Source: http://www.google.com/patents/US20020169552?dq=5,884,272
Timestamp: 2017-09-26 23:00:44
Document Index: 581266669

Matched Legal Cases: ['art 12', 'art 13', 'art 14', 'art 16', 'art 17', 'art 12', 'art 13', 'art 14', 'art 16', 'art 17', 'art 12']

Patent US20020169552 - Car navigation apparatus capable of determining entry into parking area - Google Patents
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...http://www.google.com/patents/US20020169552?utm_source=gb-gplus-sharePatent US20020169552 - Car navigation apparatus capable of determining entry into parking area
Publication number US20020169552 A1
Application number US 10/140,569
Also published as EP1256784A2, US6640188
Publication number 10140569, 140569, US 2002/0169552 A1, US 2002/169552 A1, US 20020169552 A1, US 20020169552A1, US 2002169552 A1, US 2002169552A1, US-A1-20020169552, US-A1-2002169552, US2002/0169552A1, US2002/169552A1, US20020169552 A1, US20020169552A1, US2002169552 A1, US2002169552A1
Original Assignee Masaya Hashida
US 20020169552 A1
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.
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.
a parking area exit 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.
Positioning methods used in such navigation apparatuses are generally classified into a self-contained navigation method which only uses information from sensors provided in a vehicle for measuring a variety of parameters such as a speed, heading and the like to measure a current position of the vehicle, and a navigation method relying on a navigation assisting system using GPS (Global Positioning System) (hereinafter simply called “GPS navigation method”) which receives positioning data transmitted from a plurality of artificial satellites to measure a current position.
The present invention has been made to solve the problem mentioned above, and it is an object of the invention to provide a car navigation apparatus which determines entry and exit of a vehicle into and from a parking area from a running state of the vehicle without using dedicated map data including parking areas.
[0013]FIG. 1 is a block diagram generally illustrating the configuration of a car navigation apparatus according to one embodiment of the present invention;
[0014]FIG. 2 is a flow chart illustrating parking area entry/exit determination processing in the car navigation apparatus of the embodiment;
[0015]FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram for parking area entry determination processing in the car navigation apparatus of the embodiment;
[0016]FIG. 4 is a detailed flow chart illustrating step 14 in the flow chart illustrated in FIG. 2 in greater detail; and
[0017]FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram for parking area exit determination processing in the car navigation apparatus of the embodiment.
[0019]FIG. 1 is a block diagram generally illustrating the configuration of a car navigation apparatus according to the present invention. The car navigation apparatus comprises, as illustrated in FIG. 1, an antenna 10; a GPS receiver 11; a speed sensor input part 12; an acceleration sensor input part 13; a heading sensor input part 14; a display 15; a manipulation input part 16; a map data storage part 17; and a controller 18.
The controller 18 is mainly comprised of a microcomputer (hereinafter simply referred to as “μCPU”), and a memory device such as a ROM (Read Only Memory), a RAM (Random Access Memory), and the like. The μCPU executes step by step a main routine program and a variety of subroutine programs stored in these memories in synchronism with an internal clock. The controller 18 is connected to each of the GPS receiver 11, speed sensor input part 12, acceleration sensor input part 13, heading sensor input part 14, display 15, manipulation input part 16, and map data storage part 17 for totally controlling the entire car navigation apparatus illustrated in FIG. 1.
[0030]FIG. 2 illustrates in flow chart form a subroutine program (hereinafter simply called the “subroutine” or “this subroutine”) representing the parking area entry/exit determination processing. For reference, the subroutine illustrated in FIG. 2 is initiated each time the aforementioned map matching processing is performed in a main routine program (not shown) executed by the controller 18.
First, at the beginning of the subroutine in FIG. 2, the state of a flag F is determined (step 10). The flag F is held in one of registers provided, for example, in a cache memory, and is set to “1” at step 16, later described, upon determination of entry into a parking area when this subroutine is initiated in the preceding map matching processing, and reset to “0” at step 22 upon determination of exit from a parking area. The flag F has an initial value “0” in an initial state such as power-on of the car navigation apparatus.
If the difference in angle is equal to or less than the predetermined angle at step 11, i.e., the course of the vehicle substantially matches the direction of the road, it is through that the vehicle is currently running favorably on the road on which it is matched on the map. In this case, therefore, the controller 18 determines that the vehicle is unlikely to admit into a parking area, and terminates this subroutine to return to the main routine with the flag F maintained at “0” (F=0: out of a parking area).
On the other hand, if it is determined at step 11 that the difference in angle between the course of the vehicle and the direction of the road is equal to or larger than the predetermined angle (this event is called the “turn-around”), it can be regarded that the vehicle is now performing a turn-around motion on a road, on which the vehicle is being matched on the map, as shown in an explanatory diagram for the parking entry determination processing in FIG. 3. Specifically, it is estimated that the vehicle is going to turn right or left at an intersection, or to admit into a parking area. To clarify this estimation, the controller 18 proceeds to next step 12.
