JP2010140394A - Bus location system, and display device - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a bus location system capable of providing information that is highly user-friendly to elderly persons and wheelchair users. <P>SOLUTION: A bus 1 on a regular route generates bus in-vehicle state information including information about a vacant seat state and a fixing space use state for a wheelchair on the basis of detection results of a sensor, or the like. The bus 1 transmits the information to a central control unit 5. The central control unit 5 recognizes the bus in-vehicle state of the bus 1 on the regular route on the basis of the bus in-vehicle state information, generates instruction information about display of a display device 2 of each bus top, and transmits the instruction information to the display device 2. Each display device 2 displays information about presence/no presence of vacant seats and acceptance/rejection of using a wheelchair fixing space for users on a display panel 2A in response to the instruction. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2010,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a bus location system capable of providing useful information to passengers when managing bus operations.

In the conventional bus location system, the center device receives information on the travel position of the bus from the in-vehicle device mounted on the route bus as needed, and knows which system the bus is traveling at. Information relating to the traveling position of the bus approaching the bus stop is distributed to the display device installed at the bus stop.
This display device usually has a function to display which buses that are approaching for each system, and a user waiting for a bus at a bus stop is, for example, a bus stop that is three buses ahead. It is possible to know the operation status, such as that the car is traveling toward the bus stop two stops ahead of.

  Among such bus location systems, for example, there is a system that obtains the bus boarding rate by a sensor or the like attached to each bus and displays the boarding rate on a display device at each stop (Patent Document 1). reference).

JP-A-9-153196

A route bus is a more economical and advantageous means of transportation than using a taxi etc. because it can travel long distances at a low price. For example, if you are forced to use a wheelchair, There is a case where it is desired to decide whether to wait until a bus comes depending on whether a fixed space of a wheelchair provided is available.
In addition, elderly people, injured people, and sick users may want to use another means of transportation such as a taxi if there are no available seats.

For such users, the conventional system only knows the bus occupancy rate, so even though it waits for several minutes or dozens of minutes until the bus arrives, it eventually has to give up using the bus There is a case.
The present invention has been made in view of these points, and an object of the present invention is to provide a bus location system that can further enhance user convenience.

  A bus location system according to a first invention includes a bus, a central control device that receives information transmitted by the bus, and a display device that is installed at a bus stop. Vehicle-mounted generating means for generating vacant seat status information regarding whether or not the bus has vacant seats, and vehicle-mounted transmitting means for wirelessly transmitting the vacant seat status information to the central control unit The central control unit includes a central reception unit that receives the vacancy information, and a central transmission unit that transmits instruction information based on the received vacancy information to the display device. Comprises a display means for displaying the vacant seat status of the bus according to the instruction information from the central control unit.

According to this invention, since it becomes possible to instantly know whether there is a vacant seat in the bus that is approaching the bus user, the convenience of the route bus is further enhanced. For example, if a user who wants to sit in a seat because of an elderly person or injury, etc. is thinking of using another means of transportation if he cannot sit in the seat, the present invention It is very convenient because you can instantly know whether there is a vacant seat on the bus.
In addition, this vacancy information includes not only whether there are vacant seats but also information such as whether there are enough or few vacant seats and whether there are vacant seats in priority seats or single seats. And convenience is improved.
In addition, vacant seat status information may be generated by detecting the presence or absence of a vacant seat by providing a sensor in each seat to detect distortion due to weight when sitting, or a switch indicating the vacant seat status operated by the driver Or the like.

  The bus location system according to the second invention includes a bus, a central control device that receives information transmitted by the bus, and a display device installed at a bus stop, and the vehicle interior condition of the bus is determined. A vehicle-mounted generation means for generating wheelchair fixed space information related to whether or not the bus wheelchair fixed space of the bus is available, and the central control of the wheelchair fixed space information. Vehicle-mounted transmission means for wirelessly transmitting to the device, the central control device receiving central information for receiving the wheelchair fixed space information and instruction information based on the received wheelchair fixed space information for the display device A central transmission means for transmitting, and the display device has a wheelchair fixing space for the bus according to the instruction information from the central control device. And a display means for displaying whether use is possible or not (claim 2).

According to this invention, since the user who moves by a wheelchair can grasp | ascertain now whether a wheelchair fixed space is available for the bus in approach, the convenience of a route bus becomes still higher. If the wheelchair cannot be fixed, it is possible to quickly switch to an alternative transportation such as a taxi, which is very convenient.
The wheelchair fixing space information may be generated using a sensing result of a sensor that detects whether or not a belt buckle for fixing the wheelchair is fitted, or the wheelchair fixing space information operated by the driver. You may make it produce | generate based on signals, such as a switch which shows a condition.

  The display device used in the bus location systems of the first and second inventions is also very useful in visually providing useful information to the bus user (claim 3).

  As described above, according to the bus location system and the display device of the present invention, detailed information such as bus vacancy information can be provided, so that the convenience of bus users can be further enhanced. .

(First embodiment)
Hereinafter, a first embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.
FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram showing an outline of a system configuration in a bus location system according to the present invention.

