JP5098189B2 - Facility search program - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a facility search program in a navigation system.

When traveling with a vehicle or the like, when a user wants to know a specific facility closest to the current position or a certain point, a navigation system such as a car navigation system is used.
11 and 12 are diagrams for explaining a conventional search system.

For example, in FIG. 11, let us consider a case where the current position is M1 and it is desired to know the nearest facility within a certain search range.
Conventionally, in a database used for car navigation or the like, location information of each facility is stored in a facility information DB (database) as a value obtained by numerically converting latitude and longitude as shown in FIG. When searching for a facility closest to a certain point as a center, first, latitude / longitude information obtained from GPS (Global Positioning System) or the like is calculated as the position information of the point M1, which is the current position. A certain range centering on the point M1 is set as a search range (latitudes x1 to x2 and longitudes y1 to y2 in this example), and facilities within the range are extracted. In this example, facilities F1 to F7 are applicable. Then, the distance between the point M1 and each facility is obtained by calculation, and the closest facility is determined as the nearest facility from the calculation result.

In Patent Document 1, in a navigation system, a predetermined number of aggregate cells (partition groups) are collected from a cell matrix (mesh), and an aggregate cell array (a plurality of compartment groups) having at least one POI (facility) is formed. An invention is disclosed in which a set cell (partition group) in the set cell array is sorted based on the distance from a predetermined position, and a specific POI is searched based on the POI distance level of the sorted set cell.
JP 2000-61503 A

  However, when finding the nearest facility from the current location, the conventional method finds the distance between all the facilities in the search range and the current location, and uses the smallest value as the nearest facility. Distance calculation is required, and the calculation load increases as the number of facilities increases. In addition, when using the navigation system, in addition to finding the nearest facility from the current position, there are cases where it is desired to know whether there is a facility in an arbitrary search range, such as whether there is a facility along the road in the traveling direction. . In this case, in order to search for a facility within an arbitrary search range, it is very difficult to search, for example, it is necessary to search a plurality of times or to make search conditions complicated.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide a search program that can perform a quick search and has a low processing load.

The present invention employs the following configuration in order to solve the above problems.
That is, according to one aspect of the present invention, the program according to the present invention allows a computer to execute map data in which the facility is partitioned into a mesh based on the map data partitioned in a mesh and the latitude and longitude information of the facility. A procedure for calculating which position of the mesh belongs to the section of the mesh, a position in the map data of the section of the mesh to which the facility belongs, a procedure for representing the arrangement of the section of the mesh as a character string, And a procedure for storing facility location information as the character string.

  The program of the present invention creates a search condition for creating a search string as a character string indicating the position of a mesh section included in the search range based on the specification of a search range that is a range for searching whether or not the facility exists. The generation procedure and whether or not the location of the facility represented as the character string is included in the search range created by the search condition generation unit, the character string representing the location of the facility and the search range A character string pattern matching procedure performed by performing pattern matching of character strings may be further provided.

  In the program of the present invention, the search condition generation procedure may create a plurality of search conditions that widen the search range in a ripple pattern.

  According to the present invention, the nearest facility can be quickly searched, the processing load is small, and facilities in an arbitrary range can be easily searched.

Hereinafter, a first embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.
FIG. 1 is a system configuration diagram of an embodiment of the present invention.
A user who performs a search transmits a search request from the terminal 10 such as a car navigation system, a personal computer, or a portable terminal to the data center 30 provided by the service provider via the communication network 20 such as the Internet.

  The data center 30 receives the search request by the search request transmission / reception device 40 and passes information such as the latitude and longitude of the current position of the user and the search range to the facility search system 50. The facility search system 50 performs a search using the facility search program 51 and the facility information DB 52 and transmits the result to the user terminal 10.

