JP2002232344A - Radio wave state information collecting apparatus and communication enabling area grasping system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To easily grasp the actual state of a radio wave in an assumed communication enabling area. SOLUTION: The state of radio wave discriminated so as to be classified as 'high, medium, low, extremely low' according to a receiving intensity of the radio wave transmitted from a radio base station 41 is acquired from a communication section 26 of a radio wave state information collecting apparatus 1 used by a user, and the state is stored in an external memory 24 as a radio wave state information so as to be correlated with the data of a present location and a present time specified on the basis of the detected data from a location detecting section 10. When an upload request is received from a management center 47 or a room is decreased in a data storing area, the stored radio wave state information is transmitted to the station 41. The radio wave state information is analyzed by the center 47 that has received this information from the station 41, thereby grasping the real state of the radio wave. By doing this, the information can be automatically acquired by users' daily use of the terminals without specially aiming to research the state of radio wave.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a technique for ascertaining a receivable area of a cellular phone or the like.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A mobile telephone such as a mobile telephone basically considers an area within a certain distance from a base station as a receivable area. However, in practice, appropriate reception may not be possible even within a certain distance from the base station due to the influence of terrain and buildings.
In order to solve such a problem, it is necessary to actually measure the radio wave condition within a receivable expected area within a certain distance from the base station.

[0003] For example, if a person involved in the installation of a base station moves all over the possible reception area and investigates, the actual radio wave state can be grasped, but the communicable range is widened. At present, it is difficult to investigate such a radio wave condition in all the possible reception areas. Furthermore, when a building is newly constructed, it is conceivable that the radio wave condition in a place that was previously a receivable area may deteriorate. Whenever such a situation change occurs, it is difficult to move all over the receivable expected area and to investigate each time, in terms of time and cost.

[0004] Therefore, an object of the present invention is to make it possible to easily grasp the actual radio wave condition in an assumed communicable area.

[0005]

Means for Solving the Problems and Effects of the Invention According to the radio wave condition information collecting apparatus according to the first aspect of the present invention, for example, when the radio wave condition is good.
Since the current position corresponding to each of the bad cases can be obtained, the actual communicable area can be grasped by aggregating the information. Therefore, such information can be obtained automatically with daily use by each user, even if only the purpose of investigating the radio wave condition is not specifically aimed at. In other words, each user does not use the device for the purpose of investigation, but if information obtained by using a large number of users is aggregated, it becomes easier to obtain necessary information in the area to be investigated.

As the communication means, for example, a mobile phone or a car phone can be considered. The current position specifying function may use a device separate from a mobile phone or the like, for example, a current position detecting function by a navigation device, and obtain information from the function to specify the current position. The telephone or the like may have a built-in current position detection function such as a GPS receiver.

[0007] When the current position information is obtained from the car navigation device, it is conceivable to configure the device as a vehicle-mounted telephone device such as a car telephone or to connect a portable telephone to the navigation device. Further, it is considered that the present invention can be applied to a device for receiving a broadcast wave such as a radio or a television. It is assumed that the area within a certain distance from the base station (broadcasting station) is a broadcast receivable area. However, there is also a problem that there is actually a situation where it is difficult to receive due to the influence of the terrain, buildings, and the like.

On the other hand, if the correspondence is stored including the time information, the radio wave condition for each time zone can be grasped (claim 2). For example, since the radio wave condition may change between daytime and nighttime, it is effective to grasp them. In addition, since the radio wave condition changes depending on the weather, the cause of the deterioration of the radio wave condition can be grasped by collating with the information of the weather in the time zone.

Regarding the correspondence collected by the radio wave condition information collection device, the information can be easily collected at the management center if the information is transmitted from each device to the management center. If the communication means is a mobile phone or the like, there is no problem because two-way communication is originally possible. For example, when one-way communication (reception only) is assumed as in a current television / radio receiver, two-way communication is separately performed. A possible second communication means (such as a mobile phone, for example) is required.

[0010] As the transmission timing, for example, transmission may be considered in response to a transmission request from a management center (claim 4). Further, the data may be transmitted when the data size stored in the correspondence storage means exceeds the upper limit value (claim 5). However, since transmission is not always possible, in this case, the oldest one with the oldest storage time is deleted to give priority to storing the new correspondence.

In addition to this, transmission may be performed at predetermined time intervals or at a predetermined transmission timing. According to the communicable area grasping system as set forth in claim 6, the communicable area can be grasped in the management center. Specifically, in a communicable area that is theoretically assumed for each base station, it is possible to confirm an actually communicable part or find the existence of a part that cannot actually communicate. .
Then, based on this determination result, it is possible to take measures such as installation of a new base station that covers a part that cannot actually communicate, or change of the installation location of an existing base station.

At this time, it is more preferable that the determination result is displayed on a map so that the state of each area can be visually grasped. When displaying the determination result, it is possible to simply select either communicable or impossible. Alternatively, the determination result may be displayed including the strength of the radio wave state.

The correspondences in question here are:
Since it is not necessary for the management center to acquire the information in real time, it is also preferable to temporarily store the information in the base station and transfer it to the management center as a whole (claim 8). From this point of view, in the above-mentioned radio wave condition information collecting apparatus, there is an operation of “transmitting information to the management center”, and this operation also includes an operation of transmitting information to a base station existing between them. Shall be included. That is,
Finally, the information is transmitted to the management center, but if the information is temporarily stored in the base station and transferred collectively to the management center, the information is transmitted to the management center when the radio wave condition information collection device transmits. This is because even if it is not performed, it is considered as one of the operations of “transmitting information to the management center” performed by the radio wave state information collecting device.

The transfer timing in this case may be, for example, transmission in response to a transfer request from the management center (claim 9). Further, the data may be transferred when the storage data size of the buffer exceeds the upper limit (claim 10). In the present system, the correspondence can be automatically obtained with the daily use of the user without the purpose of the investigation.
If a predetermined reward is given to the information provider in return for providing the information, the incentive to provide the information is increased, and the information can be collected more efficiently. For example, it is conceivable that points are given to each information provider according to the number of times of providing the correspondence, and a predetermined reward is given according to the total points of the points. In this way, the information provider provides more information (correspondence) in order to obtain a reward. In addition, more information providers can be obtained by word of mouth that rewards can be obtained.

[0015] The person concerned of the management center, that is, the person who wants to investigate the actual condition of the communication area, has an "area to investigate". A typical example is information on an area for which the actual situation has not yet been grasped. Therefore, a correspondence relationship for a place that has never been obtained in the past is valuable information. Conversely, if a large number of correspondences have already been obtained for the same location, it is practically meaningless to obtain a correspondence having the same content thereafter. Therefore, by increasing the points to be given to those who have provided useful information earlier (claim 12), an incentive to provide more useful information can be given to the information provider.

If information collection is completely left to the user,
A number of correspondences are obtained for a certain area, but no correspondence is obtained for a certain area. Therefore, it is preferable to transmit a request from a person who wants to investigate the actual condition of the communication area to the information provider side (claim 13). This is because the possibility that the information provider also collects the correspondence of the corresponding area in response to the request increases. In such a case, it is considered more effective to inform the information provider that the points to be given are set higher than usual.

[0017]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. It is needless to say that the embodiments of the present invention are not limited to the following examples, and can take various forms as long as they belong to the technical scope of the present invention.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of a communicable area grasping system according to an embodiment to which the present invention is applied. As shown in FIG. 1, the system of this embodiment includes a radio wave condition information collecting device 1 mounted on a vehicle (not shown), and a monitoring center 47 capable of wirelessly communicating with the radio wave condition information collecting device 1 via a telephone system. Consists of

The radio wave condition information collecting device 1 includes a position detecting unit 1 for detecting a current position of a vehicle equipped with the device.
0, an operation unit 14 for a user to input various commands to the apparatus by operating switches, and a remote control transmission by a user operating a transmitter (remote control transmitter) 16 for a remote control (so-called remote control). Vessel 1
6, a remote control receiving unit 18 for receiving a command signal transmitted from the display unit 6, a display unit 20 for displaying an image for setting an operation mode of the apparatus, a telephone number input screen, and the like, and outputting various guidances by voice. A communication unit 26 for performing wireless communication with a wireless base station 41 of a public telephone line network installed in various places, and other units connected via the communication unit 26 and the public telephone line network. A transmission / reception unit 28 for making a call with the telephone terminal of the present invention, a control unit 30 connected to each of these units for performing driving guidance of a vehicle, and the like,
An external memory 24 is connected to the control unit 30 and stores various information necessary for the operation of the control unit 30.

The communication unit 26 and the transmission / reception unit 28 are realized by a mobile phone or a car phone, and these are connected to a navigation device by a connection device (not shown) to constitute the radio wave state information collection device 1. be able to. Of course, in order to realize a so-called hands-free call, a communication function such as a mobile phone or a car phone is used as the communication unit 26, and the transmission / reception unit 28 is a hands-free mobile phone or the like that is separately attached to the vehicle. A microphone and a speaker may be used.

The communication unit 26 determines the state of the radio wave based on the reception intensity of the radio wave transmitted from the radio base station 41. Here, the level is divided into four levels of strong, medium, weak, and weak, and each level is represented by a numerical value of 3.2.1.0. In other words, the larger the number, the higher the radio wave intensity or the better the radio wave condition. Note that such a level determination is generally realized in a mobile phone, for example, while the mobile phone is standing by or during a call, the radio wave state is always checked and displayed. I do.

Next, the position detecting section 10 receives a GPS (Global
A GPS receiver that receives the transmitted radio wave from the satellite for the Positioning System via a GPS antenna and detects the position, direction, speed, etc. of the vehicle 2. A geomagnetic sensor 4 that detects the absolute direction based on geomagnetism 4, the vehicle A gyroscope 6 for detecting the magnitude of the rotational motion applied to the vehicle, a distance sensor 8 for detecting the traveling distance of the vehicle, and the like comprising a vehicle speed sensor and a wheel sensor, etc., and the control unit 30 performs detection using these units. The current position of the vehicle is specified while interpolating the error of the current position of the vehicle.

The control unit 30 includes a CPU 30a, a ROM 30b as an information storage unit (memory), and a RAM 30c.
It is composed of a microcomputer mainly including When the radio wave condition is input from the communication unit 26, the control unit 30 associates the current position coordinates specified based on the data obtained from the position detection unit 10 and the current time specified based on the data included in the GPS signal. And stored in the external memory 24. Then, at a predetermined timing, the communication unit 26
And connecting to the wireless base station 41 via a public telephone network,
The data stored in the external memory 24 is transmitted. Details of this processing will be described later.

Although it has been described that the communication unit 26 of the radio wave state information collecting apparatus 1 is for performing wireless communication with the wireless base station 41 of the public telephone line network, the wireless base station 41
Is a public telephone line exchange 43 via a connection device 42.
It is connected to the. The exchange 43 is connected to a service control station 44 via a common channel signaling network 45.
The service control station 44 transmits a transmission signal of the communication unit 26 as a terminal device subscribed to the radio telephone system from the radio base station 41 to the connection device 42, the exchange 43, and the common channel signal network 4.
5 via the common line signaling network 45 to the exchange 4
Then, a call is made to the telephone of the called party via 3 and the line between the wireless telephone and the called telephone is connected. One of the telephones is provided in the monitoring center 47, and the radio wave state information collecting device 1 can communicate with the monitoring center 47 by a wireless telephone. Note that the wireless base station 41 includes a control unit 41a and a storage unit 41b.
Includes a control unit 47a, a storage unit 47b, and a display unit 47c.

