Route guidance apparatus and method

Details Route guidance apparatus and method Route guidance apparatus and method

2002-02-27

2003-07-15

Cuchlinski, Jr., William A. (Department: 3661)

Data processing: vehicles, navigation, and relative location

Navigation

Employing position determining equipment

C701S208000, C701S209000, C340S990000, C340S995190

Reexamination Certificate

active

06594581

ABSTRACT:

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
This application is based upon and claims the benefit of priority from the prior Japanese Patent Application PH2001-055846, filed on Feb. 28, 2001; the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a route guidance apparatus and a method for executing route guidance for a pedestrian by presenting a route guidance sentence or a simplified map.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Recently, a route guidance apparatus for presenting a route guidance sentence and a simplified map to a destination for a pedestrian is developed. This route guidance apparatus is a simple portable device or is loaded to a portable communication terminal such as a cellular-phone or a personal data assistant (PDA).
A route guidance technique using the route guidance sentence and the simplified map is disclosed in the following two references.
(1) TECHNICAL REPORT OF IEICE, PRU95-215 (1996-02), “Interactive Generation of a Route and Its Application to Generating a Sketch Map Drawing in a Map Image Information System” Masahiko HORIE, Toshihiro KIMURA, Noboru BABAGUCHI, Seiichiro DAN and Tadahiro KITAHASHI
(2) TECHNICAL REPORT OF IEICE, PRMU96-156 (1997-01), “Modeling of Geographic Road Structure for Generation of Sketch Map Image and Linguistic Guide” Toshihiro KIMURA, Yoshihiro SUZUKI, Seiichiro DAN, Noboru BABAGUCHI and Tadahiro KITAHASHI
As for generation of the route guidance sentence, in reference (1), for example, a sentence “Please go forward to the west direction by 20 meters.” and “Please turn to the right at the junction.” can be presented. However, especially, numerical value representing distance such as “** meters” is difficult for a pedestrian to apply. Furthermore, innumerable junctions exist in a town area, and the pedestrian often mistakes a junction indicated by the route guidance sentence for another junction. Accordingly, such route guidance sentence is not always easy for the pedestrian to sufficiently understand. In reference (2), for example, a route guidance sentence such as “This road joins another road.” or “You advance to ** at a crossroads.” is only presented. This route guidance sentence is more difficult for the pedestrian to understand than the route guidance sentence disclosed in the reference (1).
As mentioned-above, in the known route guidance technique, presentation of the route guidance sentence is not always easy for the pedestrian to understand, and it is often possible for the pedestrian to misunderstand a junction point, a joint point, or a divergence point indicated by the route guidance sentence.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is an object of the present invention to provide a route guidance apparatus and a method to present route guidance easy for the pedestrian to understand.
According to the present invention, there is provided a pedestrian route guidance apparatus, comprising: a database configured to store map data including road network data and landmark data; a route search unit configured to search for a route from a departure point to a destination point from the road network data stored in said database; a road pattern analysis unit configured to analyze a road pattern of the route by referring to the road network data, and to obtain road pattern data as the analysis result; a route guidance information generation unit configured to generate route guidance information of the route using the road pattern data and the landmark data along the route; and a presentation unit configured to present the route guidance information.
Further in accordance with the present invention, there is also provided a pedestrian route guidance method, comprising: storing map data including road network data and landmark data in a database; searching for a route from a departure point to a destination point from the road network data stored in the database; analyzing a road pattern of the route by referring to the road network data; obtaining road pattern data as the analysis result; generating route guidance information of the route using the road pattern data and the landmark data along the route; and presenting the route guidance information.
Further in accordance with the present invention, there is also provided a computer program product, comprising: a computer readable program code embodied in said product for causing a computer to execute pedestrian route guidance, said computer readable program code having: a first program code to store map data including road network data and landmark data in a database; a second program code to search for a route from a departure point to a destination point from the road network data stored in the database; a third program code to analyze a road pattern of the route by referring to the road network data; a fourth program code to obtain road pattern data as the analysis result; a fifth program code to generate route guidance information of the route using the road pattern data and the landmark data along the route; and a sixth program code to present the route guidance information.


REFERENCES:
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U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/716,303, Hasegawa et al., filed Nov. 21, 2000.
T. Hasegawa et al., “Text Generating Method For Interactive Route Guidance Service For Pedestrian”, Technical Report of IEICE, HIP2001-13, pp. 43-48, (Jul. 2001).
H. Kubota, et al., “A Route Guide Text Generation Using Crossing Pattern Analysis For A Pedestrian Navigation”, 63rd National Convention of IPSJ, 3J7, (Mar. 2001).
H. Kubota, et al., “Route Guidance Generating Methods For Cellular Phone”, 12th Annual Symposium on Information System of Vector Graphics, IEICE, pp. 53-58, (May 2001).
M. Horie et al., “Interactive Generation Of A Route And Its Application To Generating A Sketch Map Drawing In A Map Image Information System”, Technical Report of IEICE, pp. 31-38, (Feb. 1996).
T. Kimura, et al., “Modeling Of Geographic Road Structure For Generation Of Sketch Map Image And Linguistic Guide”, Technical Report of IEICE, pp. 113-120, (Jan. 1997).

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