Patent Publication Number: US-2021176612-A1

Title: Short-range communication system and method thereof

Description:
FIELD 
     The application relates in general to a short-range communication system and a short-range communication method, and in particular to the short-range communication system and the short-range communication method of exchanging data with a target according to an identification code of the target. 
     REARGROUND 
     With the development of the vehicle industry, the control of vehicles has gradually evolved from human drivers to autonomous driving. When the vehicle is driven by a human driver, the driver usually uses the horn to alert other vehicles. However, when there are multiple vehicles or in special circumstances, a simple horn sound usually cannot accurately pass the correct information. Therefore, a system capable of accurately transmitting complex information content to the correct target is desired. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
       Implementations of the present disclosure will now be described with reference to the attached figures. 
         FIG. 1  is a block diagram of a short-range communication system in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure; 
         FIG. 2  is a schematic diagram of relative position between the short-range communication system and surrounding targets in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure; 
         FIG. 3  is a flow chart of a short-range communication method in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
     Further areas to which the present disclosure can be applied will become apparent from the detailed description provided herein. It should be understood that the detailed description and specific examples, while indicating exemplary embodiments, are intended for purposes of illustration only and are not intended to limit the scope of the claims. 
       FIG. 1  is a block diagram of a short-range communication system in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure. In some embodiments of the present invention, the short-range communication system  100  communicates with at least one target (e.g., a vehicle) within a predetermined communication range. The short-range communication system  100  includes at least an image capturing module  110 , a processing unit  120 , and a wireless communication module  130 . The image capturing module  110  is composed of at least one lens, and obtains images within lens coverage every predetermined time. In general, when the communication target is the vehicle, the identification code is usually be license plate numbers, and since most of the license plates are disposed on at least one of a front side and a rear side of the vehicle, the image capturing module  110  generally faces towards the front side and the rear side, which means the image capture module  110  can be disposed at the front side and the rear side of the vehicle to capture the images of other targets having the identification code. The processing unit  120  receives the images from the image capturing module  110 , calculates a relative position (including a distance and an orientation) between other objects and the short-range communication system  100  itself, and determines whether each target has its own identification code. The processing unit  120  can be implemented in various manners, such as dedicated hardware circuits or general-purpose hardware (e.g., a single processor, a multi-processor with parallel processing capability, a graphics processor, or other processor with computing power), and when the program code or software is executed, the functions as described below are provided. The wireless communication module  130  connects to the processing unit  120  and can be a dedicated short-range communications (DSRC) for communicating with other targets within the predetermined communication range through vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) and ultra-wideband (UWB), or other short-range communication technologies. The wireless communication module  130  connects to the wireless communication module of each target through its own identification code. For example, in an embodiment of the present invention, when the target is the vehicle, the processing unit  120  enables the wireless communication module  130  to communicate with the other vehicle based on the license plate numbers. 
       FIG. 2  is a schematic diagram of relative position between the short-range communication system and surrounding targets in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure. In this embodiment, both the moving object  201  and the targets  202 - 207  are the vehicles, and the front ends of the vehicles—all travel in the direction of an arrow  210 . The moving object  201  is provided with the short-distance communication system  100 , at the front side and the rear side of the moving object  201  are provided with the image capturing module  110  (hereinafter referred as a front side module and a rear side module, respectively), and the license plate of each target  202 - 207  is also disposed on the front side and the rear side of themselves, and all of target  202 - 207  are provided with the wireless communication module. In this embodiment, the targets  202 - 207  are all located within the predetermined communication range of the wireless communication module  130  of the moving object  201 . According to the relative position in  FIG. 2 , the front side module of the moving object  201  may obtains a first image of the target  202 ,  204  having the rear-side license plate numbers and the target  205  without the complete license plate numbers. The rear side module of the moving object  201  may obtains a second image of the target  203  having the complete front-side license plate numbers and the target  207  without the complete license plate numbers. The processing unit  120  then performs image processing related to license plate recognition to analyze the license plate numbers of the targets  202 - 207  in the first image and the second image, calculates the relative position between the targets  202 - 207  and the moving object  201 , and displays the license plate numbers on a display screen of the driver&#39;s seat for the driver. For example, when the driver touches on the license plate number of the target  202  on the display screen to have voice communication, the processing unit  120  enables the wireless communication module  130  to communicate with the target  202  according to a touch signal. In addition, the relative position between the moving object  201  and the surrounding targets can be directly displayed on the display screen. When the driver selects one of the targets, the processing unit  120  searches for the corresponding license plate numbers according to the relative position between the selected target and the moving object  201   
     However, when the driver wants to communicate with the targets  205 ,  207  having without the complete license plate numbers, the complete license plate numbers of the targets  205 ,  207  must be obtained through the targets  202 ,  203 , respectively. In order to obtain the license plate numbers of the target  205  from the image captured by the target  202 , the processing unit  120  calculates the relative position between the target  202  and the target  205  according to the relative position between the moving object  201  and the targets  202  and  205 , respectively. For example, in this embodiment, the target  202  is located directly in front of the moving object  201 , the target  205  is located in the right front of the moving object  201 , and the target  202  is further away from the moving object  201  than the target  205 , so that the target  205  is located in the right rear of the target  202 . Next, the moving object  201  sends a communication request to the target  202  to ask for the front-side license plate numbers of the target  205  in the rear image obtained by the target  202 . The target  202  also obtains the front-side license plate numbers of the target  205  through image processing related to license plate recognition. Finally, the target  202  replies the license plate numbers of the target  205  to the moving object  201  such that the processing unit  120  of the moving object  201  can enable the wireless communication module  130  to communicate with the target  205  based on the license plate numbers. It should be noted that the flow of obtaining the license plate numbers of the target  207  is the same as the target  205 , and it will not be described herein to simplify the explanation. 
