Data processing: vehicles – navigation – and relative location – Navigation – Employing position determining equipment
Reexamination Certificate
2002-09-26
2004-04-27
Jeanglaude, Gertrude A. (Department: 3661)
Data processing: vehicles, navigation, and relative location
Navigation
Employing position determining equipment
C701S208000, C701S209000, C340S990000, C340S995100
Reexamination Certificate
active
06728636
ABSTRACT:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
This application is based upon and claims the benefit of priority from the prior Japanese Patent Applications No. 2001-292866, filed Sep. 26, 2001; and No. 2002-052771, filed Feb. 28, 2002, the entire contents of both of which are incorporated herein by reference.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a destination guidance system for guiding in a building with a complicated structure such as a railway station, underground area, and the like, a destination guidance data acquisition system for acquiring information required for guidance, and the like.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, a route guidance system that guides the user from a place of departure to a destination has become prevalent. As a typical example of such a system, a car navigation system is known. Also, some types of route guidance systems for pedestrians have also been commercially available. For example, a portable terminal with a GPS (Global Positioning System) receiver has been released, and a system that gives route guidance on the basis of position information of the user has been introduced. Furthermore, a system with which the user receives route guidance by explicitly designating a place of departure and destination using a PC, portable terminal, and the like has been introduced.
In such route guidance systems, guidance routes are manually prepared in advance. However, in this system, the guidance range is limited. For this reason, most systems search a pedestrians route network purchased from a map company to automatically generate a guidance route.
In contrast, a system that guides in a building such as a railway station, underground area, or the like is not so prevalent at present. As an example of a system that has been introduced currently, a system that shows train cars that stop near stairs and their doors is available in some railway stations. However, this system can only guide from the platform of a departure station to that of a destination station using text prepared in advance. Therefore, this system cannot automatically generate an individual route in a railway station, that can be provided to each user.
At some subway ticket gates, photos are displayed to show surrounding landscapes at the top of the stairs. Furthermore, a system that gives route guidance by creating a pseudo three-dimensional space by pasting and interpolating some photos of landscapes on the premises of a building or construction is available. However, since each photo is information that indicates only a landscape from a given viewpoint, they cannot provide a global image of the building or route guidance to a destination.
In addition, a service that guides using a map obtained by 2.5-dimensionally deforming a three-dimensional structure of a building is available. However, with this service, guidance routes are manually prepared in advance, and the service does not automatically generate a route in accordance with the place of departure and destination individually designated by the user upon guidance.
In this way, the conventional destination guidance system does not automatically generate each individual route in accordance with the place of departure and destination individually designated by the user upon guidance. Also, the system provides neither a global image of the building nor route guidance to a destination in accordance with the movement of the user. For this reason, such a system is not suitable for transfer guidance in a large-scale railway station where long-distance and shuttle trains cross, guidance of an underground area, and the like. As one of the causes of such difficulty, it is difficult to automatically generate a guidance route since there are innumerable lines along which pedestrians can go in a broad space (to be referred to as a broad-area site hereinafter) such as the vicinity of ticket gates, concourse, and the like in a railway station.
As one of solutions to the aforementioned problems, a method disclosed in Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 2000-298034 can be applied. In this method, a route network with a mesh pattern is formed in a broad-area site, and a route is generated by searching the network. However, with this method, it is difficult to uniquely determine parameters such as components, resolution, and the like of the mesh. For example, quite different routes are generated depending on whether each component of the mesh is defined by a rectangle or a triangle obtained by dividing the rectangle by a diagonal line. On the other hand, when the mesh has a low resolution, the computation volume required for route search decreases, but unnatural detour route may be generated. In contrast, if the mesh has a high resolution, a detour route can be prevented from being generated, but the computation volume increases. In this manner, in the method using the network in the mesh pattern, parameters to be assigned must be determined by trial and error in correspondence with the shape of the broad-area site.
As another solution, a method of generating a route by bending the traveling direction of light rays, that are emitted forward from the current place, toward a destination, and tracing the first vertices that intercept the light rays is available (Pedestrian Information Providing System: Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 10-319839). However, this method cannot generate a plain route for the user since it has no scheme for decreasing the number of turning points included in a route, determining a route that goes by a distinctive landmark, and so forth.
BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention has been made to solve the aforementioned problems, and has as its object to provide a destination guidance system that automatically generates and presents an individual route in accordance with the place of departure and destination designated by each user, and the like.
The present invention may provide a destination guidance system utilizing a structure on premises of a building, which comprises: a structure information memory which stores structure information corresponding to information pertaining to the structure on the premises of the building, the structure information including a plurality of guide points on the premises of the building, and route data indicating moving routes that connect the plurality of guide points; a guidance information memory which stores first guidance information including landmark data and landscape data concerning a plurality of approach and exit directions to and from each of the guide points; an input unit configured to make a user input a desired place of departure and destination; a recommended route generation unit configured to generate a recommended route, which is recommended upon movement from the place of departure to the destination, by selecting and connecting at least one of the route data stored in the structure information memory; a presentation information generation unit configured to extract second guidance information concerning the plurality of the approach and exit directions to and from at least one guide point, which is present on the recommended route, from the first guidance information in the guidance information memory, and to generate presentation information that contains the second guidance information; and a presentation unit configured to present the presentation information.
The present invention may provide a railway station destination guidance system utilizing a structure on the premises of a railway station, which comprises: a structure information memory which stores structure information corresponding to information pertaining to the structure on the premises of the railway station, the structure information including a plurality of guide points on the premises of the railway station, and route data indicating moving routes that connect the plurality of guide points; a guidance information memory which stores guidance information, the guidance information including landmark data and landscape data
Doi Miwako
Kokojima Yoshiyuki
Sugiyama Hiroshi
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