JP2019174391A - Guidance device for vehicles, guidance method, and computer program therefor - Google Patents

Abstract

To provide a guidance device which, when some facility is set as a destination by a user, provides guidance taking into account the attractiveness of the facility and a congestion time in which the user would be caught before reaching the facility.SOLUTION: A guidance device 1 comprises: a facility preservation unit for preserving a facility; an attractiveness setting unit for specifying the attractiveness of the preserved facility; a congestion time computation unit for referring to the congestion information of a road and computing an access real time required for reaching the facility from a prescribed location, computing an access standard time required for reaching the facility from the prescribed location without referring to the congestion information of the road, and computing a congestion time that is the difference between the former and the latter; and recommendation creation unit for creating a recommendation to the user on the basis of the specified attractiveness and the computed congestion time.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 1

Description

  The present invention relates to an improvement of a guide device such as a vehicle navigation device.

When a new large-scale commercial facility or popular entertainment facility is set as a destination by using a guide device, and departs toward the destination, it may be involved in traffic jams on the surrounding roads before reaching the destination.
Even if the congestion at the facility is inevitable to some extent, the user may feel a great deal of stress by being involved in the traffic on the surrounding road. If you arrive at a destination facility and get involved in a traffic jam, you may regret that you should have considered using a facility other than this destination.
Therefore, conventionally, a technique has been proposed in which the degree of congestion of the roads around the facility is calculated, and when the degree of congestion exceeds a predetermined value, an alternative destination is presented (Patent Document 1).
In addition, based on past data, a technique for predicting the degree of congestion on a road around a facility and displaying it on a map has been proposed (Patent Document 2).
In addition, see Patent Document 3 and Patent Document 4 that calculate the degree of congestion of roads around the facility and propose countermeasures.

JP 2012-048559 A JP 2011-118110 A JP 2010-169441 A JP2009-075652

In these conventional techniques, the degree of congestion of the roads around the facility is obtained, and countermeasures such as guidance to avoid crowded roads are provided, or other destinations are introduced.
However, an important concern for the user is the extra time required to arrive at the destination and whether or not the time is on the scale. In other words, if the attractiveness of commercial facilities and entertainment facilities is great, you can be satisfied with some traffic jams and do not feel any stress.

Therefore, in the present invention, the degree of congestion of the roads around the facility is acquired and reflected in the route guidance, and the estimated arrival time (access real time) to the destination is calculated. At the same time, the estimated arrival time (access standard time) to the destination when there is no congestion is calculated. The difference between the two is the expected traffic time at departure.
On the other hand, facilities that are destinations have different attractiveness levels, and the attractiveness level changes. In this specification, the attractiveness of a facility is not a user's personal parameter, but is independent of the user's preferences and the like, and corresponds to, for example, the degree of congestion in the facility and the presence or absence of an event. The attractiveness decreases when the degree of congestion in the facility is high, and the attractiveness increases when an event is held. In addition, temperature, weather, time, season, etc. can be factors that determine the attractiveness of the facility. In addition, the attractiveness can be given individually as a default value according to the facility. Further, the remaining time until the closing time during business hours can be an attractiveness parameter.
If the attractiveness of the facility is large, even if it takes time to arrive due to traffic congestion on the surrounding roads, it does not cause much stress for the user. In other words, depending on the degree of attractiveness, the congested time that can be tolerated varies.

When the user sets a certain facility as a destination, the guidance device according to the present invention performs guidance in consideration of the attractiveness of the facility and the traffic jam time that is involved before reaching the facility. That is, the first aspect of the present invention is defined as follows.
A facility storage unit for storing facilities;
An attractiveness setting unit for specifying the attractiveness of the stored facility;
The actual access time required to reach the facility from a predetermined position is calculated by referring to the road congestion information, and the access standard time required to reach the facility from the predetermined position is referred to the road congestion information. A traffic time calculation unit that calculates the traffic time that is the time difference between the former and the latter,
A recommendation creating unit that creates a recommendation to the user based on the specified attractiveness and the calculated traffic jam time;
A guide device comprising:

