TRAVEL SUPPORT SYSTEM AND TRAVEL SUPPORT METHOD

• US 20090248284A1
• Filed: 10/31/2007
• Published: 10/01/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 11/02/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Godo Kaisha IP Bridge 1 (IP Bridge, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Panasonic Corporation (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Ozawa, Jun, Yoshioka, Mototaka
• Granted Patent: US 7,840,331 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/117
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/26 specially adapted for navigation in a road network
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/164 Centralised systems, e.g. external to vehicles

Abstract

Provided is a travel support system which sufficiently uses notified non-equipped vehicle information, and includes: an equipped-vehicle detecting unit (112) that detects presence and a position of an vehicle equipped with a communication module for communicating with another vehicle; a non-equipped-vehicle detecting unit (111) that detects presence and a position of a non-equipped vehicle without any communication module; an information-holding vehicle identifying unit (104) that identifies an information-holding vehicle that is the equipped vehicle and is to hold non-equipped-vehicle information including the position of the non-equipped vehicle, based on the position of the equipped vehicle and the position of the non-equipped vehicle; a non-equipped-vehicle information providing unit (105) that provides the non-equipped-vehicle information for the identified information-holding vehicle; and a communicating unit (205) that holds the provided non-equipped-vehicle information and provides the held non-equipped-vehicle information for another equipped vehicle via the communication module of the identified vehicle.

Claims

1. A travel support system which supports traveling of a vehicle through communication between vehicles, said system comprising:

an equipped-vehicle detecting unit operable to detect presence and a position of an equipped vehicle that is a vehicle equipped with a communication module for communicating with an other vehicle;

a non-equipped-vehicle detecting unit operable to detect presence and a position of a non-equipped vehicle that is not equipped with a communication module for communicating with an other vehicle;

an information-holding vehicle identifying unit operable to identify an information-holding vehicle that is the equipped vehicle detected by said equipped-vehicle detecting unit and that is to hold non-equipped-vehicle information including the position of the non-equipped vehicle, based on the position of the equipped vehicle detected by said equipped-vehicle detecting unit and the position of the non-equipped vehicle detected by said non-equipped-vehicle detecting unit;

a non-equipped-vehicle information providing unit operable to provide the non-equipped-vehicle information for the information-holding vehicle identified by said information-holding vehicle identifying unit; and

a communicating unit operable to hold the non-equipped-vehicle information provided by said non-equipped-vehicle information providing unit, and to provide the held non-equipped-vehicle information for an other equipped vehicle via the communication module of the identified vehicle, said communicating unit being included in the information-holding vehicle.

2. The travel support system according to claim 1, further comprising

a destination matching degree determining unit operable to determine a degree that a destination of the equipped vehicle and a destination of the non-equipped vehicle match, based on the position of the equipped vehicle detected by said equipped-vehicle detecting unit and the position of the non-equipped vehicle detected by said non-equipped-vehicle detecting unit,

wherein said information-holding vehicle identifying unit is operable to identify, as the information-holding vehicle, the equipped vehicle for which said destination matching degree determining unit determines that the matching degree between the destination of the equipped vehicle and the destination of the non-equipped vehicle is high.

3. The travel support system according to claim 2,

wherein said equipped-vehicle detecting unit is further operable to detect a moving direction of the equipped vehicle,

said non-equipped-vehicle detecting unit is further operable to detect a moving direction of the non-equipped vehicle, and

said destination matching degree determining unit is operable to determine that the matching degree between the destination of the equipped vehicle and the destination of the non-equipped vehicle is high, when the moving direction of the equipped vehicle detected by said equipped-vehicle detecting unit and the moving direction of the non-equipped vehicle detected by said non-equipped-vehicle detecting unit match.

4. The travel support system according to claim 2, further comprising:

a vehicle movement history storing unit which stores movement histories of the equipped vehicle and the non-equipped vehicle, based on the position of the equipped vehicle detected by said equipped-vehicle detecting unit and the position of the non-equipped vehicle detected by said non-equipped-vehicle detecting unit; and

a destination predicting unit operable to predict the destination of the equipped vehicle and the destination of the non-equipped vehicle, based on the movement histories of the equipped vehicle and the non-equipped vehicle stored in said vehicle movement history storing unit,

wherein said destination matching degree determining unit is operable to determine the matching degree, based on the destinations of the equipped vehicle and the non-equipped vehicle that are predicted by said destination predicting unit.

