JPH09114369A - Navigation system, navigation method and automobile - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To simply perform highly skilled operations of various devices without disturbing the driving of an automobile by providing the control means which displays the area name being displayed by the map at a prescribed location while the area is designated by voice recognition and the map is displayed by a display means. SOLUTION: An inputted voice is recognized by a voice recognition device 10 and a navigation system 20 and a display device 40 displays the road map of the recognized area name. When a map display is initiated, information such as the name of the area is displayed at the corner of the map. When a prescribed time is passed from the start of the road map display, the area name previously displayed is erased by the control of a computing circuit 23. By conducting the display process mentioned above, the display position is freely set anywhere in the country by a voice input and the desired position of a road map is simply displayed.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a navigation device and a navigation method suitable for being applied to, for example, a navigation device mounted on a vehicle and displaying a road map, and a vehicle equipped with these devices.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, various navigation devices to be mounted on automobiles and the like have been developed. This navigation device is, for example, a CD-RO storing road map data.
It comprises a large-capacity data storage means such as M, a current position detection means, and a display device for displaying a road map near the detected current position based on the data read from the data storage means. In this case, as a means for detecting the current position, one using a positioning system called a GPS (Global Positioning System) that uses a positioning artificial satellite, or based on information such as the traveling direction and traveling speed of the vehicle is used. For example, there is an autonomous navigation method that tracks changes in the current position from the starting point.

Further, as the map displayed on the display device, not only the vicinity of the current position but also the map at a desired position can be displayed as long as map data is prepared, by performing a key operation or the like. You can do it.

In the case of such a navigation device, for example, for an automobile, a display device is installed in the vicinity of the driver's seat so that the driver can see the vicinity of the current position while the driver is driving or temporarily stopping such as stopping the traffic light. It is common to be able to see the map.

[0005]

By the way, such a navigation device is required to be operable without disturbing the driving of an automobile, and for example, complicated operations are prohibited during traveling. That is, when such a navigation device is installed in a vehicle, it is connected to some running state detection unit (for example, a parking brake switch of an automobile), and the state of the detection unit detects that the vehicle is stopped. Set so that all operations can be performed only when
Is set to prohibit complicated key operations.

However, it is inconvenient that an operation such as switching the displayed map cannot be performed while the vehicle is running, and it is possible to perform advanced operation without disturbing the driving even while the vehicle is running. Has been requested.

In view of the above point, the present invention has an object to make it possible to easily perform high-level operations of various devices such as a navigation device without disturbing the driving of an automobile.

[0008]

The navigation device of the present invention comprises a control means for displaying the area name displayed on the map at a predetermined position when the map is displayed on the display means of the area designated by the voice recognition. Be prepared.

According to the navigation device of the present invention, it is possible to know which map is displayed according to the area name displayed on the map. Whether or not was displayed can be easily understood from the displayed area name. Further, the navigation method of the present invention is such that, when a map instructed by voice recognition is displayed, the area name displayed on this map is displayed at a predetermined position.

According to the navigating method of the present invention, it is possible to know which map is displayed by the area name displayed on the map. For example, whether the map of the area designated by the voice recognition is correctly displayed or the wrong position is displayed. Whether the map is displayed can be easily understood from the displayed area name.

Further, the vehicle of the present invention is provided with a control means for displaying the area name displayed on the map at a predetermined position when the map is displayed on the display means in the vehicle in the area designated by the voice recognition. is there.

According to the vehicle of the present invention, it is possible to know which map is displayed by the area name displayed on the map, for example, whether the map of the area designated by voice recognition is correctly displayed or the map at the wrong position is displayed. Whether it is displayed or not can be easily understood from the displayed area name.

[0013]

An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

This embodiment is applied to a navigation device mounted on a car. First, the installation state of the device of this embodiment on a car will be described with reference to FIGS. As shown in FIG. 2, the vehicle 50 has a steering wheel 51 mounted in front of a driver's seat 52, and basically, a driver sitting in the driver's seat 52 operates the navigation device. However, there is a case where another passenger in the car 50 operates. The main body 20 of the navigation device and the voice recognition device 10 connected to the navigation device main body 20 are installed in an arbitrary space in the automobile 50 (for example, in a rear trunk). It is installed outside the vehicle body (or inside the vehicle such as inside the rear window).