[Overall system configuration]
As shown in FIG. 1, there are a plurality of stops continuously on the road on which the route bus 1 travels, and a display device 2 is installed at each of the stops.
The display device 2 is provided with a display panel 2A for operating conditions for the user as shown in FIG. 2, so that it is possible to display which bus is currently traveling for each system. Yes.
In this example, it is displayed that the bus of system 1 is running between the two previous stops and the bus stop of the previous one, and similarly, the bus of system 2 is the same as that of the third stop. It indicates that you are driving in front.

Each display device 2 is connected to a central control device 5 installed in the center by wire or wireless, and has a function of transmitting and receiving various information regarding bus operations to and from the central control device 5.
In addition, the in-vehicle device 1A is mounted on the route bus 1, and the in-vehicle device 1A can communicate with the central control device 5 wirelessly. In this case, the in-vehicle device 1 </ b> A does not need to communicate directly with the central control device 5, and exchanges information with the central control device 5 via a road communication device (not shown) such as an optical beacon installed on the road or the display device 2. You may do it.
The in-vehicle device 1A can transmit information on the current position of the bus acquired by GPS or the like, sensing result information by various sensors mounted on the bus, and the like to the central control device 5 at any time.

The central control device 5 can grasp from which stop of each route bus 1 is traveling by the current travel position information acquired from each route bus 1.
For example, if it is determined that the route bus 1 has arrived at one of the stops and has started to proceed toward the next stop, travel position information of the route bus 1 is created, and the next stop or the It transmits to the display apparatus 2 installed in the stop scheduled to arrive after that.
The display device 2 that has received the travel position information updates the display content of the operation status on the display panel 2A according to the travel position information, and provides the user with the latest operation status.

[Creation of vacant seat information etc. in in-vehicle device 1A]
The route bus 1 is equipped with the following sensors. FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating an example of the configuration of the in-vehicle device 1A.
The seating state detection sensor 3 is attached to all seats of a bus or a specific seat such as a priority seat, and has a function of detecting a seating state by detecting distortion due to weight when a person sits on the seat. . Note that the seating state detection sensor 3 may be other than this type, for example, a sensor of a type that detects whether or not the user is seated by an image processing apparatus installed in the company.
The wheelchair detection sensor 4 for detecting whether or not the wheelchair is fixed in the wheelchair fixing space is a dedicated fixing belt used for fixing the wheelchair (for example, refer to Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2001-212179). By detecting whether or not the buckle is in the fitted state, it is possible to detect whether or not the wheelchair is fixed in the fixed space. The wheelchair detection sensor 4 may be other than this type. For example, the wheelchair detection sensor 4 may be a type that detects whether or not a wheelchair exists in a fixed space by an image processing device installed in the company.

These sensors are directly or indirectly connected to the in-vehicle device 1A, and the detected sensing result is configured to be acquired by the sensor information receiving unit 131 of the in-vehicle device 1A as needed.
An operation switch or button (not shown) that can be handled by the bus driver instead of a sensor is installed in the vicinity of the driver's seat, and the driver can use this operation button to provide information about vacant seats and information about wheelchairs. You may make it with.
For example, if there is a vacant seat, turn the switch down, and if there is no vacant seat, place a switch near the driver's seat so that the driver can look around the car with a mirror etc. The presence or absence of a vacant seat may be detected by operating the switch.
Similarly, the driver may operate the switch and the like for the availability of the fixed space of the wheelchair.
In addition, it can be set as the structure which the sensor information receiving part 131 of 1 A of vehicle-mounted apparatuses can acquire also about the output signal from these switches.

The in-vehicle device CPU 101 of the in-vehicle device 1A stores information notified from various sensors, a driver's operation switch, and the like in the in-vehicle device memory 111, and creates bus in-vehicle situation information from the current sensing result. FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an example of a data format of the bus in-vehicle situation information.
As shown in this example, it may be created as information that can know in detail how many seats are available from the total number of seats and the number of seats, or simply information on whether there are seats available. . Further, for example, a method of creating information indicating whether there are enough seats or only a few seats depending on whether the seating rate is 50% or more may be used.
In addition, vacant seat information may be created separately for priority seats and other seats, or more categorized into one seat, two seats, and the last five seats. Also good.

  The bus in-vehicle situation information created in this way is transmitted to the central control device 5 from time to time by the wireless communication control unit 121 through the vehicle-mounted antenna, similarly to the current travel position information and the like.

[Instructions from the central control unit 5 to the display unit 2]
The bus vehicle situation information is received by the communication interface 521 of the central control device 5, and the CPU 501 of the central control device 5 stores the received information in the memory 511 and the hard disk 512 together with the reception time (see FIG. 5).
Then, the CPU 501 grasps the vacant seat status of each bus based on these pieces of information.
And the instruction information according to the grasped vacant seat situation etc. is created, and the communication interface 521 transmits the instruction information to the display device 2 of each stop.

