Navigation apparatus

• US 20050128106A1
• Filed: 11/23/2004
• Published: 06/16/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 11/28/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Fujitsu Ten Limited (DENSO Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Fujitsu Ten Limited (DENSO Corporation)
• Inventors: Maeda, Masanobu, Maehata, Minoru, Nakaishi, Shinichi, Matsui, Hideki, Tomita, Yuji, Motojima, Akira
• Granted Patent: US 7,366,607 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 340/988
• 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

Abstract

A navigation apparatus includes a guidance-information creating unit that creates guidance information by acquiring a guiding direction, in which a vehicle should be guided, from preset route information and current position information; an acoustic-image creating unit that creates an acoustic image for notifying a driver of the guidance information; and an acoustic-image control unit that changes at least one of a movement start position of the acoustic image, a direction change position of the acoustic image, a moving amount of the acoustic image, a moving speed of the acoustic image, and a moving locus of the acoustic image according to the current position information and a guiding position in the preset route information.

Claims

1. A navigation apparatus that performs a route guidance for a vehicle based on preset route information and current position information, the navigation apparatus comprising:

a guidance-information creating unit that creates guidance information by acquiring a first guiding direction, in which the vehicle should be guided, and a second guiding direction, in which the vehicle should be guided following the first guiding direction, from the preset route information and the current position information;

an acoustic-image creating unit that creates an acoustic image for notifying a driver of the guidance information; and

an acoustic-image control unit that determines, when the guidance information is notified continuously, a direction of movement of the acoustic image in a single direction.

2. The navigation apparatus according to claim 1, wherein, when the first guiding direction and the second guiding direction are different, the acoustic-image control unit determines the direction of movement of the acoustic image in the first guiding direction.

3. The navigation apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the acoustic-image control unit changes at least one of a movement start position of the acoustic image, a direction change position of the acoustic image, a moving amount of the acoustic image, a moving speed of the acoustic image, and a moving locus of the acoustic image according to the current position information and a guiding position in the preset route information.

4. The navigation apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the acoustic-image control unit changes the moving speed of the acoustic image according to at least one of an example sentence structure of the guidance information and an environment in which the guidance information is heard.

5. The navigation apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the acoustic-image control unit moves the acoustic image in an upward direction or a downward direction according to a distance between a current position and a guiding position in the preset route information.

6. A navigation apparatus that performs a route guidance for a vehicle based on preset route information and current position information, the navigation apparatus comprising:

a guidance-information creating unit that creates guidance information by acquiring a guiding direction, in which the vehicle should be guided, from the preset route information and the current position information;

an acoustic-image creating unit that creates an acoustic image for notifying a driver of the guidance information; and

an acoustic-image control unit that changes at least one of a movement start position of the acoustic image, a direction change position of the acoustic image, a moving amount of the acoustic image, a moving speed of the acoustic image, and a moving locus of the acoustic image according to the current position information and a guiding position in the preset route information.

7. The navigation apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the acoustic-image control unit changes the moving speed of the acoustic image according to at least one of an example sentence structure of the guidance information and an environment in which the guidance information is heard.

8. The navigation apparatus according to claim 6, wherein, when the guiding direction is a listener side, the acoustic-image control unit moves the acoustic image slower than when the acoustic image is moved in a different direction from the listener side.

9. The navigation apparatus according to claim 6, wherein, when the guiding direction is a rear direction, the acoustic-image control unit moves the acoustic image than when the acoustic image is moved in other directions.

10. The navigation apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the acoustic-image control unit starts movement of the acoustic image from a front side of the driver.

11. The navigation apparatus according to claim 6, wherein, when the guiding direction is a rear direction, the acoustic-image control unit first moves the acoustic image to a front side, then moves the acoustic image to a rear side.

12. The navigation apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the acoustic-image control unit moves the acoustic image in an upward direction or a downward direction according to a distance between a current position and the guiding position.

13. The navigation apparatus according to claim 6, wherein

the guiding direction has information on a height, and

the acoustic-image control unit further controls a height of the acoustic image with respect to a listener.

14. The navigation apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the guiding direction is a direction in which an automatic toll collecting apparatus is present.

