JP2004118356A - Vehicle position displaying system - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a vehicle position display system for grasping the position of its own vehicle even in a relatively wide parking lot. <P>SOLUTION: A portable telephone 400 equipped with a GPS receiver acquires the current position of a vehicle 300 through a portable telephone network 200, and acquires the current position of the portable telephone 400 from a GPS receiver. Then, the acquired position of the vehicle 300 and the position of the portable telephone 400 and the peripheral map are displayed at the display of the portable telephone 400. Thus, it is possible for a user to grasp the position of the vehicle 300 by referring to the displayed map even in parking the vehicle 300 in the relatively wide parking lot. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2004,JPO

Description

[0001]
TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a vehicle position display system.
[0002]
[Prior art]
2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, there is a keyless entry system having an answer-back function for confirming a current position of a vehicle from a point away from the vehicle using a portable transmitter. This keyless entry system executes a control operation (for example, a door lock or the like) according to the content of a request signal transmitted from a transmitter when a receiver mounted on the vehicle receives the radio wave of the request signal. Generate a back to the user. The answer back is a room lamp blinking, a hazard blinking, a horn sounding, and the like, and the user carrying the transmitter can confirm the parking position of the vehicle by confirming the answer back, for example, in a parking lot. Can be.
[0003]
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
However, in a conventional keyless entry system having an answerback function, for example, in a relatively large parking lot such as an airport or a large shopping center, a radio wave transmitted from a transmitter may not reach a receiver of a vehicle. In this case, the user cannot know where the vehicle is.
[0004]
The present invention has been made in view of such a problem, and an object of the present invention is to provide a vehicle position display system that can grasp the position of a host vehicle even in a relatively large parking lot.
[0005]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
A vehicle position display system according to claim 1, wherein the vehicle position display system includes a mobile communication device, a vehicle position detection unit provided in the vehicle, and detecting a position of the vehicle, and a communication module that performs communication with the mobile communication device. The mobile communication device has display control means for displaying a map on a display screen, and instruction means for instructing the in-vehicle device to transmit the position of the vehicle to the mobile communication device. Upon receiving an instruction from the communication device, the position of the vehicle detected by the vehicle position detection unit is transmitted to the mobile communication device, and the display control unit displays the position of the vehicle transmitted from the communication module and a map around the vehicle. It is characterized by doing.
[0006]
As described above, a mobile communication device that can communicate with the in-vehicle device, receives the position of the vehicle detected by the in-vehicle device, and displays the received position of the vehicle and a map of the surrounding area is adopted. Thus, the user can grasp the position of the vehicle with reference to the displayed map. As a result, it is possible to search for a vehicle while referring to the displayed map.
[0007]
In the vehicle position display system according to claim 2, the mobile communication device further includes position acquisition means for acquiring a current position, and the display control means includes a position of the vehicle and the current position acquired by the position acquisition means and the vicinity thereof. Is displayed. Thereby, the user can confirm the distance and the positional relationship between the current position of the user and the vehicle. Then, it becomes possible to search for the vehicle according to the displayed map.
[0008]
According to the vehicle position display system of the third aspect, the position acquisition unit acquires the current position every time the predetermined time elapses, and the display control unit updates and displays the acquired current position every predetermined time. It is characterized by the following. Thus, for example, when heading for a vehicle while referring to a map, it is possible for the user to confirm whether the vehicle is approaching the vehicle with certainty or whether the vehicle is traveling in the wrong direction.
[0009]
In the vehicle position display system according to the fourth aspect, the mobile communication device is a mobile phone. As described above, the mobile phone capable of detecting the position and displaying the detected position and a map of the surrounding area allows the user to grasp the position of the vehicle.
[0010]
The mobile communication device is not limited to a mobile phone. For example, a PDA (Personal Digital) that can perform mobile communication and further includes a position acquisition unit and a display screen.
Assistants), a mobile PC, or the like.
[0011]
BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION
Hereinafter, a vehicle position display system according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.
[0012]
FIG. 1 is a conceptual diagram illustrating a vehicle position display system according to the present embodiment. As shown in FIG. 1, the vehicle position display system according to the present embodiment includes a GPS satellite 100, a mobile phone network 200, a vehicle 300, and a mobile phone 400. The mobile phone 400 can receive a radio wave from the GPS satellite 100 to acquire the current position, and can communicate with the communication module 320 mounted on the vehicle 300 via the mobile phone network 200. .
[0013]
As is well known, the GPS satellite 100 transmits radio waves to the ground, and a GPS receiver provided in the mobile phone 400 described later detects a position such as latitude and longitude based on the radio waves. The mobile telephone network 200 is a telephone line network including a base station and an exchange installed on the ground.
[0014]
