a terrestrial magnetism sensor. The position detector 8 calculates the current position of the vehicle based on the moving amount and moving direction of the vehicle detected by these sensors. 4 is a road map database. The display control unit 5 superimposes the road map, the current position of the vehicle, and the received information as appropriate and visually presents them to the driver on the display 6.

[0006] Information received from outside is displayed on a display, but it is burdensome for a driver to see this display during driving, which is not preferable for safe driving. Therefore, it is conceivable to transmit such information to the driver not by visual information but by voice.

FIG. 8 shows a configuration of a device for transmitting information received from the outside by voice (relation of display on a display is omitted).

[0008] received through the antenna 2 and the receiver 3,
For example, the guidance information in the form of a character code string is transmitted to the speech synthesis unit 1.
2 is converted into a voice guidance sentence, and the speaker 13
Is passed on to the driver and the passenger. Voice synthesis unit 12
The vocabulary and sentences uttered by humans are stored in advance, and stored vocabulary methods (including recording and editing methods and analysis / synthesis methods) that are edited as is or in which the order is edited, or syllables and other segments are edited. Use a speech rule synthesis method (including a text synthesis method) that synthesizes sentences.

[0009]

However, in such a configuration in which the display is simply replaced with voice output, a problem arises when the guide information transmitted from the outside cannot be directly converted into voice. This is, for example, a case where the guidance information transmitted from the outside includes a proper noun such as a geographical name in particular, and in the case of a stored vocabulary method, the utterance of the proper noun is registered in advance in the guidance device. Occurs when not placed. Also, in the case of the speech rule synthesis method, it occurs when the reading of the proper noun (including the method of adding an accent) cannot be understood from the character notation such as the kanji of the place name indicated by the received character code.

[0010] This problem can be avoided if sufficient vocabulary such as proper nouns are registered in the guide device in advance, but it is difficult to register all vocabulary due to memory and labor restrictions. In addition, geographic names may be newly generated. Therefore, in such a case, it is not practical that no allowance can be made and the audio output becomes impossible.

Even when the guide information is displayed on the display, the same problem as described above occurs when the kanji information of the place name included in the guide information is not registered in the image conversion character generator in the display.

The present invention has been devised in order to solve this problem. Even if a received geographical information includes a geographical name that cannot be output, a guidance device that can appropriately output a substitute is provided. The purpose is to provide.

[0013]

In order to achieve the above object, a first aspect of the present invention is to provide a first information signal of a first information signal which is installed in a mobile body and received from the outside or created inside the apparatus. A guide device for converting guide information in a form into a form of a second information signal for output, and then displaying the guide information in the form of the second information signal or outputting the information by voice, the first information signal Storage means preliminarily storing alternative information in the form of the first information signal or the second information signal indicating an alternative expression for a part which cannot be converted into the second information signal, and Signal processing means for detecting a part which cannot be converted to the form of the second information signal, and a part of the guidance information in a signal form corresponding to the signal form of the alternative information, Characterized in that comprises an information processing means for synthesizing guidance information for the information output by replacing the information.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, a plurality of types of alternative information stored in the storage means are prepared in association with a relative positional relationship and / or a distance between the guide object indicated by the guide information and the moving body. Input means for inputting first position information indicating a current position of the moving object and second position information indicating a position of the guidance target; and inputting the first position information and the second position information. An arithmetic processing unit for calculating the relative positional relationship and / or the distance, and selecting the type of alternative information corresponding to the calculated relative positional relationship and / or the distance as the alternative information for the replacement And selecting means for performing the selection.

[0015]

In the present invention, attention is paid to the fact that the portion of the guide information that cannot be converted is a kanji code indicating the name of the guide target. In the first invention, for example, one type of alternative such as "from now on" is used. By replacing the name part of the guidance target whose expression and signal cannot be converted, grammatically valid guidance information is displayed or output by voice.

In the second invention, for example, "right hand",
A plurality of alternative expressions such as “left hand” and “100 meters” are prepared, and the relative positional relationship between the moving object and the guidance target and / or
Alternatively, an alternative expression used for replacement is selected according to the distance.

[0017]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 shows a basic configuration of an embodiment of the present invention.

The guide device according to the present embodiment is installed on a mobile body, receives guide information in the form of a first information signal from the outside by radio, converts the guide information into the form of a second information signal, and converts the guide information into the second information signal. Is a guidance device that displays guidance information in the form of an information signal or outputs information by voice.

