JP3941450B2 - Navigation device - Google Patents

Description

[0001]
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a navigation device that can display a guidance route obtained by a route search operation to a destination on a map screen, and in particular, facility information about a facility that exists along the guidance route is exchanged with a service center. The present invention relates to a navigation device configured to be acquired and displayed by data communication.
[0002]
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
Conventionally, a car navigation device performs a route search operation from a current position to a destination by a Dijkstra method or the like, and displays a guide route set based on the route search result on a map screen. A function is provided. In recent years, in such a car navigation apparatus, facility information (content data such as position, business form, business hours, telephone number, etc.) about a facility existing along the displayed guidance route is provided as a service such as a content service provider. A system has been considered in which, for example, the acquired facility information is displayed on a map screen, for example, in a multi-window manner while being acquired from the center. In such a system, the latest facility information can always be acquired on the car navigation device side, which is extremely useful in practice.
[0003]
In this case, in order to acquire the facility information from the service center, it is necessary to upload to the service center route information that can specify the guide route set on the car navigation device side. For this reason, in the conventional car navigation apparatus, a configuration is considered in which route information in the form of a point sequence consisting of a plurality of point coordinates for the current point on the guidance route, the destination point, and the waypoint between them is uploaded. However, in this configuration, since it is not clear which road the guidance route passes between the coordinate points, the service center cannot accurately identify which road the vehicle equipped with the car navigation device passes. In other words, when there are multiple roads (routes) between point coordinates in the uploaded route information, the actual guidance route set on the car navigation device side and the route information uploaded on the service center side There is a possibility that a deviation may occur between the route recognized based on the route and the facility information acquired by the car navigation device may be inaccurate.
[0004]
The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and an object thereof is based on data communication between a service center and facility information about facilities existing along a guidance route set based on a route search result. It is an object of the present invention to provide a navigation device capable of uploading accurate route information about the guidance route to a service center and acquiring accurate facility information from the service center.
[0005]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
In order to achieve the above object, the means described in claim 1 can be employed. According to this means, when acquiring facility information about a facility existing along a guidance route set based on a route search result from a service center having a database storing facility information about a large number of facilities. The route information in the form including the position information and link information of all the nodes that can uniquely identify the guide route existing on the guide route is uploaded to the service center. Therefore, unlike the conventional configuration, there is no possibility that a deviation occurs between the actual guidance route set on the navigation device side and the route recognized based on the route information uploaded by the service center side. In particular, the navigation apparatus side can acquire accurate facility information about facilities existing along the guidance route from the service center.
[0006]
Further, according to the means described in claim 2, since data communication with the service center can be performed using a mobile communication terminal such as a mobile phone, the hardware configuration is complicated. Can be prevented.
[0007]
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
Hereinafter, an embodiment in which the present invention is applied to a vehicle navigation apparatus will be described with reference to the drawings.
In FIG. 1 schematically showing the entire electrical configuration, a car navigation device 1 is provided with a position detector 3, a map data input device 4, an external memory, and a control circuit 2 having a function of controlling the navigation operation. 5. Display device 6 (corresponding to display means), operation switch group 7, audio output device 8, mobile phone interface unit 9, VICS (Vehicle Information & Communication System) transmission / reception unit 10, remote control for detecting signals from remote controller 11 The sensor 12 is connected and configured.
[0008]
The control circuit 2 is configured as a microcomputer, and includes a CPU, a ROM, a RAM, an I / O interface, a bus for connecting them, and the like (all not shown). Among these, the ROM stores a car navigation program and the like, and the RAM temporarily stores processing data when the program is executed, road map data acquired from the map data input device 4, and the like.
[0009]
The position detector 3 includes a geomagnetic sensor 13 for detecting an absolute azimuth, a gyroscope 14 for detecting a yaw angular velocity (yaw rate), a distance sensor 15 for detecting the travel distance of the vehicle, and a GPS satellite. The GPS receiver 16 that receives the signal is a part that calculates the current position information of the vehicle. In this position detector 3, each component has a detection error having a different property. Therefore, the position detector 3 performs a highly accurate position detection while interpolating the detection errors with each other. However, the current position is detected with the required detection accuracy. It is not necessary to provide all the components as long as they can be calculated. Further, the position detector 3 may be configured by combining a rotation sensor for a steering wheel, a wheel sensor for detecting rotation of each tire, and the like.
