Abstract: The present invention provides a probe-car system in which beacons are used to efficiently collect measurement data from an FCD on-vehicle apparatus. There are provided an on-board unit of a probe-car 121 which selects one of second information (1) of measurement information measured during running and road section reference data indicating a measurement section of the measurement information and first information (3) of the measurement information, and uploads it to a beacon 123, and a center apparatus which collects the measurement information from the on-board unit of a probe-car 121 through the beacon 123. In this system, when the probe-car 121 runs along an installation route of beacons 122 and 123 and passes through under the downstream side beacon 123, only the measurement information is transmitted, so that the data amount of the measurement information can be increased, and the detailed measurement information can be transmitted.

Abstract: An object of the present invention is to provide a map matching method capable of performing a process operation in a high speed. In the map matching method of the present invention, while employing road network data in which road networks are formed in a plurality of hierarchical layers “a”, “b”, “c”, and a road network of an upper-grade hierarchical layer is established by such a road network which is extracted from a road network having a lower-grade hierarchical layer lower than the road network having the upper-grade hierarchical layer, a road network of the uppermost-grade hierarchical layer “a” is matched with a shape vector indicative of a shape of a objective road in a beginning stage; and when such a candidate road which is matched with the shape vector cannot be obtained in the road network of the uppermost-grade hierarchical layer “a”, since such a road network having another hierarchical layer “b”, or “c” is matched with the shape vector, the objective road is identified.

Abstract: A method of transmitting position information of a digital map capable of transmitting a position on a digital map efficiently and accurately in which a transmitting side transmits position information including coordinate series information for specifying a vector shape on a digital map and a receiving side execute map matching by the coordinate series information to thereby identify the vector shape on the digital map, the coordinate series information is transmitted by adding azimuth information of a coordinate point included in the coordinate series information thereto. By transmitting shape data by adding the azimuth information thereto, accuracy of matching can be promoted and necessary time for matching can be shortened.

Abstract: A method of transmitting position information of a digital map capable of transmitting a position on a digital map efficiently and accurately in which a transmitting side transmits position information including coordinate series information for specifying a vector shape on a digital map and a receiving side execute map matching by the coordinate series information to the thereby identify the vector shape on the digital map, the coordinate series information is transmitted by adding azimuth information of a coordinate point included in the information thereto. By transmitting shape data by adding the azimuth information thereto, accuracy of matching can be promoted and necessary time for matching can be shortened.

Abstract: An object of the present invention is to provide an FCD system capable of collecting effectively traveling locus data of a vehicle while putting characteristics of beacons into practical use and then analyzing detailed traffic conditions. In a system of the present invention for collecting traveling locus data from a in-vehicle unit in a vehicle via beacons, a downstream-side beacon (20) collects the traveling locus data, then calculates a traveling distance of the vehicle from an upstream-side beacon (10) to the downstream-side beacon (20) based on the traveling locus data, and then decides whether or not the traveling locus data of the vehicle are used in analyzing traffic conditions of the objective road, by comparing the traveling distance with a distance on an objective road from the upstream-side beacon (10) to the downstream-side beacon (20). The high-precision traffic information can be obtained by collecting the traveling locus data of the vehicle effectively by using the beacons.

Abstract: An object of the invention is to provide a traffic information provision system which can arbitrarily set a position resolution and a traffic representation resolution and flexibly support a traffic information prediction service. The traffic information provision system of the invention quantizes the state quantity of traffic information changing along a road, converts said quantized state quantity to a value having statistical deviation, performs encoding of said value, and provides the encoded value to traffic information utilization apparatus such as a car navigation system. The traffic information utilization apparatus decodes said encoded state quantity to reproduce the traffic information on said road.

Abstract: It is an object of the invention to provide a method of transmitting position information of a digital map which can enhance matching precision on a receiving side. The invention provides a method of transmitting position information of a digital map in which a transmitting side transmits a vector shape on the digital map and a receiving side specifies the vector shape on a self-digital map by map matching, wherein the transmitting side selects a portion in which a plurality of candidate points are generated with difficulty during the map matching as an endpoint of the vector shape and transmits the vector shape having the endpoint in the portion to the receiving side. Mismatching on the receiving side can be prevented and the position information on the digital map can be transmitted accurately.

Abstract: An encoder and a decoder are utilized for a location reference system in which different digital maps are installed in a transmitting side and a receiving side. The encoder comprises a selecting section for selecting supplemental points located around an endpoint of a target shape points set and a data creating section for preparing a transmitting data including both the target shape points set and the supplemental points to the receiving side. The decoder comprises a data acquiring section for acquiring data including supplemental points located around an endpoint of a target shape points set, a defining section for defining a shape points set on the digital map of the receiving side with reference to the supplemental points, and an output section for outputting a road section on the digital map of the receiving side in accordance with the defined shape points set.

Abstract: The objective of the present invention is to provide a relative location data correction apparatus, a relative location data correction method and a relative location data correction program that can cope with the shifting of a relative location between different digital map databases, and can accurately display a desired point. The relative location data correction apparatus of the invention includes: a transmission apparatus (100a), for transmitting to a reception apparatus (200a) event information, such as that for a traffic accident or traffic congestion, that is prepared based on a digital map database (101); and the reception apparatus (200a), for employing the event information received from the transmission apparatus (100a) to display an event occurrence point on a map provided by a digital map database (207), and for correcting the location of the event occurrence point before being displayed.

