Display device

Abstract

Provided is a display device that notifies a driver about information relating to a merging point of vehicles traveling in a group and information relating to a time of arrival at the merging point.　A display device 1 comprises: a travel route acquisition unit 12 that acquires a travel route of a host vehicle to a destination; an other vehicle information acquisition unit 13 that acquires a travel route of another vehicle to the destination and position information of the other vehicle; a merging point detection unit 14 that detects a merging point on the basis of the travel route of the host vehicle to the destination and the travel route of the other vehicle to the destination; a required time calculation unit 15 that calculates a host vehicle required time which is the time required for the host vehicle to reach the merging point and an other vehicle required time which is the time required for the other vehicle to reach the merging point; a display information generation unit 16 that generates display information relating to the merging point, the host vehicle required time, and the other vehicle required time; and a display unit 40 that displays the display information.

Description

display device

[0001] The present invention relates to a display device.

[0002] In general, a vehicle navigation device displays a driving route to a set destination, an estimated arrival time, etc., and provides route guidance to the destination.

[0003] For example, one such technology proposed is one in which the predicted arrival time at the destination is calculated at predetermined intervals, and if it is determined that the calculated predicted arrival time differs from the predicted arrival time calculated a predetermined time later by more than a predetermined time, a notification means notifies the user of this (see, for example, Patent Document 1).

[0004] JP 2008-82795 A

[0005] However, with the technology described in Patent Document 1, when multiple vehicles traveling in a group with different starting points are traveling to the same destination, it is not possible to obtain information such as the travel route from the vehicles traveling in the group, which means that the driver is unable to grasp the junction point of the vehicles traveling in the group.Furthermore, with the technology described in Patent Document 1, information regarding the time when the vehicles traveling in the group will arrive at the junction point is not provided, which means that the driver is unable to determine whether or not they have enough time.

[0006] Therefore, the present invention has been made in consideration of the above-mentioned problems, and aims to provide a display device that notifies the driver of information regarding the merging point of vehicles traveling in a group and information regarding the time of arrival at the merging point.

[0007] Form 1: One or more embodiments of the present invention propose a display device comprising: a driving route acquisition unit that acquires a driving route of the host vehicle to a destination; an other vehicle information acquisition unit that acquires driving routes of other vehicles to the destination and position information of the other vehicles; a merging point detection unit that detects a merging point based on the driving route of the host vehicle to the destination and the driving routes of the other vehicles to the destination; a required time calculation unit that calculates a host vehicle required time that is the time required for the host vehicle to reach the merging point and a other vehicle required time that is the time required for the other vehicle to reach the merging point; a display information generation unit that generates display information regarding the merging point, the host vehicle required time, and the other vehicle required time; and a display unit that displays the display information.

[0008] Form 4: One or more embodiments of the present invention propose a display device comprising one or more processors, one or more memories communicatively connected to the one or more processors, and a display unit, wherein the one or more processors include a driving route acquisition unit that acquires a driving route to a destination of the host vehicle, an other vehicle information acquisition unit that acquires driving routes of other vehicles to the destination and position information of the other vehicles, a merging point detection unit that detects a merging point based on the driving route of the host vehicle to the destination and the driving routes of the other vehicles to the destination, a required time calculation unit that calculates a host vehicle required time that is the time required for the host vehicle to reach the merging point and a other vehicle required time that is the time required for the other vehicle to reach the merging point, and a display information generation unit that generates display information regarding the merging point, the host vehicle required time, and the other vehicle required time, and causes the display unit to display the display information.

[0009] According to one or more embodiments of the present invention, it is possible to provide the driver with information about a junction point for vehicles traveling in a group and information about the time of arrival at the junction point.

[0010] 1 is a diagram showing the configuration of a display device according to an embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 2 is a diagram showing the configuration of a processor of a display device according to an embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a meeting point calculated by a display device according to an embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of a display on a display device according to an embodiment of the present invention; and FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a processing flow of a display device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

[0011] <Embodiment> A display device 1 according to this embodiment will be described with reference to Figs. 1 to 5 .