The car navigation device 310 as an in-vehicle device mounted on the vehicle 300 calculates, for example, a position display function of displaying a current position of the vehicle 300 and a map around the vehicle 300, and calculates a route from a departure point to a destination specified by a user. And has a route guidance function for guiding to a destination along the route.
[0015]
Note that the car navigation device 310 is equipped with a GPS receiver (not shown), and the current position of the vehicle 300 can be grasped by the GPS receiver. Further, the car navigation device 310 is connected to a communication module 320 for communicating with the outside via the mobile phone network 200, and the current position of the vehicle 300 received by the GPS receiver is set to a mobile phone of a preset telephone number. 400.
[0016]
Further, in the present embodiment, the car navigation device 310 is adopted as the in-vehicle device, but the present invention is not limited to this as long as the current position of the vehicle 300 can be grasped. For example, the communication module 320 may include a GPS receiver.
[0017]
As is well known, the mobile phone 400 communicates with, for example, another mobile phone or a fixed phone via the mobile phone network 200, and receives the current position of the vehicle 300. The configuration of the mobile phone 400 will be described with reference to FIG.
[0018]
As shown in FIG. 2, the mobile phone 400 includes a microphone 410, an input key 420, a speaker 430, a display 440, an antenna 450, a GPS receiver 460, and a control circuit 470 connected to these. Further, a rechargeable battery (not shown) is provided, and power required for the mobile phone 400 to operate is supplied from the battery.
[0019]
The microphone 410 and the speaker 420 transmit and receive a signal, and the input keys 430 are a plurality of keys for inputting telephone numbers and characters. The display 440 is constituted by, for example, a liquid crystal display, and displays a telephone number or the like input by the input keys 430. The antenna 450 is used to communicate with the nearest base station of the mobile phone 400 using radio waves, and the antenna 450 transmits and receives radio waves.
[0020]
The GPS receiver 460 is for detecting the current position as described above, and the current position is represented by coordinates of latitude and longitude. As described above, the mobile phone 400 of the present embodiment has the GPS receiver 460, and is configured to be able to detect the current position of the mobile phone 400 by using the GPS receiver 460.
[0021]
When the GPS receiver 460 cannot receive the radio wave from the GPS satellite 100, for example, when the mobile phone 400 is indoors and cannot receive the radio wave, the mobile phone 400 uses radio waves with a plurality of nearest base stations. The latitude / longitude of the mobile phone 400 may be detected by so-called simple positioning for specifying the position.
[0022]
The control circuit 470 includes a CPU, a RAM, a ROM, a wireless circuit, and the like (not shown). In the ROM, a program for displaying the position received by the GPS receiver 460 and a map around the position is written, and the CPU or the like executes predetermined arithmetic processing according to the program.
[0023]
The control circuit 470 acquires the latitude / longitude corresponding to the current position of the vehicle 300 transmitted from the communication module 320, connects to the Internet via the mobile phone network 200, and acquires the latitude / longitude of the acquired vehicle 300. The position information including the longitude and the latitude / longitude received by the GPS receiver 460 is uploaded to a preset URL map distribution server. Upon receiving the position information, the map distribution server specifies a position on the map corresponding to the latitude / longitude of the position information, and image data (hereinafter, referred to as map display data) of the specified position and a map around the specified position. Is extracted. Then, the control circuit 470 downloads the extracted map display data from the map distribution server and causes the display 440 to display it.
[0024]
Next, a vehicle position display process related to a characteristic portion of the present embodiment will be described with reference to the flowcharts of FIGS. First, in step S1 of FIG. 3, a vehicle position display application is activated by a predetermined key input of the mobile phone 400. This vehicle position display application is installed in the mobile phone 400 in advance.
[0025]
In step S2, an instruction signal is transmitted from mobile phone 400 to communication module 320 mounted on vehicle 300 such that the current position of vehicle 300 is transmitted to mobile phone 400. This can be done by inquiring of the telephone number of the communication module 320 registered in advance.
[0026]
In step S3, the communication module 320 that has received the instruction signal via the mobile phone network 200 transmits the instruction signal to the car navigation device 310 to perform position detection. In step S <b> 4, the car navigation device 310 that has received the position detection instruction signal grasps the latitude / longitude of the current position of the vehicle 300 using the GPS receiver, and transmits a signal related to the latitude / longitude to the communication module 320.
[0027]
In step S4, when the position detection instruction signal is received, the current position of the vehicle 300 is known. However, the position of the vehicle 300 at the time of parking start is stored in advance, and the position detection instruction signal is output. When it is received, a signal regarding the stored parking position may be transmitted to the communication module 320.
[0028]
In step S5, the communication module 320 transmits a signal related to latitude and longitude to the mobile phone 400 having a preset telephone number via the mobile phone network 200. Then, the mobile phone 400 that has received the signal related to the latitude and longitude temporarily stores the latitude and longitude in the RAM.
[0029]
In step S6, the mobile phone 400 acquires the latitude and longitude of the current position from the GPS receiver 460. In step S7, the latitude and longitude indicating the position of the mobile phone 400 and the vehicle temporarily stored in the RAM. The position information of the latitude and longitude indicating the position of 300 is uploaded to the map distribution server via the mobile phone network 200.
[0030]
