JP2001022988A - System for providing multimedia information to moving vehicle - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To transmit local multimedia information of a traveling area required for a specified traveling vehicle to that vehicle, without markedly limiting the data size, even after passing a specified narrow area communication spot (close to a gate, for example). SOLUTION: This system is provided with on-vehicle equipment 10, loaded on the moving vehicle and capable of narrow area communication and wide-area communication, narrow area communication equipment for conducting narrow- area communication at a specified position with the moving vehicle and receiving identification information peculiar to the moving vehicle and/or transmitting information corresponding to the specified position and wide-area communication equipment for transmitting multimedia information, corresponding to the request of the moving vehicle. The on-vehicle equipment 10 receives the multimedia information, corresponding to information corresponding to the received position from the wide-area communication equipment.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

The present invention relates to a system for providing multimedia information to a moving vehicle.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Various systems for exchanging information without contact with a moving vehicle have been proposed for the purpose of toll collection on toll roads. For example, FIG. 5 is a layout diagram disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 05217041, wherein 2 is a lane, 1 is a vehicle entering the lane, 3 is a vehicle-mounted device mounted on the vehicle, 4 is a vehicle type discriminating apparatus, and 5 is a road type. An antenna, 6 a control device for controlling the transmission and reception of signals between the roadside antenna and the on-vehicle device, 7 a passport automatic issuing machine, 8 a start detection device, 6b a data processing device for processing data from the control device, 6c
Is the central computer.

In the toll collection system having such a configuration,
When the vehicle 1 enters, the type of the vehicle is detected and determined by the vehicle type determination device 4, and ID information and the like written in the memory of the on-vehicle device 3 are read by wireless communication between the on-road antenna 5 and the on-vehicle device 3. Automatic issuance and the like are performed.

[0004]

The above-mentioned conventional automatic toll collection system (ETC) on a toll road or a vehicle information and communication system (VICS: Vehicle Information and Co.) which provides traffic congestion, traffic regulation, parking lot information and the like.
In mmunication systems, narrow-area communication using a beacon or an antenna is applied for data communication with a vehicle-mounted device. This is for transmitting and receiving local information in a toll booth or a town.

However, in narrow-area communication using an antenna or a beacon, the irradiation range (communication range) is very narrow (for example, about one or two vehicles), so that the communication time is short and communication with a traveling vehicle is possible. However, there is a problem that the data is limited to small-sized data such as toll information and encoded traffic information. For this reason, in the conventional system, after passing through a specific short-range communication point (for example, near a gate), for example, local multimedia information (e.g., a road condition However, there is a problem that it is not possible to transmit in real time service information using images and sounds of nearby stores, guidance information in a parking lot, and the like.

On the other hand, in a wide area communication using a mobile phone or the like, a large communication range is available and a large amount of data such as images can be transmitted and received. However, since it is impossible to specify a detailed position of the vehicle-mounted device, local information can be provided. Can not. Further, in the car navigation system using the GPS, the position of the vehicle can be specified, but only the map information or the like stored in the CD-ROM or the like can be displayed accordingly, and the latest information of the traveling area cannot be received in real time. There is a problem.

The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned problems. That is, an object of the present invention is to provide a specific traveling vehicle with local multimedia information of a traveling area required by the vehicle even after passing through a specific short-range communication point (for example, near a gate). It is an object of the present invention to provide a system for providing multimedia information to a mobile vehicle that can transmit data without being greatly limited in size.

[0008]

According to the present invention, an in-vehicle device (1) mounted on a mobile vehicle and capable of narrow-area communication and wide-area communication.
0), a short-range communication device (12) for performing short-range communication with the moving vehicle at a specific position, receiving identification information unique to the vehicle, and / or transmitting information according to the position, and responding to the request of the moving vehicle. Wide area communication device (1
4), wherein the on-vehicle device (10) receives multimedia information corresponding to the received information corresponding to the position from the wide area communication device, the multimedia information for a mobile vehicle. Provision facilities are provided.

According to the configuration of the present invention, the "hybrid system" capable of performing both short-range communication and wide-area communication is provided.
When a moving vehicle passes a specific position such as under an information providing antenna having a limited irradiation range, a short-range communication is performed between an on-vehicle device (10) mounted on the moving vehicle and a short-range communication device (12). To receive identification information unique to the vehicle and / or transmit information corresponding to the position. Next, in response to a request from the moving vehicle, multimedia information such as corresponding image data is transmitted by the wide area communication device (14). On the moving vehicle side,
The in-vehicle device (10) receives multimedia information corresponding to the received information corresponding to the position by wide area communication, and can output the received information through a display device or a speaker.