[0010]
The map data input device 4 is for reading data from a large-capacity information recording medium (not shown) such as a CD-ROM or DVD-ROM. In this case, the information recording medium includes map drawing data for map display, road data necessary for various processes such as map matching, route search, route guidance, intersection data composed of detailed intersection data, and background layer data. In addition to place name data for displaying background data, place names, etc., various data are stored, such as a facility name database in which facility names are arranged in the order of 50 notes, a phone number database indicating correspondence between telephone numbers and facilities, and the like. ing. In particular, the road data is in a state of covering information about all nodes and links (node position information, node attribute flags, etc.) about the map that can be displayed. As the information recording medium, a hard disk, a magneto-optical disk, a large capacity memory card, or the like can be used.
[0011]
The external memory 5 is constituted by a flash memory card or the like, and is provided, for example, for storing program software for supporting information recording media of other standards, or for saving or calling specific data. ing.
The display device 6 includes, for example, a color liquid crystal display for displaying a map screen, and is installed near the driver's seat of the vehicle. The operation switch group 7 includes mechanical switches arranged around the display device 6, touch switches formed on the color liquid crystal display of the display device 6, and the like, and controls input of various data and setting items. 2 is provided. The remote control sensor 12 is also provided as an operation input means, and receives an operation input from the remote control 11 and gives it to the control circuit 2.
[0012]
The voice output device 8 includes a voice synthesis circuit, an amplifier, a speaker, and the like, and generates an arbitrary voice output according to the voice information from the control circuit 2.
The mobile phone interface unit 9 is provided to perform data communication and voice communication through the mobile phone 17 in a state where the mobile phone 17 (corresponding to a mobile communication terminal) is connected thereto.
[0013]
The VICS transmission / reception unit 10 includes a VICS sensor unit and an FM multiplex broadcast receiver (both not shown). For example, the VICS sensor unit receives information signals such as optical / radio wave beacons received from the VICS station and FM An information signal from the FM multiplex broadcast received by the multiplex broadcast receiver is provided to the control circuit 2, and if necessary, the vehicle information is transmitted to the outside.
[0014]
Here, in addition to the basic function of executing the map matching process for positioning the current position on the map, the control circuit 2 receives point data such as a destination and a waypoint through the operation switch group 7 and the remote controller 11. A route that performs a route search operation from the current position to the destination based on the point data using, for example, the Dijkstra method, and displays the guide route set based on the route search result on the map screen Well-known support functions such as a calculation function (including a so-called reroute search function) and a route guidance function for performing various guides by voice or display based on the guidance route obtained by this function are provided.
[0015]
In addition to this, the control circuit 2 includes a well-known telephone number search function, postal code search function, search function using a unique code, 50 sound search function, genre search function, nearest facility search function, destination registration function A variety of support functions such as an information display function for displaying tourist areas and recommended drive courses, a point registration function, etc. are set, but as a function directly related to the gist of the present invention, a route calculation function Facility information acquisition function for acquiring facility information (content data such as position, business form, business hours, telephone number, etc.) about various facilities existing along the guidance route obtained from the service center 18 installed as a content service provider Is set. Of the content data, at least data such as business hours and telephone numbers are composed of text data.
[0016]
Here, the service center 18 is connected to the mobile phone base station 19 via the network 20, and is configured to be accessible from the car navigation device 1 side to the service center 18 through the mobile phone 17. The service center 18 is constructed with a database that stores the latest content data for a wide variety of facilities, and the content data in the database is read out in response to a request from the car navigation device 1 side. It is configured to be returned as information. FIG. 2 shows the contents of a control operation executed in the control circuit 2 on the car navigation device 1 side in order to acquire such facility information, and this will be described below together with related actions. Note that the flowchart of FIG. 2 is simplified to the extent that the gist of the present invention can be grasped, and actually the control content is more complicated or the control content is different from the illustrated one.
[0017]
In FIG. 2, the control circuit 2 allows the user to acquire facility information in the vicinity of the guidance route through the operation switch group 7 or the remote controller 11 after the execution of step A1 for starting route guidance for the set guidance route. Wait until the selection operation is performed (step A2). Note that such a selection operation is performed in a state where, for example, a menu screen for specifying the genre of facility information (a plurality of types or all genres can be specified) is displayed on the display device 6. . When a selection operation for acquiring facility information is performed, a process of connecting to the service center 18 through the mobile phone 17 is performed (step A3).
