JPH1151683A - Navigation system for vehicle and memory medium - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To guide the direction plainly even when there is an intricate guide branch point or another road in the same direction. SOLUTION: Road information is acquired entirely from a guide branch point on a route in order to determine which road enters which area (S21) and direction guide information is outputted using the direction guide phrase of adjacent are on condition that a plurality of roads are present in same area (S22), no road is present in at least one of the opposite areas adjacent to the area of a road to be guided (S23) and the road to be guided is close to the area where no road is present than other roads. More specifically, guidance of respective roads is differentiated utilizing the direction guidance of an area adjacent to the direction guidance sorting area thus guiding a driver plainly.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a vehicular navigation apparatus and a storage medium for providing voice guidance at a road junction.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Hitherto, various route guidance devices have been proposed for smoothly driving on unfamiliar roads. Among them, a destination is input to drive the vehicle to the destination. There is a route guidance device for guiding a road to be reached. In this route guidance device, when approaching a transit point,
For example, when turning right (left) at a branch point, "about 300 m
Right (left) direction "," right (left) direction ahead ",
"Soon to the right (left) direction", near the toll road entrance, "soon toll road", near the toll road exit, "soon to exit", and as you approach your destination, When approaching the drop-in point, voice guidance such as "Soon to be a drop-in point" is provided.

[0003]

However, in the conventional apparatus, at the branch point on the guide route, the direction (angle) of the guide road exiting the branch point with respect to the road entering the branch point is calculated, and "soon. Right (left) direction "and" soon right (left) "
When there is another road in the same direction as the voice guidance and the road to be guided coming out of a complicated junction or intersection, guidance may be difficult to understand.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned problems, and provides a vehicle navigation apparatus which can provide easy-to-understand direction guidance even when there is a complicated guidance junction or another road in the same direction. It is intended to provide a storage medium.

[0005]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention provides a current position detecting means for calculating a current position of a vehicle, an input means for inputting information required for calculating a route, and an output of information for route guidance. Information storage means for storing data necessary for performing route guidance including direction information including direction guidance phrase data corresponding to each area; Route calculation means for calculating a route based on the information input by the input means; route information storage means for storing information on the route calculated by the route calculation means; Guidance control means for outputting guidance information of the next guidance junction to the output means based on the current position detected by the position detection means, and the guidance control means comprises: All road information that exits from the guidance junction on the route stored in the information storage means is obtained, and it is determined which area each road enters, and a plurality of roads exist in the same area and satisfy a predetermined condition. At this time, it is characterized in that the direction guidance information is output using the direction guidance phrase of the adjacent area. Further, the present invention is characterized in that, when there is a guide-unnecessary road on a road exiting from the guide junction, the area is set based on the guide-unnecessary road. Further, in the present invention, the predetermined condition is that, among the areas on both sides of the area of the road to be guided, there is no road in at least one area, and the road to be guided is higher than other roads. It is characterized by being close to an area where no road exists. Further, the present invention is characterized in that when the left and right directions of the direction guidance phrase of the adjacent area and the current direction guidance phrase are opposite, the adjacent area is not regarded as the adjacent area. In addition, the present invention is applicable to a right turn area or a left turn area.
The present invention is characterized in that a direction guide phrase of an adjacent area is used for a road having two roads and having a large angle with respect to a line perpendicular to an entering road. In addition, the present invention also provides that three roads exist in a right turn or left turn area, and two roads are smaller or larger than 90 ° with respect to an extension of an entering road.
When the other one of the roads is larger or smaller than 90 °, the direction guidance phrase of the adjacent area is used for each of the roads on both sides of the three roads.

Further, the present invention searches for a guidance branch point on a route in a storage medium having a program for searching for a route from a departure or present location to a destination and providing guidance along the searched route, Acquire all the roads that exit from the searched guidance junction, determine which area each road enters for direction guidance, and when there are multiple roads in the same area, both sides of the road area to be guided Of the above areas, there is no road in at least one area, and on the condition that the road to be guided is closer to the area where there is no road than the other roads, the direction guidance phrase of the adjacent area is used. A program for outputting direction guidance information is incorporated.