On the other hand, if the controller 18 cannot detect any intersection in front of or behind the current position of the vehicle, it is clear that the turn-round motion of the vehicle, detected at the aforementioned step 11, is intended to admit into a parking area. Thus, the controller 18 proceeds to step 18, where the flag F is set to “1,” determining that the vehicle has admitted into a parking area, followed by termination of this subroutine.
a1+b1<c1
this means that the vehicle does not yet reach a region of the front intersection CRP1, as is also apparent from FIG. 3. Therefore, the turn-round motion of the vehicle detected at the aforementioned step 11 does not indicate at least a right turn operation or a left turn operation in the region of the front intersection CRP1. Therefore, the controller 18 proceeds to step 142 to analyze the turn-round motion of the vehicle.
a2+b2<c2
this means that the vehicle has completely left a region of the rear intersection CRP2. Therefore, the turn-round motion of the vehicle detected at the aforementioned step 11 does not indicate a right turn or a left turn in the region of the rear intersection CRP2.
In other words, in the detailed flowchart of step 14 illustrated in FIG. 4, if the determination results at steps 141 and 142 are both “YES,” this means that the current position of the vehicle is sufficiently away from each of the front and rear intersections. Therefore, the turn-round motion of the vehicle does not indicate a right turn or a left turn in the intersections, but is probably intended to admit into a parking area by the road on which the vehicle is running. Thus, the controller 18 further proceeds to next step 15 to confirm this hypothesis.
On the other hand, if the determination result at step 141 or 142 indicates “NO,” that is,
this can be interpreted that the vehicle is positioned within the region of the front intersection CRP1 or rear intersection CRP2, and the turn-round motion is a right or left turn operation in the intersection.
Therefore, the controller 18 determines that the motion of the vehicle is not intended to admit into a parking area, and proceeds to step 22, where the flag F is reset to “0” (out of a parking area), i.e., the state of the flag F is not changed, followed by termination of this subroutine.
At step 15, the controller 18 determines based on the vehicle speed data captured from the speed sensor input part 12 whether or not the running speed of the vehicle is equal to or lower than a predetermined speed. Upon determining that the vehicle speed is equal to or lower than the predetermined speed, the controller 18 determines that the turn-round motion of the vehicle detected at step 11 is intended to admit into a parking area, associated with a reduction in vehicle speed, i.e., slow running of the vehicle, and proceeds to step 16, where the flag F is set to “1” (within a parking area), followed by termination of this subroutine.
On the other hand, if the vehicle speed is equal to or higher than the predetermined speed at step 15, the controller 18 determines that even if the determination up to step 14 suggests entry into a parking area, the turn-round motion of the vehicle is involved, for example, in a change of lane other than at an intersection, followed by a transition to step 22, where the flag F is maintained at “0” (out of a parking area), and this subroutine is terminated.
Next described is the parking area exit determination processing in this subroutine. Specifically, upon determining at step 10 at the beginning of this subroutine that the flag F is “1,” the controller 18 proceeds to the next step 17 on the assumption that the current position of the vehicle is in a parking area.
When no road in parallel with the course of the vehicle is detected near the current position of the vehicle at step 17, the controller 18 proceeds to step 16, estimating that the vehicle is still in the parking area, where the flag F is set to “1” (in the parking area), i.e., the state of flag (F=1) is not changed, followed by termination of this subroutine.
Upon determining at step 18 that the vehicle is running at a predetermined speed or higher, it is estimated in view of the running state that the vehicle has exited the parking area and is running on an ordinary road at the predetermined speed or higher. Therefore, the controller 18 proceeds to step 22, where the flag F is reset to “0” (out of the parking area), followed by termination of this subroutine.
Upon determining at step 19 that the vehicle is not running straight on, it is estimated that the vehicle is still in the parking area and is repeating a turn-round motion of a small radius involved in an operation for putting the vehicle into a garage, so that the controller 18 proceeds to step 16, where the flag F is set to “1” (in the parking area), i.e., the state of the flag F (F=1) is not changed, followed by termination of this subroutine.
a3+b3<c3
the vehicle is running straight on at a low speed equal to or lower than the predetermined speed out of the range of the parallelly extending road, when considering this state as applied to the explanatory diagram of FIG. 5.
Since this state is reasonably interpreted that the vehicle is running straight on at a low speed within a parking area, the controller 18 proceeds to step 16, where the flag F is maintained at “1” (within the parking area), followed by termination of this subroutine.
a3+b3=c3
it is estimated that the vehicle has already left the parking area and entered a region of a parallelly extending road, and is running straight on at a low speed on the road.
Thus, the controller 18 proceeds to step 22, where the flag F is set to “0” (out of the parking area), followed by termination of this subroutine. It goes without saying that the map matching processing is also performed in this event to again establish the current position of the vehicle on the road after the controller 18 returns from the subroutine to the main routine program (not shown).
US8190356 * Mar 16, 2007 May 29, 2012 Pioneer Corporation Navigation apparatus, position registering method, position registering program, and recording medium
US8615351 Nov 29, 2011 Dec 24, 2013 Nippon Soken, Inc. Driving assistance apparatus and vehicle driving assistance system for determining entry into or exit from a parking lot
US9355063 Aug 12, 2010 May 31, 2016 Tomtom Germany Gmbh & Co. Kg Parking lot detection using probe data
International Classification G09B29/00, G01C21/28, G01C21/00, G09B29/10, G08G1/0969, G01S19/48
Free format text: ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNORS INTEREST;ASSIGNOR:HASHIDA, MASAYA;REEL/FRAME:012878/0950