Information processing device, guidance necessity determination method, guidance necessity determination program, and storage medium

Abstract

To provide an information processing device which can more accurately estimate necessity of guidance at an intersection than in a conventional manner.SOLUTION: An information processing device comprises: a storage unit which stores map information; a position information acquisition unit which acquires position information of a plurality of vehicles; an operation information acquisition unit which acquires operation information of the plurality of vehicles passing through an intersection to be indicated in the map information on the basis of the position information of the vehicles; a determination unit which determines whether or not there are the vehicles driving straight while flickering a blinker and vehicles turning either right or left without flickering the blinker at the intersection on the basis of the operation information of the plurality of vehicles; and an estimation unit which estimates necessity of guidance at the intersection on the basis of determination results by the determination unit.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 1

Description

[Technical field]

[0001] The present invention relates to an information processing device that determines whether or not the approach and exit roads to an intersection are routes that require guidance when driving a vehicle, a method for determining whether or not guidance is needed, a program for determining whether or not guidance is needed, and a recording medium having the program recorded thereon. [Background technology]

[0002] Conventionally, in navigation systems, whether or not to provide guidance for turning right or left or going straight in route guidance is based on information registered in map information used in the navigation system. Guidance is provided particularly at intersections and other locations where the driver is likely to be confused about which way to exit. Patent Document 1 discloses a technology for determining whether guidance is required at an intersection based on road markings such as a center line. Patent Document 2 discloses a technology for identifying links for which route guidance is not required based on whether or not a blinker is used. [Prior art documents] [Patent documents]

[0003] [Patent Document 1] JP 2002-340603 A [Patent Document 2] JP 2019-168362 A Summary of the Invention [Problem to be solved by the invention]

[0004] However, there are intersections where it is unclear whether route guidance is required based on the center line road markings alone as shown in the above-mentioned Patent Document 1. In addition, as described in Patent Document 2, there are also cases where it is not possible to determine whether route guidance is required simply based on whether or not a turn signal is used.

[0005] Therefore, the present invention has been made in consideration of the above problems, and aims to provide an information processing device, a method for determining whether guidance is needed at an intersection, a program for determining whether guidance is needed, and a storage medium that can determine whether guidance is needed at an intersection more accurately than conventional methods. [Means for solving the problem]

[0006] In order to solve the above problems, an information processing device according to one embodiment of the present invention includes a memory unit that stores map information, a position information acquisition unit that acquires position information of a plurality of vehicles, an operation information acquisition unit that acquires operation information of a plurality of vehicles passing through an intersection shown in the map information based on the vehicle position information, a determination unit that determines, based on the operation information of the plurality of vehicles, whether or not there are any vehicles that have proceeded straight through the intersection while turning on their turn signals and any vehicles that have turned right or left without turning on their turn signals, and an estimation unit that estimates whether or not guidance is needed at the intersection based on the determination result by the determination unit.

[0007] In order to solve the above problem, a method for determining whether guidance is needed according to one aspect of the present invention includes a location information acquisition step in which a computer acquires location information of a plurality of vehicles; an acquisition step in which information of a plurality of vehicles passing through an intersection is acquired; a determination step in which a computer determines, based on the vehicle location information, whether there are any vehicles that have gone straight through an intersection shown in map information stored in a memory unit while turning on their turn signals and any vehicles that have turned right or left without turning on their turn signals; and an estimation step in which a computer estimates whether guidance is needed at the intersection based on a result of the determination step.

[0008] In order to solve the above problems, a guidance necessity determination program according to one embodiment of the present invention provides a computer with the following: a position information acquisition function that acquires position information of a plurality of vehicles; an acquisition function that acquires information of a plurality of vehicles passing through an intersection; a determination function that determines, based on the vehicle position information, whether or not there are any vehicles that have gone straight through an intersection shown in map information stored in a memory unit while turning on their turn signals and any vehicles that have turned right or left without turning on their turn signals; and an estimation function that estimates whether or not guidance is necessary at the intersection based on the determination result by the determination function.

[0009] In addition, in the above-mentioned information processing device, when an intersection allows exit in at least two directions when viewed from the entrance road, when the judgment unit determines that there is a vehicle that has entered the intersection from the entrance road and has exited to the right road when viewed from the entrance road after receiving a turn signal to the right, and a vehicle that has exited to the left road when viewed from the entrance road without operating the turn signal, the estimation unit may estimate that guidance is required for the vehicle exiting to the right road, and that guidance is not required for the vehicle exiting to the left road.

[0010] In addition, in the above-mentioned information processing device, when an intersection allows exit in at least two directions when viewed from the entrance road, when the judgment unit determines that there is a vehicle that has entered the intersection from the entrance road and has exited to the left road when viewed from the entrance road after receiving a turn signal to the left, and a vehicle that has exited to the right road when viewed from the entrance road without operating the turn signal, the estimation unit may estimate that guidance is required for the vehicle exiting to the left road, and that guidance is not required for the vehicle exiting to the right road.

[0011] In addition, in the above-mentioned information processing device, the information processing device may be equipped with a position information acquisition unit that acquires position information indicating a position where a vehicle is currently traveling, and an output unit that outputs guidance information when the estimation unit estimates that guidance is necessary a predetermined distance before the position information indicates that a vehicle is entering an intersection, and does not output guidance information when the estimation unit estimates that guidance is not necessary.