Normally, the instruction information is transmitted only when a change occurs in the vacant seat status of the bus. For example, if the number of vacant seats exceeds 50% due to a large number of passengers on the bus traveling with only a few vacant seats, an instruction is displayed to indicate that the number of vacant seats has increased. The information is transmitted to the display device 2 installed at a stop ahead of the point where the bus is traveling.
In addition, if the wheelchair user got off the bus where the wheelchair was installed in the wheelchair-fixed space, the wheelchair space changed from an unusable state to an available state. Information for instructing the display is transmitted to the display device 2 installed at a stop ahead of the point where the bus is traveling.

In this case, the instruction information may be transmitted at a constant cycle (for example, every minute) regardless of whether or not a change has occurred in the vacant seat status of the bus.
The hard disk 512 of the central control device 5 is assigned in advance to the name and order of stops for each route, and identification information for specifying the display devices 2 installed at each stop (for example, assigned to each display device 2). The central control device 5 is configured to be able to specify the display device 2 to which the instruction information is to be transmitted based on such information.

[Display of vacant seat information etc. on display device 2]
FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating an example of the configuration of the display device 2. The display device CPU 201 of the display device 2 that has received the information on the in-vehicle situation of each bus by the communication control unit 221 stores the instruction information in the display device memory 211 and displays it on the display panel control unit 231 according to the instruction. The panel 2A is instructed to display characters and the like as shown in FIG.
For example, in the case of the bus of the system 1 of the display panel 2A, the user can instantly grasp that there are only a few empty seats and may not be able to sit.
Further, in the case of the bus of the system 2, since the fixed space for the wheelchair is already used, the user who moves by the wheelchair can select the alternative transportation means at an early stage.

The display panel control unit 231 may display characters or the like by embedding an LED character display board and controlling the display board to display characters. Alternatively, the characters “vacant seats” may be printed in advance. Alternatively, a method may be used in which a transparent panel is prepared and the presence / absence of a vacant seat is displayed by controlling the lamp behind the transparent panel to be turned on / off.
In addition, text information such as “There are enough seats on this bus. The wheelchair fixing space is currently unused.” “This bus is currently very crowded and may pass through this bus stop.” The LED character display board may be displayed so as to flow from right to left. In addition, information may be provided by voice simultaneously with character information.

  Note that the central control device 5, the display device 2, and the like in the present invention may be realized by a single casing or may be realized by a combination of a plurality of casings. Each of these may be realized by one computer or may be realized by combining a plurality of computers.

  The embodiment disclosed this time should be considered as illustrative in all points and not restrictive. The scope of the present invention is defined by the terms of the claims, rather than the description above, and is intended to include any modifications within the scope and meaning equivalent to the terms of the claims.

It is a schematic diagram which shows the outline | summary of apparatus arrangement | positioning of the bus location system which concerns on this invention. It is a figure which shows an example of the display panel 2A of the conventional display apparatus 2. FIG. It is a figure which shows an example of the data format of the bus vehicle condition information exchanged between apparatuses in the bus location system which concerns on this invention. It is a figure which shows an example of the display panel 2A of the display apparatus 2 which concerns on this invention. It is a figure which shows an example of a structure of the central control apparatus 5 which concerns on this invention. It is a figure which shows an example of a structure of the display apparatus 2 which concerns on this invention. It is a figure showing an example of composition of in-vehicle device 1A concerning the present invention.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Route bus 1A Car equipment 101 Car equipment CPU
111 In-vehicle device memory 112 In-vehicle device ROM
121 Wireless Communication Control Unit 131 Sensor Information Receiving Unit 2 Display Device 2A Display Panel 201 of Display Device 2 Display Device CPU
211 Display device memory 212 Display device ROM
221 Communication control unit 231 Display panel control unit 3 Seated state detection sensor 4 Wheelchair detection sensor 5 Central controller 501 CPU
511 Memory 512 Hard disk 521 Communication interface

Claims (3)

A bus location system that includes a bus, a central control device that receives information transmitted by the bus, and a display device installed at a bus stop, and is capable of providing a user with the in-car status of the bus. And
The bus
Vehicle-mounted generation means for generating vacancy information on whether there is a vacancy,
Vehicle-mounted transmission means for wirelessly transmitting the vacant seat status information to the central control device,
The central controller is
A central receiving means for receiving the vacancy information,
Central transmission means for transmitting instruction information based on the received seat availability information to the display device;
The display device
A bus location system comprising display means for displaying a vacant seat status of the bus according to instruction information from the central control unit. A bus location system that includes a bus, a central control device that receives information transmitted by the bus, and a display device installed at a bus stop, and is capable of providing a user with the in-car status of the bus. And
The bus
Vehicle-mounted generating means for generating wheelchair fixed space information regarding whether or not the wheelchair fixed space of the bus is available;
Vehicle-mounted transmission means for wirelessly transmitting the wheelchair fixed space information to the central control device,
The central controller is
Central receiving means for receiving the wheelchair fixed space information;
Central transmission means for transmitting instruction information based on the received wheelchair fixed space information to the display device,
The display device
A bus location system comprising display means for displaying whether or not a wheelchair fixing space for the bus is available according to instruction information from the central control unit.   A display device used in the bus location system according to claim 1.

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