Information gathering system and mobility support system

Abstract

An information collection system (10): collects, from a caution-needed situation indication device (20), caution-needed situation indication information including information on a caution-needed situation indicated by an indicator who is a user of the caution-needed situation indication device (20), and an identifier of the indicator; and creates and stores a caution-needed situation model, which is a model of a caution-needed situation, on the basis of the collected caution-needed situation indication information. The information collection system (10) also transmits the caution-needed situation model to a movement assistance device (30), receives a validity assessment result of the caution-needed situation model from the movement assistance device (30), and imparts a reward to the indicator of the caution-needed situation indication information which has become the basis of the caution-needed situation model assessed as valid.

Description

Information collection system, mobility support system, and information collection method

[0001] The present disclosure relates to an information collection system that collects information from moving objects such as vehicles and pedestrians.

[0002] The following Patent Document 1 discloses a system that detects locations where a vehicle driver has performed a head-turning check action as dangerous locations, collects information on the detected dangerous locations, and generates a traffic hazard map.

[0003] JP 2011-118601 A

[0004] In a system such as that described in Patent Document 1, it is important to obtain a large amount of information from the driver of the vehicle. For example, paying a driver a reward for providing information can increase the driver's motivation to provide information, but paying a fixed amount does not motivate the driver to provide better information.

[0005] The present disclosure has been made to solve the above-mentioned problems, and aims to provide an information collection system that can motivate information providers to provide better information.

[0006] The information collection system of the present disclosure includes an information collection unit that collects, from the caution-requiring situation indication device, caution-requiring situation indication information including information on caution-requiring situations indicated by a person who is a user of the caution-requiring situation indication device and an identifier of the person who indicated the caution-requiring situation, a caution-requiring situation model creation unit that creates a caution-requiring situation model that is a model of a caution-requiring situation based on the collected caution-requiring situation indication information, a caution-requiring situation model storage unit that stores the caution-requiring situation model, an information distribution unit that distributes the caution-requiring situation model to a mobility support device, an evaluation result receiving unit that receives from the mobility support device the effectiveness evaluation result of the caution-requiring situation model, and a reward granting unit that grants a reward to the person who indicated the caution-requiring situation indication information that formed the basis of the caution-requiring situation model evaluated to be effective.

[0007] According to the information collection system disclosed herein, a reward based on the evaluation results of the effectiveness of the caution situation model is given to the information provider, who points out the situation, thereby motivating the person who points out the situation to provide better caution situation indication information.

[0008] The objects, features, aspects, and advantages of the present disclosure will become more apparent from the following detailed description and the accompanying drawings.

[0009] 1 is a diagram showing a configuration of a mobility assistance system including an information collection system according to a first embodiment. FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a configuration of an attention requiring situation indicating device according to the first embodiment. FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a configuration of a mobility assistance device according to the first embodiment. FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing the operation of the attention requiring situation indicating device according to the first embodiment. FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an example of an attention requiring situation. FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an example of attention requiring situation. FIG. 7 is a diagram showing an example of attention requiring situation indication information. FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing an information collection process of the information collection system according to the first embodiment. FIG. 9 is a flowchart showing an information distribution process of the information collection system according to the first embodiment. FIG. 10 is a flowchart showing a reward granting process of the information collection system according to the first embodiment. FIG. 11 is a flowchart showing an information distribution request process of the mobility assistance device according to the first embodiment. FIG. 12 is a flowchart showing an attention requiring situation notification process of the mobility assistance device according to the first embodiment. FIG. 13 is a diagram showing an example of notification of an attention requiring situation using a HUD. FIG. 14 is a diagram showing an example of attention requiring situation indication information. FIG. 14 is a diagram showing a configuration of a mobility assistance system including an information collection system according to a modification of the first embodiment. FIG. 15 is a flowchart showing an attention requiring situation notification process of the mobility assistance device according to the modification of the first embodiment. FIG. 16 is a diagram showing a configuration of a mobility assistance system including an information collection system according to a second embodiment. FIG. 17 is a flowchart showing the operation of the attention requiring situation indicating device according to the second embodiment. FIG. 18 is a flowchart showing a data analysis process of the information collection system according to the second embodiment. FIG. 19 is a diagram showing a configuration of a mobility assistance system including an information collection system according to a third embodiment. Fig. 1 is a diagram showing a configuration of a mobility assistance system including an information collection system according to embodiment 4. Fig. 2 is a diagram showing a configuration of a multifunction drive recorder according to embodiment 4. Fig. 3 is a diagram showing an example of a hardware configuration of an information collection system. Fig. 4 is a diagram showing an example of a hardware configuration of an information collection system.

[0010] <First Embodiment> Fig. 1 is a diagram showing the configuration of a mobility assistance system according to the first embodiment. This mobility assistance system includes an information collection system 10 constructed in a server 100, an attention-requiring situation indicating device 20 mounted on a vehicle 200 which is a mobile body, and a mobility assistance device 30 mounted on a vehicle 300 which is a mobile body. Hereinafter, a user of the attention-requiring situation indicating device 20 will be referred to as an "attention-requiring situation indicating person," and a vehicle 200 equipped with the attention-requiring situation indicating device 20 will be referred to as an "attention-requiring situation indicating person vehicle." Furthermore, a user of the mobility assistance device 30 will be referred to as a "client," and a vehicle 300 equipped with the mobility assistance device 30 will be referred to as a "client vehicle."

[0011] In the following embodiments, the mobile body on which the caution-requiring situation indication device 20 and the mobility assistance device 30 are mounted is a vehicle, but there are no restrictions on the type of mobile body, and it may be any type, such as a motorcycle, bicycle, pedestrian, ship, airplane, helicopter, etc. Therefore, the term "mobility assistance" in the following description can be interpreted as "driving assistance," "running assistance," "walking assistance," "piloting assistance," "flight assistance," etc., depending on the type of mobile body.

[0012] The caution-requiring situation indication device 20 generates caution-requiring situation indication information including information on a caution-requiring situation that has been pointed out by a person who is the driver of the person who pointed out the situation and that has been encountered while the person who pointed out the situation is driving the person who pointed out the situation, and a person ID that is an identifier for the person who pointed out the situation, and transmits the information to the information collection system 10.

[0013] The information collection system 10 collects attention-requiring situation indication information transmitted from the attention-requiring situation indication device 20, and creates an attention-requiring situation model, which is information that models an attention-requiring situation based on the collected attention-requiring situation indication information. The information collection system 10 also stores the created attention-requiring situation model, and delivers the attention-requiring situation model to the mobility assistance device 30 in response to a request from the mobility assistance device 30.

[0014] The mobility assistance device 30 provides mobility assistance to the client, i.e., driving assistance for the client vehicle 300, based on the caution-requiring situation model delivered from the information collection system 10. Specifically, when the situation around the client vehicle 300 becomes close to the caution-requiring situation model, the mobility assistance device 30 determines that the client vehicle 300 is in a caution-requiring situation, and notifies the client, who is the driver of the client vehicle 300, of the caution-requiring situation.

[0015] Furthermore, the client vehicle 300 evaluates the effectiveness of the caution-required situation model depending on whether or not the notification contributed to the user's safety, and transmits the evaluation result (hereinafter also referred to as the "effectiveness evaluation result") to the information collection system 10. Specifically, if the mobility assistance device 30 determines that the notification of the caution-required situation contributed to the user's safety, it evaluates the caution-required situation model corresponding to the caution-required situation as "valid," and if it determines that the notification of the caution-required situation did not contribute to the user's safety, it evaluates the caution-required situation model as "invalid."

[0016] When the information collection system 10 receives an evaluation result from the mobility support device 30 that evaluates the caution-requiring situation model as "effective," it awards a reward to the person who pointed out the caution-requiring situation information that formed the basis of the caution-requiring situation model (hereinafter sometimes referred to as the "person who pointed out the caution-requiring situation model").

[0017] In this way, the information collection system 10 according to the first embodiment can motivate the person who points out the situation to provide better information indicating a situation requiring attention by providing a reward according to the evaluation result of the effectiveness of the situation requiring attention model. In addition, by not paying a reward to a situation requiring attention model evaluated as "invalid," it can be expected that the provision of low-quality information indicating a situation requiring attention will be suppressed.

[0018] Next, the information collection system 10, the caution-requiring situation indicating device 20, and the travel assistance device 30 will be described in detail.

[0019] As shown in FIG. 1, the information collection system 10 includes an information collection unit 11, an attention-requiring situation model creation unit 12, an attention-requiring situation model storage unit 13, an information distribution unit 14, an evaluation result receiving unit 15, and a reward granting unit 16.

[0020] The information collection unit 11 collects caution-requiring situation indication information including information on caution-requiring situations indicated by an indicator and an indicator ID from the caution-requiring situation indication device 20. The caution-requiring situation model creation unit 12 creates a caution-requiring situation model, which is a model of a caution-requiring situation, based on the collected caution-requiring situation indication information. The caution-requiring situation model storage unit 13 stores the caution-requiring situation model created by the caution-requiring situation model creation unit 12.

[0021] In response to a request from the mobility assistance device 30, the information distribution unit 14 distributes the caution-requiring situation model stored in the caution-requiring situation model storage unit 13 to the mobility assistance device 30. The evaluation result receiving unit 15 receives the effectiveness evaluation result of the caution-requiring situation model transmitted from the mobility assistance device 30. Based on the effectiveness evaluation result received by the evaluation result receiving unit 15, the reward granting unit 16 grants a reward to the person who pointed out the caution-requiring situation indication information that was the basis for the caution-requiring situation model that was evaluated as "effective."

[0022] 2 is a diagram showing the configuration of the attention-requiring situation indicating device 20. As shown in Fig. 2, the attention-requiring situation indicating device 20 is connected to a positioning device 201, a periphery detection device 202, a driver monitoring device 203, and an operation device 204 that are provided in a warning vehicle 200. Some or all of these may be built into the attention-requiring situation indicating device 20.

