GENERATING SEGMENT DATA

• US 20130317744A1
• Filed: 02/02/2012
• Published: 11/28/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 02/03/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: TomTom Traffic B.V. (TomTom NV)
• Original Assignee: Ralf-Peter Schafer
• Inventors: Mieth, Peter, Lorkowski, Stefan, Schfer, Ralf-Peter, Witte, Nikolaus
• Granted Patent: US 9,685,076 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/533
• 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: G08G 1/00 Traffic control systems for road vehicles arrangement of road signs or traffic signals E01F9/00 ; automatic vehicle control B62D
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/0112 from the vehicle, e.g. floating car data [FCD]
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/0116 from roadside infrastructure, e.g. beacons
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/012 from other sources than vehicle or roadside beacons, e.g. mobile networks
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/0129 for creating historical data or processing based on historical data
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/0133 for classifying traffic situation
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/0141 for traffic information dissemination
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096816 where the complete route is transmitted to the vehicle at once
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/09685 where the complete route is computed only once and not updated
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096883 where input information is obtained using a mobile device, e.g. a mobile phone, a PDA

Abstract

A method of processing data relating to an electronic map, the map comprising a plurality of segments representing navigable segments in the area covered by the map, the method comprising using a processing apparatus to generate segment data and comprising the steps of: collecting historic travel data for the segment; defining a jam condition for the segment, such that where the jam condition is satisfied the segment is classified as jammed and otherwise as not jammed; generating a jam probability for the segment according to the historic travel data and the jam condition definition; generating a jam speed for the segment using the historic travel data, the jam speed being indicative of the speed on the segment when the segment is considered jammed; and associating the jam probability and the jam speed with the segment in the electronic map.

Claims

1. A method of processing data relating to an electronic map, the map comprising a plurality of segments representing navigable segments in the area covered by the map, the method comprising using a processing apparatus to generate segment data and comprising the steps of:

collecting historic travel data for the segment;

defining a jam condition for the segment, such that where the jam condition is satisfied the segment is classified as jammed and otherwise as not jammed, the jam condition being a jam threshold speed;

generating a jam probability for the segment according to the historic travel data and the jam threshold speed, the jam probability indicating the likelihood of a jam on the segment;

generating a jam speed for the segment using the historic travel data, the jam speed being indicative of the speed on the segment when the segment is considered jammed; and

associating the jam probability and the jam speed with the segment in the electronic map.

2. A method according to claim 1 where the historic travel data comprises historic travel times across the segment.

3. A method according to claim 1 where the jam threshold speed is defined according to a selected percentage of the free-flow speed for the segment.

4. A method according to claim 3 where the free-flow speed for the segment is defined as the average speed of travel across the segment recorded during a selected period.

5. A method according to claim 3 where the selected percentage of the free-flow speed is between 30% and 70%.

6. A method according to claim 1 where the jam probability for the segment is calculated according to the ratio of the number of calculated historic average speeds of travel across the segment above and below the jam threshold speed.

7. A method according to claim 1 where the historic travel data is grouped according to time of recordal allowing the generation of multiple time dependent jam probabilities for the segment.

8. A method according to claim 7 where jam probabilities are calculated according to or are at least influenced by one or more of:

(i) the time of the year;

(ii) the day of the week;

(iii) the time of day; and

(iv) the occurrence of a particular event or situation.

9. A method according to claim 1 where the jam speed is the average of substantially all historic average speeds of travel across the segment considered jammed.

10. A method according to claim 1 where the historic average speeds of travel across the segment form a multi-modal distribution, and the jam speed is the lower mode of the distribution.

11. A method according to claim 1 where the jam speed is a percentile of the historic average speeds of travel across the segment.

14. A non-transitory computer readable medium comprising instructions which, when executed by a computer, cause the computer to perform the method according to claim 1.

15. A method according to claim 3 where the selected percentage of the free-flow speed is between 40% and 60%.

16. A method according to claim 3 where the selected percentage of the free-flow speed is substantially 50%.

12. A system arranged to process data relating to an electronic map, the map comprising a plurality of segments representing navigable segments in the area covered by the map, and to generate segment data by:

collecting historic travel data for the segment;

defining a jam condition for the segment, such that where the jam condition is satisfied the segment is classified as jammed and otherwise as not jammed, the jam condition being a jam threshold speed;

generating a jam probability for the segment according to the historic travel data and the jam threshold speed, the jam probability indicating the likelihood of a jam on the segment;

generating a jam speed for the segment using the historic travel data, the jam speed being indicative of the speed on the segment when the segment is considered jammed; and

associating the jam probability and the jam speed with the segment in the electronic map.

13. (canceled)