JPH09329456A - Navigation system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To positively perform the optimum guide corresponding to the driving operation when plural junctions exist adjacent to each other, by detecting the reaction of a driver to a voice message on the basis of the existence of a turn signal, and guiding the result of the judgement by the voice message again. SOLUTION: A voice processing part 8 of a navigation controller 6 generates a voice message when it judges a route to be taken by a vehicle on the basis of the optimum route, when a juction such as a crossing is detected within the predetermined distance in the advance direction. An operation detecting part 9 detects whether a driver drives a car corresponding to the guide or not, on the basis of the existence of a turn signal, when the voice message for guiding the advance direction, is output from the voice processing part 8. The guide by the voice message is performed again, when a winker to drive a vehicle in the guided direction, is not operated, regardless of the guide by the voice message.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a navigation device for presenting a traveling direction of a branch road such as an intersection by a voice message according to an optimum route to a destination.

[0002]

2. Related Background Art Recently, various in-vehicle navigation devices utilizing GPS (Global Positioning System) signals using satellites have been developed. This type of navigation device basically receives the GPS signal to detect the position of the own vehicle (vehicle), and displays the information of the own vehicle position on a display together with map information stored in a CD-ROM or the like. By doing so, it guides the road around the vehicle and assists the driving of the vehicle. Also, by inputting the information of the moving destination, the optimum route from the vehicle position to the destination can be searched by referring to the map information, and can be displayed on the display together with the map information as a guide route. It is being appreciated.

[0003]

By the way, one of the functions of the navigation device is to find a branch road such as an intersection in the traveling direction according to the present position of the vehicle from the map information, and follow the optimum route searched for the vehicle. Has a guidance function that guides the route that should proceed as a voice message. For example, when you approach a branch road, "Turn left at the front intersection. ], "Proceed to the right at the Y-junction ahead." By outputting a voice message such as "," a function for guiding the traveling direction has been developed.

However, this type of induction function is
It is emitted only once when the vehicle approaches a certain distance in front of the branch road, so if, for example, the driver's vehicle is distracted by the behavior of another vehicle, a crossing that should be turned is often used. There was a problem such as going straight. In addition, when the intersections are continuous at a short distance, there is a problem that it is difficult to judge which intersection should be turned.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and its purpose is to give a voice message a route to be taken at a branch road in the vehicle traveling direction according to an optimal route to a destination searched in advance. It is an object of the present invention to provide a navigation device that reliably guides a vehicle by guiding the voice message again based on the driver's reaction to the voice message guide.

[0006]

In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, the navigation device according to the present invention detects the current position of the vehicle and searches for the optimum route from the current position of the vehicle to the destination according to the map information. And a route search means for determining a branch road in the traveling direction of the own vehicle and a route to proceed on the branch road based on the optimum route, and a voice message indicating the above determination result when the own vehicle reaches the branch road. And a means for detecting the reaction of the driving vehicle to the above-mentioned voice message from the presence or absence of a turn signal signal, and the guide means according to the detection result of the turn signal signal. It is characterized in that a second guide means for guiding the judgment result again by a voice message is provided.

That is, when guiding in the direction of travel by a voice message, it is detected from the presence or absence of a turn signal signal whether or not a driving operation is being performed according to the guide, and according to the detection result, driving different from guiding is performed. , The voice message is output again to positively guide the traveling direction.

Further, the first guide means is decelerated by a predetermined distance with respect to the branch road, for example, for turning left or right, and approaches a distance at which a turn signal signal should be issued (a distance at which a turn signal should be operated). When the own vehicle is within the predetermined distance from the branch road and the detection result of the turn signal signal is different from the determination result, the second guiding means is activated. It is characterized by that.

[0009]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION An embodiment of a navigation device according to the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.
FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of a navigation device. Reference numeral 1 is a vehicle sensor such as a gyro mounted on a vehicle, and 2 is a GPS receiver. The own vehicle direction detection unit 3 detects the direction of the own vehicle (the traveling direction of the vehicle) based on the output of the vehicle sensor 1, and the current position detection unit 4 is detected by the GPS receiver 2. The current position (latitude, longitude) of the vehicle on the ground surface is detected according to the information.

