JP6893689B2 - Character discrimination communication system - Google Patents

Description

The present invention detects whether a parking lot or hotel is available (vacant) or full (full), sends the detection result to a server, and determines whether the server can be used for a mobile phone or the like. It relates to a communication system that informs and facilitates the convenience of users.

Today, most facilities, such as parking lots and hotels, display an "empty" or "full" sign at the entrance of the facility to indicate that it is available to users. In a large parking lot, "empty" or "full" information is sent to the server, and the server provides the user with the parking lot availability information. You can know which parking lot is available. On the other hand, there are many parking lots and other facilities that do not send "empty" and "full" information to the server when the parking lot starts operation, and such parking lots are "empty" and "full". In order to improve the equipment so that the "full" information can be provided to the server, it is necessary to obtain the design information from the equipment designer and to make design changes and improvements based on the information. Patent Document 1 introduces an example in which parking lot and accommodation availability information is managed by a server and distributed to users using a mobile phone network.

JP-A-2002-340571

The present invention detects "empty" and "full" information by a simple method for facilities such as parking lots that do not send "empty" and "full" information to the server, and outputs the detection result. Make it available to the server.

For each character of "empty" and "full", find a unique part that exists only in that character, provide a sensor at that part, judge "empty" or "full" by the sensor output, and wirelessly communicate the judgment result. Send to the server with. Since the communication module for this purpose can be made ultra-compact, it can be retrofitted together with the "empty" and "full" indicators at the entrance of the facility.

For facilities such as parking lots that do not send "empty" and "full" information to the server, "empty" and "full" information can be provided to the server by simple means. By browsing the server, the user can know whether or not any facility equipped with a display that displays "empty" and "full" information can be used.

It is a figure which shows the whole structure of the character discrimination communication system as one Embodiment of this invention. It is an example which installed the sensor and the communication module in the full-vacancy indicator of this invention, and is the figure which shows the 2nd configuration example of the communication module. It is a figure which shows the structure of the optical sensor of this invention. It is a figure which shows the communication module which built in the optical sensor of this invention. (A), (b), and (c) are diagrams showing the format of the communication signal that the management server communicates with in the present invention. It is a figure which shows the operation sequence of the installation smartphone and the communication sequence with the management server corresponding to it at the time of installing the communication module of this invention. It is a figure explaining the character discrimination in the character discrimination communication system of one Embodiment of this invention.

The main part of the present invention is a technique for discriminating characters displayed on a character display device (hereinafter referred to as a display device) that displays whether or not the facility is available at the entrance of the facility, and for communicating the discrimination result to the facility management server. It consists of a communication module attached to the display and a management server (in the embodiment, a parking lot management server, but in a broad sense, a facility management server ) that provides information to the user whether or not the facility is available. Hereinafter, a parking lot will be taken as an example of a facility, and an embodiment of the present invention will be described with a full vacant vehicle indicator in the parking lot based on the drawings (in the parking lot embodiment, the full vacant vehicle indicator will be described, but in a broad sense, characters An example applied to (referred to as an indicator) is shown.

FIG. 1 shows an overall configuration of a character discrimination communication system as an embodiment of the present invention, in which 1 is an optical sensor installed at a specific location of a full-vacancy indicator and 2 is an output of the optical sensor 1. It is a communication module for determining whether the vehicle is empty or full and wirelessly communicating the information. The illuminance meter 21, the threshold value determination circuit 22, the vacancy determination circuit 23, the wireless communication circuit 24, the battery 25, and the remaining battery level detection circuit 26. , ID code generation circuit 27, and sensor type setting switch 28. The physical dimensions of the communication module 2 are as small and lightweight as about 5 cm square or less.

The wireless communication circuit 24 communicates with the wireless base station 3 that has jurisdiction over all parking lot information in an area having a radius of 5 kilometers. As a wireless communication method between the wireless base station 3 and the wireless communication circuit 23, communication is performed by using a specific low power wireless, LPWA (Low Power Wide Area) wireless, or a low power consumption self-employed wireless communication network such as PHS. The battery life of the module can be extended to 5 or 10 years. The radio base station 3 communicates with the parking lot management server 5 via the public wireless communication network 4, and the parking lot management server 5 collects vacant and full information of all parking lots under the jurisdiction of the present invention. The parking lot user can know whether or not there is a vacancy in the parking lot he / she intends to use by browsing the information of the parking lot management server 5 using his / her own user terminal 6. The user terminal 6 is generally a smartphone or tablet today, but it is not limited to this.

Further, if the wireless communication circuit 24 can directly access the public wireless communication network 4, the wireless base station 3 becomes unnecessary, but the public wireless communication network 4 consumes more power than the self-employed wireless communication network described above, and It should be noted that communication costs to be paid to public wireless communication carriers are required.

