JP2010039773A - System and method for authenticating user of position-indicating function - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a system and method of authenticating a user of a position-indicating function, which prevent a situation where an article position is found by a position-indicating function by a third party and that an article is illegally used, even if the position-indicating function is installed in a mobile terminal. <P>SOLUTION: A vehicle 1 is provided with a car finder system 21 notifying a user about a vehicle position by an electronic key 2. The vehicle 1 is provided with a car finder function user authentication system 30 for prompting the user of a car finder function to execute authentication. The system 30 accesses a cellphone 32 of the user via an Internet communication network different from a car finder function communication network to identify the user when a car finder button 26 of the key 2 is operated to operate the car finder function, and permits execution of the car finder function when response operation is made in the cellphone 32 at that time and the authentication is successful. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2010,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a position teaching function for teaching the position of an article with a mobile terminal to a user who has lost the position of the article (object), for example, and more specifically, a position teaching function user who performs personal authentication when using this position teaching function The present invention relates to an authentication system and a position teaching function user authentication method.

  In recent years, many suburban large-scale shopping facilities have been built in various places, and many of these suburban large-scale shopping facilities are equipped with parking lots with a very large site area because many customers visit. . Therefore, some customers who visit this shopping facility by vehicle forget the position of the vehicle parked in the parking lot when they finish their shopping and go home. Therefore, in order to easily find a vehicle even in such a situation, a car finder system has been developed today as a system for assisting in finding the position of a parked vehicle. An example of this car finder system is disclosed in Patent Documents 1 and 2, for example.

In a general car finder system disclosed in these documents, a vehicle key, a mobile phone, or the like is used as a mobile terminal possessed by a user. When a request operation for operating the car finder system is performed on the mobile terminal, an operation signal corresponding to the operation is wirelessly transmitted from the mobile terminal to the vehicle, and when the vehicle receives the operation signal, the vehicle and the mobile terminal The positional relationship between them is determined, and the parking position of the vehicle is displayed on the portable terminal. Therefore, since the user can confirm the parking position of the vehicle by looking at the display position of the mobile terminal, even if the position of the own vehicle is not known in a parking lot with a large site area, It will be possible to discover.
JP 2006-347291 A JP 2007-241472 A

  However, it may be assumed that the user drops the mobile terminal having the car finder function without being aware of it, and the dropped mobile terminal is picked up by a third party. At this time, if the third party who picked up the mobile terminal uses the car finder function, it is possible to easily determine which vehicle the picked-up mobile terminal belongs to. Therefore, a third party who picks up the mobile terminal searches for the vehicle, and this third party cannot deny the possibility of the vehicle being stolen. Therefore, this kind of car finder system is installed between the vehicle and the vehicle key. However, there has been a demand for technology development with high security against vehicle theft.

  An object of the present invention is to make it difficult to cause a situation in which an article position is arbitrarily determined by a third party and an article is illegally used even if a position teaching function is installed in a portable terminal. An object of the present invention is to provide a position teaching function user authentication system and a position teaching function user authentication method.

  In order to solve the above problems, in the present invention, when a request operation for requesting position teaching of an article is executed on the portable terminal, the positional relationship between the portable terminal and the article is determined, and In a position teaching function user authentication system having a position teaching function for teaching a user the position of an article, a first communication network used for the position teaching function when the position teaching request operation is executed on the portable terminal. The gist is to use a second communication network of a different system and perform user authentication for the use requester who performed the request operation.

  According to this configuration, when the user forgets the arrangement position of the article, the user performs a request operation for executing the position teaching function in order to confirm the article position by the position teaching function provided in the portable terminal. Do it on a mobile device. At this time, the portable terminal starts wireless communication with the article, and in the course of this communication, the portable terminal determines the positional relationship with the article and notifies the arrangement position of the article on the portable terminal. As a result, the user can confirm the position of the article by using the portable terminal, so that the user can know the position of the article by using the position teaching function even if the user forgets the arrangement position of the article. It becomes.

  By the way, it may be assumed that the user unexpectedly drops his / her portable terminal somewhere due to some impetus. At this time, the dropped mobile terminal is picked up by a third party, and the third party who picks up the mobile terminal uses the position teaching function of the mobile terminal to search for the article, harm the article, or steal the article It is undeniable that situations such as working will occur. Therefore, when the position teaching function is installed in the portable terminal, it is possible to provide a user with the convenience of teaching the position of the article, but when the portable terminal is inadvertently dropped, There is a drawback in that an article position is easily determined by a third party who has picked up and an illegal act is applied to the article.