Abstract: Traffic information by a deformed map is efficiently produced from traffic information made of “road geometry data” and “event location data.” The association between each link on a digital map and a rectangle forming an event presenting unit on the deformed map is set in advance and held by a deformed map data portion 25. Map matching between received road geometry data and digital map data is carried out by a map matching portion 22, a road section on the digital map is specified, a link on the digital map corresponding to the location of an event is specified based on received event information data and the digital map data 23 for said road section, and a rectangle to represent event information based on the event information data on the deformed map is determined based on the previously set association for the link. In this way, level 2 traffic information can efficiently be produced based on the “road geometry data” and “event location data.

Abstract: Location information transmission apparatus for exchanging information about the on-road location on a digital map, characterized in that apparatus at an information provider comprises a location information converter for converting transmit on-road location information to road shape data including the on-road location consisting of a string of coordinates representing the road shape of a road section having a length that depends on the situation and relative data indicating the on-road location in the road section, and that apparatus at a party receiving the on-road location information comprises a shape matching section for performing shape matching by using the road shape data, identifying the road section on a digital map and identifying the on-road location in the road section by using the relative data. This makes it possible to correctly exchange information about the location on a digital map without defining node numbers or link numbers on a road network.

Abstract: The entire block of the transmission area of information such as shape vector data representing road shape and event information is divided into partitions of a plurality of layers and block definition is made so that the data amount in each partition is approximately equal. The transmitting side generates and transmits shape vector data, event information, shape vector index data including reference data indicating correspondence between the block definition and each partition, and a shape vector list indicating shape vector data contained in each partition. The receiving side calculates partitions necessary for processing and extracts shape vector data contained in the partitions based on the shape vector index data and the shape vector list, then performs shape matching of the extracted shape vector data and identifies the section and the position in the section on the map to which the event information corresponds.

Abstract: The invention purposes to provide a position information transmission method for accurately transmitting a position and a shape on a digital map with a small amount of data.

Abstract: A method for transmitting a position and a shape on a digital map with a small amount of data. The transmitting side transmits road shape information to specify the target road section on a digital map and event information to specify an event position by using a relative position in the target road section. The receiving side performs map matching based on the road shape information to identify the target road section and identifies the event position in the target road section based on the event information. The transmitting side intermittently selects nodes included in the target road section to include the coordinate data of the nodes in the road shape information for transmission. The receiving side performs map matching to determine the positions of the nodes included in the road shape information and obtains the road connecting the nodes by way of a route search to identify the target road section.

Abstract: When transmitting an on-road location on a digital map, an information provider transmits, as on-road location information, string of coordinates information representing the road shape of a road section including the on-road location having a predetermined length, additional information including at least one information item chosen from a group of the attribute information on the road including the road location and detailed information on the nodes in the road section, and relative information indicating the on-road location in the road section. Receiving party receiving this on-road location information performs shape matching to identify the road section on a digital map and uses relative data to identify the on-road location in this road section. The receiving party can identify the road shape with high accuracy even when only a small amount of string of coordinates data is available. This makes it possible to reduce the data transmission amount and identify an on-load location with high accuracy.

Abstract: It is an object of the invention to provide a method of transmitting position information of a digital map which can enhance matching precision on a receiving side.

Abstract: It is an object to provide a method of coding the position information of a digital map in a small data volume by utilizing a compressing and coding technique. In a coding method of coding data indicative of a shape vector on a digital map, an arithmetic processing is carried out over position information about a node string and a shape which indicate the shape vector to be represented by data having a statistical deviation, and the data having the statistical deviation are coded to reduce a data volume. It is possible to considerably decrease a transmission data volume in the case in which the vector shape of the digital map is to be transferred.

Abstract: This invention provides a method of transmitting position information of a digital map capable of transmitting a position on a digital map efficiently and accurately. In a method of transmitting position information in which a transmitting side transmits position information including coordinate series information for specifying a vector shape on a digital map and a receiving side execute map matching by the coordinate series information to thereby identify the vector shape on the digital map, the coordinate series information is transmitted by adding azimuth information of a coordinate point included in the coordinate series information thereto. By transmitting shape data by adding the azimuth information thereto, accuracy of matching can be promoted and necessary time for matching can be shortened.

Abstract: This invention provides a method of updating registered information when an old digital map is updated to a new digital map. In the method, coordinate series data representing a shape of a road around a registration point on the old map are acquired from a data base of the old map, a positional relationship between a reference point included in the shape of the road and the registration point is obtained, shape matching is carried out on the new map by using the coordinate series data to obtain a shape of a road on the new map corresponding to the shape of the road, and a reference point on the new map corresponding to the reference point is acquired from the shape of the road thus obtained, thereby specifying the registration point on the new map based on a positional relationship with the reference point on the new map.

Abstract: This invention provides a system for aiding information providing services utilizing position information identifiers, which is a position information identifier providing system including information providing means (20) for providing to a receiving device (30) containing a database (37) of position information identifiers and a database (38) of a digital map, only the information using said position information identifiers; and position information identifier information providing means (10) for providing only updated position information identifier information to said receiving device, in addition to said information providing means. The system is capable of supplementarily supporting a scheme of providing information by using the position information identifier. The burden imposed on the map data manufacturer, such as the maintenance and after-sales service, which result from the updating of the position information identifier, is lightened.