JP6579541B2 - Visit timing judgment device and visit timing judgment method - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a visit timing determination apparatus and a visit timing determination method.

  Conventionally, the determination of the timing for replenishing fuel or purchasing consumables has been performed, for example, by setting a threshold for the remaining amount of fuel or consumables, and whether or not the remaining amount has reached the threshold. Patent Document 1 describes that a warning is issued when the remaining amount of fuel falls below a preset threshold value.

JP 2010-32279 A JP 2007-51975 A

  As described above, when the timing is determined based on whether or not the remaining fuel amount has reached the threshold value, the following problems occur.

  Problem 1) Since the user's behavior at that time is not taken into account only by whether or not the threshold is reached, the burden required for the visit, such as a case of reversing in the direction of travel or a case of detour (Referred to as visit cost), which may be inconvenient for the user.

  Problem 2) For example, conditions such as the speed at which fuel is consumed and the distance to the refueling facility vary from user to user, and with a uniform threshold setting for all users, some users uselessly visit cycles. There is a risk of accelerating the fuel consumption or causing the fuel to run out.

  In the device of Patent Document 1, the threshold value can set a user-specific threshold value based on the past fuel supply history of the user. Thereby, a part of Problem 2 can be avoided, but the risk of running out of fuel cannot be excluded depending on the positional relationship between the user and the fueling facility. In addition, since the user's behavior is not taken into consideration and a warning may be issued at a high visit cost, it does not contribute to solving Problem 1.

  The device of Patent Document 2 indicates the reachable fueling facility and its reachability (how much fuel can be reached using the remaining amount of fuel) in color based on the fuel remaining amount and the distance to the fueling facility The method of prompting the user to refuel is shown. According to the apparatus of the cited document 2, although the problem 2 can be solved, the visit is urged even in a place where the visit cost is high, such as when being far away from the fueling facility, and the problem 1 cannot be solved.

  Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a technique for appropriately determining the timing of a visit.

In view of the above problems, the present invention provides:
A visit timing determination device that determines the timing of visiting any of the scattered visit locations while the moving body is moving to the destination,
A cost calculation unit for calculating a visit cost from the position of the moving object to the visited place;
A distribution data creation unit for accumulating the calculated visit cost and creating cost distribution data indicating a distribution of the number of accumulations according to the visit cost;
Based on the visit cost and the cost distribution data, the number of visits that can be made at or below the visit cost by the deadline for visiting the visit destination is obtained, and it is determined that the visit timing has been reached when the number of visits falls below a threshold. A determination execution unit;
Equipped with. The cost distribution data is data indicating the distribution of the visit cost calculated with the past movement of the mobile object, that is, the frequency at which the visit cost takes a certain value. The cost distribution data is, for example, histogram data indicating the frequency for each bin when the visit cost is divided by a predetermined bin width.

  The determination execution unit obtains the remaining number of times that the determination can be performed by the deadline when the determination is repeatedly performed at a predetermined timing, and the distribution of the accumulated number according to the visit cost of the cost distribution data is obtained. On the basis of this, the probability of being able to visit at or below the visit cost may be obtained, and the remaining number of times may be multiplied by the probability to obtain the number of visits that can be made at or below the visit cost.

  The cost calculation unit may calculate the visit cost based on a size of an angle formed by a direction from the position of the moving body toward the visited place and a traveling direction of the moving body.

  The cost calculation unit calculates a distance from the moving body to the visited place by a coefficient that increases as an angle formed by a direction from the position of the moving body toward the visited place and a traveling direction of the moving body increases. May be used to calculate the visit cost.

  The cost calculation unit may calculate a visit cost using the following equation (1).

Visiting cost = min _i (A−cos θ _i ) × d _i (1)
A: Constant θ _i : Angle formed between the direction of the moving body from the position of the moving body toward the visited place i and the moving direction of the moving body d _i : The distance from the moving body to the visited place i The visit timing determining device moves to the visited place After the visit, the determination execution unit may prohibit the determination of the timing of the visit to the next visit place until the predetermined place is satisfied at least once away from the visit place.

In view of the above problems, the present invention provides:
A visit timing determination method for determining the timing of visiting any of the scattered visit locations while the mobile body is moving to the destination,
Calculating a visit cost from the position of the moving object to the visited place;
Storing the calculated visit cost, and creating cost distribution data indicating a distribution of the number of storage according to the visit cost;
Based on the visit cost and the cost distribution data, the number of visits that can be made at or below the visit cost by the deadline for visiting the visit destination is obtained, and it is determined that the visit timing has been reached when the number of visits falls below a threshold. Steps,
Is executed by the computer.