  However, in this configuration, when a request operation for requesting position teaching to an article is executed on the mobile terminal, before executing the position teaching function, a communication network different from the communication used for the request operation is used. Personal authentication is performed, and the use of the position teaching function is permitted on condition that the personal authentication is established. Therefore, if a third party picks up the mobile terminal and tries to find the position of the article using the position teaching function provided in the mobile terminal, the third party executes wireless communication according to the second communication network. Since it should not have the terminal to obtain, the third party cannot establish the personal authentication, and the position teaching function does not operate. For this reason, even if the position teaching function is installed in the portable terminal, it is possible to make it difficult to cause a situation in which the article position is arbitrarily determined by the position teaching function by a third party and the article is illegally used.

  In the present invention, when the portable terminal performs the position teaching request operation, the portable terminal transmits a position teaching request to that effect to the article via the first communication network, and When the article receives the position teaching request, the article performs wireless authentication with a communication terminal capable of communicating under the second communication network before operating the position teaching function. The gist is to determine whether or not the authentication is established based on the response operation.

  According to this configuration, the authentication performed by the article starts wireless communication with a communication terminal that is a terminal different from the mobile terminal under the second communication network, and executes a response operation on the communication terminal for the user. The response operation is executed by checking whether or not the response operation is a regular operation. For this reason, since the user authentication involves an operation with the user's will to perform a response operation on the communication terminal, the user authentication can be performed with higher accuracy.

  In the present invention, the first communication network is a narrow area communication network having a narrow communication range, and the second communication network is a wide area communication network having a communication range wider than the narrow area communication network. It is a summary.

  According to this configuration, since the second communication network is a wide area communication network having a wide communication area, for example, authentication through the server can be performed for personal authentication. Therefore, if personal authentication through such a server becomes possible, an authentication method with a high authentication level using the server can be used, which is highly effective in improving the accuracy of personal authentication. By definition, a narrow-area communication network refers to a communication network whose communication range is reachable by the user, and a wide-area communication network refers to a communication network (wireless communication path) that passes through a communication center (server). It means a communication network whose communication range extends to a place where the user cannot see it.

  In the present invention, when a request operation for requesting position teaching for an article is executed on a portable terminal, the positional relationship between the portable terminal and the article is determined, and the position on which the article position is taught to the user on the portable terminal In the position teaching function user authentication method used in the teaching function, when the position teaching request operation is executed by the portable terminal, the second communication of a different system from the first communication network used in the position teaching function The gist is to perform identity authentication for a user who has requested the use of the position teaching function by performing the request operation using a network.

  According to the present invention, even if a position teaching function is installed in a mobile terminal, it is difficult to cause a situation in which an article position is arbitrarily determined by a third party and the article is illegally used. it can.

Hereinafter, an embodiment of a position teaching function user authentication system and a position teaching function user authentication method embodying the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS.
As shown in FIG. 1, the vehicle 1 includes an electronic key system 3 that performs key verification with an electronic key 2 that is used as a vehicle key, and a door lock for a vehicle door (including a seat door and a luggage door). A door lock system 4 for locking and unlocking and an engine system 5 for managing the operating state of the engine are provided. The electronic key 2 is capable of narrow-area wireless communication with the vehicle 1, and transmits the ID code inherent to the electronic key 2 to the vehicle 1 by wireless communication to cause the vehicle 1 to perform key verification. Key. The vehicle 1 corresponds to an article, and the electronic key 2 corresponds to a mobile terminal.

  The electronic key system 3 includes a key operation free system 6 that does not require individual key operations when the electronic key 2 transmits an ID code. The key operation free system 6 includes a smart entry system as a function that does not require a key operation at the time of door lock locking / unlocking operation. In this smart entry system, the vehicle 1 is provided with a verification ECU 7 that performs key verification (ID verification) with the electronic key 2. The verification ECU 7 includes an out-of-vehicle LF transmitter 8 that transmits a signal in the LF band (about 130 KHz) outside the vehicle, an in-vehicle LF transmitter 9 that transmits a signal in the same LF band in the vehicle, and a low RF band (about 312 MHz). An RF receiver 10 capable of receiving signals is connected. The verification ECU 7 is connected to the door lock system 4 and the engine system 5 via an in-vehicle LAN 11 that is one in-vehicle network.

  The electronic key 2 is provided with a communication control unit 12 that performs overall control of various operations of the electronic key 2. The communication control unit 12 has various devices such as a CPU 13 and a memory 14, and an ID code is registered in the memory 14 as a unique key code of the electronic key 2. The communication control unit 12 is connected to an LF receiver 15 capable of receiving an LF band radio signal and an RF transmitter 16 capable of transmitting a low RF band (about 312 MHz) radio signal. The communication control unit 12 sequentially monitors which type of radio signal is received by the LF receiver 15 and manages the operation of signal transmission from the RF transmitter 16.

