JPH09329458A - Information announcing device for on-vehicle use - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To enhance the degree of the driver's understanding the voice information in accordance with the size of the driving load imposed. SOLUTION: Access from a transmitter/receiver 4 to a center device 3 and vice versa is generated by depressing a center connection button 16 on a display/ operation panel 14, and the information of the specified item is given from a database 31, and its code data is stored in a memory 5. The traveling situation is sensed by a speed sensor 9, direction indicator location sensor 10, steering sensor 11, wiper switch 12, and lighting switch 13. A transmitter device 1 receives electric waves from artificial satellites S1-S4, and on the basis of thereof a CPU 6 determines the current position of the vehicle concerned, and the road condition is judged using road map information stored in a CD-ROM 2. The CPU 6 judges the size of the driving load on the basis of the traveling situation and the road condition and controls a voice synthesizer 7 so that the announcing speed of letter information to be voice output becomes slower with greater size of the load and also the pause duration furnished at each comma/period becomes longer, and thereby the degree of the driver's understanding the applicable pieces of information is heightened.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention is mounted on a vehicle,
The present invention relates to a vehicle-mounted information sound reading device that outputs information from a newspaper article, a magazine article, a radio news, a television news, a car navigation system, or another storage medium that stores character information by voice. In particular, the present invention relates to a device that determines the degree of the driving load of the driver from the running condition of the vehicle and controls the speed of voice output and the pause period length according to the driving load.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, as a voice guidance device for a navigation system, there is known a device for controlling the length of a guidance sentence in accordance with the vehicle speed and the priority of the guidance sentence (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 4-1).
898). In this disclosed technology, the length of the guide sentence becomes shorter as the vehicle speed increases, so that the voice output of the guide sentence of the target object is completed before passing through the target object, and the passenger does not notice the target object even when traveling at high speed. You can prevent overlooking. There is also a case where an information sound reading device for reading out character information from a database in which newspaper information and the like are recorded and outputting the sound is mounted on a car and it is desired to listen to the information while driving like a car radio or car audio.

[0003]

However, in the above disclosed technique, the guidance sentence and the character information are not output by voice in consideration of the driving load of the driver, so that the driver is required to have a high degree of mental concentration. Below, there is a problem that the understanding level of the voice information output at a normal speed is lowered. For example, when a driver is overtaking a vehicle or while passing through an intersection, the driver's mind concentrates on driving. Therefore, by controlling the length of the voice guidance sentence of the car navigation system, the driver's voice cannot be controlled. It is difficult to improve the degree of comprehension of information, and since the information reading device is read aloud at a constant speed, there is a problem that information such as newspaper articles cannot be accurately understood.

Therefore, in view of the above problems, the object of the present invention is to provide the driver with the information which is voice-output from the information sound reading device among the information such as the car navigation system and the database regardless of the driving condition of the vehicle of the driver. Is to improve the understanding level of.

[0005]

In order to solve the above problems, the structure described in claim 1 can be adopted.
According to this configuration, the traveling situation of the vehicle is detected by the traveling situation detecting means, and based on the detected traveling situation,
The driving load for the driver's driving is judged by the judging means. Then, in the voice synthesis by the voice synthesizing means, the voice synthesizing mode such as the voice reading speed of the voice output or the pause period changes according to the driving load. As a result, when you need to concentrate on driving, such as when you are overtaking or passing an intersection, aloud information is output slowly, so regardless of the driving situation, the driver's ability to understand voice information Can be improved.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, as the driving load determined by the determination means increases, the voice synthesis means causes the voice output pause period length corresponding to the punctuation mark of the information to be voice output. Since the speech is synthesized by lengthening the length of time, it is possible to improve the degree of understanding of the speech information even when the driver needs to concentrate on driving the vehicle.

According to the third aspect of the invention, as the operating load judged by the judging means increases, the voice synthesizing means determines the number of repetitions of one pitch waveform of each unit sound constituting the information to be output as voice. By increasing the number, the pronunciation time of each unit sound is lengthened. As a result, the reading speed becomes slower, and the same effect as that of the second aspect can be obtained.

