JP2010236869A - Apparatus and method for searching for facilities reachable within target time - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To search for a facility reachable within a target time from a starting point only by designating the starting point and the target time without designating a destination. <P>SOLUTION: The apparatus includes an inter-mesh necessary time storage unit 25 for storing an inter-mesh necessary time indicating a rough travel time between a plurality of meshes and a facility data storage unit 23. A request processing unit 11 receives the inputting of a starting point and a target time within any mesh out of the plurality of meshes. A mesh search unit 13 refers to the inter-mesh necessary time storage unit 25 to extract a plurality of target meshes of which an inter-mesh necessary time from the mesh to which the starting point belongs is within the target time. The request processing unit 11 refers to the facility data storage unit 23, extracts facilities from among the plurality of target meshes, and outputs the extracted facilities. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2011,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a facility search technique, and more particularly to a technique for searching for a facility that can arrive within a target time.

  Conventionally, a route search system that provides a route from a departure point to a destination and a required time when a departure point and a destination are designated has been put into practical use. This route search system is widely used in various navigation systems.

  Here, in Patent Document 1, routes from one departure area to a plurality of destination areas are calculated in advance as an area route network, and a departure area area route network corresponding to the departure place of the vehicle at the time of driving is used. The route search is described.

Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 9-218047

  However, in each of the conventional techniques described above, the required time is calculated by designating a starting point and a destination point and performing a route search between the two points. That is, the required time cannot be calculated unless the departure point and the destination point are designated.

  On the other hand, for example, when a person who wants to play golf searches for a golf course that can arrive within two hours from home instead of a specific golf course, this cannot be done with a conventional navigation system. Because the destination point is not specifically determined, the required time cannot be calculated as it is. If a route search is performed for all golf courses that can be candidates, a huge amount of time is required and cannot be performed within a practical time.

  Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a technique for searching for a facility that can arrive within a target time from a departure point without specifying a destination point, only by specifying a departure point and a target time. .

  An apparatus for searching for a facility that can be reached within a target time according to an embodiment of the present invention stores an inter-mesh required time indicating an approximate movement time between a plurality of meshes when a map is divided into a plurality of meshes. Referring to the inter-mesh required time storage means, input means for receiving the start point and target time in any of the plurality of meshes, and the inter-mesh required time storage means, With reference to the mesh extraction means for extracting a plurality of target meshes within the target time from the mesh to which the mesh belongs, facility data storage means for storing facility location data, and the facility data storage means, Facility extraction means for extracting facilities in a plurality of target meshes, and output means for outputting the extracted facilities.

  In a preferred embodiment, a route search from a temporary departure point in the mesh to which the departure point belongs to a plurality of sampling points existing in different directions from the mesh to which the departure point belongs is performed with reference to road traffic information. A route search engine for calculating a required time from the temporary departure point to the plurality of sampling points at the time of executing the route search, and the departure based on the required time from the temporary departure point to the plurality of sampling points. Correction means for calculating a correction coefficient for each direction from the mesh to which the point belongs, and the mesh extraction means calculates a required time between meshes from the mesh to which the departure point belongs using the correction coefficient for each direction. The target mesh may be extracted based on the corrected time between meshes after correction.

  In a preferred embodiment, the inter-mesh required time storage means stores weekday / Saturday / Sunday / holiday day type and time required by mesh, and the mesh extracting means includes the input means. The target mesh may be extracted using the required time between meshes corresponding to when the input is received.

  In a preferred embodiment, the plurality of meshes further includes a route search engine in which one representative point is determined in advance, a route search between each representative point is performed, and a required time between the representative points is calculated, The required time between the representative points may be stored in the inter-mesh required time storage means as the required time between meshes.

  In a preferred embodiment, each representative point in the plurality of meshes may be a center point of each mesh.

  In a preferred embodiment, each of the plurality of meshes has a range determined based on latitude and longitude, the location data of the facility is determined by latitude and longitude, and the facility extraction means includes the mesh In addition, it may be extracted using the latitude and longitude of the location data of the facility.