[0023] The positioning device 201 measures the position of the pointer vehicle 200 based on a positioning signal from a Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS). The positioning device 201 may correct the position of the pointer vehicle 200 measured from the positioning signal by, for example, map matching processing using output data from a vehicle speed sensor or an acceleration sensor of the pointer vehicle 200 and map data.

[0024] The periphery detection device 202 detects the surrounding conditions of the signaler vehicle 200. The periphery detection device 202 can be configured, for example, with an image recognition device that recognizes images captured by a camera, a LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging), a millimeter-wave radar, or the like.

[0025] The driver monitoring device 203 monitors the state of the driver of the warning vehicle 200. The driver monitoring device 203 has a camera that captures images of the driver and a microphone that collects the driver's voice, and can detect the driver's behavior, such as the direction of the driver's face, the direction of the driver's eyes, the voice, and the pointing action. The caution-required situation warning device 20 can detect that the driver has pointed out a caution-required situation from the driver's behavior detected by the driver monitoring device 203.

[0026] The driver monitoring device 203 may acquire the driver's state by a direct method or an indirect method. The direct method is a method of detecting physiological indicators such as the driver's facial direction, line of sight, facial expression, foot position relative to the pedals, grip pressure on the steering wheel, physical condition, heart rate, respiratory rate, etc. The indirect method is a method of estimating the driver's state from indicators of the driving state, such as the steering wheel direction, speed, acceleration, etc.

[0027] The operation device 204 is an input means for the driver of the indicator vehicle 200 to input operations to the caution-requiring situation indicator device 20. The operation device 204 may be any device, such as hardware such as a push button or an operation lever, software keys displayed on the screen of a display device, or a voice recognition device that recognizes voice operations.

[0028] As shown in FIG. 2, the caution-requiring situation indicating device 20 includes a caution-requiring situation indicating information generating unit 21, an indicating person ID storage unit 22, and a communication unit 23.

[0029] The problem-reporter ID storage unit 22 is a storage medium that stores problem-reporter IDs. The problem-reporter ID may be any ID that can identify the problem-reporter, such as an ID unique to the problem-reporter vehicle 200, an ID unique to the attention-required situation reporting device 20, an ID assigned to the problem-reporter by the information collection system 10, or an ID registered by the problem-reporter in the information collection system 10. The problem-reporter ID storage unit 22 may store multiple problem-reporter IDs.

[0030] When the caution-required situation indication information generation unit 21 detects that the driver of the indicating vehicle 200 has indicated a caution-required situation from the driver's behavior detected by the driver monitoring device 203, the caution-required situation indication information generation unit 21 generates caution-required situation indication information including information about the caution-required situation and the driver's indicating ID. The information about the caution-required situation includes the point at which the caution-required situation was indicated and the details of the caution-required situation. The point at which the caution-required situation was indicated can be determined from the position of the indicating vehicle 200 measured by the positioning device 201 when it was detected that the driver indicated the caution-required situation. In addition, the details of the caution-required situation can be determined from the situation around the indicating vehicle 200 detected by the periphery detection device 202 and the behavior of the driver detected by the driver monitoring device 203 around the time it was detected that the driver indicated the caution-required situation.

[0031] The communication unit 23 determines whether the driver intends to provide the attention-required situation indication information to the information collection system 10 based on the driver's operation input to the operation device 204, and if it determines that the driver intends to provide the information, uses a communication device (not shown) to transmit the attention-required situation indication information to the information collection system 10. The communication device may be built into the attention-required situation indication device 20, or may be a mobile phone, smartphone, or the like externally attached to the attention-required situation indication device 20.

[0032] 3 is a diagram showing the configuration of the mobility assistance device 30. As shown in Fig. 3, the mobility assistance device 30 is connected to a positioning device 301, a periphery detection device 302, an operation device 304, and a notification device 305 that are provided in a client vehicle 300. Some or all of these may be built into the mobility assistance device 30.

[0033] The positioning device 301, the periphery detection device 302, and the operation device 304 have the same functions as the positioning device 201, the periphery detection device 202, and the operation device 204 shown in FIG. 2, respectively.

[0034] The notification device 305 is a device that notifies the driver of the client vehicle 300. The notification device 305 may be any device capable of notifying the driver, such as an audio output device, an image display device, an illumination device, or a vibration device. The notification device 305 is used to notify the driver of a situation requiring attention. The image display device includes a head-up display (HUD) that can display a virtual image that appears to be in front of the vehicle by projecting an image onto the vehicle's windshield. When a HUD that displays a virtual image that appears to be in front of the vehicle or an illumination device that illuminates light outside the vehicle is used as the notification device 305, the notification device 305 can not only notify the driver of the situation requiring attention, but also provide visual guidance that guides the driver's gaze toward the target requiring attention.

[0035] As shown in FIG. 3, the travel assistance device 30 includes a communication unit 31, a caution-requiring situation model storage unit 32, a notification determination unit 33, and a validity determination unit .

[0036] The communication unit 31 uses a communication device (not shown) to request the information collection system 10 to distribute a caution-requiring situation model, and receives a caution-requiring situation model distributed from the information collection system 10 .

[0037] The caution-requiring situation model storage unit 32 stores the caution-requiring situation model received by the communication unit 31 .

[0038] The notification determination unit 33 determines whether or not to notify the driver of the client vehicle 300 of a situation requiring attention. Specifically, the notification determination unit 33 determines whether or not the situation around the client vehicle 300 is close to the caution-requiring situation model, based on the position of the client vehicle 300 measured by the positioning device 301 and the situation around the client vehicle 300 detected by the periphery detection device 302, and when the situation around the client vehicle 300 becomes close to the caution-requiring situation model, determines that the client vehicle 300 will encounter a caution-requiring situation, and notifies the driver of the client vehicle 300 of the caution-requiring situation using the notification device 305.

[0039] The validity determination unit 34 evaluates the validity of the caution-required situation model corresponding to the notification by determining the validity of the notification of the caution-required situation made by the notification determination unit 33. Specifically, the validity determination unit 34 determines whether the notification contributed to the user's safety, and if it is determined that the notification contributed to the user's safety, it determines that the notification was effective and evaluates the caution-required situation model corresponding to the notification as "valid." In addition, the validity determination unit 34 transmits the effectiveness evaluation result of the caution-required situation model to the information collection system 10 via the communication unit 31.

[0040] The validity determination unit 34 may transmit both an evaluation result indicating "valid" and an evaluation result indicating "invalid" to the information collection system 10, or may transmit only an evaluation result indicating "valid" to the information collection system 10. For example, if a caution-requiring situation does not occur when the client vehicle 300 passes through a caution-requiring target point indicated by the caution-requiring situation model, or if it is determined that the driver is paying sufficient attention even when a caution-requiring situation occurs, the validity determination unit 34 may automatically transmit an evaluation result in which the caution-requiring situation model is evaluated as "invalid" to the information collection system 10.

[0041] 4 is a flowchart showing the operation of the attention-requiring situation indicating device 20. The operation of the attention-requiring situation indicating device 20 will be described below with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

[0042] The attention-requiring situation indicating device 20 is activated in response to a specific activation operation. For example, the attention-requiring situation indicating device 20 may be activated in conjunction with the indicator vehicle 200 starting to travel.

[0043] When the attention-required situation indicating device 20 is started, the attention-required situation indication information generating unit 21 acquires information about the position of the pointer vehicle 200 measured by the positioning device 201 (step S200). The information about the position of the pointer vehicle 200 may include information about the orientation of the pointer vehicle 200. The orientation of the pointer vehicle 200 can be calculated from the position history of the pointer vehicle 200. Furthermore, the orientation of the pointer vehicle 200 may be corrected based on the steering angle or acceleration of the pointer vehicle 200.

[0044] The caution-required situation indication information generating unit 21 also acquires information on the surrounding situation of the indicating vehicle 200 detected by the surrounding detection device 202 (step S201). The information on the surrounding situation acquired by the caution-required situation indication information generating unit 21 may be any information, such as the positions of nearby moving objects, road shapes, road surface conditions, images of the surrounding area, and surrounding sounds.

[0045] Furthermore, the attention-required situation indication information generation unit 21 acquires information on the state of the driver of the indicating vehicle 200 detected by the driver monitoring device 203 (step S202). The driver state acquired by the attention-required situation indication information generation unit 21 may be any information that can reveal the driver's behavior, such as the driver's line of sight, voice, or pointing action.

[0046] The caution-requiring situation indication information generating unit 21 determines whether the driver has indicated a caution-requiring situation based on the information on the driver's state (step S203).

[0047] Here, an example of a situation requiring caution will be described. For example, as shown in Figure 5, when there is a junction with a side road on the left ahead of the pointing out vehicle 200 and a bicycle suddenly appears from the side road, the driver of the pointing out vehicle 200 points out this situation as a situation requiring caution.

[0048] 5, the driver may, for example, say, "A bicycle has jumped out from the side road on the left," or say, "A bicycle has jumped out," after moving his / her gaze to the side road on the left, or point to the side road on the left and say, "A bicycle has jumped out," or move his / her gaze to the side road on the left and make a specific gesture such as wagging his / her finger. The caution-required situation indication information generator 21 detects such driver behavior to detect that a caution-required situation has been indicated.

[0049] The point where the caution situation is indicated may be the position of the person who pointed out the situation, measured by the positioning device 201, when the driver pointed out the situation, or the position of the caution point (the junction with a side road in the example of Figure 5) detected by the periphery detection device 202. Since the positions of the two are basically close, for the sake of simplicity in the following explanation, the position of the person who pointed out the situation, measured by the positioning device 201, when the driver pointed out the caution situation, is considered to be the position of the caution point. In other words, in the example of Figure 5, the position of the person who pointed out the situation, measured by the positioning device 201, when the driver pointed out the caution situation, and the position of the junction with a side road are both assumed to be position P1.