[0010] Therefore, since the communication data by the short-range communication is identification information or the like unique to the vehicle, the data size is small.
Communication can be performed reliably in a short time. Also, multimedia information such as image data has a relatively large data size,
Since wide area communication is used, data can be continuously received even after passing through a specific position such as a gate. Furthermore, since information corresponding to the position is transmitted by the on-vehicle device and multimedia information corresponding to the request of the moving vehicle is received, the local multiplication of the traveling area required for the specific traveling vehicle by the vehicle is required. Media information can be transmitted.

According to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the on-vehicle device (10) can be connected to an antenna (11a) for short-range communication and a mobile phone (11b) for wide-area communication, and receives the received multimedia information. And an output device (16) for outputting the data. With this configuration, the antenna for short-range communication (11
a), and can perform wide area communication via the mobile phone (11b).

The on-vehicle device (10) further includes an external storage device (1) capable of reading a removable storage medium.
8a) and / or a temporary storage (18b) for storing the received multimedia information. With this configuration, C is stored in the external storage device (18a).
It is possible to use image data or the like previously stored in a removable storage medium such as a D-ROM, or to use the received multimedia information as an internal storage (cache) in a temporary storage device (20). Time-consuming information can be efficiently transmitted and output to a display device or the like.

According to the present invention, a vehicle-mounted device (10) mounted on a mobile vehicle and capable of short-range communication, receives narrow-range communication with the mobile vehicle at a specific position, receives identification information unique to the vehicle, and / or
Or a short-range communication device (12) for transmitting multimedia information according to the position-dependent information and the moving vehicle's request, wherein the on-vehicle device (10) further includes the received information corresponding to the position. And a temporary storage device (18b) for storing multimedia information corresponding to the mobile vehicle.

This configuration is a "cache system" in which short-range communication and pre-reception are combined, and receives local multimedia information of a corresponding traveling area by short-range communication and temporarily stores the information in a temporary storage device (18b). When the communication time can be kept relatively long even in the short-range communication, the same effect as in the above-described “hybrid system” can be obtained without performing the wide-area communication, and the equipment cost can be reduced.

Further, according to the present invention, an on-vehicle device (10) mounted on a mobile vehicle and capable of short-range communication, receives narrow-range communication with the mobile vehicle at a specific position, receives identification information unique to the vehicle, and / or Or a short-range communication device (12) for transmitting information according to a position and multimedia information according to a request of a moving vehicle (12)
And the on-vehicle device (10) further comprises an external storage device (18) capable of reading a removable storage medium.
(a) A facility for providing multimedia information to a mobile vehicle is provided.

This configuration is a "fixed storage system" in which narrow-area communication and a removable storage medium are combined, and receives only search information for searching local multimedia information of a corresponding traveling area by narrow-area communication. By reading the multimedia information by the external storage device (18a), even if the communication time is short in the short-range communication, the same as the “hybrid method” or “cache method” can be performed without performing the wide-area communication. The effect is obtained, and the equipment cost can be further reduced.

[0017]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. In each of the drawings, common portions are denoted by the same reference numerals, and redundant description will be omitted.

FIGS. 1 to 4 show a first embodiment of the present invention. The system according to the first embodiment is an example of a “hybrid system” capable of performing both short-range communication and wide-area communication.

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a system for providing multimedia information to a moving vehicle according to the present invention. As shown in this figure, in the system of the present invention, while the traveling vehicle 1 is traveling, the narrow area communication device 12 performs narrow area communication with the moving vehicle 1 at a specific position, receives identification information unique to the vehicle, and The communication device 14 transmits local multimedia information of the corresponding traveling area according to the received identification information, and corresponds to the identification information unique to the vehicle mounted on the vehicle-mounted device 10 provided in the traveling vehicle 1. Receive multimedia information only.

FIG. 2 is a system block diagram of a vehicle-mounted device according to the present invention. As shown in FIG.
Narrow area communication device 13a, public line communication device 13b, arithmetic unit 1
5, an output device 16, an external storage device 18a, and a temporary storage device 18b. An antenna 11a for short-range communication is connected to the short-range communication device 13a, and a mobile phone 11b for wide-area communication is connected to the public line communication device 13b. Output device 16
Are the display output unit 16a, the display 16b, and the audio output unit 16
c, a speaker 16d, and outputs the received multimedia information as images and sounds.

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of a vehicle-mounted device according to the present invention. As shown in FIG.
It is preferable that the mobile phone 11b is connected to the mobile phone 11b, for example, and is fixed in a car like a car navigation system. Further, it may be in the form of a notebook personal computer so that it can be detached and configured as needed.

