Abstract:
A system of plural vehicles is organized by transmitting information through communication devices being capable of establishing direct intercommunication respectively installed in the plural vehicles. The transmission of the information is controlled by a control unit in the system as well as a memory for storing a vehicle ID, an information generation unit for generating offer information including the vehicle ID, a display unit for displaying information, an output unit for outputting information, and a vehicle-to-vehicle communication unit for establishing communication. The control unit provides a user in the vehicle that has transmitted the offer information with an information fee or an information point by performing an information fee/point payment process.

Description:
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION 
       [0001]    This application is based on and claims the benefit of priority of Japanese Patent Application No. 2006-190875 filed on Jul. 11, 2006, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference. 
       FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
       [0002]    The present invention generally relates to an information communication system that exchanges information through a vehicle to vehicle communication. 
       BACKGROUND INFORMATION 
       [0003]    Conventionally, an information communication system as disclosed, for example, in Japanese patent document JP-A-2004-280696 utilizes a vehicle-to-vehicle communication for exchanging information. The communication system in the disclosure includes plural vehicles that are equipped with an abnormal condition detector and communication devices or the like for use in the vehicle-to-vehicle communication that enables a direct communication between vehicles. The communication system notifies an abnormal condition of a vehicle to surrounding vehicles through the vehicle-to-vehicle communication when the abnormal condition is detected by the abnormal condition detector. 
         [0004]    However, the communication system described above merely notifies the abnormal condition of the vehicle to the surrounding vehicle through the vehicle-to-vehicle communication. 
         [0005]    On the other hand, the information communication system with the vehicle-to-vehicle communication may be utilized for providing information that is profitable for users in the surrounding vehicles. Because the provision of the information is, in this case, on a spontaneity basis, the amount of the information deposited for provision to the “neighborhood” may decrease or may possibly be reduced to naught. When the available information in the information communication system decreases, the information may become hard to be acquired, or may become impossible to be acquired by the user in the surrounding vehicles. 
       SUMMARY OF THE DISCLOSURE 
       [0006]    In view of the above and other problems, the present disclosure provides an information communication system that enables an easier acquisition of information by a user in a vehicle. 
         [0007]    The information communication system including plural vehicles that are equipped with a communication device for establishing a direct communication among the plural vehicles includes in each of the plural vehicles, an ID code storage that stores an ID code for uniquely identifying one of the plural vehicles, an information generation unit that generates offer information to be offered for a rest of the plural vehicles with the ID code, an output unit that outputs the offer information received by the communication device in a form of at least one of a voice and an image, and a control unit that controls a transmission of the offer information generated by the information generation unit and controls an output of the offer information received by the communication device. The control unit performs a payment process that pays a user of the vehicle from which the offer information has been transmitted for one of an information fee of the received offer information and an information point that corresponds to the information fee. 
         [0008]    In this manner, the offer information from one of the plural vehicles is rewarded by the information fee or the information point, thereby facilitating the provision of the offer information and increasing the availability of the offer information. 
         [0009]    In another aspect of the present disclosure, the information communication system having plural vehicles that are equipped with a communication device for establishing a direct communication among the plural vehicles includes in each of the plural vehicles an ID code storage that stores an ID code for uniquely identifying one of the plural vehicles, an information storage unit that stores offer information including advertisement information of a facility to be offered for a rest of the plural vehicles, an output unit that outputs the offer information received by the communication device in a form of at least one of a voice and an image, and a control unit that controls an output of the offer information to the output unit and a transmission of the offer information through the communication device upon receiving the offer information by the communication device. The control unit performs for the facility a billing process of one of an advertising fee and an advertising point that corresponds to the advertising fee. 
         [0010]    In this manner, the offer information from one of the plural vehicles is rewarded by the advertisement fee or the advertisement point, thereby facilitating the provision of the offer information and increasing the availability of the offer information. 
         [0011]    Further, a transmission side of the offer information including the advertisement information of the facility performs a billing process for the facility according to a transmission condition of the offer information. Therefore, a reception side of the offer information is not charged for the advertisement information even after receiving the advertisement information. 