[0050] The details of the situation requiring attention are extracted from the surroundings of the flagger vehicle 200 detected by the periphery detection device 202 and the driver's behavior detected by the driver monitoring device 203. The details of the situation requiring attention include information on an object requiring attention and a point requiring attention. The object requiring attention may be a moving object or a specific location. In the example of Figure 5, the details of the situation requiring attention are "a bicycle will jump out from the side street on the left," the object requiring attention is "a bicycle" or "a point where the road merges with a side street," and the point requiring attention is "a bicycle jumping out."

[0051] 6, when the road narrows and the bicycle ahead moves to the right, possibly causing contact with the vehicle 200, the driver of the vehicle 200 may point out this situation as a situation requiring caution. The same applies when a bicycle traveling on the sidewalk on the side of the road crosses into the roadway at the point where the sidewalk ends.

[0052] In this case, when the caution-required situation indication information generating unit 21 detects that the driver has uttered, for example, "The bicycle is moving to the right," it determines that a caution-required situation has been indicated, and determines that the content of the caution-required situation is "the bicycle is leaning out." The point at which the caution-required situation is indicated is position P2, the point at which the road narrows.

[0053] Here, an example has been shown in which the caution-requiring situation indication information generation unit 21 automatically detects that the driver has indicated a caution-requiring situation, but as will be described later, it may also be determined that the driver has indicated a caution-requiring situation by operating the operating device 204.

[0054] Returning to Fig. 4, when the caution-required situation indication information generating unit 21 determines that the driver has indicated a caution-required situation (YES in step S203), it creates caution-required situation indication information (step S204). The caution-required situation indication information may be configured in various forms, but in this embodiment, the caution-required situation indication information is configured from a person who indicates the caution, a point where the caution-required situation is indicated, and the details of the caution-required situation, as shown in Fig. 7. Note that the caution-required situation indication information shown in Fig. 7 corresponds to the example of the caution-required situation shown in Figs. 5 and 6.

[0055] When the attention-required situation indication information is created, the communication unit 23 determines whether the driver intends to provide the attention-required situation indication information to the information collection system 10 based on the driver's operation input to the operation device 204 (step S205). For example, when a specific operation is input to the operation device 204, it is determined that the driver intends to provide the attention-required situation indication information. Alternatively, it may be determined that the driver intends to provide the attention-required situation indication information when the driver indicates a attention-required situation. In other words, step S205 may be omitted.

[0056] When the communication unit 23 determines that the driver intends to provide the caution-requiring situation indication information (YES in step S206), the communication unit 23 transmits the caution-requiring situation indication information to the information collection system 10 (step S207).

[0057] Thereafter, the attention-required situation indicating device 20 checks whether the traveling of the person indicating vehicle 200 has ended (step S208). If the traveling continues (NO in step S208), the process returns to step S200. If the traveling has ended (YES in step S208), the attention-required situation indicating device 20 ends its operation. Note that if it is determined that the driver has not indicated a attention-required situation (NO in step S203) or if it is determined that the driver intends to provide attention-required situation indication information (NO in step S206), the attention-required situation indication information is not created or transmitted, and the process proceeds to step S208, where it is checked whether the traveling of the person indicating vehicle 200 has ended.

[0058] 4, each time attention-requiring situation indication information is created in step S204, a determination is made in step S205 as to whether the driver intends to provide the attention-requiring situation indication information. However, instead of confirming the driver's intention when the attention-requiring situation indication information is created, the attention-requiring situation indication information may be stored, and the driver may collectively select, when the pointing out vehicle 200 is stopped, one or more pieces of attention-requiring situation indication information that have been stored up to that point to be transmitted to information collection system 10.

[0059] Next, the operation of the information collection system 10 will be described. In this embodiment, as an example of the operation of the information collection system 10, a multi-process configuration will be described in which three processes corresponding to the flowcharts shown in Figures 8, 9, and 10, i.e., an information collection process, an information distribution process, and a reward granting process, are executed in parallel. Note that the program configuration of the information collection system 10 may be a single-process configuration, or a multi-process configuration in which four or more processes are executed in parallel.

[0060] FIG. 8 shows the operational flow of the information collection process of the information collection system 10.

[0061] In the information collection process, the information collection unit 11 receives caution-requiring situation indication information transmitted from the caution-requiring situation indication device 20 (step S100). When the caution-requiring situation indication information is received, the caution-requiring situation model creation unit 12 creates a caution-requiring situation model based on the caution-requiring situation indication information (step S101). The created caution-requiring situation model is stored in the caution-requiring situation model storage unit 13.

[0062] In this embodiment, for the sake of simplicity, the caution-required situation model creation unit 12 creates a caution-required situation model using the received caution-required situation indication information in its original data structure. That is, the caution-required situation model also includes an indication person ID, an indication point of the caution-required situation, and the details of the caution-required situation, as in the case of FIG. 7 .

[0063] In addition, if multiple models of situations requiring caution are obtained that have different problem-taker IDs but overlapping content, only the model of the situation requiring caution that was pointed out the oldest may be adopted, or multiple models of situations requiring caution with overlapping content may be merged into one to create a model of a situation requiring caution with multiple problem-taker IDs.

[0064] The caution-requiring situation model storage unit 13 may store the caution-requiring situation models by categorizing them based on the location where the caution-requiring situation is pointed out, the content of the caution-requiring situation, the ID of the person who pointed out the situation, geographical features, etc. Furthermore, the caution-requiring situation model storage unit 13 may store the caution-requiring situation models by using a relational database management system (RDBMS).

[0065] FIG. 9 shows the operational flow of the information distribution process of the information collection system 10.

[0066] In the information distribution process, the information distribution unit 14 receives a distribution request for an attention-requiring situation model transmitted from the mobility assistance device 30 (step S110). Upon receiving the distribution request for the attention-requiring situation model, the information distribution unit 14 reads out the attention-requiring situation model corresponding to the distribution request from the attention-requiring situation model storage unit 13 and distributes it to the mobility assistance device 30 that sent the distribution request (step S111).

[0067] The delivery request for the caution-requiring situation model may include information about the range of the caution-requiring situation model for which delivery is requested (hereinafter referred to as the "delivery request range"). The delivery request range for the caution-requiring situation model is, for example, a caution-requiring situation model in which the indicated point of the caution-requiring situation is within a specific range. The specific range here is, for example, a certain range centered on the position of the mobility assistance device 30 (for example, a range of 100 km square), a specific range unrelated to the position of the mobility assistance device 30, a range along the planned driving route of the mobility assistance device 30, a range along the past driving routes of the mobility assistance device 30, etc.

[0068] FIG. 10 shows the operational flow of the reward granting process of the information collection system 10.

[0069] In the reward granting process, the evaluation result receiving unit 15 receives the effectiveness evaluation result of the caution-requiring situation model transmitted from the mobility assistance device 30 (step S120). When the effectiveness evaluation result of the caution-requiring situation model is received, the reward granting unit 16 checks the content of the effectiveness evaluation result (i.e., whether the evaluation result is "valid" or "invalid") and grants a reward to the person who pointed out the caution-requiring situation model that was evaluated as "valid" (step S121).

[0070] The reward may be anything, such as money, electronic money, a coupon, an increase in the rating of the person who pointed out the problem, some kind of points, or the right to advertise on the mobility assistance device 30. The amount of reward may also be calculated for each person who pointed out the problem or for each caution-requiring situation model according to the number of “valid” evaluation results obtained.

[0071] Next, the operation of the mobility assistance device 30 will be described. In this embodiment, as an example of the operation of the mobility assistance device 30, a multi-process configuration will be described in which two processes corresponding to the flowcharts shown in Figures 11 and 12, i.e., an information distribution request process and an evaluation result transmission process, are executed in parallel. Note that the program configuration of the information collection system 10 may be a single-process configuration, or a multi-process configuration in which three or more processes are executed in parallel.

[0072] FIG. 11 shows the operational flow of the information distribution request process of the mobility assistance device 30.

[0073] In the information distribution request process, first, the communication unit 31 determines whether it is time to request distribution of a caution-requiring situation model from the information collection system 10 (step S300). If it is time to request distribution of a caution-requiring situation model (YES in step S300), the communication unit 31 transmits a request to distribute the caution-requiring situation model to the information collection system 10 (step S301).

[0074] The timing for requesting delivery of the caution situation model may be any timing, such as when the client vehicle 300 starts driving, when a route that passes through a place that has not been driven before is set as the planned driving route for the client vehicle 300, or when the client vehicle 300 enters a place that has not been driven before.

[0075] Thereafter, the information collection system 10 that has received the distribution request distributes the caution-requiring situation model, and the communication unit 31 receives the caution-requiring situation model (step S302). The received caution-requiring situation model is stored in the caution-requiring situation model storage unit 32 (step S303).

[0076] Thereafter, the mobility assistance device 30 checks whether the client vehicle 300 has finished traveling (step S304). If the traveling continues (NO in step S304), the process returns to step S300. If the traveling has finished (YES in step S304), the mobility assistance device 30 ends its operation. Note that if it is not the timing to request distribution of a caution-requiring situation model (NO in step S300), the request for distribution of the caution-requiring situation model is not sent, and the process proceeds to step S304, where it is checked whether the client vehicle 300 has finished traveling.

[0077] FIG. 12 shows the operational flow of the caution-requiring situation notification process.

[0078] In the caution situation notification process, the notification determination unit 33 acquires information about the position of the client vehicle 300 measured by the positioning device 301 (step S310). The information about the position of the client vehicle 300 may include information about the orientation of the client vehicle 300. The orientation of the client vehicle 300 can be calculated from the position history of the client vehicle 300. Furthermore, the orientation of the client vehicle 300 may be corrected based on the steering angle or acceleration of the client vehicle 300.

[0079] The notification determination unit 33 also acquires information about the surrounding conditions of the client vehicle 300 detected by the surrounding detection device 302 (step S311). The surrounding conditions information acquired by the notification determination unit 33 may be any information, such as the positions of nearby moving objects, road shapes, road surface conditions, images of the surroundings, and surrounding sounds.

