Patent ID: 8184861

Claim:
An feature information management apparatus comprising: a memory that stores a plurality of target types, each target type having recognition attribute information indicating a likelihood that the target type will be recognized based on a type of road or a type of area, and each target type having success or failure information indicating a success or failure of image recognition of the target type in the past; a controller that: acquires vehicle position information indicating a current position of a vehicle; acquires image information in a vicinity of the vehicle; acquires road attribute information about a road on which the vehicle is traveling, the road attribute information acquired based on the vehicle position information; evaluates the success or failure information of each target type, the evaluation based on the vehicle position information; and determines a target type defining a target for image recognition within the image information, the target type being determined based on the acquired road attribute information, the stored recognition attribute information, and the evaluation; and performs image recognition of a target feature included in the image information, the target feature being of the determined target type.