JPH11351895A - Car navigation system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To obtain the search result of a recommended route corresponding to the most recent road condition without any special trouble by a user. SOLUTION: It is judged to see if traffic control information that is picked up by an image pick-up camera 11 and is recognized by an image-processing part 16c is already included in road map information being stored in a specific storage medium 12 or not. Then, when the traffic control information that is recognized by the image-processing part 16c is not included in the road map information that is already stored in the specific storage medium 12, traffic control information that is recognized by the image-processing part 16c is recognized as new traffic control information, new traffic control information is added or updated into the road map information in the specific storage medium 12, and then a recommended route is searched for by considering it.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a car navigation system for displaying a current position, a traveling route, and other traffic information of a vehicle on a display unit so as to be superimposed on a road map stored in a storage medium in advance. .

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, a car navigation system (FIG. 9) for confirming a running position on a road map in a running vehicle is becoming widespread.

[0003] This car navigation system is shown in FIG.
As described above, the map is traced by the autonomous navigation control unit 1 based on the vehicle speed pulse from the vehicle speed sensor (not shown) and the direction due to the geomagnetism from the geomagnetic sensor (not shown).
A GPS signal transmitted from a PS satellite is received by a GPS receiver 3 via an antenna 2, and a vehicle position is confirmed by a GPS control unit 4 using information included in the GPS signal. The GPS controller 4 performs position correction (map matching) when a position shift occurs in the trace.

[0004] Information obtained by the autonomous navigation control unit 1 and the GPS control unit 4 is image-edited by an image editing unit 6 installed around the driver's seat and displayed on a dedicated display device 5 such as a color liquid crystal monitor. . That is, in the image editing unit 6, the CD-
For map information obtained from a storage device such as an optical disk device 7 such as a ROM drive or a DVD-ROM drive,
The vehicle travel position and the like determined by the autonomous navigation control unit 1 and the GPS control unit 4 are displayed in color on the display device 5 so as to overlap each other.

At this time, a destination of the vehicle is registered on a map by a destination input unit 8 having a multidirectional switch such as a cross button or a joystick, and a recommended route (optimum route) from the traveling position to the destination is registered. ) In the route search unit 9,
The recommended route is also displayed on the map displayed on the display device 5 at the same time.

[0006]

In general, when performing more detailed search guidance for a recommended route, particularly when guiding a narrow street, traffic control information such as one-way and right / left prohibition is recorded in more detail. Need to be kept.

However, the amount of data that can be stored on a storage medium such as a CD-ROM is limited, and it is substantially difficult to cover all traffic control information. In addition, after data is produced at a certain point in time and stored on a storage medium such as a CD-ROM and distributed, a road may be closed for some reason. However, such a change in road conditions may occur. In this case, the conventional method cannot cope with a road change other than exchanging a storage medium such as a CD-ROM once distributed. For this reason, when the user has neglected to change the storage medium, there has been a problem that an irrational recommended route is often presented.

[0008] Further, on the data producing side, there is also a problem that it takes time and effort to collect information on road changes, and it takes an extremely large amount of trouble to quickly respond to such changes in road conditions. .

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to provide a car navigation system capable of obtaining a recommended route search result corresponding to the latest road conditions without any special trouble for a user of the car navigation system. .

[0010]

Means for Solving the Problems In order to solve the above problems,
According to the first aspect of the present invention, in a vehicle, a position detection unit that recognizes a traveling position of the vehicle in light of road map information including traffic regulation information stored in a predetermined storage medium; A route calculation guidance unit for searching for a recommended route to reach, a display unit for displaying a traveling position of the vehicle and a recommended route based on signals from the position detection unit and the route calculation guidance unit, and a predetermined information center. A car navigation system provided with communication means for performing data communication between the camera and an imaging camera for imaging a landscape outside the vehicle at a predetermined point on a recommended route searched by the route calculation guidance unit; An image processor that performs a pattern matching process on an image from an imaging camera and recognizes the presence of traffic regulation information including a road sign in a scene captured by the imaging camera. Unit, the route calculation guidance unit determines whether the traffic regulation information recognized by the image processing unit is stored as traffic regulation information at the predetermined point stored in the predetermined storage medium Function, and when it is determined that the traffic regulation information recognized by the image processing unit is not stored in the predetermined storage medium, the traffic regulation information recognized by the image processing unit is A function of recognizing new traffic regulation information and adding or updating the new traffic regulation information to the road map information in the predetermined storage medium, and a recommended route in consideration of the added or updated new traffic regulation information. And a function of transmitting the new traffic regulation information to the information center through the communication means.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the image pickup camera and the image processing unit, the travel position recognized by the position detection unit is set in the recommended route set in advance in road map information in the storage medium. The operation is triggered by the arrival at the confirmation point of (1).

