JP2006118997A - Information processor - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To enable a user to acquire congestion information on a traveling route by a simple operation. <P>SOLUTION: Each bottleneck point where occurrence of congestion is estimated is stored, and bottleneck points on the traveling route determined by route search are retrieved, and the estimated passing time of each bottleneck point is calculated and displayed on a map. When a user selects 'traffic information browsing' button, a bottleneck point ID, the estimated passing time, and a traffic information server URL are converted into a two-dimensional bar code and displayed on a display device. When the displayed two-dimensional bar code is imaged by a cellular phone, the cellular phone analyzes the imaged two-dimensional bar code and acquires original information. Hereby, the user can perform information browsing or mail communication on a desired information source through the cellular phone. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2006,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus, for example, an information processing apparatus that is mounted on a vehicle and provides information to a mobile terminal or the like equipped with an imaging unit such as a mobile phone.

The navigation device mounted on the vehicle also functions as an information providing device, so that it can provide not only guidance on the route to the destination but also facility information such as hotels existing in the route as information on the route / map. It has become.
For example, in the navigation device described in Patent Document 1, a selection menu for selecting a specific facility from a plurality of facilities is displayed on the display device, and facility information relating to the selected facility is displayed on the display device. ing.

JP 2000-66584 A

However, when information is provided by a conventional navigation device, the user needs to perform an operation such as displaying and selecting a selection menu in order to display facility information on the screen. During this operation, route guidance by the navigation device needs to be interrupted.
For example, it is impossible to check the congestion state of the travel route searched by the navigation device, or it is necessary to provide a function for communicating with an information providing server that provides traffic information.

In addition, when a plurality of travel routes to the destination are searched, when determining which travel route to select, the presence or absence of traffic congestion on each travel route may be a selection point.
In such a case, in a conventional navigation device, it is effective in determining the travel route if it is possible to know the location where the traffic jam has occurred (the traffic jam location).
Furthermore, since a traffic jam point does not always occur at a traffic jam point, it is more convenient if the possibility of traffic jam occurrence at a time at which the traffic point is expected can be known.

A first object of the present invention is to provide an information processing apparatus that allows a user to acquire traffic jam information on a travel route with a simple operation.
It is a second object of the present invention to provide an information processing apparatus that allows a user to acquire more accurate traffic jam information.
A third object of the present invention is to provide an information processing apparatus that allows a user to acquire traffic jam information as information for determining which travel route to select when a plurality of travel routes are searched.

(1) In the invention described in claim 1,
A traffic congestion point storage means for storing traffic congestion points, an address storage means for storing communication addresses of information centers that provide traffic congestion information, a travel route setting means for setting a travel route from the current position to the destination, A determination unit that determines whether or not the stored traffic congestion point exists on the set travel route; and when the determination unit determines that a traffic congestion point exists, the address storage unit stores the traffic congestion point to the traffic congestion point. Acquiring means for acquiring a corresponding communication address, a congestion point existing on the travel route, a converting means for converting the acquired communication address into an encoded image by a predetermined conversion method, and the converted encoding The information processing apparatus is provided with display means for displaying an image to achieve the first object.
(2) In the invention described in claim 2, in the information processing measure according to claim 1, the information processing measure includes calculation means for calculating a passing time passing through the congestion point, and the conversion means includes the calculated passage The second object is achieved by converting to an encoded image including time.
(3) In the invention described in claim 3, in the information processing apparatus according to claim 1, the travel route setting unit searches for a plurality of routes from the current position to the destination, The third object is achieved by setting the route as the travel route.

According to the first aspect of the present invention, when there is a traffic jam point on the set travel route, the traffic address and the communication address of the information center corresponding to the traffic jam point are encoded by a predetermined conversion method. For example, the user easily obtains information on a traffic jam point from the information center by capturing an encoded image with an information processing terminal such as a mobile phone and analyzing the original information. be able to.
According to the second aspect of the present invention, since it is converted into an encoded image including the passing time passing through the traffic jam point, the user can acquire more accurate traffic jam information.
According to the invention described in claim 3, since the plurality of searched routes are set as the travel route, the user can acquire the traffic jam information as a material for determining which travel route is selected.

