JP3870913B2 - Tollgate guidance system for vehicles - Google Patents

Description

[0001]
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a toll gate guidance system for a vehicle that displays the type of each gate in association with the position of each gate at a toll gate on a toll road.
[0002]
[Prior art]
Conventionally, an ETC that includes an in-vehicle device in an automatic toll collection system (hereinafter referred to as ETC) and a navigation device to which the in-vehicle device is connected, and displays guidance to the ETC gate on the display screen of the navigation device. A guided navigation device has been proposed (see, for example, Patent Document 1).
[0003]
In the navigation device with an ETC guide disclosed in Patent Document 1, when it is determined that the toll gate approaches within a predetermined distance and the toll gate is compatible with ETC, the ETC information of the toll gate is displayed in the navigation device. From the DVD-ROM or through communication with the toll gate. A toll gate image simulating the entire toll gate is displayed on the display screen of the navigation device, and a mark indicating the position of the ETC gate is displayed on the toll gate image. In this way, the location of the ETC gate is guided at the toll gate.
[0004]
[Patent Document 1]
JP 2000-146598 A
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
However, since the display screen described above is installed around the instrument panel in the passenger compartment so that the driver of the vehicle can recognize it, the size of the display screen is limited. For this reason, when the ETC gate guidance is performed for a toll gate having a very large number of gates with the conventional apparatus, the mark indicating the position of the ETC gate must be relatively small. As a result, it becomes difficult to confirm the position of the ETC gate, and the original purpose of guiding the position of the ETC gate to the driver cannot be sufficiently fulfilled.
[0006]
In addition, the ETC gate includes an ETC dedicated gate and an ETC / general combination gate that can travel a general vehicle not equipped with an ETC in-vehicle device. Those who use ETC often want to go through an ETC dedicated gate rather than a combined gate that may be forced to stop by a regular vehicle. In this case, it is desirable to display the ETC gate separately from the dedicated gate and the combined gate. However, as described above, if the size of the mark indicating the position of the ETC gate is reduced, whether the dedicated gate or the combined gate is used. It becomes difficult to distinguish.
[0007]
The present invention has been made in view of the above-described points. For a vehicle capable of providing guidance that allows the driver of the vehicle to easily determine the type of each gate even when the number of gates at the toll gate is large. The purpose is to provide a tollgate information system.
[0008]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
To achieve the above object, the vehicle toll gate guidance system according to claim 1 includes display means, and associates the display means with the type of gate at the toll gate on the toll road in correspondence with the position of the gate. To display,
Information acquisition means for acquiring information on the type of gate at the toll gate of the toll road;
Determination means for determining whether or not the same type of gate is adjacent based on information on the type of gate acquired by the information acquisition means;
When it is determined by the determination means that the same type of gate is adjacent, when the type of the adjacent gate is displayed by the number of type display marks smaller than the number of the same type of gate, A type display mark indicating the type, and a gate display control means for displaying the combination by a combination of the type display mark, which is arranged subsequent to the type display mark, and indicating that the same type display mark is omitted ,
When the toll gate of the toll road consists of a front booth group and a rear booth group, the gate display control means uses a through lane connected to the rear booth group as one of the types of gates of the front booth group. and it features that you display.
[0009]
Thus, in the toll gate guidance system according to claim 1, when the same type of gate is adjacent, the type of the adjacent gate is indicated by the number of type display marks smaller than the number of the gates. When displaying, it is displayed by a combination of one type display mark indicating the type of the gate and one abbreviation mark arranged subsequent to the type display mark and indicating that the same type display mark is omitted. . For this reason, the display area of the type display mark can be enlarged compared to the case where the type display mark corresponding to the type of each gate is displayed corresponding to each gate. Further, when a gate type is displayed by a combination of one type display mark indicating the type of gate and one omitted mark arranged subsequently, there are a plurality of the same type of gates intuitively with a small number of marks. I can understand this immediately. Furthermore, when the necessary number of gates cannot be installed at one location due to geographical problems, the toll booth may be composed of a front booth group and a rear booth group. In this case, a through lane that leads to the rear booth group Is displayed as one of the types of gates in the front booth group, first, only the type of gates in the front booth group is displayed, so that the display can be easily viewed. Therefore, according to the toll gate guidance system for a vehicle according to the first aspect, it is possible to perform gate guidance that makes it easy for the driver to determine the type of each gate.
