JP3575085B2 - Traffic signal control system - Google Patents

Description

[0001]
[Industrial applications]
The present invention relates to a traffic control system of an automobile, and more particularly to a traffic signal control system in which, for example, a traffic control center receives an emergency call or the like from a vehicle and changes the display of a traffic light to be passed by the vehicle to blue.
[0002]
[Prior art]
2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a system for transmitting an accident occurrence position to an emergency information center or the like when an emergency such as a traffic accident occurs has been known.
For example, an in-vehicle traffic information display device disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 5-126592 transmits traffic information such as a traffic accident of the own vehicle and receives traffic information from another vehicle. In this case, only the information related to the future traveling is displayed.
[0003]
Further, when an emergency occurs, the automatic notification device disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 6-19192 selects a contact to be reported according to the degree of urgency and reports location information of the vehicle. It is like that.
[0004]
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
As described above, the conventional emergency information transmission / reception device, when an accident occurs, selects and notifies a contact who needs to report the accident, and when the accident information is received, displays only the necessary information. There is a function.
[0005]
However, when the sun is dazzling and it is extremely difficult to see the traffic light, or when the passenger's health is suddenly deteriorating or an emergency is required, such as when an emergency occurs, an emergency situation occurs. In many cases, it is not sufficient to simply report that traffic has been received or to receive traffic information.
[0006]
For example, there is an urgent problem that when the morning sun and the sunset are seen in almost the same direction as the traffic signal, the sunlight is dazzling and the display on the traffic signal is extremely difficult to see.
Further, there is a problem that even if the vehicle travels on a detour after receiving traffic information, the arrival at the destination is likely to be delayed due to an increase in the traveling distance due to the detour or unexpected traffic congestion.
[0007]
Therefore, the present invention has been made in view of solving these problems, and not only transmits and receives traffic information, but also displays an emergency situation in which the traffic light is difficult to see due to dazzling sunlight. The traffic control center transmits the emergency level of the own vehicle to the traffic control center, etc., and the traffic control center ranks the degree of urgency and provides a traffic signal control system that performs traffic signal control according to the rank. It is the purpose.
[0008]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
According to the present invention, in order to solve the above-mentioned problems, means mounted on a vehicle and guiding an optimal traveling route according to input conditions, and a relative position of the vehicle, the sun, and a traffic light on the traveling route in advance Means for searching and reporting an intersection where the sunlight is dazzling from the vehicle and the display of the traffic light is difficult to see based on the relationship, and in response to the notification, the display color of the traffic light from before the vehicle approaches the traffic light. A traffic signal control system is provided, comprising means for controlling blue.
[0010]
[Action]
In the traffic control system of the present invention, if the vehicle side searches in advance for an optimal traveling route to the destination for an intersection where the sunlight is dazzling and the signal is difficult to see, and notifies the traffic control center, the traffic control center is notified. By controlling the traffic light before it reaches the place and turning it to blue in advance, it is possible to check the display of the traffic light in advance without trying to see the traffic light that is dazzling and invisible, and to drive safely and comfortably And arrive at the destination earlier.
[0011]
Also, in the traffic control system of the present invention, even when an emergency occurs on the vehicle side, it is necessary to report the degree of urgency and perform signal control such as turning the next signal to blue according to the degree of urgency on the traveling route. Thus, there is an advantage that the user can arrive at the destination earlier.
[0012]
【Example】
Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.
First, an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS.
That is, as shown in FIG. 1, the vehicle 1 is provided with an emergency notification device 3 and a vehicle navigation device 4 as shown in FIG. 2 for notifying the traffic control center 5 of the occurrence of an emergency.
[0013]
As shown in FIG. 3, the traffic control center 5 is provided with a transmission / reception device 6 having a function of receiving the contents of an emergency call from the vehicle 1 and ranking the degree of urgency thereof, and is controlled by the transmission / reception device 6. A traffic light control device 7 is provided for each traffic light 2.
[0014]
