JP2007249365A - Traffic information supplementing device, vehicle-mounted device, traffic information provision system, and traffic information supplementing method - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To make it possible to supplement the information of a link to be supplemented with a high degree of precision by estimating sufficiently precisely the information of a link to be supplemented of which information is missing among the traffic information distributed from a traffic information distribution center. <P>SOLUTION: The link in which congestion information is missing is specified as a link to be supplemented, and the relationship between the link to be supplemented and a plurality of related links is specified as a link network. Combinations of the present traffic information concerning a plurality of the related links are specified as related link information patterns. The combination that matches the related link information pattern of the combinations of the past congestion information of a plurality of the related links is specified as a reference pattern, referring to the traffic information history stored in the traffic information history database 14 in a pattern file format. The past congestion information of the link to be supplemented which is acquired when the reference pattern is acquired, and the acquisition frequency are obtained, and the congestion information of the highest acquisition frequency is estimated as the present congestion information of the link to be supplemented. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2007,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a traffic information complementing device that complements a missing portion of traffic information distributed from a traffic information distribution center and provides it to an in-vehicle device, and a vehicle occupant that complements a missing portion of traffic information distributed from a traffic information distribution center. In-vehicle device to be presented to the vehicle, a traffic information providing system in which the missing portion of traffic information distributed from the traffic information distribution center is supplemented by the traffic information complementing device and provided to the in-vehicle device, and traffic information distributed from the traffic information distribution center The present invention relates to a traffic information complementing method that complements a missing part and provides it to an in-vehicle device.

  Conventionally, a technology for acquiring traffic information distributed from a traffic information distribution center such as a VICS (Vehicle Information and Communication System) center with an in-vehicle device and presenting it to a vehicle occupant has been widely used. It is used for purposes such as displaying the required time and informing the vehicle occupants of traffic jams by voice guidance. The traffic information distributed from the traffic information distribution center is not necessarily acquired by the in-vehicle device etc. in a complete form, and there is a lack of information depending on the information collection status etc. at the traffic information distribution center side There is also. For example, a technique described in Patent Document 1 is known as a technique for complementing the missing information when such missing information occurs.

The technology described in Patent Document 1 identifies a link (unprovided link) in which information on the required link time is missing from the traffic information distributed from the traffic information distribution center, and the link required time of the unprovided link. Is supplemented with the link required time of the unprovided link acquired in the near past, and if the link required time of the unprovided link has not been acquired in the near past, the current congestion degree related to the unprovided link If the information on the current congestion level related to the unprovided link is not acquired, the current link duration of the links around the unprovided link is averaged. This supplements the time required for unprovided links.
JP 2005-122461 A

  However, in the conventional technique described in Patent Document 1, since the relationship between the unprovided link and the surrounding links is not taken into consideration when supplementing the information of the unprovided link, the information estimation accuracy There is a problem that is insufficient. In other words, the congestion status of a link is often greatly influenced by the traffic congestion status of other links connected to this link, and even if information is estimated without considering the relevance of such links, the correct information is estimated. It is difficult to do, and it is difficult to supplement the information of unprovided links with correct information.

  The present invention was devised to solve the above-described problems of the prior art, and information on the complement target link that lacks information in the traffic information distributed from the traffic information distribution center. It is an object of the present invention to provide a traffic information complementing device, an in-vehicle device, a traffic information providing system, and a traffic information complementing method capable of estimating the information with sufficient accuracy and complementing the information of the complement target link with high accuracy.

  In the present invention, the traffic information distributed from the traffic information distribution center is acquired, a link for which information is missing in the acquired traffic information is specified as a supplement target link, and the supplement target link and the supplement A link network composed of a plurality of related links having a direct relationship with the target link is specified. And the combination of the information acquired about the some related link which comprises a link network is specified as a related link information pattern. In addition, by accumulating traffic information acquired in the past in the traffic information history database, referring to this traffic information history database, among the combinations of information acquired in the past for a plurality of related links constituting the link network, A combination that matches or is similar to the related link information pattern is identified as a reference pattern, and the content of past information of the supplement target link acquired at the same time when the reference pattern is acquired and its acquisition frequency are obtained. Is estimated based on the past acquisition frequency acquired at the same time when the reference pattern is acquired. And the information of the estimated content is complemented as the information of the complement target link.

  According to the present invention, since the information of the complement target link is estimated in consideration of the information of a plurality of related links that are directly related to the complement target link that is a link with missing information, the complement target link The information of the supplement target link can be complemented with high accuracy.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

[First Embodiment]
First, as a first embodiment of the present invention, an example will be described in which the present invention is applied to a traffic information providing system including a traffic information complementing device having a function of complementing a missing portion of traffic information.

  The entire configuration of the traffic information providing system of this embodiment is shown in FIG. As shown in FIG. 1, in this traffic information providing system, a traffic information complementing device 10 and an in-vehicle device 20 mounted on a vehicle are connected via a communication network NT and distributed from a traffic information distribution center 30 such as a VICS center. The traffic information missing part to be supplemented by the traffic information complementing apparatus 10, and the traffic information supplemented with the missing part is provided from the traffic information complementing apparatus 10 to the in-vehicle apparatus 20 via the communication network NT; It has become.

