EP2903188A1 - System and method for detecting geographical regions for mobile receiver and method - Google Patents

Abstract

System for detecting geographical regions for mobile receivers, wherein the system maintains a geographical database (DB), in which for each country and / or region (Rj) in the RDS receiving space its national identifier (Nj) in the PI code and the country codes ( Nk) of the adjacent neighboring states (Rk) and, a control (STEU) to a RDS data tuner (TUN) continuously new receive frequencies (Fi) pretends to thus search the RDS receiving band (FM) and for each detected RDS station the Receive frequency (Fi), the RDS PI code and the national identifier of the transmitter (Ni) in a dynamic database (LST) store and delete an entry in the dynamic database (LST), if the corresponding transmitter is no longer receivable.

Description

The invention relates to a system for the detection of geographical regions for mobile receivers according to the preamble of patent claim 1.

1. State of the art

EP 2 281 177 B1 describes a portable navigation device comprising a processing resource operatively coupled to a radio data system communication unit and a position determination unit, the processing resource supporting a country code selector; a data store capable of storing radio data system country code data, the data store operably coupled to the processing resource; wherein the processing resource is arranged to determine a first country associated with generated position data in use by the position determining unit; the country code selector is arranged to identify a first country code from the country code data that does not correspond to the first country associated with the location data and a second country adjacent to the first country; and the processing resource is adapted to use the first country code to generate a program identification code.

EP 0 429 000 A2 discloses an RDS radio receiver or RDS car radio with electronic tuning and storage elements, with a device for judging the reception quality and with a central control unit, the nonvolatile memory containing the operating program and its country-specific variants, the RDS decoder of the central control unit Control signals according to the RDS data signal supplied information and the non-volatile memory for calling the country-specific variant of the operating program is addressed by the central control unit according to the country code contained in the PI code of the RDS signal.

EP 0 866 576 A2 describes an RDS receiver for the evaluation of traffic notifications based on TMC messages, with at least one tuner and at least one RDS decoder and a control unit with a memory, wherein a device for determining position, which of the tuner and the RDS decoder is formed of the RDS receiver, the control unit and the memory is provided, which determines the location of the RDS receiver, which is stored by the control unit in memory and only received by the RDS receiver TMC messages from the control unit via an optical and / or audible output unit are output for which is determined in a review of location information contained in the TMC messages with the stored memory location by the control unit, a relationship between location information and location, the tuner over the entire receiving frequency band is tuned and all receivable Transmitter with RDS information from the RDS decoder are identified and compared by the control unit with a table stored in the memory, the table containing information on the transmission areas of the transmitter with RDS information, whereby the location of the RDS receiver is determined by the control unit and the control unit determines the determined location in the memory provides that an A / D converter is provided which digitizes the input level of the received transmitters with RDS information and passes the digital value to the control unit, which compares the input level with another stored in the memory table, the information about the local field strengths of the Contains transmitter with RDS information in their transmission area, whereby the positioning is improved by the control unit. EP 0 499 608 B1 describes a radio receiver, in particular vehicle receiver, with a decoder for decoding digitally coded received traffic messages, in particular those which are transmitted to the RDS system, a memory device for route-specific features and regional identifiers, an optical and / or acoustic output device for the traffic news as off information read out from the memory device, wherein path-specific features of limited geographic regions are associated with such regions, with a station search for the radio receiver and with a memory for storing the frequencies of the received stations, wherein a further memory is provided which contains a list of the regions and the ones receivable therein Transmitting frequencies includes that in a comparator, the stored received frequencies are compared with the frequencies stored in the further memory and the region is switched through, in which the Ver equal means between the received and the stored frequencies at least partially determines a match and that only those traffic messages are issued whose regional identifier corresponds to the through-connected region.

DE 44 25 194 A1 discloses a radio receiver or a vehicle receiver with a decoder for decoding digitally transmitted transmitter identifiers, in particular the PI code according to the RDS system, characterized in that the receiver has a memory of broadcasters receivable transmitters with respect to their frequency and their transmitter identification that the radio receiver based on the set frequency and the transmitter identification from the large spaces stored in the memory determines the metropolitan area in which the received transmitter is and accepts this as the recipient site that then, if several large spaces are determined, the receiver switches to another frequency, by the number of specific large rooms can be reduced and with the help of the then received station identification determines the metropolitan area, in which the tuned station is located and that the receiver repeats the process until a clear metropolitan area is determined.

