Characteristic extraction apparatus for moving object and method thereof

• US 6,480,804 B2
• Filed: 06/25/1999
• Issued: 11/12/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 11/18/1998
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Fujitsu Limited
• Original Assignee: Fujitsu Limited
• Inventors: Sekiguchi, Minoru, Maeda, Yoshiharu, Naito, Hirohisa
• Primary Examiner(s): Hilten, John S.
• Assistant Examiner(s): LE, JOHN H
• Application Number:
  US09/339,824
• Publication Number:
  US 20020143490A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,236 Days
• Field of Search: 702/92, 702/94, 702/150, 702/155, 340/990, 382/103, 382/104, 1/1, 345/418, 377/16, 705/10
• US Class Current: 702/150
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3484 Personalized, e.g. from learned user behaviour or user-defined profiles
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3617 using user history, behaviour, conditions or preferences, e.g. predicted or inferred from previous use or current movement
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/29 Geographical information databases

Abstract

A characteristic extraction apparatus relates location data about a location which a moving object, such as a human being, etc., visits, to situation data representing a situation at a time when the moving object visits the location and records the data. Then, it analyzes the recorded data, extracts the characteristic, such as a preference, a movement pattern, etc., of the moving object, and presents it to a user.

Claims

1. A characteristic extraction apparatus for a moving object, comprising:

a map information database in which pre-determined map locations are recorded, each map location having a map position and information characterizing a real-world place located at the map position;

a visit data acquisition unit acquiring visited map locations, by relating current positions of the moving object to the map positions to identify corresponding map locations, and acquiring situation data corresponding to the visited map locations when the moving object visits physical locations corresponding to the map positions of the visited map locations;

a visit history database recording visit history data of the moving object, which relates the visited map locations with the corresponding situation data;

a characteristic extracting unit extracting a characteristic of the moving object by analyzing the visit data of the moving object from said visit history database; and

an extracted characteristic utilizing unit utilizing the extracted characteristic of the moving object.

2. The characteristic extraction apparatus for the moving object according to claim 1, wherein

the situation data comprises time data, movement data, environment data and event data.

3. The characteristic extraction apparatus for the moving object according to claim 1, wherein

said map information database comprises information in which locations are represented using a hierarchical category classification.

4. The characteristic extraction apparatus for the moving object according to claim 1,

wherein the extracted and analyzed characteristic includes visitation frequency of the moving object.

5. The characteristic extraction apparatus for the moving object according to claim 1,

wherein the map locations represent points of interest.

6. A characteristic extraction apparatus for a moving object, comprising:

a map information database in which map information is recorded;

a visit data acquisition unit acquiring location data from a current position of the moving object by referring to said map information database and acquiring situation data at a time when the moving object visits a location corresponding to the location data, wherein said visit data acquisition unit includes visit data acquisition condition setting unit setting a visit data acquisition condition in order to relate and record location data and situation data, and is configured in such a way that when the visit data acquisition condition is met, visit data can be obtained from the location data and situation data;

a visit history database relating and recording location data and situation data acquired by said visit data acquisition unit;

a characteristic extracting unit extracting a characteristic of the moving object by extracting data from said visit history database and analyzing extracted data; and

an extracted characteristic utilizing unit utilizing an extracted characteristic of the moving object.

7. The characteristic extraction apparatus for the moving object according to claim 6, wherein

a stay judgment condition for judging whether the moving object stays in a location can be set as a part of the visit data acquisition condition.

8. A characteristic extraction apparatus for a moving object, comprising:

a map information database in which map information is recorded, wherein said map information database includes an instruction inquiry processing unit executing at least one process of instructing a user to input data of an empty item and querying a user of the empty item when there is the empty item among items of location data which are requested to be used;

a visit data acquisition unit acquiring location data from a current position of the moving object by referring to said map information database and acquiring situation data at a time when the moving object visits a location corresponding to the location data;

a visit history database relating and recording location data and situation data acquired by said visit data acquisition unit;

a characteristic extracting unit extracting a characteristic of the moving object by extracting data from said visit history database and analyzing extracted data; and

an extracted characteristic utilizing unit utilizing an extracted characteristic of the moving object.

9. A characteristic extraction apparatus for a moving object, comprising:

a map information database in which map information is recorded;

a visit data acquisition unit acquiring location data from a current position of the moving object by referring to said map information database and acquiring situation data at a time when the moving object visits a location corresponding to the location data;

a visit history database relating and recording location data and situation data acquired by said visit data acquisition unit;

a characteristic extracting unit extracting a characteristic of the moving object by extracting data from said visit history database and analyzing extracted data, wherein said characteristic extracting unit includes a setting unit setting a characteristic extraction rule, and is configured so as to extract a characteristic by analyzing data according to a set characteristic extraction rule; and

an extracted characteristic utilizing unit utilizing an extracted characteristic of the moving object.

10. A characteristic extraction apparatus for a moving object, comprising:

a map information database in which map information is recorded;

a visit data acquisition unit acquiring location data from a current position of the moving object by referring to said map information database and acquiring situation data at a time when the moving object visits a location corresponding to the location data;

a visit history database relating and recording location data and situation data acquired by said visit data acquisition unit;

a characteristic extracting unit extracting a characteristic of the moving object by extracting data from said visit history database and analyzing extracted data; and

an extracted characteristic utilizing unit utilizing an extracted characteristic of the moving object, wherein said extracted characteristic utilizing unit includes a utilization rule setting unit setting an extracted characteristic utilization rule, and is configured so as to execute a process utilizing a characteristic which is extracted according to a set extracted characteristic utilization rule.

11. A characteristic extraction apparatus for a moving object, comprising:

location data acquisition means for referring to pre-determined map information and acquiring location data from a current position of the moving object by correlating the current position with a pre-determined map location;

situation data acquisition means for acquiring situation data at a time when the moving object visits a location corresponding to the location data; and

visit data acquisition means for obtaining visit data in order to extract a characteristic of the moving object based on acquired location data; and

situation data, and transmitting the visit data.

12. A characteristic extraction apparatus for a moving object, comprising:

visit history database means for storing relation information relating location data which are acquired from a current position of the moving object by referring to map information and determining that the current position corresponds a position of a map location, to situation data at a time when the map location data is visited, and recording resulting data; and

characteristic extracting means for extracting a characteristic of the moving object by extracting data including the relation information from said visit history database means and analyzing the extracted data.

13. A characteristic extracting method for a moving object, comprising:

measuring coordinates of the moving object;

extracting location data of a map location corresponding to the coordinates by collating measured coordinate data with map information database; and

preparing situation data by measuring a situation at a time when the position is visited, relating the location data to the situation data, and recording and accumulating the resulting data as visit data; and

extracting a characteristic of the moving object by analyzing accumulated visit data.

14. A computer-readable storage medium on which is recorded a program for causing a computer to extract a characteristic of a moving object, said program performing a process comprising:

referring to map information database and acquiring, by said referring a pre-determined map location corresponding to a current position of the moving object, where the map location represents a real-world point of interest;

acquiring situation data at a time when a location corresponding to the pre-determined map location is visited;

relating acquired pre-determined map location data to situation data, and recording and accumulating resulting data as visit data; and

extracting a characteristic of the moving object by analyzing accumulated visit data.