[0012] In addition, in the above information processing device, the information processing device may be provided with a registration unit that registers, in the map information, information regarding the intersection in the map information, corresponding entry and exit roads for the intersection with information indicating whether guidance is required, based on the estimation result estimated by the estimation unit.

[0013] In addition, in the above information processing device, the operation information acquisition unit acquires CAN (Controller Area Network) information of each of the multiple vehicles as information about the multiple vehicles, and includes a steering operation information acquisition unit that acquires steering operation information of the vehicle when passing through an intersection from the CAN information, and a turn signal operation information acquisition unit that acquires turn signal operation information of the vehicle before entering the intersection from the CAN information, and the determination unit determines whether the vehicle has traveled straight or turned right or left based on the steering operation information, and determines whether the turn signal has been turned on based on the turn signal operation information, and determines whether there are vehicles that have traveled straight through the intersection while activating a turn signal and vehicles that have turned right or left without activating a turn signal. Effect of the Invention

[0014] An information processing device according to one embodiment of the present invention can estimate whether guidance is needed at an intersection depending on whether there are both vehicles that have traveled straight through the intersection while activating their turn signals and vehicles that have turned right or left without activating their turn signals. [Brief description of the drawings]

[0015] [Figure 1] 1 is a block diagram showing an example of the configuration of an information processing device; [Diagram 2] FIG. 2 is a data conceptual diagram showing an example of a data configuration of vehicle information. [Diagram 3] 11 is a flowchart illustrating an example of the operation of the information processing device. [Figure 4] 13 is a flowchart showing another operation example of the information processing device. [Diagram 5] FIG. 13 is an image diagram showing a specific example. [Figure 6] FIG. 13 is a block diagram showing another example of the configuration of the information processing device. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

[0016] Hereinafter, an information processing device according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

[0017] <Embodiment Mode> <Configuration of information processing device> An information processing device according to an embodiment of the present invention (see 100 in FIG. 1) includes a storage unit (see 104 in FIG. 1) that stores map information, a position information acquisition unit (see 105 in FIG. 1) that acquires position information of a plurality of vehicles, an operation information acquisition unit (see 105 in FIG. 1) that acquires operation information of a plurality of vehicles passing through an intersection shown in the map information based on the vehicle position information, a determination unit (see 105 in FIG. 1) that determines whether or not there are vehicles that have traveled straight through the intersection while activating a blinker and vehicles that have turned right or left without activating a blinker based on the operation information of the plurality of vehicles, and an estimation unit (see 105 in FIG. 1) that estimates whether or not guidance is required at the intersection based on the determination result by the determination unit. The details will be described below.

[0018] 1 is a block diagram showing an example of a functional configuration of an information processing device 100. As shown in FIG. 1, the information processing device 100 includes a communication unit 101, a reception unit 102, an output unit 103, a storage unit 104, and a CPU 105.

[0019] The information processing device 100 is a computer system realized by a server device, a PC, etc., but is not limited thereto, and may be realized by a mobile terminal such as a smartphone or a tablet terminal. The information processing device 100 may be a navigation device that performs route guidance, or may be a map information creation device that registers a flag indicating whether or not to perform guidance in map information for navigation. Each functional unit will be described in detail below.

[0020] The communication unit 101 has a function of receiving information from another device through communication. The communication unit 101 may acquire vehicle travel information from an external device, for example, a server that accumulates vehicle travel information, and transmit the information to the CPU 105. The vehicle travel information includes at least position information and time information indicating the time when the position information was acquired. The vehicle travel information may be, for example, probe information, and the server that accumulates the probe information may be, for example, a road traffic information communication system center. The vehicle travel information may also be CAN (Controller Area Network) information including information on various states of the vehicle, and may include at least blinker operation information indicating whether or not a blinker operation has been performed, and may include steering operation information indicating the steering angle of the steering wheel. The communication unit 101 may acquire the vehicle travel information directly from the vehicle, or may acquire the vehicle travel information including the CAN information from an external server that accumulates the information. The communication unit 101 transmits the various received information to the CPU 105. The communication unit 101 transmits specified information to a specified external device under the instruction of the CPU 105. The communication unit 101 may transmit, for example, map information in which information on whether guidance is required is registered to an external navigation device or the like.

[0021] The reception unit 102 has a function of receiving an input from a user of the information processing device 100 and transmitting the input to the CPU 105. The reception unit 102 can be realized, for example, by a hardware key or a soft key such as a touch key provided on the information processing device 100. Note that the input to the reception unit 102 may be a voice input.

[0022] The output unit 103 has a function of outputting instructed data according to an instruction from the CPU 105. For example, when the information processing device 100 is a navigation system, the output unit 103 may specify whether or not guidance is required for an exit road at an intersection before passing through the intersection in route guidance, and output guidance indicating the direction of the exit road when guidance is required. The output unit 103 may output information regarding whether or not guidance is required as image information (which may be text data) to a monitor connected to the information processing device 100, may output the information as audio data to a speaker connected to the information processing device 100, or may transmit the information to an external device via the communication unit 101. That is, the output unit 103 functions as a communication interface that outputs information specified by the CPU 105 to a specified destination.

[0023] The storage unit 104 is a recording medium that stores various programs and various data required for the operation of the information processing device 100. The storage unit 104 is realized by, for example, a hard disc drive (HDD), a solid state drive (SSD), a flash memory, or the like.