[0007]

According to the present invention, information on a road entering a guidance junction and all roads exiting from the junction are obtained.
This makes it possible to clearly grasp the state of the guidance junction, and when there is another road in the direction of the road to be guided, by using the direction guidance of the next area in the classification area on the direction guidance, Can be differentiated, and guidance that is easy for the driver to understand can be provided.

[0008]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an example of a navigation device according to the present invention. As shown in FIG. 1, a navigation device according to the present invention includes an input / output device 1 for inputting and outputting information relating to route guidance, a current position detection device 2 for detecting information relating to the current position of a vehicle, and navigation necessary for calculating a route. Information storage device 3 in which guidance data of display / voice necessary for route guidance and route guidance and programs (application and / or OS) are recorded.
The system includes a central processing unit 4 that performs a route search process and a display guidance process necessary for route guidance, and controls the entire system.

The input / output device 1 instructs the central processing unit 4 to perform a navigation process according to the driver's intention so that the driver can input a destination or output guidance information by voice and / or screen when necessary. And a function to print out the processed data and the like. As means for realizing the function, the input unit includes a touch switch 11 and an operation switch for inputting a destination as a telephone number or coordinates on a map, and for requesting route guidance. Of course, an input device such as a remote controller may be used. In the output unit, the input data is displayed on the screen, and the route guidance is automatically displayed on the screen in response to the driver's request. The display 12 stores the data processed by the central processing unit 4 and the information storage device 3. And a speaker 16 for outputting route guidance by voice.

Here, a voice recognition device for enabling voice input and a recording card reading device for reading data recorded on an IC card or a magnetic card can be added. An information center that stores data necessary for navigation and provides information via a communication line at the request of the driver, or a notebook-type electronic device that stores driver-specific data such as map data and destination data in advance. A data communication device for exchanging data with an information source such as a device can be added.

The display 12 comprises a color CRT or a color liquid crystal display, and is necessary for navigation such as a route setting screen, a section map screen, an intersection map screen based on map data and guidance data processed by the central processing unit 4. In addition to outputting all screens in color display, buttons for setting route guidance, performing guidance during route guidance, and switching screens are displayed on this screen. In particular, the passing intersection information such as the passing intersection name is displayed in color in a pop-up on the section map screen at any time.

The display 12 is provided in an instrument panel near the driver's seat, and the driver can check the current position of the vehicle by looking at the section map and obtain information on the route from now on. it can. The display 12 is provided with a touch switch 11 corresponding to the display of the function button, and is configured to execute the above-described operation based on a signal input by touching the button. The input signal generating means including the button and the touch switch constitutes an input unit, but a detailed description thereof is omitted here.

The current position detecting means 2 obtains information using a current position satellite navigation system (GPS) of the vehicle.
By using a PS receiver 21, a VICS information receiver 22 for obtaining information by using FM multiplex broadcasting, a radio beacon, an optical beacon, and the like, and an information center (for example, ATIS) by using a mobile phone, a personal computer, or the like. Transmitting and receiving device 23 for bidirectionally communicating information with other vehicles
And an absolute azimuth sensor 24 that detects the traveling azimuth of the vehicle in an absolute azimuth by using, for example, geomagnetism, and a relative azimuth that detects the traveling azimuth of the vehicle in a relative azimuth by using, for example, a steering sensor and a gyro sensor. The sensor 25 includes, for example, a distance sensor 26 that detects the traveling distance of the vehicle from the number of rotations of the wheels. The sensor 25 transmits and receives information on the traveling of the vehicle, such as road information and traffic information, and transmits information on the current position of the vehicle. It is a device that detects and further transmits and receives information about the current position.

The information storage device 3 is an external storage device that stores navigation programs and data, and is, for example, a CD-ROM. The program is a program for performing a process such as a route search, a processing program shown in the flowchart described in the present embodiment, a program for performing a display output control necessary for route guidance, a program for performing a voice output control required for voice guidance, and Necessary data, and display information data necessary for route guidance and map display are stored. Data includes map data, search data,
It consists of files such as guidance data, voice guidance phrase data, map matching data, destination data, registered point data, road data, genre-specific data, landmark data, etc., and stores all data necessary for the navigation device. The present invention is also applicable to a type in which only data is stored in a CD-ROM and a program is stored in a central processing unit.

