JPH07146999A - Travel path guidance device for vehicle - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To eliminate the offensiveness of a section, which need not be guided in voice, to the ears and the troublesomeness of the operation in a section which needs to be guided. CONSTITUTION:This device is equipped with an information holding means 3 which holds road map information, search and display means 1, 4, 7, and 10 which search for a proper travel path on the basis of travel schedule information that a user specifies and the road map information read out of the information holding means and displays the path on a road map, section specifying means 1 and 11 which makes the user specify only sections that need to be guided in voice on the travel path, and voice guide means 1, 6, and 9 which guides only the sections that the user specifies in voice. In another invention, the device is further equipped with a travel history recording means and a means which inquires of the user about whether or not the voice guidance is necessary on the basis of the travel history.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a vehicle travel route guide device used for vehicles such as passenger cars,
More specifically, the present invention relates to a route guidance device for a vehicle, which improves convenience by eliminating unnecessary guidance by voice.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Recently, a vehicle travel route guiding device, which is also called a car navigation device, is becoming popular. This travel route guidance device holds road map information in a CD-ROM or the like, and searches for a suitable travel route from the travel schedule information specified by the user and the road map information read from the CD-ROM, etc. It is designed to be displayed above, and voice guidance is provided to the user traveling along this.

[0003] Voice guidance is provided over the entire section of the traveling route, triggered by the approaching of an intersection, the lapse of a predetermined time or traveling distance, or the like. For this reason, there is a problem in that a part of the travel route may be annoying if the user does not need to be guided because the user is familiar with the route. In order to solve this drawback, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 5-99678 discloses a travel route guiding device in which voice guidance is provided only when requested by a user.

[0004]

The above-described conventional guiding device has the advantage of eliminating the harshness of the section where the guidance is unnecessary, but on the other hand, the section where the guidance is required must frequently be requested by a key operation or the like. However, there is a drawback that the operation becomes complicated. Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a travel route guide device that can eliminate the harshness of a section that does not require guidance and can reduce the complexity of the operation of the section that requires guidance.

[0005]

A traveling route guiding apparatus for a vehicle according to a first aspect of the present invention, which solves the above-mentioned problems of the prior art, includes information holding means for holding road map information and traveling schedule information designated by a user. And a road map information read out from the information holding means to search for a suitable travel route, and display / display means on the road map, and a section on the travel route requiring voice guidance to the user Section specifying means to
A voice guidance unit that performs voice guidance only in the section designated by the user is provided.

The vehicle route guide device according to the second aspect of the present invention is, in addition to the information holding means and the search / display means,
A driving history recording means for recording the driving history in the road map information and a voice inquiry to the user as to whether or not guidance is required for the section where the driving history is recorded on the driving route, and according to the user's response to this, And voice guidance means for performing voice guidance.

[0007]

According to the first aspect of the present invention, the traveling section requiring guidance is designated by the user using the display screen of the traveling route and the like, and the voice guidance is executed only for the designated traveling section. . The designation of the guidance section by such a voice is preferably performed when the travel route is determined before the start of travel. According to the second aspect of the present invention, an inquiry as to whether or not voice guidance is necessary is automatically made for a section that has been determined to have been traveled based on the travel history information. In response to this, when the user responds by voice or the like, the presence or absence of guidance is selected accordingly.

[0008]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a vehicle travel route guiding apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.
PU, 2 is a program ROM, 3 is a CD-ROM, 4 is a CD-ROM driver, 5 is a sensor interface unit, 6 is a voice synthesis unit, 7 is a display control unit, 9 is a speaker,
Reference numeral 10 is a display panel, 11 is a touch panel, and 12 is an operation panel.

The user of this device activates the CPU 1 by operating the switch of the operation panel 12, and before and after this, the road map information of the planned traveling section and the accompanying voice guidance information are written. Embedded CD-RO
Set M3 to CD-ROM driver 4. The CPU 1 that has started the operation starts various processes necessary for guiding the travel route according to the control program read from the program ROM 2. The CPU 1 first reads the road map information and voice guidance information accompanying it from the CD-ROM 3 via the CD-ROM driver 4, and transfers only the road map information to the display controller 7 for display. It is displayed on the panel 10.