As shown near the driver's seat in FIG. 3, a talk switch 1 to be described later is provided beside the steering wheel 51.
8 and an operation key 27 of the navigation device are arranged, and these switches and keys are arranged so that there is no problem even if operated during driving. Further, the display device 40 connected to the navigation device is arranged at a position that does not obstruct the field of view in front of the driver. A speaker 32 for outputting a voice signal synthesized in the navigation device 20 is attached to a position where the output voice reaches the driver (for example, beside the display device 40).

Further, the navigation system of this embodiment is designed to enable voice input, and the microphone 11 for that purpose is attached to the sun visor 53 disposed above the windshield in front of the driver's seat 52. The voice of the driver seated at 52 is picked up.

Further, the navigation device body 20 of this example
Is connected to an engine control computer 54 of the automobile, and a pulse signal proportional to the vehicle speed is supplied from the engine control computer 54.

Next, the internal configuration of the navigation device of this example will be described with reference to FIG. 1. In this example, the voice recognition device 10 is connected to the navigation device 20, and voice recognition is performed. A microphone 11 is connected to the device 10. As the microphone 11, for example, a microphone whose directivity is set to be relatively narrow and which picks up only the voice of the person sitting in the driver's seat of the car is used.

The audio signal picked up by the microphone 11 is supplied to the analog / digital converter 12 and converted into a digital audio signal having a predetermined sampling frequency. Then, the digital audio signal output from the analog / digital converter 12 is supplied to a digital audio processing circuit 13 having an integrated circuit configuration called a DSP (Digital Signal Processor). The digital audio processing circuit 13 performs processing such as band division and filtering.
The digital voice signal is used as vector data, and this vector data is supplied to the voice recognition circuit 14.

A voice recognition data storage ROM 15 is connected to the voice recognition circuit 14, and the digital voice processing circuit 1 is connected.
3 performs a recognition operation according to a predetermined speech recognition algorithm (for example, HMM: Hidden Markov Model) with the vector data supplied from 3 to select a plurality of candidates from the phoneme model for speech recognition stored in the ROM 15, and select the candidates. The character data stored corresponding to the phoneme model with the highest degree of coincidence is read out.

Here, the voice recognition data storage RO of this example is used.
Explaining the data storage state of M15, in the case of this example, only the place name and the words instructing the operation of the navigation device are recognized, and as the place name, the setting state of the storage area is shown in FIG. As described above, only the names of prefectures and municipalities in Japan are registered, and the character code of the place name and the phoneme model that is the data for recognizing the place name by voice for each prefecture and municipality. Is remembered.

For example, in Japan, the number of municipalities nationwide is about 3500, and the place names of about 3500 are stored. However, in the case of the place name of "xx town", the data when pronounced "xx gusset"
Both the data when "XX butterfly" is pronounced are stored. Similarly, in the case of the place name "xx village",
Data when pronounced "xx son" and "xx unevenness"
And the data when the sound is pronounced are stored.

Also, for municipalities that are likely to be mistaken for remembering prefecture names such as municipalities located adjacent to the boundaries of prefectures, the prefecture names that are easy to make mistakes are given and registered. I am allowed. That is, for example, "Kanagawa Ken Kawasaki (Kawasaki City, Kanagawa Prefecture)" is registered, and also "Tokyo Kawasaki (Kawasaki City, Tokyo)" with adjacent prefecture names is registered.

As the words for instructing the operation of the navigation device, the words for instructing the display position such as "destination", "departure point", "stopover point", "home", and "what time" (currently) "Listen to the time", "Now where" (Listen to the current position), "Next" (Listen to the next intersection),
"How much more" (command to ask the distance to the destination),
"Speed" (command to ask current speed), "Altitude" (command to ask current altitude), "Direction of travel" (command to ask direction), "List" (list of recognized commands A character code of a word for performing other various operation commands such as a command for displaying on the display) and a phonological model corresponding to the word are stored.

