JP3230451B2 - Mobile phone system - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a mobile telephone system, and more particularly to a system for hands-free use of a portable telephone in a mobile body such as a vehicle.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Portable telephones are becoming popular because of the convenience of making calls at various places. With that in the background,
In many cases, mobile phones are used in automobiles. If a person other than the driver uses the mobile phone, there will not be much problem. Is a major problem for safe driving. On the other hand, it is complicated to stop the vehicle every time a call is made.

Therefore, a system using a mobile phone adapter (also called a “cradle”) has been proposed to use the mobile phone in a hands-free (or hands-free) manner. In such a system, the adapter is a device for installing a mobile phone, for example, a function of outputting a reception signal from the mobile phone to a speaker in a vehicle, a transmission signal from a remote microphone provided in the vehicle, or a remote control. A function of outputting a control signal based on the operation of the switch to the mobile phone.
According to this system, it is possible to perform a remote control without directly operating the mobile phone and make and receive calls.

Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. Hei 7-115680 discloses an in-vehicle telephone system having a function of automatically sending a message and automatically answering when a call is made during traveling. This publication also mentions the recording of a message from the other party.

[0005]

However, the system described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. Hei 7-115680 does not assume a hands-free call and automatically responds automatically while the vehicle is running. Therefore, if such a technique is applied to a hands-free communication system, there arises a problem that the original convenience of the hands-free communication cannot be fully utilized. Note that Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 5-105005 discloses a hands-free call system, but does not control hand-free calls due to the load on the driver.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned conventional problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide a highly practical telephone system that takes into consideration the safety of driving while utilizing the convenience of hands-free communication. is there.

[0007]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION To achieve the above object, the present invention provides an automatic telephone system mounted on a mobile body, which automatically responds to a call from the other party in an automatic answering mode. Responding means, in the case of a hand-free call mode, comparing the driving load of the driver with a threshold and a hand-free call means for making a hand-free call in response to a call from the other party; And a mode selecting means for selecting the hand-free call mode, and means for adaptively setting the threshold value based on road information of a road on which the mobile body travels .

[0008] According to the above configuration, the communication mode is automatically selected by the mode selection means according to the driving load.
Preferably, when the driving load is large, the automatic answering mode is selected and a response to the other party is automatically made. On the other hand, when the driving load is small, the hands-free call mode is selected and the special operation is performed. You can make a hands-free call without any. That is, it is possible to automatically and appropriately switch between the automatic answering mode and the hands-free call mode according to the situation, and to provide a system having both the convenience of the hands-free call and the safety of driving. According to the present invention, the mode selection is performed by comparing the driving load of the driver (the value indicating the driving load) with the threshold, and the threshold is adaptively set based on the road information .

The above-mentioned driving load serves as an index as to whether or not there is room for telephone use, and is determined based on one or more pieces of information. Although the system according to the present invention is particularly preferably mounted on a vehicle, it may be mounted on another mobile object requiring a hands-free call.

In a preferred aspect of the present invention, a storage means for storing the other party information in the case of the automatic response mode, and notifying that the other party information is stored when a predetermined driving state is established. Notification means.

[0011] The fact that the other party information has been received can be perceived by the driver by the notification means, and forgetting of the fact can be prevented. For example, it is desirable to notify the reception fact when the driving load is reduced or when the vehicle stops. In the automatic response mode, it is desirable that the voice and microphone of the other party be intentionally shut off for safe driving. The notification unit is a unit that performs notification using sound, light, or the like.

In a preferred aspect of the present invention, in the automatic answering mode, a storage means for storing a telephone number of the other party, and a reply for transmitting a call to the telephone number of the other party stored in the storage means in response to a reply operation. And control means.

In the automatic answering mode, if the telephone number of the other party is stored, an automatic reply can be promptly made later, and the complexity of the reply operation can be eliminated. When the caller's telephone number is automatically transmitted by the other party, the telephone number can be recorded as it is, or the telephone number can be recorded by prompting the push button operation of the other party. In a preferred aspect of the present invention, presence / absence determining means for determining the presence or absence of a driver in the moving body, and when the absence of the driver is determined by the presence / absence determining means, the absence processing for a call from the other party. And an out-of-office processing unit to be executed. According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a telephone system mounted on a mobile body, wherein in an automatic answering mode, an automatic answering means for automatically answering a call from the other party; Storage means for storing the other party information in the case of the mode,
And notifying means for notifying the driver that the other party information is stored when the driving load of the driver becomes smaller than the threshold value .

[0014]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 shows a preferred embodiment of a telephone system according to the present invention. FIG. 1 is a conceptual diagram showing the entire configuration of the system. This system is for hands-free operation of a mobile phone in a vehicle.