  When the vehicle 1 is in a parked state, the verification ECU 7 intermittently transmits the LF band request signal Srq from the vehicle LF transmitter 8 to form the vehicle communication area of the request signal Srq around the vehicle, and the narrow area wireless communication (Hereinafter referred to as smart communication). When the electronic key 2 enters the outside communication area and receives the request signal Srq, the electronic key 2 responds to the request signal Srq, and the ID signal Sid carrying the ID code registered in its own memory 14 is set to low RF. Reply with a band signal. When smart communication is established by receiving the ID signal Sid by the RF receiver 10, the verification ECU 7 compares the ID code registered in its own memory 17 with the ID code of the electronic key 2, so-called smart verification. (External vehicle verification) is performed. The verification ECU 7 permits or executes the door lock locking / unlocking operation by the door lock system 4 when confirming that this external verification is established.

  In addition, the key operation free system 6 has a function that can start and stop an engine (not shown) by a simple switch operation without requiring an actual vehicle key operation at the time of engine start and stop operation. There is a push engine start system. In this one-push engine start system, for example, when the driver enters the vehicle by a courtesy switch (not shown), the verification ECU 7 does not start from the previous LF transmitter 8, but this time the in-vehicle LF transmitter. A request signal Srq is transmitted from 9 to form an in-vehicle communication area throughout the vehicle. When the ID signal Sid returned by the electronic key 2 entering the in-vehicle communication area is received by the RF receiver 10, the verification ECU 7 compares the ID code registered in the electronic key 2 with the ID code of the electronic key 2. Verification, so-called smart verification (in-vehicle verification) is performed. When the verification ECU 7 confirms that the in-vehicle verification has been established, the verification ECU 7 permits the engine start operation by the engine system 5.

  The electronic key system 3 includes a wireless key system 18 that performs door lock locking / unlocking by operating the buttons of the electronic key 2. In this wireless key system 18, when a lock button 19 or an unlock button 20 provided on the electronic key 2 is operated, a wireless signal Swl having a signal content corresponding to each operation button is transmitted in a narrow area wireless communication (wireless communication). Thus, the signal is transmitted from the RF transmitter 16 toward the vehicle 1 as a low RF band signal. The wireless signal Swl includes an ID code that is a key code of the electronic key 2 and a function code that indicates whether the request to the vehicle 1 is locking or unlocking the door lock.

  When the unlock button 20 is operated with the electronic key 2, an unlocking request is transmitted from the electronic key 2 as a wireless signal Swl as a low-RF band signal. When the verification ECU 7 receives this unlocking request by the RF receiver 10, if the ID code in the unlocking request is correct, the verification ECU 7 instructs the door lock system 4 according to the function code instructing the unlocking included in the same unlocking request. Unlock the door lock. When the lock button 19 is operated with the electronic key 2, a lock request is transmitted from the electronic key 2 as a wireless signal Swl as a low RF band signal. When the verification ECU 7 receives this locking request by the RF receiver 10, if the ID code in the locking request is correct, the verification ECU 7 locks the door lock to the door lock system 4 according to the function code instructing the locking included in the same locking request. Let

  The vehicle 1 is provided with a car finder system 21 as a system for teaching a vehicle user having the electronic key 2 about the position (parking position) of the vehicle 1. In this car finder system 21, the vehicle 1 is provided with a car finder ECU 22 as a control unit of the car finder system 21. The car finder ECU 22 is connected to other ECUs such as the verification ECU 7 via the in-vehicle LAN 11 and can exchange data with these ECUs. The car finder ECU 22 is connected to an RF receiver 23 capable of receiving a high RF band (about several GHz) signal and an RF transmitter 24 capable of transmitting a high RF band (about several GHz) signal. ing. A vehicle compass 25 that determines the traveling direction of the vehicle 1 is mounted on the vehicle 1. The vehicle compass 25 outputs compass information to the car finder ECU 22 as information related to the direction that the vehicle 1 takes each time.

  On the other hand, the electronic key 2 is provided with a car finder button 26 that is operated when the car finder function of the car finder system 21 is operated. The car finder button 26 is a push momentary button, and is connected to the communication control unit 12 via an electrical wiring. The electronic key 2 is provided with an RF transmitter / receiver 27 capable of transmitting and receiving a signal in a high RF band (approximately several GHz) connected to the communication control unit 12. The electronic key 2 is equipped with a key compass 28 that detects the orientation of the electronic key 2. The key compass 28 outputs information related to the orientation taken by the electronic key 2 each time to the communication control unit 12 as compass information. The electronic key 2 is provided with a display unit 29 as a display system for notifying the user of the position of the vehicle 1. The display unit 29 manages the display by the communication control unit 12 and displays the position (direction and distance) of the vehicle 1 viewed from the electronic key 2 on the screen. The car finder function corresponds to the position teaching function, the execution of the car finder function corresponds to the position teaching, and the operation of the car finder button 26 corresponds to the request operation.