Hereinafter, a preferred embodiment of the information processing apparatus of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to FIGS.
(1) Outline of Embodiment The information processing apparatus according to the present embodiment is realized by a navigation device that provides facility information to a user.
In this navigation device, intersections, road points, and areas where traffic congestion is expected are stored as bottleneck points (congestion points).
In the route search, a plurality of travel routes such as a recommended travel route, a travel route prioritizing the toll road, and a travel route prioritizing the distance are searched.
A bottleneck point existing on the searched travel route is searched, and an expected passage time of the bottleneck point that passes when traveling on each travel route is calculated.
And the bottleneck point searched with the several driving | running route is displayed on the map displayed on the display apparatus.

  When the “Traffic Information Browsing” button displayed on the display device is selected by the user, the ID of the bottleneck point existing in the travel route, the expected transit time of the bottleneck point, and the URL of the bottleneck point traffic information center The (communication address) is converted into a two-dimensional barcode (encoded image) and displayed on the display device.

When the user captures the displayed two-dimensional barcode with a portable information terminal such as a cellular phone, the cellular phone analyzes the captured two-dimensional barcode to obtain the original information (bottleneck point ID and its expected transit time, server URL) is displayed.
When the user selects the displayed server URL, the mobile phone transmits the bottleneck point ID and the expected passage time data to the traffic information center, and the traffic information at the expected passage time of each bottleneck point is transmitted from the traffic information center. Obtain and display.
The user can check the traffic jam information at the expected passage time of each bottleneck point through a mobile phone, and can be used as a judgment material when selecting a plurality of presented travel routes.
In addition, when there is only one travel route, it is possible to travel on a road that avoids the bottleneck point of the travel route at the user's discretion.

Specifically, in a car navigation system, the route information (for example, current location, destination location, process, bottleneck point, etc.) and the URL for accessing with a mobile phone can be recognized and decoded by the mobile phone. Is displayed on the screen of the car navigation system,
By simply operating the camera with the camera attached to the mobile phone, the route information and URL are transmitted to the mobile phone.
A user browses the current state of the bottleneck point of each of a plurality of routes or an expected traffic state on a mobile phone.

As described above, according to the navigation device of the present embodiment, the bottleneck point existing in the travel route and the URL of the traffic information center can be easily transmitted to the user via the two-dimensional barcode.
On the other hand, the cellular phone can browse the current status or the expected traffic status of each bottleneck point on the cellular phone.

(2) Details of Embodiment FIG. 1 illustrates a configuration of a navigation device that functions as an information processing device.
As shown in FIG. 1, the navigation apparatus includes a CPU 10 that controls the entire navigation apparatus according to various programs and data. The CPU 10 includes a current position detection device 11, a storage device 12, a display device 13, an input device 14, An audio output device 15 and other devices (such as a clock as a time measuring means) are connected.

  The current position detection device 11 is for detecting the current position (absolute coordinate value consisting of latitude and longitude) of a vehicle on which the navigation device is mounted, and is a GPS (measurement of vehicle position using artificial satellites). One or more of a global positioning system (receiver 111), a geomagnetic sensor 112, a gyro sensor 113, a vehicle speed sensor 114, and the like that detect geomagnetism and determine the direction of the vehicle are used.

The storage device 12 functions as a traffic jam point storage unit and an address storage unit, and stores various programs and data.
The storage device 12 includes a ROM, a RAM, a magnetic recording medium such as a flexible disk, a hard disk, and a magnetic tape, a semiconductor recording medium such as a memory chip and an IC card, a CD-ROM, an MO, and a PD (phase change rewritable optical disk). Recording media on which information is optically read, and recording media on which computer programs and data are recorded by various methods.
Different recording media may be used depending on the recording contents.

