JP2005346278A - Communication device and program - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a communication device capable of exchanging further "living information". <P>SOLUTION: A weight W(t) of time information and weight W(p) of space information are calculated for received accident information. When the total weight W(t)×W(p) calculated by multiplying them is less than a destruction threshold (S140; NO), the received accident information is destroyed (S180). When the total weight W(t)×W(p) is the destruction threshold or more (S140: YES), the accident information is transmitted to other communication device 1 or infrastructure (S170). When the total weight W(t)×W(p) is a use threshold or more (S150: YES), predetermined processing using the received accident information is executed (S160). For example, processing for displaying the occurrence point, time or the like of a traffic accident on a display device or recalculating a route bypassing the generation point of the traffic accident is performed. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2006,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to a communication device.

Conventional techniques for obtaining information related to traffic jams include, for example, a technique for obtaining information via a fixed station along the road (for example, refer to Patent Document 1), and a technique for transmitting information determined by a driver through inter-vehicle communication (for example, , Refer to Patent Document 2), technology that estimates based on a database of congestion factors (for example, refer to Patent Document 3), and information by vehicle-to-vehicle communication to collect traffic information without depending on infrastructure at any place. There is a technique (see, for example, Patent Document 4) that collects.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 9-180094 JP 2002-183889 A JP 7-249191 A JP-A-4-297000

  However, such a technique is advantageous for obtaining immediate information in a small area, but its application to a wide variety of information is low. More specifically, the generation and disappearance of information are fixed and are not suitable for handling live information. For example, when considering traffic jams and accidents occurring on the road, it is highly important information if it is close to the point where it occurred or if not much time has passed since the point of occurrence, but it is far from the point where it occurred. If a considerable time has passed since the occurrence or the time of occurrence, the information is considered to be less important.

  Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a communication device that can exchange more “living information”.

  Communication device of the present invention (1: In this column, in order to facilitate understanding of the invention, the reference numeral used in the “Best Mode for Carrying Out the Invention” column is attached as necessary. Is not meant to limit the range of the communication means (30) capable of wireless communication with an external communication device, current position specifying means (21) capable of specifying the current position, and weighting information ( 28a) is stored, and control means (29) for executing various controls is provided. The weighting information stored in the storage means is information having the following characteristics. That is, with respect to predetermined weightable information in which the importance of information is increased or decreased by at least one of a temporal element and a spatial element, the temporal element and the weight are increased so that the higher the importance of the information, the greater the weight. This is information for weighting at least one of the spatial elements.

  And a control means performs the following control. That is, when the weightable information is received via the communication unit, the weight of the information is calculated by giving a weight based on the weighting information stored in the storage unit. Then, the calculated information weight is compared with a predetermined threshold value, and if the information weight is equal to or greater than the predetermined threshold value, processing using the received weightable information is executed. If the information weight is less than the predetermined threshold value, reception is performed. The process using the weightable information is not executed.

  As described above, it is determined whether or not the received information can be executed using the weightable information in a state where the weighted information is weighted from the viewpoint of at least one of the temporal element and the spatial element. In other words, whether or not the process can be executed is determined based on the level of importance of the information, and “handles more live information”.

  Note that the communication device of the present invention may be mounted or carried on a mobile body (see claim 9), or may be a communication device fixedly installed on the roadside. For example, if the moving body is an object such as a vehicle, the communication device is mounted on the moving body, and if the moving body is a person, the communication device is carried. For example, a mobile phone can be considered as the latter.

  The present invention focuses on the fact that the degree of importance of certain information, such as information about an accident that occurred on a road and traffic jam information, varies depending on temporal and spatial factors. In other words, when the communication device is mounted on a vehicle traveling on a road, the importance of the accident that occurred on the road greatly differs depending on when and where the accident occurred. . For example, if the accident occurred at a remote location and a long time ago, it is not so important. On the other hand, if there is an accident that occurred at a very close distance and very recently, there is an urgent need for measures such as the possibility of traffic closure due to the accident, and resetting the route if route guidance is provided. Therefore, it is a very useful measure to evaluate the importance of information based on such temporal and spatial factors and to control the execution of information processing based on the evaluation.