Then, in the voice recognition circuit 14, when the character code corresponding to the phonological model that matches the recognition result obtained through the predetermined voice recognition algorithm from the input vector data is the character code of the place name, The character code is read from the ROM 15. Then, the read character code is supplied to the longitude / latitude conversion circuit 16. This latitude / longitude conversion circuit 16 has a ROM for storing latitude / longitude conversion data.
17 is connected, and the latitude and longitude data corresponding to the character data supplied from the voice recognition circuit 14 and its accompanying data are R
Read from OM17.

Here, R for storing the latitude / longitude conversion data of this example
Explaining the data storage state of the OM 17, in the case of this example, a storage area is set for each character code that is the same as the character code of the place name stored in the voice recognition data storage ROM 15, and as shown in FIG. For each character code, the latitude and longitude data of the place name indicated by the character and the display scale data are stored as accompanying data. The character code read from the voice recognition data storage ROM 15 is a katakana character code. The latitude / longitude conversion data storage ROM 17 has a katakana character code and kanji, hiragana, katakana for display. It also stores the character codes that use, etc.

In the case of this example, the latitude and longitude data for each place name is the latitude indicating the absolute position of the location of the local government (city hall, ward office, town hall, village hall) indicated by the place name. It is as longitude data. As accompanying data, character code for display and display scale data are output together with latitude and longitude data. The display scale data is display scale data set according to the size of the area indicated by the place name, for example, data indicating the display scale in several steps.

ROM 1 for storing latitude / longitude conversion data
The latitude and longitude data read from 7 and the accompanying data are
The output of the voice recognition device 10 is supplied to an output terminal 10a. Further, the data of the character code of the input voice whose match is detected by the voice recognition circuit 14 is supplied to the output terminal 10 b as an output of the voice recognition device 10. This output terminal 10a,
The data obtained in 10b is supplied to the navigation device 20. The voice recognition device 10 of the present example is provided with a talk switch 18 which is an open / close switch that is not locked (that is, a switch that is turned on only when pressed), and while the talk switch 18 is pressed, Only the audio signal picked up by the microphone 11 is processed by the circuits from the analog / digital converter 12 to the latitude / longitude conversion circuit 16 as described above.

Next, the structure of the navigation device 20 connected to the voice recognition device 10 will be described. This navigation device 20 includes a GPS antenna 21,
The positioning signal from the GPS satellite received by the antenna 21 is received and processed by the current position detection circuit 22, and the received data is analyzed to detect the current position. The data of the detected current position is data of latitude and longitude, which are absolute positions at that time.

Then, the detected current position data is supplied to the arithmetic circuit 23. The arithmetic circuit 23 is a circuit that functions as a system controller that controls the operation of the navigation device 20, and is set with a CD-ROM (optical disk) storing road map data.
A CD-ROM driver 24 for reading data stored in the CD-ROM; a RAM 25 for storing various data necessary for data processing; a vehicle speed sensor 26 for detecting the movement of a vehicle equipped with the navigation device; 27
And are connected. When the coordinate data of the latitude and longitude such as the current position is obtained, the CD-ROM driver 24
To read the road map data near the coordinate position. Then, the road map data read by the CD-ROM driver 24 is temporarily stored in the RAM 25, and display data for displaying the road map is created using the stored road map data. At this time, the display data is set to display a map on a display scale (scale) set by operating the operation keys 27 arranged at a predetermined position in the automobile.

Then, the display data created by the arithmetic circuit 23 is supplied to the video signal generating circuit 28, and the video signal generating circuit 28 generates a video signal of a predetermined format based on the display data. Output terminal 20
c.

Then, the video signal output from the output terminal 20c is supplied to the display device 40, image receiving processing is performed on the display device 40 based on the video signal, and a road map or the like is displayed on the display panel of the display device 40. Display it.