  The storage device 12 stores a POI (facility information) DB 121, a map database (DB) 122, an encoded image conversion program 123, a route guidance program 124, and other various programs and data.

The POI (facility information) DB 121 is used when setting a destination, and stores facility information related to a facility that is a destination setting target.
The POI (facility information) DB 121 includes facility information numbers, names, genres, telephone numbers, addresses, location coordinates, e-mail addresses, mobile site URLs (hereinafter simply referred to as URLs), etc. Stored for each facility.

  The map DB 122 relates to various maps and roads such as map information for displaying various maps and roads around the current location of the vehicle and around the destination on the display device 13 and road information used for route search to the destination. A database that stores data.

FIG. 2 conceptually shows the content of road information in the data stored in the map DB 122.
As shown in FIG. 2, the map DB 122 includes, as road information, data ID, data type, position coordinates, name, supplementary information, bottleneck flag, mobile phone (for mobile phone) site URL, etc. Stored for each point that constitutes information.

  In this embodiment, the point where the bottleneck flag of the road information is turned on (ON) corresponds to the bottleneck point, and the data ID is used as the bottleneck point ID.

The bottleneck point can be converted into a database by selecting in advance a traffic information server or the like on the basis of past traffic information, for example, an intersection or road where a traffic jam that has a traffic cost that is four times the normal traffic cost has occurred in advance. Keep it.
This bottleneck point converted into a database is incorporated into the map database 122 of the navigation apparatus at the time of shipment or the like.

In FIG. 1, the encoded image conversion program 123 displays the bottleneck point ID of the bottleneck point existing on the travel route when the “traffic information browsing” button displayed on the display screen of the navigation device is selected. This is a program that converts the predicted passage time passing through the bottleneck point and the traffic information server URL into an encoded image for display.
The encoded image conversion program 123 functions as a conversion unit in the present embodiment in cooperation with the CPU 10.
In the present embodiment, a two-dimensional barcode is used as the encoded image.

Two-dimensional barcodes are either “stacked two-dimensional codes” in which normal barcodes with information in only one direction are stacked or “matrix-type two-dimensional codes” shaped like a grid. It is also possible to adopt a format.
Creation and analysis of a two-dimensional barcode is realized by various well-known methods described in, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Nos. 2004-164532, 2002-137394, 10-55420, and 11-306272. .

The route guidance program 124 includes a destination setting PG (program), a route search PG, a bottleneck point search program, an expected passage time calculation PG, and other programs.
The destination setting PG is a program that performs destination setting processing based on user input (functions as destination setting means).
The route search PG uses the road data stored in the map DB 122 and uses the recommended route recommended by the device as the travel route to the set destination, the toll priority route that preferentially travels on the toll road, the toll road This program searches for a plurality of travel routes such as a general priority route that gives priority to general roads, a distance priority route with a short travel distance, and another route route (functions as a route search means).

The bottleneck point search program is a program that searches for a bottleneck point that exists on a plurality of searched travel routes (functions as a determination unit).
The predicted passage time calculation program calculates the predicted passage time (passage time) that passes the searched bottleneck point from the searched travel route and road data of the route (road width, speed limit, presence / absence of traffic lights, etc.) ( Function as a calculation means) program.

  Other programs are programs necessary for various guidance such as changing the display of the map according to the travel route, displaying the detailed map of the route change point on the screen before the route change point, and guiding the route change by voice. It is.

The display device 13 includes a map around the vehicle and the searched travel route, a searched route, and an encoded image created by the present embodiment (hereinafter, the two-dimensional barcode will be described in the description of the present embodiment). Is displayed.
Further, the display device 13 displays a map around the destination to be a route search target and an information source specifying button (key) for the user to specify the information source.

As the display device 13, various display devices such as a liquid crystal display device and a CRT are used.
The display device 13 may have a function as the input device 14 such as a touch panel.

The input device 14 is used to specify the current location (departure point) and destination (arrival point) at the start of travel in navigation processing, an instruction for conversion to a two-dimensional barcode using the “traffic information browsing” button, and designation of an information source. used.
As the input device 14, various devices such as a touch panel (functioning as a switch), a keyboard, a mouse, a light pen, a joystick, an infrared remote controller, and a voice recognition device can be used.