  The weightable information may be information that can be weighted from the viewpoint of at least one of a temporal element and a spatial element. However, if weighting can be performed from both viewpoints, it is preferable from the viewpoint of “handling live information”. Therefore, as described in claim 2, it is conceivable to employ information relating to an accident that has occurred on the road as the weightable information. An accident can include the time of occurrence and location. Therefore, the weighting information is also information for weighting both the temporal element and the spatial element. In addition, as shown in claim 3, in the case of accident information, two types of information, accident summary information indicating the outline of the accident and accident detailed information indicating the details of the accident, are included. It is conceivable to provide summary information and accident details information. This is because accident details are considered to be more important when they are close to the accident site. However, when going far away from the accident site, the accident summary information is more important as information (effectiveness). ) Will be higher. Therefore, by adjusting the weighting information so as to obtain such a result, appropriate measures such as notifying the user of the accident details information when close to the accident site and notifying only the summary information when distant are realized. It becomes possible. In addition, it is not limited to accident information, and may be traffic information or time information required for traveling that varies depending on, for example, the degree of traffic. For example, how much time it takes from a certain point to a certain point changes dynamically depending on the traffic volume, etc. Therefore, as with accident information, weighting both temporal and spatial factors is important. It is effective to evaluate

  In addition, as the predetermined threshold value, two types of threshold values may be adopted as shown in claim 4. In other words, there are two types of thresholds for determining whether or not to discard information, and a threshold value for determining whether or not information can be self-utilized, which is larger than the threshold for discarding.

  And a control means performs the following control using the two types of threshold values. In other words, if the weight of the calculated information is equal to or greater than the threshold for discarding and equal to or greater than the usage threshold, a predetermined process for using the received weightable information in its own device is executed and “received weightable information” is set via the communication means. Send to an external communication device. This is more than the usage threshold, so it is used by the device itself, and since it is more than the discard threshold, it is considered to be weightable information that is still useful for other communication devices, and is sent to other communication devices. It is the purpose to make it use. The external communication device may be, for example, another communication device similar to the own device mounted on or carried by the mobile body, or may be a communication device fixed on the roadside, for example.

  On the other hand, if the weight of the calculated information is greater than or equal to the discard threshold and less than the use threshold, it is not useful for the own device, but is still considered useful for other communication devices. Transmission to other communication devices is executed. If the weight of the calculated information is less than the discard threshold, it is no longer useful for other communication devices, so that it is not used by the own device and is not transmitted to other communication devices.

  The weighting information is information for weighting at least one of a temporal element and a spatial element so that the weight increases as the importance of the information increases. It is conceivable that the weighting information related to the target element is set so that the weighting becomes relatively smaller as the elapsed time becomes longer, and the weighting information related to the spatial element is set so that the weighting becomes relatively smaller as the separation distance becomes longer. . For example, it is considered that it is often appropriate to weight trends as described above, such as accident information and traffic jam information. Of course, the content of weighting may be changed as appropriate in consideration of the characteristics of the weightable information.

  Such weighting information may be stored in advance in the storage means of the communication device, for example, and transmission / reception may be limited to weightable information. However, as shown in claim 6, the weighting information is transmitted / received together with the weightable information. You may make it do. In this case, the weighting information received via the communication unit is stored in the storage unit. And when a control means transmits weightable information to an external communication apparatus via a communication means, what is necessary is just to transmit with the weighting information memorize | stored in the memory | storage means (weightable information).

  For example, accident information, traffic jam information, and the like can be considered as the weightable information. The communication device may only receive these weightable information from an external communication device, but as shown in claim 7, the control means can generate weightable information, and the generated weightable information is You may comprise so that it may transmit to an external communication apparatus via a communication means.

  In this case, for example, as shown in claim 8, it is provided with operation accepting means (22, 23a, 23b) for accepting a user's operation, and the control means can weight information based on the operation accepted via the operation accepting means. Can be generated. For example, in the case of accident information, the driver of the vehicle who has confirmed the occurrence of the accident performs a predetermined operation via the operation reception means, so that the fact that the accident has occurred, the time at which the accident occurred, the position where the accident occurred, etc. Enter it. The accident occurrence time, the accident occurrence position, etc. may be automatically acquired using a timer clock, GPS, or the like. Of course, the traffic information can be input in the same manner.

