JP3991889B2 - Electronic license plate inspection device - Google Patents

Description

[0001]
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to an inspection apparatus that performs an inspection inspection of an electronic license plate that stores vehicle specification information and the like.
[0002]
[Prior art]
Currently, it is considered to install an electronic license plate (smart plate) on a vehicle for the purpose of vehicle registration management and traffic volume management. The electronic license plate records information such as vehicle specification information and vehicle number (number) on an IC chip on the license plate.
[0003]
This electronic license plate is configured to transmit data in response to a data request from an external reader, and is assumed to operate alone and does not have a display unit.
[0004]
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
For this reason, there is a problem that the vehicle user cannot know whether the state of the electronic license plate is normal or abnormal. In addition, although it is assumed that the electronic license plate is exchanged at the time of vehicle inspection, there is no means for maintaining and inspecting it even though it is regularly used for a long period of time.
[0005]
An object of this invention is to provide the means which enables a function check before an electronic license plate is replaced | exchanged in view of the said point.
[0006]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
In order to achieve the above object, according to the first aspect of the present invention, there is provided an electronic license plate (20) mounted on a vehicle and having storage means (25) storing at least vehicle specification information. A predetermined function of the electronic license plate is normal based on a communication result between the communication unit (11) capable of communicating with the license plate (20) and the electronic license plate by the communication unit. An inspection processing unit (13) that performs an inspection process on whether or not and an informing means (14) for informing a user of the vehicle of an inspection result by the inspection processing unit, and is installed in a fuel supply facility that supplies fuel to the vehicle and which feature electronic license plates about their predetermined function having the with and has a self-diagnostic function for the self-diagnosis, to send diagnostic results by the self-diagnosis to the communication unit It is.
[0007]
Thus, by installing the electronic license plate inspection device capable of performing the functional check of the electronic license plate (20) in the fuel supply facility (for example, a gas station), the user can easily perform the function of the electronic license plate (20). Confirmation can be made. Further, since the fuel supply facility is a facility where vehicle users always stop by regularly, the user is in a normal state of the electronic license plate (20) until the replacement time of the electronic license plate (20) comes. It becomes possible to know whether it is abnormal or abnormal. Furthermore, the electronic license plate has a self-diagnosis function for performing a self-diagnosis on a predetermined function that the electronic license plate has, and the vehicle user can transmit the diagnosis result by the self-diagnosis to the communication unit. It is possible to know the occurrence of an abnormality in the function of the electronic license plate that cannot be inspected.
[0008]
The term “fuel” in the present specification includes gasoline for gasoline vehicles, electricity for electric vehicles, and hydrogen for fuel cell vehicles.
[0009]
Further, as in the invention according to claim 2, when the communication is normally completed when the inspection processing unit communicates with the electronic license plate in the communication unit, the communication function of the electronic license plate is normal. If it is determined that the communication is not completed normally, it can be determined that the communication function of the electronic license plate is abnormal.
[0010]
According to a third aspect of the present invention, the storage means has a memory area that can be used by the fuel supply facility. Thereby, in fuel supply facilities, such as a gas station, when using the predetermined memory area | region of an electronic license plate (20), the function check of an electronic license plate (20) can be performed together.
[0012]
In addition, the code | symbol in the bracket | parenthesis of each said means shows the correspondence with the specific means as described in embodiment mentioned later.
[0013]
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
Hereinafter, an embodiment to which the present invention is applied will be described with reference to FIGS. The electronic license plate inspection apparatus according to the present embodiment performs communication with an electronic license plate mounted on a vehicle to inspect whether a predetermined function of the electronic license plate is normal. Moreover, the electronic license plate inspection apparatus of this embodiment is installed in a fuel supply facility (a gas station in this embodiment) that is a facility for supplying fuel to a vehicle.
[0014]