Next, a method of determining whether the vehicle is empty or full will be described from the output of the optical sensor 1. The characters displayed on the display are "empty" or "full", or "empty" or "full". If you look closely at the empty and full characters, there are places that exist in only one of the characters. For example, there is no empty character above the "sanzui" on the left side of the full character. Therefore, an optical sensor 1 is placed on the upper left side of the full character, and it is determined that the character is "full" by sensing that a part of the character is there.

There are two types of indicators that indicate whether the vehicle is empty or full. One is to display characters using a light emitting element such as an LED, and the other is to display the characters themselves like a signboard. The sensor type setting switch 28 sets which type of display is the display in the parking lot where the communication module 2 is installed. The difference in the internal configuration of the optical sensor 1 due to the difference in the type of the display will be described later.

The illuminometer 21 measures the brightness around the display, and the brightness changes in rainy weather, fine weather, day and night, and the optical sensor output also changes. The threshold value determination circuit 22 determines the threshold value for digitizing the analog output waveform of the optical sensor 1 based on the output of the illuminometer 21, and the vacancy determination circuit 23 determines the threshold value for the analog waveform of the optical sensor 1. Using the value determined by the circuit 22, it is determined whether the display is "empty" or "full". Although the optical sensor output voltage changes depending on the brightness of the surroundings, the threshold value can be changed according to the output of the illuminometer 21 to make a determination that is not affected by the brightness of the surroundings of the display. The ID code generation circuit 27 is assigned a unique number to each parking lot display, and is information necessary for the parking lot management server to control the vacancy information of all parking lots.

FIG. 2 is a front view of the parking lot signboard 9. The signboard 9 displays the parking lot name such as the first parking lot, and although not shown below, "30 minutes 200 yen". In many cases, charges such as "" are displayed. The full / empty display 8 may display the characters “full” or “empty”. There is also a parking lot that displays the word "full" only when the car is full. As described above, the optical sensor 1 is installed at a specific position so as to detect the upper part of the "sanzui" bias of the full character, and the output of the optical sensor 1 is guided to the communication module 2 via the electric wire 7. Since the communication module 2 has a size of at most 5 cm square, it is installed in a place where characters are not drawn on the parking lot signboard 9 by using a suction cup using double-sided tape, a magic tape (registered trademark), or the like.

When the character "full" appears on the full / empty indicator 8, the output of the empty / full determination circuit 23 is turned on, and the parking lot (owning a specific ID code) is full via the wireless communication circuit 24. This reaches the parking lot management server 5 via the wireless base station 3 and the public wireless communication network 4. The battery remaining amount detection circuit 26 constantly detects the battery remaining amount, and when the wireless communication circuit 24 transmits the detected remaining amount, the battery remaining amount is also transmitted at the same time. The parking lot management server 5 grasps the vacancy and fullness of all the parking lots under its jurisdiction with the management table as shown in Table 1.

表１においては、「ID符号」は、通信モジュール２のID符号発生回路２７で付与されているID符号であり、本発明通信モジュールの製造番号を使ってもよい。「駐車場住所」、「駐車場名称」、空か満か（「空満」）、さらに「エリアNo」,「電池残量」、駐車場の「表示」器の形式（看板かLEDか）、「方位」、照度計の有無、閾値が管理されている。エリア番号は駐車場管理者が定める地域番号であり、区単位、町単位とかでエリアNoを定める方法が採れよう。駐車場管理サーバ５が現在空いている駐車場を区単位、町単位などのエリアで情報提供するために必要な情報である。なお、エリアの定義の方法として、後述するがGPS情報を用いて、GPS値に対応したエリアNoを別途定義して使用してもよい。「方位」、「照度計」、「閾値」についての意味については後記する。
図３は、光センサ１の内部構成を示す図である。

In Table 1, the “ID code” is an ID code assigned by the ID code generation circuit 27 of the communication module 2, and the serial number of the communication module of the present invention may be used. "Parking lot address", "Parking lot name", empty or full ("empty"), "area No", "remaining battery level", parking lot "display" type (signature or LED) , "Orientation", presence / absence of ilometer, threshold value are managed. The area number is the area number set by the parking lot manager, and the method of setting the area number by ward unit or town unit can be adopted. This is information necessary for the parking lot management server 5 to provide information on a currently vacant parking lot in an area such as a ward unit or a town unit. As a method of defining an area, an area number corresponding to a GPS value may be separately defined and used by using GPS information, which will be described later. The meanings of "direction", "illuminance meter", and "threshold value" will be described later.
FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an internal configuration of the optical sensor 1.