[0012] <Configuration of Display Device 1> As shown in FIG. 1, the display device 1 according to this embodiment includes a processor 10, a memory 20, a communication unit 30, and a display unit 40.

[0013] The processor 10 displays information about a junction point on a route traveled by vehicles traveling in a group to the same destination, and information about the time of arrival at the junction point. The configuration of the processor 10 will be described later.

[0014] The memory 20 includes a read-only memory (ROM) and a random access memory (RAM), both of which are not shown. The memory 20 stores, for example, a control program, map information, and various data received from the processor 10. In this embodiment, the memory 20 stores group driving information that is registered in advance by the driver when starting group driving. The group driving information includes, for example, the identification number of each vehicle in the group driving, destination information for the vehicles in the group driving, and email address information for the drivers of each vehicle.

[0015] The communication unit 30 is a wireless communication module that can be connected to a network, and communicates with vehicles traveling in a group via, for example, the Internet.

[0016] The display unit 40 is, for example, a display panel such as a liquid crystal display, and displays the display information received from the processor 10 .

[0017] 2, the processor 10 includes a position information acquisition unit 11, a driving route acquisition unit 12, an other vehicle information acquisition unit 13, a merging point detection unit 14, a required time calculation unit 15, a display information generation unit 16, a control unit 17, and a merging information transmission unit 18. The various units of the processor 10 and the memory 20 transmit and receive various information via the bus line BL. The following describes the processor 10 associated with the display device 1 provided in the host vehicle, which is one of the host vehicle and the other vehicles traveling in a group toward the same destination.

[0018] The position information acquisition unit 11 acquires position information of the vehicle. The position information acquisition unit 11 acquires the current position of the vehicle based on radio waves received from a GPS (Global Positioning System) satellite. The position information acquisition unit 11 transmits the acquired position information of the vehicle to the control unit 17 (described later) via the bus line BL.

[0019] The driving route acquisition unit 12 acquires a driving route to the destination of the vehicle. The driving route acquisition unit 12 acquires information about the driving route to the destination of the vehicle, for example, from a navigation device 100 provided in the vehicle. The driving route acquisition unit 12 transmits the acquired information about the driving route of the vehicle to a control unit 17 (described later) via the bus line BL.

[0020] The other vehicle information acquisition unit 13 acquires the driving route of the other vehicle to the destination and the position information of the other vehicle. The other vehicle information acquisition unit 13 communicates with the other vehicles registered in the group driving information stored in the memory 20 via the communication unit 30. The other vehicle information acquisition unit 13 acquires information on the driving route to the destination calculated in the other vehicle and the position information of the other vehicle via the communication unit 30. The other vehicle information acquisition unit 13 transmits the driving route of the other vehicle and the position information of the other vehicle to the control unit 17, which will be described later, via the bus line BL.

[0021] The merging point detection unit 14 detects a merging point based on the driving route of the host vehicle to the destination and the driving route of the other vehicle to the destination. For example, the merging point detection unit 14 detects, as the merging point, a point where the driving route of the host vehicle to the destination and the driving route of the other vehicle to the destination first intersect. As shown in FIG. 3 , the merging point detection unit 14 detects, as the merging point, a point A where the driving route of the host vehicle to the destination and the driving route of the other vehicle to the destination first intersect. The merging point detection unit 14 transmits position information of the detected merging point to a control unit 17 (described later) via the bus line BL.

[0022] The required time calculation unit 15 calculates a host vehicle required time, which is the time required for the host vehicle to reach the merging point, and a other vehicle required time, which is the time required for the other vehicle to reach the merging point. The required time calculation unit 15 calculates the traveling distance from the current position of the host vehicle to the merging point based on map information acquired from the memory 20 and position information of the host vehicle and position information of the merging point received from the control unit 17 (described later). The required time calculation unit 15 calculates the host vehicle required time, for example, based on the traveling distance from the current position of the host vehicle to the merging point and the average speed of the host vehicle. The required time calculation unit 15 calculates the traveling distance from the current position of the other vehicle to the merging point based on the map information acquired from the memory 20 and the position information of the other vehicle and position information of the merging point received from the control unit 17. The required time calculation unit 15 calculates the other vehicle required time, for example, based on the traveling distance from the current position of the other vehicle to the merging point and the legal speed limit for the traveling route of the other vehicle. In this embodiment, the required time calculation unit 15 calculates, for example, the time difference between the host vehicle required time and the other vehicle required time. The required time calculation unit 15 transmits the calculated host vehicle required time, other vehicle required time, and the time difference between the host vehicle required time and the other vehicle required time to the control unit 17 (described later) via the bus line BL.