FIG. 1 shows the overall configuration of an electronic license plate inspection apparatus 10 of the present embodiment. As shown in FIG. 1, the electronic license plate inspection apparatus 10 includes a communication unit 11, an operation unit 12, an inspection processing unit 13, and a display unit 14. The communication unit 11 has a communication function for performing communication with the electronic license plate 20. The operation unit 12 instructs the start of communication with the electronic license plate 20, and is usually operated by a clerk at a gas station. The inspection processing unit 13 performs a determination process as to whether or not the function of the electronic license plate 20 is normal. The display unit 14 can use any type of display, and constitutes a notification means that visually notifies the vehicle user of the inspection result of the electronic license plate 20.
[0015]
FIG. 2 shows the configuration of the electronic license plate 20. The electronic license plate 20 is obtained by recording information such as vehicle specification information and vehicle number (number) on an IC chip on a license plate attached to the front and rear of the vehicle. A license plate is a plate-like member on which an automobile registration number is written.
[0016]
As shown in FIG. 2, the electronic license plate 20 includes a communication unit 22, a control unit 23, a power supply unit 24, and a memory 25. The communication unit 22 transmits / receives a signal to / from an external device via the antenna 21. The control unit 23 instructs the transmission unit 22 to perform transmission / reception. The power supply unit 24 supplies power to the control unit 23 and the like. As the power supply unit 24, a primary battery built in the electronic license plate 20 is usually used, but an external power supply may be used.
[0017]
The memory 25 is a storage means for storing various data, and includes a public memory and a private memory. The public memory stores information (such as vehicle specification information) described in the automobile inspection certificate and can only read data. Private memory is a memory area that can be used by private facilities, and can read and write data. Private memory can be used for various purposes. In this embodiment, a memory area in which a gas station as a private facility can be used is prepared in the private memory. For example, when a gas station gives service points to a vehicle user according to the amount of refueling, the service points can be recorded in a private memory. Furthermore, refueling information (when and how many liters have been refueled) can be recorded in private memory.
[0018]
Further, the electronic license plate 20 of the present embodiment has a self-diagnosis function. As a self-diagnosis function, it is possible to check the memory 25, detect damage to the antenna 21, check the remaining battery level of the power supply unit 24, and the like. The memory check can be performed by error detection using, for example, CRC (Cyclic Redundancy Check) or sum check. The electronic license plate 20 of the present embodiment is configured to perform self-diagnosis when there is a data request from the electronic license plate inspection apparatus 10.
[0019]
Next, the inspection procedure of the electronic license plate 10 by the electronic license plate inspection apparatus 10 of this embodiment will be described based on FIG.
[0020]
First, the electronic license plate inspection apparatus 10 accesses the electronic license plates 20 attached to the front and rear of the vehicle and reads desired data. Specifically, the electronic license plate inspection device 10 requests the electronic license plate 20 for data (such as service points) used by a gas station recorded in a private memory. Data reading of the electronic license plate 20 by the electronic license plate inspection apparatus 10 may be performed during refueling to the vehicle on which the electronic license plate 20 is mounted, or may be performed before or after refueling.
[0021]
The electronic license plate 20 reads the requested data from the memory 25 in accordance with a data request from the electronic license plate inspection device 10 and transmits the read data to the electronic license plate inspection device 10.
[0022]
Further, the electronic license plate 20 performs a self-diagnosis when a data request is made from the electronic license plate inspection apparatus 10 and transmits a self-diagnosis result to the electronic license plate inspection apparatus 10.
[0023]
The electronic license plate inspection apparatus 10 determines that the communication function of the electronic license plate 20 is normal when the communication with the electronic license plate 20 is normally completed, and the communication with the electronic license plate 20 is normally completed. If not, it is determined that the communication function of the electronic license plate 20 is abnormal. If the content of the data read from the electronic license plate 20 is abnormal, it can be determined that an abnormality has occurred in at least the memory area used by the gas station in the memory 25.
[0024]