In FIG. 3, the parking lot signboard 9 having the full / empty indicator 8 is viewed from the side. As described above, the full vacant vehicle display 8 includes a signboard display type and an LED light emitting display type. In the light emitting display type, whether or not the light is emitted may be directly received by the light receiving unit 12 and guided to the sensor 13, but in the signboard display type, the light is emitted from the light emitting unit 11 and the reflected light by the signboard is emitted. , It receives light and guides it to the sensor 13. Whether or not the light emitting unit 11 is driven by the drive circuit 14 is driven by using the output information of the sensor type setting circuit 28 of the communication module 2 when the full / empty vehicle indicator 8 is a signboard display type.

Today, many indicators 8 that are full and empty use LEDs. As for the LED type display, as shown in FIG. 4, the optical sensor 1 can be mounted in the communication module 2, and the light emitting unit 11 and the drive circuit 14 shown in FIG. 3 are not required. In this case, the tip of the light guide tube 10 such as an optical fiber is fixed to the location of the optical sensor 1 shown in FIG. 2, and the light emitted by the LED is transmitted through a light guide device such as a light guide tube or a light guide officer. It leads to the optical sensor 1 in the communication module 2. In this case, the electric wire 7 shown in FIG. 2 is replaced with the light guide device.

In Table 1, the parking lot address needs to be manually input at first, but when the communication module is installed, the GPS information of the installation location is transmitted to the parking lot management server 5, and the GPS information is automatically used. It becomes possible to enter address information. For that purpose, it is necessary for the installer to install the installation registration application software separately prepared on the smartphone equipped with the GPS function and install the smartphone while carrying it around. FIG. 6 shows the sequence (screen display example is omitted), but the installer opens the installation registration application (installation application) on the smartphone. At that time, although not shown, the parking lot ID code is displayed on a part of the screen. Since the selection menu for direction input appears on the smartphone screen, check which direction (east, west, north, south, etc.) the full vacant vehicle indicator 8 is facing, and select the menu (east, west, north, south, etc.). Next, a screen for selecting the format of the display appears. Select the format of the signboard or the LED, and further select whether or not the communication module is equipped with the illuminometer 21. Finally, by performing the "transmission" operation, the ID of the communication module, the GPS value of the GPS sensor built into the smartphone, the orientation, the format information, and the presence / absence information of the ilometer can be obtained from the wireless base station 3 and the public wireless communication network 4. It reaches the parking lot management server 5 via. By performing the installation operation according to this installation application, the parking lot address and area No. in Table 1 are automatically assigned based on the GPS information.

The brightness around the communication module is determined by the weather (sunny or rainy), day or night, and the direction in which the full / empty indicator 8 is facing (how bright the sunlight is). Yes, the weather, sunrise and sunset times can be known from the GPS value. Therefore, the information that can be measured by the illuminometer 21 can be calculated from the GPS value and the information on the mounting orientation of the communication module 2. If the calculation result is transmitted from the parking lot management server 5 to each parking lot as threshold value determination information, the illuminance meter 21 becomes unnecessary. In this case, the input signal of the threshold value determination circuit 22 in the communication module 2 is obtained from the wireless communication circuit 24.

It is helpful to know how much the threshold value determined by the illuminometer 21 was when calculating the threshold value to replace the illuminometer 21 from the GPS value because the information of the illuminometer 21 should be more accurate. .. Therefore, Table 1 manages the presence / absence of the illuminometer and the threshold value obtained from the illuminometer. It will be possible to further improve the calculation accuracy by comparing the communication modules with the same mounting orientation in the same area with the result of calculating the threshold value by themselves while referring to the threshold value obtained from the ilometer 21. .. Therefore, the communication module including the illuminometer 21 also transmits a threshold value when communicating with the parking lot management server 5 when there is a change in the vacancy. The threshold value is generally a voltage such as 0.5 volt, but it is not necessary to be particular about this, and a number expressed in% such as 70% as shown in Table 1 may be used.

In Table 2, the parking lot management server 5 derives a calculation formula for reducing the error while comparing the received threshold value by the illuminometer with the calculated threshold value and correcting the calculation formula. , An example of a table used for learning and self-management.

天候は時々刻々変化するので、駐車場管理サーバ５は天気予報情報と共に、管轄する駐車場のGPS値をもとに天候変化を検知し、変化が起きたときは、随時、閾値決定情報を送信することが必要である。表示形式が看板型の時は、LED形に比し、センサ出力が周辺の明るさの影響を受けやすいので、きめ細かい観察が必要である。

Since the weather changes from moment to moment, the parking lot management server 5 detects the weather change based on the GPS value of the parking lot under its jurisdiction together with the weather forecast information, and when a change occurs, sends the threshold value determination information at any time. It is necessary to. When the display format is a signboard type, the sensor output is more susceptible to the surrounding brightness than the LED type, so detailed observation is required.

The user can search for an available parking lot by accessing the parking lot management server 5 using the user's smartphone or the like, but the operation screen for this is currently used. Since it is the same as the operation for using various services, the description is omitted here.