[0020] The guide device may be a substitute information in the form of the first information signal or the form of the second information signal, which indicates an alternative expression for a portion that cannot be converted from the first information signal to the second information signal. Storage means 100 in which
0, a signal processing unit 1100 for detecting a part of the guide information that cannot be converted into the form of the second information signal.
And information processing means 1200 for synthesizing guidance information for information output by replacing a portion detected by the signal processing means with the substitute information in the guide information in a signal form matching the signal form of the substitute information. It has.

In this guidance apparatus, the alternative information stored in the storage means may include a plurality of types of alternative information related to a relative positional relationship and / or a distance between the guidance target indicated by the guidance information and the moving body. Input means 2000 provided for inputting first position information indicating the current position of the moving object and second position information indicating the position of the guidance target; and the input first position information and input second position information An arithmetic processing unit 2100 that calculates the relative positional relationship and / or distance based on the information, and substitutes the type of alternative information corresponding to the calculated relative positional relationship and / or distance for the replacement. Selection means 22 for selecting as information
00 and the guide device is further provided.

FIG. 2 shows an example of a specific circuit configuration of the embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 2, the same parts as those in FIGS. 7 and 8 are denoted by the same reference numerals.

In FIG. 2, a microprocessor (MP
U) 11 internally has a central processing unit (CPU), a read only memory (ROM), and a random access memory (R).
AM). The CPU executes the processing procedures of FIGS. 4 to 6 stored in the ROM, and causes the voice synthesizer 12 to output the voice guidance information for reception.

In this embodiment, a compact disk 4A is used as the road map database 4, and the compact disk (CD) 4A stores map information, a reading conversion table, and an alternative expression table in advance. In the reading conversion table, kanji words for place names, kanji words frequently used in guide information, and their readings are described in character code form.

FIG. 3 shows the contents of the alternative expression table according to the present invention.

An expression described in the alternative expression table is, for example, "in front of", an expression representing a relative positional relationship between the guidance object and a moving body (vehicle), and a guidance such as "100 meters". An expression representing the distance between the object and the moving object is prepared. These expressions are composed of hiragana character codes indicating readings. The CD4A storing the substitute expression table operates as a storage unit of the present invention.

Returning to FIG. 2, a CD drive (CDD) 4B
Reads stored information from an address specified by the MPU 11.

The receiver 3 receives the guide information in the form of a character code (first information signal of the present invention) from the ground station by radio, and outputs the guide information as it is as a character code. In addition,
The communication format to be performed between the ground station and the receiver 3 is predetermined. When the guide information includes a place name to be guided, position information indicating a geographical position of the place name is added. It is assumed that

The voice output operation of the guide device having such a configuration will be described with reference to the flowcharts of FIGS.

When the receiver 3 receives, for example, guidance information (character code form including a kanji code) indicating that "Ome Kaido is congested" and position information indicating the position of "Ome Kaido", the MPU 11 receives the information in the internal RAM. The information is stored (step S10 in FIG. 4).

Next, the MPU 11 detects a continuous Chinese character string in the received guidance information as a word to be converted into a reading. As a method for word detection, a word detection method often used in language translation may be used, and a detailed description is omitted.

In this example, "Ome Kaido", "Congestion"
Is detected. Next, the MPU 11 searches a reading conversion table on the CD4A to convert the detected word into reading. More specifically, when the first word of the reading conversion table is compared with the above “Ome Kaido” and a mismatch is determined, the word on the reading conversion table to be compared is changed to the next word. Switch to perform the next match comparison.

In this way, the MPU 11 searches for a word that matches "Ome Kaido". If "Ome Kaido"
Is not described in the reading-conversion table, a non-coincidence determination is obtained in the matching determination processing for the last word on the reading-conversion table. In this case, the MPU 11 determines that “Ome Kaido” cannot be converted to reading (Step S30 → S40 in FIG. 4). The MPU 11 at this time operates as the signal processing means of the present invention.

On the other hand, when the information is described in the reading conversion table such as "during traffic congestion", a match determination result is obtained in the match determination processing. At this time, the MPU 11 reads the reading "juttaichi" written along with the kanji word on the reading conversion table and replaces it with the kanji word "congested" in the guide information on the internal RAM (see FIG. 4). Steps S30 → S40 → S45).

If it is determined that the conversion to the reading is not possible (step S40 in FIG. 4), the MPU 11 sets the current position of the moving object to the detection results of the wheel speed sensor 9, the geomagnetic sensor 10 and the previous position detection result. It is calculated based on the calculation (step S50 in FIG. 4).