In step S8, the map display data distributed from the map distribution server is downloaded, and the position of the mobile phone 400, the position of the vehicle 300, and a map of the surroundings are displayed on the display 440. Thus, the user can search for the vehicle 300 while confirming the positional relationship between the position of the vehicle 300 and the current position according to the map displayed on the display 440.
[0031]
When the map is displayed in step S8, in step S9 in FIG. 4, a timer (not shown) provided in the mobile phone 400 starts counting time. In step S10, it is determined whether or not the time counted by the timer has reached a predetermined time (for example, 10 seconds). Here, if the predetermined time has been reached, the process proceeds to step S11. If the predetermined time has not been reached, the process proceeds to step S9, and the timer continues counting.
[0032]
In step S11, the count of the timer is reset, and in step S12, the position of the mobile phone 400 is detected again. In step S13, the detected latitude / longitude indicating the position of the mobile phone 400 and the position information of the latitude / longitude indicating the position of the vehicle 300 temporarily stored in the RAM are transmitted to the map distribution server via the mobile phone network 200. Upload.
[0033]
In step S14, the map display data is downloaded from the map distribution server, and the updated position of the mobile phone 400, the position of the vehicle 300, and a map around the updated position are displayed on the display 440.
[0034]
In step S15, the user is asked to determine whether or not to end the vehicle position display processing. If the processing is not to be ended, the processing shifts to step S9, and the processing from step S9 is repeated again. If the user desires to end the process, the process ends.
[0035]
As described above, the mobile phone 400 of the present embodiment receives the position of the vehicle 300 from the car navigation device 310 and displays the received position of the vehicle 300, the position of the mobile phone 400, and a map of the surroundings on the display 440. indicate. Thus, the user can confirm the positional relationship between the current position and the vehicle 300 from the displayed map, and can search for the vehicle 300 according to the displayed map.
[0036]
Further, the position of the mobile phone 400 is detected each time a predetermined time elapses, and the re-detected position of the mobile phone 400 and the current position of the vehicle 300 are displayed on the display 440 to update the map. Thus, for example, when heading for the vehicle 300 according to the map, it is possible for the user to confirm whether the vehicle 300 is approaching the vehicle 300 reliably or whether the vehicle is traveling in the wrong direction.
[0037]
In the present embodiment, an example is described in which the mobile phone 400 is employed as the mobile communication device, but the present invention is not limited to the mobile phone. For example, a PDA (Personal Digital Assistants), a mobile PC, or the like that can be connected to the mobile phone network 200, includes a GPS receiver 460, and further includes a display 440 may be used.
[0038]
(Modification)
In the present embodiment, in step S6, the latitude / longitude of the current position of the mobile phone 400 is acquired, and in step S7, the latitude / longitude indicating the current position of the mobile phone 400 and the vehicle 300 temporarily stored in the RAM. Is uploaded to the map distribution server via the mobile phone network 200, but only the latitude / longitude position information indicating the position of the vehicle 300 stored in the RAM is stored in the map distribution server. You may upload to.
[0039]
That is, after receiving the signal related to the latitude and longitude of the vehicle 300 from the communication module 320 in step S5, only the position information of the latitude and longitude indicating the position of the vehicle 300 is uploaded in step S7. As a result, in step S8, a map of the parking position of the vehicle 300 and its surroundings, excluding the current position of the mobile phone 400, is displayed. Even in this case, it is possible to grasp the position of the vehicle 300.
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an overall configuration of a vehicle position display system according to an embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a schematic configuration of a mobile phone 400 according to the embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing a first half of a vehicle position display process according to the embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing a latter half of a vehicle position display process according to the embodiment of the present invention.
[Explanation of symbols]
100 GPS satellite 200 Mobile phone network 300 Vehicle 310 Car navigation device 320 Communication module 400 Mobile phone 460 GPS receiver

Claims (4)

A mobile communicator,
A vehicle-mounted device that is provided in the vehicle and includes a vehicle position detection unit that detects a position of the vehicle, and a communication module that performs communication with the mobile communication device.
The mobile communication device has display control means for displaying a map on a display screen, and instruction means for instructing the in-vehicle device to transmit a position of a vehicle to the mobile communication device,
The communication module, when receiving the instruction from the mobile communication device, transmits the position of the vehicle detected by the vehicle position detection means to the mobile communication device,
The vehicle position display system, wherein the display control means displays a map of the position of the vehicle and a surrounding area transmitted from the communication module. The mobile communication device further includes a position acquisition unit that acquires a current position,
2. The vehicle position display system according to claim 1, wherein the display control unit displays a position of the vehicle, a current position acquired by the position acquisition unit, and a map around the current position. 3. The position obtaining means obtains the current position every time a predetermined time elapses,
The vehicle position display system according to claim 2, wherein the display control means updates and displays the acquired current position at every predetermined time. The vehicle position display system according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the mobile communication device is a mobile phone.

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