  Here, when the traffic information distribution center 30 is a VICS center, the traffic information related to the road handled by the VICS center is managed for each link representing a predetermined section of the road including the traveling direction. The types include link congestion level, congestion length, and link duration. In the following, in order to explain the features of the present invention in an easy-to-understand manner, the traffic information complementing apparatus 10 detects the lack of information for VICS information indicating the degree of link congestion among the traffic information distributed from the traffic information distribution center 30. An example of complementation will be described. The VICS information indicating the degree of link congestion (hereinafter simply referred to as “congestion information”) is defined in four stages of unknown / smooth / congested / congested. In the following, the congestion information of a certain link represents “unknown”. It is assumed that the traffic jam information related to the link is missing when the traffic jam information related to a certain link is not received.

  The traffic information complementing apparatus 10 includes a receiving unit (traffic information acquisition unit) 11, a processing unit 12, a transmission unit (traffic information providing unit) 13, a traffic information history database 14, and a map database 15. Then, the processing unit 12 supplements the missing part of the current traffic jam information distributed from the traffic information distribution center 30 and received by the reception unit 11 while referring to the traffic information history database 14 and the map database 15, and the transmission unit 13. To the in-vehicle device 20 via the communication network NT. In the traffic information history database 14, traffic information that has been distributed from the traffic information distribution center 30 in the past and received by the receiving unit 11 is accumulated as a history, and the map database 15 includes link data, node data, and the like. Information on the road network to be used is stored as map data. Details of the data format of the traffic information history stored in the traffic information history database 14 will be described later.

  The processing unit 12 of the traffic information complementing apparatus 10 is configured mainly with a microcomputer including a CPU, a ROM, a RAM, and the like. For example, when the microcomputer operates according to a control program incorporated in advance, As a functional configuration for complementing the missing part, each functional configuration of the complement target link specifying unit 121, the link network specifying unit 122, the related link information pattern specifying unit 123, the reference pattern specifying unit 124, and the estimating unit 125 is realized.

  The complement target link specifying unit 121 analyzes the current traffic information distributed from the traffic information distribution center 30 and received by the receiving unit 11 and searches for a link that lacks traffic information that should have been received. If there is information with missing traffic information, the link is specified as a complement target link.

  The link network specifying unit 122 specifies a link network including the complement target link specified by the complement target link specifying unit 121 and a plurality of related links having a direct relationship with the complement target link. Here, the related links that have a direct relationship with the complement target link are, for example, an entrance link (all of the entrance links if there are multiple links) connected to the node that is the starting point of the complement target link, and the complement The exit links (all exit links if there are multiple links) connected from the node that is the end point of the target link and the links that connect to the node that is the end point of the complement target link, that is, the entrance links (multiple links that are connected to the node that is the start point of the exit link) If so, all of them). These links are links that directly affect the traffic congestion situation of the supplement target link, and the link network specifying unit 122 refers to such a link as a supplement target link while referring to the map database 15. A link network composed of a plurality of related links is specified.

  If a specific example is given and demonstrated, for example, when the road structure like FIG. 2 is considered, the traffic flow of the link L2 will be link L1-> link L2-> link L3 + link L4. Here, assuming that the link L2 is a complement target link, the entry link connected to the node N2 that is the starting point of the link L2 is the link L1, so the link L1 is a related link of the link L2. Further, since the outgoing links connected from the node N3 which is the end point of the link L2 are the link L3 and the link L4, the link L3 and the link L4 are related links of the link L2. Furthermore, since the link connected to the node N3 which is the end point of the link L2 is the link L3 'and the link L4', the link L3 'and the link L4' are related links of the link L2. Accordingly, the plurality of related links having a direct relationship with the link L2 that is the complement target link are the link L1, the link L3, the link L4, and the link L3 ′ link L4 ′. In this case, the link network specifying means Reference numeral 122 identifies the link between the link L1, the link L3, the link L4, the link L3 ′, the link L4 ′, and the link L2, which is the complement target link, as a link network.

  In the example shown in FIG. 2, the traffic flow of the link L2 ′ is link L3 ′ + link L4 ′ → link L2 ′ → link L1 ′. Here, assuming that the link L2 ′ is a complement target link, the ingress links connected to the node N3 that is the starting point of the link L2 ′ are the link L3 ′ and the link L4 ′. Therefore, the link L3 ′ and the link L4 ′ are It becomes a related link of the link L2 ′. Further, since the outgoing link connected from the node N2 which is the end point of the link L2 'is the link L1', the link L1 'is a related link of the link L2'. Since there is no link connected to the node N2 that is the end point of the link L2 ', there is no other link that is a related link of the link L2'. Therefore, the plurality of related links having a direct relationship with the complement target link L2 ′ are the link L3 ′, the link L4 ′, and the link L1 ′. In this case, the link network specifying unit 122 A link network L3 ′, link L4 ′, link L1 ′ and a link L2 ′ that is a complement target link are specified as a link network.

