JP2002150495A - Information-providing system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an information-providing system capable of making communications under good conditions, for transmitting information collected from vehicles to an information center, without on-vehicle device expensive. SOLUTION: The information center 10 is provided, which collects a variety of information to be provided to vehicles and provides this collected information via a satellite to each vehicle MB in a broadcasting fashion. The number of base stations B, which make radio communications with the vehicles MB, is connected to the information center 10 via a public line N. Each vehicle MB has an information acquisition device 30, which provides the variety of information obtained from the information center 10 via the satellite to the occupants of the vehicle MB, using the display function or the like of a navigation device 20 and produces vehicle information indicative of the occurrence of a traffic jam or the like, based on the outputs of various sensors S and the navigation device 20 provided in the vehicle MB, with this vehicle information being transmitted to the information center 10 by radio communications.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an information providing system for providing various information collected at an information center to a vehicle by broadcasting via a satellite.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, as a method of obtaining traffic information, a vehicle occupant listens to information provided by AM / FM radio broadcasting, and a vehicle-mounted navigation device displays traffic information obtained from a VICS road machine. There is known a method of viewing what is drawn on a road map.

The information provided by these methods is:
It is collected using various sensors and aircraft installed on the road, and is usually limited to main roads. In other words, these methods could not obtain information other than the main road. On the other hand, using a car (probe car) equipped with a sensor for acquiring various vehicle information (for example, traffic jam, accident, exhaust gas concentration, etc.) related to the running of the vehicle, and appropriately running the probe car By
2. Description of the Related Art A method of collecting vehicle information on an arbitrary road other than a main road is known. In particular, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. H11-25130 discloses a method of providing information to each vehicle and collecting vehicle information from a probe car by two-way communication via a satellite.

[0004]

However, when a vehicle transmits vehicle information to an information center via a satellite, the vehicle has an antenna having a high directivity and following the satellite, and a high-output transmitter. , And there is a problem that an in-vehicle device becomes expensive.

[0005] Further, when information is collected by using a normal vehicle as a probe car, the communication area covered by the satellite is very large, so that a large number of vehicles communicate with the information center via the satellite. And the communication capacity becomes insufficient.

[0006] Further, at present, information provided by the VICS is limited to an area around the current position of the vehicle. For example, when a destination is located in a remote place, it is desired to obtain information near the destination. However, there is also a problem that it cannot be obtained until the user approaches the destination to some extent.

The present invention has been made to solve the above problems.
Provide an information providing system capable of performing good communication for transmitting information collected by a vehicle to an information center without making the in-vehicle device expensive, It is another object of the present invention to provide an information providing system capable of arbitrarily obtaining information on a remote place.

[0008]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided an information providing system for providing various kinds of information collected in an information center to a vehicle by broadcasting via a satellite. Each vehicle collects various vehicle information related to the running of the vehicle, and when the collected vehicle information satisfies a predetermined notification condition, notifies the information center to the information center via wireless communication on the ground. Have been to be.

As described above, the information providing system of the present invention uses different transmission paths for downlink communication from the information center to each vehicle and uplink communication from each vehicle to the information center.
For downstream communication, satellite broadcasting that can transmit a large amount of information to many vehicles at once is used. For upstream communication,
Small terrestrial wireless communication of equipment (for example, mobile phones and PH
S, etc., MCA radio, DSRC radio, etc.).

Therefore, according to the present invention, a large amount of information can be efficiently provided to each vehicle, and information on all roads on which the vehicle travels can be obtained, so that information other than the main roads can be reliably obtained. Also, since there is no need to transmit a signal from the vehicle to the satellite, the in-vehicle device can be configured at low cost.

In addition, in the case of uplink communication, since each vehicle only needs to communicate with the nearest base station or roadside station, it is possible to secure a sufficient communication capacity for wireless communication for collecting vehicle information from the vehicle. Further, the vehicle transmits the vehicle information to the vehicle information center only when the collected vehicle information satisfies the notification condition, so that the amount of information to be processed by the information center can be minimized.

