KR19990063157A - Traffic information system - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a traffic information system, which detects a more accurate traffic delay and notifies each vehicle. In order to solve the object of the present invention, the information center system 20 calls the terminal system of the vehicle 1 which is connected to the public telecommunication network 3, collects the ID and the current position of each terminal system 10, and estimates the traffic delay state. . The estimated traffic information delay status information is transmitted to the terminal system 10 through the public telephone network 3 in response to the request, and presented to the user.

Description

Traffic information system

The present invention relates to a traffic information system that collects driving state information of a vehicle, grasps a traffic delay state from the collected driving state information, and notifies the vehicle.

In modern vehicle society, traffic delays are one of the serious social problems that cause enormous losses in economic activity and personal life. Therefore, in order to eliminate the traffic jam, it is effective to notify the driver of the traffic jam information in real time and to guide the driver to a road that is not jammed.

To this end, it is necessary to accurately grasp the state of the traffic delay and to notify the driver by appropriate means.

Until now, grasping traffic conditions has been performed by driving a vehicle on which a real-time monitoring agent rides, or observing whether a traffic jam is in the air by a helicopter or the like.

In addition, it has been carried out through a broadcast medium such as a notification to the vehicle driver of traffic jam status information, radio, and the like.

On the other hand, in recent years, the technique which installs a plurality of vehicle detectors which detect the traveling and the speed of a vehicle on the road, and grasps the traffic jam state based on the information obtained from each installed vehicle detector is utilized. In addition, in a system recently used in Japan called VICS, various information such as traffic jam status information is transmitted from a communication device called a beacon device installed on a road to an information center system, and the road on which the beacon device is installed from the beacon device is connected. It is performed to directly transfer various information transmitted from the information center system to a traveling vehicle.

There is a problem that it is impossible to accurately determine the traffic jam state by the technology of detecting the traffic jam state from the driving or speed of the vehicle collected by the vehicle detector.

In other words, according to this technique, only the point where the vehicle detector is installed can measure the running and speed of the vehicle. For example, even if a delay occurs at the point where the vehicle detector is not installed, the point where the vehicle detector is installed If the car is passing smoothly, it is impossible to identify this delay.

The technical problem to be achieved by the present invention is to provide a traffic information system capable of more accurately detecting a traffic delay condition and notifying the driver of necessary information.

In addition, in such a traffic information system, it is to provide each driver individually with information that the driver needs or is of interest to the individual driver.

1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a traffic information system.

2 is a block diagram showing the configuration of an information center system and a terminal system.

3 is a flowchart showing a processing procedure of a current position collecting process performed in the information center system.

4 is a flowchart showing the processing procedure of the traffic delay information creating process performed in the information center system.

5 is a flowchart showing a processing procedure of information transmission processing performed in the information center system.

6 is a flowchart showing a processing procedure of a current position transmission process performed in a terminal system.

7 is a flowchart showing a processing procedure of traffic delay information display processing performed in a terminal system.

8 is a flowchart showing a traffic delay information processing procedure performed in an information center system.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In order to solve the above technical problem, the present invention provides a navigation apparatus including a storage means for storing a unique ID, a current position calculating means for calculating a current position of a vehicle equipped with the terminal system, and a mobile telephone line. A plurality of mobile telephone terminal apparatuses for connecting the navigation apparatus to a public network, each of which includes a plurality of terminal systems mounted on a plurality of different automobiles;

An information center system having a public network connection means for connecting to the public network;

The navigation device,

Transmitting means for transmitting an ID stored by the storage means and a current position calculated by the current position calculating means to an information center system through the mobile telephone terminal device and a public network;

And output means for outputting a traffic jam state received from the information center system through the public network and the mobile telephone terminal device to a user of the navigation device.

