NAVIGATION SYSTEM, NAVIGATION APPARATUS, METHOD AND SERVER

• US 20130116919A1
• Filed: 11/07/2012
• Published: 05/09/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 11/09/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Hitachi Automotive Systems Limited (Hitachi, Ltd.)
• Inventors: Sobue, Tsuneo, Takano, Hideki, Furuhata, Shunichiro
• Granted Patent: US 8,855,915 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/408
• 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 21/3697 Output of additional, non-guidance related information, e.g. low fuel level G01C21/3679 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096716 where the received information does not generate an automatic action on the vehicle control
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096741 where the source of the transmitted information selects which information to transmit to each vehicle
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096775 where the origin of the information is a central station

Abstract

A navigation system comprises a detection part for detecting a location and a speed of a navigation apparatus, a voice message weight storage part for storing voice message weight association information, which associates a weight with each of multiple voice messages, a rule storage part for storing priority rule information denoting a rule for deciding a priority for each of multiple voice messages, a priority decision part for deciding a priority for each of the multiple voice messages based on the priority rule information, and a voice output part for outputting from the navigation apparatus multiple voice messages in a sequence conforming to the decided priority. The rule denoted by the priority rule information is a rule for deciding the priority for each voice message based on the detected location and speed of the navigation apparatus, and the weight of each voice message denoted by the voice-weight association information.

Claims

1. A navigation system, comprising a navigation apparatus for carrying out guidance by outputting a voice message, and a server for communicating with the navigation apparatus, the navigation system further comprising:

a detection part for detecting a location and a speed of the navigation apparatus;

a voice message weight storage part for storing voice message weight association information, which associates a weight with each of multiple voice messages;

a rule storage part for storing priority rule information denoting a rule for deciding a priority for each of the multiple voice messages;

a priority decision part for deciding a priority for each of the multiple voice messages based on the priority rule information; and

a voice output part for outputting the multiple voice messages from the navigation apparatus in a sequence conforming to the decided priority,

wherein a rule denoted by the priority rule information is a rule for deciding a priority for each voice message based on the detected location and speed of the navigation apparatus, and the weight of each of the voice messages denoted by the voice message weight association information.

2. A navigation system according to claim 1, wherein the server comprises a message weight sending part for sending the voice message weight association information to the navigation apparatus, and a rule sending part for sending the priority rule information to the navigation apparatus,

the navigation apparatus comprises the voice message weight storage part, and the rule storage part,

the voice message weight storage part stores voice message weight association information, which is sent from the server, and

the rule storage part stores priority rule information, which is sent from the server.

3. A navigation system according to claim 1, wherein the navigation apparatus comprises the priority decision part and the voice output part.

4. A navigation system according to claim 1, wherein a weight is associated with each type of the voice messages in the voice message weight association information, and

the type of the voice messages comprises route guidance information, hazard location information, and/or business information.

5. A navigation system according to claim 1, wherein the server further comprises a reference driving performance information sending part for sending, to the navigation apparatus, reference driving performance information, which is driving performance characteristics information constituting a reference,

the navigation apparatus further comprises a characteristics acquisition part for acquiring driving performance characteristics of a driver, who drives a vehicle comprising the navigation apparatus, and an evaluation score calculation part for calculating an evaluation score of the driver based on the reference driving performance information and the driving performance characteristics of the driver, and

the rule denoted by the priority rule information is a rule for deciding a priority for each of the voice messages based also on the evaluation score of the driver.

6. A navigation system according to claim 1, wherein the characteristics acquisition part respectively acquires steering characteristics, braking characteristics, and acceleration characteristics of a driver as the driving performance characteristics of the driver, and

the evaluation score calculation part respectively calculates a steering evaluation score, a braking evaluation score, and an acceleration evaluation score based on the driving performance characteristics of the driver.

7. A navigation system according to claim 1, wherein the navigation apparatus further comprises a characteristics sending part for sending the driving performance characteristics of the driver to the server, and

the server calculates the reference driving performance information based on the driving performance characteristics of the driver acquired from multiple navigation apparatuses coupled to the server.

8. A navigation system according to claim 4, wherein the rule denoted by the priority rule information is a rule for each type of the voice messages.

9. A navigation apparatus which is capable of voice guidance by outputting a voice message, comprising:

a detection part for detecting a location and a speed of the navigation apparatus;

a voice message weight storage part for storing voice message weight association information, which associates a weight with each of multiple voice messages;

a rule storage part for storing priority rule information denoting a rule for deciding a priority for each of the multiple voice messages;

a priority decision part for deciding a priority for each of the multiple voice messages based on the priority rule information; and

a voice output part for outputting the multiple voice messages in a sequence conforming to the decided the priority,

wherein a rule denoted by the priority rule information is a rule for deciding a priority for each voice message based on the detected location and speed of the navigation apparatus, and the weight of each of the voice messages denoted by the voice message weight association information.

10. A navigation apparatus according to claim 9, wherein a weight is associated with each type of the voice messages in the voice message weight association information, and

the type of the voice messages comprises route guidance information, hazard location information, and/or business information.

11. A navigation apparatus according to claim 9, further comprising:

a storage part for storing reference driving performance information, which is driving performance characteristics information constituting a reference;

a characteristics acquisition part for acquiring driving performance characteristics of a driver, who drives a vehicle comprising the navigation apparatus; and

an evaluation score calculation part for calculating an evaluation score of the driver based on the reference driving performance information and the driving performance characteristics of the driver,

wherein the rule denoted by the priority rule information is a rule for deciding a priority for each of the voice messages based also on the evaluation score of the driver.

12. A navigation apparatus according to claim 9, wherein the characteristics acquisition part respectively acquires steering characteristics, braking characteristics, and acceleration characteristics of a driver as the driving performance characteristics of the driver, and

the evaluation score calculation part respectively calculates a steering evaluation score, a braking evaluation score, and an acceleration evaluation score based on the driving performance characteristics of the driver.

13. A navigation apparatus according to claim 10, wherein the rule denoted by the priority rule information is a rule for each type of the voice messages.

14. A method for outputting a voice message performed by a navigation apparatus capable of voice guidance, the method comprising the steps of:

detecting a location and a speed of the navigation apparatus;

deciding a priority for each of the multiple voice messages based on priority rule information, which is a rule for deciding a priority for each voice message from the detected location and speed of the navigation apparatus and a weight corresponding to each of the voice messages; and

outputting the voice messages in sequence based on the decided priority.

15. A server for communicating with one or more navigation apparatuses capable of voice guidance by outputting a voice message, comprising:

a detection part for detecting a location and a speed of the navigation apparatus;

a voice message weight storage part for storing voice message weight association information, which associates a weight with each of multiple voice messages;

a rule storage part for storing priority rule information denoting a rule for deciding a priority for each of the multiple voice messages;

a priority decision part for deciding a priority for each of the multiple voice messages based on the priority rule information; and

a notification part for notifying the navigation apparatus of the priority decided by the priority decision part,

wherein a rule denoted by the priority rule information is a rule for deciding a priority for each voice message based on the detected location and speed of the navigation apparatus, and the weight of each of the voice messages denoted by the voice message weight association information.