JPH0798797A - On-vehicle information system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To prevent the same information from being reported repeatedly in the on-vehicle information system which accepts the external information by an installed display device and reports the information to a driver. CONSTITUTION:When the external information is accepted by an information receiving part 10, a part 20 judging the contents of information judges whether or not the contents of the information is the same as the former one. A part 22 judging the information source judges whether the information sources are the same or not. A part 24 judging the lapse time judges whether the lapse time from when the information is given is over the prescribed time or not. A part 26 preventing report prohibits the display and report by a driver when the information contents and the information source are the same as that of the former one and when the information contents coincide and the information sorces does not coincide and the lapse time from when the information is given is not over the prescribed time.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a vehicular information system for providing passengers with information regarding congestion and regulations of intersections and roads sent from outside the vehicle.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, radio waves from artificial satellites are received to measure the position of a vehicle, and this position is compared with map information mounted on the vehicle to determine a map around the vehicle and a map on this map. A so-called GPS navigation system, which displays the vehicle position and informs the driver, is in general demand.

In this system, the map information stored in advance in the device mounted on the vehicle is the information at the time of storage, not the information at the time of actual display. In this system, the information at the actual time is only the position of the own vehicle. Therefore, for information that changes moment by moment such as road regulations and traffic congestion information due to accidents, the passengers had to rely on external displays such as traffic congestion display signs on the Shuto Expressway. In addition, the map information mounted on the vehicle may not match the actual situation due to road repair work or the like.

On the other hand, a vehicle information system has been developed in which information is transmitted from a base station or a sign post installed on the side of a road, and the receiving device of the vehicle receives and displays the information. For example, on the Metropolitan Expressway in central Tokyo, etc., a system has been developed that transmits congestion information, regulation information, accident information, etc. of the entire Metropolitan Expressway from a base station and displays this on a display device mounted on the vehicle, A display such as a traffic jam information display board currently installed at more than ten places on the Shuto Expressway can be displayed on a display device in the vehicle. According to this, it is possible to confirm the information at a desired time of the passenger without passing through the conventional display boards installed above or on the side of the road and not being able to confirm the information sufficiently.

Further, when transmitting information by a beacon from a sign post installed on the side of the road, the passengers can obtain more detailed information by transmitting particularly important information within the reach of the beacon. Can be obtained. For example, if the information of the approaching intersection is displayed, the contents can be confirmed even if the information has passed through the conventional road display board, like the above-mentioned traffic congestion information. Furthermore, it is possible to provide more useful information to the passenger by creating and displaying information about the time required to reach a predetermined point based on the current road conditions.

As an example of such a system for displaying information from the outside in a vehicle, there is a device described in Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open No. 4-104676. This device can display the received external information on a display device to notify the passengers, and can transmit the information contents by voice as required by the passengers.

[0007]

As described above, in the device disclosed in the above publication, a display is made each time external information is received and the passenger is informed of this. For example, in a place where sign posts are set up at intervals of several hundred meters, display and voice notification are performed every time the sign posts are passed. As described above, the conventional device has a problem that even if the content of the information is the same, the notification is given each time the information is received, which may give a passenger a troublesome impression.

The present invention has been made in order to solve the above-mentioned problems, and does not make a passenger feel the annoyance due to the notification of external information even if it has the same content each time the external information is received. The purpose is to provide a system.

[0009]

In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, the vehicle information system according to the invention described in claim 1 judges whether the received external information content is the same as the previous content. Information content determining means, a source determining means for determining whether the source of the received external information is the same as the previous source, and the information content determining means determines that the information content is the same, and And a notification prohibition means for prohibiting notification of the received information when the transmission source determination means determines that the transmission sources are the same.

