Navigation system using telecommunications

• US 20040204829A1
• Filed: 03/19/2002
• Published: 10/14/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 03/19/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Clarion Co., Ltd. (Faurecia SA)
• Original Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd., Xanavi Informatics Corporation (Hitachi, Ltd.)
• Inventors: Endo, Yoshinori, Matsuo, Shigeru, Nakamura, Kozo, Machii, Kimiyoshi, Ishida, Takaharu, Tanaka, Katsuaki, Morioka, Michio, Yamaashi, Kimiya
• Granted Patent: US 6,873,905 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/202
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3415 Dynamic re-routing, e.g. recalculating the route when the user deviates from calculated route or after detecting real-time traffic data or accidents
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3629 Guidance using speech or audio output, e.g. text-to-speech text to speech systems per se G10L13/00
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3655 Timing of guidance instructions
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3667 Display of a road map G01C21/3614 takes precedence; guidance using 3D or perspective road maps G01C21/3635
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096811 where the route is computed offboard
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096816 where the complete route is transmitted to the vehicle at once
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096838 where the user preferences are taken into account or the user selects one route out of a plurality
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096844 where the complete route is dynamically recomputed based on new data
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096861 where the immediate route instructions are output to the driver, e.g. arrow signs for next turn
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096866 where the complete route is shown to the driver
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096883 where input information is obtained using a mobile device, e.g. a mobile phone, a PDA

Abstract

There is provided a communications-type car navigation system including a vehicle-mounted terminal and a server. When transferring, to the terminal, the result of a route searching which the server has performed, the server transfers the data that will satisfy the requirements of a route guiding method which the user wishes. Also, the server transfers the route data that has been compressed. Concerning the map data as well, the server transfers only the necessary attributes thereof. Moreover, the following conditions allow the operability to be enhanced: the selection of a map transferring method and the route guiding method where the driving state has been taken into consideration, and the selection of a guiding unit which the user wishes.

Claims

1. A communications-type navigation device, comprising:

position measuring means for measuring a position of a self-terminal device,

destination place setting means for setting destination place information,

communications means for performing transmission/reception of data with an information center, and

route guiding means for performing route guidance to said destination place, wherein

said communications means transmits, to said information center, present place information obtained by said position measuring means and said destination place information, and receives route information and guiding point information up to said destination place which have been transmitted from said information center, and

said route guiding means uses said received route information and guiding point information so as to execute guidance to said destination place.

2. The communications-type navigation device as claimed in claim 1, further comprising guiding-mode type specifying means for specifying a guiding-mode type employed for said guidance in said route guidance, wherein

said communications means transmits to said information center, said present place information obtained by said position measuring means, said destination place information, and said guiding-mode type, and receives said route information to said destination place transmitted from said information center and said guiding point information including said specified guiding-mode type, and

said route guiding means executes said guidance to said destination place by using said received route information and said guiding point information including said specified guiding-mode type.

8. The communications-type navigation device as claimed in claim 2, wherein, when an intersection point enlarged-view is selected as said guiding-mode type, said route guiding means creates a guiding point map obtained by extracting a map in a predetermined range including said guiding point and position information on said guiding point, said enlarged-view displaying a guiding direction in a state of being superimposed on said map in a neighborhood of said guiding point.

9. The communications-type navigation device as claimed in claim 8, wherein a judgement is made as to whether or not said map in said predetermined range including said guiding point and said position information on said guiding point has been updated, and, if it is judged that said map has been updated, a request for creating said intersection point enlarged-view at said guiding point is transmitted to said information center.

10. The communications-type navigation device as claimed in claim 2, wherein said route guiding means includes map confirming means, said map confirming means judging whether or not, when an intersection point enlarged-view is selected as said guiding-mode type, there has been stored map information needed for creating said intersection point enlarged-view at a position of said guiding point, said enlarged-view displaying a guiding direction in a state of being superimposed on said map in a neighborhood of said guiding point.

11. The communications-type navigation device as claimed in claim 10, wherein, if said map confirming means has judged that there has been stored said map information needed for creating said intersection point enlarged-view at said position of said guiding point, said route guiding means will create a guiding point map obtained by extracting a map in a predetermined range including said guiding point and position information on said guiding point, and, if said map confirming means has judged that there has been stored none of said map information, said route guiding means creates a guidance information drawing for displaying a guiding direction.

12. The communications-type navigation device as claimed in claim 10, wherein, if said map confirming means has judged that there has been stored none of said map information needed for creating said intersection point enlarged-view at said position of said guiding point, said route guiding means transmits, to said information center, a request for creating said intersection point enlarged-view at said guiding point.

13. The communications-type navigation device as claimed in claim 10, wherein, if said map confirming means has judged that there has been stored none of said map information needed for creating said intersection point enlarged-view at said position of said guiding point, said route guiding means transmits, to said information center, a request for creating map information including said guiding point.

