KR101100751B1 - Apparatus and method for identifying the location of each vehicles - Google Patents

Abstract

An apparatus for locating individual vehicles according to the present invention includes a transmitter for transmitting a transmission signal including an identification code of a target vehicle through wireless communication; Three or more receivers for receiving a reply signal in which an identification code of an external vehicle is added to the transmission signal; A location information generation unit for generating location information of the external vehicle by using each time required for the reply signal to be received by the three or more reception units; And an output unit configured to display location information of the generated external vehicle.

According to the present invention, it is possible to accurately determine the position of an external vehicle adjacent to the target vehicle through signals received from three or more antenna receivers, and to effectively interface them to the user of the target vehicle, thereby improving the stability of vehicle operation. If a vehicle accident occurs, it can create an effect that can effectively obtain data on the circumstances of the event.

Description

Apparatus and method for locating individual vehicles {APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR IDENTIFYING THE LOCATION OF EACH VEHICLES}

The present invention relates to a device and a method for identifying a location of an individual vehicle positioned around a target vehicle based on a target vehicle. More specifically, the present invention relates to a peripheral apparatus using three or more wireless communication signals transmitted and received by a target vehicle and a surrounding vehicle. The present invention relates to an apparatus and method for effectively identifying a location of a vehicle including a direction and a distance of a vehicle and applying the same.

It is common for a user who drives a vehicle to check the location or traffic flow of nearby vehicles depending on time. Of course, through the side or rear mirror (MIRROR) provided in the vehicle to compensate for the area that the user's vision is not directly recognized, but also based on the user's vision.

The confirmation through such a mirror may cause a blind spot that is outside the user's visual range, as well as a problem in that it does not accurately recognize the distance or direction of the surrounding vehicle.

In order to compensate for this problem, a method of estimating the distance from the preceding vehicle by measuring the time at which the transmitted infrared signal is returned has been proposed, but there is an inherent problem that the signal itself is inaccurate, such as being reflected or diffracted by the preceding vehicle. However, since there is a problem in that the linearity can be confirmed because of the characteristics of the signal to be transmitted, there is a problem in that it is impossible to achieve the intended purpose at all.

In addition, the human visual system has to recognize objects in the range of about 140 degrees, so in order to secure a variety of angles of view, eyes must be turned for each direction to be checked, causing inconvenience and of course surrounding the direction that the eyes are not facing. The environment may be exposed to the risk of an accident, even if it is not noticeable for a short time.

On the other hand, in recent years, various kinds of vehicle accidents and incidents occur with the rapid increase of vehicles, but since there are no feasible devices or equipments that can effectively obtain objective data on the circumstances of accidents at the time of occurrence It is known that frequent occurrence of unforeseen sibibi leads to unresolved accidents and incidents.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve the above problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus and method for locating an individual vehicle that can confirm the location of surrounding vehicles more effectively and to interface them to users more effectively.

Other objects and advantages of the present invention will be described below and will be appreciated by the embodiments of the present invention. In addition, the objects and advantages of the present invention can be realized by the configuration and combination of configurations shown in the claims.

In accordance with one aspect of the present invention, a device for locating an individual vehicle includes a transmitter configured to transmit a transmission signal including an identification code of a target vehicle through wireless communication; Three or more receivers for receiving a reply signal in which an identification code of an external vehicle is added to the transmission signal; And a location information generation unit for generating location information of the external vehicle by using each time required for the reply signal to be received by the three or more receiving units, and displaying the location information of the generated external vehicle. The output unit may be configured to further include.

In order to implement a more preferred embodiment, the transmission unit may be configured to transmit the transmission signal at a predetermined cycle, but decrease the cycle as the position information of the external vehicle approaches the target vehicle.

On the other hand, to achieve the object of another aspect of the present invention, a method for locating an individual vehicle includes a transmitting step of transmitting a transmission signal including an identification code of a target vehicle to wireless communication; A receiving step of receiving at least three receiving modules a reply signal to which an identification code of an external vehicle is added to the transmission signal; And a location information generation step of generating location information of the external vehicle by using the respective time required for the reply signal to be received by the three or more receiving modules, and further, location information of the generated external vehicle. It may be configured to further include an output step of displaying.