  The voice output device 15 includes a plurality of speakers arranged in the vehicle, and outputs voice controlled by the voice control unit, for example, guidance voice when performing route guidance by voice. The audio output device 15 may also be used as an audio speaker.

FIG. 3 illustrates a configuration of a mobile phone as an example of the mobile terminal device.
This mobile phone includes a CPU 30, a storage device 31, a display device 32, an imaging device (camera) 33, a voice input device 34, a voice output device 35, an input device 36, a communication device 37, and other devices (a clock as a time measuring means, etc. ).
The CPU 30 controls the entire telephone according to various programs and data stored in the storage device 31.

  The storage device 31 is composed of a ROM, a RAM, or a semiconductor storage device depending on the case, and stores an encoded image recognition program 311, a communication program 312, and other programs and data.

The encoded image recognition program 311 is a program that recognizes original information by analyzing a two-dimensional barcode imaged by the imaging device and displays the screen on the display device 32.
In accordance with the encoded image recognition program 311, the CPU 30 analyzes the two-dimensional barcode by a method corresponding to various methods used when a two-dimensional barcode is created by the encoded image conversion program of the navigation device.

The communication program 312 is a program having a browser function based on the server URL included in the original information displayed on the screen.
When the server URL included in the original information is selected, the analyzed bottleneck point ID and the expected passage time are transmitted to the traffic information server of the corresponding URL by the browser function, and transmitted from the traffic information server. The bottleneck point traffic information (traffic jam information, etc.) is received and the content is displayed on the display device 32.

  Although various display devices can be used as the display device 32, in this embodiment, a liquid crystal display device, a plasma display, or the like is used to display various information such as facility information and contents of a home page specified by a URL. The

The imaging device (camera) 33 functions as an imaging means, and is configured by a camera including a CCD (charge coupled device) for capturing an image.
The imaging device 33 captures images, external scenery, and the like. In the present embodiment, it is used for imaging a two-dimensional barcode displayed on the display device 13 of the navigation device.

  The voice input device 34 and the voice output device 35 function as a voice input / output device when using a call function as a mobile phone.

The input device 36 includes various input keys such as a numeric keypad. The input device 36 is used for inputting a telephone number, inputting text when using the mail function, and selecting an e-mail address or URL displayed on the display device 32. Used when.
The communication device 37 performs communication when using the mobile phone function and various data communication between a target specified by a URL or a mail address by connecting to a communication network such as the Internet.

FIG. 4 shows the configuration of a traffic information server that distributes traffic information at the bottleneck point to the mobile phone according to the present embodiment.
The traffic information server is composed of a server system including a CPU and various storage devices, and includes a communication device 41 for mobile phones, an external IP communication device 42 for acquiring the contents of information to be distributed from the outside, and a bottle. A neck point information database 43 is provided.

  In addition, the traffic information server includes a bottleneck point information search program 44. In cooperation with the CPU, the traffic information server uses an estimated arrival time and a bottleneck point ID received from the mobile phone via the mobile phone communication device 41. Traffic information such as traffic jam information at the bottleneck point at the expected arrival time is detected.

That is, the traffic information server acquires traffic information at each bottleneck point from, for example, an external IP such as a VICS center via the communication device 42 for external IP (Information Provider), and bottleneck point information along with the time and the like. The data is stored in the DB 43.
Then, the traffic information server predicts traffic jam information and the like at the expected passing time of the bottleneck point ID acquired from the mobile phone according to the bottleneck point information search program, and from the mobile phone communication device 41 as traffic information at the expected passing time. Send to mobile phone.