It is a block diagram of the search system which concerns on one Embodiment of this invention. 5 is a diagram illustrating an example of facility data 230. FIG. It is explanatory drawing of the required time between meshes. It is a figure which shows an example of the required time data 250 between meshes. It is explanatory drawing of correction coefficient calculation. An example of the user terminal device 5 is shown. 4 is a flowchart showing a processing procedure of the search device 10.

  Hereinafter, a search system for searching for facilities that can be reached within a target time according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

  FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of a search system according to the present embodiment.

  This system includes a search device 10 that searches for facilities that can be reached within a target time, and one or more user terminal devices 5, both of which can communicate via a network 9. When the search device 10 receives a request including a departure point and a target time from the user terminal device 5, the system searches for facilities in a range that can be reached within the target time from the departure point.

  The user terminal device 5 may be a terminal device having a communication function, and may be, for example, a mobile phone, a portable information terminal, or a general-purpose personal computer. The user terminal device 5 includes a display device such as a liquid crystal panel and an input device such as a push button or a pointing device. When the user terminal device 5 is a mobile phone or the like, wireless communication is performed with the wireless base station 7.

  The search device 10 is configured by, for example, a general-purpose computer system, and each component or function in the search device 10 described below is realized by executing a computer program, for example. This computer program can be stored in a computer-readable recording medium.

  The search device 10 includes a request processing unit 11, a mesh search unit 13, a required time correction unit 15, a route search engine 17, an inter-mesh required time data generation unit 19, a map mesh data storage unit 21, and facility data A storage unit 23, an inter-mesh required time storage unit 25, and a road traffic information storage unit 27 are provided.

  The map mesh data storage unit 21 stores map mesh data obtained by dividing a map into a plurality of meshes. For example, the map mesh data includes mesh identification information and data indicating the range of each mesh. The mesh range is defined by, for example, the latitude and longitude of the upper left point and lower right point of the mesh.

  The facility data storage unit 23 stores facility data indicating the location of the facility to be searched. The facility data is defined by, for example, the latitude and longitude of the location of each facility. Facilities include, for example, golf courses, ski resorts, theme parks, amusement facilities, bathing facilities (hot springs), and the like. The facility data storage unit 23 may store facility data of a plurality of types of facilities.

  FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an example of the facility data 230. As shown in the figure, the facility data 230 includes a facility name 231, a latitude 232, and a longitude 233.

  The inter-mesh required time storage unit 25 stores inter-mesh required time data indicating an approximate movement time between a plurality of meshes.

  FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram of the required time between meshes. The figure shows a map divided into a plurality of meshes. In the figure, each mesh is described with a mesh number. And if it moves to the direction shown by the arrow in the same figure, ie, it moved to each other mesh from the center mesh (533945), the approximate movement time required at this time is the required time between meshes.

  FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an example of the required time data 250 between meshes. As shown in the figure, the required time data 250 between meshes is a matrix of mesh numbers in which the mesh number of the departure place is vertical and the mesh number of the destination is horizontal. The required time between meshes up to the mesh is stored.

  Here, in each mesh, one representative point is determined in advance, and the required time between the representative points may be the required time between meshes. The required time between the representative points is calculated by the required time data generator 19 between meshes as will be described later. Further, the required time between meshes storage unit 25 may store the required time between meshes according to the weekday, Saturday, Sunday, and holiday type and time zone. For example, the inter-mesh required time storage unit 25 may store a matrix shown in FIG. 4 for each weekday / Saturday / Sunday / Holiday type and time zone.

  Returning to FIG. 1, the road traffic information storage unit 27 stores the latest road traffic information. For example, information provided by VICS (Vehicle Information and Communication System) may be acquired by a communication means (not shown) and stored in the road traffic information storage unit 27.