According to the apparatus and method for locating individual vehicles according to the present invention, it is possible to confirm the location information of surrounding vehicles more reliably, as well as to securely secure the vehicle by integrally interfacing the identification results with the driver of the vehicle. It can provide practical assistance to the operation.

In addition, by storing data about the surrounding vehicles and transmitting them, it is possible to obtain objective data on the event or accident situation, and the period of the transmission signal can be adjusted according to the proximity of the vehicle, so that In addition to securing economic feasibility, the importance of the object to be interfaced can be applied to the user in a plural manner, thereby providing a more effective and practical vehicle driving effect.

In addition, it provides an advantage of effectively checking the surrounding vehicles even at night when the weather environment, such as rain or fog, is poor or visual discrimination is low, and can provide a nearby vehicle identification device that is minimized by the high-rise buildings and road adjacent structures. have.

Hereinafter, exemplary embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. Prior to this, terms or words used in the present specification and claims should not be construed as being limited to the common or dictionary meanings, and the inventors should properly explain the concept of terms in order to best explain their own invention. Based on the principle that can be defined, it should be interpreted as meaning and concept corresponding to the technical idea of the present invention.

Therefore, the embodiments described in the specification and the drawings shown in the drawings are only the most preferred embodiment of the present invention and do not represent all of the technical idea of the present invention, various modifications that can be replaced at the time of the present application It should be understood that there may be equivalents and variations.

1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a positioning device (hereinafter positioning device) 100 of an individual vehicle according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

As shown in FIG. 1, the positioning device 100 of the present invention includes a transmitter 110, a receiver 120-1, 120-2, and 120-3, a location information generator 130, and an outputter 140. ), The movement information generation unit 150, the storage unit 160, the sensing unit 170, the operation control unit 180, and the alarm unit 190 may be configured.

First, the transmitter 110 transmits a transmission signal including an identification code for identifying a target vehicle through wireless communication. The target vehicle does not necessarily refer to a specific vehicle that is physically distinguished, but refers to a vehicle corresponding to a subject for which the position of the surrounding vehicle is to be identified in the description of the present invention. The identification code means an identification code uniquely assigned to each vehicle so as to distinguish the vehicle.

Since the identification code corresponds to a code uniquely assigned to identify the vehicle, the identification code may be included without limitation as long as it is information that can distinguish the vehicle, such as a unique number of a vehicle model, a year, an engine, and the like.

In addition, since the transmission signal is for data communication between external vehicles around the target vehicle, various wireless data communication methods such as RF (Radio Frequency), ZIGBEE, Bluetooth (BLUETOOTH), Ruby (RuBee), MMWave (millimeter wave), etc. Can be sent by.

The transmission signal is preferably configured to include the identification code and the time information for transmitting the transmission signal together so as to effectively calculate the time required to return the signal received from the surrounding vehicles.

Unlike the above embodiment, when the transmission signal is transmitted and stored in a database, when a reply signal is received, the transmission signal corresponding to the reply signal is parsed with a predetermined identification factor, and the parsed data is stored in the database. The time required for the reply may be calculated by reading the transmission time corresponding to the transmission signal.

The receiving unit 120 of the present invention receives a reply signal in which an identification code of an external vehicle is added to the transmission signal. The receiving unit 120 includes three or more receiving modules to secure data on a distance and a direction of a surrounding external vehicle. desirable. In FIG. 1, three receiving units are illustrated, but it may be obvious that the present invention may be configured with four or more receiving units.

2 shows an example of a data configuration for a transmission signal and a return signal.

Hereinafter, a specific example of the transmitted and received data will be described with reference to FIG. 2.

(A) of FIG. 2 corresponds to a transmission signal, and (b), (c) and (d) correspond to a reply signal. As shown in FIG. 2A, the transmission signal includes the identification code ABCKESE of the target vehicle and information about the transmission time 10:30:13: 05. It is apparent that the data contained in the specification conforms to a protocol of wireless communication, and can be composed of binary, hexadecimal, and the like. In addition, the wireless communication may use a variety of wireless communication protocols, it is preferable to use ZIGBEE communication considering the low power environment, such as the distance to secure the driving information of the vehicle and long-term use.