In the above-described hybrid system, only the identification information (ID or the like) of the image data to be transmitted at the place is transmitted by the short-range communication. The in-vehicle device uses a mobile phone to connect to the ground-side server, requests data of the received identification information, and receives the designated data. Thus, even if the vehicle travels and goes out of the irradiation range of the narrow-area communication, the mobile phone can be continuously connected to the ground-side server to receive a large amount of data such as a local image. In other words, two types of communication media can be used in a hybrid manner, and communication utilizing the characteristics of each can be used.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart of the processing on the vehicle-mounted device side of the present invention. In this flowchart, in S1, the identification ID is transmitted to the vehicle 1 traveling in the city by short-range communication. Next, in S2, the in-vehicle device 10 connects to the information center using the mobile phone 11b, and transmits the received identification ID.
Next, in S3, the information center determines from the identification ID and transmits data such as an intersection image in the traveling direction to the vehicle-mounted device. In S4, the image data received by the vehicle-mounted device 10 is displayed.

According to the configuration of the present invention, the "hybrid system" capable of performing both short-range communication and wide-area communication is provided.
When a moving vehicle passes through a specific position, such as under an information providing antenna with a limited irradiation range, a narrow area communication is performed between an on-board unit 10 mounted on the moving vehicle and a narrow area communication device 12 to perform vehicle specific operation. And / or transmits information according to the position. Next, multimedia information such as corresponding image data is transmitted by the wide area communication device 14 in response to a request from the moving vehicle. On the moving vehicle side, the in-vehicle device 10 can receive the multimedia information corresponding to the received information corresponding to the position by the wide area communication, and output the multimedia information by the display device or the speaker.

Therefore, the communication data by the short-range communication is identification information or the like unique to the vehicle, so that the data size is small.
Communication can be performed reliably in a short time. Also, multimedia information such as image data has a relatively large data size,
Since wide area communication is used, data can be continuously received even after passing through a specific position such as a gate. Furthermore, since information corresponding to the position is transmitted by the on-vehicle device and multimedia information corresponding to the request of the moving vehicle is received, the local multiplication of the traveling area required for the specific traveling vehicle by the vehicle is required. Media information can be transmitted.

Further, by providing the vehicle-mounted device 10 with the external storage device 18a and / or the temporary storage device 18b, image data and the like stored in advance in a removable storage medium such as a CD-ROM by the external storage device 18a can be used. Alternatively, the received multimedia information can be internally stored (cached) in the temporary storage device 20 and used, and information that takes a long time to transfer, such as image data, can be efficiently transmitted and output to a display device or the like.

That is, in the system in which the hybrid system and the cache system are combined, first, a fixed storage area such as a CD-ROM is searched for the identification ID received by the short-range communication. If the specified data is not found by the ID,
Next, a writable self-storage area (cache) is searched. If still not found, the mobile phone requests data transmission of the identification ID. In addition, data received by a mobile phone or the like is stored in its own storage area,
It can be reused next time.

The system according to the second embodiment of the present invention is a "cache system" that combines short-range communication and pre-reception. Although this configuration is not particularly shown, the wide-area communication equipment in the first embodiment is omitted, and instead, the short-range communication device 12 performs short-range communication with the mobile vehicle 1 at a specific position to obtain identification information unique to the vehicle. It is adapted to receive and / or transmit location-dependent information and multimedia information in response to moving vehicle requirements. Further, this system has a built-in temporary storage device 18b for storing multimedia information corresponding to the received information corresponding to the position.

In this cache system, the running vehicle 1 physically stops temporarily, and the communication time can be kept long even in the short-range communication (for example, at an intersection with a signal, before the entrance gate of a parking lot, etc.). The data such as images is sent to the vehicle-mounted device 10 in advance by narrow-area communication. The in-vehicle device stores (caches) this data in a storage area (memory or disk). For moving vehicles, the first
As in the method of the embodiment, the information corresponding to the position is transmitted by the in-vehicle device via the short-range communication, and the in-vehicle device searches the self-storage area and, if there is data that matches the information, displays and outputs it. .

For example, images and sounds are output in the following steps. (1) In front of an entrance gate of a parking lot, images and sound data of a plurality of guidance patterns (instructing straight ahead, left turn, right turn, etc.) are transmitted to a temporarily stopped entry vehicle by short-range communication. (2) The in-vehicle device stores the received data in a storage device such as a memory or a hard disk. At this time, the identification ID of the stored data is determined by using the identification ID as a file name. (3) Open the entrance gate when transmission is completed. (4) At the guidance point in the parking lot, the identification ID for guidance is transmitted by short-range communication. (5) The in-vehicle device searches the storage device for data corresponding to the identification ID. (6) The stored image data is displayed on the vehicle-mounted device, the voice data is reported, and guidance is performed.

According to the configuration of the second embodiment, the local multimedia information of the corresponding traveling area is received by the short-range communication, and is stored in the temporary storage device 18b.
In the case where the communication time can be kept relatively long even in the narrow area communication, the same effect as in the above-described “hybrid system” can be obtained without performing the wide area communication, and the equipment cost can be reduced.