Next, the operation of the system for transferring bottleneck point information to a mobile phone via a two-dimensional bar code using the navigation device configured as described above and acquiring the bottleneck point traffic information using the mobile phone will be described.
FIG. 5 shows a state where the travel route to the destination searched for the route is displayed on the display device 12.
As shown in FIG. 5, a plurality of travel routes to the destination are searched from a viewpoint of a recommended route, a toll road priority route, a general road priority route, a distance priority route, and another route and displayed together with a map. Displayed on the device.

In FIG. 5, a thin solid line (recommended route), a thick dotted line (general priority route), a thick solid line (distance priority road), etc. are displayed on the driving route. It may be.
In FIG. 5, the overlapped portions of the respective travel routes are displayed with a different travel route (dotted line or the like), but may be displayed in parallel. In addition, even when the travel route is distinguished and displayed by color coding, the overlapped route may be displayed with the corresponding route portion in parallel with the multiple color routes, but in this case, the width of each line of the overlap portion is displayed. The display is narrower (single / multiple widths) than the single case.

On the display device 13, the current position of the vehicle (displayed by a dotted circle and an isosceles triangle mark in the figure, the apex direction is the traveling direction) and the set destination (displayed by G with a circle in the figure) are displayed. Is displayed.
Furthermore, the bottleneck point which exists in each searched driving | running route is displayed with the specific description (A to F in a figure) which identifies it. The specific notations A to F are used to distinguish which bottleneck point is the traffic jam information when the user acquires the traffic information of the bottleneck point from the traffic information server using the mobile phone.

On the right side of the screen of the display device 13, a travel route determination button 130 for finally determining a travel route for each travel route is displayed corresponding to each travel route.
In addition, a “traffic information browsing” button 131 is displayed at the top of the screen. This button is selected when the user obtains traffic information (congestion information, etc.) for each bottleneck point from the traffic information server via a mobile phone. By selecting this button, a two-dimensional barcode is created. Is done.

FIG. 6 illustrates a processing operation of the navigation device and a processing operation by the mobile phone when the “traffic information browsing” button 131 is selected.
When the user selects the “traffic information browsing” button 131, the CPU 10 follows the encoded image conversion program 123 and the ID of the bottleneck point existing in each travel route and the specific notation displayed on the display device 13 (A˜ in FIG. 5). F), the expected passage time of each bottleneck point, and the URL of the traffic information server are acquired (read), and a two-dimensional barcode is created and displayed on the display device 13 as shown in FIG. To do.

  In FIG. 6A, a two-dimensional barcode 132 is displayed at the center of the screen, but within a range that can be recognized by the mobile phone at a position shifted from the center of the screen, such as below the travel route determination button 130. You may make it display small. This prevents the display area of the map screen from being temporarily reduced.

When the user selects the “View traffic information” button 131, the selected button is converted into a “return” button 131 ′.
When this “return” button 131 ′ is selected, the display returns to the original screen on which the map, the travel route, the bottleneck point, etc. are displayed, from the state where the two-dimensional barcode 132 is displayed. Return to the “information” button 131.

In a state where the two-dimensional barcode 132 is displayed on the display device 13 of the navigation device, when the user takes an image with a mobile phone having an imaging function (FIG. 6B), the CPU 30 of the mobile phone uses the captured image data. Is stored in the RAM.
Next, the CPU 30 analyzes the original information of the two-dimensional barcode 132 from the image data stored in the RAM, temporarily stores it in the RAM, and displays the original information on the display device 32.

FIG. 8C exemplifies a state in which the original information analyzed after imaging the two-dimensional barcode 132 created by the navigation device corresponding to the “destination information” button 131 a is displayed on the display device 32. It is.
As shown in FIG. 8C, the URL of the traffic information center (http: to .jp /) and the ID of each bottleneck point (CR and 8-digit number part) are displayed on the display device 32. .

In the present embodiment, the expected passage time and specific notation (A to F in FIG. 5) of the bottleneck point obtained by analyzing the two-dimensional barcode are stored in the RAM and are not displayed on the display device 23. Conversely, the specific notation and the expected passage time may be displayed and the ID may not be displayed.
Further, the specific notation and ID may be displayed, or the specific notation, ID, and expected passage time may be displayed.

