CN116386370A - Inter-vehicle information acquisition method and device - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to an inter-vehicle information acquisition method and a corresponding inter-vehicle information acquisition apparatus. The method comprises the following steps: finding other vehicles which are located within a predetermined range around a target position and satisfy a predetermined matching relationship with a requesting vehicle according to the target position input from the requesting vehicle; selecting one or more of the other vehicles as a target vehicle; and obtaining target information from the target vehicle to the requesting vehicle. By using the inter-vehicle information acquisition method provided by the invention, other vehicles on the road can be used as information acquisition sources to acquire the expected information related to the travel destination or travel route of the vehicle more accurately, in real time, conveniently and widely in coverage range, so that the travel safety, convenience and efficiency of the vehicle are improved.

Description

Inter-vehicle information acquisition method and device

Technical Field

The present invention is in the field of vehicle networking and informatization technologies, and more particularly, to a method and apparatus for obtaining information from one or more vehicles to another vehicle via inter-vehicle communication (V2V) technology.

Background

With the development of society and the progress of technology, people want to obtain more and more information in advance or in real time when driving and going out, such as traffic conditions, environmental conditions, weather conditions and the like about travel destinations or travel routes, so that the travel routes can be planned in advance or adjusted in time and travel preparations can be made, thereby improving the safety, convenience and efficiency of travel.

Conventionally, the sources from which people acquire travel information of vehicles are mainly some stationary or static information sources or navigation systems equipped with such stationary information sources, such as acquiring traffic conditions or weather conditions from network cameras, traffic observation stations, weather stations, or the like installed at stationary locations. A disadvantage of these fixed sources is that the information provided is limited in geographical scope (e.g., traffic or weather conditions at the particular location where the source is located are only available), and is lacking in location accuracy and real-time (e.g., weather stations may only be able to monitor or predict weather conditions in a large area generally and information updates are not necessarily timely).

Disclosure of Invention

The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned problems and/or other disadvantages of the prior art in terms of acquiring desired information by a vehicle.

According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided an inter-vehicle information acquisition method including the steps of: finding other vehicles which are located within a predetermined range around a target position and satisfy a predetermined matching relationship with a requesting vehicle according to the target position input from the requesting vehicle; selecting one or more of the other vehicles as a target vehicle; and obtaining target information from the target vehicle to the requesting vehicle.

According to one exemplary embodiment, the other vehicles that satisfy the predetermined matching relationship with the requesting vehicle may include vehicles registered in the same information service system as the requesting vehicle.

According to an exemplary embodiment, the step of selecting the target vehicle may include automatically selecting one or more default vehicles among the other vehicles that satisfy a predetermined condition as the target vehicle.

According to an exemplary embodiment, the step of selecting a target vehicle may include selecting, by an occupant of the requesting vehicle, one or more target vehicles from among the other vehicles.

According to an exemplary embodiment, the step of obtaining target information from the target vehicle to the requesting vehicle may include displaying the target information transmitted to the requesting vehicle through inter-vehicle communication in the form of text and/or sound on the requesting vehicle.

According to an exemplary embodiment, the step of obtaining target information from the target vehicle to the requesting vehicle may include establishing a direct communication connection between the requesting vehicle and the target vehicle through inter-vehicle communication to transfer the target information between occupants.

According to an exemplary embodiment, the target information may include one or more of traffic conditions, environmental conditions, and weather conditions around the target vehicle.

According to an exemplary embodiment, the target information may be acquired using an in-vehicle image pickup device or an in-vehicle sensor of the target vehicle.

Another aspect of the invention provides a computer-readable storage medium having stored thereon a computer program comprising executable instructions which, when executed by a processor, implement an inter-vehicle information acquisition method according to any one of the embodiments described above.

Still another aspect of the present invention provides an inter-vehicle information acquisition apparatus including: a processor; and a memory for storing executable instructions of the processor; wherein the processor is configured to execute the executable instructions to implement the inter-vehicle information acquisition method according to any one of the embodiments described above.

According to the inter-vehicle information acquiring apparatus method and apparatus of the present invention, a person can acquire desired information, such as traffic conditions or weather conditions, from other vehicles on a road by inter-vehicle communication before or during driving the vehicle (host vehicle) to travel, thereby greatly widening the information acquiring sources of the host vehicle. The other vehicles can be especially vehicles running near the travel destination of the vehicle or on the road section in front of the travel route of the vehicle, and compared with the existing fixed information sources, the vehicles have the advantages of large quantity, wide distribution range and strong maneuvering flexibility, so that the vehicles can be used as the information sources of the vehicle to obtain the expected information related to the travel destination or the road section in front of the vehicle more accurately, in real time, conveniently and widely in a coverage range, and can be used as the beneficial supplement of the fixed information sources, thereby improving the travel safety, convenience and efficiency of the vehicle.