Further, the vehicle information system according to the second aspect of the present invention includes an information content determining means for determining whether the received external information content is the same as the previous content, and when the external information is received. Of the external information has passed a predetermined time from the provision time of the external information, and the information content determination means determines that the information content is the same, and the elapsed time determination means determines the predetermined time. And a notification prohibition unit that prohibits notification of the received information when it is determined that has not elapsed. Further, in the vehicle information system according to the invention described in claim 3, when the external information is a beacon transmitted by a sign post installed on the side of the road, the received external information content is the same as the previous content. Information content determining means for determining whether they are the same, source determining means for determining whether the source of the received external information is the same as the previous source, and external information having the same content is received. The number of sign posts that have passed between them is equal to or less than a predetermined number, and the information content determination means determines that the information content is the same, and the transmission source determination means determines the transmission source. Is determined to be the same, or the information content is the same and the transmission source is different, and the number of passing sign posts is less than or equal to a predetermined number by the sign post number determining means. And a notification prohibiting means for prohibiting the notification of the received information when it is disconnected.

[0011]

The present invention has the above-mentioned structure, and when external information is received, it is judged whether this information is old, and if it is judged that it is old, a predetermined condition is met. It is forbidden to notify passengers.

Particularly, in the invention according to claim 1,
When the same information is received from the same transmission source, the received information is determined to be old information and the display of this is prohibited.

Further, in the invention according to claim 2, in the case of the same information, if a predetermined time has not passed,
This received information is judged to be old information and its display is prohibited.

Further, in the invention according to claim 3, in the case of the same information, if the predetermined number of sign posts have not passed, it is judged that this received information is old information and the display thereof is prohibited.

[0015]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT A preferred embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of this embodiment. The external information receiving unit 10 receives a beacon transmitted from a sign post provided on the side of the road. The received contents are displayed on the adjustment display unit 14 as display information by the control unit 12. In addition, depending on the content of the information, the speaker 16 gives a voice notification. These pieces of information are usually displayed when the information is received, and sound is generated. That is, the information is notified even if the passenger does not request it, but the display control and the voice control according to the request of the passenger can be performed by operating the operation unit 18. In addition to this, it is possible to display the other functions by deleting the display information with the operation unit 18. Further, in this embodiment, the control unit has the following functions in order to prevent the information having the same contents from being repeatedly displayed. First, the information content determination unit 20 determines whether the transmitted information is the same as the previous information. This determination is achieved by including a code having a different value each time the content is updated in the information and comparing this code with the code at the time of the previous reception. Further, the transmission source discriminating unit 22 discriminates whether or not the same sign post that transmitted the information is the same. This determination is achieved by including a code indicating the transmitted sign post in the beacon information transmitted from the sign post and comparing this code with the previous code each time it is received. Further, the elapsed time determination unit 24 determines whether the elapsed time from the time when the received external information is provided exceeds the predetermined time. This is achieved by including a code indicating the provision time in the external information, reading this code when receiving, and comparing with the time of the clock in the control unit.

On the basis of the judgment results of the above judgment units 20, 22, 24, the notification prohibition unit 26 prohibits the notification under a predetermined condition. Specific prohibition conditions are that the content of the information and the transmission source may be the same as the previous time, and the other is that the content of the information is the same but the transmission source is not the same and the elapsed time from the provision time of the information. The time may exceed the specified time. That is, if the source of the information coincides with the last time, it is understood that the information has not moved significantly from the position received last time, and providing the information will be troublesome for the passenger. Also, if the transmission sources do not match, it is known that the vehicle is running, and the content of the previous information is still continuing even if time has passed and it is moved to another position. Since it is not limited to the reception position, but has contents up to at least the current position, in this case, this is displayed and the passenger is notified. In addition, since passengers have also passed a considerable amount of time, it is possible that they may want to know whether the previous information is still continuing.In this embodiment, it is possible to respond to this request. Is.

FIG. 2 shows the control flow of this embodiment. When the external information is received (step S10), it is determined whether the content of this information is the same as the previously received information (step S12). If the information contents are the same, it is then determined whether the beacon numbers are the same (step S14). Since this beacon number is different for each sign post, the fact that the beacon numbers match means that the information is sent from the same sign post. If the beacon numbers match in step S14, it means that the information of the same content is received from the same sign post, and it is considered that there is no change from the situation at the time of the previous reception. Therefore, in this case, if the information is notified, the passenger may have an uncomfortable impression. Therefore, the notification or the display is prohibited (step S16). Further, if it is determined in step S12 that the information content is different, it is necessary to notify the passenger of this, and the display must be performed (step S20). If it is determined in step S14 that the beacon numbers are different, it is determined whether the elapsed time from the time when the information was provided to the present is less than or equal to a predetermined value (step S18). If the value is equal to or less than the predetermined value, it is considered that it has not been so long since the time when the previous information was notified, and therefore the display is not performed (step S1).
6). If the information is not less than the predetermined value, the passenger may have forgotten the information since the time when the information was once provided, and the information is displayed for confirmation (step S20). .

