Navigation apparatus, navigation system, and navigation search method

• US 20050010360A1
• Filed: 06/02/2004
• Published: 01/13/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 07/10/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Aisin AW Company Limited (Aisin Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Aisin AW Company Limited (Aisin Corp.)
• Inventors: Nagase, Kenji, Yoshikawa, Kazutaka
• Granted Patent: US 7,657,370 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/210
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3492 employing speed data or traffic data, e.g. real-time or historical traffic control systems for road vehicles involving transmission of navigation instructions to the vehicle G08G1/0968
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096827 where the route is computed onboard

Abstract

A navigation apparatus searches for a route from a starting point to a destination wherein, predicted traffic information is associated with each of at least one links within any one of a plurality of predefined areas based on a time at which, according to the predicted traffic information, a vehicle traveling the route is expected to arrive within that predefined area.

Claims

1. A navigation apparatus, comprising:

at least one memory that;

stores a plurality of traffic information tables, the traffic information tables including a length of time required to travel from a predefined one of a plurality of predefined areas to each remaining one of the plurality of predefined areas during one of a plurality of predefined time periods; and

stores, for each of the plurality of predefined time periods, predicted traffic information associated with each of at least one link within each predefined area; and

at least one controller that;

selects a traffic information table from the plurality of traffic information tables, wherein the selected traffic information table includes as the predefined one of the plurality of predefined areas a predefined area containing a starting point and the selected traffic information table describes traffic information for a one of the plurality of predefined time periods in which traveling will start; and

searches for a route from the starting point to a destination wherein, predicted traffic information is associated with each of the at least one links within any one of the plurality of predefined areas based on a time at which, according to the predicted traffic information, a vehicle traveling the route is expected to arrive within that predefined area.

2. The navigation apparatus of claim 1, wherein in the plurality of traffic information tables, a usage priority level is associated with each of the plurality of predefined areas and each usage priority level associated with each of the plurality of predefined areas corresponds to a different one of the plurality of predefined areas containing the starting point.

3. The navigation apparatus of claim 2, wherein, when a certain predefined area contains the starting point, the at least one controller only searches for routes using ones of the plurality of predefined area that have a certain priority level corresponding to that certain predefined area containing the starting point.

4. The navigation apparatus of claim 1, wherein the predefined time periods are days of the week.

5. The navigation apparatus of claim 1, wherein predicted traffic information is separately stored for each of a plurality of road types.

6. The navigation apparatus of claim 1, wherein the predicted traffic information associated with any of the at least one links within each predefined area is obtained by sampling traffic data at least one interval within a corresponding one of predefined time periods, and, for each of the at least one intervals, the length of the interval is inversely proportional to the change in traffic congestion during that interval.

7. The navigation apparatus of claim 1, wherein the at least one controller selects the traffic information table from a separate plurality of traffic information tables, the separate plurality of traffic information tables stored in a remote server.

8. The navigation apparatus of claim 7, wherein the predicted traffic information associated with any of the at least one links within each predefined area is obtained by sampling traffic data at least one interval within a corresponding one of predefined time periods, and, for each of the at least one intervals, the length of the interval is inversely proportional to the change in traffic congestion during that interval.

9. The navigation apparatus of claim 1, wherein the starting point is the current position of the navigation apparatus.

10. The navigation apparatus of claim 1, wherein the starting point is defined bay a user of the navigation apparatus.

12. The navigation apparatus of claim 1, wherein the starting point is the current position of the navigation apparatus.

13. The navigation apparatus of claim 1, wherein the starting point is defined by a user of the navigation apparatus.

14. A navigation system, comprising:

the navigation apparatus of claim 1;

and

at least one controller that produces a plurality of traffic information tables, wherein each of the produced traffic information tables includes a length of time required to travel from a predefined one of a plurality of predefined areas to each remaining one of the plurality of predefined areas during one of a plurality of predefined time periods and the plurality of traffic information tables are stored in the at least one memory.

11. A navigation apparatus, comprising:

at least one memory that;

stores a plurality of traffic information tables, the traffic information tables including a length of time required to travel from a predefined one of a plurality of predefined areas to each remaining one of the plurality of predefined areas during one of a plurality of predefined time periods; and

at least one controller that;

searches for a facility;

determines, as a target area, one of the plurality of predefined areas in which the searched for facility is located;

selects a traffic information table from the plurality of traffic information tables, wherein the selected traffic information table includes as the predefined one of the plurality of predefined areas a predefined area containing a starting point and the selected traffic information table describes traffic information for a one of the plurality of predefined time periods in which traveling will start; and

outputs a length of time needed to reach the target area from the selected traffic information table.

16. The method for searching for a route of claim 11, further comprising storing the plurality of produced traffic information tables.

15. A method for searching for a route, comprising:

producing a plurality of traffic information tables, wherein each of the produced traffic information tables includes a length of time required to travel from a predefined one of a plurality of predefined areas to each remaining one of the plurality of predefined areas during one of a plurality of predefined time periods;

selecting a traffic information table from the plurality of produced traffic information tables, wherein the selected traffic information table includes as the predefined one of the plurality of predefined areas a predefined area containing a starting point of the route and the selected traffic information table describes traffic information for a one of the plurality of predefined time periods in which traveling of the route will start; and

searching for the route from the starting point to a destination wherein, predicted traffic information is associated with each of the at least one links within any one of the plurality of predefined areas based on a time at which, according to the predicted traffic information, a vehicle traveling the route is expected to arrive within that predefined area.

17. A storage medium storing a set of program instructions executable on a data processing device and usable for searching for a route, the set of program instructions comprising:

instructions for producing a plurality of traffic information tables, wherein each of the produced traffic information tables includes a length of time required to travel from a predetermined one of a plurality of predefined areas to each remaining one of the plurality of predefined areas during one of a plurality of predefined time periods;

instructions for storing the plurality of produced traffic information tables

instructions for selecting a traffic information table from the plurality of stored traffic information tables, wherein the selected traffic information table includes as the predefined one of the plurality of predefined areas a predefined area containing a starting point of the route and the selected traffic information table describes traffic information for a one of the plurality of predefined time periods in which traveling of the route will start; and

instructions for searching for the route from the starting point to a destination wherein, predicted traffic information is associated with each of the at least one links within any one of the plurality of predefined areas based on a time at which, according to the predicted traffic information, a vehicle traveling the route is expected to arrive within that predefined area.