  In addition, as described in claim 10, when the communication device is mounted on a mobile object, the communication device is provided with detection means (such as 21c) for detecting the movement status of the mobile object, and the control means is connected via the detection means. It is conceivable to generate weightable information based on the movement status of the moving body detected in the above. For example, in the case of traffic jam information, if the moving body is a vehicle, it can be automatically determined based on the vehicle speed. Therefore, it is possible to automatically generate and transmit the weightable information without any special operation by the vehicle driver.

  In addition, when the control means in the communication apparatus described above is realized by a computer, it can be provided as a program executed by the computer. Such a program is recorded on a computer-readable recording medium such as a flexible disk, a magneto-optical disk, a CD-ROM, a hard disk, a ROM, or a RAM, and is loaded into a computer for execution as necessary. The function as the control means can be realized by loading and executing the program.

  Embodiments to which a communication apparatus of the present invention is applied will be described below with reference to the drawings. The embodiments of the present invention are not limited to the following examples, and can take various forms as long as they belong to the technical scope of the present invention.

[Description of communication device]
FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a schematic configuration of a communication apparatus 1 according to the present embodiment.
The communication device 1 of the present embodiment is a communication device that is mounted on a vehicle and also has a car navigation function.

  As shown in FIG. 1, the communication device 1 includes a position detector 21 that detects the current position of the vehicle, an operation switch group 22 for inputting various instructions from the user, and various instructions similar to the operation switch group 22. Remote control terminal (hereinafter referred to as remote control) 23a, remote control sensor 23b for inputting a signal from remote control 23a, external information input / output device 24, and external recording in which map data and various information are recorded A map data input device 25 for inputting map data and the like from a medium; a display device 26 for performing various displays such as a map display screen and a TV screen; a voice output device 27 for outputting various guide voices; Hard disk 28 for storing various data, wireless communication device 30, position detector 21, operation switch group 22, remote controller 23a, external information described above. Various processes are executed in accordance with input from the input / output device 24, the map data input device 25, and the hard disk 28, and the position detector 21, operation switch group 22, remote control sensor 23b, external information input / output device 24, map data input device. 25, a display device 26, an audio output device 27, a hard disk 28, and a control circuit 29 for controlling the wireless communication device 30.

  The position detector 21 receives a radio wave transmitted from an artificial satellite for GPS (Global Positioning System) via a GPS antenna, detects a position of the vehicle, etc., and a magnitude of rotational motion applied to the vehicle. A gyroscope 21b for detecting the distance, a distance sensor 21c for detecting the travel distance of the vehicle, and a geomagnetic sensor 21d for detecting the traveling direction from the geomagnetism. Each of the sensors 21a to 21d has an error having a different property, and is configured to be used while complementing each other. Depending on the accuracy, a part of the sensors described above may be used, or a steering rotation sensor, a wheel sensor of each rolling wheel, or the like may be used.

  As the operation switch group 22, a touch panel installed on the display screen, mechanical key switches provided around the display device 26, and the like are used. Note that the touch panel and the display device 26 are laminated and integrated, and there are various types of touch panels such as a pressure-sensitive method, an electromagnetic induction method, a capacitance method, or a combination of these methods. Also good.

  The external information input / output device 24 is for inputting information from various information collecting devices and the like. For example, an FM broadcast signal received via a radio antenna (not shown) or a VICS (Vehicle arranged near the road) Information and Communication System) Inputs radio wave beacon signals and optical beacon signals received from fixed stations for services. Further, for example, information from various in-vehicle devices such as a sensor for detecting the presence or absence of rain and a sensor for detecting the road surface condition can be input.

  The map data input device 25 includes various kinds of data including road data as network data, map data such as so-called map matching data for improving the accuracy of position identification, mark data indicating facilities, guidance images and audio data, and the like. A device for inputting data. As a recording medium for these data, a DVD-ROM, a hard disk, a CD-ROM, a memory, a memory card, or the like can be used.

  The display device 26 is a color display device, such as a liquid crystal display, a plasma display, or a CRT, any of which may be used. The display screen of the display device 26 includes a mark indicating the current location identified from the current position of the vehicle detected by the position detector 21 and the map data input from the map data input device 25, a guidance route to the destination, and a name. Additional data such as landmarks and various facility marks can be displayed in an overlapping manner. Also, facility guides can be displayed. The voice output device 27 can output facility guidance and various guidance voices input from the map data input device 25, and information reading voices obtained via the external information input / output device 24.