[0024] The storage unit 104 may store map information 141 and vehicle information 142. The map information 141 is map information for navigation, which represents roads as connections between links and nodes, and is information that can identify the positions of intersections. The map information 141 may include information on intersections, information on regulations imposed on roads, etc. The vehicle information 142 is information that accumulates vehicle travel information. Details of the vehicle information 142 will be described later.

[0025] The CPU 105 is a processor that uses various programs and various data stored in the storage unit 104 to execute processes that the information processing device 100 should execute.

[0026] The CPU 105 controls each part of the information processing device 100, and based on the map information 141, identifies an intersection where at least two roads intersect, and determines whether or not a vehicle entering the intersection needs guidance when exiting the intersection (guidance as to which exit road to take from the intersection).

[0027] The CPU 105 functions as a position information acquisition unit, an operation information acquisition unit, a determination unit, an estimation unit, and a registration unit.

[0028] The position information acquisition unit acquires position information of a plurality of vehicles from the vehicle information 142.

[0029] The operation information acquisition unit identifies a vehicle that has passed through an intersection for which guidance is to be determined based on the vehicle position information acquired by the position information acquisition unit, and acquires operation information for passing through the intersection corresponding to the identified vehicle from the vehicle information 142. Here, the operation information includes at least blinker operation information, and may also include steering operation information, speed information, and the like.

[0030] The determination unit determines whether or not there are two types of vehicles, a vehicle that went straight while turning on the blinker and a vehicle that turned right or left without turning on the blinker, for each of a plurality of vehicles that have entered the intersection from an entrance road, by referring to the route through the intersection and the operation information. Going straight here means that the vehicle that entered the intersection passes in a front direction as seen from the entrance road. The front here does not have to be directly in front, and may include a predetermined angle range to the left and right of the directly in front. The predetermined angle range here may be an angle range in which it is possible to determine that the vehicle has passed the intersection in a front direction, and may be, for example, within a range of 45 degrees to the left and right of the directly in front, but is not limited to 45 degrees and may be 30 degrees.

[0031] The determination unit determines whether a vehicle has entered an intersection from an entrance road, exited from an exit road in a straight direction from the entrance road while turning on a blinker, and entered the intersection from the entrance road, turned right or left without turning on a blinker, and exited from an exit road different from the straight exit road. If such a vehicle has been detected, the determination unit transmits the information to the estimation unit.

[0032] The determination unit may determine whether there is a vehicle that went straight while activating a blinker and a vehicle that turned right or left without activating a blinker as follows. That is, the determination unit determines whether there is a vehicle that exited an intersection from an exit road on the right side of an exit road other than an entrance road that connects to the intersection while activating a right-direction blinker at the intersection. If there is such a vehicle, the determination unit determines whether there is a vehicle that entered the intersection from the entrance road through which the vehicle entered the intersection and exited from an exit road on the left side without activating a blinker. If there is such a vehicle, the determination unit transmits that fact to the estimation unit.

[0033] The same applies to the left turn signal, and the determination unit determines whether or not a vehicle has exited an intersection from the left exit road other than the entrance road that connects to the intersection while turning on the left turn signal. If such a vehicle has been detected, the determination unit determines whether or not a vehicle has entered the intersection from the entrance road that the vehicle entered the intersection from and exited from the right exit road without turning on the turn signal. If such a vehicle has been detected, the determination unit transmits the information to the estimation unit.

[0034] The estimation unit estimates whether guidance is necessary for a vehicle that is scheduled to pass through a route that enters an intersection from a certain entrance road and exits from a certain exit road, based on the result of the judgment by the judgment unit. When the judgment unit judges that there is a vehicle that entered an intersection from a certain entrance road and exited from an exit road in a straight direction as seen from the entrance road while turning on a blinker, and there is a vehicle that entered the intersection from the entrance road and turned right or left without turning on a blinker and exited from an exit road different from the exit road in the straight direction, the estimation unit estimates that guidance is necessary for a vehicle that is scheduled to exit from the entrance road to an exit road in a straight direction, and that guidance is not necessary for a vehicle that is scheduled to exit from the entrance road to an exit road in a right or left turn direction (an exit road through which the vehicle in the vehicle information used by the judgment unit has traveled). In other cases, the estimation unit estimates that guidance is basically not necessary for the straight direction, and guidance is necessary for travel in a right or left turn direction.

[0035] In addition, when there is a vehicle that enters an intersection from an entrance road and exits from an exit road on the right side while turning on a right-direction blinker, and a vehicle that enters the intersection from the entrance road and exits from an exit road on the left side without turning on a blinker, the estimation unit estimates that guidance is necessary for a vehicle that plans to travel on a route from the entrance road to an exit road on the right side, but guidance is not necessary for a vehicle that plans to travel on a route from the entrance road to an exit road on the left side. Note that, when there are multiple exit roads, the right-side exit road may be the rightmost exit road as viewed from the entrance road among the multiple exit roads. Similarly, when there are multiple exit roads, the left-side exit road may be the leftmost exit road as viewed from the entrance road among the multiple exit roads.

[0036] In addition, when there is a vehicle that enters an intersection from an entrance road and exits from an exit road on the left while turning on its left blinker, and a vehicle that enters from the entrance road and exits from an exit road on the right without turning on its blinker, the estimation unit estimates that guidance is necessary for vehicles that plan to travel on a route from the entrance road to an exit road on the left, but that guidance is not necessary for vehicles that plan to travel on a route from the entrance road to an exit road on the right.