The information center system,

Estimating means for calculating and estimating a driving state of each vehicle from an ID received from each navigation apparatus and a current position through the mobile telephone terminal apparatus and the public network, and the estimated traffic delay state through the public network and the mobile telephone terminal apparatus. Provided is a traffic information system comprising transmission means having transmission means for transmitting to each navigation apparatus.

According to such a traffic information system, in order to grasp the actual trend of the vehicle driving on the road by collecting the actual position of each car, and to estimate the traffic delay of each road by this, a more accurate traffic jam state is obtained. It is possible to detect. In addition, it is possible to notify each driver of the required traffic jam information by using a communication system that collects the current location of each vehicle.

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

1 shows a configuration of a traffic information system according to the present invention.

The traffic information system of FIG. 1 includes a terminal system 10 mounted on a vehicle 1, an information center system 20, and a public network 3.

The terminal system 10 includes a navigation device and a mobile phone terminal. The mobile phone terminal is connected to the wireless base station 4 through wireless line communication, and is accommodated in the public network 3. On the other hand, the information center system 20 is connected to the public network 3 by a dedicated communication line. In such a form, the navigation device is connected to a cellular phone terminal and communicates with the information center system via the cellular phone terminal, the public network and a dedicated communication line.

In addition, the navigation device has a function of calculating the current position of the terminal 1, the vehicle speed, etc. using GPS satellites 5 and the like. In such a configuration, the navigation device of the terminal system 10 of each vehicle is typically in communication with the information center system 20, and the navigation device ID and the current location of the vehicle, or the navigation device unique ID and the current location and vehicle speed are determined by the information center. Send to system 20.

The information center system 20 collects the current position of the vehicle for each navigation apparatus delivered from the navigation apparatus of the terminal system 10 of each vehicle, or the current position and vehicle speed for each navigation apparatus, thereby knowing the trend of each vehicle, Estimate traffic congestion on each road. And communication with the navigation device of the terminal system 10 of each vehicle, and the estimated traffic delay status information around the current position of the vehicle equipped with the navigation device according to a request from the navigation device of the terminal system 10 of each vehicle. Notify the navigation device.

The navigation device presents the notified traffic delay status information to the driver of the vehicle 1 by a method such as displaying on the prepared display device.

In addition, the information center system 20 is installed in the home or office 6, communicates with the information terminal 60 connected to the public network 3 and the portable information terminal 70 connected to the public network 3 via a wireless communication line, and the road required by such information terminal. (B) inform the estimated traffic delay status of the area;

The notified information terminal is presented to the user by a method such as displaying on the display device with the notified traffic delay status information.

However, although shown one by one in the figure, it is preferable that a plurality of portable information terminals 70 and information terminals 60 exist.

Hereinafter, a traffic information system according to the present invention will be described in detail.

First, the configuration of the information center system 20 and the terminal system 10 is shown in FIG.

Also, in FIG. 2, a single terminal system 10, a portable information terminal 70, and an information terminal 60 are representatively represented.

However, as shown in the drawing, the terminal system 10 mounted on the vehicle 1 includes the mobile phone terminal 110 and the navigation device 120 described above. The cellular phone terminal 110 connects to a cellular public communication network such as cellular, PCS, or GSM via a wireless communication line.

In addition, the navigation device 120 receives the information transmitted from the GPS satellites 5 to the ground by radio waves, thereby the GPS receiver 121 for calculating the current position of the vehicle 1, the gyro sensor 122 for calculating the respective speeds of the vehicle 1, and the rotation of the vehicle. The processing unit 126 composed of various measurements such as the vehicle speed sensor 123 for calculating the speed of the vehicle 1, the microprocessor, and the like, and the ROM or the processing unit 126 storing the programs described above for the processing executed by the processing unit 126 are processed. Road map database 127 consisting of RAM used as an area, a ROM 125 storing a unique ID of a navigation device 120, or a register, a CD-ROM storing a road map, a CD-ROM driver, and the like. A display controller 130 for displaying the current position or traffic jam information and a display controller 129 for controlling the display of the display apparatus 130 according to the instructions of the processor 126; And an interface unit 128 for relaying information transmission and reception between the telephone terminal 110 and the processing unit 126, and an input unit 124 for receiving instructions from a user such as a driver of the vehicle 1.