As described above, when the information content does not change, this display and voice notification are prevented from being repeated many times. Further, even if the information contents are the same, if the transmission sources do not match and a predetermined time has elapsed from the provision time, the passenger is prompted to reconfirm by displaying again.

The case where the information is transmitted by the beacon from the sign post has been described above.
Even in the case of information transmission by multiplex communication, step S
When the FM is received in 14, it is possible to obtain the same effect by determining that the beacon numbers are all different.

FIG. 3 shows the configuration of another embodiment according to the present invention. This embodiment differs from the structure shown in the embodiment of FIG. 1 in the structure of the control unit. The control unit 30 of the present embodiment is additionally provided with a sign post number determination unit 32 in addition to the above-described three determination units 20, 22, and 24. The number of sign posts determination unit 32 counts the number of sign posts that have passed since the information of the same content was received, and determines whether this value exceeds a predetermined number. Based on the determinations of these four determination units 20, 22, 24, 32, the notification prohibition unit 34 commands the prohibition of the notification by display and voice.

FIG. 4 shows a control flow of the embodiment shown in FIG. In the steps of this control flow, the same steps as those shown in FIG. 2 are designated by the same reference numerals, and their description will be omitted. The newly added steps in this embodiment are steps S30, S32,
It is S34. When the external information has the same content and different beacon numbers when received, in the present embodiment, control such as display is performed in consideration of the number of passing sign posts. In step S30, 1 is added to the flag m, and this flag m is compared with a predetermined threshold value N. Flag m
The value of indicates the number of sign posts that have passed while the content of the information has not changed, and the threshold value N is the upper limit value of the judgment for prohibiting display or the like. Then, it is determined whether or not the value of the flag m exceeds the threshold value N. If it exceeds, display is performed (step S20). And
The flag m is set to 0 (step S34). When it is determined in step S32 that the flag m does not exceed the threshold value N, the process proceeds to step S18, and thereafter, the same control flow as that shown in FIG. 2 is performed.

As described above, in the present embodiment, the number of sign posts is used as an index of how far the vehicle has traveled, and when the traveled distance is long, it is redisplayed even if a predetermined time has not elapsed. Control to do. This makes it possible to control the display interval more finely by using not only the elapsed time but also the moving distance as an index for determination.

Although the moving distance is estimated by the number of passing sign posts, it is also possible to directly detect the traveling distance and calculate the moving distance by this.

FIG. 5 shows the configuration of still another embodiment. In this embodiment, the configuration of the control unit 40 is partially different from that of the embodiment shown in FIG. In the embodiment of FIG. 2, the elapsed time determination unit 24 makes the determination based on the elapsed time from the information providing time, but in the case of the present embodiment,
The judgment is made based on the time elapsed since the previous display of information was erased, that is, the non-display time. That is, the non-display time determination unit 42 determines that the predetermined time has passed since the previous display of information disappeared. Further, if the time during which the display is continued is constant, measuring the non-display time can be replaced with elapse of the time from the previous display. As described above, the determination units 20, 22, 32, 42
Based on the above determination, the notification prohibiting unit 44 determines whether to prohibit the notification. As described above, the display interval is maintained at the predetermined time even when there is a deviation between the provision time and the actual reception time.

Further, in the present embodiment, even if there is no reception, if the predetermined time has passed since the previous reception, that is, if the non-display time exceeds the predetermined time, the display is performed. In this way, even if no reception is made, the display or the like is performed after a predetermined time has elapsed, so that the passenger can be prompted to confirm the information.