In addition to displaying the road map in the vicinity of the current position, the road map at the position designated by the operation of the operation keys 27 can be displayed under the control of the arithmetic circuit 23. There is. In addition, the operation key 27
Specific coordinate positions such as “destination”, “departure point”, “route point”, and “home” can be registered based on the operation of. When the specific coordinate position is registered, the data of the registered coordinate position (longitude and latitude data) is stored in the RAM 25.

Further, when the vehicle speed sensor 26 detects the traveling of the automobile, the arithmetic circuit 23 does not accept any operation other than the relatively simple operation of the operation keys 27.

Further, the navigation device 20 is provided with an autonomous navigation unit 29, which calculates an accurate traveling speed of the vehicle on the basis of a pulse signal corresponding to the vehicle speed supplied from an engine control computer or the like on the vehicle side. The traveling direction is detected based on the output of the gyro sensor in the autonomous navigation unit 29, and the current position is determined by the autonomous navigation from the position determined based on the speed and the traveling direction. For example, when the position cannot be detected by the current position detection circuit 22, the positioning by the autonomous navigation is performed from the position last detected by the current position detection circuit 22.

Further, the arithmetic circuit 23 includes a voice synthesis circuit 31.
When the arithmetic circuit 23 requires some instruction by voice, the voice synthesizing circuit 31 executes the voice synthesizing process instructed by the voice synthesizing circuit 31 and outputs the voice from the speaker 32 connected to the voice synthesizing circuit 31. It is made to output. For example, various instructions necessary for the navigation device, such as "approaching the destination" and "the traveling direction is left", are given by voice. In the speech synthesis circuit 31, the speech recognized by the speech recognition device 10 is subjected to speech synthesis processing based on the supplied character data, and is output from the speaker 32 as speech. The processing will be described later.

Here, the navigation device 20 is
The voice recognition device 10 is provided with input terminals 20a and 20b to which longitude and latitude data output from the output terminals 10a and 10b and associated data and character code data are provided, and longitude and latitude data obtained at the input terminals 20a and 20b. And its associated data and character code data are supplied to the arithmetic circuit 23.

When the latitude / longitude data is supplied from the voice recognition device 10, the arithmetic circuit 23 controls the CD-ROM driver 24 to read the road map data near the longitude and latitude from the disk. To do. And
The road map data read by the CD-ROM driver 24 is temporarily stored in the RAM 25, and the stored road map data is used to create display data for displaying the road map. At this time, the supplied longitude and latitude are the display data displayed at the center, and the display data is such that the map is displayed on the scale (scale) indicated by the display scale attached to the longitude and latitude data.

Then, the video signal generation circuit 28 generates a video signal based on the display data, and the display device 40 displays the road map at the coordinate position designated by the voice recognition device 10.

When the video signal generation circuit 28 generates a video signal for displaying a road map based on the result recognized by the voice recognition device 10, the video signal is generated by the control of the arithmetic circuit 23. The area name is displayed by letters in the corner of the displayed image. The area name displayed in this case is the ROM 1 of the voice recognition device 10.
The area name indicated by the character data for display read and supplied from No. 7 is displayed, and the prefecture name, the city name, etc., which are recognized by voice, are displayed. However,
In this case, the arithmetic circuit is used to display the image signal of the corresponding map by recognizing the voice and then displaying it for a predetermined time Tx (this Tx is, for example, a relatively short time of about 10 seconds). 23 controls the display.

The output terminal 10b of the voice recognition device 10
When a character code of a word instructing the operation of the navigation device is supplied from the computer, when the arithmetic circuit 23 determines the character code of the word instructing the operation, the arithmetic circuit 23 performs corresponding control. . In this case, if the character code of the word indicating the display position such as “destination”, “departure place”, “route point”, “home”, etc., is the coordinate of this display position registered in the RAM 25? If it is registered after determining whether or not it is registered, the CD-ROM driver 24 controls to read the road map data in the vicinity of the position from the disc.