When the transmission signal is transmitted from the target vehicle as shown in FIG. 2A, external vehicles A, B, and C that are present in the vicinity receive it, and each of the external vehicles A, B, and C receives an external vehicle. The identification code LEOFJ (external vehicle A), CDFEGH (external vehicle B), and ERGHE (external vehicle C) are added to the signal (a) received in FIG.

When the signal transmitted from the external vehicle back to the target vehicle and received by the target vehicle is referred to as a reply signal, the signal returned from the external vehicles A, B, and C may be represented by (b), (c), and (d) of FIG. )

The reply signals (b), (c), and (d) contain time information transmitted from the first target vehicle, and when the reply signals (b), (c), and (d) have received the received time information, You can find out how long it takes to be dispatched from a vehicle to arrive at a nearby vehicle and returned to the target vehicle.

By using this mechanism, the location information generation unit 130 of the present invention generates location information of the external vehicle by using the respective time required for the reply signal to be received by the three or more receivers 120. In the above process, a considerably small size or a time such as data processing may occur. When the required time is corrected in consideration of the processing time, the influence on the accuracy and reliability of the data can be ignored.

3 is a graph illustrating a relationship between a time taken for receiving a reply signal from an external vehicle and a distance of the external vehicle.

Since the required time has a functional relationship with the distance of the external vehicle, as shown in FIG. 3, when the required time is Δt1 <Δt2 <Δt3, the distance of the external vehicle has a relationship of d1 <d2 <d3.

In other words, the shorter the reply time, the shorter the location. Using this relationship, it is possible to accurately generate location information on the distance and direction of the actual external vehicle.

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating a method of checking a distance and a location of an external vehicle according to time required for signal reception in the three receivers # 1, # 2, and # 3 illustrated in FIG.

As shown in FIG. 4, the present invention includes three receivers 120 in a target vehicle. The time required for a reply signal received from each receiver # 1, # 2, or # 3 is returned as a distance. When converted, it becomes d1, d2, d3, and the same point corresponding to each of the distances can be represented by three concentric circles whose radius is d1, d2, d3 around each receiver # 1, # 2, # 3. .

Schematic of the three concentric circles creates a point where three circles meet, as point A in FIG. By using this geometric relationship, it is possible to confirm the exact position of the external vehicle that actually transmitted the reply signal. As shown in FIG. 4, it can be seen that the point A, which is the position where the external vehicle exists, is located on the θ direction line with respect to the D of the target vehicle and the front surface of the target vehicle.

When the location information of the external vehicle is generated as described above, the output unit 140 of the present invention displays the generated location information of the external vehicle through predetermined screen display means.

By correlating the speed information of the target vehicle with the degree of change of the positional information of each time of the external vehicle generated as described above, the speed information of the external vehicle can be obtained, so that the information of the external vehicle can be more effectively generated. The movement information generator 150 generates movement information of the external vehicle by using the speed information of the target vehicle and the position information of the external vehicle generated by the position information generator 130.

The location information may correspond to static concept information of an external vehicle at a specific time centered on the target vehicle, and the movement information generated as described above may be a dynamic concept of an external vehicle over time based on the target vehicle. It can be said that the information corresponds to.

If the period of the transmitted signal is variably set and the location information of the external vehicle and the speed information of the target vehicle are used, the movement information, which is dynamic information of the external vehicle, can be updated to a time associated with the set period.

The location information or movement information of the external vehicle generated as described above is applied to a predetermined application for enhancing user visual recognition and convenience through the output unit 140 of the present invention, as shown in FIG. 5. Speed information and the like are interfaced to the user (operator). A vehicle shown in the center of FIG. 5 corresponds to a target vehicle, and a vehicle indicated by a dotted line corresponds to an external peripheral vehicle.

In addition, the storage unit 160 of the present invention associates the position information or the movement information generated by the position information generation unit 130 or the movement information generation unit 150 with the speed information of the target vehicle with time information at predetermined intervals. Save it.