[0080] Next, the notification judgment unit 33 determines whether the client vehicle 300 is in a situation requiring attention by determining whether the situation surrounding the client vehicle 300 is close to any of the situation requiring attention models stored in the situation requiring attention model memory unit 32 based on information on the position and surrounding conditions of the client vehicle 300 (step S312).

[0081] 7 is stored in the caution-requiring situation model storage unit 32, when the position of the client vehicle 300 approaches the position P1 or P2 of the indicated point of the caution-requiring situation (for example, when the distance to the indicated point P1 or P2 becomes 10 m or less), it is determined that the situation around the client vehicle 300 has become close to the caution-requiring situation model. At this time, the traveling direction of the client vehicle 300 and whether a bicycle has been detected by the periphery detection device 302 may also be taken into consideration.

[0082] If it is determined that the client vehicle 300 is in a caution-requiring situation (YES in step S313), the notification determination unit 33 uses the notification device 305 to notify the driver of the client vehicle 300 of the caution-requiring situation (step S314). The content of this notification is determined according to the content of the caution-requiring situation in the caution-requiring situation model. For example, if a caution-requiring situation model such as that shown in FIG. 7 is stored in the caution-requiring situation model storage unit 32, when the position of the client vehicle 300 approaches position P1, which is the indicated point of the caution-requiring situation, the notification device 305 may output a voice message such as "Watch out for bicycles jumping out into the road."

[0083] Furthermore, when the notification device 305 includes a HUD, the notification determination unit 33 may display a display object 35, which is a virtual image indicating the position of a caution target, on the windshield of the client vehicle 300, as shown in Fig. 13. Fig. 13 shows a caution situation in which a pedestrian may jump out from between multiple parked vehicles on the roadside (corresponding to the caution situation of "Info 7" in Fig. 14 shown later), and the display object 35 visually notifies the positions of the multiple parked vehicles that are caution targets in the caution situation.

[0084] Next, the validity determination unit 34 determines the validity of the warning of the caution situation performed in step S314, thereby evaluating the validity of the caution situation model corresponding to the warning (step S315). In this embodiment, if the warning is valid, the driver of the client vehicle 300 inputs a specific operation to the operation device 304 indicating that the warning is valid, and the validity determination unit 34 determines that the warning is valid if the specific operation is input within a certain time (for example, within 10 seconds) after the warning is made.

[0085] If the validity determination unit 34 determines that the alert was valid (YES in step S316), it evaluates the caution situation model corresponding to the alert as "valid" and transmits the evaluation result to the information collection system 10 via the communication unit 31 (step S317).

[0086] Thereafter, the mobility assistance device 30 checks whether the client vehicle 300 has finished traveling (step S318). If the traveling continues (NO in step S318), the process returns to step S310. If the traveling has finished (YES in step S318), the mobility assistance device 30 ends its operation. Note that if it is not determined that the client vehicle 300 is in a situation requiring attention (NO in step S313), no notification is issued and the process proceeds to step S318. Also, if it is determined that the notification was ineffective (NO in step S316), the process proceeds to step S318 without transmitting the effectiveness evaluation result. Alternatively, if it is determined that the notification was ineffective (NO in step S316), the effectiveness determination unit 34 may transmit an evaluation result of "ineffective" to the information collection system 10 and then proceed to step S318.

[0087] [Variation 1] In the mobility assistance device 30 of the first embodiment, the validity determination unit 34 determines whether or not the notification was valid based on an operation input to the operation device 304. However, the validity determination unit 34 may also determine whether or not the notification was valid based on an utterance or gesture of the driver of the client vehicle 300. For example, the notification may be determined to be valid when the driver of the mobility assistance device 30 utters a word such as "Thank goodness" or makes a specific gesture.

[0088] Furthermore, the effectiveness evaluation results do not have to be two-level, "effective" or "ineffective," but may be multi-level, with three or more levels, including, for example, "very effective," "average," and "opposite effect."

[0089] [Variant 2] The data structure of the caution situation indication information and caution situation model is not limited to the simple one shown in Figure 7, and may include, for example, the position and attributes of the caution object in the caution situation, as well as the caution attribute for the caution object, as shown in Figure 14.

[0090] The target to be careful of may include a traffic violation control site. Generally, a traffic violation control site is a place where a traffic violation is likely to be committed by mistake, and therefore, driving assistance is highly effective at such a site.

[0091] When the information of the caution-requiring situation model includes attributes of the caution-requiring object, the manner of notification made by the mobility assistance device 30 can be changed according to the attributes of the caution-requiring object. For example, when the caution-requiring situation notification is performed using a HUD, a mark according to the attributes can be superimposed on the direction of the caution-requiring object. The attributes of the caution-requiring object can also be notified by voice. This allows the driver of the client vehicle 300 to narrow down the objects to which attention should be paid.

[0092] The attribute of the caution requirement indicates what kind of thing to be careful of. For example, if the object to be careful of is a bicycle, the attribute may be a sudden sudden jump, a wobble, a sudden change of lane, etc. Other examples include caution against being hit by a vehicle when changing lane of the client vehicle 300, caution against contact with pedestrians when turning right or left, and caution against the possibility of violating legal compliance obligations (such as stopping, direction of travel restrictions, and speeding). By being notified of the attribute of the caution requirement, the driver of the client vehicle 300 can narrow down the things to be careful of.

[0093] The contents of the caution situation may include the vehicle's driving environment, because there are caution situations that occur only during bad weather or traffic congestion. For example, there are flooded roads during rainfall, crosswinds at the exit of a tunnel during strong winds, and pedestrians jumping out between vehicles during traffic congestion.

[0094] The position of the caution target is not limited to an absolute position (latitude, longitude), but may be a relative position with respect to the vehicle (the pointing out vehicle 200 or the pointing out vehicle 200). This is because there are caution situations that occur in unspecified locations, such as caution situations caused by overtaking, passing, turning right or left, changing lanes, etc., and caution situations caused by vehicles parked on the roadside, vehicles involved in accidents, emergency vehicles, suspicious vehicles, poorly maintained vehicles, etc.

[0095] More specifically, situations requiring caution that may occur in unspecified locations include situations where a bicycle or pedestrian may suddenly jump out from between parked vehicles, situations where an obstacle (including a pedestrian) may be hit by the difference in turning radius when turning right at a narrow intersection, and situations where the driver of a motorcycle or bicycle in front may turn his head from side to side (to check both sides) and change course or lane.

[0096] [Variation 3] In the first embodiment, an example was shown in which the moving body was a vehicle, but the mobility assistance system according to the present disclosure may also be applied to mobility assistance systems for ships, aircraft, helicopters, etc. For example, in the case of a ship, a model of a situation requiring caution can be created from information indicating a situation requiring caution provided by an experienced operator according to a specific location, region, or environment, such as ocean currents, islands, reefs, wind and rain, thereby preventing shipwrecks. In particular, a model of a situation requiring caution that combines information on the location of reefs and other objects with information on ocean currents is highly effective in preventing strandings.

[0097] [Modification 4] The mobility assistance system according to the present disclosure may be applied to a mobility assistance system for pedestrians, bicycles, and other light vehicles. In this case, the caution-requiring situation indication device 20 and the mobility assistance device 30 may be implemented as applications that run on a mobile communication terminal (e.g., a mobile phone or a smartphone) with a positioning function. Furthermore, a dedicated terminal for light vehicles may be provided for light vehicles.

[0098] [Variation 5] The mobility assistance system according to the present disclosure may be applied to mobility assistance systems for trucks, buses, and special vehicles. This is because trucks, buses, and special vehicles have situations requiring special attention that are unique to these vehicles. Furthermore, the value of imparting the know-how of veteran drivers regarding situations requiring special attention to novice drivers through a mobility assistance system is greater than that of passenger cars. Trucks and buses are wide, and therefore have different situations requiring special attention than passenger cars, such as whether they can pass through narrow roads, whether they can be caught in traffic, and the likelihood of slipping. Dump trucks also have special situations requiring special attention, such as when transporting earth and sand or when driving around residential areas.

[0099] For buses and other vehicles, the need to be careful about sudden braking and sudden steering to prevent passengers from falling over is also an added circumstance. Emergency vehicles such as police cars, ambulances, and fire engines also need to check for special situations when driving in an emergency, such as whether other vehicles are stopped or whether other vehicles are clearing the way for the emergency vehicle, so the circumstance requiring caution differs from that for general vehicles. Forklifts also have special circumstance requiring caution due to their rear-wheel steering, as well as circumstance requiring caution that is unique to factories where forklifts are used.

[0100] Furthermore, when it comes to operating electric trains, steam locomotives, and trams, there are special situations that require special attention, such as when approaching a platform or a railroad crossing, and it is important to impart the know-how of veteran drivers.

[0101] [Variation 6] The person who pointed out the problem 200 and the client vehicle 300 may be categorized by the purpose of use of the vehicle to collect caution-required situation indication information and create a caution-required situation model. That is, the caution-required situation indication information and the caution-required situation model may include information on the type of purpose of use of the person who pointed out the problem 200 or the client vehicle 300. The purposes of use of the vehicle may include home delivery, moving, transportation, transporting luggage, transporting animals, etc.

[0102] [Variant 7] In the first embodiment, no provisions were made regarding the situations requiring caution and the amount of compensation. However, for each type of situation requiring caution model, the amount of loss that would occur if the situation requiring caution led to an accident (conversely, the amount of loss that would be avoided if the accident could be avoided) could be estimated, and the amount of compensation for each type of situation requiring caution model could be set according to that amount.

[0103] [Modification 8] The travel assistance device 30 and the caution-requiring situation indicating device 20 may be integrated into one unit. In this case, the indicating person's vehicle 200 and the client's vehicle 300 are the same vehicle.

[0104] [Variation 9] If the sender of the effectiveness evaluation result meets certain conditions, the reward granting unit 16 of the information collection system 10 may invalidate the effectiveness evaluation result and not grant a reward to the person who pointed out the issue.