  The request processing unit 11 receives from the user terminal device 5 a request including a departure point (for example, specified by latitude and longitude) and a target time in any one of a plurality of meshes. When receiving the request, the request processing unit 11 notifies the mesh search unit 13 of the departure point (latitude and longitude) and the target time included in the received request, and requests the mesh search.

  Further, the request processing unit 11 refers to the facility data storage unit 23 and extracts facilities existing in a plurality of target meshes extracted by the mesh search unit 13. For example, the request processing unit 11 refers to the map mesh data storage unit 21, acquires the range (latitude and longitude) of each target mesh, and based on the latitude 232 and longitude 233 of the facility data 230, Extract facilities. The request processing unit 11 generates a response to the request including the facility extracted here and outputs the response to the user terminal device 5.

  The mesh search unit 13 refers to the inter-mesh required time storage unit 25 and extracts a plurality of target meshes whose required time between meshes from the mesh to which the departure point belongs is within the target time. For example, when the latitude and longitude of the departure point and the target time are notified from the request processing unit 11, the mesh search unit 13 refers to the map mesh data storage unit 21 and identifies the mesh to which the departure point belongs. Then, using the mesh as the departure point mesh, the target mesh within the target time within the target time from the departure point mesh is specified. The mesh search unit 13 may extract the target mesh by dividing it into a plurality of time units within the target time. For example, if the target time is 2 hours, the target mesh may be extracted by dividing into 30 minutes or less, 30 minutes to 1 hour or less, 1 hour to 1 hour and a half or less, and 1 hour and a half to 2 hours or less. Furthermore, as will be described later, when a route search is performed again to obtain an accurate time, a target mesh of 2 hours to 2 hours and a half or less may be extracted.

  Further, the mesh search unit 13 corrects the required time between meshes from the mesh to which the departure point belongs by using the correction coefficient for each direction calculated by the required time correction unit 15, and based on the corrected required time between meshes. The target mesh may be extracted. The correction of the required time between meshes will be described later.

  The required time correction unit 15 determines whether the departure point from the mesh to which the departure point belongs based on the required time from the temporary departure point in the mesh to which the departure point belongs to a plurality of sampling points in different directions from the mesh to which the departure point belongs. A correction coefficient for each direction is calculated.

  FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram for calculating the correction coefficient. For example, in the figure, it is assumed that the departure point is within the center mesh (533945). At this time, a temporary departure point s in the center mesh and four sampling points a to d are determined. The temporary departure point s may be a representative point of the center mesh, for example, or any other arbitrary point. Then, the required time correction unit 15 instructs the route search engine 17 to search each route from the temporary departure point s to the four sampling points a to d and calculate the required time. The sampling points a to d exist in different directions from the mesh to which the departure point belongs. For example, a mesh representative point shifted by ± n mesh vertically and ± m mesh horizontally from the temporary departure point s may be used (n = m = 2 in FIG. 5). The required time correction unit 15 determines correction coefficients for the four directions A to D based on the required time from the temporary departure point s to each sampling point a to d. The directions A to D are directions from the temporary departure point s to the sampling points a to d, respectively. The correction coefficient may be, for example, a coefficient indicating how many times the required time calculated here is with respect to the average required time predetermined for each sampling point.

  The mesh search unit 13 corrects the required time between meshes using the correction coefficient for each direction. For example, in the example of FIG. 5, since it is divided into four directions A to D, all meshes are divided into four so as to correspond to the respective directions according to the relative positional relationship with the mesh to which the departure point belongs. Then, the required time from the mesh to which the starting point of each mesh belongs is corrected using the correction coefficient of the corresponding direction.

