Information processing device

Abstract

To provide a road having less probe data with congestion information.SOLUTION: An information processing device acquires congestion road information including information on a congested road that is a road in which congestion is detected, acquires a traveling image from a vehicle traveling on the congested road, and detects a congestion range of the congestion based on the traveling image.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 5

Description

[Technical field]

[0001] The present invention relates to an information processing device. [Background technology]

[0002] Probe data such as position information is collected from vehicles in motion, and the occurrence and extent of congestion is detected using this collected probe data, and congestion information including the extent of the detected congestion is provided on roads with heavy traffic volume. For example, Patent Document 1 discloses a method for detecting the extent of congestion using collected probe data. [Prior art documents] [Patent documents]

[0003] [Patent Document 1] JP 2005-259116 A Summary of the Invention [Problem to be solved by the invention]

[0004] Detection of congestion areas using probe data is performed by applying statistical processing, and a large amount of probe data is required to detect congestion areas using probe data. However, on roads where information gathering devices such as vehicle detectors and cameras are not installed or on roads where connected cars are not widely used (e.g., roads in regional cities), the amount of probe data collected is small, making it impossible to detect the congestion area or the cause of the congestion, and congestion information such as the congestion area and the cause of the congestion is not provided.

[0005] One example of a problem to be solved by the present invention is to provide congestion information for roads for which there is little probe data. [Means for solving the problem]

[0006] In order to solve the above problem, the invention described in claim 1 has a congested road information acquisition unit that acquires congested road information including information about a congested road on which a congestion has been detected, a first driving image acquisition unit that acquires driving images from a vehicle traveling on the congested road, and a congestion range detection unit that detects the congestion range of the congestion based on the driving images.

[0007] The invention described in claim 14 is an information processing method executed by a computer, comprising a congested road information acquisition step of acquiring congested road information including information about a congested road on which a congestion has been detected, a driving image acquisition step of acquiring driving images from a vehicle traveling on the congested road, and a congestion range detection step of detecting the congestion range of the congestion based on the driving images.

[0008] The invention as recited in claim 15 causes the information processing method as recited in claim 14 to be executed by a computer.

[0009] The invention as recited in claim 16 stores the information processing program as recited in claim 15. [Brief description of the drawings]

[0010] [Figure 1] 1 is a diagram showing a congestion area detection system according to an embodiment of the present invention; [Diagram 2] FIG. 2 illustrates a control unit 110 of the terminal device 100. [Diagram 3] FIG. 2 illustrates a control unit 210 of the server device 200. [Figure 4] FIG. 13 is a diagram illustrating detection of a congestion area. [Diagram 5] FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of a processing operation in a traffic congestion detection system according to an embodiment of the present invention. [Figure 6] FIG. 13 is a diagram illustrating detection of the cause of traffic congestion. [Figure 7] FIG. 11 is a diagram showing an example of a processing operation performed in the server device 200 when detecting the cause of traffic congestion. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

[0011] An information processing device according to an embodiment of the present invention includes a congested road information acquisition unit that acquires congested road information including information about a congested road on which a congestion has been detected, a first driving image acquisition unit that acquires driving images from a vehicle traveling on the congested road, and a congestion range detection unit that detects the congestion range of the congestion based on the driving images. Therefore, in this embodiment, it is possible to detect the congestion range even for a road on which little probe data is collected. Therefore, in this embodiment, it is possible to provide congestion information including the congestion range even for a road on which little probe data is collected.

[0012] The congested road information may include information regarding the driving direction of the lane in which the congestion is detected, and the first driving image acquisition unit may acquire driving images from a vehicle traveling on the congested road in a direction opposite to the driving direction. In this way, it is possible to acquire driving images in which the congestion is captured.

[0013] The congested road information may include information on a congestion detection position, which is a position where the congestion is detected, and the first driving image acquisition unit may acquire driving images from a vehicle traveling in a direction opposite to the driving direction of the area of ​​the congested road ahead of the congestion detection position in the driving direction. In this way, it is possible to acquire driving images in which the congestion is captured.

