NAVIGATION DEVICE & METHOD

• US 20120065873A1
• Filed: 12/31/2009
• Published: 03/15/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 05/04/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Tomtom Global Content B.V (TomTom NV)
• Original Assignee: Tomtom North America Incorporated (TomTom NV)
• Inventors: Van de Velde, Tom
• Granted Patent: US 8,825,357 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/119
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3492 employing speed data or traffic data, e.g. real-time or historical traffic control systems for road vehicles involving transmission of navigation instructions to the vehicle G08G1/0968
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 10/26 Segmentation of patterns in the image field; Cutting or merging of image elements to establish the pattern region, e.g. clustering-based techniques; Detection of occlusion
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/588 Recognition of the road, e.g. of lane markings; Recognition of the vehicle driving pattern in relation to the road
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/0104 Measuring and analyzing of parameters relative to traffic conditions
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/0129 for creating historical data or processing based on historical data
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/052 with provision for determining speed or overspeed speed measuring in general G01P
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096844 where the complete route is dynamically recomputed based on new data

Abstract

Embodiments of the present invention relate to a method of 5 determining speed information for one or more road segments in map data, comprising receiving (610) probe data (530) relating to the one or more road segments, determining (650) a speed formula (550) for the one or more road segments based on the probe data (530), and determining the speed information for the one or more road segments according to the speed formula (530).

Claims

1. A method of determining speed information for one or more road segments in map data, comprising:

receiving probe data relating to the one or more road segments;

characterised by;

determining a speed formula for the one or more road segments based on the probe data; and

determining the speed information for the one or more road segments according to the speed formula.

2. The method of claim 1, comprising determining an average speed for each of the road segments from the probe data.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the speed formula is determined by regression analysis.

4. The method of claim 1, comprising selecting (640) one or more independent variables associated with the road segments for use in determining the speed formula.

5. The method of claim 1, comprising communicating the speed formula to one or more navigation devices, wherein the determining the speed information is performed by a processor of the navigation device.

6. The method of claim 1, comprising determining whether any terms may be eliminated (670) from the speed formula without reducing an accuracy of the speed information by more than a predetermined amount.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the probe data comprises a sequence of location measurements.

15. A computer program comprising computer readable code which, when executed by a computer, performs the method of claim 1.

8. A navigation device, characterised by:

a speed determination module arranged to determine speed information for one or more road segments in map data according to a speed formula.

9. The navigation device of claim 8, wherein the speed determination module is arranged to determine the speed information using the speed formula and attributes associated with the one or more road segments.

10. The navigation device of claim 8, wherein the speed formula is a polynomial equation and one or more terms of the polynomial include attributes associated with the one or more road segments.

11. The navigation device of claim 8, comprising a communication means for receiving one or more speed formulas from a server.

12. A system comprising:

a server arranged to receive probe data;

characterised by;

a navigation device according to claim 8;

wherein the server is configured to determine the speed formula for one or road segments based on the probe data and to communicate the determined speed formula to the navigation device; and

the speed determination module of the navigation device is arranged to determine the speed information using the speed formula.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the server is arranged to receive the probe data from one or more navigation devices and/or a mapping vehicle.

14. The system of claim 12, wherein the server (510) is arranged to determine the speed formula based on average speeds of traversing the one or more road segments according to the probe data.