According to the structure described in claim 4, operation of the actuator for controlling the traveling condition of the vehicle such as the brake pedal, the accelerator pedal, the steering wheel, the turn indicator, the wiper, the headlight, etc. by the traveling condition detecting means. The situation is detected. As a result, the running condition of the vehicle can be detected more specifically, and therefore the degree of the driving load can be accurately determined by the determination means.

According to the fifth aspect of the present invention, the road condition in which the vehicle is currently traveling is read from the road information in the car navigation system by the driving condition detecting means, and the driving load is determined by the judging means from the road condition. The degree is determined. As a result, there are multiple objects (oncoming vehicles, pedestrians, traffic lights, etc.) that should be viewed, such as intersections,
It is possible to more specifically grasp the road environment in which the driver's mental concentration on driving reduces the comprehension of voice information and the like.

[0010]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION The present invention will be described below based on specific embodiments. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a vehicle-mounted information sound reading device 100 according to the first embodiment of the present invention. The information sound reading device 100 is a device that is installed in a vehicle, communicates with the center device 3, receives information from the database 31 of the center device 3, and outputs the information as voice.

The database 31 of the center device 3 stores character information such as newspaper articles, magazine articles, radio news and the like. The transmission / reception device 4 is a device that outputs a character information transmission request signal to the center device 3 and receives the character information transmitted from the center device 3. Transmitter / receiver 4
The code data of the character information received by the
Is stored. Displayed on the CPU 6 (corresponding to determination means)
An operation panel 14 is connected, and on the display / operation panel 14, a display device 15 for displaying the title, item number, etc. of the information that is output by voice, and a database 31 of the center device 3 for displaying character information. A center connection button 16 for requesting transmission, and an item designation button 17 for designating a field of character information to be output as voice, for example, items such as politics, economy, culture, and sports are provided.

Further, the information sound reading apparatus 100 has a speed sensor 9, a direction indicator position sensor 10, and a steering sensor 1 as a traveling condition detecting means for detecting a traveling condition of an automobile.
1, wiper switch 12, and lighting switch 1
3 is provided. The speed sensor 9 detects the number of rotations of the wheel of the automobile, and the traveling signal of the automobile can be grasped by the detection signal of the speed sensor 9. The turn signal position sensor 10 detects whether the turn signal (not shown) is in a right turn position, a left turn position, or a neutral position. It is possible to know whether the vehicle is in a right turn or a right turn, or a left turn or a left turn. The steering sensor 11 detects the amount of rotation of the steering shaft, and the steering angle of the vehicle can be grasped by the detection signal of the steering sensor 11. The wiper switch 12 detects a drive state such as ON / OFF of the wiper, and it is possible to know whether it is raining or not by the detection signal of the wiper switch 12. The lighting switch 13 turns on the headlight,
It is possible to detect the off state and grasp the nighttime by the detection signal of the lighting switch 13.

Further, the receiving device 1 allows the artificial satellites S1 to S4.
A radio wave is received from the CPU 6, and the CPU 6 detects the current position based on the received radio wave. At this time, the CPU 6
Based on the road map information stored in the CD-ROM 2,
The road condition on which the vehicle is currently traveling is detected. The center device 3 has a database 31 in which various information is stored, and the information sound reading device 100 inputs necessary information from the center device 3 via the transmitting / receiving device 4. The access between the center device 3 and the transmitting / receiving device 4 is executed by pressing the center connection button 16 provided on the display / operation panel 14. The CPU 6 detects the degree of driving load based on the detection data from each sensor or switch and the road condition from the CD-ROM 2, and the voice synthesizer 7 (corresponding to voice synthesizing means) according to the degree of the driving load. To control the reading speed of the information to be output and the pause period length provided at the punctuation mark of the information. In other words, the driver's comprehension decreases significantly as the driving load increases, such as when overtaking, so control is performed to increase the reading speed and pause period to improve the driver's understanding of information. Control to do. Then, the necessary information is output as voice from the speaker 8 at the sound reading speed and the pause period length controlled by the CPU 6.

