Navigation system, method, and program for automotive vehicle

• US 20030055558A1
• Filed: 09/05/2002
• Published: 03/20/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 09/17/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nissan Motor Co., Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Nissan Motor Co., Ltd.
• Inventors: Oono, Takeshi, Watanabe, Masaki
• Granted Patent: US 6,721,653 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/208
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3484 Personalized, e.g. from learned user behaviour or user-defined profiles

Abstract

In navigation system, method, and program for an automotive vehicle, a travel history of the vehicle which is made correspondent with a road map information is stored, a degree of a user'"'"'s familiarity with one of predetermined regions for each of the predetermined regions in the road map information is calculated on the basis of the travel history of the vehicle and its corresponding road map information, and the road map information is produced in accordance with the calculated degree of the user'"'"'s familiarity with the one of the predetermined regions.

Claims

1. A navigation system for an automotive vehicle, comprising:

a storing section that stores therein a travel history of the vehicle which is made correspondent with a road map information;

a calculating section that calculates a degree of familiarity with one of predetermined regions for each of the predetermined regions in the road map information on the basis of the travel history of the vehicle and its corresponding road map information; and

an information producing section that produces the road map information in accordance with the degree of familiarity with the one of the predetermined regions calculated by the calculating section.

2. A navigation system for an automotive vehicle as claimed in claim 1, wherein the storing section stores the travel history for each of a plurality of road intervals into which a road included in the one of the predetermined regions of the road map information is partitioned by a predetermined interval and wherein the calculating section comprises:

a distance calculating section that calculates an interval travel distance by which the vehicle has traveled for each of the road intervals on the basis of the travel history and the road map information;

a distance accumulating section that accumulates the calculated interval travel distance for each of the predetermined regions in which the corresponding road interval is included to calculate a regional travel distance for each of the predetermined regions; and

a degree of familiarity calculating section that retrieves a whole road length of a total sum of distances of the road included in the one of the predetermined regions determined on the basis of the road map information to calculate a ratio of the regional travel distance to the whole road length to calculate a degree of familiarity with the one of the predetermined regions for each of the predetermined regions.

3. A navigation system for an automotive vehicle as claimed in claim 2, wherein the travel history includes an information related to a number of times the vehicle has traveled through the one of the road intervals and wherein the distance calculating section calculates the interval travel distance in accordance with the number of times by which the vehicle has traveled through the one of the road intervals.

4. A navigation system for an automotive vehicle as claimed in claim 3, wherein the storing section stores a traveled number of times conversion table prescribing calculation equations to be applied to a calculation of the interval travel distance by the distance calculating section in accordance with the travel number of times the vehicle has traveled through the one of the road intervals and the distance calculating section refers to the travel number of times conversion table to apply one of the calculation equations in accordance with the number of times the vehicle has traveled through the one of the road intervals.

5. A navigation system for an automotive vehicle as claimed in claim 2, wherein the travel history includes an information related to an average vehicular velocity for each of the road intervals through which the vehicle has traveled and wherein the distance calculating section calculates the interval travel distance in accordance with the average vehicular velocity.

6. A navigation system for an automotive vehicle as claimed in claim 5, wherein the storing section stores an average velocity conversion table prescribing calculation equations to be applied to a calculation of the interval travel distance by the distance calculating section in accordance with the average velocity and the distance calculating section refers to the average velocity conversion table to apply one of the calculation equations to the calculation of the interval travel distance in accordance with the average velocity.

7. A navigation system for an automotive vehicle as claimed in claim 2, wherein the travel history includes an information related to a kind of road for each of the road intervals through which the vehicle has traveled and the distance calculating section calculates the interval travel distance in accordance with the kind of road.

8. A navigation system for an automotive vehicle as claimed in claim 7, wherein the storing section stores a road kind conversion table prescribing calculation equations to be applied to a calculation of the interval travel distance in accordance with the kind of the road constituted by the one of the road intervals and wherein the distance calculating section refers to the road kind conversion table to apply one of the calculation equations to the calculation of the interval travel distance in accordance with the kind of the road.

9. A navigation system for an automotive vehicle as claimed in claim 2, wherein the travel history includes an information related to a stopped number of times that the vehicle has stopped for each of the road intervals through which the vehicle has traveled and wherein the distance calculating section calculates the interval travel distance in accordance with the stopped number of times the vehicle has stopped.

10. A navigation system for an automotive vehicle as claimed in claim 9, wherein the storing section stores a stopped number of times conversion table prescribing calculation equations to be applied to a calculation of the interval travel distance in accordance with the stopped number of times and wherein the distance calculating section refers to the stopped number of times conversion table to apply one of the calculation equations to the calculation of the interval travel distance in accordance with the stopped number of times.