[0014] The traffic jam area detection unit may detect the tip of the traffic jam based on the driving image, and detect the area between the detected tip of the traffic jam and the traffic jam detection position as the traffic jam area of ​​the traffic jam. In this way, a vehicle traveling on a congested road does not need to take a driving image or transmit the driving image after the tip of the traffic jam is detected.

[0015] The first driving image acquisition unit may acquire the driving images by transmitting a request for transmission of driving images to a vehicle traveling on the congested road. In this manner, it is necessary to collect driving images only when a traffic jam occurs, and it is not necessary to have the vehicle transmit driving images all the time.

[0016] The first driving image acquisition unit may acquire the driving images by broadcasting a request for transmission of driving images of the vehicle from a device installed on the congested road to the vehicle traveling on the congested road. In this manner, it becomes possible to request transmission of driving images to many vehicles traveling on the congested road.

[0017] The information processing device may further include a traffic jam cause detection unit that detects a cause of the traffic jam based on the driving image. In this way, the traffic jam cause can be included in the traffic jam information.

[0018] The information processing device may further include a second driving image acquisition unit that acquires driving images from vehicles traveling in a peripheral area of ​​the front end of the traffic jam detected by the traffic jam range detection unit, and the traffic jam cause detection unit may detect the cause of the traffic jam based on the driving images acquired by the second driving image acquisition unit. In this way, it is possible to acquire driving images from vehicles traveling on a road different from the congested road around the front end of the traffic jam. In other words, in this way, it is possible to acquire driving images of the front end of the traffic jam captured from a direction different from the shooting direction of the vehicle traveling on the congested road, and it may be possible to detect the cause of the traffic jam even when the cause of the traffic jam cannot be detected based on the driving images captured by the vehicle traveling on the congested road.

[0019] The congested road information acquisition unit may acquire the congested road information from a vehicle that detects the congestion. In this way, it becomes possible to detect the occurrence of congestion even on roads with little probe data.

[0020] The vehicle that detects the congestion may be a vehicle traveling in the lane in which the congestion is detected. In this way, it becomes possible to detect the occurrence of congestion even on roads with little probe data.

[0021] The information processing device may further include a transmission processing unit that transmits information on the range of the congestion to the vehicle that detected the congestion, and the information processing device may further include a congested road information acquisition unit that acquires the congested road information from the vehicle that detected the congestion. In this way, it becomes possible to notify the user of the terminal device that detected the congestion of the congestion range of the congestion.

[0022] The congested road information acquisition unit acquires the congested road information from a vehicle that detects the congestion, The information processing device may further include a transmission processing unit that transmits information about the congestion area and the cause of the congestion to the vehicle that detected the congestion. In this way, it is possible to notify the user of the terminal device that detected the congestion of the congestion area and the cause of the congestion.

[0023] A system according to an embodiment of the present invention includes the information processing device and a terminal device installed in a vehicle, and the terminal device includes a congestion detection unit that detects congestion. In this manner, in this embodiment, the occurrence of congestion is detected by the terminal device, and the extent of the congestion is detected by the information processing device. Therefore, in this embodiment, it is possible to detect the extent of congestion even on roads where little probe data is collected. Therefore, in this embodiment, it is possible to provide congestion information including the extent of congestion even on roads where little probe data is collected.

[0024] Moreover, an information processing method according to an embodiment of the present invention is an information processing method executed by a computer, and includes a congested road information acquisition step of acquiring congested road information including information about a congested road on which a congestion has been detected, a driving image acquisition step of acquiring a driving image from a vehicle traveling on the congested road, and a congestion range detection step of detecting the congestion range of the congestion based on the driving image. Therefore, in this embodiment, it is possible to detect the congestion range even for a road on which little probe data is collected. Therefore, in this embodiment, it is possible to provide congestion information including the congestion range even for a road on which little probe data is collected.