Subsequently, the MPU 11 reads the position information received from the ground station for the "Ome Kaido" stored in the internal RAM, and detects the position of the "Ome Kaido" based on the map information and the position information on the CD4A. (Step S60 in FIG. 4). At this time, the MPU 11 operates as input means of the present invention.

The MPU 11 calculates the distance between the two positions from the current position of the moving object and the position of the guidance target "Ome Kaido" according to a predetermined arithmetic expression. Further, the MPU 11 identifies the relative positional relationship between the moving body and the guidance target by comparing the two positions with each other (Step S70 in FIG. 4). At this time, MP
U11 operates as the arithmetic processing means of the present invention.

In this embodiment, as for the relative positional relationship, it is determined whether the guidance target is located at the front, right, or left of the moving body.

Based on the distance to the guidance target and the relative positional relationship obtained in this way, the MPU 11 selects, from the alternative expression table on the CD4A, an alternative expression that matches the selection criterion as the selection means of the present invention. Select a reading. This selection processing will be described later. The selected reading is read from the CD4A by the MPU 11, and the internal RAM
It is replaced with the kanji word "Ome Kaido" in the above guide information (step S90 in FIG. 4). At this time, the MPU 11 operates as the information processing means of the present invention.

As described above, the kanji words included in the received guidance sentence are converted into kana characters indicating the reading, and the convertible place name kanji words are converted into alternative expressions. The sentence information is converted into guidance sentence information composed of kana characters, for example, "Zenpakyuku-matoru-juta-ichi".

When the MPU 11 confirms that all the kanji words in the guidance sentence information have been converted to reading, the MPU 11 reads the guidance information in the form of kana characters from the internal RAM and transfers it to the voice synthesizer 12 (step S100 in FIG. 5). S11
0).

As a result, the voice synthesizer 12 outputs the guidance information by voice.

Although not described in the present control procedure, when the guide information is to be displayed on the display 6, the received guide information mixed with the kanji is separately stored and stored in the internal RAM. The kanji mixed guidance information is transferred as it is.

Next, a process of selecting an alternative expression according to the present invention will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. The selection criteria used in the flowchart in FIG. 6 are as follows.

(A) When the relative position of the guide object is located on the right or left side of the moving body, only the alternative expression corresponding to the relative positional relationship is selected.

(B) When the relative position of the guide object is in front of the moving body and the distance is 80 m or less, an alternative expression of “front” is used.

(C) When the relative position of the guidance target object is in front of the moving body and the distance is 80 m or more, an alternative expression defined for each distance is selected in addition to the alternative expression "front".

For example, as the relative positional relationship, “front”,
When a distance of 140 m is obtained, the processing procedure of FIG.
00 → S210 → S220, and in S220,
It is confirmed that the relative positional relationship is “front”. next,
The distance 140m is in the range of 80m to 150m S
If confirmed at 240, the execution procedure of the MPU 11 is S24
Go to 5. As a result, from the alternative expressions shown in FIG.
“Forward” and “100 meters” are selected.

As described above, in the present embodiment, for the place names that cannot be converted into the form of the input data of the speech synthesizer, the input data for the speech synthesizer is created using the alternative expression, so that the guidance sentence is output as speech. At that time, the voice output becomes grammatically appropriate.

The following example can be implemented in addition to this embodiment.

1) In this embodiment, since the speech synthesizer 12 of the speech synthesis rule system is used, the alternative expression is composed of reading, that is, phonograms. When a synthesizer is used, an alternative expression is constituted by a signal form that can be input to the speech synthesizer.

2) In the present embodiment, the replacement process of the alternative expression is performed in the form of a reading (kana character code) to be input to the speech synthesizer 12. However, the alternative expression is composed of words mixed with kanji that can be converted to reading. In the case where the received kanji code is mixed with the guide information (the first information signal form of the present invention),
Replace unconvertible words with convertible kanji mixed words. Thereafter, the guide information for which the replacement processing has been completed is converted into a reading for voice output.

3) In this embodiment, a plurality of types of alternative expressions are prepared. However, if it is desired to simplify the guidance device, only one type of alternative expression can be used, for example, "from here onward". In this case, the alternative expression selection process of FIG. 6 is not required, and the alternative expression replacement process is performed when a kanji code string that cannot be word-converted is detected.

4) If it is desired to bring the alternative expression closer to the content of the guide information of the reception, the following processing may be performed.

A) That is, a word described in the reading conversion table is detected in a kanji code string that continues from the last character of a word that cannot be converted. For example, if "Ome Kaido" cannot be read and converted, and if "Kaido" is obtained, "alternative expression" obtained in this embodiment and "Kaido" are connected by a connecting particle, for example, "100 meters ahead" Create an alternative expression called "Road of the Road".