The storage unit 160 may be implemented through a predetermined storage medium for data storage, and according to an exemplary embodiment, the storage unit 160 may be implemented as a removable storage medium that is easily removable. The information stored in this way can be used as objective information to comprehensively simulate the accident situation in case an accident occurs in the future.

Meanwhile, in order to efficiently use the stored information, the stored information may be configured to be transmitted to the outside through wireless communication. When a predetermined command signal requesting the transmission of the stored information is received through the receiver 120 of the present invention, etc. The transmitter 110 of the present invention is configured to read information corresponding to the command signal from the storage 160 and transmit the information to the outside.

By configuring the information of the surrounding vehicles to be shared with each other through the data communication through the above configuration, it is possible to collect data on traffic conditions in a wider band and to utilize various data.

As described above, since the identification code is configured to be uniquely distinguished for each vehicle, the identification code may be used to more effectively identify a stolen vehicle or an accident vehicle through data matching with information stored in itself or an adjacent vehicle. have.

On the other hand, in order to implement another preferred embodiment of the present invention, the sensing unit 170 of the present invention is configured to detect the vibration or shock of the vehicle, the operation control unit 180 of the present invention is the sensing unit 170 When the vibration of the target vehicle is detected, the driving of the positioning device 100 according to the present invention may be configured to be started.

Through the above configuration, when the start key of the target vehicle is operated and the driving of the vehicle is started, the positioning device 100 of the present invention can be automatically started.

Even when the vehicle is not driven, such as a parking state, the positioning device 100 of the present invention may be configured to operate. However, when the vehicle is not operated in view of the cumulative storage of unnecessary data or the efficiency of power use. It is preferable to configure the positioning device 100 of the present invention so that it does not operate.

However, even when the vehicle is not driven, that is, in a parked state, a contact accident may occur due to an external vehicle. In such a case, it is not easy to find an accident occurrence vehicle when the accident occurrence vehicle escapes.

Reflecting these points comprehensively, when vibrations or the like occur in the target vehicle such as a contact accident, the positioning device 100 of the present invention can be configured to be started to effectively secure information of the vehicle that caused the contact accident. .

That is, as described above, the sensing unit 170 of the present invention may be configured to automatically detect the vibration at the start of the driving of the target vehicle (engine operation) to automatically operate the apparatus according to the present invention, and the vehicle is driven. In the case of not parking or the like, even if vibration occurs due to an external shock or the like, the apparatus according to the present invention may be configured to operate.

The sensing mechanism driven by the sensing unit 170 is a sensor that generates physical deformation when an external shock occurs and generates it as an electrical signal, or a sensor that generates it as an electrical signal when external vibration or shaking occurs, such as a gyro sensor. For example, a moving weight placed in an equilibrium state of magnetic force may be applied to one of ordinary skill in the art such as a sensor that physically moves and generates an electrical signal by moving the moving weight when an imbalance of the force occurs due to external vibration or shock. Sensors of the type may be employed.

Of course, the sensitivity of the sensor employed in the sensing unit 170 can also be configured to be variably set according to the degree of vibration or shock. That is, when the sensitivity of the sensor can be set variably as described above, the device according to the present invention may be set so that the device according to the present invention is not driven to the minute vibration or shock, thereby reflecting more various external environmental conditions.

In addition, for safer vehicle operation, the alarm unit 190 of the present invention uses a predetermined time or auditory means when the location information of the external vehicle received from the location information generation unit 130 is within a reference distance from the target vehicle. Control to start the operation of the alarm means.

The reference distance is preferably configured to be differentially applied according to the speed of the target vehicle as a reference value that is a predetermined reference for ventilating the circumference of the operator (user), and may be configured and settable by the user.

Hereinafter, a configuration for providing optimized information to a user by more effectively utilizing location information of an external vehicle, etc. will be described with reference to FIG. 6.

In FIG. 6, the x-axis corresponds to a period during which the transmitter 110 of the present invention transmits a transmission signal, and the y-axis corresponds to a relative distance between the external vehicle and the target vehicle.

In general, the need for surrounding vehicle information may be different from that in which a vehicle runs on a rare road and when the vehicle runs on a dense road. In other words, if the distance between vehicles or vehicles is close to each other, the risk of accidents is high, so it is necessary to update the relevant information quickly.If the vehicle is rare or the distance between vehicles is far, the risk of accidents and related information The need for updates is relatively low.