The system according to the third embodiment of the present invention is a "fixed storage system" in which narrow-area communication and a removable storage medium are combined. Although this configuration is not particularly shown, the temporary storage device 18b in the second embodiment is also omitted, and an external storage device 18a is provided instead, and a CD-ROM or D
A fixed storage medium such as a VD can be read.
With this configuration, only the search information for searching for the local multimedia information of the corresponding traveling area is received by the short-range communication, and the multimedia information is read by the external storage device 18a. Even in a short case, the same effects as those of the above-mentioned "hybrid system" or "cache system" can be obtained without performing wide-area communication, so that the equipment cost can be further reduced.

It should be noted that the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment, but can be variously changed without departing from the gist of the present invention.

[0034]

The system of the present invention described above has the following effects. (1) It is possible to receive, display, and output data that is local information unique to the place and that takes time to transmit an image or the like, with an in-vehicle device of the traveling vehicle. (2) The equipment required for the system can be realized by an existing facility such as a short-range communication antenna (beacon) and a wide-area communication medium (such as a mobile phone) or a storage device (such as a CD-ROM).
There is no need to develop new dedicated communication equipment or modify existing equipment. (3) There is an effect of expanding the application field of narrow-area communication.

That is, the multimedia information providing system according to the present invention can provide a specific traveling vehicle with a local area of the traveling area required by the specific vehicle even after passing through a specific narrow area communication point (for example, near a gate). Multimedia information can be transmitted without being greatly limited by the data size, so that, for example, for a traveling vehicle, local multimedia information of a traveling area (an image of a road condition ahead) And service information using images and voices of nearby stores, guidance information in parking lots, etc.), and display and output to an onboard device.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a system for providing multimedia information to a moving vehicle according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a system block diagram of an in-vehicle device according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of an in-vehicle device according to the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a processing flowchart of the vehicle-mounted device of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram of a conventional automatic toll collection system on a toll road.

[Explanation of symbols]

 REFERENCE SIGNS LIST 1 vehicle 2 lane 3 on-vehicle device 4 vehicle type discriminating device 5 on-street antenna 6 control device 6b control device 6c central computer 7 automatic voucher issuing machine 8 start detection device 10 on-vehicle device 11a antenna for narrow area communication 11b mobile phone 12 narrow area communication Device 14 Wide area communication device 16 Output device 18a External storage device 18b Temporary storage device

Continued on the front page (72) Inventor Toshio Matsunaga 3-2-16 Toyosu, Koto-ku, Tokyo Ishikawajima Harima Heavy Industries, Ltd. Toyosu General Office (72) Inventor Shin Sakumoto 2-2-1 Otemachi, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo Ishi Kawashima Harima Heavy Industries, Ltd. F-term (reference) 5H180 AA01 BB04 BB05 BB13 EE07 FF05 FF12 FF13 FF25 FF27 FF32 FF40

Claims (5)

[Claims] An on-vehicle device (10) mounted on a moving vehicle and capable of narrow-area communication and wide-area communication, and performing narrow-area communication with the moving vehicle at a specific position to receive identification information unique to the vehicle and / or to position the vehicle. A short-range communication device (12) for transmitting corresponding information;
A wide-area communication device (14) for transmitting multimedia information in response to a request from a moving vehicle;
Receiving multimedia information corresponding to the received information corresponding to the position from the wide-area communication device. 2. An output device (16) for connecting the antenna (11a) for short-range communication with the mobile phone (11b) for wide-area communication and outputting the received multimedia information. 2. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:
4. A multimedia information providing system for a moving vehicle according to claim 1. 3. The in-vehicle device (10) further includes an external storage device (18) capable of reading a removable storage medium.
3. The system for providing multimedia information to a mobile vehicle according to claim 2, comprising a) and / or a temporary storage device (18b) for storing received multimedia information. 4. An in-vehicle device (10) mounted on a moving vehicle and capable of performing short-range communication, receiving narrow-band communication with the moving vehicle at a specific position, receiving identification information unique to the vehicle, and / or information corresponding to the position. And a short-range communication device (12) for transmitting multimedia information in response to a request from a moving vehicle, wherein the on-vehicle device (10) further includes multimedia information corresponding to the received information corresponding to the position. Temporary storage device (1
8b) A facility for providing multimedia information to a mobile vehicle, wherein the facility includes 8b). 5. An in-vehicle device (10) mounted on a moving vehicle and capable of performing short-range communication, receiving narrow-band communication with the moving vehicle at a specific position, receiving identification information unique to the vehicle, and / or information corresponding to the position. And a short-range communication device (12) for transmitting multimedia information in response to a request from a moving vehicle. The on-vehicle device (10) further includes an external storage device (18a) capable of reading a removable storage medium. A facility for providing multimedia information to a moving vehicle.