Map information creation device and map information creation method

Abstract

The present invention more accurately estimates a parking area of a facility when there are a plurality of pieces of parking area polygon information for the vicinity of the facility.　A map information generation device 1 comprises: a parking tendency information calculation unit 113 that calculates parking tendency information for the parking area polygon information; a parking area extraction unit 112 that extracts parking area polygon information for which the distance from the center position of one facility is within a prescribed distance; and a parking area determination unit 114 that, if a plurality of pieces of parking area polygon information were extracted by the parking area extraction unit 112, determines a piece of parking area polygon information from among the extracted pieces of parking area polygon information, on the basis of each piece of parking tendency information for the plurality of extracted pieces of parking area polygon information, the pieces of parking tendency information being calculated by the parking tendency information calculation unit 113.

Description

[Technical Field]

[0001] The present invention relates to a map information creation device and a map information creation method for easily linking parking lot polygons included in map information with facility information. [Background technology]

[0002] Floating Car Data (FCD) containing GPS location information from multiple vehicles is received by a server, and the accumulated location information is used to analyze data on facilities visited by the vehicles. This is becoming increasingly common. In order to correctly understand, based on the vehicle's location information, that a vehicle user has stopped at a facility that has a parking lot attached, for example, the parking lot section information and the fact that the parking lot is the parking lot of the relevant facility must be correctly registered on the map. Parking spaces are registered in polygon format on a map layer, and this polygon information can also be requested from an external company. Additionally, existing OSM (Open Street Map) already has some parking polygons registered. However, it is often unclear whether each parking polygon is a parking lot for facility users attached to a facility, or for individuals with monthly rentals. Furthermore, even in the case of parking lots attached to a facility, there is often no link between the facility information and the parking grid, indicating which facility the parking lot belongs to. For example, Patent Document 1 discloses a technology that divides map information into multiple mesh areas, and in each mesh area, an area where a vehicle has parked multiple times is set as a target area for determination, and determines a mesh area where a specific vehicle is parked as a home parking lot, and determines a mesh area where an unspecified number of vehicles are parked as a facility parking lot. However, while the technology described in Patent Document 1 discloses associating a facility with a parking lot determined to be a facility parking lot by a facility's close-by facilities based on the latitude and longitude indicating the area, when multiple facilities exist, it merely assigns a parking lot attribute and does not go so far as to identify the facility. Patent Document 2 also describes a method of receiving continuous position information from multiple vehicles together with time information, determining that the vehicle has parked if there is no change in the position information for a predetermined period of time or more, creating a parking position information table with the position information as the vehicle's parking position and the parking time including date and time information, and comparing the estimated parking time corresponding to the facility type for each facility with the parking time of the vehicle to determine the facility among the multiple facilities that corresponds to the facility type where the vehicle is most likely to have stayed as the facility where the vehicle stayed. [Prior art documents] [Patent documents]

[0003] [Patent Document 1] WO2019-065328 [Patent Document 2] Patent Publication No. 2020-144587 Summary of the Invention [Problem to be solved by the invention]

[0004] In order to enable facility visitor analysis through big data analysis of FCDs acquired from vehicles, there is a need for a map information creation device and map information creation method that can easily link parking lot polygons included in map information with facility information.

[0005] The present invention has been made in consideration of such problems, and aims to provide a map information creation device and a map information creation method that, when there are multiple pieces of parking lot polygon information around a facility, can determine the parking lot polygon information included in the parking lot of the facility from among the multiple pieces of parking lot polygon information without relying on human labor. [Means for solving the problem]

[0006] (1) A map information creation device of the present invention (for example, a map information creation device 1 described later) a map information storage unit (for example, the map information storage unit 122 described below) that stores map information including facility center position information as facility information for a plurality of facilities and a plurality of parking lot polygon information; a vehicle parking position information table (for example, a vehicle parking position information table 124 described later) including at least parking position information, parking date and time information, and parking time collected within a predetermined period, the vehicle parking position information being the vehicle position information when there is no change in the vehicle position information for a predetermined period or more; a parking tendency information calculation unit (for example, a parking tendency information calculation unit 113 described later) that calculates parking tendency information of parking lot polygon information by referring to the vehicle parking position information table; a parking lot extraction unit (for example, a parking lot extraction unit 112 described later) that extracts parking lot polygon information that is within a predetermined distance from the center position of one of the facilities in the facility information; When the parking lot extraction unit extracts a plurality of pieces of parking lot polygon information, the parking lot determination unit (e.g., the parking lot determination unit 114 described below) determines the parking lot polygon information included in the parking lot of the facility from among the plurality of pieces of extracted parking lot polygon information based on the parking tendency information of each of the plurality of pieces of extracted parking lot polygon information calculated by the parking tendency information calculation unit.