  In the visit timing determination method, when the determination is repeatedly performed at a predetermined timing, the remaining number of times that the determination can be performed by the deadline is obtained, and the distribution of the number of accumulation according to the visit cost of the cost distribution data The probability of being able to visit at or below the visit cost is obtained based on the above, and the number of visits at or below the visit cost may be obtained by multiplying the remaining probability by the probability.

In the visit timing determination method, the visit cost may be calculated based on a size of an angle formed by a direction from the position of the moving body toward the visited place and a traveling direction of the moving body.

  In the visit timing determination method, a coefficient that increases as the angle formed by the direction from the position of the moving body toward the visited place and the traveling direction of the moving body increases, from the moving body to the visited place. The visit cost may be calculated by multiplying the distance.

  The cost calculation unit may calculate a visit cost using the following equation (1).

Visiting cost = min _i (A−cos θ _i ) × d _i (1)
A: constant theta _i: angle between the direction from the position of the moving body to the visited location i to the traveling direction of the moving body d _i: the distance the visiting timing determination method from the mobile to the visited location i, to the visiting location After the visit, the determination of the timing of the next visit place may be prohibited until the predetermined place is satisfied at least once away from the visit place.

  The contents described in the means for solving the problems can be combined as much as possible without departing from the problems and technical ideas of the present invention. The contents of the means for solving the problems can be provided as a device such as a computer or a system including a plurality of devices, a method executed by the computer, or a program executed by the computer. Further, a recording medium that holds the program may be provided.

  ADVANTAGE OF THE INVENTION According to this invention, the technique which determines the timing of a visit appropriately can be provided.

FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram of the visit timing determination apparatus according to the first embodiment. FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram of a method for calculating a visit cost. FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram of histogram data. FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating a hardware configuration of the visit timing determination apparatus. FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram of a visit timing determination method. FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating an example in which the process of calculating the visit cost and the process of determining the visit timing are executed in different flows. FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating a display example of the determination result. FIG. 8 is a functional block diagram of the visit timing determination apparatus according to the second embodiment.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. In addition, the following embodiment is an illustration of this invention and this invention is not limited to the following structure.
<Embodiment 1>
<Device configuration>
FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram of the visit timing determination apparatus according to the first embodiment. The visit timing determination apparatus according to the first embodiment is an apparatus that determines an appropriate timing to go to a supply facility in order to supply fuel for a vehicle as a moving object, that is, an appropriate visit timing. A cost calculation unit 12, a histogram update unit 13, a time limit acquisition unit 14, a determination execution unit 15, and a determination result output unit 16 are included.

The position information acquisition unit 11 is a sensor capable of acquiring position information such as a GPS (Global Positioning System) receiver, and is continuously provided at predetermined intervals based on signals received from a plurality of GPS satellites. Get location information. The position information acquisition unit 11 may acquire position information not only by GPS but also by autonomous navigation using an acceleration sensor. However, the position information acquisition unit 11 may acquire a position based on a beacon signal, or may acquire a position based on radio field strengths received from a plurality of wireless stations provided at a predetermined position. The position information is not limited to the position of the pinpoint, but may be any information that can specify the position of the moving object with a predetermined width. For example, the position is a position obtained by dividing the area into an appropriate size, Information indicating this position may be used. For example, a standard area mesh can be used as such an area, but the area is not limited thereto.

The cost calculation unit 12 is a means for calculating the visit cost from the position of the moving body to the visited place, and repeats this calculation at a predetermined timing. FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram of a method for calculating a visit cost. For example, as shown in FIG. 2, the cost calculation unit 12 determines an angle θ _i between a direction (traveling direction) 33 from the position of the vehicle (moving body) 31 toward the visiting place i (traveling direction) 33 and a traveling direction 34 of the vehicle 31.
The visit cost is calculated based on the size of. That is, when the angle θ _i is large, the difference between the traveling direction 34 of the vehicle 31 and the direction 33 toward the visiting place i is large. judge. If the angle θ _i is small, it is determined that the difference between the traveling direction 34 of the vehicle 31 and the direction 33 toward the visiting place i is small and the cost is low. In addition, when there are a plurality of replenishment facilities i that can be visited, calculation is performed for each replenishment facility, and the minimum value among them is set as the visit cost. The traveling direction 34 is a straight line obtained by obtaining the movement locus 35 based on the position information 1p by reading the position information 1p detected in the past and approximating the line, and extending the movement locus 35 from the current position. However, the travel direction is not limited to this, and the traveling direction may be estimated from a past movement history or the like.