19. The communications-type navigation device as claimed in claim 1, further comprising orbital-track storing means for storing orbital-track information on said position of said self-terminal device measured by said position measuring means, wherein

said communications means transmits, to said information center, said present place information obtained by said position measuring means, said destination place information, and said orbital-track information on said self-terminal device up to directly before said present place, and receives said route information and said guiding point information up to said destination place which have been transmitted from said information center.

50. The communications-type navigation device as claimed in claim 1, wherein, if route guidance information to said destination place has been requested, a predicted data size needed for said communications is calculated from a position relationship between said present place information obtained by said position measuring means and said destination place information, a result of calculating, from said data size, a communications fee needed for said communications being then outputted with a voice or an image.

51. The communications-type navigation device as claimed in claim 1, wherein,

said communications means transmits, to said information center, said present place information obtained by said position measuring means and said destination place information, and receives a data size of said route information and said guiding point information up to said destination place which have been transmitted from said information center, said communications means also calculating, from said received data size, a communications fee needed for said communications, and outputting said communications fee with a voice or an image.

52. The communications-type navigation device as claimed in claim 1, wherein,

said communications means transmits, to said information center, said present place information obtained by said position measuring means and said destination place information and measures its transmitted data amount, and receives said route information and said guiding point information up to said destination place which have been transmitted from said information center and measures its received data amount, and outputs, with a voice or an image, a communications fee needed for said communications from said transmitted data amount and said received data amount measured.

3. An information center, comprising:

communications means for performing transmission/reception of data,

route information calculating means for creating route information by calculating an optimum route from position information on a starting place and a destination place, and

guiding point information calculating means for creating guiding point information by making reference to said calculated route so as to extract a guiding point at which an advancing course is to be modified, wherein

said guiding point information calculating means judges a guiding-mode type in correspondence with a road configuration at said guiding point, and thereby creates said guiding point information including said judged guiding-mode type.

4. The information center as claimed in claim 3, wherein said guiding point information calculating means judges said guiding-mode type in correspondence with a degree of complexity of said road at said guiding point, and thereby creates said guiding point information including said judged guiding-mode type.

5. The information center as claimed in claim 3, wherein said guiding point information calculating means judges said guiding-mode type in correspondence with a type of a road connected to said guiding point, and thereby creates said guiding point information including said judged guiding-mode type.

6. The information center as claimed in claim 3, further comprising user managing means for managing a user who establishes a connection therewith, guiding-mode type storing means for storing said guiding-mode type on each user basis, and guiding-mode type setting means for setting said guiding-mode type, wherein

said guiding point information calculating means refers to said guiding-mode type stored in said guiding-mode type storing means, and thereby creates said guiding point information including said guiding-mode type to which said reference has been made.

7. The information center as claimed in claim 3, wherein, when an intersection point enlarged-view is selected as said guiding-mode type, said guiding point information calculating means creates, as said guiding point information, a guiding point map obtained by extracting a map in a predetermined range including said guiding point, said enlarged-view displaying a guiding direction in a state of being superimposed on said map in a neighborhood of said guiding point.

14. A communications-type navigation device, comprising:

position measuring means for measuring a position of a self-terminal device,

destination place setting means for setting destination place information,

communications means for performing transmission/reception of data with an information center,

route guiding means for performing route guidance to said destination place, and

driving state monitoring means for monitoring a driving state of a self-vehicle, wherein

said communications means transmits, to said information center, present place information obtained by said position measuring means and said destination place information, and receives route information and guiding point information up to said destination place which have been transmitted from said information center,

said route guiding means includes means for judging whether or not said self-terminal device has deviated from said route from said received route information and said position information measured by said position measuring means, and means for determining, if said self-terminal device is judged to have deviated, whether or not to request said information center to perform a route calculation to said destination place in correspondence with said driving state detected by said driving state monitoring means.

15. The communications-type navigation device as claimed in claim 14, wherein said route guiding means includes said means for judging whether or not said self-terminal has deviated from said route from said received route information and said position information measured by said position measuring means, and means for judging, if said self-terminal is judged to have deviated, whether or not said self-terminal is in an on-run state, and for prohibiting, if said self-terminal is in said on-run state, said route calculation to said destination place from being requested to said information center.

16. The communications-type navigation device as claimed in claim 15, wherein said route guiding means further includes means for judging that said self-vehicle has changed from said on-run state into a stop state so as to confirm a user as to whether or not to request said information center to perform said route calculation to said destination place.

17. The communications-type navigation device as claimed in claim 14, wherein said route guiding means provides a mode of automatically requesting said information center to perform said route calculation to said destination place when said self-terminal has deviated from said route, and a mode of confirming a user as to whether or not to request said information center to perform said route calculation to said destination place when said self-terminal has deviated from said route.