[0012] Next, in the information providing system according to the second aspect, when the collected vehicle information satisfies the notification condition, the vehicle transmits notification of the vehicle information until the predetermined end condition is satisfied. , Each time the user moves a predetermined distance. For example, when the notification condition is to determine the occurrence of traffic congestion as described in claim 3, the first vehicle information is notified when the occurrence of traffic congestion is detected, and thereafter, repeatedly involved in the traffic congestion While
Each time the vehicle travels a predetermined distance, vehicle information is notified.

For this reason, when traffic congestion occurs, similar vehicle information is transmitted from many vehicles to the information center. However, even if the transmission timing is concentrated, it is ensured that the state will continue. Can be prevented. In other words, even if the vehicle travels at the same distance, the time required for the vehicle travel varies from vehicle to vehicle depending on the driving method, so that the notification condition (length of travel distance) of each vehicle is set to be the same. Even so, the transmission timing of the vehicle information in each vehicle varies.

[0014] In addition, as the situation of the traffic congestion worsens, the number of vehicles that notify the vehicle information increases, and accordingly, the average time required for the vehicles to travel a predetermined distance increases. Therefore, when the travel distance is used as the notification condition of the vehicle information, the information transmitted from one vehicle per unit time becomes smaller as the traffic congestion condition worsens. The processing amount of the vehicle information at the center can be kept below a substantially constant upper limit amount.

Next, in the information providing system according to the fourth aspect, the information center transmits various information to be provided to each vehicle in a format classified according to a preset region.
From the information received from the information center via the satellite, information on the area including the current position or the specified area is extracted to provide information to the user.

For this reason, if a destination for which a route has been set by a navigation device is specified as information to be extracted, information on the destination can be reliably obtained even if the destination is located at a remote place. As a result, the usability can be improved as compared with the conventional VICS that can only obtain information near the current position.

[0017]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is an overall configuration diagram of an information providing system according to an embodiment to which the present invention is applied.

As shown in FIG. 1, the information providing system according to the present embodiment collects various information to be provided to the vehicle, such as weather in various places, in addition to traffic information such as road works, traffic regulations, accidents, traffic jams and the like. And an information center 10 for providing the collected information to each vehicle MB in a broadcast format via a satellite. The information center 10 is provided with a vehicle M via a wireless antenna Ab.
Many base stations B that perform wireless communication with B are connected via a public network N.

Further, each vehicle MB detects the current position,
View maps near your current location, set routes to your destination,
A navigation device 20 that provides route guidance and the like according to a set route and various information obtained by receiving a broadcast from the information center 10 via a satellite are transmitted to the navigation device 2.
In addition to providing the information to the occupants of the vehicle MB using the display function of the vehicle MB, the vehicle information generated based on the outputs of the various sensors S provided on the vehicle MB and the navigation device 20 is transmitted to the information center by wireless communication. And an information acquisition device 30 that transmits the information to the communication device 10.

The information center 10 communicates with the base station B via the public network N and collects vehicle information transmitted from the vehicle MB to the base station B via the communication unit 12. Then, the collected vehicle information is classified and arranged to generate broadcast data, and the data editing device 14 that stores the data in the database 16 and the broadcast data stored in the database 16 are directed to the satellite via the satellite antenna Ac. And a satellite broadcast transmitter 18 for providing broadcast data to the vehicle MB in a broadcast format.

Although not shown, the data editing device 14 also collects information from various sensors provided on the road, information collected by using an airplane, etc., similar to a conventional information center. It is edited together with information obtained from each vehicle MB via the device 12. Here, the information collection processing executed by the data editing device 14 will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG.

When this process is started, first, the communication device 12
It is determined whether or not the vehicle information has been received via (S1).
10) When the vehicle information is received, the vehicle information is classified into predetermined regions based on the location data of the transmission source included in the vehicle information (S120), and the process returns to S110.

On the other hand, if no vehicle information has been received, it is determined whether or not it is time to update the data (S13).
0), if it is not the update timing, the process directly returns to S110; if it is the update timing, the process returns to S110 after executing the data update process (S140).