Hereinafter, a method for storing the latitude and longitude information of a facility as a character string according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS.
FIG. 2 is a flowchart of processing for storing latitude and longitude information of a facility as a character string in the facility information DB.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a map and facilities used in the first embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 4 is a map obtained by dividing the map of FIG. 3 with a mesh.
FIG. 5A shows the position of the facility as a character string, and FIG. 5B shows the facility information DB storing the data of FIG. 5A as a character string.

  First, referring to FIG. 2, in step 201, the latitude / longitude information of the facility is read from the database storing the location information of the facility. The latitude / longitude information of the facility is obtained by numerically converting the same latitude / longitude as before. Note that the latitude / longitude information of the facility may be position data representing the location of the facility, even if the latitude / longitude as in the conventional case is not numerically converted. The latitude / longitude information may be received from the outside.

  In step 202, it is calculated to which section of the mesh of the map the latitude and longitude values are divided into meshes. This is determined based on, for example, a table in which mesh sections are associated with latitude and longitude ranges.

  In step 203, the value of the mesh section including the facility is set to “1”, the others are set to “0”, and the combined value is stored in the facility information DB as latitude / longitude information of the facility. That is, in the map divided into mesh shapes, the position of the mesh section including the facility is represented by a character string for each mesh section in the map. A mesh section that does not include facilities is represented by “0”, and a mesh section that includes facilities is represented by “1”. A map divided into meshes is two-dimensional. It will be represented by a character string arranged in. Thus, the character string may be a combination of “1” and “0” or a combination of other information.

Specifically, it is as follows.
First, as shown in FIG. 4, the entire map of FIG. 3 is divided by meshes, and numbers specifying each mesh section are assigned. In the case of FIG. 4, numbers are assigned in order in the x direction and the y direction, and each mesh section is specified by a combination of a number in the x direction and a number in the y direction. For example, if you know in advance which latitude and longitude the boundary of the mesh section is, you can see the correspondence between the mesh section and the latitude and longitude range, Can be created. Such a table is used as map data divided in a mesh shape to calculate where each facility is located in a mesh section, and may be stored in advance in a database or the like. The map data divided into meshes may not be a table, but may be an expression for converting latitude and longitude values into mesh section numbers. Next, to which number of mesh sections each facility (F1 to F7) on the map belongs is calculated.

  For example, the facility F1 exists at the 19th position in the x direction (longitude) and the 19th position in the y direction (latitude). Then, as shown in FIG. 5A, the value of the section of the mesh including the facility is “1”, the others are “0”, and these are combined into one character string as shown in FIG. ) And stored in the facility information DB as latitude and longitude information. For example, since the facility F1 exists at the 19th position in the x direction and the 19th position in the y direction, the data indicating the position in the x direction (longitude) continues with 18 “0”, “1” at the 19th, and then “0” "Is represented as one character string followed by". The same applies to the data in the y direction (latitude).

As described above, the latitude and longitude information of each facility is stored in the facility information DB as a character string.
In the case of storing, the character string may be stored using a run length method.
Next, a method for searching for the nearest facility from the current position of the user will be described with reference to FIGS.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart of the facility search program according to the first embodiment of this invention.
FIG. 7 is a diagram for explaining search processing according to the first embodiment of this invention.
FIG. 8 is a diagram showing the flow of search processing according to the first embodiment of this invention.

First, referring to FIG. When the user tries to search for the nearest facility, a facility search request is transmitted together with various information from the user's terminal.
In step 601, a facility search request is received from the user, and information such as the latitude and longitude of the current position of the user and the search range is received. In the first embodiment of the present invention, the center of the search range is the current position of the user, but may be an arbitrary position.

  In step 602, a section (mesh section number) to which the current position of the user belongs is calculated. Similar to the processing of FIG. 2, this can be obtained from, for example, a table in which mesh section numbers are associated with latitude and longitude ranges.