Next, the information center system 20 includes a plurality of call processing apparatuses 202 processing one communication between one terminal system 10 or information terminals 60 and 70, and each communication processed by the plurality of call processing apparatuses 202. A branch exchange 201 for distributing each communication transmitted through a dedicated line to a public network 3 or a private line to a plurality of call processing units 202, an information server system 210 configured by a computer, and billing for each communication. It has a billing system 208 that manages

The information server system 210 also includes a server side processing unit 205 composed of a single or a plurality of processors, and a server side memory unit 206 storing various programs and the like executed by the server side processing unit 205. The information server system 210 further includes a map database of roads and various facilities, an ID database of the navigation device 120 of each terminal system 10, a phone number database of the mobile phone terminal 110 of each single system 10, and an ID and a phone number. Etc., a history database of the current position received from the navigation device 120 for each ID, a history database of the current position and the speed of the vehicle, a database of traffic delay status information of each road, and a (P01) database of facility information for each type. And a database unit 207 storing backs. In practice, such an information server system 210 is constructed by a single or a plurality of computer systems.

Next, the information terminal 60 is composed of a personal computer equipped with a modem, an ISDN adapter, or the like, and the portable information terminal is composed of a notebook personal computer 710 and a mobile telephone terminal 720.

The operation of the traffic information system will be described below.

First, the operation of the information center system 20 will be described.

In FIG. 3, the server side processing part 205 of the information center system 20 shows the processing sequence of the current position collection process performed according to the program stored in the memory part 206. FIG.

This processing is performed for each terminal system 10.

The server-side processing unit 205 outputs a signal to the terminal system 10 through the call processing device 202 and the campus exchange 201 at a predetermined time interval (step 305) (step 301), and the call processing apparatus 202, the campus exchange 201, and the public network 3. The mobile station 110 connects to the navigation device 10 through the mobile phone terminal 110 and requests the transmission of the location information and the ID number or the location information and the ID number and the vehicle speed information when the navigation device 10 has a predetermined response (step 302). (Step 303) In response to this request, if the current position of the vehicle 1 and the ID number of the navigation device 10 or the current position of the vehicle 1 and the vehicle speed and the ID number of the navigation device 10 are transmitted from the navigation device, this is received. The current position history database received from the navigation device 120 of each ID of the database unit 207 or the current position and vehicle speed history database together with the time is stored (step 304).

Next, FIG. 4 shows the processing procedure of the traffic jam information creating process performed by the center side processing unit 205 of the information center system 20 according to the program stored in the memory unit 206. FIG.

This process is automatically started and executed.

In this process, first, the current position recently received from the navigation device 10 of each vehicle 1 is read from the current position history database received from the navigation device 120 of each ID of the database unit 207, or from the current position and the vehicle speed history database. Step 401). Then, the current position history database which received the latest received current position of each vehicle 1 and the present position received from each vehicle 1 a certain time ago from the navigation apparatus 120 of each ID of the database part 207, or the current position and vehicle speed history. Read from the database (step 402). Then, the vehicle speed of the vehicle 1 equipped with the navigation device 120 for each ID is calculated based on the difference between the distance between the two and the time at which the two are received (step 403). However, when the vehicle speed is stored in the current position history database received from the navigation device 120 of each ID of the database unit 207 or the current position and the vehicle speed history database in FIG. 3, the processing in steps 402 and 403 is performed. Instead, processing is performed to read the vehicle speed recently received from the navigation device 10 of each vehicle 1 from the current position history database received from the navigation device 120 of each ID of the database unit 207, or from the current position and the vehicle speed history database.

