JP4215057B2 - Car navigation system - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a car navigation apparatus.

  As one function of a conventional car navigation apparatus, there is an expected arrival time guidance function for guiding an estimated arrival time to a destination to a user. This estimated arrival time guidance function calculates the estimated arrival time at the destination as needed while taking into account the progress of the vehicle when the route guidance function for guiding the travel route to the destination is executed. Then, the calculated estimated arrival time is displayed on a display, for example, to notify the user. The user compares the estimated arrival time displayed on the display with the arrival time at the destination desired by the user himself, and determines whether or not the user can arrive at the destination by the desired time.

  The estimated arrival time at the destination may vary greatly from the estimated arrival time at the departure as the vehicle travels toward the destination. For example, if you encounter a traffic jam caused by a traffic accident, road traffic information can be obtained from the outside, and even if you can predict the arrival time accurately using this information, The expected arrival time changes greatly.

  The conventional car navigation apparatus simply changes the expected arrival time and displays it even when the estimated arrival time at the destination changes as the vehicle travels. Therefore, if the user does not realize that the estimated arrival time has exceeded the arrival time at the destination desired by the user, for example, the user notifies the waiting party of the arrival delay. I could not.

  The present invention has been made in view of such a problem, and an object of the present invention is to provide a car navigation device capable of notifying a user of a delay in arrival time.

  The car navigation device according to claim 1 is a map data storage means for storing road map data, and searches for a travel route from the departure place to the destination based on the road map data stored in the map data storage means, The route guidance means for guiding to the destination along the searched travel route, and when the travel route is guided by the route guidance means, the required time from the current location to the destination is calculated and the required time is used. A car navigation device comprising a predicted arrival time calculating means for calculating a predicted arrival time at the destination and a notifying means for notifying the estimated arrival time, wherein the desired arrival time for inputting the desired arrival time at the destination An input means, an excess allowable time calculation means for calculating an allowable excess time by multiplying a required time to the destination by a preset coefficient, and the calculated allowable excess time In consideration of the excess determination means for determining whether or not the expected arrival time exceeds the desired arrival time, and if the expected arrival time exceeds the desired arrival time by adding the excess allowable time by this excess determination means When it is judged, it is provided with a time excess notification control means for notifying from the notification means that the estimated arrival time may exceed the desired arrival time.

  As described above, the car navigation apparatus of the present invention takes into account the excess allowable time calculated according to the required time to the destination, and then the estimated arrival time at the destination is input to the destination. When the desired arrival time is exceeded, the notification means notifies that the expected arrival time may exceed the desired arrival time. Thereby, the user can notify that there is a possibility that arrival may be delayed in advance, for example, to a partner who promises a meeting time at the destination. In addition, when the present location is far from the destination, the required time is long, and the allowable excess time is also long. As a result, since the current location is far from the destination, it is possible to prevent frequent overtime notifications even though the error related to the estimated arrival time increases. When the current location is close to the destination, the required time is short and the allowable excess time is also shortened, so that it is possible to make a strict determination of time excess.

  The car navigation device according to claim 2, importance level selection means for selecting an importance level of a desired arrival time, coefficient storage means for storing a coefficient set for each importance level, and importance level selection Coefficient extraction means for extracting a coefficient corresponding to the importance level selected by the means from the coefficient storage means, and the excess time calculation means multiplies the required time by the coefficient extracted by the coefficient extraction means, The excess allowable time is calculated according to the above.

  The desired time of arrival input by the user may be an important time that must be strictly observed, such as business negotiations, or may be a time that allows a little overtime such as an appointment with a friend. . Therefore, by changing the coefficient that should be applied to the required time according to the importance level in this way, the excess allowable time is long when the target is far away from the destination, and the excessive allowable time when the destination is close However, it is possible to set the allowable excess time corresponding to the importance level while maintaining the relationship that the time becomes shorter. As a result, notification according to the importance of the user is possible.

  According to a third aspect of the present invention, the overtime notification control means continues to notify that the estimated arrival time may exceed the desired arrival time for a predetermined time.

  In this way, by continuously informing for a predetermined time, it is possible to inform the user that there is a possibility that arrival will be delayed. The predetermined time may be arbitrarily changeable by the user. Thereby, the duration of the notification according to the user's preference can be set.

  In the car navigation device according to claim 4, when the desired arrival time is changed, the excess determining means exceeds the expected arrival time after changing the expected arrival time in consideration of the excess allowable time. It is characterized by determining whether or not.