[0012]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a car navigation system according to one embodiment of the present invention. In this car navigation system, as shown in FIG. 1, a traffic sign ahead of the vehicle is imaged by an imaging camera 11 which is directed substantially in the traveling direction of the vehicle, and the obtained image is recognized by image processing to recognize a road sign such as a road traffic regulation. The situation is determined, the recommended route is calculated based on the situation, and if a new traffic regulation is recognized with respect to the traffic regulation information already stored in the predetermined storage medium 12, the storage medium 12 The road condition information such as traffic regulations is additionally stored in the information center, and is used for calculating the recommended route from the next time, and the road condition information is further transmitted to the information center 13. Hereinafter, this car navigation system will be described.

This car navigation system traces the position of the own vehicle on a map obtained from the storage medium 12 by autonomous navigation based on a vehicle speed pulse from a vehicle speed sensor 14 and a direction based on geomagnetism from a geomagnetic sensor (not shown). At the same time, a GPS signal transmitted from a GPS satellite is received by a GPS receiver 15 through an antenna (not shown), and the position in the car navigation control unit 16 is determined based on the information included in the GPS signal and the result of the trace processing. The display unit 1 corrects the position of the vehicle by the detection unit 16a and superimposes the corrected vehicle position on the road map.
7 is displayed.

In this car navigation system, a destination of the vehicle is marked on a map stored in the storage medium 12 through an operation unit 18 having a multidirectional switch such as a cross button or a joystick. A recommended route (optimum route) from the traveling position to the destination is searched by the route calculation guiding unit 16b in the car navigation control unit 16, and simultaneously displayed on the display unit 17, and traveling guidance is provided through a sounder 19 such as a speaker. It has become.

At this time, the car navigation system uses the image obtained by imaging the traffic sign with the imaging camera 11 in addition to the map information already stored in the storage medium 12 as described above. Recognition is performed by processing, road conditions such as road traffic regulations are determined, and a recommended route is calculated based on the road conditions and the map information.

Further, when a new traffic regulation is recognized for the map information in the storage medium 12, the storage medium 12
The road condition information such as traffic regulation is additionally stored in the storage device, and used for calculating the recommended route from the next time, and the road condition information is transmitted to the information center 13 through the mobile phone 20 (communication means). ing.

The imaging camera 11 has a CCD (Charge Coupled Device) as a solid-state imaging device.
As shown in FIG. 2, the CD camera is pulled out from the overhead console box 21 at the ceiling of the vehicle interior toward the windshield, and is arranged so as to face the vehicle traveling direction through the window shield. This imaging camera 11
Is connected to the image processing unit 16c in the car navigation control unit 16 by cable or wireless communication.

As the storage medium 12, a rewritable medium, for example, a phase-change recording rewritable compact disc (CD-RW: CD-ReWritable) is used, and the road map data is associated with the road map data. Traffic control information such as one-way traffic and no-traffic is stored. Information is read from and written to the storage medium 12 by an optical pickup in a disk drive device 12a installed in an instrument panel in a vehicle compartment, and data can be added, updated, or deleted.

The car navigation control unit 16 includes a road map in the storage medium 12, a running position and a route obtained by the position detecting unit 16a, in addition to the position detecting unit 16a, the route calculating and guiding unit 16b, and the image processing unit 16c. A drawing / voice control unit 16d for controlling the drawing of the recommended route by the calculation guiding unit 16b into image information or editing the information into audio information and outputting the information to the display unit 17 and the sound generator 19; a position detection unit 16a; A communication data processing unit 16e for transmitting and receiving information to be processed by the guidance unit 16b and the image processing unit 16c to and from the information center 13 through the mobile phone 20 is provided.

The position detector 16a detects the position of the vehicle based on signals from the GPS receiver 15 and the vehicle speed sensor 14 based on the road map information obtained from the storage medium 12.

