JP2004325371A - Server for route guide, terminal for route guide, and system, method and program for route guide - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide road guide information fit to a moving purpose of a user, even when the situation of the user is varied. <P>SOLUTION: Client terminals 10a, 10b transmit positional information of the present place, and history information including user situation information, peripheral situation information and user attribute information, to a control server 20a. In the control server 20a, a spot visiting purpose calculating means 50 generates a spot-purpose correspondence table set with information indicating that any user visits a spot under any situation, based on the history information from the respective users, to be stored in a spot-purpose correspondence table storage means 60. When an ambiguous destination guide is requested from the user to the control server 20a, a destination fit to the user can be determined based on the spot-purpose correspondence table. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2005,JPO&NCIPI

Description

[0001]
TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention provides a route guidance system, a method, and a program for providing a user with road guidance information to a destination, a route guidance terminal of the route guidance system, a route guidance server, and a visit mounted on the route guidance terminal. It relates to a history information acquisition program.
[0002]
[Prior art]
Information services for providing information on restaurants and leisure facilities to car navigation devices via communication means such as mobile phones and automobile phones have been realized. For example, Patent Literature 1 describes a preference information collection device that selects only necessary information from information received via the Internet, a digital broadcasting network, or the like and provides the selected information to a user. The preference information collection device described in Patent Literature 1 selects information received via the Internet or a digital broadcast network or the like based on automatically obtained user preference information and provides the user with the information.
[0003]
In addition, a personal optimization system capable of efficiently providing a user with necessary information in consideration of a user's preference has been proposed. Non-Patent Document 1 describes, for example, a system that estimates a user's preference based on history information of a user's video reservation and recommends a television program that matches the user's preference.
[0004]
When searching for a destination using a car navigation device, a predetermined destination is not determined in advance, but the user first searches for a candidate for a destination that matches the moving purpose, and searches for a candidate included in the search result. There are times when you select a destination. For example, if there is a moving purpose of vaguely wanting to eat, the user first obtains a store information list of restaurants near the current position using the car navigation device. Then, the user selects a restaurant that matches his / her preference from the store information list, and receives road guidance to the location of the selected restaurant from the car navigation device.
[0005]
However, the user takes time and effort to input a keyword or check the display screen of the search result in order to obtain information on the restaurant. In addition, when a car navigation device, a mobile terminal, or the like is used, the operation unit and the display unit of the device are small, which imposes an operation burden on the user. Further, since the user is forced to perform the operation in a short time, the operation burden is increased.
[0006]
In order to reduce the number of operations and burdens on the user, it is conceivable to apply the preference information collection device described in Patent Document 1 or the system described in Non-Patent Document 1 to a car navigation device. If the preference information collection device described in Patent Literature 1 or the system described in Non-Patent Literature 1 is used, the history information of the visit place of the user is recorded, and the user's preference is recorded based on the recorded history information. Information can be generated. Then, when searching for a destination candidate in accordance with a user's request instruction, a candidate location that matches the user's preference condition is preferentially searched based on the preference information. By providing the user with information on the candidate sites that match the preference conditions with priority to the user, an efficient candidate site search process can be performed.
[0007]
Further, in Patent Document 2, a search condition is determined in consideration of a place where a user is present, information about the user, time at that time, and the like, a destination database is searched using the search condition, and a destination candidate is determined. Is described.
[0008]
[Patent Document 1]
JP 2001-109810 A (Page 6-7, FIG. 6)
[Patent Document 2]
JP-A-2000-266551 (paragraphs 0068 and 0069, FIG. 13)
[Non-patent document 1]
Barry Smyth, Paul Cotter, "A Personalized Television Listings Service", Communications of the ACM, August 2000, Vol. 43, no. 8, p107-111
[0009]
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
If the preference information collection device described in Patent Literature 1 or the system described in Non-Patent Literature 1 is applied, a search process is performed based on the user's preference information, thereby reducing the number of operations and burdens of the user. can do. However, when the user's preference changes depending on the user's situation, surrounding conditions, and the like, such as when the user is a driver of a car, search processing that matches the user's preference may not be performed. For example, even in the case of searching for a restaurant, a dish that the user prefers may be different between a case where the season is summer and a case where the season is winter. Further, the user's preference may be different between when the user is driving alone and when the user is on a date. Therefore, it is desirable to be able to perform a search process that matches the user's preference, even when the user's preference changes depending on the user's situation and surrounding circumstances.
[0010]
Furthermore, when the preference information collection device described in Patent Literature 1 or the system described in Non-Patent Literature 1 is applied, information such as a destination candidate provided to a user is extracted in advance in a search. It is necessary to add conditions as meta information or the like. For example, when the provided information is information on a restaurant such as a restaurant, information such as the types and characteristics of the food provided by the restaurant such as Chinese cuisine and Japanese cuisine is used as a keyword in the provided information in advance. It needs to be added. Therefore, a work load is required for adding the additional information to each piece of information such as the candidate sites provided to the user in advance. In addition, it is necessary to provide information to be added as additional information from a store owner such as a restaurant in advance, but in general, store owners and the like do not provide information that limits their own customer demographics. Therefore, additional information to be added may not be obtained.
[0011]
Further, in the car navigation device described in Patent Document 2, it is necessary to add additional information for each destination to the destination database.
[0012]
Therefore, the present invention provides a route guidance server, a user terminal, a route guidance system, a method, a program, and a program which can provide road guidance information suitable for a user's traveling purpose even when the user's situation changes. It is an object to provide a history information acquisition program.
[0013]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
The route guidance server according to the present invention is a route guidance server (for example, realized by the server 20a) that manages information on visiting places that a moving user may visit. From a user terminal to be used (for example, realized by the client terminals 10a and 10b), visit history information (for example, user visit history information) which is history information of a visit place visited by each user is transmitted via a communication network. The visit history information collection means (for example, realized by the visit history update means 30) and the visit history information collected by the visit place history information collection means are aggregated, and the visit place is visited for each visit place. A visit to generate visitor location estimation information (for example, a spot purpose correspondence table) indicating a user class and a situation when the user visits the visitor place and indicating an estimation result. A place estimation information generating unit (for example, realized by the spot visit purpose calculation unit 50) and a visit place estimation information storage unit (for example, a spot purpose correspondence table) that stores the visit place estimation information generated by the visit place estimation information generating unit. (Implemented by the storage means 60).
[0014]
Each of the user segment and the situation when the user visited the visit place is classified into a plurality of categories, and the visit place estimation information generating means uses the visit history information collected for each visit place in the collected visit history information. If there is information that matches one of the categories in the user class, the total value (for example, the count value calculated in step S4206 in FIG. 11) corresponding to that category is increased, and the situation when the user visits the visited place is increased. If there is information that matches any one of the categories, the count value corresponding to that category is increased, and based on the count value, the accuracy of each category in the user layer (for example, “true” determined in step S4302 in FIG. 13). Or a determination value of “false”) and the accuracy of each section in the situation when the user visits the visited place. According to such a configuration, the visit place estimation information can be automatically generated by totalizing the visit history information. Therefore, it is possible to automatically generate objective visit place estimation information that indicates which user layer has a tendency to visit the visit place in what situation.
[0015]
The visit place estimation information generating means generates visit place estimation information using at least one of a user's gender, a user's age, and a vehicle type of a user's vehicle as a user class who has visited the visit place. It may be. According to such a configuration, in consideration of the gender of the user, the age of the user, or the classification of the vehicle driven by the user, the type of user and the situation where the user visits the site are described. It is possible to automatically generate objective visit place estimation information indicating whether there is a tendency to visit.
[0016]
The visit place estimation information generating means includes: the driving time of the user, the driving purpose of the user, the number of passengers of the vehicle driven by the user, the current time zone, the current season, and the congestion of the road around the current location of the user. At least one of the degrees may be used to generate the visit place estimation information as a situation when the user visits the visit place. According to such a configuration, the classification of the driving time of the user, the driving purpose of the user, the number of passengers of the driving vehicle of the user, the current time zone, the current season, the traffic congestion situation around the user, and the like are considered. Then, it is possible to automatically generate objective visit place estimation information indicating which user group has a tendency to visit the visit place in what situation.
[0017]
The route guidance server stores destination information (for example, information of the spot database 20 shown in FIG. 7) indicating destination candidates of the user (for example, realized by the spot database 20). And moving purpose information receiving means (for example, driving purpose information input in step S601 in FIG. 17) from the user terminal via a communication network. This is realized by the destination search means 70) and the purpose of extracting destination information matching the travel destination information from the destination information storage means based on the visited place estimation information stored in the visited place estimation information storage means. The location extraction means (for example, realized by the destination search means 70) and the destination information extracted by the destination extraction means are transmitted via a communication network. Destination information transmitting means for transmitting to the user terminal (e.g., as implemented by the destination search unit 70) may be one and a. According to such a configuration, it is possible to provide the user with road guidance information according to the current situation of the individual user, the situation around the user, and the like.
