JP2001359161A - Method for providing weather information and system for the same - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a method and system for providing weather information, capable of realizing cost reduction of the facilities and communication fee by using the communication network of a mobile object without temporarily occupying any communication line. SOLUTION: The base station of the communication network of a mobile object is provided with a weather forecast information providing device 10 and a transmitter/receiver 20. In the weather broadcast information providing device 10, a weather observing part 11 observes a weather in each prescribed time interval, and an observed data storing part 12 stores the observed data, and a weather forecast information generation part 13 generates weather forecast information based on the stored observed data, and a weather forecast information storing part 14 stores the generated weather forecast information. Then, a radio part 22 transmits a radio signal including the weather forecast information under the control of a control part 21 arranged in the transmitter/ receiver 20, and a mobile station receives the radio signal.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

The present invention relates to a weather information providing method and a weather information providing system for providing weather information such as a weather forecast. In particular, the present invention relates to a weather information providing method and a weather information providing system for providing local weather information using a mobile communication network.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art It is very useful to be able to always obtain the latest weather information. 2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, as one method of providing weather information to a moving person, there has been a method of using an electronic bulletin board provided at a street, a commercial facility, a transportation facility, or the like.

Further, Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. Hei 10-224869 discloses a method of displaying weather forecast information and the like on a portable telephone terminal using a mobile communication network.

[0004]

As for the method of providing weather information using an electronic bulletin board, such a method can be adopted mainly for a business concentration area having a high density of people or for a reason of installation and operation costs. It was limited to commercial clusters.

[0005] The prior art using a mobile communication network also has the following problems. First of all, in order to provide the weather information provided by the information provider as it is,
For example, it can only provide weather information for a wide area such as prefectures,
It was not possible to provide individual and accurate information for each detailed area that distinguished plains and mountains in the area. Secondly, since the terminal acquires information by connecting the line between the mobile communication terminal and the information provider, not only the information acquisition cost but also the communication cost to the information provider is required, The communication line resources of the mobile communication network have been temporarily occupied.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and can provide local weather information using a mobile communication network that already exists as a social infrastructure. It is an object of the present invention to provide a weather information providing method and a weather information providing system which can reduce the cost of equipment and communication charges without temporarily occupying a communication line.

[0007]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the invention according to claim 1 is a method for providing weather information using a mobile communication network, wherein the base station of the mobile communication network is provided. Observing the weather condition at the point of the base station by the weather observation means provided in the base station to obtain observation data; generating weather information for provision based on the observation data; and Transmitting the weather information to a mobile station located in the service area of the base station.

Further, the invention according to claim 2 includes a step of transferring the acquired observation data from the base station to a higher-level station that controls a plurality of base stations, and generating the weather information. Is performed by weather information generating means provided in the upper station.

The invention according to claim 3 is characterized in that the transmission of the weather information from the base station to the mobile station is performed using a control channel of a mobile communication network.

The invention according to claim 4 is characterized in that the transmission of the weather information from the base station to the mobile station is performed using a broadcast channel in the control channel.

Further, in the invention according to claim 5,
The weather information is weather forecast information.

According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a weather information providing system using a mobile communication network, wherein the weather information providing system is attached to a base station of the mobile communication network. A meteorological observation unit that performs observation and obtains observation data; a weather information generation unit that generates weather information for provision based on the observation data; and a service area of the base station, which is provided in the base station and transmits the weather information to the base station. And a transmission / reception means for transmitting to a mobile station located in the area.

[0013] In the invention according to claim 7,
The weather information generating means is attached to a higher-level station that controls a plurality of base stations and generates weather forecast information based on observation data received from the plurality of base stations.

Further, in the invention according to claim 8,
The transmission / reception unit transmits the weather information to the mobile station using a control channel of a mobile communication network.

Further, in the invention according to claim 9,
The transmission / reception unit transmits the weather information to the mobile station using a broadcast channel in the control channel.

Further, in the invention according to claim 10, the weather information is weather forecast information.