The central processing unit 4 includes a CPU 40 for executing various arithmetic processing, a flash memory 41 for reading and storing programs from the CD-ROM of the information storage device 3,
ROM 42 storing a program (program reading means) for performing program check and update processing of flash memory 41, set point coordinates of destination, road name code No. RAM 43 for temporarily storing searched route guidance information such as searched data and data during arithmetic processing, image memory 44 for storing image data used for screen display on a display, and display output control signals from CPU 40. An image processor 45 which retrieves image data from the image memory 44, performs image processing on the image data, and outputs the processed image to a display;
Information storage device 3 based on an audio output control signal from the PU
, A voice, a phrase, a set of sentences, sounds, and the like read from the loudspeaker 1
6, a communication interface 47 for exchanging input / output data by communication, a sensor input interface 48 for receiving a sensor signal of the current position detecting device 2, and a date and time for writing date and time in internal diagnostic information. A clock 49 and the like are provided. Here, route guidance is performed by screen display and voice output, and the presence or absence of voice output is configured to be selectable by the driver.

Note that a program for performing the above-described update processing may be stored in an external storage device. The program according to the present invention and other programs for executing navigation may all be stored in a CD-ROM as an external storage medium, or some or all of these programs may be stored in the ROM 42 of the main unit. Good.

The data and programs stored in the external storage medium are input as external signals to the central processing unit of the navigation apparatus main body and are subjected to arithmetic processing, thereby realizing various navigation functions.

The navigation device according to the present invention has a relatively large capacity flash memory 41 for reading a program from the CD-ROM of the external storage device, as described above.
A small-capacity ROM 42 storing a program (program reading means) for performing a CD boot process is built in.
The flash memory 41 is a non-volatile storage unit that retains stored information even when the power is turned off. Then, as a start-up process of the CD, the program in the ROM 42 which is a program reading means is started, the program stored in the flash memory 41 is checked, and disk management information of the CD-ROM of the information storage device 3 is read. The program loading process (update process)
The determination is performed based on this information and the state of the flash memory 41.

FIGS. 2 to 4 show examples of the configuration of main data files stored in the information storage device 3 according to the present invention shown in FIG. FIG. 2A shows a guide road data file in which data necessary for calculating a route and performing route guidance by the route calculating means is stored. For each of the number n of roads, a road number, a length, a road Address of attribute data, shape data, address of size and guidance data,
It consists of each data of size. The road number is set for each direction (outbound and return) for each road between the branch points. As shown in FIG. 3A, the road attribute data as the road guidance auxiliary information data includes, as shown in FIG. 3A, whether the road is an elevated road, an elevated road, an underpass, an underpass, the number of lanes, branching data ( A flag indicating whether there is a branch) and lamp data (a flag indicating whether the lamp is a lamp). As shown in FIG. 2B, when each road is divided into a plurality of nodes (nodes), the shape data has coordinate data including east longitude and north latitude for each of the number m of nodes.

As shown in FIG. 2C, the guide data includes an intersection (or branch point) name, caution data, road name data, an address and size of road name voice data, and an address and size of destination data. It consists of each data. As shown in FIG. 4A, the caution data is data indicating information such as a railroad crossing, a tunnel entrance, a tunnel exit, a width reduction point, no caution, and the like. And the like to call attention to the driver. As shown in FIG. 3B, the road name data includes information on road types such as expressways, urban expressways, toll roads, and general roads (national roads, prefectural roads, and others), and expressways, urban expressways, and toll roads. Data indicating information indicating whether a road is a main line or an attachment road, and is composed of road type data and a type number which is individual number data for each road type.

As shown in FIG. 2D, the destination data includes a destination road number, a destination name, an address of destination name voice data, a size and a destination direction data, and travel guidance data. The destination name includes a direction name. As shown in FIG. 2E, the destination direction data is invalid (do not use the destination direction data), unnecessary (no guidance is required), straight ahead, rightward, diagonally rightward, rightward return, leftward, and leftward. This is data indicating information on the direction, the diagonally left direction, and the direction returning to the left. The travel guidance data is shown in FIG.
As shown in FIG. 5, when there are a plurality of lanes, data for guiding which lane to travel is stored, and is data indicating information from the right, from the left, from the center, or none.