The telephone adapter (cradle) 10 is disposed, for example, in a console between a driver's seat and a passenger seat.
The cradle 10 has a hold mechanism 14 for detachably holding the mobile phone 12 and a call control unit 16. The cradle 10 corresponds to a mobile phone of each company. For example, the hold mechanism 14 is also configured to be able to hold the mobile phone of each company. The mobile phone 12 and the call control unit 16 are connected via a connector with a multi-core cable (for example, a 16-core curl cord) 18 according to the standard of the mobile phone.

The call control unit 16 is a processing unit for executing various controls (standby control, incoming call control, answer hold control, telephone number reading control, call control, call control, etc.) in the system. In the form, for example, C
It is composed of a PU and a storage unit. A remote unit 21, an external antenna 20, an audio device 22 such as a tuner, a speaker 24, and the like, which will be described in detail later, are connected to the call control unit 16. This call control unit 1
6 receives power supply from the vehicle battery BT. In addition, the call control unit 16 includes a traveling state signal 36 such as a vehicle speed.
Is input, and such a signal is used for call control.

The output of the audio device 22 is managed by the communication control unit 16, and its output is muted or cut off as necessary. The speaker 14 controlled by the call control unit 16 is, for example, a speaker on the passenger seat side. Of course, a reception signal can be given to other speakers.

The remote unit 21 is fixedly arranged, for example, at the height of the driver's head on the driver's seat side pillar. The remote unit 21 is provided with a microphone 26 for hands-free communication and various buttons 28 to 34. A hook button (hook switch) 28 is used to perform off-hook, on-hook, and the like, and an ascending button (UP switch) 28 and a descending button (DOWN switch) 32 are used to select a destination, and a function button (function switch). ) 34 is used for function selection, call mode selection, and the like. These buttons may be mechanically pressed buttons, but may be pressure-sensitive buttons or the like. Alternatively, a button built into the light emitting device may be used. In the present embodiment, the number of buttons is reduced as much as possible to reduce the complexity of the panel and to facilitate the operation.

In the system according to the present embodiment, a display for indicating the contents of the telephone operation and the telephone number of the other party is not provided in the vehicle. Instead, a voice guide system is functioning, and a call operation can be performed by operating the remote unit 21 based on voice guidance and information provision.

As described above, hands-free communication is performed using the remote unit 21 and the speaker 24, and it is not necessary to directly operate the mobile phone 12 mounted on the cradle 10 for transmitting and receiving. In addition, since the voice guidance system is provided, the line of sight can be concentrated on driving.
Therefore, the safety at the time of traveling can be enhanced by using a mobile phone.

FIG. 2 shows a specific example of the configuration of the call control unit 16. In this example, the internal bus 40
, A CPU 42, an input / output circuit 44, a storage unit 46, and a speech synthesis processor 48 are connected. The input / output circuit 44 includes, for example, an A / D converter, a D / A converter, an amplifier, a limiter, a signal switching circuit, and the like. Each signal illustrated in FIG. 1 is input to the input / output circuit 44, Each signal is output from the input / output circuit 44. The storage unit 46 includes, for example, a RAM and a ROM, and the ROM stores a program for controlling the operation of the present system. CPU42
Executes various controls according to such a program.
The voice synthesis processor 48 is a dedicated processor that performs voice synthesis when reading out a telephone number or the like, and generates voice data based on text data stored therein or in the storage unit 46.

FIG. 3 shows a storage space 50 of the storage section 46 shown in FIG. The storage space 50 includes a reply memory area 52, a redial area 54, a memory dial storage area 56, a voice memo storage area 58, and the like. As will be described later, the reply memory area 52 is an area for registering a telephone number when a telephone number is received as information on the other party during execution of the automatic response mode. In the reply memory area 52, for example, 3
Up to phone numbers of destinations can be registered. The redial area 54 is an area for storing the telephone number transmitted immediately before. The voice memo storage area 58 is an area for recording the voice of the other party for a certain period of time. The memory dial storage area 56 is an area for registering information (registration number, destination name, telephone number) of a call destination up to a predetermined number.

Next, referring to FIGS. 1 and 2, FIG.
The incoming call processing, incoming call notification processing, and reply processing executed by the CPU 42 (FIG. 2) will be described with reference to FIGS.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing the incoming call processing. In S100, the mode of the incoming call processing is determined. In the present embodiment, the modes include a normal mode, an automatic response mode, and an automatic switching mode. Selection of these modes is basically performed by a driver or the like in advance. However, in the automatic switching mode, the hand-free call mode or the automatic answering mode is automatically selected according to the magnitude of the driving load of the driver, as described later in detail.