  The route search engine 17 performs a route search from a specified departure place to a specified destination based on the road traffic information, and calculates a required time. For example, the route search engine 17 performs a route search between the representative points of each mesh in accordance with an instruction from the inter-mesh required time data generation unit 19 and calculates a required time between the representative points. Further, the route search engine 17 refers to the road traffic information storage unit 27 in accordance with the instruction from the required time correction unit 15 described above, from the temporary departure point in the mesh to which the departure point belongs, to the mesh to which the departure point belongs. A route search to a plurality of sampling points existing in different directions is performed, and a required time from the temporary departure point to the plurality of sampling points at the time of executing the route search is calculated.

  The required time data generator 19 between meshes generates the required time data 250 between meshes. First, the inter-mesh required time data generation unit 19 requests the route search engine 17 to search for a route between representative points, and acquires the required time between representative points. For example, the inter-mesh required time data generation unit 19 makes a route search request for all meshes with a representative point of one mesh as a departure point and a representative point of another mesh as a destination. Further, the inter-mesh required time data generation unit 19 generates inter-mesh required time data 250 using the required time between representative points as the required time between meshes, and stores it in the required time storage unit 25 between meshes. That is, as described above, for all meshes, the required time to the representative point of another mesh when the representative point is the starting point is set as the approximate moving time between the meshes.

  The inter-mesh required time data generation unit 19 generates the inter-mesh required time data 250 in advance before accepting a request from the user terminal device 5. The required time data generator 19 between meshes updates the required time data 250 between meshes regularly or irregularly. The inter-mesh required time data generation unit 19 stores road traffic information in the corresponding day and time zone in order to generate the inter-mesh required time data 250 for each weekday, Saturday, Sunday, and holiday type and time zone. With reference to the unit 27, the inter-mesh required time data 250 may be generated.

  Next, a processing procedure in a system having the above configuration will be described.

  FIG. 6 shows an example of the user terminal device 5. A search condition input screen is displayed on the display unit 51 of the user terminal device 5. Here, a target time 52 is set. When the current position can be specified, such as when the user terminal device 5 has a built-in GPS function, the input of the departure point can be omitted by setting the automatically detected current position as the departure point. The user terminal device 5 transmits a request according to the search condition including the latitude, longitude and target time of the current position to the search device 10.

  FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing a processing procedure of the search device 10.

  As a premise for performing the processing according to this flowchart, the inter-mesh required time data 250 is generated in advance.

  First, in the search device 10, the request processing unit 11 receives a request sent from the user terminal device 5 (S11).

  When the request processing unit 11 receives the request, the request processing unit 11 instructs the required time correction unit 15 to calculate a correction coefficient. As a result, the route search engine 17 performs a route search from the temporary departure point to the sampling point in accordance with the instruction from the required time correction unit 15, and calculates the required time for each direction for calculating the correction coefficient (S13). ).

  The required time correction unit 15 calculates the correction coefficient for each direction as described above from the required time for each direction calculated in step S13 (S15).

  The mesh search unit 13 performs a mesh search using the correction coefficient calculated in step S15, and extracts a target mesh within the target time from the mesh to which the departure point belongs (S17).

  Based on the map mesh data and the facility data 230, the request processing unit 11 searches for the facility in the target mesh searched in step S17 (S19). Then, a response including the facility searched here is generated and output to the user terminal device 5 (S21). In addition, after step S19, a route search using each facility searched in step S19 as the arrival point from the current position automatically detected by the GPS function or the departure point that is input by the user is performed. It is possible to obtain the exact required time at that time for each facility (S20). In this case, a response including only the facility whose accurate required time obtained in step S20 is within the target time is generated and output to the user terminal device 5 (S21).

  Thereby, the user using the user terminal device 5 can obtain a list of facilities that can arrive within the target time from the departure point. As a result, for example, if a starting point and a target time are determined, it is possible to know a plurality of candidate facilities that can be reached within that range, and thus it is possible to find a favorite facility from among the candidate facilities.

  Step S13 and step S15 can be omitted. That is, it is not always necessary to correct the inter-mesh required time data 250. In addition, when the search device 10 supports a plurality of types of facility searches, the user terminal device 5 can accept the specification of the facility type and search for the specified facility type.