  Specifically, the visit cost is calculated using the following equation (1).

Visit cost = min _i {(A−cos θ _i ) × d _i } Equation (1)
A: Constant greater than or equal to 2 θ _i : Angle formed by the direction from the position of the moving object toward the visited place i and the traveling direction of the moving object d _i : Distance from the moving object to the visited place i The angle θ _i is the visited place i. The value from 0 degrees where the direction 33 toward the vehicle and the traveling direction 34 of the vehicle 31 coincide with each other and 180 degrees where the direction 33 and the traveling direction 34 toward the visiting place i conflict with each other, and cos θ _i is subtracted from the constant A. The That is, when the constant A and 2, the magnitude of the angle theta _i, A-cos [theta] _i takes values from 1 to 3, the visit cost by multiplying this distance d _i between the vehicle 31 and the Visited Location i calculate.

  In addition to this, the visit cost may be obtained by adding other elements. Formula (2) is an example in which the visit cost is obtained by multiplying Formula (1) by the slope s, the weather index, and the day of the week index.

Visit cost = min _i {(A−cos θ _i ) × d _i × sig (s _i ) × 2} × w × W (2)
)
w: Weather index. For example, take 1 for clear weather, 1.5 for rain, 2 for snow.
W: Day indicator. For example, take 1 for Saturdays and Sundays and 1.2 for Monday to Friday.
s _i : Slope from the current location to the visited location i (a value that is positive for an upward slope and negative for a downward slope)
sig (): sigmoid function The weather index is received from a server (computer) that receives input from the user or distributes weather information via the network. Day of the week information is stored in advance, and the day of the week is specified according to the current date and time. The slope s _i may store the height for each position in advance and may be obtained from the height of each of the vehicle position and the supply facility position, or may be measured and stored when traveling in the past. You may make it read this gradient. The sigmoid function is a coefficient that increases as the gradient increases with an upward gradient, and decreases as the gradient increases with a downward gradient.

In this embodiment, the constant A is set to 2 or more. However, if the value based on the angle θ _i is a value that matches the distance d _i and other coefficients, the constant A may be other than 2. It may be omitted.

  The histogram updating unit 13 accumulates the calculated visit cost, and updates the distribution of the number of accumulation according to the visit cost, for example, histogram data indicating the frequency for each bin when the visit cost is divided by a predetermined bin width. . The histogram update unit 13 is a form of a distribution data creation unit that accumulates the visit cost calculated by the cost calculation unit 12 and creates cost distribution data indicating the distribution of the number of accumulations according to the visit cost. Here, the cost distribution data is data indicating the distribution of the visit cost calculated with the past movement of the mobile object, that is, the frequency at which the visit cost takes a certain value.

  FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram of the histogram data updated by the histogram update unit 13. The cost calculation unit 12 calculates a visit cost at a predetermined timing, for example, every 1 km travel, and the histogram update unit 13 accumulates the visit cost, and the accumulation number for each predetermined bin width, that is, the visit cost of each bin. The calculated frequency and this accumulation (frequency accumulation) are used as histogram data. In the present embodiment, the ratio of the cumulative frequency to the total number of visit costs is also obtained.

  The time limit acquisition unit 14 acquires the time limit for the visit. In the present embodiment, the time limit acquisition unit 14 obtains the travelable distance until the fuel runs out as the time limit for the visit. For example, the remaining amount of fuel is detected by a fuel gauge, and the remaining fuel amount is calculated by multiplying the fuel consumption. The fuel consumption may be a preset value or may be acquired from an ECU (Engine Control Unit).

  Based on the visit cost and the histogram data, the determination execution unit 15 obtains the number of visits that can be made at or below the visit cost by the visit deadline, and determines that the visit timing has been reached when the number of visits falls below the threshold. For example, when the determination execution unit 15 repeatedly executes the determination at a predetermined timing, the determination execution unit 15 obtains the remaining number of times that the determination can be performed before the deadline of the visit, and calculates the probability that the visit can be made at the visit cost or less from the histogram data. The number of times (expected number of times) that can be visited at the visit cost or less is obtained by multiplying the remaining number by the probability. Further, after the visit to the supply facility (visit place), the determination execution unit 15 prohibits the determination of the timing of the visit to the next visit place until at least one time away from the supply facility until a predetermined condition is satisfied. For example, if the visit timing is determined immediately after visiting the replenishment facility, it may be erroneously determined that the visit timing has been reached because the distance to the replenishment facility is close and the visit cost is infinitely small. The next decision is prohibited at least once before leaving the supply facility. The predetermined condition includes, for example, moving over a predetermined distance, consuming fuel over a predetermined amount, elapses over a predetermined time. In addition, the determination of having visited the visited place is, for example, that the position of the moving body has approached a predetermined range centered on the position of the registered visited place, that replenishment has been performed, or This combination is used for determination.