In the wireless telephone system, the location registration of the wireless telephone is periodically performed or when the wireless telephone moves from the wireless zone of one wireless base station 41 to the wireless zone of another wireless base station 41. It is supposed to do. Therefore, line connection can be maintained even if the wireless telephone moves through the wireless zone during a call. However, this wireless zone is basically considered as an area that can be received within a certain distance from the wireless base station 41, but is actually within a certain distance from the wireless base station 41 due to the influence of the terrain and buildings. However, proper reception may not be possible. These can be understood by actually going to the place and measuring the radio wave condition, but it is difficult for the person involved in the installation of the radio base station 41 to move all over the receivable expected area and investigate.
It would be possible if a very large number of people were to survey over a long period of time, but it was difficult in practice. Therefore, in this embodiment, in order to allow the management center 47 to easily grasp the actual radio wave condition in the assumed communicable area, a large number of vehicles equipped with the radio wave condition information collection device 1 are automatically mounted. The system was designed to upload useful information to grasp the radio wave condition.

Next, the operation of the present system will be described. First, regarding the collection and transmission processing of the radio wave state information executed by the control unit 30 of the radio wave state information collection device 1,
This will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. As shown in FIG. 2, in this process, first, in S10 (S represents a step), radio wave state data is acquired from the communication unit 26.
As described above, in the communication unit 26, the radio base station 41
Based on the reception strength of the radio waves transmitted from
Since the determination is made in four levels of strong / medium / weak / weak, a numerical value of 3.2.1.0 representing each level is obtained. In the following S20, the current location / current time data is specified based on the detection data from the position detection unit 10.

The radio wave state data and the current location
The current time data is associated with the current time data and stored as radio wave state information (S30). An example of this storage is shown in FIG. Data numbers are set in the order of storage, and the date and time, current location coordinates, and radio wave condition are stored. In subsequent S40, it is determined whether or not there is an incoming call from the management center 47. If there is an incoming call (S40: YES), it is determined whether the called party is the management center 47 (S40).
50). If the call is from a telephone other than the management center 47 (S50: NO), a normal telephone handling process is performed (S8).
0). This "ordinary telephone handling procedure" means that, for example, when power is supplied to each part for exerting a telephone function, a ring tone sounds, and when an off-hook operation is performed by a user, a line Is connected so that a call can be made. When no power is supplied, no ringtone sounds. In this case, for example, by setting in advance, a call transfer for transferring to a predetermined telephone number, an answering machine service, and the like can be performed by the service control station 44.
Is mainly executed.

On the other hand, if the call is from the management center 47 (S50: YES), the telephone is set off-hook and the line is connected.
The radio wave condition information stored in the external memory 24 is used as the user ID.
Is transmitted to the wireless base station 41 (S60). In this case, the telephone from the management center 47 transmits the request to upload the radio wave state information to the radio wave state information collecting apparatus 1, and uploads the telephone according to the request. Thereafter, the transmission data is deleted from the external memory 24 (S70), and the process returns to S10. In this embodiment, when there is an incoming call from the management center 47, the communication unit 26 automatically performs an off-hook operation to connect the line. That is, the communication is enabled without any operation by the user. Information for identifying the management center 47 is stored, and it is determined that the transmission source is the management center 47 by collation of the identification information or the like, and the above processing is performed.

On the other hand, if there is no incoming call (S40: N
O), and proceeds to S80 to determine whether or not the data amount of the radio wave condition information stored in the external memory 24 has exceeded a predetermined value. If not exceeded (S90: NO), the process returns to S10 and repeats the process.
YES), and stores the stored radio wave state information in the management center 47.
It is necessary to upload to the side and secure a new storage area.

Therefore, if a call is currently in progress (S10
0: YES), the process proceeds to S60, and the radio wave condition information stored in the external memory 24 is stored in the radio base station 41 together with the user ID.
Send to On the other hand, if the user is not on the phone (S100: N
O), a connection process is performed on the wireless base station 41 (S11)
0). If the connection has been established (S120: YES), the radio wave state information stored in the external memory 24 is transmitted to the wireless base station 41 together with the user ID.