Next, the processing contents of the CPU 6 of the information sound reading apparatus 100 will be described below. FIG. 2 is a main flowchart showing the processing performed by the CPU 6. This program is started when a power switch (not shown) of the information sound reading device 100 is turned on. First, initialization is performed, a flag for detecting start and stop, which will be described later, is cleared (step 202), and it is determined whether or not the center connection button 16 provided on the display / operation panel 14 is pressed. Repeatedly (step 204), center connection button 1
It is in a waiting state until 6 is pressed.

When the center connection button 16 is pressed, a calling process and a line connecting process of the center device 3 are executed (step 206), a character information item is designated, and a request for transmitting information to the center device 3 is issued. It is transmitted to the device 3 (step 208). Thereafter, the character information of the item requested to be transmitted is transmitted from the center device 3, and the transmitting / receiving device 4 receives the information. When this information is stored in the memory 5, the center connection button 16 is automatically turned off (step 210). Then, the degree of the operating load is detected by the processes of steps 212 to 226, and the parameters (mode setting parameters) for setting the control mode when converting the character information into voice are set. Step 212
In step 214, the frequency of starting and stopping is detected, and in step 214, the load level during overtaking is detected. Further, in step 216, the degree of load when changing lanes is detected, and in step 218, the degree of load when turning left or right is detected. In step 220, the degree of load during the curve is detected, and in step 222, the degree of load during the slip is detected. In step 224, the degree of load during rainy night is detected, and in step 226, the degree of load due to road conditions is detected. These steps 212-22
Details of each process of 6 will be described later.

In the present embodiment, the mode setting parameters set in the respective processes of steps 212 to 226 are provided in three stages of 1, 2, and 3, and the mode setting parameters are set as the degree of the operating load increases. It is configured to increase.
Next, the maximum value of those parameters is detected (step 22).
8) Control audio output based on this maximum value. By controlling according to the maximum value of the parameter, each step
When the mode setting parameters obtained in steps 212 to 226 are different from each other, the control mode can be stabilized by unifying the larger mode setting parameter value.

It is judged whether or not the maximum value of the mode setting parameter detected in step 228 is 1.
230) When the maximum value is 1, the control mode described later is set to 1 and the received character information is output by voice (step 232). When the maximum value detected in step 228 is not 1, it is determined whether or not the maximum value is 2 (step 234). In that case, the control mode is set to 2 and the received character information is voiced. Output (step 236). If the maximum value is not 2 in step 234, set the control mode to 3
To output the character information by voice (step 238).
When one character information is output by voice in the predetermined control mode, it is determined whether or not the character information to be output is over (step 240). If there is information to be output, the process proceeds to step 212. The above process is repeated until there is no information to be output. If there is no information to be output in step 240, the process returns to step 204 and waits until the center connection button 16 is pressed.

Here, a method of voice synthesis in the voice synthesizer 7 will be described with reference to FIGS. 3 and 4. FIG.
It is a schematic diagram showing a vowel synthesis method. A waveform for one pitch (fundamental frequency) as shown in FIG. 3B is stored in the memory (not shown) of the combiner 7, and an impulse signal as shown in FIG. Once entered, Figure 3
(B) is output. Therefore, in order to lengthen the vowel output from the synthesizer 7, it is considered that a plurality of 1-pitch waveforms are overlapped to form a voice waveform, and a synthesized voice waveform is generated. That is, a waveform of a vowel having a certain time length can be generated by reading the one-pitch waveform of FIG. 3B from the memory at a timing indicated by an impulse train as shown in FIG. It is possible.
To lengthen the time length of the vowel waveform, the length of the impulse train (the number of impulses) is lengthened, and to shorten the time length of the vowel waveform, the length of the impulse train (the number of impulses) is shortened. This corresponds to the slow or fast reading speed. For slow reading, the time length should be long, and for fast reading, the time length should be short. Specifically, for example, when the time is slow, the time length may be about 800 msec, and when the time is fast, the time length may be about 200 msec. This makes it possible to control the reading speed.

FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram showing a method of synthesizing unvoiced consonants. The waveform of the unvoiced consonant is stored in the memory of the synthesizer 7. As shown in FIG. 4, the unvoiced consonant portion is reproduced as it is and synthesized with a vowel to form a voiced sound. In this way, since the vowel and consonant are synthesized, the received character information can be output as voice. In the present embodiment, as the control mode increases, 1
The number of repetitions of the pitch waveform is increased to increase the length of vowels and the pause period length between punctuation marks of character information.

The details of step 212 in FIG. 2 will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG. First, at the start, initialization is performed, the flag is turned off, and the counter value is cleared. Next, the detection signal of the speed sensor 9 is read (step 302), the frequency of the detection signal is detected, and the wheel speed is calculated based on the frequency value (step 304). Next, it is determined whether or not the flag is on (step 306), and when the flag is on, it is determined whether or not the wheel speed is a predetermined value (10 km / h) or more (step 308). When the wheel speed is smaller than the predetermined value in step 308, the flag is turned off (step 310) and the counter value is incremented by 1 (step 311). When the wheel speed is equal to or higher than the predetermined value in step 308, the process proceeds to step 318. When the flag is off in step 306, the routine proceeds to step 312, where it is determined whether the wheel speed is equal to or higher than a predetermined value, and when the wheel speed is equal to or higher than the predetermined value, the flag is turned on (step 314),
The counter value is incremented by 1 (step 316). Step 312
If the wheel speed is less than the predetermined value, the process proceeds to step 318.

The processing up to this point is regarded as a stop when the wheel speed is less than 10 km / h and a start when the wheel speed is 10 km / h or more, and is a processing for detecting the frequency of start and stop of the vehicle. Yes, the larger the counter value, the greater the frequency of starting and stopping. The above process is performed for a predetermined time (step 318), then it is determined whether the counter value is less than or equal to the first threshold value (step 320), and when the counter value is less than or equal to the first threshold value, the frequency of starting and stopping is The mode setting parameter is set to 1 (step 322) because it is determined that the driver's comprehension is small and the driver's comprehension is small. The mode setting parameter is used when setting a control mode described later.

Subsequently, it is determined whether or not the counter value is less than or equal to a second threshold value which is a threshold value larger than the first threshold value (step 324). If the counter value is less than or equal to the second threshold value, the vehicle is started or stopped. It is determined that the frequency is medium and the driver's comprehension is also medium, and the mode setting parameter is set to 2 (step 326). If the counter value is larger than the second threshold value, it is determined that the frequency of starting and stopping is high and the driver's comprehension is also greatly reduced, and the mode setting parameter is set to 3
(Step 328). In this way, by using the detection signal from the speed sensor 9 to grasp the frequency of starting and stopping, and changing the synthesis parameters (pause period and reading speed) of the information output in voice according to the frequency,
It is possible to improve the driver's understanding of information.

Next, the details of step 214 in FIG. 2 will be described with reference to FIG.
This will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG. First, if there is a detection signal from the direction indicator position sensor 10, step 402
Then, the detection signal is read and it is determined whether or not the turn signal is at the right turn position (step 404). If the turn signal is not in the right turn position, the process returns to step 402. Step 40
When the direction indicator is at the right turn position at 4, the detection signal is read from the speed sensor 9 (step 406), the frequency of the detection signal is detected, and the wheel speed is detected based on the frequency value (step 408). ). Then, the wheel speed is differentiated to calculate the wheel acceleration (step 410), and it is determined whether the acceleration is less than or equal to a predetermined first acceleration threshold value (step 412).

When the wheel acceleration is equal to or lower than the first acceleration threshold value, it is determined that the load of the driving operation at the time of overtaking is small and the deterioration of the driver's comprehension is small, and the mode setting parameter is set to 1 (step 414). ). If the wheel acceleration is greater than the first acceleration threshold, it is determined whether or not it is less than or equal to the second acceleration threshold (step 416), and when the wheel acceleration is less than or equal to the second acceleration threshold, the load of driving operation during overtaking is medium. It is judged that the driver's comprehension is moderate, and the mode setting parameter is set to 2 (step 41).
8). When the wheel acceleration is larger than the second acceleration threshold, it is determined that the load of the driving operation at the time of overtaking is large and the driver's comprehension is large, and the mode setting parameter is set to 3 (step 420). In this way, the behavior of the vehicle when overtaking is grasped and the synthesis parameter of the information output by voice is controlled according to the magnitude of the acceleration at that time, improving the driver's understanding of information during overtaking. Can be made.