EP 0 412 286 A2 describes a vehicle receiver having a decoder for decoding digitally encoded received traffic messages, preferably according to the RDS specifications, a comparator for route-specific features containing the route, contained in the traffic information, with a receiving device and a transit time measuring device for at least three in their modulation synchronized transmitter, by means of which the characteristics of the route can be determined as the respective vehicle location, as well as an optical and / or acoustic output device for route-selective reproduction of the traffic news, wherein in a runtime value memory of the receiver, a coordinate network with time values of the receivable in a respective area synchronized transmitter is stored and that in one Runtime comparators by comparison of the measured transit time values with stored transit time values, the coordinates of the closest running time values in the coordinate network can be selected as a vehicle location.

DE 39 42 339 C2 discloses an RDS car radio with electronic transmitter tuning, with electronic memories for storing frequency and program identification data, with a device for judging the reception quality and with a central control unit which triggers an automatic station search as soon as the currently received program and its associated alternative frequencies are no longer receivable, wherein the receive field strength is evaluated and assigned to the respective frequency for the receive frequencies determined during the station scan, the central control unit finding all RDS transmit frequencies found during the scan over the entire receive frequency range in the form of a Stores the code sorted list in the search memory, the frequency with the highest field strength transfers into the main memory, provided that the country code contained in the PI code matches the country code received before the start of the search, the search results in the stored frequency list for the transmission frequency with the same country code the field strongest transmission frequency with different countries Code is copied to the main memory and fixed with different country code reception frequency accepted as a reference for a later change to alternative frequencies or for a new automatic station search.

The object of the present invention is to specify a system and a method with which a transmitter can be clearly assigned nationally and provided with a specific display.

The object is solved with the features of claim 1 and of claim 8.

2. Description and advantages of the invention

The inventive step is to combine the special assignment of the RDS country codes into regions having the characteristics of a moving receiver in the vehicle, which exploits the regional sequence of country codes during a regional assignment, without the need for additional geographical information in addition to an initial region.

As a result, z. B. the task of assigning a station clearly assigned nationally and provided with a specific display to be solved. There are also other applications / processing (WZ) conceivable, z. For example, a region-dependent, automatic time change that is not accurate to the national Boundary occurs, but when the geographical assignment R has become unique. This is the case when the country codes of a country dominate numerically in the dynamic database LST, e.g. B. exceed a minimum number and a relative threshold to other transmitters in LST.

The solution can be used in particular in systems without additional geographic positioning, so that this leads to significant savings (eg by omission of the GPS receiver).

If you want to recognize an RDS station that broadcasts digital data according to the broadcast data system clearly to this z. As with a station-specific station logo to mark, so this is not unambiguously possible in Europe, because the national station identifiers in the program identification code (PI code) are awarded multiple times in Europe. For example, France, Norway, Belarus and Bosnia have the same national code "F". This is especially annoying when it is a moving receiver, typically a car radio, that may be traveling in different regions of Europe, resulting in a unique geographic setting to regional false indications.

The RDS standard includes an additional Extended Country Code (ECC), which is not always broadcast or is incorrectly set by broadcasters in practice. Another solution to the problem is with additional geographic information, e.g. B. from a GPS receiver (Global Positioning System), possible.

In a first advantageous embodiment, the system for detecting geographical regions for mobile recipients is characterized in that the system maintains a geographical database (DB) in which to each country and / or region (Rj) in the RDS reception room, its national identifier (Nj) in the PI code and the country codes (Nk) of the adjacent neighboring country (Rk) are assigned and a controller (STEU) continuously specifies new reception frequencies (Fi) to an RDS data tuner (TUN) to search the RDS Receive Band (FM) and store for each detected RDS station the receiving frequency (Fi), the RDS PI code and the national identifier of the transmitter (Ni) in a dynamic database (LST) and an entry in the dynamic database (LST) to delete if the associated station is no longer receivable.

In a further advantageous embodiment, the system according to the invention is characterized in that a control STEU to the country R and to each received country code Ni queries the geographic database DB and as a result to the country code matching region Ni (Ri) is supplied.

A further advantageous embodiment of the system according to the invention is characterized in that due to the geographical allocation rules of the RDS PI codes to the various countries, the query of the geographical database DB for a combination of receivable stations leads to a clear result for the current region to be determined.

In a further advantageous embodiment, the system according to the invention is integrated in a vehicle receiver.

The advantageous and inventive method for detecting geographical regions for mobile recipients is characterized in that associated with each country and / or region Rj in the RDS receiving space, its national identifier Nj in the PI code and the country codes Nk of the neighboring neighboring countries Rk and a Control STEU an RDS data tuner TUN continuously new reception frequencies Fi predetermine to search the RDS reception band FM and for each detected RDS station, the reception frequency Fi, the RDS PI code and the national identifier of the transmitter Ni in a dynamic database LST store and delete an entry in the dynamic database LST if the associated sender is no longer receivable.