[0025] An information processing program according to an embodiment of the present invention causes a computer to execute the above-mentioned information processing method. Therefore, in this embodiment, it is possible to provide congestion information including the extent of congestion even for roads with little probe data, using a computer.

[0026] In addition, a computer-readable storage medium according to an embodiment of the present invention stores the vibration signal generating program. Therefore, in this embodiment, the information processing program can be distributed as a standalone program other than being incorporated into a device, and version upgrades can be easily performed. EXAMPLES

[0027] <Congestion Area Detection System> 1 is a diagram showing a congestion area detection system according to an embodiment of the present invention. The congestion area detection system includes a terminal device 100 and a server device 200.

[0028] In this embodiment, the terminal device 100 detects that the road on which the vehicle is traveling is congested, and transmits information (congested road information) about the road on which the congestion is detected (congested road) to the server device 200. The server device 200 that receives the congested road information then acquires driving images from other vehicles traveling on the congested road, and detects the congestion range of the congestion based on the acquired driving images. The terminal device 100 is a device installed in the vehicle (e.g., a drive recorder) or a device carried by a person in the vehicle (e.g., a smartphone).

[0029] The terminal device 100 includes a control unit 110, a storage unit 120, a communication unit 130, a moving direction acquisition unit 140, and a location information signal receiving unit 150. The control unit 110 is configured by a computer. The storage unit 120 is a storage device that stores information, such as a hard disk or memory. The communication unit 130 is a communication device for transmitting and receiving information to and from other devices. The moving direction acquisition unit 140 is a device for acquiring the moving direction of the terminal device 100, such as an acceleration sensor. The location information signal receiving unit 150 is, for example, an antenna that receives signals transmitted from satellites that constitute a Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) including a Global Positioning System (GPS).

[0030] 2 is a diagram showing the control unit 110 of the terminal device 100. The control unit 110 has a congestion detection unit 111 and a congested road information transmission processing unit 112.

[0031] The traffic congestion detection unit 111 detects traffic congestion. If the terminal device 100 is a device installed in a vehicle, the traffic congestion detection unit 111 detects traffic congestion in the lane in which the vehicle in which the terminal device 100 is installed is traveling, and if the terminal device 100 is a device carried by a person in the vehicle, the traffic congestion detection unit 111 detects traffic congestion in the lane in which the vehicle in which the person is traveling is traveling.

[0032] The method of detecting a traffic jam may be any method that can detect the occurrence of a traffic jam. For example, the traffic jam detection unit 111 acquires information on the position of the terminal device 100 (i.e., the position of the vehicle) by the position information signal receiving unit 150, and detects the occurrence of a traffic jam based on the change in this position over time. The traffic jam detection unit 111 may also acquire an image of a vehicle ahead, and detect the occurrence of a traffic jam based on the change in the state of the brake lights of the vehicle ahead over time.

[0033] The congested road information transmission processing unit 112 transmits congested road information, which is information about a road (congested road) on which congestion has been detected by the congestion detection unit 111, to the server device 200 via the communication unit 130. The congested road information includes, for example, information about the position where the congestion has been detected (congestion detection position). At this time, the congested road information transmission unit 112 acquires, for example, the position of the terminal device 100 at the time when the congestion has been detected by the congestion detection unit 111 via the position information signal receiving unit 150, thereby acquiring the congestion detection position.

[0034] The congested road information may also include the driving direction of the lane in which the congestion has occurred (the driving direction of the congested lane). In this case, the congested road information transmission processing unit 112 obtains the driving direction of the congested lane by, for example, obtaining the moving direction of the terminal device 100 (i.e., the moving direction of the vehicle) using the moving direction obtaining unit 140.

[0035] The congested road information may also include identification information for identifying the road or lane on which the congestion has occurred.

[0036] The server device 200 includes a control unit 210, a storage unit 220, and a communication unit 230. The control unit 210 is configured by a computer. The storage unit 220 is a storage device that stores information, such as a hard disk or memory. The communication unit 230 is a communication device for transmitting and receiving information to and from other devices.

