JP2000332780A - Vehicle information distribution processing unit - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To allow a simple display section to quickly display data for an emergency purpose, even when loads are concentrated to an information processing section resulting in the slowdown of the processing speed. SOLUTION: A communication section 3 is placed between an information processing section 2 of an information processing LAN 1 and an I/F section 40 as the data input output section of an on-vehicle device, the communication section 3 is divided into a communication processing physical section 43 and a communication processing virtual section 44, and the communication processing virtual section 44 outputs data in a unified form to be processed by the information processing section 2. Communication processing virtual sections 20-26 corresponding to data input output sections 4-10, respectively, are connected directly to a simple display communication processing virtual section 24 to attain data transmission. Each communication processing virtual section selects data for simple display and directly transmits the required data not through the information processing section 2 so that the data are immediately displayed.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a vehicle information distributed processing device for distributing information processing in an in-vehicle information device that comprehensively controls a navigation device, an audio device, and the like via a LAN.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a vehicle is equipped with an audio device such as a car navigation device and a head unit, an air conditioner, and the like. When the device is used, the operation of each device is performed by an individual operation unit of each device. However, in recent years, the sophistication of functions of each device and the mounting of more in-vehicle devices have become necessary, and the need to comprehensively control these devices has arisen. Comprehensive control is performed.

In such an in-vehicle device information processing LAN for processing various information in order to comprehensively control the in-vehicle device, for example, as shown in FIG. A CPU 62, a ROM 63 storing a LAN operation program and the like, and a RAM 64 for temporarily storing various information are connected as basic components. Further, in the device shown in FIG. 2, a display processing unit 66 for a display 65 for displaying various images, a navigation device interface (I / F) 68 for a navigation device 67, and a map data for music or navigation. A CD player I / F 70 for a CD player 69 that drives a CD, a head unit I / F 72 for a head unit 71 that receives an AM / FM broadcast and incorporates an amplifier, and a touch panel 73 that is provided on a display screen. Touch panel I / F74, engine,
A vehicle ECU / I / F 76 for a vehicle electronic control unit (ECU) 75 for controlling operations of a transmission, a brake and the like is connected, and a simple display for a meter LCD 77 as a simple display device provided on a meter panel. I / F7
8 are connected.

In the illustrated device, for example, when the navigation device is operated, the CPU 62, based on a program in the ROM 63, sends various signals such as a vehicle speed signal and data from the vehicle ECU 82 taken into the common bus 61 and data from the touch panel 81. Information such as an operation instruction signal, VICS data by FM multiplex broadcast reception from the head unit 79, map data from a CD player 69 that drives a map CD-ROM, and current position data by a GPS reception signal from the navigation device 67 is comprehensively information. And outputs the data to the display processing unit 66.
Is converted to display image data and a navigation image is displayed on the display 65.

[0005] In addition to the display 65, a simple mark is displayed on the meter LCD 77 via the simple display I / F 78 in addition to the display 65, and the intersection is displayed at a position which is easy for the driver to see. You can turn left and so on. This meter LCD7
In 7, a signal such as an abnormality of the engine or an abnormality of the brake which may interfere with the operation of the vehicle is input from the vehicle ECU 75 via the vehicle ECU / I / F 76, and information of this LAN centered on the CPU 62. The processing section processes this signal and outputs necessary data to the simplified display I / F 78,
The display is instructed to the meter LCD 77. Meter LC
At D77, these abnormalities are displayed on the meter panel so that the driver can immediately see them with a simple mark or the like. In addition, when a telegram is input by communication with the outside, a telegram input display is performed, and various simple displays, such as notifying that the air conditioner is in the indoor air circulation mode, are optimally sized according to the situation. indicate.

In addition, an instruction from the touch panel 73 is converted into a LAN information processing data format by the touch panel I / F 74, and based on the data, the information processing section sends the address of the device to the instruction target device. In addition, an instruction signal can be output to cause a specified device to perform a predetermined operation. Thus, various operations can be performed by, for example, instructing the head unit 71 on the touch panel 73. Also, the head unit 71
In the same manner, the display data of the sound effect output from the CPU is processed by the information processing unit, and the data is sent to the display processing unit 66. The display processing unit 66 converts the data into display image data and displays the sound effect on the display 65. Can be displayed.