The CD-ROM 5 is an external memory that stores road map information according to region or scale, and reads map information around the vehicle position according to the current position information detected by the current position detection unit 4. Further, according to the information of the destination and the information of the current position of the own vehicle which are instructed and input from the operation unit (not shown), the map information including both of these positions is read.

A navigation controller 6 including the vehicle direction detector 3 and the current position detector 4.
Is a route search function for searching an optimum route from the current position to the destination based on the map information obtained from the CD-ROM 5 according to the destination and the current position information of the own vehicle instructed as described above. I have it. Further, the navigation controller 6 obtains map information of the traveling direction of the vehicle according to the current position of the vehicle and the information of the vehicle direction, detects a branch road such as an intersection approaching the traveling direction according to the optimum route, and branches the road. It has a judgment function to judge the route that the vehicle should take on the road.

The map display unit 7 in the navigation controller 6 displays the map information obtained from the CD-ROM 5, specifically, the road map from the current position to the destination, and the optimum route searched as described above. Is displayed over the road map for identification, or a road map in which the vehicle traveling direction is enlarged (small scale) according to the information on the current position and the vehicle direction is displayed on the road map. Display with car mark. The information of the road map developed on the map display unit 7 is displayed as an image on a display (not shown) such as a CRT or LCD provided in front of the driver's seat and presented to the driving vehicle.

As described above, the voice processing unit 8 in the navigation controller 6 detects a branch road such as an intersection within a predetermined distance range ahead of the traveling direction, and the direction in which the vehicle should travel on the branch road. When it is determined based on the optimum route, it is generated as a voice message, and the voice message is output via a speaker (not shown). This voice message is, for example, "Please turn left at the front intersection. ],
"Take the Y road in front of you to the right. ], “Go straight ahead at the intersection ahead and turn left at the next intersection”.

The feature of this device, however, is that it is further provided with an operation detector 9 in addition to the above-mentioned navigation function. Specifically, when the operation detecting unit 9 outputs a voice message for guiding the vehicle traveling direction via the voice processing unit 8, whether or not the driving vehicle receives the guidance guidance and performs a driving operation. Is detected from whether or not a turn signal signal is generated by a so-called turn signal operation, that is, from the presence or absence of the turn signal signal. According to this detection result, for example, when the turn signal operation is not performed to move the vehicle in the guided traveling direction in spite of the guidance guidance by the voice message, that is, the left turn is instructed despite the left turn is instructed. When the tan signal signal is not detected, the voice processing unit 8 is activated again. Then, the guidance guidance by the voice message is to be executed again.

This processing procedure will be described with reference to FIG. 2. The intersection guidance processing routine starts by first confirming the current position (step S1). Then, based on the current position and based on the optimum search route and the map information, the presence of a branch point, for example, an intersection in the traveling direction is checked, and the distance to the intersection is determined (step S2). When it is determined by this determination process that the distance to the intersection is 30 to 100 m, for example, the traveling route at the intersection is guided as the primary voice guidance. Specifically, "Please turn left at the next intersection. Is output (step S3). If the distance to the intersection is 100 m or more, the current position confirmation process is repeatedly executed until the current position of the vehicle approaches less than 100 m with respect to the intersection.

After that, the current position is 3 with respect to the intersection.
When approaching a distance of less than 0 m, the determining means detects this and determines whether or not a turn signal (winker) signal is issued in the guiding direction (step S4). This judgment is basically made by comparing the left and right turn signal signals with the traveling route, but in general, no turn signal signal is required when going straight at an intersection, so when turning left or right, This is done by determining whether or not a turn signal signal indicating the direction has been issued. If there is no turn signal signal in the direction to turn, it is judged whether or not the intersection has already been passed (step S5), and if it has not yet passed, the guidance follow by the voice message is executed again (step S5). S6). In other words, if the driver's intention is not confirmed by the turn signal despite the instruction to turn left or right, a voice message is output again to notify that the intersection will be turned left or right.

Before outputting the voice message again,
When it is confirmed that the vehicle has passed through the intersection, it is reconfirmed whether or not it deviates from the guide route (the optimum route searched earlier) (step S7). Searches for the optimum route again based on the current position (step S8).

