Traffic information distribution apparatus and traffic information distribution method

• US 8,103,437 B2
• Filed: 10/15/2007
• Issued: 01/24/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 10/18/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Aisin AW Company Limited (Aisin Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Aisin AW Company Limited (Aisin Corp.), Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha (Toyota Motor Corporation)
• Inventors: Nagase, Kenji, Nakada, Takayasu, Yoshikawa, Kazutaka, Inoguchi, Toshio
• Primary Examiner(s): Beauchaine, Mark
• Application Number:
  US12/442,280
• Publication Number:
  US 20090248286A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,562 Days
• Field of Search: 701/118, 340/934
• US Class Current: 701/118
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096805 where the transmitted instructions are used to compute a route
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096844 where the complete route is dynamically recomputed based on new data

Abstract

In a case where a CPU 11 provided in an information distribution center 3 has received a request command for requesting predicted traffic information transmitted from a navigation apparatus 2 as well as vehicle information such as a navigator identifying ID, coordinate data of a vehicle position, or coordinate data of a destination, the CPU 11 searches a basic route based on update-purpose map information 14A, and sets a distribution range serving as a transmission target of traffic information 16A, 16B, and 16C. Then, the CPU 11 generates the predicted traffic information 16C such as congestion prediction information corresponding to the distribution range, extracts the predicted traffic information 16C of each link having a difference in the generated predicted traffic information 16C and the current traffic information 16A, and distributes the extracted predicted traffic information 16C to the navigation apparatus 2 together with a link ID of a corresponding link.

Claims

1. A traffic information distributing apparatus that distributes traffic information, comprising:

a vehicle information receiving unit that receives vehicle information from a navigation apparatus installed in a vehicle;

a current traffic information obtaining unit that obtains current traffic information which includes congested road information that indicates the presence of congestion and no-congestion road information that indicates the absence of congestion;

a predicted traffic information generating unit that generates, based on the vehicle information, predicted traffic information according to the time the vehicle arrives at each road along a route to a destination, the predicted traffic information including the congested road information that indicates the presence of congestion and the no-congestion road information that indicates the absence of congestion;

a predicted traffic information extracting unit that determines whether or not the predicted traffic information for a road is different from the current traffic information for the road, that extracts the predicted traffic information for the road if determined to be different from the current traffic information for the road, and that does not extract the predicted traffic information if both the predicted traffic information and the current traffic information are the no-congestion road information; and

a traffic information distribution controlling unit that controls distribution of the predicted traffic information, extracted by the predicted traffic information extracting unit, to the navigation apparatus.

2. The traffic information distributing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

a distribution range setting unit that sets a distribution range serving as a transmission target of the traffic information based on the vehicle information;

wherein

the predicted traffic information generating unit generates the predicted traffic information according to the distribution range.

3. The traffic information distributing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein:

in a case where the current traffic information is the congested road information and the predicted traffic information is the congested road information, the predicted traffic information extracting unit extracts the predicted traffic information.

4. The traffic information distributing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein:

in a case where the current traffic information is the congested road information and the predicted traffic information is the congested road information, the predicted traffic information extracting unit does not extract the predicted traffic information.

5. A traffic information distributing method executed at a traffic distribution center for distributing traffic information to a vehicle, from the traffic distribution center which is remote from the vehicle, comprising the steps of:

receiving vehicle information in a communication unit in the traffic distribution center from a navigation apparatus installed in the vehicle;

obtaining, through the communication unit, current traffic information which includes congested road information that indicates the presence of congestion, and no-congestion road information that indicates the absence of congestion;

generating predicted traffic information, by operation of a CPU in the traffic distribution center, according to the time the vehicle arrives at each road in a route to a destination, based on the vehicle information, the predicted traffic information including congested road information that indicates the presence of congestion, and no-congestion road information that indicates the absence of congestion;

by operation of the CPU, determining whether or not the predicted traffic information for a road is different from the current traffic information for the road, extracting the predicted traffic information for the road if determined to be different from the current traffic information for the road, and not extracting the predicted traffic information for the road if both the predicted traffic information and the current traffic information are determined to be the no-congestion road information;

distributing, through the communication unit, the predicted traffic information extracted in the predicted traffic information extracting step to the navigation apparatus.