Then, the traffic control center 5 ranks the degree of urgency of the emergency request from the emergency notification device 3 installed in the vehicle 1 with the transmission / reception device 6 and, on the route via the signal control device 7. Control is performed so that the display color of a certain traffic light 2 becomes blue.
[0015]
The vehicle navigation device 4 guides the shortest route to the destination based on the input data on the current location and the destination.
As a result, the vehicle 1 having an urgent requirement can reach the destination in a short time corresponding to the urgency rank.
[0016]
In addition, for the vehicle 1 in which the morning and evening sunlight is dazzling and the traffic signal 2 in front is not visible at all, the traffic control center 5 receives the notification from the vehicle 1 and displays the traffic signal 2 in front of the vehicle as blue as possible. At the same time, the traffic light 2 is controlled to transmit the control result to the vehicle 1.
[0017]
As a result, not only for drivers of vehicles having emergency requirements, but also for drivers of ordinary vehicles under certain conditions, it is possible to prevent accidents and improve the ease of driving. Improvement and fatigue can be reduced.
[0018]
Next, another embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. 4 and 5. FIG.
In FIG. 4, reference numeral 30 denotes an on-board device corresponding to the emergency notification device 3 and the vehicular navigation device 4 installed in the vehicle 1 in the embodiment.
[0019]
The on-board device 30 displays a transmitting / receiving device 42 for transmitting and receiving to and from a traffic control center, which will be described later, a setting device 31 for inputting a departure place, a departure time, a destination, and the like, and a time. The clock device 32 and various kinds of information such as road map data, attributes such as the distance, speed limit, and direction of each of the roads divided at the inflection point, the shape of the signalized intersection, and the direction of the traffic light viewed from before the stop line are stored in advance. Storage device 33 is provided.
[0020]
The on-board device 30 includes a central processing unit (CPU) 34 connected to the above devices, a display device 35, a direction sensor 36, a distance sensor 37, and a global positioning system (GPS) 38 connected to the CPU 34. , And an emergency switch 41 are provided.
[0021]
The CPU 34 searches the storage information in the storage device 33 to determine whether or not a signal intersection where the sun looks almost the same as the direction of the traffic light 2 is on the traveling route.
[0022]
In FIG. 4, a traffic control center 50 is provided with a transmission / reception device 6 having an emergency matter ranking function similar to that provided in the traffic control center 5 in the above embodiment, and a signal control device for each signal 2. 7 are provided.
[0023]
That is, the traffic control center 50 is provided with the transmitting / receiving device 6 having a function of ranking the degree of urgency, and when the transmitting / receiving device 6 determines that the urgency is high, the display color of the traffic light 2 in front of the vehicle is displayed. A traffic light control device 7 is provided for each traffic light 2 so that the traffic light turns blue.
[0024]
Next, the operation of the traffic signal control system configured as described above will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG.
First, when the departure place, departure time, and destination are input by the setting device 31 provided in the on-board device 30, the shortest route and the arrival time at the destination are calculated by the CPU 34 (steps S1 and S2).
[0025]
Next, the CPU 34 calculates the relative position of the vehicle and the position of the sun during traveling when traveling on the calculated shortest route, and based on the calculation result, the intersection where the sunlight is dazzling and the display of the traffic light is extremely difficult to see. The traffic control center 50 is urgently notified of the intersection position and the time and direction of the intersection, if any.
[0026]
The traffic control center 50 ranks the urgency of the notification by the transmission / reception device 6, and if the rank is high, the traffic light 2 is transmitted via the traffic light control device 7 so that the traffic light is as green as possible while the vehicle passes the intersection. In addition to the control, the display device 35 displays to the driver of the vehicle whether the display color of the traffic light 2 is blue or red, and the voice device 43 notifies the driver by voice.
[0027]
Here, as to the determination condition of whether the sun is dazzling, as a standard condition, if the sun is at an angle within 5 degrees from the direction of the traffic light, the sun cannot be blocked by the sun visor. It is determined that it is dazzling.
[0028]
The form of control will be described below with a specific example.
On the shortest route calculated by the CPU 34 as described above, it is searched from the stored information in the storage device 33 whether there is an intersection where the direction of the sun overlaps the direction of the traffic light 2 in front of the driver of the vehicle (step S3).
[0029]
As a result, if the vehicle passes through an intersection where the direction of the sun and the traffic light 2 overlap, when the vehicle passes through an intersection where the direction of the sun and the traffic light 2 overlap, the display of the traffic light becomes as green as possible. Is requested to the traffic control center 50.
[0030]