[0018]
The route guidance terminal according to the present invention is a route guidance terminal (e.g., realized by the client terminals 10a and 10b) used by a user who receives provision of road guidance information, and is a visiting place visited by the user. Visit history information generating means (e.g., realized by the user management means 10) for generating visit history information, which is history information of a user, and route guidance for managing information on visiting places to which a moving user may visit The visit server is provided with a visit history information transmission unit (for example, realized by the user management unit 10) for transmitting the visit history information via the communication network.
[0019]
The visit history information generating means is a user status information generating means (for example, user status detecting means) for generating user status information (for example, user status information) indicating the status of the user when the user visited the visited place. 12) and a peripheral situation information generating means (for example, realized by the peripheral situation detecting means 13) which generates peripheral situation information indicating a situation around the current location of the user when the user visits the visited place. ), Attribute information storage means (for example, realized by the user attribute storage means 14) for storing user attribute information (for example, user attribute information) indicating the attribute of the user, A visit detection unit (e.g., realized by the spot visit detection unit 15) for detecting arrival at the place, and use when the visit detection unit detects arrival at the visit place. And status information, and the surrounding situation information, may be one that generates the visit history information including the user attribute information. According to such a configuration, it is possible to automatically generate the visit place estimation information in consideration of the information of the situation of the user and the surrounding situation, and the personal information of the user. Therefore, it is possible to search for a destination in consideration of the situation of the user, the surrounding situation, and the personal information of the user, and provide road guidance information.
[0020]
The user status information generating means includes a user status including at least one of a user's current location information, a user's driving time, a user's driving purpose, and the number of passengers of a vehicle driven by the user. It may generate information. According to such a configuration, it is possible to automatically generate the visit place estimation information in consideration of the current position of the user, the driving time, the driving purpose, the number of passengers of the driving vehicle of the user, and the like.
[0021]
The peripheral condition information generating means may generate peripheral condition information including at least one of a current time zone, a current season, and a degree of congestion of a road around the user's current location. According to such a configuration, it is possible to automatically generate the visit place estimation information in consideration of the current time zone, the current season, the traffic congestion state of the road around the user, and the like.
[0022]
The attribute information storage means may store user attribute information including at least one of a user's gender, a user's age, and a vehicle type of the user. According to such a configuration, it is possible to automatically generate the visit place estimation information in consideration of the gender of the user, the age of the user, the type of the driving vehicle of the user, and the like.
[0023]
A route guidance system according to the present invention includes a route guidance terminal used by a user who receives provision of road guidance information, a route guidance server that manages information on visiting places that a moving user may visit, A route guidance terminal including a visit history information generating unit that generates visit history information that is history information of a visit place visited by a user, and a route guidance server via a communication network. A visit history information transmitting unit for transmitting visit history information through a communication network, wherein the route guidance server collects visit history information from the route guidance terminal via a communication network; The visit history information collected by the information collection means is aggregated, and for each place visited, the user group that visited the place visited and the situation at the time the user visited the place visited are estimated and the estimation result is shown. And Destinations estimation information generation means for generating Destinations estimation information, characterized by comprising a Destinations estimation information storage means for storing Destinations estimation information visit locations estimation information generation unit generates.
[0024]
The route guidance method according to the present invention includes a step in which a route guidance terminal used by a user who is provided with road guidance information generates visit history information that is history information of a visited place visited by the user; Transmitting, via a communication network, visit history information to a route guidance server that manages information on visited places that a moving user may visit; and the route guidance server performs route guidance. Collecting the visit history information from the communication terminal via the communication network, and the route guidance server compiles the collected visit history information, and for each visited place, the user group who visited the visited place, and Estimating a situation when the user visits the visited place and generating visited place estimation information indicating an estimation result.
[0025]
In the route guidance method, the route guidance terminal inputs travel purpose information indicating a travel purpose of the user, and the route guidance terminal transmits the travel purpose information to the route guidance server via the communication network. Step: a step in which the route guidance server extracts destination information that matches the travel destination information received from the route guidance plan end based on the visited place estimation information; and Transmitting the information to the route guidance terminal via the communication network, and outputting the road guidance information based on the destination information received from the route guidance server by the route guidance terminal. There may be. According to such a configuration, it is possible to provide the user with road guidance information according to the current situation of the individual user, the situation around the user, and the like.
[0026]
A route guidance program according to the present invention is a route guidance program for executing a process of managing information of a visiting place that a moving user may visit, and a computer that is used by a plurality of users. From the terminal, a visit history information, which is history information of visit places visited by each user, is collected via a communication network, and the collected visit history information is totaled, and for each visit place, the visit place is determined. And a process of estimating a visiting user class and a situation when the user visited the visited place and generating visited place estimation information indicating an estimation result.
[0027]
A visit history information generation program according to the present invention is a visit history information generation program for executing a process of generating visit history information that is history information of a visited place visited by a user who is provided with road guidance information, The process of generating user status information indicating the status of the user when the user visits the visited location on the computer, and the peripheral status indicating the situation around the current location of the user when the user visited the visited location A process of generating information, a process of detecting that the user has arrived at one of the visited locations, and a process of detecting the arrival at the visited site. And processing for generating visit history information including user attribute information indicating attributes.
[0028]
BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION
Embodiment 1 FIG.
Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an example of the configuration of a route guidance system (road guidance system) according to the present invention. The configuration shown in FIG. 1 particularly shows in a route guidance system that provides route guidance information to a user, based on information collected from the user, which user visited the spot in what situation. This is a configuration of a part that calculates information for each of all spots that the user can visit and creates a database that stores the calculation results. Therefore, in this embodiment, the system shown in FIG. 1 is called a spot information management system. Note that a spot means, for example, a store or a specific building, but an intersection or the like may be included in the spot. Alternatively, the entire map may be divided into cells in a grid pattern, and each cell may be a spot.
[0029]
The spot information management system collects history information of spots visited by a user traveling in a vehicle such as an automobile. Then, based on the collected history information, estimation data is generated that estimates which user has a tendency to visit the visited place (spot) in what situation. Hereinafter, estimating what kind of user tends to visit the spot in what kind of situation is simply referred to as estimating the purpose of visit (or visit tendency).
[0030]
As shown in FIG. 1, the spot information management system includes a user management unit 10 that manages information about each user, a spot database 20 that previously stores data indicating all spots that the user may visit, A visit history update unit 30 that updates information stored in the all-user visit history database 40 based on information input from the user management unit 10 and an all-user visit history database 40 that stores information on visit histories of the user's spots. And a spot visit purpose calculation unit 50 that generates estimated data obtained by estimating a user's visit purpose to each spot based on history information stored in the all user visit history database 40; And a spot purpose correspondence table storage means 60 for storing. The spot visit purpose calculation means 50 stores the estimated data generated by the spot visit purpose calculation means 50 as spot information in a table format. Hereinafter, the spot information in the table format stored in the spot purpose correspondence table storage means 60 is referred to as a spot purpose correspondence table.
[0031]
The user management means 10 stores identification information for identifying a user (hereinafter, referred to as a user ID) and personal information of the user such as gender and age. Further, the user management means 10 detects a user situation such as the number of passengers in the user's vehicle. Further, the user management means 10 detects a surrounding situation such as a traffic jam situation on a road around the current location. Further, the user management means 10 detects that the user has visited any spot.
[0032]
FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an example of a device configuration for realizing the spot information management system shown in FIG. As shown in FIG. 2, the spot information management system includes client terminals 10a and 10b used by a user and a server (management server) 20a managed by a road guidance management company or the like. Although two client terminals 10a and 10b are shown in FIG. 2, there may be many client terminals.
[0033]
Each of the client terminals 10a and 10b is realized by a car navigation terminal device, a PDA (Personal Digital Assistant), a mobile telephone, or the like. The server 20a is installed in an information processing center or the like of a road guidance service provider. Therefore, the above-mentioned all spots that the user can visit are all spots in the service providing area of the road guidance service provider (for example, in Tokyo, the Kanto region, Honshu, and Japan).
[0034]
Each of the client terminals 10a and 10b and the server 20a are connected via the Internet using a communication protocol such as TCP / IP (Transmission Control Protocol / Internet Protocol) via a wireless transmission path. For example, by using a car navigation terminal device having a function of connecting to the Internet via a PHS (Personal Handy phone System) or the like as the client terminals 10a and 10b, the client terminals 10a and 10b and the server 20a are connected via the Internet. Is done. Note that the client terminals 10a, 10b and the server 20a may be connected via a communication network other than the Internet.
[0035]
As shown in FIG. 2, the client terminals 10a and 10b include user management units 10A and 10B, respectively. The user management means 10, 10A, 10B includes a storage unit (not shown) of the client terminals 10a, 10b, a control unit (not shown) including information processing means such as a microcomputer, and a network interface unit (not shown). )). The storage devices of the client terminals 10a and 10b store programs and the like for causing the control units of the client terminals 10a and 10b to execute various user information management processes.