  The determination result output unit 16 outputs the determination result by the determination execution unit 15. Here, the output may be display, printing, transmission to another computer, writing to a storage medium, output by sound, or the like.

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating a hardware configuration of the visit timing determination apparatus. The visit timing determination apparatus 1 is a computer (information processing apparatus) as shown in FIG. 4, for example. 4 includes a CPU (Central Processing Unit) 1001, a main storage device 1002, an auxiliary storage device (external storage device) 1003, a communication IF (Interface) 1004,
An input / output IF (Interface) 1005, a drive device 1006, and a communication bus 1007 are provided. The CPU 1001 performs processing and the like according to this embodiment by executing a program. Thereby, the CPU 1001 functions as the position information acquisition unit 11, the cost calculation unit 12, the histogram update unit 13, the time limit acquisition unit 14, the determination execution unit 15, and the determination result output unit 16. A main storage device (main memory) 1002 caches programs and data read by the CPU 1001 and expands a work area of the CPU. Specifically, the main storage device is a RAM (Random Access Memory), a ROM (Read Only Memory), or the like. The auxiliary storage device 1003 stores programs executed by the CPU 1001, position information, and the like. Specifically, the auxiliary storage device 1003 is an HDD (Hard-disk Drive), an SSD (Solid State Drive), an eMMC (embedded Multi-Media Card), a flash memory, or the like. The main storage device 1002 and the auxiliary storage device 1003 also function as a position information storage unit that stores position information and a storage unit that stores movement history. The communication IF 1004 transmits / receives data to / from other computers. Visit timing determination apparatus 1 is connected to a network via communication IF 1004. The communication IF 1004 is specifically a wired or wireless network card or the like. The input / output IF 1005 is connected to the input / output device and accepts input from the user or outputs information to the user. Specifically, the input / output device is a keyboard, a pointing device, a display, a touch panel, a speaker, an acceleration sensor, a geomagnetic sensor, a fuel gauge, an ECU, or the like. The drive device 1006 reads data recorded on a storage medium such as a magnetic disk, a magneto-optical disk, and an optical disk, and writes data to the storage medium. The above components are connected by a communication bus 1007. A plurality of these components may be provided, or some of the components (for example, the drive device 1006) may not be provided. Further, the input / output device may be integrated with the computer. In addition, the program executed in this embodiment is provided via a portable storage medium readable by the drive device 1006, a portable auxiliary storage device 1003 such as a flash memory, a communication IF 1004, and the like. It may be. Then, when the CPU 1001 executes the program, the computer as shown in FIG. 4 is operated as the visit timing determination device 1 shown in FIG.

  FIG. 4 shows an example in which the computer 1000 executes the program to realize the functions of the respective units as software. However, the visit timing determination apparatus according to the present embodiment is not limited to this, and the position information acquisition unit is not limited thereto. 11, or an electronic device configured by an electronic circuit (hardware) designed as a cost calculation unit 12, a histogram update unit 13, a time limit acquisition unit 14, a determination execution unit 15, and a determination result output unit 16.

<Visit timing judgment method>
Next, details of the visit timing determination method executed by the visit timing determination apparatus 1 according to the program will be described. FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram of a visit timing determination method. The visit timing determination apparatus 1 periodically executes the process of FIG. 5 when the power is turned on, for example, when the ignition key of the vehicle is turned on or when movement is started.

  The visit timing determination apparatus 1 executes the function of the time limit acquisition unit 14 to calculate the time limit of the visit, in this example, the possible travel distance until the fuel runs out (step S10).

Next, the visit timing determination apparatus 1 determines whether or not a predetermined timing for calculating the visit cost and determining the visit timing has been reached (step S20). In this embodiment, the predetermined timing is the time when the vehicle travels 1 km. Not limited to this, the predetermined timing may be a time when a predetermined time has elapsed or a time when a predetermined amount of fuel is consumed. When it is determined in step S20 that the determination timing has not been reached (No in step S20), the visit timing determination apparatus 1 ends the processing of FIG. 5 and determines that the determination timing has been reached (step S20, Yes) The visit cost is calculated by the function of the cost calculation unit 12 (step S30).