In the data update process of S140, the process of S120
After the vehicle information is sorted out (deletion of duplicated data or low-reliability data, etc.) for each area classified by, the current traffic congestion state is specified, and this is referred to as the navigation device 20.
Creates traffic congestion information by converting it into data in a format that can be displayed on a road map displayed by. Also, based on past and current traffic conditions, etc., the traffic conditions after several hours (for example, one hour) are predicted,
Based on this, traffic congestion information is created, combined with a weather forecast several hours later, and stored in the database 16 as prediction information.

As a result, area information including current information and prediction information is created in the database 16 for each classified area as shown in FIG. And
The satellite broadcast transmitter 18 uses the connection of all area information stored in the database 16 as broadcast data, and repeats the broadcast data continuously or intermittently at predetermined broadcast times. Send to

Next, the navigation device 20 mounted on the vehicle MB transmits radio waves from a plurality of GPS satellites STg to G
GP that receives via the PS antenna Ag and generates position / time data specifying the current position and current time of the vehicle
An S-receiver 22, a display screen 26 for displaying a road map, the current position of the vehicle, and other various information, a display unit 26 including a speaker for guiding the set route by voice, and a well-known microcomputer Based on the position / time data from the GPS receiver 22, the display unit 26 displays the current position of the vehicle, displays a road map near the current position, sets a route to the destination, and provides route guidance based on the set route. , And a navigation control unit 24 that is performed via a speaker.

The navigation control unit 24 includes a memory in which map data for display is stored, an operation unit for inputting various commands, etc., other than the GPS receiver 22 and the display unit 26, which are included in a normal navigation device. It includes all the configurations and functions of. Further, the navigation control unit 24 is displaying the control state (for example, the operation mode and the contents of the display screen), the function of notifying the position / time data to the external device, and the information supplied from the external device on the display screen. And a function of combining and displaying the image.

On the other hand, the information acquisition device 30 extracts a necessary information from the satellite broadcast receiver 32 for receiving the broadcast from the satellite via the satellite antenna Am and the information received by the satellite broadcast receiver 32. Then, by transmitting the information to the navigation device 20, a broadcast reception process for providing information to the occupant via the display unit 26 of the navigation device 20, output of various sensors, and position / time information acquired from the navigation control unit 24 Based on the information control unit 36 that executes processing for generating vehicle information to be transmitted to the information center 10, and the vehicle information generated by the information control unit 36,
And a wireless communication device 34 for transmitting to the base station B via the wireless antenna Ak.

The vehicle information generated by the information control unit 36 includes, for example, traffic congestion, exhaust gas (NOx, CO ₂ )
There are a concentration S, a road surface condition, and the like, and a sensor S for detecting the vehicle speed, acceleration, inter-vehicle distance, brake / accelerator operation state, and the like is provided as a sensor S for detecting these. As the wireless communication device 34, a mobile phone is preferable, but a DSRC, an MCA, a pager, or the like may be used.

Here, an information providing process executed by the information control unit 36 and a traffic congestion detecting process for detecting information on occurrence and elimination of traffic congestion as one of processes for generating vehicle information are described.
This will be described with reference to the flowcharts shown in FIGS.
In the information providing process, as shown in FIG. 4, the satellite broadcast receiver 32 first determines whether or not area information has been received (S210). The specified information is extracted and stored in a predetermined area of a memory constituting the information control unit 36 (S220).

The designation information includes, for example, an area including the current position specified by the position / time data from the navigation device 20, area information of an area adjacent thereto, and a map on the screen of the display unit 26. , The area information of the area including the destination and the passage point set by the navigation device 20 can be set.

From the extracted specified information, the control state of the navigation device 20, particularly the one corresponding to the display contents of the display screen, is selected, and the navigation device 2 is selected.
0 (S230), and returns to S210. In the navigation device 20 to which the designated information has been transferred, if there is display data in the designated information, the data is combined with the image being displayed on the screen of the display unit 26 and displayed, and visually. If there is voice data, information is provided to the occupant aurally through a speaker.