  In step 603, a character string for searching for facilities in the section group of the range (1) is generated with the current position calculated in step 602 as the center. The character string for searching for facilities in the section group of the range (1) is set to “1” for the mesh section of the range (1) with the current position as the center, and to “0” for the others. It is a combination of two. Next, a character string for searching for a facility in the range (2) is generated, and the processing is similarly repeated up to the range (n). Here, n is the search range received in step 601. In the first embodiment of the present invention, n = 4.

  Referring to FIG. 7, the current position of the user is M1, and the mesh division number is (13, 12). The partition group in the range (1) centered on M1 is a 3 × 3 mesh partition group around M1, and the mesh direction number is 12 to 14 in the x direction and 11 to 13 in the y direction. . The partition group in the range (2) centered on M1 is a 5 × 5 mesh partition group around M1, and the mesh partition number is 11-15 in the x direction and 10-14 in the y direction. Similarly, the section groups in the range (4) centered on M1 are represented by different oblique lines.

  A character string for searching for a facility in the section group of the range (1) corresponds to 801 in FIG. Similarly, reference numerals 802 to 803 denote character strings for searching for facilities in the group of sections (2) to (4), respectively. That is, the character string indicating the range (1) is a character string in which the characters from 12 to 14 in the x direction are “1” and the other characters are “0”, and the characters from 11 to 13 in the y direction. Is “1” and the other characters are “0”. The same applies to the ranges (2) to (4).

  In step 604, the facility information DB 806 is searched using the character string created in step 603 as the search condition 805, and the result is returned. Here, the facility is searched by pattern matching of character strings. More specifically, for example, when checking whether there is a facility in the section group (3) centered on M1, the search condition character string is 803, and this is the latitude and longitude of the facility in the facility information DB 806. Perform pattern matching with the character string of each facility that represents. In order to check whether or not the facility F1 is in the section group in the range (3), the character string 803 and the character string in the x direction and the character string in the y direction of the character string 807 representing the latitude and longitude information of the facility F1 The logical product of the values of each mesh section is obtained for each mesh section. Then, in each character string, whether or not the facility F1 is in the range (3) in each of the x direction and the y direction can be determined depending on whether the values of the sections of each mesh are both “1”. As a result of the logical product, “1” of the character string indicating the latitude / longitude information of the facility F1 becomes “1” of the character string indicating the range (3) for both the character strings in the x direction and the y direction. If it is included, it can be seen that the facility F1 is in the division group of the range (3).

  Specifically, for example, when pattern matching is performed with the character strings 803 and 807, each of the meshes in both the x direction and the y direction can be obtained by calculating the logical product of the values of the respective mesh sections of the character strings in the x direction and the y direction. Since there is no portion of “1” in the value of the section, it can be understood that the facility F1 does not exist in the section group of the range (3).

  For example, when the pattern matching is performed with the character strings 803 and 810 to check whether the facility F4 is in the section group of the range (3), the logical product of the values of the sections of each mesh of the character strings in the x direction and the y direction is calculated. As a result, there are both “1” s in the 14th direction in the y direction, but there is no common “1” part in the x direction, so it can be seen that the facility F4 does not exist in the partition group in the range (3).

  For example, when pattern matching is performed with the character strings 803 and 812 to check whether the facility F6 is in the section group of the range (3), the logical product of the values of the sections of each mesh of the character strings in the x direction and the y direction is calculated. Then, since there is “1” in both the 16th in the x direction and the 9th in the y direction, it can be seen that the facility F6 exists in the partition group in the range (3).

For example, when it is determined whether or not there is a facility in the section group of the range (1), the above-described search is performed on the character strings 807 to 813 of the latitude / longitude information of each facility using the character string 801.
In step 604, the facility information DB 806 is searched using the character string created in step 603 as the search condition 805. In the first embodiment of the present invention, a plurality of search conditions are searched from the condition of range (1). Search in batches with higher priority (weighting) in order. Therefore, in the first embodiment of the present invention, “Shunsaku” (registered trademark) is used as the database engine.