FIG. 6 shows the control flow of this embodiment. The control flow of FIG. 6 is compared with the control flow of FIG.
Steps S40 and S42 are different, and other steps showing the same control contents are denoted by the same reference numerals and the description thereof will be omitted.

In step S40, it is determined whether or not it is received. If it is received, the process proceeds to step S12,
After that, the same control as in FIG. 4 is executed. However, since the judgment regarding the elapsed time from the information providing time in step S18 of FIG. 4 is substituted in step S42 described later, in this embodiment, it is judged that the flag m does not exceed the threshold value N. The process directly goes to step S16. On the other hand, if it is determined in step S40 that it has not been received, it is determined whether or not the non-display time has exceeded the predetermined time (step S42). If the predetermined time is exceeded, the display is performed (step S20), and if it is not exceeded, the display is not performed (step S16).

Even in the embodiments shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the judgment based on the elapsed time from the information providing time is replaced with the judgment based on the duration of the non-display state, and the control is frequently performed. It is possible to obtain the effect of preventing various displays and notifications.

[0030]

As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to prevent information of the same content from being displayed or reported frequently.
It is possible to realize control that does not make passengers feel bothersome. Particularly, according to the invention described in claim 1, when the same information and the same source are not displayed, the second and subsequent information is not displayed, so that the passenger is not notified of the old information.

Further, according to the invention described in claim 2, the same information is not frequently displayed within a predetermined time. Further, when the information of the same content is received again after the predetermined time has elapsed, the information is displayed, so that the passenger can reconfirm this information.

Further, according to the invention described in claim 3, since it is not necessary to measure the elapsed time, it is not necessary to provide a timer.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration block diagram of a preferred embodiment according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing a control flow of the embodiment shown in FIG.

FIG. 3 is a configuration block diagram of another embodiment according to the present invention.

4 is a flowchart showing a control flow of the embodiment shown in FIG.

FIG. 5 is a configuration block diagram of another embodiment according to the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing a control flow of the embodiment shown in FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

 12 control unit 20 information content determination unit 22 transmission source determination unit 24 elapsed time determination unit 26 notification prohibition unit

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (72) Inventor Hironobu Sugimoto 1 Toyota Town, Toyota City, Aichi Prefecture Toyota Motor Corporation (72) Inventor Tetsuji Yamamoto 1-228 Goshodori, Hyogo-ku, Kobe, Hyogo Within Ten Co., Ltd.

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A vehicle information system for receiving external information from an information transmission source external to the vehicle and notifying a passenger of the received information by means of a notification means inside the vehicle, wherein the received external information content is the same as the previous content. Information content determination means for determining whether they are the same, source determination means for determining whether the source of the received external information is the same as the previous source, and information content determined by the information content determination means is the same. And a notification prohibition unit that prohibits notification of the received information when the transmission source determination unit determines that the transmission sources are the same. 2. In a vehicle information system for receiving external information from an information source outside the vehicle and notifying a passenger of the received information by means of a notification means inside the vehicle, the received external information content is the same as the previous content. Information content determination means for determining whether they are the same, elapsed time determination means for determining whether the time when the external information is received has passed a predetermined time from the provision time of the external information, and the information content determination means It is determined that the information content is the same, and if the elapsed time determination means determines that the predetermined time has not elapsed, notification prohibiting means for prohibiting notification of the received information is provided. Vehicle information system. 3. A vehicle information system for receiving external information from a beacon sign post installed on a side of a road and notifying a passenger of the received information by means of a notification means inside the vehicle, wherein the received external information content is Information content determining means for determining whether the content is the same as the previous content, source determining means for determining whether the source of the received external information is the same as the previous source, and external information having the same content The number of sign posts that have passed during reception is less than or equal to a predetermined number, and the information content determination means determines that the information content is the same. When it is determined by the means that the transmission sources are the same, or when the information content is the same and the transmission sources are different, the number of passing sign posts is determined by the number of sign posts determining means. And a notification prohibiting means for prohibiting the notification of the received information if it is determined to be constant or less,
An information system for a vehicle, comprising: