Apparatus, method, and program for generating road information

• US 20080270014A1
• Filed: 04/24/2008
• Published: 10/30/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 04/25/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Aisin AW Company Limited (Aisin Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Aisin AW Company Limited (Aisin Corp.)
• Inventors: Nagase, Kenji, Fujitani, Kensaku
• Granted Patent: US 8,583,362 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/118
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/0112 from the vehicle, e.g. floating car data [FCD]
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/0129 for creating historical data or processing based on historical data
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/0141 for traffic information dissemination
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096833 where different aspects are considered when computing the route

Abstract

History information for the history of vehicle travel on a road is obtained. Traffic-volume information indicating a traffic volume on the road is obtained based on the history information that has been stored in at least a predetermined amount. When the traffic volume on the road during a predetermined period is smaller than a predetermined reference value indicating a difficulty of passage, road-selection information for avoiding that road is generated.

Claims

1. A road-information generating apparatus comprising:

history-information obtaining means for obtaining history information indicating history of vehicle travel on a road;

traffic-volume-information obtaining means for obtaining traffic-volume information indicating a traffic volume on the road, based on the history information that has been stored in at least a predetermined amount; and

road-selection-information generating means for generating road-selection information for avoiding the road when the indicated traffic volume on the road during a predetermined period is smaller than a predetermined reference value indicating difficulty of passage.

2. The road-information generating apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the road-selection information comprises link information for a link constituting the road and cost information indicating a cost for the link, and wherein, when the traffic volume on the link is smaller than the predetermined reference value, the road-selection-information generating means increases the cost for the link.

3. The road-information generating apparatus according to claim 1, wherein, when the history information for roads included in a zone preset on a map has been accumulated and stored in at least the predetermined amount, the traffic-volume-information obtaining means obtains the traffic-volume information and the road-selection-information generating means determines whether or not the traffic volumes on each of the roads included in the zone are smaller than the predetermined reference value.

4. The road-information generating apparatus according to claim 1, wherein, when a rate of change in an amount of stored history information for roads included in a zone preset on a map is smaller than a predetermined reference value, the traffic-volume-information obtaining means obtains the traffic-volume information and the road-selection-information generating means determines whether or not the traffic volume on each of the roads included in the zone is smaller than the predetermined reference value.

5. The road-information generating apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the road-selection-information generating means determines, for each season, whether or not the traffic volume is smaller than the predetermined reference value.

6. The road-information generating apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the traffic-volume-information obtaining means obtains opening information indicating when the road was opened to traffic, and when a predetermined period of time has passed after opening of the road, the traffic-volume-information obtaining means obtains the traffic-volume information for the road.

7. A navigation apparatus comprising:

the road-information generating apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising;

transmitting means for transmitting the road-selection information; and

travel-plan-route information obtaining means for obtaining the road-selection information transmitted from the transmitting means and obtaining travel-plan-route information indicating a travel plan route that avoids the road whose traffic volume is smaller than the predetermined reference value, based on the obtained road-selection information.

14. A navigation method according to the road-information generating apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

transmitting the road-selection information;

obtaining the transmitted road-selection information; and

obtaining travel-plan-route information indicating a travel plan route that avoids the road whose traffic volume is smaller than the predetermined reference value, based on the obtained road-selection information.

8. A road-information generating method comprising:

obtaining history information indicating history of vehicle travel on a road;

obtaining traffic-volume information indicating traffic volume on the road, based on the history information that has been stored in at least a predetermined amount;

determining whether or not the traffic volume on the road during a predetermined period is smaller than a predetermined value indicating difficulty of passage; and

generating road-selection information for avoiding the road, responsive to a determination that the traffic volume on the road during the predetermined period is smaller than the predetermined reference value.

9. The road-information generating method according to claim 8, wherein the road-selection information comprises link information for a link constituting the road and cost information indicating a cost for the link, and wherein, when the traffic volume on the link is smaller than the predetermined reference value, the road-selection-information generating means increases the cost for the link.

10. The road-information generating method according to claim 8, further comprising accumulating and storing the history information for roads included in a zone preset on a map until at least the predetermined amount is stored.

11. The road-information generating method according to claim 8, wherein, responsive to a determination that a rate of change in the amount of stored history information for roads included in a zone preset on a map is smaller than a predetermined reference value, the traffic-volume-information is obtained and the road-selection-information is generated.

12. The road-information generating method according to claim 8, wherein the determination of whether or not the traffic volume is smaller than the predetermined reference value is made for each of the four seasons.

13. The road-information generating method according to claim 8, further comprising obtaining road opening information indicating when the road was opened to traffic, and when a predetermined period of time has passed after opening of the road, obtaining the traffic-volume-information for the road.

15. A computer-readable medium having encoded thereon a road-information generating program for causing a computer to implement:

obtaining and storing history information indicating history of vehicle travel on a road;

obtaining traffic-volume information indicating a traffic volume on the road, based on the history information that has been stored in at least a predetermined amount; and

generating road-selection information for avoiding the road, when the traffic volume of the road during a predetermined period is smaller than a predetermined reference value indicating a difficulty of passage.