In order to more effectively reflect this phenomenon, when the distance between the vehicles is far (d3), the transmitter 110 of the present invention sets the period for transmitting the transmission signal to S3 rather long, and when the distance between the vehicles is close (d1). It is configured to quickly set the period for transmitting the transmission signal to S1.

In wireless communication, since a lot of power is typically consumed when generating a signal, by utilizing the correlation between the distance between the vehicles and the transmission signal transmission period, the positioning device 100 of the present invention can be operated with low power for a longer period of time. It also has the advantage.

Hereinafter, with reference to the accompanying Figures 7 and 8 will be described the process of the method for determining the position of the individual vehicle according to an embodiment of the present invention. Duplicate description with respect to the positioning device of the individual vehicle of the present invention described above is omitted, but it is obvious that it can be applied to the positioning method of the individual vehicle of the present invention as it is.

As shown in FIG. 7, the method for generating location information of an individual vehicle according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention first transmits a transmission signal including an identification code of a target vehicle through wireless communication (S100).

When the transmitted signal is received in an external vehicle or the like, the external vehicle transmits a reply signal in which an identification code of the external vehicle is added to the transmitted signal, and three or more receiving modules receive the reply signal sent as described above. (S110).

Since three or more receiving modules receive respective reply signals as described above, it is possible to check the respective time required for the reply signal to be received by the three or more receiving modules, and as described above, The location information of the external vehicle is generated using the location information (S120), and the location information of the generated one or more external vehicles generated through the above process is displayed and output (S130).

Hereinafter, an overall process according to a method for generating location information of an individual vehicle according to another exemplary embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail. Reference numerals for the steps shown in FIG. 8 are shown in FIG. 7 to increase the efficiency of the description. It is to be interpreted that the same or similar step is performed when the same or similar function is performed while being marked not identical to the reference sign for the step.

As shown in FIG. 8, it is determined whether vibration or shock of the target vehicle is generated (S200), and when vibration or shock is generated, the process according to the present invention is controlled to start (S210).

When the operation is started, a transmission signal including the identification code of the target vehicle or the time information on which the signal is transmitted is transmitted (S220) and the identification of the external vehicle to the transmission signal from an external vehicle around the target vehicle receiving the transmission signal. Three or more receiving modules receive the reply signal to which the code is added (S230).

As described above, distance information is generated by using time information for receiving each reply signal received by three or more receiving modules, and thus the relative position information of the target vehicle of the external vehicle or the relative position information of the target vehicle and The movement information of the external vehicle is generated using the speed information (S240).

When the generated location information or the movement information of the external vehicle is generated, the location information or the movement information is stored in association with the time information together with the speed information of the target vehicle (S250), and the location information or the movement information is displayed and displayed through a predetermined screen display means. (S280).

In the above process, when a request for transmitting the stored information is received from an external vehicle or the like (S260), the stored information is transmitted to the outside (S270). The configuration of FIG. 8 for the confirmation of the stored information request signal and the external transmission of the stored information is only one embodiment, and it is obvious that the process can be performed in parallel regardless of the time series configuration. .

After the location information of the external vehicle is generated, it is determined whether the location information exists within a predetermined criterion with respect to the target vehicle (S285). If the location information exists within the predetermined criterion, the operation of the visual or audio alarm means is started for user interfacing (S290). ).

As described above, the positioning apparatus and method of the individual vehicle according to the present invention have been described in detail, but the positioning apparatus of the individual vehicle according to the present invention should be understood as a logical component rather than a physically divided component. That is, since each configuration corresponds to logically divided components to realize the technical idea of the present invention, even if each component is integrated or separated, the present invention can realize the function performed by the logical configuration of the present invention. Should be interpreted to be within the scope of.

Although the invention has been described above by means of limited embodiments and drawings, the invention is not limited thereto and will be described below by the person skilled in the art and the technical spirit of the invention. Of course, various modifications and variations are possible within the scope of the claims.

