JP2000146600A - Vehicle navigation device and road traffic information system using the same - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] [Problem] To provide a vehicle navigation device and a vehicle navigation device capable of visually ascertaining variations in the required time to pass through a road section, thereby enabling a driver to select an accurate traveling route. Provide a road traffic information system using A vehicle navigation device (10) detects a current position of the vehicle and displays a symbol on a road map on a display (11), and a base station (2).
And an information reception processing device 15 for receiving the information transmitted from the display device and displaying the required transit time distribution of the designated road section on the display 11. Each time the vehicle provided with the navigation device 10 passes through a node of each road section, the vehicle obtains the required time of passage of the road section that has passed and obtains the base number from the information transmitting device 24 together with the identification number of the road section. Transmit to station 2. The base station 2 collects information transmitted from each vehicle, obtains a required time distribution of passage in each road section, and transmits it to the vehicle that has made the request.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a vehicle navigation system for displaying the detected current position of a vehicle on a road map displayed on a display in the vehicle, and a road traffic information system using the same.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, road traffic information such as traffic congestion information and time required for passing through a specific road section is provided alongside roads, in addition to roadside communication which is reported to a driver of a vehicle traveling in a specific area through a radio or the like. It was possible to know from the traffic information board and the free pattern information board by the electronic bulletin board.

[0003] Recently used vehicle navigation devices include beacon and FM from telephone lines and base stations.
There is also a device that receives road traffic information transmitted through multiplex broadcasting or the like and can display such information on a display in a vehicle. Methods for displaying the received traffic information on the display include a method using characters and a method using simple road graphics. By receiving the provision of the road traffic information through such a device, the driver can arrive at the destination faster than the congested road, and the traffic congestion on the road is alleviated.

[0004]

However, the time required for passing through a road section displayed on the information board or the vehicular navigation system is an average value, and is caused by a difference in driving skill or a traveling lane. It was not possible to know the variation of the required transit time due to the difference in the traveling speed of each vehicle. For this reason, even if it is actually possible to pass through the road section in a shorter time than the displayed time, it does not understand it and makes an unnecessary detour, and it is rather delayed to reach the purpose There was an inconvenience.

[0005] The present invention has been made in view of such a problem, and it is possible to visually grasp the variation in the time required to pass through a road section, thereby enabling the driver to select an appropriate traveling route. It is an object of the present invention to provide a simple vehicle navigation device and a road traffic information system using the vehicle navigation device.

[0006]

In order to achieve the above object, a vehicular navigation apparatus according to the present invention includes a display screen (for example, a display 11 in the embodiment) provided in a host vehicle and road map information. (For example, the CD-RO in the embodiment)
M12) and road map information output means (for example, CD-ROM in the embodiment) for reading the road map information from the road map information recording means and displaying a road map on the display screen.
A ROM drive device 13) and a vehicle position detecting means (for example, a vehicle position detecting device according to the embodiment) for detecting the current position of the vehicle and displaying the detected current position of the vehicle as a symbol on a road map. 14), and a road section designating means (for example, a road section selection button 26 in the embodiment) for designating one or a plurality of continuous road sections whose distribution of required transit times is desired to be known, and transmitted from the base station. Information reception processing means (e.g., information processing means) for receiving the required passage time distribution information of the road section and displaying the required passage time distribution of the road section designated by the road section designation means on a display screen based on the received information. Information reception processing device 15) in the embodiment. In the vehicle navigation device having such a configuration, the current position of the own vehicle is displayed on the road map projected on the display screen, and the distribution of required transit time of the selected and designated desired road section is displayed on the display screen. Therefore, the driver can grasp the variation of the required transit time and accurately select a route to the destination. Note that the road section is a section obtained by dividing a road by an intersection or the like, and all roads are defined as a group of the road sections.

A road traffic information system according to the present invention includes a vehicle group including a plurality of vehicles each having the above-described vehicle navigation device, and a base station that exchanges information with each vehicle constituting the vehicle group. The base station transmits the required passage time distribution information of the road section to each vehicle, so that the display section of the vehicle navigation device provided for each vehicle has the road section designated by the road section designation means. Display the transit time distribution. In such a road traffic information system, each vehicle runs while avoiding a crowded road, so that traffic congestion itself on the road is reduced. Each vehicle is provided with a transmitting means (for example, the information transmitting device 24 in the embodiment) to transmit the information on the time required for the vehicle to pass through the road section to the base station, and the base station collects the information on each vehicle. In this case, it is preferable to obtain the distribution information of the required transit time of the road section.