[0037] The registration unit has a function of registering guidance information indicating whether guidance should be provided for a route that is a combination of an entrance road and an exit road to an intersection estimated by the estimation unit, in the map information 141 of the storage unit 104. That is, the registration unit associates information indicating whether guidance is required, estimated by the estimation unit, with each route that is formed by a combination of an entrance road and an exit road to an intersection, and stores the information in the map information 141. By storing this map information 141 in a navigation system that provides guidance to a vehicle, it is possible to identify whether guidance is required before entering an intersection on a route to a destination inputted to the navigation system, and to execute guidance as necessary, or to not execute guidance if it is not necessary.

[0038] The above is an example of the configuration of the information processing device 100.

[0039] <Data> Here, various types of information used by the information processing device 100 will be described.

[0040] 2 is a data conceptual diagram showing an example of the data configuration of the vehicle information 142. As described above, the vehicle information 142 is information that accumulates vehicle travel information of a plurality of vehicles, and is information that can specify which entrance road the vehicle entered and which exit road the vehicle exited at each intersection, and can specify the driving state of the vehicle at that time.

[0041] 2, the vehicle information 142 is information in which a management ID 201, a vehicle ID 202, date and time information 203, location information 204, blinker information 205, steering wheel information 206, and vehicle speed information 207 are associated with each other. Note that the vehicle information 142 may include information other than the information shown in FIG. 2, so long as it is information related to a vehicle.

[0042] The management ID 201 is identification information for uniquely identifying and managing each piece of vehicle information. The management ID 201 is information for distinguishing temporary vehicle information generated based on vehicle driving information acquired at a certain timing for a certain vehicle from other vehicle information.

[0043] The vehicle ID 202 is vehicle information managed by the corresponding management ID 201, and is information for uniquely identifying which vehicle the corresponding vehicle information was acquired from, and is identification information for identifying the vehicle and identifying which vehicle the vehicle information belongs to. The identification information is information that allows the information processing device 100 to recognize multiple pieces of information acquired from the same vehicle as being acquired from the same vehicle.

[0044] The date and time information 203 is information that indicates the date and time when the vehicle information managed by the management ID 201 was acquired.

[0045] The position information 204 is information on the position of the vehicle indicated by the corresponding vehicle ID 202 at the date and time indicated by the corresponding date and time information 203, and is longitude and latitude information measured by the positioning system (GNSS: Global Navigation Satellite System) of the vehicle. The position information 204 can be acquired, for example, from probe information or the like.

[0046] The blinker information 205 is information indicating whether or not the blinker was on when the vehicle indicated by the corresponding vehicle ID 202 was at the position indicated by the corresponding position information 204 on the date and time indicated by the corresponding date and time information 203. The blinker information 205 can be acquired, for example, from CAN information. In the illustrated example, the blinker information 205 may be displayed as "Right" when turning right, "-" when the blinker was not on, and "Left" when turning left (not illustrated), but any information that indicates whether the blinker is on the right or left, or is not in use, may be used.

[0047] The steering wheel information 206 is information indicating the steering angle of the steering wheel when the vehicle indicated by the corresponding vehicle ID 202 was at the position indicated by the corresponding position information 204 at the date and time indicated by the corresponding date and time information 203. The steering wheel information 206 can be acquired, for example, from CAN information. As an example, as shown in the figure, the steering wheel information 206 can be expressed by the steering angle at the time of right turn and left turn, distinguishing between the right turn direction and the left turn direction. In the case of a right turn, the steering wheel itself is moved clockwise, so that the "right" in the figure may be expressed as clockwise, and the "left" may be expressed as counterclockwise. Also, the clockwise direction may be expressed as +, and the counterclockwise direction may be expressed as -.

[0048] The vehicle speed information 207 is information indicating the traveling speed of the vehicle indicated by the corresponding vehicle ID 202 when the vehicle is traveling at the position indicated by the corresponding position information 204 at the date and time indicated by the corresponding date and time information 203. The vehicle speed information 207 can be acquired from, for example, CAN information, but can also be calculated from the date and time information 203 and the position information 204 of the vehicle information of successive identical vehicles.

[0049] In the illustrated example, vehicle information indicated by management ID 201 "M001203049" was acquired from a vehicle indicated by vehicle ID 202 "C1_0002452" at "August 1, 2021, 10:00:01", as indicated by date and time information 203, and it can be read that at that date and time, the vehicle was at the longitude and latitude indicated by "(X1, Y1)", as indicated by location information 204. It can also be read that at that time, the blinker was not used, as indicated by turn signal information 205, and that the steering angle of the steering wheel was "20 degrees left", as indicated by steering wheel information 206, and the vehicle speed was "V1". In addition, the vehicle information indicated by management ID 201 "M001203049" to "M001203052" was obtained from the same vehicle indicated by vehicle ID "C1_0002452", and it can be determined that the position information 204 made a left turn near the positions indicated by (X1, Y1) to (X4, Y4).

[0050] The vehicle information 142 allows the user to specify where the vehicle was and what operation it performed. Based on the vehicle information of a plurality of vehicles, the system performs a composite analysis of information on which entrance road the vehicle entered an intersection from and which exit road the vehicle exited from, and whether the blinker was operated at that time, and determines whether the driver of the vehicle needs guidance on the route when exiting from an entrance road to an exit road at the intersection. In particular, the system allows the driver to determine whether the blinker needs to be turned on by providing guidance, and provides a safe driving environment by not outputting guidance information in places where the blinker is not required, thereby making the driver feel annoyed and not attracting the driver's attention while driving.