When the URL displayed on the mobile phone is selected by the user, the CPU 30 connects to the traffic information server of the URL, and among the original information stored in the RAM, each bottleneck point ID and its expected transit time are displayed. Send.
Then, the CPU 30 acquires the bottleneck point ID and the traffic information at the current and expected passage time transmitted from the traffic information server, stores them in the RAM, and displays them on the display device 23.

That is, as shown in FIG. 6D, the CPU 30 takes the correspondence between the received bottleneck point ID and the specific information (A to F in FIG. 5), and presents the current bottleneck points indicated by the specific information. , And a heading for displaying traffic information at the expected passage time is displayed in a list.
By selecting an item displayed in the list, for example, if the user selects “Current status of A intersection”, the current traffic information at the bottleneck point A is displayed, and the presence or absence of the communication function of the navigation device. Regardless of this, the navigation device can be separated and easily confirmed.

Next, route guidance processing and cellular phone processing operations in the navigation device of this embodiment will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.
First, route guidance processing and encoded image conversion processing in the navigation device will be described.
The CPU 10 of the navigation device performs destination setting processing based on the user's selection (step 21).
In the destination setting process, the CPU 10 reads out the settable destination names from the facility information DB 121 and displays them on the display device 13 as a list. The names of destinations are displayed in a list in various orders such as genre order, aiueo order, and region order according to the user's selection.
The user selects a desired destination from the displayed list, and the CPU 10 stores the facility information of the selected destination in the RAM, thereby completing the destination setting process.
When a specific point is specified on the map by the user's selection, it is also possible to read out facilities existing around the specified point from the facility information DB 121 and select one of them.

Next, the CPU 10 performs a route search process to the set destination (step 22).
That is, the CPU 10 stores the current position of the vehicle detected by the current position detection device 11 in the RAM as a departure point, and uses the road data in the map DB 122 to determine the travel route from the current position of the vehicle to the set destination. Search and store in RAM.
As shown in FIG. 5, the search for the travel route is performed by searching for a plurality of routes from the viewpoints such as toll road priority and general road priority, and each travel route is displayed on the display device 13.

When a plurality of travel routes from each viewpoint are searched, the CPU 10 searches for the bottleneck points on the plurality of routes from the map database 122 according to the bottleneck point search program, and the specific notation (see A to F in FIG. 5). At the same time, it is displayed on the travel route (step 23).
In the specific notation, the bottleneck point closest to the departure point is set to A, and B, C,... Are selected in order from the closest to the destination, and are displayed on each travel route using the position coordinate data of the bottleneck point. .

When a plurality of travel routes to the destination are determined by the route search, the CPU 10 determines each bottleneck point from the departure point based on the distance, legal speed, road width, presence / absence of a signal, etc. of each road constituting the determined travel route. Calculate the expected travel time until.
Then, the CPU 10 calculates the estimated passage time from the input departure time when the departure time is input, and the current passage time when the departure time is not input, as the estimated passage time. The estimated arrival date and time are stored in the RAM (step 24).

  In addition, although the calculation process of the above estimated arrival date is performed after a route search process is complete | finished, you may make it process in parallel with the route guidance process based on the searched driving | running route after that.

  The CPU 10 monitors whether or not the “traffic information browsing” button has been operated (step 25), and if operated (step 25; Y), the map bottle 122 displays the bottleneck point being displayed. ID is read (step 26).

  Further, the CPU 10 reads the specific notation of each bottleneck point (see A to F in FIG. 5), the expected passage time, and the URL of the traffic information server from the RAM (step 27).

The CPU 10 creates a two-dimensional barcode from the read bottleneck point ID, specific notation, expected passage time, and traffic information server URL, and displays it on the display device 13 (step 28).
Then, the CPU 10 monitors whether or not the “return” button 131 ′ (see FIG. 6A) is operated by the user from the state where the two-dimensional barcode is created and displayed, and if there is no operation (step 29; N) Return to step 285 and continue displaying the two-dimensional barcode.