Shunsaku is an XML database engine that flexibly responds to data diversity and changes and provides an information utilization platform. In the first embodiment of the present invention, the following are used as the characteristics of Shhunsaku.
(1) Advanced search technology SIGMA search technology (high-speed character string matching algorithm using one-way sequential processing) that searches at a constant speed even with complex search conditions combining OR conditions and NOT conditions, and search requests from multiple applications at once By adopting high-traffic technology that provides stable response even when concentrated, it is possible to specify a search expression that suits the target data search such as pattern search, character string search, and word search.
(2) Uniform search performance by adding servers (scale-out) Characteristic that enables search processing to be executed in parallel by distributing search data to multiple servers (search servers).

  Shunsaku is described in detail in Nikkei BP Planning Edition, “Innovative XML Database Engine“ Shunsaku ””, March 24, 2004, Nikkei BP Planning.

As a result, a search based on a plurality of search conditions can be performed at once, and an efficient search becomes possible.
Each search result 814 is obtained by performing a search for each condition by the method as described above. Then, it can be seen that there are no facilities in the partition groups in the ranges (1) and (2), the facility F6 in the partition group in the range (3), and the facility F4 in the partition group in the range (4). In this way, the nearest facility can be found by expanding the search range in a ripple pattern centering on the current position.

  In step 605, it is checked whether or not the facility is included in the section group of the range (1). If it is included, the process proceeds to step 609. If not included, the process proceeds to step 606. In step 606, it is checked whether or not the facility is included in the section group of the range (2). If it is included, the process proceeds to step 609. If not included, the process proceeds to step 607. Similarly, it is checked whether or not the facility is included in the division group in the range (n). As described above, n = 4 in the first embodiment of the present invention.

  In step 609, the search result of the nearest facility is returned to the user. If there are a plurality of facilities in the same partition group, the plurality of facilities are returned as a search result. However, if the size of the mesh section is large, the accuracy of the location of the facility is lowered, and the setting of the search range becomes rough, so the accuracy of the location of the nearest facility is lost. However, by making the size of the mesh section finer, it is possible to obtain an accuracy close to the search result of the nearest facility by the conventional distance calculation. If no facility is included, the search result is “no facility within the requested range”.

  As described above, the nearest facility is required. Thus, when searching by character string pattern matching, it is not necessary to calculate the distance to each facility, so the nearest facility can be searched quickly and the processing load can be reduced.

Next, a second embodiment will be described with reference to FIGS.
In the first embodiment, the search range is enlarged in a ripple shape centering on the current position, and the nearest facility is found. In the second embodiment, the facility is in the search range of an arbitrary form. Find out if there is any.

FIG. 9 is a diagram for explaining the search processing according to the second embodiment of this invention.
FIG. 10 is a diagram showing a flow of search processing according to the second embodiment of this invention.
Also in the second embodiment, the system and facility information DB are the same as those in the first embodiment. The latitude and longitude information of the facility is also stored as a character string.

For example, the search range is determined by the user specifying the range on the terminal.
In FIG. 9, the range of 2 × 11 mesh sections, which is the number of mesh sections 8 to 9 in the x direction, and the number of mesh sections 7 to 17 in the y direction, and the number of mesh sections in the x direction. A case will be described where it is desired to search whether there is a facility in the range of the 11 × 2 mesh section of No. 10 to No. 20 and the mesh section number of 7 to 8 in the y direction. The above ranges are defined as ranges (1) and (2), and are represented by different oblique lines in FIG.

  The facility search program generates a character string for searching whether there are facilities in the ranges (1) and (2). The character string for searching the range (1) is the one in which the value of the mesh division numbers 8 to 9 in the x direction in the range (1) is “1” in the x direction and “0” is set otherwise. Combined. The y direction is obtained by combining the values of the mesh sections 7 to 17 in the y direction in the range (1) with “1” and other values “0”. This corresponds to the character string 1001 in FIG. A character string for searching the range (2) is created in the same manner, and becomes a character string 1002.