[0007] According to (1) above, when there are multiple parking lot polygon information around a facility, it is possible to determine the parking lot polygon information included in the parking lot of the facility from among the multiple parking lot polygon information without relying on human labor.

[0008] (2) In the map information creation device (for example, the map information creation device 1 described later) described above in (1), a receiving unit (for example, the receiving unit 110A described later) that receives continuous position information from a plurality of vehicles together with time information; The device may also include a parking position information recording unit (for example, parking position information recording unit 110B described later) that determines that the vehicle is parked when there is no change in the position information for a predetermined period of time or more, and stores the parking position information where it is determined that the vehicle is parked in a storage unit as a vehicle parking position information table.

[0009] According to (2) above, the same effect as that of the map information creation device according to (1) above can be achieved.

[0010] (3) In the map information creation device described in (1) above (for example, the map information creation device 1 described later), The facility information includes size information indicating the size of the facility, a parking lot area information table (for example, a parking lot area information table 123 described later) that indicates a correspondence relationship between the area or area range of the facility as the size of the facility and the parking lot area or parking lot area range of the facility that is standardly assumed according to the size of the facility; The parking lot determination unit (for example, the parking lot determination unit 114 described later) further Even if multiple pieces of parking lot polygon information are extracted by the parking lot extraction unit (for example, the parking lot extraction unit 112 described below), if the facility size information is equal to or smaller than the size that corresponds to the total area of ​​the parking lot polygon information determined to be included in the parking lot of the facility, the multiple pieces of extracted parking lot polygon information may not be determined to be parking lot polygon information included in the parking lot of the facility.

[0011] According to (3) above, it is possible to prevent erroneous determination of parking lots that do not match the facility size.

[0012] (4) In the map information creation device described in (1) to (3) above (for example, the map information creation device 1 described later), The parking tendency information calculation unit (for example, the parking tendency information calculation unit 113 described later) Parking position information included in the vehicle parking position information table (for example, vehicle parking position information table 124 described later) and located within the parking lot polygon may be plotted on the parking lot polygon, and parking tendency information of the parking lot polygon information may be calculated based on the plotted parking position information.

[0013] According to (4) above, even if there is a large amount of parking lot polygon information around the facility, it is possible to determine the parking lot of the facility without relying on human labor.

[0014] (5) In the map information creation device described in (4) above (for example, the map information creation device 1 described later), the parking tendency information of the parking lot polygon information may include at least one of a statistical value based on the entry time of vehicles parked in the parking lot during a predetermined period or a statistical value based on the length of stay.

[0015] According to (5) above, for example, if the business hours, visit times of visitors, and stay times of visitors are similar, it is possible to determine that the parking lots are of the same facility without relying on human intervention.

[0016] (6) A map information creation method of the present invention is a map information creation method executed by a computer, a map information storage step for storing map information including facility center position information as facility information for a plurality of facilities, and a plurality of parking lot polygon information; a step of storing a vehicle parking position information table (for example, a vehicle parking position information table 124 described later) including at least parking position information, parking date and time information, and parking time collected within a predetermined period, the vehicle parking position information being the vehicle position information when there is no change in the vehicle position information for a predetermined period or more; a parking tendency information calculation step of calculating parking tendency information of parking lot polygon information by referring to the vehicle parking position information table; a parking lot extraction step of extracting parking lot polygon information that is within a predetermined distance from a center position of one of the facilities in the facility information; a parking lot determination step of determining parking lot polygon information included in a parking lot of the facility from among the plurality of extracted parking lot polygon information based on the parking tendency information of each of the plurality of extracted parking lot polygon information calculated in the parking tendency information calculation step, when a plurality of pieces of parking lot polygon information are extracted in the parking lot extraction step; It has.

[0017] According to the method (6) above, the same effect as that of the map information creation device (1) above can be achieved. [Effects of the Invention]

[0018] According to the present invention, it is possible to provide a map information creation device and a map information creation method that, when there are multiple pieces of parking lot polygon information around a facility, determine the parking lot polygon information included in the parking lot of the facility from among the multiple pieces of parking lot polygon information without relying on human labor. [Brief explanation of the drawings]

[0019] [Figure 1] 1 is a block diagram showing a basic configuration of a map information creation device according to an embodiment of the present invention; [Figure 2] FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of a vehicle parking position information table according to the embodiment of the present invention. [Figure 3] FIG. 10 is a diagram showing the distance between a facility and a parking lot polygon according to an embodiment of the present invention. [Figure 4] FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of parking tendency information of a parking lot according to an embodiment of the present invention. [Figure 5] 10 is a flowchart showing the operation of determining that a plurality of parking lot polygons are parking lots for one facility and creating a map in an embodiment of the present invention. [Figure 6] 10 is a flowchart showing an operation of calculating parking tendency information (also called "parking pattern") for a specified parking lot polygon in an embodiment of the present invention. [Figure 7] FIG. 10 is a block diagram showing a basic configuration of a modified example of a map information creation device according to an embodiment of the present invention. [Figure 8] FIG. 10 is a diagram showing an outline of the data structure of a position information database according to a modified example of the map information creation device that is an embodiment of the present invention. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0020] A preferred embodiment of a map information creation device of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the drawings. Fig. 1 shows the basic configuration of the map information creation device 1. The functional blocks of the map information creation device 1 will be described with reference to the block diagram of Fig. 1.

[0021] As shown in FIG. 1, the map information creation device 1 includes a control unit 11, a storage unit 12, a communication unit 13, a display unit 14, and an input unit 15.

[0022] The control unit 11 is made up of an arithmetic processing device such as a microprocessor, and controls each unit constituting the map information creation device 1. Details of the control unit 11 will be described later.

[0023] The storage unit 12 is composed of a semiconductor memory or the like, and stores various programs such as control programs called firmware or operating systems, programs for performing map information creation processing, and other various information such as map information. The diagram shows the information stored in the storage unit 12, including a facility information storage unit 121 that stores facility information for each of a plurality of facilities, a map information storage unit 122 that stores map information including center position information for each facility and polygon information for each parking lot, a facility parking lot area information table 123, and a vehicle parking position information table 124. In the following embodiments, it is assumed that coin parking lots and the like that are not facility parking lots are excluded in advance from the determination subject of the present invention. Coin parking lots and the like are marked as such on the map, and can be excluded from the determination subject. Furthermore, individual parking lots, such as monthly rental parking lots, can be easily determined based on characteristics such as the length of time parking in the parking lot, particularly the length of time parking at night, and a close relationship between the number of vehicles parked at night and the number of parked vehicles calculated from the parking lot area, and therefore can be excluded as parking lots that are not the determination subject of the present invention. The facility information includes, for example, identification information (facility ID) of the facility, the name of the facility, the facility type (and / or genre) related to the type of facility, telephone number, address, business hours, central location information indicating the central location of the facility (for example, latitude and longitude information), the size of the facility (for example, either the site area of ​​the facility or the total floor area of ​​the facility), etc. Here, the facility type indicates the type of business of the facility, such as a convenience store, hospital, car dealership, etc. The facility parking lot area information table 123 is a table that shows the correspondence between the area or area range of the facility size and the facility parking lot area or parking lot area range that is standardly assumed depending on the facility size. Note that the facility size in the parking lot area information table 123 may be, for example, a size range, and the facility parking lot area may be, for example, a parking lot area range.

[0024] The vehicle parking position information table 124 is a table that stores vehicle parking information collected in a predetermined area (e.g., prefecture, city, town, village, etc.) and within a predetermined period (e.g., one year), including at least parking position information, parking date and time information, and parking time. Here, parking position information refers to vehicle position information when there is no change in the vehicle position information for a predetermined period of time or more. Figure 2 is a diagram showing an overview of the vehicle parking position information table 124. The vehicle parking position information table 124 is created based on a position information database (not shown) including movement transition information created using Floating Car Data (FCD) including a vehicle ID, position information, time information, etc., received from a connected car. Creation of a vehicle parking position information table is a well-known technique to those skilled in the art, as described in Patent Document 2, for example. From the perspective of protecting personal information, the vehicle parking position information table 124 may not include the vehicle ID. In this embodiment, the vehicle parking position information table 124 is configured to be downloaded as needed from a server device (not shown) or the like connected to the communication network 60.

[0025] The facility information, map information, parking lot area information table 123, vehicle parking position information table 124, etc. may be configured to be stored in advance in the storage unit 12, or may be configured to be downloaded as needed from a server device (not shown) or the like connected to the communication network 60. Furthermore, this information may be modified as needed in response to user input, etc. In this embodiment, the vehicle parking position information table 124 is configured to be downloaded as needed from a server device (not shown) or the like connected to the communication network 60.

[0026] The communication unit 13 has a DSP and the like, and conforms to standards such as LTE (Long Term Evolution), 4G (4th Generation), and 5G (5th Generation), or Wi-Fi (registered trademark), to realize wireless communication and wired communication with other devices (for example, the above-mentioned server) via a communication network 60. The communication network 60 is realized by a network such as the Internet or a mobile phone network, or a network that combines these. A LAN (Local Area Network) may also be included as part of the network.

[0027] The display unit 14 is configured by a display device such as a liquid crystal display, an organic electroluminescence panel, etc. The display unit 14 receives an instruction from the control unit 11 and displays an image. The input unit 15 is configured with an input device (not shown) such as a physical switch called a numeric keypad or a touch panel provided over the display surface of the display unit 14.

[0028] Next, details of the control unit 11 will be described. The control unit 11 is configured by a microprocessor having a CPU, RAM, ROM, I / O, etc. The CPU executes each program read from the ROM or storage unit 12, and during execution, reads information from the RAM, ROM, and storage unit 12, writes information to the RAM and storage unit 12, and exchanges signals with the communication unit 13. In this way, the processing in this embodiment is realized by the cooperation of hardware and software (programs).