  The related link information pattern specifying unit 123 distributes a plurality of related links included in the link network specified by the link network specifying unit 122 from the current traffic information distributed from the traffic information distribution center 30 and received by the receiving unit 11. A combination of traffic jam information for each relevant link in the middle is specified as a relevant link information pattern.

  More specifically, when the link L2 is the complement target link in the example shown in FIG. 2, the related link information pattern specifying unit 123 sets the traffic congestion information (smooth / congested / congested) of the link L1 that is the related link of the link L2. ), Traffic congestion information (smooth / congested / congested) of link L3, which is a related link of link L2, traffic information (smooth / congested / congested) of link L4, which is a related link of link L2, and related links of link L2. The combination of the traffic information (smooth / congested / congested) of the link L3 ′ and the traffic information (smooth / congested / congested) of the link L4 ′, which is the related link of the link L2, is specified as the related link information pattern.

  The reference pattern specifying unit 124 refers to the traffic information history database 14 and has received a plurality of related links included in the link network specified by the link network specifying unit 122 from the traffic information distribution center 30 in the past. 11, if there is no combination of traffic information that matches the related link information pattern specified by the related link information pattern specifying unit 123 or a combination that matches completely, the related link information pattern. The combination of traffic information that is most similar to is specified as a reference pattern.

  Specifically, in the example shown in FIG. 2, the link L2 is a complement target link, and the related link information pattern specifying unit 123 causes the link L1 = “smooth”, link L3 = “smooth”, link L4 = “traffic jam”. ”, Link L3 ′ =“ smooth ”, link L4 ′ =“ smooth ”, when a combination of traffic jam information for a plurality of related links is specified as a related link information pattern, the reference pattern specifying means 124 is a traffic information history database. In the traffic information history accumulated in the link 14, the link L1 = “smooth”, the link L3 = “smooth”, the link L4 = “congestion”, the link L3 ′ = “smooth”, and the link L4 ′ = “smooth”. It is confirmed whether there is a combination, and if there is such a combination of traffic information, the combination is specified as a reference pattern. Further, when there is no combination of traffic information as described above in the traffic information history stored in the traffic information history database 14, the combination most similar to the combination is specified as a reference pattern. Note that the similarity of the combination of traffic jam information is the number of related links with which the traffic jam information matches, and the degree of coincidence of the traffic jam information for each related link (for example, the degree of coincidence between “good” and “crowded” is “good”. And higher than the degree of agreement of “traffic jam”).

  The estimation unit 125 refers to the traffic information history database 14 and the reception unit 11 has received in the past information on the reference pattern specified by the reference pattern specification unit 124 (combination of traffic jam information for a plurality of related links). The content of the past traffic jam information and the acquisition frequency of the supplement target link received at the same time are obtained, and the traffic jam information having the highest acquisition frequency is estimated as the current traffic jam information of the complement target link. In addition, the estimation unit 125 determines the acquisition frequency when the highest acquisition frequency value of the past congestion information acquisition frequency of the supplement target link received simultaneously with the reference pattern information is less than a predetermined threshold. The content of the current traffic jam information of the complement target link is estimated by calculation with a corresponding weight.

  Specifically, in the example shown in FIG. 2, the link L2 is a complement target link, and the link L1 = “smooth”, the link L3 = “smooth”, the link L4 = “congestion”, by the reference pattern specifying unit 124. When the combination of the link L3 ′ = “smooth” and the link L4 ′ = “smooth” is specified as the reference pattern, the estimation unit 125, for example, the link L1 = “smooth”, the link L3 = “smooth”, and the link L4 = The number of times or the percentage of the content of the traffic information on the link L2 being “congested” when the combination of “congested”, the link L3 ′ = “smooth”, and the link L4 ′ = “smooth”, the content of the traffic information on the link L2 Is “congested” or the ratio thereof, and the number of times the content of the traffic jam information of the link L2 is “smooth” or the ratio thereof are obtained. For example, if the content of the traffic congestion information of the link L2 is “congested” or the ratio thereof is the highest, and the frequency or the ratio is equal to or greater than a predetermined threshold, the estimating unit 125 determines the current traffic congestion of the link L2. The information is presumed to be “traffic jam”. In addition, when the content of the traffic jam information on the link L2 is “traffic jam” or the ratio thereof is the highest, but when the frequency or the ratio is less than a predetermined threshold, the estimation unit 125, for example, “traffic jam” , "Congestion" and "smooth" each traffic information is converted to a numerical value, and the value obtained by multiplying the numerical value by the number of times each traffic information is acquired is divided by the total number of acquisitions. A calculation such as obtaining is performed, and it is estimated that the traffic congestion information having the content closest to the value obtained by the calculation is the current traffic congestion information of the link L2.

  Here, an example of the data format of the traffic information history accumulated in the traffic information history database 14 will be described. The data format of the traffic information history database 14 includes, for example, a combination of past traffic jam information of a plurality of links corresponding to a plurality of related links and a complement target link acquired simultaneously at the time of this combination as shown in FIG. This is a format in which the contents of past traffic jam information of the corresponding link and the appearance frequency (acquisition frequency acquired simultaneously) are stored in association with each other. That is, in the traffic information history database 14, for a certain target link (link corresponding to the complement target link), a plurality of links (links corresponding to a plurality of related links) having a direct relationship with the target link. What kind of combination of traffic information was received in the past, what kind of contents the traffic information of a certain target link was when the combination of traffic information of these multiple links was received, and the target link Information about how often the content of the traffic jam information is received is stored in association with each other. A plurality of links that have a direct relationship with a certain target link are links that have a direct influence on the traffic congestion status of a certain target link, as with the above-described related links with respect to a supplementary target link. Yes, for example, an ingress link connected to the node that is the start point of a certain target link, an exit link that is connected to a node that is the end point of a certain target link, and a link that is connected to a node that is the end point of a certain target link, that is, the start point of the exit link It is an approach link that leads to the node. Hereinafter, what is created by processing the traffic information distributed from the traffic information distribution center 30 and received by the receiving unit 11 into the above format is referred to as a pattern file. That is, in the traffic information history database 14, past traffic information distributed from the traffic information distribution center 30 and received by the receiving unit 11 is processed and stored in the pattern file format as described above.

  Further, the above-described pattern file stored in the traffic information history database 14 is created and classified according to predetermined conditions such as a time zone and a day of the week when the information constituting the pattern file is received, for example. The That is, for example, a pattern file of conditions such as Mondays from 9:00 to 10:00 extracts information distributed from the traffic information distribution center 30 and received by the receiving unit 11 from 9:00 to 10:00 on Mondays from past traffic information. And is stored in the traffic information history database 14 in association with information representing the condition of Mondays from 9:00 to 10:00. The predetermined conditions for classifying the pattern files are not limited to time zones and days of the week, and various conditions are conceivable. For example, conditions that cause a certain tendency in the traffic flow, such as months and days, may be used.

  The creation of the pattern file as described above is already stored in the traffic information history database 14 by the processing in the processing unit 12 every time the traffic information distributed from the traffic information distribution center 30 is received by the receiving unit 11. The pattern file may be updated in the form of updating the past traffic information distributed from the traffic information distribution center 30, for example, a predetermined memory area in the traffic information history database 14, or an external storage device, etc. Alternatively, the pattern file may be temporarily stored as it is, and a pattern file may be created at an arbitrary timing by processing in the processing unit 12. That is, it is only necessary that the past traffic information distributed from the traffic information distribution center 30 is finally stored in the traffic information history database 14 in the form of a pattern file. In the traffic information history database 14, past traffic information distributed from the traffic information distribution center 30 is accumulated as it is, and the processing unit 12 performs a process of complementing the congestion information of the supplement target link. Moreover, it is also possible to create a pattern file related to a complement target link as a pre-process of the complement process.

  Here, past traffic information distributed from the traffic information distribution center 30 is temporarily stored in a predetermined memory area in the traffic information history database 14 as it is, and a pattern file is created at an arbitrary timing. The processing in the processing unit 12 will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

  When creating the pattern file, the processing unit 12 first reads past traffic information distributed from the traffic information distribution center 30 from a predetermined memory area in the traffic information history database 14 in step S1. In step S2, information that matches a specific condition (for example, a time zone or a day of the week when the information is distributed) is extracted from the past traffic information read in step S1.

  Next, in step S3, the processing unit 12 processes the extracted information, specifies a combination of a target link and a plurality of links having a direct relationship with the target link for each link, and each link. Separately, combinations of information of a plurality of links having direct relevance (hereinafter referred to as data patterns) are classified. In step S4, for each data pattern, the content of the traffic information on the target link and the appearance frequency at the time of the data pattern are checked, and the content of the traffic information on the target link and the appearance frequency are associated with the data pattern. And stored in the traffic information history database 14.

  The processing unit 12 performs the processes in steps S3 and S4 for all links included in the information that matches the specific condition extracted in step S2, and the processes in steps S3 and S4 for all the links are completed. This process is repeated until it is done (step S5). And the pattern file of specific conditions is completed at the stage which the process of step S3 and step S4 with respect to all the links was complete | finished. In addition, the processing unit 12 repeats the processes in steps S2 to S5 for all conditions (step S6). Then, when the processing of step S2 to step S5 is completed under all conditions, the pattern file of all conditions is completed.