When the intersections are continuous at a short distance, it may not be possible to determine which intersection should be turned by only one voice guidance. When such a situation is taken into consideration, for example, after the above-described determination processing in step S2, it is determined whether or not the next intersection to be reached is an intersection (guided intersection) to turn left or right (step S11). ). Then, it is determined whether or not a turn signal signal is issued to the intersection (step S1
2) If the turn signal signal is detected, the guidance follow-up by a voice message may be performed to correct the error (step S13). Specifically, "After passing this intersection, turn left at the next intersection. By outputting a voice message such as
Correct mistakes in driving operations, that is, incorrect judgments in the direction of travel.

Thus, if such a guidance follower is provided, as shown in FIG. 3, for example, a primary guidance by a voice message about a traveling route is performed before the first intersection, and then the intersection is passed. Since it is possible to perform the guidance follow-up by the voice message again from the point of time, it is possible to perform the reliable guidance according to the optimum search route to reach the destination. If the driver makes a mistake at the first intersection where he / she should go straight, and decides that he / she should turn at that intersection, he / she can promptly make a mistake in the driver's judgment from the turn signal signal generated by the turn signal operation according to the judgment result. Since the guidance follow can be performed to detect this and correct it, it is possible to perform reliable guidance according to the optimum route, and it is possible to significantly reduce deviation from the guidance route.

The present invention is not limited to the above embodiment. For example, the voice message may be predetermined according to the form of the branch road.
In addition, the contents of the voice message are prepared according to the level such as [simple one] [detailed one] [additional information such as a mark], and selectively used according to user specifications. It is also possible to do so. Further, as to how close to the branch road the voice message should be output, it is possible to determine the timing according to not only the distance between the current position and the branch road but also the vehicle speed or the like. Is. It is also possible to judge the driving intention of the driver by judging the steering angle and deceleration information in addition to the turn signal signal, and execute the guidance follow based on this. In addition, the present invention can be variously modified and implemented without departing from the gist thereof.

[0021]

As described above, according to the present invention, a branch road in the traveling direction of the own vehicle and a route to be taken on the branch road are determined based on the optimum route searched in advance, and the own vehicle A guide means (first guide means) for guiding the judgment result by a voice message when reaching the branch road is provided, and in particular, the reaction of the driving vehicle with respect to the voice message is detected from the presence or absence of a turn signal signal, and according to the detection result. Again, since the vehicle is equipped with the second guidance means for guiding the traveling route to be guided in the branch road by the voice message, when the driving operation is performed in the direction different from the guidance of the traveling direction by the voice message, It becomes possible to perform voice guidance to correct this positively.

Therefore, when the shape of the branch road is complicated or when a plurality of branch roads are present close to each other, appropriate guidance can be positively performed according to the driving operation at that time. The practically great effect can be obtained.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic block configuration diagram of a navigation device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of a processing procedure of a guidance follow by a voice message in the apparatus of the embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a road configuration that requires guided follow-up by a voice message.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Vehicle sensor 2 GPS receiver 3 Own vehicle direction detection unit 4 Current position detection unit 5 CD-ROM 6 Navigation controller 7 Map display unit 8 Voice processing unit 9 Operation detection unit

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A vehicle position detecting means for detecting a current position of the vehicle, a route searching means for searching an optimum route from the current position to a destination according to map information, and a vehicle's position based on the optimum route. Judgment means for judging a branch road in the traveling direction and a route to be taken in the branch road, first guiding means for guiding the judgment result by a voice message when the own vehicle reaches the branch road, and this voice It is provided with means for detecting the reaction of the driving vehicle to the guide by the message from the presence or absence of the turn signal signal, and second guiding means for again guiding the judgment result by the voice message according to the detection result of the turn signal signal. Navigation device. 2. The first guiding means is activated when the vehicle approaches a predetermined distance with respect to the branch road, and the second guiding means places the vehicle on the branch road. On the other hand, the navigation device according to claim 1, wherein the navigation device is activated within the predetermined distance and when the detection result of the turn signal signal is different from the determination result. 3. The first guiding means is activated when the vehicle approaches a predetermined distance from the branch road, and the second guiding means places the vehicle on the branch road. On the other hand, the navigation device according to claim 1, wherein the navigation device is activated when it is detected that there is no turn signal signal within the predetermined distance.