In a further advantageous embodiment of the method according to the invention, it is proposed that the received field strengths for the received transmitters be stored in the database LST and used by the controller for the determination of the most probable, current region R, in addition the field strength as measure M for the most probable Region is included.

In a further advantageous embodiment, the sum over all field strengths of the transmitters with the same country code is determined for the measure M.

3. Drawings

An embodiment of the invention is illustrated in the drawings and will be described in more detail below.

• Fig. 1 das erfindungsgemäße System,
• Fig. 2 Verteilung der Ländercodes

Show it:

• Fig. 1 the system according to the invention,
• Fig. 2 Distribution of country codes

4. Description of exemplary embodiments

According to the invention, it is proposed to maintain a geographic database DB in which, for each country / region Rj in the RDS reception area (eg Europe, Middle East, North Africa), its national identifier (s) Nj in the PI code (ie the 4 most significant bits of the PI code, also called country code) and the country codes Nk are associated with its neighboring neighboring Rk. It is also proposed that a controller STEU an RDS data tuner continuously tuned to new receive frequencies Fi pretends, so as to search the RDS reception band (FM) and store for each detected RDS station, the reception frequency Fi, the RDS PI code and thus the national identifier of the transmitter Ni in a dynamic database LST or an entry in the delete the dymic database if the corresponding transmitter is no longer receivable. Starting from a unique region setting for the country R = R0 in which the receiver is initially located, the controller STEU now monitors the database LST and determines the number of transmitters with the same national transmitter identification. If different national transmitter identifications Ni are receivable, it is assumed that the mobile receiver is located in country R with most stations or in an adjacent neighboring country. For this purpose, the controller STEU queries the country R and each country code Ni received the geographical database DB and as a result of the Country Code matching region Ri delivered. If the receiver now moves from country R to another country Ri, the number of stations in that country will predominate and the current region R will be set to Ri. This ensures that the currently determined region R successively follows the change in the transmitter landscape.

Due to the geographical allocation rules of the PI codes to the different countries, the query of the geographical database DB is always unique, except z. B. in certain receiving situations with overreach (Wetterinversionslage). In this case, the uniqueness for the current region R is preserved by considering only the two country codes with the most stations. Because the moving receiver should always be switched on in a self-moving vehicle, the proposed system automatically tracks the country assignment of the received transmitters Ri and can output these for further processing WZ or the station display ANZ. The display ANZ can now make the correct region-dependent representation of the sender or other region-dependent information. It can also be the region R with the most receivable stations as the most likely region in which the receiver is located. This can be used in the further processing WZ for the correct regional setting of region-dependent variables, eg. As the local time, are used.

There are several exceptional situations that may require redetermining the initial region setting R0, e.g. For example, if the receiver is moved off to another geographical area (eg by ferry or by train),
if no RDS stations (large-scale) can be received, eg in sparsely populated areas or with a non-RDS broadcasting infrastructure,
if the receiver is not switched off and no RDS stations are receivable for a longer time Te (typically> 1 h) and if new country codes are receivable by countries that do not border on the last determined country R, the controller should signal the display ANZ in that no region is to be determined and a region-independent representation is to be used. In addition, the user may be given an indication in the ANZ opportunity to reenter the R0 region.

The receiver should store the contents of the dynamic database LST in a non-volatile memory MEM, so that the last stored database MEM can be compared after startup with the newly received database LST from the controller STEU. The saving should not take place if no transmitter is present, but only if there is a minimum number of MIN of (last received) RDS stations in the database. This ensures that special parking situations in a non-receiving environment (eg in the parking garage) are stored as a reference for the transmitter landscape of the environment. After startup, the controller STEU should search the tape using the tuner TUN and build a new dynamic database LST and with the stored database Compare contents in terms of content as soon as there are a minimum number of MIN of senders in the dynamic database LST. If the STEU control determines that the receive frequency and PI code match for at least one entry in LST and MEM (except for the region code, ie the 2nd hex digit in the PI code), then the last determined region R is retained. Otherwise, the region R is discarded and no valid region information is signaled to the display ANZ or further processing WZ and proceeded according to case 1 on. As an optional extension, certain geographically unique reception situations can also be used for national region determination. So z. B. Serbia (with country code "D") to Romania (with national code "E"), which is the case for no other countries with the two country codes "D" and "E". In the case of an unknown region R, the control STEU should in each case query the country code Ni with the most entries in the dynamic database LST for the associated possible countries R1, R2... Rn from the geographical database DB. If stations with other country codes Nj are received and entered into the list LST, the controller STEU in each case queries the geographical database DB for the possible countries R1, R2... Rn as to whether a neighboring country is entered for the country code Nj. If this is not the case, this country can be excluded for the current region R of the recipient and will not be considered further. This process continues until only one candidate for the current country R remains. The leftover country is then set as the current Region R, and the region tracking continues as previously described. Thus, from a unique sequence of country codes in the dynamic database LST, the current region R can be determined without user input.