  When the communication control unit 12 detects that the car finder button 26 has been operated, the car finder function trigger radio wave Scf is transmitted from the RF transceiver 27 as a notification to the vehicle 1 that the car finder button 26 has been operated. Send with the signal. The RF transceiver 27 includes both a high frequency radio wave transmission circuit capable of transmitting high RF radio waves for the car finder system 21 and a high frequency radio wave reception circuit capable of receiving high RF radio waves for the car finder system 21. Is incorporated, and one operation of transmission / reception can be selectively performed according to a command from the communication control unit 12. As shown in FIG. 2, the car finder function trigger radio wave Scf includes an ID code of the electronic key 2 and a car finder function execution request as a function code for requesting the car finder function to be executed. The position estimation signal used when estimating the position of the key 2 is included. Note that the position estimation signal does not have a specific data content, but is a radio wave used when the vehicle 1 estimates the position of the electronic key 2. The communication area of the wireless communication network (hereinafter referred to as the car finder function communication network) between the vehicle 1 and the electronic key 2 used for the car finder function is wider than the smart communication or the wireless communication, for example, a narrow area communication of several tens of meters. It has become. The car finder function trigger radio wave Scf corresponds to the position teaching request.

  In the vehicle 1, since the receiver of the car finder function trigger radio wave Scf is the RF receiver 23 of the car finder ECU 22, the car finder function trigger radio wave Scf is received by the RF receiver 23. When the car finder ECU 22 receives the car finder function trigger radio wave Scf by the RF receiver 23, the car finder ECU 22 first transfers the ID code included in the trigger radio wave Scf to the verification ECU 7 via the in-vehicle LAN 11. When the verification ECU 7 receives the ID code from the car finder ECU 22, the verification ECU 7 performs ID verification on the ID code. When the ID verification is confirmed, the verification result of the ID verification is confirmed via the in-vehicle LAN 11. Output to.

  When the car finder ECU 22 receives the confirmation result of the ID collation establishment from the collation ECU 7, the car finder function 22 starts executing the car finder function using the car finder function execution request included in the same position estimation request as a command. At this time, the car finder ECU 22 enters a position estimation signal capturing operation in the trigger radio wave Scf received by the RF receiver 23 and starts key position calculation for determining the position of the electronic key 2 viewed from the vehicle 1.

  For this key position calculation, first, the car finder ECU 22 is associated with the direction of arrival of the car finder function trigger radio wave Scf, that is, the east, west, north and south as viewed from the vehicle 1 based on the position estimation signal received by the RF receiver 23. The direction (relative direction) of the electronic key 2 that is not present is calculated. The absolute position direction calculation employs a method (adaptive array antenna method) in which an adaptive array antenna is used as the RF receiver 23 which is a radio wave receiver of the car finder system 21. The adaptive array antenna system is a system that uses an array antenna in which a plurality of antenna elements are arranged, and determines the arrival direction of the received radio wave based on the difference between the amplitude and phase of the received radio wave received by each antenna element. Examples of this calculation include a beamformer method, a Capon method, a linear prediction method, a minimum norm method, a MUSIC method, and an ESPRIT method.

  When the car finder ECU 22 determines the relative direction of the electronic key 2 in this way, the east, west, south, and north as viewed from the vehicle 1 are determined based on the relative direction information of the electronic key 2 and the direction information acquired from the vehicle compass 25. The direction (absolute direction) of the associated electronic key 2 is calculated. Further, the car finder ECU 22 also calculates the distance between the vehicle 1 and the electronic key 2 based on the position estimation signal received by the RF receiver 23. This distance calculation employs a calculation method in which a received radio wave received by an adaptive array antenna is calculated by inverse Fourier transform. In this way, the car finder ECU 22 calculates the absolute direction of the electronic key 2 and the distance between the vehicle 1 and the electronic key 2 as the previous key position calculation.

  When the car finder ECU 22 determines the absolute direction of the electronic key 2 and the distance between the vehicle 1 and the electronic key 2 in this way, the estimation result notification Sps is transmitted as RF to notify the electronic key 2 of the absolute direction and distance. A transmission is made from the transmitter 24 toward the vehicle 1. As shown in FIG. 3, the estimation result notification Sps includes an ID code corresponding to the electronic key 2 registered in the vehicle 1 and key position related information as information related to the absolute direction and distance. This estimation result notification Sps is transmitted from the RF transmitter 24 toward the electronic key 2 by a signal in a high RF band of about several GHz, for example. The key position related information includes absolute direction information as information related to the absolute direction and distance information as information related to the distance.

  When the RF control unit 27 receives the estimation result notification Sps transmitted from the RF transmitter 24, the communication control unit 12 first performs ID verification on the ID code included in the estimation result notification Sps. When the communication control unit 12 recognizes that the ID collation is established, the communication control unit 12 subsequently proceeds to reading the key position related information included in the estimation result notification Sps. At this time, the communication control unit 12 determines the direction (relative direction) of the vehicle 1 associated with east, west, south, and north as viewed from the electronic key 2 based on the absolute direction information included in the key position related information of the estimation result notification Sps. calculate. The direction of the vehicle 1 viewed from the electronic key 2 is calculated as a value that is 180 degrees opposite to the absolute direction of the electronic key 2 viewed from the vehicle 1.