Next, if the current position and the vehicle speed of the vehicle equipped with the navigation device 10 are obtained for each navigation device 10 of each ID, the traffic jam state of each road is estimated (step 404). This estimation process will be described later in detail. Thus, the estimated road traffic delay information is stored in the database of the traffic jam state information of each road in the database unit 207 (step 405).

Next, FIG. 5 shows a processing procedure of information transmission processing performed by the server side processing unit 205 of the information center system 20 in accordance with the program stored in the memory unit 206. FIG.

In this processing, the following processing is performed while receiving from the arbitrary navigation apparatus 120 through the cellular phone terminal 110, the public network 3, the branch exchange 201, and the call processing apparatus 202 (step 501).

That is, first, the ID transmitted from the navigation apparatus 120 is checked (step 502), the current position information of the vehicle on which the transmitted navigation apparatus is mounted is received (step 503), and the request for the transmitted traffic delay information is performed. (B) Step 504 receives an information request instruction including the range of the requested traffic delay information (step 504), and transmits the traffic delay status information of the range centering on the current road or the current location where the received current location exists. The data is retrieved from the database of traffic congestion status information on the road (506), transmitted to the navigation device 120 (step 507), the telephone line is disconnected, the communication is interrupted (step 508), and the processing ends.

If the ID cannot be confirmed in step 502, the line is disconnected (step 509). If it is impossible to receive the current position or the information request command, the navigation device 120 requests this (steps 510 and 511).

As mentioned above, although the process performed by the information center system 20 was demonstrated, each process of this is performed, taking necessary information, such as the telephone number of the same terminal system 10, from each database of the database part 206.

In addition, the information center system 20 performs a process of transmitting the traffic delay status information to the information terminals 60 and 70 in response to the request of the traffic light from the information terminals 60 and 70 by the same processing as that performed for the navigation apparatus 120. In this case, however, the traffic jam state information to be transmitted is traffic jam state information of the road or region designated by the information terminals 60 and 70.

Hereinafter, the operation of the terminal system 10 will be described.

The navigation device 120 of the terminal system 10 always performs a process of calculating the current position of the vehicle 1 during startup. This processing is performed by the processing unit 126 in accordance with a program stored in the memory unit 125. Specifically, the current position calculated by the GPS receiver 121 is used as the current position, or the relative position from the current position calculated immediately before the vehicle 1 obtained from the angular velocity detected by the gyro sensor 122 and the vehicle speed and time calculated by the vehicle speed sensor 123. This virtual current position can be obtained from the movement distance / direction, and the current position can be determined by combining the virtual current position with the relative movement distance / direction, and the road map read from the road map database (map matching). do. However, as for the method of determining the present position, various methods are realized, and any method that is also implemented in the present embodiment may be performed.

The processing unit 126 of the navigation device 120 of the terminal system 10 performs a process of displaying the determined current position on the display unit 130 through the display control unit 129 together with a map around the current position read out from the road map database 127.

Next, in Fig. 6, when the call is made from the information center system 20 through the public network 3 and the mobile phone terminal 110, the current position transmission process performed by the processing unit 126 of the navigation device 120 in accordance with the program stored in the memory unit 125. Indicates.

In this process, when it is called from the information center system 20 via the interface 128 (step 601) and receives a request for transmitting the position information and the ID number or the position information and the ID number and the vehicle speed information (step 602), the memory unit 125 receives the request. The stored ID, the current position determined as described above, or the ID stored in the memory unit 125, the current position determined as described above, and the vehicle speed obtained from the vehicle speed sensor 123 are transmitted to the information center system 20. (Step 603), the communication is terminated (step 604), and the processing ends.

Next, when a user such as a driver is required to display traffic jam information, FIG. 7 shows a procedure of traffic jam information display processing performed by the processing unit 126 of the navigation device 120 in accordance with a program stored in the memory 125.

In this process, when the display of traffic delay information or the request range designation is input through the input unit 124 (step 701), it is automatically output to the information center system 20 through the interface 128 and the mobile phone terminal 110 (step). 702). Now, the telephone number of the information center system 20 is stored in the memory unit 125 in advance and used.

