Travel support system and travel support method

• US 7,840,331 B2
• Filed: 10/31/2007
• Issued: 11/23/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 11/02/2006
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Godo Kaisha IP Bridge 1 (IP Bridge, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Panasonic Corporation (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Ozawa, Jun, Yoshioka, Mototaka
• Primary Examiner(s): Keith; Jack
• Assistant Examiner(s): Shafi; Muhammad
• Application Number:
  US12/095,102
• Publication Number:
  US 20090248284A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,119 Days
• Field of Search: 701117-119, 701/301, 701200-226, 701/300, 701/84
• US Class Current: 701/96
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/26 specially adapted for navigation in a road network
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/164 Centralised systems, e.g. external to vehicles

Abstract

The invention is a travel support system using notified non-equipped vehicle information, and including an equipped-vehicle detecting unit detecting a presence and a position of an vehicle equipped with a communication module for communicating with another vehicle, a non-equipped-vehicle detecting unit detecting a presence and a position of a non-equipped vehicle without any communication module, and an information-holding vehicle identifying unit identifying an information-holding vehicle that is the equipped vehicle and holding non-equipped-vehicle information including the position of the non-equipped vehicle, based on the position of the equipped vehicle and the position of the non-equipped vehicle. The system also includes a non-equipped-vehicle information providing unit providing the non-equipped-vehicle information for the identified information-holding vehicle, and a communicating unit holding the provided non-equipped-vehicle information and providing the held non-equipped-vehicle information for another equipped vehicle via the communication module of the identified vehicle.

Claims

1. A travel support system comprising:

a roadside apparatus; and

a plurality of equipped vehicles, each equipped vehicle of said plurality of equipped vehicles being equipped with a respective communication module for communicating with another vehicle,

wherein said roadside apparatus includes;

an equipped-vehicle detecting unit operable to detect a presence and a position of each equipped vehicle of said plurality of equipped vehicles;

a non-equipped-vehicle detecting unit operable to detect a presence and a position of a non-equipped vehicle that is not equipped with a respective communication module;

an information-holding vehicle identifying unit operable to identify an information-holding vehicle, which is one equipped vehicle of said plurality of equipped vehicles detected by said equipped-vehicle detecting unit and which is for holding non-equipped-vehicle information including the position of the non-equipped vehicle, the information-holding vehicle being identified based on (i) the position of each equipped vehicle of said plurality of equipped vehicles detected by said equipped-vehicle detecting unit, and (ii) the position of the non-equipped vehicle detected by said non-equipped-vehicle detecting unit; and

a non-equipped-vehicle information providing unit operable to provide the non-equipped-vehicle information to the information-holding vehicle identified by said information-holding vehicle identifying unit, and

wherein the information-holding vehicle holds the non-equipped-vehicle information provided by said non-equipped-vehicle information providing unit of said roadside apparatus, and provides the held non-equipped-vehicle information to another equipped vehicle of said plurality of equipped vehicles via the respective communication module included therein.

2. The travel support system according to claim 1,

wherein said roadside apparatus includes a destination matching degree determining unit operable to determine, for each respective equipped vehicle of said plurality of equipped vehicles, a respective degree of matching between (i) a respective destination of the respective equipped vehicle of said plurality of equipped vehicles and (ii) a destination of the non-equipped vehicle, each respective degree of matching being determined based on the position of the respective equipped vehicle of said plurality of equipped vehicles detected by said equipped-vehicle detecting unit and the position of the non-equipped vehicle detected by said non-equipped-vehicle detecting unit, and

wherein said information-holding vehicle identifying unit identifies, as the information-holding vehicle, one equipped vehicle of said plurality of equipped vehicles for which said destination matching degree determining unit determines that the respective degree of matching is highest.

3. The travel support system according to claim 2,

wherein said equipped-vehicle detecting unit detects a respective moving direction of each equipped vehicle of said plurality of equipped vehicles,

wherein said non-equipped-vehicle detecting unit detects a moving direction of the non-equipped vehicle, and

wherein said destination matching degree determining unit determines that the respective degree of matching between the respective destination of the one equipped vehicle of said plurality of equipped vehicles and the destination of the non-equipped vehicle is the highest, when the respective moving direction of the one equipped vehicle of said plurality of equipped vehicles detected by said equipped-vehicle detecting unit and the moving direction of the non-equipped vehicle detected by said non-equipped-vehicle detecting unit match.

4. The travel support system according to claim 2,

wherein said roadside apparatus includes:

a vehicle movement history storing unit which stores movement histories of each equipped vehicle of said plurality equipped vehicles and the non-equipped vehicle, the movement histories being stored based on the position of each equipped vehicle of said plurality of equipped vehicles detected by said equipped-vehicle detecting unit and the position of the non-equipped vehicle detected by said non-equipped-vehicle detecting unit; and

a destination predicting unit operable to predict the respective destination of each equipped vehicle of said plurality of equipped vehicles and the destination of the non-equipped vehicle, based on the movement histories of said plurality of equipped vehicles and the non-equipped vehicle stored in said vehicle movement history storing unit, and

wherein said destination matching degree determining unit determines the respective degree of matching for each respective equipped vehicle of said plurality of equipped vehicles based on the respective destination of each respective equipped vehicle of said plurality of equipped vehicles and the destination of the non-equipped vehicle predicted by said destination predicting unit.

5. The travel support system according to claim 2,

wherein said equipped-vehicle detecting unit detects a respective lane through which each equipped vehicle of said plurality of equipped vehicles passes,

wherein said non-equipped-vehicle detecting unit detects a lane through which the non-equipped vehicle passes, and

wherein said destination matching degree determining unit determines that the respective degree of matching between the respective destination of the one equipped vehicle of said plurality of equipped vehicles and the destination of the non-equipped vehicle is the highest, when the respective lane of the one equipped vehicle of said plurality of equipped vehicles detected by said equipped-vehicle detecting unit and the lane of the non-equipped vehicle detected by said non-equipped-vehicle detecting unit match.

6. The travel support system according to claim 2,

wherein said equipped-vehicle detecting unit detects a respective turn signal given by a respective direction indicator of each equipped vehicle of said plurality of equipped vehicles,

wherein said non-equipped-vehicle detecting unit detects a turn signal given by a direction indicator of the non-equipped vehicle, and

wherein said destination matching degree determining unit determines that the respective degree of matching between the respective destination of the one equipped vehicle of said plurality of equipped vehicles and the destination of the non-equipped vehicle is the highest, when the respective turn signal of the one equipped vehicle of said plurality of equipped vehicles detected by said equipped-vehicle detecting unit and the turn signal of the non-equipped vehicle detected by said non-equipped-vehicle detecting unit match.

7. The travel support system according to claim 1, wherein said roadside apparatus includes:

an event detecting unit operable to detect an event for deleting the non-equipped-vehicle information held by the information-holding vehicle; and

a deleting unit operable to delete the non-equipped-vehicle information held by the information-holding vehicle, when said event detecting unit detects the event.

8. The travel support system according to claim 7, wherein said event detecting unit detects, as the event, a point in time after said non-equipped-vehicle information providing unit provides the non-equipped-vehicle information to the information-holding vehicle and when the information-holding vehicle enters an intersection.