Abstract
Car navigation systems (CNS) have become an interesting research and industrial topic due to their wide deployment. However, updating and distribution of the road map database is a complex and high cost process. In this paper, we propose a real-time map generation and updating algorithm, which fulfills or corrects the unknown road area of the conventional road map database by using global positioning system (GPS) information and wireless communication technologies. To generate the road map of unknown roads, the proposed algorithm uses road images, which can be obtained when a driver travels unknown roads. When a driver travels unknown roads, which do not appear on the map of the car navigation system, the car navigation system extracts GPS and image information of the unknown roads. Then, the car navigation system generates the road map for the unknown roads by extracting location and road information, and updates the road map database in the car. After updating the local road map database, the car navigation system updates the master road map database, which is located at the network and is distributed to other car navigation systems. Thus, the road map database provider can update the road map database of other car navigation systems, which share the same master road map database. The proposed algorithm provides an efficient updating process of the road map database with a simplified process and reduced time for unknown road areas.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 1233-1240 |
| Number of pages | 8 |
| Journal | IEEE Transactions on Consumer Electronics |
| Volume | 55 |
| Issue number | 3 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 2009 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:Currently, on-vehicle wireless communication methods are widely deployed using high speed wireless broadband technologies, such as HSPA and mobile-WiMAX, in view of technologies, standardizations, and commercial products. Most applied areas of on-vehicle wireless communication include congestion control for heavy roads [11], road safety enhancement [12], and optimized road direction service based on current road conditions such as an accident, congestion, and other periodic events [13]. Recently, the Vehicle Infrastructure Integration Initiative (VII) project has been supported by the U.S. Department of Transportation (US DOT) [14]. The goal of this project is to enable cars with wireless communication devices and support vehicle-to vehicle, and vehicle-to-infrastructure communication. Thus, a national ITS network is being considered. Furthermore, vehicles achieve the collection and reporting of information, and then reutilize this information through the national wide ITS network. VII adopts vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication methods and the dedicated short range communication (DSRC) technology based on IEEE 802.11. DSRC technology can be adopted in vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) communication to enable the communication between vehicles and infrastructure equipment (ex: traffic lights) of the road network. Simple information exchange can be achieved through V2V and V2I. Through the use of 3G and 4G wireless broadband communication technologies such as WCDMA, HSPA, long term evolution (LTE), and mobile-WiMAX, CNSs can also achieve high speed information exchange with the Internet. In Europe, the European Conference of Transport Research Institutes (ECTRI) project has been in progress since 2003. ECTRI is divided into 12 research areas, which include the research on intelligent vehicles [15]. In the ECTRI, they consider the traveling path service application for vehicles with wireless communication technology.
Keywords
- Car navigation system
- Detection of road edge
- Global Positioning System (GPS)
- Map updating