[0010]
When the gate guidance display is performed by the vehicle toll gate guidance system according to the first aspect, the actual number of gates does not match the number of type display marks. However, when the actual gate is visible, the driver of the vehicle can recognize the type of each gate. For this reason, at the stage of approaching the toll gate, it is sufficient for the driver of the vehicle to roughly grasp the position of the gate to which he / she should proceed (for example, the right side, the center, and the left side). For this reason, the discrepancy between the actual number of gates and the number of type display marks is not particularly problematic when performing gate position guidance in advance.
[0011]
As described in claim 2, it is preferable that there are at least three types of gates: an automatic fee collection dedicated gate, a general gate, and a combination gate of an automatic fee collection gate and a general gate. Drivers of vehicles equipped with in-vehicle devices for automatic fee collection systems have a desire to distinguish between automatic fee collection dedicated gates and combination gates of automatic fee collection gates and general gates. This is because a driver of a vehicle not equipped with a vehicle-mounted device desires to know the positions of the general gate and the combination gate.
[0013]
Then, as described in claim 3 , when the vehicle passes through the through lane connected to the rear booth group, the gate display control means further displays the gate type of each gate of the rear booth group. The display of the gate type of the booth group can be performed separately from the display of the gate type of the front booth group. Thereby, regarding the front booth group and the rear booth group, it is possible to perform toll gate guidance that makes it easy to confirm the type of gate.
[0015]
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
The toll gate guidance system in the embodiment of the present invention will be described below. In the present embodiment, an example in which the toll gate guidance system is configured by an in-vehicle navigation device connected to an ETC in-vehicle device will be described.
[0016]
FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of an in-vehicle navigation device 100 according to the present embodiment. As shown in the figure, the in-vehicle navigation device 100 of this embodiment includes a position detector 101, a map data input device 106, an operation switch group 107, an external memory 109, a display device 110, an audio output device 111, a remote control sensor 112, And a control circuit 108 connected thereto. Further, an ETC in-vehicle device 116 is connected to the control circuit 108.
[0017]
The control circuit 108 is configured as a normal computer, and includes a well-known CPU, ROM, RAM, I / O, and a bus line for connecting these configurations. In the ROM, a program to be executed by the control circuit 108 is written, and a CPU or the like executes predetermined arithmetic processing according to this program. This program can also be obtained from the outside via the external memory 109.
[0018]
The position detector 101 includes a known geomagnetic sensor 102, a gyroscope 103, a distance sensor 104, and a GPS receiver 105 for GPS (Global Positioning System) that detects the position of the vehicle based on radio waves from a satellite. Have. Since these have errors of different properties, they are configured to be used while being complemented by a plurality of sensors. Depending on the accuracy of each sensor, the position detector 101 may be configured as a part of the above-described ones, and other sensors such as a rotation sensor for steering and a vehicle speed sensor for each rolling wheel (not shown) may be used. Good.
[0019]
The map data input device 106 is a device for inputting various data including so-called map matching data, map data, and landmark data for improving the accuracy of position detection. As a storage medium for storing various data, a CD-ROM or a DVD-ROM is generally used because of the amount of data, but a writable storage medium such as a memory card or a hard disk may be used. The storage medium of the map data input device 106 also stores the type and arrangement of gates at each tollgate on a toll road such as an expressway. In other words, gate types such as ETC exclusive gates that only vehicles equipped with ETC in-vehicle devices can pass through, general gates through which ETC non-equipped vehicles pass, and combined gates with ETC gates and general gates correspond to the gate positions. I remember it. Furthermore, when the toll booth is composed of a front booth group and a rear booth group as shown in FIG. 4, the positions of the through lanes that bypass the front booth group and connect to the rear booth group are stored. Yes. That is, the through lane is also stored as one of the gate types in the front booth group.
[0020]
As the operation switch group 107, for example, a touch switch or a mechanical switch integrated with a display device 110 described later is used, and is used for various inputs.
[0021]
The display device 110 is configured by, for example, a liquid crystal display, and the vehicle position mark corresponding to the current vehicle position input from the position detector 101 and the map input from the map data input device 106 are displayed on the screen of the display device 110. A road map around the vehicle generated by the data can be displayed. The audio output device 111 includes a speaker, an audio amplifier, and the like, and performs audio guidance and the like.