The route calculation guidance section 16b provides road map information and traffic regulation information obtained from the storage medium 12 based on the destination of the vehicle travel obtained through the operation section 18 and the travel position obtained by the position detection section 16a. Based on the information, a recommended route (optimal route) from the traveling position to the destination is searched, and the result is transmitted to the drawing / voice control unit 16d. However, as described later, it is determined whether or not there is traffic regulation information (hereinafter referred to as “new traffic regulation information”) having a different content from the data in the storage medium 12 in the output from the image processing unit 16c. If the determination result is affirmative (that is, if the presence of new traffic regulation information is detected), the image processing unit 16c
The recommended route is searched by also taking into account the traffic regulation information included in the output from. In this case, the new traffic regulation information is transmitted to the communication data processing unit 16e, and is transmitted to the information center 13 through the mobile phone 20. In addition, the route calculation guidance unit 16b
Determines based on the road map information in the storage medium 12 whether or not a narrow street (confirmation point) having a width smaller than a certain width exists in the searched recommended route. When the traveling position obtained by the position detection unit 16a faces a narrow street in the recommended route, a movable signal is transmitted to the image processing unit 16c, otherwise, a stop signal is transmitted to the image processing unit 16c. Has a function.

The image processing section 16c includes a route calculation guiding section 16
b, the switching operation is performed so as to stop according to the stop signal from the route calculation guidance unit 16b, and as shown in FIG. A noise removing unit 25 that removes noise by performing a predetermined weighting process on a pixel-by-pixel basis; a chromaticity distribution detecting unit 26 that extracts a chromaticity distribution pattern of each image data after the noise has been removed by the noise removing unit 25; A sign pattern memory 27 in which a chromaticity distribution pattern of a general road sign image is registered in advance, and a chromaticity distribution pattern of the road sign in the sign pattern memory 27 and a chromaticity obtained from the chromaticity distribution detecting unit 26. A pattern comparison unit 28 that compares a distribution pattern with pattern matching by pattern matching, and a similarity based on a comparison result obtained by the pattern comparison unit 28. A determination unit 29 for determining whether the road sign in the image image, an output unit 30 for transmitting the determination result in the determination unit 29 in the route calculation induction unit 16b, the noise removing unit 2
5. Chromaticity distribution detector 26 and marker pattern memory 27
Volatile memory 3 used as a work area during the operation of
1 is provided.

The drawing / voice control unit 16d displays the running position detected by the position detecting unit 16a on the road map information in the storage medium 12 by a general image synthesizing process, while searching the route calculating and guiding unit 16b. Is transmitted to the display unit 17, a predetermined audio file is converted into an electric signal using a predetermined audio correspondence table, and transmitted to the sound generator 19.

The communication data processing section 16e includes the position detecting section 1
6a and the information of the traveling position detected by the
b, generating data in a predetermined format by adding road data, traveling direction data, date, user name, and the like to the new traffic regulation information obtained from b.
It has a function of transmitting the data to the information center 13 through the mobile phone 20 and transmitting traffic regulation information and the like transmitted from the information center 13 to the route calculation guidance unit 16b and the like.

The position detection unit 16a, the route calculation guidance unit 16b, and the image processing unit 1 in the car navigation control unit 16
6c, drawing / voice control unit 16d and communication data processing unit 1
6e is a general C to which a ROM and a RAM are connected.
It is a functional component that operates according to a predetermined software program under the control of the PU.

The information center 13 has a mobile phone 20.
Is connected through a general public line, and includes a predetermined communication device and a storage device having a database function.

The operation of the car navigation system having the above configuration will be described with reference to the flowcharts of FIGS.

First, in the operation of setting the destination, FIG.
As shown in step S01, the operator stored the destination of the vehicle traveling in the storage medium 12 through the operation unit 18 having a multidirectional switch such as a cross button or a joystick at a time before the start of traveling. Mark it on the map.

Next, traffic regulation information transmitted from the information center 13 is received (step S02). The information at this time includes general road traffic information and traffic regulation information, and is also used as data for a recommended route search by the route calculation guidance unit 16b. Note that such information is transmitted to and used not only in the vehicle having the imaging camera 11 in this embodiment but also in other general vehicles.

Then, the route calculation guidance section 16b searches for a recommended route (optimum route) from the traveling position to the destination (step S03). When the route search is completed (step S04), the route calculation guide section 16b searches for the recommended route. The presence or absence of a narrow street having a width smaller than a certain width is determined based on the road map information in the storage medium 12 (step S05).

If it is determined that there is no narrow street,
The stop signal is continuously transmitted from the route calculation guiding unit 16b to the image processing unit 16c, and the stopped state of the image processing unit 16c is maintained. Then, the recommended route obtained by the route calculation guiding unit 16b is displayed on the display unit 17 via the drawing / voice control unit 16d, and travel guidance is performed through the sounder 19 such as a speaker (step S06).

