KR20040025150A - Route guide method in car navigation system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: A method for guiding a path in a vehicle navigation system is provided to enable a driver to grasp a traveling path more rapidly and accurately. CONSTITUTION: According to the method for guiding a path in a vehicle navigation system comprising a camera installed in a front part of a vehicle, a driver viewing image photographed by the camera installed in the front part of the vehicle while a driver drives the vehicle is displayed on a display part(202). After calculating a traveling path from the present position to a destination of the vehicle(208), position information varying as the vehicle moves from sensors and a global positioning system is inputted and then the present position of the vehicle on the traveling road is searched(210). Then, path guide display information corresponding to the present position of the vehicle is overlaid on the driver viewing image displayed on the display part(214).

Description

ROUTE GUIDE METHOD IN CAR NAVIGATION SYSTEM}

The present invention relates to a navigation device for a vehicle, and more particularly to a route guidance method in a vehicle navigation device.

In general, the navigation device using the satellite was a method used in aircraft, ships, etc., but in recent years it has been widely used for vehicles. As described above, many technologies have been developed in order to more accurately grasp the position of the vehicle while using the vehicle navigation apparatus using the satellite.

The vehicle navigation apparatus receives radio wave data indicating latitude, longitude, altitude, etc. according to the position of the vehicle from a plurality of satellites belonging to a global positioning system (hereinafter referred to as "GPS"), The map device reads map data from the attached device and displays a map, and visually and audibly provides the user with a vehicle moving route guide along the shortest route on the displayed map. The route guidance function is a basic function of the vehicle navigation system. After the route calculation is completed, the user starts driving and the intersection guidance is provided when the intersection appears. Intersection guidance is achieved by providing the user with a voice and an intersection related screen display when the vehicle arrives at a point on the guidance specification (eg 300 m in front of the intersection point or 100 m in front). Accordingly, the user can know in advance the direction of rotation to proceed at the intersection point to appear in the future.

However, in the vehicle navigation apparatus as described above, since the user is provided with the vehicle movement route guidance through the map, when the user is not familiar with the map, it is difficult to match the actual route with the route on the map, and it takes time to identify the map while driving. There is a risk of departure.

Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a route guidance method for a driver to quickly and accurately grasp a moving route in a vehicle navigation apparatus.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a route guidance display information on the display and display the driver's field of view taken by the camera provided in the front of the vehicle in the route guidance method in the vehicle navigation device on the display unit; It is to provide a method of overlaying and displaying.

In accordance with the above object, the present invention provides a method for guiding a route in a vehicle navigation apparatus having a camera mounted on the front of the vehicle, wherein the driver is photographed by a camera mounted on the front of the vehicle when the vehicle is driven. Displaying a driver's field of view image on a display unit, calculating a driving route from a current position of the vehicle to a destination, and receiving position information that changes as the vehicle moves from various sensors and a positioning system, Searching for the current location of the vehicle; and overlaying and displaying route guide display information corresponding to the current location of the vehicle on the driver's field of view image displayed on the display unit.

1 is a configuration diagram of a vehicle navigation apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention,

2 is a flowchart of a route guidance control according to an embodiment of the present invention;

3 to 4 are diagrams illustrating one example of a screen displaying route guidance display information overlaid on a field of view image of a driver photographed in a vehicle while driving according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

Hereinafter, exemplary embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. It should be noted that the same elements in the figures are represented by the same numerals wherever possible. In addition, detailed descriptions of well-known functions and configurations that may unnecessarily obscure the subject matter of the present invention will be omitted.

1 is a block diagram of a vehicle navigation apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 1, the camera 2 is mounted at the front of the vehicle and photographs a driver's field of view image that the driver sees when driving the vehicle. The image processing unit 4 converts the driver's field of view image input from the camera 2 into a suitable processing signal and transmits it to the control unit 6. The GPS antenna 14 receives signals from a plurality of satellites belonging to the GPS. The GPS receiver 12 calculates a pseudo coordinate value of the current position according to the signal received by the GPS antenna 14. The speed sensor 16 measures the speed of the vehicle while driving, and the gyro sensor 18 measures the orientation, that is, the rotation angle, of the vehicle while driving. The map data storage unit 22 stores three-dimensional map data and other additional data. 3D map data is 3D map data created on the basis of photographs taken from satellites.The 3D map data is a picture of images taken from satellites and three-dimensional information (for example, terrain or facility appearance) related to the shape of the actual road or the road. Have The map data storage unit 22 is generally implemented as a compact disk-read only memory (CD-ROM).