  For example, even when the user's schedule is changed and the desired arrival time is input again accordingly, it is determined that the expected arrival time is exceeded using the input arrival time that is input again. . As a result, even when the desired arrival time is changed, it is possible to continue to determine whether the expected arrival time is exceeded.

  Hereinafter, a car navigation apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

(First embodiment)
FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of a car navigation apparatus according to the present embodiment. As shown in the figure, the car navigation device of this embodiment includes a position detector 1, a map data input device 6, an operation switch group 7, a control circuit 8 connected thereto, and an external memory connected to the control circuit 8. 9, a display device 10, a remote control sensor 11, and a transceiver 13. The control circuit 8 is configured as a normal computer, and includes a 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 8 is written, and a CPU or the like executes predetermined arithmetic processing according to this program. This program can also be acquired from the outside via the external memory 9.

  Each of the position detectors 1 includes a known geomagnetic sensor 2, a gyroscope 3, a distance sensor 4, and a GPS receiver 5 for GPS (Global Positioning System) that detects the position of the vehicle based on radio waves from a satellite. is doing. 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 1 may be configured as a part of the above-described ones, and a steering rotation sensor (not shown), a vehicle speed sensor for each rolling wheel, or the like may be used.

  The map data input unit 6 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 depending on the amount of data, but a memory card, a hard disk, or the like may be used. The map data has data such as node data and link data.

  Here, node data and link data will be described. The node data includes a node ID with a unique number for each node where a plurality of roads intersect, merge, and branch, a node coordinate, a node name, a connection link ID in which the link IDs of all links connected to the node are described, It consists of data such as intersection types.

  On the other hand, the link data includes a link ID with a unique number for each road, link length, link average speed, node coordinates of start and end points, road types such as highways, toll roads, general roads, road width, etc. Consists of data. Among them, the link of the link data is obtained by dividing each road on the map into a plurality of nodes by nodes indicating intersections, branch points, etc., and defining the link between the two nodes. Note that the coordinates of the start and end of the link are described in the node coordinates of the start and end points.

  As the operation switch group 7, for example, a touch switch or a mechanical switch integrated with the display device 10 described later is used, and is used for various inputs.

  The display device 10 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 1 and the map data input from the map data input device 6 are displayed on the screen of the display device 10. A road map around the generated vehicle can be displayed. Further, on this road map, a guidance route from the current position to the destination can be displayed in an overlapping manner.

  The transceiver 13 is a device that receives information such as road traffic information distributed from the VICS center via beacons laid on the road and FM broadcast stations in various places. The received information is processed by the control circuit 8. For example, traffic jam information, regulation information, and the like are displayed on the road map displayed on the display device 10.

  Further, the car navigation device of the present embodiment inputs the position of the destination from the remote control sensor 11 or the operation switch group 7 via the remote control terminal (hereinafter referred to as a remote control) 12, and from the current position to the destination. It also has a so-called route guidance function that automatically selects the optimum route up to 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.

  The control circuit 8 calculates a route using the map data of the map data input device 6 according to the destination input from the operation switch group 7 or the remote controller 12. The guidance route calculated by the control circuit 8 is displayed on the display device 10 together with the vehicle position mark indicating the position of the vehicle calculated using the information of the position detector 1 and the map data input device 6. To be highlighted on the road map.

  Next, the predicted arrival time excess notification process, which is a feature of the present embodiment, will be described with reference to the flowcharts shown in FIGS. In the following description, the arrival time (desired arrival time) to the destination desired by the user is referred to as a waiting time.

  First, since this process is performed when there is a guidance route guided by the route guidance function, in step S10 of FIG. 2, it is determined whether or not the user has set a destination. If the destination is set, the process proceeds to step S20. If the destination is not set, the standby state is set until the destination is set.

  In step S20, for example, coordinates (latitude / longitude) corresponding to the set destination position are stored. In step S30, a route from the departure place to the set destination is calculated.

  In step S40, the user is caused to determine whether or not the waiting time at the destination needs to be set. Here, when it is determined that the setting of the waiting time is not necessary, the present process is terminated. On the other hand, if it is determined that the waiting time needs to be set, in step S50, the user is caused to set the waiting time, and the set waiting time is stored.

  In step S60, the user is made to determine whether or not the waiting time excess notification is necessary. Here, if it is determined that notification of overtime is necessary, the process proceeds to step S70. On the other hand, if it is determined that it is not necessary to notify that the time has passed, this process ends.

