System and Method for Collecting and Conveying Point of Interest Information

• US 20100114478A1
• Filed: 10/31/2008
• Published: 05/06/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 10/31/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Honda Motor Co., Ltd. (Honda Motor Company)
• Original Assignee: Honda Motor Co., Ltd. (Honda Motor Company)
• Inventors: Bai, Xue
• Granted Patent: US 8,290,704 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/207
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3811 Point data, e.g. Point of Interest [POI]
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3837 Data obtained from a single source
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3848 Data obtained from both position sensors and additional sensors
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 29/102 using electrical means

Abstract

A system and method for collecting and conveying point of interest (POI) information is disclosed. The system detects when a vehicle is at a previously unknown POI, gathers information related to the new POI, and updates a central server with the new POI location information. In this context, a POI may be any type of location including roads, gas stations, strip malls, retail establishments, eating establishments, hospitals, police stations, etc. POI information may include a variety of data including new road locations, new entrances to roads, toll amounts, gas station names, gas prices, strip mall names, retail establishment names, eating establishment names, sales and specials, hospital names, emergency room entrance locations, police station entrances, etc.

Claims

1. A method for updating point of interest (POI) information comprising the steps of:

receiving information related to a position of a vehicle;

determining if the vehicle is located proximate a POI;

gathering new data related to the POI using a sensor system associated with the vehicle;

wherein the sensor system includes an imaging device and wherein the new data includes information extracted from an image captured by the imaging device; and

transmitting the new data to a central location using a dedicated short range communications (DSRC) system.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the sensor system includes a fuel sensor.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the new data is gathered when the fuel sensor detects an input of fuel into the vehicle.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the POI comprises a gas station and the information related to the POI comprises fuel pricing.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the new data is extracted from the image using image analysis software.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the imaging device comprises a digital camera.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of orienting the imaging device prior to capturing the image.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the new data is extracted from the image prior to transmitting the new data to the central location.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein optical character recognition is used to extract alphanumeric information from the image, and wherein the new data comprises the alphanumeric information.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the DSRC system uses a road side equipment configured to interact with both the central location and the vehicle.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of authenticating the vehicle to the DSRC system.

12. A method for updating point of interest (POI) information comprising the steps of:

receiving information related to a POI from a first vehicle;

determining if the information received from the first vehicle is new information;

updating a POI database with the information if the information is new information to produce an updated POI database that includes the new information; and

making the updated POI database available for transmission to a second vehicle.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising the step of transmitting the POI database with the new information to a second vehicle.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein the POI comprises an unrecognized POI and the new information comprises identifying information related to the unrecognized POI.

15. The method of claim 12, wherein the POI comprises a gas station and the information received from the first vehicle comprises fuel pricing information.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the fuel pricing information is gathered by receiving an image of the fuel pricing as displayed at the gas station and analyzing the image to extract the fuel pricing information.

17. A system for updating a database comprising:

a system dedicated short range communications (DSRC) receiver configured to receive point of interest (POI) information from a vehicle DSRC transmitter associated with a vehicle communications system associated with a first vehicle;

a transmitter configured to relay the POI information to a central system;

a receiver configured to receive database information from the central system, wherein the database information contains the POI information if the POI information is new POI information; and

a system DSRC transmitter configured to relay the database information to a vehicle DSRC receiver associated with a second vehicle.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the POI information includes the location of a new POI.

19. The system of claim 17, wherein the POI information includes pricing information.

20. The system of claim 17, wherein the system DSRC transmitter and the system DSRC receiver are associated with road side equipment.