[0036]
As shown in FIG. 2, the server 20a includes a spot database 20, a visit history update unit 30, an all-user visit history database 40, a spot visit purpose calculation unit 50, and a spot purpose correspondence table storage unit 60. The spot database 20, the visit history updating unit 30, and the spot purpose correspondence table storage unit 60 are realized by a database device (not shown) of the server 20a. The visit history update unit 30 is realized by a control unit (not shown) and a network interface unit (not shown) of the server 20a. Furthermore, the spot visit purpose calculation means 50 is realized by a control unit or the like of the server 20a. The server 20a may be configured by a plurality of servers to perform distributed processing instead of a single server.
[0037]
FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating an example of the configuration of the user management unit 10. As shown in FIG. 3, the user management means 10 includes a user situation detection means 12 for detecting the situation of the user, a surrounding situation detection means 13 for detecting the surrounding situation around the current location, and a user attribute storage means for storing personal information of the user. 14, and a spot visit detection unit 15 for detecting that the user has visited any spot.
[0038]
The user attribute storage unit 14 is realized by a storage device of the client terminals 10a and 10b. The user situation detecting means 12 and the surrounding situation detecting means 13 are realized by the control units of the client terminals 10a and 10b. The spot visit detection unit 15 is realized by a control unit and a network interface unit of the client terminals 10a and 10b.
[0039]
The user situation detecting means 12 has a function of detecting information such as the current location, the driving time, the driving purpose, and the number of passengers of the user. Hereinafter, information such as the user's current location, driving time, driving purpose, and number of passengers detected by the user status detecting means 12 is referred to as user status information. The user situation detecting means 12 acquires position information of the current location of the user by acquiring position information from a client terminal 10a, 10b GPS (Global Positioning System) terminal or the like. The means for acquiring the position information of the user's current location is not limited to GPS. For example, the user situation detecting means 12 may acquire the position information of the current location by a method using pseudolites. Further, the user situation detecting means 12 may acquire the position information of the current location using a position information service in mobile communication such as PHS.
[0040]
Further, the user situation detecting means 12 has a function of detecting start and stop of the engine of the user vehicle. The user situation detecting means 12 detects the user's driving time by measuring the time from when the engine is started to when it is stopped. For example, the user situation detecting means 12 measures the user's driving time by using a clock with a timer function. Note that the user situation detecting means 12 can detect the daily operating time by clearing the timer value every day.
[0041]
In this embodiment, a clock, a timer, a calendar, and the like are realized by a clock function of an OS (Operating System) mounted on a car navigation terminal device, a PDA, or the like, which is the client terminals 10a and 10b. For example, it is realized by the control units of the client terminals 10a and 10b executing processes according to a clock processing program of the OS based on output signals of a clock IC or the like built in the client terminals 10a and 10b.
[0042]
Further, when the user performs an input operation of information for driving purpose, the user situation detecting means 12 inputs the information. For example, the user situation detecting means 12 displays “meal”, “shopping”, “business”, and “travel” on the display units (not shown) of the client terminals 10a and 10b as driving purpose candidates. Then, the user situation detecting means 12 inputs the candidates selected and input by the user as driving purpose information. The driving purpose candidates displayed on the display unit are not limited to “meal”, “shopping”, “business”, and “travel”.
[0043]
The user situation detecting means 12 has a function of detecting the number of passengers in the user vehicle. For example, the user situation detecting means 12 detects whether the door on the passenger seat or the rear seat side is opened or closed. Then, the user situation detecting means 12 determines that the passenger is in the seat on the side where the door has been opened and closed, and determines whether the number of passengers is zero, one, two, or three. Is detected. The method for detecting the number of passengers is not limited to the method for detecting whether the door is open or closed. Further, the number of passengers may be input or corrected according to a user's input instruction.
[0044]
In this embodiment, a case where the current location, the driving time, the driving purpose, and the number of passengers are input as the user status information is described as an example, but the user status information input by the user status detection unit 12 includes the user status information. Not limited. For example, the user status detecting means 12 detects the distance between the user's home location and the current location, determines that the user is traveling when the distance exceeds a predetermined distance, and uses the user everyday when the distance is equal to or less than the predetermined distance. May be determined. Then, the user status detecting means 12 may detect, as the user status information, usage purpose information indicating whether the usage is travel use or daily use.
[0045]
The surrounding situation detecting means 13 has a function of detecting information such as a time zone during driving, a season, and a traffic congestion situation around the current location. Hereinafter, information such as the time zone, season, traffic congestion status, and the like detected by the peripheral situation detecting means 13 is referred to as peripheral situation information. The peripheral situation detecting means 13 detects the time zone of the current time based on time information from a clock or the like. For example, the surrounding situation detection means 13 detects information of time zones classified into midnight, morning, afternoon, and night every six hours from midnight.
[0046]
Further, the surrounding situation detecting means 13 detects information on the current season based on information from a clock or the like having a calendar function. For example, the surrounding situation detection means 13 detects information on the seasons classified into spring, summer, autumn, and winter every three months. Further, the surrounding situation detecting means 13 inputs information on the traffic congestion situation around the place where the user is located, based on information such as the current location of the user. For example, the surrounding situation detection means 13 obtains information on the surrounding traffic congestion state using a road information providing service such as a VICS (Vehicle Information and Communication System). For example, the surrounding situation detecting means 13 receives information of traffic congestion, congestion, and normal three levels according to the degree of congestion of a road or the like as traffic congestion status information by the road information providing service.
[0047]
In this embodiment, a case is described in which information on the time zone, season, and traffic congestion is detected, but the surrounding situation detecting means 13 may detect other information as the surrounding situation information. For example, the surrounding situation detecting means 13 may detect weather information as surrounding situation information.
[0048]
The user attribute storage unit 14 stores a user ID, a user's gender, a user's age, and a vehicle type of a user's vehicle as user's personal information. Hereinafter, the personal information of the user stored in the user attribute storage unit 14 is referred to as user attribute information. Note that the user attribute information is not limited to the user ID, gender, age, and vehicle type information. For example, the user attribute storage unit 14 may store information such as the occupation of the user as the user attribute information. In addition, the user attribute storage unit 14 may store information on the date of birth instead of the age of the user as user attribute information. Then, the user management means 10 may calculate the age of the user based on the date of birth at the time of executing the processing.
[0049]
The spot visit detecting means 15 detects that the user has arrived at a spot when the user arrives at any spot. Further, when detecting the arrival of the user at the spot, the spot visit detection unit 15 transmits the position information of the current location, the user status information, the surrounding status information, and the user attribute information to the server 20a via the Internet.
[0050]
FIG. 4 is a block diagram illustrating an example of the configuration of the spot visit detection unit 15. As shown in FIG. 4, the spot visit detection means 15 includes a timer 151 for notifying the elapse of a predetermined time, a current location history storage means 152 for storing user location history information, and whether or not the user has arrived at the visited place. And a spot visit judging means 153 for judging the condition.
[0051]
The timer 151 is realized by a clock IC mounted on the client terminals 10a and 10b and a control unit that executes processing based on a timer function of an OS mounted on the client terminals 10a and 10b. The current location history storage unit 152 is realized by a storage device of the client terminals 10a and 10b. The spot visit determination unit 153 is realized by the control unit and the network interface unit of the client terminals 10a and 10b.
[0052]
The timer 151 outputs information indicating that a predetermined time has elapsed at predetermined time intervals. Hereinafter, information indicating that the predetermined time has elapsed is referred to as time elapsed information. For example, the timer 151 outputs time lapse information every minute. The current location history storage unit 152 stores the position information of the user in chronological order. For example, the current location history storage unit 152 stores the current location of the user in a table format in association with the acquired time and the location information. The spot visit determination unit 153 determines whether the user has arrived at any spot. In addition, when it is determined that the user has arrived at the spot, the spot visit determination unit 153 transmits various information as history information of the user's spot visit to the server 20a via the Internet.
[0053]
FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing an example of the configuration of the spot visit purpose calculation means 50. As shown in FIG. 5, the spot visit purpose calculation means 50 includes a spot-specific visit history temporary storage means 51 for temporarily storing information on the visit history of the user, and a user visit history analysis means 52 for analyzing the information of the visit history of the user. , And a spot purpose estimating means 53 for estimating the user's visit purpose for each spot.
[0054]
The spot-specific visit history temporary storage means 51 is realized by a memory (not shown) of the server 20a or the like. The user visit history analysis unit 52 and the spot purpose estimation unit 53 are realized by the control unit of the server 20a.
[0055]
The user visit history analysis means 52 analyzes the information stored in the all user visit history database 40, counts what kind of user has visited for each spot, and stores the count value as a spot-specific visit history temporary storage means 51. To be stored.