  If it is determined in step S40 that a waiting time needs to be set, the process may be advanced to step S70 without making the determination in step S60 (or deleting the determination in step S60). Good. In addition, since it is possible that the user wishes to notify the user that the time has been exceeded while the route to the destination is being guided, the user needs to notify the user that the user has exceeded the time in step S60. In such a case, the processing may be performed from the processing after step S70.

  In step S70, the coordinates of the current location are acquired, and in step S80, it is determined whether or not the current location is located on the guidance route. Here, when it is determined that the current location is not located on the guidance route, the process returns to step S70 again to repeat the process. On the other hand, if the current location is located on the guidance route, the process proceeds to step S90.

  Next, in step S90 shown in FIG. 3, the distance on the guide route from the current location to the destination is acquired. The distance from the current location to the destination is obtained by extracting the link length from the link data of each link that constitutes the guide route.

  In step S100, an average speed on the guidance route from the current location to the destination is calculated. The average speed from the current location to the destination is acquired by extracting the link average speed from the link data of each link constituting the guide route.

  The average speed is not limited to the link average speed as in step S100. For example, the average speed that matches the road type of each link is calculated from the average speed for each road type set by the user in advance. It may be extracted. Moreover, you may extract the average speed of each link from the average speed for every road obtained from infrastructure information, such as VICS.

  In step S110, the required time from the current location to the destination is calculated from the distance of each link acquired in step S90 and the average speed acquired in step S100. In step S120, the estimated time of arrival at the destination is calculated by adding the current time to the required time calculated in step S110. For example, the current time may be acquired by converting the UTC time acquired by the GPS receiver 5 together with the position of the vehicle into Japan standard time.

  In this embodiment, a general method for calculating the estimated arrival time is shown. However, the method is merely an example, and the method is not limited to this method as long as the estimated arrival time is calculated. For example, in a network navigation type device that communicates with a dedicated center or the like, the estimated arrival time can be acquired from the center by communication.

  In step S130, an excess allowable time calculation process is executed. This excess allowable time is calculated based on the importance of the waiting time set by the user. In other words, the waiting time set by the user may be an important time that must be strictly observed, such as an appointment for business negotiations, or a time that does not require a slight overtime such as an appointment with a friend. In some cases. Therefore, the excess allowable time is calculated in consideration of the importance of such waiting time. This excess allowable time calculation processing will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

  In step S210, the importance level of the waiting time is acquired. This importance level is a level set by the user. For example, one of the three levels of “high, medium, and low” is set. Each level is assigned and stored with an allowable excess time preset by the user.

  In step S220, it is determined whether or not the importance level of the waiting time acquired in step S210 is “high”. If the importance level is “high”, in step S230, the importance level “ The excess permissible time corresponding to “high” is extracted, and this excess permissible time calculation process is terminated. If the importance level is not “high”, the process proceeds to step S240.

  In step S240, it is determined whether or not the importance level of the waiting time acquired in step S210 is “medium”. If the importance level is “medium”, in step S250, the importance level “ The excess allowable time corresponding to “medium” is extracted, and this excess allowable time calculation process is terminated. If the importance level is not “medium”, the excess allowable time corresponding to the importance level “low” is extracted in step S260, and the excess allowable time calculation process is terminated.

The allowable excess time set in advance by the user is not necessarily a positive value, and may be a negative value such as “−10 minutes” at the importance level “high”. Moreover, the excess permissible time calculation process in the present embodiment is an example, and the present invention is not limited to this. For example, in addition to allowing the user to set the allowable excess time in advance, a fixed value may be set in advance and the value may be used.
In step S140 shown in FIG. 3, the excess allowable time extracted in the excess allowable time calculation process and the waiting time are added, and the added final waiting time is compared with the estimated arrival time. Then, it is determined whether or not the estimated arrival time has exceeded the waiting time considering the importance. Here, if the estimated arrival time does not exceed the waiting time, the processing is repeated from step S70, and the processing is repeated from the acquisition of the current location. The time obtained by subtracting the excess allowable time from the estimated arrival time may be compared with the waiting time.

  On the other hand, if the estimated arrival time exceeds the waiting time, the process proceeds to step S150, and the fact that there is a possibility that the waiting time may be exceeded is notified, for example, by voice, warning sound, display ( Step S150). For example, the notification content may simply indicate that there is a possibility of being late for the waiting time, or the rate of increase in the estimated arrival time in the past (for example, the estimated arrival time increased by 10 minutes after traveling 10 km) Etc.) may be used for notifying the expected excess time of the waiting time calculated from the above. As a result, it is possible to notify the meeting partner that the arrival is delayed, and to tell how much the arrival is delayed.