     In the embodiment of the present invention, when the moving object  201  needs to communicate with the target  205 , the wireless communication module  130  of the moving object  201  first outputs a communication request to the target  205  through the predetermined communication channel. After receiving the communication request, if the target  205  is able to exchange data with the moving object  201 , the target  205  replies a confirmation request corresponding to the communication request to the wireless communication module  130  of the moving object  201 . After receiving the confirmation request, the processing unit  120  of the moving object  201  finds a communication channel which is unused and outputs another exchange request to the target  205  to invite the target  205  to exchange data through the communication channel which is unused. It should be noted that the predetermined communication channel is simultaneously monitored by the moving object  201  and the other targets  202 - 207 , and if any of the moving object  201  and the targets  202 - 207  receives the communication request, they also used the same communication channel to transmit the confirm request. 
     According to another embodiment of the present invention, the processing unit  120  of the moving object  201  and the targets  202 - 207  further determines whether to perform subsequent data exchange or not according to the signal strength of the received communication request. For example, when the signal strength is less than a predetermined threshold, the processing unit  120  determines that the moving object  201  or the targets  202 - 207  corresponding to the communication request are already outside the predetermined communication range, thus the processing unit  120  selectively ignores the communication request. The predetermined threshold may be related to the predetermined communication range or may be defined by the user. 
       FIG. 3  is a flow chart of a short-range communication in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure. First, at step S 301 , the image capturing module  110  obtains the image around the short-range communication system  100 , and the processing unit  120  obtains the identification codes of the targets and the relative position between the short-distance communication system  100  itself and each target in the image. At step S 302 , the processing unit  120  determines whether the identification code of the communication target is shown in the image. When the target has the identification code, the method proceeds to step S 303 , the processing unit  120  enables the wireless communication module  130  to output the communication request to the target through the predetermined communication channel according to the identification code, and exchanges the data through another communication channel which is unused according to the confirmation request replied by the communication target. On the other hand, when the processing unit  120  cannot find the identification code corresponding to the communication target in the image captured by the image capturing module  110 , the method proceeds to step S 304 , the processing unit  120  calculates the relative position between the communication target and another target. The relative position between the communication target and the other target is obtained according to the relative position between the communication target and the short-range communication system  100  and the relative position between the other target and the short-range communication system  100 . After obtaining the relative position between the communication target and another target, the method proceeds to step S 305 , the processing unit  120  outputs the relative position to the other target, and obtains the identification code of the target according to the received relative position through the other target. Then, returning to step S 303 , the processing unit  120  enables the wireless communication module  130  to output the communication request to the communication target through the predetermined communication channel according to the identification code received from the other target, and then exchange the data with the communication target according to the confirmation request through another unused communication channel. 
     It should be noted that although the method as described above has been described through a series of steps or blocks of a flowchart, the process is not limited to any order of the steps, and some steps may be different from the order of the remaining steps or the remaining steps can be done at the same time. In addition, those skilled in the art should understand that the steps shown in the flowchart are not exclusive, other steps may be included, or one or more steps may be deleted without departing from the scope. 
     In summary, according to the embodiments of the short-distance communication system and method thereof recited in the present invention, the identification code of the target can be found according to the image obtained by the image capturing module, and the data can be accurately exchanged with the communication target via the communication channel according to the identification code. In addition, in the case that the processing unit of the system cannot obtain the identification code of the communication target, it can indirectly obtain an image with the identification code of the communication target from different angles through another image capturing module of another target to solve the problem of shooting a dead angle. Through the manner as described above, the driver is able to communicate and exchange data with all targets within the established communication range accurately. 
     It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications and variations can be made to the structure disclosed without departing from the scope or spirit of the claims. In view of the foregoing, it is intended that the present disclosure covers modifications and variations, provided they fall within the scope of the following claims and their equivalents.