18. The communications-type navigation device as claimed in claim 14,

further comprising voice outputting means and voice recognizing means, wherein

said route guiding means talks to a user, with a voice, as to whether or not to request said information center to perform said route calculation to said destination place when said self-terminal has deviated from said route, and recognizes a user instruction by said voice recognizing means, and determines, from said recognized result, whether or not to request said information center to perform said route calculation to said destination place.

20. An information center, comprising:

communications means for performing transmission/reception of data,

route information calculating means for creating route information by calculating an optimum route from position information on a starting place and a destination place, and

guiding point information calculating means for creating guiding point information by making reference to said calculated route so as to extract a guiding point at which an advancing course is to be modified, wherein

said route information calculating means makes a comparison between orbital-track information on a position of a requester and road map information so as to determine a road on which said requester is positioned and an advancing direction thereof, said orbital-track information being received by said communications means, and further, calculates said optimum route from said position information on said destination place obtained by said communications means, and thereby creates said route information.

21. The information center as claimed in claim 20, further comprising means for storing said orbital-track information on said position on each requester basis, said orbital-track information being received by said communications means,

said route information calculating means analyzing utilization-frequencies of roads that each requester utilizes from said orbital-track information on said position on each requester basis, and lowering a cost parameter of a road whose utilization-frequency is high, and thereby creating, as said route information, said high utilization-frequency road with a high priority.

22. A communications-type navigation device, comprising:

communications means for performing transmission/reception of data,

storing means for storing said received data, and

map displaying means for displaying a map, wherein

said communications means transmits, to an information center, a map request for specifying position information and scale information, said storing means storing said map data transmitted from said information center, said map displaying means displaying said stored map data.

23. The communications-type navigation device as claimed in claim 22, further comprising:

map requesting means for issuing a map information request to said information center, and

driving state judging means for differentiating a driving state of a vehicle,

said map requesting means determining whether or not to communicate said map request in correspondence with said driving state of said vehicle acquired by said driving state judging means.

24. The communications-type navigation device as claimed in claim 23, wherein said map requesting means judges whether or not said driving state of said vehicle acquired by said driving state judging means is an on-run state, said map requesting means prohibiting said map request if said driving state is said on-run state.

25. The communications-type navigation device as claimed in claim 24, wherein said map requesting means determines whether or not to issue said map request if said driving state of said vehicle has changed to a stop state.

26. The communications-type navigation device as claimed in claim 24, wherein, if said vehicle state is said on-run state and if a map needed for displaying an equally-scaled map on a present place'"'"'s periphery has been not stored in said storing means, said map displaying means displays a wide-area map stored in said storing means.

27. The communications-type navigation device as claimed in claim 22, wherein said communications means makes a comparison between an updating time-and-date of said map information recorded in said storing means and an updating time-and-date of map information corresponding to the same map recorded in said information center, and thereby monitors whether or not said map information has been updated.

28. The communications-type navigation device as claimed in claim 27, wherein said comparison is made between said updating time-and-date of said map in said information center and said updating time-and-date of said stored map, and, if said map in said information center is judged to have been updated, said map updating is notified with a picture or a voice.

29. The communications-type navigation device as claimed in claim 28, wherein, if said map in said information center has been updated, differential information of said updated map is received, and said map information is updated from said map information recorded in said storing means and said differential information.

30. The communications-type navigation device as claimed in claim 22, wherein said map displaying means stores said map acquired by said communications means and, if map information at a predetermined position is requested, said means judges whether or not said map information has been stored in said storing means, said means, if stored, reading out said map information from said storing means, and if not stored, requesting said map to said information center.

31. The communications-type navigation device as claimed in claim 30, wherein said storing means judges whether or not there exists a storage area for storing said received map information and, if said storage area is judged to be lacking, said storing means deletes already existing map information therein in a sequence starting from its oldest reference time-and-date, and stores said received map information.

53. The communications-type navigation device as claimed in claim 22, wherein,

said communications means transmits, to said information center, said map request for a map in a predetermined area including a predetermined point, and receives a data size of said map transmitted from said information center, said communications means also calculating, from said received data size, a communications fee needed for said communications, and outputting said communications fee with a voice or an image.

54. The communications-type navigation device as claimed in claim 22, wherein,

said communications means transmits, to said information center, said map request for a map in a predetermined area including a predetermined point and measures its transmitted data amount, and receives said map information transmitted from said information center and measures its received data amount, and outputs, with a voice or an image, a communications fee needed for said communications from said transmitted data amount and said received data amount measured.

32. An information center, comprising:

communications means for performing transmission/reception of data,

map storing means for storing a map, and

map cutting-out means for cutting out map data from position information and scale information, wherein

said information center manages and stores an identification number of a user who makes a map data cutting-out request, said cut-out map area, and updated information on said map information.