5. The travel support system according to claim 2,

wherein said equipped-vehicle detecting unit is further operable to detect a lane through which the equipped vehicle passes,

said non-equipped-vehicle detecting unit is further operable to detect a lane through which the non-equipped vehicle passes, and

said destination matching degree determining unit is operable to determine that the matching degree between the destination of the equipped vehicle and the destination of the non-equipped vehicle is high, when the lane of the equipped vehicle detected by said equipped-vehicle detecting unit and the lane of the non-equipped vehicle detected by said non-equipped-vehicle detecting unit match.

6. The travel support system according to claim 2,

wherein said equipped-vehicle detecting unit is further operable to detect a turn signal given by a direction indicator equipped with the equipped vehicle,

said non-equipped-vehicle detecting unit is further operable to detect a turn signal given by a direction indicator equipped with the non-equipped vehicle, and

said destination matching degree determining unit is operable to determine that the matching degree between the destination of the equipped vehicle and the destination of the non-equipped vehicle is high, when the turn signal of the equipped vehicle detected by said equipped-vehicle detecting unit and the turn signal of the non-equipped vehicle detected by said non-equipped-vehicle detecting unit match.

7. The travel support system according to claim 1, further comprising:

an event detecting unit operable to detect an event for deleting the non-equipped-vehicle information held by the information-holding vehicle; and

a deleting unit operable to delete the non-equipped-vehicle information held by the information-holding vehicle, when said event detecting unit detects the event.

8. The travel support system according to claim 7,

wherein said event detecting unit is operable to detect, as the event, a point in time after said non-equipped-vehicle information providing unit provides the non-equipped-vehicle information for the information-holding vehicle and when the information-holding vehicle enters an intersection.

13. The travel support system according to claim 1,

wherein said equipped-vehicle detecting unit, said non-equipped-vehicle detecting unit, said information-holding vehicle identifying unit, and said non-equipped-vehicle information providing unit are included in a roadside apparatus placed on either an intersection or a road.

9-12. -12. (canceled)

14. A travel support method which supports traveling of a vehicle through communication between vehicles, said method comprising:

detecting, by a equipped-vehicle detecting unit, presence and a position of an equipped vehicle that is a vehicle equipped with a communication module for communicating with an other vehicle;

detecting, by a non-equipped-vehicle detecting unit, presence and a position of a non-equipped vehicle that is not equipped with a communication module for communicating with an other vehicle;

identifying, by an information-holding vehicle identifying unit, an information-holding vehicle that is the equipped vehicle detected in said detecting by the equipped-vehicle detecting unit and that is to hold non-equipped-vehicle information including the position of the non-equipped vehicle, based on the position of the equipped vehicle detected in said detecting by the equipped-vehicle detecting unit and the position of the non-equipped vehicle detected in said detecting by the non-equipped-vehicle detecting unit; and

providing, by a non-equipped-vehicle information providing unit, the non-equipped-vehicle information for the information-holding vehicle identified in said identifying of the information-holding vehicle.

15. A computer-readable recording medium having a program recorded thereon, the program for a travel support system which supports traveling of a vehicle through communication between vehicles, the program causing a computer to execute:

detecting, by a equipped-vehicle detecting unit, presence and a position of an equipped vehicle that is a vehicle equipped with a communication module for communicating with an other vehicle;

detecting, by a non-equipped-vehicle detecting unit, presence and a position of a non-equipped vehicle that is not equipped with a communication module for communicating with an other vehicle;

identifying, by an information-holding vehicle identifying unit, an information-holding vehicle that is the equipped vehicle detected in said detecting by the equipped-vehicle detecting unit and that is to hold non-equipped-vehicle information including the position of the non-equipped vehicle, based on the position of the equipped vehicle detected in said detecting by the equipped-vehicle detecting unit and the position of the non-equipped vehicle detected in said detecting by the non-equipped-vehicle detecting unit; and

providing, by a non-equipped-vehicle information providing unit, the non-equipped-vehicle information for the information-holding vehicle identified in said identifying of the information-holding vehicle.

16. A travel support apparatus which supports traveling of a vehicle through communication between vehicles, said apparatus comprising:

a communicating unit operable to communicate with a communication module included in one of the vehicles;

an imaging unit operable to capture images of the one of the vehicles; and

a processor which detects, using said communicating unit and said imaging unit, presence and positions of;

an equipped vehicle that is a vehicle equipped with a communication module for communicating with an other vehicle; and

a non-equipped vehicle that is not equipped with the communication module, which identifies, from the detected equipped vehicle, an information-holding vehicle that is the equipped vehicle that is to hold non-equipped-vehicle information including the position of the non-equipped vehicle, based on the detected positions of the equipped vehicle and the non-equipped vehicle, and which provides the non-equipped-vehicle information for the identified information-holding vehicle via said communicating unit.