[0037] 3 is a diagram showing the control unit 210 of the server device 200. The control unit 210 has a congested road information acquisition unit 211, a first driving image acquisition unit 212, and a congestion area detection unit 213.

[0038] The congested road information acquisition unit 211 receives the congested road information transmitted from the terminal device 100 via the communication unit 230, thereby acquiring the congested road information.

[0039] The first driving image acquisition unit 212 acquires driving images captured by a vehicle traveling on a congested road based on the congested road information. The acquired driving images may be still images or videos.

[0040] The first driving image acquisition unit 212 may, for example, collect driving images from the vehicle in advance and store them in the memory unit 120, and acquire driving images of the vehicle traveling on a congested road by extracting driving images of the vehicle traveling on a congested road from the driving images stored in the memory unit 120.

[0041] The first driving image acquisition unit 212 may also acquire driving images from vehicles traveling on a congested road by transmitting a request to transmit driving images to the vehicles traveling on the congested road and receiving the driving images transmitted from the vehicles that have received the transmission request. In this way, it is necessary to collect driving images only when congestion occurs, and it is not necessary to have the vehicles transmit driving images all the time.

[0042] Furthermore, when transmitting a request to transmit a driving image, the first driving image acquisition unit 212 may specify a destination vehicle and transmit the request to transmit the driving image, or may use a device installed on the congested road to broadcast the request to transmit the driving image to vehicles traveling on the congested road. When the request to transmit a driving image is broadcast, it becomes possible to request many vehicles traveling on the congested road to transmit the driving image.

[0043] The traffic jam area detection unit 213 detects the area of ​​the traffic jam based on the driving images acquired by the first driving image acquisition unit 212.

[0044] At this time, it is preferable that the first driving image acquisition unit 212 acquires a driving image from a vehicle traveling on the congested road in the opposite direction to the congested lane driving direction. In particular, it is preferable that the first driving image acquisition unit 212 acquires a driving image from a vehicle traveling in the opposite direction to the driving direction of the congested lane in an area forward of the congestion detection position on the congested road in the congestion lane driving direction. As shown in Fig. 4, a vehicle (vehicles AM1 and AM2 in Fig. 4) traveling in the opposite direction to the congestion lane driving direction in an area forward of the congestion detection position on the congested road in the congestion lane driving direction (area FR in Fig. 4) can capture an image of the congestion while traveling, and the congestion range detection unit 213 can detect the congestion range of the congestion by using the image captured by this vehicle.

[0045] The traffic jam range detection unit 213 may detect both the front and rear ends of the traffic jam to detect the range of the traffic jam, or may detect only the front end of the traffic jam and detect the range of the traffic jam between the detected front end of the traffic jam and the traffic jam detection position. When the range between the front end of the traffic jam detected based on the driving image and the traffic jam detection position is detected as the traffic jam range of the traffic jam, the first driving image acquisition unit 212 does not need to acquire the driving image after the front end of the traffic jam is detected. In other words, a vehicle traveling on a congested road does not need to take a driving image or transmit a driving image after the front end of the traffic jam is detected.

[0046] In this way, in this embodiment, after a traffic jam is detected by a vehicle traveling on a congested road, the extent of the traffic jam is detected based on images of other vehicles traveling on the congested road. Therefore, in this embodiment, it is possible to detect the extent of the traffic jam even on a road for which little probe data is collected. Therefore, in this embodiment, it is possible to provide traffic jam information including the extent of the traffic jam even on a road for which little probe data is collected.

[0047] The information processing device 200 may further include a transmission processing unit 214 that transmits information about the detected congestion area to the terminal device 1000 that detected the congestion. In this way, it becomes possible to notify the user of the terminal device that detected the congestion of the congestion area.