[0056]
The spot purpose estimation means 53 analyzes the count value stored in the spot-specific visit history temporary storage means 51 and estimates the visit purpose of the user for each spot. In other words, the spot purpose estimating means 53 estimates, for each spot, what kind of user tends to visit the spot in what situation.
[0057]
FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram illustrating an example of the content of the user attribute information stored in the user attribute storage unit 14. As shown in FIG. 6, the user attribute storage unit 14 stores information of a user ID 1401, gender 1402, age 1403, and vehicle type 1404 as user attribute information.
[0058]
The user ID 1401 is identification information given to the user in advance. Each user has been registered in advance with a road guidance management company and given a user ID. For example, when the client terminals 10a and 10b perform user registration in the server 20a according to a user's input instruction, the client terminals 10a and 10b acquire a user ID from the server 20a via the Internet. For example, as shown in FIG. 6, the user attribute storage unit 14 stores information of the identification number “01234” as the user ID 1401. The user ID may be information other than the number as long as the user ID can be identified. For example, the user ID may be information combining symbols, characters, and the like.
[0059]
The gender 1402 is gender information of the user. For example, as shown in FIG. 6, the user attribute storage unit 14 stores “male” as the gender 1402. The age 1403 is user's age information. For example, as shown in FIG. 6, the user attribute storage unit 14 stores “age 35” as “age 35”.
[0060]
The vehicle type 1404 is a vehicle type of the user vehicle. The user attribute storage unit 14 stores, for example, classification information of a vehicle type such as a compact car, a sedan, a coupe, or a van ("sedan" in the example shown in FIG. 6) as the vehicle type 1404. Note that the vehicle type 1404 is not limited to the information based on the classification method illustrated in FIG. 6, and may be information based on a classification method used by, for example, an automobile manufacturer.
[0061]
FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of the content of information stored in the spot database 20. As shown in FIG. 7, the spot database 20 stores information of a spot ID 201, a spot name 202, and a spot place 203 for every spot that the user may visit.
[0062]
The spot ID 201 is identification information for identifying each spot. The spot database 20 stores identification information in the form of “SPT <number>” (“SPT98765” in the example shown in FIG. 7) as the spot ID 201. Hereinafter, the identification information of each spot is referred to as a spot ID. Note that the spot ID is not limited to the format of “SPT <number>” and may be information using other symbols, characters, or the like.
[0063]
The spot name 202 is a spot name. For example, as shown in FIG. 7, the spot database 20 stores data “AA building” as the spot name 202. The spot database 20 may store the address of the spot if the spot does not have a building name or the like. In this embodiment, a case where a spot is a building is taken as an example.
[0064]
The spot location 203 is position information of each spot. In general, each spot is represented with a predetermined range on a map or the like, so the spot database 20 stores, as the spot location 203, values of the latitude and longitude of a predetermined representative point of each spot. The spot database 20 stores, as a representative point of each spot, position information of a center of gravity when a predetermined range occupied by the spot is approximated by a rectangular shape or the like. For example, as shown in FIG. 7, the spot database 20 stores data of “135 ° 50 minutes east longitude, 35 ° 01 minutes north latitude” as the spot location 203. In this embodiment, the position information of the spot stored in the spot location 203 is used, for example, when calculating the distance between the user's current location and the spot.
[0065]
The information stored by the spot database 20 as the spot location 203 is not limited to the position information of the representative point of the spot. For example, when the predetermined range occupied by the spot is approximated by a rectangular shape, the spot database 20 may store the position information of each vertex of the rectangular shape as a latitude / longitude sequence.
[0066]
FIG. 8 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of the contents of the visit history information of each user stored in the all-user visit history database 40. The all user visit history database 40 stores all history information acquired by the server 20a from each of the client terminals 10a and 10b via the Internet. As shown in FIG. 8, the all-user visit history database 40 includes, for example, a user ID 301, a driving time 302, a driving purpose 303, the number of passengers 304, a time zone 305, a season 306, a traffic jam 307, a gender 308, and an age 309. , Vehicle type 310 and spot ID 311 are stored.
[0067]
In the example shown in FIG. 8, the user ID 301 “01234”, the driving time 302 “2 hours”, the driving purpose 303 “meal”, the number of passengers 304 “1”, the time zone 305 “ Afternoon ”, season 306“ spring ”, traffic congestion status 307“ congested ”, gender 308“ male ”, age 309“ 35 ”, vehicle type 310“ sedan ”, and spot ID 311“ SPT98765 ”are stored.
[0068]
The information from the user ID 301 to the vehicle type 310 in the data stored in the all-user visit history database 40 is data received by the server 20a from the client terminals 10a and 10b via the Internet. The spot ID 311 is data input from the spot database 20.
[0069]
FIG. 9 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of the contents of the spot purpose correspondence table stored in the spot purpose correspondence table storage means 60. As shown in FIG. 9, in the spot purpose correspondence table, corresponding to the spot ID 901, items of the user's visit purpose are driving time 902, driving purpose 903, number of passengers 904, time zone 905, season 906, traffic congestion. Data indicating each item of the situation 907, gender 908, age 909, and vehicle type 910 are stored.
[0070]
In the spot purpose correspondence table, each item of the driving time 902 to the vehicle type 910 includes a plurality of sections. As will be described later, a value determined as true or false is stored corresponding to each category. In the spot purpose correspondence table shown in FIG. 9, when the stored value is “true”, it indicates that the classification is highly likely to match the user's visit purpose. When the stored value is “false”, it indicates that the classification is not likely to match the user's visit purpose.
[0071]
Therefore, in the spot purpose correspondence table shown in FIG. 9, the spot represented by the spot ID 901 “SPT98765” indicates that the driving time is short or the user who has the normal driving time tends to visit. It also indicates that the user who drives for shopping has a strong tendency to visit. It also indicates that there is no passenger and a user who is driving alone tends to visit. Also, the time zone indicates that the user tends to visit in the morning or afternoon. Also, the season indicates that the user tends to visit in winter or spring. It also indicates that the user has a strong tendency to visit when the road is congested or in a normal state. It also shows that both men and women are more likely to visit. In addition, the age indicates that users from 21 to 60 are more likely to visit. Further, it shows that a user whose model is a compact car or a sedan has a strong tendency to visit.
[0072]
Next, the operation will be described. FIG. 10 is a flowchart showing an example of a history information update process for collecting information on visited places from the client terminals 10a and 10b and updating the visit history information in the all-user visit history database 40. Here, a process executed by the client terminal 10a will be described as an example.
[0073]
In the client terminal 10a, when the timer 151 detects that the predetermined time has elapsed at predetermined time intervals, the timer 151 outputs time lapse information to the spot visit determination means 153 (step S1501).
[0074]
Upon receiving the time lapse information from the timer 151, the spot visit determination unit 153 inquires of the user situation detection unit 12 about the current location information. When the user situation detecting means 12 outputs the current location information in response to the inquiry, the spot visit determining means 153 inputs the current location information (step S1502). When the location information of the current location is input, the spot visit determination unit 153 adds the input location information of the current location to the storage content of the current location history storage unit 152 in association with the current time (step S1503).
[0075]
The spot visit determination unit 153 extracts the user's location information within the predetermined time stored in the current location history storage unit 152 and checks whether the location information has changed (step S1504). The spot visit determination unit 153 determines that the user vehicle is stopped when detecting that the position information has not changed, and determines that the user vehicle has stopped when detecting that the position information has changed. It is determined that it is moving (step S1505).
[0076]
For example, the spot visit determination unit 153 extracts the user's position information for the past 30 minutes from the current location history storage unit 152. If the position information has not changed within 30 minutes, the spot visit determination unit 153 determines that the user vehicle has stopped. If there is a portion where the position information has changed within 30 minutes, the spot visit determination unit 153 determines that the user vehicle is moving.
[0077]
If it is determined in step S1505 that the user's vehicle is moving, the spot visit determination unit 153 repeatedly performs the processing from step S1501 to step S1505. If it is determined in step S1505 that the user's vehicle has stopped, the spot visit determination unit 153 transmits the update request information of the visit history, and transmits the position information of the current location, the user status information, the peripheral status information, and the The attribute information is transmitted to the server 20a via the Internet. At this time, the spot visit determination unit 153 inputs the position information of the current location and the user status information including the driving time, the driving purpose, and the number of passengers from the user status detection unit 12. In addition, the spot visit determination unit 153 inputs the peripheral situation information including the time zone, the season, and the traffic congestion state from the peripheral situation detection unit 13. Further, the spot visit determination unit 153 inputs user attribute information including gender, age, and vehicle type from the user attribute storage unit 14.
[0078]
Hereinafter, information including the position information of the current location, the user status information, the surrounding status information, and the user attribute information transmitted by the spot visit determination unit 153 is referred to as user visit history information.
