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US 6,438,490 B2Granted
Route searching device
AssigneeXanavi Informatics Corporation
InventorKazutaka Ohta
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A processor calculates an estimated travel time required to travel from a current point to a destination or a passing point on a route on the basis of a travel time represented by traffic-jam information for a traffic-jam place which is represented by the traffic-jam information received by a traffic information receiver, and on the basis of a traffic-jam time calculated on the basis of map data for the other places; accordingly, the travel time required can be calculated in consideration of traffic-jam conditions.
Claims5
An apparatus for estimating a travel time needed to travel from a current position to a destination or a point on a recommendable route, comprising:
- storing means for storing map data representing a road map, said map data comprising link data pieces, each of which represents a link between nodes on a road on the road map and has a travel estimation time of the link;
- receiving means for receiving traffic jam information representing a traffic jam place and a travel estimation time of the traffic jam place by communication;
- travel time estimating means for estimating a travel time needed to travel from the current position to the destination or the point on the recommendable route;
- and
- display means for displaying the estimated travel time;
- wherein said travel time estimating means obtains link data pieces representing a route from the current position to the destination or the point on the recommendable route, obtains a traffic jam travel estimation time needed to pass through a section where traffic jam place is located on the route represented by said link data pieces thus obtained, obtains a non-traffic jam travel estimation time needed to pass through a section where traffic jam place is not located on the route represented by said link data pieces thus obtained, and calculates the sum of the traffic jam travel estimation time and the non-traffic jam travel estimation time as the travel time needed to travel from the current position to the destination or the point on the recommendable route, and
- wherein the non-traffic jam travel estimation time is obtained in such a manner that, as to each of the link data pieces thus obtained, a ratio of a length of a section where traffic jam place is located on a link represented by the link data piece to a length of the link is calculated, a first intermediate time obtained by multiplying a travel time of the link data piece by the ratio is calculated, a second intermediate time obtained by subtracting the first intermediate time from the travel time of the link data piece is calculated, and the sum of the second intermediate times of the link data pieces thus obtained is calculated as the non-traffic jam travel estimation time.
4 more elements
A method for estimating a travel time needed to travel from a current position to a destination or a point on a recommendable route, comprising steps of:
- storing map data representing a road map, said map data comprising link data pieces, each of which represents a link between nodes on a road on the road map and has a travel estimation time of the link;
- receiving traffic jam information representing a traffic jam place and a travel estimation time of the traffic jam place by communication;
- obtaining link data pieces representing a route from the current position to the destination or the point on the recommendable route;
- obtaining a traffic jam travel estimation time needed to pass through a section where traffic jam place is located on the route represented by said link data pieces thus obtained;
- obtaining a non-traffic jam travel estimation time needed to pass through a section where traffic jam place is not located on the route represented by said link data pieces thus obtained;
- calculating the sum of the traffic jam travel estimation time and the non-traffic jam travel estimation time to obtain the travel time needed to travel from the current position to the destination or the point on the recommendable route;
- and
- displaying the calculated travel time;
- wherein the non-traffic jam travel estimation time is obtained in such a manner that, as to each of the link data pieces thus obtained, a ratio of a length of a section where traffic jam place is located on a link represented by the link data piece to a length of the link is calculated, a first intermediate time obtained by multiplying a travel time of the link data piece by the ratio is calculated, a second intermediate time obtained by subtracting the first time from the travel time of the link data piece is calculated, and the sum of the second intermediate times of the link data pieces thus obtained is calculated as the non-traffic jam travel estimation time.
6 more elements
A medium for storing a program which is read out and executed by a computer, wherein said program makes said computer execute steps of:
- storing map data representing a road map, said map data comprising link data pieces, each of which represents a link between nodes on a road on the road map and has a travel estimation time of the link;
- receiving traffic jam information representing a traffic jam place and a travel estimation time of the traffic jam place by communication;
- obtaining link data pieces representing a route from the current position to the destination or the point on the recommendable route;
- obtaining a traffic jam travel estimation time needed to pass through a section where traffic jam place is located on the route represented by said link data pieces thus obtained;
- obtaining a non-traffic jam travel estimation time needed to pass through a section where traffic jam place is not located on the route represented by said link data pieces thus obtained;
- calculating the sum of the traffic jam travel estimation time and the non-traffic jam travel estimation time to obtain the travel time needed to travel from the current position to the destination or the point on the recommendable route;
- and
- displaying the calculated travel time;
- wherein the non-traffic jam travel estimation time is obtained in such a manner that, as to each of the link data pieces thus obtained, a ratio of a length of a section where traffic jam place is located on a link represented by the link data piece to a length of the link is calculated, a first intermediate time obtained by multiplying a travel time of the link data piece by the ratio is calculated, a second intermediate time obtained by subtracting the first time from the travel time of the link data piece is calculated, and the sum of the second intermediate times of the link data pieces thus obtained is calculated as the non-traffic jam travel estimation time.
6 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.