Route display method, route display apparatus, and database generation method

• US 9,719,794 B2
• Filed: 09/03/2015
• Issued: 08/01/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 09/10/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Panasonic Intellectual Property Corporation of America (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Panasonic Intellectual Property Corporation of America (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Wakabayashi, Tohru, Okamura, Kazuo, Yamamoto, Yuko, Minami, Kimio, Ito, Masahiro, Nakano, Toshihisa
• Primary Examiner(s): Almatrahi, Faris
• Assistant Examiner(s): WEBER, TAMARA L
• Application Number:
  US14/844,028
• Publication Number:
  US 20160069703A1
• Time in Patent Office: 698 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3605 Destination input or retrieval
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3644 Landmark guidance, e.g. using POIs or conspicuous other objects
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3667 Display of a road map G01C21/3614 takes precedence; guidance using 3D or perspective road maps G01C21/3635
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3676 Overview of the route on the road map
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3694 Output thereof on a road map
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/51 Indexing; Data structures therefor; Storage structures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/5866 using information manually generated, e.g. tags, keywords, comments, manually generated location and time information
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 1/0007 Image acquisition
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 29/007 using computer methods

Abstract

A route display method for display on a terminal apparatus comprises: acquiring starting point information indicating a starting point and destination information indicating a destination; generating route information indicating a route from the starting point to the destination, wherein the route information includes a plurality of passing points; extracting captured images corresponding to the plurality of the passing points from a database which stores the captured images in relation to corresponding image capturing locations respectively, wherein each of the image capturing locations is within a range from the each of the plurality of the passing points; and displaying the extracted captured images in association with a map image sequentially in an order from a first captured image corresponding to a first passing point closest to the starting point to a second captured image corresponding to a second passing point closest to the destination.

Claims

1. A route display method for display on a terminal apparatus, comprising:

acquiring i) starting point information indicating a starting point and ii) destination information indicating a destination;

generating route information indicating a route from the starting point to the destination, wherein the route is searched based on the starting point information and the destination information, and the route information includes a plurality of passing points on the route;

extracting captured images corresponding to the plurality of the passing points from a database that stores the captured images in relation to corresponding image capturing locations respectively, wherein each of the image capturing locations is within a predetermined range from the each of the plurality of the passing points;

displaying a map image representing the route on an electric display based on the route information; and

displaying the extracted captured images with the map image sequentially in an order from a first captured image corresponding to a first passing point closest to the starting point to a second captured image corresponding to a second passing point closest to the destination,

wherein the route includes a plurality of sections,

wherein the plurality of sections includes a first section and second sections other than the first section,

wherein a density of the passing points extracted in the first section is higher than a density of the passing points extracted in each of the second sections, so that a density of the extracted captured images displayed in the first section is higher than a density of the extracted captured images displayed in each of the second sections, and

wherein the first section includes at least one of a section including a spot designated by a user of the terminal apparatus at which to stop, a section including the destination indicated by the destination information, a section including a dangerous spot designated by an outside source where many car accidents have occurred, a section including an intersection designated by the outside source, a section where traffic congestion often occurs designated by the outside source, and a section designated by the outside source that is currently jammed.

2. The route display method according to claim 1, further comprising:

displaying on the map image a marker so as to move along the route from the starting point displayed on the map image to the destination displayed on the map image, and sequentially displaying the extracted captured images in synchronization with the movement of the marker.

3. The route display method according to claim 2, further comprising:

in a case where it is determined that a simulation marker is moved to a selected location on the route, displaying a fifth captured image representing a fifth passing point closest to the selected location.

4. The route display method according to claim 1,

wherein the extracted captured images are displayed before the user of the terminal apparatus starts to move.

5. The route display method according to claim 1,

wherein at least one of the starting point information and the destination information is acquired by an input device via an operation of the user of the terminal apparatus.

6. The route display method according to claim 1,

wherein at least one of the starting point information and the destination information is acquired by a communication circuit via a network.

7. The route display method according to claim 1,

wherein the route is searched at a server to which the terminal apparatus is connected.