[0022]
The in-vehicle navigation system according to the present embodiment inputs the position of the destination from the remote control sensor 112 or the operation switch group 107 via a remote control terminal (hereinafter referred to as a remote controller) 113, and the current position (or user It also has a so-called route guidance function that automatically searches for an optimum route from a departure point designated by (1) to a destination, and forms and displays a guidance route. As a method for automatically setting an optimum route, a known method such as the Dijkstra method is known.
[0023]
The ETC in-vehicle device 116 automatically pays a toll by two-way communication with an ETC on-road device installed at a toll gate on a toll road. This ETC in-vehicle device 116 can be used by inserting an ETC card (not shown), and the amount of money that can be used is reduced each time a toll is paid.
[0024]
Next, the gate guidance process at the toll gate, which is a feature of the present embodiment, will be described with reference to the flowcharts shown in FIGS.
[0025]
First, in step S100, the current position of the vehicle is acquired. Further, the road on which the vehicle is traveling is specified from the acquired history of the current position of the vehicle. Next, in step S110, it is determined whether the vehicle has approached the toll gate on the toll road. As a method for determining whether or not a vehicle has approached the toll gate, there is a toll road toll gate in the traveling direction of the currently traveling road specified in step S100, and the vehicle is within a predetermined distance from the toll gate. Judgment is made based on whether or not the vehicle has approached within. It may be determined whether a toll gate exists within a predetermined radius from the current position.
[0026]
If it is determined in step S110 that the toll gate is not approaching, the process proceeds to step S100. If it is determined that the toll gate is approaching, the process proceeds to step S120.
[0027]
In step S120, gate information related to the arrangement and type of gates is acquired from the map data input device 106 of the in-vehicle navigation device 100. This gate information can also be obtained via a notice antenna or beacon installed in front of the toll gate having the ETC gate. In this case, in addition to the type and arrangement of each gate, information on whether or not the gate is currently operating can be acquired.
[0028]
In step S130, gate guidance is displayed on the screen of the display device 10 based on the acquired gate information. In this gate guidance display, display data for making it easy to see the display of the type display mark indicating the type of gate is created when the number of gates at the toll gate is large. Then, a gate guidance display is displayed on the screen of the display device 10 based on the created display data. Details of the display data creation processing are shown in the flowchart of FIG.
[0029]
First, in step S200 of FIG. 3, both the drawing gate number m indicating the number of gates to be drawn on the screen of the display device 10 and the gate position number n indicating the gate position from the left direction to the right direction, for example, are set to 1. To do. In subsequent step S210, it is determined whether the number of gate positions n is less than or equal to the total number of gates max_n at the toll gate, and whether the number of drawing gates m is less than or equal to the maximum number of gates max_m that can be drawn on the screen of the display device 10. If the number of gate positions n exceeds the number of all gates max_n at the toll gate, it means that the creation of display data has been completed based on the gate information of all the gates at the toll gate. Further, when the number of drawing gates m exceeds the maximum number of gates max_m that can be drawn, it is impossible to draw more gates. Therefore, if a negative determination is made in step S200, the display data creation process is terminated at that time.
[0030]
On the other hand, if an affirmative determination is made in step S200, the display data creation process has not yet been completed for all the gates, and the process proceeds to step S220. In step S220, the gate type An specified by the gate position number n is acquired. In step S230, whether or not it is the first gate is determined based on the gate position number n. At this time, if it is determined that it is the first gate, the process proceeds to step S310. On the other hand, if it is determined that it is not the first gate, the process proceeds to step S240.
[0031]
If it is determined as the first gate and the process proceeds to step S310, the number of times c that the same type of gates are continuous is reset to zero in step S310. In step S320, the gate type An (n = 1) acquired in step S220 is input to the display attribute Lm (m = 1) of the first gate. Accordingly, a type display mark indicating the type A1 of the first gate is displayed based on the display attribute Lm (m = 1) corresponding to the first gate. That is, this display attribute Lm is display data for displaying the type display mark corresponding to each gate.
[0032]
In step S330, 1 is added to the number of drawing gates m. In step S340, 1 is added to the gate position number n, and the process returns to step S210. That is, every time the number of type display marks to be drawn increases, the drawing gate number m is increased by one. Also, the position of the gate to be processed for display data creation is shifted one by one.