[0023] The display information generation unit 16 generates display information regarding the merging point, the required time of the subject vehicle, and the required time of the other vehicle. The display information generation unit 16 generates display information regarding the merging point, the required time of the subject vehicle, and the required time of the other vehicle based on the position information of the subject vehicle, the driving route of the subject vehicle, the driving route of the other vehicle, the position information of the merging point, the required time of the subject vehicle, and the driving time of the other vehicle received from the control unit 17. As shown in FIG. 4 , the display information generation unit 16 generates display information indicating the location of the destination, the location of the subject vehicle, the location of the other vehicle, and the location of the merging point. The display information generation unit 16 generates display information including text information such as, for example, "The merging point with the vehicle traveling in a group is Point A. Your vehicle is expected to arrive at the merging point five minutes earlier than the vehicle traveling in a group. Please drive with ample time to spare." The display information generation unit 16 generates display information including, for example, the estimated arrival times of the subject vehicle and the other vehicle at the merging point. The display information generating unit 16 transmits the generated display information to the control unit 17 (described later) via the bus line BL.

[0024] The control unit 17 controls the entire display device 1 in accordance with a control program stored in the memory 20. In this embodiment, the control unit 17 determines, for example, whether group driving information has been input. The control unit 17 determines, for example, whether group driving information has been input from an operation unit (not shown). If the control unit 17 determines that group driving information has been input, it stores the input group driving information in the memory 20 via the bus line BL. In this embodiment, the control unit 17 controls the display unit 40 to display information regarding the merging point, the host vehicle's required travel time, and the other vehicle's required travel time. The control unit 17 transmits display information received from the display information generation unit 16 to the display unit 40. In this embodiment, the control unit 17 controls the merging information transmission unit 18 (described later) to transmit information regarding the merging point, the host vehicle's required travel time, and the other vehicle's required travel time to other vehicles. The control unit 17 transmits, for example, via the bus line BL, the position information of the vehicle, the position information of the merging point, the required time of the vehicle, and the required time of the other vehicle to the merging information transmission unit 18 described later.

[0025] The merging information transmitting unit 18 transmits information regarding the merging point, the required time of the subject vehicle, and the required time of the other vehicle to the other vehicle. The merging information transmitting unit 18 transmits, for example, the position information of the subject vehicle, the position information of the merging point, the required time of the subject vehicle, and the required time of the other vehicle received from the control unit 17 to the communication unit 30. The merging information transmitting unit 18 may transmit the above information via the communication unit 30 to the email addresses of the drivers of the other vehicles registered in the group driving information.

[0026] <Processing of Display Device 1> The processing flow of the display device 1 will be described with reference to FIG.

[0027] 5, the control unit 17 determines whether group traveling information has been input (step S110). If the control unit 17 determines that group traveling information has not been input ("NO" in step S110), the control unit 17 returns the process to a standby state. If the control unit 17 determines that group traveling information has been input ("YES" in step S110), the control unit 17 transitions the process to step S120.

[0028] The control unit 17 transmits an instruction to the other vehicle information acquisition unit 13 to acquire other vehicle information, and causes the other vehicle information acquisition unit 13 to acquire the other vehicle's travel route to the destination and the other vehicle's position information (step S120).

[0029] The control unit 17 sends an instruction to the driving route acquisition unit 12 to acquire a driving route to the destination of the vehicle, and causes the driving route acquisition unit 12 to acquire information about the driving route to the destination of the vehicle from the navigation device 100 (step S130).

[0030] The control unit 17 transmits the travel route to the destination of the vehicle and the travel route to the destination of the other vehicle to the merging point detection unit 14, and causes the merging point detection unit 14 to detect the merging point (step S140).

