JP2007085787A - Route guide device - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a route guide device interrupting a guide operation, when deviating from a moving route because a driver changes a destination. <P>SOLUTION: A control circuit 15 has an unillustrated internal counter for counting the number of times wherein a vehicle deviates from a set moving route, and interrupts the guide operation when a value of the internal counter reaches a prescribed or higher value, namely, when the vehicle deviates from the set moving route in the prescribed or larger number of times. Thereafter, when a new destination is set by the driver, a moving route from the present position of the vehicle to the new destination is calculated, and displayed in the superimposed state on a map image displayed on a display 3, and voice guide is performed so that the vehicle travels along the moving route, and the guide operation is restarted. When continuation of the guide operation is instructed simply, the guide operation is restarted as it is. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2007,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a route guidance device for guiding a moving route of a vehicle.

Conventionally, a navigation device having a function of resetting a movement route when a vehicle deviates from the set movement route is known. For example, in Patent Document 1, when the vehicle deviates from the set travel route, if the driver's recognition level regarding the geography around the current position of the vehicle is low, it is determined that the driver has accidentally deviated from the travel route, Reset the travel route and continue route guidance. On the other hand, if the driver is highly aware of the geography around the current position of the vehicle, it is determined that the driver has selected the “traffic escape route” or “the road where the driver can easily drive” by his / her own intention. The route guidance is continued for the already set travel route without resetting.
JP 2003-156349 A

  Thus, in the conventional apparatus, when the vehicle deviates from the travel route, it is determined whether or not to reset the travel route depending on whether or not the driver knows the geography around the current position of the vehicle. . However, the conventional apparatus does not consider the case where the vehicle deviates from the moving route when the driver changes or cancels the destination. In such a case, unnecessary route guidance is continuously performed, which is inconvenient.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide a route guidance device that interrupts the guidance operation when the driver deviates from the movement route due to a change or cancellation of the destination. To do.

  In order to achieve the above object, in the route guidance apparatus according to claim 1, a route setting unit that searches and sets a travel route to the destination, and the vehicle is moved along the travel route set by the route setting unit. A route guidance device having guidance means for guiding to travel to a destination, wherein the route setting means moves from the current position of the vehicle to the destination when the vehicle deviates from the set movement route. Searching the route and resetting the movement route, and when the vehicle deviates more than a predetermined number of times from the movement route set by the route setting means, the route setting means interrupts the movement route resetting operation, The guiding means is also characterized in that the guiding operation is interrupted.

  As described above, in the route guidance device of the present invention, the route setting means searches for the movement route from the current position of the vehicle to the destination and re-establishes the movement route when the vehicle deviates from the set movement route. When the vehicle deviates from the movement route set by the route setting means a predetermined number of times or more, the route setting means interrupts the movement route resetting operation, and the guidance means also interrupts the guidance operation. If the driver deviates from the travel route due to a change or cancellation of the destination, the vehicle will deviate from the newly set travel route again no matter how many times the route setting means resets the travel route. Become. In other words, the number of times the latter deviates from the moving route is overwhelming when the driver simply deviates from the moving route by mistake or when the driver deviates from the moving route due to a change or cancellation of the destination. Will increase. Therefore, when the vehicle deviates more than a predetermined number of times from the travel route set by the route setting means, the route setting means interrupts the movement route resetting operation, and the guide means also interrupts the guidance operation so that the driver can If the travel route is deviated due to the change or cancellation, unnecessary route guidance is not performed and the usability is improved.

  The route setting means interrupts the movement route resetting operation, and the guide means also interrupts the guidance operation, and then the movement route resetting operation and the guidance operation are stopped, and the movement route resetting is performed. It is desirable to provide selection means for selecting which of the continuation of the operation and the guidance operation, the resetting operation of the movement route and the continuation of the guidance operation after setting a new destination. Thus, the driver can select the operation after the route setting unit interrupts the resetting operation of the moving route and the guide unit also interrupts the guide operation.

  According to a third aspect of the present invention, when the selection unit selects the movement route resetting operation and the cancellation of the guidance operation, the route setting unit stops the movement route resetting operation, and the guidance unit also stops the guidance operation. It is desirable to do. Thereby, when route guidance is unnecessary, the route guidance can be stopped.