  The visit timing determination device 1 updates the histogram data with the calculated visit cost by the function of the histogram update unit 13 (step S40) and accumulates it in the auxiliary storage device 1003 (step S50).

  Further, the visit timing determination device 1 determines whether or not the predetermined condition is satisfied at least once away from the replenishment facility (step S55), and if this predetermined condition is not satisfied (No in step S55), the process of FIG. If the predetermined condition is satisfied (step S55, Yes), the process proceeds to step S60. That is, the process does not proceed to step S60 until the predetermined condition is satisfied, and the determination of the timing of the next visit to the supply facility is prohibited. In the present embodiment, the predetermined condition is that the remaining amount of fuel is less than half of the tank capacity and that the vehicle has traveled more than 1 km from the replenishment facility visited.

  When the predetermined condition of step S60 is satisfied, the visit timing determination device 1 is expected to be able to visit below the visit cost calculated in step S30 by the time limit of the visit based on the visit cost and the histogram data by the function of the determination execution unit 15 The number of times is obtained (step S60), and it is determined whether or not the expected number is less than or equal to a threshold (step S70). If the expected number is less than or equal to the threshold (step S70, Yes), it is determined that the visit timing has been reached (step S80). ) If the expected number of times is not less than or equal to the threshold (No at Step S70), it is determined that the visit timing has not been reached (Step S90).

  And the visit timing determination apparatus 1 outputs the determination result of step S80, S90. The judgment result may be output both when the visit timing is reached and when the visit timing is not reached. When the visit timing is not reached, it is not output. May be output only. For example, when the visit timing is reached, a lamp indicating replenishment is turned on to notify the user that the timing for replenishment has been reached. Moreover, it is good also as output, such as notifying by a voice message like "It has reached the replenishment timing", displaying a message on a display apparatus, or transmitting a message to a user's portable terminal.

In the example of FIG. 5, the visit cost calculation and histogram creation and accumulation processes S20 to S50 and the visit timing determination processes S10, S20, and S55 to S100 are executed in the same flow. Cost calculation, histogram creation and accumulation processing S30 to S50 and visit timing determination processing S10, S20, and S55 to S100 may be executed in parallel in different flows. FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating an example in which the process of calculating the visit cost and the process of determining the visit timing are executed in different flows. Note that the contents of the processing of the steps given the same numbers as in FIG. 5 are the same as those in FIG. For example, the processing S20 to S50 shown in FIG. 6A is executed at a predetermined cycle to calculate the visit cost, create and store the histogram, and perform the processing of FIG. (Step S55, Yes), the latest one of the visit costs obtained in the process of FIG. 6A is acquired as the current visit cost (step S57), and this visit cost and histogram data Based on the above, the expected number of times is obtained (step S60), and the subsequent processing is executed as in FIG. 6A and 6B are executed at different periods in this way, the process of FIG. 6A creates histogram data in detail in a short period, and FIG. In the process b), the number of determinations can be reduced to a necessary and sufficient level. Further, the processing of FIG. 6B and the processing of FIG. 5 are alternately executed, or the processing of FIG. 5 is repeated every time the processing of FIG. You may perform the process which produces data, and the process which determines visit timing with a different period. Note that if the process of creating histogram data and the process of determining visit timing are executed at different intervals, the number of times the visit cost is calculated differs from the number of visit timing determinations, so the expected number of times is converted based on the period of each process. I decided to. For example, when the number of times of determination with respect to the number of times of obtaining the visit cost is 1 / n, the expected number of times is obtained by setting the value obtained by multiplying the remaining number of times that can be determined by the deadline to the ratio of the histogram data to 1 / n.

  Thus, by performing the processing of FIG. 5, the visit timing determination device 1 can appropriately determine the visit timing. For example, as shown in FIG. 3, when the visit cost is calculated at a position where the travelable distance until the fuel runs out is 200 km and the visit cost is 70, this determination is made every time 1 km travels, so the vehicle travels 200 km. The remaining number of determination opportunities that can be determined by the time, that is, the remaining number of times that determination can be performed before the fuel runs out is 200 times. Further, based on the histogram data, the rate of cumulative frequency when the visit cost is 70, that is, the probability of being able to visit at a visit cost of 70 or less (low cost rarity) is 20%. For this reason, the number of remaining judgment opportunities of 200 times is multiplied by the low cost rarity of 20%, and the number of visits that can be made at a visit cost of 70 or less before the fuel runs out (the number of times that an opportunity that can be visited at a low cost is simply referred to as the number of times of expectation) Required 40 times. When the threshold value is 2 and the expected number is 40, the visit timing determination apparatus 1 determines that the supply timing has not been reached because the expected number is not less than or equal to the threshold value.