[0051] The above is an example of the configuration of the vehicle information 142. The map information 141 is basically a map for general navigation, so details thereof will be omitted.

[0052] <Operation of the information processing device> Next, the operation of the information processing device 100 will be described.

[0053] FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing an example of the operation of the information processing device 100.

[0054] 3, the CPU 105 of the information processing device 100 selects an intersection from the map information 141 stored in the storage unit 104 (step S301). The selection may be made by the CPU 105 randomly selecting an intersection from among intersections for which it has not yet determined whether or not guidance information is required, or may be made based on the acceptance of a designation of an intersection from an operator of the information processing device 100 or the like via the acceptance unit 102.

[0055] When the CPU 105 selects an intersection, it acquires position information of a plurality of vehicles passing through the selected intersection and corresponding operation information (step S302). That is, the CPU 105 extracts vehicle information having position information 204 corresponding to the position of the selected intersection from the vehicle information 142. Here, the position information corresponding to the position of the intersection refers to a position included within the intersection and within a predetermined distance from the intersection on the entrance road and the exit road to the intersection. Then, the CPU 105 extracts operation information (blinker information 205, steering wheel information 206) associated with the extracted vehicle information.

[0056] Based on the longitude and latitude information on the intersection map information 141 and the position information 204 of the vehicle information 142, the CPU 105 determines whether or not any vehicle passing through the selected intersection has proceeded straight while turning on its blinker (step S303). That is, the CPU 105 determines whether or not a vehicle that has passed through an intersection has proceeded straight through the intersection based on the position information of the successive vehicle information of the vehicle, and also determines whether or not the blinker information 205 associated with the vehicle information indicates either "right" or "left" (step S303). At this time, the CPU 105 may determine whether the vehicle is going straight through the intersection based on the positional relationship between the entrance road and the exit road for the intersection in the map information, if the vehicle that entered the intersection is going forward as viewed from the entrance road, and may further determine whether the steering angle is maintained within a predetermined angle range in the left-right direction (as an example, not limited to, a range of 10 degrees left to 10 degrees right) based on the steering wheel information 206 to determine whether the vehicle is going straight through the intersection. Also, the CPU 105 may determine whether the vehicle is going straight through the intersection based only on the steering wheel information 206. If the CPU 105 determines that there is a vehicle that has gone straight through the intersection while turning on the blinker (YES in step S303), the CPU 105 proceeds to the process of step S304, and if the CPU 105 determines that there is no vehicle that has gone straight through the intersection while turning on the blinker (NO in step S303), it presumes that guidance is not necessary if the vehicle passes through the intersection in the straight direction, and ends the process.

[0057] Next, the CPU 105 determines whether another vehicle (which may be the same vehicle at a different timing) that entered the intersection from the same entrance road as the vehicle that went straight into the intersection while turning on the blinker in step S303 has turned right or left based on the position information of the continuous vehicle information of the vehicle that has passed the intersection, and determines whether the blinker information associated with the vehicle information indicates "-" (not operated to the right or left) (step S304). At this time, the CPU 105 determines whether the vehicle has turned right or left at the intersection based on the positional relationship between the entrance road and the exit road with respect to the intersection in the map information. At this time, the CPU 105 may further determine whether the steering angle is maintained at a predetermined angle or more in either the left or right direction (for example, not limited to, 10 degrees or more to the left or 10 degrees or more to the right) based on the steering wheel information 206, thereby determining whether the vehicle has turned right or left at the intersection. The CPU 105 may also determine whether the vehicle has turned right or left at the intersection based only on the steering wheel information 206. In step S303, if there is a vehicle that entered from the same entrance road as the vehicle that went straight while activating the blinker and then turned right or left without activating the blinker (YES in step S304), the process proceeds to step S305; otherwise (NO in step S304), the process ends.

[0058] If CPU 105 determines that a vehicle has traveled straight while turning on its blinker (YES in step S303) and that a vehicle has entered from the same entrance road as the vehicle and turned right or left without turning on its blinker (YES in step S304), CPU 105 estimates that guidance is necessary for vehicles entering from the entrance road and planning to proceed in a straight direction (vehicles planning to exit from an exit road in the straight direction), but that guidance in the direction of travel is not necessary for vehicles entering from the entrance road and planning to proceed in either a right or left turn direction (vehicles planning to exit from the exit road from which the vehicle that turned right or left without turning on its blinker in step S304 exited) (step S305).

[0059] Then, the CPU 105 executes a predetermined process (step S306) and ends the process of determining whether guidance is required for each combination of the entrance road at the intersection selected in step S301 and the exit road for the entrance road. Here, the predetermined process may be, for example, registering guidance information indicating whether guidance is required for a combination of an entrance road and an exit road for the intersection in the map information 141. By setting guidance information indicating whether guidance is required for an entrance road to an intersection in the map information 141, the navigation system can appropriately determine whether guidance is required before entering an intersection on a route and execute guidance as necessary. Furthermore, the predetermined process may be executing guidance in an actual navigation based on the process of step S305, and may provide guidance on which direction the exit road for the user to reach the destination is in relative to the traveling direction for the intersection where the vehicle is about to pass. The guidance may be output from the output unit 103 as an image on a monitor or as a voice through a speaker. Furthermore, the predetermined process may be outputting information regarding the estimation by the CPU 105 of whether guidance is required. In other words, the information processing device 100 may notify an operator, etc., of the fact that a vehicle that has a planned route that includes a specified entrance road to a specified exit road at a specified intersection does not require guidance for that entrance road.

