JPH10162294A - Navigator - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To start for a route evading congestion right after riding on a vehicle by receiving traffic information even during parking. SOLUTION: The parking state is detected by an ignition key 20 and a parking state detecting circuit 37 and a switch 21 is controlled even at time other than riding to intermittently operate an FM multiplex receiver 3, thereby automatically updating data regarding traffic information even during the parking. Consequently, the vehicle starts immediately without waiting for the data to be received, so the direction of a tentative travel for evading congestion is determined before detailed information of a beacon is received for the 1st time after the start of the travel.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a navigation device using road traffic information, and more particularly to a navigation device capable of notifying a driver of road traffic information based on VICS data received from FM multiplex broadcasting. It is.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A navigation device has been realized which can detect the current position of a car by satellite navigation or the like, read map data near the current position from map data recorded on a CD-ROM, and display the map data on a screen. I have. According to this device, the current position and the target position can be easily known even when driving at the first place.

[0003] Also, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 7-270512 (G
02S1 / 02), various traffic information such as destination guidance, parking lot guidance, traffic congestion, regulation, and required time is provided by wireless communication such as quasi-microwave beacon and FM multiplex broadcasting. A VICS (Vehicle Navigation System) has been put to practical use in which a vehicle can reach a destination by an optimal route while comprehensively judging various kinds of information.

[0004]

By the way, in the above-mentioned prior art, when a car is running, a VICS optical beacon or a radio beacon installed on the roadside can be received, and traffic-related areas such as traffic congestion and required time can be received. However, there is a problem that information cannot be obtained in a place where a beacon cannot be received or when the vehicle is stopped.

[0005] If traffic information by FM multiplex broadcasting is used, it is possible to obtain wide-area information on traffic congestion not only during traveling but also during parking. However, it takes several minutes to receive all data by FM multiplexing. Therefore, when departure to the destination, the route search cannot be performed immediately even if the route search is performed while avoiding the congested road. However, there was a problem that it took time before departure.

The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned problems of the prior art, and a navigation apparatus capable of always obtaining traffic information even during parking and performing a route search while avoiding congestion immediately after getting on the vehicle. Is provided.

[0007]

A navigation device according to the present invention comprises a time generating circuit, a switch which is turned on / off based on the time or relative time of the time generating circuit, and an FM which is supplied with power through the switch. A multiplex broadcast receiver, a memory for storing data output from the FM multiplex receiver, and a parking state detecting means; when a parking state is detected, the power supply of only the FM multiplex receiver is intermittently set for a set period. It is characterized in that the received data in the memory is updated by turning on / off the data, and the intermittent receiving operation is stopped after the end of the set period.

Further, the present invention is characterized in that if no data is obtained from the FM multiplex receiver after parking, the subsequent intermittent reception is not performed.

Further, the present invention is characterized in that the intermittent reception operation is performed after the continuous reception state is maintained for a certain period of time even after the parking state is detected.

Further, the present invention has a voltage monitoring circuit for detecting a voltage of the battery, and when the voltage monitoring circuit detects that the voltage of the battery is lower than a predetermined value,
It is characterized in that intermittent reception thereafter is not performed.

Further, the present invention is characterized in that the data to be written into the memory is written with the date and time data from the time generating circuit in addition to the received information.

Further, the present invention is characterized in that the route guidance is performed using the received data stored in the memory until new data or more detailed data than the obtained received data is obtained. .

[0013]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 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 main part of an embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 1, (1) is a navigation device main body, (2) is an antenna for receiving traffic information transmitted by FM multiplex broadcasting,
(3) is an FM multiplex receiver including a high-frequency amplifier (4), a tuning unit (5) and a data demodulator (6), (7) is a beacon antenna for receiving traffic information transmitted by a radio beacon, 8) is a radio beacon receiver including a high frequency amplifier (9), a tuning unit (10) and a data demodulator (11), (12) is a light emitting unit and a light receiving unit of an optical beacon,
(13) is an amplifier for amplifying the signal received by the light receiving unit of the optical beacon, (14) is a demodulator for demodulating the received signal, (1)
5) is a modulator for modulating transmission data output from a CPU / system controller described later, and (16) is an amplifier for amplifying transmission data modulated by the modulator (15). These amplifiers (13) ( 16) and the modulator / demodulator (14) (15), the optical beacon unit (1)
7) is configured.

A battery (18) supplies power to the navigation device body (1) and each of the vehicle electrical components (19) mounted on the car, and (20) operates in conjunction with an ignition key of the car. This switch is turned on when the user gets on the vehicle. Although a relay, a fuse and the like are actually inserted, they are not shown.