  According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, when the selection unit selects the movement route resetting operation and the continuation of the guidance operation, the route setting unit resumes the movement route resetting operation, and the guidance unit is operated by the route setting unit. It is desirable to restart the guidance operation so that the vehicle travels to the destination along the reset travel route. For example, when the driver is not skilled, it may be possible to deviate from the set movement route by a predetermined number of times. When the movement route resetting operation and the continuation of the guidance operation are selected, the route guidance can be resumed so that the vehicle travels along the movement route to the destination as in the conventional case.

  As described in claim 5, when the movement route resetting operation and the continuation of the guidance operation are selected after setting a new destination by the selection unit, the route setting unit newly sets the movement route to the destination. It is desirable that the resetting operation is resumed, and the guiding unit resumes the guiding operation so that the vehicle travels to a new destination along the travel route reset by the route setting unit. As a result, the route guidance can be resumed so that the vehicle travels along the travel route to the new destination.

  According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, the selection means includes voice recognition means, and the movement route resetting operation and the guidance operation are stopped, the movement route resetting operation and the guidance operation are continued, and a new destination is set. The selection of either the movement route resetting operation or the continuation of the guidance operation later is preferably performed by voice. As a result, the driver can easily make a selection by voice.

  As described in claim 7, it is desirable that the route guidance device operates by being incorporated in the vehicle navigation device. By incorporating this device into a vehicle navigation device and operating it, it becomes more convenient to use.

  FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an overall configuration of a route guidance apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. This route guidance device operates by being incorporated in a car navigation device.

  As shown in FIG. 1, the position detector 1 includes a geomagnetic sensor 11, a gyroscope 12, a distance sensor 13, and a GPS receiver 14, and detects the current position and the traveling direction of the vehicle.

  The geomagnetic sensor 11 has a configuration in which an exciting winding for exciting the annular ferromagnetic material such as permalloy, for example, and two orthogonal detection windings for direction detection are wound. And the voltage which generate | occur | produces in two detection windings by applying an alternating voltage to an excitation winding is measured, and the advancing direction of a vehicle is detected as an absolute direction based on this.

  The gyroscope 12 includes a crystal resonator, for example, and detects the yaw angular velocity (yaw rate) of the vehicle from vibration based on Coriolis force generated when the vibrator is vibrated.

  The distance sensor 13 detects the moving distance of the vehicle based on, for example, rotation signals of wheels and axles (not shown) mounted on the vehicle.

  The GPS receiver 14 receives a GPS signal for position measurement transmitted from a GPS satellite (not shown), which is an artificial satellite, and detects the latitude, longitude, and altitude of the point where the vehicle is currently traveling.

  The position detector 1 performs highly accurate position detection by interpolating the detection results of the four devices described above. Of course, depending on the required detection accuracy, it is not necessary to provide all the four devices described above. Note that the detection of the current position and the traveling direction of the vehicle may be performed based on detection signals from other sensors such as a steering sensor.

  The map data input device 2 has, for example, a hard disk as a storage medium, and stores map data including road information, building information, address information and zip code information of each area, and map image data for displaying a map image. To do. Map data and map image data may be stored in a CD-ROM, DVD-ROM, or the like.

  The display 3 is a small vehicle-mounted display, and performs various navigation displays including display of map images. For the various navigation displays described above, an in-vehicle head-up display or the like may be used.

  The operation switch 4 includes a plurality of mechanical switches, and instructs the car navigation device to start and end various navigation operations. The various navigation instructions described above may be configured by a touch switch including a display panel that displays operation keys and a touch panel that detects that the operation keys displayed on the display panel are pressed. Further, it may be performed using voice recognition.

  The remote controller 5 is, for example, a multi-function remote controller provided with various function switches, and can perform almost the same operation as the operation switch 4 described above via the remote control sensor 6.

  The VICS transceiver 7 is, for example, a small wireless communication device, and receives VICS information such as traffic information, weather information, facility information, and advertisement information transmitted from outside the vehicle. Also, vehicle information, user information, etc. are transmitted outside the vehicle as VICS information. For transmission / reception of the VICS information described above, an optical communication device or the like may be used.

  The voice recognizer 8 is a signal processing circuit, recognizes a user's voice instruction input from the microphone 9, and determines an operation command corresponding to the input voice instruction.