[0029] The control unit 11 includes, as functional blocks, a distance calculation unit 111, a parking lot extraction unit 112, a parking tendency information calculation unit 113, a parking lot determination unit 114, and a facility information recording unit 115.

[0030] The distance calculation unit 111 calculates the distance between the center position information of a facility included in the facility information and one node of the parking lot polygon information. Here, one node of the parking lot polygon information means a position included in the parking lot polygon that is the shortest distance from the center position information of the facility. FIG. 3 is a diagram showing the distance between a facility and a parking lot polygon. As shown in FIG. 3, the distance between the facility and the parking lot polygon is the shortest distance between the center position of the facility and any position included in the parking lot polygon. Note that when the center position of the facility is included in the parking lot polygon, the distance between the center position information of the facility included in the facility information and one node of the parking lot polygon information is 0 (zero).

[0031] The parking lot extraction unit 112 extracts parking lot polygon information for parking lots having parking lot polygon information, where the distance from the center position of one facility selected by the user to the parking lot polygon is equal to or less than a predetermined distance.

[0032] The parking tendency information calculation unit 113 calculates parking tendency information (also referred to as "parking pattern") for a specified parking lot polygon. Here, the parking tendency information (parking pattern) may include, for example, the tendency of the entry time of vehicles parked in the parking lot, or the tendency of the stay time (parking time) of vehicles parked in the parking lot. Furthermore, the parking tendency information (parking pattern) may further indicate the tendency of the entry time of vehicles or the stay time (parking time) of vehicles by day of the week. FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of parking trend information for a parking lot. Here, the trend of entry time and the trend of stay time are shown as examples. The horizontal axis of the graph showing the entry time trend indicates the time range (e.g., 9:00 to 10:00, 10:00 to 11:00, etc.), and the vertical axis indicates the average number or number ratio of parked vehicles for each time range in a predetermined period (or for each day of the week). Furthermore, the graph showing the stay time trend indicates, for example, how many vehicles (or the number ratio) stayed for how long in a predetermined period (or for each day of the week). Specifically, for example, the vertical axis may indicate the stay time, and the horizontal axis may indicate the average number or number ratio of vehicles that stayed for that stay time. For example, if a facility has two or more parking lots (such as parking lot A and parking lot B) in the vicinity of the facility, it can be expected that the parking tendency information (parking patterns) of parking lot A and parking lot B will be similar. As will be described later, if there are multiple parking lots that are within a predetermined distance from the facility, it can be expected that all parking lots with similar parking tendency information (parking patterns) belong to the facility. Hereinafter, a method for the parking tendency information calculation unit 113 to calculate parking tendency information (also called "parking pattern") will be described. The parking tendency information calculation unit 113 refers to the vehicle parking position information table 124 and collects vehicle parking information for a predetermined period of time, in which the parking position is within the parking lot. The parking tendency information calculation unit 113 can calculate, for example, the trend in the time at which vehicles enter the parking lot or the trend in the length of time the vehicles stay (parking time) based on the date and time information (date, day of the week, entry time, etc.) of when the vehicle parked in the parking lot and the parking time, which are included in the vehicle parking information. Furthermore, if necessary, the parking tendency information calculation unit 113 can calculate the trend in the time at which vehicles enter the parking lot or the trend in the length of time the vehicles stay (parking time) for each day of the week. When the parking tendency information calculation unit 113 calculates the parking tendency information of a parking lot, the parking tendency information calculation unit 113 may store the calculated parking tendency information in the storage unit 12 in association with the parking lot identification information (parking lot polygon ID).

[0033] When the parking lot polygon information includes facility information (for example, a facility ID), the parking lot determination unit 114 determines that the parking lot polygon information is a parking lot of a facility identified by the facility ID. If the parking lot polygon includes central position information of a facility included in the facility information, the parking lot determination unit 114 determines that the parking lot polygon information is a parking lot for the facility. In this way, when there are multiple pieces of parking lot polygon information around one facility, the parking lot determination unit 114 can determine the parking lot polygon information included in the parking lot of the facility from among the multiple pieces of parking lot polygon information without relying on human intervention.