As will be described in detail later, (21) is intermittently turned on and off during non-riding such as during normal running and parking.
A switch for controlling the supply of power to the FM multiplex receiver (3), a switch (22) for turning on during normal use such as running and supplying power to peripheral devices, and a switch (21) (22) ) Is controlled by a signal output from the CPU / system controller (23).

(24) is a voltage monitoring circuit that constantly monitors the voltage of the battery (18), (25) is a time generation circuit that manages the date and time and counts a predetermined time, and (26) is a power source that is constantly supplied from the battery. Auxiliary memory supplied,
(27) is a main memory accessed by the CPU / system controller (23), and (28) is a CD-R.
CD-ROM drive for reading data from a medium containing map information such as an OM disk, (29) a self-contained navigation device such as a gyro, (30) a positioning device such as a GPS, and (31) a positioning device (30) Antenna for (3
2) a display device for showing map drawings, routes, and congestion status; (33) an interface for giving an instruction to the navigation device by voice; a voice input / output device for performing route guidance by voice; (34)
Is an instruction input device for inputting an instruction with a key or the like to the navigation device without using a voice, (35) is a power terminal always connected to the battery, and (36) is a battery terminal when the ignition switch is on. Power supply terminal to be connected. (37) is a parking state detecting means for detecting the parking state of the vehicle by detecting, for example, the state of the parking brake. (38) is a power switch of the navigation device (1),
When the operation of the switch (38) is detected by the system controller (23), each circuit block operates.

Next, the operation of the navigation device according to the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. FIG.
Is a flowchart showing a schematic operation. First, ste
At p1, the state of the ignition key interlock switch (20) is detected. During normal running, the switch (20) linked to the ignition switch is turned on, and power is supplied from the battery (18) to both the power supply terminals (35) and (36). In this state, the state of the power switch (38) of the navigation device (1) is detected in step 2. If the power switch (38) is turned on, the switches (21) and (22) are closed under the control of the CPU / system controller (23), power is supplied to each part of the navigation device (1), and normal operation is performed in step 3. Mode is set. Therefore, when the power of the navigation device (1) is turned on during traveling, the FM
The multiplex receiver (3), the radio beacon receiver (8), and the optical beacon receiver (17) are operating normally and receiving data, and demodulated data is sent to the CPU / system controller (23) as needed. After data processing, traffic congestion and required time are displayed, and the data is used for route guidance.

When the power switch (38) of the navigation device (1) is off while the ignition key interlock switch (20) is on (YE in step 2).
In S), it is determined whether or not the vehicle is parked in step 4, and st
At ep5, the date / time generation circuit (25) determines whether the parking state has continued for a predetermined time or more. If the parking brake is not applied and the vehicle is not in the parking state, or if the parking state has not continued for a predetermined time or more, the normal reception mode is set in step 6. In the normal reception mode, the entire navigation device (1) is not operating, but only receives traffic information by FM multiplex broadcasting, and always updates the traffic information to the latest data.

If it is detected that the ignition key interlock switch (20) is off or that the parking state has been continued for a predetermined time or longer in step 5, st
At ep7, a parking mode for intermittent reception of FM multiplex broadcasting is set.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing the operation in the parking mode. When entering the parking mode, the CPU / system controller (23) closes the switch (21) at fixed time intervals or at a set time based on the data from the date / time generation circuit (25), and the FM multiplex receiver (3) To receive the FM multiplexed data, write the data to the auxiliary memory (26) which is always powered, and update the data in the memory each time the receiving operation is repeated. That is, when entering the parking mode, first, step 8
Then, the switch (21) is turned on under the control of the CPU / system controller (23).
Then, the FM multiplex receiver (3) starts receiving data. At this time, it is determined in step 10 whether data has been received. When data cannot be received properly, F
It is determined that it is out of the M multiplex broadcasting service area,
It is assumed that the reception operation is not performed after the parking mode is canceled by. If the data was received successfully,
In step 12, the data in the auxiliary memory (26) is updated to the latest information, and when the update is completed, the switch 21 is turned off in step 13, and the receiving operation ends. At this time, if the voltage monitoring circuit (24) detects a drop in the voltage of the battery (18) in step 14, the parking mode is ended in step 11, and the subsequent reception operation is not performed. And step15
Then, the operation is suspended until a predetermined time (T4 in FIG. 4 described later) is detected, and after the predetermined time elapses, the process returns to step 8, and intermittent reception is performed again.

The intermittent reception operation is terminated when it is detected in step 16 that a predetermined time (T6 in FIG. 4 described later) has elapsed, and the parking mode is stopped in step 11.

FIGS. 4A and 4B are timing charts showing the operation of the FM multiplex receiver in the running / parking state of the car and the state of the battery voltage. FIG. 4A shows the voltage of the battery (18), and FIG. The detection result of the voltage monitoring circuit (24) is
(C) shows the running state of the vehicle detected by the ignition key interlock switch (20) and the parking state detecting circuit (37), and (D) and (E) show the operation of the FM multiplex receiver (3). It is shown. (D), (E)
, T1 is a settable time, a fixed time after parking detection is a period in which the FM multiplex receiver (3) is kept on, T2 and T3 are parking times, T4 is an intermittent reception off time, and T5 is an intermittent reception time. At the reception ON time, T5 is a time required at least for one cycle of data to be transmitted. If the parking time T2 is shorter than the set time T1, intermittent reception is not performed, and reception is continued even after parking until restarting. If T3 is longer than T1, continuous reception is performed for a period of T1 after shifting to parking, and intermittent reception is performed after T1. At this time, if the parking time becomes longer as shown in FIG. 4D and the battery voltage drops, the subsequent reception operation is not performed. Also, as in (E),
After the lapse of the set time T6, the intermittent reception is stopped.

In the above embodiment, the time T1 from when the vehicle is parked until the parking mode for intermittent reception is set, and the period T6 during which the parking mode is performed are set. Date / time setting circuit (2
The control according to time may be performed according to 5). For example, if the time to get into the car every day is determined, set the parking mode a predetermined time before that time,
Alternatively, by setting the parking mode by designating the date and time, the latest traffic information can be obtained at the start of traveling.

[0024] Further, by configuring the auxiliary memory (26) to store the current time obtained from the date / time generation circuit (25) together with the data received in the parking mode, the driver can receive the received data. Can be known at the time, and the effectiveness of the route search can be determined.

When detailed data is obtained by an optical beacon or a radio beacon after the start of traveling, a route with a shorter required time can be searched by performing a route search using the detailed data. In the above-described embodiment, the parking state detection circuit is configured by the parking brake detection circuit that detects the parking brake. However, without being limited to this, for example, it is assumed that the shift selector of the automatic car is operated to the parking position. You may make it detect.

[0026]

According to the present invention, FM multiplex broadcasting is received or intermittently received only for a certain period of time after parking, and new information is always obtained even while parking, so that the vehicle can be routed to a route avoiding a traffic zone immediately after boarding. You can leave.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a main circuit block diagram of a navigation device according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing an operation of the navigation device according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing the operation of the navigation device in the parking mode according to the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a time chart showing an intermittent reception operation of the FM multiplex receiver during traveling / parking.

[Explanation of symbols]

 3 FM multiplex receiver 8 Radio beacon receiver 17 Optical beacon unit 18 Battery 20 Ignition key interlock switch 21 Switch 23 CPU / system controller 24 Voltage monitoring circuit 25 Date / time generation circuit 26 Auxiliary memory 37 Parking state detection circuit

Claims (6)

[Claims] 1. A time generating circuit (25), a switch (21) that is turned on / off based on the time or relative time of the time generating circuit, and an FM multiplex broadcast receiver ( 3), a memory (26) for storing data output from the FM multiplex receiver, and a parking state detecting means (37). When the parking state is detected, only the FM multiplex receiver is set for a set period. The intermittent receiving operation is stopped by intermittently turning on / off the power of the device to update the received data in the memory, and after the set period ends, the intermittent receiving operation is stopped. 2. In the navigation device according to claim 1, when data cannot be obtained from the FM multiplex receiver,
2. The navigation apparatus according to claim 1, wherein intermittent reception thereafter is not performed. 3. The navigation apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the intermittent reception operation is performed after the continuous reception state is maintained for a predetermined period even after the parking state is detected. 4. The navigation device according to claim 1, wherein the voltage monitoring circuit detects a voltage of the battery.
2. The navigation device according to claim 1, wherein when the voltage monitoring circuit detects that the voltage of the battery is lower than a predetermined value, the intermittent reception is not performed thereafter. 5. The navigation device control circuit according to claim 1, wherein the data to be written into the memory is such that data relating to the date and time from the time generation circuit is also written simultaneously with the received information. 6. The navigation device according to claim 1, wherein the route guidance is performed using the reception data stored in the memory until new data or detailed data is obtained from the obtained reception data. A featured navigation device.