[0060] In this way, the information processing device 100 can specify whether or not guidance on the travel direction is required for a vehicle that is planning to travel from the entrance road to the exit road for each combination of the entrance road and the exit road of a specific intersection. Note that the information processing device 100 may repeatedly execute the process shown in Fig. 3 for each intersection included in the map information 141 while changing the intersection to be processed.

[0061] Fig. 4 is a flowchart showing an operation example of the information processing device 100, which is a different example of the determination example in the processing of steps S303 to S305 in Fig. 3. Since the processing of steps S301 and S302 is common between Fig. 3 and Fig. 4, the description of Fig. 4 is omitted, and the processing from step S403 onwards will be described.

[0062] As shown in FIG. 4, the CPU 105 judges whether or not there is a vehicle that has entered the intersection selected in step S301 from a certain entrance road and exited from an exit road on the right side while turning on a right-direction blinker (step S403). That is, the CPU 105 judges whether or not there is a vehicle whose blinker information 205 is "right" and has exited from an exit road on the right side based on the map information 141, the position information 204, and the steering wheel information 206. If there is such a vehicle (YES in step S403), the CPU 105 judges whether or not there is another vehicle that has exited from an exit road on the left side without turning on a blinker (step S404). If there is no other vehicle that has exited from an exit road on the left side without turning on a blinker (NO in step S404), the process proceeds to step S406.

[0063] If a vehicle exits from an exit road on the right while turning on its right-hand blinker (YES in step S403), and if a vehicle enters the intersection from the same entrance road and exits from an exit road on the left without turning on its blinker (YES in step S404), CPU 105 estimates that guidance is required for the vehicle that entered the intersection from the entrance road and exited from the exit road on the right, but that guidance is not required for the vehicle that entered the intersection from the same entrance road and exited from the exit road on the left (step S405).

[0064] On the other hand, if there is no vehicle that has exited from the right-side exit road while turning on a right-side blinker (NO in step S403), the CPU 105 judges whether or not there is a vehicle that has exited from the left-side exit road while turning on a left-side blinker among the vehicles that have entered from a certain entrance road to the intersection selected in step S301 (step S406). That is, the CPU 105 judges whether or not there is a vehicle that has exited from the left-side exit road, with the blinker information 205 being "left", from the map information 141, the position information 204, and the steering wheel information 206. If there is such a vehicle (YES in step S406), the CPU 105 judges whether or not there is another vehicle that has exited from the right-side exit road without turning on a blinker (step S407), and if there is not (NO in step S406), the process ends. If there is no other vehicle that has exited from the left-side exit road without turning on a blinker (NO in step S407), the process ends.

[0065] If a vehicle exits from the left exit road while turning on its left blinker (YES in step S406), and if a vehicle enters the intersection from the same entrance road and exits from the right exit road without turning on its blinker (YES in step S407), CPU 105 estimates that guidance is required for the vehicle that entered the intersection from the entrance road and exited from the left exit road, but that guidance is not required for the vehicle that entered the intersection from the same entrance road and exited from the right exit road (step S408).

[0066] Thereafter, similarly to the case described with reference to FIG. 3, CPU 105 executes a predetermined process (step S306) and ends the process.

[0067] The above is the process performed by the information processing device 100 to estimate whether guidance is required for a combination of an entrance road and an exit road at an intersection.

[0068] <Example> 5 is a diagram showing an example of a scene seen from an intersection and an approach road that can be entered into the intersection. Using this diagram, it will be explained how the information processing device 100 determines that guidance is not required at a location where guidance would be required on a normal road.

[0069] In FIG. 5, the lower left is a top view showing the state of an intersection. In FIG. 5, an example of a T-junction where right-hand drive vehicles keep to the left lane is shown as intersection 500. As shown in the figure, this intersection 500 can be entered from three directions, arrows 511, 512, and 513. An example of a scene seen in front of a vehicle when entering intersection 500 in the direction indicated by arrow 511 is shown in the upper left of FIG. 5 (see "A" in FIG. 5). Similarly, an example of a scene seen in front of a vehicle when entering intersection 500 in the direction indicated by arrow 512 is shown in the upper right of FIG. 5 (see "B" in FIG. 5), and an example of a scene seen in front of a vehicle when entering intersection 500 in the direction indicated by arrow 513 is shown in the lower right of FIG. 5 (see "C" in FIG. 5). That is, A, B, and C in FIG. 5 show the correspondence between the position of the intersection and the scene.

[0070] Here, for example, when entering intersection 500 from road 503 in the direction indicated by arrow 513 in FIG. 5 and exiting onto road 501 or road 502, it is appropriate under road regulations to turn on the blinker in each direction and turn right or left.

[0071] Also, when entering intersection 500 from road 501 in the direction indicated by arrow 511, if going straight, the blinker is not turned on, but if turning right, the blinker is turned on and the vehicle turns right. In this case, if going straight, the vehicle is basically following the road (head on), so it is appropriate for the navigation system not to output guidance (this does not prohibit the output of guidance).

[0072] In these cases, the information processing device 100 basically determines that guidance for right or left turns is necessary.