[0033]
On the other hand, if it is determined in step S230 that it is not the first gate, it is determined in step S240 whether or not the previous gate type An-1 matches the current gate type An. At this time, if it is determined that the gate types match, the process proceeds to step S250. In step S250, 1 is added to the number of times c that the same type of gate continues. Since the initial value of the number of times is zero, the number of times c is 1 when two gates of the same type continue. In step S260, it is determined whether or not the value of the number of times c is less than 3. That is, it is determined whether or not four gates of the same type appear in succession. If the number of gates of the same type that appear successively is up to three, the process proceeds to step S270. In step S270, although the type is the same, the type An of each gate is input to the display attribute Lm of each gate in order to display the type display mark corresponding to each gate. In step S280, 1 is added to the number of drawing gates m, and then the process proceeds to step S340.
[0034]
If four or more gates of the same type appear in succession, a negative determination is made in step S260, and the process proceeds to step S340 without executing steps S270 and S280. That is, in this case, display data is not created for the fourth and subsequent gates of the same type.
[0035]
If it is determined in step S240 that the previous gate type An-1 and the current gate type An are different, the value of the number of times c that the same type of gate continues is smaller than 3 in step S290. It is determined whether or not. As described above, when four or more gates of the same type appear continuously, the value of the number of times c is 3 or more, so a negative determination is made and the process proceeds to step S300. In step S300, the content of the second created display attribute Lm-1 among the three created display attributes Lm-2, Lm-1, and Lm is rewritten to “halfway omitted”. When the value of the number of times c is less than 3, the process proceeds to step S310 without executing the process of step S300.
[0036]
FIG. 5 shows an example of a gate guidance screen displayed on the display device 10 based on display data created by performing the processing shown in the flowchart of FIG. 3, that is, the display attribute Lm. In the example shown in FIG. 5, there is a through lane connected to the rear booth on the leftmost side, and in order from the through lane to the right side, there are four or more ETC dedicated gates, four or more general gates, and four or more. It is a gate guidance screen when there is a combination gate. Note that the through lane is indicated by “S”, the ETC dedicated gate is “E”, the general gate is “general”, and the combined gate is indicated by the “mixed” type display mark because ETC-equipped vehicles and general vehicles are mixed. . In addition, the gate guidance display not only displays the type display mark, but also adds an image showing lanes and booths according to the number of the type display marks, thereby performing gate guidance that is easier for the driver to understand.
[0037]
As shown in FIG. 5, when four or more gates of the same type continue, two type display marks indicating the type of each gate are displayed on both sides, and between the two type display marks. , An abbreviation mark indicating that the same type display mark is omitted is displayed. As described above, when four or more gates of the same type are continuous, each gate type is displayed by a combination of two type display marks arranged on both sides and an omission mark arranged therebetween. By performing such a display, the driver of the vehicle can intuitively understand that there are four or more similar gates.
[0038]
Further, when four or more gates of the same type appear continuously by performing the gate guidance display as described above, the number of type display marks smaller than the actual number of gates indicates the adjacent gates. The type is displayed. Therefore, the display area of the type display mark can be enlarged as compared with the case where the type display mark corresponding to the type of each gate is displayed corresponding to the actual number of gates. Therefore, such a gate guidance display makes it easier for the driver to determine the type of each gate.
[0039]
In the gate guidance display shown in FIG. 5, the actual number of gates does not match the number of type display marks. However, when the actual gate is visible, the driver visually recognizes the type of each gate. To do. For this reason, at the stage of approaching the toll gate, it is sufficient for the driver of the vehicle to roughly grasp the position of the gate to which he / she should proceed (for example, the right side, the center, and the left side). For this reason, the discrepancy between the actual number of gates and the number of type display marks is not particularly problematic when performing gate position guidance in advance.
[0040]
When the gate guidance display described above is performed in step S130 of the flowchart of FIG. 2, the process proceeds to step S140 to determine whether or not it is necessary to perform gate guidance display regarding the rear booth group. That is, as shown in FIG. 4, whether the toll booth is composed of a front booth group and a rear booth group and whether the vehicle has passed through the through lane of the front booth group is determined from the map data and the history of the current position. To do. If it is determined that the vehicle has passed through the through lane, for example, when traveling a certain distance from the front booth group, the processing of steps S120 and S130 in FIG. 2 is executed to display gate guidance regarding the rear booth group. .
[0041]
If it is determined that the vehicle has passed through any of the ETC dedicated gate, the general gate, and the combination gate in the front booth group, the gate guidance display regarding the rear booth is not necessary, and the process proceeds to step S100. Return.