  Then, the character strings 1001 and 1002 are used as the search condition 1003 to determine whether or not there are facilities in the ranges (1) and (2), and character string pattern matching is performed with character strings representing latitude and longitude information of each facility in the facility information DB 1004. Search by. This is the same as in the first embodiment.

Then, the search result 1005 indicates that the facility F4 is in the range (1) and the facility F7 is in the range (2).
As described above, by creating a character string corresponding to a range to be searched and performing a search by character string pattern matching, it is possible to easily search for an arbitrary range.

  As mentioned above, although embodiment of this invention has been described referring drawings, the facility search system to which this invention is applied is limited to the above-described embodiment as long as the function is executed. Instead, a single device, a system composed of a plurality of devices, an integrated device, or a system in which processing is performed via a network such as a LAN or a WAN may be used.

  It can also be realized by a system including a CPU, a ROM or RAM memory connected to a bus, an input device, an output device, an external recording device, a medium driving device, and a network connection device. That is, a ROM or RAM memory, an external recording device, or a portable recording medium that records the program code of the software that realizes the system of the above-described embodiment is supplied to the facility search system, and the computer of the facility search system Needless to say, this can also be achieved by reading and executing the program code.

  In this case, the program code itself read from the portable recording medium or the like realizes the novel function of the present invention, and the portable recording medium or the like on which the program code is recorded constitutes the present invention. .

  Examples of portable recording media for supplying program codes include flexible disks, hard disks, optical disks, magneto-optical disks, CD-ROMs, CD-Rs, DVD-ROMs, DVD-RAMs, magnetic tapes, and non-volatile memories. Various recording media recorded through a network connection device (in other words, a communication line) such as a card, a ROM card, electronic mail or personal computer communication can be used.

  Further, the computer (information processing apparatus) executes the program code read out on the memory, thereby realizing the functions of the above-described embodiment and operating on the computer based on the instruction of the program code. The OS or the like performs part or all of the actual processing, and the functions of the above-described embodiments are also realized by the processing.

Furthermore, a program code read from a portable recording medium or a program (data) provided by a program (data) provider is provided in a function expansion board inserted into a computer or a function expansion unit connected to a computer. The CPU of the function expansion board or function expansion unit performs part or all of the actual processing based on the instruction of the program code, and the function of the above-described embodiment is also performed by the processing. Can be realized.
That is, the present invention is not limited to the embodiment described above, and can take various configurations or shapes without departing from the gist of the present invention.

(Supplementary note 1)
Based on the map data partitioned in a mesh shape and the latitude and longitude information of the facility, the order in which the facility belongs to the mesh section of the map data partitioned in the mesh shape,
A procedure for representing the position of the mesh section to which the facility belongs in the map data by a character string representing the arrangement of the mesh section as a character string;
A procedure for storing the location information of the facility as the character string;
A program for running
(Additional remark 2) Based on designation | designated of the search range which is the range which searches whether the said facility exists, the search condition generation procedure which produces this search range as a character string showing the position of the division of the mesh which this search range contains When,
Whether the location of the facility represented as the character string is included in the search range created by the search condition generation unit, a character string representing the location of the facility and a character string pattern representing the search range The program according to claim 1, further comprising a character string pattern matching procedure performed by matching.
(Additional remark 3) The said search condition production | generation procedure produces the some search condition which makes a search range wide in a ripple shape, The program of Additional remark 2 characterized by the above-mentioned.
(Additional remark 4) The said character string is a character string based on binary data, The program of Additional remark 1 thru | or 3 characterized by the above-mentioned.
(Supplementary Note 5) When the facility is included in the plurality of search ranges by the character string pattern matching procedure, information on the facility included in the search range having a higher priority is transmitted from the plurality of search ranges. The program according to appendixes 1 to 4, further comprising:
(Additional remark 6) The said search range is a search range of arbitrary ranges, The program of Additional remark 2 characterized by the above-mentioned.
(Appendix 7)
Based on the map data partitioned in a mesh and the location data of the facility, a procedure for calculating which position of the mesh section of the map data the facility belongs to is meshed;
A procedure for representing the position of the mesh section to which the facility belongs in the map data by a character string representing the arrangement of the mesh section as a character string;
A procedure for storing the location information of the facility as the character string;
A program for running
(Supplementary Note 8) Based on the map data partitioned in a mesh shape and the latitude and longitude information of the facility, calculating the mesh belonging to the position of the mesh data in the map data partitioned in the mesh shape;
Expressing the position in the map data of the mesh section to which the facility belongs by a character string representing the arrangement of the mesh section as a character string;
Storing the location information of the facility as the character string;
A facility search method comprising:
(Additional remark 9) Based on designation | designated of the search range which is a range which searches whether the said facility exists, creating the said search range as a character string showing the position of the division of the mesh which this search range includes;
Whether or not the location of the facility represented as the character string is included in the search range by performing pattern matching between the character string representing the location of the facility and the character string representing the search range The facility search method according to appendix 8, further comprising matching means.
(Supplementary note 10) The facility retrieval method according to supplementary note 9, wherein the step of creating the search condition as a character string based on the search range creates a plurality of search conditions that widen the search range in a ripple pattern.

