NAVIGATION APPARATUS AND METHOD AND COMPUTER PROGRAM PRODUCT FOR THE SAME

• US 20100235092A1
• Filed: 01/29/2010
• Published: 09/16/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 03/12/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: DENSO Corporation
• Original Assignee: DENSO Corporation
• Inventors: Kutomi, Shinji
• Granted Patent: US 8,244,464 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/208
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3815 Road data

Abstract

A navigation apparatus is disclosed. The navigation apparatus is configured to: acquire a trace of a vehicle; produces unregistered road data representative of an unregistered road based on the trace when the vehicle travels on the unregistered road; register the unregistered road data in a storage medium; determine whether the vehicle makes a turn in direction; determine based on the trace whether deviation of the vehicle from a road is greater than or equal to a deviation threshold, when it is determined the vehicle makes the turn in direction; and prohibits the unregistered road data from being registered in the storage medium when it is determined that the deviation of the vehicle from the road is less than the deviation threshold.

Claims

1. A navigation apparatus configured to (i) acquire a trace of a vehicle, (ii) determine based on the trace whether the vehicle travels on an unregistered road, which is not stored in a map data storage medium, (iii) produce, based on the trace, unregistered road data representative of the unregistered road when it is determined that the vehicle travels on the unregistered road, and (iv) perform registration of the unregistered road data in the map data storage medium, the navigation apparatus comprising:

a turn determination section configured to determine whether the vehicle makes a turn in direction;

a deviation determination section configured to determine based on the trace whether deviation of the vehicle from a registered road during the turn in direction is greater than or equal to a first threshold, when the turn determination section determines that the vehicle makes the turn in direction, the registered road being a road that is stored in the map data storage medium; and

a record prohibition section configured to prohibit the registration of the unregistered road data in the map data storage medium when the deviation determination section determines that the deviation of the vehicle from the registered road is less than the first threshold.

2. The navigation apparatus according to claim 1, wherein:

the turn determination section determines whether the vehicle makes the turn in direction, based on whether a turn start point and a turn end point, each of which is on the trace and the registered road, are within a predetermined reference zone,

the turn start point being a point where a change in heading direction of the vehicle is started,

the turn end point being another point where the heading direction of the vehicle is reversed.

3. The navigation apparatus according to claim 1, wherein:

the deviation determination section acquires road width data indicative of a road width of a place which the vehicle passes through in making the turn in direction; and

the deviation determination section determines whether the deviation of the vehicle from the registered road is greater than or equal to the first threshold, based on the road width data and the trace.

4. The navigation apparatus according to claim 1, wherein:

when the deviation determination section determines that the deviation of the vehicle from the registered road during the turn in direction is greater than or equal to the first threshold, the registration of the unregistered road data in the map data storage medium is performed.

5. The navigation apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

a road identifier determination section configured to determine whether a first road identifier matches a second road identifier,

the first identifier identifying the registered road that the vehicle travels on before making the turn in direction,

the second identifier identifying the registered road that the vehicle travels on after making the turn in direction,

wherein;

when the road identification determination section determines that the first road identifier does not match the second road identifier, the registration of the unregistered road data in the map data storage medium is performed.

6. The navigation apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

an altitude difference detection section configured to detect an altitude difference between

the unregistered road on which the vehicle travels in making the turn in direction and

the registered road on which the vehicle travels before or after making the turn,

wherein;

when the altitude difference detected by the altitude difference detection section exceeds a second threshold, the registration of the unregistered road data in the map data storage medium is performed.

7. A method for learning an unregistered road data by using a navigation apparatus for a vehicle, the method comprising the steps of:

acquiring registered road data representative of a registered road from a map data storage medium, the registered road being a road that is registered in the map data storage medium;

acquiring a trace of the vehicle by using a position detector of the navigation apparatus;

determining, based on the trace and the registered road data, whether the vehicle travels on an unregistered road, the unregistered road being a road that is not registered in the map data storage medium;

transforming the trace into the unregistered road data representative of the unregistered road when it is determined that the vehicle travels on the unregistered road;

recording the unregistered road data in the map data storage medium;

determining whether the vehicle makes a turn in direction;

determining based on the trace whether deviation of the vehicle from the registered road during the turn in direction is greater than or equal to a threshold, when it is determined that the vehicle makes the turn in direction; and

prohibiting the unregistered road data from being recorded in the map data storage medium when the deviation of the vehicle from the registered road during the turn in direction is determined to be less than the threshold.

8. A computer program product for enabling a navigation apparatus mounted to a vehicle to learn unregistered road data, the computer program product being stored in a computer readable storage medium and configured to cause the navigation apparatus to perform the steps recited in claim 7.