[0034] Furthermore, when the parking lot extraction unit 112 extracts multiple pieces of parking lot polygon information where the distance from the center position of a facility to the parking lot polygon is less than a predetermined distance, the parking lot determination unit 114 may determine, based on the parking tendency information of each piece of extracted parking lot polygon information calculated by the parking tendency information calculation unit 113, from among the multiple extracted parking lot polygon information, a group of parking lot polygons with similar parking tendency information as a parking lot for the facility. However, the parking lot determination unit 114 may compare the facility size information with the aggregate area of ​​parking lot polygons determined to be a parking lot for the facility by referring to the parking lot area information table 123. Specifically, if the facility size information is below the scale associated with the total area of ​​parking lot polygons included in the collection of parking lot polygons determined to be a parking lot for the facility, the parking lot determination unit 114 may not determine that the collection of multiple extracted parking lot polygon information is a parking lot for the facility. This prevents the erroneous determination that a parking lot that does not match the size of the facility is a parking lot for the facility. In this embodiment, in order to accurately analyze whether a vehicle is a user of the facility, emphasis is placed on not determining that the facility is a parking lot if the total area of ​​multiple parking lots is excessive compared to the facility size. In other words, it can be determined that providing a parking lot with an area larger than the facility size would normally be considered to result in an unused area. Conversely, it is possible that the parking lot area corresponding to the facility size cannot necessarily be secured due to location conditions, etc., so If the parking area is small compared to the size of the facility, we have determined that it is appropriate not to reject the application. However, as mentioned above, by making the parking lot area information table 123 a table that shows the correspondence between the area or area range of the facility size and the parking lot area or parking lot area range of the facility that is normally assumed depending on the facility size, it is possible to provide a certain range for the parking lot area relative to the facility size, or the facility size relative to the parking lot area. By setting this range, it is possible to increase the range when the parking lot area is small relative to the facility size, and conversely, decrease the range when the parking lot area is large relative to the facility size.

[0035] The facility information recording unit 115 stores the facility information determined by the parking lot determination unit 114 in the map information storage unit 122 in association with the parking lot polygon information. This makes it possible to create a map in which the parking lot polygons included in the map information are easily linked to the facility information, without the need to manually link the facility information to the parking lot polygons included in the map information. The configuration of each functional unit of the map information creation device 1 exemplified as this embodiment has been described above.

[0036] Next, the operation of this embodiment will be described with reference to the flowcharts shown in FIGS. 5 and 6. Here, FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing the operation of determining that multiple parking lot polygons are parking lots for a single facility and creating a map. FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing the operation of calculating parking tendency information (also referred to as "parking pattern") for a specified parking lot polygon. As mentioned above, coin parking lots that are not facility parking lots, monthly parking lots for individuals, and other parking lots are excluded as parking lots that are not subject to the determination of the present invention. Furthermore, if a parking lot polygon has tag information indicating a facility or if the parking lot polygon includes information about the center position of the facility, the facility information is linked to the parking lot polygon and stored in the map information storage unit 122. For this reason, such parking lot polygons are excluded from the following processing flow.

[0037] Referring to FIG. 5, in step S10, the map information creation device 1 (parking lot determination unit 114) selects one piece of facility information.

[0038] In step S11, the map information creation device 1 (parking lot extraction unit 112) extracts parking lot polygon information in which the distance from the center position of the facility to the parking lot polygon is equal to or shorter than a predetermined distance.

[0039] In step S12, if one piece of parking lot polygon information is extracted, the map information creation device 1 (parking lot determination unit 114) proceeds to step S17. If multiple pieces of parking lot polygon information are extracted, the process proceeds to step S13. Note that if no parking lot polygon information is extracted, the process ends.

[0040] In step S13, the map information creation device 1 (parking tendency information calculation unit 113) calculates parking tendency information for each extracted parking lot polygon.

[0041] In step S14, the map information creation device 1 (parking lot determination unit 114) provisionally determines, from the extracted parking lot polygons, a set of parking lot polygons having similar parking tendency information as a parking lot for the facility.

[0042] In step S15, the map information creation device 1 (parking lot determination unit 114) refers to the parking lot area information table 123, and if the facility size information is less than the size associated with the total area of ​​the parking lot polygons included in the set of parking lot polygons determined to be the parking lot of the facility, ends the process. Otherwise, proceeds to step S16.

[0043] In step S16, the map information creation device 1 (parking lot determination unit 114) determines that a set of parking lot polygons with similar parking tendency information is a parking lot of the facility, links the facility information to the set of parking lot polygons, and proceeds to step S18.

[0044] In step S17, if it is determined that the extracted parking lot polygon information is a parking lot for the facility, the parking lot polygon is linked to the facility and the process proceeds to step S 18. If not, the process ends.

[0045] In step S18, the map information creation device 1 (facility information recording unit 115) associates the facility information with the parking lot polygon information and stores them in the map information storage unit 122. In particular, when multiple parking lot polygons are associated with one piece of facility information, the parking lot polygon is stored as one of the dispersed parking lots of the facility.