According to the guidance device of the 1st situation prescribed | regulated in this way, the recommendation to a user is produced based on both the attractiveness of a plant | facility, and traffic jam time. On the other hand, the conventional technology only specifies the congestion degree of the road around the facility, and does not particularly calculate the traffic time. Of course, the facility's attractiveness is not considered at all, and a recommendation ( Display of congested roads and proposals for alternative destinations).
If the recommendation to the user is created in consideration of the attractiveness of the facility in addition to the traffic jam time as in the present invention, the recommendation becomes more useful to the user.
Here, the recommendation refers to information that the guidance device provides to the user and can be a guideline or hint for the user's action. In the present invention, the recommendation includes contents suggesting congestion of surrounding roads. For example, it is preferable to include information on the actual access time to the facility and the traffic jam time in this recommendation. The recommendations can be displayed on the image in the form of text or symbols. Also, output as audio is possible.
When the guidance device has a facility search function (a function for searching for facilities of a predetermined type (entertainment facility, etc.)) Used evaluation). Based on the result, facilities can be ranked. This order can be one of the recommendations.

The second aspect of the present invention is defined as follows. That is, in the guidance device according to the first aspect, the attractiveness of the facility is specified based on the congestion level of the facility. For example, if entertainment facilities are congested, the waiting time for attractions may be several hours. On the other hand, the surrounding roads may not be crowded at all. If the facility is selected based only on the degree of congestion on the surrounding roads, it cannot be denied that the user feels stress. Therefore, as specified in the second aspect, when the facility is designated as the destination, the recommendation for the user is made based on the congestion degree of the facility as well as the calculation of the congestion time (that is, the congestion degree as the attractive degree). create.
For example, if the surrounding road is congested and takes a long traffic time (for example, 1 hour), but the facility is not congested (for example, the waiting time for the attraction is 5 minutes), strongly guide the facility. Recommendations are created. On the other hand, even if there is almost no traffic time, if the facility is congested (for example, the attraction waiting time is 2 hours), it is recommended that the facility is congested when guiding the facility.
Here, the method of specifying the degree of congestion of the facility is not particularly limited, but the degree of congestion can be specified based on, for example, congestion information transmitted from the facility itself (for example, the average waiting time of attractions). In addition, the degree of congestion of the facility itself can be predicted from the degree of congestion of the parking lots around the facility. The degree of congestion in the parking lot can be obtained by analyzing probe information indicating the action history of the vehicle.

The third aspect of the present invention is defined as follows. That is, the attractiveness of the facility described in the first or second aspect is corrected by the event information of the facility.
If an event is taking place in the facility, the user will not be concerned about some congestion. Therefore, based on the event information provided from the facility, the attractiveness of the facility is increased during the event. In addition, when the attractiveness level of the facility is corrected by the congestion level, the attractiveness level can be corrected by correcting the congestion level based on the presence or absence of an event. The parameter indicating the degree of congestion is corrected according to the presence or absence of an event or the type of event to reduce this. While the event is being held, it may be assumed that there was no congestion (congestion level = 0).
As described in the third aspect, when the attractiveness is changed based on the event information, the event information is reflected in the recommendation to the user (fourth aspect). Thereby, a useful recommendation can be performed by the user.

The fifth aspect of the present invention is defined as follows. That is, in the guidance device according to the first aspect, the traffic time calculation unit calculates the traffic time when the attractiveness of the facility is equal to or less than a first threshold value.
According to the guidance device of the fifth aspect defined in this way, the congestion time is calculated or not calculated depending on the attractiveness of the facility. For example, when the facility is not crowded at all and its attractiveness is high (attractiveness> first threshold), the traffic on the surrounding road does not cause stress to the user. Therefore, only when the attractiveness is less than or equal to the first threshold value, the congestion time calculation unit is turned on so that a recommendation can be created. On the other hand, when the attractiveness exceeds the first threshold value, the congestion time calculation unit is turned off. , General-purpose guidance. Thereby, the burden requested | required of a guidance apparatus becomes light.

Further, even when the attractiveness of the facility is equal to or less than the first threshold, when the calculated traffic jam time is almost zero (that is, there is no traffic jam), it may not be necessary to create a recommendation. Therefore, in the sixth aspect of the present invention, in the guidance device defined in the fifth aspect, a recommendation is created only when the congestion time is equal to or greater than a first threshold time. As a result, useless recommendations are eliminated and the user-friendliness is improved.
Further, in the seventh aspect, in the guidance device defined in the sixth aspect, conditions for creating recommendations are further narrowed down, and unnecessary recommendations are omitted. That is, when the attractiveness of the facility is equal to or less than the second threshold, a recommendation is created. The second threshold is assumed to be smaller than the first threshold. That is, the traffic time calculation unit is turned on because the attractiveness is less than or equal to the first threshold, but when the attractiveness is greater than the second threshold, the recommendation creating unit is not operated and only when this is less than or equal to the second threshold. Make a recommendation. By using the first threshold value and looking at some margin and turning on the traffic time calculation unit as the background of the guidance device, the attractiveness of the facility changes, that is, the attractiveness is less than or equal to the second threshold value. Thus, when it becomes necessary to strongly guide the user, a recommendation can be quickly created.

  How to feel the attractiveness of the facility, for example, the stress with respect to the waiting time for the attraction of the facility and the stress with respect to the congestion time differ depending on the user. Therefore, the guidance device of the present invention includes a threshold setting unit so that the user can arbitrarily set the first threshold relating to the attractiveness of the facility and the first threshold relating to the traffic jam time (eighth aspect). .

The ninth aspect of the present invention is defined as follows. That is, in the guidance device defined in the sixth aspect, the recommendation creating unit is more influenced by the attractiveness than the congestion time and specifies the content of the recommendation. Thus, it becomes easier for the user to reflect the current state of the facility in the recommendation. In addition, since the congestion time is likely to change as compared with the attractiveness of the facility, it is preferable that the recommendation creation standard be the attractiveness of the facility. This is because the user may be confused if the recommendation is frequently changed.
On the other hand, since the actual access time to the facility is important information for the user, it is preferable to create a recommendation so that the actual access time can be grasped (tenth aspect).

The eleventh aspect of the present invention is defined as follows. That is, in the situation defined in Nos. 1 to 10,
Each time the recommendation creation unit creates a recommendation, a history storage unit that saves the content of the recommendation and the environment at the time of creating the recommendation,
When the recommendation creating unit newly creates a recommendation, a recommendation extracting unit that extracts the same or the same type of recommendation as the new recommendation from the history storage unit, and specifies an environment at the time of creating the extracted recommendation;
A comparison unit that compares the identified environment with the environment when creating a new recommendation,
The recommendation creating unit reflects the result of the comparison in creating a recommendation.

According to the 11th aspect guidance apparatus prescribed | regulated in this way, the log of recommendation creation is recorded in a log | history preservation | save part.
Then, when creating a new recommendation, the recommendation extraction unit refers to the recommendation log, and the same or the same type of recommendation is extracted. Here, the same or similar recommendation should be created when the attractiveness of the facility and the congestion time are the same. In general entertainment facilities and the surrounding roads, the same kind of congestion tendency appears every day of the week in the weekly unit and every month in the yearly unit. This is a so-called steady congestion state.
Therefore, in the guidance device according to the eleventh aspect, the comparison unit is used to compare the environment in the steady congestion state with the environment for creating a new recommendation. For example, even if the content of the recommendation is the same or the same type, the same recommendation as that in the steady state is created when there is a large difference between the day of the week or the day of the month, that is, in a case other than the steady congestion state. When this is done, that fact (comparison result) is reflected in the recommendation. Thereby, a user can be alerted.
In the above example, the day of the week (weekly unit) and the month and day (year unit) are used as environmental indicators, but hour and minute (day unit) can be used. Temperature or the like can be used as an environmental index, and a combination thereof can be used as an environmental index.

The twelfth aspect of the present invention is defined as follows. That is, a guidance method using a guidance device including a facility storage unit, an attractiveness setting unit, a traffic jam time calculation unit, and a recommendation creation unit,
The attractiveness setting unit identifies the attractiveness of the facility stored in the facility storage unit,
The traffic time calculation unit calculates an actual access time required to reach the facility from a predetermined position with reference to road congestion information, and calculates an access standard time required to reach the facility from the predetermined position. Calculate without referring to road congestion information, calculate the time difference between the former and the latter,
The recommendation creating unit creates a recommendation to the user based on the specified attractiveness and the calculated traffic jam time. A guidance method as in the guidance method of the twelfth aspect thus defined. If a recommendation for the user is created in consideration of the attractiveness of the facility in addition to the time, the recommendation becomes more useful for the user.

The thirteenth aspect of the present invention is defined as follows. That is, in the guidance method defined in the twelfth aspect, the attractiveness of the facility is specified based on the congestion level of the facility. Since the congestion level of the facility is an easily available parameter, it is easy to specify the attractiveness of the facility.
The fourteenth aspect of the present invention is defined as follows. That is, in the guidance method defined in the thirteenth aspect, the attractiveness of the facility is corrected by the event information of the facility. By modifying the attractiveness of the facility specified based on the congestion level of the facility using the event information, the attractiveness of the facility is more adapted to the user's request.

  The fifteenth aspect of the present invention is defined as follows. That is, in the guidance method defined in the fourteenth aspect, when the attractiveness is corrected by the event information, the event information is reflected in the content of the recommendation. It is beneficial for the user to provide the user with event information that modifies the attractiveness.

The sixteenth aspect of the present invention is defined as follows. That is, in the guidance method stipulated in the twelfth aspect, the recommendation creating unit creates a recommendation when the attractiveness of the facility is equal to or less than a first threshold value and the congestion time is equal to or greater than a first threshold time. To do. By creating a recommendation only when the attractiveness of the facility and the congestion time satisfy a predetermined condition, creation of a useless recommendation is prevented.
Furthermore, the present invention provides a computer program for causing a computer to execute the guidance methods of the twelfth to sixteenth aspects.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a guide device 1 according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a configuration of the attractiveness setting unit 20. FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a configuration of the traffic time calculation unit 30. FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing a configuration of the recommendation creating unit 40. As shown in FIG. FIG. 5 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of the recommendation creating unit 140 according to another embodiment. 3 is a flowchart showing the overall operation of the guide device 1. FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing a procedure for specifying the attractiveness. 8 is a flowchart showing the procedure for calculating the traffic time. FIG. 9 is a flowchart showing a procedure for creating a recommendation. FIG. 10 is a flowchart showing a procedure for creating a recommendation using a recommendation log. FIG. 11 is a schematic diagram showing a hardware configuration as a computer apparatus.

Hereinafter, a guide device 1 according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram of the function of the guide device 1.
The guidance device 1 includes a basic configuration unit 2 that is normally provided in a vehicle navigation device, an attractiveness setting unit 20, a traffic jam time calculation unit 30, and a recommendation creation unit 40 that exhibit the unique action of the present invention.
A basic component 2 of the navigation device includes a route calculation unit 3, an input unit 3, an output unit 7, and a map memory unit 9.
From the input unit 5, the current position of the vehicle, the destination, other travel conditions, and the like are input. The current position of the vehicle is input using GPS or a gyro. The destination is input through a touch panel, a cursor input device, a voice input microphone, or the like. Other travel conditions are manually input as appropriate by the user.

Based on the information input from the input unit, the route calculation unit 3 refers to the map memory 9 to calculate a guide route to the destination according to a general-purpose method and stores it in a buffer memory (not shown). . The map memory 9 stores data necessary for executing navigation. Such data includes map data, road data, addresses and telephone numbers, and facility information.
The facility memory unit 10 is an area for storing facility information in the map memory 9, and the name, coordinates (including polygons representing the facility area), telephone number, type, and the like are stored in this area. In this case, the default value of the attractiveness of the facility is also stored. Here, the default value of the attractiveness of the facility refers to the attractiveness inherent in the facility. For example, famous facilities such as Tokyo Disneyland (registered trademark) and USJ Japan (registered trademark) are given high attractiveness from the beginning. . On the other hand, suburban shopping malls are not as attractive as the former two. The default value is stored in the specific area 11 in the facility memory unit 10.

  When the facility in the map memory 9 is set as the destination, the route calculation unit 3 refers to the map data and road data stored in the map memory 9 and selects an optimum guidance route according to a standard method. At that time, the estimated arrival time at the destination is also calculated. This calculation is executed based on the distance of the selected route, the legal speed of the road, the number of signals passing through, and the like, and traffic jam information is not taken into consideration here. The estimated arrival time (access standard time) to the destination calculated in this way is stored in the access standard time storage unit 32 of the traffic jam time calculation unit 30 (see FIG. 3).

The route calculation unit 3 can calculate the estimated arrival time (access real time) to the destination with reference to the traffic jam information. The traffic information provided by VICS (registered trademark) or the like is obtained, and the data stored in the map memory 9, for example, the speed limit for each link is changed according to the traffic information, and the guide route is calculated again. The estimated arrival time (access real time) to the destination obtained as a result is also stored in the access real time storage unit 31 of the traffic time calculation unit 30.
When the route calculation unit 3 selects a route that bypasses the congested road, the destination arrival scheduled time when the route is used is stored in the access actual time storage unit 31 as the access actual time.
The computing device 35 computes the difference between the access real time stored in the access real time storage unit 31 and the access standard time stored in the access standard time storage unit 32 to obtain a traffic jam time.