  When the communication control unit 12 calculates the relative direction of the vehicle 1 as viewed from the electronic key 2, the communication control unit 12 displays the relative direction on the display unit 29 with an arrow. Further, when reading the key position related information, the communication control unit 12 confirms the distance between the vehicle 1 and the electronic key 2 based on the distance information included in the key position related information of the estimation result notification Sps. The distance is also displayed as a number on the display unit 29. As a result, as shown in FIG. 4, the direction of the vehicle 1 viewed from the electronic key 2 and the distance between the vehicle 1 and the electronic key 2 are displayed on the display unit 29. Even if the position of the vehicle is lost, the owner vehicle 1 can be easily found by the guidance of the display unit 29.

  Further, as shown in FIG. 5, the car finder system 21 includes a vehicle 1 used in the car finder function when the car finder button 26 of the electronic key 2 is operated and a request operation for executing the car finder function is performed. A car finder function user authentication system for confirming the establishment of the identity authentication for the use requester by a communication network different from the wireless communication network between the electronic keys 2 (hereinafter referred to as a car finder function communication network) ( (User authentication function) 30 is provided. The car finder function communication network is a narrow area communication in which the range of radio waves reaching the other party between the vehicle 1 and the electronic key 2, that is, the communication area is several tens of meters, for example. In the car finder function user authentication system 30 of this example, a network communication network (including a telephone communication network) such as a G-book is used as a separate system communication network, and a user is connected via a server 31 on this network communication network. The mobile phone 32 is accessed, and the user is caused to respond to the identity verification by the mobile phone 32. The car finder function communication network corresponds to the first communication network, and the Internet communication network corresponds to the second communication network. The mobile phone 32 corresponds to a communication terminal.

  In this case, the car finder ECU 22 is provided with an authentication establishment confirmation unit 33 that manages the car finder function user authentication system 30 in the vehicle 1. Further, the vehicle 1 is provided with a network communication device 34 capable of transmitting and receiving various data as an in-vehicle communication facility of a network communication network. The network communication device 34 is connected to the car finder ECU 22 via a cable or the like, and the operation is managed by the car finder ECU 22. The authentication establishment confirmation unit 33 executes personal authentication via the network communication network (the network communication device 34, the server 31, and the mobile phone 32) when a request operation for executing the car finder function is performed with the electronic key 2. Check whether authentication is successful.

Next, the operation of the car finder function user authentication system 30 of this example will be described.
When the car finder button 26 of the electronic key 2 is operated by the vehicle owner, the car finder function trigger radio wave Scf is transmitted from the RF transmitter 16 as a high RF band signal as an execution request for the car finder function. . When the car finder ECU 22 receives the car finder function trigger radio wave Scf with the RF receiver 23, the car finder ECU 22 transfers the ID code included in the trigger radio wave Scf to the verification ECU 7 via the in-vehicle LAN 11 and confirms the ID code with the verification ECU 7. Let When the car finder ECU 22 receives the confirmation result of the ID collation establishment from the collation ECU 7, it recognizes that the car finder function trigger radio wave Scf received at this time is normal.

  When the car finder ECU 22 recognizes that the received trigger radio wave Scf is legitimate, the car finder ECU 22 then proceeds to personal authentication to confirm whether the user of the car finder function at this time is legitimate. In this case, the authentication establishment confirmation unit 33 activates the network communication device 34 that has been in the standby state, and starts communication with the mobile phone 32 of the vehicle owner via the network communication network. At this time, the authentication establishment confirmation unit 33 confirms whether or not it is possible to receive from the mobile phone 32 permission to notify the electronic key 2 of the estimation result notification Sps calculated by the car finder function. The notification permission confirmation Sa is transmitted from the network communication device 34, and this estimation result notification permission confirmation Sa is sent to the network communication network. The estimation result notification permission confirmation Sa includes an ID code registered in the vehicle 1 and a function code for causing the mobile phone 32 to confirm the estimation result notification permission.

  Here, as an example of the personal authentication, there is a call confirmation format for confirming the establishment of the authentication based on whether or not the call can be made on the mobile phone 32, for example, as shown in FIG. In this case, when the server 31 receives the estimation result notification permission confirmation Sa transmitted from the vehicle 1, the vehicle 1 that has transmitted the estimation result notification permission confirmation Sa from the ID code included in the estimation result notification permission confirmation Sa. The vehicle owner is determined, and the telephone number of the mobile phone 32 possessed by the vehicle owner is confirmed. Then, an operator (recording is also possible) 35 resident in the server 31 calls the mobile phone 32 and calls the mobile phone 32 to try to make a call with the vehicle owner and the mobile phone 32 within the time limit. Note that a file in which the ID code of the vehicle 1 is associated with the telephone number of the mobile phone 32 of the vehicle owner is registered in the server 31 in advance.

