Traffic information system based on travel history

• US 7,991,549 B2
• Filed: 01/24/2008
• Issued: 08/02/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 03/27/2007
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
• Inventors: Kimita, Kazuya, Tanikoshi, Koichiro, Yokota, Takayoshi
• Primary Examiner(s): Tran; Khoi
• Assistant Examiner(s): NGUYEN, BAO LONG T
• Application Number:
  US12/019,151
• Publication Number:
  US 20080243377A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,286 Days
• Field of Search: 340/988, 3409551-99528
• US Class Current: 701/210
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/0104 Measuring and analyzing of parameters relative to traffic conditions
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/20 Monitoring the location of vehicles belonging to a group, e.g. fleet of vehicles, countable or determined number of vehicles

Abstract

A traffic information system including a travel history database retaining the data on the travel history of vehicle measured at a constant temporal or running interval; a link cost weighting pattern database for storing patterns for weighting the link costs of road links, used in the determination of the travel paths of vehicles; a vehicle ID/link cost weighting pattern set database retaining the data representing the matching of the vehicle IDs with their associated link cost weighting patterns used to determine the travel paths of the vehicles; a link cost weighting pattern selection unit selecting the patterns for weighting the link costs used to determine the travel paths of the vehicles on the basis of the vehicle IDs; and a vehicle ID/link cost weighting pattern matching unit recording the data representing the matching of the vehicle IDs with their associated link cost weighting patterns.

Claims

1. A traffic information system comprising:

a travel history database for retaining the data on the travel history of vehicle measured at a constant temporal or spatial interval;

a map matching unit for specifying the road links which a vehicle traveled along, by using the travel history data retained in the travel history database;

a travel path determination unit for determining the travel path of the vehicle traveling along the specified road links;

a link cost weighting pattern database for storing one or more patterns for weighting the link costs of road links;

a vehicle ID/link cost weighting pattern matching unit for storing in a vehicle ID/link cost weighting pattern set database the data representing the matching of vehicle IDs with their associated link cost weighting patterns used to determine the travel paths of the vehicles; and

a link cost weighting pattern selection unit for selecting the patterns for weighting the link costs stored in the link cost weighting pattern database on the basis of the vehicle IDs;

wherein,

the travel path determination unit determines the travel path of a vehicle depending on the travel history data of the vehicle by weighting the link costs of the road links by using the link cost weighting pattern selected by the link cost weighting pattern selection unit in accordance with the ID of the vehicle whose travel path is to be determined; and

the vehicle ID/link cost weighting pattern matching unit comprises

i) a detailed travel history database for retaining the data on the detailed travel history of vehicle measured at temporal or spatial intervals shorter than those at which the travel history of vehicle are measured;

ii) a travel history data extraction unit for extracting the travel history data and the detailed travel history data, recorded during the same time period, from the travel history database and the detailed travel history database, respectively;

iii) an entire pattern travel path determination unit for determining the travel path including the road links which the vehicle specified on the basis of the extracted travel history data traveled along, by using the pattern for weighting link costs stored in the link cost weighting pattern database;

iv) a detailed travel path determination unit for determining the travel path including the road links traveled along by the vehicle specified by using the detailed travel history data extracted from the detailed travel history database; and

v) a travel path comparison unit for matching the ID of the vehicle from which the travel history data is obtained with the link cost weighting pattern used to determine the travel path that best simulates the travel path determined by the detailed travel path determination unit from among the travel paths determined by the entire pattern travel path determination unit, and for storing the matched information in the vehicle ID/link cost weighting pattern set database.

2. A traffic information system comprising:

a travel history database for retaining the data on the travel history of vehicle, measured at a constant temporal or spatial interval;

a map matching unit for specifying the road links which a vehicle traveled along, by using the travel history data accumulated in the travel history database;

a travel path determination unit for determining the travel path of the vehicle which travels along the specified road links;

a link cost weighting pattern database for storing patterns for weighting link costs of road links;

a vehicle ID/link cost weighting pattern matching unit for storing in the vehicle ID/link cost weighting pattern set database the data representing the matching of the vehicle IDs and the associated drive dates or areas with the patterns for weighting the link costs used to determine the travel paths of vehicles; and

a link cost weighting pattern selection unit for selecting the patterns for weighting the link costs in accordance with the vehicle IDs and the associated drive dates or areas;

wherein

the travel path determination unit weights the link costs of the road links with the link cost weighting patterns selected by the link cost weighting pattern selection unit in accordance with the vehicle IDs and determines the travel paths on the basis of the travel history data of the vehicles; and

the vehicle ID/link cost weighting pattern matching unit comprises;

i) a detailed travel history database for retaining the data on the detailed travel history of vehicle measured at temporal or spatial intervals shorter than those at which the travel history of vehicle are measured;

ii) a travel history data extraction unit for extracting the travel history data and the detailed travel history data, recorded during the same time period, from the travel history database and the detailed travel history database, respectively;

iii) an entire pattern travel path determination unit for determining the travel path including the road links which the vehicle specified on the basis of the extracted travel history data traveled along, by using the patterns for weighting link costs stored in the link cost weighting pattern database;

iv) a detailed travel path determination unit for determining the travel path including the road links which the vehicle specified by using the detailed travel history data extracted from detailed travel history database, traveled along; and

v) a travel path comparison unit for matching the ID of the vehicle from which the travel history data is obtained and the associated drive date or area of the vehicle with the link cost weighting pattern used to determine the travel path that best simulates the travel path determined by the detailed travel path determination unit from among the travel paths determined by the entire pattern travel path determination unit, and for storing the matched information in the vehicle ID/link cost weighting pattern set database.