Information storage apparatus for storing new road, program for the same, and system for the same

• US 8,103,448 B2
• Filed: 10/18/2007
• Issued: 01/24/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 10/25/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: DENSO Corporation
• Original Assignee: DENSO Corporation
• Inventors: Nomura, Toshio
• Primary Examiner(s): Black, Thomas
• Assistant Examiner(s): Nolan, Peter D
• Application Number:
  US11/907,846
• Publication Number:
  US 20080103692A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,559 Days
• Field of Search: 701/207, 701/208, 701/209, 701/210, 701/211, 340/995.11, 340/995.12, 340/995.14, 340/995.18
• US Class Current: 701/210
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3815 Road data
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3844 Data obtained from position sensors only, e.g. from inertial navigation

Abstract

A vehicle navigation system detects a new road that is not recorded in a map for updating map data during a travel. After exiting from the new road, the increase of the data size of road map data at a time of addition of the new road to the map is estimated, and a collection of the data is transmitted to a server together with positional information and a travel frequency of the new road as a bundle of records of the new roads for facilitating a determination whether a combination of new roads from an updated road map database fits in a storage medium for the sake of user distribution.

Claims

1. A new road information storage apparatus for use in a vehicle comprising:

a road map data retrieval unit that retrieves a first set of road map data;

a current position detector that detects a current position of the vehicle;

a current position determiner that determines that the current position of the vehicle belongs to none of plural roads in the first set of road map data based on positional information of the plural roads;

a data size estimator that estimates an incremental data size of a second set of road map data based on structure information of a new road when the new road that is defined as a set of vehicle positions that are determined not to be belonging to any of the plural roads in the first set of the road map data by the current position determiner is added to the second set of road map data; and

a storage unit that stores positional information of the new road together with the incremental data size regarding the new road estimated by the data size estimator,

wherein the data size estimator estimates the incremental data size in proportion to a length of the new road,

a content of the first set of road map data is identical to a content of the second set of road map data,

the data size estimator determines a relationship between a length of a specific road in the first set of road map data and a data size of the specific road in the first set of road map data, and

a data size estimator that estimates an incremental data size of a second set of road map data based on structure information of a new road when the new road that is defined as a set of vehicle positions that are determined not to be belonging to any of the plural roads in the first set of the road map data by the current position determiner is added to the second set of road map data; and

a storage unit that stores positional information of the new road together with the incremental data size regarding the new road estimated by the data size estimator,

wherein the data size estimator estimates the incremental data size regarding the new road in proportion to a number of intersections included in the new road,

a content of the first set of road map data is identical to a content of the second set of road map data,

the data size estimator determines a relationship between the number of intersections in the first set of road map data and a data size of the intersections in the first set of road map data, and

the data size estimator estimates the incremental data size based on the determined relationship and the number of intersections in the new road.

2. The new road information storage apparatus of claim 1,

wherein the storage unit stores a passing frequency of the vehicle through the new road together with the incremental data size regarding the new road and the positional information of the new road.

3. The new road information storage apparatus of claim 1,

wherein the data size estimator estimates the incremental data size regarding the new road in proportion to a number of intersections included in the new road.

4. A new road information storage apparatus for use in a vehicle comprising:

a road map data retrieval unit that retrieves a first set of road map data;

a current position detector that detects a current position of the vehicle;

a current position determiner that determines that the current position of the vehicle belongs to none of plural roads in the first set of road map data based on positional information of the plural roads;

providing a function of a current position determiner for determining that the current position of the vehicle belongs to none of plural roads in a first set of the road map data based on positional information of the plural roads;

providing a function of a data size estimator for estimating an incremental data size of a second set of road map data based on structure information of a new road when the new road that is defined as a set of vehicle positions that are determined not to be belonging to any of the plural roads in the first set of the road map data by the current position determiner is added to the second set of road map data; and

providing a function of a storage unit for storing positional information of the new road together with the incremental data size regarding the new road estimated by the data size estimator,

wherein the data size estimator estimates the incremental data size in proportion to a length of the new road,

a content of the first set of road map data is identical to a content of the second set of road map data,

the data size estimator determines a relationship between a length of a specific road in the first set of road map data and a data size of the specific road in the first set of road map data, and

the data size estimator estimates the incremental data size based on the determined relationship and the length of the new road.

5. A program product recorded in a storage medium for operating a computer to be serving as a new road information storage apparatus in a vehicle, the program product comprising steps of

providing a function of a current position detector for detecting a current position of the vehicle;

the data size estimator estimates the incremental data size based on the determined relationship and the length of the new road.

6. A system for storing new road information comprising:

a new road information storage apparatus for use in a vehicle, and

a server that receives data transmitted from the new road information storage apparatus,

wherein the new road information storage apparatus comprising;

a road map data retrieval unit that retrieves a first set of road map data;

a current position detector that detects a current position of the vehicle;

a current position determiner that determines that the current position of the vehicle belongs to none of plural roads in the first set of road map data based on positional information of the plural roads;

a data size estimator that estimates an incremental data size of a second set of road map data based on structure information of each of new roads when each of the new roads that are respectively defined as a set of vehicle positions that are determined not to be belonging to any of the plural roads in the first set of the road map data by the current position determiner is added to the second set of road map data;

a storage unit that stores, for each of the new roads estimated by the data size estimator, the incremental data size, positional information of the new road as well as a travel frequency by the vehicle through the new road; and

a transmission unit that transmits the data stored by the storage unit to the server, and

the server adds the data for each of the new roads to the second set of road map data in a manner that prioritizes a most frequented new road by the vehicle so as to be provided for a user in a storage medium based on the data transmitted by the transmission unit,

wherein each of the new roads are arranged in the second set of road map data by the travel frequency in descending order, from the most frequented new road which is the new road with the highest travel frequency down to a least frequented new road.

7. A new road information appending apparatus comprising:

a receiver that receives data from a transmitter in a vehicle, wherein the data includes an incremental data size for an addition of one of plural new roads to road map data, positional information of the one of plural new roads, and a travel frequency of the vehicle through the one of plural new roads; and

an append unit that prioritizes appending of the data of the new road that is most frequented by the vehicle based on the data received by the receiver and vacancy information of a storage medium so that the data of each of the new roads is stored in a vacancy of the storage medium for distribution to users,

wherein each of the new roads are arranged in the storage medium by the travel frequency of the vehicle in descending order, from the most frequented which is the new road with the highest travel frequency down to a least frequented new road.