[0079]
The spot visit determination unit 153 transmits the user visit history information as, for example, CSV (Comma Separated Value) text data in which each information is separated by a comma. For example, the spot visit determination unit 153 transmits the user visit history information “01234, 2 hours, general road, one person, afternoon, spring, congestion, male, 35 years old, sedan, SPT98765” to the server 20a via the Internet. I do. The spot visit determination unit 153 may transmit the user visit history information as text data using a delimiter other than a comma. Further, the spot visit determination unit 153 may transmit the user visit history information as binary data.
[0080]
In the server 20a, the visit history update unit 30 receives the user visit history information. Upon receiving the user visit history information, the visit history update unit 30 compares each spot location 203 included in the spot database 20 with the current location information included in the received user visit history information (step S1506). Then, the visit history update unit 30 determines whether or not there is a spot corresponding to the vicinity of the current location of the user among the spots stored in the spot database 20 (step S1507). For example, when the distance between each spot included in the spot database 20 and the current location is within a predetermined distance (for example, within 30 meters), the visit history update unit 30 determines that the spot is Judgment corresponding to the vicinity of the user's current location is made.
[0081]
If there is no spot corresponding to the vicinity of the current position in step S1507, the update processing of the visit history information is not executed, and the processing from step S1501 to step S1507 is repeatedly executed.
[0082]
If there is a spot corresponding to the vicinity of the current location in step S1507, the visit history update unit 30 inputs the spot ID 201 of the spot corresponding to the vicinity from the spot database 20. Further, the visit history update unit 30 updates the all-user visit history database 40 based on the user situation information, the surrounding situation information, and the user attribute information included in the user visit history information (step S1508). That is, as shown in FIG. 8, information included in the user visit history information is added to the all-user visit history database 40 with the spot ID input from the spot ID 201 of the spot as the spot ID 311.
[0083]
FIG. 11 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a visit history analysis process for analyzing information of each visit history stored in the all-user visit history database 40. The visit history analysis processing shown in FIG. 11 is periodically executed by the server 20a at predetermined intervals. For example, the server 20a may periodically execute the visit history analysis process illustrated in FIG. 11 at 3:00 am. In addition, for example, the server 20a periodically executes the visit history analysis process by using a command included in the OS of the server 20a for performing a predetermined process periodically. For example, the server 20a periodically executes a visit history analysis process by using a UNIX (registered trademark) AT command or the like.
[0084]
In the server 20a, the user visit history analysis means 52 first initializes the spot visit history temporary storage means 51 stored in the user visit history analysis means 52 (step S4201). That is, all pieces of information in the spot-by-spot visit history temporary storage means 51 stored by the user visit history analysis means 52 are deleted. Then, the user visit history analysis unit 52 inputs spot list information from the spot database 20 (step S4202). For example, the user visit history analysis means 52 inputs spot list information in CSV format text data including the extracted spot ID.
[0085]
In the following processing, the user visit history analysis unit 52 extracts spot IDs one by one from the spot list information. Then, in order to form the storage contents of the spot-by-spot visit history temporary storage means 51, the processes of steps S4204 to S4206 are executed for the extracted spot IDs one by one.
[0086]
FIG. 12 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of the storage contents of the spot-specific visit history temporary storage means 51. Similarly to the spot purpose correspondence table shown in FIG. 9, the spot visit history temporary storage means 51 stores the spot ID 41011, the driving time 41020, the driving purpose 41030, the number of passengers 41040, the time zone 41050, the season 41060, the traffic congestion status. Data indicating each item of 41070, gender 41080, age 41090, and vehicle type 41100 is stored. Each item of the driving time 41020, the driving purpose 41030, the number of passengers 41040, the time zone 41050, the season 41060, the traffic congestion 41070, the gender 41080, the age 41090, and the vehicle type 41100 includes a plurality of categories.
[0087]
In the example shown in FIG. 12, the item of the operation time 41020 includes three sections of a short 41021, a normal 41022, and a long 41023. The items of the driving purpose 41030 include four categories: meal 41031, shopping 41032, business 41033, and travel 41034. In the item of the number of passengers 41040, there are three divisions of 0 persons 41041, 1 person 41042, and 2 persons 41043. The items of the time zone 41050 include four divisions: midnight 41051, 41052 am, 41053 pm, and night 41054.
[0088]
The item of the season 41060 has four divisions: winter 41061, spring 41062, summer 41063, and autumn 41064. The item of the traffic congestion status 41070 has three categories: traffic congestion 41071, congestion 41072, and normal 41073. The gender 41080 item has two categories, male 41081 and female 41082. The item of age 41090 has four divisions: 41091, 20 years old or younger 41091, 21-40 years old 41092, 41-60 years old 41093, and 61 years old or more 41094. The item of the model 41100 includes four categories, a compact 41101, a sedan 41102, a coupe 41103, and a van 41104.
[0089]
The user visit history analysis means 52 increases the count value of the corresponding section in the spot-specific visit history temporary storage means 51 based on the history information stored in the all user visit history database 40.
[0090]
When the processes of steps S4204 to S4206 have been performed for all spots, the user visit history analysis unit 52 ends the analysis process (step S4203). If there is an unprocessed spot ID, the user visit history analysis unit 52 extracts one spot ID from the list of spots, designates it as a spot of interest, and stores the spot-by-spot visit in the spot-by-spot visit history temporary storage unit 51. An initialization process is performed to add the record of the spot of interest to the history temporary storage unit 51 and clear the contents of the added record (step S4204).
[0091]
Specifically, in the initialization processing of step S4204, the user visit history analysis unit 52 adds a record including each category of the item of the vehicle type 41100 from the spot ID 41011 and the driving time 41020 to the spot visit history temporary storage unit 51. Then, the spot ID of the spot of interest extracted in step S4203 is set to the spot ID 41011, and the count value of each section of the item of the vehicle type 41100 from the driving time 41020 is set to “0”.
[0092]
The user visit history analysis unit 52 extracts all the information whose spot ID 311 matches the spot ID of the spot of interest from the history information stored in the all user visit history database 40 (step S4205). Hereinafter, in the history information, a set of records of the history information that matches the spot ID of the spot of interest is referred to as a target record set.
[0093]
The user visit history analysis means 52 extracts information on the driving time 302, the driving purpose 303, the number of passengers 304, the time zone 305, the season 306, the traffic jam 307, the gender 308, the age 309, and the vehicle type 310 from each noted record set. Then, the count value of the corresponding section in the spot-by-spot visit history temporary storage means 51 is increased (step S4206). Then, the process returns to step S4203.
[0094]
For example, the user visit history analysis unit 52 increases the count value of the long 41023 section in the item of the driving time 41020 by three if there are three records having the information that the driving time is long in the record set of interest. Here, for example, the operation time is specified in units of one hour. If the operation time is shorter than one hour, it is classified as “short”. If it is above, it is classified as “long”. Note that the method of classifying the operation time is not limited to the method of classifying in one-hour units. For example, the user visit history analysis means 52 may classify the driving time in units of two hours.
[0095]
FIG. 13 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a visit purpose estimation process for estimating the visit purpose of the user for each spot based on the storage content of the spot-specific visit history temporary storage unit 51. The spot purpose estimating means 53 normalizes the count values from the short 41021 section to the van 41104 section in the storage contents of the spot-specific visit history temporary storage section 51 (step S4301).
[0096]
FIG. 14 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of the contents of the normalized visit history temporary storage unit for each spot 51. As shown in FIG. 14, the spot purpose estimating unit 53 normalizes the value of each section in the storage contents of the spot-specific visit history temporary storage unit 51 so that the range of values is from 0 to 1. For example, when normalizing the section X in the storage content of the spot-by-spot visit history temporary storage section 51, the spot purpose estimation section 53 calculates (count value of the section X) / (all of the field groups including the section X). Normalization is performed by calculating the sum of the count values of the sections.
[0097]
For example, a case where the field group “operating time 41020” shown in FIG. 12 is normalized will be described. The count value of each section included in the operation time 41020 is short 41021 “10”, normal 41022 “6”, and long 41023 “4”. Therefore, the spot purpose estimating means 53 calculates a count value (hereinafter, referred to as a normalized value) normalized to 10 / (10 + 6 + 4) = 0.5 for the short 41021 section. Then, the spot purpose estimating means 53 overwrites the calculated normalized value “0.5” on the short 41021 section (count value column). Similarly, the spot purpose estimating means 53 calculates the normalized value of 6 / (10 + 6 + 4) = 0.3 for the normal 41022 and overwrites it. The spot purpose estimating means 53 calculates a normalized value of 4 / (10 + 6 + 4) = 0.2 for the long 41023 and overwrites it. Note that the method of calculating the normalized value is not limited to the method illustrated here.