[0018]
Thereafter, it is determined whether or not the connection to the service center 18 is successful (step A4). If the connection is unsuccessful, the service center 18 is transmitted through one or both of the display device 6 and the audio output device 8. After executing Step A5 for outputting a message notifying that the connection to the network has failed and that the selection operation for acquiring facility information needs to be performed again, the process returns to Step A2.
[0019]
On the other hand, if the connection is successful, route information about the guidance route during the route guidance operation is uploaded to the service center 18 (step A6). Thus, the route information uploaded to the service center 18 includes position information (point coordinates) and link information of all nodes on the guide route, in addition to the genre information indicating the genre of the facility information designated through the menu screen. Thus, on the service center 18 side, the guidance route during the route guidance operation on the car navigation device 1 side can be accurately specified.
[0020]
In the service center 18 that has received such route information upload, the node information and the content information corresponding to the genre information in the route information from the database storing the latest content data for various facilities are stored. The content data present along the guidance route indicated by the link information is read out, and the content data is transmitted as facility information to the car navigation device 1 side. The control circuit 2 performs the operation for acquiring the facility information transmitted from the service center 18 side (operation stored in the RAM) (step A7), and the operation for acquiring the facility information has been completed. Thereafter, it is determined whether or not the facility information has been normally acquired (step A8). If the acquired facility information is abnormal or insufficient, the control after step A6 is re-executed. If the facility information is acquired normally, the information is displayed on the route guidance screen displayed on the display device 6. The routine proceeds to display facility information. Such facility information is displayed when, for example, an icon indicating the genre of facility information is displayed at a corresponding position in the route guidance screen displayed on the display device 6 and the icon is selected and operated. The text information indicating the specific contents of the facility information (telephone number, business hours, etc.) is displayed by multi-window display.
[0021]
In short, in the car navigation apparatus 1 according to the present embodiment, the service center 18 in which a database in which the latest content data (facility location, business form, business hours, telephone number, etc.) for a wide variety of facilities is accumulated is constructed. When acquiring facility information about facilities existing along the guidance route set based on the route search result based on data communication, position information (point coordinates) and link information of nodes existing on the guidance route The route information including the information, that is, the route information that can uniquely identify the guidance route is uploaded to the service center 18. For this reason, as in the conventional configuration, there is a risk that a deviation may occur between the actual guidance route set on the car navigation device 1 side and the route recognized by the service center side 18 based on the uploaded route information. As a result, on the car navigation device 1 side, it is possible to acquire accurate facility information about the facilities existing along the guidance route from the service center 18.
[0022]
In addition, since data communication with the service center 18 can be performed using the mobile phone 17 connected through the mobile phone interface unit 9, the hardware configuration can be prevented from becoming complicated.
[0023]
The present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment, and the following modifications or expansions are possible.
Although the mobile phone 17 is used as the communication means, other mobile communication terminals may be used, and a dedicated communication means may be provided. Furthermore, the present invention can be applied not only to a vehicle navigation device but also to a navigation device carried by an individual.
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 is an overall electrical configuration diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing the contents of control by a control circuit.
1 is a car navigation device, 2 is a control circuit, 3 is a position detector, 4 is a map data input device, 6 is a display device (display means), 17 is a mobile phone (mobile communication terminal), and 18 is a service center. .

Claims (2)

Route information that allows data communication with a service center equipped with a database that stores facility information about a large number of facilities and that can specify a guide route set based on a route search result is uploaded to the service center. In the navigation device configured to acquire facility information about facilities existing along the guidance route from the center and to display the acquired facility information on the display means,
A navigation apparatus characterized in that the route information uploaded to the service center includes position information and link information of all nodes that can uniquely identify the guidance route existing on the guidance route. 2. The navigation apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a portable mobile communication terminal is provided so as to be connectable, and data communication with the service center is performed via the mobile communication terminal.

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