[0008]

Preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram showing the configuration of the road traffic information system according to the present invention. This road traffic information system includes a vehicle group 1 running on a road,
Each of the vehicles 1a, 1a,...
And a plurality of base stations 2, 2, ... that exchange information. Are defined as a group of road sections divided by intersections and the like, and each road section is assigned an identification number in the road traffic system. ing.

Each of the vehicles 1a, 1a,... Includes a vehicle navigation device 10 according to the present invention, which will be described later. Each time the vehicle passes through both ends, the time required to pass through the road section that has passed (that is, the time required to pass through the road section) is obtained, encoded with the identification number of the road section, and transmitted from the on-board transmitter. (Indicated by dashed arrows in FIG. 2). The base stations 2, 2,... Provided at various places collect and directly or indirectly collect information transmitted from the vehicles 1a, 1a,. The distribution of the required transit time for each road section is calculated from the relationship between the required transit time for each road section and the number of vehicles in all the road sections in the area, and the information storage device 3 is provided using a route such as the Internet.
Transfer to The information storage device 3 stores the information transferred from the base stations 2, 2,... For a certain period of time (for example, 10 minutes) and creates a database (this database is updated every predetermined time). Each base station 2 retrieves information corresponding to the request from a database and retrieves the information when the vehicle 1a traveling in the service area requests the required time distribution information of the road section, as described later. To the vehicle 1a that has made the request (indicated by the solid arrow in FIG. 2).

FIG. 1 shows the configuration of a vehicle navigation system (hereinafter referred to as a navigation system) 10 according to the present invention. This navigation device 10
A display (display screen) 11 mounted near the driver's seat, and a CD-ROM in which road map information is recorded in advance
(Road map information recording means) 12 and this CD-ROM 1
2, a CD-ROM drive (road map information output means) 13 for reading road map information from the display device 2 and displaying the road map on the display 11, detecting the current position of the own vehicle, and detecting the detected current position of the own vehicle. Vehicle position detecting device (vehicle position detecting means) 14 for displaying traffic information on the display 11 and receiving traffic information transmitted from the base station 2.
An information reception processing device (information reception processing means) 15 for processing and displaying the information on the display 11 is provided. Here, outputs from the CD-ROM drive device 13, the vehicle position detection device 14, and the information reception processing device 15 are output (displayed) to the display 11 via the display control device 16, A desired output can be obtained by operating the operation device 17 that operates the display control device 16.

The vehicle position detection device 14 is configured to determine the position of the vehicle from the GPS navigation and to correct the position by the autonomous navigation, and to use a GPS receiving device (antenna, amplifier, 18),
A sensor 19 such as a vehicle speed sensor and a gyro sensor;
An arithmetic unit 20 for inputting information obtained from the S receiving device 18 and information obtained from the sensor 19 to calculate the position of the own vehicle, and a process for processing and outputting the own vehicle position information obtained by the arithmetic unit 20 Device 21. Also,
The information reception processing device 15 includes an information reception device (including an antenna and an amplifier) 22 for receiving traffic information transmitted from the base station 2, and processes and outputs the traffic information received by the information reception device 22. And an information processing device 23 that performs the processing.

In a vehicle equipped with such a navigation device 10, a radio wave transmitted from a plurality of GPS satellites 4 is received by a GPS receiver 18 while traveling on a road, and a calculation device 20 calculates based on the received radio waves. To detect the vehicle position. In addition, since the detection of the position of the own vehicle causes an error in a place where GPS radio waves cannot be received, such as in a tunnel, the correction is performed using the information on the running speed and the running direction of the own vehicle detected from the sensor 19. ing.
The own vehicle position obtained by the arithmetic unit 20 is the processing unit 2
The signal is processed at 1 and output to the display 11 via the display control device 16. As a result, the current position of the vehicle is symbolically displayed on the display 11 on the road map read from the CD-ROM 12. Since the symbol of the vehicle position moves on the road map as the vehicle travels, the driver can always know which position the vehicle is traveling on the road map, without getting lost. While being able to move to the destination, it is possible to find the shortcut and reach the destination faster. Further, the arithmetic unit 20 calculates the time required for passing through the road section related to the own vehicle from the relationship between the current position of the own vehicle and the time each time the vehicle passes through the nodes of the road section (both ends of each road section). The signal is transmitted from the transmitting device 24 to the base station 2. The transmitted information is received by the base station 2 and processed according to the procedure described above.