  On the other hand, if there is an operation of the “return” button 131 ′ (step 29; Y), the CPU 10 returns the display to the screen (see FIG. 5) before displaying the two-dimensional barcode, and the user selects the travel route determination button 130. Waiting for determination, the determined travel route is selected and stored in the RAM (step 30).

Then, the CPU 10 displays a map around the current position of the vehicle on the display device 13 according to the traveling of the vehicle, displays the traveling route selected by the user and the current position of the vehicle on the map, and changes the course such as an intersection as necessary. Guidance in the direction of course change is performed by voice at the point (step 231).
Thereafter, the CPU 10 continues the route guidance until the route guidance is finished (step 32; N), and when the route guidance is finished (step 32; Y), the processing is finished.

Next, the processing operation of the mobile phone will be described.
When the two-dimensional barcode is displayed on the display device 13 of the navigation device in step 35 (FIG. 6A), the user photographs the displayed two-dimensional barcode using the camera function of the mobile phone ( Step 41, see FIG. 6 (b)).
When the two-dimensional barcode is photographed, the CPU 30 of the mobile phone decodes the captured image and displays the analysis result on the display device 32 (step 42, see FIG. 8C).

  When the user selects the traffic information server URL displayed in this state, the CPU 30 connects to the server of the selected URL, reads out each bottleneck point ID and the expected passage time from the RAM, and transmits them (step 43).

And CPU30 acquires the traffic information in the present and estimated passage time of each transmitted bottleneck point from a traffic information server, and displays on the display apparatus 23. FIG.
That is, the CPU 30 takes a correspondence between the received bottleneck point ID and the specific information, and displays a list of headings for displaying traffic information at the current and expected passage times of each bottleneck point indicated by the specific information ( (Refer FIG.6 (d)).
When the user selects an item displayed in the list, for example, when selecting “current situation of A intersection”, current traffic information at the bottleneck point A is displayed (step 44).

As described above, according to the present embodiment,
(1) In a navigation device, an encoded image (ID) of a bottleneck point (congestion point), a specific notation, an expected passage time, and a URL of a traffic information server that can be recognized and deciphered by a mobile phone in a searched travel route ( 2D barcode) and display it on the display device.
(2) Information of bottleneck point ID, specific notation, expected transit time, traffic information URL, etc. is transmitted to the mobile phone by a simple operation in which the user takes a two-dimensional barcode with a camera attached to the mobile phone. And
(3) The user can use a mobile phone to make a reservation at a restaurant or browse a weather forecast when the restaurant arrives.

In this way, even for navigation devices that do not have a communication function, information on user bottleneck points can be obtained by simply using an information portable terminal having a photographing function such as a mobile phone that has already been widely used. Can be acquired or sent.
That is, according to the present embodiment, no special hardware for communication is used in the navigation device, and no complicated mobile phone operation is required, and information transmission from the navigation device to the mobile phone can be performed with simple user operation. Can be realized.

Although one embodiment of the information processing apparatus of the present invention has been described above, the present invention is not limited to the described embodiment, and various modifications can be made within the scope described in each claim. .
For example, in the embodiment described above, the case where a two-dimensional barcode is created as a coded image created from original information by a coded image conversion program has been described. However, a digital watermark is created as another coded image. Also good.

In this case, various well-known digital watermark techniques such as a direct embedding method and a frequency component embedding method can be used for the digital watermark icon in this case.
The direct embedding method uses the characteristic that humans are difficult to recognize dark pixels near bright pixels, and embeds facility information in sample values (icons) of data, dividing the pixels into multiple blocks, This is a method of embedding a watermark by directly processing bit information representing luminance. In the present embodiment, this direct embedding method is adopted because of the advantage that processing time is short.
On the other hand, the frequency component embedding method, as represented by Fourier transform (FET), spread spectrum, discrete cosine transform (DCT), etc., converts the image data into frequency components and does not affect the image quality. This is a method of embedding watermark information.