33. The information center as claimed in claim 32, wherein, when said map in said information center has been updated, by retrieving said identification number of said user to whom said map in said updated map area has been transmitted, said user is informed of said updating of said map in said information center.

34. The information center as claimed in claim 33, wherein, when delivering said updated map, differential information of said map is delivered.

35. An information center, comprising:

communications means for performing transmission/reception of data,

route information calculating means for creating route information by calculating an optimum route from position information on a starting place and a destination place, and

guiding point information calculating means for creating guiding point information by making reference to said calculated route so as to extract a guiding point at which an advancing course is to be modified, wherein

said communications means judges that route guidance information has been requested, and adds said route guidance information to said guiding point information and said route information, and further creates route guidance data to which link information for making reference to said route information from said guiding point information has been added, said communications means then transmitting said route guidance data to a request source.

36. The information center as claimed in claim 35, wherein said route information is created by searching said optimum route from said position information on said starting place and said destination place, and by converting the optimum route into data where said latitudes/longitudes of said points are arranged in necessary number as route searching data.

37. The information center as claimed in claim 35, wherein said route information is created by searching said optimum route from said position information on said starting place and said destination place, and by calculating differences of said points from latitudes/longitudes of points before and behind said points, and converting said differential data into data where said differences are arranged in necessary number as route searching data.

38. The information center as claimed in claim 36, wherein said route information has means for selecting a route of a predetermined road type, said route information also converting said route data of said selected road type into data where said route data are arranged in necessary number.

39. The information center as claimed in claim 35, wherein said route information is created by searching said optimum route from said position information on said starting place and said destination place, by converting link data into data where said link data are arranged in necessary number as route searching data, an ID that is unique for each road connecting two intersection points being attached to said link data.

40. The information center as claimed in claim 35, wherein said guiding point information includes information of any one of or a combination of guiding point map data obtained by extracting a map in a predetermined range including said guiding point, guiding arrow data for indicating a direction of a road to enter at said guiding point, and guiding voice data for guiding, with a voice, said road to enter at said guiding point.

41. The information center as claimed in claim 40, wherein, in said creation of said guiding point map data, said guiding point information calculating means differentiates a type of said road to enter at said guiding point and, in correspondence with said road type judged, determines an area where said guiding point map data should be created.

42. The information center as claimed in claim 40, wherein said guiding point information calculating means creates said guiding arrow data, said guiding arrow data including position information on said guiding point, said road type of said road to enter at said guiding point and that of a road to leave thereat, and an angle formed between said road to enter and said road to leave.

43. The information center as claimed in claim 40, wherein said guiding point information calculating means creates said guiding voice data including position information on said guiding point and voice guidance data.

44. An information center, comprising:

communications means for performing transmission/reception of data,

route information calculating means for creating route information by calculating an optimum route from position information on a starting place and a destination place, and

guiding point information calculating means for creating guiding point information by making reference to said calculated route so as to extract a guiding point at which an advancing course is to be modified, wherein

it is judged that route guidance information has been requested, said optimum route being searched from said position information on said starting place and said destination place, said route information converted into schematic configuration data being transmitted to a request source, said route guidance information including said guiding point information and said route information being transmitted if further detailed route information is requested.

45. An information center, comprising:

communications means for performing transmission/reception of data,

route information calculating means for creating route information by calculating an optimum route from position information on a starting place and a destination place, and

guiding point information calculating means for creating guiding point information by making reference to said calculated route so as to extract a guiding point at which an advancing course is to be modified, wherein

route history storing means for storing route information and guidance information requested in a past on each user basis, and said route information calculated from said starting place at which each user had started and said destination place extract route information that differs from said route information stored in said route history storing means, said extracted route information and guiding point information corresponding thereto being then transmitted.

46. The information center as claimed in claim 45, wherein it is judged whether or not a re-searching of said route has been requested, and if said researching is judged to have been requested, a route is extracted where said first searching result and said re-searching result differ from each other, said extracted route information and guiding point information corresponding thereto being then transmitted.

47. The information center as claimed in claim 45, wherein it is judged whether or not a route searching of a return route has been requested, and if said route searching of said return route is judged to have been requested, a route is extracted where said route searching results differ between said approach route and said return route, said route information on said extracted return route and guiding point information corresponding thereto being then transmitted.

48. An information center, comprising:

communications means for performing transmission/reception of data,

means for storing a map database, and

map extracting means for extracting, from position information and scale information, map data in a predetermined area including said position, wherein said map extracting means further includes means for extracting and editing map information with a predetermined attribute in correspondence with a utilization purpose of said map.

49. The information center as claimed in claim 48, wherein said map extracting means includes, as said means for extracting and editing said map information with said predetermined attribute, means for creating a road configuration and means for creating a connection relationship between said road configuration and said road.