  Similarly, when the visit cost is calculated at a position where the travelable distance until the fuel runs out is 100 km and the visit cost is 10, the number of remaining determination opportunities is 100. Further, based on the histogram data, the low cost rarity when the visit cost is 10 is 3%. For this reason, the number of remaining judgment opportunities is multiplied by 100% of the low cost rarity, and the expected number of times is calculated to be 3, and the visit timing determination device 1 does not reach the replenishment timing because the expected number of times is not less than the threshold value. judge.

  Then, when the visit cost is calculated at a position where the travelable distance until the fuel runs out is 20 km, and the visit cost is 20, the number of remaining judgment opportunities is 20. Further, based on the histogram data, the low cost rarity at the visit cost of 20 is 9%. Therefore, the remaining number of determination opportunities is multiplied by 20 times low cost rarity 9%, and the expected number of times is determined to be 1.8 times, and the visit timing determination device 1 has reached the replenishment timing because the expected number of times is less than the threshold value. Is determined.

  Thus, when the travelable distance is determined at a position of 100 km, the visit cost is 10 and the low cost rarity is 3%, which is a rare timing that can be visited at a low cost, and the travelable distance is 20 km. Although it can be visited at a lower cost than when judged, there are three opportunities to visit at a visit cost of 10 or less while traveling 100 km, and there is an opportunity to replenish before the fuel runs out without replenishing at this position It is determined that the supply timing has not been reached. On the other hand, if the travelable distance is determined at a position of 20 km, the expected number of times is 1.8, and if you run without further replenishment, there will be too few opportunities for replenishment and you will be worried about running out of fuel. It is determined that the supply timing has been reached.

  As described above, according to the present embodiment, a threshold is not provided for the remaining amount of fuel, but a visit is made when the visit cost is low, so that waste such as going back for replenishment or extremely detouring is suppressed. be able to.

In addition, according to the present embodiment, the visit cost to the replenishment facility is obtained, the expected number of opportunities that can be visited at the visit cost or less is obtained, and the visit timing is determined based on whether or not the expectation number is less than or equal to the threshold value. The visit timing is not judged just because the visit cost is low, but when there are enough opportunities to visit at the visit cost or less, the visit is less than the threshold. In this case, it is possible to appropriately determine the visit timing without wastefully shortening the visit cycle.

When determining the vehicle replenishment timing as the visit timing, it is desirable to determine the visit timing at the current position. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and the visit timing is determined at a position advanced in the current traveling direction until the next determination timing. Or the visit timing may be determined at the next position. FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating a display example of a result of determination at the current position, the next position (1 km ahead), and the next position (2 km ahead). In FIG. 7, the current position, the next position (1 km ahead), and the next position (2 km ahead), respectively, indicate the position 61 of the vehicle, the position 62 of the replenishment facility (visit place), and the expected number of times 63. When the expected number of times is less than or equal to the threshold value, a message 64 indicating that the replenishment timing has been reached is displayed.
Moreover, although the example which determines the timing which supplies the fuel of a vehicle was shown in this embodiment, the kind of fuel is not specifically limited, Hydrogen other than light oil and gasoline may be sufficient. Furthermore, when the vehicle is to be replenished with an electric vehicle or the like, that is, to be charged, the visit timing determination device 1 is configured to determine the timing of visiting the charging facility (visit place) before the charge is exhausted. May be.

<Embodiment 2>
In the first embodiment, an example in which the vehicle is a moving body has been described. In the present embodiment, the user himself / herself is a moving body, and the visit timing when the user visits to purchase goods or services is determined. An example is shown. Since other configurations are the same as those in the first embodiment, the same components are denoted by the same reference numerals, and the description thereof is omitted. FIG. 8 is a functional block diagram of the visit timing determination apparatus 1 according to the present embodiment.