  The above-described embodiments of the present invention are examples for explaining the present invention, and are not intended to limit the scope of the present invention only to those embodiments. Those skilled in the art can implement the present invention in various other modes without departing from the gist of the present invention.

5 User terminal device 10 Search device 11 Request processing unit 13 Mesh search unit 15 Required time correction unit 17 Route search engine 19 Required time data generation unit between meshes Map data data storage unit 23 Facility data storage unit 25 Required time storage unit between meshes 27 Road traffic information storage

Claims (8)

A required time storage unit between meshes for storing a required time between meshes indicating an approximate movement time between the plurality of meshes when the map is divided into a plurality of meshes;
Input means for receiving an input of a starting point and a target time in any of the plurality of meshes;
With reference to the inter-mesh required time storage means, a mesh extracting means for extracting a plurality of target meshes within the target time from the mesh to which the departure point belongs,
Facility data storage means for storing facility location data;
Referring to the facility data storage means, facility extraction means for extracting facilities in the plurality of target meshes;
An apparatus for searching for a facility that can be reached within a target time, comprising: an output unit that outputs the extracted facility. Execute the route search by referring to road traffic information and performing a route search from a temporary departure point in the mesh to which the departure point belongs to a plurality of sampling points in different directions from the mesh to which the departure point belongs. A route search engine that calculates the required time from the temporary departure point to the plurality of sampling points at the time,
Correction means for calculating a correction coefficient for each direction from the mesh to which the departure point belongs based on the required time from the temporary departure point to the plurality of sampling points; and
The mesh extraction means corrects the required time between meshes from the mesh to which the departure point belongs using the correction coefficient for each direction, and extracts the target mesh based on the corrected required time between meshes. An apparatus for searching for facilities that can be reached within the target time according to Item 1. In the required time storage means between meshes, the required time between meshes for each weekday, Saturday, Sunday, and holiday type and time zone are stored,
The said mesh extraction means extracts the said target mesh using the time required between meshes when the said input means receives the input, The apparatus which searches the facility which can be reached within the target time of Claim 1 . In the plurality of meshes, one representative point is determined in advance,
It further includes a route search engine that performs route search between each representative point and calculates the required time between representative points.
The apparatus which searches the facility which can be reached within the target time in any one of Claims 1-3 which memorize | stores the required time between the said representative points in the said mesh required time memory | storage means as said required time between meshes.   The apparatus which searches the facility reachable within the target time according to claim 4, wherein each representative point in the plurality of meshes is a center point of each mesh. The plurality of meshes, each range is determined based on latitude and longitude,
The location data of the facility is determined by latitude and longitude,
The said facility extraction means is an apparatus which searches the facility which can be reached within the target time in any one of Claims 1-5 extracted using the latitude and the longitude of the location data of the said mesh and the said facility. Storing a required time between meshes indicating an approximate movement time between the plurality of meshes when the map is divided into a plurality of meshes in a required time storage unit between meshes;
The required time storage means between meshes,
Receiving a starting point and target time input in any of the plurality of meshes; and
Extracting a plurality of target meshes within the target time from the mesh to which the departure point belongs with reference to the inter-mesh required time storage means; and
Referring to facility data storage means for storing facility location data, extracting facilities in the plurality of target meshes;
Outputting the extracted facilities, and a method of searching for facilities that can be reached within a target time. A computer program for searching for facilities that can be reached within a target time,
On the computer,
Storing a required time between meshes indicating an approximate movement time between the plurality of meshes when the map is divided into a plurality of meshes in a required time storage unit between meshes;
Receiving a starting point and target time input in any of the plurality of meshes; and
Extracting a plurality of target meshes within the target time from the mesh to which the departure point belongs with reference to the inter-mesh required time storage means; and
Referring to facility data storage means for storing facility location data, extracting facilities in the plurality of target meshes;
And a step of outputting the extracted facility.

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