  The voice controller 10 is a voice synthesizer, and outputs various guidance voices, operation explanations of the display 3, voice recognition results, and the like from the speaker 11 by voice. In addition, the operation command determined by the speech recognizer 8 through speech recognition is output to the control circuit 15 described later.

  By using the voice recognizer 8 and the voice controller 10 described above, the driver can easily instruct the apparatus using voice.

  The control circuit 15 includes a known computer, and executes various navigation operations including a map image display and a VICS information display in accordance with an instruction from the operation switch 4 or the remote controller 5 and a voice instruction input from the microphone 9. This navigation operation also includes an operation of setting a movement route to the destination and performing voice guidance so that the vehicle travels along the movement route (hereinafter referred to as a guidance operation). Specifically, when a destination is input from the operation switch 4 or the remote controller 5 or a destination is input from the microphone 9 by voice, the control circuit 15 moves from the current position of the vehicle to the input destination. The route is calculated by, for example, a known Dijkstra method, and is superimposed on the map image displayed on the display 3. Then, voice guidance is started so that the vehicle travels along the movement route. When the vehicle deviates from the set travel route, the control circuit 15 calculates again the travel route from the current position of the vehicle to the set destination and displays it superimposed on the map image displayed on the display 3. Then, voice guidance is performed so that the vehicle travels along the movement route.

  Furthermore, the control circuit 15 has an internal counter (not shown) that counts the number of times the vehicle has deviated from the set travel route. When the value of the internal counter exceeds a predetermined value, that is, the vehicle is set. If the travel route deviates more than a predetermined number of times, the above-described guidance operation is interrupted. After that, when a new destination is set by the driver, the travel route from the current position of the vehicle to the new destination is calculated and displayed superimposed on the map image displayed on the display 3. Voice guidance is performed so that the vehicle travels along the movement route, and the guidance operation is resumed. When the continuation of the guidance operation is simply instructed, the travel route from the current position of the vehicle to the destination set in advance is calculated and superimposed on the map image displayed on the display 3, Voice guidance is performed so that the vehicle travels along the movement route, and the guidance operation is resumed.

  The external memory 16 is used as a temporary storage area when the control circuit 15 performs various operations. For the storage area described above, for example, a memory card or the like may be used.

  FIG. 2 is a flowchart regarding processing for interrupting the guidance operation in the route guidance device of the present embodiment. The processing of this flowchart is executed when the driver sets the destination.

  In step 201, the control circuit 15 sets a movement route to the set destination. In step 202, the current position of the vehicle is acquired from the position detector 1. In step 203, it is determined from the current position of the vehicle acquired in step 202 whether or not the vehicle has reached the destination. If the vehicle has reached the destination, the process proceeds to step 210, the guidance operation is terminated, and the process is terminated. If the vehicle has not yet reached the destination, the process proceeds to step 204.

  In step 204, it is determined whether or not the vehicle has deviated from the movement route set in step 201 from the current position of the vehicle acquired in step 202. If the vehicle deviates from the set travel route, the process proceeds to step 205. If not deviating, the process returns to step 202 and the above process is repeated.

  In step 205, it is determined whether or not the value of the internal counter exceeds a predetermined value, that is, whether or not the vehicle has deviated from the set travel route by a predetermined number of times. If the value of the internal counter exceeds a predetermined value, that is, if the vehicle deviates from the set travel route a predetermined number of times, the process proceeds to step 207. If not, the process proceeds to Step 206, and after adding 1 to the internal counter, the travel route from the current position of the vehicle acquired in Step 202 to the destination is reset, and the process returns to Step 202.

  In step 207, the voice controller 9 is instructed to perform voice guidance as to whether or not to continue the guidance operation, and waits for a predetermined time. In step 208, the operation command acquired from the voice controller 9 is examined to determine whether or not to continue the guidance operation. Thus, the driver can select himself / herself for the operation after the guidance operation is interrupted. If the guidance operation is not continued, the process proceeds to step 209 and the already set travel route is reset. Then, it progresses to step 210, complete | finishes guidance operation | movement, and complete | finishes a process. On the other hand, when continuing guidance operation, it progresses to Step 211.