The control unit 6 controls the overall operation of the vehicular navigation device. In detail, the controller 6 displays the driver's field of view image captured by the camera 2 on the display unit 10. In addition, the controller 6 calculates the current pseudo position of the vehicle based on the rotation angle and the speed of the vehicle transmitted from the speed sensor 16 and the gyro sensor 18, and determines the current position of the current position transmitted from the GPS receiver 12. Select one of the pseudo coordinates and the calculated pseudo position. At this time, the selection criteria are based on the calculated value when the cumulative error is small from the sensor unit, and when the cumulative error is increased, the cumulative error is corrected by the value transmitted from the GPS receiver 12. The controller 6 calculates not only the current position of the vehicle but also driving information such as the speed of the vehicle and the traveling direction of the vehicle. The controller 6 reads the 3D map data of the surrounding area from the map data storage 22 based on the calculated driving information, generates a simulation image such as a driver's field of view image, and generates the generated simulation image and the camera 2. ) Matches the driver's field of view image captured and displayed on the display unit 10. The route guidance display information corresponding to the simulation image matched to the driver's field of view image displayed on the display unit 10 is visually displayed on the display unit 10 and is output acoustically through the speaker. In addition to these basic functions, the control unit 6 also provides a function of guiding an optimal route from the current location to the destination.

The ROM (Read Only Memory) 24 and the RAM (Random Access Memory) 26 temporarily store a program for the operation of the controller 6 and data to be processed during the operation.

The graphic processor 8 processes the driving information calculated by the controller 6 as display data so that the driver can visually confirm. The display unit 10 displays display data processed by the graphic processing unit 8. The display unit 10 may be implemented as a cathode ray tube (CRT) or a liquid crystal display (LCD). The voice processor 20 processes the driving information calculated by the control unit 6 as voice data so that the driver can confirm audibly. The speaker outputs the voice data processed by the voice processor 20. That is, the graphic processing unit 8 and the voice processor 20 process the map data read from the map data storage unit 22 and a state occurring during the execution of various functions as display data and voice data.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, when the driver operates the vehicle navigation apparatus while the vehicle is driving, the camera 2 provided at the front portion of the vehicle is operated and the driver's field of view image captured by the camera 2 is displayed on the display unit 10. Is displayed. Then, when the driver inputs a destination, a path between the current location and the destination is set, and as the vehicle moves by the driver, the display unit 10 displays the driver's field of view image captured by the camera 2 and the path direction on the driver's field of view image. And route guidance display information such as route distance are displayed as overlay.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart illustrating a route guide control flow according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIGS. 3 to 4 are screens in which route guide display information is overlaid and displayed on a field of view image of a driver photographed in a vehicle while driving according to an embodiment of the present invention. Yes.

Hereinafter, a route guide control operation of a driver while driving a vehicle will be described in detail with reference to FIGS. 1 to 4.

The controller 6 checks whether there is a driver's view image input from the camera 2 in step 200 of FIG. 2. If there is a driver's field of view image captured by the camera 2, the controller 6 displays the driver's field of view image input in step 202 of FIG. 2 on the display unit. The camera 2 is provided in front of the vehicle, and when the driver operates the vehicle navigation apparatus, the camera 2 captures an image of the driver's field of view. The driver's field of view image captured by the camera 2 is converted into a suitable processing signal through the image processor 4 and input to the controller 6. The driver's field of view image is a field of view image at the same point in time as that of the image that the driver sees when driving the vehicle.

After displaying the driver's field of view image captured by the camera 2 on the display unit 10, the controller 6 acquires the current position of the vehicle in step 204 of FIG. That is, the control unit 6 receives GPS information that changes as the vehicle moves from the various sensors such as the speed sensor 16 and the gyro sensor 18 and the GPS receiver 12, that is, the latitude and longitude information, and receives the current position of the vehicle. Get. In operation 206 of FIG. 2, the controller 6 determines whether there is a destination input from the user. If the user inputs destination information that the user wants to go to, the controller 6 proceeds to step 208 of FIG. 2. The controller 6 calculates a path between the current location and the input destination in step 208 of FIG. 2 and stores the calculated path in the RAM 26. This route calculation and storage uses map data and GPS information stored in the map data storage 22. The map stored in the map data storage unit 22 is three-dimensional map data created based on a photograph taken from a satellite, and photograph information taken from a satellite, and a shape of a real road calculated through the satellite or three-dimensional information related to the corresponding road ( For example, terrain or facility appearance). Therefore, by using the 3D map data, it is possible to accurately obtain the distance of the road, the road gradient, the radius of curvature of the curve, and the like for calculating the route.