  The output unit 7 includes a display device and a speaker, displays the guidance route searched by the route calculation unit 3 and other information on the display device, and guides the user through the speaker. Recommendations to be described later are also guided to the user via this output unit.

The attractiveness setting unit 20 specifies the attractiveness of the facility (see FIG. 2). Some facilities require little consideration of the degree of congestion. Such facilities are stored with a default value of 0 (no congestion). On the other hand, a default value N (≠ O) is given to a facility that is expected to be congested, and for a facility having such a default value N, the attractiveness setting unit reads out the attractiveness from the specific area 11 and sets the default value. Save in the storage unit 21.
Information relating to the congestion degree of the facility is input to the attractiveness setting unit 20 from the outside. Information directly provided from the facility (for example, average waiting time of attractions) can be used as the information regarding the degree of congestion, but of course, the present invention is not limited to this.
The attractiveness correction unit 23 corrects the attractiveness N (default value) using the congestion degree input in this way. For example, if the degree of congestion a increases, the attractiveness N is decreased. For example, let Na be a new attractiveness. Further, the coefficient α (≦ 1) may be multiplied according to the degree of congestion a.

Information (event information) of an event held at the facility is also input to the attractiveness setting unit 20. It is preferable to use the event information supplied from the facility.
If an event is held, a certain amount of congestion will not cause the user's stress. In this example, the correction unit 25 corrects the degree of congestion with event information. For example, correction is performed to reduce the value of the degree of congestion according to the event information b. The congestion level ab may be set as a new congestion level, or may be multiplied by a coefficient β (≦ 1) according to the event information b.
The attractiveness N may be directly corrected using the event information.

As described in detail in FIG. 4, the attractiveness specified by the attractiveness setting unit 20 and the traffic time calculated by the traffic time calculation unit 30 are input to the comparison unit 41 of the recommendation creating unit 40. The comparison unit 41 reads the corresponding recommendation from the recommendation storage unit 42 and sends it to the output unit 7. The output unit 7 outputs the sent recommendation to make the user recognize it.
Here, the recommendation storage unit 42 summarizes the contents of the recommendation in a matrix format of attractiveness and congestion time, and the comparison unit 41 exists in the cell of the matrix closest to the set of the attractiveness and congestion time input. Read out the recommendations to do. Of course, the function of attractiveness and calculation time can be determined in advance, and the content of the recommendation can be specified by the function calculation.

The recommendation creating unit 40 includes a threshold storage unit 44, and the threshold storage unit 44 stores a first threshold a1 and a second threshold a2 related to the attractiveness. Similarly, the first threshold time t1 related to the traffic jam time is stored.
When the attractiveness is less than or equal to the first threshold a1 (that is, when the attractiveness of the facility is small), a signal is sent from the attractiveness setting unit 20 to the traffic jam time calculation unit 30 to execute the traffic jam time calculation. In other words, when the attractiveness exceeds the first threshold value a1, the calculation of the traffic time by the traffic time calculation unit 30 is stopped to reduce the burden on the device.

Even when the attractiveness is equal to or less than the first threshold a1 (the traffic time calculation unit is on), when the traffic time is smaller than the first threshold time t1 (when the surrounding road is hardly congested). The operation of the recommendation creating unit 40 can be stopped. In other words, when the attractiveness is equal to or less than the first threshold value a1 and the congestion time is equal to or more than the first threshold time t1, a recommendation is created.
Furthermore, when the attractiveness exceeds the second threshold a1 even if the attractiveness is equal to or less than the first threshold a1 and the traffic jam time is equal to or greater than the first threshold time t1, the creation of the recommendation is stopped. Can do. Here, it is assumed that the second threshold value a2 is smaller than the first threshold value a1.
It is preferable to attach a threshold setting unit 46 that can arbitrarily set these thresholds to the recommendation calculation unit 40.

  FIG. 5 shows a recommendation creation unit 141 of another example. The same elements as those in FIG. 4 described above are denoted by the same reference numerals, and the description thereof is partially omitted. The recommendation creation unit 141 includes a recommendation log storage unit 143. The recommendation log storage unit 143 stores a standard set of the content of the recommendation and the environment when the recommendation is created. Here is the date and time as an index of the environment.