[0017]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS A first embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a station configuration in a service area of a mobile communication network. In FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 denotes a base station, 3 denotes a service area covered by the base station 1, and 2 denotes a service area within the service area 3. It is a mobile station. Usually, a plurality of mobile stations 2 exist in the service area 3. The base station 1 and the mobile station 2 communicate with each other wirelessly.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the base station 1. As shown in FIG. 2, the base station 1 includes a transmitting / receiving device 20 (transmitting / receiving means) for providing a mobile communication service.
And a weather forecast information providing device 10 for providing weather forecast information. The weather forecast information providing device 10 includes a weather observation unit 11 for observing weather conditions such as atmospheric pressure.
(Meteorological observing means), an observation data accumulating unit 12 for accumulating the observed weather conditions, a weather forecast information generating processing unit 13 for generating weather forecast information based on information such as a temporal fluctuation tendency of accumulated air pressure ( (Weather information generating means) and a weather forecast information storage unit 14 for storing weather forecast information. The transmitting / receiving device 20 includes a control unit 21 that controls transmission and reception, and a wireless unit 22 that transmits and receives electromagnetic waves under the control of the control unit 21.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a configuration of the mobile station 2. As shown in FIG. 3, the mobile station 2 communicates with the base station 1, obtains the weather forecast information,
It is composed of a weather forecast information section 40 for performing storage and display control, an operation section 55 for receiving a user operation, and a display section 50 for displaying weather forecast information. The transmitting / receiving unit 30 includes a wireless unit 31 and a control unit 32, and the weather forecast information unit 40 includes a weather forecast information processing unit 4
1 and a weather forecast information storage unit 42.

Next, a procedure for providing weather forecast information using the mobile communication network having the above configuration will be described. FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing an operation procedure of the base station 1. In the base station 1, the weather condition is observed by the weather observation unit 11 in the weather forecast information providing device 10 (step A1), and the observed weather condition is stored in the weather data storage unit 12 (step A2). Here, the weather observation unit 11 may include the sunshine state, temperature, humidity, rainfall, snowfall, snowfall, wind, wind direction, and the like in addition to the atmospheric pressure indispensable for the weather forecast.

Next, the weather forecast information generation processing unit 13 monitors the analysis interval timer (step A3), and when the set analysis monitoring timer times out (step A3).
YES), the weather forecast information is generated based on the weather conditions accumulated in the observation data accumulation unit 12 (step A4), and stored in the weather forecast information storage unit 14. Thereafter, the generated weather forecast information is compared with the weather forecast information previously stored in the weather forecast information storage unit 14 (step A).
5) If a change has occurred (YES in step A5), the data in the weather forecast information storage unit 14 is updated, and the control unit 21 in the transmitting / receiving device 20 is notified that the weather forecast information has been updated. (Step A6).

The control unit 21 incorporates weather forecast information into a signal for performing a mobile communication service (step A).
7) Transmit to the radio unit 22 and transmit to the mobile station 2 of the communication partner from the radio unit 22 (step A8). Since the provision of the weather forecast information transmitted here is one-way information transmission from the base station 1 to the mobile station 2, notification means other than the communication channel, such as incorporating it into the information element of the broadcast information and transferring it through the broadcast channel, etc. Will be used. Thus, it is possible to provide weather forecast information without occupying communication line resources. The provision of the weather forecast information is not limited to the broadcast channel, and may be transferred using another part of the control channel.

Next, the operation of the mobile station 2 will be described.
FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing an operation procedure when the mobile station 2 receives a signal. The mobile station 2 receives a signal from the base station 1 by the radio unit 31 in the transmission / reception unit 30 (step B1),
Transfer to control unit 32. The control unit 32 extracts a signal relating to the weather forecast from the received signals (step B2).
Then, it sends it to the weather forecast information processing section 41 in the weather forecast information section 40. The weather forecast information processing unit 41 stores the received weather forecast information in the weather forecast information storage unit 42. And
Each time the weather forecast information is received, the received weather forecast information is compared with the weather forecast information previously stored in the weather forecast information storage unit 42 (step B3), and when a change occurs (YES in step B3). ), The data in the weather forecast information storage unit 42 is updated (step B4).