[0105] For example, if the client who sent the effectiveness evaluation result matches the person who pointed out the model of the situation requiring attention that corresponds to the effectiveness evaluation result, the effectiveness evaluation result may be invalidated, because if the client and the person who pointed out the situation are the same, it is highly likely that the situation was fabricated in order to receive unfair compensation.

[0106] Furthermore, if the same client sends a "valid" evaluation result for the same model of suspicious situations within a certain period of time, the validity evaluation result may be invalidated. This is because, even if the client and the person who pointed out the problem are different, if the same client repeatedly sends a "valid" evaluation result, it is highly likely to be an organized act of falsehood (aiding and abetting the fraudulent receipt of rewards) in order to receive rewards fraudulently.

[0107] [Modification 10] The mobility assistance device 30 may monitor the driving operation of the driver of the client vehicle 300, and when the driver performs a driving operation in accordance with the content of the notification, that is, a driving operation that avoids the notified situation requiring attention, the mobility assistance device 30 may provide a reward to the driver (client), which has the effect of contributing to safe driving by the client.

[0108] [Modification 11] In the caution-required situation notification process ( FIG. 12 ) of the mobility assistance device 30 shown in the first embodiment, the notification of the caution-required situation is implemented regardless of whether the driver of the client vehicle 300 is aware of the caution-required situation, but the mobility assistance device 30 may also issue a notification of the caution-required situation only when the driver is unaware of the caution-required situation. Furthermore, when the mobility assistance device 30 detects, as a trigger for the notification, that the driver of the client vehicle 300 has changed from a state in which he or she was unaware of the caution-required situation to a state in which he or she has become aware of the caution-required situation, the mobility assistance device 30 may consider that the notification contributed to the safety of the user and determine that the notification was effective.

[0109] Fig. 15 is a block diagram of a mobility assistance device 30 according to this modification. The configuration of the mobility assistance device 30 in Fig. 15 is obtained by adding a driver monitoring device 303 to the configuration in Fig. 3. The driver monitoring device 303 has the same functions as the driver monitoring device 303 shown in Fig. 2.

[0110] 16 shows an operational flow of the caution-requiring situation notification process of the travel assistance device 30 according to this modification. The flow in FIG. 16 is obtained by adding steps S320, S321, and S322 to the flow in FIG.

[0111] Step S320 is performed when it is determined in step S313 that the client vehicle 300 is in a caution-requiring situation (YES in step S313). In step S320, the notification determination unit 33 acquires information on the driver's condition from the driver monitoring device 303.

[0112] Step S321 is performed following step S320. In step S321, the notification determination unit 33 determines whether the driver is aware of the caution-requiring situation based on the driver's condition acquired in step S320. If the driver is not aware of the caution-requiring situation (NO in step S321), the process proceeds to step S314, where a notification of the caution-requiring situation is performed. If the driver is aware of the caution-requiring situation (YES in step S321), a notification of the caution-requiring situation is not performed, and the process proceeds to step S318.

[0113] Whether the driver is aware of the situation requiring attention can be determined, for example, by the following methods. For example, there is a method of determining from the driver's line of sight or the direction of the driver's face. When this method is used, the notification determination unit 33 determines that the driver is aware of the situation requiring attention when the direction of the driver's face or line of sight matches the direction of the object requiring attention.

[0114] Alternatively, the driver may be judged based on his / her physiological or psychological state. When this method is used, the notification determination unit 33 determines that the driver is aware of a situation requiring caution when there is a change in the driver's heart rate or breathing, when the driver's facial expression becomes serious, or when the driver's grip on the steering wheel increases.

[0115] Alternatively, a method of indirectly determining the situation may be used based on the output of a vehicle sensor of the client vehicle 300. When this method is used, the notification determination unit 33 determines that the driver is aware of the situation requiring attention when detecting a steering operation to avoid the target requiring attention or a braking or accelerating operation to avoid a collision.

[0116] A plurality of the above-described determination methods may be combined, and a comprehensive determination may be made as to whether or not the driver is aware of the situation requiring caution based on the results of the determinations.

[0117] Step S322 is performed after step S314, i.e., after the notification of the caution situation has been made. In step S322, similar to step S320, the notification determination unit 33 acquires information on the driver's state from the driver monitoring device 303.

[0118] After step S322, the process proceeds to step S315, where the validity determination unit 34 determines the validity of the alert of the alert situation performed in step S314, thereby evaluating the validity of the alert situation model corresponding to the alert. However, in this embodiment, the validity determination unit 34 compares the driver's state acquired in step S320 before the alert with the driver's state acquired in step S321 after the alert, and determines the validity of the alert from the change in the driver's state before and after the alert.

[0119] For example, the validity determination unit 34 may determine that the notification contributed to the driver's safety and determine that the notification was effective when it detects that the driver's state has changed from a state of being unaware of the attention-requiring situation to a state of being aware of it, triggered by the notification. The validity determination unit 34 may also detect the driver's facial orientation or gaze direction, and determine that the notification contributed to the driver's safety and determine that the notification was effective when it detects that the driver's facial orientation or gaze direction has changed from a state of not facing the attention-requiring situation to a state of facing it, triggered by the notification. The validity determination unit 34 may also detect the driver's behavior, and determine that the notification contributed to the driver's safety and determine that the notification was effective when it detects that the driver has taken an action to avoid the attention-requiring situation, triggered by the notification.

[0120] According to this modification, when the driver of the client vehicle 300 is unaware of the situation requiring attention, a notification of the situation requiring attention is made, and the effectiveness of the notification is automatically determined depending on whether the driver has noticed the situation requiring attention, so that the effectiveness of the notification is objectively evaluated without relying on the subjective judgment of the driver. Also, since the driver does not have to take the trouble of determining the effectiveness of the notification, convenience for the driver is improved.

[0121] In this modification, the method of determining the effectiveness of notification based on the operation of the operation device 304 described in the first embodiment may also be used in combination.

[0122] <Embodiment 2> In the mobility assistance system of embodiment 1, when a situation requiring attention is indicated by the driver of the indicating vehicle 200, data including information on the situation requiring attention recorded by the positioning device 201, periphery detection device 202, and driver monitoring device 203 is analyzed by the attention requiring situation indication device 20, and the analysis results are transmitted as attention requiring situation indication information to the information collection system 10. Embodiment 2 shows an example in which the data recorded by the positioning device 201, periphery detection device 202, and driver monitoring device 203 when a situation requiring attention is indicated is analyzed by the information collection system 10. Hereinafter, data before analysis, i.e., the data obtained as is from the positioning device 201, periphery detection device 202, driver monitoring device 203, etc., is referred to as "raw data."

[0123] Fig. 17 is a diagram showing the configuration of a travel assistance system according to embodiment 2. The configuration of the travel assistance system in Fig. 17 differs from the configuration in Fig. 1 in that the attention-requiring situation model creation unit 12 of the attention-requiring situation indication device 20 includes a raw data storage unit 12a and a raw data analysis unit 12b.

[0124] Furthermore, in the second embodiment, the caution requiring situation indicating device 20 does not analyze the raw data acquired from the positioning device 201, the periphery detection device 202, and the driver monitoring device 203, and instead includes, as information on the caution requiring situation, raw data recorded by the positioning device 201, the periphery detection device 202, and the driver monitoring device 203 during a certain period before and after the time when the driver indicated the caution requiring situation, in the caution requiring situation indication information transmitted by the caution requiring situation indicating device 20. Hereinafter, this raw data will be referred to as "raw data of the caution requiring situation."

[0125] The raw data recorded by the positioning device 201 is position data of the pointing out vehicle 200. The raw data recorded by the periphery detection device 202 includes video data of the periphery of the pointing out vehicle 200 recorded by a camera, audio data of the periphery of the pointing out vehicle 200 recorded by a sound collector, output data from a periphery sensor, etc. Furthermore, the raw data recorded by the driver monitoring device 203 includes video data of the driver recorded by a camera, audio data of the driver's speech recorded by a sound collector, etc. The caution-required situation indication information transmitted from the caution-required situation indication device 20 includes one or more of these raw data.

[0126] The raw data storage unit 12a temporarily stores raw data (raw data of the caution-requiring situation) included in the caution-requiring situation indication information received from the caution-requiring situation indication device 20. The raw data analysis unit 12b analyzes the raw data of the caution-requiring situation stored in the raw data storage unit 12a and generates a caution-requiring situation model based on the analysis results. Furthermore, if the raw data analysis unit 12b has a learning function, it may reanalyze the raw data corresponding to the caution-requiring situation model already stored in the caution-requiring situation model storage unit 13 as the learning progresses, and the caution-requiring situation model creation unit 12 may update the caution-requiring situation model based on the analysis results.

[0127] Fig. 18 is a flowchart showing the operation of the caution-requiring situation indicating device 20 according to embodiment 2. The flow in Fig. 18 is obtained by adding step S210 to the flow in Fig. 4 .

[0128] Step S210 is performed when it is determined in step S203 that the driver has pointed out a situation requiring attention (YES in step S203). In step S210, the same information as in steps S201 to S103 is acquired, that is, information on the position of the pointer vehicle 200, information on the surrounding conditions of the pointer vehicle 200, and information on the state of the driver of the pointer vehicle 200, is acquired for a certain period of time.

[0129] After step S210, the process proceeds to step S204, where attention-requiring situation indication information is generated (step S204). At this time, the attention-requiring situation indication information generation unit 21 includes, as information on the attention-requiring situation, raw data (i.e., raw data of the attention-requiring situation) recorded by the periphery detection device 202 and the driver monitoring device 203 during a certain period before and after the time when the driver indicated the attention-requiring situation, in the attention-requiring situation indication information. The attention-requiring situation indication information generation unit 21 does not need to analyze the raw data of the attention-requiring situation.

[0130] By performing step S210 after step S203, the caution situation indication information generation unit 21 can include not only raw data before the time when the driver indicated the caution situation, but also raw data recorded for a certain period after that time in the caution situation indication information.