Details of step 216 in FIG. 2 will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG. First, the detection signal from the direction indicator position sensor 10 is read (step 50
2), it is determined whether or not there is a detection signal (step 504).
If there is no detection signal from the direction indicator position sensor 10, the process returns to step 502. If there is a detection signal from the direction indicator position sensor 10 in step 504, the detection signal of the speed sensor 9 is read (step 506), the frequency of the detection signal is detected, and the wheel speed is determined based on the frequency value. It is detected (step 508).

Subsequently, it is determined whether or not the wheel speed is less than or equal to the first speed threshold value (step 510), and when the wheel speed is less than or equal to the first speed threshold value, it is determined that the driving operation load at the time of changing lanes is small. Then, the mode setting parameter is set to 1 (step 512). If the wheel speed is higher than the first speed threshold in step 510, it is determined whether or not the wheel speed is equal to or lower than the second speed threshold (step 514). When the wheel speed is higher than the first speed threshold and equal to or lower than the second speed threshold, it is determined that the load degree of the driving operation at the time of changing the lane is medium, and the mode setting parameter is set to 2 (step 516), and the wheel speed is set to the second speed. When it is larger than the speed threshold value, it is determined that the load degree of the driving operation at the time of changing the lane is large and the mode setting parameter is set to 3 (step 518). In this way, the behavior of the vehicle at the time of changing lanes is grasped, and at that time, the synthesis parameter of the information output by voice is controlled according to the magnitude of the wheel speed. Can be improved.

The details of step 218 in FIG. 2 will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG. First, the detection signal from the direction indicator position sensor 10 is read (step 60
2), it is determined whether or not there is a detection signal (step 604).
If there is no detection signal from the direction indicator position sensor 10, the process returns to step 602. If there is a detection signal from the direction indicator position sensor 10 in step 604, the detection signal is read from the steering sensor 11 (step 606) and the steering angle of the steering shaft (the amount of rotation of the steering shaft) is detected (step 608). ).

Subsequently, it is determined whether or not the detected steering angle is less than or equal to the first steering angle threshold value (step 610), and when the steering angle is less than or equal to the first steering angle threshold value, the load of the driving operation at the time of turning left or right. When it is judged that the degree is small, the mode setting parameter is set to 1 (step 612). If the steering angle is larger than the first steering angle threshold, it is determined whether the steering angle is less than or equal to the second steering angle threshold (step 614). When the steering angle is less than or equal to the second steering angle threshold, it is determined that the load of the driving operation at the time of turning left or right is medium, and the mode setting parameter is set to 2 (step 616), and the steering angle is greater than the second steering angle threshold. When setting the mode setting parameter to 3
(Step 618). In this way, the behavior of the vehicle when turning right or left is grasped, and the synthesis parameter of the information output by voice at that time is controlled according to the size of the steering angle. Can be improved.

Details of step 220 in FIG. 2 will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG. First, a detection signal is read from the steering sensor 11 in a predetermined cycle (step 702) and the steering angle is detected (step 704). Then, the differential value of the steering angle is calculated (step 708) and absolute value conversion processing is performed (step 708). The processing up to this point is performed for a predetermined time (step 710), the average value of the absolute values is calculated after the predetermined time has elapsed (step 712), and it is determined whether the average value is equal to or less than the first average value threshold value. (Step 714). From this, the average steering speed can be known, and it can be inferred that the road is winding more as the average steering speed is higher, and it can be said that the degree of driving load on the driver is large. Therefore, when the average value is less than or equal to the first average value threshold, the frequency of the curve is low, and it is determined that the driving operation load is low, and the mode setting parameter is
(Step 716) and when the average value is larger than the first average value threshold value, it is determined whether or not it is less than or equal to the second average value threshold value (step 718).