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing an operation procedure of the mobile station 2 when the user requests the weather forecast information. In FIG. 6, when the user performs an operation for requesting the weather forecast information on the operation unit 55 (step C1), a display request signal is transmitted from the operation unit 55 to the weather forecast information processing unit 41. The weather forecast information processing unit 41 reads out the latest weather forecast information from the weather forecast information storage unit 42 (step C2) and controls the display unit 50 to display information. The display unit 50 displays the designated weather forecast information (step C3).

Next, a second embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a station configuration according to the present embodiment. In FIG. 7, reference numeral 1 denotes a base station, 3 denotes a service area covered by the base station 1, and 2 denotes a mobile station located in the service area 3. Usually, a plurality of mobile stations 2 exist in the service area 3. Reference numeral 6 denotes another base station, 4 denotes an upper station that performs overall control and circuit switching of a plurality of base stations such as the base station 1 and the base station 6, and 5 provides weather forecast information connected to the upper station 4. Device (meteorological information generating means).

FIG. 8 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the base station according to the present embodiment. In this figure, reference numeral 23 denotes a higher-level device interface unit provided in the transmission / reception device 20 for performing communication with the higher-level station 4. It is. Reference numeral 60 denotes a weather observation device. The weather observation device 60 includes a weather observation unit 61 (meteorological observation means) for observing weather conditions such as atmospheric pressure, an observation data storage unit 62 for accumulating the observed weather conditions, And observation data processing unit 6 for processing observation data
3 is provided, and the observation data processing unit 63 can send observation data to the upper station 4 through the control unit 21 and the upper device interface unit 23 provided in the transmission / reception device 20.

Next, the operation according to the present embodiment will be described. FIG. 9 is a flowchart illustrating a procedure of observation data processing in the base station 1. In FIG. 9, first, the weather condition is observed by the weather observation unit 61 (step D1), and the data is stored in the observation data storage unit 62 (step D2).
I do. The observation data processing unit 63 monitors the observation interval timer (step D3), and when it times out (step D3).
(YES in 3), and sends it out to the upper station 4 through the controller 21 of the transmitting / receiving apparatus 20 and the upper apparatus interface 23 (step D4).

FIG. 10 is a flowchart showing a processing procedure in the weather forecast information providing device 5. As shown in FIG. 10, the weather forecast information providing device 5 generates weather forecast information from observation data received via the upper station 4 (step E1), and when there is a change from the previous weather forecast information ( (Step E2 YES), the weather forecast information is updated (Step E3), and the mobile station 2 is transmitted via the upper station 4 and the base station 1.
(Step E4). That is, in the present embodiment, the weather forecast information providing device 5 based on observation data transmitted from a plurality of base stations connected to the upper station 4.
To perform weather forecast information generation processing.

The above-mentioned mobile station (2), mobile station (2), weather forecast information providing device (5 and 10), transmitting / receiving device (2
0) All or part of the weather observation device (60) has a computer system inside. The process of providing the weather information described above is stored in a computer-readable recording medium in the form of a program, and the above-described processing is performed by reading and executing the program by the computer. Here, the computer-readable recording medium refers to a floppy disk, a magneto-optical disk, a CD-ROM, a magnetic hard disk, a semiconductor memory, or the like.

In the above embodiment, weather forecast information is provided as a typical example of weather information. However, other weather information may be provided. The other weather information is, for example, information on the sunshine state, temperature, humidity, rainfall, snowfall, snowfall, wind power, wind direction, waves, and the like.

[0031]

As described above, according to the present invention, the meteorological information observed or generated by the weather information providing device provided in the base station of the mobile communication network is located in the base station. Since the information is provided to the mobile station, the user can always obtain the latest weather information with higher accuracy around the user.

