Walker navigation system, walker navigation method, guidance data collection apparatus and guidance data collection method

• US 20020077749A1
• Filed: 12/13/2001
• Published: 06/20/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 12/15/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Fujitsu Mobile Communications Limited (Fujitsu Limited)
• Original Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba (Toshiba Corporation)
• Inventors: Doi, Miwako
• Granted Patent: US 6,542,811 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/209
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/20 Instruments for performing navigational calculations G01C21/24, G01C21/26 take precedence

Abstract

A walker navigation system comprises an input designation device to input a departure location and destination, a road data storage to store road data, a supplement data storage to store supplement data representing at least some of stairs, an elevator, an escalator, a step, and a road width corresponding to the road data, a route generator to generate an optimum route by calculating a cost of a route from the departure location to the destination based on the road data and the supplement data, and an output device to visually output the optimum route.

Claims

1. A walker navigation system comprising:

an input designation device configured to input a departure location and destination;

a road data storage configured to store road data;

a supplement data storage configured to store supplement data representing at least some of stairs, an elevator, an escalator, a step, and road width in correspondence with the road data of the road data storage;

a route generator configured to generate an optimum route by calculating a cost of a route from the departure location to the destination based on the road data and the supplement data; and

an output device configured to visually output the optimum route.

2. A walker navigation apparatus according to claim 1, which comprises an attribute input device configured to input an attribute to which the user attaches importance in guidance, a route generation controller which changes a route cost in the route generator or an optimization calculation in accordance with the attribute to provide the optimum route to the user.

3. An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the input device includes a unit configured to specify a route that a user demands.

4. An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the road data storage stores road network data provided by the Geographical Survey Institutes.

5. An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the output device outputs the optimum route in a form that a user is easy to understand.

6. An apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the output device outputs the optimum route with at least one of a flashing indication of a route, a color display, a color indication of the route and an arrow printed material.

7. An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the route generator calculates the cost of the route based on a length of a line segment constructing the route, a road width of the line segment and a distance from a landmark near the line segment.

8. A walker navigation apparatus comprising:

a user terminal including an input device configured to input a departure location and destination and an output device configured to visually output an optimum route;

a guidance service server including a road data storage configured to store road data, a supplement data storage configured to store supplement data representing at least some of stairs, an elevator, an escalator, a step, and road width in correspondence with the road data of the road data storage, and a route generator configured to generate the optimum route by calculating a cost of a route from the departure location to the destination based on the road data and the supplement data;

a communication device configured to communicate between the user terminal and the guidance service server to transmit the departure location and destination from the user terminal to the server and the optimum route from the server to the user terminal.

9. An apparatus according to claim 8, wherein the guidance service server transmits the optimum route in a form of a simple map or a guidance sentence with the simple map and a text or speech to the user terminal through the communication device.

10. An apparatus according to claim 9, wherein the user terminal displays the simple map or text on the output device.

11. An apparatus according to claim 8, wherein the user terminal comprises a cellular phone or personal handyphone system.

13. A method according to claim 12, wherein the outputting step outputs the optimum route in a form that a user is easy to understand.

15. An apparatus according to claim 14, wherein the supplement data acquisition device includes a data acquisition device configured to acquire multimedia data representing a still image, a motion image and a speech, a recognition object storage configured to store recognition object information representing an image to be recognized and a key word, and a recognition device configured to recognize the recognition object data based on the multimedia data.

16. An apparatus according to claim 14, wherein the supplement data acquisition device comprises a data acquisition device mounted on an operator and including a camera to acquire image data, a microphone to input a speech, and a recognition device configured to recognize the speech and image data.

18. An apparatus according to claim 17, wherein the supplement data acquisition device includes an data acquisition device configured to acquire multimedia data such as a still image, a motion image and a speech, a recognition object storage configured to store recognition object information representing an image to be recognized and a key word, and a recognition device configured to recognize the recognition object data based on the multimedia data.

12. A walker navigation method comprising:

inputting a departure location and destination;

storing road data in a storage device;

storing supplement data representing at least some of stairs, an elevator, an escalator, a step, and road width in correspondence with the road data in the storage device;

generating an optimum route by calculating a cost of a route from the departure location to the destination based on the road data stored in the road data storage and the supplement data stored in the supplement data storage; and

outputting visually the optimum route.

14. A guidance data collection apparatus comprising:

a position data provider configured to output position data by designating a position;

a supplement data acquisition device configured to acquire supplement data including landmark data representing a landmark as a mark in guidance and a road state changed temporarily by construction; and

a storage configured to store the position data and the landmark,

17. A guidance data collection apparatus comprising:

a position data provider configured to specify and provide position data;

a supplement data acquisition device configured to acquire supplement data representing stairs, an elevator, an escalator and a step; and

a storage configured to store the position data and the supplement data.

19. A method of collecting guidance data comprising:

providing position data by specifying the data;

acquiring landmark information representing a landmark as a mark in guidance and a road state changed temporarily by construction; and

storing the position data and the landmark in a storage.

20. A method of collecting guidance data comprising:

providing position data by specifying the information;

acquiring supplement data representing stairs, an elevator, an escalator and a step; and

storing the position data and the supplement data in a storage.

21. A walker navigation program stored in a computer readable medium comprising:

means for instructing a computer to input a departure location and a destination of guidance;

means for instructing the computer to store road data in a storage device;

means for instructing the computer to store supplement data representing at least some of stairs, an elevator, an escalator, a step, and road width in correspondence with the road data in the storage device;

means for instructing the computer to generate an optimum route by calculating a cost of a route from the departure location to the destination based on the road data stored in the road data storage and the supplement data stored in the supplement data storage; and

means for instructing the computer to provide the optimum route in a form desired by a user.