In response to this, before the vehicle approaches the intersection where the sunlight searched by the CPU 34 is dazzling and the display of the traffic light 2 is difficult to see, the traffic control center 50 sends a control signal for turning the display signal of the traffic light 2 to blue. (Step S4).
[0031]
The control signal sent to the traffic light 2 in this way is transmitted to the traffic light control device 7, and if the display color of the traffic light at that time is red, the color is changed from red to yellow to blue (step S5).
[0032]
Then, the traffic light control device 7 transmits to the traffic control center 50 that the state of the display color of the traffic light 2 as a result of the control is "blue" (step S6).
In response to this, the traffic control center 50 transmits the state of the display color of the traffic light 2 as a result of the control to the vehicles that approach the traffic light and have difficulty in seeing the traffic light display because the sun is dazzling.
[0033]
Then, the navigation device 3 provided in the on-vehicle device 30 detects that the vehicle has passed the intersection by using the direction sensor 36, the distance sensor 37, and the GPS 38, and notifies the traffic control center 50 via the transmission / reception device 42. (Step S7).
[0034]
In response, the traffic control center 50 instructs the traffic signal control device 7 to release the emergency control of the traffic signal by the traffic signal 2 at the intersection via the transmission / reception device 6 (step S8).
[0035]
Thereafter, the CPU 34 determines whether or not the vehicle has arrived at the set destination. If “Yes”, a series of processing ends, but if “No”, the processing after step S3 is repeated again (step S9). ).
[0036]
In the above embodiment, although the sun been described dazzling and can distinguish the display of traffic extremely difficult, even if the urgent business occurs the vehicle side, the signal is not visible to the vehicle sun glare Treating the vehicle in the same way as the vehicle allows the vehicle to arrive at the destination earlier.
[0037]
That is, in FIG. 5, the other points are the same except that it is determined whether or not urgent use has occurred, instead of determining whether the signal is difficult to see in the sun in step S3.
[0038]
In this case, the urgency of the vehicle is input by the emergency switch 41 shown in FIG.
As described above, in the traffic control system of the present invention, after calculating the shortest route to the destination by the on-board device, the traffic control center is notified by searching for an intersection where the sunlight is dazzling and the signal is difficult to see. In other words, before the traffic control center approaches the place via the traffic light control device, the traffic light is controlled to turn blue in advance, and the traffic condition is notified to the vehicle side, so that the traffic light center can see the traffic light that is not visible and dazzling. It is possible to confirm the display of the traffic light in advance without having to do so, and it is possible to drive safely and comfortably and arrive at the destination quickly.
[0039]
Further, in the traffic control system of the present invention, even when an emergency occurs on the vehicle side, it is possible to notify the degree of emergency and turn the next signal on the traveling route to blue so that the vehicle can arrive at the destination earlier. There is utility.
[0040]
【The invention's effect】
Therefore, as described in detail above, according to the present invention, not only the traffic information is transmitted and received, but also the traffic control of the own vehicle including the emergency where the display of the traffic light is dazzling due to the dazzling sunlight is difficult. The traffic control center transmits the traffic signal to a center or the like, and the traffic control center ranks the degree of urgency, and can provide a traffic signal control system that controls a traffic signal according to the rank.
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 is a diagram showing one embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 2 is a configuration diagram showing a device mounted on the vehicle of FIG. 1;
FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a configuration of the traffic control center side of FIG. 1;
FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing a configuration of another embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 5 is a flowchart for explaining the operation of FIG. 4;
[Explanation of symbols]
REFERENCE SIGNS LIST 1 vehicle, 2 traffic light, 3 emergency notification device, 4 vehicle navigation device, 5 traffic control center, 6 transmission / reception device, 7 traffic signal control device, 30 on-board device, 31 setting device , 32 clock device, 33 storage device, 34 CPU, 35 display device, 36 azimuth sensor, 37 distance sensor, 38 GPS, 41 emergency switch, 42 transmission / reception device, 43 audio device, 50 ... Traffic control center.

Claims (1)

Means mounted on the vehicle for guiding an optimal traveling route according to input conditions;
Means for searching and reporting an intersection where the sunlight is dazzling from the vehicle and the display of the traffic signal is difficult to see based on the relative positional relationship between the vehicle and the sun and the traffic signal on the traveling route in advance;
A traffic signal control system, comprising: means for controlling a display color of the traffic light to be blue before the vehicle approaches the traffic light in response to the notification.

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