The user displays a road map including the current location as shown in FIG. 3 on the display panel 10 by issuing a command for scrolling the display screen to the left, right, up and down through the operation panel 12 to the CPU 1. By operating the touch panel 11 in this state, the present point is designated as the departure point. Similarly, the user specifies the destination as the target point on the display screen. For the designation of the present point and the target point, it is preferable that the CPU 1 outputs a voice message prompting the designation of the user from the speaker 9 via the voice synthesizing unit 6, and the user operates the touch panel 11 accordingly. It is done interactively. Next, CP
U1 searches for an optimal travel route connecting the current position designated by the user and the target position. The search of the travel route is performed by minimizing the travel route length while taking into consideration various travel restriction information such as right turn prohibition and entry prohibition included in the map information. CPU1
The searched driving route is displayed on the road map by special coloring or blinking.

In FIG. 3, the roads are displayed with thin lines and the searched travel routes are displayed with thick lines.
Further, when the departure point and the target point do not fit on one display screen, the end points of the traveling route in the scrolling display screen are displayed as the passing points. Further, although not shown, intersection names, road names, place names, etc. are also displayed at required points on the travel route. CPU1 as required
Searches for a plurality of candidates as a travel route, and if the user does not like the first displayed travel route, an intention indication to that effect is received from the operation panel 12 and the next candidate is displayed as a travel route. The process to do is repeated.

When the travel route is determined as described above, the CPU 1 prompts the user to specify a section that does not require voice guidance. In the example of FIG. 3, since the user is familiar with the route indicated by the dotted line, if it is determined that voice guidance is not required, the route from the departure point in the figure to A
The section up to the point is designated as the guidance unnecessary section. The designation of the guidance unnecessary section is performed by designating the start point and the end point of the corresponding section on the display screen. If there are multiple sections that do not require guidance on the travel route,
It is repeated multiple times, including scrolling when it is necessary to specify the start and end points. When the vehicle starts to travel after the guidance-free section is specified, in the example of FIG. 3, the guidance is not performed by voice for the travel section from the departure point to the point A, and the voice is output immediately after the vehicle passes the point A. The induction by is started.

The CPU 1 outputs signals from various sensors (not shown) including a odometer, a gyro, a positioning device using GPS, etc. to the sensor interface unit 5.
The current position of the running vehicle is detected by reading the current position via the display, and the display screen is automatically scrolled to include the detected current position. The CPU 1 transfers the voice guidance information accompanying the road map information read from the CDROM 3 to the voice synthesizing unit 6 at a timing corresponding to the current location, for the section in which the voice guidance is designated. Output guidance voice from. Such a guidance voice is, for example, "turn right at the next intersection".

The case where the required / unnecessary section for voice guidance is determined before the vehicle starts running has been described above. However, it is possible to add a function of designating the necessity of the guidance and changing the designation of the necessity before the start of traveling even after the start of traveling of the vehicle.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the structure of a vehicle travel route guide system according to an embodiment of the second invention. In the figure, the constituent elements denoted by the same reference numerals as those in FIG. 1 are the same constituent elements as those already described with reference to FIG. 1, and duplicate description thereof will be omitted. That is, the designation of the travel route on the display screen of the display panel 10 and the automatic scrolling of the display screen after the start of travel are performed in the same manner as in the case of the travel route guiding device of FIG.

2 is different from the traveling route guiding device of FIG. 1 in that, instead of designating the necessary / unnecessary section of the guidance by voice before starting the traveling, the traveling history information is displayed after the traveling starts. It is based on the inquiry from the CPU 1. In order to realize such functions, CD
-Readable I instead of ROM and its driver
A C card 13 and a read / write control unit 14 are installed, and a voice synthesizing unit 8 and a voice input unit 15 are added in order to make a voice response of the user to the inquiry about the necessity.

The CPU 1 displays the traveling history information in the road map information read from the IC card 13 via the read / write control unit 14 in parallel with the display of the traveling route and the guidance by voice as in the case of the guiding device of FIG. Execute additional processing. This travel history information defines links as roads between an intersection and the next intersection or between a main intersection and the next main intersection, and is added to each link thus defined. It The road to which the travel history information is added is displayed in a specific color or blinking on the road map displayed on the display panel 10 in response to the user's request, and the user can select a travel route that the user is accustomed to. It is also used as a reference for determining unnecessary sections for voice guidance.