Drawings

Features and advantages of the present invention will now be described in detail by way of non-limiting examples with reference to the accompanying drawings, which are merely schematic and not necessarily drawn to scale, and which furthermore show only those parts which are necessary in order to elucidate the invention, and other parts may be omitted or merely briefly mentioned. That is, the present invention may include other components or elements in addition to those shown in the drawings.

In the drawings:

FIG. 1 is a flowchart of a method of acquiring inter-vehicle information according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 2 is a schematic explanatory diagram of an exemplary scenario to which the inter-vehicle information obtaining method according to the present invention is applied;

fig. 3 is a schematic structural diagram of an inter-vehicle information obtaining apparatus and system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Detailed Description

Exemplary embodiments according to the present invention are described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings. In the following description, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the present invention to those skilled in the art. It will be apparent, however, to one skilled in the art that the present invention may be practiced without some of these specific details. Furthermore, it should be understood that the invention is not limited to specific described embodiments. Rather, any combination of the features and elements described herein is contemplated to implement the invention, whether or not they relate to different embodiments. Thus, the following aspects, features, embodiments and advantages are merely illustrative and should not be considered elements or limitations of the claims except where explicitly set out in a claim.

Referring now to fig. 1, shown is a flow diagram of a method of inter-vehicle information acquisition in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention. In this application, a vehicle attempting to acquire desired information from elsewhere is referred to as a "requesting vehicle" or "host vehicle", and a vehicle that provides desired information as an information source to the requesting vehicle through inter-vehicle communication is referred to as a "target vehicle". The desired information requested by the requesting vehicle or provided by the target vehicle is referred to as "target information" and includes, but is not limited to, information related to traffic conditions (e.g., information about traffic flow/road congestion, traffic accidents, road restriction, highway entrance/exit opening/closing, etc.), environmental conditions (e.g., information about road construction, surrounding geological disasters, personnel activities, etc.), and/or weather conditions (e.g., information about rain, snow, air temperature, wind, etc.), etc.

As shown in fig. 1, in one possible implementation manner, the inter-vehicle information acquisition method according to the present invention may include: according to step S110 of finding other vehicles which are located within a predetermined range around the target position and satisfy a predetermined matching relationship with the requesting vehicle from a target position input from the requesting vehicle, step S120 of selecting one or more vehicles among the other vehicles as target vehicles, and step S130 of acquiring target information from the target vehicles to the requesting vehicle.

In step S110, it is first necessary to know target information where the requesting vehicle wants or needs to acquire, because the target information is typically information about the travel destination or travel route (both relating to the geographic position or location) of the requesting vehicle. To this end, when the driver of the requesting vehicle wishes or needs to acquire the target information (e.g., before or during driving travel), the geographic location or place to which the target information relates, referred to as the "target location", may be entered at the requesting vehicle, for example, and may be the travel destination of the requesting vehicle, or one or more geographic locations on the travel route. The target location may be entered at the requesting vehicle, for example, through a human-vehicle interaction device, such as the driver of the requesting vehicle may type in or select the target location via an on-board screen, or the driver may speak the target location and be captured and identified by an on-board voice device, or the target location may be read or selected directly from the current navigation system of the requesting vehicle.

After the target position input from the requesting vehicle is obtained, a predetermined range of the periphery thereof (for example, a range extending from the target position to the periphery by several tens of meters around the target position) can be defined based on the target position, and other vehicles within the predetermined range can be found as potential target information acquisition sources.

In view of the fact that not all vehicles within the predetermined range are legally obligated or responsible for providing the target information to the requesting vehicle, a predetermined rule may be set for the information provision, i.e. only other vehicles that are within the predetermined range and that satisfy a predetermined matching relationship with the requesting vehicle provide the target information to the requesting vehicle. As a typical example, such a predetermined matching relationship may be embodied in that the requesting vehicle and the corresponding other vehicles are both registered in the same information service system. Thus, the information service system can provide the requesting vehicle and the corresponding other vehicles with identifications that can be mutually recognized with each other, and set rules for whether and how the corresponding other vehicles should provide the target information to the requesting vehicle. For example, it may be provided that all vehicles registered and online in the information service system are obligated to provide target information thereto whenever a request of other member vehicles of the information service system is received, alternatively, all vehicles registered and online in the information service system may obtain corresponding rewards (e.g., points) after providing target information to other member vehicles. Alternatively, different levels of information acquisition rights may be set for different vehicles in the information service system, where a vehicle with a higher right may acquire more kinds of target information from more other vehicles in more time periods than a vehicle with a lower right, or where a vehicle with a higher right has more selection rights and can reject information acquisition requests from other vehicles. In this case, satisfying the above-described predetermined matching relationship requires that the requesting vehicle has a corresponding authority to request acquisition of information from the corresponding other vehicle, in addition to requiring that both the requesting vehicle and the corresponding other vehicle are registered in the same information service system. The information service system can be commercialized, whereby a new information providing business model can be created in which, for example, different levels of authority can be given to member vehicles according to the level of member payment, etc.