Also, when the display positions such as "destination", "departure point", "route point", "home", etc. are to be registered, the voice such as "destination registration" can be recognized and set. I am doing it. When registering these positions, the cursor position on the map displayed on the display device 40 (the mark displayed at an arbitrary position on the map by a predetermined operation of the operation key 27) when the instruction is given. Is the registered position. In addition, in the arithmetic circuit 23 of this example, when the destination, the waypoint, etc. are registered, the route to the position is automatically set.
That is, with the position registered as home or the current position detected by the current position detection circuit 22 as a starting point, the most appropriate route to that position is automatically performed by arithmetic processing. In this case, when data on road conditions such as traffic congestion information is obtained from the outside, the route may be set in consideration of this data.

When data of a character code indicating the pronunciation of the recognized voice is supplied from the voice recognition device 10 to the arithmetic circuit 23, the word indicated by the character code is changed to
The voice synthesizing circuit 31 performs a synthesizing process, and the speaker 32 connected to the voice synthesizing circuit 31 outputs the voice as a voice. For example, when the voice recognition device 10 recognizes the voice as “Tokyo Bunkyo (Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo)”, based on the character string data of the recognized pronunciation, a synthesis process for generating a voice signal to be pronounced as “Tokyo Bunkyo” is performed. Is performed by the voice synthesis circuit 31, and the generated voice signal is output from the speaker 32.

In this case, in this example, the voice recognition device 1
When the voice recognition is performed with 0, the navigation device 20
The longitude and latitude data are supplied to the terminal 20a of
The data of the character code indicating the pronunciation of the recognized voice is supplied to the terminal 20b almost at the same time.
In No. 3, first, the process of synthesizing the words recognized by the voice synthesizing circuit 31 is executed, and then the process of creating the display data of the road map based on the longitude and latitude data is executed.

Next, an operation when a road map is displayed using the voice recognition device 10 and the navigation device 20 of this example will be described. First, when the voice recognition operation in the voice recognition device 10 is shown in the flowchart of FIG. 6, it is first determined whether or not the talk switch 18 is turned on (step 10
1) If it is determined that the talk switch 18 is turned on, the analog / digital converter 12 samples the audio signal picked up by the microphone 11 during the on time, and the digital audio processing circuit 13 to process the vector data (step 10).
2). Then, the speech recognition circuit 14 performs a speech recognition process based on the vector data (step 103).

Here, the ROM 15 for voice recognition data storage
It is judged whether or not the voice of the place name stored in (that is, the place name registered in advance) is recognized (step 104), and when the voice of the registered place name is recognized, a character for pronouncing the recognized place name. The data is read from the ROM 15 and output from the output terminal 10b (step 105), and the longitude / latitude data of the recognized place name is converted into the latitude / latitude conversion circuit 16.
The data is read from the latitude / longitude conversion data storage ROM 17 connected to (step 106). As the voice recognition of the place name here, since the place names registered in the ROM 15 of this example are the names of prefectures and municipalities in Japan, for example, a voice saying "XX prefecture XX city", Recognize a voice saying "XX city XX ward" (here, it can be recognized even if the prefecture is omitted).

Then, the longitude and latitude data read out based on the recognized voice and the accompanying data are output to the output terminal 10a.
(Step 107).

If the voice of the registered place name cannot be recognized in step 104, it is determined whether or not a specific registered voice other than the place name is recognized (step 108). Here, when the registered specific voice other than the place name is recognized, the character code corresponding to the identified voice is determined (step 109), and the determined character code is output from the output terminal 10b (step 110). ).

If no registered specific voice other than the place name can be recognized in step 108, the process at this time is ended. Alternatively, the fact that the voice cannot be recognized is instructed to the navigation device 20 side, and a warning is given by voice synthesis in the voice synthesis circuit 31 or characters displayed on the display device 40.

Next, the operation on the side of the navigation device 20 is shown in the flowchart of FIG.
Then, it is determined whether or not the display mode of the current position is set (step 201). When it is determined that the display mode of the current position is set, the current position detection circuit 22 executes positioning of the current position (step 20).
2) The road map data in the vicinity of the measured current position is read from the CD-ROM (step 203), the road map is displayed based on the read road map data, and the coordinates corresponding to the display device 40 are displayed. The road map of the position is displayed (step 204).

