TRAVEL PLAN PRESENTING APPARATUS AND METHOD THEREOF

• US 20100262362A1
• Filed: 07/11/2008
• Published: 10/14/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 07/12/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Godo Kaisha IP Bridge 1 (IP Bridge, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Panasonic Corporation (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Tajima, Takashi, Naito, Eiichi, Kudoh, Takahiro
• Granted Patent: US 7,869,942 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/204
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/343 Calculating itineraries, i.e. routes leading from a starting point to a series of categorical destinations using a global route restraint, round trips, touristic trips travelling salesman problem G06Q10/04; optimisation of routes G06Q10/047
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3484 Personalized, e.g. from learned user behaviour or user-defined profiles
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/047 Optimisation of routes or paths, e.g. travelling salesman problem
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096827 where the route is computed onboard
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096838 where the user preferences are taken into account or the user selects one route out of a plurality
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096866 where the complete route is shown to the driver
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/0969 having a display in the form of a map

Abstract

A travel plan presenting apparatus includes: a travel history accumulation unit (109) which accumulates, in association with a date and time, pieces of travel history information regarding a travel of the mobile object from a departure place to an arrival place; a travel pattern extracting unit (112) which extracts at least one travel pattern from the pieces of travel history information and generates travel patterns in each of which an order of arrival places other than the final arrival place included in a corresponding one of the extracted travel patterns; a travel plan calculating unit (113) which calculates estimated arrival times at each of the arrival places in the travel patterns extracted and generated by the travel pattern extracting unit (112); and a display processing unit (114) which generates display information for displaying the estimated arrival time for each travel pattern.

Claims

1. A travel plan presenting apparatus comprising:

a travel pattern extracting unit configured to;

retrieve, as travel patterns, sets of pieces of travel history information each including a current position and a final arrival place, from pieces of travel history information of a mobile object each being accumulated in a travel history accumulation unit and regarding a travel from a departure place to an arrival place;

extract at least one travel pattern from the retrieved travel patterns; and

, in the case where a travel pattern in which an order of halfway arrival places other than the final arrival place included in the extracted travel pattern has been changed exists in the pieces of travel history information of the mobile object, further extract the travel pattern in which the order of the arrival places has been changed;

a travel plan calculating unit configured to calculate, for each of the extracted travel patterns, estimated arrival times at the final arrival place and each of the arrival places included in a corresponding one of the travel patterns extracted by said travel pattern extracting unit; and

a display processing unit configured to generate display information for displaying, on a same screen, for each extracted travel pattern, the estimated arrival time at each arrival place that has been calculated by said travel plan calculating unit, and display the display information on the screen.

2. The travel plan presenting apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein said travel pattern extracting unit is configured to:

retrieve, as the travel patterns, the sets of the pieces of travel history information each including the current position and the final arrival place, from the pieces of travel history information accumulated in the travel history accumulation unit;

extract, from the retrieved travel patterns, a predetermined number of travel patterns in descending order of the number of occurrences; and

, in the case where a travel pattern in which an order of halfway arrival places other than the final arrival place included in a corresponding one of the extracted travel patterns has been changed exists in the pieces of accumulated travel history information, further extract the travel pattern in which the order of the arrival places has been changed.

3. The travel plan presenting apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein said travel pattern extracting unit is configured to:

retrieve, as the travel patterns, the sets of the pieces of travel history information each including the current position and the final arrival place, from the pieces of travel history information accumulated in the travel history accumulation unit;

categorize each of the retrieved travel patterns into a set of arrival places included in a corresponding one of the travel patterns;

extract a travel pattern including a set of arrival places to be selected by a user from the categorized sets of the arrival places; and

, in the case where a travel pattern in which an order of halfway arrival places other than the final arrival place included in the extracted travel pattern has been changed exists in the pieces of accumulated travel history information, further extract the travel pattern in which the order of the arrival places has been changed,

said display processing unit is further configured to generate display information for displaying the sets of the arrival places categorized by said travel pattern extracting unit, and display the display information on the screen, and

said travel plan presenting apparatus further includes an input unit configured to receive from a user a selection of one of the sets of the arrival places that are included in the display information generated by said display processing unit.