[0073] On the other hand, consider a case where a vehicle enters an intersection 500 from a road 502 in a direction indicated by an arrow 512. In FIG. 5, a dividing line 532 is a center line of the road 502, and is connected to a center line of a road 503 without interruption. When the dividing line 532 is painted in yellow on the road, the road regulations stipulate that the vehicle should turn left due to the presence of the dividing line 532. When entering the intersection 500 from such a road 502, it is natural to exit onto the road 503, so that the navigation system does not need to provide guidance even though the vehicle will turn left. In such a case, the driver generally does not turn on the blinker because it is natural to turn left, and the information processing device 100 can find a vehicle that has traveled in such a way and estimate whether guidance is necessary.

[0074] The information processing device 100 accumulates and identifies such information as the vehicle information 142, and thereby estimates combinations of entrance roads and exit roads for which guidance is not required at the intersection.

[0075] In this way, even if a road looks like it would be better to have guidance based on the road shape, there are cases where guidance is clearly unnecessary from the driver's perspective. For drivers traveling on such roads, guidance may be annoying, and guidance may cause the driver to direct part of their attention to the navigation system, which may reduce the driver's attention to driving even slightly. According to the information processing device 100 of this embodiment, it is possible to estimate whether guidance is necessary before passing through an intersection, so that it is possible to prevent unnecessary guidance from annoying the driver and guidance from reducing the driver's focus on driving.

[0076] <Summary of implementation form> The information processing device 100 according to the first embodiment can determine whether or not the navigation system needs to provide a driver of a vehicle with guidance on the direction of travel when exiting an intersection to one of a plurality of exit roads from an entrance road that can be used to enter the intersection. By registering information on the necessity of guidance based on the determination in map information for navigation, it is possible to provide appropriate guidance without providing unnecessary guidance.

[0077] <Supplementary Information> The information processing device according to the above embodiment is not limited to the above embodiment, and may be realized by other methods. Various modifications will be described below.

[0078] (1) In the above embodiment, in order to improve the accuracy of judgment by the judgment unit of CPU 105, information processing device 100 may be configured to judge YES in each case when there are a predetermined number or more of vehicles as shown in steps S303, S304, S403, S404, S406, and S407, when there are a predetermined percentage of such vehicles in a predetermined period of time, or when the frequency at which such vehicles pass is greater than or equal to a predetermined frequency.

[0079] (2) In the above embodiment, the method of determining whether or not to provide guidance on an exit road for each entrance road at an intersection in the information processing device is created by executing a program or the like in which the processor of the information processing device determines whether or not guidance is required. However, this may be realized by a logic circuit (hardware) or a dedicated circuit formed in an integrated circuit (IC (Integrated Circuit) chip, LSI (Large Scale Integration)) or the like in the device. Moreover, these circuits may be realized by one or more integrated circuits, and the functions of the multiple functional units shown in the above embodiment may be realized by one integrated circuit. The LSI may be called a VLSI, a super LSI, an ultra LSI, or the like depending on the degree of integration. That is, as shown in FIG. 6, the information processing device 100 may be composed of a communication circuit 101a, a reception circuit 102a, an output circuit 103a, a memory circuit 104a, and a control circuit 105a, which correspond to the communication unit 101, the reception unit 102, the output unit 103, the memory unit 104, and the CPU 105, respectively.

[0080] The program may be recorded on a processor-readable recording medium, and the recording medium may be a "non-transient tangible medium" such as a tape, a disk, a card, a semiconductor memory, or a programmable logic circuit. The program may be supplied to the processor via any transmission medium capable of transmitting the program (such as a communication network or a broadcast wave). That is, for example, the program may be downloaded from a network and executed using an information processing device such as a smartphone. The present invention may also be realized in the form of a data signal embedded in a carrier wave, in which the program is embodied by electronic transmission.

[0081] The above program can be implemented using, for example, a scripting language such as ActionScript or JavaScript (registered trademark), or an object-oriented programming language such as Objective-C, Java (registered trademark), C++, Python, or R.

[0082] (3) The various examples shown in the above-described embodiment and the various examples shown in the <Supplementary Note> may be appropriately combined. In addition, the execution order of each operation shown in each flowchart may be changed or executed in parallel if there is no contradiction as a result. For example, the same result can be obtained even if the processes of steps S303 and S304 in Fig. 3 are executed in reverse. The same applies to Fig. 4, where the execution order of the judgments of steps S403 and S406 may be reversed. [Explanation of symbols]

[0083] 100 Information processing device 101 Communications Department 102 Reception 103 Output section 104 Storage section 105 CPU (location information acquisition unit, operation information acquisition unit, judgment unit, estimation unit, registration unit)

Claims

1. A storage unit that stores map information; A location information acquisition unit that acquires location information of a plurality of vehicles; an operation information acquisition unit that acquires operation information of a plurality of vehicles passing through the intersection indicated in the map information based on the position information of the vehicles; a determination unit that determines whether or not there is a vehicle that has traveled straight through the intersection while activating a blinker and a vehicle that has made a right or left turn without activating a blinker, based on operation information of the plurality of vehicles; an estimation unit that estimates whether or not guidance is required at the intersection based on a result of the determination by the determination unit; Equipped with When the intersection has at least two exit directions when viewed from the approach road, When the determination unit determines that there is a vehicle that has entered the intersection from the entrance road side and has exited onto a road on the right side of the two directions as seen from the entrance road side by receiving a turn signal operation to the right, and a vehicle that has exited onto a road on the left side of the two directions as seen from the entrance road side without operating a turn signal, the estimation unit estimates that guidance is necessary for the vehicle exiting onto the road on the right side, and estimates that guidance is not necessary for the vehicle exiting onto the road on the left side. Information processing device.