In order to display the required time distribution of a required road section on the display 11, first, the display 1
1 to set the navigation device 10 to the transit time distribution display mode by operating the operation device 17 provided near
A road section selection button (road section specifying means) 26 in the operation device 17 is operated to select and specify a road section (one or a plurality of continuous road sections) for which the distribution of required transit time is to be known on the road map on the display screen. I do. The selection of the road section is performed by operating the cross button 26a to display the display 11.
This operation is performed by moving the upper cursor C in the up, down, left, and right directions, and pressing the setting button 26b in a state where the cursor C is adjusted to a desired road section. As a result, the road section selected and designated changes to a thick line. In FIG. 3, road sections R1 and R2 indicate road sections that have already been selected and designated, and road section R3 indicates a road section that is to be selected and designated. In addition,
The location of the first road section of the selected plurality of road sections is the departure point, and the location of the last road section is the arrival point. ) Can be specified.

When the selection and selection of the road section is completed by the above procedure and the selection / designation end button (not particularly shown) of the operating device 17 is pressed, the required time distribution information of the passage of the selected and specified road section is requested. A signal is transmitted from the request transmitting device (including an antenna or the like) 25. This request is made to the base station 2 which is the area in charge of the current position of the vehicle. Upon receiving the request, the base station 2 searches the database for the required transit time distribution of all the road sections selected and designated, and transmits it to the requesting vehicle. In addition, as mentioned above,
Since information transmitted from a plurality of base stations 2, 2,... Is collected in the database, the road section that can be selected on the road map is the base station 2 that has made the request (that is, the vehicle is currently running). The area is not limited to the area in which the base station 2) is the area in charge of the point.

[0015] The information on the distribution of required passage time of the road section transmitted from the base station 2 is received by the information receiving device 22.
In the information processing device 23, the required time distributions of all road sections existing from the departure point to the arrival point are integrated, signal processed, and output to the display 11 via the display control device 16. As a result, the required passage time distribution of the designated road section is displayed in a graph. Here, it is preferable that the horizontal axis of the graph is the required passage time and the vertical axis is the number of vehicles. If a waypoint is designated, the route is displayed separately for each section from the departure point to the waypoint and the waypoint to the arrival point.

FIG. 4 is an example of a display screen diagram showing a distribution of required transit time of a selected road section, with Shinjuku as a departure point, Yoga and Gotemba as waypoints, and Motohakone as an arrival point. Here, the horizontal axis of the graph is the time required for passage, the unit is minutes, and the vertical axis is the number of vehicles. The place names of the departure point, the waypoint, and the arrival point are shown on the left side of the display screen as shown in FIG. From this figure, it can be seen that the average travel time between Shinjuku and Yoga is about 50 minutes and the variance is small, the average between Yoga and Gotemba is about 65 minutes and the variance is large, and the average between Gotemba and Motohakone is average. It can be seen that the value is approximately 40 minutes and the variance is large. As described above, not only the average value of the required transit time but also the variance thereof is visually displayed on the display 11. However, it is expected that there is a large individual difference in driving speed in a road section where the variance of the required transit time is large. In such a road section, it is possible to read the possibility that the vehicle can pass through the road section in a time shorter than the average value of the required transit time, and it can be used as a guide for selecting a route to the destination.

As described above, in the vehicular navigation device 10 according to the present invention, the current position of the vehicle is displayed on the road map displayed on the display 11, and the time required for passing through the desired and specified road section is selected. Since the distribution is displayed, the driver can grasp the variation of the required transit time and accurately select a route to the destination. Further, in the above-described road traffic information system according to the present invention configured using the vehicle navigation device 10, the vehicles 1a, 1a,... The congestion itself is alleviated.

Although the embodiments of the present invention have been described above, the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments, and various modifications are possible. For example, in the above embodiment, each base station 2 is a vehicle 1 that travels in the area covered by it.
a, 1a,..., the required passage time information of the road section is collected. However, the method of obtaining the required passage time of the road section is not necessarily limited to this method, and may be obtained by other methods. Good. For example, there is a method of fixing a sensor such as a vehicle sensor at a node of a road section and calculating a time difference between a specific vehicle entering and exiting the road section. Also, each vehicle 1a, 1a,... Does not calculate the time required for the vehicle to pass through the road section.
May transmit the detected current position information of the own vehicle and the detected time information to the base station 2, and the base station 2 may calculate the time required for the vehicle to pass through a road section.

