JP2001289642A - Its on-vehicle terminal system with bi-directional communicating function and communicating system thereof - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an ITS on-vehicle terminal system with a bi-directional communicating function that can bi-directionally communicate and exchange information between vehicles. SOLUTION: ITS vehicle terminal systems 50A-50C mounted on each vehicle measure the own vehicle positions to display maps and the positions. Object information is inputted with overlapping the map on a screen when the user of the each vehicle sends information to other vehicles. Each ITS vehicle terminal system provides coordinate information to the object information inputted by the user to send this object information through an Internet 20 and a public line 40. A bi-directional communication system server 11 installed in an information center 10 receives the object information from each vehicle to distribute it to other vehicles. Each vehicle receives the object informations sent by other vehicles through the information center 10 to display the corresponding object information based on the coordinate information that this object information obtains with overlapping the map.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an ITS on-board terminal system such as a car navigation system, and more particularly to a technique for performing two-way communication while sharing visual information with both own and other vehicles.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, an ITS on-board terminal system such as a car navigation system receives a radio wave transmitted from an artificial satellite or the like, measures the position of the vehicle, and outputs the map and an auto map on the map to an output device such as a display. Display car position and
Guide the driver to the route to the destination.

[0003]

However, the conventional ITS in-vehicle terminal system is configured as a passive system that presents information to the driver unilaterally, displays map information on a screen, and displays the vehicle information. It only has the function of mapping locations on a map. Therefore, for example, there is a problem that information about the own vehicle cannot be visually transmitted to another vehicle, information about the other vehicle cannot be obtained, and two-way communication cannot be performed between the own vehicle and the other vehicle. there were.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and enables two-way communication between vehicles, and information exchange based on object information such as characters and figures on a map. It is an object of the present invention to provide an ITS on-board terminal system with a bidirectional communication function.

[0005]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the present invention has the following arrangement. That is, an ITS vehicle terminal system with a two-way communication function according to the present invention is an ITS vehicle terminal system that measures a vehicle position and displays a map and the vehicle position. Information transmitting and receiving means for transmitting object information to another vehicle with coordinate information, receiving object information from another vehicle, and displaying the object information on the map based on the coordinate information of the object information It is characterized by having.

[0006] In the ITS on-board terminal system with a two-way communication function, the information transmitting and receiving means writes an object information in a virtual drawing area associated with a map drawing area based on a user's input operation. An information processing unit that obtains the coordinate information from the information on the position of the vehicle and gives the coordinate information to the object information written in the virtual drawing area; And a communication device for transmitting the data to the other vehicle via the communication device.

[0007] In the ITS on-board terminal system with a two-way communication function, the information transmitting / receiving means includes a communication device for receiving object information transmitted from the other vehicle via a predetermined communication path, and a communication device for receiving the object information. An information processing unit for drawing the object information in a virtual drawing area associated with the map drawing area based on the coordinate information of the object information, and displaying the object information drawn in the virtual drawing area in the map drawing area And an output device for superimposing and displaying the output on the map.

In the ITS on-board terminal system with a two-way communication function, a server terminal is provided at a predetermined information center, receives the object information from the vehicle side, and distributes the object information to another vehicle. It is characterized by.

ITS with two-way communication function according to the present invention
The communication method of the vehicle terminal system is a communication method of an ITS vehicle-mounted terminal system that measures a position of a vehicle and displays a map and a position of the vehicle. (B) receiving the object information from the other vehicle and drawing the object information in the map drawing area based on the coordinate information of the object information; And displaying the information on the map in a superimposed manner.

[0010]

FIG. 1 schematically shows an entire configuration of a two-way communication system to which an ITS on-board terminal system with a two-way communication function according to the present embodiment is applied. In the present invention, the two-way communication refers to a concept including one-to-one two-way communication, one-to-many two-way communication, and many-to-many two-way communication.

In FIG. 1, reference numeral 10 denotes an information center,
This information center 10 includes a bidirectional communication system server 11
Is installed. 20 is the Internet, 30A, 3
0B is an Internet service provider, and 40 is a public line. 50A-50C is IT with two-way communication function
This is an in-vehicle S terminal system, which is mounted on each of A car, B car, and C car. This two-way communication system is ITS
A server / client system having the in-vehicle terminal systems 50A to 50C as client terminals is configured. In addition,
In the following description, “ITS with bidirectional communication function
“In-vehicle terminal system” is simply called “ITS in-vehicle terminal system”
In order to distinguish it from the ITS in-vehicle terminal system corresponding to the prior art, "with a two-way communication function" is added.