On the other hand, if the existence of a narrow street can be confirmed,
The approach route to the narrow street along the recommended route is specified on the road map in the storage medium 12 (step S07). Then, the position on the map facing the approach road to the narrow street determined in step S07 is determined as the operating point of the imaging camera 11 (step S08), and stored in a memory (not shown) in the car navigation control unit 16. (Step S
09).

After the start of traveling, as shown in FIG.
In 6a, the position of the own vehicle is traced by autonomous navigation on a map obtained from the storage medium 12 based on the vehicle speed pulse from the vehicle speed sensor 14 and the direction due to the geomagnetism from a geomagnetic sensor (not shown). The GPS receiver 15 transmits the transmitted GPS signal through the antenna.
Is received, the position of the vehicle is corrected based on the information included in the GPS signal and the result of the trace processing, and the corrected vehicle position is displayed on the display unit 17 so as to be superimposed on the road map. .

At the same time, the route guidance in the route calculation guiding unit 16b is continued (step S10), and the traveling position obtained by the position detecting unit 16a faces the narrow street in the recommended route (the operating point of the imaging camera 11). ) (Step S11), a movable signal is transmitted to the image processing unit 16c. As a result, the image processing unit 16c starts operating, and the imaging camera 11 starts operating (step S12).

At this time, first, as shown in FIG. 6, the imaging camera 11 captures an image of a traffic sign substantially in the traveling direction of the vehicle (Step S).
13) The image obtained by the imaging camera 11 is transmitted to the image processing unit 16c. FIG. 7 shows an example of the captured image at this time.

In the image processing section 16c, after the noise obtained from the image pickup camera 11 is removed by the noise removing section 25, the chromaticity distribution detecting section 26 extracts the chromaticity distribution pattern. Then, the pattern comparison unit 28 compares the chromaticity distribution pattern of the image related to the general road sign in the sign pattern memory 27 with the chromaticity distribution pattern obtained from the chromaticity distribution detection unit 26 by pattern matching. Based on the comparison result, the determination unit 29 determines the presence or absence of a road sign in the captured image based on the similarity (step S1).
4, S15). For example, when an image as shown in FIG. 7 is obtained by the imaging camera 11, a pattern of FIG. 8 can be obtained for a part of the entire image while scanning a window of a predetermined size with respect to the image. From this, pattern matching is performed for these two road signs,
A positive determination will be obtained regarding the presence of the road sign. However, as a result of the pattern matching, it is clear that some sign is present. However, for example, the imaging state of the imaging camera 11 is incomplete, and it is unclear which of the plurality of road signs is most similar. If the type of traffic regulation is unknown as a result of the pattern matching, such as in the case of, a signal to that effect is transmitted to the drawing / voice control unit 16d through the route calculation guidance unit 16b, and in step S16, "the future Traffic regulations are unknown. be careful. Is displayed on the display unit 17 and a sound is emitted through the sounder 19.

On the other hand, if any one of the road signs can be identified as a result of the pattern matching, such traffic regulation information is determined (step S017), and the determination result is transmitted to the route calculation guidance section 16b through the output section 30. I do.

At this time, the information about the road sign obtained from the image processing section 16c is collated with the road information in the storage medium 12 (step S18). Then, the information of the road sign obtained from the image processing unit 16 c is stored in the storage medium 12.
If the information is the same as the information in the above, the normal route guidance display through the display unit 17 and the sound generator 19 is continued by the route calculation guiding unit 16b and the position detecting unit 16a (step S1).
9).

On the other hand, if the road sign information obtained from the image processing unit 16c is different from the information in the storage medium 12, the road sign obtained by the image processing unit 16c must be new traffic regulation information. Then, the recommended route is recalculated (re-searched) again in the route calculation guiding unit 16b based on this (step S20). At this time, a signal to recalculate the recommended route is transmitted to the drawing / voice control unit 16d to notify the user of the recalculation by voice through the sounding device 19 or image display through the display unit 17 ( Step S21). Then, after the recalculated result is guided as a normal route guidance display through the display unit 17 and the sounding device 19 (step S22), new traffic regulation information is written in the storage medium 12, and the communication data processing unit 16e is written. And mobile phone 20
(Step S2)
3). The information transmitted to the information center 13 is stored in a database therein and used. This allows
New traffic regulation information transmitted from an unspecified number of vehicles can be added or updated in the database in the information center 13 one after another. Send to the vehicle side,
When used in the car navigation system in each vehicle, the occupant of each vehicle can always perform route calculation based on relatively new traffic regulation information.

