JP5007064B2 - Navigation device - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a navigation device that recognizes a user's utterance content and scrolls a map.

  As a navigation device that recognizes the user's utterance content and scrolls the map, a place name icon representing a region name such as a city is displayed on the screen, and if any place name icon is uttered, the place name icon There is known one that scrolls the screen to an area corresponding to (see Patent Document 1).

JP 2004-156990 A

  The navigation device disclosed in Patent Document 1 does not consider which point in the area corresponding to the spoken place name icon is to be scrolled, and simply determines the geographical center point in that area. You are scrolling to the center of the screen. For this reason, a point where no facility such as a road or a building exists in the vicinity may be the center of the screen after scrolling. In such a case, particularly when the map scale is large, no facilities are displayed on the scrolled map, and the map becomes difficult for the user to understand.

The navigation device according to the first aspect of the present invention includes a display means for displaying a map screen, a voice recognition means for recognizing speech contents of the user, and an extraction means for extracting a place name from the speech contents of the user recognized by the voice recognition means. Setting means for setting a specific type of facility having the place name extracted by the extraction means as part of the facility name as a scroll target point, and scrolling the map screen toward the scroll target point set by the setting means Scrolling means, and the setting means sets one of a plurality of types of facilities predetermined as a specific type of facility as a scroll target point in accordance with a priority order of a predetermined facility type. To do .
The invention according to claim 2 is the navigation device according to claim 1 , wherein the setting means, when only one of the station and the office having the extracted place name as a part of the facility name exists, When a government office is set as a scroll target point and there are both a station and a government office that have the extracted place name as part of the facility name, the scroll target is set to either the station or the government office according to priority. It is set to the point.
According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the navigation device according to the first or second aspect , the direction of the target point for displaying the direction of the scroll target point based on the vehicle position before the scrolling of the map screen is started by the scroll means. A display means is further provided.
According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the navigation device according to any one of the first to third aspects, after the scroll of the map screen is finished by the scroll means, the own vehicle position that displays the direction of the own vehicle position with reference to the scroll target point A direction display means is further provided.

  According to the present invention, a point where no facility such as a road or a building exists in the vicinity does not become the center of the screen after scrolling, and some facility is always displayed on the map after scrolling. The map can be easily understood.

  A configuration of a navigation apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention is shown in FIG. This navigation device is used by being mounted on a vehicle, and can recognize a user's utterance content by voice and execute various processes according to the voice recognition result. A navigation device 1 shown in FIG. 1 includes a control circuit 10, a microphone 11, a ROM 12, a RAM 13, a current location detection device 14, an image memory 15, a display monitor 16, an input device 17, and a disk drive 18. The disc drive 18 is loaded with a DVD-ROM 19 in which map data is recorded.

  The control circuit 10 includes a microprocessor and its peripheral circuits, and performs speech recognition processing such as collating the speech signal input from the microphone 11 with a speech signal pattern stored in advance, thereby speech recognition of the user's utterance content. To do. Then, according to the voice recognition result and the operation input from the input device 17, various processes and controls are performed by executing a control program stored in the ROM 12 using the RAM 13 as a work area. Thereby, for example, display of a map screen based on map data recorded in the DVD-ROM 19 and scrolling of the displayed map screen are performed. In order to prevent erroneous voice recognition other than when the user speaks, the voice signal is input from the microphone 11 when a voice recognition button (not shown) is pressed by the user.

  The current location detection device 14 is a device that detects the current location of the host vehicle. For example, a vibration gyro 14a that detects the traveling direction of the host vehicle, a vehicle speed sensor 14b that detects a vehicle speed, and a GPS sensor that detects a GPS signal from a GPS satellite. 14c and the like. The navigation device 1 detects the current location of the host vehicle, that is, the location of the host vehicle, by using the current location detection device 14.

  The image memory 15 temporarily stores image data to be displayed on the display monitor 16. The image data includes road map drawing data for displaying a road map, various graphic data, and the like, and is created by the control circuit 10 based on the map data recorded on the DVD-ROM 19. A map screen or the like is displayed on the display monitor 16 using the image data stored in the image memory 15. The input device 17 has various operation members for receiving various operation inputs from the user, and is realized by, for example, an operation panel or a remote controller.

  The disk drive 18 reads map data for displaying a road map from the loaded DVD-ROM 19. This map data includes route calculation data used for route search to the destination, route guidance data used to guide the vehicle to the destination according to the set route, such as intersection name and road name, and road The road data that represents is included. The map data also includes background data representing map shapes other than roads such as rivers, railways, various facilities on the map (landmarks), and the like.