If the information has not been received by the satellite broadcast receiver 32 in S210, the control state of the navigation device 20 is monitored to determine whether or not the control state has changed (S240). ), If there is no change, S210
Return to On the other hand, if there is a change in the control state, the process proceeds to S230, and as described above, information corresponding to the changed control state is selected from the designated information and transferred to the navigation device 20. The content of the information provided to the occupant is updated to one according to the change in the control state.

However, the change of the control state means, for example, that the map around the current position displayed on the screen is switched over the area divided by the area information and the occupant changes with the movement of the vehicle MB. This means an operation of switching from the setting for displaying the current congestion state to the setting for displaying a prediction of the future congestion state (one hour later).

Next, in the traffic jam detection processing, as shown in FIG. 5, first, a signal is read from each sensor S related to the detection of traffic jam information (S310), and a traffic jam occurs based on the read signal. Is determined (S32).
0). Specifically, for example, when the engine is on and the vehicle speed is equal to or lower than the lower limit speed for a predetermined time (a degree at which stop at a red light is not detected) and the vehicle is within a predetermined distance in front of the vehicle Then, it may be determined as a traffic jam.

When it is determined that no congestion has occurred, the process returns to step S310. On the other hand, when it is determined that a congestion has occurred, position / time data is obtained from the GPS receiver 22. (S330) The vehicle information is generated by associating the acquired position / time data with information indicating that traffic congestion has occurred, or with a signal serving as a basis for determining whether traffic congestion has occurred. The information is transmitted to the information center 10 via the wireless communication device 34 (S3
40).

Thereafter, the position /
The time data is acquired (S350), and it is determined whether the vehicle has moved a predetermined distance (for example, 100 m) from the position indicated by the position / time data constituting the vehicle information transmitted in S340 (S360). . If the vehicle has not moved by the predetermined distance, the process returns to S350. On the other hand, if the vehicle has moved by the predetermined distance or more, a signal is read from each sensor S related to the detection of traffic congestion information (S370), and based on this signal or this signal. The result of determining whether or not there is congestion
The information associated with the position / time data acquired at 350 is generated as vehicle information, and the vehicle information is transmitted to the information center 10 via the wireless communication device 34 (S38).
0).

Thereafter, based on the signal read from the sensor S in the previous step S370, it is determined whether or not the traffic congestion has been eliminated (S390).
To monitor the occurrence of new traffic congestion, and if the traffic congestion has not been resolved, return to S350 and repeatedly transmit vehicle information every time the vehicle travels a predetermined distance until the traffic congestion is resolved.

As described above, in the road information providing system of the present embodiment, vehicle information detected by each vehicle MB is collected at the information center 10 via wireless communication (here, a mobile phone). The information center 10 generates area information that is divided into blocks for each area based on the vehicle information and information collected by other methods, and uses the generated area information as broadcast data to each vehicle MB via a satellite. Provided in broadcast format. Then, the vehicle MB extracts information corresponding to the control state of the navigation device 20 from the received area information, and provides the information visually and audibly to the occupant of the vehicle MB via the navigation device 20. To be provided on a regular basis.

As described above, according to the road information providing system of the present embodiment, the road information (for example, traffic congestion information) and the like are created based on the vehicle information collected by each vehicle MB. It is possible to provide road information on not only the main road but also all roads on which the vehicle MB can travel.

Further, since the vehicle information is transmitted from each vehicle MB to the information center 10 by using a mobile phone, a sufficient communication capacity can be ensured, and a large output like the conventional device is obtained. Since there is no need to provide a transmitter or antenna for satellite communication, the device can be configured at low cost.

Further, according to the road information providing system of the present embodiment, when the vehicle MB detects congestion, the vehicle information is transmitted every time the vehicle MB moves a predetermined distance. Therefore, it is possible to reliably prevent transmission of vehicle information from vehicles involved in the same traffic jam from being concentrated at the same timing, and from being concentrated even if concentrated. In addition, as the traffic congestion worsens, the average time required for the vehicle MB to travel a predetermined distance increases, and the transmission interval of vehicle information from each vehicle MB becomes longer. The transmitted vehicle information can be suppressed to a substantially constant upper limit or less.