When the average value is less than or equal to the second average threshold value, it is determined that the frequency of the curve is medium and the load of the driving operation is medium, and the mode setting parameter is set to 2 (step 72).
0), when the average value is larger than the second average value threshold value, it is determined that the frequency of the curve is large and the load degree of the driving operation is large, and the mode setting parameter is set to 3 (step 722). In this way, the behavior of the vehicle when there are many curves is grasped, and the synthesis parameter of the information that is output as voice according to the amount of change in the steering angle at that time is controlled, so the driver's information when there are many curves is understood. You can improve your strength.

Details of step 222 in FIG. 2 will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG. First, a detection signal is read from the speed sensor 9 provided on each wheel in a predetermined cycle (step 802), the frequency of the detection signal is detected, and each wheel speed is calculated based on the frequency value (step 804). . Then calculate the average value of each wheel speed (step
806), and the difference between the average value and each wheel speed is converted into an absolute value (step 808). The maximum value is selected from the absolute values (step 810), and it is determined whether or not the maximum value is less than or equal to the first maximum value threshold value (step 812). When the maximum value is less than or equal to the first maximum value threshold value, it is determined that the slip amount is small and the load of the driving operation is small, and the mode setting parameter is set to 1 (step 814).

When the maximum value is larger than the first maximum value threshold value, it is determined whether it is less than or equal to the second maximum value threshold value (step 816). When the maximum value is greater than the first maximum value threshold value and less than or equal to the second maximum value threshold value, it is determined that the slip amount is medium and the driving operation load degree is medium, and the mode setting parameter is set to 2 ( If the maximum value is larger than the second maximum threshold value (step 818), it is determined that the slip amount is large and the driving operation load is large, and the mode setting parameter is set to 3 (step 820). In this way, the behavior of the vehicle at the time of slip is grasped, and the synthesis parameter of the information output by voice at that time is controlled, so that the driver's understanding of the information at the time of slip can be improved. .

The details of step 224 in FIG. 2 will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG. First, on / off state data of the headlight is read from the lighting switch 13 (step 902), and it is determined whether or not the headlight is on (step 904). When the headlight is off in step 904, the process returns to step 902, and when the headlight is on, it is considered that the vehicle is traveling at night, and the wiper switch 12 reads the wiper on / off state data (step 906).

Next, at step 908, it is determined whether or not the wiper is off. When the wiper is off, it means that the vehicle is traveling at night normally, so it is determined that the load of the driving operation is small, and the mode setting parameter is set to 1 (Step 910). If the wiper is not off, it is judged whether or not the wiper is in the intermittent drive state (step 912) .If the wiper is in the intermittent drive state, it is considered that the amount of rainfall is a minute amount, and the load of the driving operation is moderate. It is judged to be about, and the mode setting parameter is set to 2 (step 914). When the wiper is not in the intermittent driving state in step 912, the wiper is in the continuous driving state, so it is considered that there is a large amount of rainfall, and it is determined that the load degree of the driving operation is large and the mode setting parameter is set to 3 (step 916). . In this way, the degree of rainfall during nighttime traveling can be determined from the state of each device of the automobile, and from this, the degree of driving load on the driver can be inferred. Since the synthesis parameter of the information output by voice is controlled according to the degree of the driving load, it is possible to improve the driver's understanding of the information when driving in the rain at night.

In FIGS. 5 to 11 described above, the degree of load of driving operation is grasped from the running condition of the automobile.
Not only does the driver's comprehension deteriorate with the degree of busyness of driving operations, but there are many oncoming vehicles, pedestrians, traffic lights, and other objects to be observed when driving at an intersection. The power decreases. That is, it is considered that the driver's distance depends on the road condition. The process of grasping the degree of load of driving operation from the road condition is step 226 in FIG.
The details of this processing will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG.

First, radio waves are received from the four artificial satellites S1 to S4 (step 1002), and the distance between the automobile and the artificial satellites S1 to S4 is calculated from each radio wave (step 1004). The vehicle position is detected based on the distance (step 1006). And CD-ROM2
On the basis of the road map information stored in, it is determined whether or not the vehicle is located within 30 m from the nearest intersection in the traveling direction (step 1008).