B) Also, it is determined whether or not there are words indicating geographical contents, such as "intersection", "castle", and "pond", among words that cannot be converted. Can also make the content of the alternative expression accurate. In addition, it is also possible to add an alternative expression indicating a distance relationship, such as “this pond” or “a pond 100 meters ahead”, according to the distance to the guidance target.

C) The traveling route of the moving object to the guidance target point is detected as a relative positional relationship from the road map database, and an alternative expression representing the traveling route is combined. As an alternative expression, for example, "a front intersection", "turn right", "turn left", "road", etc. may be prepared in advance.

5) In the present embodiment, the guidance target (place name) included in the guidance information is input by a character code mixed with kanji. However, when the information is received only by the identification code on the road map database, the information code is read. What is necessary is just to prepare the conversion table with.

6) In this embodiment, only an example of audio output has been described, but the present invention can be applied to the case of displaying guidance information. In this case, the MPU 11 determines whether or not pattern conversion can be performed by the character generator. In addition, the voice synthesizer may be replaced with a display and the reading may be replaced with an image pattern.

7) Also, a voice guidance device proposed by the present applicant (Japanese Patent Application No. 2-10100 filed on Apr. 17, 1990).
No. 4), guide information is created in the voice guidance device,
It is needless to say that the present invention can be applied to the case of outputting sound.

[0061]

According to the present invention, even if there is a vocabulary that cannot be output with synthesized speech, a guide sentence can be output with synthesized speech that is correct in content. Even if there is a vocabulary that cannot be synthesized, there is no problem in practical use.
It is possible to omit the speech synthesis function for many vocabularies with a low frequency of appearance, and to enable speech synthesis for all vocabularies,
Significant cost reduction can be achieved in terms of vocabulary registration effort and storage capacity.

If the information from the outside indicates the positional relationship between the vehicle on which the listener is riding and the object, the positional relationship between the listener and the guidance object can also be determined. Even if there is a newly generated geographical name, it is possible to output a guidance sentence with a synthesized speech that is correct in content. Therefore, even if a geographical name is newly generated, the existing voice guidance device can be continuously used, and investment in the voice guidance device is not wasted.

There is an advantage that Furthermore, compared to the case where guidance information is output only to the display, the act of looking into the display, which is necessary when guidance is not possible using synthesized voice, is unnecessary, reducing the burden on the driver and preventing the driver from looking aside. Traffic safety enforcement can be planned.

There is another advantage.

[Brief description of the drawings]

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

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a specific circuit configuration of the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of an alternative expression of the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating a processing procedure executed by the MPU 11 of FIG. 2;

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing a processing procedure executed by the MPU 11 of FIG. 2;

FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating a processing procedure executed by the MPU 11 of FIG. 2;

FIG. 7 is a block diagram showing a circuit configuration of a conventional guide device.

FIG. 8 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a circuit of a guidance device that performs audio output.

[Explanation of symbols]

 2 antenna 3 receiver 4 road map database 6 display 11 MPU 12 voice synthesizer (voice synthesis unit)

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page (58) Field surveyed (Int.Cl. ⁷ , DB name) G01C 21/00 G08G 1/09-1/0969 G09B 29/00-29/00

Claims (2)

(57) [Claims] 1. A guide information in the form of a first information signal, which is installed in a mobile body and received from the outside or created inside the apparatus, is converted into a form of a second information signal for output. And a guidance device that displays guidance information in the form of the second information signal or outputs the information by voice, wherein the first information indicating an alternative expression for a portion that cannot be converted from the first information signal to the second information signal. Storage means storing in advance the form of the information signal or the alternative information in the form of the second information signal; and a signal processing means for detecting a portion of the guide information which cannot be converted to the form of the second information signal. And information for synthesizing guidance information for information output by replacing a portion detected by the signal processing unit with the alternative information in the guidance information in a signal form that matches the signal form of the alternative information. A guidance device comprising processing means. 2. The substitute information stored in the storage means,
A plurality of types are prepared in association with the relative positional relationship and / or the distance between the guide object indicated by the guide information and the moving object, and first position information indicating the current position of the moving object and the guide object are provided. Input means for inputting second position information indicating the position of the object, and the input first position information and second input
Arithmetic processing means for calculating the relative positional relationship and / or distance based on the positional information; and substitute information of the type corresponding to the calculated relative positional relationship and / or distance for the replacement. 2. The guide device according to claim 1, further comprising a selection unit that selects information.