In the data structure of FIG. 2, information on intersections is stored in the road data. However, as shown in FIG. 5, intersection data is provided separately from the road data, and the presence or absence of a traffic light, , Junction feature data, road data entering an intersection, road data exiting an intersection,
Information such as landmark data may be stored. However, having connection information in the road data makes it easier to have data such as the inability to enter a certain road from a certain road.
The amount of data is small.

FIG. 6 shows an example of guidance phrase data at the time of voice guidance. When a guidance sentence is divided into distance phrases, direction phrases, and characteristic phrases and guidance voice data is output, the phrases are combined. Then, for example, "turn right soon" is created and output at the set guidance junction. In the present invention, as described later, the road that enters the guidance junction, the road information of all the roads that exit, to obtain the classification area on the direction guidance in advance,
Straight (straight), slightly right (left) direction (slight right (left) turn), right turn (right bear), left turn (left bear), road (keep), right (keep right), left ( Key left), fork,
Phrase data such as a sharp right turn (sharp right turn) and a sharp left turn (sharp left turn) are set, and these are appropriately selected according to the actual situation of the guide junction to provide fine direction guidance. FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating an example of the correspondence between the classification area on the direction guidance and the direction guidance phrase.
In FIG. 7A, the areas are classified into areas 1 to 6 according to the angle to the road entering the guidance junction, areas 1 and 2 are sharp turn areas, areas 3 and 4 are turn areas, and areas 5 and 6 are bear areas. It is an example. As shown in FIG. 7B, each of the areas 1 to 6 is associated with each direction guidance phrase, and this table is stored in the information storage device.

Next, the processing flow of the vehicular navigation device of the present invention will be described. FIG. 8 is a flowchart for explaining the flow of the entire system of the vehicle navigation device according to the present invention.

When the program of the route guidance system is started by the CPU 51 of the central processing unit 4, the current position is detected by the current position detecting device 2 and a map around the current position is displayed, and the name of the current position is displayed. Are displayed (step S1). Next, a destination is set using a target name such as a place name or a facility name, a telephone number, an address, a registered point, and the like (step S2), and a route search from the current position to the destination is performed (step S3). When the route is determined, the route guidance / display is repeated until the vehicle arrives at the destination while tracking the current position by the current position detecting device 2 (step S4). If a detour setting is input before arriving at the destination, a search area is set, a re-search is performed in the search area, and route guidance is repeated until the vehicle arrives at the destination. The present invention relates to a case in which voice guidance is provided for route guidance at a guidance branch point in the route guidance / display in step S4.

In performing voice guidance at an intersection, an angle has been calculated from the relationship between the road on the route entering the intersection and the road exiting the route, and the content of the voice guidance has been determined based on the angle. However, according to this method, as shown in FIG. 9, when there is no large difference between the angles of the roads 1 and 2 exiting from the entering road, guidance such as "right direction" is performed on both the roads 1 and 2. It is difficult to differentiate guidance for two roads. Therefore, in order to differentiate the roads 1 and 2 by voice at the intersection in such a case,
Get all the roads exiting the intersection.

First, referring to FIG. 9, a description will be given of a method of acquiring a road exiting from an intersection when there is no link in the intersection. ○ indicates a node (intersection), and a bold line indicates a route. In FIG. 10, roads a, b, c, and d are face-to-face roads, and the route is ad. At this time, the roads exiting from the road a entering at the intersection in FIG. 9 are b, c, and d.

Next, a description will be given of road acquisition when there is an intra-intersection link. Here, the link in the intersection is a place that is originally the site of the intersection in the creation of data,
This is an imaginary road that occurs because it is represented by lines and nodes.
The conditions for obtaining a road at such an intersection are as follows. Among the roads exiting from the intersection, all links within the intersection are not treated as exiting roads but are postponed, and roads that are no longer links within the intersection are treated as roads exiting from the intersection. A road that is not on a route and does not have the attribute of a link within an intersection is treated as a road that exits the intersection.

