Traffic information

 The role of a traffic-information service is to lead the drivers along the optimum route for avoiding traffic jams. As for society, there is a mission to reduce CO₂ emission by curbing traffic congestion. Development of information-processing technology for providing accurate data to car-navigation systems is our research theme.

  Obtaining accurate traffic information requires collecting primary data from "probe cars" and road-mounted sensors and converting it to travel times and degree of congestion for each section of road.

For example, the GPS data of a probe car is represented as latitude and longitude coordinates, which cannot be used for traffic information as is. By matching these coordinates with roads on the map and identifying the path of the probe cars, it is possible to utilize the GPS data as travel-time data. In addition, for appropriate route guidance, the range of traffic information provided spatially and temporally must be expanded by utilizing not only information collected in real time but also by estimating traffic status in road sections where primary data has not been collected or by forecasting future traffic congestion. We are presently engaged in R&D on these methods from multiple viewpoints such as traffic engineering and informatics.