  In step 211, the voice controller 9 is instructed to give voice guidance as to whether or not to set a new destination, and waits for a predetermined time. In step 212, the operation command acquired from the voice controller 9 is examined to determine whether a new destination has been set. If a new destination is set, the process proceeds to step 213, the travel route from the current position of the vehicle acquired in step 202 to the new destination is calculated, and the process proceeds to step 214. Thereby, guidance operation | movement can be performed so that a vehicle drive | works along the movement path | route to the new destination after a change. On the other hand, if a new destination is not set, the process proceeds to step 214. For example, when the driver is not skilled, it may be possible to deviate from the set movement route by a predetermined number of times. In such a case, by continuously operating, the guidance operation can be resumed so that the vehicle travels along the already set travel route to the destination.

  In step 214, after resetting the internal counter, the process returns to step 202 and the above-described processing is repeated.

  Thus, in the route guidance apparatus of the present embodiment, the control circuit 15 has an internal counter (not shown) that counts the number of times the vehicle deviates from the set travel route, and the value of the internal counter is equal to or greater than a predetermined value. If this is the case, that is, if the vehicle deviates more than a predetermined number of times from the set travel route, the above-described guidance operation is interrupted. If the driver deviates from the travel route because the destination has been changed or canceled, the vehicle will deviate from the newly set travel route no matter how many times the travel route is reset. In other words, the number of times the latter deviates from the moving route is overwhelming when the driver simply deviates from the moving route by mistake or when the driver deviates from the moving route due to a change or cancellation of the destination. Will increase. Therefore, if the vehicle deviates from the set travel route more than a predetermined number of times, the guidance operation is interrupted, and if the driver deviates from the travel route because of changing or canceling the destination, unnecessary route guidance is provided. It is no longer performed and is easy to use.

  In the above-described embodiment, the present device has been incorporated and operated in a car navigation device. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and any device having a road display function can be used preferably and conveniently. However, it is to be noted that the most preferable case is when the apparatus is installed and operated in the car navigation apparatus.

It is a block diagram showing the whole route guidance device composition in one embodiment of the present invention. It is a flowchart regarding the process which interrupts guidance operation | movement in the route guidance apparatus of this embodiment.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Position detector 11 ... Geomagnetic sensor 12 ... Gyroscope 13 ... Distance sensor 14 ... GPS receiver 2 ... Map data input device 3 ... Display 4 ... Operation switch 5 ... Remote control 6 ... Remote control sensor 7 ... Voice recognizer 8 ... Microphone 9 ... Audio controller 10 ... Speaker 15 ... Control circuit 16 ... External memory

Claims (7)

A route setting means for searching and setting a travel route to the destination;
A route guidance device comprising guidance means for guiding the vehicle to travel to the destination along the movement route set by the route setting means,
The route setting means, when the vehicle deviates from the set travel route, searches for a travel route from the current position of the vehicle to the destination and resets the travel route.
When the vehicle deviates more than a predetermined number of times from the movement route set by the route setting means, the route setting means interrupts the resetting operation of the movement route, and the guidance means also interrupts the guidance operation. A characteristic route guidance device. After the route setting means interrupts the movement route resetting operation, and the guide means also interrupts the guidance operation, the movement route resetting operation and the guidance operation stop, the movement route resetting operation, and 2. A selection means for selecting which of the continuation of the guidance operation, the resetting operation of the moving route and the continuation of the guidance operation after setting a new destination is provided. The route guidance apparatus described. When the resetting operation of the moving route and the cancellation of the guiding operation are selected by the selection unit, the route setting unit stops the resetting operation of the moving route, and the guiding unit also stops the guiding operation. The route guidance device according to claim 2. When the selection unit selects the movement route resetting operation and the continuation of the guidance operation, the route setting unit restarts the movement route resetting operation, and the guidance unit is reset by the route setting unit. The route guidance device according to claim 2, wherein the guidance operation is resumed so that the vehicle travels to the destination along the travel route. When the movement route resetting operation and the continuation of the guidance operation are selected after setting the new destination by the selection unit, the route setting unit resets the movement route to the new destination. 3. The guidance means resumes the guidance operation so that the vehicle travels to the new destination along the travel route reset by the route setting means. Route guidance device. The selection means includes voice recognition means,
The movement route resetting operation and the guidance operation are stopped, the movement route resetting operation and the guidance operation are continued, the movement route resetting operation and the guidance operation are continued after setting the new destination. The route guidance device according to any one of claims 2 to 5, wherein any one of the selections is performed by voice. The route guidance device according to any one of claims 1 to 7, wherein the route guidance device operates by being incorporated in a vehicle navigation device.

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