FIG. 11 shows an example of an intersection where an intra-intersection link is present. In the figure, は indicates nodes (1 to 5), j to n indicate roads having the link attribute within the intersection, and roads a to i indicate vertical line separation. , And the route is ajlg. Node 1
Roads exiting are b and j. The road b is treated as an outgoing road because it does not have the link attribute within the intersection. Also, j
Is a road having an intra-intersection link attribute on the route, the road is postponed, and roads k and l exiting from node 2 are targeted.
Road k is postponed because it has an intra-intersection link attribute, and roads d and e exiting from node 3 are targeted. d and e
Does not have the link attribute within the intersection, so it is treated as an outgoing road. On the other hand, since the road 1 is a road having a link attribute within an intersection on the route, it is postponed and the node 5
Roads m and g coming out of the road are targeted. Road g is treated as an outgoing road because it is on the route and has no link attribute within the intersection. Also, since the road m is a road having the link attribute within the first intersection exiting from the route, it is postponed, and roads i and n exiting from the node 4 are targeted. Road i is treated as an outgoing road because it does not have the link attribute within the intersection. However, since n is a road having an intra-intersection link, it is postponed, and roads b and j are not treated as outgoing roads since they have already been processed. Therefore, the roads at which this intersection exits are b, d, e, g, and i.

After all the roads exiting from the intersection are obtained in this way, the direction of each road is determined. The method of calculating the angle of the road for that purpose will be described below.
FIG. 12 is a diagram for explaining a road angle calculation method for an intersection having no intra-intersection link. In FIG. 12, when calculating the angles of the roads 1 and 2 exiting with respect to the road entering the intersection a, a point (point b in FIG. 12) obtained by returning the road entering the intersection a by 20 m (point b in FIG. 12). . next,
Sampling three points on the road to exit. Here, 20m, 40m, and 60m points on the road exiting from the intersection (road 1
Then, sampling is performed at points c, d, and e). However, when the length of the road is 60 m or less, the remaining distance is calculated by using the guide-free road exiting from the road. That is, outgoing road 2 is another intersection at 30m (end of road 2)
Because there is a road 20m point f of road 2 and road 2
40m, 60m point g, h on guidance-free road on extension of
And sample points. If there is no guidance-free road, the end point of the sampled road is sampled as that point. Finally, the angles of the sampling points (the angles formed by the line connecting the reference point and the sampling point with respect to the line connecting the reference point and the intersection) are calculated, and these angles increase as the distance increases from 20 m, 40 m, and 60 m, Alternatively, if there is a decreasing tendency, the angle of the farthest point 60 m is acquired as the angle of the road. In the case of the outgoing road 1, since the angle tends to decrease, the angle of the point e is acquired. In cases other than the increasing tendency or the decreasing tendency, the average value of the sampled three-point angles is obtained as the road angle.

Next, a method of calculating the angle of an intersection having a road having the attribute of the link within the intersection will be described with reference to FIG. As described above, when there is a road having the attribute of the intra-intersection link on the other side of the guidance intersection, the road exiting from the intersection is a road that can be acquired as a result of being postponed until it has no intra-intersection link attribute. In a), a is a road to enter, b (broken line) is a link in an intersection, c
Is an exit road, d is a guidance intersection, e is a guidance unnecessary point, and f is another exit road. Here, as shown in FIG. 13B, the starting point of the exiting road c is translated to the guidance intersection d. In FIG. 13 (b), c1 is a translation of the outgoing road c, and g is the angle of the road c. Next, the points at 20 m, 40 m, and 60 m from the starting point are sampled, and the angle of each sampling point is calculated and increased based on 20 m before the intersection d of the last road as in the case of FIG. If there is a tendency or a decreasing tendency, the angle of the point at 60 m is acquired as the angle of the road, otherwise, the average value of the sampled angles of the three points is taken as the angle of the road.

FIG. 14 is a diagram showing a processing flow of the angle calculation. First, the coordinates of a point (reference point) 20 m before the intersection of the entering road and the coordinates of the intersection are obtained (steps 11 and 12).
The coordinates of the 40 m and 60 m points and the coordinates of the starting point of the exiting road are acquired (steps 13 and 14). Next, it is determined whether or not the intersection has an intra-intersection link (step 15). If the intersection has an intra-intersection link, the starting point of the exiting road is moved in parallel to the intersection, and the coordinates of the sample point of the exiting road are corrected. (Step 16). Next, the angle from the road to which each sampling point enters is calculated (step 17), and it is determined whether the calculated angle is increasing or decreasing for each sample point (step 18). If the angle of the sample point is increasing or decreasing, adopt the angle of the road exiting the 60m angle. If the angle of the sample point is not increasing or decreasing, take the average of the angles at each sample point. Adopt it as the angle of the road that exits.

