Patent ID: 8068977
Filing Date: 2011-11-29
Classification: G01C,G08G

Abstract:
1. A destination prediction apparatus which predicts a destination of a mobile object, said destination prediction apparatus comprising: a travel history accumulating unit in which travel history information regarding a past travel of the mobile object is accumulated; a stay characteristic extracting unit operable to extract, from the travel history information, information indicating a previous time period when the mobile object has stayed at a predetermined point; a stay characteristic accumulating unit operable to accumulate, in advance, the extracted information as stay characteristic information indicating a time period when the mobile object will likely stay at the point without associating the extracted information with a departure point of the past travel to the point; and a destination predicting unit operable to (i) calculate an estimated arrival time in a case where the mobile object departs from a current location to the point, the estimated arrival time being calculated independently of the stay characteristic information accumulated in said stay characteristic unit, and (ii) to predict the point as the destination only when a condition that the calculated estimated arrival time and the time period indicated by the stay characteristic information are temporally close is satisfied, wherein said stay characteristic extracting unit is operable to extract, from the travel history information, pieces of information, each of which indicating a previous time period when the mobile object has stayed at one of a plurality of points, said stay characteristic accumulating unit is operable to accumulate the extracted pieces of information as stay characteristic information for each of the plurality of points, and said destination predicting unit is operable, in a case where there are at least two of the plurality of points in which an estimated arrival time for the at least two plurality of points falls between a stay start time and a stay end time indicated by the stay characteristic information for the at least two plurality of points, to preferentially predict, as the destination of the mobile object, a point from among the at least two of the plurality of points where a difference between the estimated arrival time and the stay end time for the point among the at least two of the plurality of points is greater than a difference between the estimated arrival time and the stay end time of another point from among the at least two of the plurality of points.