When it is determined in step 201 that the display mode of the current position is not set, or the display processing of the road map of the current position in step 204 ends,
When the road map is displayed, it is determined whether or not longitude and latitude data are supplied from the speech recognition device 10 via the input terminals 20a and 20b (step 205). Here, when it is determined that the longitude and latitude data and the accompanying character data are supplied, first the character code for sounding supplied through the terminal 20b is supplied to the voice synthesis circuit 31 for voice recognition. Device 10
The voice recognized in step S1 is synthesized and output from the speaker 32 (step 206). Next, the road map data in the vicinity of the position indicated by the longitude and latitude data is stored on the CD-ROM.
(Step 207), display processing of the road map is performed based on the read road map data, and the road map at the coordinate position corresponding to the display device 40 is displayed (step 208).

Then, in step 205, the speech recognition apparatus 1
When it is determined that the longitude and latitude data are not supplied from 0, or when the display processing of the road map of the designated place name in step 208 is completed and the road map is displayed, the voice recognition is performed. Input terminal 2 from device 10
It is determined whether a character code that directly indicates the display position is supplied via 0b (step 209). When it is determined that the character code is supplied from the terminal 20b, the character code is supplied to the voice synthesis circuit 31, and the voice recognized by the voice recognition device 10 is output from the speaker 32 (step 210). And then step 20
Character code that directly indicates the display position in 9 (that is, words such as "destination", "departure point", "stopover point", "home")
When it is determined, it is determined whether the coordinate position designated by these characters is registered in the RAM 25 (step 211). If registered, the registered coordinate position is the longitude and latitude data. The road map data in the vicinity of the position indicated by is read from the CD-ROM (step 212), the road map is displayed based on the read road map data, and the road map at the coordinate position corresponding to the display device 40 is displayed. Is displayed (Step 21
3) Then, with this display being performed, the process returns to the determination in step 201.

When it is determined in step 209 that the character code for directly indicating the display position is not supplied from the voice recognition device 10, the operation circuit 27 determines whether or not there is an operation for designating the display position. (Step 214). Then, if there is an operation for designating this display position, the detection data of the vehicle speed sensor 26 is judged to judge whether or not the vehicle is currently traveling (step 215). When the arithmetic circuit 23 determines that the vehicle is traveling, the operation at that time is invalidated, and the process returns to the determination in step 201 (some warning may be given at this time).

Then, when it is determined that the vehicle is not traveling, the process proceeds to step 211, and after it is determined whether or not there are registered coordinates, if there is a registered coordinate position,
Display processing of the road map at that position (steps 212 and 21)
After performing 3), the process returns to the determination in step 201.

Then, in step 211, "destination",
If the coordinates of the corresponding positions such as “departure place”, “intermediate place”, and “home” are not registered, a warning of non-registration is issued by voice synthesis in the voice synthesis circuit 31 or character display on the display device 40. (Step 216), and the process returns to Step 201.

In the flow chart of FIG. 7, the processing relating to the map display has been described. However, in the case where the character code based on the result of recognizing the voice instructing the operation other than the map display from the voice recognition device 10 is supplied According to the control of the arithmetic circuit 23, the corresponding processing is performed. For example, when a character code is supplied by recognizing "Imananji" or the like, the voice synthesizing circuit 31 synthesizes a voice for producing the current time and outputs it from the speaker 32 under the control of the arithmetic circuit 23. is there.
For other commands, the voice of the answer is also synthesized by the voice synthesis circuit 3.
The processing is performed so that the display device 40 performs the corresponding display and outputs it from the speaker 32.

Next, the process for controlling the display of the map when the road map is displayed based on the voice recognition by the voice recognition device 10 and the navigation device 20 of this example will be described.
This will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

First, the input voice is recognized, and the road map of the recognized place name is displayed on the display device 40 (step 401). When this map display is started, the area name is displayed in the corner of the map (step 40).
2). The area name displayed at this time is the name of the prefecture or the name of the municipality that has been recognized by voice. For example, A in FIG.
As shown in, in the upper left corner of the map, "Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo", which is the position indicated by this map, is displayed.