[0031] The control unit 17 transmits the position information of the subject vehicle, the position information of the other vehicle, and the position information of the merging point to the required time calculation unit 15, and causes the required time of the subject vehicle and the required time of the other vehicle to be calculated (step S150).

[0032] The control unit 17 transmits the position information of the subject vehicle, the travel route of the subject vehicle, the travel routes of the other vehicles, the position information of the merging point, the required time of the subject vehicle, and the travel time of the other vehicles to the display information generation unit 16, and causes the display information generation unit 16 to generate display information (step S160).

[0033] The control unit 17 transmits the location information of the merging point, the required time of the subject vehicle, and the traveling time of the other vehicle to the merging information transmitting unit 18, causes the merging point, the required time of the subject vehicle, and the required time of the other vehicle to be transmitted to the other vehicle (step S170), and ends the processing.

[0034] <Operations and Effects> As described above, the display device 1 according to this embodiment includes a driving route acquisition unit 12 that acquires a driving route of the host vehicle to a destination, an other vehicle information acquisition unit 13 that acquires driving routes of other vehicles to their destinations and position information of the other vehicles, a merging point detection unit 14 that detects a merging point based on the driving route of the host vehicle to its destination and the driving routes of the other vehicles to their destinations, a required time calculation unit 15 that calculates a host vehicle required time that is the time required for the host vehicle to reach the merging point and a other vehicle required time that is the time required for the other vehicle to reach the merging point, a display information generation unit 16 that generates display information related to the merging point, the host vehicle required time, and the other vehicle required time, and a display unit 40 that displays the display information. That is, the display device 1 detects a merging point where the host vehicle and the other vehicle merge based on the driving route of the host vehicle to its destination and the driving route of the other vehicle to its destination, and displays information about the detected merging point on the display unit 40. This allows the driver to grasp the merging point with the other vehicle. The display device 1 displays information on the display unit 40, such as how late or early the vehicle will arrive at the merging point relative to other vehicles, based on the required time of the vehicle and the required time of other vehicles. This allows the driver to understand the driving conditions of each vehicle in the group. For example, the driver can determine whether or not there is enough time to stop at a convenience store or the like based on the information displayed on the display unit 40, thereby making effective use of time. For example, if the display unit 40 displays information that the vehicle will arrive at the merging point 10 minutes earlier than the other vehicles, the driver can reduce the speed of the vehicle to drive safely.

[0035] The display information generator 16 generates display information indicating the location of the destination, the location of the vehicle, the locations of other vehicles, and the location of the merging point. That is, the display device 1 visualizes and displays the location of the destination, the location of the vehicle, the locations of other vehicles, and the location of the merging point on a map. This allows the driver to easily grasp the location of the merging point and the driving positions of other vehicles.

[0036] The display device 1 according to this embodiment includes a merging information transmitter 18 that transmits information regarding the merging point, the required time for the subject vehicle, and the required time for the other vehicle to the other vehicle. This allows the driver of the other vehicle to obtain the position information of the merging point, the required time for the subject vehicle, and the required time for the other vehicle, thereby enabling the driving situation to be shared between the vehicles. Because the display device 1 according to this embodiment automatically transmits information regarding the merging point, the required time for the subject vehicle, and the required time for the other vehicle to the other vehicle, the driver can drive while being aware of the driving information of the other vehicle.

[0037] <Variation 1> The display device 1 may be configured such that the processing of the other vehicle information acquisition unit 13, the merging point detection unit 14, the required time calculation unit 15, the display information generation unit 16, and the control unit 17 of the display device 1 according to the above-described embodiment is executed by a processor included in the navigation device 100.

[0038] <Modification 2> The display device 1 according to the above-described embodiment may be configured to update the information relating to the host vehicle travel time and the other vehicle travel time at predetermined intervals, thereby enabling the driver to continuously grasp changes in the driving conditions.

[0039] <Modification 3> The display device 1 according to the above-described embodiment may be configured to update the host vehicle's required travel time and the other vehicle's required travel time and notify the driver of the updated information when the required travel time to the merging point differs from the calculated required travel time due to, for example, traffic congestion, thereby enabling the driver to continuously grasp changes in the driving conditions.