The operation of finding other vehicles located in the vicinity of the target location and satisfying a predetermined matching relationship with the requesting vehicle according to the target location in step S110 may be implemented through various positioning and communication technologies. For example, a positioning system such as GPS or beidou may be utilized to delineate a predetermined range around the target location by means of inter-vehicle communication technology (DSRC (dedicated short range communication technology), WLAN technology, cellular network technology, or the like may be employed depending on the distance between the target location and the requesting vehicle), and to determine other vehicles registered with the same information service system as the requesting vehicle within the predetermined range.

In step S110, if no other vehicle satisfying the predetermined matching relationship with the requesting vehicle is found within the predetermined range around the target position, the predetermined range may be expanded stepwise (for example, from several tens meters around the target position to hundreds of meters) and searching is repeated again, so on until other vehicle satisfying the condition is found. In addition, each time no other vehicle satisfying the condition is found, the next search may be performed after a predetermined time interval. Alternatively, it may be set that the search is stopped automatically or whether the search is stopped is selected by the occupant of the requesting vehicle after the predetermined range is enlarged to a certain extent or the number of times the search is repeated reaches a certain number. In the case of stopping the search, the method flow ends prematurely.

When at least one other vehicle that is within a predetermined range around the target location and that satisfies a predetermined matching relationship with the requesting vehicle is found in step S110, meaning that a potential target information acquisition source is found, then the method flow goes to step S120 to determine the target vehicle.

In step S120, when only one other vehicle is found in step S110, the vehicle may be selected as the target vehicle directly and automatically, for example. And when a plurality of other vehicles are found in step S110, one or more default vehicles satisfying a predetermined condition among the plurality of other vehicles may be automatically selected as the target vehicle. For example, one or more vehicles closest to the target position among the plurality of other vehicles may be automatically selected as the target vehicle, or one or more vehicles that can provide the most kinds of target information among the plurality of vehicles may be automatically selected as the target vehicle. In addition to or as an alternative to automatically selecting the target vehicle, one or more vehicles from among the plurality of other vehicles may also be selected as target vehicles by the occupant of the requesting vehicle at his own discretion. For example, the locations of the plurality of other vehicles may be marked on an electronic map displayed on an on-board screen of the requesting vehicle, from which one or more target vehicles are directly selected by the occupant of the requesting vehicle.

After the one or more target vehicles are selected in step S120, the method flow continues to step S130. In step S130, corresponding target information is obtained from each of the one or more target vehicles to the requesting vehicle.

In order to obtain target information from a target vehicle, it is first necessary to invoke related information acquisition devices on the target vehicle, typically including in-vehicle imaging devices and/or various in-vehicle sensors of the target vehicle. An on-board camera device (e.g., a camera mounted at various locations on the vehicle) may capture one or more still or moving images of the surroundings of the target vehicle from which traffic conditions, environmental conditions, weather conditions, etc. of the surroundings of the target vehicle may be known, either directly or indirectly. In-vehicle sensors may generally be used to obtain weather conditions around a target vehicle, and may include, for example, ambient temperature sensors, rain sensors, ambient brightness sensors, and the like. The target information may be original information directly obtained by an information obtaining device on the target vehicle (such as an image directly captured by a camera, an air temperature directly detected by an ambient temperature sensor, etc.), or indirect information obtained by performing various analysis processing on the original information (such as traffic congestion level analyzed by captured various images, weather condition information obtained by comprehensively analyzing data detected by various weather sensors, etc.).