The hard disk 28 stores a weight function 28a. The weight function 28a will be described in detail later.
The wireless communication device 30 performs wireless communication with the communication device 1 (the wireless communication device 30) mounted on another vehicle or the communication device (the wireless communication device) installed on the roadside. As a communication method, for example, it is conceivable to adopt a wireless communication method mainly in a narrow area such as DSRC, BlueTooth (registered trademark), wireless LAN, UWB, and millimeter wave communication.

  The control circuit 29 is configured around a well-known microcomputer comprising a CPU, ROM, RAM, I / O and a bus line connecting these components, and the position is determined based on a program stored in the ROM or the like. Based on each detection signal from the detector 21, the current position of the vehicle is calculated as a set of coordinates and traveling directions, the map near the current position read via the map data input device 25, the operation switch group 22, the remote controller 23a, etc. Based on the map display processing for displaying a map or the like in the range instructed by the operation on the display device 26 or the point data stored in the map data input device 25, the destination and the destination are determined according to the operation of the operation switch group 22 or the remote controller 23a. Route guidance process that performs route guidance by selecting a facility and automatically calculating the optimal route from the current position to the destination Do. A technique such as the Dijkstra method is known as a technique for automatically setting an optimum route in this way. The control circuit 29 can exchange information with the communication device 1 and the roadside communication device mounted on another vehicle via the wireless communication device 30.

  1 illustrates an in-vehicle communication device as the communication device 1, and this in-vehicle communication device 1 is installed on the roadside or wireless communication (inter-vehicle communication) with the communication device 1 mounted on another vehicle. In the above description, the wireless communication (car-infrastructure communication) is performed with the communication device. However, for example, the wireless communication (inter-infrastructure communication) may be performed between the communication devices installed on the roadside. Of course, if wired connection is used, wired communication may be performed.

[Description of Operation of Communication Device 1]
First, an outline of the operation will be described. In this embodiment, information exchanged in inter-vehicle communication, vehicle-infrastructure communication, and inter-infrastructure communication (weightable information), time and space (position) information, and each information By adding information (weighting information) indicating how to give weights to the information, flexible and live information is utilized.

Here, as a specific example, (1) in the case of sudden accident, (2) the case of dealing with the time change of traffic conditions will be described.
(1) In case of a sudden accident When considering accident information when a sudden accident occurs, the importance of the information increases as the accident information is closer to the accident site and closer to the accident occurrence time. The degree is thought to be low. In addition, more detailed information is necessary if close, and there is a strong desire to know the detailed location and situation of the accident occurrence. There are many cases where a rough accident location is sufficient rather than detailed information.

  Therefore, in this embodiment, two types of accident information, accident detailed information and accident summary information, are transmitted from the communication device 1 and the roadside communication device mounted on the vehicle present at the accident site. These accident details and accident summary information correspond to weightable information. As the accident detailed information, for example, information including the current stage of the police, an ambulance, etc. with respect to the occurrence of the accident can be considered. For example, information such as information on vehicle closure by the police, information such as driving on one side, and the situation of accident handling. As the accident summary information, it is conceivable to use information about the approximate time at which the accident occurred, on which road (area) on which road the accident occurred.

  Weighting by time and space given at that time is performed based on the function shown in FIG. FIG. 2A shows a weighting function for weighting accident details, and FIG. 2B shows a weighting function for weighting accident summary information. In addition, including the case of FIG.2 (c), the vertical axis | shaft (W) of each map in FIG. 2 shows the weight (importance) of information, a horizontal axis (t) is time, and a horizontal axis (p) is space. (Position) is shown. Each of the weighting functions shown in FIG. 2 corresponds to the weighting function 28a stored in the hard disk 28 of FIG. 1, and this corresponds to “weighting information”.

  As can be seen from FIGS. 2 (a) and 2 (b), the outline information becomes more effective as information from a certain point when moving far away from the accident site, and it is effective as information when moving further away. Is no longer discarded. Moreover, when time passes, the effectiveness as information will become low and will be discarded eventually. By handling information in this way, new information is continuously distributed from the car that visits the accident site, and the weight of the latest information can be selected and used.