[0098]
When the storage contents of the spot-by-spot visit history temporary storage means 51 are normalized, the spot purpose estimation means 53 extracts a record for each spot from the spot-by-spot visit history temporary storage means 51 and determines the user's visit purpose for each spot. It is estimated (step S4302). To estimate the visit purpose, specifically, to execute a process of determining whether the value of each section included in the storage content of the spot-specific visit history temporary storage unit 51 exceeds a predetermined reference value. Say. When the value of each section included in the storage content of the spot-specific visit history temporary storage section 51 exceeds a predetermined reference value, the spot purpose estimation section 53 sets the determination value of that section to “true”. If the value does not exceed the predetermined reference value, the spot purpose estimating means 53 sets the determination value of the category to “false”.
[0099]
For example, when the normalized value is 0.3 or more, the spot purpose estimating unit 53 determines that the determination value is “true”. When the normalized value is smaller than 0.3, the spot purpose estimating unit 53 determines that the determination value is “false”. For example, in the storage contents of the normalized spot-by-spot visit history temporary storage means 51 shown in FIG. 14, the normalized value is 0.3 or more in the case where the driving time is short and in the normal case. Is determined to be true. In addition, since the normalized value when the driving time is long is 0.2, the spot purpose estimating means 53 determines that it is “false”. The accuracy of the visit tendency indicating which user visited the spot in what situation is classified into two values. As described above, the spot purpose estimating means 53 calculates the accuracy of each section in the user class and the accuracy of each section in the situation when the user visits the visited place, based on the total value.
[0100]
Here, the case of classifying into two values of “true” or “false” based on each normalized value has been described. However, the purpose of the visit (what kind of user visited the spot in what situation) The method of estimating the visit tendency shown in the present embodiment is not limited to the method described in this embodiment. For example, the spot purpose estimating means 53 may use two thresholds to classify the visit tendency into three values based on each normalized value, and may determine the visit tendency, or may further classify the visit tendency.
[0101]
The spot purpose estimating unit 53 performs a true / false determination on all records of the storage contents of the spot-by-spot visit history temporary storage unit 51 stored in the spot-by-spot visit history temporary storage unit 51, and stores the respective determination values in the spot purpose correspondence. A table (see FIG. 9) is generated (step S4302). Then, the spot purpose estimating means 53 stores the generated spot purpose correspondence table in the spot purpose correspondence table storage means 60 (step S4303).
[0102]
As described above, in the spot information management system, the spot purpose correspondence table in which information indicating which user has visited the spot and for what purpose is set for each spot is generated. A route guidance system incorporating such a spot information management system can provide a user with a driving purpose based on a spot purpose correspondence table even when an ambiguous destination search request not specifying a specific destination is received from a user. It is possible to search for a destination that matches, etc., and provide the user with road guidance information to an appropriate destination.
[0103]
In addition, the server 20a automatically generates a spot purpose correspondence table indicating criteria for searching for a purpose suitable for the driving purpose of the user based on the history information acquired from each of the client terminals 10a and 10b. Therefore, it is possible to automatically generate a spot purpose correspondence table in which extraction conditions at the time of search are automatically added as meta information or the like for each spot. For example, in the case of information on a restaurant such as a restaurant, information on the type and characteristics of food and drink is automatically added as additional information without being provided in advance by a restaurant owner or the like. It is also possible to generate a correspondence table. Therefore, the work load of adding the additional information to the information of each spot in advance is reduced. Further, since there is no need to receive information from the restaurant owner or the like, a spot purpose correspondence table to which additional information indicating the objective user's visit purpose is added can be generated.
[0104]
In this embodiment, information on the type of user who has visited the spot (the user group who has visited the visited place) is stored in the spot purpose correspondence table as information on the gender of the user, the age of the user, and the vehicle type of the user's vehicle. Although the information is set, not all of them but some of them may be set. In addition, as information on the situation when the user visits the visited place, the driving time of the user, the driving purpose of the user, the number of passengers of the vehicle driven by the user, the current time zone, the current season, the vicinity of the current location of the user, Although the information on the degree of road congestion is set, not all of them but some of them may be set. Further, either the information of the type of the user who has visited the spot or the information of the situation when the user has visited the visited place may be set in the spot purpose correspondence table.
[0105]
Embodiment 2 FIG.
Next, a second embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 15 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a configuration of the second embodiment of the route guidance system. In this embodiment, the user inputs a vague request such as “I want to eat somewhere” using the client terminal 10a or the client terminal 10b. Then, the route guidance system narrows down destinations that match the user's request based on the spot purpose correspondence table stored in the spot purpose correspondence table storage means 60 according to the user's request, and provides road guidance to the destination. In this embodiment, a case where a user inputs a driving purpose using the client terminal 10a will be described below as an example.
[0106]
As shown in FIG. 15, in addition to the configuration shown in the first embodiment, the route guidance system includes a destination search unit 70 for performing a narrowed search of a destination, a destination search type road for receiving a user's input instruction. It includes a guidance unit 80 and a road guidance unit 90 that provides road guidance to a destination.
[0107]
FIG. 16 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the route guidance system shown in FIG. 15 in association with physical terminals and servers. As shown in FIG. 16, the route guidance system includes a client terminal 10a and a server 20a, as in the first embodiment. The client terminal 10a includes a destination search type guidance unit 80 and a guidance unit 90 in addition to the configuration shown in the first embodiment. The destination search type guide unit 80 and the guide unit 90 are realized by an operation unit (not shown) and a control unit of the client terminal 10a. The storage device of the client terminal 10a stores a program for executing various road guidance processes in addition to a program for executing various user information management processes.
[0108]
When the client terminal 10a is a navigation device, the destination search type route guidance means 80 includes a program executed by information processing means such as a microcomputer in the navigation device, an operation unit and a display unit in the navigation device, and a navigation device. This is realized by a communication function in the device. The route guidance unit 90 is realized by a program executed by an information processing unit such as a microcomputer in the navigation device.
[0109]
Further, the server 20a includes a destination search unit 70 in addition to the configuration shown in the first embodiment. The destination search means 70 is realized by the control unit and the network interface unit of the server 20a.
[0110]
FIG. 18 is an explanatory diagram illustrating an example of an operation unit and a display unit of the client terminal 10a. As shown in FIG. 18, the client terminal 10a includes a recommended spot search button 81 for inputting a spot search request, a road guidance button 82 for inputting a road guidance request, and a user's driving purpose. An operation unit having a genre selection button 83 and a display unit 84 for displaying guidance information of road guidance. For example, when a selection input of "meal" is instructed by the genre selection button 83, the destination search type guidance unit 80 recognizes that the driving purpose of the user is "meal".
[0111]
Next, the operation will be described. FIG. 17 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a road guidance process in which the route guidance system performs road guidance to a destination. The user operates the operation unit while looking at the display screen displayed on the client terminal 10a, and inputs a driving purpose or the like to the destination search type route guidance means 80 (step S601).
[0112]
The destination search type route guidance unit 80 transmits request information for requesting a search for a spot that can possibly achieve the driving purpose of the user to the server 20a via the Internet according to the user's selection input (step S602). . Hereinafter, spots that are likely to be able to achieve the user's driving purpose searched by the server 20a are referred to as recommended spots. For example, when the user presses a recommended spot search button 81 shown in FIG. 18, the destination search type guide unit 80 transmits request information for searching for recommended spots to the server 20a via the Internet.
[0113]
Further, in step S602, the user management unit 10 transmits the position information of the current location, the user status information, the surrounding status information of the current location, and the user attribute information to the server 20a via the Internet. Note that the user situation information includes the information on the driving purpose input in step S601.
[0114]
Upon receiving the recommended spot search request information, the current location information, the user situation information, the surrounding situation information, and the user attribute information, the destination search means 70 of the server 20a executes a recommended spot search process (step S603). .
[0115]
FIG. 19 is a flowchart showing an example of a spot narrowing search process in which the destination search unit 70 narrows down and searches for recommended spots. The destination search means 70 extracts the position information of the current location of the user from the information received from the client terminal 10a (Step 701). The destination search means 70 compares each spot location 203 included in the spot database 20 with the location information of the current location, and among the information of each spot stored in the spot database 20, the location of the spot located near the current location of the user is determined. All the spot IDs 201 are extracted (step S702).
[0116]
The destination search unit 70 determines whether or not the distance between each spot included in the spot database 20 and the current location is within a predetermined distance, for example. If the distance is within the predetermined distance, the destination search means 70 determines that the spot is located near the current location of the user. For example, when the spot where the information is stored in the spot database 20 and the current location are within 2 km, the destination search unit 70 determines that the spot is located near the current location of the user, and determines the spot ID 201 of the spot. Extract.
[0117]
The destination search means 70 extracts all the records whose spot ID 901 matches the spot ID 201 extracted in step S702 from the spot purpose correspondence table storage means 60 (step S703). That is, the destination search unit 70 extracts all records of spots that are candidates for providing information as recommended spots. Hereinafter, the record of the spot extracted as a recommended spot candidate is referred to as a candidate spot record.
