DESTINATION-PREDICTION APPARATUS, DESTINATION-PREDICTION METHOD, AND NAVIGATION APPARATUS

• US 20090319176A1
• Filed: 04/28/2007
• Published: 12/24/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 05/02/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Godo Kaisha IP Bridge 1 (IP Bridge, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Panasonic Corporation (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Naito, Eiichi, Kudoh, Takahiro
• Granted Patent: US 8,073,615 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/207
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3617 using user history, behaviour, conditions or preferences, e.g. predicted or inferred from previous use or current movement

Abstract

Provided is a destination-prediction apparatus that predicts a destination with increased accuracy than using a conventional technique. The destination-prediction apparatus comprises a candidate-destination selecting unit (112) that selects and orders a plurality of candidate destinations, a drawing processing unit (117) that displays the selected candidate destinations according to the ordering, a rule setting unit (130) that sets a rule that a moving object moves to the candidate destination at a constant frequency during a certain unit period, a unit-period frequency accumulating unit (115) that determines actual frequency at which the moving object has moved to the candidate destination during the unit period, and a actual-frequency judging unit (116) that judges whether or not the actual frequency reaches trip frequency included in the rule. The drawing processing unit (117) displays the candidate destinations, reflecting a result of the judgment that the actual frequency satisfies the rule.

Claims

1. A destination-prediction apparatus that predicts a destination of a moving object, said destination-prediction apparatus comprising:

an obtaining unit configured to obtain trip history data indicating a trip history of the moving object;

a position detecting unit configured to detect a present position of the moving object;

a candidate-destination selecting unit configured to search the trip history data for trip history records containing the present position of the moving object and select a plurality of candidate destinations and set an order thereof on a basis of frequencies of the trip history records retrieved in the search, the trip history data being obtained by said obtaining unit, and the present position being detected by said position detecting unit;

a display unit configured to display, according to the order, the plurality of candidate destinations selected by said candidate-destination selecting unit;

a rule setting unit configured to judge, with regard to at least each of the plurality of candidate destinations, whether or not there is a rule that the moving object moves to the candidate destination at a constant trip frequency during a certain unit period, and set a rule that includes the unit period and the trip frequency when there is the rule;

a unit-period frequency accumulating unit configured to specify, with reference to the trip history data, an actual frequency with regard to one of the plurality of the candidate destinations with regard to which said rule setting unit judges that there is the rule, the actual frequency being a frequency at which the moving object has moved to the candidate destination during the unit period and

an actual-frequency judging unit configured to make a judgment, with regard to each of the plurality of candidate destinations, on whether or not the actual frequency specified by said unit-period frequency accumulating unit satisfies the rule by judging whether or not the actual frequency has reached the trip frequency included in the rule,

said display unit being configured to display, when said actual-frequency judging unit judges that the actual frequency satisfies the rule, the plurality of candidate destinations so that a result of the judgment is reflected thereon.

2. The destination-prediction apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein said actual-frequency judging unit is configured to change the order, according to a result of the judgment, by placing a lower priority on the candidate destination for which the rule is satisfied than when the rule is not satisfied, or a high priority on the candidate destination for which the rule is not satisfied than when the rule is satisfied, and

said display unit is configured to display the plurality of candidate destinations according to the order changed by said actual-frequency judging unit.

3. The destination-prediction apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein said actual-frequency judging unit is configured to change the order set by said candidate-destination selecting unit by excluding, from the plurality of candidate destinations, the candidate destination for which the rule is satisfied, and

said display unit is configured to display the plurality of candidate destinations according to the order changed by said actual-frequency judging unit.

4. The destination-prediction apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein said display unit is configured to display an indication about the candidate destination with regard to which said actual-frequency judging unit judges that the rule is satisfied, the indication indicating that the rule is satisfied for the candidate destination.

5. The destination-prediction apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein said display unit is configured to display an indication about the candidate destination with regard to which said actual-frequency judging unit judges that the rule was not satisfied during a first unit period, in a second unit period that follows the first period, the indication indicating that the rule was not satisfied for the candidate destination in the first unit period.

6. The destination-prediction apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein said actual-frequency judging unit is configured to reduce a prediction probability that the moving object moves to the candidate destination to lower when, according to an result of the judgment, the rule is satisfied for the candidate destination than when a the rule is not satisfied, and change the order set by said candidate-destination selecting unit, and

said display unit is configured to display the plurality of candidate destinations according to the order changed by said actual-frequency judging unit.