As described above, the road sign in the image captured by the imaging camera installed in the vehicle is recognized by pattern matching, and the recognized traffic regulation information is stored in the storage medium 1.
If the traffic control information is newer than the information in the mobile phone 20, it is stored in the storage medium 12 and the mobile phone 20.
Therefore, the user of the car navigation system can obtain the search result of the recommended route corresponding to the latest road condition without any special trouble. Further, based on the information obtained by the pattern matching, the information in the storage medium 12 can be changed promptly with the change of the traffic regulation information. further,
By repeating these operations by an unspecified number of vehicles, the information center 13 can easily collect a lot of new traffic regulation information and easily keep it in a new state without any special effort. Can be.

Further, since the imaging camera 11 and the image processing section 16c are operated only at predetermined check points such as narrow streets, there is an effect that power consumption due to useless operation can be reduced.

The imaging camera 11 used in this embodiment does not need to be installed exclusively for pattern matching of road signs, and may be used in combination with another system such as an inter-vehicle distance warning system.

In the above embodiment, the camera 1
1 and all the narrow streets in the road map information in the storage medium 12 are applied as check points for operating the image processing unit 16c. However, the present invention is not limited to this. Points may be included.

[0044]

According to the first aspect of the present invention, the traffic regulation information captured by the imaging camera and recognized by the image processing unit is included in the road map information already stored in the predetermined storage medium. It is determined whether or not the traffic regulation information recognized by the image processing unit is not included in the road map information already stored in the predetermined storage medium,
The traffic control information recognized by the image processing unit is recognized as new traffic control information, and the new traffic control information is added or updated to road map information in a predetermined storage medium, and the recommended route is added in consideration of this. , So that the user of the car navigation system can obtain the search result of the recommended route corresponding to the latest road condition without any special trouble, and based on the information obtained by the pattern matching. Thus, the information in the storage medium can be changed promptly with the change of the traffic regulation information.

Further, since the new traffic regulation information is transmitted to the information center, the above operation is repeated by an unspecified number of vehicles, so that the information center can easily transmit many new traffic regulation information. The traffic control information can be easily kept in a new state without any special trouble.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, since the imaging camera and the image processing section are operated only at predetermined check points, there is an effect that power consumption due to useless operations can be reduced.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a car navigation system according to one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an arrangement of an imaging camera, a display unit, and a storage medium in a vehicle.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an internal configuration of an image processing unit.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing an operation of the car navigation system according to one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing an operation of the car navigation system according to one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating an imaging operation of the imaging camera.

FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating an image captured by an imaging camera.

FIG. 8 is a diagram illustrating a road sign subjected to pattern matching by the image processing unit;

FIG. 9 is a block diagram showing a conventional car navigation system.

[Explanation of symbols]

 REFERENCE SIGNS LIST 11 imaging camera 12 storage medium 13 information center 14 vehicle speed sensor 15 GPS receiver 16 car navigation control unit 16a position detection unit 16b route calculation guidance unit 16c image processing unit 16d drawing / voice control unit 16e communication data processing unit 17 display unit 18 operation Unit 19 sounder 20 mobile phone 25 noise removing unit 26 chromaticity distribution detecting unit 27 marker pattern memory 28 pattern comparing unit 29 judging unit 30 output unit

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. In a vehicle, in light of road map information including traffic regulation information stored in a predetermined storage medium,
A position detection unit that recognizes the traveling position of the vehicle, a route calculation guidance unit that searches for a recommended route to the destination, and a traveling position of the vehicle based on signals from the position detection unit and the route calculation guidance unit And a display unit for displaying a recommended route, and a communication means for performing data communication with a predetermined information center. An image capturing camera that captures an image of a landscape outside the vehicle at a predetermined point; and performing pattern matching processing on an image from the image capturing camera to recognize the presence of traffic regulation information including a road sign in the landscape captured by the image capturing camera. An image processing unit, wherein the route calculation guidance unit stores the traffic regulation information recognized by the image processing unit in the predetermined storage medium. A function of determining whether or not the traffic regulation information at the predetermined point is stored as the traffic regulation information, and determining that the traffic regulation information recognized by the image processing unit is not stored in the predetermined storage medium. A function of recognizing the traffic regulation information recognized by the image processing unit as new traffic regulation information, and adding or updating the new traffic regulation information to road map information in the predetermined storage medium. A function of searching for a recommended route in consideration of the added or updated new traffic regulation information, and a function of transmitting new traffic regulation information to the information center through the communication means. Car navigation system. 2. The car navigation system according to claim 1, wherein the imaging camera and the image processing unit set a travel position recognized by the position detection unit in road map information in the storage medium in advance. A car navigation system, which operates when a confirmed point on the recommended route is reached.