ITS on-board terminal systems 50A and 50
B is connected to the center 10 via the Internet 20, and the ITS in-vehicle terminal system 50C is directly connected to the center 10 via the public line 40. In this example, I
In order for the TS on-board terminal systems 50A and 50B to connect to the center 10 via the Internet 20, the Internet service providers 30A and 30B are used, respectively.

Internet service provider 30A
And 30B are providers contracted or contracted by the user of each ITS on-board terminal system,
The user of the TS on-board terminal arbitrarily selects. In this example, the information center 10 and each ITS in-vehicle terminal system are connected via the Internet 20 and the public line 40. However, the present invention is not limited to this. The communication path connecting the center 10 and each ITS in-vehicle terminal system is arbitrary.

FIG. 2 shows a detailed configuration of the communication system. In the figure, the ITS on-board terminal system 50 having a two-way communication function is the same as the ITS on-board terminal system 5 described above.
0A to 50B, and includes a communication device 51, a two-way communication client 52, an input device 53, a vehicle position measurement / map display device 54, and an output device 55, and is connected via the public line 40 or the Internet 20. Is configured to perform bidirectional communication with the bidirectional communication system server 11 installed in the center 10.

Here, the communication device 51 is a mobile phone or a PH.
S, etc., which transmits object information (information such as characters and figures arbitrarily written by the user) to another vehicle via the Internet 20, a public line 40, or the like (a predetermined communication path). Or used to receive object information transmitted from another vehicle. The two-way communication system client 52 executes processing relating to object information. Specifically, the client 52 acquires coordinate information from information relating to the position of the own vehicle, and adds the coordinate information to the object information written in a virtual drawing area described later. And a process for drawing the object information on the virtual drawing area based on the coordinate information of the object information received by the communication device 51.

The input device 53 is for the user to input instructions and information necessary for this system. In this embodiment, the input device 53 is used to write characters, graphics, and the like input by a user as object information in a virtual drawing area described later. The own-vehicle position measurement / map display device 54 executes various processes and controls such as measurement of the own-vehicle position and map display based on the information input from the input device 53. The output device 55 is used to measure the position of the vehicle.
The map and the position of the vehicle are displayed below the control of the map display device 54, and are used to superimpose the object information drawn in the virtual drawing area on the map displayed in the map drawing area. The input device 53, the vehicle position measurement / map display device 54, and the output device 55 constitute the ITS on-board terminal system 8 for realizing the conventional functions.

Here, the two-way communication system client 52 and the communication device 51 constituting the ITS on-board terminal system 50, the existing communication paths (the Internet service provider 30 and the Internet 20), and the two installed at the information center 10 side. The two-way communication system server 11 forms a two-way communication system 60. In other words,
This system can be said to have the function of the two-way communication system 60 added to the conventional function realized by the ITS on-board terminal system 8.

The above-described input device 53, output device 55, two-way communication system client 52, and communication device 51
Transmits object information to another vehicle with coordinate information added to the object information input by the user so as to be superimposed on the map, and receives the object information transmitted from the other vehicle and has the object information. It functions as an information transmitting / receiving means for displaying the object information on a map based on the coordinate information.

In this embodiment, the two-way communication system client 52 is mounted so as to be incorporated in the ITS on-board terminal system 8 relating to the conventional function, and the communication device 51 such as a mobile phone or PHS is used when necessary. It is connected by a cable to the ITS in-vehicle terminal system 8 in which the communication system client 52 is installed. That is, by connecting the communication device 51 such as a mobile phone to the ITS in-vehicle terminal system 8 in which the two-way communication system client 52 is incorporated in advance, the ITS in-vehicle terminal system 50 according to the present embodiment is realized.

FIG. 3 shows a configuration of a display screen by the ITS on-board terminal system 50 according to the present embodiment. The display screen includes a map drawing area 200 used to display a map (no symbol) and a mark (own vehicle position mark) 201 indicating the position of the vehicle on the map, and a map drawing area 200 used by a user to write information. And a virtual drawing area 100 to be created. The display function of the map and the own vehicle position mark on the map drawing area 200 corresponds to the ITS on-board terminal system 8 shown in FIG.
Is realized by: In the present invention, the virtual drawing area 100 is placed so as to overlap the map drawing area 200, and the virtual drawing area 100 is associated with the map drawing area 200.
The user can freely write an object 104A (object information) such as a character or a figure on the virtual drawing area 100.