When the vehicle starts running, the CPU 1
The travel history information added to the road map information read from the C card 13 is inspected. In this embodiment, the traveling history information is composed of the integrated value of the past traveling times for each link. The CPU 1 executes voice guidance for a section in which the integrated value of the number of running times does not reach a predetermined threshold value. The CPU 1 causes the speaker 9 to output a voice message inquiry from the speaker 9 as to whether or not to perform voice guidance for the section to which the integrated value of the number of times of travel equal to or greater than the threshold value is added. An example of this voice message is "Do you want to interrupt voice guidance?"

The CPU 1 activates the voice recognition unit 8 at the same time when the voice message is output. When the user utters a response “yes” to the inquiry by the voice message, the voice response is given by the voice response.
And is transferred to the voice recognition unit 8. The voice recognition unit 8
When recognizing the response "Yes", the CPU 1 is notified of that fact, and the CPU 1 which received this notification interrupts the voice guidance for the corresponding link.

As described above, by adopting the voice response, the user does not need to operate the operation panel 12 while driving, and the safety can be improved. With regard to this voice recognition, the response time point by the voice of the user can be predicted and the response content of the identification target can also be predicted, so that a sufficiently high identification rate can be realized even on a road in a noisy environment. Further, since the road map information in which the traveling history information of each person is added is held in the IC card that can be carried by each person, the traveling history information of each person can be used even when one vehicle is used by a plurality of persons. There is no mutual interference.

As described above, in order to avoid the interference of the traveling history information, I
The example in which the C card is owned by an individual has been described. However, it is also possible to adopt a configuration in which the traveling history information of a plurality of persons is managed on the common RAM provided in the vehicle while being distinguished by the identification code.

In addition, a configuration in which a voice response is made to the inquiry about the necessity of the guidance has been illustrated. However, it is also possible to adopt a configuration in which this response is performed manually by a key or the like.

[0023]

As described in detail above, the vehicle travel route guiding apparatus of the present invention allows the user to specify a travel section in which voice guidance is required, such as before the start of travel, or in the travel history information. Since the configuration is such that the user is inquired of the necessity of guidance based on the guidance, unnecessary guidance by voice can be eliminated without complicated operations during traveling, and convenience is improved.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a vehicle travel route guiding device according to an embodiment of the first invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a vehicle travel route guiding device according to an embodiment of the second invention.

FIG. 3 is a conceptual diagram showing an example of a display screen for supplementing the description of each of the embodiments.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 CPU 2 Program ROM 3 CD-ROM 4 CD-ROM driver 5 Sensor interface section 6 Voice synthesis section 7 Display control section 8 Voice recognition section 9 Speaker 10 Display panel 11 Operation panel 13 IC card 14 Read / write control section 15 Voice input section

Claims (7)

[Claims] 1. A suitable travel route is searched for from information holding means for holding road map information, travel schedule information specified by a user, and road map information read from the information holding means,
Search / display means for displaying on a road map, section designating means for allowing the user to designate a section on the traveling route that requires voice guidance, and the voice guidance is executed only for the section designated by the user. A vehicle travel route guidance device comprising: a voice guidance unit. 2. The vehicle travel route guidance apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the designation unit causes a user to designate a section in which the guidance is required before starting traveling. 3. The vehicle travel route guidance device according to claim 1, wherein the designation unit causes a user to designate a section on which the guidance is required on a display screen. 4. A suitable travel route is searched from information holding means for holding road map information, running schedule information designated by a user, and road map information read from the information holding means,
Search / display means for displaying on the road map, travel history recording means for recording the travel history in the road map information, and whether or not guidance is necessary for the section on the travel route where the travel history is recorded. And a voice guidance means for performing voice guidance in accordance with the user's response to the inquiry. 5. The vehicle route guidance device according to claim 4, wherein the voice guidance unit includes a voice recognition unit that recognizes a voice response of the user to the inquiry. 6. The driving history according to claim 4, wherein the travel history includes an integrated value of the number of times of travel, and the voice guidance unit makes the inquiry about a section in which the integrated value of the number of times of travel is equal to or more than a predetermined threshold value. A vehicle route guidance device. 7. The vehicle route guidance device according to claim 4, wherein the information holding unit is an IC card.