JP2002174522A - Vics receiver - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a VICS receiver which achieves a significant reduction in the display of unnecessary data due to radio beacon signals by discriminating running roads utilizing the intensity of received electric fields of the radio beacon signals and a map matching function of a car navigation system concerning the VICS receiver. SOLUTION: A detection part 5 for the intensity of received electric fields of radio beacons detects the intensity of a received electric field from a signal of a radio beacon from a radio/light beacon receiving part 3 to be transmitted to a beacon signal processing part 4. The beacon signal processing part 4 decodes a base band signal of the radio beacon signal converted to generate a VICS data when the intensity of the received electric field of the radio beacon signal exceeds a present value. It skips the decoding of the base band signal of the radio beacon by judging that running is made on an ordinary road when the intensity of the received electric field of the radio beacon does not exceed the preset value.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

[0001] The present invention relates to a VICS (Vehicle).
VIC that receives signals transmitted from optical and radio beacons of Information and Communication System)
It relates to an S receiving device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, VICS data is transmitted from an optical beacon on an ordinary road and transmitted from a radio beacon on an expressway. This type of VICS receiving device is described in, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 9-93169.

FIG. 3 shows the configuration of a conventional VICS receiver. In FIG. 3, the VICS receiving apparatus includes a radio beacon antenna 1, an optical beacon antenna 2, a radio and optical beacon receiving unit 3, and a beacon signal processing unit 4, and is connected to the car navigation system main unit 6.

Next, the operation of the above conventional example will be described. Radio beacon signal is radio beacon antenna 1
The signal of the optical beacon is received by the optical beacon antenna 2 and returned to the baseband signal by the radio wave and optical beacon receiving unit 3, and the signal is decoded by the beacon signal processing unit 4 to the car navigation system main unit 6. Transmit.
The car navigation system main unit 6 converts the received signals into characters and images and displays them on a display.

[0005]

However, in such a conventional VICS receiver, a radio beacon leaked from an expressway is received and processed on a general road under an elevated expressway. There was a problem that the navigation system displayed unnecessary data.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve such a problem. The present invention uses a radio wave beacon signal reception electric field strength and a map matching function of a car navigation system to determine a traveling road. An object of the present invention is to provide a VICS receiving apparatus in which display of unnecessary data by a radio beacon signal is greatly reduced.

[0007]

A VICS receiving apparatus according to the present invention comprises: an optical beacon antenna for receiving an optical beacon signal; a radio beacon antenna for receiving a radio beacon signal; A beacon signal receiving unit that converts a beacon signal into a band signal; a beacon signal processing unit that processes the baseband signal; The processing unit
It is configured to determine whether to process the received radio wave beacon signal based on the electric field intensity detected by the radio wave beacon signal reception electric field intensity detection unit. With this configuration, whether to process this radio beacon signal is determined based on the electric field strength of the received radio beacon.

Here, the beacon signal processing unit receives from the car navigation system body an identification signal for identifying whether the road on which the vehicle is traveling is a general road or an expressway. It may be determined whether to process a beacon signal. With this configuration, the identification information from the car navigation system body is determined together with the electric field strength of the received radio beacon, and it is determined whether to process the radio beacon signal.

[0009]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 shows a VI according to the present invention.
It is a figure showing a 1st embodiment of a CS receiving device.

As shown in FIG. 1, a VICS receiving apparatus according to a first embodiment of the present invention includes a radio beacon antenna 1 for receiving a radio signal of a radio beacon and an optical beacon antenna 2 for receiving infrared light of an optical beacon. And a radio and optical beacon receiving unit 3 for converting radio and optical beacon signals into baseband signals, and decoding the converted baseband signal to VI
A beacon signal processing unit 4 for generating CS data and a radio beacon reception electric field intensity detection unit 5 for detecting the electric field intensity of a received radio beacon are connected to the car navigation system main unit 6.

