JP2006082691A - In-vehicle appliance control system to work with particular personal information - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an in-vehicle appliance control system capable of automatically adjusting the operation of an in-vehicle appliance while the degrees of priority of individuals is taken into consideration on the basis of the individual pieces of personal information of the driver and passenger(s). <P>SOLUTION: Individual pieces of the personal information of the driver and passenger(s) on the setting of preference to the in-vehicle appliance and its operation and the access policy concerning the priority order of different individuals are set in advance, and on the basis of the individual pieces of personal information, the setting of the in-vehicle appliance and its operation are adjusted automatically while the degrees of priority of different individuals are taken into consideration. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2006,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to a system for controlling the operation of each device installed in a vehicle such as an automobile, and more particularly to an in-vehicle device control system capable of automatically adjusting the operation of each device corresponding to the personal information of each passenger. Is.

  Devices such as an audio device, an air conditioner, and a room light are installed in a vehicle such as an automobile, and a passenger can freely operate these devices manually. In addition, some of these in-vehicle devices are automated, such as setting the air conditioner to automatically adjust the temperature, setting the lighting / extinguishing of the room light to interlock with the opening and closing of the door, In general, the door is automatically locked depending on the traveling speed. The passenger sets the operation of these in-vehicle devices according to his / her preference. However, such passenger-specific setting information is stored by some means, and this setting information is read out at the time of boarding. It would be convenient for the passenger if the device settings and operations could be performed automatically.

  As a technique for automatically adjusting the in-vehicle environment based on personal information stored in advance, there is a vehicle function control device disclosed in Patent Document 1. The vehicle function control device disclosed in Patent Document 1 automatically recognizes a driver and adjusts a seat, a steering wheel, a room mirror, a door fender mirror, and the like according to the personal information.

JP2003-237504A.

  By applying the vehicle function control device described in Patent Document 1, it is possible to automatically adjust in-vehicle devices such as audio devices, air conditioners, and room lights based on the driver's personal information stored in advance. . However, this system can only automatically adjust the in-vehicle environment according to the driver's preference, and does not have a mechanism for adjusting the in-vehicle environment in consideration of passengers other than the driver. In some cases, it may be necessary to adjust the in-vehicle environment with priority given to the requests of passengers other than the driver. However, the vehicle function control device described in Patent Document 1 handles such a case. I can't. Also, even if it is possible to obtain and use personal information of passengers other than the driver, if there are multiple passengers, which passenger's personal information should be used to adjust the in-vehicle environment? I don't know.

  The present invention has been made in view of such circumstances, and automatically adjusts the settings and operations of in-vehicle devices based on the personal information of each passenger including the driver while taking into account the priority of each individual. It is intended to provide an in-vehicle device control system that can be used.

  As a result of diligent research in view of the above-mentioned problem, the inventor has previously set personal information regarding preference setting and operation for in-vehicle devices of each individual passenger, and an access policy regarding priority among those individuals. In addition, the inventors have come up with the idea of automatically adjusting the settings and operations of in-vehicle devices while taking into account the priority of passengers recognized based on these information.

  That is, the present invention recognizes passengers, personal information storage means for storing information related to preference settings and operations for personal in-vehicle devices, access policy storage means for storing access policies regarding priority among the individuals, and A personal information of the passenger recognized from the personal information storage means, an access policy corresponding to the passenger is acquired from the access policy storage means, and the personal information and the access policy are stored in the personal information and the access policy. Based on this, an in-vehicle device control system is provided that includes adjusting means for determining settings and operations for each in-vehicle device, and in-vehicle device control means for controlling each in-vehicle device according to the settings and operations determined by the adjusting means. To do.

  In the in-vehicle device control system of the present invention, the occupant recognition means acquires information for recognizing the occupant by communicating with a mobile terminal held by the occupant.

  In the in-vehicle device control system of the present invention, the occupant recognition means acquires information for recognizing the occupant by reading an IC chip held by the occupant.

  The in-vehicle device control system of the present invention can be applied to in-vehicle devices such as an air conditioner, an audio device, a door lock, an accelerator / brake, a room light, a car navigation system, and an engine.

  The present invention is also a method for controlling in-vehicle equipment, the step of recognizing a passenger, and acquiring personal information regarding preference and operation of the recognized in-vehicle equipment for each in-vehicle equipment between recognized passengers. A step of acquiring an access policy relating to priority in the vehicle, a step of determining settings and operations for each in-vehicle device based on the acquired personal information and access policy, and controlling each in-vehicle device according to the determined settings and operations A method comprising the steps.

  In the in-vehicle device control method of the present invention, in the step of recognizing the occupant, information for recognizing the occupant is acquired by communicating with a portable terminal held by the occupant.

  In the in-vehicle device control method of the present invention, in the step of recognizing the occupant, information for recognizing the occupant is obtained by reading an IC chip held by the occupant.

  The in-vehicle device control method of the present invention can control in-vehicle devices such as an air conditioner, an audio device, a door lock, an accelerator / brake, a room light, a car navigation system, and an engine.

  The present invention also provides a computer program for executing any one of the above-described in-vehicle device control methods in the in-vehicle device control apparatus.

  As described above, according to the in-vehicle device control system of the present invention, it is possible to automatically adjust the in-vehicle environment not only for the driver but also for each passenger. In addition, by setting priorities among passengers for each in-vehicle device, the in-vehicle environment is automatically adjusted according to the important person among the passengers, and the in-vehicle environment is adjusted in consideration of children and the sick. It is possible to adjust automatically. In addition, depending on the passenger, it is possible to prevent accidents due to carelessness by automatically locking the door or stopping the engine.

  The best mode for carrying out the in-vehicle device control system of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. 1 to 8 are diagrams illustrating embodiments of the present invention. In these drawings, the same reference numerals denote the same components, and the basic configuration and operation are the same. To do.

  FIG. 1 is a block diagram schematically showing the internal configuration of the in-vehicle device control system of the present embodiment. In FIG. 1, an in-vehicle device control system includes an air conditioner control unit 1, an audio device control unit 2, a door lock control unit 3, an accelerator / brake control unit 4 that control various in-vehicle devices, and various in-vehicle devices through these control units. An in-vehicle device automatic adjustment system 10 that automatically adjusts operations and settings, an access policy list 22 that defines the priority of access to in-vehicle devices by each individual, an access policy management unit 20 that manages the list, and a passenger Including a personal information list 32 in which personal information is registered, a personal information management unit 30 that manages the list, and a passenger recognition system 40 that performs personal recognition through communication with the mobile terminals 41 to 43 of each passenger. Yes.

  FIG. 2 is a data table schematically showing the data structure of the personal information list 32. This table stores favorite setting contents and the like regarding each in-vehicle device of each individual. For example, Taro is set to increase the temperature of the air conditioner, increase the volume of the audio device, and not perform automatic door lock. In the case of Saburo, the volume of the audio device is increased, automatic door locking is performed, and sudden braking / starting is prohibited. The values in the table can be changed arbitrarily. For example, the temperature setting of the air conditioner and the volume of the audio device may be expressed by specific numerical values.

  FIG. 3 is a data table schematically showing the data configuration of the access policy list 22. In this table, priority order data indicating which setting information is preferentially applied to each in-vehicle device is stored. For example, regarding air conditioner temperature, Taro's setting information is applied with the highest priority, followed by Saburo's setting information and Hanako's setting information.

  The operation of the in-vehicle device control system of the present embodiment configured as described above will be described. The process of each step demonstrated below shall be performed by the in-vehicle apparatus automatic adjustment system 10 of an in-vehicle apparatus control system.

  FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing a flow of processing for performing in-vehicle device control corresponding to the passenger in the in-vehicle device control system. In FIG. 4, first, each passenger is recognized by the passenger recognition system 40 (step a1). This recognition process is performed by each passenger operating the portable terminals 41 to 43 to transmit necessary information to the passenger recognition system 40. When all passengers have been recognized, a passenger list is created. The personal information list 32 is referred to through the personal information management unit 30, and the personal information of each passenger included in the passenger list is acquired (step a2). The acquired personal information is added to the passenger list. The access policy corresponding to the passenger included in the passenger list is acquired from the access policy list 22 through the access policy management unit 20 (step a3). For example, when Taro, Jiro, and Hanako are on board, data as shown in FIG. 5 is acquired as an access policy corresponding to these three from the access policy list shown in FIG. . Based on the access policy acquired in this way, it is possible to make adjustments related to the setting of in-vehicle devices (step a4). In the access policy shown in FIG. 5, Taro is set to the highest priority for the air conditioner temperature, Jiro is set for the audio volume, Hanako is set for the door lock, and Hanako is set for the sudden brake sudden start. Therefore, referring to the personal information included in the passenger list from the personal information list 32 of FIG. 2, the air conditioner temperature is set to “high” for Taro, and the audio volume is set to Jiro for “None” As for the door lock, “Yes”, which is a setting for Hanako, and “Prohibition”, which is a setting for Hanako, are adopted. Accordingly, the in-vehicle device automatic adjustment system 10 notifies each of the in-vehicle devices by notifying the air conditioner control unit 1, the audio device control unit 2, the door lock control unit 3 and the accelerator / brake control unit 4 of the setting of each device. Are controlled by the adjustment contents corresponding to each passenger (step a5).

  FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing a process flow in the passenger recognition step a1 in the flowchart shown in FIG. In FIG. 6, the passenger recognition system 40 always waits for reception from the portable terminals 41 to 43 (step b1). If there is reception, it tries to acquire information for recognizing the passenger from the received data (step b2). If this cannot be obtained, the received data is discarded and the process returns to the reception standby state. When all the passengers are recognized, the number of recognized passengers is grasped (step b3). It should be noted that it is possible to appropriately determine when to end the passenger recognition operation. For example, the process may be terminated by a predetermined operation input from the portable terminal, or may be terminated when a predetermined operation (such as starting an engine) is performed on an automobile or an in-vehicle device. Then, a passenger list is created (step b4), this is transmitted to the in-vehicle equipment automatic adjustment system 10, and a process is complete | finished.

  FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing a flow of processing in the personal information acquisition step a2 in the flowchart shown in FIG. In FIG. 7, the in-vehicle equipment automatic adjustment system 10 transmits the passenger list to the personal information management unit 30 (step c1). The personal information management unit 30 that has received the information acquires personal information of each passenger included in the passenger list from the personal information list 32 and transmits it to the in-vehicle device automatic adjustment system 10. The in-vehicle device automatic adjustment system 10 receives the personal information of the passenger (step c2) and adds the acquired personal information to the passenger list (step c3).

FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing the flow of processing in the access policy acquisition step a3 in the flowchart shown in FIG. In FIG. 8, the in-vehicle equipment automatic adjustment system 10
The access policy management unit 20 transmits the passenger list to the access policy management unit 20 (step d1). Upon receiving this, the access policy management unit 20 acquires an access policy corresponding to the passenger included in the passenger list from the access policy list 22, and the in-vehicle device To the automatic adjustment system 10. The in-vehicle equipment automatic adjustment system 10 receives this access policy (step d2).

  As mentioned above, although the specific embodiment was shown and demonstrated about the vehicle equipment control system of this invention, this invention is not limited to these. A person skilled in the art can make various changes and improvements to the configurations and functions of the invention according to the above-described embodiments or other embodiments without departing from the gist of the present invention.

  In the above-described embodiment, the passenger uses the mobile terminal. However, instead of the mobile terminal, a device such as an IC chip or a PDA may be used. In addition, wireless communication, IrDA, barcode reader, wired communication, and the like can be appropriately employed as a communication form between these devices and this system. It is also possible to adopt a system configuration in which passenger recognition information is directly input by panel input or the like, and personal recognition is performed by collecting the passenger's fingerprint.

  In the above-described embodiment, air conditioners, audio devices, door locks, and accelerators are illustrated as in-vehicle devices to be controlled. However, in addition to these, lighting / extinguishing of the room lights, activation of the car navigation system, engine Operation or the like can be controlled. Or based on description of patent document 1, it is also possible to implement adjustment of a sheet | seat, a steering, a room mirror, a door fender mirror, etc. collectively.