Then, it is judged whether or not a predetermined time Tx has elapsed since the start of the display of this road map (step 403). Here, the predetermined time Tx is, for example, a relatively short time of about 10 seconds to several tens of seconds. Then, when this predetermined time Tx has elapsed, the area name displayed in step 402 is deleted (step 404). For example, FIG.
As shown in B of No. 3, only the road map is displayed.

By performing the display processing as described above,
The display position can be freely set anywhere in the country by voice input, and the road map at a desired position can be easily displayed. That is, for example, if the operator uses the talk switch 1
While holding down 8, press "XX
Just by talking to “prefecture XX city” or “XX city XX ward”, the voice is recognized and the road map of the area is displayed, so there is no need to specify the position by key operation, For example, the navigation device can be operated even when complicated key operations are difficult. In this case, in this example, since the voice of the place name recognized by the voice recognition device 10 is limited to the names of prefectures and municipalities in Japan, the number of recognized voices is relatively small (about 3500). The voice recognition circuit 14 in the voice recognition device 10 is limited in voice recognition processing in a short time with a relatively small amount of processing, and the time until the place name can be recognized and the map instructed by the input voice is displayed. The recognition rate itself is improved because the number of recognized place names can be shortened as well as being shortened.

In this example, when the road map designated by voice recognition is displayed, the area name of the map is displayed. Therefore, the map where the area name is displayed is displayed. It is easy to understand whether the map of the area designated by voice recognition is displayed correctly or whether the map at the wrong position is displayed, for example, and it becomes easier to understand by the displayed area name, and it is easy to use as a navigation device. improves.

In the case of the above embodiment, the predetermined time T
Although the area name display is erased when x has elapsed, the area name may be displayed at all times. Further, the display position of the area name is the upper left corner in FIG. 9, but it may be displayed at another position. For example, it may be displayed in the center of the road map.

In this example, the voice recognition device 10
As the data of the coordinate position corresponding to the place name to be stored in the internal ROM 17, the local government office (city office, ward office,
Since it is the data of latitude and longitude showing the absolute position of the location of the town hall, village hall), a map centering on the government offices in that area is displayed, which is in a good display state. That is, the government offices in each region are relatively often present in the center of the region, and there is a high possibility that the display form will be the best.

In the above-mentioned embodiment, the place names recognized by the voice recognition device are limited to the names of prefectures and municipalities in Japan, but more detailed place names and even voices that specify the place are recognized. Is also good. For example, a name of a target building or an address where a strict position can be specified may be directly recognized by voice, and the position designated by the recognized voice may be set as the destination.

Further, in the above-mentioned embodiment, the coordinates of the center of each place name are the latitude and longitude data indicating the absolute position of the location of the local government office (city office, ward office, town office, village office). The latitude and longitude data indicating the position may be used. For example, the latitude and longitude data of the center of the area (city, town, village) may be simply used.

Instead of storing the central latitude and longitude data as described above, the coordinate position data of the north, south, east, and west ends of the area may be stored. In this case, it is sufficient to have four pieces of data of longitude in east and west and latitude in north and south.

In the above embodiment, the voice recognition circuit 14 in the voice recognition device converts the recognized voice into a character code, and then the longitude / latitude conversion circuit 16 converts the character code into the longitude,
Although the data is converted into latitude data, the recognized voice may be directly converted into longitude and latitude data. In addition, even if the data is not directly converted into longitude and latitude data in this way, a ROM that stores these conversion data
The ROM 15 and the ROM 17 may be configured by the same memory, and may share a place name storage area, for example.

Further, in the above-mentioned embodiment, the invention is applied to the navigation device using the positioning system called GPS, but it is needless to say that the invention is also applicable to the navigation device using other positioning systems.