11. A navigation system for an automotive vehicle as claimed in claim 2, wherein any of the road intervals in the one of the predetermined regions which have a common characteristic of at least one of a position, a direction, and a distance to each other from among the road intervals included in the travel history and road map information are grouped into a common interval group, the respective road intervals belonging to the common interval group being divided into a representative road interval and other general road intervals which are replaceable with this representative road interval and each general road interval being made correspondent with the representative road interval, the distance calculating section comprises a determining section that determines that the vehicle has traveled one of the representative road intervals which is made correspondent to one of the general road intervals through which the vehicle has actually traveled when the vehicle has actually traveled through the one of the general road intervals and the distance calculating section calculates a representative road interval travel distance on the basis of the information on the representative road interval in place of the interval travel distance, the distance accumulating section calculates the regional travel distance for each of the common interval groups in which the one of the road intervals is included, and the familiarity degree calculating section calculates the ratio of the representative interval travel distance to the whole length of the representative road interval, and the familiarity degree calculating section retrieves the whole length of the representative road interval which is a total sum of the distances of the representative road intervals included in the respective common interval groups derived on the basis of the road map information.

12. A navigation system for an automotive vehicle as claimed in claim 2, wherein the road map information is stored to be made correspondent with a search condition including a name of the one of the predetermined regions, the information producing section comprises:

a search section that searches for the road map information corresponding to the search condition on the basis of the search condition inputted by a user; and

a search condition updating section that adds the name of the one of the predetermined regions in a form of an independent search condition of the road map information to update the road map information when the degree of familiarity of the predetermined region calculated by familiarity degree calculating section is in excess of a predetermined value.

13. A navigation system for an automotive vehicle as claimed in claim 2, wherein the road map information comprises an information related to a class of the road for each of the road intervals, the information producing section comprises a search section that accepts a search condition related to an object of a search from a user of the vehicle and searches the information related to the object positioned along any one of the road intervals, and the search section searches the information related to the object excluding the object which is positioned along a low class road in the road map information from the object of the search when the object belongs to the predetermined region having the degree of familiarity which is lower than a predetermined degree of familiarity.

14. A navigation system for an automotive vehicle, comprising:

a storing section that stores therein a travel history of the vehicle for each of users of the vehicle which is made correspondent with a road map information;

a calculating section that calculates a degree of familiarity of one of the users with one of predetermined regions for each of the predetermined regions in the road map information on the basis of the travel history of the one of the users of the vehicle and its corresponding road map information; and

an information producing section that produces the road map information in accordance with the degree of familiarity of the one of the users of the vehicle with the one of the predetermined regions calculated by the calculating section.

15. A navigation method for an automotive vehicle, comprising:

storing a travel history of the vehicle which is made correspondent with a road map information;

calculating a degree of familiarity with one of predetermined regions for each of the predetermined regions in the roadmap information on the basis of the travel history of the vehicle and its corresponding road map information; and

producing the road map information in accordance with the degree of familiarity with the one of the predetermined regions calculated by the calculating section.

16. A navigation method for an automotive vehicle as claimed in claim 15, wherein, when storing the travel history, the travel history for each of a plurality of road intervals into which a road included in the one of the predetermined regions of the road map information is partitioned by a predetermined interval is stored and wherein, when calculating the degree of familiarity, an interval travel distance by which the vehicle has traveled for each of the road intervals is calculated on the basis of the travel history and the road map information, the calculated interval travel distance for each of the predetermined regions in which the corresponding road interval is included is accumulated to calculate a regional travel distance for each of the predetermined regions, a whole road length of a total sum of distances of the road included in the one of the predetermined regions determined on the basis of the road map information is retrieved, and a ratio of the regional travel distance to the whole road length is calculated to derive the degree of familiarity with the one of the predetermined regions for each of the predetermined regions.

17. A navigation program for an automotive vehicle, comprising:

a storing function to store a travel history of the vehicle which is made correspondent with a road map information;

a calculating function to calculate a degree of familiarity with one of predetermined regions for each of the predetermined regions in the road map information on the basis of the travel history of the vehicle and its corresponding road map information; and

an information producing function to produce the road map information in accordance with the degree of familiarity with the one of the predetermined regions calculated by the calculating section.

18. A navigation system for an automotive vehicle, comprising:

storing means for storing therein a travel history of the vehicle which is made correspondent with a road map information;

calculating means for calculating a degree of familiarity with one of predetermined regions for each of the predetermined regions in the road map information on the basis of the travel history of the vehicle and its corresponding road map information; and

information producing means for producing the road map information in accordance with the degree of familiarity with the one of the predetermined regions calculated by the calculating means.