  If the traffic information distributed from the traffic information distribution center 30 is stored in the traffic information history database 14 in the pattern file format as described above, it is processed as a functional configuration for complementing the missing portion of the traffic jam information. Processing in the reference pattern specifying unit 124 and the estimation unit 125 realized by the unit 12 is facilitated. That is, the reference pattern specifying unit 124 selects a pattern of a condition that matches or is similar to the current condition (for example, the current time zone, day of the week, etc.) from the pattern file for each predetermined condition stored in the traffic information history database 14. The file is read out, and the related link information pattern specifying unit 123 is referred to in the pattern file by referring to the classification of the data pattern associated with the target link that matches the complement target link specified by the complement target link specifying unit 121. A data pattern that matches or is most similar to the related link information pattern specified in (1) may be specified as a reference pattern. The estimation unit 125 also confirms the content of the traffic jam information of the target link associated with the data pattern identified as the reference pattern by the reference pattern identification unit 124 and the appearance frequency thereof, and the highest appearance frequency is a predetermined threshold value. If it is above, it is estimated that the traffic information of the content is the current traffic information of the link to be complemented, and if the highest appearance frequency is less than a predetermined threshold, the target to be supplemented is calculated by weighting according to the appearance frequency. What is necessary is just to estimate the contents of the current traffic jam information of the link.

  In the traffic information complementing device 10, when the current traffic jam information of the supplement target link is estimated by the estimating unit 125 of the processing unit 12, the traffic information is distributed from the traffic information distribution center 30 and received by the receiving unit 11. The missing portion is supplemented with the estimated traffic jam information and transmitted from the transmission unit 13 to the in-vehicle device 20 via the communication network NT. In addition, when the in-vehicle device 20 itself has a function of receiving traffic information distributed from the traffic information distribution center 30, the traffic information complementing device 10 is provided with the traffic information distributed from the traffic information distribution center 30. Only the traffic jam information estimated by the estimation means 125 for complementing the missing portion may be transmitted from the transmission unit 13 to the in-vehicle device 20 via the communication network NT.

  Next, in the traffic information providing system according to the present embodiment, a series of operations in which the traffic information complementing device 10 supplements the missing portion of the traffic information distributed from the traffic information distribution center 30 and provides the missing information to the in-vehicle device 20 is described in detail. This will be explained with specific examples.

  FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing an outline of a series of operations in the traffic information complementing apparatus 10. As shown in FIG. 5, the traffic information complementing apparatus 10 first receives the traffic information distributed from the traffic information distribution center 30 at the receiving unit 11 in step S11. Then, in step S12, it is confirmed whether there is a missing portion in the traffic information from the traffic information distribution center 30 received by the receiving unit 11 by the processing in the processing unit 12. If there is a missing portion, in step S13 The missing information is estimated with reference to the traffic information history database 14. Then, the traffic information missing part is complemented with the estimated information (if there is no missing part), and the complete traffic information without the missing part is sent from the transmission unit 13 to the in-vehicle device 20 via the communication network NT. And send. As a result, the in-vehicle device 20 side presents the traffic information with no missing part to the vehicle occupant in a monitor display or the like, or performs route processing using the traffic information without the missing part, navigation processing such as voice guidance. Can be executed.

  FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing details of the processing in step S13 in FIG. When traffic information distributed from the traffic information distribution center 30 and received by the receiving unit 11 of the traffic information complementing device 10 includes, for example, a lack of traffic jam information, the processing unit 12 of the traffic information complementing device 10 performs processing shown in FIG. First, in step S21, a link lacking traffic jam information is specified as a complement target link (complement target link specifying unit 121). Next, in step S22, the processing unit 12 identifies a plurality of related links having a direct relationship with the complement target link identified in step S21, and links the complement target link and the plurality of related links to the link network. (Link network specifying means 122). Then, in step S23, the processing unit 12 confirms the contents of the current traffic jam information received by the receiving unit 11 for a plurality of related links included in the link network specified in step S22, and about the plurality of related links. The combination of the traffic jam information is specified as the related link information pattern (related link information pattern specifying means).

  An example of the related link information pattern specified in step S23 is shown in FIG. The example shown in FIG. 7 is an example in the case where the link L2 is specified as the complement target link in the road configuration shown in FIG. 2, and the link L1, the link L3, the link L3 ′, and the link L4 ′ are respectively related links. The current traffic information on the link L1 is “smooth”, the current traffic information on the link L3 is “smooth”, the current traffic information on the link L3 ′ is “smooth”, and the current traffic information on the link L4 ′ is “good”. It indicates that the traffic is “congested”. Further, it is assumed that the current time when the traffic information from the traffic information distribution center 30 is received by the receiving unit 11 is 9:30, and the day of the week is Monday.

  Next, in step S24, the processing unit 12 matches or resembles the current conditions (for example, the current time zone, day of the week, etc.) from the pattern files for each predetermined condition stored in the traffic information history database 14. Read the condition pattern file. In step S25, the processing unit 12 refers to the classification of the data pattern associated with the target link that matches the complement target link specified in step S21 in the pattern file read in step S24. A data pattern that matches or is most similar to the related information link pattern specified in step S23 is specified as a reference pattern from the patterns (reference pattern specifying means 124).

  An example of the pattern file read from the traffic history information database 14 in step S24 is shown in FIG. In FIG. 8, an image of data is used to make the explanation easy to understand. However, this pattern file is actually stored in the traffic information history database 14 in the data format shown in FIG. Has been.