In step S130, after the above-described target information is acquired from the target vehicle, the target information may be transmitted or received at the requesting vehicle. This may include, for example, displaying on the requesting vehicle the target information in the form of graphics and/or sound that is communicated to the requesting vehicle via inter-vehicle communication. For example, some data information that is directly captured at the target vehicle and transmitted to the static or dynamic image of the target vehicle or measured at the target vehicle may be displayed on the on-board screen of the requesting vehicle (such as a center control screen, a dashboard, or a head up display), or indirect information that is transmitted after the above analysis process may be displayed on the on-board screen of the requesting vehicle or played through the audio device of the requesting vehicle (such as displaying or playing the traffic congestion level or weather condition around the target vehicle). In one embodiment, a direct communication link can also be established between the requesting vehicle and the occupant of the target vehicle via inter-vehicle communication to transmit the target information. For example, a driver of a requesting vehicle may send an audio or video call request to a driver of a target vehicle through inter-vehicle communication by means of communication software (such as Skype, MS Teams, etc.) built in the vehicle, and the driver of the target vehicle may choose to accept or reject after receiving the call request; if the request is accepted, both parties can conduct audio or video calls to achieve direct real-time communication, thereby requesting that the vehicle occupant be able to obtain more precise and timely information about the vicinity of the target location from the vehicle occupant.

Fig. 2 is a schematic diagram showing an exemplary scenario in which the above-described inter-vehicle information obtaining method according to the present invention is applied. Wherein, after the driver of the request vehicle a inputs the target position during the traveling, the target vehicle B which is located in the predetermined range around the target position and registered in the same information service system as the request vehicle a is found and selected through the inter-vehicle communication realized by the cellular network 10 according to the target position; then calling the vehicle-mounted camera 20 on the target vehicle B to shoot an image of the periphery of the target vehicle B, and directly finding out that the place where the target vehicle B is located is in heavy rain from the image; the image, or the rainy weather information identified by the image analysis, is then also transmitted to the requesting vehicle a via the cellular network 10. In order to achieve inter-vehicle communication between the requesting vehicle a and the target vehicle B, they may each be equipped with a communication transceiver unit, not shown. Through the inter-vehicle information acquisition operation, the requesting vehicle A quickly and accurately acquires the weather condition at the target position from the target vehicle B, so that the requesting vehicle A can adjust the driving route in time or prepare for severe weather in advance.

With the inter-vehicle information acquisition method according to the present invention, people can acquire desired information, such as traffic conditions or weather conditions, from other vehicles traveling near the travel destination of the host vehicle or on a road section ahead of the travel route of the host vehicle before or during traveling of the driving vehicle (host vehicle), thereby greatly widening the information acquisition sources of the host vehicle, and acquiring information by using these other vehicles in more precise, real-time, convenient, and wide coverage, thereby improving the safety, convenience, and efficiency of traveling of the host vehicle.

Correspondingly to the inter-vehicle information acquisition method, the invention further provides a corresponding inter-vehicle information acquisition system. Fig. 3 shows a schematic block diagram of one exemplary configuration of such a system. The system mainly comprises an inter-vehicle information obtaining apparatus 400 according to the invention, which apparatus 400 may comprise a processor 410, and a memory 420 for storing executable instructions of said processor. Wherein the processor 410 is configured to perform the respective steps of the inter-vehicle information obtaining method according to any of the above-described embodiments via execution of the executable instructions. Device 400 may be embodied in the form of a general-purpose computing device, such as an on-board high-performance computer or remote server. The system may also include a human-vehicle interaction device 500 as described above that interacts with the apparatus 400 to receive a target location input from a requesting vehicle. In addition, the device 400 may communicate with one or more in-vehicle objects (e.g., cloud servers, other internet of vehicles devices, other vehicles, etc.) via various communication ports 600 to send or receive any desired information or data.

The present invention also provides a computer-readable storage medium having stored thereon a computer program comprising executable instructions which, when executed by, for example, a processor, may implement the steps of the inter-vehicle information acquisition method according to any of the above-described embodiments. In some possible implementations, the various aspects of the invention may also be implemented in the form of a program product comprising program code for causing a terminal device to carry out the steps of the various exemplary embodiments of the inter-vehicle information obtaining method according to this invention, when the program product is run on the terminal device.

The program product for implementing the inter-vehicle information acquisition method according to the embodiment of the present invention may employ a portable compact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM) and include program code, and may be run on a terminal device such as a vehicle-mounted computer. However, the program product of the present invention is not limited thereto, and a readable storage medium may be any tangible medium that can contain, or store a program for use by or in connection with an instruction execution system, apparatus, or device.

The program product may employ any combination of one or more readable media. The readable medium may be a readable signal medium or a readable storage medium. The readable storage medium can be, for example, but is not limited to, an electronic, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic, infrared, or semiconductor system, apparatus, or device, or a combination of any of the foregoing. More specific examples (a non-exhaustive list) of the readable storage medium would include the following: an electrical connection having one or more wires, a portable disk, a hard disk, random Access Memory (RAM), read-only memory (ROM), erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM or flash memory), optical fiber, portable compact disk read-only memory (CD-ROM), an optical storage device, a magnetic storage device, or any suitable combination of the foregoing.