The objects drawn on the virtual drawing area 100 include an absolute coordinate point 106, a relative coordinate point 105, an azimuth,
The scale of the map drawn on the map drawing area 200, etc.
It has various kinds of coordinate information, and by using these pieces of coordinate information, even if the direction and scale of the map drawn on the map drawing area 200 change, it is possible to respond to changes in the map on the map drawing area 200. It is possible to redraw the object using The redrawing process and the drawing process on the transfer screen of another vehicle are shown in the flowchart of FIG. 5 described later.

Next, the operation of this embodiment will be described.
First, using FIG. 2 and FIG. 4, car A, car B, car C
The operation mechanism of the bidirectional communication will be described by taking a case where the bidirectional communication is performed as an example. When performing two-way communication between the ITS on-board terminal systems with a two-way communication function mounted on each vehicle, the user (passenger of each vehicle) uses a wireless communication terminal such as a mobile phone or a PHS to connect to the ITS on-board terminal system 8. Connect to
The ITS on-board terminal system 50 is realized. Then, the ITS in-vehicle terminal system 50 is directly connected to the two-way communication system server 11 via the public line 40, or is connected to the two-way communication system server 11 via the Internet 20.

Now, for example, when a user of the C car transmits information to another car, the ITS on-board terminal system 50C of the own car is required.
Object information is written in the virtual drawing area 100 of. The writing of the object information is performed by the input device 53.
The user inputs object information on the virtual drawing area 100 so as to overlap the map displayed on the map drawing area 200. The object information input by the input device 53 is transmitted to the information center 10 via the two-way communication system client 52 and the communication device 51, and is output to the output device 55. At this time,
The interactive communication system client 52 includes an input device 53
And the object information and the coordinate information from the own vehicle position measurement and map display device 54, respectively.
In addition to transmitting and receiving information to and from the two-way communication system server 10 on the information center 10 side via the server 1, the object information is output to the output device 55.

The bidirectional communication system client 3 embeds the coordinate information in the object information by the processing of the client 3, and gives the object information the coordinate information. The object information having the coordinate information is transmitted from the ITS on-board terminal system 50 to the two-way communication system server 11 as the object information JC through the public line 40 or the Internet 20.

The two-way communication system server 11 has an ITS
The object information JC received from the in-vehicle terminal system 50C is stored, and the object information JA is connected to other vehicles (vehicles A and B) which are connected to the bidirectional communication system device server 11 via the public line 40 or the Internet 20 in advance. , JB. Similarly, A
Regarding the object information written in the car or car B,
The two-way communication system server 11 stores the information and distributes the information to another vehicle. For example, when the ITS on-board terminal system 50B of the car B is not connected to the interactive system apparatus server 11, when the ITS on-board terminal of the car B is connected to the interactive server apparatus server, the current time. The latest information is distributed to car B.

As described above, the object information input to the virtual drawing area 100 by the user of the car C so as to be superimposed on the map has the coordinate information and is distributed to the other cars (the cars A and B). The object information received from another vehicle is displayed so as to be superimposed on a map based on the coordinate information of the received object information. The operation in this case will be described later in detail.

Next, with reference to FIGS. 3, 6, and 7, the object information distributed by two-way communication will be described.
FIG. 6 is an image diagram when the user writes the object information to the ITS in-vehicle terminal system with the two-way communication function mounted on the own vehicle. With the existing function of the ITS on-board terminal system (corresponding to the function of the ITS on-board terminal system 8), the map and the vehicle position mark 20 are displayed on the display screen 300.
1 is displayed. The user writes object information such as an object 104A representing the own vehicle position, an object 104B representing the planned route, and an object 104C representing the destination on the screen as information to be transmitted to another vehicle.

At this time, as shown in FIG.
The map, the position of the vehicle, and the object information written by the user are displayed as one screen on the display screen 300. As shown in FIG. The map drawing area 200 is drawn by the existing function of the system, and the virtual drawing area 100 is drawn by the function of the interactive communication system client. The area where the user writes is the virtual drawing area 100. In the bidirectional communication according to the present invention, the object group 10 on the virtual drawing area 100 is used.
4 (object 104A representing the position of the vehicle, object 104B representing the planned route, and object 104C representing the destination) are transmission targets.

A user can write object information on a map with an image directly written in the map drawing area 200 without being aware of the existence of the virtual drawing area 100. Each object written on the virtual drawing area 100 includes absolute coordinate points 106,
It has coordinate information such as a relative coordinate point 105, a scale, and an azimuth, and is transmitted to the interactive communication system server 11 installed in the information center 10. The virtual drawing area 100 also draws information received from the interactive communication system server 11, that is, object information written by a user of another vehicle.