2. A storage unit for storing map information; A location information acquisition unit that acquires location information of a plurality of vehicles; an operation information acquisition unit that acquires operation information of a plurality of vehicles passing through the intersection indicated in the map information based on the position information of the vehicles; a determination unit that determines whether or not there is a vehicle that has traveled straight through the intersection while activating a blinker and a vehicle that has made a right or left turn without activating a blinker, based on operation information of the plurality of vehicles; an estimation unit that estimates whether or not guidance is required at the intersection based on a result of the determination by the determination unit; Equipped with When the intersection has at least two exit directions when viewed from the approach road, When the determination unit determines that there is a vehicle that has entered the intersection from the entrance road side and has exited onto a road on the left side of the two directions as seen from the entrance road side by receiving a blinker operation to the left, and a vehicle that has exited onto a road on the right side of the two directions as seen from the entrance road side without operating a blinker, the estimation unit estimates that guidance is necessary for the vehicle exiting onto the left road, and estimates that guidance is not necessary for the vehicle exiting onto the right road. Information processing device.

3. A storage unit for storing map information; A location information acquisition unit that acquires location information of a plurality of vehicles; an operation information acquisition unit that acquires operation information of a plurality of vehicles passing through the intersection indicated in the map information based on the position information of the vehicles; a determination unit that determines whether or not there is a vehicle that has traveled straight through the intersection while activating a blinker and a vehicle that has made a right or left turn without activating a blinker, based on operation information of the plurality of vehicles; an estimation unit that estimates whether or not guidance is required at the intersection based on a result of the determination by the determination unit; a registration unit that associates an entrance road and an exit road for the intersection with information indicating whether guidance is required, as information for the intersection in the map information, based on the estimation result estimated by the estimation unit, and registers the information in the map information. Information processing device.

4. When the intersection has at least two exit directions when viewed from the approach road, When the determination unit determines that there is a vehicle that has entered the intersection from the entrance road side and has exited onto a road on the right side of the two directions as seen from the entrance road side by receiving a turn signal operation to the right, and a vehicle that has exited onto a road on the left side of the two directions as seen from the entrance road side without operating a turn signal, the estimation unit estimates that guidance is necessary for the vehicle exiting onto the road on the right side, and estimates that guidance is not necessary for the vehicle exiting onto the road on the left side.

4. The information processing apparatus according to claim 3.

5. When the intersection has at least two exit directions when viewed from the approach road, When the determination unit determines that there is a vehicle that has entered the intersection from the entrance road side and has exited onto a road on the left side of the two directions as seen from the entrance road side by receiving a blinker operation to the left, and a vehicle that has exited onto a road on the right side of the two directions as seen from the entrance road side without operating a blinker, the estimation unit estimates that guidance is necessary for the vehicle exiting onto the left road, and estimates that guidance is not necessary for the vehicle exiting onto the right road.

5. The information processing apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the information processing apparatus is a computer.

6. The information processing device includes: The location information acquisition unit acquires location information indicating a location where a vehicle is currently traveling, an output unit that outputs guidance information when the estimation unit estimates that guidance is necessary, and does not output the guidance information when the estimation unit estimates that guidance is not necessary, when the location information indicates a predetermined distance before the vehicle enters the intersection; 6. The information processing device according to claim 3, wherein the information processing device is a computer.

7. The operation information acquisition unit acquires CAN (Controller Area Network) information of each of the plurality of vehicles as information of the plurality of vehicles, a steering operation information acquisition unit that acquires steering operation information of the vehicle when passing through the intersection from the CAN information; a turn signal operation information acquisition unit that acquires turn signal operation information of the vehicle before entering the intersection from the CAN information, The determination unit determines whether the vehicle has traveled straight or turned right or left based on the steering wheel operation information, and determines whether a turn signal has been activated based on the blinker operation information, thereby determining whether any vehicle has traveled straight through the intersection while activating a turn signal and any vehicle has turned right or left without activating a turn signal.

7. The information processing device according to claim 1,

8. The computer A position information acquisition step of acquiring position information of a plurality of vehicles; An acquisition step of acquiring information on a plurality of vehicles passing through an intersection; a determination step of determining whether or not there is a vehicle that has traveled straight through the intersection shown in the map information stored in a storage unit while activating a blinker and a vehicle that has made a right or left turn without activating a blinker, based on the position information of the vehicle; an estimation step of estimating whether or not guidance is required at the intersection based on a result of the determination step; a registration step of associating an entrance road and an exit road for the intersection with information indicating whether guidance is required, as information for the intersection in the map information, based on a result of the estimation in the estimation step, and registering the information in the map information; A method for determining whether guidance is required.

9. On the computer, A location information acquisition function for acquiring location information of multiple vehicles; An acquisition function that acquires information on multiple vehicles passing through an intersection; a determination function for determining whether or not there is a vehicle that has traveled straight through the intersection shown in the map information stored in the storage unit while activating a blinker and a vehicle that has made a right or left turn without activating a blinker, based on the position information of the vehicle; an estimation function that estimates whether or not guidance is required at the intersection based on a result of the determination by the determination function; a registration function that associates, as information on the intersection in the map information, an entrance road and an exit road for the intersection, and information indicating whether guidance is required, based on the estimation result estimated by the estimation function, and registers the information in the map information. A program to determine whether guidance is needed.

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