It is a system configuration figure of an embodiment of the invention. It is a flowchart of the process which stores the latitude longitude information of a facility as a character string in facility information DB. It is a figure showing the map and plant | facility used by 1st embodiment of this invention. 3 is a map obtained by dividing the map of FIG. 3 with a mesh. (A) represents the location of the facility in characters, and (b) is a diagram representing the facility information DB storing the data of FIG. 5 (a) as a character string. It is a flowchart of the facility search program of 1st embodiment of this invention. It is a figure for demonstrating the search process of 1st embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows the flow of the search process of 1st embodiment of this invention. It is a figure for demonstrating the search process of 2nd embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows the flow of the search process of 2nd embodiment of this invention. It is a figure for demonstrating the conventional search process. It is a figure showing the latitude longitude information of each facility of conventional facility information DB.

Explanation of symbols

10 terminal 20 communication network

Claims (2)

On the computer,
Based on the map data partitioned in a mesh shape and the latitude and longitude information of the facility, a procedure for calculating which position of the mesh section of the map data the facility belongs to the mesh shape,
The position of the mesh section to which the facility belongs in the map data is defined as the first character for the mesh section to which the facility belongs in the x direction, the second character for the mesh section to which the facility does not belong, and the first character. The first character and the facility do not belong to the facility position x-direction character string indicating the position of the facility in the x direction and the mesh section to which the facility belongs in the y direction. Parcels mesh with the second character, represented by the first character and a character string representing a combination of a facility location y direction string indicating the y-position of the facility that combines the second letter Procedure and
Storing the facility position x-direction character string and the facility position y-direction character string as a character string representing the position of the facility ;
Based on the designation of a search range that is a range for searching whether or not the facility exists, the first character indicates the position of the mesh section included in the search range in the x direction, and the search range includes the search range. The position of the section of the mesh not included is the second character, the search range x-direction character string indicating the search range in the x-direction combining the first character and the second character, and the y-direction The position of the mesh section included in the search range is the first character, the position of the mesh section not including the search range is the second character, and the first character and the second character are combined. A search condition generation procedure for creating a search range y-direction character string indicating the search range in the y-direction ;
Whether or not the location of the facility represented as the character string is included in the search range created by the search condition generation unit, the facility position x-direction character string representing the location of the facility in the x-direction . each character in the search range x direction string representing the search range of the x-direction and each character, and the y-direction of the each character of the facility location y direction string representing the y-position of the facility A character string pattern matching procedure performed by performing pattern matching to determine whether or not each character of the search range y-direction character string representing the search range matches;
A program for running The search condition generating procedure, according to claim 1, wherein the program characterized by creating a plurality of search conditions to widen the search to ripple shape.