[0046] The process in step S17 will now be explained in more detail. First, when facility information (for example, a facility ID) is tagged to parking lot polygon information, the map information creation device 1 (parking lot determination unit 114) determines that the parking lot polygon information is a parking lot for the facility identified by the facility ID. Next, when the parking lot polygon includes central position information of the facility included in the facility information, the map information creation device 1 (parking lot determination unit 114) determines that the parking lot polygon information is a parking lot for the facility. Furthermore, the map information creation device 1 (parking lot determination unit 114) refers to the parking lot area information table, and when the facility has size information close to the size information of the facility associated with the parking lot area calculated from the parking lot polygon information, it determines that the parking lot polygon information is a parking lot for the facility. In cases other than those described above, the map information creation device 1 (parking lot determination unit 114) determines that the parking lot polygon information is not a parking lot for the facility.

[0047] As a result, when there are multiple pieces of parking lot polygon information around a facility, the map information creation device 1 can determine the set of parking lots for the facility from the multiple pieces of parking lot polygon information without relying on human labor.

[0048] Next, with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG. 6, an operation for calculating parking tendency information (parking pattern) for a specified parking lot polygon will be described.

[0049] Referring to FIG. 6, in step S20, the map information creation device 1 (parking tendency information calculation unit 113) refers to the vehicle parking position information table 124 and collects vehicle parking information whose parking positions are included in the parking lot for a predetermined period of time.

[0050] In step S21, the map information creation device 1 (parking tendency information calculation unit 113) calculates, for example, the average number or number ratio of parked vehicles (trend in entry time) for each time range of a specified period (or each day of the week) based on the collected vehicle parking information.

[0051] In step S22, the map information creation device 1 (parking tendency information calculation unit 113) calculates, for example, the average number or number ratio of parked vehicles (stay time tendency) for each range of stay time during a specified period (or each day of the week) based on the collected vehicle parking information. From the above, parking tendency information (parking pattern) for the parking lot polygon can be calculated.

[0052] The above has described the operation of the map information creation device 1, when there are multiple pieces of parking lot polygon information around a facility, to determine the parking lot polygon information included in the parking lot of the facility from the multiple pieces of parking lot polygon information. At that time, the map information creation device 1 has described the operation of calculating parking tendency information of the parking lot polygons and determining that the parking lot polygons with similar parking tendency information are the parking lot of the facility. As a result, when there are multiple pieces of parking lot polygon information around a facility, the map information creation device 1 can determine, without relying on human intervention, from the multiple pieces of parking lot polygon information, the parking lot polygon information included in the parking lot of the facility.

[0053] According to the present embodiment described above, when there are multiple pieces of parking lot polygon information around one facility, it is possible to determine the parking lot polygon information included in the parking lot of the facility from among the multiple pieces of parking lot polygon information without relying on human intervention.

[0054] Each device can be realized by hardware, software, or a combination of these. Furthermore, the navigation method performed by the cooperation of each device included in the navigation system can also be realized by hardware, software, or a combination of these. Here, "realized by software" means that it is realized by a computer reading and executing a program.

[0055] The program can be stored and supplied to a computer using various types of non-transitory computer-readable media. Non-transitory computer-readable media include various types of tangible storage media. Examples of non-transitory computer-readable media include magnetic recording media (e.g., flexible disks, magnetic tapes, hard disk drives), magneto-optical recording media (e.g., magneto-optical disks), CD-ROMs (Read Only Memory), CD-Rs, CD-R / Ws, and semiconductor memories (e.g., mask ROMs, PROMs (Programmable ROMs), EPROMs (Erasable PROMs), flash ROMs, and RAMs (Random Access Memory)). The program may also be supplied to a computer by various types of transitory computer-readable media. Examples of transitory computer-readable media include electrical signals, optical signals, and electromagnetic waves. The transitory computer-readable media can supply the program to a computer via a wired communication path such as an electric wire or optical fiber, or via a wireless communication path.

[0056] The above-described embodiment is a preferred embodiment of the present invention, but the scope of the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment alone, and the present invention can be implemented in various modified forms within the scope that does not deviate from the gist of the present invention.

[0057] <Variation 1> Fig. 7 shows a functional block diagram of a modified example of the map information creation device. In the above-described embodiment, the vehicle parking position information table 124 is configured to be downloaded as needed from a server device (not shown) or the like connected to the communication network 60. However, as shown in Fig. 7, the map information creation device 1A may be configured to include a receiving unit 110A and a parking position information recording unit 110B as functional blocks of the control unit 11 in addition to the distance calculation unit 111, the parking lot extraction unit 112, the parking tendency information calculation unit 113, the parking lot determination unit 114, and the facility information recording unit 115. The receiving unit 110A receives the identification information, position information, time information, etc. of each vehicle from the vehicle via the communication unit 13, and appropriately creates and updates a position information database 126 that indicates the movement progress of each vehicle based on the identification information, position information, time information, etc. received from each vehicle, and the parking position information recording unit 110B may determine that a vehicle has been parked if there is no change in the position information for a predetermined period of time or more based on the position information database 126, and store the position information where it has been determined that the vehicle has been parked as parking position information in the storage unit 12 as a vehicle parking position information table 124. As mentioned above, from the viewpoint of protecting personal information, the vehicle parking position information table 124 may not include the vehicle ID. The receiving unit 110A and the parking position information recording unit 110B will be briefly described below.