The visit timing determination device 1 of the present embodiment includes a mobile phone, a smartphone, a tablet terminal (slate PC (Personal Computer)), a notebook PC,
A user terminal (mobile device) 1 such as a portable game machine, a position information acquisition unit 11, a cost calculation unit 12, a histogram update unit 13, a time limit acquisition unit 14, a determination execution unit 15, a determination result output unit 16, and a schedule management unit 17.

The position information acquisition unit 11 is a sensor capable of acquiring position information, such as a GPS (Global Positioning System) receiver, and is position information indicating the position of the user as the position information of the user terminal 1 that is carried by the user and moves with the user. Get as. Further, the position information acquisition unit 11 may acquire the position not only by GPS but also by autonomous navigation using an acceleration sensor.

The cost calculation unit 12 is a means for calculating the visit cost from the user position to the visited place, and repeats this calculation at a predetermined timing. The place of visit is a place where the user purchases goods or receives a service.For example, when determining the timing of purchasing rice, it is a supermarket selling rice, a rice grain store, a convenience store, etc. When judging timing, it is a barber shop or a beauty salon. Moreover, when determining the timing of bank transfer, it is the installation place of a bank or ATM. The location information of these visited places is stored in advance in the storage device 1003 for each article or service.
Alternatively, the priority may be stored for each visited place, and the visit cost may be calculated by multiplying the priority p _i as shown in Equation (3).

Visit cost = min _i {(A−cos θ _i ) × d _i × sig (s _i ) × 2 × p _i } × w × W Equation (3)
A: Constant greater than or equal to 2 θ _i : Angle formed by the direction from the position of the moving body toward the visited place i and the traveling direction of the moving body d _i : Distance from the moving body to the visited place i w: Weather index. For example, take 1 for clear weather, 1.5 for rain, 2 for snow.
W: Day indicator. For example, take 1 for Saturdays and Sundays and 1.2 for Monday to Friday.
s _i : Slope from the current location to the visited location i (a value that is positive for an upward slope and negative for a downward slope)
sig (): sigmoid function p _i: the priority of each visit location (for example, 1 if the supermarket, if the specialty stores such as Beikokuten 1.5, take if the discount super-0.8.)

  The time limit acquisition unit 14 acquires the time limit for the visit. For example, when a user visits a place of visit and receives purchase of an article or provision of a service, this is registered in the schedule management unit, and the term acquisition unit 14 purchases the article or service to be determined The timing at which the visit interval is received, that is, the past visit timing, is read out, the average value of the visit intervals in the past is obtained as the visit interval, and the day when the visit interval elapses from the latest visit timing is obtained as the visit deadline. The user may register a visit deadline in the schedule management unit 17 and read the visit deadline. In the case of purchase of an article, the remaining amount of the article may be input, and the deadline may be calculated by dividing the remaining amount by the daily consumption of the article.

  Based on the visit cost and the histogram data, the determination execution unit 15 obtains the number of visits that can be made at or below the visit cost by the visit deadline, and determines that the visit timing has been reached when the number of visits falls below the threshold. For example, the determination execution unit 15 obtains the remaining number of times that the determination can be made before the deadline of the visit when repeatedly executing at a predetermined time interval, and obtains the probability that the visit can be made at the visit cost or less from the histogram data. Multiply the remaining number by the probability to obtain the number of times (expected number) that can be visited at the visit cost or less. When the remaining number of times that the determination can be made before the deadline of the visit is obtained, a time zone in which there is no possibility of visiting in order to purchase goods or receive services is registered in the storage device 1003 in advance. The remaining number of times may be obtained by excluding. For example, the time when the visit is not performed, such as late night or early morning, is registered. Further, the time when this visit is not performed may be configured such that a time when the store is not open is registered for each visited place, and this time is excluded for each visited place. Further, when there is another schedule in the schedule management unit 17, there is no possibility of making a visit, so the remaining number of times may be obtained by excluding this time.

  In response to input from the user, the schedule management unit 17 registers the user's schedule, information on the visited location, and the visit deadline in the storage device 1003 as schedule data.

  With these configurations, the visit timing determination apparatus 1 according to the present embodiment determines the timing of purchasing an article or receiving a service. Note that the procedure of the determination process is the same as that shown in FIGS. For example, when determining the timing of purchasing rice as an article, the visit timing determination device 1 reads the timing of purchasing rice in the past from the storage device 1003. For example, if the purchase timing is purchased every two months, the previous time The date when two months have passed since the purchase date is set as the deadline for the visit, the remaining number of times that can be determined by this date is obtained, the probability that the visit can be made below the visit cost is obtained from the histogram data, and the remaining number is The number of times (expected number of times) that can be visited at the visit cost or less is obtained by multiplying the probability. Then, when the expected number of times is equal to or less than the threshold, it is determined that the timing for purchasing rice has been reached, and the user is notified. Thereby, the user can buy rice at an appropriate timing before the rice runs out.