[0131] The information collection system 10 of the second embodiment executes four processes in parallel: the information collection process, information distribution process, and reward granting process described in the first embodiment, plus the data analysis process described below.

[0132] However, in the second embodiment, in the flow of the information collection process (Figure 8), the caution-requiring situation indication information including the raw data of the caution-requiring situation received in step S100 is stored in the raw data storage unit 12a of the caution-requiring situation model creation unit 12, and in step S101, the raw data analysis unit 12b creates a caution-requiring situation model based on the content of the caution-requiring situation determined by analyzing the raw data stored in the raw data storage unit 12a.

[0133] FIG. 19 is an operational flow of the data analysis process of the information collection system 10.

[0134] In the data analysis process, first, the raw data analysis unit 12b determines whether it is time to analyze the raw data (step S120). The analysis timing may be at regular intervals (for example, once a week), or may be at any timing, such as when an instruction is received from the operator of the information collection system 10, or when attention-requiring situation indication information is received from the attention-requiring situation indication device 20.

[0135] If it is time for analysis (YES in step S120), the raw data analysis unit 12b reads out raw data of the caution-requiring situation from the raw data storage unit 12a (step S121).The raw data analysis unit 12b then analyzes the raw data using a predetermined analysis method to determine the content of the caution-requiring situation (step S122).In step S101 of the information collection process flow (FIG. 8), a caution-requiring situation model such as that shown in FIG. 7 or FIG. 14 is created based on the content of the caution-requiring situation determined in step S122.

[0136] The raw data may be analyzed using machine learning processing such as a convolutional neural network (CNN). The machine learning may be unsupervised learning, or may be supervised learning, such as learning the relationship between the video data and the content of the cautionary situation using the content of the cautionary situation determined from the audio data as a teacher.

[0137] Generally, the CPU processing power of the server 100 is higher than that of the terminal device that serves as the caution-requiring situation indication device 20. Therefore, by performing analysis processing and learning processing of raw data of caution-requiring situations on the server 100, as in this embodiment, more sophisticated processing can be achieved than by performing these processing on the caution-requiring situation indication device 20.

[0138] The operation of the movement assistance device 30 is the same as that in the first embodiment.

[0139] [Variation 1] The information collection system 10 may distribute the analysis rules used by the raw data analysis unit 12b to analyze the raw data of the caution-requiring situation, or the analysis engine obtained by machine learning, to the caution-requiring situation indication device 20. That is, the caution-requiring situation model creation unit 12 may download the analysis rules or analysis engine used by the raw data analysis unit 12b from the information collection system 10, so that the caution-requiring situation indication device 20 can analyze the raw data using the analysis rules or analysis engine.

[0140] In this case, the caution-requiring situation indication device 20 may have two operation modes: a raw data transmission mode in which caution-requiring situation indication information including raw data is transmitted as in embodiment 2, and an analysis result transmission mode in which caution-requiring situation indication information including the details of the caution-requiring situation that is the analysis result of the raw data is transmitted as in embodiment 1. Because the amount of data of the analysis result is smaller than the raw data itself, the analysis result transmission mode can contribute to reducing communication resources.

[0141] Furthermore, the information collection system 10 may perform a learning process in an environment that simulates the hardware resources of the caution-requiring situation indication device 20 and distribute the learning logic to the caution-requiring situation indication device 20 .

[0142] [Modification 2] Based on the reception history of the effectiveness evaluation results, the caution-requiring situation model storage unit 13 may perform a learning process such as sorting out the caution-requiring situation models stored in the caution-requiring situation model storage unit 13. For example, a caution-requiring situation model that has not been evaluated as “effective” for a certain period of time (for example, two years) may be deleted from the caution-requiring situation model storage unit 13.

[0143] In addition, when the mobility assistance device 30 receives validity evaluation results indicating "valid" or "invalid" from the information collection system 10, caution-requiring situation models with a high proportion of "invalid" evaluations may be deleted from the caution-requiring situation model storage unit 13.

[0144] In addition, the information collection system 10 may lower the reliability of the pointer ID of a situation requiring attention model that has a high proportion of ``invalid'' evaluations, or may not adopt a situation requiring attention model that has a pointer ID with a low reliability.

[0145] Furthermore, the information collection system 10 may set the amount of reward to be given to the person who points out a problem based on the reception history of the effectiveness evaluation results. For example, the information collection system 10 may increase the reliability of the person who points out a problem whose attention-requiring situation model has a high percentage of “effective” evaluations, and may pay a higher reward to the person who points out a problem whose reliability is high than to other people who point out a problem.

[0146] Third Embodiment An operator of a mobility assistance system may operate the mobility assistance system as a business, and charge clients, who are users of the mobility assistance devices 30, a delivery fee for the caution-requiring situation model.

[0147] Fig. 20 is a diagram showing the configuration of a travel assistance system according to embodiment 3. The configuration of the travel assistance system in Fig. 20 is obtained by adding a billing unit 17 to the caution-requiring situation indicating device 20 in addition to the configuration in Fig. 1 .

[0148] The billing unit 17 concludes a contract for distribution of the caution-requiring situation model with the mobility assistance device 30 of the client, and charges the contracted mobility assistance device 30 a distribution fee for the caution-requiring situation model. The information distribution contract is concluded when the client operates the mobility assistance device 30. For example, a unit charge is set for a unit period such as one month.

[0149] Another possible business model is for the operator of the mobility assistance system to rent the mobility assistance device 30 to clients. In this case, the billing unit 17 of the information collection system 10 charges the client who has signed a rental contract for the mobility assistance device 30 a rental fee for the mobility assistance device 30 in addition to a delivery fee for the caution-requiring situation model. The billing unit 17 may also apply a special fee system, such as a flat rate, to the client who has been rented the mobility assistance device 30.

[0150] When the information distribution unit 14 receives a request for distribution of a caution-requiring situation model from a mobility assistance device 30 with which the information distribution unit 14 has made a contract, the information distribution unit 14 distributes the caution-requiring situation model to the mobility assistance device 30 .

[0151] [Variation 1] The caution requiring situation model may be classified by one or more of geographical type, mobile object type, and usage type, and the information distribution unit 14 may distribute the caution requiring situation model according to a distribution unit specified by the mobility assistance device 30 to the mobility assistance device 30. In this case, the billing unit 17 charges the mobility assistance device 30 a distribution fee according to the distribution unit of the caution requiring situation model distributed by the information distribution unit 14. Furthermore, the distribution unit is set based on the distribution period of the caution requiring situation model and the type of caution requiring situation model to be distributed.

[0152] When the caution-required situation models are classified by geographical type, the geographical type of the caution-required situation model is determined according to the location of the caution-required point in the caution-required situation model, and may be determined, for example, by administrative division such as prefecture, state, or country, or by sea area if the mobile body is a ship. The distribution fee for the caution-required situation model may be set higher as the area to which the geographical type of the distributed caution-required situation model belongs becomes larger.

[0153] The geographical type of the caution situation model may be determined for each road type, such as an expressway, a general national highway, an urban road, a mountain road, etc. Alternatively, the geographical type may be a combination of an administrative division and a road type.

[0154] In addition, a modified example in which a caution-requiring situation model according to a delivery unit specified by the mobility assistance device 30 is delivered to the mobility assistance device 30 can contribute to reducing communication resources, and therefore may be applied to other embodiments other than embodiment 3.

[0155] [Variation 2] Caution situation models may be classified by target mobile body type. Mobile body types of caution situation models include, for example, pedestrians, light vehicles, passenger cars, buses, trucks, special vehicles, ships, and aircraft. The higher the accident occurrence rate of the mobile body type of the caution situation model to be distributed, the higher the distribution fee for the caution situation model.

[0156] [Variation 3] Caution situation models may be classified by use type. Use types of caution situation models include home delivery, moving, pick-up and drop-off, luggage transportation, animal transportation, etc. The delivery fee for the caution situation model may be changed depending on the use type of the caution situation model to be delivered.

[0157] [Variant 4] After the contract for distribution of a caution-requiring situation model expires, distribution of caution-requiring situation models may be restricted, for example, by not distributing new caution-requiring situation models but allowing the use of a mobility assistance device 30 that uses a caution-requiring situation model that has already been distributed, and it is not necessarily necessary to prohibit the use of the mobility assistance device 30.

[0158] [Variation 5] The contract for distribution of the caution-requiring situation model does not have to be concluded for each mobility assistance device 30, but may be concluded collectively with a business (e.g., a taxi company, a transportation company, a driving school operator, etc.) that manages multiple mobility assistance devices 30. The business is not limited to a business that owns multiple mobility assistance devices 30, but may also be a business that only manages multiple mobility assistance devices 30, such as an insurance company.

[0159] [Variation 6] In Variation 5, the business operator, which is the client, may be an operator that owns the alerter vehicle 200 equipped with the alerter situation indication device 20, and the driver of the alerter vehicle 200, i.e., the person who issues the alert, may be an employee of the business operator. In this case, the reward may not be paid for each alerter situation indication device 20, but may be paid in one lump sum to the business operator. Furthermore, the billing unit 17 of the information collection system 10 may charge the client by deducting the amount of reward for the alerter situation pointed out by the employee from the delivery fee for the alerter situation model. The alerter vehicle 200 and the client vehicle 300 may be the same vehicle.

[0160] [Variation 7] When the mobility assistance device 30 automatically determines the effectiveness of a notification, the basic fee for the delivery of the caution-requiring situation model may be set low, and an amount corresponding to the number of times the caution-requiring situation model is evaluated as "effective" may be added. In order to reduce the delivery fee, this has the effect of encouraging the driver of the client vehicle 300 to drive safely so that he or she will be aware of the caution-requiring situation before the notification is issued.