FIG. 5 shows a flowchart of a screen drawing process at the time of transferring (transmitting) the object information or at the time of scrolling the map or changing the scale on the ITS on-board terminal system having the two-way communication function. The device that operates according to this flowchart is the two-way communication system client 52 of FIG.

Hereinafter, the operation of the two-way communication system client 52 will be described with reference to the flow shown in FIG. Step S1: The two-way communication system client 52 shown in FIG. 2 uses the conventional method as long as there is no input information (input information by the user) from the input device 53 or input data such as data received from the two-way communication system server 11. The absolute coordinate point 106 shown in FIG.
The coordinate information such as the relative coordinate point 105, the azimuth, and the scale is continuously obtained. When the user writes an object, the coordinate information is embedded in the written object information and distributed to another vehicle.

Step S2: Subsequently, it is determined whether or not the input information exists. If there is no input, the process returns to step S1 to acquire new coordinate information. Step S3: Here, the user inputs object information by the input device 53, receives the object information from the two-way communication system server 11 of the information center 10 by the communication device 51, or runs (moves) the vehicle. When the map display of the own vehicle changes accordingly, input information to the interactive communication system client 52 is generated. In this embodiment, it is assumed that input information is generated by receiving object information from the interactive communication system server 11. When input information to the two-way communication system client 52 is generated, it is determined in step S2 that "input is present".

Step S4: If it is determined that there is "input" (step S3: YES), drawing should be performed with reference to the coordinate information (absolute coordinate point, relative coordinate point, azimuth, scale, etc.) of the received object information. Calculate the existence area of the object. Then, it calculates whether or not this object is located on the map drawing area of the own vehicle.

Step S5: Subsequently, the above-mentioned step S
From the calculation result of 4, it is determined whether or not the received object is located on the map of the vehicle currently displayed (on the map drawing area), and it is determined whether or not drawing of this object is necessary. That is, if the received object does not appear on the map of the own vehicle, drawing is not necessary, and if even a part of the object appears on the map, drawing is necessary. Here, when it is determined that the received object is not on the currently displayed map and drawing is not necessary (step S5: NO), the process returns to step S1 described above, and the same processing is performed until drawing is required. (Steps S1 to S5: NO) are repeated. On the other hand, if it is determined that drawing is necessary (step S5: YES), the following steps S6 to S8 are executed, and using the coordinate information of the received object, the virtual drawing area 1 shown in FIG.
Draw the object on the 00.

Step S6: When drawing an object, first, the display position, direction, and size of the virtual drawing area are determined from the absolute coordinate points, azimuth, and scale of the received object as coordinate information. Step S7: Subsequently, the drawing position, direction, and size of the object in the virtual drawing area are determined from the relative coordinate points, azimuth, and scale of the received object as coordinate information. Step S8: Subsequently, an object having the determined drawing position, direction and size is drawn on the virtual drawing area having the determined display position, direction and size. As a result, the object information in the virtual drawing area is displayed on the output device 55 so as to overlap the map drawn in the map drawing area 200. Thereafter, the process returns to step S1, and steps S1 to S8 are repeated.

An actual operation image in the two-way communication according to the present embodiment will be described with reference to FIGS.
Now, it is assumed that a car A, a car B, and a car C are performing two-way communication using the ITS on-board terminal system according to the present embodiment, as shown in FIG. Here, as shown in FIG. 6, the C car has an object 104C representing a destination, an object 104B representing a route, and an object 10 representing a vehicle position.
When each object (figure) of 4A is written, the object information is distributed to each vehicle with the coordinate information embedded therein. As shown in FIG. 8, object information is displayed on the monitors of the output devices of the ITS on-board terminal systems 50A to 50C mounted on the cars A to C, respectively, in accordance with the map drawing area of each car. That is, the display contents of the map by the ITS on-board terminal system mounted on each vehicle are different for each vehicle, but the object information is displayed at the same position on the map displayed by each vehicle. As described above, the information transmitted by the user of the vehicle C can be shared by the users of the respective vehicles, and the information exchange using the object information can be performed on the map.

According to this embodiment, the following effects can be obtained. As a first effect, it is possible to add a two-way communication function (inter-communication mechanism) to the ITS on-board terminal system.
In this embodiment, the ITS in-vehicle terminal system of each vehicle connects to the two-way communication system server 11 of a predetermined information center 10 via the Internet, and the two-way communication system server 11 receives object information from each vehicle. To distribute to other vehicles,
Transmit information to other vehicles located at an arbitrary location as long as the location is on a map that can be displayed by the in-vehicle terminal system and is within a range that can be connected to the Internet (for example, a range within which the communication device 51 can talk). Can be.