[0019]

As described above, the vehicular navigation apparatus according to the present invention comprises a display screen provided in the own vehicle, a road map information recording means for recording road map information in advance, and a road map information recording means. Road map information output means for reading the road map information from the display screen and displaying the road map on the display screen, detecting the current position of the own vehicle, and displaying the detected current position of the own vehicle in a symbol on a road map. Road section specifying means for specifying one or a plurality of continuous road sections whose passing time distribution is desired to be known, and passing time distribution information of the road section transmitted from the base station. And an information receiving process for displaying, on the display screen, a required time distribution of the passage of the road section specified by the road section specifying means based on the received information. And a means. In the vehicle navigation device having such a configuration, the current position of the own vehicle is displayed on the road map projected on the display screen, and the distribution of required transit time of the selected and designated desired road section is displayed on the display screen. Therefore, the driver can grasp the variation of the required transit time and accurately select a route to the destination.

Further, a road traffic information system according to the present invention comprises a vehicle group comprising a plurality of vehicles each having the above-mentioned vehicle navigation device, and a base station for exchanging information with each vehicle constituting the vehicle group. The base station transmits the required passage time distribution information of the road section to each vehicle, so that the display section of the vehicle navigation device provided for each vehicle has the road section designated by the road section designation means. Display the transit time distribution. In such a road traffic information system, each vehicle runs while avoiding a crowded road, so that traffic congestion itself on the road is reduced. Each vehicle is provided with a transmitting means and transmits required time information of the road section about the own vehicle to the base station, and the base station collects the information on each vehicle to obtain the required time information of the road section. Is preferably obtained.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a vehicle navigation device according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a conceptual diagram showing a configuration of a road traffic information system according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is an example of a display screen diagram showing a situation where a road section is selected in a required transit time distribution display mode.

FIG. 4 is an example of a display screen when a required passage time distribution of a road section is displayed in a required passage time distribution display mode.

[Explanation of symbols]

Reference Signs List 1 vehicle group 2 base station 4 GPS satellite 10 vehicle navigation device 11 display (display screen) 12 CD-ROM (road map information recording means) 13 CD-ROM drive device (road map information output means) 14 own vehicle position detection device (Vehicle position detection means) 15 information reception processing device (information reception processing means) 24 information transmission device (transmission means) 26 road section selection button (road section selection means)

Continued on the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁷ Identification symbol FI Theme coat II (reference) G09B 29/00 G09B 29/00 F 29/10 29/10 A H04Q 7/34 H04B 7/26 106A F term (reference) 2C032 HB06 HB11 HB25 HD04 HD26 2F029 AA02 AB01 AB07 AB09 AC01 AC02 AC04 AC16 AD03 5H180 AA01 BB04 BB13 CC12 DD04 EE18 FF04 FF12 FF32 5K067 AA34 BB27 BB36 DD30 DD51 EE02 EE10 FF03 KK03 FF03 KK

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A display screen provided in an own vehicle; a road map information recording means in which road map information is recorded in advance; reading the road map information from the road map information recording means; and displaying a road map on the display screen. A vehicle navigation system comprising: road map information output means for displaying; and vehicle position detecting means for detecting the current position of the vehicle and displaying the detected current position of the vehicle on a symbol on the road map. A road section designating means for designating one or a plurality of continuous road sections whose passage time distribution is desired to be known; and receiving the passage time distribution information of the road section transmitted from the base station. Information reception processing means for displaying, on the display screen, a required time distribution of the passage of the road section designated by the road section designation means, based on the obtained information. Vehicle navigation system, which comprises. 2. A vehicle group comprising a plurality of vehicles each provided with the vehicle navigation device according to claim 1; and a base station for exchanging information with each vehicle constituting the vehicle group. The base station transmits the required travel time distribution information of the road section to each of the vehicles, so that the road specified by the road section specifying means is displayed on the display screen of the vehicular navigation device provided in each of the vehicles. A road traffic information system for displaying a distribution of required transit times of a section. 3. The vehicle according to claim 1, wherein the vehicle includes a transmitting unit, and transmits information on a time required for the vehicle to pass through a road section to the base station, and the base station collects the information on the vehicle, and 3. The road traffic information system according to claim 2, wherein information on required time distribution of passage in a road section is obtained.