[0048] FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an example of a processing operation in the traffic congestion detection system according to the present embodiment. The traffic congestion detection unit 110 of the terminal device 100 detects a traffic congestion (S501). The traffic congestion road information transmission processing unit 120 of the terminal device 100 transmits traffic congestion information, which is information about a road (traffic congestion road) on which a traffic congestion is detected by the traffic congestion detection unit 111, to the server device 200 via the communication unit 130 (S502). The traffic congestion road information acquisition unit 211 of the server device 200 receives the traffic congestion road information transmitted from the terminal device 100 via the communication unit 230, thereby acquiring the traffic congestion road information (S503). The first driving image acquisition unit 212 of the server device 200 acquires a driving image from a vehicle traveling on the traffic congestion road based on the traffic congestion road information (S504). The traffic congestion range detection unit 213 of the server device 200 detects a traffic congestion range based on the driving image acquired by the first driving image acquisition unit 212 (S505).

[0049] In the above, the terminal device 100 has the congestion detection unit 110, but the server device 200 may have the same function as the congestion detection unit 110. In this case, the server device 200 may obtain information on the position of the terminal device 100 from the terminal device 100, and detect congestion based on a change in the position of the terminal device 100 over time.

[0050] <Traffic jam cause detection unit 215> The information processing device 200 may further include a traffic jam cause detection unit 215 that detects the cause of traffic jam based on the driving image. In this way, it becomes possible to include the cause of traffic jam in the traffic jam information. The traffic jam cause detection unit 215 detects the cause of traffic jam by, for example, confirming by image recognition technology that the cause of traffic jam, such as an accident, construction work, or fallen object, is captured in the image at the front end of the traffic jam.

[0051] The cause of the traffic jam may not be detected from the travel images acquired by the first travel image acquisition unit 212, i.e., images taken by a vehicle traveling on a congested road. Therefore, the information processing device 200 may further include a second travel image acquisition unit 216 that acquires travel images taken by a vehicle traveling in the peripheral area of ​​the front end of the traffic jam detected by the traffic jam area detection unit 215. Then, the traffic jam cause detection unit 215 may detect the cause of the traffic jam based on the travel images acquired by the second travel image acquisition unit 216.

[0052] In this way, it becomes possible to obtain driving images of the periphery of the front end of the traffic jam from a vehicle traveling on a road different from the congested road. In other words, in this way, it becomes possible to obtain driving images of the front end of the traffic jam taken from a direction different from the shooting direction of the vehicle traveling on the congested road, and it may be possible to detect the cause of the traffic jam even when the cause cannot be detected based on the driving images taken by the vehicle traveling on the congested road.

[0053] As shown in FIG. 6, vehicles (such as vehicles PAM1, PAM2, and PAM3 in FIG. 6) traveling in the surrounding area (area PR in FIG. 6) of the front end of the traffic jam can capture an image of the front end of the traffic jam from a direction different from the capturing direction of the vehicle (vehicle AM ​​in FIG. 6) traveling on the congested road while traveling, and the traffic jam range detection unit 213 may be able to detect the cause of the traffic jam even when the cause cannot be detected based on the driving images captured by the vehicle traveling on the congested road.

[0054] 7 is a diagram showing an example of a processing operation performed in the server device 200 when detecting the cause of traffic congestion. The traffic congestion cause detection unit 215 detects the cause of traffic congestion based on the driving image acquired by the first driving image acquisition unit 212 (S701). If the cause of traffic congestion has been detected (S702, YES), the processing ends.

[0055] If the cause of the traffic jam cannot be detected (S702, NO), the second travel image acquisition unit 216 acquires travel images taken by a vehicle traveling in the area surrounding the front end of the traffic jam (S703). The traffic jam cause detection unit 215 detects the cause of the traffic jam based on the travel images acquired by the second travel image acquisition unit 216 (S704).