The server side processing unit 205 is connected to the server side processing unit 205 via the interface unit 128, the portable telephone terminal 110, the public network 3, the branch office switch 201, and the call processing unit 202 (step 703). (Step 704), an information request command for requesting traffic delay information is transmitted (step 705).

If a range for requesting traffic delay information is specified by the user, the information is sent as an information request instruction.

Thereafter, when the server side processing unit 205 receives the requested traffic jam state information (step 706), the communication is terminated (step 707), and the received traffic jam state information is displayed on the display unit 130 through the display controller 129. (Step 708).

The display of the traffic jam state information is performed by, for example, a display form in which each road is displayed in a color corresponding to the jam state on a road map.

However, by calling and requesting the information center system 20 from the terminal system 10 side as in the process of FIG. 7, the traffic jam state information is not transmitted from the information center system 20 to the terminal system 10, and is accumulated from the information center system 20. In addition, each terminal system 10 may be called to transmit traffic delay status information corresponding to the current position of the terminal system 10 to the terminal system 10. In this case, in the current position collection process shown in Fig. 3, when the server side processing unit 205 of the information center system 10 collects the ID and the current position from the terminal system 10, it simultaneously provides traffic delay status information. You may make it transmit to the terminal system 10. FIG.

The operation of the terminal system 10 has been described above.

In this manner, in the same processing as that of the information terminals 60, 70, and FIG. 7, the traffic jam state information is obtained from the information center system 20 and displayed on the prepared display device or the like. However, in the case of the information terminals 60 and 70, the information center system 20 designates a road or region requesting traffic jam condition information and receives traffic jam condition information of the designated road or area.

As described above, the terminal system 10 and the information terminals 60 and 70 have described the case where the traffic jam status information is obtained from the information center system 20. However, by the same processing as that obtained the traffic jam status information, The terminal system 10 or the information terminals 60 and 70 may obtain various kinds of information from the information center system.

For example, the navigation apparatus 120 requests information center system information of a certain kind of facilities (restaurants, etc.) in response to a user's instruction, and the server-side processing unit 205 of the information center system 20 requests P01 described above in the database unit 207. It is built on a database. From the information on the facility of the requested type, the searcher searches for a place close to the current location transmitted from the navigation device 120 and transmits the same to the navigation device 120. Even in this case, the navigation device 120 displays the received information on the display device 130 in an appropriate form.

Here, when information is transmitted from the information center system 20 to the terminal system 10, the information providing content is notified from the server side processing unit 205 to the charging system 208 as with the ID of the navigation device 120.

The billing system 208 stores, as the amount of money, the matters to be charged for the navigation device 120 when the information provision is to be billed.

Hereinafter, the process of performing the prediction of the traffic jam condition (Fig. 4, step 404) in the server side processing unit 205 described above will be described in detail.

The processing procedure of this process is shown in FIG.

In this process, from the position of each vehicle obtained in step 401 to 403 of FIG. 4, which link on the road map data stored in the road map database of the database unit 207 is driven by each vehicle is determined from each position and the road map data. It compares and combines and estimates (step 801). Here, the road map data is expressed as a set of straight lines that link and call each road. In other words, in the road map data, a plurality of links are continuously expressed in one road. In addition, such a link is generally defined by the coordinates of both ends of the link (Node).

Next, in step 802, the average speed of the vehicle traveling on each link is estimated from the vehicle speeds of the respective vehicles obtained in steps 401 to 403 of FIG. 4, and this is taken as the average speed information of each link. It is common to have a link where data exists and a link that does not exist, and as the sample data increases, the link where data exists increases. Then, in step 803, the average speed of the vehicle traveling in each road section of each of the plurality of links estimated from the average speed information of each link is estimated, and this is taken as the average speed information of the road section. Here, the average speed of a section is estimated based on the data of the link without the data from the combination of the link with the data and the link without the data. Now, for a link without a vehicle traveling on the link, the average speed information of the link is not used to estimate the average speed information of the road section.