However, when the connection cannot be established (S12)
0: NO), the oldest data is deleted from the radio wave state information stored in the external memory 24 (S130), and then S1
Return to 0. As shown in FIG. 4A, since the data number is set in the storage order and the radio wave state and the like are stored, the one with the smallest data number is deleted. Thereafter, the data numbers are incremented one by one.

As described above, the radio wave condition information collecting device 1 stores the radio wave condition data in association with the current location / current time data as radio wave condition information, and receives an upload request from the management center 47. , Corresponding to it, transmits data to the radio base station 1,
If there is no more room in the data storage area even if there is no upload request from 7, the radio wave state information collection device 1 will independently transmit data.

Next, the process of temporarily storing and transmitting the radio wave state information, which is executed by the control unit 41a of the radio base station 41, will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. FIG.
As shown in (2), in this processing, first, in S210, the terminal,
That is, it is determined whether or not data (radio wave condition information and user ID) has been received from the radio wave condition information collection device 1 and, if received (S210: YES), the terminal data is stored in the storage unit in association with the user ID. 41b (S22).
0). An example of this storage is shown in FIG. That is, since the data as shown in FIG. 4A is transmitted from the radio wave condition information collection device 1 as the radio wave condition information, the user I
Data corresponding to each D is stored. Note that the wireless base station 4
The data number when storing as 1 may be newly set. That is, when transmitting a plurality of data stored so far to the wireless base station 41, the radio wave state information collection device 1 deletes the transmission data and stores the preparation data again from data number 1. Therefore, if data is transmitted again from the same radio wave state information collecting device 1 in a state where the received data is stored, the data having the same data number may be included. At 41, a serial number may be set in the order of reception.

After storing in this manner, it is determined whether or not the amount of data of the radio wave condition information stored in the storage unit 41b has exceeded a predetermined value. If not (S230: NO), the process proceeds to S230.
10 and the process is repeated.
230: YES), and transmits the stored radio wave state information to the management center 47 (S240). Thereby, a new storage area can be secured.

On the other hand, even if the data has not been received from the radio wave state information collecting device 1, if there is a data transmission request from the management center 47 (S250: YES), the process returns to S240.
Then, the radio wave state information is transferred to the management center 47. Of course, if there is no request from the management center 47 (S250: NO), the process returns to S10.

In the management center 47 receiving the data transmission from the radio base station 41, the control unit 47a controls the
The received data is stored in the storage unit 47b. Then, the area division of the radio wave condition is determined based on the current position coordinates in the data. Further, the area of the radio wave state may be displayed on the display unit 47c so that the user can visually grasp the area division. For example, if the area division of the radio wave condition is superimposed and displayed on the map, it is easy to understand which region is in what radio wave condition and how much. Thereby, the actual communicable area can be grasped. Then, based on such an analysis, it is possible to take measures such as installation of a new base station covering a part that cannot be actually communicated or change of the installation location of an existing base station.

Further, date and time information is included in the uploaded data. Therefore, the radio wave condition for each time zone can be grasped. For example, since the radio wave condition may change between daytime and nighttime, it is effective to grasp them. In addition, since the radio wave condition changes depending on the weather, the cause of the deterioration of the radio wave condition can be grasped by collating with the information of the weather in the time zone.

The correspondence between the components described in this embodiment and the means described in the claims will be described. First, in the radio wave condition information collection device 1, the position detection unit 1
0 and the control unit 30 correspond to a position specifying unit and a time specifying unit, and the communication unit 26 corresponds to a communication unit, a radio wave state determination unit, and a second communication unit. Further, the external memory 24 corresponds to the correspondence storage unit, and the control unit 30 corresponds to the transmission control unit.

In the radio base station 41 corresponding to the base station, the storage unit 41b corresponds to the correspondence storing means.
The control unit 41a corresponds to a transfer control unit. On the other hand, in the management center 47, the control unit 47a corresponds to a correspondence acquisition unit and a determination unit, and the storage unit 47b corresponds to a correspondence storage unit. Further, the control unit 47a and the display unit 47c correspond to a determination result display unit.

