Road information generating apparatus, road information generating method, and road information generating program

1. A road information generating apparatus, comprising:

a host vehicle position information acquiring unit that acquires host vehicle position information that indicates a position of a host vehicle;

an image information acquiring unit that acquires image information that includes a road along which the host vehicle is traveling, the image information acquiring unit comprising a camera mounted on the host vehicle;

a host vehicle travel lane detecting unit that detects a host vehicle travel lane along which the host vehicle is traveling and other vehicle travel lanes by extracting an image of a boundary of the lanes from the image information and determines whether or not the host vehicle lane and the other lanes can be distinguished; and

a lane information registering unit that, responsive to a determination that the host vehicle travel lane and the other lanes can be distinguished, determines whether or not the host vehicle is traveling along substantially the transverse center of the host vehicle travel lane, and, when it has been determined that the host vehicle is traveling along the transverse center of the host vehicle travel lane, acquires the host vehicle position information, generates lane information by setting the position of the host vehicle at a node or a contour interpolation point, and registers the generated lane information on a storage medium, and, when it is determined that the host vehicle is not traveling along the center of the host vehicle lane, acquires the host vehicle location information, specifies the transverse center position of the lane by compensating for the position that is given by the host vehicle position information, generates lane information by setting the center position to the position of a node or a contour interpolation point, and registers the generated lane information on the storage medium, wherein the lane information indicates the position of the host vehicle travel lane relative to the other vehicle travel lanes in terms of a number of the host vehicle lane, based on the host vehicle position information.

2. The road information generating apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the number of the host vehicle travel lane is counted from the leftmost lane.

3. A road information generating method, comprising the steps of:

acquiring, utilizing a host vehicle position information acquiring unit, host vehicle position information that indicates a position of a host vehicle;

acquiring, from a camera mounted on the host vehicle, image information that includes a road along which the host vehicle is traveling;

detecting, utilizing a host vehicle travel lane detecting unit, a host vehicle travel lane along which the host vehicle is traveling and other vehicle travel lanes by extracting an image of a boundary of the lanes from the image information;

determining, utilizing the host vehicle travel lane detecting unit, whether or not the host vehicle travel lane and the other lanes can be distinguished;

responsive to a determination that the host travel lane and the other lanes can be distinguished, determining, utilizing a lane information registering unit, whether or not the host vehicle is traveling along substantially the transverse center of the host vehicle travel lane, and, when it has been determined that the host vehicle is traveling along the transverse center of the host vehicle travel lane, acquiring the host vehicle position information, generating lane information by setting the position of the host vehicle at a node or a contour interpolation point, and registering the generated lane information on a storage medium, and, when it is determined that the host vehicle is not traveling along the center of the host vehicle lane, acquiring the host vehicle location information, specifying the transverse center position of the lane by compensating for the position that is given by the host vehicle position information, generating lane information by setting the center position to the position of a node or a contour interpolation point, and registering the generated lane information on the storage medium, wherein the generated lane information indicates the position of the host vehicle travel lane, relative to the other vehicle travel lanes in terms of a number of the host vehicle lane, based on the host vehicle position information;

generating, in a navigation unit, guidance information utilizing the generated lane information; and

outputting the guidance information to a driver of the host vehicle by display of the guidance information on a display unit.

4. A non-transitory computer-readable medium having encoded thereon a road information generating program which, when executed by a processor, that makes a computer function as:

a host vehicle position information acquiring unit that acquires host vehicle information that indicates a position of a host vehicle;

an image information acquiring unit that acquires, from a camera mounted on the host vehicle, image information that includes a road along which the host vehicle is traveling;

a host vehicle travel lane detecting unit that detects the a host vehicle travel lane along which the host vehicle is traveling and other vehicle travel lanes by extracting an image of a boundary of the lanes from the image information and determines whether or not the host vehicle lane and the other lanes can be distinguished; and

a lane information registering unit that, responsive to a determination that the host vehicle travel lane and the other lanes can be distinguished, determines whether or not the host vehicle is traveling along substantially the transverse center of the host vehicle travel lane, and, when it has been determined that the host vehicle is traveling along the transverse center of the host vehicle travel lane, acquires the host vehicle position information, generates lane information by setting the position of the host vehicle at a node or a contour interpolation point, and registers the generated lane information on a storage medium, and, when it is determined that the host vehicle is not traveling along the center of the host vehicle lane, acquires the host vehicle location information, specifies the transverse center position of the lane by compensating for the position that is given by the host vehicle position information, generates lane information by setting the center position to the position of a node or a contour interpolation point, and registers the generated lane information on the storage medium, wherein the lane information indicates the position of the host vehicle travel lane relative to the other vehicle travel lanes in terms of a number of the host vehicle lane, based on the host vehicle position information.