  At this time, if the vehicle user can talk to the mobile phone 32 within the time limit, the operator 35 determines that the estimation result notification permission Sb has been obtained by establishing the call. Then, the operator 35 transmits the estimation result notification permission Sb to the vehicle 1 through the network communication network as permission that the electronic key 2 may be notified of the estimation result notification Sps calculated by the car finder function. Note that the estimation result notification permission Sb includes an ID code of the vehicle 1 and a function code that conveys the estimation result notification permission to the vehicle 1.

  When the car finder ECU 22 receives the estimation result notification permission Sb via the network communication device 34, the car finder ECU 22 transfers the ID code included in the estimation result notification permission Sb to the verification ECU 7 via the in-vehicle LAN 11, and sends the ID code to the verification ECU 7. Let me confirm. When the car finder ECU 22 receives the confirmation result of ID collation establishment from the collation ECU 7, the car finder ECU 22 recognizes that the estimation result notification permission Sb received at this time corresponds to itself and takes in the estimation result notification permission Sb. Then, the car finder ECU 22 recognizes that the personal authentication has been established by receiving the estimation result notification permission Sb. Accordingly, the car finder ECU 22 transmits the calculated estimation result notification Sps to the electronic key 2 to display the parking position of the vehicle 1 on the display unit 29 of the electronic key 2 and notifies the vehicle owner of the vehicle position.

  Further, as an example of the personal authentication, there is an e-mail confirmation format for confirming the establishment of authentication by e-mail reply on the mobile phone 32 as shown in FIG. In this case, when the server 31 receives the estimation result notification permission confirmation Sa transmitted from the vehicle 1, the vehicle 1 that has transmitted the estimation result notification permission confirmation Sa from the ID code included in the estimation result notification permission confirmation Sa. The vehicle owner is determined, and the mail address of the mobile phone 32 possessed by the vehicle owner is confirmed. In the server 31, a file in which the ID code of the vehicle 1 is associated with the mail address of the mobile phone 32 of the vehicle owner is registered in advance.

  When the server 31 can confirm the mail address of the vehicle owner, the server 31 subsequently transmits an e-mail to the mobile phone 32 possessed by the vehicle owner via the network communication network (telephone communication network). Then, the server 31 waits for acceptance of the reply mail of the e-mail as the estimation result notification permission Sb, receives the estimation result notification permission Sb within the time limit after transmitting the e-mail, and calculates with the car finder function. It is recognized that the permission that the electronic key 2 may be notified of the estimation result notification Sps is received from the mobile phone 32. As a result, personal authentication using the network communication network is established, and use of the car finder function is permitted.

  By the way, when an electronic key 2 that has been dropped without the user's knowledge is picked up by an unknown third party, the third party who picks up the electronic key 2 uses the car finder function of the electronic key 2 for the purpose of vehicle theft. There is no denying the possibility of trying to locate the vehicle 1 by using and steal the vehicle 1. However, in the case of this example, even if a third party who picks up the electronic key 2 presses the car finder button 26 and tries to find the position of the vehicle 1 by the car finder function, the third party can carry the mobile phone via the Internet communication network. Since it is possible to authenticate the person through the telephone 32, it is not necessary for a third party to use the car finder function. For this reason, even if the electronic key 2 provided with the car finder function is inadvertently dropped, a situation in which the vehicle 1 is specified by the car finder function does not occur for a third party who has picked up the electronic key 2. The possibility of the vehicle 1 being stolen can be kept low.

According to the configuration of the present embodiment, the following effects can be obtained.
(1) When the car finder button 26 of the electronic key 2 is operated to operate the car finder function, the mobile phone possessed by the user via the Internet communication network which is a communication network different from the car finder function communication network When the user authentication is performed by accessing the mobile phone 32 and a response operation is performed on the mobile phone 32 at this time and the personal authentication is established, the execution of the car finder function is permitted. Therefore, even if the electronic key 2 dropped by the user is picked up by a third party and the third party tries to find the vehicle 1 by the car finder function of the electronic key 2 for the purpose of vehicle theft, at this time, the mobile phone 32 Since the personal authentication by is not established, the car finder function is not executed, and a third party cannot determine the vehicle position by the car finder function. For this reason, since the situation where the vehicle position is specified by the car finder function does not occur for a third party who has picked up the electronic key 2, the possibility of the vehicle 1 being stolen can be kept low.

  (2) When the electronic key 2 is unexpectedly dropped, even if a third party who picks up the electronic key 2 uses the car finder function, the mobile phone 32 held by the user is contacted. Become. Therefore, in this case, the user notices that the electronic key 2 has been dropped, and can take anti-theft measures such as a remote immobilizer function, so that security against vehicle theft is high.

