VEHICLE NAVIGATION APPARATUS

• US 20080249711A1
• Filed: 04/01/2008
• Published: 10/09/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 04/09/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha (Toyota Motor Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha (Toyota Motor Corporation)
• Inventors: Matsuda, Akira
• Granted Patent: US 8,060,301 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/209
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3608 using speech input, e.g. using speech recognition

Abstract

A disclosed vehicle navigation apparatus enables the issuance of an accurate and quick guidance. Voice uttered by an occupant of a vehicle is collected by a voice collecting unit and transmitted to an external facility by a voice transmitting unit. The external facility generates destination information based on the received voice, and transmits the destination information back to a destination information receiving unit of the apparatus. Based on the received destination information, the apparatus issues a guidance. The apparatus further includes a destination extracting unit by which the voice collected by the voice collecting unit is subjected to voice recognition in order to extract a destination from the collected voice. A tentative guidance is then issued based on the extracted destination until the destination information is received by the destination information receiving unit from the external facility.

Claims

1. A vehicle navigation apparatus comprising:

a voice collecting unit configured to collect voice uttered by an occupant of a vehicle;

a transmitting unit configured to transmit the voice collected by the voice collecting unit to a facility outside the vehicle;

a receiving unit configured to receive destination information from the external facility, the destination information being generated at the external facility based on the voice transmitted by the transmitting unit; and

a destination extracting unit configured to extract a destination from the voice collected by the voice collecting unit by subjecting the voice to voice recognition;

wherein the apparatus issues a main guidance based on the destination information received by the receiving unit from the external facility,

and the apparatus also issues a tentative guidance based on the destination extracted by the destination extracting unit following the collection of the voice by the voice collecting unit, until the destination information is received by the receiving unit from the external facility.

2. The vehicle navigation apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the destination extracting unit is configured to convert the voice collected by the voice collecting unit into a text, and configured to extract text information located before or after a specific keyword in the text as the destination.

3. The vehicle navigation apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the functions of the transmitting unit and the receiving unit are provided by a cellular phone connected to the voice collecting unit.

4. The vehicle navigation apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the voice collecting unit is of a hands-free type.

5. The vehicle navigation apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the destination information received from the external facility include coordinates of the destination.

6. The vehicle navigation apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a current position of the vehicle is transmitted by the transmitting unit to the external facility on a real-time basis, a recommended route generated at the external facility based on the current position of the vehicle and the voice transmitted from the vehicle by the transmitting unit is received by the receiving unit, and the main guidance is issued based on the recommended route.

7. A vehicle navigation method for a vehicle navigation apparatus comprising a voice collecting unit, a transmitting unit, a receiving unit, and a destination extracting unit, the method comprising:

collecting voice of an occupant of a vehicle with the voice collecting unit;

transmitting the collected voice to a facility outside the vehicle using the transmitting unit;

generating destination information at the external facility based on the voice transmitted by the transmitting unit;

receiving the destination information with the receiving unit from the external facility;

issuing a main guidance based on the destination information received from the external facility;

extracting a destination from the voice collected with the voice collecting unit by subjecting the voice to voice recognition; and

issuing a tentative guidance based on the destination extracted by the destination extracting unit following the collection of the voice by the voice collecting unit, until the destination information is received by the receiving unit from the external facility.

8. The vehicle navigation method according to claim 7, further comprising:

transmitting a current position of the vehicle to the external facility using the transmitting unit on a real-time basis;

generating a recommended route at the external facility based on the current position of the vehicle and the voice transmitted from the vehicle; and

receiving the recommended route on the vehicle from the external facility;

wherein the main guidance is issued based on the recommended route received from the external facility.

9. A vehicle navigation system comprising:

a vehicle with an occupant in it;

a vehicle navigation apparatus mounted on the vehicle; and

a facility located outside the vehicle and coupled with the vehicle in a wired or wireless manner, the facility including a database;

the vehicle navigation apparatus comprising a voice collecting unit configured to collect voice uttered by an occupant of the vehicle;

a transmitting unit configured to transmit the voice collected by the voice collecting unit to the external facility;

a receiving unit configured to receive destination information from the external facility, the destination information being generated at the external facility based on the voice transmitted by the transmitting unit and the database; and

a destination extracting unit configured to extract a destination from the voice collected by the voice collecting unit by subjecting the voice collected by the voice collecting unit to voice recognition;

wherein the apparatus issues a main guidance based on the destination information received by the receiving unit from the external facility,

and the apparatus also issues a tentative guidance based on the destination extracted by the destination extracting unit following the collection of the voice by the voice collecting unit, until the destination information is received by the receiving unit from the external facility.

10. The vehicle navigation system according to claim 9, wherein the external facility includes a human operator who receives the voice of the occupant transmitted from the vehicle by the transmitting unit, wherein the operator recognizes a destination indicated by the voice and searches the database based on the destination in order to retrieve the destination information from the database.

11. The vehicle navigation system according to claim 9, wherein the information center includes a voice recognition unit configured to recognize the voice transmitted from the vehicle and configured to extract a destination indicated in the voice, wherein the database is searched based on the extracted destination in order to retrieve the destination from the database.

12. The vehicle navigation system according to claim 9, wherein the external facility is connected with a content provider providing services to update the database.

13. The vehicle navigation system according to claim 9, wherein a current position of the vehicle is transmitted by the transmitting unit to the external facility on a real-time basis, and the external facility is configured to generate a recommended route based on the current position of the vehicle and the voice transmitted from the vehicle by the transmitting unit, the recommended route being transmitted back to the vehicle where the main guidance is issued based on the recommended route as the destination information.