ROUTE GUIDE SYSTEM AND METHOD USING STATE INFORMATION OF POI

• US 20100138151A1
• Filed: 11/30/2009
• Published: 06/03/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 12/01/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute
• Original Assignee: Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute
• Inventors: Lee, Moonsoo, An, Kyoung Hwan, Kim, Ju Wan, Min, Kyoung-Wook, Jang, In Sung
• Granted Patent: US 8,583,365 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/201
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3476 using point of interest [POI] information, e.g. a route passing visible POIs
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/0969 having a display in the form of a map

Abstract

A route guide method includes collecting state information of respective points of interest (POIs) and storing the collected state information in a state information database, extracting state information of one or more candidate POIs with reference to the state information database according to a request for the state information of the one or more candidate POIs, and applying the extracted state information of the candidate POIs to routes to the respective POIs to guide a user along the routes to the respective candidate POIs.

Claims

1. A route guide method comprising:

collecting state information of respective points of interest (POIs) and storing the collected state information in a state information database;

searching one or more candidate POIs for the state information database and extracting the state information of the candidate POIs, in response to a request for the state information of the one or more candidate POIs; and

applying the extracted state information of the candidate POIs to routes to the respective POIs to guide along the routes to the respective candidate POIs.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more candidate POIs is extracted from the state information database based on names of the one or more candidate POIs.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more candidate POIs is extracted from the state information database based on business type/theme of the one or more candidate POIs.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more candidate POIs is searched from the state information DB based on search conditions including travel times and distances to the one or more candidate POIs.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the state information includes at least one of operating hours from opening time to closing time, the number of service staffs, service price, ranking of recommendation, coupon event, real-time image for representation, waiting time for service, an available capacity of a parking zone, and time required to be served at the respective candidate POIs.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

calculating the time required for the respective candidate POIs; and

performing validity verification of the respective candidate POIs in which the time required are calculated with reference to the reference time,

wherein the reference time is a current time, an arrival time to the respective candidate POIs, or after the service time, that is the time to spend for service at the respective candidate POIs, if the state information is the operating hours.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the time required is set into zero if the reference time is the current time.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein the time required is set to the travel time taken to the respective candidate POIs if the reference time is the arrival time.

9. The method of claim 6, wherein the time required is set to the time calculated by adding the travel time taken to the respective candidate POIs to the service time if the reference time is after the service time.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

managing history data of the collected state information of the POIs and analysis results of the history data; and

correcting a missing value with reference to the history data and the analyzed results when a missing value is present in the state information of the one or more candidate POIs.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the state information having the corrected missing value contains reliability of the state information.

12. A state information providing device of POIs (points of interest), the device comprising:

a state information collector for collecting state information of the respective POIs;

a state information database for storing the state information collected by the state information collector;

a state information analyzer for managing history data of the state information collected by the state information collector and generating analysis results by performing statistical analysis upon the history data;

a history/analysis database for storing the history data and the analysis results which are generated by the state information analyzer; and

a state searching unit for searching one or more candidate POIs for the state information database when the state information of the one or more candidate POIs is requested and extracting state information of the candidate POIs, wherein the state information of the candidate POIs is applied to routes to the respective POIs so as to guide along the routes.

13. The state information providing device of claim 12, wherein the one or more candidate POIs is selected by based on names of the one or more candidate POIs.

14. The state information providing device of claim 12, wherein the one or more candidate POIs is selected based on business type/theme of the one or more candidate POIs.

15. The state information providing device of claim 12, wherein the one or more candidate POIs is selected based on travel times and distances to the one or more candidate POIs.

16. The state information providing device of claim 12, wherein the state information includes at least one of operating hours from opening time to closing time, the number of service staffs, service price, ranking of recommendation, coupon event, real-time image for representation, waiting time for service, an available capacity of a parking zone, and time required to be served at the respective POIs.

17. The state information providing device of claim 12, further comprising a state estimator for correcting a missing value with reference to the history/analysis database when the missing value is present in the extracted state information of the candidate POIs.

18. A navigation device, comprising:

a map data database for storing map data;

a route searching unit for applying state information of one or more candidate POIs to the map data in the map data database to produce routes to the respective POIs; and

an output unit for visually providing the routes to guide along the routes.

19. The navigation device of claim 18, wherein the state information includes at least one of operating hours from opening time to closing time, the number of service staffs, service price, ranking of recommendation, coupon event, real-time image for representation, waiting time for service, an available capacity of a parking zone, and time required to be served of the respective POIs.