A standard set of recommendation content and environment is created by the recommendation log processing unit. That is, when a recommendation is created, the contents of all of the recommendations and the environment at the time of creating the recommendations are temporarily recorded in the recommendation log storage unit 143, and statistical processing is performed to determine a standard set of the recommendation contents and the environment. For example, for a given facility, the contents of recommendations when “Sunday morning” is adopted as the environment are aggregated, the most used content is selected, and the content and “Sunday morning” are standard set. And This standard set is stored in the recommendation log storage unit 143.
When creating a recommendation based on the current attractiveness and traffic jam time, the comparison unit 141 searches the recommendation log storage unit 143 for the same or similar recommendation and identifies the environment at that time. The environment specified in this way is compared with the environment at the time of creating the current recommendation, and when there is a difference between the two, the fact is reflected in the recommendation. For example, as the recommendation, for example, “Please note that unusual congestion or traffic congestion has occurred” can be adopted. This recommendation is also stored in the recommendation storage unit 42.

Next, the operation of the guide device 1 will be described with reference to flowcharts (FIGS. 6 to 9).
When the destination is set using the input unit 5 (S1), the control device that controls the entire guidance device 1 refers to the data in the specific area 11 of the facility memory 10, and the designated destination is attractive. It is determined whether or not the facility has a default value A0 regarding the degree (S2).
When the destination is designated as the destination and the default value of the attractiveness is not associated with other facilities, the normal guidance mode in which no recommendation is performed is set.

When a facility associated with the default value A0 of the attractiveness is specified, the attractiveness of the facility is specified. Although the default value A0 can be used as it is as the attractiveness value, in this embodiment, as shown in FIG. 7, the default value A0 is corrected based on the congestion level of the facility.
In step 31, the attractiveness setting unit 20 reads the default value A0 of the attractiveness of the corresponding facility from the specific area 11 of the facility memory unit 10 and stores it in the default value storage unit 21. In step 33, information on the congestion level of the facility is obtained from outside and stored in a buffer memory (not shown). Next, the event information of the facility is confirmed, and if there is event information, the correction unit 25 corrects the congestion information (S35, S37). In this example, if there is event information (that is, if an event is held), the degree of congestion is zero. When the event information is input to the correction unit 25, that is, when the attractiveness is corrected by the event information, the history is recorded. Then, when a recommendation based on the modified attractiveness degree is created, the presence of event information is included in the recommendation. It is thought that the user pays high attention to the event information.
In step 39, the default value of attractiveness is corrected according to the obtained degree of congestion. In this example, the attractiveness A is specified by multiplying the default value by a coefficient α (α ≦ 1) determined in advance according to the degree of congestion.

  Returning to FIG. 6, in step 5, the attractiveness level A specified in step 3 is compared with a predetermined first threshold value a <b> 1, and when the attractiveness level A is less than or equal to the first threshold value a <b> 1, Turn on. On the other hand, when the attractiveness level A1 exceeds the first threshold value a1, the attractiveness level of the facility is sufficiently large, and the user thinks that the facility should be visited regardless of the recommendation, and the congestion time calculation unit 30 is turned on. Only the normal guidance mode is executed.

  The traffic time calculation unit 30 turned on in step 5 calculates the traffic time Tj. Specifically, as shown in FIG. 8, when the destination is designated, the route calculation unit 3 performs a normal process to calculate a guide route (step 71). At that time, the time of arrival at the so-called theoretical destination (access standard time Tn) when calculated using only the data of the map memory 9 is calculated (S73), and the access standard time storage unit 32 of the congestion time calculation unit 30 is calculated. Save this to At the same time, the traffic information is taken in from the outside, and the estimated arrival time (access real time Tr) to the destination when the traffic information is taken into consideration is calculated and stored in the access real time storage unit 31 (S75). The computing device 35 subtracts the access standard time Tn from the access real time Tr and sets the obtained difference as the traffic jam time Tj (S77).

Returning to FIG. 6, in step 9, when the traffic jam time Tj specified in step 7 is smaller than a predetermined first threshold time, the normal guidance mode is executed and no recommendation is issued. This is because the traffic on the surrounding road is very little stress on the user, and it is not necessary to notify the presence of the traffic with a recommendation.
On the other hand, when the traffic jam time Tj is equal to or longer than the first threshold time t1, the process proceeds to step 11.
In this step 11, the attractiveness level A specified in step 3 is compared with a second threshold value a2 (> first threshold value a1), and when the attractiveness level A is equal to or lower than the second threshold value a2, a recommendation creation step 13 is performed. However, when the attractiveness A exceeds the second threshold value a2, the normal guidance mode is executed and no recommendation is issued.
By reaching the recommendation creation step 13, the attractiveness has been considered up to 2 times, so the recommendation has a greater influence on the attractiveness than the traffic time that was considered once. It can be said. The recommendation created in this way is highly influenced by the attractiveness compared to the traffic time.

