Method and system for route guiding

• US 6,480,786 B2
• Filed: 05/11/2001
• Issued: 11/12/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 05/15/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Alpine Electronics Incorporated (Alps Alpine Co., Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Alpine Electronics Incorporated (Alps Alpine Co., Ltd.)
• Inventors: Takeda, Hideaki, Takahashi, Katsunori, Watanabe, Mitsuaki
• Primary Examiner(s): ARTHUR JEANGLAUDE, GERTRUDE
• Application Number:
  US09/854,052
• Publication Number:
  US 20020010543A1
• Time in Patent Office: 550 Days
• Field of Search: 701/200, 701/207, 701/208, 701/209, 701/211, 701/23, 340/988, 340/990, 340/995
• US Class Current: 701/211
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3608 using speech input, e.g. using speech recognition

Abstract

A route guiding system and method for use with a navigation device that provides route guidance utilizing portions of speech uttered by a user to further guide the user to a location. The route guiding system includes a route guide request presence or absence determining unit and an institution extracting unit. The route guide request presence or absence determining unit determines whether a pre-registered a route guide request, such as “I see,” is included in a user utterance. The institution extracting unit extracts a word related to an institution such as, “post office,” from the user utterance. For example, if the user states, “I see a post office.” The route guide request presence or absence determining unit identifies “I see” and the institution extracting unit identifies “post office.” Further, the route guiding system may include a institution retrieving unit that retrieves institutions located near the position of a vehicle equipped with the navigation system of the invention, an institution candidate selecting unit that selects institutions located along a route guide from among the retrieved institutions, a user-uttered institution specifying unit that specifies an institution uttered by the user from among the selected institutions, and a route guide output unit that makes a guide according to the number of intersections located in the section from the specified institution up to a place to be guided.

Claims

1. A navigation system comprising:

an institution name extracting unit operable to extract an institution name from a voice uttered by a user of the navigation system;

an institution retrieving unit operable to retrieve at least one institution located near the position of a vehicle equipped with the navigation system connected with said institution name extracting unit;

a user-uttered institution specifying unit operable to specify an institution corresponding to the institution name uttered by the user; and

route guide unit operable to aurally guide a route from a specified institution provided by said user-uttered institution specifying unit to a place to be guided.

2. The route guiding method in a navigation system of claim 1, wherein the number of intersections located between the specified institution and the place to be guided is calculated if a route guide request is included in the speech portion.

3. A navigation system comprising:

a voice recognizing unit operable to recognize a voice uttered by a user of the navigation system;

a route guide request presence or absence determining unit operable to determine whether a route guide request is included in a speech portion provided by a user whose voice is recognized by said voice recognizing unit;

an institution name extracting unit operable to extract an institution name from the speech portion recognized by said voice recognizing unit;

an institution retrieving unit operable to retrieve at least one institution located near the position of a vehicle equipped with the navigation system utilizing stored institution data and the institution name extracted by said institution name extracting unit;

a user-uttered institution specifying unit operative to specify an institution corresponding to the institution name uttered by the user from at least one institution retrieved by the institution retrieving unit;

a route guide unit operative to guide a route from a route from a specified institution provided by said user-uttered institution specifying unit to a place to be guided when it is determined by said route guide request presence or absence determining unit that there has been a route guide request; and

a voice synthesizing unit operable'"'"'to convert a signal provided from said route guide unit into a voice signal and output the voice signal.

4. The navigation system of claim 3 wherein said route guide request presence or absence determining unit is connected with a dictionary unit.

5. The navigation system of claim 3 wherein said route guide unit is operable to calculate the number of intersections located between the specified institution and the place to be guided.

6. The navigation system of claim 3 wherein said route guide unit is operable to calculate the number of traffic lights located between the specified institution and the place to be guided.

7. The navigation system of claim 3 wherein said route guide unit guides an institution name as a marker when the institution name extracted by said institution name extracting unit is not included in the voice uttered by the user.

8. The navigation system of claim 3 wherein said route guide unit guides an institution name as a marker when the institution uttered by the user is not specified by said user-uttered institution specifying unit.

9. A navigation system comprising:

a marker name recognizing unit operable to recognize a marker name related to a guide route from a speech portion uttered by a user of the navigation system;

a marker retrieving unit operable to retrieve at least one marker located near the position of a vehicle equipped with the navigation system utilizing the marker name recognized by said marker name recognizing unit;

a user-uttered marker specifying unit operable to specify a marker corresponding to the marker name uttered by the user from at least one of the markers retrieved by the marker retrieving unit; and

a route guide unit operable to aurally guide a route from a marker specified by said user-uttered market specifying unit to a place to be guided.

10. The navigation system of claim 9 wherein said markers are institutions and intersections.

11. A route guiding method in a navigation system comprising the acts of:

recognizing an institution name from a speech portion uttered by a user of the navigation system;

retrieving at least one institution located near the position of a vehicle equipped with the navigation system;

specifying an institution corresponding to the institution name uttered by the user; and

aurally guiding a route from the specified institution to a place to be guided.

12. A route guiding method in a navigation system comprising the acts of:

recognizing a voice uttered by a user of the navigation system;

determining whether a route guide request is included in a speech portion with a recognized voice;

extracting an institution name from the speech portion;

retrieving at least one institution located near the position of a vehicle equipped with the navigation system utilizing the extracted institution name;

specifying an institution corresponding to the institution name uttered by the user from among the retrieved institutions; and

aurally guiding a route from the specified institution to a place to be guided when a route guide request is included in the speech portion.

13. The route guiding method in a navigation system of claim 12 wherein the number of traffic lights located between the specified institution and the place to guided is calculated if a route guide request is included in the speech portion.

14. A route guiding method in a navigation system according to claim 12 wherein an institution name is selected from retrieved institution data if the institution uttered by the user is not identifiable.

15. A route guiding method in a navigation system of claim 12 wherein a route from the current vehicle position to the place to be guided is guided an institution name is not included in the speech portion.