As described above, after calculating all the angles of the roads exiting from the intersection, the directions of those roads are determined.
The present invention is not limited to this, and the direction may be determined using the destination direction data shown in FIG. 3E. Alternatively, the above-described angle calculation and the destination shown in FIG. The direction may be determined in combination with the direction data.

After all the roads exiting from the guidance junction are obtained in this way, it is determined to which of the areas in the direction guidance classification shown in FIG. 7A the other roads belong to the same area. If the predetermined conditions are satisfied within the area, the direction is changed by moving the area to provide guidance without confusion.

FIG. 15 is a diagram showing a processing flow of the direction conversion. First, the exit areas of all roads are acquired (step 21). That is, the angle obtained in the process of FIG.
Alternatively, based on the direction obtained by the destination direction data of FIG. 2E, the controller calculates which of the areas shown in FIG. 7A, for example, each road enters. Next, it is determined whether another road exists in the same area as the road to be guided (step 22). If another road exists in the same area,
Further, it is determined whether a road does not exist in at least one area on both sides of a road area to be guided (step 23). When there is no road in at least one of the adjacent areas (when the road is an empty area), it is determined whether the road to be guided is closer to the empty area than the other roads (step 24). On the condition that the road to be guided is closer to the empty area than the other roads, the empty area is moved to the road to be guided, and guidance is performed using the direction guidance phrase of the moved area. Also, if there is no other road in the same area as the road to be guided, or there are roads in the adjacent areas, or if the road to be guided is farther to the empty area than the other road, In each case, the area is not moved, and guidance is provided using the direction guidance phrase of the area.

According to this processing, even if there is a road in the same area and direction guidance is confusing, the user moves to an adjacent area and performs guidance using the direction guidance phrase in that area, and provides guidance differentiating from other roads. It becomes possible.

Next, an example of such a guidance method will be described with reference to FIGS.
This will be described with reference to FIG. Fig. 16 shows two roads other than the guidance-free road
It is a figure showing an example when there are two outgoing roads and they are in the same area. FIG. 16A shows a case where there are bear areas on the left and right with reference to a guide-unnecessary road, and roads 1 and 2 exist in a bear light area (shaded area in the figure). Conventionally, in both cases, guidance of "bear light (right turn)" is provided, but it is not possible to differentiate between road 1 and road 2. Therefore, in this example, since the right turn area is empty and close, the area of the road 2 is moved to the right turn area and guidance of "right turn" is performed, and road 1 is guided as it is of "bear light".

FIG. 16B shows a case where the road 1 and the road 2 exist in the sharply right-turning area (the hatched area in the figure). In this example, since the right-turn area is empty and close, the area of the road 2 is moved to the right-turn area and guidance of "right turn" is provided, and road 1 is directly guided of "rapid right turn".

FIG. 16 (c) shows a case where there are bear areas on the left and right with respect to a guide-unnecessary road, and roads 1 and 2 exist in a bear left area (shaded area in the figure).
In this example, since the left turn area is empty and close, the area of road 1 is moved to the left turn area to guide "left turn"
Road 2 provides "bear left" guidance as it is.

FIG. 16D shows a case where the road 1 and the road 2 exist in the sharp left turn area (the hatched area in the figure). In this example, since the left turn area is empty and close, the area of road 1 is moved to the left turn area, and guidance of "left turn" is performed.
On the road 2, the guidance of "sudden left turn" is provided.

FIG. 16E shows a case where two roads exist in the right turn area. Entering angle relative to a straight line which forms a 90 ° counterclockwise with respect to the road, a road 1, theta _1, When the road 2 theta _2, theta ₁ <theta road 1 right turn road 2 for ₂ to Bearaito (Bearaito Area movement) When θ ₁ > θ ₂ Road 1 turns sharply right (area moves to sharp right turn) Road 2 guides as right turn. This is exactly the same in the left turn area.