If it is determined in S100 that the mode is the normal mode, a ringtone indicating a call from the other party is output in S101. In S102, when the off-hook operation is performed using the predetermined button of the remote unit 21 shown in FIG. 1, the output of the ringtone stops in S103. Then, in S104, a hands-free call is performed using the microphone 26 and the speaker 24.

If it is determined in step S105 that the driver has performed on-hook operation by a predetermined button operation, on-hook control is executed in step S110, and line disconnection and the like are performed. Of course, even when the other party goes on-hook, the line blocking processing is executed in the same manner as described above.

On the other hand, if it is determined in S100 that the automatic answering mode is set, a ringtone is output for 5 seconds in S106. Of course, the next automatic response process may be performed without outputting the ringtone. In S107, an automatic response process is executed. In this process, the output of the other party's voice and the voice input from the microphone 26 are cut off. However,
The predetermined message automatically sent to the other party is output from the speaker 24 as needed. More specifically, in S107, an automatic off-hook process is first performed, and then, when a caller's telephone number is notified from the other party, the following message is sent. For example, "I can't answer the phone because I'm driving now. I'll call back later. The phone number to call back is 000000
00000. If you want to re-enter, press the rice pad twice and enter your phone number with the push button.
When you have entered it correctly, press the sharp twice at the end. Is sent.

On the other hand, when there is no notification of the caller's telephone number from the other party, it is determined and the following message is sent. For example, "Because you are driving now,
I can't answer the phone. I will call you back later, so please enter your phone number with the push button. When you have entered it correctly, press the sharp twice at the end. If you want to re-insert, press the rice seal twice and re-insert from the beginning. Is sent.

In S108, it is determined whether or not the telephone number has been received in response to the above message. If it is determined that the telephone number has been received, the telephone number of the other party is shown in FIG. 3 in S109. Reply memory area 52
Registered in. Then, in S110, the on-hook control is executed as described above.

Incidentally, when the hook button 28 is turned on during the execution of the automatic response process in S107, an interrupt process is started, and a hands-free call can be made in S115 described later. Of course, such an interruption process can be prohibited as necessary, or the refusal thereof can be automatically determined according to the driver's burden described later in detail.

On the other hand, if it is determined in S100 that the automatic switching mode is set, a ringtone is output for five seconds in S111. The step of S111 may be provided, for example, after the steps of S112 and S113.
That is, in a case where a hands-free call is not performed, control may be performed to prohibit generation of a ringtone.

At S112, it is determined whether the driver's driving load is greater than a predetermined value. The criterion will be described in detail later, but when it is determined that the driving load is large, the above-described step S107 is executed, that is, the process is switched to the automatic response process. After it is determined in S112 that the driving load is small, it is determined in S113 whether the driver is inside the vehicle. In this case, if the driver is absent, a process when the driver is absent is executed in S117 described later. On the other hand, if it is determined in S113 that there is a driver, an automatic off-hook process is executed in S114, and a hands-free call is executed in S115 as in S104. In S116, it is determined whether or not an on-hook operation has been performed. If the on-hook operation has been performed, on-hook control is executed in S110. The criteria for determining the presence or absence of a driver in S113 will be described later in detail.

In step S117, a message such as "the driver is not in the vehicle" may be sent, or the line connection itself may be refused. In the present embodiment, the hook button 28 during the absence process is performed.
Is turned on, an interrupt process is activated and the step of S115 is executed.

In this embodiment, it is determined in S112 that the driving load is large when the vehicle speed is, for example, 90 km / h or more. In S113, the vehicle speed is, for example, 5 k.
It is determined that the driver is absent when m / h or less. Such a determination is made by the call control unit 16 based on the traveling state signal 36 as shown in FIG. When it is determined in S112 that the driving load is large, another message may be sent instead of the normal message in S107.

In step S112, in this embodiment, it is determined whether the driving load is large by comparing a certain vehicle speed with a threshold. However, the threshold in that case may be set adaptively.
For example, it is also possible to read out the maximum vehicle speed data from the road information of the running road from the database of the navigation system, and dynamically set a threshold value as a criterion value based on the maximum vehicle speed data. Alternatively, control may be performed so as to receive the information of the currently traveling road from the non-stop automatic charging system and change the threshold to a threshold value corresponding to the speed limit of the road. Alternatively, the threshold value can be changed from the information of the currently traveling road obtained from the beacon to a threshold value corresponding to the speed limit of the road. According to such adaptive control of the determination reference value, there is an advantage that the mode can be automatically selected more appropriately.

In determining whether the driving load is large, in addition to the above-mentioned vehicle speed, for example, the magnitude of sudden acceleration / deceleration, the presence or absence of back traveling, the magnitude of steering operation, the state of the brake switch, the presence / absence of ABS control , The magnitude of the deceleration prescribed value based on the vehicle speed, the opening degree of the throttle sensor, the acceleration based on the vehicle speed, the engine inflow air amount, the engine speed, the fuel consumption, the engine negative pressure, the engine positive pressure, and the steering sensor The angle change amount, the steering position, the detection value of the yaw rate sensor, the presence / absence of traction control, the presence / absence of vehicle running stability control, and the like may be referred to.