[0118]
The destination search means 70 extracts user status information, peripheral status information, and user attribute information from the information received from the client terminal 10a in step S602 (step S704). The destination search unit 70 determines whether or not there is any of the information included in the user situation information, the surrounding situation information, and the user attribute information that corresponds to a candidate spot record whose classification is “true” ( Step S705). Then, the destination search means 70 calculates the total value of the number of pieces of information corresponding to "true" for each candidate spot record (step S705). Hereinafter, the total value of the number of pieces of information corresponding to “true” is referred to as a score value.
[0119]
For example, the user status information is the driving time “normal”, the driving purpose “shopping”, and the number of passengers “1”, and the surrounding status information is the time zone “am”, the season “autumn”, and the traffic congestion status “congestion”. The case where the user attribute information is gender “male”, age “35”, and vehicle type “sedan” will be described as an example. When the record of the spot purpose correspondence table shown in FIG. 9 is extracted as a candidate spot record, the driving time “normal”, the driving purpose “shopping”, the time zone “am”, the gender “male”, and the age “21 to 40” , And six types of vehicle type “sedan” correspond to information that is “true”, so the destination search means 70 calculates the score value as “6”.
[0120]
Note that the destination search unit 70 may calculate the score value by weighting a predetermined section with a predetermined weight, instead of simply calculating the total value of the number of sections that are “true” as the score value. For example, when it is desired to search for a recommended spot with emphasis on the user's vehicle type, a score value may be calculated by adding two points more to the classification of the vehicle type than the classification other than the vehicle type.
[0121]
The destination search means 70 generates list information in which the information of each spot is arranged in the order of the score value (step S705). Hereinafter, list information in which information of each spot is arranged in the order of the score value is referred to as spot list information. When generating the spot list information, the destination search unit 70 narrows down and extracts the spots whose score values are within a predetermined order counted from the top, and extracts the spot list information including the extracted spot information. Generate. For example, the destination search unit 70 generates spot list information by narrowing down and extracting information on the top three spots based on the score value. The destination search means 70 may generate spot list information including spot information corresponding to all candidate spot records extracted in step S703.
[0122]
Further, the destination search means 70 may generate spot list information including only information on spots exceeding a predetermined score value. In this case, if there is no spot exceeding the predetermined score value, for example, the destination search unit 70 sets the spot list including information for displaying “No recommended spot found” on the client terminal 10a. Information may be generated. If there is no spot exceeding the predetermined score value, the destination search means 70 returns to the process of step S702, expands the search range of the spot located near the current location, and executes steps S702 to S705. The processing may be executed again to generate spot list information.
[0123]
After generating the spot list information, the destination searching means 70 transmits the generated spot list information to the client terminal 10a via the Internet (Step S706).
[0124]
Upon receiving the spot list information, the destination search type guidance unit 80 of the client terminal 10a displays a list of recommended spots based on the received spot list information (step S604). For example, the destination search type route guidance unit 80 displays a list of recommended spots on the display unit 84 shown in FIG. 18 based on the spot list information. When the user selects a spot to be specified from the list and presses the route guidance button 82, the destination search type route guidance means 80 recognizes the spot selected by the user as a spot that the user wants to visit. I do. Then, information indicating the recognized spot is output to the route guidance means 90.
[0125]
The road guidance unit 90 searches for a route from the current location of the user to a spot that the user has requested to visit and extracts route information (step S605). Then, the route information is output to the destination search type route guidance means 80. The destination search type guide unit 80 displays road guide information such as a display of a route to a spot on the display unit 84 according to the route extracted by the guide unit 90 (step S606).
[0126]
As described above, according to this embodiment, the client terminal 10a transmits the position information of the current location of the user, the user situation information, the surrounding situation information, and the user attribute information to the server 20a in response to the user's request. . The server 20a searches and extracts a destination suitable for the driving purpose of the user based on the information received from the client terminal 10a and the spot purpose correspondence table. Then, the client terminal 10a provides the user with the road guidance information based on the destination information extracted by the server 20a. Therefore, the route guidance system can provide the user with road guidance information according to the current personal situation of the user, the situation around the user, and the like.
[0127]
In this embodiment, the case where the server 20a includes the destination searching means 70 has been described, but the client terminal 10a may partially include the function of the destination searching means 70. In addition, the server 20a may include a part of the function of the route guidance unit 90. For example, the server 20a may not only generate the spot list information but also generate the route information by searching for the route of the spot selected by the user.
[0128]
Further, in the first embodiment and the second embodiment, the case where the user moves by a vehicle such as a car has been described as an example, but the means of moving the user is not limited to the vehicle such as a car. . For example, the case where a user moves on foot may be used. When the user moves on foot, for example, the user can receive road guidance information by carrying a mobile phone, a PDA, or the like as the client terminals 10a and 10b. Further, the user's transportation means may be a train, an airplane, or the like.
[0129]
Furthermore, the configurations shown in the first embodiment and the second embodiment can be realized by software. For example, in the route guidance system, the server 20a allows the computer to collect, via a communication network, visit history information, which is history information of visit places visited by each user, from user terminals used by a plurality of users. And summing up the collected visit history information, and for each visit place, a visitor group that visits the visit place and a visit that indicates a situation when the user visited the visit place and indicates the estimation result. This can be realized by executing processing according to a route guidance program for executing the processing for generating the ground estimation information. In addition, for example, in the route guidance system, the client terminals 10a and 10b generate, on a computer, user status information indicating the status of the user when the user visits the visited site; When generating the surrounding situation information indicating the situation around the current location of the user at the time of visiting, detecting when the user has reached any of the visited places, and detecting the arrival at the visited place Generating a visit history information including user situation information, surrounding situation information, and user attribute information indicating an attribute of the user. It can be realized by:
[0130]
【The invention's effect】
As described above, according to the present invention, the route guidance server transmits, from a user terminal used by a plurality of users, visit history information that is history information of a visit place visited by each user to a communication network. The visit history information collection means and the visit history information collected by the visit place history information collection means are aggregated, and for each visit place, the demographics of the visitor who visited the visit place and the user visits the visit place It is configured to include a visit place estimation information generating means for estimating the situation at the time of the visit and generating the visit place estimation information indicating the estimation result, so that according to the situation of the individual user or the situation around the user, It is possible to search for and extract a destination suitable for the purpose of the user's movement. Therefore, even if the situation of the user changes, it is possible to provide road guidance information suitable for the purpose of the user's movement.
[0131]
Further, according to the present invention, there is a possibility that the route guidance terminal generates visit history information generating means for generating visit history information which is history information of a visited place visited by a user, and a traveling user visits. Since the route guidance server that manages the information of the visited place is provided with the visit history information transmitting means for transmitting the visit history information via the communication network, the situation of the individual user and the situation around the user are provided. , A destination suitable for the user's moving purpose can be searched and extracted. Therefore, even if the situation of the user changes, it is possible to provide road guidance information suitable for the purpose of the user's movement.
[0132]
According to the present invention, in the route guidance system, the route guidance terminal includes: a visit history information generating unit configured to generate visit history information that is history information of a visited place visited by the user; A visit history information transmitting means for transmitting the visit history information via the communication network, wherein the route guidance server, from the route guidance terminal, visit history information collecting means for collecting the visit history information via the communication network; , The visit history information collected by the visit place history information collection means is aggregated, and for each visit place, the user group who visited the visit place and the situation when the user visited the visit place are estimated and the estimation result is obtained. And a visit place estimation information generating means for generating visit place estimation information indicating the purpose of the visit, which is adapted to the purpose of the user's movement according to the personal situation of the user and the situation around the user. It is possible to search for extraction. Therefore, even if the situation of the user changes, it is possible to provide road guidance information suitable for the purpose of the user's movement.
[0133]
Further, according to the present invention, in the route guidance method, the route guidance terminal used by the user who is provided with the information of the road guidance generates visit history information that is history information of the visited place visited by the user. Transmitting a visit history information via a communication network to a route guidance server that manages information on a visit place to which a traveling user may visit; and A step in which the server collects visit history information from the route guidance terminal via the communication network; and a step in which the route guidance server aggregates the collected visit history information and visits the visited place for each visited place. Estimating the situation when the user visits the visit place and generating visit place estimation information indicating the estimation result. hand It is possible to search for a destination that is adapted to the movement of the user's purpose extraction. Therefore, even if the situation of the user changes, it is possible to provide road guidance information suitable for the purpose of the user's movement.
[0134]
Further, according to the present invention, the route guidance program causes the computer to transmit, via a communication network, visit history information, which is history information of visit places visited by each user, from user terminals used by a plurality of users. Collecting the visit history information, and estimating, for each visit place, a user class who visited the visit place, and a situation when the user visited the visit place, and calculating the estimation result. Since the process of generating the visit place estimation information shown is executed, it is possible to search and extract a destination suitable for the user's travel purpose according to the situation of the user himself or the situation around the user. Therefore, even if the situation of the user changes, it is possible to provide road guidance information suitable for the purpose of the user's movement.