  In addition, since the in-vehicle device control system of the present invention can arbitrarily change the setting contents of the access policy, it is possible to adjust the in-vehicle environment flexibly according to the attributes of the passenger. For example, if a child boarded, the door will be auto-locked, if an injured or sick person is on board, sudden start and braking will be suppressed, and if the passenger is only a child, the engine will be turned off. You can make settings such as suspending.

  The in-vehicle device control system of the present invention can be mounted on a vehicle as a system that automatically controls these devices in conjunction with in-vehicle devices such as automobiles.

It is a block diagram which shows roughly the internal structure of the vehicle equipment control system of this invention. 2 is a data table schematically showing a data configuration of a personal information list of the in-vehicle device control system shown in FIG. 1. 3 is a data table schematically showing a data configuration of an access policy list of the in-vehicle device control system shown in FIG. 1. It is a flowchart which shows the flow of the process which performs in-vehicle apparatus control corresponding to a passenger in the in-vehicle apparatus control system shown in FIG. In the example shown in FIG.2 and FIG.3, it is a figure which shows the access policy acquired from an access policy list | wrist when Taro, Jiro, and Hanako are boarding. It is a flowchart which shows the flow of the process in the passenger recognition step in the flowchart shown in FIG. It is a flowchart which shows the flow of the process in the personal information acquisition step in the flowchart shown in FIG. It is a flowchart which shows the flow of a process in the access policy acquisition step in the flowchart shown in FIG.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Air-conditioner control part 2 Audio equipment control part 3 Door lock control part 4 Accelerator / brake control part 10 In-vehicle equipment automatic adjustment system 20 Access policy management part 22 Access policy list 30 Personal information management part 32 Personal information list 40 Passenger recognition system 41 , 42,43 Mobile terminal

Claims (9)

Personal information storage means for storing information on preference settings and operations for personal in-car devices;
Access policy storage means for storing an access policy relating to priority among the individuals;
A passenger recognition means for recognizing the passenger;
Acquire passenger personal information recognized from the personal information storage means, acquire an access policy corresponding to the passenger from the access policy storage means, and for each in-vehicle device based on the personal information and the access policy Adjusting means for determining settings and operation;
In-vehicle device control means for controlling each in-vehicle device according to the setting and operation determined by the adjusting means;
In-vehicle equipment control system.   The in-vehicle device control system according to claim 1, wherein the occupant recognition unit acquires information for recognizing the occupant by communicating with a portable terminal held by the occupant.   The in-vehicle device control system according to claim 1, wherein the occupant recognition means acquires information for recognizing the occupant by reading an IC chip held by the occupant.   4. The vehicle interior device according to claim 1, wherein the vehicle interior device includes at least one of an air conditioner, an audio device, a door lock, an accelerator / brake, a room light, a car navigation system, and an engine. The in-vehicle device control system described. A method for controlling in-vehicle equipment,
Recognizing the passenger,
Obtaining personal information regarding preference settings and actions for in-vehicle devices of each recognized passenger, and obtaining an access policy regarding priority among recognized passengers;
Determining settings and operations for each in-vehicle device based on the acquired personal information and access policy;
Controlling each in-vehicle device in accordance with the determined settings and operations. The method of controlling an in-vehicle device according to claim 1,
In the step of recognizing an occupant, information for recognizing the occupant is obtained by communicating with a portable terminal held by the occupant. The method of controlling an in-vehicle device according to claim 1,
In the step of recognizing the occupant, information for recognizing the occupant is obtained by reading an IC chip held by the occupant. In the control method of in-vehicle equipment given in any 1 paragraph of Claims 5-7,
The in-vehicle device includes at least one of an air conditioner, an audio device, a door lock, an accelerator / brake, a room light, a car navigation system, and an engine.   A computer program for executing the method for controlling an in-vehicle device according to any one of claims 5 to 8 in an in-vehicle device control apparatus.

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