In step S113, in addition to the above-described determination based on the vehicle speed, for example, the shift range of an automatic vehicle, the state of a brake switch, the state of an idle switch of a throttle sensor, the state of a parking brake switch, the state of a seat belt switch, Ignition switch status, door switch timing change,
The determination may be made based on a detection value of a seating sensor, an occupant detection signal by an airbag system, an occupant detection result by image processing, and the like.

Next, FIG. 5 shows a notification process as a flowchart. In S201, it is determined whether the telephone number of the other party has been registered by the automatic response.
If it is determined that the information is registered, it is determined in S202 whether or not a reply can be sent in consideration of the current traveling state. For example, S112 and S113 shown in FIG.
Is determined. In this embodiment, the operating load and
It is determined that a reply is possible when the vehicle speed falls to a predetermined value. Of course, it may be determined that a reply can be made when the vehicle stops. In any case, if it is determined that a reply is possible, the fact that the telephone number is registered is notified by sound or light (S203) .

Therefore, according to such processing, when the driving load is large, the driver's consciousness can be concentrated on driving, and the reply operation can be prompted when the driving load is reduced. There is. Further, according to such a process, it is possible to prevent a problem that the fact that the automatic incoming call is performed is forgotten.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing a reply process after the notification process as shown in FIG.

In S301, it is determined whether or not a reply operation has been performed using a predetermined button on the remote unit 21. If there is no reply operation, S304 is executed,
On the other hand, if it is determined that a reply operation has been performed, the telephone number registered in S302 is read. Of course, when a plurality of telephone numbers are registered, any one of the telephone numbers is selected by the user. It should be noted that, in order to assist such a selection, a voice message of the other party may be registered together with the telephone number.

In S303, the telephone number read out in S302 is automatically dialed. Therefore, there is an advantage that the driver can reply with a very simple operation without inputting any telephone number. In S304, an inquiry is made as to whether or not the registered telephone number is to be erased. If the telephone number is to be erased, the telephone number selected by the user is erased in S305.

[0044]

As described above, according to the present invention,
Driving safety can be improved while utilizing the convenience of hands-free communication.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an overall configuration of a hands-free telephone system according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a specific configuration of a call control unit shown in FIG.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a concept of a storage space of a storage unit illustrated in FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing an incoming call process executed by the call control unit.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating a notification process performed by a call control unit.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing a reply process executed by the call control unit.

[Explanation of symbols]

10 telephone adapter (cradle), 12 mobile phone, 16 call control unit, 21 remote unit, 24 speaker, 26 microphone, 28 hook button, 30 ascending button, 32 descending button, 34 function button.

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continuation of front page (56) References JP-A-63-14526 (JP, A) JP-A-2-65536 (JP, A) JP-A-7-264671 (JP, A) JP-A-7-264 87568 (JP, A) JP-A-1-143457 (JP, A) JP-A-7-115680 (JP, A) JP-A-10-190557 (JP, A) (58) Fields investigated (Int. Cl. ⁷ , DB name) H04B ^7/ 24-7/26 H04M 1/58-1/82 H04Q 7/00-7/38

Claims (5)

(57) [Claims] In a telephone system mounted on a mobile body, an automatic answering means for automatically answering a call from the other party in an automatic answering mode; A hand-free call means for making a hands-free call for the call; a mode selecting means for comparing the driving load of the driver with a threshold value to select the automatic answering mode and the hands-free call mode; Means for adaptively setting the threshold value based on road information of a road on which the mobile body travels , comprising: 2. The system according to claim 1, wherein a storage means for storing the other party information in the case of the automatic response mode, and that the other party information is stored when a predetermined driving state is established. A notifying means for notifying, a mobile telephone system, comprising: 3. The system according to claim 1, wherein a storage means for storing the telephone number of the other party in the case of the automatic answering mode, and a call to the telephone number of the other party stored in the storage means in response to a reply operation. And a response control means for performing. 4. The system according to claim 1, wherein presence / absence determination means for determining presence / absence of a driver in the moving body, and when the presence / absence determination means determines absence of a driver, a call from the other party is provided. A mobile telephone system, comprising: an absentee processing means for performing an absentee processing. 5. An automatic answering means for automatically answering a call from the other party in an automatic answering mode in a telephone system mounted on a mobile body, and storing information on the other party in the automatic answering mode. Storage means; and notifying means for notifying to the driver that the other party information is stored when the driving load of the driver becomes smaller than a threshold value. .