If the vehicle is not located within 30 m from the intersection, it is determined that the driving operation load is small because the vehicle is not approaching the intersection and the mode setting parameter is set to 1 (step 1010). If the vehicle is located within 30 m of the intersection in step 1008, it is determined whether the vehicle is passing through the intersection (step 1012). If the vehicle is not passing through the intersection, approach the intersection. Therefore, it is judged that the load of the driving operation is medium, and the mode setting parameter is set to 2 (step 1014). When the vehicle is passing through the intersection in step 1012, the number of objects such as traffic lights, oncoming vehicles, and pedestrians that should be noted increases. Therefore, it is determined that the driving operation load is large, and the mode setting parameter is set to 3 (Step 1016). In this way, the behavior of the vehicle at the time of passing the intersection is grasped, and the synthesis parameter of the information output by voice at that time is controlled according to the distance from the intersection, so that the driver's understanding of the information when passing the intersection is improved. Can be made. It should be noted that although FIG. 12 has been described by taking an intersection as an example, a configuration in which similar processing is performed for important points such as a takeoff is also effective.

Although the driver's comprehension ability deteriorates with the degree of the load of the driving operation, as described above, the degree of the load of the driving operation is grasped based on the output from each sensor, and the degree of the load is increased. The speed of reading aloud increases and the pause parameter length is increased to control the synthesis parameter of the information that is output as voice, so that the driver's understanding of the information can be improved.

In the above embodiment, the degree of road condition is grasped on the basis of the distance from the intersection to the car as shown in FIG. 12, but the car using the road map information from the CD-ROM 2 is used. When the vehicle approaches a road with a narrow road width, the mode setting parameter may be set according to the degree of the road width. For example, if there is more than one lane on each side, it is determined that the road operation load due to the road width is small because the road width is sufficient to some extent, the mode setting parameter is set to 1, and when a road with no lane is approached, it is opposed. It is determined that the load of driving operation will increase when passing a vehicle, and the mode setting parameter is increased. As a result, it is possible to grasp the degree of the driving operation load due to the road width, and it is possible to improve the driver's understanding of the information according to the degree of the road condition.

Further, as a method for grasping the degree of road condition, the locus of the traveling route of the car in the past is stored, the degree of driving familiarity for each route is judged from the frequency of the locus, and the degree of driving familiarity is determined. The control mode of the synthesis parameter may be set accordingly. For example, it is determined that a road that has never traveled has a heavy load of driving operation, and the mode setting parameter is set to 3, and a road that has traveled once or twice has a moderate load of driving operation. The parameter is set to 2 when it is judged to be the degree, and the parameter is set to 1 when it is judged that the load of the driving operation is small on the road that has traveled three times or more. In this way, the voice synthesis parameters can be controlled according to the degree of familiarity with driving on the road.

In the above embodiment, the reading speed and the pause period length are controlled according to the degree of the load of the driving operation without changing the content of the information to be output as voice. However, the set control mode is used. The content of information to be output as voice may be controlled. For example, a configuration may be adopted in which a summary of information is output by voice as the number of control modes increases, or a configuration in which only the top articles are output by voice. This means that the information to be output as voice is simplified as the load of the driving operation increases. In addition to this, the sound output volume, sound quality, and pitch may be changed according to the degree of driving load of the driver.

In the above embodiment, the pause is provided at the punctuation mark of the information output as voice, but the pause may be provided between the subject and the predicate not having the punctuation mark of the character information. Further, in the above-mentioned embodiment, the composition is such that the speed of reading the text information and the pause period length are uniformly changed according to the driving load of the driver. The rate of change of the period length (the degree of change according to the degree of the driving load) may be changed to output the voice, or the rate of change of the voice output may be changed depending on the subject and the predicate to output the voice.