According to the system of the present embodiment described above, the radio wave condition information collecting device 1 can automatically collect the radio wave condition at the point. The actual communicable area can be automatically grasped with daily use by the user. In other words, each user of the radio wave state information collecting device 1 does not use the device 1 for the purpose of investigation, but if the information obtained by the use of many users is aggregated, the It becomes easier to obtain necessary information.

In this embodiment, the information collected by the radio wave condition information collecting device 1 is transmitted from each device 1 to the radio base station 41.
Can be uploaded to the management center 47 via the management center 47, so that the information can be easily collected at the management center 47. In this embodiment, the data is temporarily stored in the wireless base station 41 and transmitted to the management center 47 collectively.
This is because the radio wave state information itself does not have the property of having to be acquired in real time by the management center 47.

The following effects can be obtained by temporarily storing data in the radio base station 41 as described above. That is, since the data near the wireless base station 41 is collected, the weather, temperature, and the like near the wireless base station 41 can be easily added to the radio wave state information. Further, mechanical data of the wireless base station 41 itself at that time (such as poor condition, weak radio wave of the base station, the number of connected users, etc.) can also be added. Further, since it is possible to select collected data, only necessary data can be uploaded to the management center 47.

[Others] (a) In the above embodiment, a mobile phone or a car phone is assumed as an example of the communication means, but the present invention can be applied to a device for receiving a broadcast wave such as a radio or a television. It is assumed that the area within a certain distance from the base station (broadcasting station) is a broadcast receivable area. However, there is a problem that there is actually a situation where it is difficult to receive the broadcast due to the influence of terrain, buildings, and the like. If the communication means is a mobile phone or the like, there is no problem because two-way communication can be originally performed. However, for example, when one-way communication (reception only) is assumed as in a current television / radio receiver, both sides are separately provided. A second communication means (for example, a mobile phone or the like) capable of two-way communication is required. Of course, if a television / radio communication device capable of two-way communication is put into practical use, it can be handled alone.

In the case of a vehicle-mounted device, the radio wave state information collecting device 1 can be realized by combining a mobile phone or a car phone with a car navigation device, but is not necessarily limited to a vehicle-mounted device. The mobile phone itself may have a GPS function. In such a case, the survey area is the range of movement of humans, so that, for example, an underground shopping mall is the survey area.

(B) In the above embodiment, a mobile phone or a car phone is assumed, and the radio wave state information shown in FIG.
Information indicating whether or not a "call has been made" may be included. For example, there may be some event that many people use it at once and it becomes difficult to take it. If such a situation occurs, the cause can be searched for based on the time information. Then, when considering the installation of the wireless base station 41, it is possible to judge that no special countermeasures are taken if the difficulty in making a call is caused by a temporary cause, and if it is a permanent one, It is also possible to further increase the number of wireless base stations 41 so as to cope with a large number of uses.

(C) According to the system of the above embodiment, the correspondence can be automatically obtained with the daily use of the user without the purpose of the investigation. If a predetermined reward is given in return for providing information, the incentive for providing information is increased, and information can be collected more efficiently. For example, it is conceivable that points are given to each information provider according to the number of times of providing the correspondence, and a predetermined reward is given according to the total points of the points. For example, points are product purchase right, cash, gift certificate,
It may correspond to the amount of rewards such as air tickets, free viewing rights for paid programs, free usage rights for Internet pay sites, free usage rights for telephones, and discount tickets. In addition, only when the points reach a predetermined value, the above-mentioned product purchase right, cash, gift certificate, air ticket, free viewing right of paid program, free usage right of Internet pay site, free usage right of telephone, discount A ticket or the like may be provided.

