Method of developing traffic messages

• US 7,856,310 B2
• Filed: 12/17/2009
• Issued: 12/21/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 11/16/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: HERE Global B.V. (Nokia Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Navteq North America LLC (Nokia Corporation)
• Inventors: Tanzar, Victoria Leila, Lane, Michael Brian, Zdano, Matthew Richard, Swingley, Finn A., Peterson, Lawrence M., Phuyal, Bishnu, Sedore, William King
• Primary Examiner(s): Beaulieu; Yonel
• Application Number:
  US12/640,437
• Publication Number:
  US 20100094530A1
• Time in Patent Office: 369 Days
• Field of Search: 701200-202, 701117-119, 701/204
• US Class Current: 701/117
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/0104 Measuring and analyzing of parameters relative to traffic conditions
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/091 Traffic information broadcasting broadcasting communication H04H

Abstract

A method is disclosed for developing traffic messages. The method obtains traffic data indicating collected traffic speeds at various locations on a road network. Traffic messages are developed from the traffic data. The method obtains ground truth data indicating ground truth speeds at a subset of the locations on the road network. The ground truth speed represents average speed of vehicles at one of the locations. For those locations for which ground truth speed has been obtained, the method computes a traffic quality value comparing the collected traffic speed to the ground truth speed for the location. The traffic messages and traffic quality data representative of the traffic quality values are transmitted.

Claims

1. A computer implemented method of operating a navigation system, the method comprising:

receiving a plurality of traffic messages, wherein the traffic message provides data indicating a traffic condition on a road network in a geographic region, said traffic message comprises a location reference code indicating a location on the road network of said traffic condition, an event code of said traffic condition, and a traffic quality code, wherein said traffic quality code represents a comparison of a collected traffic speed to a ground truth speed; and

using the traffic quality code of the traffic messages to provide navigation-related services on the navigation system.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising the step of

displaying traffic quality data represented by the traffic quality code to a user of said traffic message to indicate reliability of the traffic information.

3. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

using traffic quality data represented by the traffic quality code to compute an upper bound and a lower bound of a trip travel time.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein said traffic quality code represents a travel time error ratio.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the traffic quality code represents a speed error ratio.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein said speed error ratio is computed as a difference between a ground truth speed and a collected traffic speed divided by the ground truth speed.

7. A computer implemented method of operating a navigation system, the method comprising:

receiving a plurality of traffic messages that provides data indicating traffic conditions on a road network in a geographic region, said traffic message comprises data indicating a location on the road network of said traffic condition, data indicating a type of said traffic condition, and data indicating a traffic quality value; and

using the data indicating the traffic quality value when computing an estimated travel time for a route, wherein the traffic quality value is used to compute an upper bound and a lower bound of the estimated travel time.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein the traffic quality rating represents a comparison of a collected traffic speed to a ground truth speed for a location.

9. The method of claim 7 wherein the traffic quality value is a speed error ratio computed as a difference between said ground truth speed and said collected traffic speed divided by said ground truth speed.

10. The method of claim 7 wherein the traffic quality value is a travel time error ratio.

12. The method of claim 8 wherein said ground truth speed is obtained from a ground truth vehicle.

13. The method of claim 8 wherein said collected traffic speed is obtained from a sensor.

14. The method of claim 8 wherein said collected traffic speed is obtained from a historic traffic model.

11. A computer implemented method of operating a navigation system, the method comprising:

receiving a plurality of traffic messages that provides data indicating traffic conditions on a road network in a geographic region, said traffic message comprises data indicating a location on the road network of said traffic condition, data indicating a type of said traffic condition, and data indicating a traffic quality value;

using the data indicating the traffic quality value when computing an estimated travel time for a route; and

if said traffic quality value is less than a predetermined level, rejecting the traffic message.

15. A navigation system comprising:

a computer; and

a receiver for receiving a plurality of traffic messages, the traffic message comprises a location code indicating a location on the road network of said traffic condition, an event code indicating a type of said traffic condition, and a traffic quality code indicating a quality value associated with the traffic message, wherein the quality value represents a comparison of a collected traffic speed to a ground truth speed for the location.

16. The navigation system of claim 15 wherein the quality value is a speed error ratio computed as a difference between said ground truth speed and said collected traffic speed divided by said ground truth speed.

17. A navigation system comprising:

a computer; and

a receiver for receiving a plurality of traffic messages, the traffic message comprises a location code indicating a location on the road network of said traffic condition, an event code indicating a type of said traffic condition, and a traffic quality code indicating a quality value associated with the traffic message, wherein the quality values represents a travel time error ratio.