FIG. 17 shows a case where there are three or more outgoing roads in addition to the guideless roads, and some of them are in the same area. FIG. 17 (a) has no guidance-free road,
Road 1 and road 2 are in the left-right area, and road 3 is in the right-right area. In this case, the leftmost road 1 is guided as a right left turn, the middle road is traveled straight, and the rightmost road is taken as a right right turn.

FIG. 17 (b) shows that 3
When there are two roads 1, 2, and 3, the leftmost road 1 is guided straight ahead, the middle road 2 is directed slightly right (slight light turn), and the rightmost road 3 is guided right turn (area movement).

FIG. 17 (c) shows the case where 3
When there are two roads 1, 2, and 3, the leftmost road 1 is turned left, the middle road 2 is slightly leftward (slight left turn), and the rightmost road 3 is guided straight.

FIG. 18 shows a case where there is no guide-free road and there are two roads which are divided into a slightly right (left) direction (slight right / left turn) and a straight ahead area. The angle from the extension of the entering road is θ ₁ for road ₁ and θ _{2 for} road ₂
When θ ₁ > 15 ° and θ ₂ <−15 °, road 1 is slightly leftward (slight left turn) Road 2 is slightly rightward (slight right turn) When θ ₁ > θ ₂ , road 1 Is slightly left (slight left turn) Road 2 is straight ahead When θ ₁ <θ ₂ , road 1 is straight ahead and road 2 is slightly right (slight right turn).

FIG. 19 shows a case where there are three roads in the right turn area. Two roads 2 for the extension of the road to enter
(Middle), the angle of the road 3 (outside) is smaller (or larger) than 90 °, and the angle of another road 1 is 9
When the angle is greater than (or smaller than) 0 °, the road (road 1 in the figure) from the sharpest right turn is turned sharply (area movement),
The middle road (road 2 in the figure) turns right, and the road closest to the bear light (road 3 in the figure) is the bear light (area movement). The same applies to the left turn area.

When the area is moved as described with reference to FIGS. 16 to 19, the same processing is performed on another road which is not in the area to be moved as an independent road. In that case, the same area may be moved to a road on the opposite side of the empty area, and the same guidance phrase may be obtained. However, the adjacent area where the left and right sides are opposite sides is not regarded as the adjacent area, and the area is moved.

In cases other than the above example, only area determination is performed, and guidance is performed using phrases in the area even if there are a plurality of areas in the same area. FIG. 20A shows a case where there is a guide-unnecessary road. The bear left area and the left turn area, and the bear right area and the right turn area are set at the same angle with respect to the guide unnecessary road. Then, the roads within the range of each area are guided by the guidance phrase of the area. FIG.
(B) is a case in which all the exiting roads require guidance, and is different in that a straight ahead area and a slightly left (right) direction (slight left (right) turn) area are set. In addition, roads in the range of each area are guided by the guidance phrase of the area.

In the case where there is a guide-unnecessary road, the angle is determined based on the guide-unnecessary road to determine the area. However, the following may be adopted. For example, the area between the outgoing mud and the incoming road may be divided at a fixed rate.
Further, if the exit road is curved with respect to the entrance road when combined with the guidance-free road reference, the area of each area increases or decreases.

The angle of the "diagonal" area is determined with reference to the road to which the road exits, and the area of the "diagonal" area can be determined as an area having a constant angle with respect to the reference. In this case, by determining the minimum angle of the right-turn or left-turn area, if the area becomes smaller than this area, the "diagonal" area is reduced by half the angle of the difference, and the right-turn or left-turn area is reduced. May be increased.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an example of a navigation device according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a configuration example of a main data file according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a configuration example of a main data file according to the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a configuration example of a main data file according to the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an example of intersection data.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an example of guidance phrase data.

FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating an exit area of a road at a guidance intersection and a direction guidance phrase.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart for explaining the flow of the entire system.

FIG. 9 is an explanatory diagram of road acquisition at an intersection.

FIG. 10 is an explanatory diagram of road acquisition at an intersection that does not have an intra-intersection link.

FIG. 11 is an explanatory diagram of road acquisition at an intersection having an intra-intersection link.

FIG. 12 is a diagram illustrating a road angle calculation method for an intersection that does not have an intra-intersection link.