[0069]

According to the navigation device of the present invention,
It is possible to know where the map was displayed by the area name displayed on the map, for example, whether the map of the area specified by voice recognition was displayed correctly or whether the map at the wrong position was displayed. The name makes it easier to understand, and the usability as a navigation device is improved.

In this case, since the area name is displayed for a predetermined time after the map by the voice recognition is displayed on the display means, the area name is displayed at an appropriate timing, which hinders the map display. The area name can be displayed well without doing so.

Further, according to the navigation method of the present invention, it is possible to know which map is displayed by the area name displayed on the map, for example, whether the map of the area designated by the voice recognition is correctly displayed or an incorrect position is displayed. Whether the map is displayed or not can be easily understood from the displayed area name.

In this case, since the area name is displayed for a predetermined time after the map by the voice recognition is displayed, the area name is displayed at an appropriate timing, which is good without disturbing the map display. You can display the area name in.

Further, according to the automobile of the present invention, it is possible to know which map is displayed by the area name displayed on the map,
Even if you do not judge the contents of the displayed map itself, you can judge whether the indicated position is correctly displayed only by displaying the area name, and you can judge the quality of the displayed map just by looking at the display for a short time. Even if it is difficult to view the display for a long time depending on the driving situation of the automobile, the quality of the displayed displayed map can be known.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram showing one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing a state in which the device of the embodiment is installed in an automobile.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing the vicinity of a driver's seat when the device according to the embodiment is incorporated in an automobile.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram showing a storage area configuration of a voice recognition memory according to an embodiment.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram showing a storage area configuration of a latitude / longitude conversion memory according to an embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing processing by voice recognition according to an embodiment.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing a display process in the navigation device according to the embodiment.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing a display control process according to an embodiment.

FIG. 9 is an explanatory diagram showing a display example of a road map according to an embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

 10 voice recognition device 11 microphone 12 analog / digital converter 13 digital voice processing circuit (DSP) 14 voice recognition circuit 15 voice recognition data storage ROM 16 longitude / latitude conversion circuit 17 longitude / latitude conversion data storage ROM 18 talk switch 20 navigation device 23 arithmetic circuit 24 CD-ROM driver 25 RAM 26 vehicle speed sensor 27 operation key 28 video signal generation circuit 31 voice synthesis circuit 32 speaker 40 display device 50 automobile

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (72) Hiroshi Tsunoda, 6-35 Kita-Shinagawa, Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo Sony Corporation (72) Koji Asano 6-35, Kita-Shinagawa, Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo Sony Corporation (72) Inventor Hiroaki Ogawa 6-735 Kitashinagawa, Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo Sony Corporation (72) Inventor table Masanori 6-35 Kitashinagawa, Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo Sony Incorporated (72) Inventor Katsuki Minamino 6-735 Kitashinagawa, Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo Sony Corporation

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. A voice signal input unit, a voice processing unit for recognizing voice from a voice signal input to the voice signal input unit, and a predetermined control based on the voice recognized by the voice processing unit. Conversion means for obtaining data, display means for displaying a map instructed by the control data, and control means for displaying a region name displayed on the map at a predetermined position when the map is displayed on the display means. Navigation device equipped with. 2. The navigation device according to claim 1, wherein the area name is displayed for a predetermined time after the map by voice recognition is displayed on the display means. 3. A voice is recognized from an input voice signal, a map instructed by control data obtained based on the recognized voice is displayed, and at the time of displaying the map, an area displayed on the map. A navigation method in which the first name is displayed at a predetermined position. 4. After the map by voice recognition is displayed,
The navigation method according to claim 3, wherein the area name is displayed for a predetermined time. 5. A display means arranged at a predetermined position in the vehicle,
In an automobile equipped with a device for displaying a map, a voice signal input unit, a voice processing unit for recognizing voice from a voice signal input to the voice signal input unit, and a voice recognized by the voice processing unit. Converting means for obtaining predetermined control data based on the above, and a map indicated by the control data is displayed on the display means, and at the time of displaying the map, the area name displayed on the map is displayed at a predetermined position. A vehicle with control means.