  In the road data, the minimum unit representing a road section is called a link, and each road is composed of a plurality of links. A point connecting the links is called a node, and each node has position information (coordinate information). The link shape, that is, the shape of the road is determined by the position information of this node. Although an example using a DVD-ROM is described here, the map data may be read from a recording medium other than the DVD-ROM, such as a CD-ROM or a hard disk.

  When a destination is set by the user by voice input to the microphone 11 or operation of the input device 17, the navigation device 1 uses the current location detected by the current location detection device 14 as a route search start point in the control circuit 10. A route search from the current location to the destination is performed by calculating a predetermined algorithm based on the route calculation data. The recommended route obtained from the route search result is displayed on the road map so as to be distinguished from other roads by changing its display form, for example, display color. Thus, the user can recognize the recommended route on the map displayed on the display monitor 16. In addition, the navigation device 1 guides the host vehicle by instructing the traveling direction by an image or voice to the user so that the host vehicle can travel according to the recommended route. Thus, route guidance to the destination is performed by displaying the map and guiding the vehicle to the destination according to the recommended route.

  FIG. 2 is an example of a map screen displayed on the display monitor 16 in the navigation device 1. The current location 21 of the host vehicle is displayed on the map screen. Here, when the user instructs the navigation device 1 to scroll with the place name of the scroll destination by voice, the map screen of FIG. 2 can be scrolled toward the direction represented by the place name. For example, when the user speaks “scroll to Yokohama”, scrolling to the Yokohama area is performed. Such scroll processing is called place name scroll. The specific contents of the place name scroll will be described below.

  When the user utters “scroll to Yokohama”, the content of the utterance is recognized by the control circuit 10, and the navigation apparatus 1 recognizes that the place name scrolling to the direction of Yokohama is instructed based on the result of the speech recognition. Then, as shown in FIG. 3, prior to the start of scrolling, a scroll direction indication mark indicated by reference numeral 30 is displayed on the screen. The scroll direction indication mark 30 is displayed with an arrow indicating a scroll direction based on the current location 21 and characters indicating that the scroll destination is in the direction of Yokohama. In other words, the Yokohama direction of the scroll destination is located obliquely in the upper right direction when viewed from the current location 21.

  When the scroll direction instruction mark 30 is displayed, a target point at the time of scrolling is determined according to the place name instructed by the voice to the user, and an arrow is displayed with the direction of the scroll target point as the scroll direction. As the scroll target point, for example, a facility having a place name designated by the user as a part of the facility name is selected from facilities of a specific type that are often located near the central city such as a station or a government office. . That is, when scrolling to Yokohama is instructed, a scroll target point is selected from Yokohama Station or Yokohama City Hall.

  The facility selected as the scroll target point is determined from the above-described facilities according to the priority order of the predetermined facility type. For example, if the priority of the station is high and the priority of the government office is set lower than that, the Yokohama station is selected as the scroll target point, and the Yokohama city hall is not selected as the scroll target point. However, depending on the designated place name, there may be no station having the place name as a station name. In that case, a facility such as a government office having the second highest priority after the station is selected as the scroll target point.

  That is, when only one of the station and the government office having the designated place name as a part of the facility name exists, the station or the public office is set as the scroll target point. However, if there are both a station and a government office that have the designated place name as part of the facility name, either the station or the government office is set as the scroll target point according to a predetermined priority order. The

  The priority of the facility selected as the scroll target point may be set in common for the place names throughout the country, or, for example, the priority of the station is increased in the urban area and its suburbs, and the priority of the government office in the suburbs. The priority may be changed depending on the region, such as increasing the value. Or, for a sightseeing spot having a prominent tourist facility, the tourist facility may be set as a scroll target point.

  As described above, after the scroll target point is selected and the scroll direction instruction mark 30 is displayed accordingly, when the user touches the scroll direction instruction mark 30 as shown in FIG. The scroll of the map screen is started. At this time, the display monitor 16 is assumed to be configured by a touch panel. Note that scrolling of the map screen may be started by selecting the scroll direction instruction mark 30 on the screen by an operation using a remote controller or the like instead of a touch operation using the touch panel.

  When scrolling is started, the map screen in FIG. 4 scrolls in the scroll direction indicated by the scroll direction indication mark 30, that is, in the diagonally upper right direction, and a screen as shown in FIG. 5 is displayed. When the scroll further proceeds and approaches the scroll target point, a screen as shown in FIG. 6 is displayed. Here, it is assumed that Yokohama Station is set as the scroll target point.