8. The route display method according to claim 1,

wherein the starting point information is acquired by determining the starting point information based on i) pre-stored location information indicating a predetermined location related to a user of the terminal apparatus, or ii) current location information indicating a current location of the user of the terminal apparatus, and

the destination information is acquired by predicting the destination information based on behavior history information of the user, the behavior history information indicating locations the user has visited in the past.

9. The route display method according to claim 8,

wherein the predetermined location indicates a house in which the user of the terminal apparatus lives.

10. The route display method according to claim 1,

wherein the database stores a plurality of captured images in relation to one of the image capturing locations,

wherein each of the plurality of the captured images in relation to the one of the image capturing locations has a corresponding image capturing date/time, and

wherein the method further includes:

extracting one captured image which has the latest image capturing date/time, among the plurality of the captured images in relation to the one of the image capturing locations within the predetermined range from one of the plurality of the passing points.

11. The route display method according to claim 1, further comprising:

displaying on the map image a first marker for the starting point, a second marker for the first location, a third marker for the destination, and a fourth marker for the second location, the first marker, the second marker, the third marker, and the fourth marker being different from each other.

12. The route display method according to claim 1,

wherein the database stores each of the captured images in relation to at least one of i) an image capturing date/time of a corresponding captured image, ii) weather under which the corresponding captured image was captured, and iii) a vehicle type of a vehicle on which a camera that captures the corresponding captured image is installed.

13. The route display method according to claim 1, further comprising:

in a case where the database does not store corresponding captured images in relation to corresponding image capturing locations within the predetermined range from one of the plurality of the passing points, displaying an image indicating that there is no the corresponding captured images in relation to the corresponding image capturing locations within the predetermined range from the one of the plurality of the passing points.

14. The route display method according to claim 1,

wherein a third captured image corresponding to a third passing point of the plurality of the passing point is displayed at a first time, and a fourth captured image corresponding to a fourth passing point adjacent to the third passing point is displayed at a second time, and

wherein a time interval between the first time and the second time corresponds to a distance between the third passing point and the fourth passing point.

15. The route display method according to claim 1,

wherein the database stores a plurality of captured images in relation to a corresponding image capturing location and to a corresponding image capturing date/time, and

wherein the method further includes

in a case where it is determined that a user of the terminal apparatus specifies a location on the map image, extracting from the database a plurality of the captured images that were captured at different times at an image capturing location corresponding to the specified location;

and

displaying the plurality of the extracted captured images sequentially in an order from the latest image capturing date/time in relation to the plurality of the extracted captured images.

16. The route display method according to claim 1,

wherein the route information includes latitude information and longitude information in relation to each of the plurality of the passing points.

17. The route display method according to claim 1,

wherein the starting point information includes latitude information and longitude information of the starting point, and

the destination information includes latitude information and longitude information of the destination.

18. A route display apparatus comprising:

a processor; and

a non-transitory memory storing thereon a program, which, when being executed by the processor, causes the processor to;

acquire i) starting point information indicating a starting point and ii) destination information indicating a destination;

display a map image representing a route from the starting point to the destination, wherein the route is searched by a server, connected to the route display apparatus via a network, based on the starting point information and the destination information, and a plurality of passing points are included in the route;

display captured images together with the map image sequentially in an order from a first captured image corresponding to a first passing point closest to the starting point to a second captured image corresponding to a second passing point closest to the destination, wherein the captured images are extracted, by the server, from a database that stores the captured images in relation to corresponding image capturing locations, respectively, and the extracted captured images correspond to the plurality of the passing points, wherein each of the image capturing locations is within a predetermined range from each of the plurality of passing points,

wherein the route includes a plurality of sections,

wherein the plurality of sections includes a first section and second sections other than the first section,

wherein a density of the passing points extracted in the first section is higher than a density of the passing points extracted in each of the second sections, so that a density of the extracted captured images displayed in the first section is higher than a density of the extracted captured images displayed in each of the second sections, and

wherein the first section includes at least one of a section including a spot designated by a user at which to stop, a section including the destination indicated by the destination information, a section including a dangerous spot designated by an outside source where many car accidents have occurred, a section including an intersection designated by the outside source, a section where traffic congestion often occurs designated by the outside source, and a section designated by the outside source that is currently jammed.