FIG. 13 is a diagram illustrating an example of a method of calculating an angle of a road exiting from an intersection having a road having an attribute of a link within an intersection.

FIG. 14 is a diagram showing a processing flow of angle calculation.

FIG. 15 is a diagram showing a processing flow of direction conversion.

FIG. 16 is a diagram showing an example of a case where there are two outgoing roads other than a guidance-free road and they are in the same area.

FIG. 17 is a diagram showing an example of a case where there are three outgoing roads in addition to a guide-unnecessary road, and some of them are in the same area.

FIG. 18 is a diagram illustrating an example of a case where there is no guidance-free road and there are two roads divided into a slightly right (left) direction and a straight ahead area.

FIG. 19 is a diagram showing an example in a case where there are three roads in a right turn (or left turn) area.

FIG. 20 is a diagram illustrating a case in which guidance is provided based on a phrase in an area even if there are a plurality of areas in the same area by only area determination.

[Explanation of symbols]

REFERENCE SIGNS LIST 1 input / output device, 2 current position detecting device, 3 information storage device, 4 central processing device, 11 touch switch, 12
... Display, 13 ... Printer, 16 ... Speaker, 2
1 ... GPS receiver, 22 ... beacon receiver, 23 ...
Data transmission / reception device, 40 CPU, 41 flash memory, 42 ROM, 43 RAM, 44 image memory, 45 image processor, 46 audio processor, 4
7: Communication interface, 48: Sensor input interface, 49: Clock

 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page (72) Koji Kishi, Toyota Motor Co., Ltd. 1 Toyota Town, Toyota City, Aichi Prefecture (72) Peter Kunen, Belgium Bren-Laureux Avenue de Lindustry 19-1420 Ar de Bourbe-Orope S Inside

Claims (7)

[Claims] 1. A current position detecting means for calculating a current position of a vehicle; an input means for inputting information necessary for calculating a route; an output means for outputting information for route guidance; Area information for direction guidance of a road coming out of, information storage means storing data necessary for performing route guidance including direction guidance phrase data corresponding to each area, and information input by the input means. A route calculation unit that calculates a route based on the route, a route information storage unit that stores information on the route calculated by the route calculation unit, a route calculated by the route calculation unit, and a current value detected by the current position detection unit. Based on location and
Guidance control means for outputting guidance information of the next guidance junction to the output means, wherein the guidance control means outputs all road information from the guidance junction on the route stored in the route information storage means. It is obtained and determines which area each road enters, and when a plurality of roads exist in the same area and satisfies predetermined conditions, direction guidance information is output using a direction guidance phrase of an adjacent area. Vehicle navigation device. 2. The vehicle navigation device according to claim 1, wherein when there is a guide-free road on a road exiting from the guide junction, the area is set based on the guide-free road. 3. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the predetermined condition is that a road does not exist in at least one of the areas on both sides of the area of the road to be guided and that the road should be guided. A vehicle navigation device wherein a road is closer to an area where there is no road than other roads. 4. The vehicle according to claim 1, wherein when the left and right directions of the direction guidance phrase in the adjacent area and the current direction guidance phrase are opposite, the adjacent area is not regarded as the adjacent area. Navigation device. 5. The apparatus according to claim 3, wherein two roads exist in the right turn area or the left turn area, and a direction guidance phrase of an adjacent area is provided for a road having a large angle with respect to a line perpendicular to an entering road. A navigation device for a vehicle, which is used. 6. The apparatus according to claim 3, wherein there are three roads in the right-turn or left-turn area, and two roads are smaller or larger than 90 ° with respect to an extension of the entering road, and one other road is formed. When the road is larger or smaller than 90 [deg.], The vehicle navigation apparatus uses direction guidance phrases in adjacent areas for roads on both sides of the three roads. 7. A storage medium having a program for searching for a route from a departure point or a current position to a destination and providing guidance along the searched route, searching for a guide branch point on the route, and searching for the searched guide branch. It obtains all the roads exiting from the point and determines which area each road enters for direction guidance, and if there are multiple roads in the same area, and the area on both sides of the area of the road to be guided , On the condition that there is no road in at least one area and the road to be guided is closer to an area where there is no road than other roads, A storage medium having a built-in output program.