[0161] [Variation 8] When an operator of a mobility assistance system rents a mobility assistance device 30 to a client, the program of the rented mobility assistance device 30 may be updated from the information collection system 10. By managing the program of the mobility assistance device 30 on the information collection system 10 side, centralized management of services becomes possible. Furthermore, since the mobility assistance device 30 can also centrally manage the HMI (Human Machine Interface) for setting billing conditions and distribution conditions, an information collection system 10 and mobility assistance system with excellent maintainability can be realized.

[0162] [Variation 9] A business model in which the operator of the mobility assistance system rents out the attention-required situation indicating device 20 to the person who indicates the situation can also be considered. The information collection system 10 performs terminal authentication with the attention-required situation indicating device 20, thereby enabling information to be exchanged only with trusted attention-required situation indicating devices 20. Furthermore, by performing a process of rewriting the program of the attention-required situation indicating device 20 from the information collection system 10 at an appropriate timing, it is possible to achieve uniformity and improvement in the performance of the attention-required situation indicating device 20.

[0163] Furthermore, the operator of the information collection system 10 may rent both the caution-requiring situation indicating device 20 and the mobility assistance device 30 as the same device.

[0164] Fourth Embodiment A possible business model for a mobility assistance system is one in which the mobility assistance system is operated by an insurance company that issues insurance related to moving objects, such as automobile insurance.

[0165] Fig. 21 is a diagram showing the configuration of a travel assistance system according to embodiment 3. The configuration of the travel assistance system in Fig. 21 is obtained by adding an insurance contract management unit 18 to the information collection system 10 in addition to the configuration in Fig. 1 .

[0166] The insurance contract management unit 18 manages information on clients who are policyholders who have concluded insurance contracts with the insurance company that operates the information collection system 10. The insurance contract management unit 18 registers the IDs of the mobility assistance devices 30 mounted on the client vehicles 300 of the clients who have concluded insurance contracts.

[0167] When the information distribution unit 14 receives a request to distribute a model of a situation requiring caution from a mobility support device 30, it authenticates the ID of the mobility support device 30 that sent the distribution request, and distributes the model of a situation requiring caution if it can be authenticated that the device is the mobility support device 30 of the policyholder.

[0168] The mobility assistance system according to the fourth embodiment is expected to prevent accidents and reduce insurance payments by providing mobility assistance to clients who are policyholders who have signed contracts with insurance companies. Furthermore, the policyholders can receive high-quality mobility assistance services from the insurance companies.

[0169] [Variation 1] The insurance contract management unit 18 may manage information about the insured who is also a problem-pointer, in addition to information about the client who is an insured who has concluded an insurance contract with the insurance company that operates the information collection system 10. In this case, the insurance contract management unit 18 registers the ID of the mobility assistance device 30 mounted on the client vehicle 300 of the client who has concluded an insurance contract, and the ID of the caution-required situation indication device 20 mounted on the indicator vehicle 200 of the indicator who has concluded an insurance contract.

[0170] The policyholder may be both the client and the person who reported the incident. That is, the same policyholder may be the driver of both the person who reported the incident vehicle 200 and the client vehicle 300, or the person who reported the incident vehicle 200 and the client vehicle 300 may be the same vehicle.

[0171] When the reward provision unit 16 of the information collection system 10 evaluates the caution-requiring situation model corresponding to the caution-requiring situation indication information provided by the insured person who is the insured person as "effective," the reward provision unit 16 may provide the insured person with more favorable contract conditions, such as raising the insurance grade of the insured person or discounting the insurance premium, as a reward through the insurance contract management unit 18. This has the effect of allowing the insurance company operating the information collection system 10 to collect excellent caution-requiring situation indication information.

[0172] [Modification 2] An insurance company that operates a mobility assistance system may rent mobility assistance devices 30 to clients who are policyholders, thereby enabling the insurance company to provide mobility assistance services of consistent quality to policyholders.

[0173] As in the above-described first modification, when the policyholder is both the client and the person who issues the warning, the caution-requiring situation indicating device 20 and the mobility assistance device 30 may be configured as an integrated unit. Insurance companies nowadays sometimes rent drive recorders to policyholders. For example, as shown in FIG. 22 , the insurance company may rent to the policyholder a multi-function drive recorder 40 incorporating the caution-requiring situation indicating device 20 and the mobility assistance device 30, along with a situation recording device 41 that records the vehicle's driving conditions. This allows for an inexpensive and compact mobility assistance system to be realized.

[0174] 22 is connected to a positioning device 401, a periphery detection device 402, a driver monitoring device 403, an operation device 404, and an alarm device 405 provided in a vehicle 400 of a client and reporting policyholder (hereinafter referred to as the "policyholder vehicle"). These may have the same functions as the positioning device 201, the driver monitoring device 203, the driver monitoring device 203, or the operation device 204 of the reporting party vehicle 200 described above, or the positioning device 301, the periphery detection device 302, the driver monitoring device 303, the operation device 304, or the alarm device 305 of the client vehicle 300. In addition, some or all of the positioning device 401, the periphery detection device 402, the driver monitoring device 403, the operation device 404, and the alarm device 405 may be built into the multifunctional drive recorder 40.

[0175] The situation recording device 41 records, on a recording medium, information on the position of the policyholder's vehicle 400 measured by the positioning device 401 while the policyholder's vehicle 400 is traveling, information on the surrounding conditions of the policyholder's vehicle 400 detected by the surroundings detection device 402 (e.g., video and audio around the vehicle), and information on the state of the driver of the policyholder's vehicle 400 detected by the driver monitoring device 403 (e.g., video of the driver and audio inside the vehicle). The caution-required situation indication device 20 generates caution-required situation indication information including information on caution-required situations indicated by the driver of the policyholder's vehicle 400, and transmits it to the information collection system 10. The mobility assistance device 30 provides driving assistance for the policyholder's vehicle 400 based on the caution-required situation model distributed from the information collection system 10.

[0176] [Variation 3] The mobility assistance device 30 may monitor the driving operation of the driver of the client vehicle 300 who is the policyholder, and when the driver performs a driving operation in accordance with the content of the notification, that is, a driving operation that avoids the notified situation, the driver (policyholder) may be rewarded with a reduction in insurance premiums. This has the effect of contributing to safe driving by the client.

[0177] 23 and 24 are diagrams illustrating examples of the hardware configuration of the information collection system 10. The functions of the components of the information collection system 10 illustrated in FIG. 1 and the like are realized, for example, by a processing circuit 50 illustrated in FIG. 23. That is, the information collection system 10 includes a processing circuit 50 that collects, from the attention-requiring situation indication device 20, attention-requiring situation indication information including information on attention-requiring situations indicated by an indicator who is a user of the attention-requiring situation indication device 20 and an identifier of the indicator, creates an attention-requiring situation model that is a model of the attention-requiring situation based on the collected attention-requiring situation indication information, stores the attention-requiring situation model, distributes the attention-requiring situation model to the mobility assistance device 30, receives from the mobility assistance device 30 an evaluation result of the effectiveness of the attention-requiring situation model, and awards a reward to the indicator who indicated the attention-requiring situation indication information that served as the basis for the attention-requiring situation model evaluated as effective. The processing circuit 50 may be dedicated hardware, or may be configured using a processor (also called a central processing unit (CPU), processing device, arithmetic unit, microprocessor, microcomputer, or DSP (Digital Signal Processor)) that executes a program stored in memory.

[0178] When the processing circuitry 50 is dedicated hardware, the processing circuitry 50 may be, for example, a single circuit, a composite circuit, a programmed processor, a parallel programmed processor, an ASIC (Application Specific Integrated Circuit), an FPGA (Field-Programmable Gate Array), or a combination thereof. The functions of the components of the information collection system 10 may be realized by individual processing circuits, or these functions may be realized together by a single processing circuit.

[0179] 24 shows an example of the hardware configuration of the information collection system 10 when the processing circuitry 50 is configured using a processor 51 that executes a program. In this case, the functions of the components of the information collection system 10 are realized by software, etc. (software, firmware, or a combination of software and firmware). The software, etc. is written as a program and stored in the memory 52. ​​The processor 51 realizes the function of each part by reading and executing the program stored in the memory 52. That is, the information collection system 10 includes a memory 52 for storing a program that, when executed by the processor 51, results in the execution of the following processes: collecting, from the attention requiring situation indication device 20, attention requiring situation indication information including information on attention requiring situations indicated by an indicator who is a user of the attention requiring situation indication device 20 and an identifier of the indicator; creating an attention requiring situation model that is a model of the attention requiring situation based on the collected attention requiring situation indication information; storing the attention requiring situation model; delivering the attention requiring situation model to the mobility assistance device 30; receiving from the mobility assistance device 30 an evaluation result of the effectiveness of the attention requiring situation model; and granting a reward to the indicator who indicated the attention requiring situation indication information that was the basis for the attention requiring situation model evaluated as effective. In other words, this program can be said to cause a computer to execute the procedures and methods of the operations of the components of the information collection system 10.

[0180] Here, the memory 52 may be, for example, a non-volatile or volatile semiconductor memory such as a RAM (Random Access Memory), a ROM (Read Only Memory), a flash memory, an EPROM (Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory), or an EEPROM (Electrically Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory), a HDD (Hard Disk Drive), a magnetic disk, a flexible disk, an optical disk, a compact disk, a mini disk, a DVD (Digital Versatile Disc), and a drive device for such a disk, or any other storage medium that will be used in the future.

[0181] The above describes a configuration in which the functions of the components of the information collection system 10 are realized either by hardware or software, etc. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and the information collection system 10 may be configured such that some components are realized by dedicated hardware and other components are realized by software, etc. For example, the functions of some components may be realized by the processing circuit 50 as dedicated hardware, and the functions of other components may be realized by the processing circuit 50 as the processor 51 reading and executing a program stored in the memory 52.

[0182] As described above, the information collection system 10 can realize the above-described functions by hardware, software, or a combination of these.

[0183] It is possible to freely combine the embodiments, and to modify or omit the embodiments as appropriate.