4. The travel plan presenting apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein said travel pattern extracting unit is configured to:

retrieve, as the travel patterns, the sets of the pieces of travel history information each including the current position and the final arrival place, from the pieces of travel history information accumulated in the travel history accumulation unit;

categorize each of the retrieved travel patterns into a set of arrival places included in a corresponding one of the travel patterns;

calculate a ratio of a largest number of occurrences of a set of arrival places to a sum of the numbers of occurrences of the sets of the arrival places;

in the case where the ratio is equal to or greater than a predetermined value, extract, from the retrieved travel patterns, a predetermined number of travel patterns in descending order of the number of occurrences;

in the case where a travel pattern in which an order of halfway arrival places other than the final arrival place included in a corresponding one of the extracted travel patterns has been changed exists in the pieces of accumulated travel history information, further extract the travel pattern in which the order of the arrival places has been changed;

in the case where the ratio is less than the predetermined value, extract a travel pattern including a set of arrival places to be selected by a user from the categorized sets of the arrival places; and

, in the case where a travel pattern in which an order of halfway arrival places other than the final place included in the extracted travel pattern has been changed exists in the pieces of accumulated travel history information, further extract the travel pattern in which the order of the arrival places has been changed,

said display processing unit is further configured, in the case where the ratio is less than the predetermined value, to generate display information for displaying the sets of the arrival places categorized by said travel pattern extracting unit, and display the display information on the screen, and

said travel plan presenting apparatus further includes an input unit configured to receive from a user a selection of one of the sets of the arrival places that are included in the display information generated by said display processing unit, in the case where the ratio is less than the predetermined value.

5. The travel plan presenting apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein said display processing unit is configured, only in the case where the estimated arrival time at the final arrival place of the travel pattern which is extracted by said travel pattern extracting unit and in which the order of the arrival places has been changed is earlier than an estimated arrival time at the final arrival place of the travel pattern in which the order of the halfway arrival places has not been changed, to generate, as display information, an estimated arrival time at each of the final and halfway arrival places included in the travel pattern in which the order of the arrival places has been changed and the travel pattern in which the order of the arrival places has not been changed, and display the display information on the screen.

6. The travel plan presenting apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein said display processing unit is further configured to generate the display information so that a mode of displaying is different for a set of halfway arrival places of which an order is to be changed by said travel pattern extracting unit and for arrival places other than the set of the arrival places, and display the display information on the screen.

7. The travel plan presenting apparatus according to claim 6,

wherein said display processing unit is configured to generate, as the display information, information for displaying with a common icon each of the arrival places other than the set of the halfway arrival places of which the order is to be changed, information indicating a branch from an arrival place immediately previous to the set of the halfway arrival places of which the order is to be changed to first arrival places in the set of the halfway arrival places of which the order is to be changed, information indicating a junction from last arrival places in the set of the halfway arrival places of which the order is to be changed to an arrival place immediately after the set of the halfway arrival places of which the order is to be changed, and information for displaying the estimated arrival time at each arrival place, and to display the display information, the arrival places other than the set of the halfway arrival places and the set of the halfway arrival places being included in the travel pattern in which the order has been changed and the travel pattern in which the order has not been changed.

8. A travel pattern presenting method comprising:

retrieving, as travel patterns, sets of pieces of travel history information each including a current position and a final arrival place, from pieces of travel history information of a mobile object each being accumulated in a travel history accumulation unit and regarding a travel from a departure place to an arrival place;

extracting at least one travel pattern from the retrieved travel patterns; and

, in the case where a travel pattern in which an order of halfway arrival places other than the final arrival place included in the extracted travel pattern has been changed exists in the pieces of travel history information of the mobile object, further extracting the travel pattern in which the order of the arrival places has been changed, the searching, the extracting, and the extracting being executed by a computer;

calculating, for each of the extracted travel patterns, estimated arrival times at the final arrival place and each of the halfway arrival places included in a corresponding one of the travel patterns extracted by said travel pattern extracting unit, the calculating being executed by the computer; and

generating display information for displaying, on a same screen, for each extracted travel pattern, the estimated arrival time at each arrival place that has been calculated by said travel plan calculating unit, and displaying the display information on the screen, the generating and the displaying being executed by the computer.

9. A program causing a computer to execute:

retrieving, as travel patterns, sets of pieces of travel history information each including a current position and a final arrival place, from pieces of travel history information of a mobile object each being accumulated in a travel history accumulation unit and regarding a travel from a departure place to an arrival place;

extracting at least one travel pattern from the retrieved travel patterns; and

, in the case where a travel pattern in which an order of halfway arrival places other than the final arrival place included in the extracted travel pattern has been changed exists in the pieces of travel history information of the mobile object, further extracting the travel pattern in which the order of the arrival places has been changed;

calculating, for each of the extracted travel patterns, estimated arrival times at the final arrival place and each of the halfway arrival places included in a corresponding one of the travel patterns extracted by said travel pattern extracting unit; and

generating display information for displaying, on a same screen, for each extracted travel pattern, the estimated arrival time at each arrival place that has been calculated by said travel plan calculating unit, and displaying the display information on the screen.