     
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         [0012]    Other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description made with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: 
           [0013]      FIG. 1  shows a block diagram of an information communication system in an embodiment of the present disclosure; 
           [0014]      FIG. 2  shows a flowchart of a process on an information acquisition side in the embodiment of the present disclosure; 
           [0015]      FIG. 3  shows a flowchart of a process on an information transmission side in the embodiment of the present disclosure; 
           [0016]      FIG. 4  shows a flowchart of a process on the information acquisition side in a modification of the embodiment of the present disclosure; 
           [0017]      FIG. 5  shows a flowchart of a process on the information acquisition side in another modification of the embodiment of the present disclosure; and 
           [0018]      FIG. 6  shows a flowchart of a process on the information transmission side in another modification of the embodiment of the present disclosure. 
       
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
       [0019]    Embodiments of the present disclosure are described with reference to the accompanying drawings. 
         [0020]    An embodiment of the present disclosure is described as an example that utilizes offer information from an information communication system with parking information included therein. 
         [0021]      FIG. 1  shows a block diagram of the information communication system in the embodiment of the present disclosure. The embodiment of the present disclosure is not limited to the following description, and may have variations as long as it is within a technical scope of the present invention. 
         [0022]    The information communication system includes a vehicle  10  and a vehicle  20 , respectively equipped with a vehicle-to-vehicle communication unit  19  (V-to-V communication unit  19  hereinafter) and the like. The information communication system of the present disclosure offers and acquires various kinds of offer information by using vehicle-to-vehicle communication. 
         [0023]    The configuration of the vehicle  10  and vehicle  20  is described in the first place. The vehicle  10  and the vehicle  20  has the same configuration, and plural vehicle that participate in the present system also have the same configuration. 
         [0024]    In each of the vehicles  10  and  20 , control units  11 ,  21 , memories (i.e., ID code storage unit)  11   a ,  21   a , navigation apparatus  12 ,  22 , position detectors  13 ,  23 , map data input units  14 ,  24 , display units  15 ,  25 , speakers  16 ,  26 , operation devices  17 ,  27 , telephone units  18 ,  28 , and V-to-V communication units  19 ,  29  are installed. Because the vehicles  10  and  20  are configured in the same manner, only the vehicle  10  is described in the following. 
         [0025]    The control unit  11  is mainly constructed with a microcomputer with a CPU, a ROM, a RAM, a memory  11   a  and the like included therein. The memory  11   a  is a storage medium such as an EEPROM or the like, and stores an ID code to specify a user account (an account of communication expense) or a self-vehicle  10 . The CPU retrieves a program recorded by ROM for execution and exchanges with, as described later, the navigation apparatus  12 , the display unit  15 , the speaker  16 , the operation device  17 , telephone unit  18 , the V-to-V communication unit  19  and the like various signals (image signals, sound signals and the like) for operation. Further, the control unit  11  generates offer information including the ID code based on instructions from the user. In addition, the offer information in the present embodiment includes information on the self-vehicle  10  (the vehicle which transmitted the offer information) coming out of a parking space and park space information about a position of the parking space. 
         [0026]    The navigation apparatus  12  includes the position detector  13 , the map data input device  14  and the like. The navigation apparatus  12  is mainly constructed by a microcomputer, and includes a ROM, a RAM, a memory such as an EEPROM, an interface circuit and a bus line for data transmission. In addition, the navigation apparatus  12  performs a guidance course setting and the like by using a program memorized in the ROM, the RAM, the EEPROM and the like. 
         [0027]    The position detector  13  includes various sensors such as a GPS (the Global Positioning System) receiver, a gyroscope, a distance sensor, a geomagnetism sensor as a device to detect a position coordinate (designated as a current position hereinafter) of the self-vehicle  10 . In this case, the detected current position is inputted into the control unit  11 . 