In this case, an area for storing points for each user is prepared in the storage section 47b of the management center 47, and when data is received, the control section 47a sets the area according to the data amount and the like. Processing such as calculating the points, adding the points to the past total points, and updating and storing the points may be performed. Also, when rewards are given according to points,
For example, you can make points correspond to the amount of money, and you can access and transfer the provider's account every predetermined period or every time you reach the predetermined point, send a password that can use sites on the network, use it on the network etc. It is conceivable to send an electronic money. In this sense, the “reward providing means” in the claims includes, for example, the above-described electronic money remittance processing and the printing processing of a slip required to provide a reward.

Further, for the parties involved in the management center 47, that is, those who want to investigate the actual condition of the communication area, information on the "area to be investigated" is valuable, for example, an area whose actual condition has not yet been grasped. . Conversely, if you already have many correspondences for the same location,
After that, it is meaningless to obtain the same information. Therefore, by giving a higher point to a person who provides useful information earlier, an incentive to provide more useful information to the information provider can be given. For example, it is conceivable that the largest number of points are provided when provided first, and the points are sequentially reduced in the second and subsequent points. In addition, when the time information is also taken into consideration, a point having a smaller past reception result is given a higher point in a correspondence relationship having the same current position information and time information.

However, even at the same place (or at the same time), if there is a change in the environment such as a new building or the like that affects the radio wave condition, the same current position information and the same time information are retained. Even if the correspondence has been received in the past, the information needed at the present time is the information after the above-mentioned environment change. Therefore, by considering the information after the environmental change as the information received first, it is possible to secure a high incentive to provide information to the information provider at an early stage.

By the way, if information collection is completely left to the user, there may be a situation where many correspondences are obtained for a certain area, but not for a certain area. Therefore, the management center 47 may specify to the radio wave state information collecting apparatus 1 a region where the actual condition of the communication area is to be investigated, and call for the provision of information in that region. In the above embodiment, it is conceivable that such information is displayed on the display unit 20 to notify the user of the radio wave state information collection device 1. This is because the possibility that the information provider also collects the correspondence of the corresponding area in response to the request increases. In such a case, it is considered more effective to inform the information provider that the points to be given are set higher than usual.

The function of realizing each means of the management center in the claims by a computer can be provided as a program executed by the control unit 47a of the management center 47, for example. In the case of such a program, for example, it is recorded on a computer-readable recording medium such as a floppy (registered trademark) disk, a magneto-optical disk, a CD-ROM, or a hard disk, and is loaded into a computer system as needed and activated. Can be used. In addition, since each means only has to constitute a management center as a whole, the above-described means may be realized by a plurality of computers. For example, each means may be realized by a different computer.

(D) In the above-described embodiment, the GPS receiver 2, the geomagnetic sensor 4, the gyroscope 6, the distance sensor 8 and the like are provided as the position detection unit 10, but it is not always necessary to provide all of them. Only the receiver 2 may be used. Further, in the above embodiment, the position detecting unit 1 including the GPS receiver 2, the gyroscope 6, the distance sensor 8, and the like.
Based on the data detected at 0, the control unit 30 specifies the current vehicle position while interpolating the error of the current vehicle position. Therefore, the position detecting unit 10 and the control unit 30 correspond to “position specifying unit”, but the position detecting unit 10 is not necessarily required to be realized as the position specifying unit. For example, the position information may be acquired from a roadside beacon or the like, and the current position may be specified based on the acquired position information.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a schematic configuration of a communicable area grasping system according to an embodiment;

FIG. 2 is a flowchart illustrating a process executed by a control unit of the radio wave state information collecting device according to the embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating a process executed by a control unit of the wireless base station according to the embodiment;

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram illustrating a storage example of collected radio wave state information.