The vehicle ECU 75 inputs various engine operation signals including a vehicle speed signal, transmission and 4WD operation signals, and various brake operation signals such as ABS including a side brake operation signal. A transmission, a brake, and the like are controlled, and these are often controlled by another in-vehicle LAN. This vehicle ECU
Of the 75 signals and data required, the vehicle ECU
/ F76, the information processing section performs predetermined information processing based on the data,
The data can be used in F68 and the display processing unit 66. Further, as a result of processing the data from the vehicle ECU 76, if the information processing unit 80 determines that there is data such as a failure of the engine or a failure of the brake, which may pose a danger to the traveling of the vehicle, the simple display I /
A signal is sent to F78 to display a warning on the meter panel.

On the other hand, when the configuration of the on-vehicle information device is viewed from the function, as shown in the functional block diagram of FIG. Navigation device I / F 68, CD player I / F 70, head unit I / F 72, touch panel I / F 74, vehicle ECU / I shown in FIG.
/ F 76, simplified display I / F 78, and display processing unit 66 are connected, and each interface unit converts the data of the device connected thereto into a data format that can be processed by the information processing LAN 60 and outputs the data. The data format at this time is different for each interface. The information processing unit 80 performs various types of data from these interfaces into a unified data format that is processed inside the information processing unit 80, and then performs arithmetic processing to perform information processing. Conversely, the data processed and output by the information processing unit 80 is converted into a data format handled by the interface of each information device and output, and the interface of each information device receives this data and outputs a predetermined data. Conversion is performed and each device is operating.

[0009]

For example, as shown in FIGS. 2 and 3 as a vehicle-mounted device, a navigation device 6 is used.
7, CD player 69, head unit 72, meter L
Even in a relatively simple information processing LAN having a CD 77, a display 65, and a touch panel 73 as an operation unit, the information processing unit 80 must perform many data processes as described above. Since the load is large, a high-speed CPU, a large-capacity RAM, and the like are required. In recent years, information devices mounted on vehicles have become more diversified,
For example, as shown in FIG. 4, a video camera 81, a TV tuner 83, and a DVD player 85 are used as image devices.
An MD player 87, a CD changer 89, and a head unit 71 are mounted as audio devices, and a joystick 91, a hard key 93, and a voice recognition unit are mounted as operation devices. Further, as in the device shown in FIG. , A navigation device 67 and a touch panel 73, and connected to the vehicle ECU 75.

When various types of vehicle information devices are mounted as described above, the amount of data that is input via the I / F of each device and must be processed by the information processing unit 80 becomes extremely large. However, the load on the information processing unit 80 increases, and even if a high-speed CPU or the like is used, smooth processing is difficult, and the processing must be slow. Therefore, for example, when the abnormality must be simply displayed on the meter LCD 77 based on data indicating the abnormality of the engine or the abnormality of the brake obtained from the vehicle ECU 75, it is extremely urgent and must be displayed immediately. On the other hand, if the load on the information processing unit 80 is high and the processing speed is low as described above, it takes time to display the processing speed. Therefore, the driver continues driving without noticing the abnormality of the car, or When abnormal movement of a car occurs, the cause cannot be known. Also, when there is no display on the meter LCD, which is supposed to be displayed in case of emergency, especially when the car makes abnormal movements, it is especially troublesome to deal with it, mentally confused and appropriate You will not be able to take any action and you will be in a dangerous situation.

The meter LCD as a simple display device provided on the meter panel is a position particularly easy for the driver to see, so that in addition to displaying the emergency information obtained from the vehicle ECU 75 as described above, various important information can be simply displayed. It is considered to be displayed. For example, a display based on emergency information obtained by a voice recognition device, a display of specific information from various operation systems, a warning from a navigation device for an excessively high vehicle speed with respect to a curvature of a road, a VI from an audio device.
Simple display of emergency information from various in-vehicle information devices, such as display of emergency information based on CS information, warning display based on images of various objects such as a person photographed by a video camera provided behind the vehicle when the vehicle is back, etc. Conceivable. Also for these emergency displays, a delay in information processing in the information processing unit 80 may cause the driver to enter a dangerous situation.

Therefore, the present invention provides a vehicle information distributed processing apparatus capable of quickly performing an emergency display or the like on a simple display unit even when the load is concentrated on the information processing unit and the processing speed is reduced. It is intended to provide.