[0058] The receiving unit 110A receives continuous position information from a plurality of vehicles together with time information. More specifically, the receiving unit 110A is a part that updates the position information database 126 based on the continuous position information and the vehicle ID (also referred to as a mobile object ID) received from the vehicle (also referred to as a mobile object) via the communication unit 13.

[0059] The location information database 126 may store location information of traveling vehicles for at least the past year, for example. The location information database 126 may also store location information of traveling vehicles by prefecture, region, or the like. An example of the data structure of the location information database 126 will be described with reference to Fig. 8. As shown in Fig. 8, the location information database 126 may store, for each vehicle, "speed information" in addition to "vehicle ID" and "continuous location information and time information from the vehicle" received by the receiving unit 110A.

[0060] As described above, the "vehicle ID" in the location information database 126 is information for identifying the in-vehicle navigation device or mobile terminal that is the source of the location information, etc., and the vehicle in which they are installed. The "location information" in the location information database 126 is all consecutive location information received from the vehicle from the start of transmission of location information, etc. to the present. The "time information" is the time information when the location information was measured. All of this consecutive location information and time information makes it possible to identify vehicle parking information, including the parking location, parking date and time, etc. If speed information is transmitted from the vehicle along with the location information, the received speed information is stored in association with the time information and location information.

[0061] The parking position information recording unit 110B determines that the vehicle has been parked when it is determined that there has been no change in the vehicle position information for a predetermined period of time or more, based on the position information database 126. Furthermore, when it is determined that the vehicle has been parked, the parking position information recording unit 110B calculates the date, day of the week, the parking time of the vehicle 50, the movement time, and the parking time. The parking position information recording unit 110B stores the position information determined that the vehicle 50 has been parked as the parking position of the vehicle in the vehicle parking position information table 124. As described above, from the perspective of protecting personal information, the vehicle parking position information table 124 may not include the vehicle ID. The parking position information recording unit 110B stores parking position information, date and time information (date, time, day of the week) at the parking position, parking time, movement time, parking duration, etc. in the vehicle parking position information table 124. Here, the parking time indicates the time when the mobile object was parked at the parking position, and the movement time indicates the time when the mobile object moved from the parking position. The vehicle parking position information table 124 may record and accumulate vehicle parking information on a prefecture-by-prefecture or region-by-region basis, for example, with a collection period of one year.

[0062] More specifically, for example, if the last time location information is received after the transmission of location information etc. has started once and no location information is transmitted for a predetermined time, the parking location information recording unit 110B may determine that the location corresponding to this last received location information is the parking location. In this case, the parking location information recording unit 110B may calculate the predetermined time during which no location information was transmitted as the parking time of the vehicle. Also, if the location corresponding to other transmitted location information does not change for a certain time or more, this location may be determined to be the parking location. In this case, the parking location information recording unit 110B may calculate the time during which the location does not change as the parking time of the vehicle. Furthermore, if the interval between the times at which adjacent pieces of position information are measured in the continuous position information received from the vehicle exceeds or is equal to or shorter than a predetermined first time and is shorter than or equal to a predetermined second time, and if any of the speed information of the adjacent piece of position information is shorter than or equal to a predetermined speed V0, the parking position information recording unit 110B may determine that the vehicle is stopped. In this case, the parking position information recording unit 110B may calculate the interval between the times at which the adjacent pieces of position information are measured as the parking time of the vehicle. Here, the predetermined speed V0 may be, for example, the speed at which the vehicle stops in a parking lot. It may also be 0 km / h. It may also be set according to the characteristics of each vehicle (characteristics of the driver when driving). By doing so, even if the device is an apparatus that cannot transmit location information when the ignition is on and / or off, for example, it is possible to identify information that indicates that the vehicle is likely to be stopped. In addition, when the vehicle stops transmitting vehicle position information when the ignition is turned off, for example, as in the case of an in-vehicle navigation device in a current engine vehicle, the current position transmitted immediately before the reception of the vehicle position information stops may be used as the parking position. In this case, the parking position information recording unit 110B may calculate the time from when the transmission of the vehicle position information stops to when the next transmission of the vehicle position information starts as the parking time of the vehicle. Similarly, when a vehicle starts transmitting vehicle position information when the ignition is turned on, for example, as in the case of an in-vehicle navigation device in a current engine vehicle, the current position at which reception of the vehicle position information starts may be set as the parking position. In this case, the parking position information recording unit 110B may calculate the time difference from the time at which transmission of the vehicle position information stopped before starting reception of the vehicle position information as the parking time of the vehicle. In addition, if the vehicle is capable of transmitting stop signal information even when stopped, such as an electric vehicle, the current position indicated by the stop signal or the most recent position information of the vehicle may be used as the parking position. In this case, the parking position information recording unit 110B may calculate the time from when the stop signal information is received until the next start signal information or position information is received as the parking time of the vehicle. Similarly, if the vehicle is capable of transmitting activation signal information when the vehicle is activated, such as an electric vehicle, the current position indicated by the activation signal may be regarded as the parking position. In this case, the parking position information recording unit 110B may calculate the parking time of the vehicle as the time difference from the time when the stop signal information or the last position signal was received from the vehicle before receiving the track signal information.