In step 13, a recommendation is specified as described in detail in FIG.
In step 131, the attractiveness A sent from the attractiveness setting unit 20 is stored in a buffer memory (not shown). In step 133, the traffic time Tj sent from the traffic time calculation unit 30 is stored in a buffer memory (not shown). The comparison unit 41 reads the content of the recommendation corresponding to the combination closest to the combination from both from the recommendation storage unit 42. The content of the read recommendation is output from the output unit 7.
At this time, it is preferable to include the actual access time in the recommendation. This is because real-time access is a high concern for users.

In the above example, the first threshold value a1, the second threshold value a2, and the first threshold time t1 can be arbitrarily set. This is because how stress is felt for congestion and traffic jams depends on the individual attributes. In this example, the threshold setting unit 46 is attached to the recommendation creating unit 40. This is because, in Step 9 and Step 11 of FIG. 6, the comparison unit 41 examines whether or not to create a recommendation using the second threshold value a and the first threshold time t1.
Note that the first threshold value a1 is related to on / off of the congestion time calculation unit 30, and is used for the entire controller of the guidance device. For convenience, the first threshold value is also stored in the threshold value storage unit 44 of the recommendation creating unit 40.

The operation of the recommendation creation unit 140 (see FIG. 5) according to another embodiment will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. The same steps as those in the flowchart of FIG. 9 are denoted by the same reference numerals, and the description thereof is omitted.
In the flowchart of FIG. 10, in step 137, the environment (in this example, the date and time) when the recommendation is created in step 13 of FIG. 6 is specified and stored in the history storage unit 142 (not shown).
The set (currently specified) of the content of the recommendation specified in step 135 and the environment specified in step 137 is compared with the standard set of the content of the recommendation stored in the recommendation log storage unit 143. (S139). If the current set matches the standard set, the recommendation specified in S135 is output as it is (step 141). On the other hand, if the current set does not match the standard set, the recommendation is reflected in the recommendation (step 143).

A hardware configuration of the guide device 1 as a computer is shown in FIG.
One arithmetic unit is in charge of the elements 3, 23, 25, 35, and 41 having the arithmetic function. This calculation unit includes a CPU, a ROM, and a RAM, and controls the entire system. The ROM includes a non-volatile memory (not shown) in which a control program for controlling the arithmetic unit and the like are stored. The RAM stores various setting values preset by the user via the input device in a readable manner, and provides a working area for the CPU. The control program for controlling the calculation unit is not limited to the ROM, and may be stored in the RAM, the first storage device, and the second storage device.

The first storage device 9 is a memory device provided in a general-purpose guidance device, and stores data necessary for executing road search and navigation. The facilities targeted by the present invention are also part of the map data, but in this case, the attractiveness default value is associated with only a specific facility and stored in the facility memory unit 10.
The second storage device is a storage device 21, 42, 143, 44 for executing the recommendation function, and uses a partial area of a memory device provided in the guide device such as a hard memory or a flash memory. Is preferred.
A part of the RAM of the arithmetic unit can be used for a so-called buffer memory that temporarily stores data.

  The degree of congestion and event information are provided from the outside to the attractiveness setting unit 20, and the congestion information referred to by the route calculation unit 3 must also be provided from the outside. For this reason, the guidance device includes a general-purpose communication device 200. This communication device 200 can at least bidirectionally communicate with the data center 300. Congestion information, facility congestion, and event information are collectively managed by the data center 300.