The computer readable storage medium may include a data signal propagated in baseband or as part of a carrier wave, with readable program code embodied therein. Such a propagated data signal may take any of a variety of forms, including, but not limited to, electro-magnetic, optical, or any suitable combination of the foregoing. A readable storage medium may also be any readable medium that can communicate, propagate, or transport a program for use by or in connection with an instruction execution system, apparatus, or device. Program code embodied on a readable storage medium may be transmitted using any appropriate medium, including but not limited to wireless, wireline, optical fiber cable, RF, etc., or any suitable combination of the foregoing.

Program code for carrying out operations of the present application may be written in any combination of one or more programming languages, including an object oriented programming language such as Java, C++ or the like and conventional procedural programming languages, such as the "C" programming language or similar programming languages. The program code may execute entirely on the user's computing device, partly on the user's device, as a stand-alone software package, partly on the user's computing device, partly on a remote computing device, or entirely on the remote computing device or server. In the case of remote computing devices, the remote computing device may be connected to the user computing device through any kind of network, including a Local Area Network (LAN) or a Wide Area Network (WAN), or may be connected to an external computing device (e.g., connected via the Internet using an Internet service provider).

From the above description of embodiments, those skilled in the art will readily appreciate that the example embodiments described herein may be implemented in software, or may be implemented in software in combination with the necessary hardware. Thus, the technical solution according to the embodiment of the present invention may be embodied in the form of a software product, which may be stored in a non-volatile storage medium (may be a CD-ROM, a usb disk, a mobile hard disk, etc.) or on a network, and includes several instructions to cause a computing device (may be a personal computer, a server, or a network device, etc.) to perform the inter-vehicle information acquiring method according to the embodiment of the present invention.

Other embodiments of the invention will be apparent to those skilled in the art from consideration of the specification and practice of the disclosure herein. This disclosure is intended to cover any variations, uses, or adaptations of the invention following, in general, the principles of the invention and including such departures from the present disclosure as come within known or customary practice within the art to which the invention pertains. It is intended that the specification and examples be considered as exemplary only, with a true scope and spirit of the invention being indicated by the following claims.

Claims (10)

1. An inter-vehicle information acquisition method includes the steps of:

finding other vehicles which are located within a predetermined range around a target position and satisfy a predetermined matching relationship with a requesting vehicle according to the target position input from the requesting vehicle;

selecting one or more of the other vehicles as a target vehicle; and

and acquiring target information from the target vehicle to the requesting vehicle.

2. The method for acquiring inter-vehicle information according to claim 1, wherein,

other vehicles that satisfy a predetermined matching relationship with the requesting vehicle include vehicles that are registered in the same information service system as the requesting vehicle.

3. The inter-vehicle information obtaining method according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that,

the step of selecting the target vehicle includes automatically selecting one or more default vehicles among the other vehicles that satisfy a predetermined condition as the target vehicle.

4. The method for acquiring inter-vehicle information according to any one of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that,

the step of selecting a target vehicle includes selecting, by an occupant of the requesting vehicle, one or more target vehicles from among the other vehicles.

5. The method for acquiring inter-vehicle information according to any one of claims 1 to 4, characterized in that,

the step of obtaining target information from the target vehicle to the requesting vehicle includes displaying the target information transmitted to the requesting vehicle by inter-vehicle communication in the form of graphics and/or sound on the requesting vehicle.

6. The method for acquiring inter-vehicle information according to any one of claims 1 to 5, characterized in that,

the step of obtaining target information from the target vehicle to the requesting vehicle includes establishing a direct communication connection between the requesting vehicle and the target vehicle through inter-vehicle communication that communicates the target information between occupants.

7. The method for acquiring inter-vehicle information according to any one of claims 1 to 6, characterized in that,

the target information includes one or more of traffic conditions, environmental conditions, and weather conditions around the target vehicle.

8. The method for acquiring inter-vehicle information according to claim 7, wherein,

and acquiring the target information by using an on-vehicle image pickup device or an on-vehicle sensor of the target vehicle.

9. A computer-readable storage medium having stored thereon a computer program comprising executable instructions that, when executed by a processor, implement the inter-vehicle information acquisition method according to any one of claims 1 to 8.

10. An inter-vehicle information acquisition apparatus (400) comprising:

a processor (410); and

a memory (420) for storing executable instructions of the processor;

wherein the processor is configured to execute the executable instructions to implement the inter-vehicle information acquisition method according to any one of claims 1 to 8.

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