  The pattern file shown in FIG. 8 is stored in the traffic information history database 14 after being classified on Mondays from 9:00 to 10:00. That is, the processing unit 12 determines that the current condition is 9:30 on Monday, and reads the pattern file shown in FIG. 8 with the condition that matches the current condition from the traffic information history database 14 in step S24. Yes. Then, in step S25, the processing unit 12 refers to the classification of the data pattern associated with the target link L2 that matches the complement target link L2 in the pattern file shown in FIG. Thus, the data pattern indicating L1: smooth, L3: smooth, L4: traffic jam, L3 ′: smooth, L4 ′: traffic jam that matches the related link information pattern shown in FIG. 7 is specified as a reference pattern.

  Next, in step S26, the processing unit 12 confirms the content of the traffic jam information of the target link associated with the data pattern identified as the reference pattern in step S25 and the appearance frequency thereof, and in step S27, the highest appearance appears. It is determined whether or not the frequency is equal to or higher than a predetermined threshold value (for example, 60%). If the highest appearance frequency is greater than or equal to a predetermined threshold, the processing unit 12 estimates the traffic information having the highest appearance frequency as the current traffic information of the supplement target link in step S28, and the traffic information The congestion information related to the supplement target link in the current traffic information distributed from the distribution center 30 is supplemented with this information. On the other hand, if the highest appearance frequency is less than the predetermined threshold value, the processing unit 12 estimates the content of the current traffic jam information of the complement target link by calculation weighted according to the appearance frequency in step S29. The traffic information related to the supplement target link in the current traffic information distributed from the traffic information distribution center 30 is supplemented with this information.

  In the example shown in FIG. 8, the content of the traffic jam information of the target link L2 associated with the data pattern identified as the reference pattern and the appearance frequency thereof are L2 = congestion: 70%, L2 = congestion: 20%, L2 = Good: 10%. The highest appearance frequency value is 70%, which is equal to or greater than a predetermined threshold (60%). Therefore, the processing unit 12 estimates that the content of the current traffic jam information of the complement target link L2 is “traffic jam”, and the traffic jam related to the complement target link L2 in the current traffic information distributed from the traffic information distribution center 30. Complement information with "traffic jam".

  As described above in detail with specific examples, according to the traffic information providing system of the present embodiment, the traffic information complementing device 10 is included in the current traffic information distributed from the traffic information distribution center 30. The link that lacks traffic jam information is identified as the supplement target link, and not only the past traffic jam information about this supplement target link but also the past of multiple related links that are directly related to this supplement target link. Since the current traffic jam information of the complement target link is estimated in consideration of the traffic jam information, and the estimated traffic jam information is complemented as the current traffic jam information of the complement target link and transmitted to the in-vehicle device 20, the complement target link The traffic jam information of the supplement target link can be supplemented with high accuracy.

[Second Embodiment]
Next, as a second embodiment of the present invention, an example in which the present invention is applied to an in-vehicle device having a function of complementing a missing portion of traffic information will be described.

  FIG. 9 shows the configuration of the in-vehicle device of the present embodiment. This in-vehicle device 40 implements the function of the traffic information complementing device 10 described in the first embodiment inside the in-vehicle device 40, and supplements the missing portion of traffic information as shown in FIG. Regarding the function, it has the same configuration as the traffic information complementing apparatus 10 described in the first embodiment. However, as shown in FIG. 1, the traffic information complementing apparatus 10 described in the first embodiment includes a transmission unit 13 that transmits traffic information that complements the missing part to the in-vehicle apparatus 20 via the communication network NT. However, the in-vehicle device 40 of the present embodiment replaces the transmission unit 13 of the traffic information complementing device 10 described in the first embodiment with the traffic information complementing the missing portion on the vehicle occupant by the monitor display. A display unit 41 is provided.

  The in-vehicle device 40 of the present embodiment receives the current traffic information distributed from the traffic information distribution center 30 by the receiving unit 11, similarly to the traffic information complementing device 10 described in the first embodiment. Then, the processing unit 12 complements the missing part of the current traffic jam information distributed from the traffic information distribution center 30 and received by the receiving unit 11 while referring to the traffic information history database 14 and the map database 15. In the in-vehicle device 40 of this embodiment, the display unit 41 displays the traffic information in which the missing portion is complemented by the processing unit 12 and presents it to the vehicle occupant.

  The process of complementing the missing portion of the traffic information by the processing unit 12 by the in-vehicle device 40 of the present embodiment is the same as the traffic information complementing apparatus 10 described in the first embodiment. That is, the supplement target link specifying unit 121 specifies a link in which traffic jam information is missing in the traffic information received by the receiving unit 11 as a supplement target link. Further, the link network specifying unit 122 obtains a plurality of related links having a direct relationship with the complement target link, and specifies a connection between the complement target link and the plurality of related links as a link network. Then, the related link information pattern specifying unit 123 specifies a combination of current traffic jam information regarding a plurality of related links included in the link network as a related link information pattern.