  In the case of a car navigation device that can be connected to a mobile phone, the telephone number of the other party to be met is registered in advance in the car navigation device, so that the mobile phone connected to the car navigation device can be checked by the user. It is also effective to be able to communicate with the other party to meet in the hands-free state later or automatically.

  In step S160 shown in FIG. 5, it is determined whether or not the time excess notification in step S150 has been continuously executed for a predetermined time (for example, about 5 to 6 seconds). Here, when the time-over notification is executed continuously for a predetermined time, it is determined that the user may recognize that there is a possibility that the user may be late for the waiting time, and the present process is terminated. As described above, after the notification for a predetermined time is continued, it is possible to reduce the troublesomeness of the user for the notification by not performing the notification of overtime. The predetermined time may be arbitrarily changed by the user.

  On the other hand, if the overtime notification is not executed for a predetermined time in step S160, the process proceeds to step S170.

  In step S170, it is determined whether or not the user has performed an operation of changing the waiting time. In other words, when the user receives an overtime notification, for example, it is determined whether or not there is an operation for resetting the waiting time by, for example, the user contacting a meeting partner. If there is an operation for resetting the waiting time, the process proceeds to step S50, the user is again input the waiting time, and the processes after step S50 are repeated. On the other hand, if this is not the case, the process proceeds to step S160.

  In consideration of the case where it takes time for the user to change the waiting time, the process in step S170 is changed to the notification of a message such as “Do you want to contact the other party” and the user A determination may be made as to whether or not to contact first. If it is determined to contact the other party, the process proceeds to step S50. If not, the process may be terminated.

  As described above, the car navigation device according to the present embodiment compares the waiting time at the destination input by the user with the estimated arrival time at the destination, and if the estimated arrival time exceeds the waiting time, Notify that the expected time may exceed the waiting time. As a result, the user can, for example, notify the other party who promises a meeting time at the destination that there is a possibility that the arrival will be delayed when the possibility of the arrival time being delayed becomes high. It becomes. Further, by changing the waiting time to a time corresponding to the importance level, notification according to the importance of the user's waiting time can be performed.

  In addition, by continuing the time-over notification for a predetermined time, it is possible to notify the user that there is a possibility that arrival will be delayed. The predetermined time may be arbitrarily changeable by the user. Thereby, the duration of the notification according to the user's preference can be set.

  Furthermore, even when the waiting time is input again by the user, the determination of exceeding the expected arrival time can be made by using the waiting time input again to determine whether the predicted arrival time is exceeded. It becomes possible to execute continuously.

(Second Embodiment)
Since the second embodiment is often in common with that according to the first embodiment, a detailed description of the common parts will be omitted below, and different parts will be mainly described.

  The second embodiment is different from the first embodiment in that the excess allowable time calculated in the excess allowable time calculation process is multiplied by a required time to the destination by a coefficient corresponding to the importance level of the waiting time. It is in the point calculated by. Hereinafter, this difference will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

  First, in step S410 of FIG. 6, the importance level of the waiting time set by the user is acquired. Here, for example, one level is acquired from the three levels of “high / medium / low”. Each level is assigned a required time error coefficient preset by the user (for example, 0.01 for level “high”, 0.05 for level “medium”, 0.1 for level “low”, etc.). It has been.

  In step S420, the required time to the destination calculated in step S110 is read. In step S430, it is determined whether or not the importance level of the waiting time acquired in step S410 is “high”. If the importance level is “high”, the process proceeds to step S440. If not, the process proceeds to step S460.

  In step S440, the required time error coefficient corresponding to the importance level “high” is extracted. In step S450, the excess allowable time is calculated by multiplying the extracted required time by the required time error coefficient.

  In step S460, it is determined whether or not the importance level of the waiting time acquired in step S210 is “medium”. If the importance level is “medium”, in step S470, the importance level “ The required time error coefficient corresponding to “medium” is extracted. On the other hand, if the importance level is not “medium”, the required time error coefficient corresponding to the importance level “low” is extracted in step S480. In step S490, the excess allowable time is calculated by multiplying the extracted required time by the required time error coefficient.

  Thereafter, in step S140, an excess allowable time that is an error amount of the required time is added to the waiting time, and the waiting time that is the result of the addition is compared with the estimated arrival time.