  The present invention is not limited to the description of the above-described embodiments, examples, and modifications. Various modifications may be included in the present invention as long as those skilled in the art can easily conceive without departing from the description of the scope of claims.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Guide apparatus 10 Facility memory 20 Attractiveness setting part 30 Congestion time calculation part 40 Recommendation preparation part

Claims (21)

A facility storage unit for storing facilities;
An attractiveness setting unit for specifying the attractiveness of the stored facility;
The actual access time required to reach the facility from a predetermined position is calculated by referring to the road congestion information, and the access standard time required to reach the facility from the predetermined position is referred to the road congestion information. A traffic time calculation unit that calculates the traffic time that is the time difference between the former and the latter,
A recommendation creating unit that creates a recommendation to the user based on the specified attractiveness and the calculated traffic jam time;
A guide device comprising:   The guidance device according to claim 1, wherein the attractiveness level of the facility is specified based on a congestion level of the facility.   The guidance device according to claim 2, wherein the attractiveness of the facility is corrected by event information of the facility.   The guidance device according to claim 3, wherein when the attractiveness is corrected by the event information, the event information is reflected in the content of the recommendation.   The guidance device according to claim 1, wherein the traffic time calculation unit calculates the traffic time when the attractiveness of the facility is equal to or less than a first threshold.   The guidance device according to claim 5, wherein the recommendation creating unit creates a recommendation when the traffic jam time is equal to or longer than a first threshold time.   The guidance device according to claim 5 or 6, wherein the recommendation creating unit creates a recommendation when the attractiveness is equal to or less than a second threshold, wherein the second threshold is smaller than the first threshold. .   The guidance device according to claim 6, further comprising a threshold setting unit that allows a user to arbitrarily set a first threshold relating to the attractiveness of the facility and a first threshold relating to the traffic jam time.   The guidance device according to claim 6, wherein the recommendation creating unit is more influenced by the attractiveness than the traffic jam time and identifies the content of the recommendation.   The guidance device according to claim 1, wherein the recommendation creating unit creates a recommendation having a content that allows a user to grasp the access real time. Each time the recommendation creation unit creates a recommendation, a history storage unit that saves the content of the recommendation and the environment when the recommendation was created,
When the recommendation creation unit newly creates a recommendation, a recommendation extraction unit that extracts the same or the same type of recommendation as the new recommendation from the history storage unit, and identifies the environment at the time of creation,
A comparison unit that compares the identified environment with the environment at the time of creating the new recommendation,
The guidance device according to any one of claims 1 to 10, wherein the recommendation creation unit reflects the result of the comparison in creation of a recommendation. A guidance method using a guidance device comprising a facility storage unit, an attractiveness setting unit, a traffic jam time calculation unit, and a recommendation creation unit,
The attractiveness setting unit identifies the attractiveness of the facility stored in the facility storage unit,
The traffic time calculation unit calculates an actual access time required to reach the facility from a predetermined position with reference to road congestion information, and calculates an access standard time required to reach the facility from the predetermined position. Calculate without referring to road congestion information, calculate the time difference between the former and the latter,
The recommendation creating unit creates a recommendation for a user based on the specified attractiveness and the calculated traffic jam time.   The guidance method according to claim 12, wherein the attractiveness of the facility is specified based on a congestion degree of the facility.   The guidance method according to claim 13, wherein the attractiveness of the facility is modified by event information of the facility.   The guidance method according to claim 14, wherein the event information is reflected in the content of the recommendation when the attractiveness is corrected by the event information.   The guidance method according to claim 12, wherein the recommendation creation unit creates a recommendation when the attractiveness of the facility is equal to or less than a first threshold value and the traffic jam time is equal to or greater than a first threshold time. To a computer that controls a guidance device comprising a facility storage unit, an attractiveness setting unit, a traffic jam time calculation unit, and a recommendation creation unit,
Let the attractiveness setting unit specify the attractiveness of the facility stored in the facility storage unit,
The traffic time calculation unit calculates an actual access time required to reach the facility from a predetermined position with reference to road congestion information, and calculates an access standard time required to reach the facility from the predetermined position. Let's calculate without referring to the congestion information of the road, calculate the time difference between the former and the latter, this is the traffic time,
Based on the specified attractiveness and the calculated traffic jam time, the recommendation creation unit creates a recommendation to the user.
Computer program for the guidance device.   The computer program according to claim 17, wherein the attractiveness setting unit specifies the attractiveness of the facility based on the congestion degree of the facility.   The computer program according to claim 17, wherein the attractiveness setting unit causes the attractiveness of the facility to be corrected based on event information of the facility.   The computer program according to claim 17, wherein when the attractiveness is corrected by the event information, the recommendation creating unit creates a recommendation so that the event information is reflected.   The guidance device according to claim 17, wherein the recommendation creating unit creates a recommendation when the attractiveness of the facility is equal to or less than a first threshold and the congestion time is equal to or greater than a first threshold time.