  (3) The identity authentication is established by checking whether or not a response operation (call response, email reply, etc.) is received from the mobile phone 32 when the vehicle 1 accesses the mobile phone 32 via the Internet communication network. . Therefore, since the user's operation intention that the user performs a response operation with the mobile phone 32 is entered in the determination of whether or not the personal authentication can be established, the personal authentication can be performed with higher accuracy.

  (4) An Internet communication network having a wide communication area is used as a communication network used for personal authentication. For this reason, if an Internet communication network is used as a communication network for personal authentication, personal authentication with a high authentication level via the server 31 can be executed as in the present example. It can contribute to the conversion.

  (5) The car finder function uses the adaptive array antenna type RF receiver 23, the vehicle compass 25, and the key compass 28, and based on various information acquired from these components, the vehicle 1 viewed from the electronic key 2 This is a method for determining the direction and distance. By the way, it is possible to calculate the position of the vehicle 1 or the electronic key 2 using, for example, GPS (Global Positioning System), but GPS has a drawback that it is easily affected by a large building such as a building. There is a problem that fine position calculation accuracy cannot be secured. However, if an indexing method such as this example is used, this type of compass formula has a higher position calculation accuracy than the GPS formula, so the direction and distance of the vehicle 1 viewed from the electronic key 2 can be accurately determined. Can be calculated.

  (6) Since the car finder function trigger radio wave Scf and the estimation result notification Sps are transmitted by signals of the same frequency of about several GHz, for example, although the vehicle 1 has been able to perform position estimation, the estimation result is sent to the electronic key 2 It is possible to make it difficult to create a situation where it cannot be communicated to.

Note that the embodiment is not limited to the configuration described so far, and may be modified as follows.
-Whether or not the personal authentication is established is not limited to a method of checking whether or not a response operation is performed from the mobile phone 32 when the vehicle 1 accesses the mobile phone 32 via the network communication network. For example, position information regarding the parking position of the vehicle 1 is transmitted to the mobile phone 32 via the network communication network, and the parking position (direction, map) of the vehicle 1 is simply displayed on the screen of the mobile phone 32. It may be displayed. That is, even when the electronic key 2 is dropped, if the vehicle position is displayed on the mobile phone 32 that the user is expected to have, the display operation itself can be treated as personal authentication. is there.

  -The personal authentication performed by the mobile phone 32 is not necessarily limited to a call response or an e-mail reply. For example, a method may be adopted in which the personal authentication is established when the server 31 confirms that the input password at this time is correct by inputting the password with the mobile phone 32.

-The communication network used for personal authentication is not necessarily limited to the Internet communication network, and is not particularly limited as long as it is a communication network other than the car finder function communication network.
-A communication terminal is not necessarily limited to the mobile telephone 32, For example, you may employ | adopt a portable personal computer.

  The car finder function uses an adaptive array antenna type RF receiver 23, a vehicle compass 25, and a key compass 28, and based on various information acquired from these components, the direction of the vehicle 1 viewed from the electronic key 2 and It is not limited to the method for determining the distance. For example, if the vehicle 1 is equipped with a GPS, the positional relationship between the vehicle 1 and the electronic key 2 may be determined based on vehicle position information acquired from the GPS.

  In the case of the vehicle finder function using the vehicle GPS, for example, the vehicle GPS information (vehicle position information) is registered in the electronic key 2 when getting off (for example, when the engine is off), and the position teaching request operation is performed with the key 2. In this case, a method of displaying this information on the key may be used.

  -The position display of the vehicle 1 of the electronic key 2 is not necessarily limited to the arrow. For example, the vehicle 1 calculates the position (direction and distance) of the electronic key 2 and creates map data representing the positional relationship between the vehicle 1 and the electronic key 2 while calculating the current position of the vehicle 1 from an in-vehicle GPS or the like. To do. The vehicle 1 may transmit the map data to the electronic key 2 and a map based on the map data may be displayed on the display unit 29 of the electronic key 2.

The electronic key 2 may be of a type that sends key position information to the vehicle 1 and notifies the vehicle 1 of the key position if, for example, a GPS is mounted.
The RF receiver 10 of the electronic key system 3 and the RF receiver 23 of the car finder system 21 may be integrated into one.

  The communication area between the electronic key system 3 and the car finder system 21 is not limited to being different from each other, and they may take the same area. Needless to say, various signal frequencies can be used.

The car finder system 21 is not limited to having one function belonging to the electronic key system 3, and may be a system independent of the electronic key system 3, for example.
The position estimation (position calculation according to the adaptive array antenna system) is not necessarily performed on the vehicle 1 side, and may be performed on the electronic key 2 side. That is, an adaptive array antenna may be incorporated in the electronic key 2, the position of the vehicle 1 may be estimated based on radio waves received from the vehicle 1, and the estimation result may be taught to the user with an arrow or the like.