(2) When dealing with changes in traffic conditions over time Traffic conditions in the city change with time. It is effective to take information from the car that actually travels to determine how long it takes from one point to another.

  For example, when a vehicle passes close to the infrastructure A, the infrastructure A passes information identifying the infrastructure and time to the vehicle. When the vehicle arrives at another infrastructure B, by passing the information for identifying the infrastructure A and the time from the vehicle to the infrastructure B, the infrastructure B can reach the infrastructure B when it “goes” from the infrastructure A to the infrastructure B. Can be calculated. In this way, by combining information on various times, various vehicles, and various infrastructures, it is possible to calculate the average arrival time according to time. By having the average time carried by the vehicle heading from infrastructure B to infrastructure A, infrastructure A can obtain information that distributes the arrival time to infrastructure B. By repeating it within a certain range, the arrival time connecting the points can be provided to the vehicle.

  Information on time and space (position) is given to a vehicle (communication device 1) passing nearby from an infrastructure (roadside communication device) existing at a certain point. A weight function for weighting information at this time is shown in FIG.

  The time information given here is assumed to circulate in 24 hours. The phrase “circulates in 24 hours” means that the time axis serving as a criterion is a ring at 24:00 and 00:00. Not all information is given that way, it is just a specific example. If such time information is set to a value higher than discard at any time zone, the information will remain alive.

  Since the weighting of the time information shown in FIG. 2C is set so as not to become zero, the traffic information that is only weighted with the time information is not discarded. On the other hand, since the spatial information is set to take a value of 0 when moving away, the information is discarded when the weight of the spatial information becomes zero.

  That is, information that arrives at another infrastructure during a weighted effective position range is collected by the received infrastructure, and is used to calculate the time required to travel between points in the infrastructure. Naturally, only the travel time from a limited infrastructure point will be accumulated in that infrastructure. The degree of importance of the received information changes depending on the time of the day, and only the information with a weight greater than a certain threshold is used, and the travel time is averaged to provide the travel time according to that time zone. can do. In addition, in order to reflect the importance in the time zone of the day, weighting that circulates in units of 24 hours was adopted, but for example, by changing the unit to one week, one month, one year, it was adapted to each time Information can be provided.

Next, the transmission / reception process executed by the communication device 1 will be described with reference to the flowcharts of FIGS.
(Transmission process)
FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing a process in a case where accident information is transmitted from a vehicle to another vehicle or infrastructure (roadside communication device). This process starts when a user who recognizes the occurrence of a traffic accident performs a predetermined operation. For example, when the vehicle driver who has witnessed the accident site operates the operation switch group 22 or the like to enter the accident information input mode, this processing starts.

  When the flow starts, accident information is first generated (S10). In this embodiment, the accident details information and the accident summary information are based on information input by the user operating the operation switch group 22 and the like, and a current time / current position detected by a timer clock and a position detector 21 (not shown). Is generated. For example, the information such as the accident situation described above is generated by selecting and inputting by menu selection or voice recognition. Even if it does not depend on user input, for example, when the in-vehicle infrastructure detects an accident, information that an accident has occurred may be automatically transmitted.

  Next, the weighting function 28a for accident information stored in the hard disk 28 is read and added to the accident occurrence information (S20). As shown in FIGS. 2 (a) and 2 (b), there are two types of accident information weight functions 28a for accident detailed information and accident summary information. Detailed information and accident summary information) are transmitted to other vehicles or road installation infrastructure (S30).

(Reception processing, etc.)
FIG. 4 shows processing executed in the vehicle (its communication device 1) or infrastructure (roadside communication device) that has received the accident information.

  It is determined whether or not accident information has been received (S110). If accident information is received (S110: YES), the time information weight W (t) is based on the time information weighting function in the received accident information and the current time. ) Is calculated (S120), and the weight W (p) of the spatial information is calculated based on the weighting function for spatial information in the received accident information and the current position (S130).

  Then, the total weight W (t) × W (p) calculated by multiplying the weight W (t) of the time information and the weight W (p) of the spatial information is used to determine whether or not to discard. It is determined whether or not the threshold (threshold for discarding) is exceeded (S140).