[0063] <Variation 2> In the above embodiment, the map information creation device 1 is described as being realized by a single server device or the like, but the functions of the map information creation device 1 may be distributed to a plurality of server devices as appropriate, forming a distributed processing system. Also, the functions of the map information creation device 1 may be realized by using a virtual server function or the like on a cloud. [Explanation of symbols]

[0064] 1. Map information creation device 1A Map information creation device 11 Control section 110A Receiver 110B Parking position information recording unit 111 Distance calculation unit 112 Parking lot extraction unit 113 Parking tendency information calculation unit 114 Parking Lot Judgment Department 115 Facility Information Recording Department 12 Storage section 121 Facility information storage unit 122 Map information storage unit 123 Parking lot area information table 124 Vehicle parking location information table 125 Parking tendency information storage unit 126 Location Database 13 Communications Department 14 Display section 15 Input section 60 Communication Network

Claims

1. a map information storage unit that stores map information including facility center position information for a plurality of facilities and a plurality of parking lot polygon information; a vehicle parking position information table including at least parking position information, parking date and time information, and parking time collected within a predetermined period, the vehicle parking position information being the vehicle position information when there is no change in the vehicle position information for a predetermined period or more; a parking tendency information calculation unit that calculates parking tendency information of parking lot polygon information by referring to the vehicle parking position information table; a parking lot extraction unit that extracts parking lot polygon information that is within a predetermined distance from a center position of one of the facilities in the facility information; a parking lot determination unit that, when a plurality of pieces of parking lot polygon information are extracted by the parking lot extraction unit, determines parking lot polygon information included in a parking lot of the facility from among the plurality of pieces of extracted parking lot polygon information based on the parking tendency information of each of the plurality of pieces of extracted parking lot polygon information calculated by the parking tendency information calculation unit; A map information creation device comprising:

2. a receiving unit that receives continuous position information from a plurality of vehicles together with time information; 2. The map information creation device according to claim 1, further comprising: a parking position information recording unit that determines that the vehicle is parked when there is no change in the position information for a predetermined period of time or more, and stores the parking position information of the vehicle determined to be parked in a storage unit as a vehicle parking position information table.

3. The facility information includes size information indicating the size of the facility, a parking lot area information table that indicates the correspondence between the area or area range of the facility size and the parking lot area or parking lot area range of the facility that is standardly assumed according to the facility size; The parking lot determination unit further 2. The map information creation device according to claim 1, wherein even when a plurality of pieces of parking lot polygon information are extracted by the parking lot extraction unit, if the facility size information is equal to or smaller than a size that corresponds to the total area of ​​the parking lot polygon information determined to be included in the parking lot of the facility, the plurality of pieces of extracted parking lot polygon information are not determined to be parking lot polygon information included in the parking lot of the facility.

4. The parking tendency information calculation unit 4. The map information creation device according to claim 1, wherein the parking position information included in the vehicle parking position information table and located within the parking polygon is plotted on the parking polygon, and parking tendency information of the parking polygon information is calculated based on the plotted parking position information.

5. 5. The map information creation device according to claim 4, wherein the parking tendency information of the parking lot polygon information includes at least one of a statistical value based on the entry time of vehicles parked in the parking lot during a predetermined period or a statistical value based on the length of stay of the vehicles.

6. A computer-implemented map information creation method, comprising: a map information storage step for storing map information including facility center position information as facility information for a plurality of facilities, and a plurality of parking lot polygon information; a step of storing a vehicle parking position information table including at least parking position information, parking date and time information, and parking time collected within a predetermined period, the vehicle parking position information being the vehicle position information when there is no change in the vehicle position information for a predetermined period or more; a parking tendency information calculation step of calculating parking tendency information of parking lot polygon information by referring to the vehicle parking position information table; a parking lot extraction step of extracting parking lot polygon information that is located within a predetermined distance from a center position of one of the facilities in the facility information; a parking lot determination step of determining parking lot polygon information included in a parking lot of the facility from among the plurality of extracted parking lot polygon information based on the parking tendency information of each of the plurality of extracted parking lot polygon information calculated in the parking tendency information calculation step, when a plurality of pieces of parking lot polygon information are extracted in the parking lot extraction step; A map information creating method comprising:

Images