[0135]
Further, according to the present invention, the visit history information generation program causes the computer to generate user status information indicating the status of the user when the user visits the visited place, and The process of generating surrounding situation information indicating the situation around the current location of the user at the time of the visit, the process of detecting that the user has reached any of the visited locations, and the process of detecting the arrival at the visited location. To generate visit history information including the user situation information, the surrounding situation information, and the user attribute information indicating the attribute of the user. , A destination suitable for the user's moving purpose can be searched and extracted. Therefore, even if the situation of the user changes, it is possible to provide road guidance information suitable for the purpose of the user's movement.
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an example of the configuration of a route guidance system according to the present invention.
FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an example of an apparatus configuration for realizing the spot information management system shown in FIG.
FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a configuration of a user management unit 10;
FIG. 4 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a configuration of a spot visit detection unit 15;
FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing an example of a configuration of a spot visit purpose calculation unit 50.
FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of the content of user attribute information stored in a user attribute storage unit 14;
FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of the content of information stored in a spot database 20.
8 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of the contents of visit history information of each user stored in an all-user visit history database 40. FIG.
FIG. 9 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of the contents of a spot purpose correspondence table stored in a spot purpose correspondence table storage means 60;
FIG. 10 is a flowchart showing an example of a history information update process for updating information of a visit history stored in an all-user visit history database 40;
11 is a flowchart showing an example of a visit history analysis process for analyzing information of each visit history stored in an all-user visit history database 40. FIG.
FIG. 12 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of contents stored in a spot-based visit history temporary storage means 51;
FIG. 13 is a flowchart showing an example of a visit purpose estimation process for estimating a comprehensive visit purpose of each spot.
FIG. 14 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of storage contents of a normalized visit history by spot temporary storage means 51;
FIG. 15 is a block diagram showing another example of the configuration of the route guidance system according to the present invention.
FIG. 16 is a block diagram showing an example of a device configuration for realizing the route guidance system shown in FIG.
FIG. 17 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a road guidance process in which the route guidance system performs road guidance to a destination.
FIG. 18 is an explanatory diagram illustrating an example of an operation unit of the client terminals 10a and 10b.
FIG. 19 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a spot narrowing search process in which a destination search unit narrows down and searches for recommended spots.
[Explanation of symbols]
10a, 10b Client terminal
10, 10A, 10B User management means
12 User status detection means
13 Peripheral situation detection means
14 User attribute storage means
15 Spot visit detection means
151 timer
152 Current location history storage means
153 Spot visit judgment method
20a server
20 spot database
30 Visit history update means
40 All Users Visit History Database
50 Spot visit purpose calculation means
51 Temporary storage of visit history by spot
52 User Visit History Analysis Means
53 Spot Purpose Promotion Means
60 Spot purpose correspondence table storage means

Claims (15)

A route guidance server that manages information on visiting places that a moving user may visit,
A visit history information collection unit that collects, via a communication network, visit history information that is history information of a visit place visited by each user from a user terminal used by a plurality of users;
Aggregating the visit history information collected by the visit place history information collecting means, and estimating and estimating, for each visit place, a user class who visited the visit place and a situation when the user visited the visit place. A visit place estimation information generating means for producing visit place estimation information indicating a result; and a visit place estimation information storage means for storing the visit place estimation information generated by the visit place estimation information producing means. Route guidance server to do. Each of the demographics and the situation when the visitor visited the visit place is divided into several categories,
The visit place estimation information generation means,
For each visit location, if there is any information in the collected visit history information that matches one of the categories in the user demographic, the aggregate value corresponding to that category is increased, and the situation when the user visited the visit location If there is information that matches any of the categories in, increase the aggregate value corresponding to that category,
2. The route guidance server according to claim 1, wherein the accuracy of each section in the user class and the accuracy of each section in a situation when the user visits the visited place are calculated based on the total value. 3. The visit place estimation information generating means requests at least one of the gender of the user, the age of the user, and the type of the vehicle of the user to generate the visit place estimation information as a user class who has visited the visit place. The route guidance server according to claim 1 or 2. The visit place estimation information generating means includes: the driving time of the user, the driving purpose of the user, the number of passengers of the vehicle driven by the user, the current time zone, the current season, and the congestion of the road around the current location of the user. The route guidance server according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein at least one of the degrees is generated as a situation when the user visits the visited place and the visited place estimation information is generated. . Destination information storage means for storing destination information indicating candidate destinations of the user;
Moving purpose information receiving means for receiving, via a communication network, moving purpose information indicating a moving purpose of the user from the user terminal;
A destination extraction unit that extracts destination information that matches the travel destination information from the destination information storage unit based on the visit destination estimation information stored by the visit destination estimation information storage unit;
5. The destination information transmitting means for transmitting the destination information extracted by the destination extracting means to the user terminal via a communication network. Route guidance server. A route guidance terminal used by a user who is provided with road guidance information,
Visit history information generating means for generating visit history information which is history information of a visited place visited by the user,
A route guidance server that manages information on visiting places that a moving user may visit; and a visit history information transmitting unit that transmits the visit history information via a communication network. Route guidance terminal. The visit history information generation means,
A user status information generating means for generating user status information indicating the status of the user when the user visited the visit place;
A peripheral situation information generating means for generating peripheral situation information indicating a situation around the current location of the user when the user visits the visited place;
Attribute information storage means for storing user attribute information indicating an attribute of the user;
A visit detecting means for detecting that the user has arrived at any visited place, and when the visit detecting means detects the arrival at the visited place, the user situation information and the surrounding situation information 7. The route guidance terminal according to claim 6, wherein visit history information including the user attribute information is generated. The user status information generating means includes a user status including at least one of the user's current location information, the user's driving time, the user's driving purpose, and the number of passengers of the vehicle driven by the user. The route guidance terminal according to claim 7, which generates information. 9. The peripheral situation information generating means generates peripheral situation information including at least one of a current time zone, a current season, and a degree of congestion of a road around a user's current location. Route guidance terminal. The attribute information storage means stores user attribute information including at least one of a user's gender, a user's age, and a vehicle type of the user. 2. The route guidance terminal according to claim 1. A route guidance system including a route guidance terminal used by a user who receives provision of road guidance information, and a route guidance server managing information on visiting places that a moving user may visit. ,
The route guidance terminal,
Visit history information generating means for generating visit history information which is history information of a visited place visited by the user,
The route guidance server further includes a visit history information transmitting unit that transmits the visit history information via a communication network,
The route guidance server,
From the route guidance terminal, the visit history information, visit history information collecting means for collecting via a communication network,
Aggregating the visit history information collected by the visit place history information collecting means, and estimating and estimating, for each visit place, a user group who visited the visit place and a situation when the user visited the visit place. A visit place estimation information generating means for producing visit place estimation information indicating a result; and a visit place estimation information storage means for storing the visit place estimation information generated by the visit place estimation information producing means. Route guidance system. A route guidance terminal used by a user who receives provision of road guidance information, generating visit history information that is history information of a visited place visited by the user;
A step in which the route guidance terminal transmits the visit history information via a communication network to a route guidance server that manages information on visiting places where a moving user may visit;
The route guidance server, from the route guidance terminal, collecting the visit history information via a communication network,
The route guidance server aggregates the collected visit history information, and estimates, for each visit location, a user class that has visited the visit location and a situation when the user has visited the visit location, and an estimation result. Generating a visited place estimation information indicating the route guidance method. A step in which the route guidance terminal inputs travel purpose information indicating a travel purpose of the user;
A step in which the route guidance terminal transmits the travel purpose information to a route guidance server via a communication network;
A step in which the route guidance server extracts destination information that matches the travel destination information received from the route guidance proposal based on the visited place estimation information;
A step in which the route guidance server transmits the extracted destination information to the route guidance terminal via a communication network;
The route guidance method according to claim 12, further comprising the step of: outputting, by the route guidance terminal, road guidance information based on destination information received from the route guidance server. A route guidance program for executing a management process of information of a visiting place that a moving user may visit,
On the computer,
A process of collecting, via a communication network, visit history information, which is history information of visit places visited by each user, from user terminals used by a plurality of users;
Aggregate the collected visit history information, for each visit place, visitor place visitor group, and visit place estimation information indicating the estimation result by estimating the situation when the user visited the visit place, A route guidance program for executing a generating process. A visit history information generation program for executing a visit history information generation process that is history information of a visited place visited by a user who receives provision of road guidance information,
On the computer,
A process of generating user status information indicating the status of the user when the user visited the visited place;
A process of generating surrounding situation information indicating a situation around the user's current location when the user visited the visiting place;
The process of detecting that the user has reached any of the visited locations;
A process of generating visit history information including the user situation information, the surrounding situation information, and user attribute information indicating an attribute of the user when the arrival at the visit place is detected. Visit history information generation program.

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