The position estimation is not necessarily performed using a position estimation signal, and may be performed using an ID code or a function code radio wave.
The portable terminal is not limited to the electronic key 2 (essentially key parts), and for example, a mobile phone or a portable personal computer may be used.

-The teaching form of the vehicle position is not necessarily limited to an arrow, but may be a vehicle position displayed on a map screen, for example.
The vehicle position display (arrow and distance display) on the display unit 29 may be automatically deleted after being displayed for a certain time, for example, or may be a predetermined operation such as pressing the car finder button 26, for example. It may be deleted when the operation is performed.

  -Position teaching does not necessarily display both the direction and the distance, but only one of them needs to be displayed. Further, the position teaching is not necessarily limited to the screen display, and for example, voice notification may be employed.

The car finder system 21 is not necessarily applied to the vehicle 1 but can be applied to various devices and apparatuses that require verification during use.
Next, technical ideas that can be grasped from the above-described embodiment and other examples will be described below together with their effects.

  (1) In any one of Claims 1-3, the said portable terminal is a terminal of the key positioning with respect to articles | goods. According to this configuration, since it is not necessary to prepare separate parts for the key required when using the article and the terminal for the position teaching function, the number of parts can be reduced.

(2) In any one of claims 1 to 3 and the technical idea (1), the mobile terminal is a vehicle key, and the communication terminal is a mobile phone.
(3) In any one of claims 1 to 3 and the technical ideas (1) and (2), the position teaching function is a high-frequency signal that one of the article and the mobile terminal receives from the other. The other positional relationship is determined by estimating the other position using (including radio waves and data). According to this configuration, since a high-frequency signal is used as a radio signal used for position estimation, a large amount of data can be transmitted.

  (4) In any one of claims 1 to 3 and the technical ideas (1) to (3), the position teaching function may include a plurality of antenna elements as a receiver on the signal receiving side of the article and the portable terminal. When the high-frequency radio waves transmitted from the mobile terminal are received by the plurality of antenna elements, the position of the mobile terminal is estimated based on reception parameters of each of the high-frequency radio waves received by the antenna elements. Estimate and determine the position.

  (5) In any one of claims 1 to 3 and the technical ideas (1) to (4), the position teaching function is based on a radio signal received from the portable terminal by the article. Estimating the position of the mobile terminal that has been viewed, sending the estimation result to the mobile terminal, and the mobile terminal obtaining the position of the article viewed from the mobile terminal based on the estimation result, Determine the positional relationship between.

The block diagram which shows schematic structure of the car finder system in one Embodiment. The data conceptual diagram which shows the data structure of a car finder function trigger electric wave. The data conceptual diagram which shows the data structure of an estimation result notification. The schematic diagram which shows the electronic key which displayed the vehicle position on the screen. The conceptual diagram which shows schematic structure of a car finder function user authentication system. The conceptual diagram which shows the example of one person authentication of a car finder function user authentication system. The conceptual diagram which shows the other example of personal authentication of a car finder function user authentication system.

Explanation of symbols

  DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Vehicle as goods, 2 ... Electronic key as portable terminal, 32 ... Mobile phone as communication terminal, Scf ... Car finder function trigger radio wave as position teaching request.

Claims (4)

When a request operation for requesting position teaching for an article is executed on a portable terminal, the position relationship between the portable terminal and the article is determined, and a position teaching function for teaching the article position to the user on the portable terminal is provided. In the position authentication function user authentication system,
When the position teaching request operation is executed by the portable terminal, the use requester who performed the request operation using a second communication network different from the first communication network used in the position teaching function. A position teaching function user authentication system characterized by authenticating the user.   When the position teaching request operation is executed on the portable terminal, the portable terminal transmits a position teaching request to that effect to the article via the first communication network. Upon receiving the position teaching request, before operating the position teaching function, wireless communication is performed with a communication terminal capable of communicating under the second communication network to perform the identity authentication, and based on a response operation from the communication terminal. The position teaching function user authentication system according to claim 1, wherein whether or not authentication is possible is determined.   The first communication network is a narrow area communication network having a narrow communication range, and the second communication network is a wide area communication network having a communication range wider than the narrow area communication network. The position teaching function user authentication system according to claim 1 or 2. When a request operation for requesting position teaching for an article is executed on a portable terminal, the positional relationship between the portable terminal and the article is determined, and the position teaching function for teaching the user the article position on the portable terminal is used. In the position teaching function user authentication method to be performed,
When the position teaching request operation is executed by the portable terminal, the request operation is performed using a second communication network that is different from the first communication network used in the position teaching function, and the position teaching is performed. A position teaching function user authentication method, characterized in that identity authentication is performed for a user who has requested the use of the function.

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