         [0028]    The map data input unit  14  is a storage medium to memorize a map database of map data including graphic type data such as road data, landmark data, facility data (i.e., polygon data), background data and the like for map display, route navigation and the like, as well as index type data as facility name, phone numbers and the like for destination search, nearby facility search and the like. The storage medium is, in terms of data storage capacity and data handling, constructed by using rewritable hard disk drive (HDD) or the like. 
         [0029]    The display unit  15  includes display screens such as a color liquid crystal panel or the like. The display unit  15  displays road map around the vehicle generated from the map data stored in the map data input unit  14  based on the image signal from the control unit  11  as well as parking space information that is included in the offer information to be explained later. The speaker  16  outputs a guidance voice for route guidance, the parking space information based on the voice signal from the control unit  11 . 
         [0030]    The operation device  17  includes a touch switch on the display unit  15 , a hardware switch of a push type disposed around a screen of the display unit  15 , and a joystick that controls a cursor displayed on the screen of the display unit  15 . Further, the operation device  17  is used to input to the control unit  11 , various types of information such as destination information including position information of a destination, an operation signal that corresponds to functions of the navigation apparatus  12  such as route navigation setting that sets a navigation route from the current position to the destination, and a request signal that indicates a request of the offer information under a control of user operation. 
         [0031]    The telephone unit  18  is a vehicular data communication module (DCM) that performs radio communication (data communication, sound communication) through a telephone network (a communication nucleus facility) including base stations and the like, a handset and the like. The V-to-V communication unit  19  is a Bluetooth modem that establishes a free radio frequency band communication (data communication) of a short distance radio method to be used in limited areas, an infrared communication device or the like for direct communication between vehicles without using the telephone network. 
         [0032]    An operation of the information communication system in the present embodiment is described in the following.  FIG. 2  shows a flowchart of a processing operation of the control unit  11  on an information acquisition side that requests and receives information.  FIG. 3  shows a flowchart of a processing operation of the control unit  17  on the information transmission side that receives the request of the information and transmits the information in response to the request. In this case, the processing operation of the flowcharts in  FIGS. 2 and 3  are executed while an electric power is supplied to the control units  11 ,  21 . In addition, in the present embodiment, the vehicle  10  receives the request for the offer information while departing from a parking space, and the vehicle  20  sends the request of the offer information while trying to park in a parking space. 
         [0033]    First, as shown in  FIG. 2 , the control unit  21  of the vehicle  20  determines whether to request for the offer information in step S 10 . When an input of an operation signal that indicates a request of the offer information is detected (S 10 :YES), the processing operation determines that the offer information is requested, and advances to step S 11 . When the input of the operation signal of the request is not detected (S 10 :NO), the processing operation determines that the offer information is not requested, and repeats of step S 10 . 
         [0034]    Then, in step S 11 , the control unit  21  of the vehicle  20  sends a signal of the request of the offer information that includes the ID code of the vehicle  20 . 
         [0035]    On the other hand, in step S 20  as shown in  FIG. 3 , the control unit  11  of the vehicle  10  determines whether the offer information is requested. When the control unit  11  has received a signal that indicates the request of the offer information by the V-to-V communication unit  19 , the control unit  11  of the vehicle  10  determines that the offer information is requested and advances to step S 21 . When the signal indicating the request has not been received, the control unit  11  determines that the offer information is not requested and repeats step S 20 . 
         [0036]    Then, in step S 21  of  FIG. 3 , the control unit  11  generates the offer information including the parking space. That is, the control unit  11  generates the offer information that includes the ID code stored in the memory  11   a , the position information detected by the position detector  13 , the activity of the vehicle  10  that it is departing from the parking space and the like. 
         [0037]    Then, in step S 22  of  FIG. 3 , the control unit  11  of the vehicle  10  transmits the offer information to the vehicle which has transmitted the signal of the request of the offer information through the communication unit  19 . In this case, the vehicle which has transmitted the signal of the request of the offer information is identified by the ID cord included in the transmitted signal. 
