TRAFFIC INFORMATION DISTRIBUTION APPARATUS AND TRAFFIC INFORMATION DISTRIBUTION METHOD

• US 20090248286A1
• Filed: 10/15/2007
• Published: 10/01/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 10/18/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Aisin AW Company Limited (Aisin Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Aisin AW Company Limited (Aisin Corp.), Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha (Toyota Motor Corporation)
• Inventors: Inoguchi, Toshio, Yoshikawa, Kazutaka, Nagase, Kenji, Nakada, Takayasu
• Granted Patent: US 8,103,437 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/118
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096805 where the transmitted instructions are used to compute a route
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096844 where the complete route is dynamically recomputed based on new data

Abstract

In a case where a CPU 11 provided in an information distribution center 3 has received a request command for requesting predicted traffic information transmitted from a navigation apparatus 2 as well as vehicle information such as a navigator identifying ID, coordinate data of a vehicle position, or coordinate data of a destination, the CPU 11 searches a basic route based on update-purpose map information 14A, and sets a distribution range serving as a transmission target of traffic information 16A, 16H, and 16C. Then, the CPU 11 generates the predicted traffic information 16C such as congestion prediction information corresponding to the distribution range, extracts the predicted traffic information 16C of each link having a difference in the generated predicted traffic information 16C and the current traffic information 16A, and distributes the extracted predicted traffic information 16C to the navigation apparatus 2 together with a link ID of a corresponding link.

Claims

1. A traffic information distributing apparatus that distributes traffic information, comprising:

a vehicle information receiving unit that receives vehicle information from a navigation apparatus installed in a vehicle;

a current traffic information obtaining unit that obtains current traffic information;

a predicted traffic information generating unit that generates predicted traffic information according to the time the vehicle arrives at each road, based on the vehicle information;

a predicted traffic information extracting unit that extracts predicted traffic information of a road having a difference in the predicted traffic information and the current traffic information; and

a traffic information distribution controlling unit that controls so that the predicted traffic information extracted by the predicted traffic information extracting unit is distributed to the navigation apparatus.

2. The traffic information distributing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

a distribution range setting unit that sets a distribution range serving as a transmission target of the traffic information based on the vehicle information;

wherein

the predicted traffic information generating unit generates the predicted traffic information according to the distribution range.

3. The traffic information distributing apparatus according to claim 2, wherein

the vehicle information includes congested road information that indicates the presence of congestion, and no-congestion road information that indicates the absence of congestion, and

in a case where the current traffic information is the congested road information and the predicted traffic information is the no-congestion road information, the predicted traffic information extracting unit extracts the no-congestion road information.

5. The traffic information distributing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

the vehicle information includes congested road information that indicates the presence of congestion, and no-congestion road information that indicates the absence of congestion, and

in a case where the current traffic information is the congested road information and the predicted traffic information is the no-congestion road information, the predicted traffic information extracting unit extracts the no-congestion road information.

4. A traffic information distributing method distributing traffic information, comprising the steps of

receiving vehicle information from a navigation apparatus installed in a vehicle;

obtaining current traffic information;

generating predicted traffic information according to the time the vehicle arrives at each road, based on the vehicle information;

extracting predicted traffic information of the road having a difference in the predicted traffic information and the current traffic information; and

controlling so that the predicted traffic information extracted in the predicted traffic information extracting step is distributed to the navigation apparatus.