  Furthermore, a combination of past congestion information on a plurality of related links included in the link network based on the past traffic information history stored in the traffic information history database 14 in the form of a pattern file by the reference pattern specifying unit 124. Among them, a combination that matches or is similar to the related link information pattern is specified as a reference pattern. Then, the estimation unit 125 obtains the contents of the past traffic jam information of the complement target link acquired at the same time when the reference pattern is acquired from the pattern file stored in the traffic information history database 14 and the acquisition frequency thereof, and determines the acquisition frequency. Based on the standard, the current traffic jam information of the supplement target link is estimated and complemented.

  As described above, the in-vehicle device 40 according to the present embodiment has traffic jam information in the current traffic information distributed from the traffic information distribution center 30 as in the traffic information complementing device 10 described in the first embodiment. The missing link is identified as the supplement target link, and not only the past traffic information about this supplement target link, but also the past traffic information about multiple related links that are directly related to this supplement target link. In consideration of the current congestion information of the supplement target link, the estimated traffic information is supplemented as the current congestion information of the supplement target link and presented to the vehicle occupant. By estimating with sufficient accuracy, it is possible to complement the congestion information of the supplement target link with high accuracy.

[Modification]
The first and second embodiments described above exemplify an application example of the present invention, and the technical scope of the present invention is not limited to the contents disclosed in the description of the above embodiments. And various alternative techniques that can be easily derived from these disclosures are also included. For example, in the above example, the description has been made on the assumption that the traffic information indicating the degree of traffic congestion of the link is defined by four levels of unknown / smooth / congested / congested. For example, unknown / smooth / slightly congested Even if it is defined in more stages such as / congestion / slightly congested / congested values, it is possible to supplement the missing traffic information with high accuracy by the same processing as in the above-described embodiment. it can.

  In addition, when the traffic information distributed from the traffic information distribution center 30 does not include the traffic information indicating the degree of traffic congestion of the link and the information of the link required time is distributed, the link length information is used for the link. By obtaining the link average speed from the required time and determining the smoothness / congestion / congestion from the link average speed, the same processing as in the above-described embodiment can be performed. In addition, even when link average time information is distributed from the traffic information distribution center 30, it is possible to perform the same processing as in the above-described embodiment by determining smoothness / congestion / congestion from the link average speed.

  In the above example, the traffic information history database 14 has been described on the assumption that traffic information representing the degree of traffic congestion of links is accumulated as past traffic information distributed from the traffic information. If the information on the past link required time and the information on the past link average speed are stored in the form of the pattern file as described above, for example, traffic information distributed from the traffic information distribution center 30 The missing part of the required link time and the missing part of the link average speed can be complemented with high accuracy by the same method as in the above-described embodiment.

It is a figure which shows the whole structure of the traffic information provision system to which this invention is applied. It is a figure explaining the relationship between a complementation object link and several related links. It is a figure which shows an example of the data format of the traffic information history accumulate | stored in the traffic information history database, and is a figure which shows the format of a pattern file. It is a flowchart which shows an example of the process which produces the traffic information log | history of a pattern file format. It is a flowchart which shows the outline | summary of a series of operation | movement performed with the traffic information supplement apparatus in the traffic information provision system to which this invention is applied. It is a flowchart which shows the detail of the process which complements the missing part of traffic information with a traffic information complementation apparatus. It is a figure explaining an example of the related link information pattern specified with the traffic information complementation apparatus. It is a figure which shows an example of the pattern file read from the traffic information history database with the traffic information complementation apparatus with the image of a process. It is a figure which shows the structure of the vehicle-mounted apparatus to which this invention is applied.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 Traffic information complementation apparatus 11 Reception part 12 Processing part 13 Transmission part 14 Traffic information history database 15 Map database 20 In-vehicle apparatus 30 Traffic information distribution center 40 In-vehicle apparatus 41 Display part 121 Complementation object link identification means 122 Link network identification means 123 Related Link information pattern specifying means 124 Reference pattern specifying means 125 Estimating means

Claims (8)