Next, using the above-described table of correspondence between the speed range and the traffic jam condition, the traffic jam conditions of the road sections are compared and combined (step 804). In the table, for example, the average speed information of the road section is a traffic jam state when the speed is 40 km / s or more, and a traffic jam condition when the speed is more than 10 km / s and less than 40 km / s. In the case of traffic jams, the meaning of traffic jams is very crowded.

In step 805, the traffic congestion state already described in the table corresponding to the speed range including the average speed information of each road section is regarded as the traffic congestion state of the corresponding road section, and the processing ends.

In the above, one Embodiment of the traffic information system which concerns on this invention was described.

According to this embodiment, by collecting the current position of the actual vehicle, it is possible to grasp the actual driving performance of the vehicle traveling on the road, thereby to estimate the traffic delay state of each road more accurately. Can be detected. In addition, by using the communication system that collects the current position of each vehicle, it is possible to notify each driver of the necessary traffic jam state information. Moreover, in addition to this notification, each driver needs the driver, Alternatively, the driver may provide information of interest to each driver individually.

As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to provide a traffic information system which can more accurately detect a traffic delay and notify the driver of information necessary for the driver. In addition, in such a traffic information system, it is possible to individually provide information to each driver that the driver needs and that the driver is interested.

Claims (4)

A navigation device having a storage means for storing a unique ID, a current position calculation means for calculating a current position of a vehicle equipped with the terminal system, and a mobile telephone terminal device for connecting the navigation device to a public network via a mobile telephone line; And a information center system having a plurality of terminal systems mounted on a plurality of different vehicles, and a public network connecting means for connecting to the public network. The navigation device, Transmitting means for transmitting an ID stored by the storage means and a current position calculated by the current position calculating means to an information center system through the mobile telephone terminal device and a public network; And output means for outputting a traffic jam state received from the information center system through the public network and the mobile telephone terminal device to a user of the navigation device. The information center system, Estimating means for estimating a traffic jam state by calculating a driving state of each car from an ID received from each navigation device and a current position through the mobile phone terminal device and a public network; and calculating the estimated traffic jam state from the public network and the mobile phone. And a transmitting means having a transmitting means for transmitting to each navigation apparatus through the terminal apparatus. 2. The collecting means according to claim 1, wherein the information system collects a current position of a vehicle on which each navigation apparatus is mounted via the public network from a plurality of navigation apparatuses mounted on a plurality of different automobiles and connected to a public network through a wireless line. and, Estimating means for estimating the state of traffic delay by calculating the driving state of each car from the collected current position of each car, And a transmission means for transmitting the estimated traffic delay state to each navigation device through the public network. The method of claim 1, wherein the estimating means of the traffic information system The driving link of each vehicle is estimated by combining and comparing the position of each vehicle with the position information of the road link, Estimating an average speed of a vehicle running each link from the vehicle speed of each vehicle, Estimating an average speed of a vehicle traveling on each road section including a plurality of links predicted from the average speed information of each link, Traffic information system, characterized in that the means for estimating the traffic jam information by combining the means of estimating the traffic jam state of the road section from the average speed information of each road section. According to claim 1, The terminal system mounted on the vehicle, A navigation device comprising a storage means for storing a unique ID, a current position calculation means for calculating a current position of a vehicle on which the terminal system is mounted, and a mobile telephone terminal device for connecting the navigation device to a public network through a mobile telephone line; Equipped, The navigation device, Transmitting means for transmitting an ID stored in the storage means and a current position calculated by the current position calculating means to a predetermined transmission line through the mobile telephone terminal device and a public network; And traffic output means for outputting the traffic jam state received through the public network and the mobile telephone terminal device to the user of the corresponding navigation device.