Patent Document ID: 9928736
Application ID: 15122465
Patent Status: 1

Claim One:
1. A method of collecting probe information generated during travel of a vehicle, comprising: (a) receiving probe information including travel time information of a reference area, from a vehicle traveling the reference area, that includes at least one of (1) an intersection area of a plurality of intersection areas that is an area from an approach to an intersection to an exit from the intersection and (2) a road area that connects with at least one of the plurality of intersection areas and is an area from the exit of one intersection to an approach of another intersection adjacent to the one intersection in an exit direction; (b) storing the received probe information; and (c) generating statistical information that indicates a histogram of a travel time in the reference area, based on the stored probe information, wherein the (c) includes: (c1) dividing an area set including at least three reference areas into (i) a starting point region that includes a starting point of the area set and is comprised of at least one reference area; (ii) an end point region that includes an end point of the area set and is comprised of at least one reference area; and (iii) an intermediate region that is included in the area set; (c2) generating the statistical information of the starting point region, based on the probe information of the starting point region received from a vehicle that passes through the entire reference area constituting the starting point region at a time; (c3) generating the statistical information of the end point region, based on the probe information of the end point region received from a vehicle that passes through the entire reference area constituting the end point region at a time; (c4) generating the statistical information of the intermediate region, based on the probe information of the intermediate region received from a vehicle that passes through the entire reference area constituting the intermediate region at a time; and (c5) generating the statistical information of the area set by a convolution operation of pieces of information regarding the travel time that respectively include the statistical information of the starting point region, the statistical information of the intermediate region, and the statistical information of the end point region.