When the remaining battery level drops to a certain value such as 20% or less, the parking lot management server 5 instructs the communication module to replace the battery.

5 (a), (b), and (c) show the format of the communication signal between the communication module and the parking lot management server 5 according to the present invention, and between the smartphone for the installer and the parking lot management server 5.

There are three types of signals, which are summarized in Table 3.

各信号の長さ（バイト長）は、ID、GPS値に数バイト、信号種別、信号内容にあるその他の信号は１バイトで充分である。

The length (byte length) of each signal should be several bytes for the ID and GPS value, and 1 byte for the other signals in the signal type and signal content.

In the above explanation, it has been explained that there is a difference between the characters of empty and full in the upper part of the "sanzui" bias of full in the distinction between empty and full.

Next, a method for discriminating characters will be further described with reference to FIG. 7.

FIG. 7 shows characters (characters displayed on a two-dimensional plane) decomposed by a grid-like matrix, and the position of the grid is called an address, which means that each address has a character element. There is a part that does not exist. The upper part of the full character "sanzui" has a character element at the address a21, but the empty character address a21 does not have a character element. Therefore, by placing the optical sensor at the address a21, it is determined whether it is full or empty. The optical sensor 1 can also be identified at the address a41. Further, at the address a95, the character element of the empty character exists, but the character element of the full character does not exist.

Even at the address a95 of the optical sensor 1, it is possible to determine whether the optical sensor 1 is full or empty because the output of the optical sensor 1 is "when it is empty and when it is full".

This embodiment has been described in the case of the parking lot as a facility, other facilities (hotels, event plaza, and so on) that indicates whether available to the user Ri can der applied to, in broad sense is , It can be said that the situation (occupancy degree) in which a plurality of objects existing inside the space occupy the space is displayed. In addition, as the display character type, "empty" and "full" are shown using the parking lot as an example, but depending on the purpose of using the space, the character types are "safe" and "danger", which indicate "safe" and "danger". In some cases.

The present invention has great industrial applicability because it can be easily attached to any facility such as a parking lot currently used for commercial purposes and has a long battery life.

1. 1. Optical sensor 2. Communication module 3. Radio base station 4. Public wireless communication network 5. Parking lot management server 6. User terminal 7. Electric wire 8. Full / empty indicator 9. Parking lot signboard 10. Light guide tube 11. Light emitting part 12. Light receiving part 13. Sensor 14. Drive circuit 21. Illuminometer 22. Threshold determination circuit 23. Emptyness judgment circuit 24. Wireless communication circuit 25. Battery 26. Battery level detection circuit 27. ID code generation circuit

Claims (4)

A system in which a character display device and a facility management server are connected via a wireless communication network, and the character display device includes a specific ID code, a character display, an optical sensor, a luminometer, a determination circuit, and a wireless communication circuit. For a plurality of character types displayed on the two-dimensional plane of the character display, the addresses of the character elements existing only in a specific character type on the two-dimensional plane are obtained, and the optical sensor of the address unit The determination circuit is installed so as to detect the presence / absence of the character element, determines the presence / absence of the character element using a threshold value determined based on the output of the illuminometer, and displays the determination result together with the ID code. A character discrimination communication system characterized by transmitting from a communication circuit to the facility management server. The character display device displays a situation in which an object existing in the space occupies the inside of the space, is installed outside the space, and displays information on the character display device in a plurality of spaces. The character discrimination communication system according to claim 1, wherein the character discrimination communication system is managed by a facility management server, and a user of the space can view the occupancy status of the object for each space. A system in which a character display device and a facility management server are connected via a wireless communication network, and the character display device includes a specific ID code, a character display, an optical sensor, a determination circuit, and a wireless communication circuit. Then, for a plurality of character types displayed on the two-dimensional plane of the character display, the addresses on the two-dimensional plane of the character elements existing only in a specific character type are obtained, and the optical sensor obtains the addresses of the character elements of the address portion. In addition to being installed so as to detect the presence / absence, the character display device delivers the ID code, GPS information of the installation point of the character display device, mounting orientation information, and presence / absence information of the luminometer to the facility management server. The facility management server calculates a threshold for determining the presence or absence of a character element for a character display device that does not have a luminometer based on GPS information at the installation point, installation orientation information, and date and time information, and calculates the calculated threshold. It is characterized in that it is transmitted to the character display device, the character display device determines the presence or absence of a character element using the received threshold value, and transmits the determination result together with the ID code from the wireless communication circuit to the facility management server. character determination communication system to. The first aspect of the present invention is that the threshold value determined based on the output of the illuminometer is transmitted from the wireless communication circuit to the facility management server together with the ID code, GPS information of the installation point of the character display device, and installation orientation information. character determination communication system to.

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