  As described above, the waiting time calculated in the car navigation device according to the present embodiment is compared with the estimated arrival time in consideration of the excess allowable time according to the importance of the waiting time set by the user. Therefore, when the importance level is high, it is possible to perform notification more strictly with respect to the arrival delay, and when the importance level is low, it is possible to perform a notification that allows some time excess.

  Further, at any importance level, when the current location is far from the destination, the required time is long and the allowable time for excess is also long. As a result, since the current location is far from the destination, it is possible to prevent frequent overtime notifications despite a large error related to the estimated arrival time. Further, when the current location is close to the destination, the required time is short and the allowable excess time is also shortened, so that it is possible to make a strict determination of time excess.

(Modification)
In the above allowable permissible time calculation process, the permissible excess time is calculated by multiplying the required time to the destination by a coefficient corresponding to the importance level of the waiting time. You may make it calculate by multiplying the coefficient of.

  That is, in step S310 shown in FIG. 7, the required time to the destination calculated in step S110 is read. In step S320, an excess allowable time which is a time corresponding to an error of the required time is calculated by multiplying the read required time by a required time error coefficient (for example, 0.1).

  Thereafter, in step S140, an excess allowable time that is an error amount of the required time is added to the waiting time, and the waiting time that is the result of the addition is compared with the estimated arrival time.

  As described above, the excess allowable time corresponding to the required time to the destination is added to the waiting time calculated in the car navigation device according to the present modification. This makes it possible to prevent frequent overtime notifications when the current location is far from the destination, and to make a strict time-over determination when the current location is close to the destination. It becomes.

  In the second embodiment and the modification described above, the excess allowable time is added to the waiting time and compared with the estimated arrival time. However, the excess allowable time is subtracted from the estimated arrival time and compared with the waiting time. Also good.

It is a block diagram which shows the schematic structure of the car navigation apparatus concerning 1st and 2nd embodiment. It is a flowchart which shows the process of the first half of the arrival notification time excess alerting | reporting process concerning 1st and 2nd embodiment. It is a flowchart which shows the process of the latter half of the estimated arrival time excess alerting | reporting process concerning 1st and 2nd embodiment. It is a flowchart which shows the excess permissible time calculation process concerning 1st Embodiment. It is a flowchart which shows the last part of an arrival time excess alerting | reporting process concerning 1st and 2nd embodiment. It is a flowchart which shows the excess permissible time calculation process concerning 2nd Embodiment. It is a flowchart which shows the modification of the excess allowable time calculation process concerning 2nd Embodiment.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Position detector 2 Geomagnetic sensor 3 Gyroscope 4 Distance sensor 5 GPS receiver 6 Map data input device 7 Operation switch group 8 Control circuit 9 External memory 10 Display apparatus 11 Remote control sensor 12 Remote control 13 Transmitter / receiver

Claims (4)

Map data storage means for storing road map data;
A route guidance unit that searches a travel route from a departure place to a destination based on road map data stored in the map data storage unit, and guides the travel route to the destination along the searched travel route;
An estimated arrival time calculation means for calculating a required time from the current location to the destination when calculating a travel route by the route guiding means and calculating an estimated arrival time at the destination using the required time When,
A car navigation device comprising notification means for notifying the estimated arrival time,
A desired arrival time input means for inputting a desired arrival time at the destination;
An excess allowable time calculating means for calculating an allowable excess time by multiplying a required time to the destination by a preset coefficient;
Excess determining means for determining whether or not the expected arrival time exceeds the desired arrival time in consideration of the excess allowable time;
When it is determined by the excess determination means that the estimated arrival time exceeds the desired arrival time in consideration of the excess allowable time, the estimated arrival time may exceed the desired arrival time. Car navigation device comprising: an overtime notification control means for informing the information from the notification means. Importance level selection means for selecting the importance level of the desired arrival time;
Coefficient storage means for storing a coefficient set for each importance level;
Coefficient extraction means for extracting a coefficient corresponding to the importance level selected by the importance level selection means from the coefficient storage means;
2. The car navigation apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the excess allowable time calculating unit multiplies the required time by the coefficient extracted by the coefficient extracting unit to calculate an excess allowable time according to the importance. . 3. The overtime notification control means continues to notify that the estimated arrival time may exceed the desired arrival time for a predetermined time. 4. Car navigation device. When the desired arrival time is changed, the excess determining means determines whether the estimated arrival time exceeds the changed desired arrival time, taking into account the excess allowable time. The car navigation device according to any one of claims 1 to 3.

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