15. The navigation apparatus according to claim 6, further comprising a speed-information acquiring unit that acquires speed information, wherein

the acoustic-image control unit changes at least one of the movement start position of the acoustic image, the direction change position of the acoustic image, the moving amount of the acoustic image, the moving speed of the acoustic image, and the moving locus of the acoustic image according to the speed information.

16. The navigation apparatus according to claim 6, further comprising a voice-output control unit that controls at least one of a voice output of the guidance information and other voice outputs.

17. The navigation apparatus according to claim 16, wherein the voice-output control unit reverses a phase of the voice output of the guidance information that is outputted from a side different from a listener side.

18. The navigation apparatus according to claim 16, wherein the voice-output control unit controls a frequency band of the voice output of the guidance information according to a distance between a current position and the guiding position.

19. The navigation apparatus according to claim 16, wherein the voice-output control unit controls a level of a reverberant sound, which is added to the voice output of the guidance information, according to a distance between a current position and the guiding position.

20. The navigation apparatus according to claim 16, further comprising a noise-level detecting unit that detects a noise level, wherein

The voice-output control unit controls a level of the voice output of the guidance information according to the noise level detected.

21. The navigation apparatus according to claim 20, wherein the noise-level detecting unit detects the noise level based on at least one of speed information and an output from an installed microphone.

22. The navigation apparatus according to claim 16, wherein

when the voice output of the guidance information is performed, the voice-output control unit lowers an output level of other voices at least one of before the voice output and during the voice output, and

the voice-output control unit recovers the output level of the other voice outputs before or after end of the voice output.

23. The navigation apparatus according to claim 22, wherein the voice-output control unit performs at least one of lowering and recovery of the output level of the other voice outputs stepwise.

24. The navigation apparatus according to claim 23, wherein the voice-output control unit performs both the lowering and the recovery stepwise, and controls a rate of the lowering and a rate of the recovery independently.

25. The navigation apparatus according to claim 24, wherein the rate of the lowering is larger than the rate of the recovery.

26. The navigation apparatus according to claim 16, wherein the voice-output control unit changes a rate of lowering of an output level of the other voice outputs according to a distance between a current position and the guiding position.

27. The navigation apparatus according to claim 16, wherein, when the voice output of the guidance information is performed, the voice-output control unit lowers an output level of the other voice outputs based on output-level adjustment information of the output level of the other voice outputs.

28. The navigation apparatus according to claim 16, further comprising an output-level detecting unit that detects an output level of the other voice outputs, wherein

when the voice output of the guidance information is performed, the voice-output control unit lowers the output level of the other voice outputs according to the output level detected.

29. The navigation apparatus according to claim 16, wherein the acoustic-image control unit and the voice-output control unit control at least one of a direction change position of the acoustic image, a moving amount of the acoustic image, moving speed of the acoustic image, a moving locus of the acoustic image, a frequency band for the voice output, a reverberant sound level to be added to an output voice of the guidance information, a voice output level of the guidance information, an output level of the other voice outputs, and a speed of voice of the guidance information according to at least one of an age of a listener, listening characteristics of the listener, and a frequency of deviation from the preset route.

30. A navigation apparatus that performs a route guidance for a vehicle based on preset route information and current position information, the navigation apparatus comprising:

a guidance-information creating unit that creates guidance information by acquiring a guiding direction, in which the vehicle should be guided, from the preset route information and the current position information;

an acoustic-image creating unit that creates an acoustic image for notifying a driver of the guidance information; and

an acoustic-image control unit that changes a moving speed of the acoustic image according to at least one of an example sentence structure of the guidance information and an environment in which the guidance information is heard.

31. The navigation apparatus according to claim 30, wherein the acoustic-image control unit changes the moving speed of the acoustic image according to a length of the example sentence of the guidance information.

32. The navigation apparatus according to claim 30, wherein the acoustic-image control unit sets the moving speed in a section of a break of the guidance information higher than the moving speed in other sections.

33. The navigation apparatus according to claim 30, wherein the acoustic-image control unit moves the acoustic image in an upward direction or a downward direction according to a distance between a current position and a guiding position in the preset route information.