  If the total weight W (t) × W (p) is less than the discard threshold (S140: NO), the information received in S110 is discarded (S180), and the accident information is not used thereafter. On the other hand, if the total weight W (t) × W (p) is greater than or equal to the discard threshold (S140: YES), it can be determined that the information received in S110 has a weight that can withstand retransmission. Therefore, it is further determined whether or not the total weight W (t) × W (p) is equal to or greater than a threshold (use threshold) for determining whether or not use is possible (S150). If the total weight W (t) × W (p) is equal to or greater than the usage threshold (S150: YES), a predetermined process using the accident information received in S110 is executed (S160). For example, if it is executed by the in-vehicle communication device 1, the location and time at which the traffic accident occurred is displayed on the display device, or if the route guidance is being performed, for example, the traffic accident occurrence location is bypassed. Perform processing such as recalculating simple routes.

  In S170, the accident information received in S110 is transmitted to another vehicle (the communication device 1) or the infrastructure (the roadside communication device). On the other hand, if the total weight W (t) × W (p) is less than the use threshold (S160: NO), the accident information use process in S160 is not executed, and other vehicles or the like in S170 are not executed. Only transmit accident information.

  In addition, the process of S120-S180 mentioned above is performed about each accident detailed information and accident summary information. Therefore, as explained in the above-mentioned operation outline, as can be seen from FIGS. 2 (a) and 2 (b), when going far away from the accident occurrence site, the accident outline information is more detailed as the accident information from a certain point. Effectiveness is higher than information. For this reason, for example, accident details information is discarded (S180), but accident summary information is transmitted to other communication devices (S170).

  In the other vehicle (the communication device 1) or the infrastructure (the roadside communication device) that has received the accident information by the transmission in S170, the processing shown in FIG. 4 is executed. Therefore, for example, when there is an infrastructure near the accident site, the accident information is continuously distributed from the infrastructure as long as the total weight W (t) × W (p) is equal to or greater than the discard threshold. .

  Thus, in the communication apparatus 1 of the present embodiment, the weight W (t) of the time information and the weight W (p) of the spatial information are calculated for the received accident information, and the total is calculated by multiplying them. If the weight W (t) × W (p) is less than the discard threshold (S140: NO), the received accident information is discarded (S180), while the total weight W (t) × W ( If p) is equal to or greater than the discard threshold (S140: YES), at least the accident information is transmitted to other communication devices 1 and infrastructure (S170). If the total weight W (t) × W (p) is equal to or greater than the use threshold (S150: YES), a predetermined process using the received accident information is executed (S160). For example, processing such as displaying the location and time at which a traffic accident occurred on the display device, or recalculating a route that bypasses the traffic accident occurrence location.

  About the accident which occurred on the road, the importance with respect to the communication apparatus which received the information changes greatly with when and where it occurred. For example, if the accident occurred at a remote location and a long time ago, it is not so important. On the other hand, if there is an accident that occurred at a very close distance and very recently, there is an urgent need for measures such as the possibility of traffic closure due to the accident, and resetting the route if route guidance is provided. Therefore, by evaluating the importance of information based on such temporal and spatial elements, and executing the processing shown in FIG. 4 based on the evaluation, it is possible to “handle more live information”.

Note that the same effect can be obtained with information other than accident information that indicates temporal changes in traffic conditions.
[Others]
(1) In the above embodiment, the weight function as shown in FIG. 2 is added to the accident information and transmitted. However, for example, the communication device 1 stores the weight function in advance and does not add it at the time of transmission. Anyway. For example, a weight function as shown in FIG. 2 is stored in advance in the hard disk 28 (see FIG. 1), and the weight function is not included in the information transmitted and received between the communication devices. On the receiving side, weighting is performed using a weighting function corresponding to the received information (weightable information).

  (2) The in-vehicle communication device 1 not only receives from the infrastructure regarding traffic jam information and “how long does it take from a certain point to a certain point”, but also, for example, data from a distance sensor 21c included in the own device It can also be determined by the own device using the vehicle speed calculated based on the above. It is also possible to automatically transmit traffic information and the like obtained automatically in this way, and it is possible to automatically transmit the vehicle driver without performing a special operation.