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Radio wave state information collection device, 2 ... GPS receiver, 4 ... Geomagnetic sensor, 6 ... Gyroscope, 8 ... Distance sensor,
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 ... Position detection part, 14 ... Operation part, 16 ... Remote control transmitter, 18 ... Remote control receiving part, 20 ... Display part, 22 ... Sound output part, 24 ... External memory, 26 ... Communication part, 28 ...
Receiving part, 30 control part, 41 radio base station, 41a control part, 41b storage part, 42 connecting device, 43 exchange, 44 service control station, 45 common line signal network, 47
... Management center, 47a ... Control unit, 47b ... Storage unit, 47
c ... Display section

Claims (13)

[Claims] 1. A position specifying means capable of specifying a current position; a communication means capable of performing wireless communication with a base station; and a radio wave state based on the strength of a radio wave received by the communication means from the base station. Radio wave state determination means to be determined, and correspondence storage means for storing the correspondence between the current position specified by the position specification means and the radio wave state determined by the radio wave state determination means, Radio wave condition information collection device. 2. The radio wave condition information collecting apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a time specifying means for specifying a current time, wherein said correspondence storage means stores said correspondence including the time specified by said time specifying means. A radio wave state information collecting device characterized by being stored. 3. The radio wave condition information collecting apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said communication means is configured to be capable of two-way communication with an external management center or a second means capable of two-way communication with said management center. Communication means, and transmission control means for transmitting the correspondence stored in the correspondence storage means to the management center via the communication means or the second communication means capable of two-way communication. A radio wave state information collecting device, characterized in that: 4. The radio wave condition information collecting apparatus according to claim 3, wherein said transmission control means transmits said correspondence to said management center in response to a transmission request for said correspondence from said management center. Radio wave state information collection device. 5. The radio wave condition information collecting device according to claim 3, wherein the transmission control means is configured to: when a data amount of the correspondence stored in the correspondence storage means exceeds a predetermined upper limit value.
A radio wave state information collecting device for transmitting the correspondence to the management center. 6. A radio wave condition information collecting apparatus according to claim 1, a correspondence obtaining means for obtaining said correspondence collected and stored by said radio wave condition information collecting device, and said correspondence obtaining. Means for storing the correspondence obtained by the means, based on the correspondence stored in the correspondence storage means, enabling communication within a theoretical communicable area assumed for each base station. And a management center having a determination unit for determining a portion that cannot be communicated and a portion that cannot be communicated. 7. The communicable area grasping system according to claim 6, wherein said management center further comprises a judgment result display means for displaying a result judged by said judgment means on a map. Area grasp system. 8. The communicable area grasping system according to claim 6, wherein said radio wave state information collecting device and said management center can communicate bidirectionally via said base station. A correspondence storing means for temporarily storing the correspondence transmitted from the radio wave state information collecting device; and a transfer control means for transferring the correspondence stored in the correspondence storing to the management center. A communication area grasp system characterized by the following. 9. The communication area grasp system according to claim 8, wherein said transfer control means transfers said correspondence to said management center in response to a transfer request for said correspondence from said management center. Communication possible area grasp system. 10. The communicable area grasping system according to claim 8, wherein said transfer control means, when the data amount of the correspondence stored in said correspondence storage means exceeds a predetermined upper limit value,
A communicable area grasping system, wherein the correspondence is transferred to the management center. 11. The communicable area grasping system according to claim 6, wherein said radio wave condition information collecting device transmits said correspondence including identification information that can be specified by an information provider. Based on the amount and characteristics of the correspondence transmitted from the radio wave state information collection device, the management center provides the identification information included in the correspondence and transmitted to the information provider of the correspondence at a predetermined point. A communicable area grasping system, comprising: point giving means for giving a reward; and reward giving means for giving a reward in accordance with the total of the points given by the point giving means. 12. The communicable area grasping system according to claim 11, wherein said point giving means is based on the current position information in the received correspondence and the time information if present, and presently has a small reception history. A communicable area comprehension system characterized in that the points to be given increase as the position information and the time information are included. 13. The communicable area grasping system according to claim 12, wherein the radio wave condition information collecting device and the management center can communicate in two directions, and the management center is an area for which the correspondence is desired to be collected. A request notifying unit for notifying the radio wave condition information collecting device of the radio wave condition information collecting device, wherein the radio wave condition information collecting device can notify a user of a collection desired area notified by the request notifying device. Communicable area grasp system.