METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR PROCESSING TRAFFIC INFORMATION BASED ON INTERSECTIONS AND SECTIONS

• US 20110160987A1
• Filed: 11/09/2010
• Published: 06/30/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 12/28/2009
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: NEC Company Limited
• Original Assignee: NEC Company Limited
• Inventors: Wu, Tao, Zhang, Weili, Hu, Weisong, Wang, Shaoya, Li, Chenghai, Liu, Xiaowei
• Application Number:
  US12/942,794
• Publication Number:
  US 20110160987A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/117
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/0104 Measuring and analyzing of parameters relative to traffic conditions

Abstract

A method and apparatus for representing a road network and a method and system for processing traffic information data using the method for representing a road network are provided. The method for processing traffic information data comprises: conversion step of converting traffic information data based on road networks of one or more types of road maps into traffic information data of intersections and sections, based on correspondence between the road networks of one or more types of road maps and the road network represented by the intersections and the sections, wherein the road network represented by the intersections and the sections is obtained by the method for representing a road network; and fusion step of fusing the converted traffic information data of intersections and sections to obtain unified traffic information data. The present invention proposes using a road network represented by intersections and sections as an intermediate model, which emphasizes the importance of intersections as hub nodes of the road network, and is compatible with various forms of map representations and universal. In this way, more accurate and comprehensive information can be obtained by fusing traffic information data from different data sources, which is advantageous for services such as traffic information prediction.

Claims

1. A method for representing a road network, comprising:

intersection extraction step of extracting parts in a road network of a road map corresponding to road intersections in a geographical space and the attributes of the parts so as to obtain the intersections and their attributes;

section extraction step of extracting parts between each of the obtained intersections and its neighboring intersection in the road network of the road map and the attributes of the parts so as to obtain the sections and their attributes;

road network representing step of representing the road network of the road map with the obtained intersections and their attributes and the sections and their attributes.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the attributes of each of the intersections comprises at least the name and turn relationship of the intersection,

the name of the intersection corresponds to the location and turn relationship of the respective road intersection in the geographical space,

the turn relationship of the intersection describes the respective turns at the intersection, and comprises at least the geographical paths and direction description of each of the intersections.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the attributes of each of the sections comprises at least geographical paths between the starting intersection and the ending intersection of the section.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the road map comprises one or more types of maps including navigation digital map and city road map.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein in the intersection extraction step, for each of road names in the road map, a sequence of paths along each of traveling directions of the road of the road name is found out, and then the intersecting locations of the sequence of the paths intersecting with each of the sequences of paths belonging to the roads of another road names are found out to be parts corresponding to the road intersections in the geographical space.

6. A method for processing traffic information data, comprising:

conversion step of converting traffic information data based on road networks of one or more types of road maps into traffic information data of intersections and sections, based on correspondence between the road networks of one or more types of road maps and the road network represented by the intersections and the sections, wherein the road network represented by the intersections and the sections is obtained by the method for representing a road network of claim 1;

fusion step of fusing the converted traffic information data of intersections and sections to obtain unified traffic information data.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein in the fusion step, the traffic information data of each of the intersections are fused based on the turn relationship of the intersection.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein in the fusion step, the traffic information data of the same intersection are combined, and the traffic information data of the same section are combined.

9. The method of claim 6, wherein in the fusion step, the traffic information data of intersections and sections associated with each other are analyzed and combined to obtain traffic information data for an area comprising the associated intersections and sections.

10. The method of claim 6, wherein the traffic information data comprise travel speed, travel time or congestion indication,

in the fusion step, the travel speed, travel time or congestion indication is calculated for each turn at each intersection, and/or the travel speed, travel time or congestion indication is calculated for each section.

11. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

historical pattern generation step of obtaining the pattern of the traffic information data of intersections and sections by analyzing the fused traffic information data of intersections and sections, to generate historical pattern of the traffic information data; and

prediction step of predicting the traffic information at a future time based on the current traffic information data of intersections and sections and the generated historical pattern.

12. An apparatus for representing a road network, comprising:

intersection extraction unit for extracting parts in a road network of a road map corresponding to road intersections in a geographical space and the attributes of the parts so as to obtain the intersections and their attributes;

section extraction unit for extracting parts between each of the obtained intersections and its neighboring intersection in the road network of the road map and the attributes of the parts so as to obtain the sections and their attributes;

road network representing unit for representing the road network of the road map with the obtained intersections and their attributes and the sections and their attributes.

13. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the intersection extraction unit, for each of road names in the road map, finds out a sequence of paths along each of traveling directions of the road of the road name, and then finds out the intersecting

locations of the sequence of the paths intersecting with each of the sequences of paths belonging to the roads of another road names to be parts corresponding to the road intersections in the geographical space.

14. A system for processing traffic information data, comprising:

conversion device for converting traffic information data based on road networks of one or more types of road maps into traffic information data of intersections and sections, based on correspondence between the road networks of one or more types of road maps and the road network represented by the intersections and the sections, wherein the road network represented by the intersections and the sections is obtained by the apparatus for representing a road network of the claim 12;

fusion device of fusing the converted traffic information data of intersections and sections to obtain unified traffic information data.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the fusion device fuses the traffic information data of each of the intersections based on the turn relationship of the intersection.

16. The system of claim 14, wherein the fusion device combines the traffic information data of the same intersection, and combines the traffic information data of the same section.

17. The system of claim 14, wherein the fusion device analyzes and combines the traffic information data of intersections and sections associated with each other to obtain traffic information data for an area comprising the associated intersections and sections.

18. The system of claim 14, wherein the traffic information data comprise travel speed, travel time or congestion indication,

the fusion device calculates the travel speed, travel time or congestion indication for each turn at each intersection, and/or the travel speed, travel time or congestion indication for each section.

19. The system of claim 14, further comprising:

historical pattern generation device for obtaining the pattern of the traffic information data of intersections and sections by analyzing the fused traffic information data of intersections and sections, to generate historical pattern of the traffic information data; and

prediction device for predicting the traffic information at a future time based on the current traffic information data of intersections and sections and the generated historical pattern.