The geographic database DB could have the following content (excerpt): Country Ry Country code Nj Country code neighbor, Nk Neighboring country Rk connection Norway F F Norway e Sweden 6 Finland 7 Russia 9 Denmark ferry Sweden e e Sweden F Norway 6 Finland 9 Denmark ferry D Germany ferry 3 Poland ferry Denmark 6 6 Denmark D Germany e Sweden F Norway ferry Germany D, 1 D, 1 Germany 2 Czechia 3 Poland 4 Switzerland 6 Belgium 7 Luxembourg 8th Netherlands 9 Denmark A Austria F France France F F France D, 1 Germany 3 Andorra 4 Switzerland 5 Italy 6 Belgium 7 Lichtenstein B monaco C England ferry Belgium 6 6 Belgium 7 Luxembourg 8th Netherlands D, 1 Germany C England ferry F France (...) Example trip from France through Belgium, Germany, Denmark, Sweden to Norway: Current region R (start value RO = France) Most common country code in LST Country codes Neighboring regions in LST Neighboring countries Ri France F F 6.7 Belgium, Luxembourg Belgium 6 F, 7 France, Luxembourg 6 D, 7 Germany, Luxembourg Germany D 6.7 Belgium, Luxembourg D 6 Belgium D D 9 Denmark Denmark 9 D Germany 9 e Sweden Sweden e 9 Denmark e e F Norway Norway F e Sweden F Furthermore, the reception field strength for the received transmitters can be stored in the database LST and used by the controller for the determination of the most probable current region R, taking into account not only the number of receivable transmitters with the same country code, but additionally the field strength as measure M for the most probable region is included. The measure M may be for example:
M = SUM over all field strengths of the transmitters with the same country code.

It is then declared the region with the largest M to the current region R.

In addition, the geographic size of a national area can be stored in database DB in order to exclude very small countries (eg Liechtenstein or Andorra) or small island countries (eg Monaco, Vatican) from the current region R and thus confuse them to reduce.

Furthermore, it can be noted whether a country is separated from another country by a non-passable obstacle (eg a large body of water) and can only be reached by ferry or DB Autozug. In this case, the controller STEU considers this country as a neighbor for a possible reception, but it is excluded as the current region R, in which the receiver can move during a journey. However, after a new startup (see case 2), the controller STEU allows such a transition (once), since typically the vehicle is off when it is being moved by a ferry or the car.

Claims (7)

Geographical region recognition system for mobile receivers, characterized in that the system maintains a geographic database (DB) in which, for each country and / or region (Rj) in the RDS receiving space, its national identifier (Nj) in the PI code and the country codes (Nk) of the adjacent neighbor states (Rk) are associated and a controller (STEU) continuously provides new receive frequencies (Fi) to an RDS data tuner (TUN) to search the RDS receive band (FM) and for each recognized RDS station store the reception frequency (Fi), the RDS PI code and the national identifier of the transmitter (Ni) in a dynamic database (LST) and delete an entry in the dynamic database (LST) if the corresponding transmitter is no longer receivable. A system according to claim 1, characterized in that a controller (STEU) to the country (R) and to each received country code (Ni) retrieves the geographic database (DB) and as a result delivers the region (Ri) matching the country code (Ni) becomes. System according to one of the proceeding claims 1 to 2, characterized in that due to the geographical allocation rules of the RDS PI codes to the different countries, the query of the geographical database DB for a combination of receivable transmitters leads to a unique result for the current region to be determined , System according to one of the preceding claims 1 to 2, characterized in that the system is integrated in a vehicle receiver. Method for the detection of geographical regions for mobile receivers, characterized in that in each of the country and / or region (Rj) in the RDS receiving space its national identifier (Nj) in the PI code and the country codes (Nk) of the adjacent neighboring countries (Rk) are assigned and a control (STEU) to a RDS data tuner (TUN) continuously new receive frequencies (Fi) to search the RDS reception band (FM) and for each detected RDS station the reception frequency (Fi), the RDS Store the PI code and the national identifier of the sender (Ni) in a dynamic database (LST) and delete an entry in the dynamic database (LST) if the corresponding sender is no longer receivable. Method according to Claim 5, characterized in that the received field strengths for the received transmitters are stored in the database (LST) and are used by the controller for determining the most probable, current region (R), in addition to the field strength as a measure (M) for the most likely region. A method according to claim 6, characterized in that the measure (M) is the sum over all field strengths of the transmitters with the same country code.

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