Information providing device, information providing method and computer-readable storage medium

• US 8,515,657 B2
• Filed: 07/01/2011
• Issued: 08/20/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 08/05/2010
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Aisin AW Company Limited (Aisin Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Aisin AW Company Limited (Aisin Corp.)
• Inventors: Miura, Naoki, Nonomura, Junichi
• Primary Examiner(s): Trammell, James
• Assistant Examiner(s): Malhotra, Sanjeev
• Application Number:
  US13/175,082
• Publication Number:
  US 20120041671A1
• Time in Patent Office: 781 Days
• Field of Search: 701/200, 701/201, 701/202, 701/209, 701/411, 701/420, 701/424, 701/428, 705/77.26, 709/238, 725/4, 370/254
• US Class Current: 701/200
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3469 Fuel consumption; Energy use; Emission aspects
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0283 Price estimation or determination

Abstract

An information providing device, having a route acquisition unit that acquires a reference travel route between two points, a route finding unit that finds a fuel-saving travel route between the two points, a fuel cost calculating unit that calculates a difference in cost of fuel between the reference travel route and the fuel-saving travel route based on fuel consumption and a fee of fuel, a communication cost calculating unit that calculates a communication cost concerning the fuel-saving travel route, and a control unit that executes control for transmitting predetermined information to a terminal device based on the result of a comparison between the difference in cost of fuel and the communication cost.

Claims

1. An information providing device that provides information to a terminal device, comprising:

a route acquisition unit that acquires a reference travel route between two points on the basis of information about the reference travel route, transmitted from the terminal device;

a route finding unit that finds a fuel-saving travel route between the two points;

a fuel cost calculating unit that calculates a difference in cost of fuel between the reference travel route and the fuel-saving travel route on the basis of a fuel consumption for the reference travel route, a fuel consumption for the fuel-saving travel route and a fee of fuel;

a communication cost calculating unit that calculates a communication cost for communicating first information about the fuel-saving travel route found by the route finding unit to the terminal device; and

a control unit that executes control for transmitting predetermined information to the terminal device on the basis of a result of comparison between the difference in cost of fuel, calculated by the fuel cost calculating unit, and the communication cost calculated by the communication cost calculating unit,

wherein the communication cost calculating unit acquires contract information that deters lines contract details of a fee of communication between the terminal device and the information providing device and then calculates the communication cost on the basis of the acquired contract information.

2. The information providing device according to claim 1, wherein

when the difference in cost of fuel, calculated by the fuel cost calculating unit, is higher than or equal to the communication cost calculated by the communication cost calculating unit, the control unit executes control for transmitting the first information, as the predetermined information, to the terminal device.

3. The information providing device according to claim 2, wherein

when the difference in cost of fuel, calculated by the fuel cost calculating unit, is lower than the communication cost calculated by the communication cost calculating unit, the control unit executes control for transmitting, to the terminal device, information for inquiring whether to transmit the first information.

4. The information providing device according to claim 1, wherein

the communication cost includes

the communication cost when second information, which is transmitted to the terminal device on the basis of a result of comparison between the difference in cost of fuel, calculated by the fuel cost calculating unit, and the communication cost calculated by the communication cost calculating unit and which is other than the first information, is transmitted to the terminal device;

and

the communication cost when third information is transmitted from the terminal device to the information providing device in response to the second information.

5. The information providing device according to claim 4, wherein the second information is information for inquiring whether to transmit the first information;

and the third information is any one of information that requests transmission of the first information and information that requests a cancellation of transmission of the first information.

6. The information providing device according to claim 1, further comprising:

a fuel price information storage unit that stores fuel price information that determines a price of the fuel and region information that determines a region in which the fuel is on sale in association with each other, wherein

the fuel cost calculating unit determines the fee of the fuel on the basis of the fuel price information corresponding to a region that includes any one of the two points.

7. An information providing method that provides information to a terminal device, comprising:

acquiring a reference travel route between two points on the basis of information about the reference travel route, transmitted from the terminal device;

finding a fuel-saving travel route between the two points;

calculating a difference in cost of fuel between the reference travel route and the fuel-saving travel route on the basis of a fuel consumption for the reference travel route, a fuel consumption for the fuel-saving travel route and a fee of fuel;

calculating a communication cost for communicating information about the found fuel-saving travel route to the terminal device; and

executing, using a processor, control for transmitting predetermined information to the terminal device on the basis of a result of comparison between the calculated difference in cost of fuel and the calculated communication cost,

wherein the communication cost is calculated by acquiring contract information that determines contract details of a fee of communication between the terminal device and the information providing device and then calculating the communication cost on the basis of the acquired contract information.

8. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium that stores computer-executable instructions for performing an information providing method, the method comprising:

acquiring a reference travel route between two points on the basis of information about the reference travel route, transmitted from the terminal device;

finding a fuel-saving travel route between the two points;

calculating a difference in cost of fuel between the reference travel route and the fuel-saving travel route on the basis of a fuel consumption for the reference travel route, a fuel consumption for the fuel-saving travel route and a fee of fuel;

calculating a communication cost for communicating information about the found fuel-saving travel route to the terminal device; and

executing control for transmitting predetermined information to tile terminal device on the basis of a result of comparison between the calculated difference in cost of fuel and tile calculated communication cost,

wherein the communication cost is calculated by acquiring contract information that determines contract details of a fee of communication between the terminal device and the information providing device and then calculating the communication cost on the basis of the acquired contract information.