In the above-mentioned embodiment, as shown in FIG. 1, the detection signal from the speed sensor 9 is used to start the vehicle.
Although the stop frequency is detected, the stop lamp switch is provided to detect the operation of the brake pedal, or the sensor detects the operation of the accelerator pedal, and the frequency of starting and stopping the vehicle is determined from the number of times the pedal is operated. May be configured to be detected. Further, in the above-mentioned embodiment, the information is received from the database 31 of the center device 3 and outputted as voice, but the CD-R storing newspaper news and the like.
The OM may be mounted and information may be read from the CD-ROM and output as voice. In the above embodiment, the control mode of the synthesis parameter of the information to be output as voice is provided from mode 1 to mode 3. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and the number of control modes is required. It may be provided accordingly. Moreover, in FIG.
The starting threshold value is set to 10 km / h, but the threshold value is not limited to this value.

As described above, according to the present invention, the load level of driving operation is grasped from the detection signals from various sensors and the road condition, and the voice synthesis parameters (pause period, reading speed) are determined according to the load level. ), It is possible to improve the driver's understanding of the information.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a vehicle-mounted information sound reading device according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a main flowchart showing the content of control processing of voice output in the vehicle-mounted information sound reading apparatus according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram showing a vowel synthesis method in the vehicle-mounted information sound reading device according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram showing a method for synthesizing consonants in the in-vehicle information sound reading apparatus according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing the processing contents for detecting the degree of driving load according to the degree of starting and stopping in the vehicle-mounted information sound reading apparatus according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing the processing content for detecting the load level at the time of passing in the vehicle-mounted information sound reading apparatus according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing processing contents for detecting a load level at the time of changing lanes in the vehicle-mounted information sound reading apparatus according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing the processing contents for detecting the load level at the time of turning left or right in the vehicle-mounted information sound reading apparatus according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart showing the processing contents for detecting the load level during a curve in the vehicle-mounted information sound reading apparatus according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 10 is a flowchart showing the processing contents for detecting the load level at the time of slip in the vehicle-mounted information sound reading device according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 11 is a flowchart showing the processing contents for detecting the load level during nighttime rainy weather running in the vehicle-mounted information sound reading device according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 12 is a flowchart showing the processing contents for detecting the load level due to road conditions in the vehicle-mounted information sound reading device according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Receiver 2 CD-ROM 3 Center Device 4 Transmitter / Receiver 5 Memory 6 CPU 7 Voice Synthesizer 8 Speaker 9 Speed Sensor 10 Direction Indicator Position Sensor 11 Steering Sensor 12 Wiper Switch 13 Writing Switch 14 Display / Operation Panel 15 Display 16 Center connection button 17 Item designation button 31 Database S1 to S2 Artificial satellite 100 In-vehicle information sound reading device

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. An information sound reading device which is mounted on a vehicle and reads out information from a medium in which information to be output as voice is recorded and outputs the voice by voice synthesis. A running condition detection for detecting a running condition of the vehicle. Means, a determining means for determining a driving load of the driver of the vehicle on the driving based on the traveling situation detected by the traveling situation detecting means, and an audio reading of the voice output according to the determination result by the determining means. An on-vehicle information sound reading device, comprising: a voice synthesizing unit for changing a voice synthesizing mode such as a speed or a pause period. 2. As the driving load determined by the determining means increases, the voice synthesizing means lengthens a pause period length of voice output corresponding to a punctuation mark of the information stored in the medium, and outputs the voice. The vehicle-mounted information sound reading device according to claim 1, wherein the in-vehicle information sound reading device is synthesized. 3. As the operating load determined by the determining means increases, the voice synthesizing means increases the number of repetitions of a 1-pitch waveform of each unit sound constituting the information, thereby The vehicle-mounted information sound reading device according to claim 1, wherein the sounding time is lengthened and the sound reading speed is slowed. 4. The traveling condition detecting means is a means for detecting an operating condition of an actuator for controlling a traveling condition of the vehicle such as a brake pedal, an accelerator pedal, a steering wheel, a turn indicator, a wiper, a headlight and the like. The vehicle-mounted information sound reading device according to claim 1, wherein 5. The running condition detecting means reads out a road condition in which the vehicle is currently traveling from road information in a car navigation system, and the judging device judges the driving load from the road condition. The in-vehicle information sound reading device according to claim 1 or 4.