[0042]
Thus, by displaying the through lane connected to the rear booth group as one of the gate types of the front booth group, first, the type of only the gate of the front booth group is displayed, so that the display is easy to view. be able to. Furthermore, since the gate guidance display for the rear booth group is performed only when the vehicle passes through the through lane connected to the rear booth group, the gate guidance display for the rear booth group and the gate guidance display for the front booth group should be performed separately. Can do. Thereby, it is possible to provide guidance for easily confirming the type of gate for the front booth group and the rear booth group.
[0043]
The present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment, and can be variously modified and implemented without departing from the gist of the present invention.
[0044]
For example, in the above-described embodiment, four or more continuous gates of the same type are displayed by a combination of two type display marks displayed on both sides and an omission mark displayed therebetween. However, regarding the type display mark, for example, as shown in FIG. 6, the type of each gate may be displayed using a common type display mark for a plurality of gates. In the example shown in FIG. 6, a plurality of types of gates are collectively displayed using type display marks such as “ETC” indicating an ETC dedicated gate, “General” indicating a general gate, and “Mixed” indicating a combination gate. is doing.
[0045]
In the above-described embodiment, when four or more gates of the same type appear in succession, a type display mark smaller than the actual number of gates is displayed using the omission mark. However, when two or more gates of the same type continue, the type of each gate may be collectively displayed using, for example, a type display mark as shown in FIG. Further, when two or more gates of the same type are connected in succession, a plurality of gates of the same type are obtained by combining one type display mark indicating the type of the gate and one omission mark displayed following the type display mark. May be displayed.
[0046]
In addition, if the actual operating status of the gate can be obtained, display data may be created for the gate that has been shut off, or the closed gate may be displayed while the gate is closed. An image indicating that it is inside may be added.
[0047]
Further, the navigation device 100 determines whether or not the ETC in-vehicle device 116 can be used. If the ETC in-vehicle device 116 is usable, the ETC dedicated gate or the combination gate is highlighted and displayed, or voice guidance is provided, thereby providing the ETC. When the ETC in-vehicle device 116 is in an unusable state, it may be guided to a general gate or a combination gate.
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of an in-vehicle navigation device according to an embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing gate guidance processing at a toll gate.
FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing display data creation processing for performing gate guidance display;
FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram for explaining the positional relationship between the front booth group and the rear booth group when the toll booth includes a front booth group and a rear booth group.
[Fig. 5] There is a through lane connected to the rear booth on the leftmost side, and there are 4 or more ETC dedicated gates, 4 or more general gates, and 4 or more combined gates in order from the through lane to the right side. It is explanatory drawing which shows a gate guidance screen when it exists.
FIG. 6 is an explanatory view showing another example of gate guidance.
[Explanation of symbols]
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 100 ... Car-mounted navigation apparatus 101 ... Position detector 106 ... Map data input device 110 ... Display apparatus 116 ... ETC vehicle-mounted machine

Claims (3)

A toll gate guidance system for a vehicle that includes display means and displays the type of gate at the toll gate on the toll road in correspondence with the position of the gate on the display means;
Information acquisition means for acquiring information on the type of gate at the toll gate of the toll road;
Determination means for determining whether or not the same type of gate is adjacent based on information on the type of gate acquired by the information acquisition means;
When it is determined by the determination means that the same type of gate is adjacent, when the type of the adjacent gate is displayed by the number of type display marks smaller than the number of the same type of gate, the gate is displayed. A type display mark indicating the type of the display, and a gate display control means that is arranged following the type display mark and displays by a combination of a single abbreviation mark indicating that the same type display mark is omitted. ,
When the toll gate of the toll road consists of a front booth group and a rear booth group, the gate display control means uses a through lane connected to the rear booth group as one of the types of gates of the front booth group. A toll gate guidance system for vehicles characterized by displaying .   2. The toll gate guidance system for vehicles according to claim 1, wherein there are at least three types of gates: an automatic fee collection exclusive gate, a general gate, and a combination gate of an automatic fee collection gate and a general gate. . Said gate display control means, when the vehicle passes through the lane leading to the rear booth group claim 1 or claim 2, characterized in that it also performs a display type of the gates of the gates of the rear booth group Vehicle toll gate guidance system as described in 1.

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