7. The destination-prediction apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein said rule setting unit includes:

a unit-period setting unit configured to set the unit period; and

a rule extracting unit configured to specify, by analyzing the trip history data, a frequency at which the moving object moves to the candidate destination during the unit period set by said unit-period setting unit, and set the specified frequency during the unit period as the rule.

8. The destination-prediction apparatus according to claim 7,

wherein said period setting unit is configured to specify, with reference to the trip history data, a period during which the moving object moves to the candidate destination at a constant frequency, and set the specified period as the unit period.

9. The destination-prediction apparatus according to claim 7,

wherein said rule setting unit further includes a maximum-frequency determining unit configured to determine, by analyzing the trip history data, a maximum of the frequency at which the moving object moves to the candidate destination during the unit period set by said period setting unit, and said rule extracting unit is configured to set the maximum of the frequency during the unit period as the rule, the maximum being determined by said maximum-frequency determining unit.

10. The destination-prediction apparatus according to claim 9,

wherein said maximum-frequency determining unit is configured to calculate a largest value of frequencies which are in the trip history data and at which the moving object has moved to the candidate destination during the unit period, and determine the calculated largest value as the maximum.

11. The destination-prediction apparatus according to claim 9,

wherein said maximum-frequency determining unit is configured to specify numbers of occurrences of frequencies which are in the trip history data and at which the moving object has moved to the candidate destination during the unit period, and determine a frequency having a largest number of occurrences as the maximum.

12. The destination-prediction apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein the obtaining unit is further configured to obtain general-frequency-rule data that indicates a general rule for a predetermined category of destinations, the general rule being that a moving object moves to the destinations at a trip frequency during a unit period, and

said rule setting unit is configured to judge whether or not there is the rule and determine the unit period and the trip frequency with reference to the general-frequency-rule data.

13. The destination-prediction apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein said actual-frequency judging unit is further configured to change the order set by said candidate-destination selecting unit so that a prediction probability of movement of the moving object to a candidate destination for which the rule is not satisfied decreases more as a remainder after subtracting the actual frequency from the trip frequency is smaller, the candidate destination being among the candidate destinations with regard to which said rule setting unit judges that there are rules.

14. The destination-prediction apparatus according to claim 13,

further comprising a day-and-time detecting unit configured to detect a present day and time,

wherein said actual-frequency judging unit is configured to calculate a remaining period of the unit period after the present day and time detected by the day-and-time detecting unit, and divide the remainder by the calculated remaining period to have the remainder normalized using the remaining period, and change the order set by the candidate-destination selecting unit so that a prediction probability of movement of the moving object to the candidate destination decreases more as the calculated, normalized remainder is smaller.

15. The destination-prediction apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

a day-and-time detecting unit configured to detect a present day and time; and

a storage unit configured to store, as trip history data, a present position detected by said position detecting unit while associating the present position with the present day and time detected by said day-and-time detecting unit,

wherein said obtaining unit is configured to obtain the trip history data from said storage unit.

16. The destination-prediction apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein the unit period is a period according to a calendar or a period starting when the moving object has moved to a candidate destination.

17. A navigation apparatus that supports movement of a moving object,

said navigation apparatus comprising said destination-prediction apparatus according to claim 1.

18. A destination-prediction method for predicting a destination of a moving object, the destination-prediction method comprising:

obtaining trip history data indicating a trip history of the moving object;

detecting a present position of the moving object;

searching the trip history data for trip history records that contains the present position of the moving object, and then selecting a plurality of candidate destinations and setting an order thereof on a basis of frequencies of the trip history records retrieved in the searching, the trip history data obtained in said obtaining, and the present position detected in said detecting;

displaying, according to the order, the plurality of candidate destinations selected in said selecting;

judging, with regard to at least each of the plurality of candidate destinations, whether or not there is a rule that the moving object moves to the candidate destination at a constant trip frequency during a certain unit period, and then setting a rule that includes the unit period and the trip frequency when there is the rule;

specifying, with reference to the trip history data, an actual frequency with regard to one of the plurality of the candidate destinations with regard to which said judging judges that there is the rule, the actual frequency being a frequency at which the moving object has moved to the candidate destination during the unit period; and

making a judgment, with regard to each of the plurality of candidate destinations, on whether or not the actual frequency specified in said specifying satisfies the rule by judging whether or not the actual frequency has reached the trip frequency included in the rule,

said displaying displays, when said judging judges that the actual frequency satisfies the rule, the plurality of candidate destinations so that a result of the judgment is reflected thereon.

19. A program for a destination prediction apparatus that predicts a destination of a moving object,

said program causing a computer to execute the destination-prediction method according to claim 18.