         [0038]    Returning to  FIG. 2 , the control unit  21  of the vehicle  20  checks the V-to-V communication unit  29  for a confirmation that the offer information has been received in step S 12 . Then, in step S 13  of  FIG. 2 , the control unit  21  of the vehicle  20  determines the reception of the offer information based on the processing in step S 12 , and advances to step S 14  when the reception of the offer information is confirmed. When the offer information has not been received, the processing goes back to step S 12 . In this case, when the signal of the request for the offer information has been sent in step S 11 , the processing operation of steps S 12  and S 13  is repeated until the reception of the offer information is confirmed in step S 13 . However, the control unit  21  of the vehicle may return to step S 10  by canceling the processing when the offer information has not been received after a predetermined time from the transmission of the request for the offer information in step S 11 . 
         [0039]    The control unit  21  of the vehicle  20  which has acquired the requested offer information performs a payment process in step S 15 . That is, the control unit  21  of the vehicle  20  performs the payment process to a management center or the like (not shown in the figure) for transferring a predetermined amount of information fee to an account included in the ID code of the offer information. In this case, a method of this payment process is not specifically defined. That is, any method may be used for the payment process as long as the information fee is transferred to the account. 
         [0040]    In this manner, the acquisition of the offer information is made easier because the offer information is provided based on an incentive that the information fee is paid to the offerer of the offer information. 
         [0041]    The information communication system in the present embodiment requests the offer information from the vehicle  20 , and the vehicle  10  transmits the offer information in response to the request, thereby enabling the acquisition of the offer information on demand (i.e., only when the offer information is required). However, the transmission and the reception of the offer information are not limited in a communication scheme described above. For example, the vehicle in the system may always send and/or receive the offer information. 
         [0042]    Further, the information fee may be paid as an equivalent of a point of a commercial point system such as a point system of a department store, a supermarket, a gas station or the like in which the point corresponds to the amount of the information fee paid by the user. In this case, the point may be added to a point card when the control unit  21  performs the process in step S 15 . 
         [0043]    Furthermore, the information fee or the point for the offer information may be set by an offerer of the offer information. That is, the control unit  11  of the vehicle  10  may set the information fee/point for the offer information based on an operation signal when the operation signal of the information fee/point is inputted from the operation device  17 . In this manner, the information fee/point that is reasonably defined for the offer of the offer information is set. 
         [0044]    Furthermore, the information fee/point may be set in a stepwise manner, that is, a base usage fee/point may be defined as a base portion of an actual usage fee/point that is added on top of the base usage fee/point. The actual usage fee/point may be greater in amount than the base usage fee/point. The base usage fee/point may be defined as a fee/point that is charged for the user of the offer information when the offer information is output to the display unit  25  or to the speaker  26 , and the amount of the base usage fee/point is defined to have a substantially constant value. The actual usage fee/point may be defined as a fee/point that is charged for the user of the offer information when the offer information is actually “consumed.” For example, when the user of the offer information actually parked a vehicle by utilizing the offer information, the offer information is actually consumed and the user of the offer information is charged for the price of the information. The actual usage fee/point may be higher in comparison to the base usage fee/point. In this manner, the information fee/point for the offer information may be varied depending on the value of the information for the user, thereby being preferably and reasonably charged for the user. 
         [0045]    In this case, the control unit  21  may perform the fee/point payment process of the base usage fee/point when the received offer information (parking space information) is output to the display unit  25  or the speaker  26 . Then, the control unit  21  may detect the position where a shift gear (not shown in the figure) is shifted to “Parking” by the position detector  23 . Then, the control unit  21  may determine whether the vehicle has actually parked based on the detection result of the position of the shift gear and the offer information (parking space information), that is, whether the offer information is utilized by the user or not. 
         [0046]    Though the offer information may be described as the parking space information in the above embodiment, the offer information may be different from the parking space information. That is, the offer information may include plural types of information. In addition, the request for the offer information may selectively specify a specific type of information in the offer information. For example, the control unit  21  may display on the screen of the display unit  25  plural pieces of available offer information such as offer information including parking space information, advertisement information of a facility (e.g., a supermarket), traffic information and the like. Then, the control unit  21  may request a transmission of the specific type of offer information based on an operation signal when the operation signal indicative of the specific type offer information is input from the operation device  27 . In this manner, only a required portion of the offer information is preferable acquired. In this case, when the traffic information is the information about an accident or the like, the control unit  11  on the transmission side of the offer information may include the current position of the vehicle  10 , images of an inside and around the vehicle  10 , the current time and the like by using the position detector, a camera (not shown in the figure), a watch. 
