Car navigation apparatus capable of determining entry into parking area

• US 6,640,188 B2
• Filed: 05/07/2002
• Issued: 10/28/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 05/08/2001
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Pioneer Corporation
• Original Assignee: Pioneer Corporation
• Inventors: Hashida, Masaya
• Primary Examiner(s): Marc-Coleman, Marthe Y.
• Application Number:
  US10/140,569
• Publication Number:
  US 20020169552A1
• Time in Patent Office: 539 Days
• Field of Search: 701/207, 701/213, 701/216, 701/200, 340/990, 340/995
• US Class Current: 701/213
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/28 with correlation of data from several navigational instruments

Abstract

A car navigation apparatus for determining entry/exit of a vehicle into/from a parking area based on a running state of the vehicle without using a dedicated parking area database. Upon entry into a parking area, the entry is determined by totally checking the speed of the vehicle, the presence or absence of turn-round motion, an error in a forward and backward direction of the vehicle, estimated by map matching, the presence or absence of front and rear intersections, and the widths of intersecting roads. On the other hand, upon exit from a parking area, the exit is determined by totally judging the detected speed of the vehicle, the presence or absence of a straight running distance, the presence or absence of a nearby road extending in parallel with the course of the vehicle, and the width of the parallelly extending road.

Claims

1. A vehicle navigation apparatus for determining a current position of a vehicle on map data based on at least one parameter of self-contained navigation parameters and GPS received navigation parameters, said car navigation apparatus comprising:

a turn-round detecting part for detecting a turn-round motion of the vehicle to generate a turn-round signal;

an out-of-intersection detecting part for generating an out-of-intersection signal as long as the current position is out of an intersection; and

parking area entry determining part responsive to said turn-round signal generated when said out-of-intersection signal exists for determining that the vehicle has entered into a parking area to generate a parking area entry signal.

2. A car navigation apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said out-of-intersection detecting part detects that said intersection region does not exist within an estimated error in a forward and a backward direction with respect to the current position.

3. A car navigation apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said parking area entry determining part determines whether or not the vehicle is currently running at a predetermined speed or lower as one condition for the parking area entry determination.

4. A car navigation apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

a parking area entry determining part for detecting entry of the vehicle into a road region near the current position while said parking area entry signal exists, to generate a parking area exit signal.

5. A car navigation apparatus according to claim 4, wherein said parking area exit determining part determines whether or not the vehicle is currently running at a predetermined speed or higher as one condition for determination of exit from the parking area.

6. A car navigation apparatus according to claim 4, wherein said parking area exit determining part determines whether or not said vehicle runs straight on as one condition for parking area exit condition.

7. A car navigation apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said out-of-intersection detecting part includes a component which calculates error distances in forward and backward directions based on a distance traveled from a last map matching point to a current position, said map-matching point being produced when the vehicle passes an intersection or makes a right turn or a left turn.

8. A car navigation apparatus according to claim 7, wherein said out-of-intersection detecting part judges that said current position is outside an intersection when a summed value of the error distance in the forward direction and a width of an intersection ahead of the vehicle is shorter than a distance between said intersection and the current position of the vehicle.

9. A car navigation apparatus according to claim 7, wherein said out-of-intersection detecting part judges that said current position is outside an intersection when a summed value of the error distance in the backward direction and a width of an intersection behind the vehicle is shorter than a distance between said intersection and the current position of the vehicle.

10. A car navigation apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a parking area exit determining part comprising a component which calculates an error distance in a left or right direction of the vehicle based on a straight travel distance within the parking area to a current position.

11. A car navigation apparatus according to claim 10, wherein said parking area exit determining part determines that the vehicle has exited the parking area when a summed value of said error distance and a distance from the current position to a road near the vehicle extending in parallel is equal to or greater than a distance from the current position to said road near the vehicle.