After finishing calculating and storing the route between the current position and the input destination, the controller 6 searches for the current position in the 3D map data stored and used in the map data storage 22 in step 212 of FIG. In operation 214 of FIG. 2, the control unit 6 generates a simulation image capable of virtually displaying the driver's field of view image of the current location using the 3D map data, and displays the generated simulation image on the display unit 10. Match the actual driver's field of view image. That is, the controller 6 performs matching in a manner that matches the reference point of the generated simulation image and the reference point of the driver's field of view image displayed on the display unit 10. Since the 3D map data has photo information and GPS information taken from satellites at each location, ie latitude data, longitude data, and altitude data, the size and height of the actual building can be accurately known. Therefore, the control unit 6 simulates the driver's view image that the driver sees when driving the vehicle, that is, the driver's view image at the same viewpoint position as the vehicle driver, by synthesizing the GPS information and the pictures taken from the satellite at each position. Can be generated. In addition, the controller 6 may associate the route guidance display information of the vehicle navigation system with the simulation image.

In operation 216 of FIG. 2, the controller 6 overlays and displays the route guidance display information corresponding to the simulation image of the current position of the 3D map data on the driver's field of view image displayed on the display unit 10. The controller 6 combines the driver's vision image information photographed from the camera 2 with the route guidance display information corresponding to the simulation image of the current position, thereby displaying the driver's vision image displayed on the display unit 2, such as guidance arrows. Overlay on and display. For example, the driver's field of view image displayed on the display unit 10, that is, the same image as that of the actual driver's field of view, as shown in FIG. Alternatively, as shown in FIG. 4, the curve guidance guide is displayed by being overlaid. Accordingly, the driver can easily recognize the route guidance display information and find the road easily.

In operation 218 of FIG. 2, the controller 6 determines whether the driver's vehicle has arrived at the destination. If the driver's vehicle does not arrive at the destination, the controller 6 returns to step 212 of FIG. 2 and repeats the above-described process of the route guidance operation until the vehicle arrives at the destination.

In the above description of the present invention, specific embodiments have been described, but various modifications may be made without departing from the scope of the present invention. Therefore, the scope of the present invention should not be defined by the described embodiments, but should be determined by the equivalent of claims and claims.

As described above, when the driver operates the vehicle navigation apparatus while the vehicle is driving, the camera provided at the front portion of the vehicle operates and the driver's field of view image captured by the camera is displayed on the display unit. Then, when the driver inputs a destination, a path between the current location and the destination is set. As the vehicle moves, the driver's view image captured by the camera is overlaid with the path guidance display information such as the path direction and the path distance. Is displayed. Therefore, since the destination route guidance display information is displayed on the same visual image as the actual driving situation, the driver can easily understand the route guidance and find the way easily. In addition, it is possible to increase safety, such as focusing on driving, by eliminating map analysis time in driving situations.

Claims (3)

In the method for guiding a route in a vehicle navigation device having a camera mounted on the front of the vehicle, Displaying, by the driver, a driver's field of view image captured by a camera mounted to the front of the vehicle while driving the vehicle; Calculating a driving route from the current position of the vehicle to a destination, and receiving the position information that changes as the vehicle moves from various sensors and the positioning system, and searching for the current position of the vehicle on the driving route; And overriding and displaying route guidance display information corresponding to the current position of the vehicle on the driver's field of view image displayed on the display unit. The method of claim 1, The process of overlaying and displaying route guide display information corresponding to the current position of the vehicle on the driver's field of view image displayed on the display unit, Generating a simulation image virtually representing the driver's field of view image at the current location by using 3D map data, and mapping route guidance display information to the generated simulation image; Matching the generated simulation image with the driver's field of view image displayed on the display unit; And overlaying and displaying route guidance display information corresponding to the simulation image of the current position of the vehicle on the driver's field of view image displayed on the display unit. The method of claim 1, wherein the driver's field of view image is an image that the driver sees when driving the vehicle and is a field of view image of the same viewpoint as the driver's viewpoint.