Further, according to the road information providing system of the present embodiment, when the information center 10 provides the road information to each vehicle MB via the satellite, all the area information classified by region is provided. On the MB side, necessary area information is extracted from the information.
, As well as the information near the current position of the vehicle MB,
It is also possible to obtain information on distant destinations and various points on the traveling route, etc. Further, as area information, not only current information indicating the current situation but also prediction information indicating a future prediction is provided. Therefore, the user can select a more appropriate traveling route according to the road condition and travel.

Further, in the present embodiment, in the satellite broadcast receiving process executed by the information acquiring device 30 of the vehicle MB,
A plurality of area information is stored as designated information, and information corresponding to the control state of the navigation device 20 is transferred to the navigation device 20 from among the plurality of pieces of area information. Therefore, regardless of the update cycle of the area information transmitted by the information center 10, when the control state of the navigation device 20 changes, information corresponding to the control state can be immediately provided. However, when the update cycle of the area information is sufficiently short, only the information corresponding to the current control state is extracted without extracting a plurality of area information, and the extracted information is transferred to the navigation device 20. You may.

In the present embodiment, the navigation device 20 and the information acquisition device 30 are configured separately, but the navigation control unit 24 of the navigation device 20 includes:
The information control unit 36 of the information acquisition device 30 may be configured by a single microcomputer, and the two devices 20 and 30 may be integrally configured.

Further, in this embodiment, the vehicle information is classified by region based on the position data in the information center 10, but an information center (a satellite broadcast transmitter 18 is omitted) is provided for each region. Alternatively, each information center may create area information, process the information into broadcast data at an information center having a satellite broadcast transmitter 18, and transmit the processed data.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an overall configuration diagram of a road information providing system according to an embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing the contents of an information collection process executed on the information center side.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram illustrating a configuration of broadcast data generated in an information collection process.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing the content of a satellite broadcast receiving process executed on the vehicle side.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing the contents of a traffic jam detection process executed on the vehicle side.

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 ... Information center, 12 ... Communication device, 14 ... Data editing device, 16 ... Database, 18 ... Satellite broadcast transmitter, 20
... Navigation device, 22 ... GPS receiver, 24 ... Navigation control unit, 26 ... Display unit, 30 ... Information acquisition device, 32 ...
Satellite broadcast receiver, 34: wireless communication device, 36: information control unit, Ab, Ak: wireless antenna, Ac, Am: satellite antenna, Ag: GPS antenna, B: base station, MB: vehicle, N: public network, S: sensor, STg: GPS satellite

Continued on the front page F-term (reference) 2F029 AA02 AB05 AB07 AB13 AC02 AC06 AC09 AC14 AC18 AC19 5H180 AA01 BB04 BB05 BB15 CC12 DD04 EE02 EE18 FF05 FF12 FF13 FF22 FF25 FF27 5K067 AA41 BB03 BB20 EB21 FF23 JJ56

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. An information providing system for providing various information collected at an information center to vehicles by broadcasting via a satellite, wherein each vehicle collects various vehicle information related to the running of the vehicle, and An information providing system, wherein when the information satisfies a predetermined notification condition, the vehicle information is notified to the information center via ground wireless communication. 2. When the vehicle information satisfies a notification condition, the vehicle repeatedly notifies the vehicle information every time when the vehicle travels a predetermined distance until a predetermined end condition is satisfied. 2. The information providing system according to claim 1, wherein: 3. The road information providing system according to claim 2, wherein the notification condition is to determine at least the occurrence of traffic congestion. 4. The information center transmits various types of information to be provided to each vehicle in a format classified for each predetermined area, and the vehicle transmits information received from the information center via the satellite. 4. The information providing system according to claim 1, wherein information of an area including a current position or a specified area is extracted from the information and information is provided to a user.