[0013]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the present invention unifies the data format to a communication unit provided between a LAN information processing unit and a data input / output unit of a vehicle-mounted device. A communication processing virtual unit is provided for each type of in-vehicle device,
An in-vehicle device distributed processing device is characterized in that the simplified display communication processing virtual unit and the other in-vehicle device communication processing virtual unit in the communication processing virtual unit are connected to enable data communication.

Further, the data input / output unit of the on-vehicle device is
It is an input / output unit for each data format that can connect a plurality of in-vehicle devices with similar data formats, and has a communication processing virtual unit that unifies and outputs the data format for each input / output unit for each data format. Further, the communication unit comprises a communication processing physical unit and a communication processing virtual unit.

[0015]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing functions of the present invention. An information processing LAN 1 for an in-vehicle information device is roughly divided into an information processing unit 2, an interface unit 40 surrounded by a dashed line in FIG. The communication unit 3 includes a processing unit 41 and a communication unit 3 provided between the interface unit 40 and the information processing unit 2. The communication unit 3 includes a communication processing physical unit 43 and a communication processing virtual unit 44 described below. I have. In addition,
The display processing unit 41 in FIG. 1 functions as an interface that performs data conversion between the display 42 and the information processing unit 2.

The interface unit 40 includes a voice recognition interface (I / F) 4 and a vehicle LA in the embodiment shown in FIG.
N ・ I / F5, operation LAN ・ I / F6, navigation I / F
7, simple display I / F8, audio LAN I / F9,
The image LAN / I / F 10 is connected, and
/ F and the communication unit 3 can be connected via a general-purpose transmission line via a general-purpose input / output port such as a serial port or a parallel port. Various input / output ports widely used in personal computers and the like can be provided as general-purpose input / output ports. For example, serial ports such as Rs232C port,
An SB port, a PS / 2 port, or the like can be used. As described above, since the interface is provided separately for each interface that handles an approximate data format of various in-vehicle devices, even if the mounted in-vehicle device is changed, the output of the device is similar to the input / output unit of the approximate data format. By connecting
It can easily cope with data processing of new equipment,
Versatility is improved.

In the communication section 3, the interface section 40
The communication processing physical unit 43 connected to the voice recognition communication processing physical unit 1 corresponds to each of the interfaces 4 to 10 described above.
2. Vehicle information communication processing physical unit 13... Image information communication processing physical unit 18 is provided. Each individual communication processing physical unit 4
In steps 10 to 10, the corresponding interface units 4 to 10 perform a process of importing data converted into a data format that can be handled by the information processing LAN 1 into the LAN. A process for outputting data for operation to an interface connected to each vehicle-mounted device is performed. Further, between each of the interface units 4 to 10 and the communication processing virtual units 20 to 26 described later, a message decomposing process or a combining process is performed.

In the communication unit 3, the communication processing physical unit 4
In the communication processing virtual unit 44 provided between the communication processing physical unit 43 and the voice recognition communication physical unit 12, the vehicle information communication processing physical unit 13 provided in the communication processing physical unit 43.
.. Corresponding to the image information communication processing physical section 18, the voice recognition communication processing virtual section 20, the vehicle information communication processing virtual section 21, the operation information communication processing virtual section 22, the navigation communication processing virtual section 23,
A simplified display communication processing virtual unit 24, an audio communication processing virtual unit 25, and an image information communication processing virtual unit 26 are provided. Each of the communication processing virtual units 20 to 26 converts the data decomposed and combined by the corresponding communication processing physical units 4 to 10 into a unified data format that is processed by the information processing unit 2.

As described above, the communication processing virtual units 20 to 26
As a result, the data can be exchanged in the communication processing virtual unit 44 in the same data format. Therefore, as shown in FIG. 1, it is possible to connect the other communication processing virtual units 20 to 23, 25, and 26 to the simplified display communication processing virtual unit 24 to transmit and receive data.

Therefore, for example, as described above, the vehicle E
When a vehicle abnormality signal such as an engine abnormality or a brake abnormality is received from the CU 27, it is converted into data in a format handled by the LAN by the vehicle LAN / I / F 5, and this is connected to the LAN by the vehicle information communication processing physical unit 13. At the same time, the data is decomposed and combined, and this data is converted into the unified data by the vehicle information communication processing virtual unit 21, where the information is selected, and only the data for which the simple display is performed is processed by the information processing unit 2. Is directly input to the simplified display communication processing virtual unit 24. Thereafter, the data entered into the simplified display communication processing virtual section 24 enters the simplified display I / F 8 via the simplified display communication processing physical section 43, where the data is converted into image data that can be displayed on the meter LCD, and an alarm display is displayed on the meter LCD 32. I do. This warning display can be changed, for example, such that the display is large when the car is running, small when the car is stopped, and even when other displays are being performed on the meter LCD. It is set so that information with a high degree of urgency can be displayed according to a priority determined in advance according to the degree or the like.

With the above configuration, there is no need to send data from the communication unit 3 to the information processing unit 2 to perform data processing. Even when the processing takes time, it can be immediately displayed on the meter LCD without being affected by the processing, and the driver can be immediately notified of the emergency state.

The emergency information to be displayed on the meter LCD as described above is not limited to information from the vehicle ECU, but may be included in data from the voice recognition unit 11 or in the touch panel 28, the hard keys 29, the joystick 30, and the like. When there is a signal to be simply displayed in the data from the operating device, or in the signal from the navigation device 31, a predetermined simple display such as a warning of an excessively high vehicle speed with respect to the curvature of the road is displayed. When there is a signal to be displayed, or when there is a signal to be displayed in a simplified manner, such as emergency information based on VICS information from an audio device, and a video camera provided behind the vehicle when the vehicle is back When various kinds of emergency information from various in-vehicle information devices exist, such as when various objects such as a nearby person are photographed at 38, It is also conceivable that the communication processing virtual unit to which each device belongs selects data to be simply displayed, transmits necessary data directly to the simplified display communication processing virtual unit 24, and immediately performs a simple display. As shown in FIG. 1, the simple display communication processing virtual unit 24 is connected to other communication processing virtual units so as to be able to transmit and receive data. Also,
Since the communication processing virtual unit is provided with a communication processing virtual unit for each input / output, the communication processing virtual unit has a data format to be processed by the information processing unit 2 and a predetermined data format to be transmitted to the simplified display communication processing virtual unit. The conversion process is facilitated, the process can be performed at a high speed, and the data to be simply displayed can be easily selected, so that the speed of the simple display can be increased.

[0023]

According to the first aspect of the present invention, since a large number of high-performance information devices are connected to the information processing LAN, a large load is imposed on the information processing unit that performs overall information processing. However, even if the processing speed is reduced, the information does not pass through the information processing unit, so that the emergency information or the like can be displayed immediately in a simple manner.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, the data input / output unit of the vehicle-mounted device is a data-type input / output unit capable of connecting a plurality of vehicle-mounted devices having similar data formats. Since the communication processing virtual unit that unifies and outputs the data format for each input / output unit is provided, even if the mounted on-board device is changed, by connecting to the input / output unit of the data format that the output of the device approximates, It can easily cope with data processing of a new device, and versatility is improved.
In addition, since a communication processing virtual unit for each input / output can be provided in the communication processing virtual unit, a predetermined data format that is a data format to be processed by the information processing unit 2 and a data format to be sent to the simplified display communication processing virtual unit. The conversion process into the format is facilitated, the process can be performed at a high speed, and the data to be simply displayed can be easily selected, so that the speed of the simplified display can be increased.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, since the communication unit comprises a communication processing physical unit and a communication processing virtual unit, the communication processing virtual unit processes data in the communication unit. Various processing loads such as data selection can be reduced, and the speed of display on the simple display unit can be increased.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram of an information processing circuit of a vehicle information distributed processing device of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a configuration diagram of an information processing circuit of a conventional vehicle information processing apparatus.

FIG. 3 is a functional block diagram of the information processing circuit of FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a configuration diagram of an information processing circuit of another conventional vehicle information processing apparatus.

[Explanation of symbols]

 Reference Signs List 1 information processing LAN 2 information processing unit 3 communication unit 40 interface unit 41 display processing unit

Claims (3)

[Claims] A communication unit provided between the information processing unit of the LAN and the data input / output unit of the on-vehicle device;
A vehicle information distributed processing device, wherein a simplified display communication processing virtual unit in the communication processing virtual unit and another in-vehicle device communication processing virtual unit are connected to enable data communication. 2. The data input / output unit of the in-vehicle device is a data format-specific input / output unit to which a plurality of in-vehicle devices having similar data formats can be connected. The vehicle information distributed processing device according to claim 1, further comprising a communication processing virtual unit that outputs the data in unified manner. 3. The vehicle information distributed processing device according to claim 1, wherein the communication unit comprises a communication processing physical unit and a communication processing virtual unit.