A traffic information complementing device connected to an in-vehicle device via a communication network and supplementing a missing portion of traffic information distributed from a traffic information distribution center to provide to the in-vehicle device,
Traffic information acquisition means for acquiring traffic information distributed from the traffic information distribution center;
A complement target link identifying unit that identifies, as a complement target link, a link that lacks information in the traffic information acquired by the traffic information acquiring unit;
A link network specifying means for specifying a link network composed of the complement target link and a plurality of related links directly related to the complement target link;
Related link information pattern specifying means for specifying a combination of information acquired by the traffic information acquisition means for a plurality of related links constituting the link network as a related link information pattern;
A traffic information history database for accumulating traffic information acquired by the traffic information acquisition means in the past;
A reference pattern that refers to the traffic information history database and identifies, as a reference pattern, a combination that matches or is similar to the related link information pattern among combinations of information acquired in the past for a plurality of related links constituting the link network. Specific means,
With reference to the traffic information history database, the content of the past information of the complement target link acquired at the time of acquiring the reference pattern and the frequency of acquisition thereof are obtained, and the content of the current information of the complement target link is referred to Estimating means for estimating based on the past acquisition frequency acquired at the time of pattern acquisition;
A traffic information complementing device comprising: traffic information providing means for supplementing the information of the content estimated by the estimating means as information of the complement target link and providing it to the in-vehicle device.   The estimation means estimates the most frequently acquired content as the current information content of the complement target link among the past information content of the complement target link acquired simultaneously with the reference pattern acquisition. The traffic information complementing device according to claim 1.   When the highest acquisition frequency value is less than a predetermined threshold, the estimation means estimates the content of the current information of the complement target link by a weighted calculation according to the acquisition frequency. The traffic information complementing device according to claim 2.   The traffic information history database includes a combination of past information of a plurality of links corresponding to the plurality of related links, and contents of past information of links corresponding to the complement target links acquired at the time of the combination. The traffic information complementing device according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein traffic information acquired in the past by the traffic information acquiring device is stored in a format in which the traffic frequency and the acquisition frequency are associated with each other. In the traffic information history database, the traffic information acquired in the past by the traffic information acquisition device is classified and accumulated based on the acquired time zone, day of the week, month, and date,
The reference pattern specifying means refers to the traffic information history database, and is a combination that matches or is similar to the related link information pattern among combinations of information acquired in the past for a plurality of related links constituting the link network. The traffic information complementing device according to claim 1, wherein a combination of information on conditions that match or are similar to the current conditions is specified as the reference pattern. An in-vehicle device that complements a missing portion of traffic information distributed from a traffic information distribution center and presents it to a vehicle occupant,
Traffic information acquisition means for acquiring traffic information distributed from the traffic information distribution center;
A complement target link identifying unit that identifies, as a complement target link, a link that lacks information in the traffic information acquired by the traffic information acquiring unit;
A link network specifying means for specifying a link network composed of the complement target link and a plurality of related links directly related to the complement target link;
Related link information pattern specifying means for specifying a combination of information acquired by the traffic information acquisition means for a plurality of related links constituting the link network as a related link information pattern;
A traffic information history database for accumulating traffic information acquired by the traffic information acquisition means in the past;
A reference pattern that refers to the traffic information history database and identifies, as a reference pattern, a combination that matches or is similar to the related link information pattern among combinations of information acquired in the past for a plurality of related links constituting the link network. Specific means,
With reference to the traffic information history database, the content of the past information of the complement target link acquired at the time of acquiring the reference pattern and the frequency of acquisition thereof are obtained, and the content of the current information of the complement target link is referred to Estimating means for estimating based on the past acquisition frequency acquired at the time of pattern acquisition;
An in-vehicle device comprising: traffic information presenting means for complementing information on the content estimated by the estimating means as information on the complement target link and presenting the information to a vehicle occupant. A traffic information providing system in which a traffic information complementing device and an in-vehicle device are connected via a communication network, and a missing portion of traffic information distributed from a traffic information distribution center is supplemented by the traffic information complementing device and provided to the in-vehicle device Because
The traffic information complementing device is
Traffic information acquisition means for acquiring traffic information distributed from the traffic information distribution center;
A complement target link identifying unit that identifies, as a complement target link, a link that lacks information in the traffic information acquired by the traffic information acquiring unit;
A link network specifying means for specifying a link network composed of the complement target link and a plurality of related links directly related to the complement target link;
Related link information pattern specifying means for specifying a combination of information acquired by the traffic information acquisition means for a plurality of related links constituting the link network as a related link information pattern;
A traffic information history database for accumulating traffic information acquired by the traffic information acquisition means in the past;
A reference pattern that refers to the traffic information history database and identifies, as a reference pattern, a combination that matches or is similar to the related link information pattern among combinations of information acquired in the past for a plurality of related links constituting the link network. Specific means,
With reference to the traffic information history database, the content of the past information of the complement target link acquired at the time of acquiring the reference pattern and the frequency of acquisition thereof are obtained, and the content of the current information of the complement target link is referred to Estimating means for estimating based on the past acquisition frequency acquired at the time of pattern acquisition;
A traffic information providing system comprising: a traffic information providing unit that supplements the information of the content estimated by the estimating unit as information of the complement target link and provides the supplemented information to the in-vehicle device. A traffic information supplementing method that supplements a missing portion of traffic information distributed from a traffic information distribution center and provides it to an in-vehicle device,
Obtaining traffic information distributed from the traffic information distribution center;
Identifying a link for which information is missing in the acquired traffic information as a complement target link,
Identifying a link network comprising the complement target link and a plurality of related links having a direct relationship with the complement target link;
Identifying a combination of information acquired for a plurality of related links constituting the link network as a related link information pattern;
A combination that matches or is similar to the related link information pattern among combinations of information acquired in the past with respect to a plurality of related links constituting the link network with reference to a traffic information history database that accumulates traffic information acquired in the past Identifying as a reference pattern,
With reference to the traffic information history database, the content of the past information of the complement target link acquired at the time of acquiring the reference pattern and the frequency of acquisition thereof are obtained, and the content of the current information of the complement target link is referred to Estimating based on the past acquisition frequency acquired at the time of pattern acquisition,
And supplementing the information of the estimated content as information of the complement target link and providing the information to the in-vehicle device.

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