The following drawings, which are attached to this specification, illustrate exemplary embodiments of the present invention, and together with the detailed description of the present invention serve to further understand the technical spirit of the present invention, the present invention includes matters described in such drawings. It should not be construed as limited to.

1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of an apparatus for locating individual vehicles according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention;

2 is a diagram showing an example of a data configuration for a transmission signal and a return signal according to the present invention;

3 is a graph showing a relationship between a time taken for receiving a reply signal from an external vehicle and a distance of the external vehicle;

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating a method of checking a distance and a location of an external vehicle according to time required for signal reception in the three receivers # 1, # 2, and # 3 illustrated in FIG.

5 illustrates a user interfacing screen according to an embodiment of the present invention;

6 is a diagram illustrating a relationship between a period of signal transmission and a distance between vehicles according to an embodiment of the present invention;

7 is a flowchart illustrating a process of a method for locating individual vehicles according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention;

8 is a flowchart illustrating a process of a method for locating individual vehicles according to another exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

Claims (18)

A transmission unit for transmitting the transmission signal including the identification code of the target vehicle to wireless communication; Three or more receivers for receiving a reply signal in which an identification code of an external vehicle is added to the transmission signal; A location information generation unit for generating location information of the external vehicle by using each time required for the reply signal to be received by the three or more reception units; And And a movement information generator configured to generate movement information of the external vehicle by using the speed information of the target vehicle and the position information of the external vehicle. The method of claim 1, And an output unit for displaying the location information of the generated external vehicle. 3. The method of claim 2, The output unit, And displaying the movement information of the external vehicle. The method of claim 3, And a storage unit which stores at least one of speed information of the target vehicle, location information of the external vehicle, and movement information of the external vehicle in association with time information. The method of claim 4, wherein the transmission unit, When the predetermined command signal for requesting the transmission of the information is received, the location information of the individual vehicle, characterized in that for transmitting the information stored in the storage to the outside. The method of claim 1, A detector configured to detect vibration of the target vehicle; And And an operation control unit for controlling the operation of the positioning device of the individual vehicle to be started when the vibration detection signal is input from the sensing unit. The method of claim 1, wherein the transmission unit, Transmitting time information of the transmission signal further including the transmission signal; The location information generation unit, And calculating the required time by using the time at which the reply signal is received and the time information included in the reply signal, and generating position information of the external vehicle according to the required time. The method of claim 1, And an alarm unit for starting the operation of the alarm means when the location information of the external vehicle is within a reference distance from the target vehicle. The method of claim 1, wherein the transmission unit, And transmitting the transmission signal at a predetermined cycle, but decreasing and transmitting the cycle as the position information of the external vehicle approaches the target vehicle. A transmission step of transmitting a transmission signal including an identification code of the target vehicle through wireless communication; A receiving step of receiving at least three receiving modules a reply signal to which an identification code of an external vehicle is added to the transmission signal; A location information generation step of generating location information of the external vehicle by using each time required for the reply signal to be received by the three or more receiving modules; And And a movement information generation step of generating movement information of the external vehicle using the speed information of the target vehicle and the position information of the external vehicle. The method of claim 10, And outputting the location information of the generated external vehicle. The method of claim 11, The output step, And displaying movement information of the external vehicle. The method of claim 12, And storing at least one of speed information of the target vehicle, location information of the external vehicle, and movement information of the external vehicle in association with time information. The method of claim 13, And transmitting the stored information to the outside when a predetermined command signal for requesting the transmission of the information is received. The method of claim 10, A sensing step of sensing vibration of the target vehicle; And And an operation control step of controlling the operation of the positioning device of the individual vehicle to be started when the vibration detection signal is input. The method of claim 10, wherein the transmitting step, Transmitting time information of the transmission signal further including the transmission signal; The location information generating step, And calculating the required time by using the time at which the reply signal is received and the time information included in the reply signal, and generating position information of the external vehicle according to the required time. The method of claim 10, And an alarm step of starting operation of an alarm means when the location information of the external vehicle is within a reference distance from the target vehicle. The method of claim 10, wherein the transmitting step, And transmitting the transmission signal at predetermined periods, but decreasing and transmitting the period as the location information of the external vehicle approaches the target vehicle.

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