[0184] The above description is illustrative in all respects, and it is understood that countless variations not illustrated can be envisioned.

[0185] 10 Information collection system, 11 Information collection unit, 12 Caution-required situation model creation unit, 12a Raw data storage unit, 12b Raw data analysis unit, 13 Caution-required situation model storage unit, 14 Information distribution unit, 15 Evaluation result reception unit, 16 Reward granting unit, 17 Charging unit, 18 Insurance contract management unit, 20 Caution-required situation indication device, 21 Caution-required situation indication information generation unit, 22 Pointer ID storage unit, 23 Communication unit, 30 Mobility support device, 31 Communication unit, 32 Caution-required situation model storage unit, 33 Notification determination unit, 34 Validity determination unit, 35 Display object, 40 Multi-function drive recorder, 41 Situation recording device, 50 Processing circuit, 51 Processor, 52 Memory, 100 Server, 200 Pointer vehicle, 201 Positioning device, 202 Surrounding detection device, 203 Driver monitoring device, 204 Operation device, 300 client vehicle, 301 positioning device, 302 surroundings detection device, 303 driver monitoring device, 304 operation device, 305 notification device, 400 policyholder vehicle, 401 positioning device, 402 surroundings detection device, 403 driver monitoring device, 404 operation device, 405 notification device.

Claims

1. an information collecting unit that collects, from the attention-requiring situation indicating device, information on the attention-requiring situation indicated by an indicater who is a user of the attention-requiring situation indicating device and attention-requiring situation indication information including an identifier of the indicater; a caution-required situation model creation unit that creates a caution-required situation model, which is a model of the caution-required situation, based on the collected caution-required situation indication information; a caution-required situation model storage unit that stores the caution-required situation model; an information distribution unit that distributes the caution-required situation model to a mobility support device; an evaluation result receiving unit that receives a validity evaluation result of the caution-requiring situation model from the mobility support device; a reward granting unit that grants a reward to the person who pointed out the attention-required situation indication information on which the attention-required situation model evaluated as valid is based; An information collection system comprising: The information distribution unit distributes the caution-required situation model to the mobility support device of a client who has signed a distribution contract; The information collection system further includes a billing unit that bills the client for a delivery fee for the attention-required situation model, The attention-requiring situation model is classified by one or more of a geographical type, a mobile object type, and a usage type; The information distribution unit distributes the attention-required situation model according to a distribution unit specified by the mobility support device to the mobility support device; the charging unit charges the client a delivery fee corresponding to the delivery unit of the delivered attention-requiring situation model, and charges the client who has entered into a rental contract for the mobility assistance device a rental fee for the mobility assistance device in addition to the delivery fee for the attention-requiring situation model; the delivery unit is set based on a delivery period of the attention-requiring situation model and a type of the attention-requiring situation model to be delivered; Information gathering system.

2. an information collecting unit that collects, from the attention-requiring situation indicating device, information on the attention-requiring situation indicated by an indicater who is a user of the attention-requiring situation indicating device and attention-requiring situation indication information including an identifier of the indicater; a caution-required situation model creation unit that creates a caution-required situation model, which is a model of the caution-required situation, based on the collected caution-required situation indication information; a caution-required situation model storage unit that stores the caution-required situation model; an information distribution unit that distributes the caution-required situation model to a mobility support device; an evaluation result receiving unit that receives a validity evaluation result of the caution-requiring situation model from the mobility support device; a reward granting unit that grants a reward to the person who pointed out the attention-required situation indication information on which the attention-required situation model evaluated as valid is based; An information collection system comprising: The information distribution unit distributes the caution-required situation model to the mobility support device of a client who has signed a distribution contract; The information collection system further includes a billing unit that bills the client for a delivery fee for the attention-required situation model, When the client is a business operator that owns a mobile body equipped with the attention-requiring situation indicating device, and the user of the attention-requiring situation indicating device is an employee of the business operator, the billing unit charges the client by deducting the amount of remuneration for the attention-requiring situation indicated by the employee from the amount of the delivery fee for the attention-requiring situation model. Information gathering system.

3. The information on the caution-required situation included in the caution-required situation indication information includes a position and an attribute of a caution-required object in the caution-required situation, and an attribute of caution-required for the caution-required object.

3. The information collecting system according to claim 1 or 2.

4. The position of the attention-requiring object is either an absolute position or a relative position with respect to a moving body equipped with the attention-requiring situation indicating device, or both. The information gathering system according to claim 3.

5. The information collecting unit acquires, as information on the attention-required situation from the attention-required situation indicating device, one or more raw data of position data, video data, audio data, and output data from a surrounding sensor recorded when the attention-required situation was indicated, the attention-required situation model creation unit creates the attention-required situation model by analyzing the raw data and determining the content of the attention-required situation.

3. The information collecting system according to claim 1 or 2.

6. Delivering the analysis rule or analysis engine used in analyzing the raw data to the caution-requiring situation indicating device; The information gathering system according to claim 5.

7. The attention-required situation model storage unit organizes the attention-required situation model stored in the attention-required situation model storage unit based on a reception history of the effectiveness evaluation result.

3. The information collecting system according to claim 1 or 2.

8. the reward granting unit sets an amount of reward to be granted to the person who points out the problem based on a reception history of the effectiveness evaluation result.

3. The information collecting system according to claim 1 or 2.

9. the reward granting unit invalidates the validity evaluation result when a transmission source of the validity evaluation result satisfies a certain condition.

3. The information collecting system according to claim 1 or 2.

10. The attention-requiring situation model is classified by one or more of a geographical type, a mobile object type, and a usage type; The information distribution unit distributes the attention-required situation model according to a distribution unit specified by the mobility support device to the mobility support device; the delivery unit is set based on a delivery period of the attention-requiring situation model and a type of the attention-requiring situation model to be delivered; The information collecting system according to claim 2.

11. An insurance contract management unit that manages information on policyholders who have concluded insurance contracts with the insurance company, The information distribution unit distributes the caution-required situation model to the mobility support device of the insurance policyholder.

3. The information collecting system according to claim 1 or 2.

12. The mobility assistance device and the attention-requiring situation indicating device are mounted on a drive recorder rented from the insurance company to the policyholder. The information gathering system according to claim 11.

13. The information collecting system according to claim 1 or 2, the attention-required situation indicating device that transmits the attention-required situation indicating information to the information collection system; The mobility support device performs mobility support for the user based on the attention-requiring situation model distributed from the information collection system; A mobility assistance system comprising: The mobility assistance device includes: When the surrounding situation becomes close to the caution-required situation model delivered from the information collection system, the user is notified of the caution-required situation and it is determined whether the notification has contributed to the safety of the user; When it is determined that the notification has contributed to the safety of the user, the effectiveness evaluation result in which the caution-requiring situation model corresponding to the notification is evaluated as effective is transmitted to the information collection system. Mobility support system.

14. An information collecting unit that collects, from a caution-required situation indicating device, caution-required situation indicating information including information on a caution-required situation indicated by a person who is a user of the caution-required situation indicating device and an identifier of the person who indicated the caution-required situation; a caution-required situation model creation unit that creates a caution-required situation model, which is a model of the caution-required situation, based on the collected caution-required situation indication information; a caution-required situation model storage unit that stores the caution-required situation model; an information distribution unit that distributes the caution-required situation model to a mobility support device; an evaluation result receiving unit that receives a validity evaluation result of the caution-requiring situation model from the mobility support device; a reward granting unit that grants a reward to the person who pointed out the attention-required situation indication information on which the attention-required situation model evaluated as valid is based; An information collection system comprising: the attention-required situation indicating device that transmits the attention-required situation indicating information to the information collection system; The mobility support device performs mobility support for the user based on the attention-requiring situation model distributed from the information collection system; A mobility assistance system comprising: The mobility assistance device includes: When the surrounding situation becomes close to the caution-required situation model delivered from the information collection system, the user is notified of the caution-required situation and it is determined whether the notification has contributed to the safety of the user; When it is determined that the notification has contributed to the safety of the user, the effectiveness evaluation result in which the caution-requiring situation model corresponding to the notification is evaluated as effective is transmitted to the information collection system; The mobility assistance device includes: Detecting the state of the user and the face direction or gaze direction of the user; When it is detected that the state of the user has changed from a state of not noticing the caution-requiring situation to a state of noticing it, or when it is detected that the face direction or the line of sight direction of the user has changed from a state of not being directed toward a caution-requiring object to a state of being directed toward the caution-requiring object, it is determined that the notification has contributed to the safety of the user. Mobility support system.

15. An information collecting unit that collects, from a caution-required situation indicating device, caution-required situation indication information including information on a caution-required situation indicated by a person who is a user of the caution-required situation indicating device and an identifier of the person who indicated the caution-required situation; a caution-required situation model creation unit that creates a caution-required situation model, which is a model of the caution-required situation, based on the collected caution-required situation indication information; a caution-required situation model storage unit that stores the caution-required situation model; an information distribution unit that distributes the caution-required situation model to a mobility support device; an evaluation result receiving unit that receives a validity evaluation result of the caution-requiring situation model from the mobility support device; a reward granting unit that grants a reward to the person who pointed out the attention-required situation indication information on which the attention-required situation model evaluated as valid is based; An information collection system comprising: the attention-required situation indicating device that transmits the attention-required situation indicating information to the information collection system; The mobility support device performs mobility support for the user based on the attention-requiring situation model distributed from the information collection system; A mobility assistance system comprising: The mobility assistance device includes: When the surrounding situation becomes close to the caution-required situation model delivered from the information collection system, the user is notified of the caution-required situation and it is determined whether the notification has contributed to the safety of the user; When it is determined that the notification has contributed to the safety of the user, the effectiveness evaluation result in which the caution-requiring situation model corresponding to the notification is evaluated as effective is transmitted to the information collection system; The mobility assistance device includes: Detecting a motion of the user; When it is detected that the user has taken an action to avoid a caution target in response to the notification, it is determined that the notification has contributed to the safety of the user. Mobility support system.