As a second effect, the two-way communication function and the IT
By using the existing function of the S-mounted terminal system in combination, it is possible to notify a third party other than the user of the current position of the vehicle. As a third effect, an information transmission function can be provided to the ITS in-vehicle terminal system. For example, it is possible to notify a rescue center or the like of the exact position of a vehicle equipped with the ITS in-vehicle terminal system in the event of a failure or accident. Becomes As a fourth effect, two-way communication independent of the model of the ITS on-board terminal system becomes possible. The embodiments of the present invention have been described above. However, the present invention is not limited to these embodiments, and is included in the present invention even if there is a design change or the like without departing from the gist of the present invention. .

[0039]

As described above, according to the present invention, the following effects can be obtained. That is, according to the present invention, in an ITS in-vehicle terminal system that measures a position of a vehicle and displays a map and a position of the vehicle, the object information input by the user to be superimposed on the map has coordinate information. While transmitting information to other vehicles,
Since information transmission / reception means for receiving object information from another vehicle and displaying the object information on the map based on the coordinate information of the object information is provided, two-way communication can be performed between the vehicles. Information can be exchanged based on object information such as characters and figures.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an overall schematic diagram of an ITS in-vehicle terminal system with a two-way communication function according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a configuration of an ITS on-board terminal system with a two-way communication function according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a screen configuration diagram of an ITS in-vehicle terminal system with a two-way communication function according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram showing an embodiment of an ITS in-vehicle terminal system with a two-way communication function according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a drawing flowchart of the ITS in-vehicle terminal system with a two-way communication function according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating an example of use of a screen of the ITS in-vehicle terminal system with a two-way communication function according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a screen display mechanism of the ITS in-vehicle terminal system with a two-way communication function according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing an example of the operation of the ITS in-vehicle terminal system with a two-way communication function according to the embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

10: Information center 11: Two-way communication system server 20: Internet 30: Internet service provider 40: Public line 50, 50A to 50C: ITS on-board terminal system with two-way communication function 51: Communication device 52: Two-way communication system client 53 : Input device 54: own vehicle position measurement and map display device 55: output device 60: two-way communication system 100: virtual drawing area 104: object group 105: relative coordinate point 106: absolute coordinate point 200: map drawing area 201: own Car position mark 104A, 104B, 104C: Object S1 to S8: Step

 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on front page F term (reference) 2C032 HB25 HC08 HC24 HC25 HD03 HD12 HD13 HD16 2F029 AA01 AB01 AB07 AC02 AC13 AC16 AC18 5H180 AA01 BB05 EE01 FF03 FF13 FF22 FF33 9A001 CC02 JJ25 JJ27 JJ77 JJ78

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. An ITS in-vehicle terminal system that measures a position of a vehicle and displays a map and the position of the vehicle. A bidirectional communication function comprising: information transmitting / receiving means for transmitting to a vehicle, receiving object information from another vehicle, and displaying the object information on the map based on the coordinate information of the object information. ITS on-board terminal system. 2. An information transmitting / receiving means, comprising: an input device for writing object information in a virtual drawing area associated with a map drawing area based on a user's input operation; And get
An information processing unit for giving the coordinate information to the object information written in the virtual drawing area; and a communication device for transmitting the object information having the coordinate information to the other vehicle via a predetermined communication path. The ITS in-vehicle terminal system with a two-way communication function according to claim 1. 3. The information transmitting / receiving means includes: a communication device for receiving object information transmitted from the other vehicle via a predetermined communication path; and a communication device based on coordinate information of the object information received by the communication device. An information processing unit for drawing object information in a virtual drawing area associated with the map drawing area; and an output device for displaying the object information drawn in the virtual drawing area on a map displayed in the map drawing area. The ITS in-vehicle terminal system with a two-way communication function according to claim 1, comprising: 4. The server according to claim 1, further comprising a server terminal installed at a predetermined information center, receiving the object information from the vehicle side, and delivering the object information to another vehicle. ITS in-vehicle terminal system with a two-way communication function described in any of the above. 5. A communication method of an ITS in-vehicle terminal system for measuring a position of a vehicle and displaying a map and a position of the vehicle, wherein: (a) coordinates of object information input to a virtual drawing area by a user superimposed on the map; (B) receiving object information from another vehicle and drawing the object information in a map drawing area based on coordinate information of the object information; A method for displaying the ITS on-board terminal system with a two-way communication function.