  Moreover, when determining the timing of the haircut as the timing of receiving the service, the visit timing determination device 1 reads the timing of performing the haircut in the past from the storage device 1003, for example, if the haircut is performed every month, The day when one month has passed since the timing of the previous haircut is the deadline for the visit, and the visit timing is determined in the same manner as in the case of purchasing rice.

As described above, according to the visit timing determination apparatus 1 of the present embodiment, it is possible to appropriately determine the timing of purchasing an article or receiving a service.

<Others>
The present invention includes a computer program that executes the above-described processing. Furthermore, a computer-readable recording medium on which the program is recorded also belongs to the category of the present invention. The recording medium on which the program is recorded can be specified by causing the computer to read and execute the program on the recording medium.

  Here, the computer-readable recording medium refers to a recording medium in which information such as data and programs is accumulated by electrical, magnetic, optical, mechanical, or chemical action and can be read from a computer. Examples of such a recording medium that can be removed from the computer include a flexible disk, a magneto-optical disk, an optical disk, a magnetic tape, and a memory card. In addition, examples of the recording medium fixed to the computer include a hard disk drive and a ROM.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Visit timing determination apparatus 11 Position information acquisition part 12 Cost calculation part 13 Histogram update part 14 Time limit acquisition part 15 Determination execution part 16 Determination result output part

Claims (6)

A visit timing determination device that determines the timing of visiting any of the scattered visit locations while the moving body is moving to the destination,
A cost calculation unit for calculating a visit cost from the current position of the moving object to the visited place;
A distribution data creation unit that accumulates the visit cost calculated with past movement and creates cost distribution data indicating the number of accumulation per bin when the visit cost is divided by a predetermined bin width;
A time limit acquisition unit for acquiring a time limit for visiting the visited place;
Based on the cost distribution data, when the determination that the visit timing has been reached is repeatedly executed at a predetermined timing, the remaining number of times that the determination can be performed before the deadline for visiting the visited place is obtained, and the cost distribution The probability of being able to visit below the visit cost based on the accumulated number according to the visit cost of the data is obtained, the expected number of visits that can be visited below the visit cost is obtained by multiplying the remaining number by the probability, and the expected number of times is a threshold value A visit timing determination apparatus comprising: a determination execution unit that determines that the visit timing has been reached when:   2. The visit timing determination according to claim 1, wherein the cost calculation unit calculates the visit cost based on a size of an angle formed by a direction from the position of the moving body toward the visited place and a traveling direction of the moving body. apparatus.   The distance from the moving body to the visited place is a coefficient that the cost calculation unit increases as the angle formed by the direction from the position of the moving body toward the visited place and the traveling direction of the moving body increases. The visit timing determination apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the visit cost is calculated by multiplying by. The visit timing determination apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the cost calculation unit calculates a visit cost using the following equation (1).
Visiting cost = mini (A−cos θi) × di (1)
A: Constant θi: Angle formed by the direction from the position of the moving body toward the visited place i and the moving direction of the moving body di: The distance from the moving body to the visited place i   Any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein after the visit to the visited place, the judgment execution unit prohibits the judgment of the timing of the visit to the next visited place until at least once away from the visited place until a predetermined condition is satisfied. The visit timing determination apparatus according to claim 1. A visit timing determination method for determining the timing of visiting any of the scattered visit locations while the mobile body is moving to the destination,
CPU calculates the visit cost from the current position of the moving body to visit places,
The CPU accumulates the visit cost calculated along with past movements in a storage device, and the CPU distributes cost distribution data indicating the accumulation number for each bin when the visit cost is divided by a predetermined bin width. Create and
The CPU is, to obtain a time to visit the visited location,
When the CPU repeatedly executes the determination that the visit timing has been reached based on the cost distribution data at a predetermined timing, the CPU can execute the determination by the time limit for visiting the visited place. The remaining number of times is obtained, and the CPU obtains a probability of being able to visit the visit cost below the visit cost based on the accumulated number corresponding to the visit cost of the cost distribution data, and the CPU multiplies the remaining number by the probability. obtains an expected number of times a user can visit the following visits cost, the CPU is, when the expected number equal to or less than the threshold value, visits timing determination how to determined to reach visit timing.

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