  Scrolling further proceeds from the screen of FIG. 6, and the scrolling stops when Yokohama Station, which is the scroll target point, is located at the center of the screen. Then, as shown in FIG. 7, a current direction indication mark 31 is displayed instead of the scroll direction indication mark 30. The current position direction indication mark 31 is displayed with an arrow indicating the direction of the vehicle position with reference to the scroll target point. That is, in contrast to the scroll direction instruction mark 30, an obliquely lower left arrow is displayed.

  FIG. 8 shows a flowchart executed by the control circuit 10 when performing the place name scroll as described above. This flowchart is executed during display of the map screen. In step S100, it is determined whether or not the voice recognition button has been pressed. When the voice recognition button is pressed by the user, the process proceeds to the next step S110, where the voice signal from the microphone 11 is acquired in step S110, thereby inputting the voice by the user's speech.

  In step S120, voice recognition processing is performed based on the voice input in step S110 to recognize voice content of the user's utterance. A known processing method is used for the voice recognition processing, but the processing method itself is not directly related to the present invention, and thus the description thereof is omitted here. The content of the user's utterance is recognized by the voice recognition processing in step S120, whereby the navigation device 1 recognizes the content of the instruction from the user.

  In step S130, it is determined from the voice recognition result in step S120 whether the content instructed by the user is a place name scroll. If it is the place name scroll, the process proceeds to the next step S140. When another operation is instructed by the user's voice instead of the place name scrolling, the flowchart of FIG. 8 is ended, and processing according to the operation is executed.

  In step S140, by extracting a portion corresponding to the place name from the user's utterance content, it is determined which direction the user has instructed to scroll. Through the processing in step S140, the “Yokohama” portion is extracted from the user's utterance content “scroll to Yokohama”, and the navigation device 1 determines that the scroll is to the Yokohama area.

  In step S150, based on the place name extracted in step S140, a scroll target point corresponding to the place name is selected. Here, according to the priority order of the facility type determined in advance as described above, one of the facilities such as a station or a government office having the place name extracted in step S140 as a part of the facility name is the scroll target point. Selected. Through the processing in step S150, Yokohama Station is selected as the scroll target point.

  In step S160, the scroll direction instruction mark 30 of FIG. 3 is displayed. At this time, characters representing the scroll destination are displayed based on the place names extracted in step S140. Further, based on the scroll target point selected in step S150, the direction of the scroll target point is displayed by an arrow based on the vehicle position.

  In step S170, it is determined whether or not the scroll direction instruction mark 30 displayed in step S160 has been pressed by the user. When the scroll direction instruction mark 30 is pressed by a touch panel operation or a remote control operation, the process proceeds to the next step S180.

  In step S180, the scroll speed is set. Here, a constant scroll speed may be set, or the scroll speed may be changed according to the situation. For example, different scroll speeds can be set according to the distance from the vehicle position to the scroll target point. If a slow scroll speed is set when the distance is short, and a fast scroll speed is set when the distance is long, the time difference required to reach the scroll target point can be reduced.

  In addition, the scroll speed may be changed during scrolling by setting a different scroll speed depending on the contents of the displayed map screen. For example, if a slow scroll speed is set in an urban area and a fast scroll speed is set in an urban area, the scroll speed can be changed according to the information amount of the map. In addition, whether it is an urban area can be determined, for example, based on the number of map objects on the display screen. The number of map objects can be represented by the number of links, the number of place names, the number of facilities, and the like.

  In step S190, the map screen is scrolled by scrolling the map screen being displayed at the scroll speed set in step S180 for a predetermined distance or a predetermined time. Thereby, map screens as shown in FIGS. 5, 6 and 7 are displayed in order. In the next step S200, it is determined whether or not the target point has been reached as a result of the scroll processing in step S190. The process returns to step S180 until the target point is reached, and scroll speed setting and scroll processing are repeated. When the target point is reached, the scrolling is stopped and the process proceeds to step S210.

  In step S210, the current location direction indication mark 31 of FIG. 7 is displayed. At this time, contrary to the scroll direction indication mark 30 displayed so far, an arrow is displayed toward the direction of the vehicle position with reference to the scroll target point. If step S210 is performed, the flowchart of FIG. 8 will be complete | finished. As described above, the user's utterance content is recognized as voice, and the place name scrolling according to the voice recognition result is executed.

According to the embodiment described above, the following operational effects can be obtained.
(1) The user's utterance content is recognized by voice (step S120), and a place name is extracted from the utterance content (step S140). Then, a specific type of facility such as a station or a government office having the extracted place name as a part of the facility name is set as the scroll target point (step S150), and the map screen is scrolled toward the set scroll target point. (Step S190). Since this is done, the point where there are no facilities such as roads and buildings in the vicinity does not become the center of the screen after scrolling, and some facility is always displayed on the map after scrolling, so for the user The map can be easily understood.

