Road Map Snowfall Detection Using Vehicle Sensor Error Data
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing weather determination systems using millimeter-wave radar sensors face high processing loads and increased storage requirements due to the large number of measurement points, leading to inefficiencies and potential inaccuracies in determining weather conditions.
Innovation Solution
An information providing apparatus that utilizes a communication unit, microprocessor, and memory to acquire driving information from in-vehicle sensors, including position and error data, and determines snowfall based on map information, reducing processing load by correlating measurement errors with snowfall occurrences.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If weather determination is performed using measurement points from millimeter-wave radar, then weather information can be obtained, but processing load increases and storage requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts only the essential information needed for weather determination (measurement errors and position data) from the vast amount of radar measurement points, rather than processing all measurement points. This extraction approach maintains weather determination capability while significantly reducing processing load and storage requirements.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent uses position information from multiple vehicles to create a distributed network of weather observations. Instead of one vehicle processing all radar data, each vehicle contributes localized measurement error data that collectively provides comprehensive weather coverage, reducing individual processing loads while maintaining overall system accuracy.
2Reliability
If all measurement point information is stored, then complete weather analysis is possible, but storage area increases and apparatus scale increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts only the critical elements (measurement error flags and position coordinates) from the complete set of radar measurement points. By storing only these extracted key indicators rather than all raw measurement data, the system maintains the ability to perform weather analysis while dramatically reducing storage requirements.
Solution Approach 2:
Instead of storing complete measurement data and then analyzing it, the patent inverts the approach by first identifying measurement errors and extracting only those specific data points that indicate weather conditions. This inversion allows the system to achieve complete weather analysis capability with minimal storage by focusing on error indicators rather than complete datasets.
Data Source
AI summary
An information providing apparatus including a microprocessor and a memory storing a map information including a road map. The microprocessor is configured to perform: acquiring from an in-vehicle device, driving information including position information indicating the position of a vehicle detected by a first sensor and measurement error information indicating an occurrence of a measurement error output by a second sensor measuring an external environment of the vehicle, and further acquiring the map information from the memory; determining whether a snowfall has occurred in a predetermined region of the road map, based on the driving information and the map information; and outputting information in which a determination result is associated with the road map. The determining includes when recognizing that the measurement error has occurred while the vehicle is traveling in the predetermined region, determining that the snowfall has occurred in the predetermined region.