[0056] The present invention has been described above in terms of preferred embodiments thereof. Although the present invention has been described herein with reference to specific examples, various modifications and variations can be made to these examples without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention as set forth in the claims. [Explanation of symbols]

[0057] 100 Terminal Equipment 110 Control section 111 Traffic jam detection unit 112 Traffic jam road information transmission processing unit 120 Storage section 130 Communications Department 140 Movement direction acquisition unit 150 Location information signal receiver 200 Server device 210 Control section 211 Traffic jam road information acquisition unit 212 First traveling image acquisition unit 213 Traffic jam area detection unit 214 Transmission processing unit 215 Traffic Jam Cause Detection Unit 216 Second traveling image acquisition unit

Claims

1. a congested road information acquisition unit that acquires congested road information including information on a congested road, which is a road on which a congestion is detected; a first driving image acquisition unit that acquires a driving image from a vehicle that is driving on the congested road based on the congested road information; a congestion area detection unit that detects a congestion area of ​​the congestion based on the driving image; A transmission processing unit, The congested road information acquisition unit acquires the congested road information from a vehicle that detects the congestion, The vehicle in which the congestion has been detected is a vehicle traveling in the lane in which the congestion has been detected, The traffic congestion range detection unit detects a leading edge of the traffic congestion based on the driving image, and detects a range between the detected leading edge of the traffic congestion and the traffic congestion detection position as a traffic congestion range of the traffic congestion, The transmission processing unit transmits information regarding the congestion area to a vehicle that detects the congestion.

2. The information processing device according to claim 1 , wherein the first driving image acquisition unit acquires the driving images by transmitting, to a vehicle traveling on the congested road, a request for transmission of a driving image of the vehicle.

3. The congested road information includes information regarding a driving direction of the lane in which the congestion is detected, The information processing device according to claim 1 , wherein the first driving image acquisition unit acquires driving images from a vehicle traveling on the congested road in a direction opposite to the driving direction.

4. The congested road information includes information regarding a congestion detection position, which is a position where the congestion is detected, The information processing device according to claim 3 , wherein the first driving image acquisition unit acquires driving images of an area of ​​the congested road ahead of the congestion detection position in the driving direction from a vehicle traveling in a direction opposite to the driving direction.

5. The information processing device according to claim 1 , wherein the first driving image acquisition unit acquires the driving images by broadcasting a request for a vehicle traveling on the congested road to transmit a driving image of the vehicle from a device installed on the congested road.

6. The information processing device according to claim 1 , further comprising a traffic jam cause detection unit configured to detect a cause of the traffic jam based on the driving image.

7. A second driving image acquisition unit acquires driving images from vehicles traveling in a peripheral area of ​​the front end of the traffic jam detected by the traffic jam range detection unit, The information processing device according to claim 6 , wherein the traffic congestion cause detection unit detects a cause of the traffic congestion based on a driving image acquired by the second driving image acquisition unit.

8. The information processing device according to claim 1 , wherein the transmission processing unit transmits, in addition to information about the congestion area, information about the congestion area and a cause of the congestion to a vehicle that has detected the congestion.

9. An information processing device according to any one of claims 1 to 8; A system having a terminal device installed in a vehicle, The terminal device has a congestion detection unit that detects congestion.

10. 1. A computer-implemented information processing method, comprising: a congested road information acquiring step of acquiring congested road information including information on a congested road which is a road on which a congestion has been detected; a driving image acquisition step of acquiring a driving image from a vehicle traveling on the congested road based on the congested road information; a congestion area detection step of detecting an area of ​​the congestion based on the driving image; A transmission processing step, The congested road information acquisition step acquires the congested road information from a vehicle that detects the congestion, The vehicle in which the congestion has been detected is a vehicle traveling in the lane in which the congestion has been detected, The traffic jam range detection step includes detecting a front end of the traffic jam based on the driving image, and detecting a range between the detected front end of the traffic jam and the traffic jam detection position as a traffic jam range of the traffic jam, The information processing method, wherein the transmission processing step transmits information about the congestion area to a vehicle that detects the congestion.

11. An information processing program that causes a computer to execute the information processing method according to claim 10.

12. A computer-readable storage medium storing the information processing program according to claim 11.

Images