In the electronic license plate inspection device 10, data (service points, etc.) used by the gas station read from the electronic license plate 20 is displayed on the display device 14, and the function inspection result of the electronic license plate 20 is displayed on the display device 14. indicate. The function test result includes a communication function test result and a self-diagnosis result of the electronic license plate 20.
[0025]
When an abnormality has occurred in the electronic license plate 20, the content of the abnormality is displayed on the display unit 14. When only the electronic license plate 20 on the front side or the rear side of the vehicle is abnormal, it is also displayed whether the front or rear electronic license plate 20 is abnormal. The display unit 14 displays, for example, “The electronic license plate is normal.”, “Cannot communicate with the front license plate.”, “The antenna of the rear license plate is damaged.”
[0026]
As described above, by installing the electronic license plate inspection device 10 that performs the functional inspection of the electronic license plate 20 at the gas station, the vehicle user can easily check the function of the electronic license plate 20. In addition, since the gas station is a facility where vehicle users always stop by regularly, the vehicle user is in a normal or abnormal state before the electronic license plate 20 is replaced. It becomes possible to know.
[0027]
In addition, since the electronic license plate 20 of the present embodiment has a self-diagnosis function, the vehicle user can know the occurrence of an abnormality in the function of the electronic license plate 20 that cannot be inspected by the electronic license plate inspection apparatus 10. Become. For example, when reading the data of the electronic license plate 20 by the electronic license plate inspection apparatus 10, since only the memory area used by the gas station is normally inspected, it is impossible to know whether other memory areas are normal. However, when the electronic license plate 20 performs a memory check using the self-diagnosis function, it is possible to know whether or not the entire memory 25 is also normal.
[0028]
Further, at the gas station, when the private memory of the electronic license plate 20 is used, for example, the function of the electronic license plate 20 can be checked as a service to the customer.
[0029]
(Other embodiments)
In the above embodiment, the electronic license plate 20 is configured to perform self-diagnosis when a data request is received from the electronic license plate inspection apparatus 10, but the self-diagnosis of the electronic license plate 20 is performed at an arbitrary timing, and the diagnosis result May be stored in the memory 25 in advance. In this case, when there is a data request from the electronic license plate inspection apparatus 10, the electronic license plate 20 may read out and transmit the self-diagnosis result stored in the memory 25.
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram of an electronic license plate inspection apparatus according to the embodiment.
FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram of an electronic license plate.
FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing an inspection procedure for an electronic license plate by an electronic license plate inspection apparatus.
[Explanation of symbols]
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 ... Electronic license plate inspection apparatus, 11 ... Communication part, 12 ... Operation part, 13 ... Inspection process part, 14 ... Display part, 20 ... Electronic license plate, 21 ... Antenna, 22 ... Communication part, 23 ... Control part, 24 ... power supply unit, 25 ... memory (storage means).

Claims (3)

An electronic license plate (20) mounted on a vehicle, and a communication unit (11) capable of communicating with an electronic license plate (20) having storage means (25) storing at least vehicle specification information )When,
An inspection processing unit (13) for performing an inspection process as to whether or not a predetermined function of the electronic license plate is normal based on a result of communication with the electronic license plate by the communication unit;
Informing means (14) for informing the user of the vehicle of the inspection result by the inspection processing unit,
Installed in a fuel supply facility for supplying fuel to the vehicle ;
The electronic license plate inspection apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the electronic license plate has a self-diagnosis function for performing a self-diagnosis on a predetermined function of the electronic license plate, and transmits a diagnosis result of the self-diagnosis to the communication unit .   When the communication unit normally communicates with the electronic license plate in the communication unit, the inspection processing unit determines that the communication function of the electronic license plate is normal, and the communication is performed. The electronic license plate inspection apparatus according to claim 1, wherein if the communication is not completed normally, it is determined that the communication function of the electronic license plate is abnormal.   The electronic license plate inspection apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the storage unit has a memory area that can be used by the fuel supply facility.

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