         [0047]    An information provision scheme that the information fee/point payment process is configured to be performed (i.e., the user has to pay for the information fee/point) only by receiving the offer information may be put into improper use by a third party having malicious intent. Therefore, a first modification of the information provision scheme for preventing the improper use is described with reference to  FIG. 4 .  FIG. 4  shows a flowchart of the processing operation of the control unit on an information acquisition side of the information communication system in the first modification of an embodiment of the present disclosure. 
         [0048]    Because the flowchart in  FIG. 4  has a common part with the flowchart in  FIG. 2 , the following description is focused to the difference between the flowcharts in  FIG. 4  and  FIG. 2 . The different portion of the flowchart in  FIG. 4  is steps S 131  and S 132 . 
         [0049]    In step S 131  in  FIG. 4 , the control unit  21  of the vehicle  20  confirms the offer information when the offer information is received by the V-to-V communication unit  29 . 
         [0050]    Then, in step S 132  in  FIG. 4 , the control unit  21  of the vehicle  20  determines whether the offer information confirmed in step S 131  fulfills a predetermined condition. When the predetermined condition is fulfilled, the processing operation advances to step S 14 , and when the condition is not fulfilled, the processing operation returns to step S 10 . 
         [0051]    The predetermined condition in step S 132  is a condition that can be set by the user in advance. For example, the predetermined condition may be the amount of the information fee/point, that is, an upper limit of the information fee/point for the received offer information or the like. In this case, The control unit  21  of the vehicle  20  stores upper limit data to the memory  21   a  or the like when the upper limit data is input as the predetermined condition from the operation device  27 . Then, the control unit  21  of the vehicle  20  determines whether the information fee included in the received offer information exceeds the upper limit in the upper limit data when the upper limit data is input in step S 132 . In this manner, the information acquisition side acquires the offer information that is appropriately priced for the information acquisition side. Further, the condition in step S 132  may be a destination of the offer information, a content (a type) of the offer information, or the like. 
         [0052]    As a second modification of the embodiment, an information provision scheme that the information acquisition side (the vehicle  20 ) of the offer information does not pay the information fee/point and an information transmission side (the vehicle  10 ) receives an advertisement fee/point from a facility when the offer information includes the advertisement information of the facility.  FIG. 5  shows a flowchart of the processing operation of the control unit on the information acquisition side in the second modification of the embodiment.  FIG. 6  shows a flowchart of the processing operation of the control unit on the information transmission side (i.e., an information requested side) in the second modification of the embodiment. In this case, the flowchart of the processing operations in  FIGS. 5 and 6  is performed while the electric power is supplied for the control units  11 ,  21 . 
         [0053]    Further, in this case of the second modification, the vehicle  10  receives the advertisement information from a target facility in advance, and stores the advertisement information in the memory  11   a  or the like. Furthermore, the advertisement information may be conveyed to the vehicle  10  by using a memory card that is insertable to the system in the vehicle  10 , or may be transmitted to the vehicle  10  while the vehicle  10  is, for example, parking in a nearby parking space or the like. 
         [0054]    The process of the information acquisition by the vehicle  20  starts with a determination whether to request the offer information in step S 30  by the control unit  21  of the vehicle  20  as shown in  FIG. 5 . When an operation signal indicative of the request for the offer information is input from the operation device  27 , the control unit  21  of the vehicle  20  determines that the offer information is requested and advances to step S 31 . When the operation signal of the request is not input from the device  27 , the control unit  21  repeats step S 30 . 
         [0055]    Then, in step S 31 , the control unit  21  of the vehicle  20  transmits a signal for requesting the offer information including the ID code of the vehicle  20 . 