(2) When setting the scroll target point in step S150, scroll any facility among a plurality of types of facilities predetermined as a specific type of facility according to the priority order of the facility type set in advance. It was decided to set the target point. Specifically, when only one of the station and the office having the place name extracted in step S140 as a part of the facility name exists, the station or the office is set as the scroll target point. However, when there are both a station and a government office that have the place name extracted in step S140 as a part of the facility name, according to a predetermined priority order, either one of the station or the government office is scrolled to the scroll target point. Set to. Since it did in this way, a scroll target point can be set from the facilities near the central city.

(3) Prior to the start of scrolling the map screen, a scroll direction indication mark is displayed (step S160), and the direction of the scroll target point is displayed based on the vehicle position. Since it did in this way, a user can be made to grasp | ascertain easily in which direction a scroll destination exists in advance.

(4) After the scrolling of the map screen is completed, the current location direction indication mark is displayed (step S210), and the direction of the vehicle position is displayed based on the scroll target point. Since it did in this way, a user can be made to grasp | ascertain easily which direction the own vehicle position exists after scrolling.

  In the embodiment described above, an example has been described in which when a specific place name is designated by voice, a scroll target point is selected and an arrow indicating the direction of the scroll target point is displayed based on the vehicle position. A similar process may be performed on the road. That is, when a specific road name such as “National highway No. 1” is designated by voice, an arrow indicating the direction of the road is displayed. In this case, it is preferable to display an arrow toward the point where the distance from the vehicle position to the road is the shortest.

  Further, in the embodiment described above, an example has been described in which a scroll target point is selected from a facility having a place name instructed by voice to the user as a part of the facility name according to a predetermined priority order of facility types. . However, a specific point corresponding to each place name throughout the country is stored in advance as a scroll target point, and when the place is instructed by voice, the scroll target point corresponding to the place name is set. It is good as well.

  The embodiment and various modifications described above are merely examples, and the present invention is not limited to these contents as long as the features of the invention are not impaired.

  In the above embodiment, the display means is realized by the display monitor 16, and the other means are realized by the processing of the control circuit 10. Specifically, the voice recognition means is step S120, the extraction means is step S140, the setting means is step S150, the scroll means is step S190, the target point direction display means is step S160, and the vehicle position direction display means is step S210. Realized. In addition, the above description is an example to the last, and when interpreting invention, the correspondence of the description matter of said embodiment and the description matter of a claim is not limited or restrained at all.

It is a block diagram which shows the structure of the navigation apparatus by one Embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows an example of the map screen displayed. It is a figure which shows the screen on which the scroll direction instruction mark was displayed. It is a figure which shows a mode that a user touches a scroll direction instruction mark. It is an example of a screen during scrolling. It is an example of a screen that is also scrolling. It is a figure which shows the screen on which the present location direction indication mark was displayed. It is a flowchart performed at the time of place name scroll.

Explanation of symbols

1 Navigation device 10 Control circuit 11 Microphone 12 ROM
13 RAM
14 current location detection device 15 image memory 16 display monitor 17 input device 18 disk drive 19 DVD-ROM
30 Scroll direction indication mark 31 Current location direction indication mark

Claims (4)

Display means for displaying a map screen;
A voice recognition means for recognizing a user's utterance content;
Extraction means for extracting a place name from the utterance content of the user recognized by the voice recognition means;
A setting means for setting a specific type of facility having the place name extracted by the extraction means as a part of the facility name as a scroll target point;
Scroll means for scrolling the map screen toward the scroll target point set by the setting means ,
The setting means sets one of a plurality of types of facilities predetermined as the specific type of facility as the scroll target point according to a priority order of a predetermined facility type. A navigation device. The navigation device according to claim 1 .
The setting means, when only one of a station and a government office having the extracted place name as a part of its facility name, sets the station or public office as the scroll target point,
When both a station and a government office having the extracted place name as a part of the facility name exist, according to the priority order, either one of the station or the public office is set as the scroll target point. A featured navigation device. The navigation device according to claim 1 or 2 ,
The navigation apparatus further comprising target point direction display means for displaying the direction of the scroll target point based on the vehicle position before the scroll means starts scrolling the map screen. The navigation device according to any one of claims 1 to 3 ,
The navigation apparatus further comprising own vehicle position direction display means for displaying a direction of the own vehicle position with reference to the scroll target point after the scrolling of the map screen is finished by the scroll means.

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