In the VICS receiving apparatus having the above configuration,
For example, a 2.5 GHz band radio signal transmitted from the radio beacon and received by the radio beacon antenna 1 is converted into a baseband signal by the radio and optical beacon receiving unit 3 and transmitted to the beacon signal processing unit 4. Further, the radio wave beacon reception electric field intensity detection unit 5 detects the reception electric field intensity from the radio wave beacon signal from the radio wave and optical beacon reception unit 3 and transmits the electric field to the beacon signal processing unit 4. If the received electric field strength of the radio beacon exceeds a preset value, the beacon signal processing unit 4 decodes the converted baseband signal of the radio beacon signal to generate VICS data. If the received electric field strength of the radio beacon does not exceed a preset value, it is determined that the vehicle is traveling on a general road, and the baseband signal of the radio beacon is not decoded. Then, the baseband signal of the optical beacon is decoded.

As described above, according to this embodiment, it is determined whether the traveling road is a general road or an expressway based on the detected electric field strength, thereby displaying unnecessary data using a radio beacon signal. Can be greatly reduced, and the vehicle can be driven more comfortably.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a second embodiment of the VICS receiving apparatus according to the present invention. In this embodiment, since the configuration is substantially the same as that of the first embodiment, the same components are denoted by the same reference numerals, and only the features will be described.

In the present embodiment, an identification signal for identifying whether a traveling road is an expressway or a general road is received from the car navigation system main unit 6, and the processing of the radio beacon signal is also determined. It has become.

More specifically, the beacon signal processing unit 4 is adapted to use the received electric field intensity from the electric wave beacon electric field intensity detection unit 5 and the map matching function from the car navigation system main unit 6 to obtain a running road. Receives an identification signal indicating whether the road is an expressway or an ordinary road, and when the received electric field strength does not reach a preset value and the identification signal indicates an ordinary road, the baseband of the radio beacon Do not perform signal decoding. Then, the baseband signal of the optical beacon is decoded.

As described above, according to the present embodiment, the information of the type of the traveling road obtained by using the map matching function of the car navigation system is used to transmit radio waves when traveling on a general road. By not processing the signal of the beacon, unnecessary data display by the radio wave beacon signal can be greatly reduced, and the car can be driven more comfortably.

In this embodiment, when the received electric field strength does not reach the predetermined value and the identification signal indicates a general road, the signal processing of the radio wave beacon is not performed. The processing of the radio wave beacon signal may not be performed when the predetermined value is not reached or the identification signal indicates a general road.

The radio beacon reception electric field strength detection unit 5
May be determined without using the identification signal of the car navigation system body 6 alone. In this case, a VICS receiver can be realized more compactly and inexpensively.

When both the radio beacon and the optical beacon can be received, the radio beacon may be processed with priority. At this time, the priority of the radio beacon processing is determined according to the received electric field strength of the radio beacon. Change it,
When the reception electric field strength of the radio beacon is weak, the optical beacon may be processed with higher priority.

Further, when the electric field strength of the radio beacon is high, a part or all of the functions for receiving and processing the optical beacon may be stopped to reduce the power consumption.

[0021]

As described above, the present invention detects the electric field strength of a radio beacon received by a radio wave beacon signal reception electric field intensity detecting section and determines whether to process the radio beacon signal based on the electric field strength. It is therefore possible to provide a VICS receiver having an excellent effect that the display of unnecessary data by the radio wave beacon signal can be greatly reduced.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic block diagram showing a first embodiment of a VICS receiver according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic block diagram showing a second embodiment of the VICS receiving apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a schematic block diagram showing a conventional VICS receiver.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Radio beacon antenna 2 Optical beacon antenna 3 Radio and optical beacon receiver 4 Beacon signal processor 5 Radio beacon reception electric field strength detector 6 Car navigation system main unit

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁷ Identification symbol FI Theme coat ゛ (Reference) H04B 10/10 10/22

Claims (2)

[Claims] An optical beacon antenna for receiving an optical beacon signal; a radio beacon antenna for receiving a radio beacon signal; a beacon receiving unit for converting a signal received by these antennas to a baseband signal; A beacon signal processing unit that processes a band signal; and a radio beacon signal reception electric field intensity detection unit that detects an electric field intensity of a received radio beacon signal. The beacon signal processing unit detects the electric wave beacon signal reception electric field intensity. A VICS receiving apparatus that determines whether to process the received radio wave beacon signal based on the electric field strength detected by the unit. 2. The beacon signal processing unit receives, from a car navigation system main body, an identification signal for identifying whether a traveling road is a general road or an expressway,
The VICS receiving apparatus according to claim 1, wherein it is determined whether or not to process the received radio wave beacon signal based on the signal.