[0040] <Modification 4> The display device 1 according to the above-described embodiment may also provide audio information when displaying information relating to the merging point, the required time for the subject vehicle, and the required time for the other vehicle on the display unit 40. This allows the driver to easily grasp the merging point and the driving conditions of the other vehicle.

[0041] <Modification 5> The display device 1 according to the present embodiment described above may be configured so that the driver can customize the display format displayed on the display unit 40. This allows information to be displayed on the display unit 40 in a display format that matches the driver's preferences, allowing the driver to more easily understand the driving situation.

[0042] The display device 1 of the present invention can be realized by recording the processes of the above-mentioned junction detection unit 14, required time calculation unit 15, display information generation unit 16, and control unit 17 on a recording medium readable by a computer system, and then loading and executing the program recorded on this recording medium into memory. The computer system here includes hardware such as an OS and peripheral devices.

[0043] The above computer system also includes a homepage providing environment (or display environment) if it utilizes a WWW (World Wide Web) system. The above program may be transmitted from a computer system storing the program in a storage device or the like to another computer system via a transmission medium or by transmission waves in the transmission medium. The transmission medium for transmitting the above program refers to a medium having the function of transmitting information, such as a network (communication network) such as the Internet or a communication line (communication line) such as a telephone line.

[0044] The above program may be for realizing some of the above functions, or may be a so-called differential file (differential program) that can realize the above functions in combination with a program already recorded in the computer system.

[0045] The above describes in detail an embodiment of the present invention with reference to the drawings, but the specific configuration is not limited to this embodiment, and includes designs within the scope of the gist of the present invention.

[0046] REFERENCE SIGNS LIST 1; display device 10; processor 11; position information acquisition unit 12; travel route acquisition unit 13; other vehicle information acquisition unit 14; merging point detection unit 15; required time calculation unit 16; display information generation unit 17; control unit 18; merging information transmission unit 20; memory 30; communication unit 40; display unit 100; navigation device

Claims

1. A route acquisition unit that acquires the route taken by the vehicle to its destination, A unit for acquiring information about other vehicles, which acquires the travel route of other vehicles to the aforementioned destination and the location information of other vehicles, A merging point detection unit detects a merging point based on the driving route of the vehicle itself to the destination and the driving route of the other vehicle to the destination. A time calculation unit calculates the difference between the time required for the vehicle to reach the merging point (the vehicle's own time) and the time required for the other vehicle to reach the merging point (the other vehicle's time) at predetermined intervals. A display information generation unit generates display information relating to the aforementioned merging point and the difference between the travel time of the own vehicle and the travel time of the other vehicle. A display unit that displays the aforementioned display information, A display device characterized by having the following features.

2. The display device according to claim 1, characterized in that the display information generation unit generates the display information indicating the location of the destination, the location of the own vehicle, the location of the other vehicle, the location of the merging point, and the difference between the travel time of the own vehicle and the travel time of the other vehicle.

3. The display device according to claim 1 or 2, further comprising a merging information transmission unit that transmits information regarding the merging point, the estimated travel time of the own vehicle, and the estimated travel time of the other vehicle to the other vehicle.

4. It comprises one or more processors, one or more memories communicately connected to the one or more processors, and a display unit. The one or more processors described above are A route acquisition unit that acquires the route taken by the vehicle to its destination, A unit for acquiring information about other vehicles, which acquires the travel route of other vehicles to the aforementioned destination and the location information of other vehicles, A merging point detection unit detects a merging point based on the driving route of the vehicle itself to the destination and the driving route of the other vehicle to the destination. A time calculation unit calculates the difference between the time required for the vehicle to reach the merging point (the vehicle's own time) and the time required for the other vehicle to reach the merging point (the other vehicle's time) at predetermined intervals. A display information generation unit generates display information relating to the aforementioned merging point and the difference between the travel time of the own vehicle and the travel time of the other vehicle. Includes, A display device characterized by displaying the display information on the display unit.