  (3) Weightable information is information in which the level of importance of information is increased or decreased depending on at least one of a temporal element and a spatial element. Therefore, it is not limited to the accident information that occurs on the road described above, but may be store information, for example. In the case of store information, what kind of information you want to convey or what the opening hours are depends on the store, so a weight function is also generated on the store information generation side, and the weight function is added to the store information It is appropriate to send.

It is a block diagram which shows schematic structure of the navigation apparatus of an Example. It is explanatory drawing of a weighting map. It is a flowchart which shows the accident information transmission process performed with the navigation apparatus of an Example. It is a flowchart which shows the accident information reception corresponding process performed with the navigation apparatus of an Example.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Communication apparatus, 21 ... Position detector, 21a ... GPS receiver, 21b ... Gyroscope, 21c ... Distance sensor, 21d ... Geomagnetic sensor, 22 ... Operation switch group, 23a ... Remote control, 23b ... Remote control sensor, 24 ... External Information input / output device 25 ... Map data input device 26 ... Display device 27 ... Audio output device 28 ... Hard disk 28a ... Weight function 29 ... Control circuit 30 ... Wireless communication device

Claims (11)

A communication means capable of wireless communication with an external communication device;
A current position specifying means capable of specifying the current position;
With respect to predetermined weightable information in which the importance of information is increased or decreased by at least one of temporal and / or spatial elements, the weight is increased as the importance of information increases so that the weight is increased. Storage means for storing weighting information for weighting at least one of the elements;
Control means for executing various controls,
The control means includes
When the weightable information is received via the communication unit, the weight of the information is calculated by giving a weight based on the weighting information stored in the storage unit,
Compare the calculated information weight with a predetermined threshold,
If the weight of information is equal to or greater than a predetermined threshold, the process using the received weightable information is executed, and if the information weight is less than the predetermined threshold, the process using the received weightable information is not executed. A communication device. The communication device according to claim 1,
The weightable information is information related to an accident that occurred on the road, and includes an occurrence time and an occurrence position.
The communication apparatus is characterized in that the weighting information is information for weighting both a temporal element and a spatial element. The communication device according to claim 2,
There are two types of accident information that are weightable information: accident summary information indicating the outline of the accident, and accident detailed information indicating the details of the accident,
The weighting information is provided for each of the accident summary information and accident detailed information. In the communication apparatus in any one of Claims 1-3,
As the predetermined threshold,
There are two types of thresholds for determining whether or not to discard information, and a threshold value for determining whether or not self-use of information is possible, which is larger than the threshold for discarding,
The control means includes
If the weight of the calculated information is equal to or greater than the threshold for discarding and equal to or greater than the usage threshold, a predetermined process for using the received weightable information in its own apparatus is executed and the received weighting is possible via the communication unit. Send information to an external communication device,
If the weight of the calculated information is equal to or greater than the discard threshold and less than the use threshold, the received weightable information is transmitted to the external communication via the communication means without executing a predetermined process used by the own device. To the device,
If the weight of the calculated information is less than the discard threshold, the predetermined process of using the received weightable information information in the own apparatus is not executed, and the process of transmitting to the external communication apparatus is not executed. A communication device characterized by the above. In the communication apparatus in any one of Claims 1-4,
The weighting information related to the temporal element is set so that the weighting becomes relatively smaller as the elapsed time becomes longer, and the weighting information related to the spatial element is set so that the weighting becomes relatively smaller as the separation distance becomes longer. A communication device. In the communication apparatus in any one of Claims 1-5,
The weighting information is received via the communication means together with the weightable information,
The control means stores the received weighting information in the storage means,
The control unit transmits the weightable information together with the weighting information when transmitting the weightable information to an external communication device via the communication unit. In the communication apparatus in any one of Claims 1-6,
The communication unit can generate the weightable information, and transmits the generated weightable information to an external communication device via the communication unit. The communication device according to claim 7.
It has an operation reception means for receiving user operations,
The communication device, wherein the control unit generates the weightable information based on an operation received through the operation receiving unit. In the communication apparatus in any one of Claims 1-8,
A communication device mounted or carried on a mobile object. The communication device according to claim 9.
Provided with detection means for detecting the movement status of the mounted mobile body,
The communication device generates the weightable information based on a moving state of the moving body detected through the detecting unit.   The program for functioning a computer as said control means with which the communication apparatus in any one of Claims 1-10 is provided.

Images