         [0056]    On the other hand, in step S 40  in  FIG. 6 , the control unit  11  of the vehicle  10  determines whether the offer information is requested or not. When a signal of requesting the offer information is received by the V-to-V communication unit  19 , the control unit  11  of the vehicle  10  advances to step S 41  based on a determination that the offer information is requested. When the signal of requesting the offer information is not received by the V-to-V communication unit  19 , the control unit  11  of the vehicle  10  repeats step S 40  based on a determination that the offer information is not requested. 
         [0057]    Then, in step S 41  in  FIG. 6 , the control unit  11  of the vehicle  10  generates the offer information that includes the advertisement information of the facility. That is, the control unit  11  of the vehicle  10  generates the offer information that includes the ID code stored in the memory  11   a , the position information of the facility, the advertisement information of the facility including a content of the advertisement and the like. 
         [0058]    Then, in step S 42  in  FIG. 6 , the control unit  11  of the vehicle  10  transmits the offer information generated in step S 41  to the vehicle which has transmitted a signal indicative of a request for the offer information. In this case, the vehicle that transmitted the signal of the offer information request is identified by the ID code in the signal. 
         [0059]    The control unit  11  may be configured to transmit the offer information from the V-to-V communication unit  19  only when the position of the vehicle  10  detected by the position detector  13  is within a predetermined range from the position of the facility. In this manner, the advertisement of the facility is preferably performed within an appropriate range from the facility. 
         [0060]    In step S 43  in  FIG. 6 , the control unit  11  of the vehicle  10  stores the number of transmissions of the offer information in the memory  11   a  or the like so as to receive the advertisement fee/point from the facility, and counts up the number of transmissions for each of a new transmission of the offer information. 
         [0061]    In step S 44  in  FIG. 6 , the control unit  11  of the vehicle  10  determines whether the facility is connectable through the telephone unit  18  or the like. When the facility is determined to be connectable with the vehicle  10 , the process advances to step S 45 , and when the facility is determined not to be connectable, the process returns to step S 40 . 
         [0062]    In step S 45  in  FIG. 6 , the control unit  11  of the vehicle  10  transmits to the facility the ID code with the number of transmissions of the offer information. That is, the control unit  11  of the vehicle  10  performs the payment process of the advertisement fee from the facility by sending the ID code and the number of transmission of the offer information. In this manner, the advertisement fee is transferred to the account included in the ID code transmitted by the control unit  11  of the vehicle to facility. In this case, the method of transfer of the fee is not limited to a specific method, and may be conducted in a different manner as long as the advertisement fee is transferred to the predetermined account. In addition, the advertisement fee may be substituted with a point of a point card that is used in the facility, or an information point that corresponds to the information fee. In this case, the control unit  11  performs the process in step S 45  for adding the point to the point card. 
         [0063]    Returning to  FIG. 5 , in step S 32  in  FIG. 5 , the control unit  21  of the vehicle  20  checks the V-to-V communication unit  29  for determining whether the offer information is received in response to the request in step S 31 . Then, in step S 33 , the control unit  21  of the vehicle  20  determines the reception of the offer information based on the process in step S 32 . When the offer information is determined to be received, the process advances to step S 34 , and when the offer information is determined not to be received, the process returns to step S 32 . In this case, when the control unit  21  of the vehicle  20  requested the offer information from the V-to-V communication unit  29 , that is, when the signal for requesting the offer information is transmitted in step S 31 , the process repeats steps S 32  and S 33  until the offer information is determined to be received in step S 33 . However, when the offer information is not received after a transmission of the signal for requesting the offer information in step S 31 , the control unit  21  of the vehicle  20  may cancel the process and may return to step S 30 . 
         [0064]    In this manner, the provision of the offer information is facilitated because the provision of the offer information is rewarded by the advertisement fee/point, thereby increasing the availability the offer information. Further, the information acquisition side does not have to pay the information fee/point for the price of the offer information even after acquiring the offer information, thereby being facilitated or enticed to use the offer information. 
         [0065]    Such changes and modifications are to be understood as being within the scope of the present invention as defined by the appended claims.