Further, according to the present invention, instead of connecting to an external information provider and receiving weather information from the information provider, it is possible to provide weather forecast information within its own system.
No information acquisition costs are required.

Further, according to the present invention, since means other than the communication channel is used as means for reporting weather information from the base station to the mobile station, it is not necessary to occupy the communication line resources of the mobile communication system.

According to the present invention, not only weather information is individually provided for each base station, but also correlation between weather conditions observed at a plurality of base stations is analyzed, and observation data is statistically handled. (For example, observing the movement of rain clouds by observing the relationship between changes in rainfall between base stations), so that it can have a function as a wide-area weather observation system. It is.

According to the present invention, when local weather information such as a base station unit is not required, the weather observation device is installed only in a representative base station, and base stations other than the representative base station are installed. The station can reduce the equipment cost by adopting a method of providing weather forecast information based on data observed by a representative base station.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a station configuration according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a base station (1) according to the embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a mobile station (2) according to the embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing an operation procedure of the base station (1) according to the embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing a procedure of a weather forecast information receiving operation of the mobile station (2) according to the embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing a procedure of a weather forecast information display operation of the mobile station (2) according to the embodiment.

FIG. 7 is a block diagram showing a station configuration according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a base station (1) according to the embodiment.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart showing a procedure of an operation of the base station (1) according to the embodiment.

FIG. 10 is a flowchart showing an operation procedure of the weather forecast information providing apparatus (5) of another example according to the embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Base station 2 Mobile station 3 Service area 4 Upper station 5 Weather forecast information providing device 6 Base station 10 Weather forecast information providing device 11 Weather observing section 12 Observation data storage section 13 Weather forecast information generation processing section 14 Weather forecast information storage section 20 Transmitter / receiver 21 Control unit 22 Wireless unit 23 Upper device interface unit 30 Transmitter / receiver 31 Wireless unit 32 Control unit 40 Weather forecast information unit 41 Weather forecast information processing unit 42 Weather forecast information storage unit 50 Display unit 55 Operation unit 60 Weather observation device 61 Meteorological observation unit 62 Observation data storage unit 63 Observation data processing unit

Claims (10)

[Claims] 1. A method for providing weather information using a mobile communication network, comprising: observing a weather condition at a point of the base station by means of weather observation means provided at the base station of the mobile communication network; Acquiring, and generating weather information for provision based on the observation data; andtransmitting the weather information from the base station to a mobile station located in a service area of the base station. A weather information providing method, comprising: 2. The method according to claim 1, further comprising the step of: transferring the obtained observation data from the base station to a higher-level station that controls a plurality of base stations. The generation of the weather information is provided in the higher-level station. 2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the step is performed by weather information generating means.
Weather information provision method described in. 3. The weather information providing method according to claim 1, wherein the transmission of the weather information from the base station to the mobile station is performed using a control channel of a mobile communication network. . 4. The weather information providing method according to claim 3, wherein the transmission of the weather information from the base station to the mobile station is performed using a broadcast channel in the control channel. 5. The weather information providing method according to claim 1, wherein the weather information is weather forecast information. 6. A weather information providing system using a mobile communication network, the weather information providing system being attached to a base station of the mobile communication network, observing a weather condition at a location of the base station, and acquiring observation data. Observation means, weather information generation means for generating weather information for provision based on the observation data, provided to the base station, the weather information for the mobile station located in the service area of the base station A weather information providing system, comprising: a transmitting / receiving means for transmitting. 7. The weather information generating means is attached to a higher-level station that controls and controls a plurality of base stations, and generates weather forecast information based on observation data received from the plurality of base stations. 6. The weather information providing system according to 6. 8. The weather information providing system according to claim 6, wherein said transmission / reception means transmits said weather information to said mobile station using a control channel of a mobile communication network. 9. The weather information providing system according to claim 8, wherein the transmission / reception unit transmits the weather information to the mobile station using a broadcast channel in the control channel. 10. The weather information providing system according to claim 6, wherein the weather information is weather forecast information.