  In the described embodiment, the predicted passage time of each bottleneck point is transmitted to the traffic information center to acquire the traffic information at the predicted passage time. However, the current traffic information may be acquired. In this case, it is not necessary to calculate the predicted passage time and convert it into a two-dimensional bar code in the navigation device, and the traffic information center searches the current traffic information at the bottleneck point received from the mobile phone and transmits it to the mobile phone.

In the traffic information center, the traffic information at the expected passage time is searched and transmitted to the mobile phone, but the predicted traffic information within a predetermined time before and after the expected passage time may be searched and transmitted.
The predetermined time before and after the expected passage time is, for example, between 30 minutes before the expected time and one hour after the expected passage time.
The departure point and the travel route data may be combined into a two-dimensional barcode.

  All bottleneck points that exist on multiple travel routes and their expected passage times are converted into a two-dimensional barcode with the server URL, but the bottleneck specified by the user (bottleneck point specifying means) from each displayed bottleneck point The point and its expected passage time may be converted into a two-dimensional barcode together with the server URL.

In the described embodiment, the case where the bottleneck point existing on the travel route obtained as a result of the travel route search is searched and displayed has been described.
On the other hand, the bottleneck point may be searched and displayed even when only the destination is input without performing the route search.

  That is, when the destination is set, a virtual straight line from the current position to the destination may be drawn, and a bottleneck point existing within a predetermined distance, for example, Nkm, may be displayed from the virtual straight line. . In this case, one or a plurality of bottleneck points selected by the user are set as objects for two-dimensional barcode.

The value of Nkm may be changed according to the distance L1 from the current position to the destination. That is, N increases as the distance L increases.
Furthermore, N may be made smaller as the distance L2 to the current location (departure location) or destination is smaller. This is because the closer to the destination and the current location (the smaller the distance L2), the higher the possibility of traveling on a road near the destination and the current location.
Further, N may be a constant value.

In the described embodiment, bottleneck point data (bottleneck point ID and bottleneck point traffic information server URL) is included in the data such as each intersection in the map database 122 and stored separately. You may do it.
In this case, the coordinate value of the bottleneck point is acquired from the map database by storing the ID of the data such as the intersection and the ID of the bottleneck point in association with each other.

It is a block diagram of the navigation apparatus which functions as an information processing apparatus in one Embodiment of this invention. It is explanatory drawing which represented notionally the content of the road information among the data stored in a map database. It is a block diagram of the mobile telephone as an example of a portable terminal device. It is a block diagram of the traffic information server which delivers the traffic information of a bottleneck point with respect to a mobile telephone. It is explanatory drawing showing the state which displayed the driving | running route to the destination searched for the route on the display apparatus. It is explanatory drawing of the processing operation of a navigation apparatus, and the processing operation by a mobile telephone when the "traffic information browsing" button is selected. It is the flowchart showing the route guidance process in a navigation apparatus, and the processing operation of a mobile telephone.

Explanation of symbols

10 CPU
11 Current position detection device 12 Storage device 121 POI (facility information) DB
122 Map DB
123 Coded image conversion program 124 Route guidance program 13 Display device 14 Input device 15 Audio output device

Claims (3)

Congestion point storage means storing the congestion point,
Address storage means for storing the communication address of the information center that provides traffic jam information;
A travel route setting means for setting a travel route from the current position to the destination;
Determining means for determining whether or not the stored traffic congestion point exists on the set travel route;
An acquisition unit that acquires a communication address corresponding to the traffic congestion point from the address storage unit when the determination unit determines that the traffic congestion point exists;
Conversion means for converting a traffic jam point existing on the travel route and the acquired communication address into an encoded image by a predetermined conversion method;
Display means for displaying the converted encoded image;
An information processing apparatus comprising:
Calculating means for calculating a passing time passing through the traffic congestion point,
The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the conversion unit converts the calculated transit time into an encoded image.
The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the travel route setting unit searches for a plurality of routes from a current position to a destination and sets the searched plurality of routes as a travel route.

Images